The American Mind

Mitt Romney was all set to file his papers for his Presidential Exploratory Committee, but President Ford happened to die and will delay it for a day:

Gov. Mitt Romney this week will submit the necessary paperwork to form a presidential exploratory committee, but not until funeral services for former President Gerald R. Ford have concluded, according to a top aide familiar with his plans.

Romney will file by Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, the aide said, a registration that will allow the Massachusetts governor to raise and spend money in pursuit of the 2008 GOP nomination.

Romney, like Ford, is from Michigan. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have already taken the same step.

Romney ended a 10-day vacation at his home in Utah on Monday, and he had intended to file his paperwork on Tuesday, the first business day of the new year. But Ford’s death on Dec. 26 triggered a mourning period that will close federal offices and the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, and the former president will be buried Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“We want to be very, very respectful of that,” said the Romney aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity pending the creation of the presidential committee.

I’ll be shocked if Romney doesn’t formally run. In the past few weeks he’s been putting together a new media team and has been courting webloggers:

Over cold cuts, cookies, and soft drinks, Governor Mitt Romney made his presidential pitch two Sundays ago to prominent Tennessee Republicans at the home of a newly elected state senator outside Nashville.

Romney’s public schedule that day didn’t list the event. Members of the mainstream press weren’t invited.

But influential Nashville-area bloggers Bill Hobbs and Nathan Moore were, and both penned accounts Romney must have liked. Hobbs likened the governor to Ronald Reagan. Moore called Romney impressive and declared him “a formidable candidate for the 2008 nomination.”

That Hobbs and Moore were asked to the private gathering illustrates a growing effort by Romney and his political team to cultivate a relationship with the conservative blogosphere as he prepares to enter the Republican primary, which is already being shaped as never before by countless bloggers, pundits, and other online opinion-makers.

…

Perhaps the clearest indication of Romney’s belief in the influence of online information is his hiring of Stephen Smith, 24, formerly the web guru for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, to run his online communications operation. Before Frist abandoned his presidential plans last month, Smith helped him record podcasts and keep in touch with bloggers.

…

Another revealing move that Romney made recently is signing up communications strategist Matt Rhoades, who was research director for President Bush’s 2004 reelection effort and later for the Republican National Committee. Rhoades is respected in his own right, but he is considered especially valuable because of his relationship with blogger extraordinaire Matt Drudge, who reports about 4 billion visits to his site (drudgereport.com) this year and has publicized news and gossip items that in some cases have turned into major political stories.

The GOP primary will be fought much in the blogosphere and cyberspace. That will make it rapid fire with tightly compressed news cycles. It will probably burn out many except for the gung-ho political junkies. I worry a candidate, maybe Romney, maybe Giuliani, probably not McCain, will garner fervent passion like Howard Dean, M.D. did in late 2003/early 2004. The Deaniacs were nuts, and the Dean, M.D. campaign flamed out. Republicans will do better because there’s still that powerful portion that aren’t geeked-out, always online webheads. They’re the ones who are leaders in the mega-churches, the sportsmens groups, the local chambers of commerce. They’re the ones that have to keep the online wunderkinds grounded.

“Massachusetts Gov. Romney Ready to File for Presidency”

“Romney Connecting Quickly with Bloggers” [via Hugh Hewitt]