John Geer on the Web

He's a Republican running to extend his party's eight-year grip on the White House. Yet Mitt Romney is increasingly casting himself as the "change" candidate, promising voters that he's the one who would bring conservative reform to Washington.

A new TV ad launched this week in Iowa shows Romney telling a cheering crowd after he won the Ames straw poll last weekend, "If there's ever a time we needed to see change in Washington, it's now."

The change argument, which Romney increasingly weaves into his regular stump speech, seems designed to distance himself from President Bush's dismal approval ratings and voters' dismay with the war in Iraq. And as a former governor who spent most of his life as a successful businessman, Romney would seem well positioned to run against the Washington political culture.

But portraying himself as the candidate of change carries some inherent awkwardness for Romney. He has been a strong supporter of the president across a wide range of policies, including Iraq, raising questions about the legitimacy of his "change" contention. At the same time, many hard-core GOP primary voters admire the president, leaving Romney vulnerable to accusations of disloyalty if he takes the argument too far.

John G. Geer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and editor of The Journal of Politics, said that if Romney wins the Republican nomination, he or any other nominee will have an even more difficult time finessing the issue....more