The Batlord

I don't know what Romney's doing politically these days, so for all I know he's pandering to some constituents he's courting. But on the surface it sounds like now that he's not running for president he's being more honest with his opinions, and he is a republican from Massachusetts.

As far as I'm concerned Mitt Romney might have been the best president we'd had in years. Still an insider, still wishy washy, and almost certainly corrupt (who isn't?), but I can't think of another candidate in recent memory who had a real chance of working with both parties, which is more important IMO than any other single issue right now.

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Xurtio

McCain and Sanders worked on Veteran's bill together.

The Republicans make it hard though. Boehner (not a candidate) was more moderate than most and it seemed to be his willingness to compromise with Democrats that caused him to have to step down as speaker.

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Chula Vista

Nothing. He's pretty much retired from political life except as a talking head because of his 2012 run.

Remembering Romney's stand on the issues I don't think he would have been good at all. Not to mention we would have had a republican president along with a republican led house and senate.

Romney:
- Pushed to maintain Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.
- Would have repealed the affordable care act.
- Was opposed to same sex marriage.
- Would ban all abortions except for rape and incest.
- Wanted to repeal the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
- Opposed the DREAM act.
- Was against ending combat actions in Iraq.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

The Batlord

I can respect McCain's earlier work, but by the time he was running for president he had become more hardline, and I don't think it was entirely to pander to the republican base, such as his seemingly casual approach to military intervention.

No, Johnny boy, we are not all Georgians now. We are Americans, and I have no desire to get within spitting distance of a war with Russia.

What I figured. Running for president is generally the end of one's political career, whether you win or lose.

That was election talk. He was definitely way more moderate than he came across during his run for president, so you can't really use his talking points from back then as proof of what he would have done in office.

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Chula Vista

Agreed. But with a majority in both the house and senate I think he would have been pushed to be more right than if there was better legislative balance in Washington.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

The Batlord

Fair point, but I think he at least had the experience both in years and in dealing with democrats to have been able to actually work with them without alienating them. Even one presidency where every month wasn't some new fight between the executive and the opposing party might do wonders for our political climate. Maybe.

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