Mitt Romney says Trump "has not risen to the mantle of the office."

[robkelk]

AP reports that Mitt Romney says in an op-ed that Trump "has not risen to the mantle of the office."

But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.

With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent's shortfall has been most glaring.

(And this was just on the radio. Trump has already gone off on his own and tweeted that Romney should be a team player. Somebody needs to explain to Trump the difference between a "team player" and a "sycophant".)

[classicdrogn]

"Sycophant" is when they're playing for the other guy's team, of course, just like any government the speaker doesn't like is a "regime."

[Labster]

Hey, I can't help it that we have prosperous governments when they have decadent regimes. That's what separates the usses from the thems.

[Rajvik]

Lets face reality here, all Romny is doing is trying to set himself up to be the Republican candidate for 2024, he is playing to the "Never Trump" establishment of the DC beltway bandits, pundits, and beurocrats that think they can just bullshit their way into office every election. The people are tired of those kinds of people, this is why we are becoming more polarized instead of less.

In short, we are tired of the bullshit platitudes and want someone who will honestly try and do what they campaign on doing

[robkelk]

2024 or 2020? Anyway... He'd only be doing this if he thought it would work.

[Rajvik]

Unfortunately Romny probably does believe that it will work, the problem is that the swamp is wrong about the people who back Trump. We are not going to go back to ting their line,

[robkelk]

Romney - and every other candidate - has a delicate tightrope to balance on. Right now, he has to appeal to the 34% of Americans who will vote Republican even if the party nominated a stuffed bear. If he gets the nomination, he has to appeal to the ~33% who can be persuaded to vote according to their own interests instead of toeing a party line. (The other ~33% will vote Democrat even if the party nominated a stuffed bear.)

It's that swing group that he's appealing to with his comments. If he waited until after getting the nomination to try doing that, he'd appear to be an opportunist; making the comments now makes him appear to be a man of principle.

[Black Aeronaut]

Well, he's got Pelosi to contend with, and possibly Biden as well. He's gonna have a tough fight on his hands.