ComMITTed to Romney!

On the heels of the news of Michigan’s moving up their primary date, we have a new poll out of the state:

Romney: 25%
Giuliani: 23%
Thompson: 16%
McCain: 15%

This is with only modest campaigning within the state (look for that to change).

~~~Thomas

Artwork by Michael Ramirez — Courtesy of IBD Editorials

“A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.”

— H.L. Mencken

Thank goodness Mitt Romney is not a career politician and that he does not need to rely on politics for his profession.

Run Hillary, Run!

~ Vic

Another new poll out of Iowa today. At the rate they’re putting these things out, every caucus goer in the state is going to be asked who they’ll vote for by three different companies.

Romney: 35%
Giuliani: 12%
Thompson: 11%
Huckabee: 11%

That’s two polls with Huckabee in double digits. That might be troublesome to Romney, if it weren’t for the fact that Romney’s numbers are rising almost as fast! Maybe Huckabee’s picked up all of Brownback’s support or something. Giuliani also seems to be falling back.

Wonder if he’s feeling smart about skipping Ames now?

~~~Thomas

With the best news I’ve heard all week, Michigan’s lower chamber approved the 1/15 primary. Their upper chamber already did so over a week ago. Gov. Granholm is enthusistically endorsing the move. The table could hardly be set up better for Gov. Romney. Strong leads in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Now the most obtainable big state will come in the immediate aftermath of the early states.

Ladies and gentlemen. Gov. Romney is now officially the frontrunner.

~~~Thomas

Edit: Townhall has an article on how this shifts the GOP nomination process.

Mitt Romney is well known for seeking out and hiring only the brightest people with whom to work. That was true at Bain, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and as governor of Massachusetts. These include some of the brightest women of America (ex: Meg Whitman). I would be very interested to hear from (in Comments) women who have worked for Romney, who work for him now, or who know him well enough to speak on this topic. In the book Turnaround, Romney speaks highly of several talented women who were instrumental in guiding the Olympics out of scandal to outstanding success.

Kimberly Strassel’s article is intriguing as she outlines well how the Republican presidential candidates (interestingly enough, she only mentions Romney & Giuliani) are missing opportunities to capitalize on the Democrats’ worn out marketing messages to women.

These are but three, short excerpts taken from Ms. Strassel’s Op/Ed piece:

A smart Republican candidate would be doing Twister moves to deny Democrats those votes. Yet what’s extraordinary is that no GOP contender has yet recognized the huge opportunity to redefine “women’s” politics for the 21st century. That’s a double failing given that the GOP could win modern women by doing little more than tailoring their beliefs in freer markets to the problems women struggle most with today.
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The rest of the female population has migrated into 2007. Undoubtedly quite a few do care about abortion rights and the Violence Against Women Act. But for the 60% of women who today both scramble after a child and hold a job, these culture-war touchpoints aren’t their top voting priority. Their biggest concerns, not surprisingly, hew closely to those of their male counterparts: the war in Iraq, health care, the economy. But following close behind are issues that are more unique to working women and mothers. Therein rests the GOP opportunity.

Here’s an example of how a smart Republican could morph an old-fashioned Democratic talking point into a modern-day vote winner. Ms. Clinton likes to bang on about “inequality” in pay. The smart conservative would explain to a female audience that there indeed is inequality, and that the situation is grave. Only the bad guy isn’t the male boss; it’s the progressive tax code.

Most married women are second-earners. That means their income is added to that of their husband’s, and thus taxed at his highest marginal rate. So the married woman working as a secretary keeps less of her paycheck than the single woman who does the exact same job.
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This isn’t to suggest Republicans treat women as a “special interest” or a monolithic bloc. But there are votes to be had for the candidate who owns the quotidian concerns of this population. And there are future generations of women voters to be won by the party that progresses beyond the stale rhetoric of women’s “rights” and crafts a new language of women’s “choice” and “opportunity” and “ownership.”

Come on guys; the women are waiting.

The entire article is worth reading.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Stephen Hawking

~ Vic

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Has Mitt Romney’s early state strategy made him the real GOP Presidential front-runner?

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“The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.”

— Thomas Jefferson, 1779

~ Vic

I can’t believe that nobody has posted this here yet, so here you go. Mitt’s new ad. I think it’s a good one…very unconventional, but effective.

What do you think?

This is from Tuesday’s show. Laura interviews Gov. Romney about the Craig scandal and Washington’s corrupt culture, sanctuary cities, campaign prognostication, the rise of China and more. No fireworks, but the Gov comes across like a polished, informed statesman. And he takes a mild shot or two at Rudy Giuliani.

Click here for the audio. It’s great.

Wastland Man says: “Romney mania surges… Ouch whatta Obama Shot!”

I have to agree.

In a couple of earlier posts over the last six weeks, I predicted that if Fred Thompson decided to actually enter the presidential race, he would either 1) time the announcement after the September debate or, if he announced before the 5th, he would b) state he will not participate in the debate.

About two weeks ago, I did some research and found that FT is listed in the debate. But is he going to be there on stage with the rest of the GOP candidates? Or is he skipping this debate too? As you can tell, I am throwing this out to all of you who may know the answer. I do not.

Well, everybody out there in America has been yelling over to Fred to either fish or cut bait. He has made a decision. You gotta give it to him for that.

But since he is now going to join the fray, shouldn’t he jump into the actual fray and join the debate? No surprises here. Is there a greater opportunity for Mr. Thompson to get his message out than to join the debate and to show how his “stage skills” are superior to the others’?

Here is the story of FT jumping in: THE HILL

~ Vic

It’s an American Research Group one, so it’s not completely reliable, but I’ll post it anyway. Gov. Romney is up by 10 points:

Romney 27%
Giuliani 17%
Huckabee 14%
Thompson 13%

I suppose the biggest news out of this is Huckabee breaking double digits. I don’t see him as a threat to steal the state (or believe he’s really at 14% for that matter), but if he managed to sneak into third, he could effectively end a Thompson candidacy.

~~~Thomas