RomneyCare Could Crash Romney's 2012 Ambitions

I like Mitt Romney personally, but he fires up few people on the right, or at least among the conservatives I've talked to. So I wonder how this is going to play out? At Politico, "Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care law could flatline his 2012 ambitions" (via Memeorandum and The Fix):

Mitt Romney doesn't really want to talk about “RomneyCare,” the universal health care plan he signed into law as Massachusetts governor.

But the topic is already bubbling up in early primary states — offering a stark warning that his presidential run is likely to be haunted by unfavorable and potentially crippling comparisons between Romney's plan and President Barack Obama's sweeping national health care overhaul

The issue poses such a danger to Romney in the primaries that some Republicans think he’ll need to make a major speech to address the issue, while others are suggesting that third-party anti-Romney groups may unleash waves of negative ads in key states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina — and Florida. Romney himself barely mentioned health care in his speech at the recent CPAC gathering, almost a tacit acknowledgment of the pitfalls it presents.

"For anyone that's following the candidates, it's the No. 1 issue that I hear from conservatives who say, 'I really like Mitt Romney, but…,' and the but is about ObamaCare," said Kevin Smith, a veteran New Hampshire Republican operative who heads the socially conservative Cornerstone Action.

Whenever I mentioned I was going to CPAC, folks asked me who was speaking. And when I said "Mitt Romney," it was almost always like, "Blah, I don't like Romney very much. I like Sarah Palin." I don't dislike Romney myself, and I wouldn't be unhappy if he won the nomination, although Palin's also my first pick. In any case, check The Hill, "Survey: Romney, Huckabee in striking distance of Obama."