Posts Tagged → Mitt Romney
McCain edges Romney in Florida … not good news
If the Florida primary catapults Arizona Senator John McCain past Mitt Romney to win the GOP presidential nomination, the truth will be plain and simple: conservatives have no “dog” in this dog fight. Even if a owned a plasma TV and a plasma tv mount, I would have found it hard to believe Tuesday’s primary results.
Since Florida is a “winner take all” state, all 57 delegates now go into McCain’s column. That puts McCain in front-runner status for the first time, with the following delegate count: McCain 93, Romney 59, Huckabee 40, Paul 4, and Giuliani 1. Ridiculously, McCain is now claiming he is the bearer of the “conservative mantle” in the GOP, despite a career of authoring anti-conservative legislation and being a pain in the ass to any remotely conservative president from Reagan forward to George W. Bush. When Hillary Rodham-Clinton is a closer friend than your own party’s president, guess what, John: YOU’RE NOT A CONSERVATIVE! NOT REMOTELY!
I mean, sure, Romney’s not an ideal conservative, but at least he’s leaning in the right direction. He speaks fondly of Ronald Reagan, at least. McCain speaks fondly of Hillary Clinton.
So, Florida – a state where voters claimed they couldn’t even understand how to mark a simple ballot back in 2000 – has decided to deliver the GOP nod to one of Washington’s top Democrats, RINO leader John McCain.
I am not exaggerating when I say I’d feel better voting for Barack Obama than John McCain; and that is NOT a vote that would make me feel that good on a political ideological level, believe me. But at least Obama is inspiring. McCain’s not.
And if it comes down to McCain or Hillary, for the first time in my life, I will vote third-party; basically, whoever runs on the libertarian ticket. I refuse to support John McCain, ever, and I know I’m hardly the only conservative who feels this way. I’m a conservative first, not a Republican, and if McCain is forced down our throats this time out, this is one conservative who won’t be swallowing this time.
If McCain wins the nomination, we will be witnessing the death of the Republican Party. Perhaps it’s time conservatives withdrew entirely and formed a real conservative party. I’ll make a prediction: McCain 2008 is Dole 1996 all over again. Same “it’s my turn” cronyism, same result: a Democratic victory. Let the Republican crack-up begin! (Notice I didn’t say conservative crack-up.)
I’ll even suggest a name for it: the Reagan Party.
Florida leaning toward Romney
While the barely-active Rudy Guiliani campaign has pretty much staked everything on the Florida primary, as have many other marginal candidacies looking for an injection of legal steroids in the political sense, the latest Rasmussen poll indicates Florida voters may actually be leaning toward the current delegate front-runner, Mitt Romney.
According to the poll, Romney is garnering 25 percent of GOP support, followed by John McCain at 20 percent, Guiliani at 19 percent, Mike Huckabee at 13 percent and Fred Thompson at 12 percent. Ron Paul trails badly with only five percent. Romney seems to be the candidate benefiting the most from the withdrawal over the weekend of California congressman Duncan Hunter from the race.
Romney is the current leader in states won to date, as well as delegate count. Of the top GOP candidates, Romney to date has won Michigan, Wyoming and Nevada, and come in second-place in Iowa and New Hampshire. By comparison, the mainstream-media-pushed RINO leader John McCain has only won in New Hampshire and South Carolina. The only other candidate to win a state was Mike Huckabee, who won in Iowa but hasn’t broken through since then.
In the delegate count, Romney has an early lead thanks in part to garnering so many first-place and second-place finishes. Even McCain is not close to Romney so far in the delegate count. While a victory in Florida could add fuel to any candidate’s bid, a decisive win in Florida could put the Romney campaign in an undisputed lead heading in to Super Tuesday.
Michigan may bring sanity to GOP primary
According to the latest McClatchy/MSNBC poll of Michigan voters released Sunday, it appears Michigan, like Wyoming before it, may bring some sanity to the GOP presidential nomination race. Rather than falling for fake conservative Mike Huckabee or RINO leader John McCain, the Wolverine State Republicans are apparently leaning toward a real conservative, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is up on closest competitor John McCain, 30-22, an eight-point margin.
If that lead holds, Michigan could be the first big state to go for Romney and push his elector lead further ahead of his competitors. Behind the front two, Huckabee is third with 17 percent, followed by Fred Thompson with seven percent, Rudy Guiliani with six percent and Ron Paul with five percent. Michigan papers, known for their left-leaning editorial bias, put the Romney-McCain race closer, for the obvious reasons. Polls are typically an “invented news” method of political talent management on behalf of the mainstream media.
Still, the poll appears to include Democrats and independents who plan to vote in the GOP primary, so none of it is a true measure of GOP support; ultimately, it is the primary results themselves that matter most. The Michigan primary is scheduled for Tuesday, January 15.
Romney takes silver in New Hampshire
Don’t attempt to adjust your HDMI cables just yet; that was indeed RINO leader Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claiming victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary yesterday. The WonderfulPessimist.com-endorsed candidate, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, came in second, just as he did in Iowa.
This result is not a surprise. In Wyoming over the weekend, Romney won the state handily because there were rules in place to make sure that those voting in the GOP caucus were actually Wyoming residents and GOP supporters. In Iowa and New Hampshire, proof of residency and party affiliation were not requires and so the potential for crossover voting to curb the conservative candidate’s momentum was high.
Be that as it may, results are results and the zombie-like McCain makes it two states in a row where the liberal media has chosen a favorite RINO to prop up in order to rob the conservative Romney of victory. In Iowa, the RINO of the moment was former Arizona Gov. Mike Huckabee; in New Hampshire, McCain.
Realistically, however, all that does is split the three earliest states to one each for Romney, McCain and Huckabee. Despite liberal media wishful thinking, Romney’s campaign is not devastated or on the verge of pulling out; he confirmed Tuesday he’s in it till then end.
“There have been three races so far. I’ve gotten two silvers and one gold – thank you Wyoming,” Romney said Tuesday night in a post-results press conference. “On to Michigan and South Carolina and Florida and Nevada. I’ll fight to be back here in November in those states and others.”
With 47 states to go, Romney remains the conservative candidate with the best chance of winning; Fred Thompson was barely a blip on the radar in New Hampshire, which means most of his supporters must be swinging toward Romney. It remains an interesting race, with a lot at stake for the future of the GOP.
Romney is the candidate who will offer Americans a choice; McCain, Huckabee and Guiliani offer only echoes of the Democrats.
Huckabee Iowa win won’t repeat in New Hampshire
Fake conservative Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, may have won in Iowa last night, but don’t expect a repeat performance in New Hampshire. In the Iowa caucus, self-described evangelical Christians voted their religion over issues to boost Huckabee to a dominating win, 34 percent over Mitt Romney’s 25 percent. Yet the surprise of the night – a pleasant one for conservatives – was Fred Thompson’s unexpectedly strong showing, edging out John McCain for third place by about 350 votes, though both had roughly 13 percent of the vote.
Yet now that the campaign moves beyond Iowa, Huckabee’s campaign is about to go on diet pills; unlike Iowa, New Hampshire voters will study policies and records more than prayer chains and church attendance. That ought to favor Gov. Romney, who neither pardoned nor commuted any prisoners while in office in Massachusetts, compared to Huckabee, who pardoned over 1,000 prisoners, including 12 murderers.
Fiscally? Huckabee raised sales taxes in Arkansas by 37 percent and oversaw a budget that ballooned by 65 percent. Compare that to Romney, who turned a $3 billion deficit into a surplus without raising taxes. There’s another issue-oriented advantage of substance.
And keep in mind that all of this is skewed in that Rudy Guiliani is not taking part in either Iowa or New Hampshire, so his numbers are artificially low, and thus McCain and Huckabee’s numbers are artificially high. As the campaign moves into Michigan and Florida, all this could change.
If the party of Ronald Reagan is to retain its conservative soul, Romney is the party’s best hope, and Romney-Thompson ticket could easily be this year’s dream team.
HuckaBUST?
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, vying for the GOP presidential nomination, really put his foot in his mouth when trying to take a swipe at fellow GOP nominee, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. In a comment apparently designed to stir up doubts about Romney, Huckabee recently commented, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers?”
What a mess.
First off, as a former Baptist preacher, Huckabee not only should know better, he probably does. Second of all, for all his religious supporters, Huckabee needs to remember that he’s not up for a Baptist pulpit opening; he’s aiming for the White House, not the Pearly Gates.
While Huckabee’s support is booming at the moment, if he keeps up such cynical slurs, that support will quickly dry up. Maybe his campaign buses need new espresso machines to keep him on a more even keel. I’m not sure if Huckabee, Romney or Thomson have my support in the Minnesota caucus quite yet, but Huckabee’s offended this “religious conservative” by the use of such hardball smearing tactics.
Seems Huckabee inherited some of Bill Clinton’s leftover disdain for opponents when he took office in Little Rock, AR, shortly after Clinton left. One would hope for a bit better than this from a Republican. The Politico claims the Huckster has at least apologized for his remark. That’s a good step; now, don’t go out and do the same thing again, or your apology is worthless; let’s see a real change in how you campaign from here through Super Tuesday, Mike.
A Romneyic Victory
Mitt Romney won the Ames straw poll for presidential preference among Iowa Republicans this past weekend, proving nothing.
Well, at least he showed up. Absent were the real campaign heavyweights. Missing in action were RINO favorites like Rudy Guiliani and the candidate destined to hawk incontinence supplies on late-night TV ads, Sen. John McCain, as well as the still-not-quite-fully-declared faves, Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich.
So, again, Mitt Romney won an Ames, IA, straw poll, proving nothing.
It’s like naming Sneezy the best of the Seven Dwarves. The only sane response to that is to say, “OK. Sure. So when do the REAL candidates get here?” Until he really goes up against Guiliani, Thompson and Gingrich, Romney’s becoming the new poster boy to have his name define a meaningless win. Forget Pyhrric victories; from now on, they ought to be known as Romneyic victories.
But hey… at least Romney’s win drove one other RINO candidate out of the race. That OTHER Thompson… Tommy, best known for his four terms as governor of Wisconsin… finally dropped out of the race when it became clear he couldn’t even beat Mitt Romney, let alone any of the big boys.
So at least there’s that.
For the hard-of-thinking: Mitt Romney won a presidential poll no other serious candidate showed up for, accomplishing nothing.
Thompson rumbles to the front for now
Former Tennessee Senator and Hollywood star in films like Die Hard 2 as well as TV’s Law and Order, Fred Thompson, isn’t even formally in the GOP race for the presidency yet, and his star has already eclipsed that of former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani. While well within the margin of error, Thompson now has a narrow lead over Guiliani in most polls, seeming to draw conservatives who’d been undecided, as well as robbing disenchanted supporters away from John McCain and Mitt Romney.
By the time he enters the race formally, he’ll either be considered a reliable part of a two-man race for the nomination against Guiliani, or his 15 minutes will have faded as conservatives rally around a more obvious savior, Newt Gingrich.
The political sound machines are already getting fired up and it’s not even 2008 yet for another six months and two weeks.
Is Thompson a more reliable conservative than Giuliani, McCain and Romney? Sure. It doesn’t take much to lay claim to that mantle, but sure.
The real question is, can Thomson command the stage well enough to be victorious over the “girl-power” candidate, Hillary, and the “pretty-boy power” candidate, Obama.
Ultimately, that’s who he’ll be tested against if he gets the nomination. Might be nice to know he can go toe-to-toe without blinking before anointing the man.
Bloomberg a dangerous wildcard
Current New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is a dangerous wild card in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. He is especially dangerous toward the hopes of GOP candidates for office, a danger made more real by a recent online report suggesting Bloomberg is willing to spend up to one billion of his $5.5B personal fortune in a third-party bid for the presidency.
The popular media take is that Bloomberg is a change of pace from far-left Democrats and far-right Republicans, because he is socially liberal, fiscally conservative and from the East Coast. Yet that holds no water as a viable difference from at least two, and possibly three, current top presidential contenders.
First of all, Bloomberg is a virtual carbon-copy of top GOP presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani, who has the benefit of running as a major party candidate. Their views are nearly identical and Giuliani has the benefit of receiving a lion’s share of the credit for post-9/11 leadership in New York City. It Giuliani secures the GOP nod, there would be no appreciable difference between the two that would make a Bloomberg run make any kind of sense, other than to split the vote and allow a Democratic presidential victory.
Second is GOP candidate Mitt Romney, currently battling with Arizona Senator John McCain for second place versus Giuliani for the Republican endorsement. Just like Bloomberg and Giuliani, Romney is of the exact same socially liberal, fiscally conservative, East Coast liberal type represented by Giuliani and Bloomberg. Again, a Romney candidacy would provide no contrast for Bloomberg to run against, other than to split the anti-Hillary/anti-Obama vote and ensure a Democratic win. And it should be noted that McCain, while not an East Coast candidate, fits in lock step positionally with Giuliani, Romney and Bloomberg.
In fact, the GOP field is so packed with East Coast social liberal/fiscal conservative candidates, one has to wonder if there’s any hope for the conservative movement in 2008.
But I mentioned a third candidate who – arguably – fits the same mold. I’m speaking, of course, about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. Despite being slightly more liberal than Giuliani, Romney and Bloomberg, some votes actually have Sen. Rodham as more conservative than McCain on select issues. Sen. Rodham-Clinton is basically Mayor Bloomberg on Phentermine.
What I think motivated Bloomberg more than any real, substantive “difference” from candidates like Giuliani, Romnet, Bloomberg and Rodham-Clinton is something far more provincial: a good ol’ New York pissing contest. For the last several election cycles, East Coast candidates – and specifically New Yorkers – have been nonfactors in presidential politics, much to the chagrin of the New York-centric liberal news media. New York has taken a back seat to the deep South as the most influential voting block, and New Yorkers are eager to get back into the game of presidential politics.
Think about it.
Bush II/Cheney: Texas and Wyoming
Clinton/Gore: Arkansas and Tennessee
Bush/Quayle: Texas/Maine and Indiana
Reagan/Bush: California and Texas/Maine
Carter/Mondale: Georgia and Minnesota
Ford/Rockefeller: Michigan and New York.
So, you have to go all the way back to 1974-1977, a brief stint as Ford’s vice president, to find the last time a New Yorker was in the White House. That’s at least a 30 year absence and it’s clear that one of the largest states in the nation is eager to be “back in the game.”
By the way, Rockefeller was, in his day, the leader of the liberal wing of the GOP, so even he fit with the ever-more-bloated socially liberal/fiscally conservative mold that is so well represented in this election cycle by Bloomberg, McCain, Giuliani, Romney and – arguably – Rodham-Clinton.
To be blunt, Bloomberg’s “change of pace” proposed candidacy is no “change of pace” at all – it simply litters the field with another sound-alike candidate designed to blot out any legitimate conservatives from getting a foothold in the 2008 election cycle.
The only real hopes for a legitimate change in rhetoric in this election cycle are Fred Thomspon, Newt Gingrich, or – arguably – a dark horse emergence from someone like Mike Huckabee. Bloomberg doesn’t represent change in any fashion; but a potential third-party run could doom the country to a Democratic presidential victory.
Is it his cologne?
Just about every GOP presidential aspirant is running in two opposite directions at the same time: they all want to claim the Ronald Reagan mantle, and they all want to distance themselves from George W. Bush.
Whether it’s Guiliani, Romney, McCain or one of the Seven Dwarfs, it seems like President Bush is as popular as a New York ticket broker 20 minutes after a football game is over; no one wants to be around him.
That’s not Reagan-esque.
One thing Reagan knew well is, you stick by your friends and fellow party members through thick and thin. But simply because a handful of MoveOn.org Democrats have stirred up Bush’s negatives, all these wannabe mini-me Reaganites are leaping to play “Dogpile on W.”
Well, remember, you GOP candidates: one of you just may win the office and when you do, is this the kind of “loyalty” you’d want from your own supposed allies?
Truth is, Bush may not be as good of a social conservative as Reagan, but in terms of foreign policy, he resembles Reagan’s “No BS” approach far more than any of these “American Political Idol” wannabes.
Bush has understood the nature of the terror war far better than just about anyone else. This country needs its next president to be as fearless. And it needs its next president to be as pro-Israel as Bush.
If we fall short of that, our country may see a much bleaker future in 2009 and beyond.
Dobson disses Thompson
Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson dissed a potential presidential run by former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson in a recent interview with US News and World Report. Going so far as to say the Church of Christ-baptized Thompson was not a Christian – or, at least, not the type of Christian that meets with Dobson’s approval – Dobson all but ruled out support for a Thompson candidacy from Focus On the Family. They won’t even donate some custom pens that say “Christians for Thompson ’08!”
Dr. Dobson has also recently suggested he’d be lukewarm to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s bid for the White House, due to Romney’s Mormonism. Wonderful Pessimist wonders exactly what kind of conservative it would take to please Dr. Dobson. Is an evangelical Christian faith all that matters? Current GOP President George W. Bush said all the right things about faith in both his campaign runs, yet has governed less conservatively than many on the Christian right anticipated.
Wonderful Pessimist isn’t bothered by looking at candidates’ religious background, but having it be the sole determining factor is a bit ridiculous. The reason not to support Mitt Romney is that he’s less conservative than George W. Bush, not that he’s a Mormon. As for Thompson, he’d be the leading conservative in the crowd, if he declares, so Wonderful Pessimist would welcome him into the GOP nomination fray.
Of course, Wonderful Pessimist is still holding out hope for a Newt Gingrich candidacy; there’s no sharper conservative thinker on the national stage right now, and while he was some character issues, I doubt they’d ultimately cripple his candidacy.
