DAVE ROSS

Dave Ross: Politicians sound so reasonable when they’re not campaigning

Jun 30, 2016, 5:55 AM | Updated: 11:59 am

CBS’s John Dickerson was hosting a Q&A with Mitt Romney Wednesday at the Aspen Ideas festival and was hearing him express deep despair at the state of American politics.

“It just breaks my heart to see us … with candidates that are talking about withdrawing from leadership,” Romney said.

So Dickerson tried to give Romney a nudge — getting him to acknowledge people are still asking him to run for president.

Related: Hillary Clinton can’t get too cocky in the race against the ‘King of Debt’

“There are some very generous people who asked me to run again … ” Romney said.

Dickerson got Romney to admit his family was all for the idea. One of his sons sent him an email that encouraged Romney to get back in.

But, ultimately, Romney said the door is completely closed unless both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump “ask me to please save them.”

Romney says he worries that Clinton would pack the Supreme Court with liberals and that Donald Trump just doesn’t have the right temperament to be president. Romney said he will cast a protest vote and maybe write in his wife’s name! He could instead campaign for a Republican Congress.

Politicians sound so reasonable when they’re not running for anything. Although when you think about it, Romney’s taking a risk. He’s said he considers Trump to be even more of a threat to the presidency than Clinton, yet he will work to elect Republicans to Congress who arguably would be the least likely to act as a check on Trump’s power if he should become president.

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