A recent poll that showed former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has more support from Iowa voters than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a reminder that Romney would have been a good president, Grover Norquist tells Newsmax TV.
According to the poll from Bloomberg and the Des Moines Register, 44 percent of likely Iowa voters said they would support Romney and 43 percent said they would support Clinton, if the two were running against each other for president.
Norquist told John Bachman on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Monday that he doesn't think Romney will run again because he has already "run twice," but that "he would've been a better president than [President Barack Obama]."
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"I tend to think he won't run again," the president of America's for Tax Reform explained. "But it helps remind the American people that he was a serious candidate, would've been a good president, and he's helping to elect House and Senate candidates across the country this election cycle."
He contends that the reason why Romney's popularity has grown is because "he's been in the news more often" since he's been out campaigning for candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
By contrast, other potential Republican presidential candidates in 2016 such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul all have full-time jobs they have to focus on, Norquist said.
"Romney doesn't have a day job," he explained. "He ought to be out 24/7 helping to elect Republican candidates because the entire Republican Party was there for him two years ago trying to get him across the finish line."
"We tend to think of loyalty as flowing up to candidates, presidents, congressmen, governors and senators," he said. "It also flows back out again."
He told Newsmax that it should be expected of anyone who runs for a high office and needs the support of the party during the campaign.
"They owe the country and the party the rest of their lives to pay back all the work that other people did for them," he contends.
"This is not something that you can retire from," Norquist explained. "If you've got people to support you for president, send checks, put time and effort and get volunteers, then you owe the country back an awful lot of campaigning and that's what Romney is doing."
"That's a good thing," he added.
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