Romney News Round Up

It's been a pretty big news day for events affected Mitt Romney's campaign. On the eve of the Spartanburg straw poll and CPAC, John McCain made a surprising announcement of his intentions to run for president on the Late Show with David Letterman. The quasi-announcement (he's still expected to "officially" announce in April) was certainly an attempt to steal some of the spotlight from Romney, Giuliani, and others this weekend at CPAC (which he himself will not be attending).... will it be enough to get the buzz back into his campaign (which has lost more than 10% points to Giuliani in some polls of late)? Anyhow, here are some McCain, Giuliani, and Romney news clips that caught my eye:

• McCain Says He'll Seek Presidency, Plans To Make It Official In April (Washington Post): McCain made an unexpected announcement of his intentions to run for president last night on the Late Show with David Letterman.

• McCain Fundraiser Set At Utah Home (SL Trib): McCain is venturing into Romney territory ... "Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has endorsed McCain, invited him to Utah to raise funds. About 60 to 70 Utahns are expected at Simmons' home for the Thursday luncheon."
  

• Religious Attacks Disavowed (SL Trib): "Days before presidential candidate John McCain visits Utah, his campaign says the Arizona senator condemns any attack against his opponent, Mitt Romney, over his Mormon faith." I wonder if he'll live up to this.
  

• Laura Ingraham Radio Show: Apparently Bob Novak is "changing his view that Giuliani can't be nominated by the Republican party."
  

• A Convertible Candidate (the Politico): "If the conservative press could pick the Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney might have had the nomination locked up last year. By spring 2006, he had appeared on the covers of The Weekly Standard, National Review and The American Spectator with such laudatory headlines as "Matinee Mitt" and "Romney Rocks". . . . But there are signs that Romney's honeymoon with conservative pundits may be coming to an end. The candidate received an early warning in January when he went to address the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit, which ought to have been friendly territory."

• Yesterday, Romney also issued a couple of press releases announcing his Latin American Policy Advisory Group and his Arizona Leadership Team.
  

• The National Review Online had an interesting discussion on Sam Brownback vis-a-vis Romney. Kathryn Jean Lopez wondered whether Brownback was actually running for McCain's VP. She noted an email from Brownback's campaign that lashed out at Romney: "[Romney's] staff unjustly maligned Senator Brownback's record on life issues, and then Senator McCain's record on life issues, Governor Romney continued this tactic by untruthfully characterizing the record of President Bush on life issues. It is disturbing that Governor Romney has seen fit to respond to legitimate questions about his own record by falsely attempting to reinvent everyone else in the race (and President Bush) in his own image...." Lopez said "The shame of this is I think Romney may be the most liable to lead on the social issues — if his cloning and marriage fights in Massachusetts are any indication. On the chance he might be a true-blue latter-day lifer it strikes me as unwise for Brownback... to tear him down so directly and consistently." National Review Editor Rich Lowry responded that "Seems to me it's imperative for Brownback to try tear down Romney's pro-life credentials. He has to do it if he's going to try to be the sole authentic social conservative in the race. I think the way it's going to go, working our way roughly from the right, is that Brownback is going to try to tear down Romney's pro-life credentials, and Romney is going to try to tear down (he hopes) McCain's, and McCain is going to try to tear down Giuliani's (which shouldn't be hard because they're basically non-existent, at least post-1989). Welcome to the presidential pro-life credentials food chain!"

Damon Linker Revisited

The Salt Lake Tribune has a interesting article today that responds to the questions raised by Damon Linker about Mitt Romney's independence from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Some call Romney's philosophical and policy changes a "conversion," while others dub them "flip-flops." By whatever name, one thing seems clear: Romney's motives are his own. Where once he was to the left of the LDS Church positions, now he is firmly to the right. Such independence fits well with church policy.
Though it does weigh in on what it deems "moral issues," The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints long has claimed a position of strict political neutrality, repeating over the pulpit every year that it does not endorse candidates; allow its buildings, membership lists or other resources to be used for partisan purposes; or attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader.

Convincing Conservatives

One of Romney's biggest challenges in the run up to next year's primaries is convincing social conservatives to take a chance on him. While there's been a lot of discussion about Romney's policy shifts on conservative sites this past week (see here and here for example), Romney seems to be making some significant political headway nonetheless. The Boston Globe has a story today about Romney's "point man" for conservative outreach, Peter G. Flaherty. The Globe writes that Flaherty "isn't just defusing concerns about Romney's past support for abortion rights and gay rights. He's also busy building relationships with prominent religious leaders, and helping Romney understand hot-button issues," something that sends "a strong signal to conservatives" in the words of conservative activist Gary L. Bauer. The Salt Lake Tribune and US News & World Report have articles this weekend detailing some of the dividends Romney's efforts among conservatives have paid. An essential part of this outreach, in my mind, has been Romney's astute reaction to political attacks (ala Youtube) as well as gaffes of his own making. After receiving very mixed reviews at the National Review Summit a week and a half ago, Romney did "much better" at this past Friday's Conservative Member Retreat.

Democrats "Fearful" of Romney

The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that since November, the Democratic National Committee has attacked Mitt Romney more than any other candidate. The DNC has issued 15 press releases attacking Romney (while issuing eleven against McCain and one against Giuliani). The Tribune writes that:

Several Democratic political strategists say of the candidates now hoping for the 2008 Republican nomination, Romney is a fearsome contender. The good-looking businessman has charisma, a history of private sector experience and a golden platform on health care reform.