Mike Bloomberg speaks to the media, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 in Phoenix. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a late entrant in the already crowded race for the Democratic presidential nomination, was set Tuesday to file to run in Arizona’s presidential primary. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

There’s a word for what it’s called when you continually go back to the same thing that didn’t work before, lauding it as the answer to all your future problems.

For a lot of Never Trumpers, Mitt Romney is something they just can’t quit. It doesn’t matter that he blew a decently positioned election against a president with an underwater approval rating. And to those ready to “fact-check” me, yes, it was above 50% by election day. That’s because Mitt Romney was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign. You can’t divorce that from Barack Obama’s summer rebound.

But forget 2012. Even then, Romney had shown himself to be a terrible retail politician and someone who gives the impression of putting his own status above voters’ desires. We saw that in his vote to remove President Trump from office, something so nonsensical that even Susan Collins couldn’t get on board with it. As I wrote at the time (see Here’s the Truth About Mitt Romney), there’s a very good reason most Republicans can’t stand Romney and it’s not because they hate “principles.”

But this is the guy we are supposed to go to bat for? Nonsense. Such actions have never been reciprocated by Romney, even when he ran for President. There’s a reason so many Republicans said “forget it, you get Trump now.” It’s not because they are rubes or hate decorum. It’s because they got sick and tired of politicians in the GOP demanding that voters have their back while they could never be bothered to return the favor.

Never fear, though, Romney has reemerged as a salvational figure again, this time as part of the longing desires of The Bulwark. Apparently seeking to isolate the most people possible, they are now floating the idea of a Romney-Bloomberg “unity” ticket.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH [breathes] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [deeper breath] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [gasping for air] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA https://t.co/H2aJgfEMl5 — Will Upton 🇻🇦⚙️⏩ (@wupton) February 17, 2020

In casting his singular vote to impeach and remove Donald Trump from office, Mitt Romney made history. Now it’s time for him to take a step further. For the good of the country, Senator Romney should run for president as an independent. With the democratic-socialist Bernie Sanders now the Democratic frontrunner and the political arsonist Donald Trump as the Republican incumbent, there is a yawning chasm that has never before existed in American politics. By retreating to their poles, our two major parties have left tens of millions of independents and moderate Democrats and Republicans unrepresented.

The first thing that hits me about this is the question of why exactly one would want Michael Bloomberg on such a ticket? If Romney runs as an independent, he has nothing holding him back from picking whoever he wants. Why would he choose a liberal, elitist mayor who’s currently running in the Democratic primary? Especially given Bloomberg has been caught on tape trashing farmers and making rather offensive statements about crime in the black community?

How bad does one’s judgment on political figures have to be to think putting Bloomberg on a ticket with Mitt Romney is a good idea? But no one ever accused these people of being great political minds, I suppose.

Meanwhile, Romney himself isn’t dumb enough to do this, no matter how much Bill Kristol’s merry band pine for that white horse moment. It would torch what little goodwill he has left among his colleagues in the Senate and there’s no chance he’d win. He’d probably have trouble even getting on the ballot in most states. And while Democrats have found a fresh respect for the Utah Senator, it’s purely surface level, i.e. they love him now because he opposes Trump. The moment Romney enters the spotlight as a threat to their ideology again, they will re-destroy him as badly as they did in 2012.

Let me end by offering this fig leaf, though. Even if you truly can’t vote for Trump over your own objections, fine. But it’s time to find a new person to constantly prop up as the coming hope. Mitt Romney is not that and never will be that. Move on and stop presenting him as the future.

In short, this unity ticket is a pipe dream, and even if it weren’t, it’d be one of the dumber ideas to come out of the Never Trump media complex in quite a while.

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