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Dick Morris: 'Bush and Romney Are Identical Candidates'
Monday, January 12, 2015 04:01 PM
By: Courtney Coren
If former presidential candidate Mitt Romney decides to challenge former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the Republican primary in 2016, he can't bill himself as the opposition to the establishment because like Bush, he is also an establishment candidate, says veteran political analyst Dick Morris.
"Bush and Romney are identical candidates," Morris told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV Monday.
"They both have the same legacy issue, the same legacy problem and the whole bit and they're center right, they're the establishment darlings," he explained.
Morris contends that "Romney is really in the same category as a third party presidential candidate. A third party candidate may want to run, but has to sit out there and wait in the wings and see if there's dissatisfaction with the existing field."
"If Bush screws up, and if people start attacking him over Common Core and immigration, and he's hurting and fails in the polling or fails in the early primaries, then you look at Romney to get in," he said.
"Romney does not have to wait to get in because he already has an organization, he already has his money people, and he's doing just enough to keep their powder dry, and to keep them away from the other candidates because he might get into it," he added.
However, "Romney can't just jump in and run. He's got to wait to see what Bush does and to see what the others do, and then he could capitalize on dissatisfaction as they rip the hell out of each other."
The conservative magazine National Review recently reported that Romney is becoming more open to running for president in 2016 as key donors are pushing him to challenge Bush.
As for other candidates such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who recently announced that he is leaving his show at Fox News, hinting at another run for president, Morris says "Huckabee's initial impact will be to knock [former Pennsylvania Rick] Santorum in effect out of the race."
"The question really with Huckabee which is on everybody's mind is — he's a wonderful guy, he's got tremendous integrity, he has an excellent record in Arkansas, but can he climb out of the evangelical ghetto?" he explained.
The veteran political analyst explained that one of Huckabee's challenges is that "the mainstream media won't treat him as former governor, just a former preacher — 10 years as governor, and they won't talk about it."
