National Review: Only Romney Can Deliver Us From “Calamity”

According to conservative writer David French, Mitt Romney is the only thing standing between the great American republic and “future calamity.”

“At this moment, American voters face a choice between two historically corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent politicians,” French wrote in a new National Review op-ed piece.

French believes that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would be disastrous for the country. After running through a cherry-picked selection of each candidate’s economic, foreign, and personal policies, French concludes that Americans deserve a better choice:

At this point, Mitt Romney is the only man who combines the integrity, financial resources, name recognition, and broad public support to make a realistic independent run at the presidency. He’s conservative, he’s got an enviable record in business and government, and he’s demonstrated a unique capacity for turning around failing enterprises.

While French admits that Romney would have little incentive to jump into the 2016 race at such a late date, he argues that a selfless third-party bid is exactly what America needs. “Yes, I know he has much to lose. The country, however, has much to gain.”

Does it, though?

First of all, the chances of Mitt Romney getting to 270 before Trump or Clinton are too small to merit serious consideration. One of the other candidates would have to literally disintegrate into nothingness for Romney – or any other third-party contender – to have a legitimate shot at the presidency. The best possible scenario for conservatives would be for Romney to deny both Trump and Clinton the majority, thus throwing the choice to the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. And since Romney’s good pal Paul Ryan is the speaker of that fine institution, he could perhaps nudge the vote Romney’s way.

But that’s a new definition of “long shot.”

Because the truth is that Mitt Romney is not going to peel away any would-be Hillary voters; he’s only going to pull votes away from Trump. Hillary will soar to the presidency in a landslide, following her husband’s exact path to the White House. Romney will forever be Hillary’s Ross Perot.

Instead of preparing a destructive independent run, Romney should reflect on the ways in which he’s responsible for the current situation in the Republican Party. His catastrophic and unnecessary loss to Obama in 2012 set the stage for Trump’s rise in 2016. He was the last straw. For the next four years, conservatives vowed not to make the same mistake again. If we were going to lose, we were at least going to lose in a novel way. No more RINOs. No more moderates. No more candidates who think America’s better off when Republicans surrender to liberal Democrats.

If Romney is as patriotic as French makes him out to be, he should do the right thing and support the person in the election who isn’t Hillary Clinton. If he can’t even do that, why would any Republican want to vote for him?