Gov. Romney Proposes New Bill

Governor Mitt Romney proposed a new bill in accordance with his "personal responsibility principle" that would require non-custodial parents with financial means to pay for their childrens' health insurance . This "personal responsibility principle" is the idea that every person needs to take seriously the responsibilities that are theirs and not find ways to escape from them. Mr. Romney will continue to beat this drum while governor and along his presidential campaign as it rings so true to conservatives. This could also be an issue on which he will campaign to pass it as a federal law if elected in 2008 (current federal law only requires non-custodial parents to cover their children if they have a fitting insurance plan through their employer . . . but that kind of law sends the wrong message! . . . the right message is that if you father a child, you are responsible for supporting that child . . . period)

Some of the details of this new bill are addressed in the Governor's press release earlier today.

The Boston Globe's article regarding this new plan quoted Mr. Romney as saying:

"This is largely dealing with fathers who have not been married, who have
brought a child into the world, have escaped the responsibility of marriage and
we're saying no longer can you escape the responsibility of caring for your
child,"

"I think from a society standpoint, recognizing that as an individual one
would have responsibility for one's child for 18 years, that will have an impact
on the level of out of wedlock births"

Our nation needs more leaders like Governor Mitt Romney who will make people take responsibility for their actions (and decrease government spending in the process!) This is a truly a great plan from a truly great man!

Bits and pieces . . . a few links to other blogs.

Here's and interesting photo . . . with a little exerpt from a Cache Valley, UT blogger.

And over at another blog "Let Your Mind Alone" a two part piece called "Run, Mitt, Run" can be found here and here.

Mormon Handcart Trek Sesquicentenial Commemoration

This post is to draw attention to an important civic, historical, and religious event in the Iowa City area June 9-11. This link details the many events included in the program including an interfaith devotional Sunday morning and a visit from the President of the LDS church, Gordon B. Hinckley for a Sunday evening program/discourse that will be broadcast worldwide over the Church's Satellite system.

On Pols and Polls

First the Pols . . . as in the trio of politicians (3M-state governors) recent trip to Iraq). There's a great blog/diary entry by one of the Air Force's C-130 pilots who flew the governors into Baghdad. A couple of the relevant exerpts:

Romney was on the flight deck with us for the takeoff, and not knowing Mitt Romney from Knute Rockne I asked him who he was. When he told me he was Massachusett's governor, I politely asked him to leave the flight deck, declaring the cockpit off limits to all Red Sox fans. He laughed and made a few cracks my way, regarding the Yanks, and we hit it off pretty well. I asked him if he was at Fenway when the Sox finally won the World Series, and with a huge boyish grin he replied, "Yes I was."

And later . . .

Two helicopters waited fifty feet from our plane for them, but before anyone could whisk them away, the governors promised us a few photos, and were gracious enough to oblige. Romney even handed me his personal coin, and told me "You're not a bad guy... for a Yankees fan." I wished him "Good Luck in '08," and we went our separate ways.

Anyone know what a "personal coin" is? Again, people who meet Mr. Romney always seem to come off very impressed . . . even Yankee fans!
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UPDATE 5/31 . . . Ann Marie Curling over at Elect Romney In 2008 was recently in contact with Capt. and was able to obtain photos of the "personal coin" . . . Great job Ann Marie!


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Now onto the Polls:

This first ABC News poll (props to Jason at Illinoisians for Mitt for finding this one) confirms what most of us know already . . . and that's that it is way too early for anyone to be a "lock" as a frontrunner. Only 9% of voters polled at this point "would definitely vote for McCain" . . . less than half of those that are already sold on Hillary (19%). Broken down to just the Republicans and he's still only got 11% "sealed-uup" at this point. What is even more encouraging for Mr. Romney (both in the primary and in the general election) is that 28% of those polled would definitely not vote for McCain and 42% for Hillary. This confirms the polarizing nature of Hillary amogst voters since nearly two-thirds (61%) of voters have already made up their minds on Hillary. The Republican field seems to be wide open!

The last interesting poll summarized and linked at a Giuliani blog site is another of the "cold-call" phone survey types (which means that they're all about name recognition . . . since most people don't care this early in the game and are apt to agree to the first name that they recognize that doesn't completely repulse them just to get off the phone and back to dinner. I mean who hasn't heard of McCain, Giuliani, or Newt? No surprise that they're leading).

Governor Romney has never been a "frontrunner" in these kinds of polls (see this link for lots of them over the last several months) because of his poor name recognition. However, it is interesting that where his name is better known (i.e. Michigan . . . where at least the older crowd remember his fathers leadership), he is definitely on the map at 15%. Look for these numbers to go up once he formally announces his candidacy and is seen/recognized in the public eye as a serious contender.

One other thing to consider is that George Allen seems to have almost NO support outside of the south . . . 3% in Michigan and 1% in Washington State? That's not going to get him very far in the GOP primaries . . . but again, that might be mostly name recognition as well . . . but 1% . . .)

It should be an interesting next 8-12 months as the candidates announce their campaigns and the race starts to take form.

Krusty Impressed With Romney's Financial Strength in Iowa . .

Over at The Krusty Konservative (a popular conservative Iowa political blog) Krusty himself is impressed with the money that Romney's PAC has brought in and is distributing to Iowan GOP hopefuls. There's even a link to the actual public documents of what $ Romney brought in and from whom and to whom that money went. Interesting stuff! Some entertaining discussion/comments follows.

We have our first neighbor! Illinoisians for Mitt is up and running!

The first bordering state to Iowa to start a "For Mitt" blogsite is up and running in Illinoisians for Mitt! Get on over and check out Jason Bonham's blogsite and wish him well.

Massachussetts Receives Approval for Fed. Aid for Recent Flooding

Mitt Romney's requests for federal aid from the federal government for the damage inflicted by the recent flooding has been approved. This is good for Romney as his strong "within the crisis" leadership is now followed up with an inflow of relief for Bay Staters. I see this experience helping to increase Romney's poll numbers in Massachussetts the next time around.

In other news . . . Romney's support of the Abstinence educational program for MA school kids is hitting a bumpy road, but should make it through the congress.

Also, GOVERNOR ROMNEY IS STILL LISTED AS #2 AMONG CURRENT LIKELY GOP CANDIDATES (link fixed . . . sorry it was a bad link before). It says:

"These rankings are based on a number of factors, including: organization, money, buzz and polling. The two candidates in our two top spots are the candidates who are doing well in all four attributes."

Great job Gov. Romney!

More Big News: Some Details About Romney's Next Visit to Iowa

Mitt Romney will be coming to Iowa again for the Iowa GOP State Convention on June 17th. The information listed in these two links is quite ambiguous about Romney's plans . . . but newly acquired inside sources confirmed that Romney will indeed be in attendance on Saturday, June 17 (I don't have info about the 18th.) The details aren't entirely ironed out at this point. But it looks like Governor Romney might be hosting a free breakfast for delegates at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines (tentative time 8am to 9:30.) I've also been informed that up to twenty fellow non-delegate "Iowans for Romney" could be invited to attend as well. So e-mail me (jjfuller72@yahoo.com) if you are an "Iowan for Romney" who wants to be at the breakfast with the delegates and Governor Romney on June 17th!

Governor Romney in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan.

Well, Mitt now joins the ranks of the other half of state governors who have already been to Iraq. The most informative article I found is in from the Military News. Boston's coverage of the trip is also interesting with articles here and here (the last one has links in the middle of the story to some photos from the trip as well as to a 3.5 minute interview with Romney that aired on Boston area NPR). Over at the Boston CBS affiliates video archive you can hit the Search tab on the right and search for "Romney" to see some news segments on the visit as well as a "Web Extra" DOD interview with Romney from Kuwait (pretty long . . . and can't hear the questions).

BIG NEWS! Doug Gross to head Romney's Iowa Arm of Commonwealth PAC

Mitt Romney's Official Commonwealth PAC website issued this press release this morning which announces Doug Gross as taking the job of heading up the Iowa division of Romney's PAC.

For those who are not versed in Iowa politics you may be wondering: "Who is Doug Gross?"

Here is his bio from his Law Firms' website.

This link gives his bio/history when he was running for Iowa Governor in 2002 and mentions:

"Despite the time it took to serve as the managing partner of one of the state's largest law firms, Gross continued to advise many Republican candidates for office and was co-chair of George W. Bush's finance effort in Iowa in 2000."

Looks like Gross knows how to spot and support a winner! He's obviously seen something special in Gov. Romney.

Over at "The Krusty Konservative" (the best conservative Iowa blog) they are discussing this improtant announcement and arguing about how important (or not) this "get" is for Romney.

Governors better than Senators

This article from Human Events Online discusses the inherent differences in Senators vs Governors as presidential candidates and highlights Mitt Romney's recent successes in Massachusetts.

Catholics for Romney Blog

I ran into this Blogsite called Catholics for Romney today. It seems to have stemmed from Gov. Romney's support of the Catholic Church exception from "anti-discrimination" in not allowing gay/lesbian couples adopt through Catholic programs. The Catholic adoption agencies were going to be penalized by the state until Romney sought and obtained an exemption in their behalf. This article has a nice review of Romney's recent positive interactions with the Catholic church.

So visit Catholics for Romney and encourage their continued good work in supporting Mitt. And if you're a Catholic Romney fan, offer your support at this blogsite. Those of you who have blogs . . . make sure you link to his site!

Romney to headline 2006 Gov dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas July 6th

Over at the Arkansas Family Coalition's blog it has annoucned that Mitt Romney will headline 2006 Gov dinner in Little Rock on July 6th. Let any potential Romney supporters/friends know about it! See the comments on the blog too. (Also, this Arkansas Times Blog section has some debate going on about the upcoming visit)

The Boston Globe also confirms plans for the visit

Huckabee will be there, of course. This is a couple of times recently that these two have been together (see Guantanamo trip) . . . Romney/Huckabee might just be a great ticket!

Turn-around King . . . see article at Red State

This Red State article about Mr. Romney's extensive managerial experience and success is generating a lot of discussion and interesting comments. I highly recommend registering with Red State and commenting there. It's a pretty important conservative discustion site. Feel free to join in the discussions.

Also, Mr. Romney didn't do so poorly at the Wisc state GOP straw poll for '08. Six candidates (Allen, Giuliani, Gingrich, Rice, Romney, and McCain) all received between 10-17% of the votes (n=357). That's a "wide-open" field if I've ever seen one. I assume that Romney would have done much better if he had been able to keep his appointment and speak at the convention as scheduled . . . might have even been the front-runner.

Fighting the "name recognition factor"

This recent story out of Massachusetts has an interesting take on Romney's recent leadership through the flooding crisis in Massachusetts. A disaster like this is horrible and devastating to affected individuals. Situations like this require focused effective leadership and Gov Romney seems to be providing that well. Also, one cannot dispute the fact that situations like these represent opportunities for Gov. Romney to prove his leadership capabilities beyond the borders of his state and thereby improve his still poor national "name recognition factor."

This story got me thinking again about the "name recognition factor" and how it plays a roll in the pre-election world.

Romney supporters (or potential Romney supporters) should not be discouraged by all of the "early polls" (like this compilation of polls over the last year or so) about the 2008 presidential race. At this point . . . people called by a polling service about a potential race over 2 years away are not likely to take it seriously and would probably say anything to get off the phone quicker. More importantly, at this point these phone polls are all about name recognition. That's why McCain, Giuliani, and Rice seem to do the best . . . because they are well known names that have been highlighted on the national stage. However, political pundints see it a little differently as the following links (here, here, here, and here) all show that Romney is in the top teir of possible republican nominees.

What about McCain? Is he unbeatable? I mean he's tops in the polls and tops among pundits!

Well, a few of points on McCain:

1) Bear in mind that the mainstream media (MSM) LOVES and has always loved McCain. He's championed campaign finance reform which gives disproportionate power to the MSM. Plus, he's a "Maverick" and the media love a guy who will speak out about and against the "status quo". So, McCain sort of gets "a pass" by the MSM. However, when election time comes up all of his controversial past WILL be brought up and will make the GOP base have some second thoughts about Senator McCain

2) Longtime GOPers and the Christian right don't much like McCain as he's been so willing to team up with the left on several issues. GOP bloggers also have a pretty negative opinion of him as far as polls go.

3) As stated above, McCain is a "Maverick" which is an OK stance to take as a moderate republican senator . . . but is not much of what most people think of in a President. In a word, McCain doesn't strike many people as "presidential."

4) He's not terribly young . . . Most people remember him as he was during the 2000 presidential race, but he'll be 72 years old in 2008. Assuming the GOP wants to get another potential two-term president in office, that would make him 80 years old as a president. This will play a bigger factor than people are now realizing.

5) He's pretty testy and reactionary which won't go over well in debates or when he's finally grilled by the MSM during a hotly contested GOP primary.

6) He's a senator. Time and time again, the public seems to wildly prefer Governors to Senators when it comes to electing a president.

7) Part of McCain's support now is based on the polling that shows him handily beating Hillary in a general election. This excites the GOP base and engenders support from people who want to win. However, Mr. Romney is no slouch against Clinton either . . . one online poll at CNBC showed Mr. Romney smoking Clinton in a head to head race (74% to 26%). Once this kind of polling is confirmed, those "wanting to win" could easily switch camps.

Well, I don't mean this to be an attack on McCain . . . I just wanted to point out to Romney supporters that there is not only "hope" but a strong chance that McCain can and will be beat.

So don't be scared to support Mitt Romney because you don't think he has a chance. He is the horse that will pull away from the rest near the finish line!