Mitt Romney Turnaround at CPAC
March 5th, 2007 by eric
Soon after several negative “hit” articles were published on Governor Romney, and after a dismal showing at the Spartanburg County straw poll, Mitt Romney has earned a great victory and found success in his efforts. Kelly Wright from the Fox News Channel described Mitt Romney’s win as a “suprise”.
All of the Republican 2008 presidential hopefuls were in attendance at the event besides John McCain. Several other prominent Republicans were invited speakers and panelists including Vice President Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Senator Bill Frist, David Horowitz, Wayne LaPierre, David Keene, Newt Gingrich, among others.
Mitt Romney spoke Friday, March 2, 2007 and those that reported on his speech said that he really “hit one out of the park”. The speech was received with a lot of cheers and at the end, a standing ovation. Several of the conservative bloggers that witnessed the speech wrote that it was a powerful speech and one that really connected to the listeners.
At RedState.com, Erick Erickson sums it up: “Giuliani had leadership. Romney had conservatism.” He adds, “Mitt Romney was pitch perfect and willing to talk social issues — something totally missing from Giuliani’s speech. And people noticed. I have to say that it was a tremendous speech. I actually could not listen to all of Rudy’s, but Mitt’s was great.” Oh, and there’s a trend emerging at CPAC. As Erickson notes, “He spoke negatively about McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy.” –CPAC: Romney Hits One Out, March 2, 2007
The text of the complete speech is here at www.redstate.com
Besides the speech, another area of importance for the Romney team was the straw poll held at the event. The campaign team strategized in order to show a strong finish in the straw poll. They bussed several Mitt Romney supporters in to the event and paid their lodging. This strategy is unconventional but completely within the rules. The strategy, coupled with the powerful speech paid off. Mitt Romney placed first in the voting.
Here are the final results from the CPAC straw poll. Of 1,705 votes cast.
Romney 21%
Giuliani 17%
Brownback 15%
Gingrich 14%
McCain 12%
On combined first and second place choices, Rudy Giuliani takes first place with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich tying for second place.
Giuliani 34%
Gingrich 30%
Romney 30%
There was one very unfortunate event that happened to Mitt Romney that was completely out of his control. After Mitt finished his speech, he had the task of introducing Ann Coulter who in her speech used the word “faggot”. There has been a media firestorm over Ann Coulter’s use of the word and in several of those reports, Mitt Romney’s name is mentioned (as he introduced her and proceeded her at the event) as the liberal media takes every opportunity to involve him in some type of negative controversy.
Here’s a quote regarding Ann Coulter and her comments.
Then, there was her crack about Muslims at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC): “I think our motto should be post-9-11, ‘rag head talks tough, rag head faces consequences.’†At CPAC on Thursday, in endorsing Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney, who needs more bad press like a hole in the head, she piped up with this one: “I was going to say something about John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot.’†–Ann Coulter, You’re no Sister Souljah, March 3, 2007
