comMITTed to Romney!

Obama just hammin it up with one of the most America hating people in the world Hugo Chavez. It’s nice to know we’re so nice to our enemies…

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The NYT reports today that Mitt Romney won the CPAC straw poll with 30% of the vote, instead of the 20% that I have seen reported as of Saturday evening.

Whatever the accurate percentage is, it’s clear that Gov. Romney is the early favorite of those party members who are among the most committed to conservative principles, those who take the time and make the effort to travel to Washington to take part in the conference.

I have followed CPAC for three years now and last night’s performance by Rush Limbaugh was off the charts. To speak for over an hour, without the aid of a teleprompter, only the occasional reference to a set of notes, was very impressive. I didn’t even try to keep track of the number of standing ovations that Rush got, the crowd was constantly rising to it’s feet. What a thrill for those in attendance. I know they’ll be back in their communities this weekend with many stories to tell and fired up about the prospects the party now enjoys to make significant gains in both Houses of Congress in 2010.

If you haven’t already done so, please join a local Republican club or committee and become part of a growing cadre of grassroots political activists whose goal is to move away from the big government, big spending, big promises and small results of the current administration.

~~John Cronin~~

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/

By Michael Falcone

Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts emerged as the top potential Republican presidential nominee in a straw poll of conservative political activists who gathered in Washington this week.

Mr. Romney won the support of 30 percent of those who took the poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana trailed in second place with 14 percent, followed by Representative Ron Paul of Texas and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who both received 13 percent of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rounded out the top five. Organizers said it was the third time that Mr. Romney had won the poll.

He rallied the conservative audience in a speech on Friday in which he urged them not to “dwell on the battles we’ve lost,” but rather, “get ready for the battles we’re going to win.”

But the nonscientific poll, which was based on the responses of 1,757 attendees, suggested that conservatives may be keeping an open mind about the 2012 election. While 55 percent of conferencegoers said they were generally satisfied with the field of candidates whose names have been floated as possible contenders, 44 percent said they wished the Republican Party had better choices. Read more…

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This marks the third year in a row ( if memory serves ) that Gov. Romney has been invited to attend one of the most prestigious conservative conferences of the year. This conference always features a Who’s Who of the conservative movement in America.

Noticeable by her absence is the formerly ubiquitous Sarah Palin. I wish her the best and here’s hoping she is content to take care of business in and for the State of Alaska for the next couple of election cycles. Then maybe she can go to CPAC as a major player when she gets the street creds to skate with the big dogs.

~~John Cronin~~

CPAC CONFERENCE ATTENDEES FEB.26-28 WASHINGTON, D.C.

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY

CONGRESSMAN MIKE PENCE

FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH

SENATOR MITCH McCONNELL

MI. GOP CHAIRMAN SAUL ANUZIS

CONGRESSMAN JEB HENSARLING

CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL

SENATOR JOHN McCAIN

FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE

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The field for RNC chair has gotten crowded and it seems that former Mike Huckabee campaign manager, Chip Saltsman, in an attempt to stand out in the crowd, may have foul-balled his chance at becoming the next head of the GOP, by sending a controversial satirical CD to RNC committee members.

~~John Cronin~~

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/26/fight-for-the-rnc-chairmanship-heats-up/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

Susan Davis reports on politics.

The six-way race for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee is intensifying as some party members are pushing to hold a preemptive meeting in early January to screen the candidates, according to the Washington Times.

However, one of the candidates, Chip Saltsman, the former presidential campaign manager for Mike Huckabee, may have made a fatal move in his bid after The Hill newspaper reported today that Saltsman sent a 41-track parody CD to the RNC’s 168 member committee that includes a song entitled “Barack the Magic Negro.”

The song, to the music of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was first popularized on Rush Limbaugh’s conservative radio show. It was written by Saltman’s pal and conservative satirist Paul Shanklin.

The “We Hate the USA” parody CD also includes satirical songs such as “Wright place, wrong pastor,” a reference to President-elect Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and “The Star Spanglish Banner.”

“Paul Shanklin is a long-time friend, and I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that his songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies,” Saltsman told The Hill.

Maybe. Or Maybe Saltman’s gag gift will turn off committee members mindful of the fact the party is losing support among minorities and that mocking Obama—with high approval ratings and today listed as the most admired American—may not be the best way to give the GOP that more “inclusive” vibe it’s been searching for since their November losses.

Prospective GOP party leaders may also want to leave the word “negro” in any context to conservative satirists and not tie it to the national party committee–good satire rarely translates in to smart politics.

The potential for further discord was highlighted in today’s Washington Times, which notes that a “power struggle” is playing out behind the scenes as some RNC members are advocating for a special session on Jan. 6 to hear presentations from all six current candidates. The RNC is currently scheduled to pick the next party chair at their winter meeting three weeks after the proposed session.

They include Saltsman, current RNC Chair Mike Duncan, South Carolina GOP Party Chairman Katon Dawson, Michigan GOP Party Chairman Saul Anuzis, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

The special session is seen as a move to level the playing field for all candidates and dilute any influence President George W. Bush’s political machine still holds at the RNC. The Washington Times reports that state party chairs from California and North Dakota are agitating for a special session, among others.

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Wouldn’t it be cosmic karma if Huckabee and Palin fought each other to a second place tie in Iowa in 2012, while Mitt Romney cruised to a win without even breaking a sweat?

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16710.html

Former John McCain pollster Bill McInturff said Thursday that in a potential 2012 GOP primary, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would have a leg up on her rivals because she is “well-suited” to campaign in Iowa.

McInturff pointed to the fact that despite a bruising presidential campaign, Palin’s favorability ratings among Republican voters is still extremely high. While Palin comes with some baggage among the general electorate, for Iowa, where former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee successfully drew a large number of social conservatives to his winning bid, she has strong prospects.

“She’s a candidate that would be well-suited to doing well in Iowa,” McInturff told reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. He conceded that Palin creates “a sharply different reaction with swing voters and core primary voters” but said the latter “are not anywhere close to the center.”

If Palin is weighing a potential run, McInturff said that difference and the advantage it gives here is something she is keenly aware of. “She has a very strong political instinct,” he said. “She has a sharp and calculated instinct.”

Reflecting back on the presidential campaign, the pollster said that the McCain campaign had a brief window where they believed victory over President-elect Barack Obama was possible. But that hope was dashed when the campaign’s back was broken by the financial crisis.

“If we had to collapse America’s economy, I wish it had been on Dec. 15 instead of Sept. 15,” he said. Leading up to the financial crisis, he said, the campaign was prepared to launch an offensive to exploit the lingering uncertainties voters had about Obama, but that when the markets crashed, “You didn’t have a presidential campaign anymore, you just had the two campaigns reacting to this.”

“People had substantial and serious concerns about this guy,” McInturff said of Obama. “But if you give people a choice between a proven failure and an uncertain future, they will always choose the uncertain future,” he added, referring to the contrast between Obama and the damaged GOP brand.

The pollster also said the crisis changed McCain’s normal instincts as he tried to demonstrate a presidential level of leadership. For instance, he said, “If John McCain was just a U.S. senator, I cannot imagine him supporting the bailout. . . But you’re not going to be a senator, you are going to be president of the United States.”

Even after the financial crisis, McInturff said the Arizona senator was still within striking distance of Obama until former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat. “We had three days where after the Powell endorsement the bottom just fell out,” he said.

Early into the afternoon on Election Day, McInturff said the McCain campaign knew that Obama’s victory was imminent as it read exit poll data. He said, though, that nobody was mourning the loss like they were “sappy volunteers.”

“Your job is to fight like hell, even if you’re getting beat with a baseball bat on the way out,” McInturff said.

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Until last night, I’d never been on Pastor Mike’s PAC site. It was interesting to see how active he intends to be, starting right after the first of the year. I’m glad Gov. Romney’s as active as he has been. IMHO, MR has been a much more effective campaigner for Congressional Republicans than MH, who was noticeable by his absence in this past election.

BTW, there was a figure that is quoted in the article on his PAC site that stated that his volunteers made 4,000 over several days. When we were is Des Moines in January of this year, we made 20,000 calls in one day!!

~~John Cronin~~

What’s Next For Huck PAC?
By: Mike Huckabee

Many of you are asking me online and in line at my book tour stops what’s next for Huck PAC. Sarah and the team have been working hard on the next phase of development and I wanted to tell you about some of it today.

First, during Saxby Chambliss’ runoff campaign we saw that Huck PAC supporters were able to make a real difference on the ground. With over 4,000 calls made in a period of days by a few hundred volunteers we made a real difference turning out the vote for Senator Chambliss. Moving forward we want to build on this effort and grow it nationally.

In the coming days we will form a National Volunteer Team for Huck PAC Our goal is to identify volunteers nationwide, organize into local groups and then assist Huck PAC endorsed candidates.
We will also begin asking for volunteers to serve as group leaders willing to take a leadership role in their community. These leaders will setup events, distribute literature, make calls, knock on doors and much more. Our goal is to have at least one Huck PAC group leader in every county in the nation by the end of 2009.

This is one part of our plans but is a very important part. We want to make a difference locally in the races of the candidates we are supporting (as we did with Saxby) and we believe having a volunteer team in place will make a big difference. I will blog about much more very soon.

Moving the cause forward into the New Year!

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Polls this far out are more important for their entertainment value than for anything else, but they do offer a very general guide for “taking the Party’s temperature.”

On two unrelated notes, did you see where Louisiana has graced the Republican Party with two seats this year? Rep. Jefferson, the scandal-tainted Democrat who evidently foresaw the banking crisis by a couple of years and providentially deposited $100,000 in cold, hard cash in the freezer compartment of his refrigerator, was unceremoniously turned out of office. We have got a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction.

On the second note, we went out to dinner last night at a new Mexican restaurant in a St. Louis suburb and except for a couple we saw dining in another area, the four of us were the only customers during what should have been the dinner rush. Because it was so slow, we had a chance to visit with our waiter and the manager of the restaurant, both from Mexico.

The waiter didn’t speak much English and he was talking to my brother and a friend of his, while I got into a conversation with the manager about, what else, politics.

He was against the war in Iraq, citing a documentary he saw about the war which showed the wounds that our service personnel are enduring and I saw the pain in his eyes as he recalled the footage. I told him we all wish the war was over and that the killing and casualties would stop.

But I told him that there are worse things than war. I asked him to keep in mind that Islamofascists flew two airliners into the Trade Towers in lower Manhattan and killed almost 3,000 innocent people whose only offense were that they were Americans. If we didn’t respond to that, the terrorists would have taken it as a sign of weakness and would have kept coming at us here, where we live. Instead of rolling over for them, we took the fight to their neighborhood, brought democracy to 50,000,000 people and secured the world’s oil supply. All in all, not bad.

We talked about the economy, the moral decline in America, his background of moving to Mexico from Spain and then from Mexico to California. He is a hard working guy, ( I could tell from his handshake that he has done a great deal of manual labor ) loves his family and is very worried about the direction that his adopted country is moving in. At the end of the conversation, I could tell that he is about a quarter of an inch away from becoming a Republican voter. His values are the same as the members of this site and I will encourage the RNC to reach out to these voters, not by promising the illegals something they haven’t earned, but by asking them to join a conservative party that will promise to enforce the law and help to restore, first to the Party and then to the country, the principles that made us the greatest civilization on earth.

~~John Cronin~~

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/2008_12_05_Poll_finds_Romney_in_good_shape_for_White_House_run/

By Dave Wedge

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney’s bruising battle with Sen. John McCain has apparently left him in a good position should he decide to make another White House run in 2012.

According to a CNN poll released today, Romney is running third among possible Republican presidential candidates, slightly trailing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Of the 460 Republicans polled, 67 percent said they would be “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to vote for Palin, followed by Huckabee with 65 percent and Romney with 61.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani ranked fourth with 57 percent, former House Speaker Newt

Gingrich with 52, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 44 and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist with 32.
Huckabee, who’s now hosting a Fox News show and recently put out a book, ranked first among those who said they’d be “very likely” to vote for him with 34 percent. Palin was second with 32 percent followed by Romney with 28.

Crist had the most opposition with 20 percent saying they were “not likely at all” to vote for him. Gingrich followed with 19 percent while just 13 percent said it was unlikely they’d vote for Romney.

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Our old friend and erstwhile presidential primary candidate, Mike Huckabee, gets spanked hard in an article by John Brummett. Mr. Brummett holds Pastor Mike in the same low esteem as most of our readers and commenters. It’s always reassuring to hear a spade called a spade.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/34953414.html

By: JOHN BRUMMETT

People wonder why Mike Huckabee would come out with a book that violates Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment, which is not to criticize another Republican, and trashes the wholly deserving Mitt Romney.

Is it that Huckabee wants to get Romney out of the way so that he can emerge pre-emptively as the GOP alternative to Sarah Palin in 2012?

That assumes Huckabee wants to be president. He doesn’t, at least not as much as he wants to make money. He thinks the best way for him to make money is to exploit media, celebrity and the popular culture.

He cranks out chatty, pedestrian books at a rate of nearly one a year. Once there was a horrible school shooting in the state where he was governor. In a few months he was in bookstores with a cash-cow hard-cover titled “Kids Who Kill.”

But now this newest chatty, pedestrian book, “Do the Right Thing,” which also was the title of a Spike Lee movie, offers the Huckster’s best profit opportunity yet. That’s because he’s now known nationwide for having run surprisingly well this year for the Republican presidential nomination.
He shot up to second place and got out of it precisely what he had wanted all along. That was a talk show on Fox and a Paul Harvey-like gig with ABC Radio.

Political books can make money. But they tend to fall flat if they fail to arouse the gossip-addicted modern media. You need to make headlines. You need to get blogged about. You need to get on the talk shows. You do that with something personal and titillating, such as getting tacky about Romney.

As it happens, Huckabee couldn’t stand Romney anyway. The former Arkansas governor is a firefighter’s kid from Hope, Ark., a Baptist preacher and former pastor who worked his way through college and has never had anything other than what he could extract from the taxpayers or parishioners and wrangle from his communications skills. He carries a chip on his shoulder, reveling in his outsiderism, his being an underdog.

Wholly conversely, Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, comes across as what he is, a slick rich businessman from the privileged class.

It’s true that as a presidential candidate Romney made himself out to be the social and economic conservative he had not remotely been as governor. It is true that he was a hedge fund guy who threw his own millions at an unctuously pandering campaign while Huckabee was financing his on a shoestring and performing much better on simple talent.

So Huckabee gleefully wrote a few things in this new book about what a phony Romney was, thereby attending both to his financial interests and his petty instincts.

Among other things, Huckabee whines in this book that Romney never called to congratulate him the night he won the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.

I had not known that losing candidates were obliged to do that in a presidential primary. On Super Tuesday last, for example, did Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton call each other a dozen times each, whenever a state would get called for one or the other? Or did they wait for all the states to come in so that they could phone each other only once for a general congratulations?

This is an altogether unseemly sideshow. You have a historic president-elect who is trying to build a Lincolnesque administration to tackle a seemingly impossible job leading a country beset by a bad economy, two wars and general fear and agitation. And you have this pulpit refugee and Fox talking head trying to settle a score over a perceived slight from a man who spent millions from his personal fortune so he could get outdone by the pulpit refugee and Fox talking head.

No wonder people are saying the Republicans are flirting with irrelevance.

John Brummett, an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, is author of “High Wire,” a book about Bill Clinton’s first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@ arkansasnews.com.

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The text below comes from an email sent to me from Townhall Magazine where they talked about an upcoming issue of their magazine. The issue will feature the “Six Keepers of the Reagan Flame.”

If it doesn’t include Romney’s name their stock will plummet in my estimation, but that’s a debate for another day. The reason I posted the text here is because they captured almost to the word the way I feel about this election and the choices we are faced with.

~~John Cronin~~

Dear Friends,

It has been twenty years since Ronald Reagan left office and now there are only eleven days until Americans pick the 44th President of the United States.

Regardless of who prevails on election night, we as conservatives have a lot of work ahead of us. If John McCain wins, conservatives will have to keep the new administration’s feet to fire, making sure the principles that Reagan espoused are not only not forgotten but championed.

If Barack Obama wins, America will face the most dangerous four years of liberalism this nation has faced since Jimmy Carter. Conservative will have to take up the cause of freedom like never before to ensure that America still resembles the nation Ronald Reagan left us once Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are through with it.

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I have reprinted the email I received from the McCain Campaign below as a FYI.

~~John Cronin~~

O’Fallon Rally Recap

From:
“McCain’s Missouri Team”

Hello Missouri!

This past Sunday a crowd of over 20,000 people gathered in O’Fallon, Missouri, just outside St. Louis to cheer on Senator McCain at a Road to Convention Rally!

At one of the largest rallies yet, Missourians greeted Senator McCain, Governor Huckabee and Governor Romney as they made their way to our National Convention in Minnesota. Though the crowd had been gathering for many hours on a hot Sunday afternoon, their enthusiasm was only magnified as cheers went up when Senator McCain introduced Governor Sarah Palin to Missouri for the first time as his running mate.

Governor Palin addressed the rally and by the look of the crowd, there’s no doubt that we’re going to keep Missouri a red state for Republicans this fall. Thanks to all who came out and made the rally such a huge success!

McCain-Palin is the right ticket for America and we need your help in order to bring real change to our nation. If you haven’t yet, please be sure to sign up today as a supporter of the McCain-Palin campaign.

Also, be sure to watch Gov. Palin as she is featured tonight at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul and Senator McCain tomorrow evening as he accepts our Party’s nomination.

Please consider getting involved today! Call McCain’s Missouri Team at 314-667-4411 or email us at missouri@johnmccain.com.

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Bill O’Reilly is beating the drums for Mitt Romney and Gen. Petreus among others for high profile jobs within a McCain administration, to offset the perceived inexperience of Gov. Sarah Palin.

I am paraphrasing what they said, something to the effect that because of the high level of success and respect that they have achieved, they would lend their status as Party heavy weights to the McCain/Palin ticket.

To switch gears a bit. Kathy has asked to add her perspective on the McCain Rally in Missouri Sunday.

Kathy was on the opposite side of the stadium from me and she got the best view of the work the Secret Service did both before and after the Straight Talk Express pulled into the stadium. She is at a pool party and I assume she’ll be late. ( at the home of my Uncle Joe, who is not known for cutting Cronin get togethers short ) I told Kathy, my son Pat and his girl friend Jamie, to go without me. After being in the heat and the sun for 8 hours yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do was sit around the pool today and soak up some more rays. So hopefully we can get the details of the rally from both of our views tomorrow.

In the meantime, one thing is clear. St. Louis, a predominately Catholic town, LOVES MITT ROMNEY! I was in the VIP section right behind the Governor and to his left and I can assure you he rocked the house when he got off the bus and so did Sarah Palin.

Huckabee? Not so much. Polite, but underwhelming.

~~John Cronin~~

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The last time I was this tired was at the end of the Iowa Caucuses. The McCain Campaign was hoping for a crowd in the 8,000 to 10,000 range for today’s Rally. They got 23,000. Mitt Romney can sure goose the gate with an appearance, can’t he?

OK, OK maybe McCain and Palin had something to do with it as well. It was a blast! More tomorrow after 8 hours of sleep.

~~John Cronin~~

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It is being reported that Ann Marie Curling and her husband Joel were seen having lunch today at the Kirkwood, Mo. Panera’s with two local Republican operatives. While it is not known what subjects were discussed, the conversation was very animated and lasted some two hours.

Further reports indicate that Ann Marie and Joel Blodgett headed to Wentzville, Mo. after the extended political lunch, were they will spend the night before heading to T.R. Hughes ballpark tomorrow for the big rally with McCain/Palin/Romney and Huckabee……Developing

~~John Cronin~~

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/

NEW YORK TIMES BLOG
By: Megan Thee

As Senator John McCain nears an announcement on his choice for a running mate, nearly 4 in 10 of the Republican delegates preparing to head to St. Paul, Minnesota for their party’s convention say they would like to see the presumptive nominee select Mitt Romney, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Three in 10 of the delegates did not offer an opinion on who they would prefer to serve as Vice President, but of those who had an opinion, no other candidate garnered more than 7 percent support from the delegates. Mike Huckabee was named by 7 percent, Tom Ridge and Tim Pawlenty were the choice of 4 percent, and Bobby Jindal, Condoleezza Rice and Sarah Palin were cited by 2 percent.

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Romney 48%…..Huckabee 3%……Now that the electorate has had 6 months since Super Tuesday to weigh the relative merits of Romney vs. Huckabee, Romney is beating Huckabee like a rented mule.

~~John Cronin~~

{{{{DRUDGE POLL}}}} WHO WILL BE MCCAIN’S VP?…

GIULIANI

2% 348
K. B. HUTCHISON

18% 2,460
HUCKABEE

3% 454
LIEBERMAN

4% 614
PAWLENTY

7% 952
ROMNEY

48% 6,728
DARK HORSE

17% 2,390

Total Votes: 13,946

[Editor's Note: Intrade 10 AM Central time.....Romney 71.0, up 26 points]

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