Romney was the Governor of Michigan and automaker who focused his campaign on the issues of fiscal responsibility, welfare reform, and the Vietnam War.
Questions were occasionally asked about Romney's eligibility to hold the office of President due to his birth in Mexico, given an asserted ambiguity in the United States Constitution over the phrase "natural-born citizen".
[5] In May 1967, the Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Emanuel Celler, said he had "serious doubts" about whether Romney was eligible, but had no plans to formally challenge the matter.
[5] In response, the New York Law Journal published an article by a senior attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell arguing that Romney was, in fact, eligible.
[6] Romney's campaign began with the official announcement of candidacy on November 18, 1967, at the Veteran's Memorial Building in Detroit, Michigan.
[9] Romney supported the Marshall Plan following World War II, maintaining that aid to foreign nations should be "...in the form of private investment, rather than governmental handouts."
[10] Initially, Romney supported the Vietnam War, but after a 1965 trip there, he began to question the mission, feeling he had been "brainwashed" by military officials.
The wide margin of victory in Romney's November 1966 gubernatorial re-election in Michigan cast him to the forefront of national Republicans.
Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York as his running mate,[19][20] which might add foreign policy expertise and other ticket balance, but such talk did not persist.
The qualities that helped give Romney success as an automotive industry executive worked against him as a presidential candidate;[21] he had difficulty being articulate on any issue, often speaking at length and too forthrightly on a topic and then later correcting himself while maintaining he was not.
[17] The Detroit riots of July 1967 did not change his standing among Republicans,[3] but did give him a bounce in national polls against the increasingly unpopular president.
In a taped interview with Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit on August 31, 1967, Romney stated, "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get."
He then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia," he declared.
[15] Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient.
"[36] Republican Congressman Robert T. Stafford of Vermont sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency, you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed.
[3] Romney nonetheless persevered, staging a three-week, 17-city tour of the nation's ghettos in the early autumn that sought to engage militants and others in dialogue.
[38] Romney formally announced his candidacy on November 18, 1967, at Detroit's Veterans Memorial Building,[39] that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States.
"[40] He spent the following months campaigning tirelessly, focusing on the New Hampshire primary, the first of the season, and doing all the on-the-ground activities known to that state: greeting workers at factory gates before dawn, having neighborhood meetings in private homes, stopping at bowling alleys.
[22][41] Two weeks before the March 12 primary, an internal poll showed Romney losing to Nixon by a six-to-one margin in New Hampshire.
[49] When party moderates and others expressed dismay at Nixon's choice of Spiro Agnew as his vice-presidential running mate, Romney's name was placed into nomination and pushed by several delegations.
[52] Presidential historian Theodore H. White wrote that during his campaign Romney gave "the impression of an honest and decent man simply not cut out to be President of the United States.