ComMITTed to Romney!

Gov. Romney’s 8th Campaign Ad

Romney Brothers On Their Father’s “Faults”

Romney Brothers On The Decision To Run

Greta Tours The Mitt Mobile

Chris Cillizza & Dan Balz at the WASHINGTON POST

Interesting article that gives an insight about how politicians think and about how their experience teaches them voters react to certain events within a campaign.

Talking about the horse race between Clinton and Obama, Clyburn, who is the House Majority Whip, commented, “If one of these top two faltered, finished third or fourth in Iowa, it would be a different ballgame.”

The writers went on to say, “During the course of the twenty minute sitdown, Clyburn made it clear that he was reluctant to endorse any candidate prior to the Iowa caucuses, citing his experience in 2004.”

Clyburn said, “I was with (former Missouri Rep. Dick) Gephardt four years ago and I thought we had it all setup for him in South Carolina.” (After a poor showing in Iowa, Gephardt dropped his candidacy.)

Although MR is not currently polling well in SC, I think it is encouraging to remember that the voters will be watching the early primaries and that experience teaches us that a series of early wins/strong showings can easily create the “bandwagon effect” that we are looking for to carry MR to the White House.

~~John Cronin~~

Got the photo from Craig Romney’s My Space page.

In depth piece here from Vanity Fair about Judith Nathan Giuliani.

There’s so much here I don’t know where to begin. Suffice it to say, this is a very juicy article, and not at all flattering to Judi.

I think that most of us had the sense that Judi would not make the most gracious and classy First Lady, but if this article is only half true, it blows the doors off my worst expectations.

I’ve copied the entire article below.

- David

Continue Reading »

I just finished watching three of the Romney boys give a tour of the Mitt-Mobile on Foxnews. Every time I have seen the Romney family in any type of media appearance I have been tremendously impressed. You can tell that they are genuine and sincere in talking about how important family is to them. It so refreshing to see a Presidential candidate who has had a long and healthy relationship with his wife and has a loving, functional family. For voters who are looking for a candidate that will help strengthen the American family and make it a serious priority, Romney is the answer. Expect to see more headlines likes this one in the future.

“In contrast to rivals, Romney’s family helps his campaign”

~Ryan Jesperson

I hate these types of stories. To set up, let’s look at the quote from Ann Romney about her battles with MS:

Ann Romney, who was diagnosed with the degenerative nerve disease in 1998, said in a recent interview with People magazine, “It wasn’t as though I was suicidal, but I was at the point where I thought, ‘Couldn’t I please just have cancer and die?’”

This admission has angered a Leroy Sievers who runs a blog at NPR started by his own battle with cancer.

I’m leaning towards “angry.” Most of you, patients and caregivers, already know everything that I’m about to say. You’ve learned it through experience. But for Mrs. Romney and others, here goes.

Cancer does not bring a quick death. Cancer is painful and debilitating. Cancer wreaks havoc on the life of anyone who has it, and the lives of the people who care about them. Cancer twists the present and steals the future. Cancer hurts. It hurts so badly that sometimes you can barely stand it. Cancer is not something to be sought after. Cancer is not the lesser of evils. Cancer is the Beast, the Monster, the Murderer. I know there are diseases out there that are crueler than Cancer. I know there are those whose burdens are heavier than ours. But cancer is not an easy way out.

If I might put on my armchair psychologist hat for a moment, I think Mr. Sievers is letting himself become too defined by cancer, to the point of looking too hard for slights that might belittle his own experiences. Obviously, Ann had no intention of stating that dying of cancer would be easy, only that a small part of her wished that her pain might have an ending.

When a person is as sick as Ann Romney was, is it any surprise that she might find the grass greener on the other side, even if that side be cancer? Is it really worth anyone’s anger to be miffed at a sick person for not treating your disease with what you think is the proper respect?

~~~Thomas

Jennifer Rubin appears to be busy lately. In addition to the Vin Weber interview, she has a great interview Wendy Long of the Judicial Confirmation Network over at the American Spectator. My passion for judicial issues temps me to post the whole thing, but in the name of restraint, here are the highlights:

How did she come to select Romney? She candidly acknowledges that she always liked Fred Thompson, in part because his support of causes like Scooter Libby “warmed her heart,” but ultimately concluded that Thompson could “not hold a candle to the Governor on intellect or leadership.” She contends that Romney is “the constitutionalist” in the race, meaning he best understands and supports concepts of federalism and the commitment to originalism in interpreting the Constitution.

In this sense, he’ll be even better than President Bush on the subject as our president has never been a huge supporter of federalism.

On the subject of the kinds of Supreme Court justices we can expect from President Romney:

Long argues that Romney “is the only one I’m absolutely sure” will give us more nominees like Justices Alito and Roberts. With these types of judges she believes we will continue the “incremental process” to return power to the people and allow policy decisions to be made democratically. She says this should not be a bad thing for liberals, who will be free to “fight it out” in legislative bodies to achieve their objectives. She notes that if in that context their ideas “don’t go over” then that is the appropriate outcome in a democracy.

And she reminds us of what the stakes are in the next election:

What would a Hillary Clinton Supreme Court look like? Long says that “a Hillary presidency would cement and even increase the very liberal and, in my view, incorrect excesses of the Warren Court.” Long explains that with the Warren Court judges began indulging in judicial activism — the practice whereby “a court substitutes its will for a legislative body where there is no constitutional reason to do so.” Long says that Clinton would “appoint people she is confident would arrive at policy outcomes” consistent with a “far reaching left agenda.” Long notes that once the Supreme Court rules on a constitutional matter “you can’t undo it by legislation” and slowly we “destroy self-government and put ourselves in the hands of judges of her [Clinton’s] choosing.” She notes that the verb “cemented’ is used intentionally since constitutional doctrine often can’t be “repaired for a century or more.”

Emphasis mine.

She makes such an important note there. When liberal judges are allowed onto the bench, they take away our right to govern ourselves on so many important issues. Liberals are okay with that as long as they get their way (in fact, as Sen. Schumer makes clear, they believe ruling the judiciary to be their natural right).

In related news, CJ Roberts was taken to the hospital today after suffering a seizure. Let us wish for his good health.

~~~Thomas

“Political Coup” is the phrase used by “The American Spectator” writer Jennifer Rubin (also Race42008.com contributor) to describe the addition of Wendy Long as a Senior Legal Advisor to the Romney Campaign. The press release came out a whole six days ago and would hardly mean anything to me except for a little explanation on Wendy Long’s background and the words of her powerful endorsement included in Jennifer Rubin’s article written today. (HT to EFM and Race42008.com for the story)

From Rubin’s Article:

Long is a familiar name to conservatives who follow the courts. She is chief counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, an organization of conservative lawyers that has played a critical role in the confirmation battles for appellate and Supreme Court judges including Sam Alito and John Roberts. She was a litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and previously a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to U.S. Appeals Court Judge Ralph Winter.

…

Long also explains that leadership “matters tremendously” in selecting a president. For her this includes “the ability to direct the many and far flung team” that a president needs to confirm judges and lead the Justice Department. She cites Romney’s experience in business and running the Olympics and as Governor as proof he can “lead a large organization and then delegate” to competent managers.

…

What does she consider the top legal issues for the presidential race? Without hesitation she says that judges are “the number one issue.” She explains that judges are “the most important [issue] because the federal judiciary affects people’s daily lives,” a situation she says that “shouldn’t be but is what we are confronted with” after years of creeping judicial activism. She notes that the next president may appoint “two, three or even four” Supreme Court justices and will dramatically shape the Court. She also lists tort reform as “tremendously important” since Romney, as a businessman, appreciates how litigation has “gummed up the wheels of commerce.”

…

How does she think Romney would do in appointing conservative justices? Long argues that Romney “is the only one I’m absolutely sure” will give us more nominees like Justices Alito and Roberts. With these types of judges she believes we will continue the “incremental process” to return power to the people and allow policy decisions to be made democratically.

Long does speak somewhat of Hillary and how her judicial nomination would be a stark turn to the left, and of Fred Thompson who though she deems him “warm” and friendly does not consider him of being “up to the task”.

The entire article is very interesting and I would encourage you to read the whole thing to catch the whole scope.

~Nate Gunderson

Wolfagain brought this NY Times Editorial to our attention and I agree that it’s worth our time:

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

It ends this way:

How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.

Well, here’s hoping. The political situation at home has disintigrated to almost nothing. I do believe that President Bush can get his funding through the next 6-7 months. After that Republicans fearful for re-election will start running for the hills.

~~~Thomas

A couple weeks I noticed the MittRomney.com has a downloads section where you can get some free downloads for your computer/website. I added this button to our right sidebar:

Since then I’ve found they’ve added some other things of interest, the Mitt Romney screen-saver being my favorite. Here are some samples of things they have:

IM Icons:

Various Banners and Buttons:

Wallpapers:

Handouts: (Click on image to view PDF)
and

and (Ta-Da!) the Screensaver:

Head on over and download them if any of these interest. There are a few more that I didn’t show here. Free stuff. What could be better.

~Nate Gunderson