Mitt Romney – The Presumptuous Presumptive Nominee

Former Massachusetts Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucus by a commanding 8 votes and the New Hampshire primary by some 15 percent of the vote. Romney has taken on an interesting campaign tactic in this primary election to decide which Republican will challenge President Barack Obama for the Presidency: Romney completely disregards the existence of any of his rival Republican hopefuls and has already declared himself the challenger to President Obama. This is either presumptuous or the mark of a man who truly believes his candidacy is in the bag. Either way, it may be a mistake.

This is not a new strategy to act like you have won something before actually winning something. Many political candidates have done it in the past. The most famous example of this presumptuous attitude is Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for President in 1948. Dewey was running for President against incumbent President Harry S. Truman. Truman was not very popular among many in Washington and among many in the Country according to the polls. The Democratic Party was in disarray as much of the party from the South had broken off from the Democrats to form he Dixiecrat party in opposition to Truman's modest Civil Rights agenda. Every poll had Dewey well ahead in the polls in the weeks leading up the election. Dewey decided to play it safe, speak in platitudes and appear to be above it all. This, of course, backfired and Truman ended up winning the election.

Mitt Romney appears ready to appoint himself the Republican Nominee for President after only 1 primary that everyone expected him to win because of his close connection with the State of New Hampshire. Yet, like Mr. Dewey, and frankly Mr. Dean of the Democratic Primaries of just a few years ago, nothing is locked up until the votes are cast. Romney's attitude, and frankly arrogance, is starting to irk the other candidates in the race. Questions are starting to rise about Romney's past financial affairs, including questions about Bain Capital. Mitt Romney is not alone in this primary race, and the other candidates, namely former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, will not go down without a fight. They specifically will not let someone declare themselves the winner and be dismissed so easily. Just ask Ron Paul who has declared himself "dangerous" to the Romney campaign.

Republicans like swagger. Republicans generally like candidates that sweat confidence and apologize for nothing. This is why Mitt Romney entitled his book, "No Apology." Yet, even Republicans start to snub their noses at arrogance. They love to point at arrogance and scream that the arrogance they are seeing is baseless and without justification. Look at how Republicans talk about President Obama's swagger. They still claim that he is not qualified to be President even though he is the President and claim his arrogance will be his downfall.

Yet, Mitt Romney can apparently claim that he has already won the Republican primaries after only 1 election and 1 caucus. 48 states have yet to say anything but Romney can dismiss the other candidates and start his general campaign? At some point, if Romney is not careful, this swagger will be looked at as arrogance. The only question is which Republican non Romney candidate will be standing when this happens.