Darkhorse 08: Mitt Romney

[Nbadan]

http://www.getreligion.org/archives/romney.jpg
Mormenus-extraordaire

Conservatives Pick Romney in Unscientific Straw Poll
Former Massachusetts Governor Gets the Nod Despite Misgivings Over Conservative Credentials
By SONYA CRAWFORD


March 3, 2007 — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won a presidential preference straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this weekend.

Twenty-one percent of those who took the poll chose Romney. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani came in second with 17 percent of the vote, followed by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

The poll is unscientific and may have been influenced by the busloads of young Republicans Romney's campaign brought in from out of state.

Regardless of the results, conservatives remain in a quandary. They're not satisfied with the party's frontrunners — Giuliani, McCain and Romney.

"I don't like the fact that some of them aren't conservative on social issues, some are not conservative on economic issues," said Robert Cruciger, a conservative activist from Ohio. "I think we need an all-around candidate who's conservative on both."

"There's nobody that stands out in my mind," said Mike Sparling of Michigan.

"They're looking for Ronald Reagan," said John Cox, who is running a self-financed campaign for president. "They're looking for a true statesman."

Sensing opportunity, lesser-known candidates such as former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arizona Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado tried to persuade conservatives they don't have to settle.

During his speech today, Gilmore borrowed a line from former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and thundered, "I want to represent the Republican wing of the Republican Party!"

McCain was the only Republican contender to skip the event. Huckabee said that's a mistake.

"CPAC brings together not just sort of peripheral activists, but the people who lead movements," he said. "So getting a message here, and connecting and resonating with the people of this group, is really resonating with the heart and soul of the Republican Party."

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Politics/story?id=2921580&page=1)

[Extra Stout]

Well, yeah -- Romney's not the most solid conservative, but he's certain further to the right on social issues than Giuliani or McCain. It's not as if Duncan Hunter has a chance in hell.

[whottt]

Who?

[whottt]

Seriosuly Dan...what's the point of this? This guy has as much chance of getting elected as Mike Dukakis.

Couldn't your energy be better served by researching the Bush Admin being behind 911 or something? At least that shit is entertaining.

This is a snooze fest...find one person on the board that is going to be voting for this guy....

[exstatic]

Newsflash: The GOP has nominated the un-electable before.

[boutons_]

Has anybody actually listened to this Romney metro-sexual?

It's the lowest kind of focus-group-vetted, consultant-scripted, smoothed-over pablum, banalities, motherhood, simplistic vapidities possible, in the same way as Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton.

[Nbadan]

BLUFFTON, S.C. - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday dropped some names of potential running mates in the 2008 race, but added such speculation is a bit premature.

Among those Romney mentioned for the second slot on the Republican ticket were three Southerners: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"There's some wonderful people right here in this state, as you know, Governor Sanford being one of them," the former Massachusetts governor said to a round of applause after being asked about vice presidential picks by a member of a crowd of about 400 people gathered for his campaign stop in this early voting state.

"I have to be honest with you, I haven't given a lot of thought to that, so I don't want to put any names in that hat right now," Romney said, but also gave a nod to Bush, calling him "quite a guy."

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070329/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail)


Mitt also announced his early choices for Dept of Defense, Satan.

[ggoose25]

Other than being Mormon, I dont see why this guy wouldnt be competitive in the general election. His chances of getting the Repub nomination are low, but that is why he is giving so much conservative primary red meat right now. I think this guy is a moderate at heart, and thats not so bad IMO.

[Nbadan]

Told ya so...


Sen. John McCain today announced a disappointing $12.5 million fundraising total for the first three months of 2007.

The total, which would have been impressive in past election cycles, finds McCain trailing GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani in the crucial early money sweepstakes.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has struggled in the national polls, reported $23 million in primary election contributions, including more than $2 million of his own money. The Federal Election Commission allows candidates to collect money for their primary and general election campaigns simultaneously. advertisement

Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner in national surveys, took in more than $15 million in primary cash, including more than $10 million last month. He also transferred about $2 million from another campaign account for a total of $17 million.

AZ Central (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0402prezmoney-ON.html)

Romney could surprise some of you, at least, that's what the money's saying, but then again Hitlary leads Obama, so maybe it doesn't say anything - yet.

[ggoose25]

romney can thank his family's wealthy friends in the auto industry and the mormons for the $$$

[xrayzebra]

Damn, I can hardly wait until super Tuesday in Feb. 08. Cant
we just get along?

[mookie2001]

romney is a jihadist

[mookie2001]

not mention a neocon

[ChumpDumper]

All anyone has to do to derail his campaign is ask Romney about some of the beliefs mormons have. Not exactly fair, but it will work.

[mookie2001]

he is going to continue the holywar, at least his head spokesperson said he would on hardball

[ggoose25]

yeah mookie i saw that. called it a global jihad over and over. i think romney is just playing hard ass. i want to like him, but something about him makes me uneasy. he looks/acts/talks/walks like the quintessential slimy politician, and i cant get past that. i just would like to know more about him at this point...

[Bunz]

WP: Mormon base mixed blessing for Romney
GOP hopeful collects funds, but religion regarded warily by many
By Alec MacGillis
The Washington Post
Updated: 6:12 a.m. CT April 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - It is the rare presidential candidate who comes to Idaho to raise money, but there was Mitt Romney last month, packing more than 100 people, at up to $2,300 a head, into the Crystal Ballroom in Boise.

"Nearly every seat was filled. Just about everybody that's anybody was there," said Grant Ipsen, a former Idaho state legislator. "I don't think I'd ever attended another fundraiser for a federal candidate in Idaho."

There was no great mystery why Romney was in town. The former Massachusetts governor is a Mormon, as are about one-quarter of Idaho residents, including Ipsen and many others who turned out for the lunchtime event. The fundraiser was bracketed by two others in the Mountain West: one in Las Vegas and another outside Phoenix. At both of those events, Mormons made up at least half the crowd, organizers said. Altogether, the two-day swing brought in well over $1 million for Romney.

As he vies for a place in the top tier of contenders for the Republican nomination, Romney is reaping enormous benefits from being part of a growing religion that has traditionally emphasized civic engagement and mutual support. Mormons are fueling his strong fundraising operation, which this week reported raising $21 million, the most of any Republican candidate. And they are laying the foundation for a potent grass-roots network -- including a cadre of young church members experienced in door-to-door missions who say they are looking forward to hitting the streets for him.

"When Mormons get mobilized, they're like dry kindling. You drop a match and get impressive results quickly," said University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell, who is Mormon. "It's almost a unique group in the way in which it's organized at the local level and the channels through which mobilization can occur."

But the intensity of this support has a potential downside as Romney tries to establish an identity separate from a religion still regarded warily by many Americans -- a quarter of whom, polls suggest, do not want a Mormon president.

‘A natural network’
Romney's fellow Mormons also find themselves in a bind. In dozens of interviews, Mormons across the country said they are excited by Romney's candidacy and eager to do what they can for him, just like members of other religious or ethnic groups with favorite-son candidates. Yet they are also hesitant to state their support too strongly, to avoid provoking anti-Mormon bias or violating church rules against politicking inside church walls.

"I know a lot of people who will support him just because he's a Mormon -- and I know a lot of other people who are edgy about that," said Paul Starita, a Minnesota native attending the church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Many Mormons backing Romney recognize the risks but say it would be wrong to suppress their solidarity. Heather Johnson, a mother of three transplanted from Utah to North Carolina, started a "Moms4Mitt" Web site and hopes to campaign for him in South Carolina, a key early state in the primary process. That will be possible, she notes, only because her Mormon "brothers and sisters" will put her up, and help watch her kids, wherever she goes.

"You cannot deny that there is a network in the church, a natural network," she said. "Some people make out like it's a conspiracy, but it's a natural networking system. It's just the way our church is set up."

The dilemma faced by Romney and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS, as the church is known, recalls in some ways what John F. Kennedy faced running as a Roman Catholic in 1960. Among the factors that make this situation different, say political scientists, is that Mormons are almost unmatched in their cohesiveness and capacity for unified action.

Campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said Romney welcomes the backing he is receiving from Mormons, which he compared to the help that other candidates have received from their ethnic or religious roots, such as Michael Dukakis's support from fellow Greek Americans in 1988. But Madden said Mormon support makes up only one element of Romney's base.

"We are happy of and proud of all the support we have received from members of the LDS. A lot of these supporters are interested in helping the governor because they think he would make a great president," Madden said. But, he added, "if we're going to win, it's going to require a broad spectrum of the American people."

A breakdown of the donors who gave the $21 million -- $6 million more than former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, his nearest competitor -- will not be available for another 10 days. And Romney's political action committees, which have accumulated $8 million since 2004, have received substantial amounts from non-Mormons such as former colleagues in Boston finance circles, friends and associates in Michigan, where he grew up, and from business executives such as eBay chief executive Meg Whitman and Compuware founder Peter Karmanos.

But based on the fundraising he conducted before this year, Romney's other sectors of support are likely to be dwarfed by the backing he is receiving from LDS members. Wealthy Mormons giving to Romney's PACs include the Marriotts, the Bethesda-based hotel family, who have given more than $390,000; the family of Jon Huntsman Sr., the owner of a major Utah chemical company, which has given more than $170,000; and the family of Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, which has given $100,000.

Rank-and-file
Also giving heavily have been thousands of rank-and-file church members. After Romney last fall sent direct-mail solicitations to Republicans nationwide, his two biggest state-level PACs received 319 checks from Utah, which is about two-thirds Mormon -- a third of the total number of checks he received in the year's final quarter. In the same period, he received seven checks from Massachusetts, where he has lived more than 30 years.

Of course, not all Mormons are supporting Romney, and those who are stress that they like him not only because of his religion. They point to his experience as a consulting and venture-capital executive and as governor, and most of all, his success running the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. They say the socially conservative platform he is running on puts him in line with Mormon voters, 85 percent of whom supported George W. Bush in 2004, according to exit polls.

Yet church members are also open about the pride they take in seeing a Mormon with a credible presidential bid, a feeling stronger than what they felt for the short-lived candidacy of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) in 2000. Romney has deep roots in Utah (his great-grandfather designed the tabernacle in St. George), and older Mormons remember Romney's father, George, an auto executive and Michigan governor who made a brief run for president in 1968.

"He comes from the same background as his dad," said Jewell Bartholomew, a retired nurse in Orem, Utah. Referring to her $100 donation last fall to Romney's Michigan PAC, she said, "I would be lying if I said his LDS background did not have something to do with it."

After Utah, which holds a quarter of the church's 5.7 million U.S. members, the highest concentrations of Mormons are in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Arizona, in that order. California, by virtue of its size, has the second-largest Mormon population in absolute terms -- about 750,000.

While the church is strongest in the West, it is represented in almost every corner of the country, in congregations organized into "stakes," "wards" and "branches." Its hierarchy is headed by a president and two counselors and a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, while congregations are led by laymen, a role Romney served.

Church leaders encourage members to vote and be involved in politics, and they occasionally weigh in on "moral" issues such as ballot initiatives on same-sex marriage or gambling. But to preserve the church's tax exemption, its leaders warn against making endorsements inside churches or using membership lists or the church's Web site for partisan purposes.

Romney's campaign edged against these boundaries last fall when Kem Gardner, a Utah developer whose family has given $140,000 to Romney's PACs, set up a meeting in Salt Lake City with a church apostle, a Romney consultant and one of Romney's sons. Documents obtained by the Boston Globe showed that the apostle, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, suggested promoting Romney via the alumni association of the business school at church-owned Brigham Young University, a group with 5,500 members in 40 chapters.

Days later, two deans from the business school sent an e-mail rallying support for Romney to 150 members of the school's advisory council and 50 chapter leaders of the alumni association, the Management Society. Because it is legally part of church-owned BYU, the society is also prohibited from backing candidates. After the Globe reported on the efforts in October, church leaders disavowed any campaign on Romney's behalf.

Church vs. individuals
Church spokesman Michael Purdy reiterated the church's neutrality. "You need to make a clear distinction between the church as an institution and what members do as individuals," he said in an e-mail interview. "The church's mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to elect politicians."

Such is the strength of the Mormon network, though, that rules against endorsing or using church lists do not diminish its value. "You have official statements from church headquarters and then the actual activity of everyone below that level," said University of Utah political scientist Ronald Hrebenar, who is not Mormon. "There is this network, they know who they are and how to contact each other, and it can be enormously useful."

This description fits the Management Society. Society chapter leaders around the country say they discourage fellow members or guest speakers from making direct appeals on behalf of Romney or other candidates during their chapters' monthly luncheons. But inevitably, lines blur somewhat, members say.

In Las Vegas, the chapter's president, Adam Creer, is also on Romney's Nevada fundraising committee, and he sent e-mails to many of the chapter's roughly 80 members inviting them to the March event at the Las Vegas Four Seasons hotel, which drew 350 people.

Creer, a security systems executive, did not return calls. A member of the chapter's board, Phil Richards, said that it was no surprise society members would be raising money for Romney but that they tried to keep that separate.

"The Management Society does not . . . have anything to do with elections," Richards said. "Now, do people in the [society] gravitate towards certain kinds of candidates? They probably do. Of course we have favorites."

Pro-Romney chat rooms
The enthusiasm for Romney is most open in online networking sites such as Facebook.com, where Mormon students predominate in pro-Romney chat rooms. But the students also discuss the challenge in promoting Romney without provoking bias. Krissie Ostlund, 20, a community college student in Dunkirk, Md., urged others to explain Mormonism to friends and thereby pave the way for Romney.

"Talk about it. Bring it up with Bill the checker at Safeway," she wrote. "Use it as a tool to familiarize other people with what it means to be a member of the [church] and why having an LDS president would be ideal."

Database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17939592/

[whottt]

bill richardson


I saw Richardson is like dead last in polling...he's a charismatic enough candidate to restore a lot of Americas diplomatic appeal, and I like a lot of what he has to say...but he doesn't have a devoted base and a forward momentum....


Mayhap, because not only is he laid back...but some of his most vocal supporters are doing good to have six words in their political posts.

[ChumpDumper]

Richardson will make a fine VP candidate.

[Ocotillo]

What next, a Scientologist running for president?

[Nbadan]

Richardson isn't a NeoCon, nor has he taken a stand against the war, the Republican culture of corruption, or even an ideological stand, like protecting free speech, individual rights, or any of the other constitutional guarantees Bushco has watered-down through the years. Not even a stand on illegal immigration.

I'm surprised he's still in it. Why?

[ggoose25]

^^^ VP consideration

[whottt]

Not even a stand on illegal immigration.

I'm surprised he's still in it. Why?


Um...he was the first guy to declare a state of emergency over the border...

I'd say that counts as making a stand.

[SpursWoman]

...find one person on the board that is going to be voting for this guy....


Well, he is good looking.... :spin

[mookie2001]

Richardson isn't a NeoCon, nor has he taken a stand against the war, the Republican culture of corruption, or even an ideological stand, like protecting free speech, individual rights, or any of the other constitutional guarantees Bushco has watered-down through the years. Not even a stand on illegal immigration.

I'm surprised he's still in it. Why?

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/issues/

http://mydd.com/story/2007/3/26/25954/5752


richardson also raised $6 million this quarter...half as much as mccain..as much as biden and dodd combined



----------------------------

clarification: this is elpimpo who forgot to sign mookie out

[Nbadan]

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat running for president, will lead a U.S. delegation to North Korea this month to discuss the return of the remains of missing servicemen, the White House said on Tuesday.

Richardson and Anthony Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs, will head a bipartisan group on the April 8-11 trip at the invitation of North Korea, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Richardson visited North Korea in the 1990s and in 2005.

Alertnet (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03266408.htm)

Dubya get's a lot of the credit for semi-successful negotiations with North Korea, but it was Richardson who travel to North Korea, and who the North Koreans visited when BushCo took it's hard-line approach to diplomacy.

[Nbadan]

Hunt-gate...


Officials in the four states where Mitt Romney has lived say the Republican presidential contender, who calls himself a lifelong hunter, never purchased a license.

Romney says that is because he seldom has hunted where he needed one.

Questions about his hunting activities trailed Romney this past week after he remarked at a campaign stop that he has been a hunter nearly all his life. The next day, his campaign said Romney had gone hunting just twice – once as a teenager in Idaho and last year with GOP donors in Georgia.

That was wrong, Romney said a day later. He said he had hunted rabbits and other small animals for many years, mainly in Utah. Hunting certain small game there does not require a license.

Linky (http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/17050199.htm)

Talk about rubbing salt in a wound. Romney is his own worst enemy.

[whottt]

Damn...he might not get elected now.

[ggoose25]

hehe... varmits