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 Saturday, October 27, 2007
...of our man Mitt.
Labels: Jim Cramer There’s been some play in the blogosphere over this article about Mike Huckabee. In it, John Fund essentially says that Huckabee is not all that conservative:
Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."Of course you could probably find just about any politician with disillusioned former backers that now criticize the person they once backed. Unfortunately Fund doesn’t take the time to fully delve into Huckabee’s candidacy, relying more on accusations of inconsistent conservatism by critics. This is fairly typical of media types. I say that it is unfortunate that Fund doesn’t spend more time analyzing Huckabee’s candidacy because there are legitimate concerns that run deeper than the name calling that the media relishes. Fund lists a few of these: Many Huckabee supporters have told me their man should be judged by what he's saying on the campaign trail today. Fair enough. Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.Certainly all these things should cause conservatives to pause at endorsing Mike Huckabee. The thing that strikes me most is how willing Huckabee is to deviate from principles of conservative economics. He apparently has few qualms about raising taxes and spending. Either one of these is dangerous enough for our economy and our freedoms. Both of them together spell immense trouble for our nation. It’s one of the biggest reasons we oppose Democrats, because of their tax and spend habits. Huckabee seems not to be much of an improvement in that area. In many ways Huckabee is the bizarro-Giuliani: fiscally moderate to liberal, moderate on foreign policy, and staunchly conservative on social issues. In the same way that Giuliani’s stool fails for lack of a third leg, Huckabee’s stool also falls over for lack of a conservative fiscal leg. But don’t take my word for it, look at the immense amount of studying that the Club for Growth has put out on Huckabee. This, just out yesterday, is the latest article put out by Pat Toomey, President of CoG, on Huckabee: During Huckabee’s tenure as governor, the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A dyed-in-blue tax hiker, Huckabee supported raising sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, even nursing home bed taxes. He virulently opposed a congressional moratorium on taxing Internet access, and sat on the sidelines while his Democratic legislature pushed the largest tax hike in Arkansas history into law. What’s more, on his watch, and frequently at his behest, state spending increased by 50 percent, more than double the rate of inflation, and the number of state government workers rose by 20 percent.All the more reason to support Mitt Romney, the only complete candidate in the field. Labels: mike huckabee As Jason says, it's not the actual win, but the free press that counts. Thus, the Bismark Tribune reports that Romney won the North Dakota Republicans' straw poll:
The former Massachusetts governor carried 29 percent of the vote, while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani came in second with 22 percent, former senator and "Law and Order" actor Fred Thompson was third with 21 percent, and Sen. John McCain was fourth with 14 percent. Labels: North Dakota Friday, October 26, 2007
Said Representative McLain:
"Governor Romney has demonstrated unparalleled success in both the public and private sector," said Representative McLain. "He has proven his ability to serve as a turnaround specialist, both in Massachusetts and the Winter Olympics. Governor Romney is the only candidate in this race who can take Washington apart and put it back together and bring our nation back to the core conservative values that have made our nation so great. I am proud to join his team." Rep McLain has served as a former President of both Colorado River Republican Women and the Victor Valley Republican Club and a former Treasurer of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. McLain currently resides with her husband in Bullhead City. She is also active in the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. Other notable AZ endorsements include:
According to a new Florida Chamber poll by Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research Romney has moved into 2nd place:
Guiliani – 33% Romney – 17% Thompson – 13% McCain – 9% No opinion – 17%.  Non-race related, but I was reading through some emails tonight from my family email list. A lot of my siblings, immediate family and extended family live in the Southern California area. The fires seem to be affecting everybody. My sister is a dispatcher for the Orange County Fire Authority and is working 16 hour days, straight. Her husband of 4 months is a firefighter assigned to some of the fires near Lake Arrowhead. Some family members have been volunteering 12 hour days at the Sheriffs office . I was talking to my mom this morning about the fires near Santiago Canyon. Santiago Canyon is due west about 20 miles or so from Laguna Beach. I grew up in Mission Viejo, and for a kid in the suburbs, Santiago Canyon was kind of like the one bit of country living in the middle of all the urban sprawl. My dad had a whole collection of books on Santiago's history by a guy named Jim Creeper. He was a local historian and had some of the most amazing stories about South Orange County. You would think the OC was always the home of elite beautiful people, but it once used to be the home of indians, prospectors and wild grizzlies. Those were the stories I remember my dad telling me when when I was a kid. It was amazing to hear about the wars and battles fought between the Mexicans and the US troops on what later became my elementary school grounds. Today Orange County is no longer the hiding place for outlaws and indians it once was. As a matter of fact it's barely recognizable. When I was born in 1976 Mission Viejo was much of nothing. As people moved in and stores were built the early Mexican was a part of life. The subdivisions had Hispanic names such as "the Madrids" and the "Castillas." My city (improper spanish- should be Mission Vieja) employed an old lady spanish lady who was in charge of naming all the streets. All the cities had Spanish themed names like El Toro, Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente, etc. Around 1995 the city of El Toro decided that the name "El Toro" was a little too "bullish" and wanted something more exclusive, so they changed the name to Lake Forest. Soon the tides changed. You no longer have new cities named in honor of the original spaniards who settled the land. Now it's things like "Tuttle Ranch" and "Foothill Ranch." The new shopping centers are no longer built with the spanish themes they used to be, but rather stone and earth colors, something more likely to be found in Breckenridge. And frankly, I don't think I have met anyone in years who knows that Orange County got it's name because the guy who picked "Orange" won the poker game over the guys who picked Alvacado and Apple. So, it's kind of sad to see something like Santiago go up in flames. It's still a piece of unchanged Orange County for the most part and from what I hear, the colony of inbreeders still live there. Let's remember the people of California in our prayers. Especially those who lost their homes or family members. And the firefighters. Thursday, October 25, 2007
Romney is enjoying a Drudge Report Headline at the moment:
ROMNEY OPEN TO IRAN "BOMBARDMENT"  The underlying AP Article quotes Romney as saying: "'If for some reasons they continue down their course of folly toward nuclear ambition, then I would take military action if that's available to us,'"..."'That's an option that's on the table. And it's is not something which we'll spell out specifically. I really can't lay out exactly how that would be done, but we have a number of options from blockade to bombardment of some kind. And that's something we very much have to keep on the table, and we will ready ourselves to be able to take, because, frankly, I think it's unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons.'" While this is being billed as something of a news flash, Romney has consistently said that a military option in relation to Iran is on the table. Romney also understands that there are many steps that can and should occur before that in order to put pressure on Iran to give up their nuclear ambitions though. His plan: - First, continue to tighten economic sanctions. - Second, impose diplomatic isolation on Iran's Government. - Third, have Arab states join this effort to prevent a nuclear Iran. - Fourth, make it clear that while nuclear capabilities may be a source of pride, it can also be a source of peril. The military option remains on the table. - Fifth, integrate our strategy into a broader approach to the broader Muslim world--including working with our NATO allies and with progressive Muslim communities and leaders to build a partnership for prosperity. Check out Romney's speech in Israel at the Herzliya Conference back in January:
I think Tom Tancredo has the right idea:
Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo wants to put something important on the line -- his candidacy. His campaign called ABC News to issue this challenge: The Colorado congressman will drop out of the race if the Rockies lose the World Series -- if rival Mitt Romney agrees to pack it in if the Red Sox lose.If only we could have gotten all of the candidates to do the same. We would no longer have such candidates as John McCain (Arizona Diamondbacks), Duncan Hunter (San Diego Padres), Dennis Kucinish (Cleveland Indians), Hillary Clinton (Cubs or Yankees, take your pick), or Rudy Giuliani (Yankees). Of course, Giuliani doesn't get to fudge by switching his affiliation to the Red Sox, as he is trying to do now. With the Red Sox just three games away from a championship, Mitt is looking like the safe bet to win this one. This is an easy win for Romney:
"One of the ways that you help instill, if you will, family values is by having a White House be a place that demonstrates family values," the Massachusetts Republican said in a response to a question at a New Hampshire house party about how he would instill family values as president. No serious person would dispute this notion. The personal behavior of White House occupants directly affects the nation. Indeed, I think we can easily trace the "my private life is private" syndrome of public officials trying to hide unseemly behavior to Bill Clinton. Of course not all people are serious, which is why the CNN article quotes a response from the Clinton campaign that tries to shift the focus from family values to character: Responding to Romney's comments, top Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said, "Hillary Clinton needs no lessons on character from a man who switches his positions on a daily basis." Does this mean that Clinton doesn't dispute the charge on family values, but instead will defend her character? Does it mean she values consistency more than morality? Perhaps she is willing to defend her own honor before her family's? I guess I shouldn't be surprised by any of it. It reminds me of Grampa Simpson trying to defend Homer from allegations of being a communist: Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star. Labels: Hillary Clinton People are talking about Hillary’s recent “Mississippi Comments.”
Jonathan Martin at Politico wonders why none of the GOP nominees are making any statements about it: “Would seem like the perfect opportunity to score some points about her being a liberal elitist looking down her nose at a Southern state, right?” It truly would be a good opportunity for Mitt Romney or the others to take Hillary to task on being a snob, but what everyone seems to be missing is the word “Communitarianism.” Hillary: "I think Iowa poses a special burden, or a special obstacle to me because when you look at the numbers, how can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa." I had never heard this word before, so looked it up. Wikipedia’s first paragraph describing it says: “Communitarianism as a group of related but distinct philosophies began in the late 20th century, opposing individualism while advocating phenomena such as civil society. Not necessarily hostile to social liberalism or even social democracy, communitarianism emphasizes the interest of communities and societies over those of the individual." Sounds like Communitarianism is Hillary's new word for Communism. This woman is scary. And the fact that she made this statement and so easily used this word "Communitarianism" and everyone is caught up in her snobbiness and have totally (as far as I can see) missed the real heart of her message is very troubling to me. Any thoughts on this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? P.S. Does anyone think this would be the makings of a good 'Hillary Attack Ad" ad for Mitt? Labels: Communitarianism, Hillary Clinton The New Hampshire Union Leader (and RCP) is reporting a new poll out by St. Anselm College's Institute of Politics. The results:
Romney 32.4% Giuliani 21.8 McCain 15.2 Paul 7.4 Huckabee 6 Thompson 5 Labels: New Hampshire, Polls From the Romney team:
Governor Mitt Romney today announced that Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter has endorsed his candidacy for President of the United States. Sheriff Hunter joins a strong and growing team in Southwest Florida led by U.S. Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL), a Chair of Governor Romney's Florida Statewide Steering Committee. Marc Ambinder reports that Mitt got the endorsement the day after Hunter met with Fred?: On Tuesday, Hunter met with Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson to talk about the latter's immigration enforcement plan. The fact of the meeting with Hunter was used by Thompson to roll out the plan. But the sheriff evidently was not impressed. I must credit the title to Steve over at www.mydryfly.wordpress.com
I quote from the comment that Steve made in his own blog over at when he refers to John F. Kennedy, as the first American-Irish Catholic running for President: “People were worried about Catholicism in the White House. Catholicism has been around for a while and is fairly well understood. It was “old scary” for a lot of people. The LDS church, or Mormonism as it were, is “new scary”. In my experience, I would bet it’s about 80% of the people I’ve encountered still believe that polygamy is a Mormon practice. It’s been well over a century since that has been true, but people remain ignorant. So the fear of having a religious man in office still exists, a man that belongs to a mostly misunderstood religion is the number one reason why a lot of people will not even take the time to figure out what his political stances are before they write him off.” So this is what we’re facing -- “the new scary.” Perhaps it’s part of the maturing process of America - to learn to accept the ‘unacceptable’ - the un-understood. After all, isn’t that what is at the root of prejudice* -- lack of understanding? I’m just old enough to remember when John F. Kennedy ran for president. I lived in Massachusetts then, and, of course, my parents were conservative Republicans and were going to vote for Nixon. I was perplexed, as one of my classmates (in 1st grade) told me: “Well, I’m voting for John Kennedy. He’s cuter!” Well, that was true -- he definitely was cuter. And he got elected as President that year. But his Catholicism, at the time, was a big deal. It was a huge obstacle. Many people may not realize it now, but a lot of Protestants believed that Catholics were going straight to hell and … a lot of Catholics believed that Protestants were going straight to hell. (Ireland, anyone?) I dated a lot of guys who qualified as “pond scum” when I was in high school in the late 60s. My father interviewed every one of them. They all passed -- they were Protestants. Except one … Jim Lowe. Jim Lowe was one of the nicest and most moral guys in my high school. ] But this guy, Jim Lowe, was a Catholic, and he was forbodden. I could not date him. No. Not ever. Well, when my parents told me I couldn’t date him, I ran away (to my girlfriend’s house) and eventually got my way and dated Jim Lowe. Today, my mother (still Protestant) works with Jim Lowe’s mother (still Catholic) in the Right to Life endeavor in my home town in Indiana. They have found a common bond. They are now united in that bond. I tell you this story because it is extremely relevant to what is happening today. Christians, Catholics, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and other people of various faiths who hold the value of human life in high esteem can all find a common denominator. America is in the process of getting educated … once again. I implore my Mormons friends to be patient with the Protestants of today. I have come to believe that my job, as a conservative political activist, is one of education. People are so poorly informed. It is human nature to form quick opinions about things we don’t understand. It’s a survival mechanism. But when we start to talk to people, and really listen to people and then have the opportunity … we can inform people about the way things really are … then we have a done a tremendous service for our country. I implore you, Mormons and non-Mormons, those who are supporting Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination -- Be Patient! Fear is a real thing for many people. Listen. Ask questions. People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care. I see Mitt Romney living this out in his campaign. He is an amazing man. He understands that people are afraid. Afraid of what they don’t understand. And, as you can see, the more people get to know him, the more they rally behind him. *From the American Heritage Dictionary: prej·u·dice (Noun) An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. A preconceived preference or idea. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion. Detriment or injury caused to a person by the preconceived, unfavorable conviction of another or others. Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Perhaps it was inevitable the names would get mixed up at some point. Others have mixed them up as well. Romney substituting Barack Obama for Osama bin Laden inadvertently is not seemingly newsworthy, but the news stations have little else to do than to talk about it incessantly (I always know when it has reached that point because my wife calls me up and tells me she heard about it).
AP reported today, "Romney said in South Carolina that he'd made a slip of the tongue Tuesday when he said Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, instead of Osama bin Laden, had urged terrorists to unite in Iraq. He made similar remarks about bin Laden Wednesday and was asked if he'd gotten the name right. 'I hope so, you never know,' Romney said." Dry Fly Politics has a nice summary of recent polling out of South Carolina, Florida, and Iowa. To this summary, I would add the recent Rasmussen Daily Poling numbers, which show a very tight race nationally. Who gets ahead in this scenario? The person with momentum from early victories like Iowa.
Don Wilton is trying to backtrack on a seemingly very strong endorsement of Romney. He obviously can't say he didn't agree to let his glowing quotes about Romney be used, so he is trying to say, he didn't realize the national attention his endorsement would receive. I am not sure what that means, but reading between the lines, I suspect he may have got a negative reaction from someone. Anyone know the story behind this one?
Check out the Politico's Playbook take on this one: Fred lost an important fan today, Joe Carter from Evangelical Outpost and founder of Blogs for Fred. Seems Joe is disillisuioned with Fred's underwhelming performance:
To be sure, most of us Mitt-bots saw it coming. This isn't even the slightest bit surprising. The Fred summer phenomena was akin to a Ricky Martin performance- all the fans were cheering going nuts and everyone else is thinking "Man, this guy sucks." Well Fred sucks too. This from Andrew Stuttaford over at the Corner:
Mike Huckabee, it seems, has problems with history as well as science. The St. Petersburg Times takes issue with the candidate's claim that most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were "clergymen." Uh, no: Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it's a little unclear just how many. The conservative Heritage Foundation said two other signers were former clergymen. The religion web site Adherents.com said four signers of the declaration were current or former full-time preachers. But everyone agrees only Witherspoon was an active minister when he signed the Declaration of Independence.Now, "gotcha" can be a tedious, pedantic game, but this particular error is, I think, quite revealing of the way in which Mike Huckabee sees this country. You can like that vision, or not, but you cannot deny it. Labels: mike huckabee Is nothing sacred? Former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani is a self-professed Yankee fan. Last week he even joked about making Joe Torre his running mate. Yesterday in Boston, when asked who he was rooting for in the World Series, Giuliani stated,
"I'm rooting for the Red Sox".This is a pathetically obvious pandering for votes which no true Red Sox fan/voter would ever fall for. This is the biggest flip-flop in political history. Yankees fans are enraged. Giuliani has been known for his questionable loyalty in the past however as his ex-wife, Donna Hanover, accused him of "notorious adultery" during their divorce proceedings. What's next? Is he going to start cheering "Yankees Suck" at the Republican Convention? Mitt Romney would NEVER, EVER root for the Yankees in any game ever played. The Romney campaign's response to the scandal? "I guess if Colorado wants Mayor Giuliani to root for the Rockies, they’re going to have to move their primary up." This leaves carpet-bagger Hillary Clinton as the only "true" Yankee fan in the race even though she grew up in Chicago. Go Sox! Scott Allan Labels: Giuliani, mitt romney ....this will make your blood boil.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A while back I criticized the Democrats for not giving back the money that was funneled illegally to them from Norman Hsu to the victim's of his Ponzi scheme. I was glad to see Politico has picked up the story on behalf of victim's that were twice defrauded. Once, by Hsu, then by the democrats who knew the contributions were illegal and instead of getting them to their rightful recipients, deprived them of their money further by acting like it was theirs to give to charity.
Take it for what it's worth (and if you don't like Romney probably you will say it's worth nothing) The Romney campaign released an internal poll for South Carolina to The State Newspaper. State doesn't offer up numbers for McCain, and Huckabee in the online article (they are in the print version) so I made a phone call to the author of the article and he offered me their numbers which I included here:
Numbers in parenthesis are from an August internal poll
This is an internal poll that shows the highest South Carolina polling for Romney yet. We will have to see if other polling comes out to confirm these numbers. Monday, October 22, 2007
Here at MyManMitt we sometimes dabble in the technological side of blogging (as if you didn't notice). Since our redesign the "Issues" page has been down. No longer.
This is version 1, but we will be filling this out as the campaign moves forward. You can bookmark the page here.
Labels: issues
Every once in a while we get an email from a disappointed reader that we haven’t made the positive case for Romney, so let me make one point based off of last night’s debate:
One of the distinguishing factors between Romney and Giuliani’s tenures as executive is that Romney was able to accomplish a significant policy proposal outside the realm of budgetary concerns. Romney’s healthcare plan is a singular policy proposal that is unmatched among his opponents. Giuliani did a lot of good work with his city’s budget and crime, but Giuliani never points to any policy proposal that he was able to champion as mayor. He talks a lot about outcomes as mayor: crime was down, abortion was down, adoptions up, budget was better. However, he never talks about how he went about accomplishing those outcomes. Specifically in reference to the abortion/adoption numbers, his lack of any sort of initiative leads me to question whether he did anything to effectuate the outcome. Romney, on the other hand, can point to his proposal in healthcare, his efforts in enacting it, and then the effect it has had in reducing premiums by half. This is the kind of executive leadership that I want. Here’s a couple more non-Romney thoughts. These aren’t in any order, or even a comprehensive analysis of the debate: McCain: If McCain were forced to speak for longer periods of time, his lack of substance would become apparent. McCain has offered very few substantive ideas other than gimmicks like “making famous the person who offers a pork project”. Thompson: The thing that keeps running through my mind when Thompson goes on the offensive is “Thou doth protest too much”. Tancredo: He’s even parodying himself these days, taking Giuliani’s bait on pushing illegal immigration into topics where it has little relevance. Hunter: Other than sounding ignorant of entitlement programs, he didn’t make a dent in the debate.
None of this information is the campaigns, it is Justin's interpretation of events
Regardless of what you think about "Romney the candidate"... "Romney the campaign" is unmatched in its ability to execute. Take this last week for example. Think of it in terms of a business case study, outlining the "challenge", proposing a "solution", targeting specific "benefits" and measuring "results". CHALLENGE: Disolve concerns about Mitt's Mormonism among Conservative Evangelicals. SOLUTION: Highlight the Governor as the only leading candidate meeting 100% of the SoCon values and win endorsements from leading Evangelicals leading up to the seminal pre-primary "Values Voters" conference. BENEFITS: Develop day after day endorsements followed by a good showing at the straw poll giving serious momentum to the campaign among Evangelicals and building qualified talking points to address the Mormon question. EXECUTION PLAN  2 weeks out - Lead up to the conference. Look for "Mormon questions" addressed to Perkins, Bauer, Land and others. Rely on their even-handed past dealings with this issue as a positive sign. (check, check) 1 weeks out - Letter from Mark DeMoss addressed to numerous Evangelical leaders contrasting Romney and Rudy and laying the foundation for a larger swath of backers. (check) 5 days out - First endorsement, ideally, from far extreme of the religious right showing that anyone could endorse Romney (check - Chancellor and Dean of Bob Jones) 4 days out - Letter from James Bopp, Jr. highlighting the growing movement of Evangelicals behind Romney (check)3 days out - Talking heads start to notice the pattern. Experts concur. (check) (reach out to blogger base for email-only campaign for the online straw poll)  2 days out - Pull out the big guns. Lengthy, detailed article by new Evangelical endorsement laying the intellectual framework in which Evangelicals can accept a Romney candidacy. (check - Wayne Grudem) 1 day out - Endorsement by an excellent conservative Evangelical coinciding with Romney's speech to the "Values Voters" Conference in DC. (check - Dr. Don Wilton).Day of straw poll - Final endorsement before the conference ends. This time taken from another campaign. (check - Dr. Willkie founder of a pro-life effort) Goaline: Place or show in the straw poll to drive some good press. (check - or win it :) ) None of this happens by accident. The plan is laid, the efforts set and the execution is nearly flawless. Classic Team Romney. Labels: endoresements, Endorse, evangelicals, LDS Mormon Romney, mormonism, mormons Sunday, October 21, 2007
Vote for Mitt in the Fox News debate poll.
Send a text message to 36288 put R6 in the body of the message. I'm not at the debate tonight, but I will be live-blogging the debate here at MMM. If you want, feel free to leave comments at the bottom of the post.
Luntz Focus GroupWhere in the world did Luntz find this focus group. Candidates pandering to the middle?? Will this debate be a prime decider? I am kind of thinking no. People seem to think that today is always the most important day, and Fox needs to promote it that way, it is their debate. The DebateCharlie Christ needs a shirt that fits him Romney get largest applause, by small amount, nice to see the group one man smaller Chris Wallace encourages fireworks between candidates. Romney turns Thompson attack quotes from Walace into looking ahead and forming a strong coalition. Good move. Romney has a hair out o place, somethings wrong... :) Wallace really wants people to fight. Thompson seems happy to oblige. Takes shots at Giuliani. "Fred has his problems too" Giuliani- quote of the night. Giuliani nails him to the wall on tort reform. Thompson tries to back up his tort reform past, its a joke, hides under Federalism. Remember Fred is a huge recipient of Tort reform. hris Wallace really wants some fireworks. HE won't let up. I guess managing for profit thinks managing for profit is bad. Romney gives great compliment to McCain. Argues his conservative 94 stances, which in fact were there. McCain realy hates Romney. Telling people he's been campaigning by fooling them. This guy is sad. "Don't demote me." Good point. Governor to Senator= Demotion. Romney ignores McCain's cheap shots, I think he his avoiding those and playing above the fray. Romney does best when he talks about ideas, Dean Barnett is right. I hope he stays off of knocking the others. He made a great argument for marriage. Rudy seems to support marriage ammendment in the end. Funny joke about marriages he performed hoping they were all men and women. Huckabee is a little simplistic, but people seem to like it. Thompson parses on his lobbying. This guy has a past, and he forgets about everything. Talk on Healthcare, a good onversation, thank you for skipping th bashing Gwendle, or however you spell it. Hunter takes on Romney's healthcare. Should be good. Romney explains the compromise. Lowered premium in half. Romney "We got the job done" Tnacredo seems focused on illegal aliens? That is breaking news. Thompon seems a little more away this time. Atleast since the voters values. Romney outines his worlwide business knowledge, makes a good point about lack of managment experience- "Learn to be presient on an internship" Fantastic answer, a great answer. Romney engages crowd quite effectively. Both Rudy and Romney play to the crowd quite effectively. McCain gets standing ovation with joke. Why is Thompson reading of cards for simple one liners? A good moment for him none the less. Fred has a better game tonight. No one can talk fiscal stuff like Romney. Paul makes some interesting points. I don't know if he has a chance, but I think he is a good voice to have in the debates. Hunter talks out against outsourcing. I call that looking in the short term. Level playing field a good thing, stop outsourcing, bad idea. McCain asked, "headed back to cold war?" Not sure but they offer serious problems. We need a missle defense system in Eastern Europe. Good point. Ron paul points out Bush 2000 is a little different in forign policy then Bush 2003? Knocks on having a harder defense. Takes some boo's. This is why I like him. I don't agree but I like someone who will take the boo's. Romney knocks out statistics. He can do it like no one else. Data man. Then assimilates those facts into meaningful answers. Ron Paul nails it on the head frankly. I don't agree with his non-interventionism, but the rest is spot on. Gwendle asks Thompson on laziness charge. Thompson lists a bunch of mediocre things. Has a good punch line, but frankly 1000's of people in DC have those qualities. Frank LuntzThis group hates Hillary. No clear winner, gotta agree. No one thinks McCain won. Luntz caims Giuliani very clealy does well, only four people in the group actually thought him the winner. These questions are little lame. HanityFred really does some gymnastics on the abortion lobbying. Whats amazing is he admits making the choice to do it whenhe could have said no. Very interesting. He used to say he couldn't remember it.
You don't try to win straw polls as proof of your national success among a group of voters. You don't try to win straw polls as proof of momentum. You don't try to win straw polls as solid proof of your chances at victory.
You DO try to win straw polls to gain free press to accomplish all three of the above. In other words: straw polls are a means to an ends and not the end itself. Want proof? While blog readers wallow in the odd configuration and minutia of the FRC straw poll, the rest of the country sees this: MSNBC:  CNN:  DRUDGEREPORT:  ABCNEWS:  FOXNEWS:  CBSNEWS:  NYTIMES:  Labels: straw polls |
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