mittromneyin2008 dot com

We’re seeing a new monster. It’s the triple headed rino. It looks to destroy the GOP as we know it. Can the party band together to kill it? Or will the Republican party be forever altered?

If you have been reading the political headlines and listening to the news, you would think that John McCain has won every caucus and primary to date and is the inevitable Republican nominee. That’s not the case.

The liberal media said that Mitt Romney “has to win Iowa” or he’s in trouble. He came in second there and won delegates. Then they said that Mitt Romney “must win New Hampshire”. He came in second there and picked up more delegates. Now he leads every candidate in the delegate count. Meanwhile, the liberal media gushed over John McCain’s win in New Hampshire. They touted Mike Huckabee and John McCain as the early favorites. There were very few newspapers or news outlets to mention that Mitt Romney won the Wyoming caucus. Even the old guard GOP politicians and pundits refuse to acknowledge that Senator John McCain is clearly trailing. Take this headline from today’s news as one of many examples…

ENPR: Clinton and McCain Now Front-Runners
by Robert Novak and Timothy P. Carney
Posted: 01/23/2008

They ignore the fact that Mitt Romney has 72 delegates. Arizona Sen. John McCain is way behind with 38 delegates and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is in third with 29 delegates.

Florida is the next contest. Mitt Romney and John McCain are in a statistical tie in Florida, according to the latest polls. Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race completely and Mike Huckabee has pulled out of the state due to a lack of funds and low poll numbers. Will the Fred Thompson supporters along with some of the Huckabee supporters align with Governor Romney to give him the win? I believe so.

“It’s the economy, stupid.”  -again.  All of the GOP candidates have been slow to realize that we have a looming economic meltdown.  It was just a few months ago that the big campaign topics were illegal immigration, Iraq, and health care.  The Democrats were quicker to pick up on recession signs and incorporate messages about improving the economy in their stump speeches.  Some of the Dems have even come out with economic stimulus proposals already.

Mitt Romney talked about Michigan being in a “one-state recession” because the signs there were so clear.  Michigan was one of only two states that lost population last year as people moved away seeking employment.  For the last couple of years, there has been bad news for the area’s auto industry.  It’s clear that Romney as well as the other candidates frequently discussed national economic issues they thought were problematic.  There was the subprime mortgage issues and foreclosures that were topics, as well as the high costs of fuel.  But it was the exit polling after the Michigan primaries that I believe helped everyone see the big picture.  Take this quote for example from John McCain at the Fox News Republican Presidential Candidate Debate just about a week ago.  It serves to show his lack of awareness.

“And By The Way, I Don’t Believe We’re Headed Into A Recession. I Believe The Fundamentals Of This Economy Are Strong, And I Believe They Will Remain Strong.”  -John McCain, January 10, 2008

He’s already started to change his tune as voters have shifted their concerns.  Here are some evidences that we are looking at a big problem ahead of us.

• The dollar has fallen sharply over the past several months against foreign currencies.  Gold is up indicating that people are hedging.  Commodities are up.  Wheat, rice, soybeans, and corn jumped to record highs in 2007.
• Meanwhile, stocks are falling.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell several hundred points in just the past couple weeks.
• There was the aforementioned subprime crisis and foreclosures are high.  Because of this, investors and banking institutions are skittish.  Lending has tightened.  The housing market is in the biggest slump in decades and home owners equity is falling due to so many foreclosures in neighborhoods and a glut of homes on the market.  New home sales and construction are off sharply.
• Food inflation in 2007 jumped at the fastest pace since 1990.  4.9% in 2007 up from 2.1% in 2006
• Unemployment is relatively high, up slightly at 5%.  Wages are stagnant.
• The price of oil has approached 100 dollars per barrel adding an estimated $1000 or more in additional cost to the average US family for gas expenses over 2006.
• Banks have recently announced the write offs of billions of dollars in bad debt and foreign businesses and foreign governments have taken equity positions in U.S. banks as a bailout.

The awakening realization comes at a great time for Mitt Romney.  He is the candidate with a solid, well known reputation for returning struggling companies, entities, and even governments to prosperity.  When Mitt Romney began his term as governor of Massachusetts there was a debt of over two billion dollars.  Romney pledged to bring them out of debt without raising taxes.  It was an amazing feat that he did that in only one year in office by slashing waste, reducing spending, and consolidating government offices.  (Note -his critics want to falsely claim that he raised taxes.  There were some fees that increased like vehicle registration for example.  A two billion deficit is not erased by wishful thinking.  These fees that were increased were government fees.  They are not exclusively known as taxes such as sales tax and taxes on wages.  There is a difference between a fee and a tax in other words.  A fee is a one time elective payment that only affects those that need to exchange a payment to the government for some type of recognition of compliance.)  Mitt Romney balanced the state budget each year because he thought it was the right thing to do.  He fought hard for those balanced budgets against the tax and spend Democratic state legislative majority.  He left the governor’s office with a balanced budget PLUS an additional billion dollars or so that was put into their “rainy day fund”.

So please voters, contrast Mitt Romney’s ability and record against those of John McCain who has voted against the Bush tax cuts and confessed that he doesn’t know much about economic matters, and against Mike Huckabee who raised taxes and fits in well with tax and spend Democrats.

Huckabee Raised Taxes $883.1 Million, Cut $378 Million In Taxes, For A Net Tax Increase Of $505.1 Million. “But a review of tax legislation passed while he was governor shows a net tax increase of $505 million, a figure adjusted for inflation and economic growth, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration. … The 90 cuts reduced tax collections by $378 million, according to the Department of Finance and Administration. Meanwhile, the department counts 21 tax increases that raised collections by $883.1 million.” (Daniel Nasaw, “Gaps Led To Taxing In Huckabee Years,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/9/07)

If Mitt Romney can press hard on the trail about the frail economy and let us know that he is the one man that can lead us out of recession, he will pick up percentage points quickly in South Carolina, Nevada, Florida, and Super Tuesday states.

This is not to say that Mike Huckabee will drop out of the race any time soon. He was certainly encouraged by his win in Iowa. And even though he struggles to keep his campaign alive on a shoestring budget, without funds to run many ads or move campaign personnel into primary states, his hopes have been buoyed by polling data showing him in good position in Georgia and South Carolina. He must have strong showings in these early states of Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida to be able to continue to survive into February. Otherwise his credit cards are going to max out and his bus will run out of gas.

In a desperate move to win delegates in Michigan, this past week he met with over a hundred pastors and preachers to build an evangelical coalition similar to what helped him win in Iowa. This evangelical coalition will unite and become a powerful force not so much because of their excitement and enthusiasm for Huckabee, but more for their desire to drive out the Mormon. Of those Christian leaders that are pushing Mike Huckabee, one wonders whether they even care about who Mike Huckabee is or what his past record indicates, or whether they support him blindly because he is a Baptist minister.

It’s only been the past couple of months that the press and conservative talk show hosts have started to reaveal his left leaning, almost Democratic, voting record. Since he has been outed as a r.i.n.o, it might help him in a more liberal state like Michigan and hurt him as they get to know his record in more conservative Republican states. There are a couple of things in the news that are an indication that the “religious left” and even the Democrats are warming up to him. Have you ever heard of labor unions endorsing a Republican candidate? It’s a rare thing these days. They almost always back Democrats. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the International painters’ union have endorsed Mike Huckabee. LaMar Lemmons, a state representative in Michigan has started an organization called “Democrats for Huckabee”. LaMar Lemmons is a Democratic supporter of Barack Obama.

It’s a very troubling matter that the DNC has stripped Michigans delegates and Democratic candidates are not campaigning in Michigan. To see rising Democratic support for Huckabee (and McCain) in a scenario where many Democratic voters are likely to show up on Tuesday at the polling place and cast a “crossover” vote.

Who would have ever predicted in the months leading up to the Iowa caucus that Mike Huckabee would win the caucus and have this surge of momentum? He seemed to be one of those guys that never got much attention from the press. He didn’t have the name recognition of John McCain, Guiliani, or even Fred Thompson. Here’s a guy who doesn’t look as much like a president as he does a hillbilly with those crooked buck teeth and that funny grin. I mean doesn’t it always look like he’s thinking, “I just wanna go out and shoot me a possum for dinner”? But aside from his lack of name recognition or his hillbilly look, he never raised much money which seems to suggest he had very little support. His campaign reported less than two and a half million dollars in total fund raising through the third quarter. Compare that fund raising to his GOP rivals Rudy Giuliani with 47 million and Mitt Romney with 62 million in total receipts. Fred Thompson’s raised more money in a single month (3 million in June 2007) and has raised 12 million through the third quarter.

So how did Huckabee beat Thompson, Romney, Giuliani, and McCain -the guys that the media and political analysts seemed to establish as the serious contenders for the GOP nomination? It still seems a bit of a mystery. But the political pundits said it was the strong support of the evangelicals. In the few weeks leading up to voting day, the national media and Iowa relabeled Huckabee as the “Baptist minister” rather than “former governor”. The evangelicals came out to vote and supported one of their own. Mike Huckabee was the fresh face and the one that people didn’t know much about other than he was that Baptist preacher that the evangelical leaders in Iowa told their followers that they must go cast a vote for.

In addition to the evangelicals that are pushing Huckabee, there’s those crazy “fair taxers” who somehow believe that he’s going to make major tax reform and break up the IRS. Haha haha ha ha. It’s almost so stupid it’s funny.
Was it also part of the vast left wing conspiracy? The media hardly ever printed anything critical of Huckabee. They seemed to promote him as they saw he had a chance to shake things up. It’s the strategy of the “Democrats for Huckabee” that I mentioned earlier to duplicate something that they’ve seen on that reality show Survivor. After all, they thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could run Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama up against a weak and easily defeated Mike Huckabee in the general election.

By now it appears that John McCain is going to win in New Hampshire.  When I say it’s no big deal to Romney, I’m not just putting a positive spin on things.  Sure, the Mitt Romney team spent a great percentage of their funds and their time to realize their strategy of winning Iowa and New Hampshire.  To come in second place in both places is clearly disappointing.  However, since Mike Huckabee won in Iowa, Mitt Romney won in Wyoming, and John McCain won in New Hampshire, NOTHING is clear right now.  A worst case scenario would have been for Rudy Guiliani to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, or for Mike Huckabee to win Iowa and with momentum building to win in New Hampshire and also South Carolina (strong evangelical support for Huckabee in S.C.) on the 19th of this month.  Romney will not feel threatened by these McCain or Huckabee showings since it seems unlikely they are going to capture the more conservative Republican states (Florida for example).

As it stands right now, there could be chaos brewing in the Republican party, particularly if Fred Thompson wins South Carolina, and Rudy Giuliani wins Florida.  It’s likely to be a four man race up to Super Tuesday (5th of February).  Mark my words when I say that the GOP will look back on this chaos and seek to change the way that the nominee is selected.  Iowa and New Hampshire may never have the influence again that they once had in choosing the Republican nominee.  Republicans in these two states are left leaning Republicans.  And more independents than ever are influencing the race.  In New Hampshire, only 50 percent of Republicans described themselves as conservative.  Unless there is a re-defining of conservatism - what Rush Limbaugh calls the “new conservatism”, there will be a shake up.  Iowa really threw a wrench into the gears when they picked Huckabee from the bottom of the heap.

Here are my predictions for the remainder of the primaries leading up to Super Tuesday.

• Jan. 15th Mitt Romney wins Michigan. (giving him two wins and some momentum.)
• Jan. 19th Mitt Romney wins Nevada.
• Jan. 19th Fred Thompson wins South Carolina.  (Since 1980 every winner of the Republican primary in S.C. has won the nomination. Not this year.)
• Jan. 29th Rudy Giuliani wins Florida.  (it’s clear chaos at this point.)
• Feb. 1st.  Mitt Romney wins Maine.
• Feb. 5th  The race is coming down to this date.  Mitt Romney must have won one or two prior primaries at this point for Republican voters to continue to support him as a serious contender able to go the distance.  Mitt Romney will no doubt take Idaho and Utah.  There are too many other states here for me to call (24 states on Super Tuesday) Romney could very possibly win in California.

I want to post a small personal note, by way of explanation. We were blessed with our first child this year. She has been just wonderful and we love her very much and we are very happy and grateful to have a family now. But I never dreamed it would take so much of my time to care for a baby. I couldn’t keep up with everything and so it was this website that I had to let go for a while. It was pretty much dormant here at Mitt Romney in 2008 dot com during the fourth quarter of 2007 except for approving an occasional comment and doing some cleanup. My support for Governor Romney has never wavered.

A few days ago, Mike Hickabee shocked us (or did the Iowa voters shock us?) and won the Iowa primaries. I couldn’t believe it. I always assumed that Mitt Romney would take Iowa and then New Hampshire. After all, this was the strategy that he has been building on for over a year now. Romney, his sons, and his campaign worked really hard in Iowa and spent so much money there. Reports showed that his plan was working and he was on track to realize his goals. Now it looks as if he may lose in New Hampshire. Coming in second is good. But still, if you don’t win first, you lose. Nevertheless, losing Iowa and New Hampshire is not really a big deal. Especially since no one candidate is sweeping both of these states. We still remain optimistic since it is still early and this race is still wide open. Ten or more states may hold their caucuses before a clear frontrunner emerges (or better stated -before Romney emerges as the frontrunner).

So I’ve got to get back to work here at this critical time. Our baby is several months old now and more able to keep herself entertained.

Was it a premonition of danger, a forewarning, or just a direct sign from the Almighty?

Something unexplainable happened to Mrs. Clinton following a recent campaign stop. As she was exiting, for no apparent reason, the American flags that she was drawing near to started to fall over. There was no wind or any visible force that could be seen that would cause them to tumble like that. One can only guess that it was a divine occurrence that signaled danger for our once great country with Mrs. Clinton leading.

((YouTube embedded video follows))

The Ames Iowa Straw Poll is well underway. Mitt Romney and many other of the Republican candidates have already presented their speeches. From early reports that have been put out, the crowds don’t seem to be as large as expected. Perhaps it’s the heat in Iowa that has kept people at home. People are voting. We won’t have the results until sometime after 7pm.

The Evans-Novak Political Report for 8/8 provides a great analysis of the importance of todays vote is for Mitt Romney.

The Ames, Iowa, straw poll Saturday, August 11, revolves around former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will not take part.

1. Romney is the hands-down favorite. His early popularity there was enough to scare away the other top contenders. Romney is the favorite in the straw poll for many reasons. First, he is generally strong in Iowa. He leads in most statewide polls, recently exceeding 25 percent and leading runner-up Giuliani by double-digits.

2. Second, the straw poll, to an even greater extent than the caucuses, is a test of organizational strength. Romney, by far, has the best organized Iowa campaign — a symptom of his being the most organized of the candidates. A former consultant and corporate manager, Romney understands management.

3. Third, more than management, the “organizational strength” required by the straw poll means mostly money. Romney is the GOP leader in that field, with $44 million raised at the end of the second quarter. With Giuliani and McCain not playing in Ames, Romney is orders of magnitude richer than his nearest competitors.

4. The potential dark horses to watch in Ames are Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.).While the straw poll holds “make-or-break” promise for Huckabee and Brownback, it’s not clear what result would “make” either of them and what result could “break” them.

5. Paul has garnered excellent spontaneous grassroots support at every turn, but this hasn’t turned into more than a blip in polls or in media coverage. His fundraising, however, is surprising, and his breadth of support on the Internet is impressive. If he shows well in Ames, he could start garnering real media attention. However, campaign organization is not Paul’s strong point, making the straw poll a less-than-ideal venue for him to break out.

6. Brownback’s campaign has dedicated itself mostly to chipping away at Romney’s support among pro-life Christian conservatives (see discussion of the debate below). This is Brownback’s base, and Romney currently occupies some of it (though he is inhibited by anti-Mormon bias). Simply within that base, Brownback could have a strong showing.

7. Huckabee, however, has similar plans. He is trying to portray himself as the candidate of evangelical Christians — the most celebrated bloc of the GOP base. Fiscal conservative discontent with Huckabee’s Arkansas tax hikes has created something of an anti-Huckabee push — an extraordinary burden for a second-tier candidate to bear.

8. A third-place finish for Brownback could be the end of the road for him, especially if it is paired with a robust Romney showing that demonstrates his support within the pro-life constituency. All of Brownback’s eggs are in the Iowa basket — his neighboring state.

9. If Brownback comes in a strong second, blowing away Huckabee and pocketing a respectable portion of the vote, he could give his candidacy a boost. The same is true for Huckabee.

10. Romney, as long as he wins as expected, cannot really suffer. A blowout win, however, would make him the undisputed front-runner in the nomination battle. A loss would be a very bad break.

Get the story here on Fox News. Romney Girls Attack

((YouTube embedded video. BarelyPolitical Exclusive: Romney Girls Attack Obama Girl!))

If you are a Mitt Romney supporter living somewhere in the area of Iowa, please attend the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll this Saturday, August 11, 2007. Although some political pundits have already predicted a victory for Mitt Romney at the event, who can be sure? Please attend and cast your vote for Mitt Romney. This is going to be a huge political event with lots of music, food, and people. Several of the Republican candidates will be speaking and moving in the crowds to shake hands. You will be likely to remember this for years to come, particularly if this will be your first time to attend a straw poll.

More than three hundred journalists from around the world are expected to attend the event. This straw poll is the first major test of a presidential candidate’s organizational strength. If team Romney wins, those journalists will report Mitt Romney is the front-runner for the Republican nomination. They will report of his ability to organize and rally supporters. A victory for Romney will propel him forward.
In preparation for the event, Mitt’s sons have been driving a Winnebago all over the state of Iowa visiting all 99 counties. Please watch this video on Mitt TV called 24 Hours on the Trail, Part 1

Here are all of the details of the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll to be held this weekend.

Please go to www.iowagop.net to purchase your tickets

Click here for a .pdf brochure including a map

• When: Saturday
• Where: Iowa State University campus, Ames
• Hours: 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with voting from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum, the Scheman Building or Stephens Auditorium; those voting will dip a thumb in indelible ink to prevent duplicate voting
• Winner announced: 7 p.m.
• On the ballot: U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback; businessman John Cox of Illinois; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California; U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona; U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado; former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee; former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson
• Cost: $35 per person; tickets available at www.iowagop.net or from the candidate campaigns
• Requirements: Must be an Iowa resident and present an Iowa ID (driver’s license, military identification or student ID from an Iowa college or university)
• Speakers (in order, starting at 12:45 p.m.): Romney, Tancredo, Cox, Paul, Huckabee, Hunter, Tommy Thompson, Brownback. Not attending: Giuliani, McCain, Fred Thompson
• Directions: Take Highway 30 to Ames; exit north on Elwood Drive. Drivers will be directed to parking

Straw Poll Story, GazetteOnline.com - Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, August 7, 2007