The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Romney

His speech to Republicans there is just his latest stop on the road to the White House.

This year, he’s already been to Utah, Missouri, and South Carolina; and he didn’t go to give away family recipes.

"They may snicker behind my back, but they’re being very friendly and very gracious," Romney said this evening.

This fall, Romney will publicly announce whether he’ll run for President in 2008, or Governor in 2006, and he won’t run for both.

His official explanation is that he can’t be a Governor and a presidential candidate at the same time. Unofficially, he knows it will be tough to be one kind of Republican at home, and another on the road.

My instinct is Romney is wrong to separate the State House from the White House, and, not only because Presidents Bush and Clinton were Governors when they were elected.

Imagine Romney four years from now, telling Americans what it’s like to be a Republican in Massachusetts if he’s a former Governor.

That would put his duels with Democrats in the past, and make him seem old.

Out of the corner office, he could easily get lost in a crowded field of big names (Rudy Giuliani), Senators (John McCain), members of Congress, and "real" Governors.

Unwittingly, he could become a candidate for Vice President.

Memo to Mitt: If you want to be President in 2008, don’t give up your state job in 2006.

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