Why is Romney the way he is?

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Updated: March 4, 2012 8:12AM

Mitt Romney finds himself in a familiar position. He’s back as the front-runner in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. And he has the conservative commentariat again barking at his heels demanding that he prove he is an authentic man of the right by advocating a bold conservative position on something like taxes.

Yet Romney seems unfazed and is pushing full stream ahead with his current strategic battle plan — with a few tactical adjustments like finding a way to better explain his phenomenal success in venture capital and private equity.

Why won’t he listen to the mostly well-meaning right-wing commentators and political operatives urging him to boldly go into the vineyards of conservatism?

The most common explanation is that he is a fairly recent convert to fundamental rightist principles, either coming to them when he first decided to run for president or learning them through experience as governor of Massachusetts. He’s just not yet up to the task of articulating the conservative philosophy. There’s some truth to this account.

But another reason, and a simple one, is that his strategic enterprise is working for him. Much was made of Romney’s loss in the South Carolina primary, but the fact is that he is the only candidate to perform strongly in all the nominating contests thus far.

He was first declared the winner in the Iowa caucuses, then a razor-close second after a final count. And Romney may still be the winner because the results of eight precincts were lost.

Romney scored an impressive victory in New Hampshire and, while he lost in South Carolina, he did come in second. And then came Florida, a more diverse state and one better reflecting the national electorate than Iowa or South Carolina. Romney won going away. His 46 percent of the vote was better than the combined percentages for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — denting the argument Romney would lose in a one-on-one contest with a far-right candidate.

Romney ran up respectable numbers with conservative and Tea Party voters and majorities with women, Hispanics, seniors and voters who put the economy and beating President Barack Obama as their priorities.

Another factor in Romney’s stay the course might be that he’s looking to the general election. Gingrich’s dissing of Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate” might not sound bad to independents in November. A looking ahead to the main event lets Romney position himself as a better manager of the economy than Obama.

And there’s plenty of political fodder: Obama’s failed $800 billion stimulus, the 13 million unemployed, the trillion-dollar-a-year deficits, the unpopular Obama­care, the thousands of jobs that aren’t happening because Obama won’t approve the Keystone XL pipeline, the economic losses from the administration’s slowdown in Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling permits, the failures to cope with the housing crisis, and on and on.

That said, Romney does not yet have the GOP nomination. Broadening his appeal to conservatives would go a long way toward achieving that goal and energizing the base for the general election campaign.

While November should be a referendum on Obama, a GOP victory requires more than just being against his policies. Romney will need to articulate, yes, a bold tax, jobs and deficit reduction agenda to prevail over an incumbent president and all the advantages he starts out with.