Mitt & Ann Romney Annual Ronald Reagan Lecture 5/25/10

When Governor Mitt Romney spoke at the Annual Reagan Lecture back on May 25,  2010, at the end of his excellent speech, he asked his wife, Ann, to come to the podium and say a few words. In the course of her wonderful remarks she mentioned how much they were enjoying California’s warm weather but “Boston was calling them!”

Yes, it was! They’ve recently purchased a Townhome near Boston:

According to Banker & Tradesman, the prospective 2012 presidential candidate paid $895,000 for a townhouse in Woodlands at Belmont Hill, an upscale Belmont condo development near McLean Hospital. The 2,116-square-foot home includes two bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms, and a “cook’s kitchen.” The development is surrounded by 100 acres of conservation land. Last year, Romney and his wife Ann said they were downsizing when they sold their place on Main Street.

In between working so hard to help elect conservatives this fall, criss-crossing America, it appears the Romneys will be spending summers in the northeast and lucky west coast Californians get to have them for the winter.

Romney Family

This is a not-too-long-ago photo of the Romney family (possibly taken at a July 4th gathering?). I understand their ranks have expanded since then. 

Top Influential Republicans

Chris Cillizza, from the “The Fix“, once again ranks Mitt Romney as one of the most influential voices within the Republican party. Here is what he had to say about Mitt’s recent activities:

The former Massachusetts governor is slowly and methodically rolling out endorsements in state after state, acting like what he is: the current frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination. Romney still has questions to answer: Can he empathize with voters distressed about the economy? Will he compete in Iowa? But there are fewer unknowns surrounding Romney than anyone else looking at the race.

Here is the full list of those that made the top ten:
1. Haley Barbour 2. Mitt Romney 3. Sarah Palin 4. Chris Christie 5. Tim Pawlenty 6. Scott Brown 7. Newt Gingrich 8. Nikki Haley 9. Bobby Jindal 10. Mike Huckabee

The top five are pictured up above in order of their rank.

P.S. There is a poll at the end of the post. I suggest that you go vote.

June 29, 2010 – Two days before President Obama would plug in his teleprompter to deliver his first major speech on immigration, a bloody gun battle was going down in Juarez, Mexico. At the same time, just across the river in El Paso, Texas, City Manager Joyce Wilson was in a meeting with five other City Hall employees. As they discussed business, a bullet barreled through her office wall, passed between book shelves, and shattered a picture frame. When Wilson and co-workers realized a bullet had been fired into her office, they dove for the floor and crawled out. Another bullet struck Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto’s office on the ninth floor. Five other bullets would pierce the building. 

Wilson and colleagues were lucky… this time. No one was injured. However, just 800 to1000 yards away in Juarez, after 40 rounds had exploded, one Mexican Federale officer and an innocent bystander were killed. Another officer was wounded. 

Here is video of Adauto’s ninth floor office showing bullet hole, views from office across the U.S. border to ‘S Mart’ (business equivalent to WalMart) in Juarez, Mexico where shootings took place:

Outraged at this latest bout of violence, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott fired off a letter to the White House, beseeching Obama for more troops on their border: 

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President, 

Deadly violence from drug cartels and transnational gangs in Mexico is knocking on the United States’ door with ever increasing frequency. 

Yesterday, gunfire from the cartels pierced that threshold and struck City Hall in El Paso. Fortunately no one was injured or killed. But that good fortune was not the result of effective border control – it was mere luck that the bullets struck buildings rather than bodies. 

Luck and good fortune are not effective border enforcement policies. The shocking reality of cross border gunfire proves the cold reality: American lives are at risk. As the attached news article notes: “More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juárez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels.” Americans must be protected as this deadly war bulges at our border. 

Law enforcement officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety and your own U.S. Customs and Border Protection will reveal the hard truth. Our state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border. 

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. The need is urgent. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that an American life will be lost because of the federal government’s failure to secure the border. 

This threat demands immediate and effective action by your Administration to secure our border. As the Attorney General of Texas, I urge you to make border security your top priority so that no more innocent lives are lost to border violence. 

June 30, 2010 – CNN’s Jack Cafferty spoke to TV viewers to lower expectations regarding hopes for any stellar illegal immigration solutions coming from the presidential pulpit:

July 1, 2010: Speaking in campaign mode at American University in Washington, D.C., Obama delivered a speech crafted to razzle-dazzle a key component of his base supporters – the Hispanic caucus. It was long on rhetoric and short on specifics. While calling for bi-partisan cooperation to work on comprehensive immigration reform, Obama rebuffed Republicans. I listened closely to hear if Obama would, once again, blatantly misrepresent Arizona’s immigration law SB 1070 and he did: 

Washington Times 

“These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents, making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound,” he said. 

Obama’s continual portrayal of SB 1070 as racial profiling is intentionally misleading and manipulative. Arizona’s immigration law mirrors federal law except it’s worded even more meticulously to specifically avoid racial profiling. (Governor Brewer has made the SB 1070 Peace Officer Training video/handouts available on line.) To see a portion Obama’s immigration speech click here. 

Cont. 

[...]Advocates on both sides of the issue doubt a bill can pass this year. Republican leaders dispute Mr. Obama’s claim the borders are secure, and say no immigration bill can pass until they are. 

“The president can make progress on this issue, but it will take more than a speech,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “If he would take amnesty off the table and make a real commitment to border and interior security, he will find strong bipartisan support.” 

Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders, though, argue legalizing illegal immigrants has to be done at the same time, both for workability and because they fear if the borders are secured first, it might sap momentum from the push for legalization. 

“Our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols,” Mr. Obama said. “It won’t work.” 

Immigration rights activists were generally happy with the speech, saying it touched on the issues they wanted to hear. 

“We have been waiting for the president to lean forward and push with us on the immigration issue the same way he did as a presidential candidate. We hope this is the start of a sustained push,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat.[...] 

See all of Obama’s speech here. 

July 1, 2010 (afternoon): Federal Judge Allows Mexico to Have a Voice in Court Case Against U.S. Immigration Law 

Mexico gets its say in one of the lawsuits challenging Arizona’s immigration enforcement law.
[...]
Mexico says it wants to defend its citizens’ rights and that the law would lead to racial profiling and hinder trade and tourism. It also says the law would hinder work against drug trafficking and related violence.
[...]
Until recently, Mexican law made illegal immigration a criminal offense — anyone arrested for the violation could be fined, imprisoned for up to two years and deported. Mexican lawmakers changed that in 2008 to make illegal immigration a civil violation like it is in the United States, but their law still reads an awful lot like Arizona’s. 

Arizona’s policy, which President Felipe Calderon derided during a recent U.S. trip as “discriminatory,” states police can’t randomly stop people and demand papers, and the law prohibits racial profiling. 

Mexican law, however, requires law enforcement officials “to demand that foreigners prove their legal presence in the country before attending to any issues.” 

Amnesty International recently issued a report claiming illegal immigrants in Mexico — typically from Central America — face abuse, rape and kidnappings, and that Mexican police do little to stop it. When illegal immigration was a criminal offense in Mexico, officials were known to seek bribes from suspects to keep them out of jail. 

July 1, 2010 (evening): FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren interviewed Gov Brewer and State Republican Russell Pearce (R-AZ) to hear their views on Obama’s immigration speech. Click here to watch Gov Brewer Sounds Off Part 1 and 2. Pearce’s Ill Conceived and Unenforced or Following Federal Law interview is on the same link. (You don’t want to miss these interviews!)

July 1, 2010 10:07 PM MDT: Twelve miles from Nogales, Arizona, in a dark and deserted drug transport corridor near Hermosillo, Mexico, large-scale mayhem and murder wait… 

HERMOSILLO, MEXICO — A massive gun battle between rival drug and migrant-trafficking gangs near the U.S. border left 21 people dead on Thursday, prosecutors said. 

The clash occurred in a sparsely populated area about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Arizona border — a prime corridor for immigrant and drug smuggling. 

Sonora’s Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that nine people were captured by police at the scene of the shooting, six of whom had been wounded in the confrontation. Authorities at the scene found seven rifles. 

Officials did not say why the gunfight had broken out, but powerful and well-armed Mexican gangs often fight for control of smuggling routes into the United States. 

Mr. Obama, your highest priority as Commander-in-Chief is to protect American citizens. Stop playing politics with America’s sovereignty. Maybe a ‘James Carville’ will get your attention: