Mitt Romney Is The New Al Checchi

Remember Al Checchi? He ran for Governor of California back in the 1990s. He was smart, good-looking, charismatic and immensely wealthy. He spent a gazillion dollars and lost overwhelmingly to Gray Davis.


Mitt Romney, the venture capitalist-turned-Massachusetts Governor-turned-Olympics CEO, has spent millions of his own money in his quest for the presidency. Like Checchi, the essence of his argument is that he's "the CEO" -- a business executive who can bring his executive savvy and hard-driving leadership to solve the problems of government.


At least, that's the way he packaged himself when he first announced his candidacy. Then he released Romney 2.0, morphing into the Reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, wrapping himself in the Gipper's Girdle of Nostalgic GOP-ism while the party wandered in the desert. For many Republicans, Reagan evokes the Glory Days of a new, radical worldview that was going to reshape a bloated federal government and an American foreign policy that has lost its way in the world.


The problem is, where Reagan gave lip service, Bush gave results, and with catastrophic results -- arrogant and bloody foreign policy, bloated but ineffective governance, and contentious and contemptuous civic strife.


Now, with his political future hanging in the balance in Michigan, Romney is releasing Romney 3.0, focusing on economic issues and a "Washington is Broken" theme over the previous pandering to the Religious Right.


Will it work? It's too early to tell. Early polls give him a slight lead over McCain and Huckabee, but last week two of the state's largest newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, both endorsed McCain.


Maybe Romney 3.0 will end up being the same as Checchi 1.0.