comMITTed to Romney!

By: Michael Luo

NEW YORK TIMES CAUCUS

Brief article on the NYT political website. Gov. Romney has no plans to quit this race and I know from our reader’s comments that 99.9% of us have no such plans.

~~John Cronin~~

Mitt Romney is committed to barreling ahead in his bid for the Republican nomination, despite the odds being stacked against him, said his son, Tagg, a senior campaign adviser, in an interview today.

Mr. Romney delivered a pep talk to his staff this morning, he said, and his advisers are looking into buying airtime to broadcast television commercials in some of the upcoming states that are voting.

“We’re not going to project when it is we’re going to quit,” said Tagg Romney, “because we’re not planning on quitting.”

They are mapping out a farfetched possibility premised on conservative fears continuing to fester against Mr. McCain, which they hope fuels a series of wins for Mr. Romney and then perhaps get him to a point where he has enough momentum to wrest some of those promised but not officially bound delegates into his column at a contested convention.
Mr. Romney appeared to even allude to this potential route in his speech on Tuesday night, promising to take the contest “all the way to the convention.”
“There’s a whole lot of scenarios that get us there,” Tagg Romney said.

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Welcome to me, the latest addition to the ElectRomneyIn2008.com blogger staff. My name is Paul Johnson and this is my first posting. I have some good tidbits for you live from Urbandale, IA, one of Mitt Romney’s volunteer campaign sites.

First a bit about me: I’m a corporate lawyer by trade, trained at BYU both undergrad (dual major in English and Business) and grad school (JD/MBA). I started my career in the internet boom in Palo Alto, CA in ‘96, transferred with my then-current firm to San Diego in ‘99, and have stayed in San Diego since. I specialize in corporate financings and in mergers and acquisitions.

My intro to Mitt Romney was, like many, through hearing about the debacle that was unfolding at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. As someone who spent a lot of time in Utah, I didn’t want the state or our country to be embarrassed by the event. I heard someone named Mitt Romney, a very successful business person with Bain, was being put in charge, and not long after was hearing things were turning around. Of course September 11 intervened and the Olympics staff had to respond to an entirely unforeseen security threat in just a few months’ time. I myself was going to be attending the event with my 3 sons, so security was a concern for me. When I arrived, security was tight and the event unbelievably well-organized.

Next I heard about the Miracle in Massachusetts, how the same Mitt Romney, a republican, had somehow been elected to be governor of a deep blue state. Another good impression. I knew this person must have cross-party appeal. More good news followed as Mitt was able to balance MA’s budget, then actually adopt a healthcare plan tailored for the state. Then I hear about the MA Supreme Court’s decision (described here by CNN). CNN said at the time: “Massachusetts’ governor immediately denounced Tuesday’s decision and said he would work for a constitutional amendment to overturn it,” and I was glad to know we had a resourceful man of integrity at the forefront of this issue.

More good impressions followed. A few years ago Matt Romney, Mitt’s son, moved into my neighborhood (see Matt’s musings at the Five Brothers Blog). Matt and I ended up on some volunteer assignments together. I’d told Matt I was a baseball fan, so he invited me at one point to a game with him, his brother, Tagg and a few other friends. I came to find out as well that another friend, Jim Davies, was Ann Romney’s brother. When it began to be rumored Mitt might run for president, I told Matt if his dad ran, I’d be interested in pitching in. Soon I was attending events in San Diego and contributing to the campaign, a first for me. A couple weeks ago I began responding to some bitter and biased posts about Mitt, his family and his religion, some things I knew a little about first-hand, by some readers of The Politico (a site I otherwise enjoy) and other political websites. Now I find myself in Urbandale doing my first blog post!

I’ll get to where I agree with Mitt on policy issues in future posts, but for now here are some snapshots from one of the command centers.

A visit from Ann Romney

The troops got encouragement from Ann Romney just before lunch. She met with volunteers and gave her pitch for her husband as a man capable of addressing our country’s complex issues.

Here’s the view from the cheap seats!

Here’s Ann with grandson Parker:

Visits from the Press

Yesterday we had a visit from CNN. Today the folks from Salt Lake’s KSL TV and Salt Lake’s CBS affiliate were here, as was RAI from Italy. Jim Davies gave an interview in fluent Italian. It’s been great to be at ground zero at such an influential time in American politics. Channel 24 from Argentina is just going through now. Wish you were here, where we hope to be a part of electing the next president of the U.S. More to come…

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A season ticket holder for the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, Tagg Romney was able to catch some the excitement and magic often found in Major League Baseball‘s fall classic. Attending game one at Fenway Park last Thursday, Tagg explained that he knew the Red Sox would claim the franchises second championship this decade when pitcher Josh Beckett started the game by striking out the side and following Dustin Pedroia’s first inning home run blast.

“We were all going crazy, it was a lot of fun.”

On Tuesday morning, ElectRomneyin2008.com spoke with the 37-year old Tagg Romney, who frequently shares his thoughts and experiences at the Five Brothers Blog, to discuss the excitement surrounding the current success of Boston’s multiple sports teams, as well as the latest from the campaign trail.

Being a fan of a sports team can provide a surge of energy and excitement when that team performs well. Have you sensed a boost from the success of the Red Sox post-season run?

“It definitely made for a great weekend. The Red Sox won the World Series, the Patriots won 52-7, my dad picked up a major endorsement in New Hampshire and we had another really positive poll in Iowa, so you get this feeling of momentum and you try to roll with it.”

You mentioned the Patriots. They remain undefeated and have a huge game against the undefeated and defending Super Bowl Champions Indianapolis Colts this weekend. Additionally, Boston College football currently undefeated and ranked second in the country. Boston has become quite the sports town.

“It sure has and the Celtics are about to start their new season with new big three (Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett & Paul Pierce). You have to knock on wood, because you know things always go up and down and my kids don’t realize that it won’t always be this good.”

What was your dad’s reaction to fellow presidential candidate Tom Tancredo’s wager offer of him dropping out of the race if the Colorado Rockies lost or your father dropping out if the Red Sox lost?

“I don’t think he was really aware of it to be honest with you. It was humorous. It was like when Tancredo challenged him to a skeet shooting contest.”

Was your father able to attend any of the World Series games?

“He wasn’t. We tried hard to get him to game two, but he had events scheduled in Iowa that he couldn’t miss that started at 7:00 a.m. the next morning and there was no way we could get him back to Iowa in time. We were hoping to get him back for game six or seven, but the Red Sox took care of that problem for us.”

“He can definitely get animated when watching the Red Sox play. He loves to watch sports.”

Shifting gears a bit, how is the campaign trail treating yourself and the other brothers?

“It’s going great. We are working as hard as we can. It’s a long process. I visited my 22nd state yesterday, so we are going all over the place and meeting a lot of great people. I was in North Dakota on Saturday and we won another straw poll out there. Things are going really well.”

The leads that your father has built in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire has been well documented. What is your sense of the momentum in other early primary states?

“The momentum is going very well, especially once people get to know who he is. He had a much bigger hurdle to overcome than the other guys because no one really knew he was, while the others all have universal name recognition. His message and his background has already caught fire in Iowa and New Hampshire and we’re seeing that spread to the other early states as they get to find out who he really is.”

“We’re confident that he is the right person for the Republican Party regardless of which state you may live in.”

It’s often stated that your father’s largest hurdle in being chosen as the GOP’s nomination is his Mormon faith. However, he has received a number of strong endorsements from evangelical leaders during the past few weeks because of his strong Christian values. Do you get a sense that his religion of choice may actually become a positive as the campaign goes on?

“People respond not to what church or faith that you belong to, but what values you have and what your beliefs and principles are. I think they responded to his core values and principles. They know that he has strong family values and is going to be a standard-bearer for strengthening the American family and helping to restore the nation’s core convictions. I think people are realizing that he’s a pretty good candidate for that.”

What’s up next on the schedule?

“He’s going to Iowa tomorrow. I’m going to be here at campaign headquarters for a few days and then head up to New Hampshire. We’re continuing the Mitt Mobile, which I believe is heading to Michigan soon. We’re fanning out all across the county.”

For more on Tagg’s recent trip to North Dakota, click here.

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