Romney Watch '08 - Part VII

My brother-in-law Ross sent me this interesting article about Mitt Romney and the continuing question of how his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might effect his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

It's from The Economist, and it's an excellent mag and the analysis is pretty good. An excerpt:

Mr Romney's emergence as a conservative champion owes something to luck. His two biggest rivals on the right have imploded: Bill Frist because of his lacklustre performance as Senate majority leader, George Allen because of his gaffe-ridden Senate campaign. But it owes more to years of investment. Mr Romney has not only fought harder than any other governor on “social issues”, particularly gay marriage. He has done so in the heart of enemy territory.
Mr Romney won the governorship of a state where only 13% of the voters are registered Republicans, and where the congressional delegation is 100% Democratic. And he succeeded in working with a legislature where 87% of the members represent the other party. When he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he found a $3 billion budget deficit; two years later he was running a surplus of more than $700m.

He undoubtedly has street cred. I think an ideal ticket would be a Romney-Giuliani or Giuliani-Romney pairing. Who knows?