A Sad Day for Romney Supporters
By now many of us have heard the news that Gov. Romney has decided to suspend his Presidential campaign. His decision was met with sadness by this voter and supporter, however as I listened to his speech at this tear’s CPAC convention my belief that he was the best candidate to represent our party was reaffirmed. Though I would have liked for him to continue his campaign all the way to the national convention, I respect his reasoning for suspending his campaign and his decision. Gov. Romney’s decision to place what he believed was the need of the party and its members above his personal desire, in my opinion, is in stark contrast of Gov. Huckabee (and of course the now notorious events of the West Virginia Republican Convention).
Senator McCain now appears posed to capture the nomination as the Republican candidate. Unfortunately at this point I cannot say that I am enthused or overjoyed by this turn of events. This will be my second Presidential election since gaining my citizenship in 2001, and I’m not quite sure how I will mark my General Election ballot. I think that there are many who are wrestling with the same dilemma as I am.
In closing, after listening to Gov. Romney’s speech and his reasons for suspending his Presidential bid I can only say I am proud that he had been the candidate that I chose to support.
Mitt Romney is the Man for the Job!
Okay, so I know that Giuliani endorsed McCain, and of course our erstwhile Governor has also come out in support of McCain; and as all the pundits would like us to believe that we were waiting with bated breath on whom they would endorse just so we’d know how to mark our ballots come Super-Tuesday on Nov. 5th. However, I’m not so sure that their endorsement will actually sway many Republicans, at least not those that I know personally and to those I’ve spoken to who have declared that their vote is going for Romney on Super Tuesday.
Now for those of you who’ve been tracking my blog may remember that back in September of last year, I decided to leave the Giuliani campaign after experiencing what I believed was a complete lack of consideration and respect for the campaign volunteers. I took a month or so off and evaluated the field of choices left for me, and the more I learned about Gov. Romney, his family and his team the more I liked what I saw.
As I chatted up friends and colleagues I learned that many of them were contemplating ending their support of Giuliani and looking for another candidate to support, and I know many have chosen to support Romney. That’s why I believe that even though McCain is racking up a list of endorsement from various so-called Republican leaders (many of whom are not nearly as in sync with fellow Republicans as they think they are).
Also, as I have noted in previous posts even though National Security is an issue of importance to many of us, the economy -- especially on the heels of the home mortgage debacle is moving towards the forefront of many American’s minds. Many would argue that McCain’s the man when it comes to the War on Terror and the best choice to support our men and women in uniform who are serving on various missions overseas. I would argue that Romney’s a better choice because his strong economic acumen and track record in turning around distressed enterprises positions him as the candidate that can help develop and implement strong economic strategies that in turn will allow our Nation to continue on a path of strong National Security and continue to support our men and women in uniform as they carry out the missions overseas that have been assigned them.
Additionally I’m concerned about such things as having someone who can work with individuals from both sides of the aisle and even though McCain has a track record doing that; he has often co-sponsored bills with some of these same individuals that have had unintended negative consequences. Such as McCain-Feingold, which effectively muzzled business and individuals of means, damaging their First amendment rights while pretty much giving a free pass to unions and helping give rise to many of the now notorious “527’s”. Then there was the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform bill that was so convoluted and out-of-touch with what “We the People” seem to be telling our elected officials, that we nearly had to rise up and storm the Bastille just to get them to listen (thanks to the radio hosts such as John & Ken, Rush Limbaugh and many others they helped rally the constituents to express their views and maybe we’ll see a repeat of this rallying to help push Romney over the top on Super Tuesday and beyond). Granted McCain may have thought he had crafted two excellent bills, but it has become obvious that McCain-Feingold is incredibly flawed and the McCain-Kennedy bill was just ill conceived.
I know many people are impressed with McCain’s reputation as a “straight talker”. However all the “straight talk” aside McCain seems to also have a mean streak that is often revealed in well documented tirades and bouts of foul language directed at individuals that cross his path or chose to actively disagree with him. I live in fear that his reputation for throwing “F-bombs” at his colleagues in the Senate is a way of life for him and though I’m no fan of some of our world leaders I cringe at the thought of a person of McCain’s temperament and what it could mean to diplomatic relations.
Just in case you think that I jumped ship to Romney on the heels of Giuliani’s withdrawal you’d be dead wrong. Last week my daughters and I sat down and completed our permanent absentee ballots and cast our lot with Romney. I hope that those Republican’s reading this blog also consider voting for Gov. Romney; but whatever you chose to do -- don’t forget to vote on Nov. 5th!
Election spin and what you should do with it!
As I sit here contemplating the two most recent caucuses/primaries, I’m struck by how the media seems hell bent on creating the news rather then reporting the news. And, yes I know that its probably not news to many of us how our Nation’s media seems to confuse educating the public’s mind with manipulating the public’s mind.
One of my fondest memories of my childhood in France was reading the morning newspapers with my father. France’s news media, unlike American news media has had a long history of making their bias clearly known to its reading public – for example Le Monde is known for being center-left, Le Figaro is known for being center-right, and Le Canard enchaîné is known for its willingness to hit all politicians of all ilk equally hard, and so forth. However, in the US with the exception of a few, such as the LA Times, the New York Times, Washington Post (known for their left lean), it can often be hard to ferret out the lean of US Newspapers because they like to put forward the image that they are “unbiased” in the way they choose to report the news. This can make it somewhat of a challenge at times to decipher a newspapers “spin”, it used to be that all you had to do was read the editorial section and the bias was quickly revealed; now one had to scrutinize the headlines and the best way to do this is to read several of the papers and compare. How they title the piece, where they place it and how large the photo and headline are will often give away the paper’s bias.
Another way to ferret out what the media bias is -- is to pay attention to an election year, such as this Presidential Election. Prior to the Michigan Primary, one would have thought that Gov. Romney was running a losing campaign, that all he had done was come in second place twice. However, what the media failed to report with accuracy was that he had already won one primary, albeit not a big one, in Wyoming. So contrary to so many of the pundits he was already ahead of the game, and his win in Michigan gave him his second – first place win compared to Gov. Huckabee and Sen. McCain. When you factor in that the media had continued to promote how McCain had won Michigan in the last Republican Primary only four years earlier makes McCain’s loss by 9 points interesting.
Of course Gov. Huckabee’s win in Iowa appeared unexpected and thus was news worthy, but again he beat Romney by a mere 9 points, yet when Romney won the Nevada Caucuses this week by 37 points ahead of Sen. Paul, 38 points ahead of Sen. McCain and 43 points ahead of Huckabee you would have thought the headlines would have characterized his win with at least the same amount of enthusiasm and excitement as they did for Huckabee’s win in Iowa and McCain’s win in New Hampshire. So much for fair and accurate reporting on the part of our illustrious press. I stress this because of all the caucuses and primaries to date the Wyoming primary and the Nevada caucuses had the most impressive point spread between the first and second place choices of the Republican Party.
Now, I don’t pretend to be able to predict the outcome of the Florida primaries, but it is my hope that my candidate of choice (that would be Gov. Romney if you haven’t been keeping track) does well, placing first would be perfect. However, having lived for eight years in the South, I know how Yankees are often perceived by the good people of the South, therefore I was pleased to learn that Romney was in a four way tie in Florida. Then it’s on to Super Tuesday. So as the media begins to beat the “it’s the economy drum” I think that we should all take a hard look at who among the potential candidates has the skill sets to help what has been characterized as a distressed economy, and of all the candidates Romney’s the only one that has a track record turning around distressed enterprises and organizations.
So, I encourage everyone to take a moment and really scrutinize how the press chooses to report election happenings and results, and remember that they are a business as well and as of late far too many of them have their eye on the bottom line and the ratings and not on necessarily providing “just the facts” and allowing us the freedom to interpret those facts. So my advice would be read the newspapers, talk with friends, family and those whose opinion you value, do your own research and then draw your own conclusions.
In closing, if you haven’t already done so and you are eligible to do so register to vote, and if you are already registered be sure to vote on election day and if you vote by absentee ballot be sure to mail it in on time!
Commit for Mitt!
Well, it was good to hear the news that Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the Michigan Primary. Of course, so many of the media pundits and crystal ball readers seemed inclined to declare Senator McCain the winner, even before the first ballot was cast. So I’m sure the media is going to focus on Romney being a “native son” and factor this into his win, hoping that the public at large will swallow this media spun excuse, rather then accepting the fact that maybe the good people of Michigan recognize that Romney has some skill sets that most of the other candidates lack or are weak in – in particular a proven track record of turning around “distressed” enterprises. Since the media has decided to focus on what is being characterized as a flagging, stalled, weakening (insert the adjective of your choice here) economy then it becomes more and more apparent that Romney skill sets more closely fit this particular scenario.
When this primary season first got started I was a bit reluctant to count myself as a Mitt Romney supporter, in fact I started off as a Rudy Giuliani supporter. However two things convinced me that Romney was the better candidate. The first was the more I got to know Giuliani and his inner circle the more disenchanted I became with his leadership skills (see my post on “How not to treat volunteers”); and as my daughter reminded me this Country has elected a disabled person (FDR), a Catholic (JFK) and of course a Quaker (Nixon) so electing a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (a Mormon) to our highest office is not so far-fetched. So I began to educate myself on Romney and the more I learned the more I like what I learned.
Is he the “perfect” candidate, hardly and I do not think you will find him ever pretending to be perfect. But I feel that his commitment to doing something positive for our Nation is real and heart-felt and he definitely has the managerial, political and psychosocial skills I think that we need in our next President.