To be or not to be a presidential candidate — that is the question for Mitt Romney — who risks becoming a tragic, modern-day Hamlet if he doesn't run, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan tells
Newsmax TV.
"He's certainly given every indication and if he doesn't run now, he's going to look sort of a Hamlet-like figure," Buchanan said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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In the legendary play by William Shakespeare, a series of missteps by the self-doubting Prince Hamlet in avenging the murder of his father lead to his doom. The parallels to the former Massachusetts governor are not as sensational, but Buchanan believes they are there.
"I probably shouldn't bring it up because [former New York Gov.] Mario Cuomo just passed away, but I was in New Hampshire [in 1991] and we all thought [he] was going to come in and win that primary. They had the plane on the runway and he didn't come in," Buchanan said.
"Mitt Romney's moved himself into a position something like that, where everybody's talking about, hey, Mitt's in, he's decided to go, he's after Bush, and if he stands down now, he will hurt himself to a degree."
A year ago, Romney, in an interview with the New York Times, was asked whether he would consider another run, following his 2012 defeat to President Barack Obama.
"Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no," Romney responded. "People are always gracious and say, 'Oh, you should run again.' I'm not running again."
But last week, Romney told a group of donors he was seriously considering another go for the White House.
Buchanan, a senior adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, is author of
"The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority", published by Crown Forum.
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