Nikki Haley, the current Governor of South Carolina made headlines today when she refused to commit to endorsing any potential 2012 candidate – including Sarah Palin:

South Carolina’s new Republican governor sent a signal on Sunday that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) might not expect candidates she endorsed in the 2010 elections to necessarily return the favor in 2012.

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said that she doesn’t feel any special obligation to Palin, who endorsed Haley at a critical juncture of last year’s Republican gubernatorial primary.

“I have not in any way endorsed, plan on endorsing at this point in time at all. I want all the candidates to come to South Carolina,” Haley said on ABC when asked if she’d endorse Palin.

“I want the people of South Carolina to get to see them the way I know them. I want them to campaign hard. And then when right time comes, I will endorse. But there’s is no one that I feel like I owe at this time,” Haley added.

Sarah Palin isn’t the only person that endorsed her in her 2010 bid to become Governor. Mitt Romney also endorsed Nikki Haley as well and wrote out a $3,500 check to her campaign. It’s important to remember that Nikki Haley endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2008 elections. The only other potential 2012 candidate is Mike Huckabee but he did not endorse Governor Haley. Instead, he supported Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.

The article then goes on to say getting Senator Jim DeMint’s approval could be a factor in winning the primary election in South Carolina:

The endorsement of the state’s conservative icon, Sen. Jim DeMint (R), could also be particularly important in determining the outcome of the primary.

Jim DeMint has been a long time fan of Mitt Romney. In fact, he endorsed Mitt Romney during the 2008 elections as seen in the clip below (Feb 6, 2007):

Capturing these endorsements for 2012 would be a nice plus for Romney because he did not win the 2008 South Carolina primaries:

In 2008 he spent more than $2 million on TV ads in the state to win 15.3 percent of the vote, carrying none of the state’s counties

South Carolina is important because it is usually the third state to host the primaries after New Hampshire and New Jersey. It is the first primary to be held in the South.

Winning South Carolina won’t be easy for Romney. He will still have to compete with Sarah Palin (if she decides to run) and other 2012 contenders for endorsements. His faith was a factor in the last presidential elections but may not be a bigger issue in this election. However, given that South Carolina is southern, it is an issue to consider. Finally, Romney came in fourth in the 2008 South Carolina primary.

While Governor Romney will face a challenge in winning the 2012 South Carolina primaries, I think he has the advantage here. There is a substantially high probability that he that he will get the endorsements from both Nikki Haley and Jim DeMint given that they both did support Romney during the 2008 Presidential elections.

Moreover, South Carolina is hurting economically. The unemployment rate is 10.7% and is declining. Thus, the biggest issue for the people of South Carolina will be the economy. Those who live there will surely want a strong, fiscally sound conservative who can create the necessary conditions for jobs to come back and improve the economy.

In my opinion, the best candidate for South Carolina is none other than Mitt Romney.

Governor Mitt Romney tweeted support a few days ago for Governor Scott Walker in his fight to restore fiscal common sense in balancing Wisconsin’s in-the-red budget:

• Support @GovWalker for doing what’s necessary to rein in out-of-control public sector pay and benefits #tcot 4:29 PM Feb 18th via web

• Donate now to support Governor Walker and WI GOP senators as they attempt to restore fiscal sanity http://mi.tt/StandWithWI via web

Amid President Obama accusing Walker of unleashing an assault on unions, thousands of frenzied protesting state employees, public workers, and teachers crowding Wisconsin’s capitol building, doctors handing out fake ‘sick’ notes to absentee teachers, state troopers sent out to find 14 AWOL Democrat state senators, Van Jones and MoveOn.org blowing the trumpet for union marches on all 50 states, Governor Walker delivered this fireside chat two days ago (2/22/11/0:

Today, Governor Romney put his money where his mouth is. His PAC donated $5,000 – the maximum contribution allowed – to show solidarity with Governor Walker:

Romney Antes Up for Wis. GOP

[...]
“Liberal big government interests are fighting efforts to rein in out-of-control public employee pay and benefits in Wisconsin,” Romney said in a Thursday statement. “It is critical that we stand with the Wisconsin GOP as it stands up for the rights of the taxpayer.”

His Free and Strong America PAC is sending the maximum $5,000 contribution to the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

The fight is part of Walker’s battle to solve the state’s budget woes, and union protestors have come out in force to oppose his plan.
[..]

(my emphasis)

Today, after an unprecedented 40-hour debate that began on Tuesday, Democrat legislators have consented to limit final debate on Walker’s bill to a 10 minute time limit per individual – allowing the bill to be voted on today. The final version of the bill can’t move to the governor’s desk until one of the 14 democrat Senators returns to complete a quorum. Gov Walker says massive lay-offs could be the result if the bill isn’t completed.

UPDATE @ 6:05 PM PST – Wisconsin state legislators have been debating Gov Walker’s bill for 58 hour straight now. Word is the bill will be voted on tonight. State troopers came up empty-handed on their search to locate Democrat state senators within state boundaries. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2 @ 11:41 PM PST – Wisconsin House Republicans have passed Gov Walker’s bill. We’ll see what happens tomorrow…

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill

[...]The vote put an end to three straight days of punishing debate, but the political standoff over the bill is far from over. The measure now goes to the Senate, where minority Democrats have been missing for a week, preventing a vote in that chamber.

No one knows when – or if – the Senate Democrats will return from their hideout in Illinois.
[...]
The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.
[...]

Evidently there was some drama:

After more than 60 hours in which Democrats threw out dozens of amendments and delivered rambling speeches, Republicans halted debate early Friday. In a matter of seconds, they had approved the bill. Only a few Democrats realized what was going on and managed to vote before the roll was closed.

The Democrats rose from their seats and rushed at the Republicans shouting, “Shame!” as the Republicans exited the chamber.

UPDATE 3 Feb 25, 2011:

Wisconsin State Assembly Passes Budget Bill (Coverage ends @ 1:48- ignore following ad)



Read Gov Walker’s ‘repair-the-budget’ bill here.

► Jayde Wyatt

What do ABC, CNN, and CBS have in common…

on Tuesday, February 1, 2011?

It’s a three-way network ‘news nabbing’ of Mitt Romney on the day his book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness is released in paperback.

That’s right; in the morning he’ll be appearing on ABC’s The View and in the evening he’ll air on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight show. Later that night the Governor will cap off the day on CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman.

NEW YORK ‒ Jan. 27, 2011

Mitt Romney will present the Top Ten List on the LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN,Tuesday, Feb. 1 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a 2008 Republican Presidential candidate, is the author of the book, No Apology: Believe in America, which will also be released in paperback on Tuesday. This will be Romney’s second visit to the CBS broadcast. He sat down for an interview with Letterman on the LATE SHOW March 2, 2010.

UPDATE: Romney will ALSO make a stop at Good Morning America on Feb 1st. That is quite a schedule! (H/t NY4M-Jeff)

UPDATE 2: FYI: George Stephanopoulos will interview Mitt on GMA Tue, Feb 1, 2011.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Looks like Governor Romney will be very busy on February 1st and he has also been very busy.

After completing an intense visit to the Middle East, hiring a couple of new team members, writing an article on President Reagan, having dinner with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and appearing on the Hannity show this week (1/26/11), the Governor was in Boston today to host a lunch for Massachusetts State House Republicans:

Boston —
Former Gov. Mitt Romney hosted Bay State House Republicans for lunch Friday as the 2008 presidential candidate eyes another run for the president.

Romney, who has not formally announced a bid for the nation’s highest office, met with House GOP members to rally support and “meet the troops,” Republican leaders said after the lunch at the Union Club on Park Street, just steps away from the capitol.

Leaving the club with a half-eaten sandwich in his hand, Romney said he was not doing any campaigning.

“I am just here for lunch to say hi to some friends, talk about what is happening here in Massachusetts,” Romney said. “This is a great delegation. I care very deeply about this team.”

“They are doing great work, working very hard to get good jobs for the people of Massachusetts. That is what it is all about. Nice job Brad, keep it up” Romney said to House Minority Leader Brad Jones.

Jones said he invited Romney to meet the Republican caucus, the largest GOP class in 20 years with 31 members. Jones and other Republicans said they would be behind Romney if he decides to run.

“We talked a lot about taxes, jobs and the economy,” Jones said. “Going around the nation, that is what people are concerned about. That’s what people are concerned about in Massachusetts.”

[...]

Freshman legislator Rep. Angelo D’Emilia (R-Bridgewater) said it was the first time he had met Romney.

“It gave us freshmen the opportunity to meet the good governor,” D’Emilia said. “He congratulated us. He was happy to see the success we had here in doubling our numbers.”

Rep. Donald Humason Jr. (R-Westfield) said: “I think he is ready, we would certainly be ready to support him. We need a candidate who is good on jobs, good on the economy for this country, and I can’t think of anybody better than Mitt Romney.”

(my emphasis)

Read more here.

► Jayde Wyatt

Mark DeMoss is no small name in the evangelical and political world. In Mitt Romney’s 2008 run for the presidency DeMoss was a very public, prominent supporter and volunteer for the campaign. DeMoss gives one of the first full-blown endorsements (for Romney) of the 2012 season with a 5-page letter addressed to “Conservative and Evangelical Leaders.” Politico broke the news of the letter yesterday saying the memo was sent to “about 200 top pastors, donors, intellectuals and leaders on the Christian right.”

We contacted the DeMoss Group for permission to post the letter in it’s entirety on our website, to which they did not object. But before I post the letter I want to include a very nice DeMoss intro I found in a 2007 interview posted on the Article 6 Blog:

Mark founded The DeMoss Group, an Atlanta-based public relations firm, in 1991. The firm describes itself as specializing in serving Christian organizations and causes and as the largest such agency in the country. Their clients include:The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Samaritan’s Purse & Franklin Graham; Prison Fellowship and Chuck Colson; Campus Crusade for Christ; Focus on the Family; Bishop TD Jakes; American Center for Law & Justice; and Teen Mania.

Prior to starting the firm Mark served as chief-of-staff and spokesperson for Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia for 8 years, a period which included the height of popularity of the Moral Majority. The DeMoss Group has worked closely with more than 100 faith-based organizations in the past 16 years and Mark has provided strategic communications counsel to dozens of religious leaders during that time. In March 2007, Thomas Nelson publishers released Mark’s first book, The Little Red Book of Wisdom. Mark describes the book, already in its third printing, as “presenting wisdom for your professional life and wisdom for your personal life.”

Mark Demoss’ letter:
——————————————————————————————-

To: Conservative and Evangelical Leaders
From: Mark DeMoss
Date: January 18, 2011
Subject: A New Litmus Test for 2012

_________________________________________________________________________

Happy New Year! One of the things I like about the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is the time it gives me to think—think about my family, my business, and yes, politics. Perhaps like you, I have spent considerable time recently thinking about the 2012 presidential election and decided to share some thoughts with conservative and evangelical leaders and friends.

I supported Mitt Romney in 2008. Having had two more years to consider that decision I will be supporting him again, should he decide to run. Here’s how I arrived at that decision—see if this makes sense for you.

First, I’ve arrived at four conclusions:

Read more…

There has been a lot of poll results coming out this week showing Mitt Romney as not only the GOP front runner, but also the only candidate who stands in the way of Obama’s chances at a second term in the White House.

A new poll came out today from Public Policy Polling showing Mitt Romney as the only person who would be a real challenge to President Obama in Nevada. No other tentative Republican candidate for the 2012 election would be a competitive against Obama in the fight to secure Nevada’s 6 electoral votes (1 extra thanks to the 2010 census):

Barack Obama would easily take Nevada if he had to stand for reelection today…unless the Republicans nominated Mitt Romney. Obama has early double digit advantages against Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin in the state but has just a single point edge over Romney.

Nevada is one of the few swing states we’ve polled in the last couple months where more voters approve (50%) than disapprove (46%) of Obama. Like everywhere else in the country Democrats are largely happy with him and Republicans are most unhappy- what sets apart his numbers in Nevada is his popularity with independents, 55% of whom approve of him with 41% disapproving.

Independents in the state may like Obama but they like Romney even more, giving him a 58/28 favorability rating. That’s quite a contrast to how they feel about other the leading Republican contenders in the state. Huckabee’s favorability with them is 38/50, Palin’s is 28/61, and Gingrich actually occupies the basement in this state at 26/65.

emphasis mine

Nevada isn’t the only state where Mitt Romney is the only real threat to Obama’s chances of winning that state. Obama has the same problem in Michigan where the former Massachusetts governor is the only person who poses a significant hurdle in capturing that state. That point is made clear in PPP’s reporting:

Of the battleground states where we’ve polled 2012 so far, Nevada has the biggest disparity in the GOP’s chances of winning depending on who their nominee is. The only other state where there was greater than a 5 point difference between how one Republican did and the rest of them was Michigan, where Romney came to within 4 points of Obama with Huckabee the next closest at 12 points.

Even though Obama and Mitt Romney are closely tied in Nevada, the advantage goes to Mitt Romney. He won Nevada during the 2008 Presidential primaries (some have attributed his victory to the high volume of Mormon [LDS] voters). He made a whopping five stops to the Vegas area on his No Apology book tour back in March. He also gave a speech to the 2,500 members of the International Franchise Association in Las Vegas. Furthermore, Mitt endorsed a handful of Republican candidates in Nevada and came out to stump for them during the 2010 midterm elections. As a result, Mitt Romney has some serious name recognition in Nevada –enough to help him secure the vital swing state.

Given that Governor Romney can put states like Nevada and Michigan into play for 2012 while other potential Republican candidates would lose by double digit margins, he really becomes an attractive candidate for Americans looking to put Obama in the unemployment line in 2012 — perhaps in Nevada, where the state has an unemployment rate of 14.3%, the highest unemployment rate in the United States.

The economy will be the most important issue of 2012, Americans will want a candiate who can stimulate the economy (not the government) and get Americans back to work again. The best man to do that is Mitt Romney; Mitt means business!

~ Jared A.

With the South Carolina 2012 Presidential primary being one of the first in the nation and by many considered one of the most important, Mitt Romney is looking pretty good. At least with it’s top officials.

Jim Demint a long time friend and supporter of Romney’s candidacy in 2008 can’t help but bring Romney’s name up as being at the top of his list again for 2012. New Governor Nikki Haley who was also a supporter of Romney in 2008, was backed early on by him (1, 2, 3) in her own run for Governor when she was considered a long shot and before anyone else of note got involved in her campaign. Both of these South Carolinians know a good man when they see him.

Well yesterday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham had this to say about Romney on Meet The Press:

Fast forward to the 15:50 minute mark: (Update: correct video is now embedded.)

In an interview with Politico, Demint had this to say about Sarah Palin:

“We’ve never spoken, but she left me a nice message, and I believe she’s done more for the Republican Party than anyone since Ronald Reagan,” he said.

The article also pointed this out:

DeMint backed Romney in the 2008 presidential primary — but said he’s got “an open mind” about 2012.

“He’s obviously near the top of my list, he’s a good quality candidate and we’ve got others who are looking at it,” said DeMint, who also is getting encouragement from some conservative activists to run for president.

Senator DeMint, here’s a question for you:

Does Sarah Palin light up a room like Mitt Romney?

As Obama and the First Lady take a conveniently timed get-out-of-the-country junket to India to dance off their shellacking and Nancy Pelosi cracks her knuckles to become House Minority Leader, and with less than a week since midterms were held, it’s a good time to reflect on the indefatigable, eyeball-to-eyeball election work of Governor Mitt Romney.

In the past few months he stuffed his suitcase to travel to 30 states – yes, 30 – and campaigned for 60 candidates – most of the time doing multiple events for them in the same day. Putting money where one’s mouth is really counts at election time and Romney didn’t disappoint on that front, either. Impressively, Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC donated over $1.1 million to assist over 500 candidates across the USA – the most money raised and distributed by any potential 2012 candidates’ PAC.

Gov Romney summarized his perspective of the past several months in a post-election blog entry:

Reflections on Yesterday’s Results
Posted on November 03, 2010 by Mitt Romney

As I wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed this morning, Americans across the country have sent a very strong message to President Obama and his fellow travelers in Congress that they have had enough of their anti-growth, anti-investment, anti-jobs agenda.

Over the past two years, their policies scared employers, so jobs are scarce. The uncertainty and lack of predictability they created has caused businesses to shrink from spending and from hiring. Instead of helping to end the crisis, they made it deeper, longer and more painful.

But last night, we took a big first step toward getting our economy — and our country — back on the right track.

At last report, Republicans had regained control of the House with a net gain of over 60 seats, as well as seeing net gains of at least six seats in the Senate and at least six Governorships.

With your help, we’ve been working hard at my Free and Strong America PAC to spread the core principles that are at the heart of making America a stronger nation and which fortify our party — that a competitive America is one where taxes are low and government is small, that our military superiority must never be compromised, that our cultural values need to be cherished and that unleashing the power of the free market is key to our economic future.

All told, your support gave me the resources to campaign for over 60 candidates in over 30 states and my PAC contributed over $1.1 million in direct support to over 500 candidates and conservative causes across the nation.

Your support was critical to us giving candidates like South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley the help she needed to win by providing the resources for me to travel to South Carolina on her behalf and send $63,000 in direct contributions to her campaign through my PAC. You also helped us campaign for and send nearly $17,000 in direct support to New Mexico’s Governor-elect Susana Martinez, who is our nation’s first Hispanic female to be elected governor.

This year I’ve also worked hard to promote our shared conservative ideals by giving speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Values Voter Summit, and the AEI World Forum, and delivering the Annual Reagan Lecture at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

In addition, I also had the opportunity to travel the country discussing my book, “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.” It was great reconnecting with old friends and making new ones as I traveled across the country talking about what we need to do to ensure we remain the world’s economic and military superpower.

We should all be proud of what we’ve accomplished together this year, and I look forward to working with you in the months ahead to build upon these victories and ensure that America remains, as it always has been, the beacon of freedom and hope for the world.

In all the coverage read and seen of Romney’s midterm work, one could plainly sense the gravitas he brought to bear to each candidate’s campaigns. Also plain to see was the real appreciation and enthusiasm he felt for each candidate.

A look back at 2008 – Romney’s message is just as timely now, if not more so, than it was then:

In his quest to elect conservatives, who can count the number of speeches Gov Romney gave, the number of hours of missed of sleep, and the number of hands he shook? Impressive, indeed. By the way, there’s some talk floating around about whether the Tea Party will ‘invite‘ Romney to the 2012 table… Of all the 2012 potential candidates, he did the most to put tea in their pot!

America needs a talker…
who knows what he is talking about…
who is a doer.

► Jayde Wyatt