Recently Mitt Romney has been seen committing the cardinal sin of wearing blue jeans. He has also been spotted with his hair sussed, and, worst of all, driving a pick-up truck (gasp). Mitt’s straw-grasping detractors can’t resist using this to paint Romney as some sort of flip-flopper -- “It’s the new Mitt 3.0″.

Anyway, I don’t care much what they think (detractors will detract), but it did spur me to recall a picture showing Mitt in jeans with incredibly bad hair. I also recalled the wonderful human interest story behind the picture. A few google searches later I was able to dig it back up, and I found a related video to the story that I had not yet seen. The original blog post containing the story and pictures doesn’t exist anymore, but the entire text has been preserved by Mr. Swint at the My Dry Fly blog, and is including below.

For insight into what Mitt is really like, not as a businessman, not as a politician, but as a compassionate human being, I know of no better story than this:

The full story plus more photos after the fold…

Read more…

Governor Romney offers a sharp critique of President Obama and his economic policies in his most recent Op-ed published at The Boston Globe. As “recovery summer” comes to end with little no sign of actual economic recovery, we can expect more statements like this from Romney and hopefully from other strong voices in the GOP as well. It seems evident that this is going to be the point Team Romney will drive home if/when he announces candidacy for the presidency.

Below is a teaser from the op-ed, followed up by an interesting recap by Chris Cillizza – be sure to check that out as well.

Grow jobs and shrink government
by Mitt Romney

IT’S NOT happening the way President Obama had planned. Unemployment blew past his 8 percent ceiling and hasn’t looked back. Private sector investment in new jobs and capital has languished. Even the head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, has resigned.

Almost every action the president has taken has deepened and lengthened the downturn. The private sector has retreated, frightened by his agenda and paralyzed by the uncertainty, lack of predictability, and outright hostility he has engendered.

His policies are anti-investment, anti-jobs, and anti-growth. Raising taxes — with a 15 percent hike on certain small business corporations, new taxes to pay for ObamaCare, and an increase on the dividend tax from 15 percent to nearly 40 percent — depresses new investment throughout the economy. Promoting an open-ended cap-and-trade tax dissuades expansion by employers in the energy sector. Bowing to the demands of unions to tilt the table in their favor — with proposals for card check and mandatory arbitration as well as the installation of a labor stooge at the National Labor Relations Board — chills new hiring.

Hostility toward foreign trade — by delaying agreements with Colombia and South Korea and by threatening punitive taxes on US businesses that compete abroad — stalls opportunities for new jobs at home. The so-called stimulus that focused on government spending and bailing out states and unions has boosted GDP only modestly and temporarily; the latest stimulus reincarnation will likely do no better. All the while, the president’s failure to address the looming deficits, national debt, unfunded entitlement liabilities, ballooning Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae liabilities, and incalculable government pension obligations causes employers and investors to ask whether the dollar will be worth very much in the future, and thus, they hold back. The policies of the president and congressional Democrats are job killers.

Continue reading…

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Chris Cillizza offers an interesting take on the op-ed and Romney’s focus in general:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney penned an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe blasting President Obama’s economic policies and, in so doing, provided yet more evidence of his laser-like focus on financial matters as he prepares to challenge the incumbent in 2012.
[...]
Romney’s economic op-ed comes even as many of his potential rivals for the 2012 Republican nomination stake out increasingly aggressive stances on the issue du jour: the proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Romney, for his part, has not spoken out on the mosque matter at all. The lone comment about the issue from anyone in his political world came last week from spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom making clear Romney opposed the building of the mosque.
[...]
Romney’s message disciple — it’s the economy, stupid — is also aimed at portraying him as the most serious candidate in the field, the candidate not distracted by the bright, shiny objects thrown at him on a near-daily basis by various interest groups and the media.

It’s an interesting (and smart) tactic — particularly with polling suggesting the economy is, far and away, the most important issue on the minds of voters.

I believe Cillizza is right on all accounts. Team Romney’s disciplined strategy to focus on the economy is a smart one – one which which Romney and the GOP can win. Serious, focused, competent, capable and willing…. that is the candidate I want for 2012. Forget the distractions, focus on what’s important.

~Nate Gunderson

The LDS (Mormon) Church is at it again – trying to boost their image by running a very professional ad campaign. Of course the ever-suspicious minions presume there exists an ulterior motive, and it MUST be that the Mormons Church wants to put Mitt Romney in the White House.

I first started seeing this suggestion in spare tweets on Twitter a few days ago. Then came the rather silly Salon.com article (I say ‘silly’ because the author has a hard time obscuring his intent to raise suspicion of Mormons). Lastly there is a video news-clip (embedded below) from a local FOX affiliate in the Twin Cities, though the news clip is much more fair and objective.

I’ll highlight a few keywords and phrases from the Salon.com article that display the writers lack of objectivity: “weird middle-American Mormon ad campaign”, “nine seemingly randomly selected”, “naturally the natives are suspicious”, “Mormon King Mitt Romney”, “they’re a bit touchy”, “damage control”, and “spending millions imposing their morality on us”. Naturally, we all should be suspicious too, right?

The big conspiracy here is that the LDS Church is always trying to improve their image, no matter where it currently stands, and they’ve been doing it through television commercials since the early seventies. This ad campaign just happens to coincide with the re-launch of LDS website, Mormon.org. Though the author of the Salon.com article tries to argue otherwise, the cities selected for this ad campaign don’t seem to me to be of any electoral advantage, especially when you consider the 2012, election is 27 months out. No, if the LDS really wanted to boost Romney’s chances in 2012 through their positive image campaign they would focus on the Republican Primary states. There is no given that Romney will win the primary – why would the Mormon Church risk millions of dollars trying to promote him for the general election?

So is the Mormon Church trying to push Mitt Romney for President?

“Nothing at all to do with politics, politicians, anything like that,” [Mormon.org marketing director Ron] Wilson said. “I can definitively say this is not connected to Mitt at all.”

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Perhaps the need to promote public awareness is evident by the fact that the FOX affiliate misspelled the word “Morman” at the 1:25 mark in the video.

More coverage on the ad campaign is provided by a Yahoo.com article by Liz Goodwinwhich is a little more informative and balanced. The article gives some insight into the Mormon ad campaign strategy:

According to Joel Campbell, a Mormon journalism professor at Brigham Young University who is researching the ad campaign, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a TV ad campaign three years ago that tried to explain Mormon beliefs. Research showed that the ads were too “sophisticated” and viewers weren’t getting the message.
[...]
“The church’s desire here is just to tell people who have no opinion or a negative opinion of Mormons to say, Look it, we’re not a bunch of polygamists that wear weird clothes and have a compound in Texas. That’s not us, we’re just regular folks,” Campbell said.
[...]
LDS spokesman Scott Swofford said the church has run ad campaigns for 25 years and has found that the best way to dispel myths about the religion is to have Mormons speak for themselves. The aim of the new campaign is to give Americans “a virtual Mormon neighbor,” he said.

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Of perceptions and being Mormon: Often Mormons can be overly sensitive to the perceptions of others. It seems Nancy French of Evangelicals for Mitt was barraged by some letters of concern when some misunderstood her purposes in linking to the Salon.com article, thinking that she was somehow in accordance with them. She has since clarified, but it shows that Mormons can indeed be “touchy”.

I am a Mormon, and what’s worse is that I’m a Mormon from Utah. My pet peeve is when others assume that I’m for Romney because of that – as if I’m some sort of mindless drone. I don’t like it when people perceive me that way, and granted, I am touchy about that. What I am not touchy about is what happened to the Mormons 160 years ago when the Mormons were “run out of everywhere they were until they ended up settling beside a giant dead salt lake”, as the author of the Salon.com article would have you think.

I completed an LDS mission to the remote land of southern New Jersey 12 years ago. I believe Mormon perception has improved drastically since that time, but I recall very wild things that people supposed about our lifestyle or our teachings. Far too many to list here. With the Mormons having settled in the West, I find that misinformation, or suspicion of Mormons, grows the further East you go. I can’t help but think this is due to the much smaller percentage of Mormons living in these areas. Simply put they are not exposed to Mormons and their so called “normalcy” as much. Thus the ad campaign.

We don’t discuss Romney and his Mormonism here on this blog much, mostly because we don’t feel it very necessary. Sure, Romney did overcome much of the anti-Mormon stigma last time around, and there is certainly some left, but I don’t feel it will have huge impact on the upcoming primaries. If Romney goes into official campaign mode here early next year, my guess is the campaign won’t put as much effort to win over those who might be against him because of his religion. Those who were exposed to him last cycle, and are still against his religion, won’t be won over anytime soon. I think the campaign will wisely move ahead in convincing those whose minds aren’t so made up.

This will probably be the last time you see me tackle the issue of religion, or Mormonism, for a very long time… and I’m glad.

I’m a blogger, I’m a patriot, I’m a sandwich lover, and I’m a tech-enthusiast. I’m Nate Gunderson, and I’m a Mormon.
(Ha. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.)

I try to be selective of which polls we push here at this site. Some polls are just not significant, while some are more relevant but so widespread that we couldn’t possibly make a dent in it. Then there are some that are just right. This poll, again from Gretawire, is one of those. We did an excellent job pushing the last one from Greta – let’s see what we can do with this one.

Greta says in her post that these are random pairings… I’ll say. It doesn’t get more random than Romney/Abbott. Abbott? Apparently he is the Texas attorney general, or something. I’ll be honest I have no idea what his first name is.

Thanks for voting everyone. Romney 2012!!

~Nate Gunderson

FYI – Tallies at the time of posting this poll: Gingrich 884, Daniels 261, Palin 795, Romney 840

Protect Marriage • Champion Life • Strengthen the Military • Limit Government • Control Spending • Defend Our Freedoms

The annual Values Voter Summit (VVS) gets underway on Sept. 17 in Washington, DC and Governor Romney is among the confirmed speakers for the 5th consecutive year. You can watch and/or read Romney’s speech from last year by clicking here.

Other confirmed speakers for the conference include Michelle Bachman, Jim DeMint, the Duggar family (19kids), Herman Cain, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, and Rick Santorum, plus several more including more speakers to confirm in the near future.

The summit has has an annual presidential straw poll that was handedly won by Huckabee last year. Huckabee received 170 of the 597 votes (28%), while Romney came in second with 74 votes (12%). It will be no surprise if Huckabee wins again this year as HuckPAC is actually on the list of exhibitors for the summit.

Registration for the 3-day event is only $99. Click here to visit the VVS homepage for more info.

I’m already excited to hear Romney’s speech for this event. If it’s anything like last year’s, or comparable speeches he’s given at CPAC, we can expect something along the lines of ‘stellar’.

~Nate G.

It’s primary election night, and that means the chat room is up! The big race many will be watching is the runoff between Karen Handel (Romney and Palin endorsed) versus Nathan Deal (Huckabee and Gingrich endorsed). We’ll post updates in the chat throughout the evening. ENJOY!

The chatbox has been moved back to the sidebar. Thanks to all who participated last night. We will most likely do it again on August 24th for the primary elections in FL, AZ, AK, and VT.

Selected results from last night:
Georgia Governor Runoff (GOP): Nathan Deal 50.2% – Karen Handel 49.8%
Colorado Senate (GOP): Ken Buck 51.6% – Jane Norton 48.4%
Colorado Governor (GOP): Dan Maes 50.7% – Scott McInnis 49.3%
Connecticut Governor (GOP): Tom Foley 42.3% – Michael Fedele 39.0% – Oz Griebel 18.6%

For full results click here.

500,000!

Congratulations to the Governor! Be sure to ‘like’ his page if you haven’t already. Find it by clicking here.

Our 21,000 ‘likes’ for our unofficial page pales in comparison, but we’re quite proud of it. As far as I know it is the largest unofficial Facebook page in support of a 2012 candidate.

BOLD PREDICTION: Sarah Palin just passed 2 million ‘likes’ on her page. I predict Romney will pass her someday. It will certainly be AFTER he wins the nomination…. maybe even after he becomes president.

~Nate Gunderson

Ben Smith of Politico rounds up the statements of potential 2012ers regarding the building of a mosque at Ground Zero. Among the entries is a statement from Mitt Romney’s official spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom:

Governor Romney opposes the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero. The wishes of the families of the deceased and the potential for extremists to use the mosque for global recruiting and propaganda compel rejection of this site.

Very short and precisely to the point, in expected Romney fashion. And, of course, he is exactly right.

Extended info on the Ground Zero Mosque (the Cordoba House) can be found at Wikipedia.

~Nate G.

UPDATE by Jayde:
Raheel Raza, a Muslim woman born in Pakistan, now residing in Canada, who is the author of Their Jihad, Not My Jihad, was a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor last night. She voiced her opposition to the Ground Zero mosque:

Raza:

Building a mosque or a place of worship in particular spot across the street from Ground Zero is a slap in the face upon Americans. I mean, New Yorkers have experienced this pain, and the people who are behind this project are themselves Americans and New Yorkers. I can’t begin to imagine how they would even conceive an idea that building a mosque there, which is an exclusive place of prayer for Muslims, would in any way build tolerance and respect.

Mayor Bloomberg and other bleeding-heart white liberals like him don’t understand the battle that we moderate Muslims are faced with in terms of confronting radical Islam and Islamization and political Islam in North America, which has only grown since 9/11 because of political correctness and people because of their politically-invested agenda not speaking out against issues like this.

Bill O’Reilly complimented Raza for expressing “the most articulate indictment of this whole crazy thing that I have ever heard.”

Mitt-man Pete Hoekstra is running for Governor in Michigan against 4 other Republican candidate seeking the nomination. Primaries are also being held (polls now closed) in Missouri and Kansas. Join us as we follow the returns and discuss the election results!

CHAT BOX HAS BEEN MOVED BACK TO THE SIDE BAR —>
Thanks to all who participated! It was a lively event.

For those who were watching the Michigan Gubernatorial primary race here are the results:
36.4% Snyder (winner)
26.8% Hoekstra
23.0% Cox
12.2% Bouchard
1.6% George

Other winners include Roy Blunt (MO Senate), and Sam Brownback (KS Gov), plus many more. For full results visit: http://www.politico.com/2010/

Also of note is Prop C passes in Missouri by a large margin signaling to the White House the major discontent with ObamaCare.

Hoekstra speaks last night after loss:

It’s been three months since we’ve done a speculative VP poll. I find my feelings doing VP polls are the same as last time:

To be honest, speculating and debating about what would be the best combo of President and VP is not really my cup of tea. All I know is that I want Romney on top of the ticket, and his VP pick would be his choice. BUT… since Pres./VP combos seems to be the greatest topic of discussion and interest on our Facebook posts I’ve decided to throw this poll out there to give our readers some meat to chew on. Even so, I will still be interested to see the results.

Sarah Palin was the top pick last time by a very small margin. Let’s see who comes out on top this time.

Note: I left Dr. Paul off intentionally to avoid having the poll overrun. This is meant to be a poll of who Romney supporters would want as VP. If you really want Ron Paul as VP please vote other and indicate in the comments.

~Nate Gunderson

Update: Added Jan Brewer and John Thune. Two obvious picks. Sorry.