Posted on 02/19/2010 6:25:01 AM PST by wk4bush2004
Washington – The starting bell has just rung for the 2012 presidential election, and the unofficial Republican front-runner is … former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The occasion is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, which serves as a cattle call for presidential wannabes. For the past three years, Mr. Romney has won the CPAC presidential straw poll, and in recent months, the more scientific surveys usually have shown him coming in first for 2012.
Not that any of these early polls mean a whole lot. Two years ago, even as he was winning the CPAC poll, he was losing the Republican nomination to Sen. John McCain of Arizona. (Senator McCain, viewed as a liberal by some conference attendees, wasn’t even invited to this year’s CPAC.) In fact, it was at CPAC that Romney dropped out of the 2008 race.
Now, Romney is showing all the telltale signs of candidacy. He has named a top former campaign aide, Matt Rhoades, to head his political action committee, Free and Strong America. He has written another book and mapped out a book tour that takes him to early primary and caucus states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, among others. His PAC raised more money last year, $2.9 million, than those of any of his potential nomination rivals.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Does the word, "ROMNEYCARE" provide any clue to these people????
I'm with Sarah Palin, all the way!!!!!! People can say all they want about her, but only she can defeat Obama. The liberals have an attitude of "Anyone but Sarah..."
To quote someone at the Tea Party Convention:
"I can think of two words right now that scare liberals....PRESIDENT PALIN."
Please. No more phonies.
One word: Romneycare
Yes, I believe the RINOs are going to try to ram Romney down our throats this time. It’s going to get pretty dirty from here on out. I hope Sarah and the other true conservatives are up to the battle - because it’s going to be the big one.
He can be the RINO candidate. Sarah can be the conservative candidate. If he makes nice and drops out by Super Tuesday like he did for McCain, Sarah can make him Secretary of Commerce.
Conservative confab: at CPAC, Romney looks ready to run
Ah yes... Romney -- the best candidate the liberals have for us... LOL...
Agree as usual. If Romney is nominated, the GOP will lose by a landslide. Sarah can win it.
Some Freepers are going to have to come to grips with the fact that Romney will do whatever it takes to lose the albatrross of Romneycare and that most people (even most Republicans, even most conservativess)will buy it. Look at this quote from yesterday ““America will not endure government-run healthcare, a new and expansive entitlement, an inexplicable and surely vanishing cut in Medicare, and an even greater burden of taxes,” he continued. “Americans said no, because Obama-care is bad for America!” Some anti-Romney Freepers will foam at the mouth at cry foul foul foul but the majority of the GOP electorate will eat it up. He is no patsy. He won’t go away because his critics can (easily) attack him. Unless the right coalesces around a single candidate who relentlessly takes it to Romney in these kind of conservative forums (CPAC, Values Voter Summits, Southern Republican Leadership Conference.)he will continue to build his orginization and will do well in the primaries, better than last time. The anti-Romney sentiment that is rabid on the Free Republic is not prevalent in the greater party or even in the greater conservative movement. We have to remember that if the FR reflected the reality of the GOP electorate we would be in the second year of Duncan Hunter’s first term.
“I believe the RINOs are going to try to ram Romney down our throats this time.”
You may be right, but I also believe this will be the time when we - your ordinary conservatives - say, “Screw you, ‘party leaders’, you DON’T know what’s best for us and we’re NOT going to accept anything you offer at face value.”
Or that’s my fervent hope.
Colonel, USAFR
I will NEVER vote for the pos shyster commie.
LLS
LLS
If you look at the history of Republican nominees in the last 70 years, nominating the guy whose turn it is worked out only once (Nixon in 1968 and by a razor-thin margin) and flopped in every other instance (Dewey in 1948, Nixon in 1960, Dole in 1996, McCain in 2008).
Admittedly, Dewey and Nixon both came close, but I don't think a formula with a 20% success rate, even against a weak candidate, is a particularly good idea. All four of the failure instances cited were not against particularly strong candidates although JFK in 1960 and BO in 2008 did have the wind to their backs in both instances.
So instead of a 1 in 5 success rate, we have a 2 in 7 success rate-- 28.6% rather than 20%. But I still don't think an 8.6% increase in the dismal success rate is anything to write home about.
You are quite correct, and I suspect that the GOP primary process, front loaded with crossover voting in "purple" states, is going to give Romney a head start.
If he gets the nomination, we'll need to wear Kevlar when logged in to FR (protection from skull shrapnel).
I was no fan of Romney, but by the time the primaries got around to my state the only candidates who hadn’t dropped out were McCain, Romney and Huckabee. I can easily see rationalizing a vote for Romney in that situation.
I don't think she likes him, and probably knows his hitmen were the ones planting all the crap last year.
Palin and Romney stay away from each other because they both know they are the big dogs in the fight. It is way to soon to engage or ally. In the end if either one is the nominee they will have the strong support of the other. They both have what the other needs to win. Romney represents everything that some Freepers and Tea Partyers hate, he has big traditional organizations in almost every state, heavy duty fundraising, good relationships wih all of the “old Gop power types”, he appeals to moderates and independents. Palin can get the nomination without that if she is the only conservative running or knocks out the little guys early, but to win the general she will need what Romney has, and the easiest way to get it is if he gives it to her rather than her trying to build it on her own. If Romney gets the nomination he has to have the fervent support from the hardcore grassroots conservatives that Palin has. Anti-Obama sentiment will go a long ways but true passion about your own candidate is Palin’ strength. They both want to be president but they are both pragmatists. The loser of the match will be in the winners camp in the summer of 2012 to the dismay of many Freepers.
Somebody muss Romney’s hair up so that he has nothing going for him, because looks is all he has.
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