Petition
Two days ago I created a petition to gain signatures of persons in support of Gov. Romney for VP. If you are interested and have not yet signed it yet, please consider it. Also, please consider sending the link to family members, friends, church members, and any others that you see fit. We are close to two-hundred signatures and need more. I will be sending this petition to the McCain campaign soon, so let’s see how many signatures and comments we can get. To access the petition please:
Also, for those of you who are reluctant to support John McCain but still support Gov. Romney, please consider that Mitt getting elected VP might be his only shot at the Presidency later. If John McCain becomes President, his VP will likely become the Republican nominee in 2012, or 2016.
In regards to answering the “No Mitt” ad, remember that many in the GOP establishment are already pushing for a McCain/Romney ticket. Several of McCain’s advisors, including Carl Rove, have asked him to pick Mitt. I understand the frustration you might have towards this group and their ad; but please remember that they are a small group of Huckabee supporters; and they do not represent the majority of the Republican Party. They also have not purchased many ads, they have limited resources, and they are being talked about mostly on a few “Social Conservative” web-sites. John McCain is not going to let some angry ad decide who he chooses to ask to run with him. I personally am done talking about the ad; and I feel that I gave it too much attention in the first place.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Hey, I just looked at the NoMitt petition and oddly enough, they have removed all the comments! There is no comment on there anywhere. How odd is that? Do you think they are going at all to send that petition to McCain like that? having removed all the comments about Mitt and everyone else? If they do, it will look like 1400+ people want Huckabee…
Oh, what a tangled web we weave! KKSM
April 6th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Yes, that is what they plan to do. They are a very dishonest group. If you go to their site they say that the reason they removed the comments is because a bunch of Mormons left hate filled comments and they had no choice. The entire site is designed to cause evangelicals to revolt against Mitt and Mormons.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
From Government is not God:
THE NO MITT AD AND MORMANISM
During the 2006 election cycle I travelled to Oklahoma to campaign in several cities for Congressman Ernest Istook who was running for the governorship of that state. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Congressman Istook at evangelical churches and told congregants that he was a man who had consistently held social conservative, pro-life, pro-family beliefs and that he had voted those beliefs in his decade in the US House. Congressman Ernest Istook is a Mormon. Every time he ran for office in Oklahoma the vast majority of evangelical Christians voted for him, including in his bid for the governorship, which unfortunately he lost because his opponent was so well funded by gambling interests.
As the chairman of Government Is Not God – PAC I have authorized financial support of candidates of many faiths. Many we have endorsed are not evangelicals. We endorsed and funded Senator Coleman (R-MN) and Congressman Cantor (R-VA) both of whom are Jewish. We have also endorsed numerous Catholics including Senators Santorum (R-PA) and Brownback (R-KS). Church affiliation has never played a role in our decision making process. While we supported Congressman Istook, who is a Mormon, we would never support Senator Reid (D-NV), also a Mormon, who supports abortion on demand and gay marriage. GING-PAC backs pro-life, pro-family social conservatives. GING-PAC was founded in 1992 and as a multi-party PAC and has supported pro-life Democrats as well as Republicans.
This background is furnished to establish the degree of shock I experienced from the hatred directed toward me by the Mormon community as a result of the NO MITT advertisement our PAC placed in an Arizona newspaper stating the reasons we believe Mitt Romney is unfit to be picked by Senator John McCain as his running mate. Our ad simply pointed out that Mitt Romney, for convenience or other reasons, has changed his position on central issues such as abortion. The ad never mentioned his association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and this was not an issue to our PAC or the signers of the full page ad.
Our NO MITT petition site on the Internet gave those who signed the petition an opportunity to give a short personal message to Senator McCain as to why they did not want Mitt Romney as Vice President. Individuals used this opportunity to post hateful and bigoted anti-evangelical messages at the site that I cannot reprint here. At one point a volunteer had to work full time to cull out those messages that were too offensive to leave up. We blocked the server at BYU in Utah and the number of offensive messages declined. In the culling process some messages that were not offensive were removed as well, our volunteers did the best they could with the volume.
By day two of the media frenzy over our NoMittVP.com site we had to drop the comments from public view. There were just too many comments, some as long as 250 words, to review on a case by case basis.
When offensive posts at our site were removed we actually received complaints at our main PAC site. While some posts may have been overzealously removed by volunteers, the vast majority removed were insensitive at best and many just flat offensive. (My personal favorite called us a “bunch of fat, ugly Baptist women.”
There was an overall dishonesty by the Romney supporters who posted at the NoMittVP site. In order to leave a post they had signed a petition saying they did not want Mitt Romney as their VP choice. To be blunt, they lied in order to post pro-Romney or anti-evangelical messages.
I was surprised by the number of anti-evangelical messages and the tone of hatred for evangelicals in general. However, this has not changed my position or the position of this political action committee. We will still endorse and fund candidates who are Mormon who are consistent social conservatives. We will still not endorse nor fund Catholics or members of Protestant churches who support such social catastrophes such as abortion and homosexual marriage. Our candidate picks are not based on church affiliation.
Did we prove anything at all with our NO MITT ad? Yes!
Mitt Romney was shown to be the most divisive candidate running in the 2008 election cycle. The amount of national news coverage that our little $2300 ad in Prescott, Arizona received forced prominent political leaders, including Mitt Romney’s spokesman, to comment. The ad was front page at the FoxNews site and page two above the fold in the print edition of the Washington Times. Articles ran in dozens of major newspapers including the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times.
The message to Senator McCain came through loud and clear, “Mitt Romney is too hot to touch.”
William J. Murray, Chairman
Government Is Not God – PAC
April 6, 2008
April 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Pretty pathetic if you ask me. I don’t quite understand underhanded behaviour. It is so duplicitous and ugly. Mitt is so much better than this and he deserves so much better…. say your prayers for him. I hope he has had a great Sabbath, he deserves it…. KKSM
April 7th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Hello Rusty,
Like you, when I read about the anti-Romney petition, I started a similar petition. I also registered the domain name yesmittvp.com (to oppose nomittvp.com). I’ve been posting about it on blogs and news articles, and I’ve got a little over a hundred signatures in a couple of days. Yours seems to be doing very well with over 200. So I propose I redirect the domain name yesmittvp.com to your petition. Your original URL will still work but all my traffic will go to yours as well as soon as I make the change. Hopefully, we can combine our efforts to maximize the effect. Is this acceptable to you? If so, please email me.
-Sterling
April 7th, 2008 at 12:47 am
I went ahead and pointed the domain to your petition. If you object, let me know. If not, feel free to start advertising the domain.
Btw, here is the URL for my original petition if you would like to use any of the “sponsor” text:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yesmittvp
We can also figure out how to move my signatures if you would like to.
Cheers,
-Sterling
April 7th, 2008 at 12:58 am
So Huckabee’s backers attacking someone is proof the person they are attacking is divisive? And this makes sense in Huckaland? All you did was prove that you are divisive, not Governor Romney, who buried the hatchet with his rival and was a good sport, unlike Mike Huckabee.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:01 am
I’m not surprised by these people, they are pathetic. Huckabee is a sore loser and so are his supporters, instead of doing like Gov. Romney and pledging to campaign for Sen. McCain and fundraise he’s done zip, nothing comes to my mind. They can claim all they want that they weren’t directing this because of his faith but to read the comments said otherwise.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:22 am
WOW! They should be ashamed of themselves. How can they take all of our comments down and sleep well at night?!?! I for one, wrote a nice comment recommending Mitt Romney! I’m sure there were some “not so nice” comments left and that is UNFORTUNATE, but I’m sure for the most part, they were all respectable. Most of the ones I read were.
Funny how the Chairman mentioned in that letter above “…some messages that were not offensive were removed as well, our volunteers did the best they could with the volume.” but I’m SURE none of the pro-Huckabee comments were taken down.
Do they take everyone for idiots? I just don’t get why the Evangelicals hate us Mormons so bad. They can say it’s not an anti-Mormon thing there but I feel and think otherwise!! *sigh*
April 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
God bless Mitt Romney. I feel sorry for him, but he is a strong man and he can handle this. I can’t believe that these people have so much hatred that they will fight him while he was running and now they fight him when he isn’t even running. They are fighting him on a rumor that could be true and could not be true. This is ridiculous. I have had enough of this. An Ad and a petition? Oh my gosh, for those who thought this was over it is far from over and won’t ever be over because these people don’t understand, nor do they choose to, that Mitt had a change of heart. This makes me really mad.
Oh my gosh, this person is a cry baby. They are having their perfect world turned upside down from “the Mormon politician from Massachusetts” and they don’t like it. Maybe some of the comments that our supporters put might have been out of hand. I don’t have anything in particular against the baptists, just a specific group of baptists. Those that are doing this anti-Mitt campaign.
I don’t understand people who can’t see “Oh wait he became what? Say it with me slowly. He became more conservative. A c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e. A conservative” Lol I think I might post that on their stupid website.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I sent this to the people behind the Anti-Mitt Ad and petition. Enjoy
Okay I know some people find this hard to believe, yet how is changing your position to become more conservative a problem? Say it slowly. Mitt Romney became more conservative. Wait he what? Mitt Romney became more c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e. He became more conservative. “But he changed it just for this presidential election.” Thats funny ;). So you are saying that your afraid he might change his mind again. Thats called being human. We can change our minds, its the beauty of learning new things. “Well when he ran he said that he would defend a womens right to choose and then he became stauchly pro-life when he got into office. And what about this gay marriage thing?” So he lied to get into office? Tell me what public official hasn’t gotten spots on his record or at least hasn’t been made by the media to look like a lier and a flip flopper or hasn’t lied? It might be wrong, but how would he have gotten into office. Every politician runs 180 dgrees opposite of what their actual political views are. If you don’t like you run for office.
Now onto something that has been bugging me.
You are a group of Christians if I am not mistaken. Well Christ said “those who have not sinned can throw the first stone.” Yet wait wasn’t that the law of moses? Wasn’t that reference to a law that Christ ultimately fufilled? Didn’t Christ speak of a higher law? Wasn’t it that it is required of you to forgive all man and to love on another that by this you would be known as his diciples? You claim a christian life but are you living a christ-like life? Which is more important to you, to be called a Christian or to be called Christ-like?
So can’t you forgive some one who became pro-life? If you can’t that says something about you more then it says about Mitt Romney.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The act speaks for itself. Can’t respect these people, you really can’t.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Here is a link to the op ed piece that MR wrote after he vetoed the morning after bill when govenor. Thought you all might like to read it. He does not sound to me like he just changed his mind to become more conservative for a presidential bid, as accused by the “social conservatives”.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/women/articles/2005/07/26/why_i_vetoed_contraception_bill/
April 7th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
To William Murray:
Your BING-PAC ad “An Open Letter to John McCain - NO MITT” is a one-page spread of sensationalist inaccuracies.
The truth of Romney’s path on the abortion issue - which have made him firmly anti-abortion, and his dealing with Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), which led to a Romney endorsed petition effort that would have BANNED same-sex marriage are well documented and were clarified for over and over again while Mitt was campaigning.
Furthermore, to ask the public to vote on whether they would support Romney as VP - including a box to mark “YES” - and only allow comments if they were AGAINST Romney was disingenuous. Those who voted “yes” may have wanted to post their reasons why they are FOR Romney, just as those who voted “no” postulated their feelings against him. Shocking?! No. You should have allowed comments from the pro-Romney folks.
To be fair, if YOU had been oppressed for over 180 years, and an ad containing misleading information about one of your own candidates was published for the purpose of filling a negative petition, I’m sure you would feel compelled to post a fervent email in defense of your candidate. Your own statement that “some posts were overzealously removed by volunteers” is proof that YOUR staff (mostly Huckabee supporters) REACTED STRONGLY to statements they disagreed with.
Mormons have quietly endured hate and oppression for years. SHOCKINGLY enough, free speech is guaranteed to THEM, as well. It seems a few of them are taking advantage of their rights. After all, you can’t continue to poke a tiger in the eye with a stick for years and not expect SOME reaction. After awhile, he’s going to rise to his feet and take a swipe at the stick!
To answer your own question “Did we prove anything with our Mitt ad?” - yes, you did.
You proved that continuing to publish the old, tired, false assertions against Romney - that have been completely discredited - is black-and-white proof of your refusal to be fair and accurate. It proves your anti-Romney bias.
Your final statement to Senator McCain that “Romney is too hot to touch” is a delusion of BING-PAC’s own making. The REAL message to McCain is: Our country’s ECONOMY is becoming the ever grim “hot topic” as each day passes. John, you need a tried-and-proven ECONOMIC leader on your ticket. Social conservative Mitt Romney is the proven, COOL-headed, Washington outsider who has the knowledge and skills to REJUVENATE our economy and REFRESH our stale, ineffective government.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Make that “GING-Pac” not Bing-pac.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Rusty - what I find most humorous is that the Anti-mitt site supporters say that many Mitt Supporters improperly voted on their website. Yet they have an option that “I would vote for McCain/Romney”.
Direct from the NoMittVP.com website:
Would you vote for a McCain / Romney ticket?
Absolutely not
I would consider it
I would vote for McCain/Romney
Display my name as anonymous on the signatures list
Yes, I want iPetitions to contact me on similar campaigns or petitions.
Yet Willam Murry has lied saying:
“There was an overall dishonesty by the Romney supporters who posted at the NoMittVP site. In order to leave a post they had signed a petition saying they did not want Mitt Romney as their VP choice. To be blunt, they lied in order to post pro-Romney or anti-evangelical messages.”
They provided the option to pick Mitt, then allowed us to enter comments, then say “we lied and improperly entered their poll!”
Pathetic individuals!
April 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Here I go again, Romney came in second to Mccain in delegates, 11 states to 13 Mccain, won the two last debates. I think if Huckabee hadn ‘t been in the race , Romney won many conservatives and christians, he would have beat Mccain. If you
remember the stats you can figure that out. Quite honestly, religion should not have
even entered into this process. Now, he’s gotton too much attention lately, and they
just can’t stand it, jealousy is a terrible . I also have a hard time believing Huck
knew nothing about ths NO MITT ad and petition as he stated on t.v.
AShamed is what they should be. The wind blows hard at the top of the mountain.
And Eagles don’t fly with turkey’s Adversity creates stronger, wiser people.
Keep the faith Mainely yours
April 7th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Ron, thank you so much for posting that! It’s nice, hard evidence showing what I always knew to be true–and great stuff for me to show those who love to tell me how Mitt is a flip-flopper.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hey, I cannot think of another place to put this. So, here goes. The second phase of the Ann Coulter VP vote is up now. Thus far, Mitt is ahead, with Condi coming up behind him, I think it is 30% and 26% respectively. If this info could be moved up to the top somewhere where people could see it, more people would know to vote I think…. KKSM
PS I am putting this on a couple of comments around here to make sure people see it…. KKSM
April 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Jenny, It was my search for the truth that brought me to support MR, It frustrates me that regardless of the availability of the facts, some people still would rather claim otherwise. One of the very best places to go is this site created by Mike Laub-(nice job mike) http://myclob.pbwiki.com/
April 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Thanks, Ron, for the recommendation to Mike Laub’s website. Great!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
That is a highly informative and very nice web site… Full of ammo! KKSM