I am kind of wondering…

…sources close to the CEO-turned-politician say he’s very much uncertain about whether he’ll run for elective office again and is keeping a close eye on what direction the party takes in the months ahead, especially with regard to Palin.

Romney is extraordinarily close to members of his family, and most are opposed to another run.

He is, though, likely to stay involved at least at a policy level.

“What I’d say is he’s keeping his options open for now,” said one source close to Romney.

Add to that, this quote from before the elections from his spokesperson,

“Gov. Romney had his shot at the White House, and he lost fair and square,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said. “That opportunity is unlikely to come along again. Gov. Romney is pouring all his energy into electing McCain-Palin and other Republicans, and that has been his single focus since leaving the presidential race.”

…and this one from Romney himself…

Romney, who sought the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year, said he will not be on the 2012 ballot.

“I think it’s unlikely that I’ll be running again,” Romney said.

Romney compared a run for the White House to a window opening offering the right timing and the right opportunity.

Of course, these were prior to the election day, and he could have been talking this way simply because he felt John McCain would win, and that would make things unlikely. But then again, at that point who really thought McCain would win?

Romney has some reasons not to win. The big two I can think of are his family vetoing it (more importantly his wife) and the success of Barack Obama. At this point, I think the GOP has more of an opportunity to paint Congress as a bastion of idiots, than paint Obama as a screw up. I could be wrong, but we hear so often that Obama will probably be the next Jimmy Carter, but what if he is not? What if he becomes the Dems Regan? At that point whoever runs in 2012 as the GOP nominee will be a martyr for the cause, and our best bets (including Romney and Jindal) will be better off to wait until 2016.

Romney gave a great interview to Fortune Magazine/CNN which can be viewed here. I think is one of Romney’s best interviews actually, everyone should read it.

Here are a few excerpts:

Any management advice for the next president? How does he rally a depressed nation to meet the challenges we face?

He should forget entirely about reelection and focus solely on helping the nation at a critical time. He should dismiss the people who helped him win the election and bring in people who are above politics and above party. He should surround himself with statesmen and economists, businesspeople and leaders. In some ways it would be beneficial if our presidency consisted of only one term. That way the President would think about his legacy and the future of the country rather than reelection and partisanship.

How likely do you think that’s going to happen?

In his second term, President Clinton made an effort to govern more from the center than from the extreme wing of his party, and by doing so, found greater support and greater political success. Perhaps it’s a paradox, the less political the agenda, the more political success one enjoys. But now is not the time for partisanship opportunism.

The unions have helped Barack Obama. They will hope to be paid back. I’m particularly concerned that organized labor would call on Barack Obama to pass the card check program. This removes from American workers the right to the secret ballot in deciding whether or not to accept a union. This legislation would do more to harm America’s long-term competitiveness than almost anything I can imagine. It would be a partisan payback for organized labor but it would come with devastating consequences for the nation.
…

Given your Michigan roots and what your father accomplished turning around the American Motors Corporation in the 1950s, what do you think is the future of the auto industry?

Right now, the auto industry is on life support, and its prospects look extremely dim. But they don’t need to be. The industry could be turned around. There is no inherent reason why America can’t build and sell cars to Americans at least as well as the transplants are doing. Any effort to help the auto industry has to be made as part of a comprehensive strategy. Before the government issues loans to the auto industry, as has been authorized by Congress, it should insist on seeing credible and independent strategies that will return the companies to long-term sustainability. Government should not finance ongoing losses and declining market shares.

Read more…

Marc Ambinder reports on a poll NBC-WSJ that is mentioned on First Read. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the exact poll from the NBC website, but it looks pretty good for Mitt:

NBC-WSJ GOP pollster Neil Newhouse did a post-election survey last night, and here’s what he found: Just 12% of those surveyed believed Palin should be the GOP’s new leader; instead 29% of voters said Romney, followed by 20% who say Huckabee. Among GOPers, it was Romney 33%, Huckabee 20% and Palin 18%. Look for more from this survey later today.

This of course are nearly the same numbers of the MSNBC poll that came out about 2 weeks ago.

Seems people prefer Mitt over the lady from Alaska.

I have been working on a new logo all day.

…and this was exactly what my mission was like. I loved walking into peoples homes and sifting through their belongings and tearing up things. Especially with a sinister laugh.

But I never got the cool “Enforcement Division” badge. That would have have made my job a bit easier.

A couple thoughts:

1. These missionaries were in the wrong, since Missionary rules dictate that elders shouldn’t go into homes where they are the only male. I am just thankful the cameras caught this.

2. I actually did teach two good looking lesbians on my mission, one was Mormon and the other wanted to join, but they moved away or something. Needless to say, our first visits had a lot of parallels.

Just thought I would use this election day to do some personal promotion and unveil my new personal blog:

www.MyBigBonham.com

Feel free to check it and make comments whenever.

In the spirit of reporting what our favorite candidate is doing these last few days before the election, I thought I would provide links to the several campaign appearances Mitt has made or is making between Halloween and the election for McCain/Palin:

Evansville, IN
Romney on Nevada News 4
Henderson, NV
Eerie, PA
Greenwood Villlage, CO
Reno, NV
Colorado Springs, CO
Carson, NV
Albuquerque, NM
Altoona, PA

A lot of you know I blog at www.race42008.com. Now that the race for 2008 is coming to end, the site is beginning to remake itself for 2012.

Race42008 was a great place for Romney. You see at Race42008, all the candidates were represented through front page posters, and Mitt had 5. No other website really gave Mitt that kind of fairness and coverage. With Redstate becoming “Sarah-state” coupled with some of the other negativity on sites like Human Events and what will surely begin on The Next Right, it s important that we provide a fair balanced look at Mitt should McCain loose and Romney decide to run in 2012 (which I think Mitt will).

During the primaries Race42008 was bringing in an average of 10-20,000 unique hits a day, which was well above sites like The Next Right, Ankle Biting Pundits and even MyManMitt. Race42008 was read by top editors at National Review, Real Clear Politics, Fox News, etc. In other words Race42008 gave a chance for a balanced view of Romney to be heard by the movers and shakers.

So if you can only give $5 that is great but please give something, so Race42012 can enjoy the redesign and continue to provide the content that will be essential to Romney’s online success.