Proposition for Mitt Romney

J. Peter Mulhern has a great open-letter-style piece in American Thinker, urging Mitt Romney to hand the reins to Fred Thompson pre-Iowa. I don't know how feasible this scenario is; to run for President to begin with requires such a big ego that it takes an extreme amount of wishful thinking to imagine that any candidate would just say, "You're right; I'll take the VP job!" But it would seem like Fred Thompson is a more attractive candidate to the folks whom Romney is attempting to court, and the article is very funny in the kind of smart-assed way that I enjoy the most. Excerpt:

In a political career stretching back to your run for the Senate against the captain of the SS Oldsmobile in 1994, you have spent a great deal of effort convincing the voters of Massachusetts, who were profoundly suspicious of your Mormon faith, that you are in tune with them. Now you have to go before a Republican primary electorate around the country and tell them that you really, truly are a traditional, religious Latter Day Saints guy and not just the slick, modern member of the managerial elite you have been portraying in Massachusetts for years.

This isn't just a question of flip-flopping on any particular issue. It's about authenticity. Republican's aren't going to line up behind any candidate that seems too protean. Bill Clinton is a uniquely Democrat phenomenon. Republicans want a candidate who knows who he is and is thoroughly comfortable playing himself in public.

They also want a candidate who is hard-nosed and confrontational with all our enemies, foreign and domestic. Here your polished image and genteel family background work against you. Like George W. Bush, you are the son of a famous Republican father, a party legacy (think "Flounder" in Animal House.) The last thing Republicans are clamoring for right now is another prince of the GOP.

Haven't heard the name "Schweiker" in awhile. And yes, that is Freddy's wife in a shot from 2004.