Where and whom can Mitt Romney get the support from?

F: Good evening, everybody. Welcome to CNN Politics. The Republican primaries are meant to last six months, allowing all 50 states to have their say in the nomination of a candidate to take on Barack Obama in November. But it now seems they may be all over only days after they started. On January 10th, a week after his victory in conservative Iowa, Mitt Romney trounced his six opponents in liberal New Hampshire. He won nearly twice the share of his nearest rival. And the polls predict a victory for him in South Carolina on January 21st, and another in Florida on the 31st. (1) In South Carolina he has the valuable support of Nikki Haley, a popular governor, and $19 million of cash in hand as well as the mojo that comes from rare consecutive wins in the first two contests. Will he become the next president of the United States? Our White House correspondent Ed Henry is here with us to talk about it. Good evening!
M: Good evening!
F: Given all these victories, do you think Mitt Romney will get the nomination?
M: Well, what he achieved is amazing. Let’s take a look at the numbers. New Hampshire enabled Mitt Romney to stretch his lead, from a mere eight votes in last week’s Iowa caucuses to a convincing 39% of the Granite State’s total. He was followed by Ron Paul with 23% and Jon Huntsman with 17%. Rick Santorum failed to translate his second place in Iowa into a bounce in New Hampshire. (2) He came in fifth with 9%, a fraction behind Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker. Rick Perry, Texas’s governor, trailed with less than a single percentage point. But Mitt Romney still has a lot of work to do. He must do a better job than he so far has of capitalizing on his advantages and mitigating his weaknesses.
F: Let’s first talk about his advantages. What advantages do you think he has?
M: The most important fact about Mr. Romney is that he is a non-ideological man who did something that America needs a lot more of. In 2002 he was elected to govern Massachusetts, normally a Democratic stronghold. He passed a version of health-care reform that is at once his proudest achievement and his biggest liability.
F: That sounds very much alike the health reform president Obama pushed through.
M: That’s right. He also turned round Massachusetts’s finances, just as he had earlier righted the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. His second advantage is that he has something that the president and his Republican rivals sorely lack.
F: And it’s?
M: (3) Business experience. For 25 years he made himself and the management consultancies BCG and Bain a lot of money by making companies more efficient. So far, Mr. Romney has done a poor job of defending himself against attacks which are really aimed at the creative destruction which is the essence of capitalism itself. He says he created a net 100,000 jobs during his time at Bain.
F: That might be true. But he doesn’t seem reliable when it comes to gay rights and abortion.
M: I was going to talk about it. (4) It’s one of the negative sides of Mr. Romney, people have to trust a president on the main issues. Despite publishing a long economic manifesto, Mr. Romney remains vague over how a lot of it is to be accomplished. It is not at all clear how he would reform America’s ruinously expensive health-care and pensions systems. He pledged to cut federal spending to no more than 20% of GDP, which is a sop to his party’s fiscal extremists.
F: He’s certainly richer than any other candidate.
M: He would be the richest candidate ever to win a big-party nomination and he reeks of privilege. His father was a governor as well, and he himself studied law at Harvard. On the other hand, Mr. Obama is a millionaire several times over, can give a fair impression of having come from the planet Vulcan, and also studied law at Harvard. Mr. Romney’s lack of charisma is also a problem. Mr. Romney’s last difficulty is one that should not be a problem at all. He is a Mormon and a third of Americans do not consider them to be Christians.
F: There is not much Mr. Romney can do about this. So do the advantages outweigh the weaknesses?
M: Well, my personal opinion is yes. If he can win in South Carolina, then there’s almost no way he can’t get the nomination. (5) On the other hand, even polls can be tricky. Someone may lead all the way in the polls, but nothing’s ever certain.
F: I guess we’ll have to see what happens in South Carolina. Many thanks.
M: My pleasure.
F: Our White House correspondent Ed Henry. CNN will give you the live counting of the South Carolina primary on January 21st. Until then, this is Becky Anderson, bye.