Taking a cue from today’s annual 84th presentation of the Academy Awards, today CNN’s Candy Crowley shared her light-hearted version of ‘Campaign Awards’ on her program State of The Union:

A close up look at some of the best moments from the 2012 GOP race…
And the Oscar goes to:

Agree? Or, Razzies? (Seeing Crowley’s review reminds me how happy I am we’re down to four candidates!)

What award would you give Obama?

A couple of days ago, NBC’s Garrett Haake woke up to something we’ve known all along. The Romney-is-stiff meme, which talking heads cunningly perpetuate, is a big, fat lie:

Live from Kalamazoo, it’s Mitt Romney!

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Maybe it was something about being back home in Michigan, or the fact that it’s nearly the weekend, or just a touch of punchiness after a long day, but Friday night Mitt Romney, yes that Mitt Romney, was just plain funny.

The sometimes-Republican frontrunner, whose reputation for stiffness and an inability to connect with voters on a personal level has long been taken as gospel by campaign-watchers, opened his town hall here tonight as he often does, with an anecdote about his father, a former Michigan governor. But this story was a little different than usual.

“We were in Detroit this morning, at the Detroit Economic Club, then through Mount Clemens, then drove here across the interstate. Drove past Brighton. My parents’ grave sites are there,” Romney explained. “My dad — trust my dad. My dad is a very frugal man. He checked all over for where the best deal was on a grave site. And he found a place in Brighton — because we didn’t live in Brighton. It’s like, how did you pick Brighton dad? Well, best price I could find in the whole state. So if you’re looking for the best deal on a grave site, check Brighton, they got a good spot you’ll be near the former governor and first lady.”

Governor Romney was on a roll; he ad-libbed…

Confronted with a question about space exploration and NASA, Romney refused to promise more funding for exploration, saying he preferred to focus on promoting basic science through NASA.

He made light of China’s attempt to achieve its own moon landing.

“I know China is headed to the moon,” Romney said. “They’re planning on going to the moon, and some people say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get to the moon, we’ve got to get there in a hurry to prove we can get there before China.’ It’s like, guys, we were there a long time ago, all right? And when you get there would you bring back some of the stuff we left?”

Romney saved a sure laugh for the end – the one which snagged the Crowley Campaign Award:

Wrapping the event after more than 40 minutes on stage (he said he’d been there an hour), he made mention of an infamous political gaffe by a fellow Massachusetts governor.

“I’m getting the cut off and I won’t make the sign of the cut off because there’s a lot of cameras around here and that’ll be used against me down the road… just like Michael Dukakis’ hat in that tank,” Romney said. “There’s some things you just cannot do in politics anymore.”

As Neil Cavuto told Jersey Man Ken Dunek on Feb 14, 2012:

… We all remember Michael Dukakis in the tank. The stories are legend that John Kennedy never wanted to be photographed in a hat. He was wise. It’s a good rule for anyone running for office, because someone looks goofy in a hat. That whole thing hurt Dukakis. It could be a vignette or a moment that can make or break you.

Hey, The Gov knows his stuff. Nothing on his head except a ball cap.

Time to roll out the red carpet for Romney!

► Jayde Wyatt

Mr. Santorum has decided to join Gingrich in the whining gallery. Those who have followed MRC’s coverage of Newt Gingrich know that one word we have used often to describe his rhetoric concerning Governor Romney is “whiner.” In fact, I believe that a Newtonian classic set-up to any of his arguments is almost always the big whine.

Well, now Mr. Santorum has decided to try that same Newtonian line of reasoning. Isn’t it interesting though that when Santorum is ahead in some poll, he takes all the credit for the lead, but when he drops behind, he starts whining and blaming others for the erosion? Sound familiar? Gingrich is the expert at this. He and his team have probably strategized that the Gingrich whine is the best line of attack now.

Santorum is complaining that Ron Paul seems to be ganging up with Governor Romney to defeat Santorum in upcoming states such as Michigan. From the very beginning of the horse race, we know that Governor Romney has dropped from the lead in the polls a few times as he has been relentlessly attacked using false and completely misleading tidbits of information by all the candidates simultaneously. Has Governor Romney ever complained or whined about their “collusion”?

Never.

Click through here to read the big NYT article about Santorum’s whining and to see the video created by Ron Paul that Santorum does not like (35 seconds): Read more…

I LOVE THIS SHOT!

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…

Update: Watch the entire debate here.

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.”

We’re gung-ho for another outstanding debate for Governor Romney!

GO MITT!!



► Jayde Wyatt

Frequent visitors to MRC know my thoughts about Mr. Gingrich. His narcissism, self adulation, and condescending style disqualify him from higher office. Most Republicans have resigned themselves to the fact that very few, if any, of Gingrich’s pursuits are noble. He is driven by ambition and revenge.

Gingrich knows how to sell books and frankly, that is exactly what I think he is all about. As a wealthy man, he seeks to expand his image with power. He would accept power of course, but all he really wanted was a forum to sell more books. So little has been exposed on Gingrich and yet, each time we do a little truth-letting, Gingrich drops like a rock in the polls. What is he now, fourth or fifth in the polls? Oh wait, there are only four candidates left.

Every time I turn around, I keep running into these little gems of truth about Mr. Gingrich. I guess since I have never known any person this arrogant, it fascinates me. The fact he is duplicitous, terrifies me. Candidly, I don’t understand how he gets even one supporter, let alone thousands. Fascinating!

Yesterday, The Washington Post’s Jerry Markon published an article, exposing a few more facts behind the true nature of Mr. Gingrich. My excerpts below are only a glimpse.

The files offer a candid glimpse of the former House speaker, a man who could be charming and self-effacing one moment, ambitious and grandiose the next, an admittedly disorganized manager who viewed his role as nothing less than saving the Western world.

“When I say save the West, I mean that,” Gingrich said in a 1979 address to his congressional staff, preserved in the files. “That is my job. . . . It is not my job to win reelection. It is not my job to take care of passport problems. It is not my job to get a bill through Congress. My job description as I have defined it is to save Western civilization.”
[...]
While Gingrich differed sharply with the Reagan administration on issues such as defense spending and foreign policy, he effusively praised the president for national audiences.

“He is the most articulate, most charming, most aggressive conservative we’ve had, possibly since Theodore Roosevelt,” Gingrich was quoted as saying in a 1983 Associated Press story.

Yet behind closed doors, Gingrich raged at Reagan and other conservatives, especially after House Republicans lost seats in the 1982 elections. And back in Georgia, newspapers quoted him as saying something different. “Really, Reaganomics has failed,” Gingrich said.

The entire Washington Post article is very good. I recommend it highly: CLICK

David Parker contributed an outstanding Op-Ed last week about the importance of substantial executive leadership experience when considering a candidate for President of the United States. His guest post included a chart that compares the four remaining candidates: CLICK

I will repeat what I have said before here at MRC. Governor Romney has said since he began his participation as a candidate for the 2012 race that it would be a long race. Since he made those initial comments, the pundits, mainstream media, FOX talking heads, the other candidates, and just about everybody else have tried to set different expectations around Governor Romney. Why? So they could have as much influence as possible in the outcome. I will stress again: Keep your eyes on our file leader, Mitt Romney. His strategy to end up with the winning number of delegates is on course, contrary to what others want you to think. Not one of the other three candidates has even close to the experience as Governor Romney in strategic planning, execution, or executive leadership. None!

By David Parker

Brokered convention, really? All because of Michigan, the ninth contest out of 54? Aren’t we being a little premature, if not irresponsible? We expect it in the biased liberal media, but the conservative media and pundits should be ashamed! Now is the time for conservatives to come together rather than promote division. Think about it — as a Republican Party do we really want to wait until the end of August before knowing our nominee?

Are we so blinded by –

1. The media’s want for a story;

2. The conservative media, pundits and bloggers capitulating to a liberal media agenda of disruption;

3. Adherence to unequivocal absolutes in our ideology (Reagan’s adoption of being 80% agreement as acceptable, even disagreeing on 20%);

4. Rick Santorum’s protestations that it is his social agenda that matters, a social agenda that no one else can match, when they can and do with more substance; Read more…

Yesterday CBS reported that Sheldon Adelson would again commit $10 million to the Gingrich super PAC “Winning Our Future” — this in addition to $11 million already given to the PAC by the Adelson family.

NewsMax also reported yesterday a possible second motive or strategy, first reported by The Wall Street Journal Wednesday of this week. The NewsMax post states, in part:

“Adelson is certainly giving Gingrich one more chance. But given Gingrich’s poll numbers, Adelson’s cash infusion is more about knocking Santorum from the top of the polls than it is about boosting Gingrich’s chances” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told CNN. “While Adelson supports Gingrich, he is concerned that Santorum could win the nomination over [Mitt] Romney.”

[emphasis added]

Wednesday of this week (2/15/12), Alicia Mundy and Alexandra Berzon, in their WSJ article (p. A4) titled, “Gingrich’s Main Backer Plays Two Angles” the sub-title states: “Casino Mogul Adelson Weighs New Funding to Boost Former Speaker and to Help Romney Keep Santorum at Bay.”

It is widely known that Mr. Adelson’s love of the state of Israel is his main motivation behind any political support he provides. He has a long time friendship with Gingrich who is an ardent supporter of Israel. Governor Romney has also known Adelson for years and he too is obviously a strong supporter of Israel — during the Nevada caucuses they met to discuss the possibility of Adelson throwing his support behind his campaign.

I found this two-pronged strategy fascinating. Reading between the lines, I concluded that Adelson would prefer that Governor Romney as the Republican nominee and that he had concluded that the best way to ensure a Romney win was to bifurcate the support going to Santorum and Gingrich. Absolutely fascinating! Does that mean that had Gingrich continued to win states and delegates that Adelson would have shifted support to Santorum to balance this strategy? That seems unlikely to me based on the long Adelson/Gingrich friendship, but the possibility is fascinating nonetheless.

Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal Article (before Adelson made the commitment public):

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, by far the biggest financial backer of Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid, is preparing to open his wallet again. But this time, the casino magnate appears to have more than one agenda.

In a bit of political chess, Mr. Adelson is ready to not only directly support the former House speaker in the Republican primary, but to use his cash to push Rick Santorum from his position atop the latest national polls, according to people who have discussed the matter with Mr. Adelson. Read more…

What do we see after 20 years of employment in government? Celebrity? Yes. Fame? Yes. Huge speaking fees? Yes. High paid “consulting” fees? Yes. Wealth? Yes. Generosity? You decide.

What is left? Power.

Two days ago, Rick Santorum released his tax returns. Let’s take a peek at them and what we learned from the Santorum’s returns (last four years):

• Their effective tax rates were between 25% and 29%
• Their most recent contributions to charity equal 1.8% (to a high of 2.6% in 2009)
• They are wealthy by almost any standard in America

[source: RIGHT SPEAK]

The media goes all out to depict Governor Romney negatively by comparison to Gingrich and Santorum. For example, Governor Romney’s latest tax returns indicate he paid around 15% in capital gains taxes. However, rarely does the press mention the obvious: That he had to earn the original money that got invested. Governor Romney’s original income was earned just like you and I earn it. And he would have paid ordinary income taxes on that money, at the time. I’m no accountant, but he would have been taxed originally at 35% I believe. Adding his capital gains taxes to his ordinary income taxes means he paid around 50% in taxes, give or take.

So what? Both Senator Santorum and Governor Romney did what is legally required of them: They paid to Caesar what Caesar demands. No more. No less. They both did what was required of them under the law. Good!

The bigger and more important question is, what did each man choose to do with their “discretionary” incomes? Both are wealthy men by comparison to the vast majority of Americans. Many Americans of modest, even limited means pay far more than 2% of their income to charity (remember the widow’s mite?) — I know many Americans of modest means who contribute far more than the Santorums, as a percentage of income.

By contrast, Governor Romney paid 16% in charitable contributions. Comparing just percentages, Romney paid almost nine times the amount as Santorum. So what? Read more…

Rick Santorum served in the Senate for 12 years. Twelve years! Where are the endorsements from his colleagues?


ABC News
Feb 16, 2012
by Sunlen Miller

There was a bit of an awkward moment at a Republican news conference on Capitol Hill today, highlighting Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s lack of support among his former colleagues in the Senate.

No sitting senator has endorsed the Pennsylvanian, even though he served in the chamber for 12 years (until 2007) and worked his way into the party’s leadership as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

By comparison, for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been endorsed by 14 senators.

When asked about Santorum during an unrelated news conference on jobs today, his former colleagues took pains to avoid comment, awkwardly looking at each other [...]

Here’s the response reporters received:

No one volunteered to answer the question… Reluctantly, one senator tentatively spoke up:
Read more…

We’ve all heard the line “the conservative base doesn’t like Mitt Romney” or some version of that idea. It’s a line that has been thrown around carelessly in the media for several months now, and we all know that once the media adopts a theme or “narrative” about a candidate, it becomes incredibly difficult to break that narrative even when evidense abounds to the contrary.

Well, now that there has been some actual voting, lets look at the FACTS to see if that claim holds water. What I am going to argue is that, if we analyze the exit polls from the competitive primaries and caucuses held so far, Romney has captured the conservative base by a large margin over his competitors. So according to actual voters, and not just the pundits and talking heads in the media, Romney is doing just fine with the “conservative base.” 

Of the eight states that have held competitive primaries or caucuses, Romney has won four and tied one. Romney won New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada and Maine and then essentially tied Iowa. Exit polls from the states that Romney has won show that Romney captured the “conservative base” by a large margin. Lets look at some examples:

New Hampshire – Chris Cillizza gave a summary of the exit polls which showed: 

Mitt picked up 49% of GOP voters.

Romney’s 49 percent is the highest mark among self-identified Republicans for any presidential candidate since New Hampshire moved its primary forward in the calendar.

Contrast that with John McCain, with whom he’s often compared as a squishy moderate with problems with Republicans.

McCain is the only candidate since 1980 to win New Hampshire even as he lost among self-identified Republicans.

That means McCain was essentially the worst winner with Republicans in New Hampshire over the past 30 years, while Romney was the best.

Florida – Exit polls in Florida show that Romney received the vast majority of Republican support between the candidates with 48%. Among those who self-identify as “conservative,” Romney garnered 41%, more than any other candidate. Among those who consider themselves “very conservative,” Romney split the vote with Gingrich (Romney got 30% and Gingrich got 41%).

Nevada: Exit polls in this state reveal Romney truly stomped the other competitors in regard to which candidate the self-identified “very conservative and “conservative” voters supported.

Romney garnered a vast majority of the Republican vote at 56%. Romney won every category of Republican voters including the Very Conservative by wide margins. The category of very conservative is particularly interesting, Romney got 46%, Gingrich got only 25% and Santorum only 15%.

Maine: No exit/entrance polls were taken. Results of the caucus show:

Mitt Romney has 39.2 percent of the vote with 2190 votes, Ron Paul has 35.7 percent with 1996 votes, Rick Santorum has 17.7percent with 989 votes, and Newt Gingrich has 6.25 percent with 349 votes.

So the pundits and talking heads say that the conservative base doesn’t like Mitt Romney, but exit polls of ACTUAL VOTERS in New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada and Maine show otherwise. 

A critic might say, “O.K., Romney did well among conservatives in the states he won, but what about the states that Romney didn’t win?”

While it is true that Romney didn’t do as well among conservatives in the states he lost (South Carolina, Colorado, and Minnesota), we have to also acknowledge that Santorum and Gingrich didn’t do well among “the base” in the states that Romney won. So if we are going to claim that “the base doesn’t like Romney” because he lost some states, by the same logic, we would have to conclude that the base doesn’t like Santorum because of how voters of the base rejected Santorum in Florida, South Carolina, Nevada and Maine. We would likewise have to conclude that the base doesn’t like Newt Gingrich because of how he performed in Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, Minnesota, Colorado and Maine. The same standard needs to be applied to all the candidates.

National Polls – I just want to make a quick comment about national polls. For those of us who have been watching the presidential race closely, we remember a couple of months ago how the pundits frequently used national polls to illustrate that “the base didn’t like Romney.” The pundits would say something along the lines of “Romney just can’t break out of that mid-twenties approval rating in national polls, that shows that the base just doesn’t really like Mitt Romney.” However, in the last month, Romney has shattered that myth by shooting into the mid to low thirties since Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, after Romney’s win in Florida, he polled higher in the national polls than any other candidate has polled since the race began a year ago. That is why I was amused yesterday to hear Sarah Palin say “I like Mitt Romney . . . but he has to do more work to convince conservatives. His support can’t break out of that mid-thirties level.”