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SALT LAKE CITY — Top GOP strategist Karl Rove showed little enthusiasm Friday for another presidential bid by Mitt Romney in 2016, saying if Romney runs again, he needs to show more of himself to voters.
"He's a reticent guy. I'm sorry, but when you run for president, you can't be reticent. You've got to recognize that people want to know who you are," Rove said when asked at a legislative policy summit about Romney's chances of winning.
Even one of Romney's biggest supporters in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert, stopped short of endorsing him for 2016.
"Let’s wait and have him make the decision whether he’s going to run or not before we start picking sides on who we’re going to support," the governor told reporters after speaking at the summit.
Rove described what he called a "critical moment" on the campaign trail when Romney flubbed an opportunity during a TV interview to share his emotions about his wife Ann's battle with multiple sclerosis.
In London for the 2012 Summer Games, Romney dismissed a question about Ann's dressage horse competing for a gold medal instead of opening up about how horseback riding had helped his wife's health, Rove said.
"The American people would have said, '… dang.' Instead, what they saw was a guy that said, 'I'm rich and I really don't want to talk about my funny horse,'" Rove said. "I don't get it because there's so much that's admirable."
His advice for Romney?
"He needs to do two things better. One is share himself in a way the American people really get to see what a really decent, honorable person he is," Rove said, and defend himself against political attacks.
Had Romney reacted more often as he did during a debate among Republican candidates when he refused to apologize for amassing a personal fortune, Rove said he might have been president.
After his appearance, Rove sidestepped questions from a reporter about whether a third Romney run would help or hurt the Republican Party's ability of winning back the White House next year.
"Look, the question of who the best candidate is going to be solved here in the next 12 moths by the quality of the campaigns each of the candidates mount," he said.
It's up to Romney whether he gets in the race, Rove said, declining to say whether he wants to see him run. Romney told supporters recently he's considering a third attempt at the presidency.
"I want a robust field of energetic candidates, and if he's going to be an energetic candidate, I want a lot of energetic candidates in there," Rove said.
Herbert, the incoming chairman of the National Governors Association, said the election is far enough off that "there's a lot of time for people to manuever and make decisions."
"I'm a big Mitt Romney fan," the governor said, citing Romney's reputation for turning around troubled enterprises including the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
"That being said, I’m sure there’s a number of good quality people out there on the Republican Party bench, and it’s a little premature to say who’s going to emerge as the leader," Herbert said.
He did go so far as to say he thinks Romney "should give it every consideration for a third try." Herbert, who backed Romney's runs in 2008 and 2012, said he has a hard time believing he would not be supporting him again.
Asked whether Romney was serious about another White House bid, the governor said he believes "people around him are very serious about it and consequently that makes him serious about it."
Herbert said Romney, now considered a Utah resident with homes in Holladay and Deer Valley, "came close, so there’s always the attraction of maybe this time. He’s certainly got the talent. He is capable of doing the work, so why not consider it?"
Less than half of the participants at the policy summit, 42 percent, said they were still on "Team Romney." The rest, surveyed electronically on a number of issues, split over whether Romney has had his chance or was never the right GOP nominee.
Rove barely mentioned Romney in his prepared remarks to the policy summit, presented by the Exoro Group and sponsored by Zions Bank and Utah State University.
He needs to do two things better. One is share himself in a way the American people really get to see what a really decent, honorable person he is.
–Karl Rove
Instead, the Olympus High School graduate who attended the University of Utah focused on his expectations for the now Republican-controlled Congress, which he said will have a big impact on the presidential race.
If Congress succeeds in passing the first federal budget in eight years and tackles tough issues including the Affordable Care Act, immigration and corporate income tax reform, that will help the GOP achieve its No. 1 goal, the White House, he said.
Rove said while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a better candidate for the Democrats than she was in 2008, she is still "subpar." Republicans, he said, have a deep bench of qualified candidates running this time.
"We've got a lot of good people," he said, but no front-runner yet. He predicted Republicans will settle on their nominee by the end of March 2016 thanks to new limits on debates and the primary election schedule.
Rove also used his keynote address to criticize President Barack Obama's signature health care law as well as the state of the economy under a Democratic president. The nation, he said, is in a type of cold war with radical Islam.
"Our relationships are tattered around the world," Rove said, a situation that "ain't going to get better until people not only respect us but in some instances, fear the United States again."
