comMITTed to Romney!

Last thoughts before Mitt’s big victory tomorrow

Washington is Broken

John McCain has been a senator for 24 years. If we think he’s good at it, I’d suggest we send him back to the Senate. If we’re not satisfied with Washington’s performance, we shouldn’t consider sending someone who’s been in the seat of power that long back to try and get a job done he’s been unable to do for 2 1/2 decades. If he had leadership abilities, he’d have already led. But the fact is with McCain, he’s a “maverick,” which means he doesn’t lead, he wanders off on his own. George Bush said there’s the Republican party, there’s the Democratic party, and there’s McCain’s party. It takes leadership to rally people around a cause, which he’s been unable to do without joining forces with the liberals. Team building takes convincing, and that’s something apparently John McCain is not very good at. Bullying and quid pro quo maybe, convincing apparently not.

Barack Obama is a very left-leaning candidate, but one who has convinced people it’s time for a change, to the point where he has a senior senator, the wife of a two-term president and the master of an incredibly successful political machine running for her life. If Obama can defeat Hillary as the Washington insider, imagine how much easier Obama will have it with John McCain, the ultimate insider, the ultimate Washington back-room favor-grabbing, power-broker politician, the ultimate symbol of Republicans and residual distaste for the war. John represents what’s broken in Washington and would get creamed by Obama. Mitt Romney is a Washington outsider, someone with the experience necessary to look at Washington inside-out, like you do as a consultant, figure out the problem and devise solutions. He has the experience to look at the budget and to balance it, like he did in Massachusetts without raising taxes. And, unlike John McCain, he debates issues and has a reasoned stance. McCain has avoided a debate with Mitt on the economy. Do you think the American public would allow McCain to get away without having a one-on-one debate with Hillary or Barack? No way.

Romney beats Clinton

While I think polls are meaningless at this point, it was interesting to hear recently that some polls have shown that Mitt and McCain both beat Hillary head-to-head, but both lose to Obama. McCain is NOT the only candidate who can beat Hillary in November. Again these polls are way early, and lots can change, even McCain’s “front runner” status.

Who’s McCain’s No. 2?

Never has this question been more relevant regarding a candidate. John McCain will be 72 years old by January 2009. I believe that would make him one of the oldest presidents ever to enter a first term in office. Yet we haven’t heard a peep about who his running mate might be. That seems incredibly relevant to anyone considering voting for John McCain, as their first choice is advancing quickly in years.

It’s Still the Economy

Forgotten in the consolidation of the anti-McCain forces with Mitt has been the fact that Mitt’s run-up in Florida was driven by the correct perception of Mitt as the economic expert, while McCain was the candidate, like in his Naval Academy days, coming in the bottom of his class, this time in Reagan 101. While McCain may have finally passed the first test now that he changed his mind (after considerable pressure) and agrees with Mitt that the Bush tax cuts were a good thing, he’s still failing the course. Manufacturing jobs continue to be lost overseas. We depend on borrowing money from Asia to finance purchase of machines, even military equipment, that they make to our specifications. McCain wants a unilateral self-tax on carbon emissions that would provide back-door incentives for companies to leave the U.S. for China where they’d continue to pollute and we’d lose the jobs. We need to all understand: our economic strength is a pre-requisite to our military strength. The economy is a national security issue. Ronald Reagan knew the two were linked, but there’s a footsoldier in Reagan’s army that’s gone AWOL. We have long term issues that we need fixed, and McCain doesn’t understand their importance; he just talks about being in Iraq for 100 years and having more wars (how he’s going to fight them without a strong economy to finance them no one knows). He can’t even identify the problem, much less fix it. We need Mitt Romney as Commander-in-Chief for the security of our country.

Maine Looms Large

Here’s an interesting thought: Maine gave Mitt a nice burst of delegates and Mitt-mentum, bringing him in the unofficial CNN count to within 8 of McCain. Now recall that Florida was winner take all, and McCain won by a narrow 36% to 31% margin (after McCain’s dirty pool). Now imagine what the press would be saying if Florida had been proportionally split? Mitt would be in a comfortable lead if you cut those FL delegates in thirds, giving one third to Mitt, one to McCain and splitting one with Paul and Huckabee. So you’d subtract 40 from McCain’s count and add 20 to Mitt’s, and suddenly Mitt’s up by well over 20. Now there’s a thought. Even without the “coulda” “woulda’s,” the “front runner” ain’t in much of a lead after all, and is dang lucky the rules broke his way, given he hasn’t won a majority in any state to this point, while Mitt has done so in 3 out of the 8 contests that have taken place.

Here’s to a Super Tuesday!

Those of us paying attention from the beginning know that while polls can be predictive, they can also be flat-wrong. So I’m not ready to buy any of McCain’s leads in some states, or even Mitt’s break in CA. I’ll believe it when I see it, and you should, too. Polls are an attempt to measure what will happen in the future. But in a democracy we can make the future. In a democracy we are the future. What the polls say will be completely irrelevant tomorrow as the people will have spoken, and it’s up to all of us to get out there and speak. Cast that vote, call that friend, make sure you drag at least 5 other people down to the polls with you. Call again, email again. This is it, ladies and gents. The first primary of this magnitude, and literally, if we do what we can, WE CAN WIN THIS THING.

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