If he runs as the guy who won the Massachusetts governorship, or the guy who almost unseated Ted Kennedy, than he would be a very strong candidate. He has the opposite problem of McCain, he needs to loosen up and let people get to know what his positions really are (whereas McCain was, rightly or not, viewed as erratic and indecisive).
I agree. Like I mentioned before, I think that comes from his father's openness doing him in. Mitt just took being careful too far and appeared to be hiding something. If you've spent as much time as I have studying Romney (weird I know) you'd know that what he was doing was not being dishonest or acting in self-interest, it was trying to be everyone's candidate. You can see in his debates from each of his races the adjustments he made to appeal more to his target audience. He never changed positions, he simply accentuated different ones and focused his campaign on certain things. He floated around uncomfortably for too long in 2008 trying to find his image. He had been able to zero in on clear messages in his platform in 1994 and 2002, but was clearly unsure about his position among the candidates in 2008. He could easily have run as the moderate or the conservative, but he couldn't choose which one. And by that I don't mean there were two Mitts, I mean there were two distinct directions he could take his campaign that emphasized different aspects of his platform. This turned into what looked like a desire to ignore his socially moderate positions.
He went from a social moderate to a hard right fundie.....
