ComMITTed to Romney!

I don’t put much stock in Bob Novak’s rumors…his hit rate is probably no better than 50/50. With that caveat, click over to see what the rumor mill has to say.

In my opinion, McCain’s stance on market based, portable, individual health insurance coverage shows the continuing influence of Gov. Romney on his campaign.

McCain has taken several pages from the Romney playbook. McCain is fortunate to have Romney’s past success in crafting market-based health insurance for Massachusetts available to help him formulate policies that will benefit all Americans.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/
AR2008042902706.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

By Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A01

TAMPA, April 29 – Sen. John McCain on Tuesday rejected calls by his Democratic opponents for universal health coverage, instead offering a market-based solution with an approach similar to a proposal put forth by President Bush last year.
This Story

McCain’s belief in the power of the free market to meet the nation’s health-care needs sets up a stark choice for voters this fall in terms of the care they could receive, the role the government would play and the importance they place on the issue

In a speech at a cancer research center here, McCain dismissed his rivals’ proposals for universal health care as riddled with “inefficiency, irrationality and uncontrolled costs.” He said the 47 million uninsured Americans will get coverage only when they are freed from the shackles of the current employer-dominated system.

I just signed up with the Republican National Committee and volunteered for several activities, including working at my local campaign headquarters. In my first email to them I talked about strict enforcement of our border laws and the need to build the fence that was authorized by Congress.

I feel good about the whole process. I hope many of you will join as well. Let’s make Romney supporters a force to be reckoned with in the GOP.

Go Mitt!! Romney for President in 2012!!

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Paulee&Amp;Mike of CommittedtoRomney fame and fortune are headed to the Maine Republican Convention on May 2. I have asked to be kept informed of “All Things Romney” at the convention. Paulee&Amp;Mike will be taking lots of pictures, so it should be a blast. The rest of us are soooo jealous.

Rumors about a possible VP berth for Governor Romney continue to abound, so it is good that this site has “boots on the ground” at the Convention and can give us the “lowdown on the showdown.”

~~John Cronin~~

Although I have never been a big fan of George W. Bush, in my mind one of the most important parts of his legacy is the nomination of both Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sam Alito. Once again these two outstanding jurists delivered a ruling that allows some sanity to prevail in our government.

You wouldn’t think that it was an undue burden on anyone to produce a government issued photo I.D. when asking for one of the most powerful documents in the world, an American ballot.

If you thought that, you would be wrong. Our friends on the Democratic side of the isle thought it was so burdensome that they took it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, where they just got swatted down by cooler heads, including Justice John Paul Stevens, a man not known for his conservative views.

I have followed this story for several months. Thank goodness the Court reaffirmed the Indiana law that requires the photo ID to help prevent voter fraud.

~~John Cronin~~

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_voter_id

By Mark Sherman Associated Press Writer

Supporters of the law say it’s all about preventing fraud.

Indiana has a “valid interest in protecting ‘the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,’” said Justice John Paul Stevens in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Stevens said that Indiana’s desire to prevent fraud and to inspire voter confidence in the election system are important even though there have been no reports of the kind of fraud the law was designed to combat. Evidence of voters being inconvenienced by the law’s requirements also is scant. For the overwhelming majority of voters, an Indiana driver’s license serves as the identification.

Robert Evans has some interesting gossip that he is dishing tonight.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/917712,CST-EDT-novak27.article

April 27, 2008

ROBERT NOVAK novakevans@aol.com

Big-time Republican contributors are complaining that prospective presidential nominee John McCain is poorly organized for the campaign and off to a bad start in raising money.
McCain begins well behind Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 money derby, and longtime Republican givers say there is no coherent plan for catching up and getting ahead.

The bright spot for McCain in the opinion of the GOP money men is the presence in his campaign of New York investment banker Lew Eisenberg, an experienced Republican fund-raiser. Eisenberg, a pro-choice social liberal who has often contributed to Democrats, was attacked by conservatives when he came on board with McCain in 2007. When McCain clinched the nomination, Eisenberg was sent to the Republican National Committee as victory finance chairman.

In another article further down on the same page some Mitt Romney news.

McCain for guns

Sen. John McCain, continuing to mend his right-wing fences, will do something next month that George W. Bush never has done during 7½ years as president: attend a National Rifle Association event.

McCain plans to be in Louisville, Ky., on May 16 for the NRA’s ”Celebration of American Values.” Also on hand will be two of McCain’s defeated rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

The NRA gave McCain a mediocre C-plus rating in 2004, but since then his pro-gun voting record as a senator has been 100 percent. While some activists in the gun-ownership movement are still suspicious of McCain, his voting is vastly better than that of his two Democratic opponents, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Each is graded F by the NRA.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/04/25/
mccain-and-huckabee-together-again/?mod=WSJBlog

Slouched in one of the two captain’s chairs, Huckabee used his time with the press to take a thinly veiled jab at another former opponent, Mitt Romney. “You know for me, the fortunate thing is I don’t have to go around and unsay anything I said during the campaign,” he said, earning another chuckle from McCain.

So, Pastor Huckabee didn’t have to “unsay” any thing he said during the campaign. Could that be because he didn’t have anything to say worth saying in the first place?

As for McCain, Huckabee added: “We had a very civil relationship. I thought it was significant that I felt like the two of us who ran, frankly the two most civil campaigns in the entire Republican primary ended up the last two on our feet.”

Pastor Huckabee, by the end of the primary campaign, you weren’t on your feet, you were on another area of your anatomy, the part we use when we are seated. I honestly don’t think a very distant second, when all the viable candidates except McCain had withdrawn from the race, qualifies as being “on your feet.”

Romney dropped out of the race on Feb. 7. Despite his slim chances, Huckabee held on until March 5, when McCain secured the nomination.

Huckabee “held on” until he got his Hollywood agent and was offered a book deal.

~~John Cronin~~

Rep. Mike Pence continues to impress me with his conservatism and his thoughtful approach to the challenges that face us. I wanted to make his speech available to our readers because I think it is vitally important to continue to support one of the few friends we have in the Middle East.

IMHO, we owe a debt of gratitude to the courageous State Of Israel for their willingness to take military action against the attempts by both Iraq under Saddam Hussein and more recently, Syria, to go nuclear. They have used air strikes twice to take out nuclear facilities that would have been used against them and would have also placed our personnel in Israel in harm’s way.

As many of you know, the modern State of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948 after 2,500 years of the Diaspora. I think this is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever seen. If you haven’t done any research on this subject, I highly recommend that you do and you will definitely enjoy the process.

~~John Cronin~~

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.”

Psalm 122 vs. 6

http://mikepence.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=89322

Washington, Apr 22 -
Congressman Mike Pence, the Ranking Member of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, gave the following speech from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today, in recognition of Israel’s 60th anniversary:

“Mr. Speaker, sixty years ago next month, the state of Israel, under the leadership of a small band of courageous Zionists, declared independence in its ancient homeland.
“It was promptly recognized by the United States, as the distinguished Majority Leader just eloquently described. And, it was promptly attacked by its Arab neighbors.

“The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

“Israel prevailed against long odds then and we celebrate sixty years of that on the floor today, and will celebrate around the United States and around the world next month. It was against extraordinarily long odds it prevailed again in 1967, 1973, and on countless other times since.
“It is important that we note that through these trials and travails, Israel remains the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East.

“Founded by Holocaust survivors and resolved to overcome the horrors of mid-Twentieth Century Europe’s atrocities, today Israel boasts a vibrant economy with a well-educated populace. Israel’s GDP exceeded most major economies in 2007 and has reached Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development candidate status.

“Israel, sixty years on from that historic day next month, is an extraordinary success. But Israel is still in a neighborhood of sworn enemies. In its sixtieth year of history, all of two Arab countries have seen fit to recognize Israel. And, today’s leader of Iran threatens with regularity to ‘wipe Israel off the map.’

“That’s why I rise today to say two things.

“Number one, I join my colleagues in both parties who rise to congratulate this historic accomplishment of sixty years hence.
“But I also say that as we commend Israel, we in this body in both parties should look for opportunities to recommit ourselves to her defense.
“We cannot stand idly by while a gathering menace grows in the region. We cannot stand quiet while some Americans travel overseas and associate themselves with the blood-soaked enemies of Israel.

“So today we celebrate and we celebrate in a spirit of bipartisanship.

“But, I hope as this historic 60th anniversary approaches, we in this body in both parties will look for those opportunities upon which we can come together to rededicate ourselves to the preservation and the protection of Israel as a Jewish state and to Jerusalem as her eternal capital.”

In the “lest we forget department” Austin Hill at Townhall.com has a good article on those two zany Democrat politicians, Bill and Hill. Worth the read to remind ourselves what we are up against in this election. If they somehow pull their bacon out of the fire and wind up the “co-nominees” of the Democrat Party, we will have to hit the ground running to prevent a re-run of the first scandal-plagued Clinton administration.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AustinHill/2008/04/27/
the_democrats__indignation_over_the_clintons__better_late_than_never

Breaking news - - Bill and Hillary Clinton are nasty, frequently inauthentic, and dishonest.

Actually this is not “news” at all. But many Liberal Americans have just begun to discover this painful reality, and it’s an arduous process for them to stumble out of their denial.

My concerns about Bill’s relationship with the truth date back to his now-famous “I experimented with marijuana a time or two“ and I “didn‘t inhale” shtick of 1992. So many others seemed to revel in the entertainment value that then-Governor Clinton provided with those remarks. I, on the other hand, was horrified that a serious candidate for the presidency would utter such absurdities, and expect, as he apparently did, to be taken seriously.

Very good news. The most qualified man to run for President since Ronald Reagan is set to be the keynote speaker of the Maine Republican Party Convention. MR keeps building the base and collecting the political IOU’s as he prepares to run for President in 2012.

~~John Cronin~~

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5000135.html

AUGUSTA – Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will headline the Maine Republican Party State Convention next weekend in Augusta.

More than 2,400 Republicans are expected to come to the convention, which will be held in the Augusta Civic Center. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2 at the convention’s Presidential Banquet.

In February, Romney won a straw poll of Maine Republicans by earning 52 percent of the vote. But after Super Tuesday, he was trailing badly and withdrew from the race.

“I think he brings name recognition, and is somebody that had a lot of support for president, and should get a good crowd to attend the banquet,” said Robert Nutting, chairman of the Kennebec County Republicans.

The next day, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas has been invited to speak at 1:15 p.m., although his scheduled appearance is not definite, party Chairman Mark Ellis said.