comMITTed to Romney!

Since the end of the 2008 election, there has been much hand-wringing in various quarters over whether or not Mitt Romney will ever run for the Presidency again. The article below is very lengthy, covering several of the big family names in American politics, so I excerpted just the part that pertained to Gov. Romney. I can tell you, from the internet chatter that I see, it is generally accepted as a given that Mitt will run again in 2012.

I’ll grant you that, especially in hard left circles, the prospect of another Romney run in 2012 is as welcome as the news from your dentist that you need a root canal. Be that as it may, although nothing can be guaranteed this far in advance and we will of course have to wait for Gov. Romney to declare his intentions, one way or the other, my own personal opinion is that Gov. Romney enjoys the blood sport of politics and relishes the thought of getting back in the game in 2012.

If that is what he and his family decide, we here at Committed to Romney will re-start the campaign with glee and abandon!

~~John Cronin~~

Postmodern Conservative

By: James Ceaser

While 2012 is far off, at least one scion is already prominently mentioned as a presidential contender: Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, made a credible bid at the Republican nomination in 2008, and is widely expected to run again. His father, George Romney, first achieved fame as chief executive of the now-defunct American Motors, and parlayed his CEO reputation into six years as governor of Michigan. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, until a gaffe made him a national laughingstock (he said that a trip to Vietnam had given him a “brainwashing”). His son Mitt followed in his father’s path, building a successful business career before entering politics and mounting a losing but respectable challenge to Senator Edward Kennedy. Romney then burnished his managerial reputation by taking over the administration of the troubled 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. He returned to Massachusetts to be elected governor, where he began a shift to the right, which continued during his bid for the Republican nomination last year. Mitt Romney shows many of his clan’s more positive attributes - good looks, a knack for business (an asset in troubled economic times), a large personal fortune, an appealing family — but it remains to be seen whether his devotion to Mormonism will serve as an obstacle, now more to those on the Left than evangelicals, to his further ambitions. 




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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/26/hardaway-lessons-gop-learn/

By Robert Hardaway
Published November 26, 2008 at 12:01 a.m

It should have been a slam-dunk for the Republicans in the 2008 presidential election. After all, the Democrats had inexplicably chosen as their nominee the least-qualified candidate in American history. Indeed, the only other candidate in American history to go directly from the Senate to the White House with neither gubernatorial nor military executive experience was Warren G. Harding, by consensus the worst president in American history. Moreover, Obama’s voting record in the Senate has also been rated as the most hard-left voting record in American history.

To lose to such a candidate required more than simple ineptitude. It required an almost pathological determination to lose.

And yet, it may yet prove of value to the Republican Party if it can learn the following lessons from its defeat:

First, if you are going to go against an obviously unqualified candidate, choose a candidate with substantial executive experience. Only a handful of candidates in American history have ever succeeded to the office of the presidency without at least some gubernatorial executive experience. The Republicans had their chance to choose Mitt Romney, who not only had experience as a governor, but also experience as a business leader and organizer of the Olympics. Romney also “walked the walk” on universal health care in Massachusetts, unlike Democrats who have traditionally only talked the talk.

Second, don’t reject a candidate because of his religion. Polls of Republicans expressed greater reservations over a Mormon candidate than an Islamic one.

Third, don’t choose a man in his 70s to go up against a candidate of youth, vigor, and charisma, especially when your own candidate also has no executive experience.

Fourth, don’t assume that independent voters will vote for the candidate who best upholds such traditional values as fiscal responsibility, strong national security, protection of our borders, and limited government. We should know by now that swing voters vote on the basis of personality and television persona. Thus, Obama’s impending victory no more reflects the electorate’s turn to the hard left, than Reagan’s 49-state electoral victory in 1980 reflected a turn to the right.

Fifth, don’t insult the intelligence of the voters with simplistic characterizations of the opponent’s positions. Those only fuel counterattacks by a sympathetic media eager to show that 30-second ads do not completely set forth the complexities of the opponent’s agenda. Rather, Republican ads need only have shown, without commentary, actual videos of Obama refusing to put his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem, his statement that he had visited “57 states” and the town hall video in which he talked about the need for asthma suffers to get “breathalyzers” — followed by the simple question: “Ready to lead? You decide.”

Sixth, ask voters whether the old American adage still holds true—namely that one’s character is evaluated in large part by the company he keeps. And leave it at that. No need to name names.

Seventh, don’t let your party be outspent by such business tycoons as George Soros.

Eighth, and perhaps hardest of all, set aside social issues and concentrate on fiscal responsibility, national security, border protection, and fairness to the teeming millions of those seeking legal immigration. You don’t have to give up your principles on social issues, but, absent a Reagan-quality communicator as your nominee, you’re not going to win on them.

Ninth, decide whether public displays of support for such issues are worth losing an election.
And finally—at number ten— get some members of your party to audition for “Saturday Night Live.” There should be ample material (see No. 5 above).

Robert Hardaway is a professor of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News

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As we agreed last week, we have scheduled a brainstorming session to generate ideas to keep Gov. Romney in the limelight for tonight, starting at 9 PM Eastern. So, everybody get ready to offer your best ideas to help position Mitt Romney for another run for the presidential nomination in 2012.

~~John Cronin~~

P.S. You can use the chat box or you can post comments here, whichever makes you most comfortable.

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The Republican party is in the Jacuzzi this morning, trying to soak out the pain and stiffness from the bruising defeat it just suffered. The American people have rightly rebuked us for forgetting what the Republican Party used to stand for. We foolishly abandoned fiscal conservatism, oversaw a dramatic escalation in the size and scope of the federal government, chalked up record deficits and insisted on nominating a guy who, for the most part, couldn’t be distinguished from the run of the mill Democrat when it came to most of his policies.

For me, there where no surprises on election night. I said to friends and to commenters on this site that I expected a fairly close popular vote, but a big electoral defeat, and that is what happened. In the waning days off the campaign, when crowds called out to McCain to get tough with Obama, to fight harder for the principles that were important to them, you just knew this ticket was in big trouble. There was more passion, more fire in the belly of the people in the crowds than there was within the nominee.

As we look at the smoking ruins of what’s left of Congressional Republicans, it is apparent to me that we must bulldoze the landscape clean, so that we can start the rebuilding process. That has already started. The work of purging the Party of the people responsible for the loss began on Election night as the voters rejected McCain. I sincerely hope any future leadership role for him in this party has also been rejected by the rank and file as well. Hopefully, we have learned some hard lessons. As Rush Limbaugh said several days ago, when will Republicans ever learn that conservative Republicans never lose and moderate Republicans never win? These past attempts by Republicans to ingratiate themselves to the MSM and to left-center voters never works at the national level.

In spite of all the negative feelings we are working our way through, the rebuilding process that has already started is giving cause for a much more optimistic view of the future.

An article in Friday’s WSJ provides a stunning quote from none other than the ubiguitous Nancy Pelosi. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a two-stage effort to boost the shaky U.S. economy: a $60 billion-to $100 billion stimulus package this month, followed early next year by a companion measure that would include a “permanent tax cut.” You may be rubbing your eyes and squinting at that last sentence to try to make sure you saw it right the first time. Nancy Pelosi actually said those words. She said “permanent tax cut.” That is why I said in the title to this post that we won the debate. Isn’t it amazing how a sea change is political thinking came come about in such an off hand way? One of the most doctrinaire Democrats in the country now agrees with Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney that the best way to boost the economy is with “permanent tax cuts.”

Ms. Pelosi also said, in the long term, a capital gains tax cut, as pushed by Congressional Republicans, should be considered as part of a “tax simplification” bill.

Ronald Reagan in Heaven and Mitt Romney in Massachusetts must be grinning a little this morning!

~~John Cronin~~

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On page A8 of this morning’s WSJ is a story that I have been anticipating since Gov. Romney’s speech at the CPAC convention this past February when he announced his withdrawal from the primary race.

Here are a few excerpts from the article.

~~John Cronin~~

Wall Street Journal Print Edition Nov.3, 2008

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has worked aggressively in recent months on behalf of Sen. John McCain and dozens of his party’s congressional candidates, in an effort that could help boost his own political future.

Mr. Romney has been among the most active foot soldiers. Come Tuesday, he will have hit nine states in the final five days of the election on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee. Since April, Mr. Romney has campaigned for candidates in 28 House races, five Senate races and a pair of gubernatorial ones. He has contributed more than $400,000 through his political-action committee, including help for about 80 Republican candidates, said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.

Mr. Romney’s PAC has contributed to a number of ballot initiatives, Mr. Ferhnstrom said. The committee, called Free and Strong America, spent $10,000 to support the anti-gay marriage initiative in California and $5,000 in Massachusetts to fight a movement to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

State parties have also benefited. After Sen. McCain unofficially withdrew his campaign from Michigan, Mr. Romney contributed $50,000 to the state party. He made similar contributions in Iowa and Georgia.

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Always good to hear from the Chairman of the Board, in my case, that would be Gov. Romney. He has labored diligently in the “Republican vineyard,” to use an expression I heard from a veteran politician years ago and now, come what may Nov. 4, he is the new leader of the Republican Party.

Now its on to 2012 and let’s win then!

~~John Cronin~~

John,

Right now, I’m on a plane somewhere over Nevada en route to New Mexico. We’re in the midst of an exciting five-day, eight state tour to rally support for the McCain-Palin ticket. This trip will take us across the interior west, through the heartland states of Missouri and Indiana, then on to the battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania, before ending in New Hampshire with an Election Day rally in the blue-collar city of Manchester.

With your support, we’ve targeted dozens of races and poured our resources into them, starting at the top of the ticket with John McCain and Sarah Palin but also dozens of important congressional and state races. We’ve held fundraisers, sent out direct mail, stumped in the districts, held news conferences and basically pulled out all the stops.

But, in the end, it comes down to you. Your vote will make a real difference. The liberal turnout machine, with special interests and big labor providing the grease, is expected to put thousands of people on the ground to get out their vote. Conservatives need to fight back with a super-size turnout of our own. This is where you come in. Take a moment to go to our website,

FreeStrongAmerica.com, and review our list of endorsed candidates. Then, on November 4th, please vote for those who appear on the ballot in the area where you live.

I don’t have to tell you how critical this election is for the future of America. We can either follow the course of Europe, with higher and higher taxes and more and more government in our lives, or we can reaffirm our nation’s founding principles of individual liberty and freedom.

If liberals capture the White House and increase their majorities in the House and Senate, it would be a real setback for the issues we care about - the appointment of conservative judges, getting ourselves off foreign oil, the protection of life, the importance of lower taxes and the need to rid the federal budget of wasteful spending and pork.

Finally, I’d ask you to also consider making a contribution to the Free and Strong America PAC. With your ongoing support, we can continue to advocate for candidates and ideas that will strengthen our economy, our military and our families.

Thank you for all you have done.

Mitt Romney
Honorary Chairman

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I had to drive up to McCain’s St. Louis office to pick up my Poll Watcher credentials this morning and in doing so, I also got the chance to meet Hizzoner, Rudy Guiliani. Rudy was there with Mo. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond and they came out the back of the building to the loading dock, you know, where all the really important speeches are delivered.

There was a small but very enthusiastic and vocal crowd of Republican activists present and the group erupted when America’s Mayor and Kit Bond came through the doors. Both men talked about the importance of the election and the national security stakes involved. Both men talked about the coming middle class tax increase, but Rudy was particularly funny the way he presented it. First he held his right hand as high as it would go and started out at the first figure the Obama campaign gave us, $250,000, then he lowered his hand as he said $200,000, lowered it again at $150,000 and so on. Neither Obama, Biden and now New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson can agree on a figure, so I’m just going to take a wild guess and say, for now, I’ll go with the lowest figure of $120,000. ( subject to revision without prior notice )

We were chanting USA, USA at times throughout the speeches and shouting out some things we wanted a McCain administration to pursue. I asked Rudy to accept the Attorney General slot, if offered. He just grinned and thanked me for coming out. That’s whats so cool about these small gatherings. You get, even if for all of five seconds, to tell the Party’s leadership what you want. This crowd wanted several things: No military budget cuts, no “tax refunds” for people who don’t pay taxes, ( BTW, I called out at that point and said, “That’s not a tax cut, that’s WELFARE” and the crowd starting chanting, WELFARE, WELFARE, WELFARE and Kit and Rudy were beaming back at us and giving us the “thumbs up sign” ) and finally, no “spreading the wealth around.”

It was fun and well worth the trip. Now I have to get my packet of materials out and start studying.

~~John Cronin~~

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In keeping with a time-honored tradition here at Committed To Romney, here is your opportunity to exercise your First Amendment right to weigh in with your picks and pans, kudos and criticisms and overall impressions of last night’s presidential debate.

~~John Cronin~~

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If anyone is in a position to help your local Republican organization with their voter fraud prevention efforts, please contact them first thing Monday morning to volunteer your time and get trained to become a Poll Watcher. Their are reports coming in from at least 12 states concerning fraudulent voter registrations. We may well lose this election, but if we do, let’s not let it happen because we stood by and let it be stolen from us.

~~John Cronin~~

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/ap_on_el_ge/voter_fraud

Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.

“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or Social Security numbers that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.”

The nonpartisan group works to recruit low-income voters, who tend to lean Democratic. Most polls show Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an edge in bellwether Missouri, but Democrat Barack Obama continues to put up a strong fight.

Jess Ordower, Midwest director of ACORN, said his group hasn’t done any registrations in Kansas City since late August. He said he was told three weeks ago by election officials that there were only about 135 questionable cards — 85 of them duplicates.

“They keep telling different people different things,” he said. “They gave us a list of 130, then told someone else it was 1,000.”

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency has been in contact with elections officials about potential voter fraud and plans to investigate.

“It’s a matter we take very seriously,” Patton said. “It is against the law to register someone to vote who does not fall within the parameters to vote, or to put someone on there falsely.”

On Tuesday, authorities in Nevada seized records from ACORN after finding fraudulent registration forms that included the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

In April, eight ACORN workers in St. Louis city and county pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting false registration cards for the 2006 election. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said they submitted cards with false addresses and names, and forged signatures.

Ordower said Wednesday that ACORN registered about 53,500 people in Missouri this year. He believes his group is being targeted because some politicians don’t want that many low-income people having a voice.

“It’s par for the course,” he said. “When you’re doing more registrations than anyone else in the country, some don’t want low-income people being empowered to vote. There are pretty targeted attacks on us, but we’re proud to be out there doing the patriotic thing getting people registered to vote.”

Republicans are among ACORN’s loudest critics. At a campaign stop in Bethlehem, Pa., supporters of John McCain interrupted his remarks Wednesday by shouting, “No more ACORN.”

Debbie Mesloh, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Missouri, said in an e-mailed statement that the campaign supported any investigation of possible fraud.

According to its national Web site, the group has registered 1.3 million people nationwide for the Nov. 4 election. It also has encountered complaints of fraud stemming from registration efforts in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and battleground states like Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina, where new voter registrations have favored Democrats nearly 4 to 1 since the beginning of this year.
Missouri offers 11 electoral votes; the presidential candidates need at least 270 to win the election.

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From The New Republic.

Would Romney Be Doing Better?

The economy is collapsing and the GOP is stuck with a candidate who doesn’t know jack about economics. But what if Mitt Romney had won that hard-fought Florida primary and grabbed the nomination? Romney’s whole business career was about turning around distressed companies. Plus, he’s far less identified with George W. Bush than is McCain. And unlike McCain he might not have had to give up on Michigan, where his father was governor. (What state pray tell is McCain holding that Mitt couldn’t?)

I know there are plenty of strikes against the guy. But it’s an interesting counterfactual to consider–one that makes a lot more sense now that foreign policy has all but disappeared from the conversation.

P.S. Good point from commenter timteeter:

Or for that matter if McCain had sucked it up and made Romney his VP.

You might’ve had far less base enthusiasm at convention time, but delivering a strong economic message right now could’ve been far easier.

–Michael Crowley

Sorry for swearing here all, but, “NO SHIT SHERLOCK”. I think all of us here knew that a long freaking time ago.

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