Romney to be the Anti-Trump?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Romney's presence as second place finisher and his eventual nomination as a result of it in 2012, is entirely do his challenging the COC orthodoxy on immigration and even on trade (criticizing trade agreements in 2007, bashing Chinese Currency manipulation in 2011), and thereby winning the support the support of a middle class niche both conservative and moderate overal, but concerned about these issues as the economy began to decline and then in 2011 was sputtering along with a weak recovery.

If Romney takes Trump down, it will be by removing his strength, that is his ability to win over those voters on that issue. If he doesn't, if he tries to turn himself into an open borders candidate to appease the big donors in some failed hope of unifying the anti-Trump vote, he will likely fail as that was the one area where Romney could say, "I am better for you then anybody else", even many of his conservative challengers.