Romney News Round Up

Here's a smattering of recent news that's relevant to the Mitt Romney campaign:

• Tally In Straw Poll Resumes; McCain Even With Giuliani and Hunter (The State) - Preliminary results from yesterday's Spartanburg straw poll (with 81 of 92 precincts reporting) are: (1) Rudy Giuliani - 158 votes (2) Duncan Hunter - 152 votes (3) McCain - 116 (4) Sam Brownback - 83 votes (5) Mitt Romney - 80 votes (6) Mike Huckabee - 21 votes. The AP reported this morning that McCain had pulled even with Giuliani and Hunter when counting resumed this morning. Low turnout for the straw poll was attributed to bad weather, which could have hurt Romney's turnout. The results make me wonder if it was a mistake for Romney to push the straw poll as hard as he did though. He ran advertising in South Carolina and reportedly had his organizers heavily pushing his candidacy. That sort of emphasis can make otherwise relatively meaningless straw polls like this matter. What's more, it ends up highlighting Giulani's strong showing in the face of only light campaigning in the state on his part.
  

• Les Mitts (Slate) - Slate has another caustic article on Romney. While I personally found Romney's leaked memo strategy to demonize Europe and France a little annoying, I think this article is absolutely terrible and reeks of religious bigotry: "But by far the best part of Romney's strategy is his campaign's primal code for Brand Mormon. As the Globe explains: 'Enmity toward France, where Romney did his Mormon mission during college, is a recurring theme of the document. The European Union, it says at one point, wants to 'drag America down to Europe's standards,' adding: 'That's where Hillary and Dems would take us. Hillary = France.' The plan even envisions 'First, not France' bumper stickers.' According to his campaign, Mormonism is not some new-fangled, outside-the-mainstream religion. It's Romney's lifelong crusade against heathen France."

• McCain in Utah - McCain skipped out on CPAC and held a fundraiser in Utah yesterday at the invitation of Governor Jon Huntsman. The Deseret News reported that McCain raised over $150,000 as of last night and was expected add to that this morning. Why did McCain come to Utah? The Salt Lake Tribune quotes Utah State University professor Peter Galderisi saying "If [McCain] can get support and money in Utah, which obviously has a religious connection to Romney as well as an ideological one, it's like saying 'I'm still a contender. I can play his home turf.'"

• Romney Says Media Are Focused On Him (Boston Globe) - The Globe picked up on comments Romney made in his CBN interview Wednesday which attributed the media scrutiny against him to the media seeing him as the more conservative front-running candidate.

• Regent Students Upset At Romney's Choice As Speaker (Virginia-Pilot) - "Selecting presidential candidate Mitt Romney as its May commencement speaker has riled some of Regent University's students and alumni who say his Mormon faith clashes with the school's bedrock evangelical Christianity. 'What we're against is the fact that Mormonism is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Christian values and what we believe,' said Doug Dowdey, a Virginia Beach pastor who said he graduated from Regent's divinity school last year."

• Candidate Ancestry - Romney's not the only candidate that has the press focusing on his ancestry. Various press outlets are reporting that Barack Obama's mother's ancestors purportedly owned slaves. More news, like Romney's polygamous ancestry, that's not relevant to the current presidential campaign. I believe, however, that it bolsters my argument (in the comments) that reports on Romney's polygamous ancestors were not necessarily religious bigotry or a "liberal" hit piece, but rather another example of headline grabbing sensationalistic journalism.
  

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!"

Romney News Round Up

Several articles on Mitt Romney worth noting as well as some endorsements and a few other interesting tidbits:

New Articles

• This week's issue of Newsweek reviews the concerns on Romney's policy shifts and faith (). Although it's hashing through some very already hashed through ground, it has some a few new stories and quotes that make it worth the read. Overall I think it's pretty fair:
  "Romney may ultimately win over doubters on the right. 'There is a subtle prejudice in that flip-flop charge,' says Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. "People who are liberal can't understand why someone might move from a more-liberal position to a more-conservative position. Conservatives don't see it that way. They see it as someone who has seen the light.' Christian media strategist DeMoss notes that evangelism is all about conversion, so, he says, 'we accept an evangelical's conversion if he told us it happened this morning.' Romney's reputation as a family man with a wife of 37 years and five proud sons will also help with conservatives. Among top-tier candidates, Romney is more appealing to the Christian right than John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. Romney is beginning to get some important backers, too: he has the political machine of former Florida governor Jeb Bush behind him, an immensely important asset if, as predicted, Florida moves up its primary. (Bush's parents, George H.W. and Barbara, are said to be fond of Romney.)"

• The New Republic yesterday mused over whether Romney could win the a Republican Primary. In a pretty odd article, it brands Romney "a ghost of Republicanism past: a moderate," and wonders whether Romney's announcement at Henry Ford's museum in Dearborn last week was some sort of strategic move to invite condemnations of Ford's anti-semitic views and get lambasted by the "liberal" press. "Get branded such a villain by our liberal elites, and you also might win a Republican primary. Mitt Romney may wish to bestow on us an America of hybrid cars, and, as he said in his speech, one 'defined not only in terms of our might, but also by our willingness to lead, to serve, and to share.' But, to get there he'll have to first prove he's part of the conservative tribe--whatever it takes."

• On the stump in Iowa on Monday, Romney reiterated his view that we should continue to push diplomatic isolation with Iran. "I do not believe that formal engagement and negotiation at this time with Iran would do anything other than give (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad an enormous win. And it's the last thing we should be considering."

Endorsements

• Romney held a fundraiser in Utah on Tuesday and was warmly received as Utah's "adopted son." "People [in Utah] don't heckle the Massachusetts Mormon about 'knowing the Lord.' They don't consider the presidential candidate a pretender. They don't even mind that his primary goal is to charm the checkbooks off of them." Romney has the overwhelming support of most of Utah's Republican politicians. In conjunction with his fundraiser, Romney also issued a press release announcing the endorsement of a lopsided majority of Utah's legislature (40 Representatives and 16 Senators) as well as that of Lt. Governor Herbert.
  

• Romney also announced his Georgia leadership team on Tuesday, it includes several congressmen and other prominent state officials .

Other Tidbits

• When asked about Mitt Romney and his faith on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday, fellow Latter-day Saint and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "I've never met Mitt Romney. But I say, religion should not have anything to do with who's going to be president or not be president."
  

• At the Utah fundraiser on Tuesday, Senator Orrin Hatch said of Romney: "He's the one the Democrats fear the most. He's articulate, he's smart, he's attractive." Hatch also said that said if Romney could win the presidency if he could get past those who are prejudiced against Mormons.
  

• This is a little old, but last week Pat Robertson announced that Romney will be the commencement speaker at Robertson's Regent University's this May.