So Romney is out?  Maybe.  His departure is far less certain than reported.  He's clearly leaving himself as an option.  But there hasn't been a "draft" of a presidential candidate in at least 62 years, tghouhe conventional wisdom being touted by the national punditry is that the candidacies of Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are good for the Republican Party—that both are “moderate,” and will raise tons of money.   In our view, each has serious problems.  We have believed—since at least the 70s, with the candidacy of Hubert Humphrey—that no major party nominee, once defeated, would ever be chosen again.  Not in the modern media age. Adlai Stevenson had done it, but lost.  Nixon was able to do it—but by laying out a full eight years.
Romney is a good man, extremely articulate and poised, but he more or less blew his chance in debates with Obama (as we tweeted on October 30, 2012), missing golden opportunities to make critical points about national security.   Jeb Bush is apparently going to advocate that twelve million people become citizens—and be allowed to “jump the line,” leap-frogging millions of people around the world standing in line in embassies and consulates.  To be clear:  we should create a path to legal status for illegal immigrants living in this country.  It’s the right thing to do.  But they should not be placed in front of millions of law-abiding people the world over who are pursuing the legal, time-consuming path the citizenship.  Bush is wrong on that issue, and the American people, once they see the issue clearly, will not embrace that.  Bush will not be seen as fair.