Republicans: The Citizen's Candidate

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Again, during the arduous gubernatorial campaign, Romney visited the office of the Detroit Free Press to submit to a group interview. During that session, he hotly accused a Free Press reporter of prejudice against him. That was too much for Managing Editor Frank Angelo, a Romney admirer, who jumped to his feet and cried: "That's a goddamned lie, George." Retorted Romney: "The hell it is." He spun on his heel and headed out. Then he regained control, returned and submitted to more questioning.

"I Can So." For the next two years, George Romney's performance as Governor of Michigan is going to be watched with eagle eye by politicians of both parties. Whether he likes it or not, Romney will be thought of and talked of in presidential terms. Despite his denial of White House ambitions, he does not slam the door. "There is a remote possibility," he says, "that either of two things would happen—that the problems of Michigan can be sufficiently dealt with in the two-year period to feel that the responsibility there has been completed or discharged, and that someone who is not actively a presidential candidate would become a candidate."

That "someone" would be George Romney. Years ago, in Salt Lake City, Romney's younger brother Charles—who was born shortly after the family returned from Mexico—could always get a rise out of George by saying: "I'm the only Romney who can be President, because I was born in this country." Invariably George Romney cried out: "That's not so. My mother and father were citizens, and I can so be President!"

Maybe he can. But for the moment, and for the next two years, his importance will lie in how he revitalizes Michigan and what he can do to reshape the G.O.P. so as to meet his own prescription for it as a national party dominated by citizens without regard to special interests.