WaPo: Romney 'Emerging As One Of The Republican Party's Most Coveted Stars'

WaPo: Romney 'Emerging As One Of The Republican Party's Most Coveted Stars'

on Fri, 18 Apr 2014

The Washington Post's Robert Costa and Philip Rucker report:

One rainy morning this month, the man who thought he would be president boarded a train near his beach house in San Diego. He stepped off in Burbank, Calif., and caught a ride to a sound stage, where his on-again, off-again political consigliere, Mike Murphy, was waiting to shoot a commercial on a set that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Oval Office.

Looking and sounding like a president out of central casting, he nailed his lines. The crew called him “one-take Romney,” and before he departed, they swarmed, extending arms around his shoulders and angling their iPhones for pictures.

With that, Mitt Romney’s long winter was over.

After retreating from public view following his crushing loss to President Obama in the 2012 election, Romney has returned to the political stage, emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most coveted stars, especially on the fundraising circuit, in the run-up to November’s midterm elections.