Mitt Romney hasn't announced plans to run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but his ideas are bold enough to have GOP strategist musing on what could be.
The former Massachusetts governor unloaded on President Obama earlier this week following the Paris massacre and the United States' non-confrontational response, warning that the Obama administration must go to war against ISIS.
"When it's a cancer, you go at it heavy and hard at the beginning. If you don't and if it metastasizes like this has, the consequences can be very, very severe for decades, so it's time for us to get serious about this," Romney said in an appearance on the "TODAY" show Monday.
A day earlier, the Washington Post printed Romney's op-ed in which he claims Obama is doing the "minimum" to keep American safe. "It's time the president stopped hedging and took meaningful steps to defend us and our allies," Romney wrote, adding that "The president must stop trying to placate his political base by saying what he won't do and tell Americans what he will do."
In a sea of second-guessing and armchair quarterback opinions, Romney's words resonate more than others. He still captures the imaginations of GOP voters worried about the chances current Republican front-runners Ben Carson and Donald Trump have against Hillary Clinton next November.
If they aren't worried about Trump's bombastic personality, they wary about Carson's inexperience, especially when discussing foreign policy. With Romney, voters and lawmakers alike know they have a well-balanced candidate who can stand toe-to-toe with Clinton, as he did with Obama last election season.
Some Republican figures are reportedly hoping Trump and Carson will fall in favorability polls so another candidate can step in. Peter A. Wish, a member of Romney's 2012 National Finance Committee recently said he hopes that "somebody will emerge who will be able to do the job," while Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's former adviser, pointed at the rapidly-approaching Republican National Convention in Cleveland next summer.
"We're about to step into the holiday-time accelerator," Fehrnstrom said. "You have Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, then Iowa and a week later New Hampshire, and it's going to be over in the blink of an eye."
After playing silent supporter for Marco Rubio throughout the summer, Romney chose now to return to the spotlight. He's made television appearances, written the Washington Post op-ed, and been a guest on Hugh Hewitt's conservative radio show, all in the span of a week; speaking about foreign policy and terrorism as if he has something to gain.
Romney's public appearances may be less about condemning Obama's actions and more about dipping his feet in the Republican nomination pool. Even in reading between the lines, one can see that Romney is leaving the door open.
"I've said it. I'll say it again today, which is: I'm not running," Romney said during the "TODAY" show, shaking his head. "I'm not planning on running."
Plans change quickly. Maybe quick enough to have his name atop the Republican Party's National Convention in July.
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