I LOVE THIS SHOT!

Another great photograph telling a great story!

Occasionally, we will publish opinions submitted to us by visitors that have studied Governor Romney over many years. Gary Chidester is a frequent visitor to MRC and he provided this powerful endorsement of Governor Romney. He informs us that he is a retired Iowa school teacher. This particular opinion carries some additional weight in my mind because Chidester personally spoke to all four candidates while they campaigned in Iowa.

Mr. Chidester’s Op-Ed below nails it! I wish to add that Governor Romney is far superior to any of the remaining candidates in so many ways; but as an executive leader, the other three don’t even come close. Governor Romney has worked most of his career as a chief executive of major organizations. Even if you combined the careers of Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul (~100 years), there is no comparison to the years of executive experience of Governor Romney! Think about it.

By Gary Chester

I have been a Romney Republican, since 2007. He is the BEST candidate we have had in decades! When his issues and vision for America were shown to my friends, (as from Candidate X), almost everyone agreed that ‘this’ was the candidate they would support. When I told them that Gov. Romney was the candidate, nearly everyone started to fudge about their decision.

I am, however, surprised and saddened that some of my dear Iowa Republican friends are still playing the ‘religion’ card. For such an enlightened State, I’m ashamed that this one issue is the Achilles’ heel of the general mindset. Sadly, most Americans are the same way. If Gov. Romney would have been a Methodist or a Baptist, he probably would have been the Republican nominee in 2008 and would have won the election that Fall. Read more…

What is the connection between Rick Santorum, Arlen Specter, Obamacare and the difference made by ONE VOTE?

Governor Mitt Romney adroitly underscored a very revealing part of Rick Santorum’s political history during CNN’s GOP presidential debate Wednesday evening in Mesa, Arizona…

In 2004, while serving in the United States Senate, Santorum supported and campaigned for incumbent, liberal Senator Arlen Specter over conservative challenger Pat Toomey. Specter would later go on to cast the ONE VOTE DIFFERENCE – the vote that enabled the passage of Obamacare.

Yesterday, FOX News’ Megyn Kelly (host of America Live) conducted a post-CNN debate focus group. Among the debate segments she aired was the one vote difference exchange between Santorum and Romney. The entire video is worth viewing (the general consensus was thumbs-up for Romney!). Note the conversation @ :50 – 1:08:

A look back:

In 2004, conservative Congressman Patrick Joseph Toomey ran for the senate seat in the Pennsylvania primary race against fellow-Republican incumbent Senator Arlen Specter. Toomey’s campaign focused on Specter’s well known non-conservative leanings – especially on fiscal issues. Rick Santorum not only supported Specter, he appeared in a television ad for him. Santorum’s support for Specter proved crucial. In the end, although election results were close, Toomey lost the Republican primary to Specter.

How calamitous was Specter’s victory?

In April 2009, with the Tea Party movement in full swing, Senator Specter sensed he would be defeated at the polls. Working closely and covertly with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Obama was licking his chops), Specter switched political parties. He became a Democrat. In the process, he rewarded liberals with a likely filibuster-proof Senate majority – a 60th vote.

Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum way back when...

They’re nothing if not prompt. Voting has begun on HR 3590, the Senate’s health care bill. It only needs 50 votes to pass; the only suspense is whether or not it will receive all 60 Democratic votes. C-SPAN is using the special running tally it reserves for important votes.

That’s it. Arlen Specter, the former Republican, secures the 50th vote needed for passage.

When Specter won in 2004, given his history, it was easy to predict that he would vote with Democrats on key issues. Had Pat Toomey won in 2004, Democrats wouldn’t have garnered a 60th vote in 2009. Obamacare would not have passed.

Santorum actively labored to defeat Toomey.

More…

Read more…

Great Video by the New York Times of Mitt Romney’s Early Years.

Telling It Like It Is

Seriously, Ann’s typical candor and fearlessness are on full display as she goes to bat for Mitt in a big way in her article she posted yesterday entitled What’s Their Problem with Mitt? Her closing remarks of Romney being “the biggest outsider and most conservative candidate we’ve run for president since Reagan,” makes me recall when Jack Welsh said on CNN that “as a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney is the best I have ever seen in the last 50 years!”

Excerpt from Ann Coulter’s article: (Be sure to read the whole thing)

As governor of one of the most liberal states in the union, Mitt Romney did something even Ronald Reagan didn’t do as governor of California: He balanced the budget without raising taxes.

Romney became deeply pro-life as governor of the aforementioned liberal state and vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill. (Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich lobbied President George W. Bush to allow embryonic stem cell research.)

Romney’s approach to illegal immigration in Massachusetts resembled what Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona is doing today, making her a right-wing heroine.

Romney pushed the conservative alternative to national health care that, had it been adopted in the 49 other states, would have killed Obamacare in the crib by solving the health insurance problem at the state level.

Unlike actual Establishment candidates, Romney has never worked in Washington, much less spent his entire life as a professional politician. He’s had a Midas touch with every enterprise he has ever run, including Bain Capital, the Olympics and Massachusetts.

The chestnut about Mitt Romney being pushed on unsuspecting conservatives by “the Establishment” is the exact opposite of the truth. The Establishment, by any sensible definition, is virulently opposed to Romney — and for completely contradictory reasons.

The entire NFM (non-Fox media) hate Romney because he is the only candidate who stands a chance of beating Obama.
(Keep reading)

Winning.

Governor Rick Snyder: “Mitt Romney is not a career politician. He’s a businessman who knows how to balance the budget and he has a credible plan to put our country on a sustainable path. That’s the kind of leadership we need in Washington. Mitt Romney understands the economy and what it takes to create jobs.”

Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley: “Mitt Romney is gaining support among conservative voters in Michigan because it’s clear from his track record that he is not afraid to make the tough decisions needed to reduce our nation’s debt.”

Former Attorney General Mike Cox: “Mitt Romney is gaining support and strength in this primary because of performances like the one he delivered tonight. Michiganders can feel confident that they will have a president who is looking out for them by creating jobs and lessening the crushing debt that we face. The bold economic plan that he laid out today will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that has been held back by President Obama’s anti-growth policies. I look forward to spreading this message to Michigan voters over the next week.”
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING… Oh yes, there are more!

Update: Watch the entire debate here.

CNN GOP presidential debate at North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, SC, Jan 19, 2012. Tonight's CNN debate will be held in Mesa, AZ. (Photo AP/David Goldman)

It has been 27 days since the last GOP presidential debate was held. Tonight’s critical face-off will serve as an important springboard into next week’s elections in Arizona and Michigan.

Here are a few details on tonight’s debate at the wonderful Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona:

On Wednesday, Feb. 22, Republican presidential hopefuls will face-off for the final debate before a dozen states take to the polls on Super Tuesday. CNN anchor and chief national correspondent John King will moderate the two-hour debate, which will air live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET from the Mesa Performing Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona.
[…]
All four of the leading Republican presidential contenders will participate in Wednesday’s debate: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. In addition to questions posed to the candidates by King and Arizona Republicans in the audience, the network will solicit questions and comments submitted in real-time from CNN.com, the CNN Politics fan page on Facebook and by using the #CNNDebate hashtag on Twitter.

CNN will air the debate on television; a live feed may be found here. For CNN mobile apps click here.

Don’t forget to use hashtags #CNNdebate and #UnravelTheSweater when tweeting.

AZ Governor Jan Brewer weighs in:

The timing for tonight’s debate couldn’t be any better for Arizona and the Republican governor, Jan Brewer, says that the showdown is very important to her state.

“I think that Arizona will be a pivotal state. There are a lot of undecided voters in Arizona so I think that people will be tuned in and watching, and because of this debate will be making their decision, not only in Arizona but across the country,” Brewer said.

And what do Arizona voters want to hear from the candidates?

“I think that just like everywhere in America, people are concerned about jobs and the economy. Here in Arizona people are also concerned with their border security, they are concerned about new federalism and states’ rights, and are very interested in natural resource issues,” Brewer said.

(emphasis added)

Details on stage arrangements (see photo below):

“This is the first CNN debate where we’ve used a table,” Feist said. “We decided to make this debate more intimate.”

And the table that candidates will be seated around has some history.

“An interesting piece of trivia is that the last time this particular table was used in a GOP debate was at the Reagan Library debate on January 30, 2008,” Feist said. “Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were both at that debate sitting at this very same table.”

Stage prep continues today for tonight's GOP debate at the Mesa Arts Center in beautiful Mesa, Arizona. Check out the lineup... Romney will be wearing double armour! GO MITT! (Click on image to enlarge.)
Photo - AP/East Valley Tribune/Tim Hacker
Feb 22, 2012

Right at the moment when Evangelicals begin turning to Rick Santorum to be their leader and standard-bearer, a speech emerges that Santorum gave three years ago to a Catholic university called Ave Maria. In the speech to the Catholic audience, Santorum (who is also a devout Catholic) states that mainline protestantism is in “shambles” and “is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.”

I was so surprised by the statements that I checked Santorum’s original speech to make sure that his statements were not being taken out of context. And sure enough, Santorum really said those statements in context. You can listen to the whole speech here.

Here is the 2008 statement by Rick Santorum:

We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.

Rush Limbaugh discussed these controversial comments made by Santorum on his radio show saying “Santorum is going to have to answer for that.”

These statements made by Santorum aren’t just a “gaffe” of the typical variety. These statements are so bad that they fit into a totally new category: truly disqualifying. After all, a huge swath of Christians in America fall into the category of Protestants such as Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, 7th Day Adventists, Anglicans and many more. How can Rick Santorum be the standard-bearer of Evangelicals when he is on record saying such things?
Click here to see more “threads” in the #UnravelTheSweater series

BIG REQUEST: Please forward this post to everyone you know in Michigan and Arizona. Thank you!

PHRASES USED BY SANTORUM IN 2008 to describe Governor Romney:

• He is speaking with clarity and conviction…with the heart and mind together!
• There is only one place to go right now and that’s Mitt Romney!
• He knows what it means to be commander in chief!
• He has a depth of knowledge about [national security]
• He was not only curious, but he had some very interesting insights!

…….. And many more ebullient utterances!

Seriously. Mr. Santorum has not been this passionate, even one time in the 2012 race! When you listen to the following interview — given by Santorum on the Laura Ingraham radio show in February 2008 — you will hear that he was so excited about Romney as President of the United States, Laura Ingraham literally had to interrupt him! And why? So she could publicly announce her own endorsement of Governor Romney, right then and there! This is classic. Every Santorum supporter needs to hear how effusive he was in this amazing testimonial of Governor Romney. This entire audio piece is a crescendo, from beginning to the very end! You get the sense that Santorum would have kept raving about Romney for another 20 minutes if allowed.

The last 100 seconds of the audio are the best:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS EXCELLENT AUDIO CLIP

UPDATE: More on Santorum’s electability problem at this link. They suggest, as I do below, part of the problem isn’t just the statements, it’s a self-inflicted inability to pick the issues you really want to focus on.

UPDATE 2: The hits just keep coming: Santorum is unelectable, says this article at CNN about why very few in the Congress are endorsing him.

One veteran GOP leadership aide called him a culture warrior likely to turn off moderate voters.

“The fear of Santorum is that it would just be a slow decay. There is no faith that he would bring independent or moderate voters. If he does well on Super Tuesday you’ll have serious people talking about convention strategies,” said the Senate GOP leadership aide.

Rick Santorum is unelectable. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. Rick Santorum’s Position on Social Issues are Significantly to the Right of Most Americans. Rick Santorum is tacking hard to the right to win votes in the primary. There’s good evidence he’s taken some of his positions out of political expediency. For example, it’s now been made public he was pro-choice until he ran for Senate. But regardless of his shift, the statements he is making now at best show he’s very, very bad at picking battles (a skill a president must have) and at worst paint him as too conservative and even outrageous to mainstream America. And he’s generated this sentiment after being in the spotlight only about a week. If we want to defeat Barack Obama, the GOP nominee will have to focus on the issues that appeal to middle voters, not scare them off. So in my mind this is not really about whether Rick’s right or wrong, but his skill at building consensus as president, and how he’s perceived. In the words of Jennifer Rubin, a conservative writer at the Washington Post:

Santorum likes to say that he is principled, but in fact he’s vividly demonstrating day after day that his strongly held social views, when uttered aloud in dogmatic tones, sound outrageous to voters who aren’t hard-core social conservatives.

Bill Press of the Chicago Tribune writes of his disgust when he recently read Santorum was outpacing Mitt in Michigan (emphasis added):
Read more…

Mitt Romney picked up the endorsement of the largest right-leaning newspaper in Michigan this morning. The Detroit News joins the Oakland Press as major newspapers endorsing Gov. Romney here in Michigan.

Gov. Romney has garnered a few other endorsements that are having a greater impact than the media realizes. This about this: In 2010, Michigan had a heated primary for Governor which consisted of 4 major candidates. ALL 4 candidates are supporting Gov. Romney. Pete Hoekstra is running for Senate, so he and Mitt have decided to stay away from public endorsements, but behind-the-scenes, they couldn’t be closer. They even go so far as to allow each other’s campaigns to pass items out at each other’s events. Gov. Rick Snyder has endorsed Mitt, Lt. Governor Brian Calley, AG Bill Schuette, Mike Cox, and Mike Bouchard who were the other two main competitors in the Michigan GOP Governor Primary. I’ve never seen such a strong consolidation of support here in Michigan before. It’s basically unanimous among all the top republicans in Michigan that Mitt Romney is the only choice for Michigan voters.

Chris Christie did a great job on Piers Morgan last night, and you can watch several of the clips here.

Donald Trump talks Mitt Romney on WSGW Radio in Michigan. Donald Trump has done a great job supporting Mitt here in Michigan.

One campaign strategy that has served the campaign amazingly well are the tele-townhalls he and Ann have participated in. Here is the audio of one of those calls. The campaign has run one or two of these calls all week and last week, and people are loving them so much more than the robo-calls.

If you want to see Mitt’s Event in Ohio from the 20th, click here.

Find out what keeps President Obama up at night below the fold. Read more…