Romney sets his sights on Alabama

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is laying the groundwork for a likely presidential campaign here in Alabama.

I have to say that out of all the potential Republican candidates for President in 2008, Romney is the one who impresses me the most. He's smart, he seems to be a genuine conservative, and he gives off a sense of optimism that I think voters will find very attractive. And he won a Governor's race in Massachusetts as a center-right Republican. That's saying something.

I also like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. They are both solid conservatives, and I hope they run just to make things interesting, but I just don't see either of them as being electable. Newt because he's Newt, and Brownback because he's boring. I'm not writing off Rudy Giuliani, either, but in order to secure the nomination, he'll have to convince a lot of Republicans, myself included, that he won't govern as a liberal in the mold of fellow New York Republican Nelson Rockefeller.

Conventional wisdom says that Romney's biggest problem will be the fact that he's a Mormon. That seems to freak some people out, including many of the socially conservative voters who form the base of the Republican Party. The fact that it's being talked about so soon, though, will give voters plenty of time to realize that we're electing a President, not a preacher, and I think that the "Mormon issue" will end up fading faster than many people think.

One interesting fact about Mitt Romney: his father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, losing the Republican nomination to none other than Richard Nixon - a Quaker.