Quick thoughts on potential presidents

I know, it's still 706 days until the next president is elected, but there are a couple of potential GOP candidates I've been thinking about recently:

1. Newt Gingrich: the former speaker of the House may be an impressive policy wonk, good leader and inspiring speaker. His role in the 1994 Republican takeover cannot be ignored. But I pray to God that he doesn't run. From his involvement in the Clinton impeachment, to the many ethics issues, to the circumstances surrounding his two divorces (serving divorce papers on his hospitalized first wife, ending the second marriage due to infidelity), his positives would be hard-pressed to overtake his negatives. He'd probably be a good addition to any White House, but not as the occupant.
2. Mitt Romney: A lot could change, but I should note that at this point, Romney is my favored candidate. That said, he's done a couple of things recently that leave me a bit dismayed, the evidence of which can be found in the press release archive of Romney's Commonwealth PAC website:

• November 29, 2006 - Two top economists and President Bush’s tax cut architects have agreed to join Governor Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC the organization announced today. Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw will act as co-chairs of the PAC’s Economic Advisory Council. Additionally, Cesar Conda has agreed to be a Senior Economic Advisor for the PAC . . . In 2001, Hubbard was appointed Chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) . . . Greg Mankiw followed Hubbard as the Chairman of the CEA from 2003 to 2005 . . . Most recently, Conda headed the domestic policy staff in the Office of the Vice President as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief advisor on domestic and economic policy issues.
• November 27, 2006 - Governor Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC today announced that long-time South Carolina political strategist J. Warren Tompkins, III has joined the PAC in a Senior Advisor for the Southeast region . . . In 2004, Tompkins was the Atlantic Region Chair for the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign. [And one other thing the press release doesn't note: Tompkins was a senior Bush strategist in 2000, when someone allegedly smeared John McCain as an adulterer, and McCain's camp suspected the Bush campaign.]
• October 26, 2006 – Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC today announced Ann Woods Herberger is joining the PAC team as a National Finance Advisor . . . Herberger started the Woods Herberger Group whose clients included both Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns in Florida . . .
  

Five people who have been deeply involved in the current administration. And that's just in the last month! Couldn't Romney find people without such strong ties to George W. Bush? Or is it the nature of the beast that the strongest people work with the current White House occupant, regardless of who that is?

Either way, I wish Romney would make his own mark instead of bringing in a group of Bushies.