Posted on 10/08/2006 11:48:30 AM PDT by Jeff Fuller
O'REILLY: Is there anything that could make you vote Democrat? Is there any scenario that you could envision you supporting the Democrat candidate for president?COULTER: If Zell Miller were running against John McCain.
O'REILLY: You're not a big McCain fan, are you?
COULTER: No. Actually, I don't really like any of our front-runners.
O'REILLY: Really?
COULTER: I think it's going to be somebody else.
O'REILLY: I think it's going to be Mitt Romney.
COULTER: Actually, of the ones they talk about ... he's my favorite. It's somebody out of the blue.
O'REILLY: I think Mitt Romney is the guy on the inside track that very few people know about.
Apologies to those not versed in 1980's alternative Rock music for the title. Essentially, this post is inspired by the recent praise and positive prognostication Romney's received from political pundits. Some almost seem like endorsements, some just predictions; but all may be helping Romney rise to near "frontrunner" status and will help to increase his still poor name recognition among the general populus. I'll put these down somewhat in order of influence on helping Romney secure the GOP nomination.
#1 Rush Limbaugh: Jason Branham at South Carolinians for Romney reported that he heard an interesting exchange on Rush's radio show last week:
In other news, I know Rush Limbaugh has almost completely withheld commentary on the ‘08 race. But today he called George Allen the most truly conservative potential ‘08 candidate, then quickly said that Mitt Romney was a CLOSE second. I hope that’s a quick peak into Rush’s mind and an indication that Romney could receive Rush’s backing come campaign time. One thing’s for sure, after his daily McCain bashing, we know Rush isn’t going to be getting behind the senator from Arizona any time soon!
I'd say that's a dang positive sign for Romney . . . especially since, despite his pretty solid conservative credentials, Allen has proven to be gaffe-prone ("Macaca-gate" and Jewish ancestry issues). Also, with his controversial history on race-relations he's someone that doesn't stand a very strong chance in a general election . . . imagine the attack ads that the Dems and 527s would be hurling at Allen ad nauseum. #2 Bill O'Reilly: (ranked behind Rush only because Limbaugh probably has more influence among staunch conservative Republicans than O'Reilly--who has much more of an independent/libertarian streak)
A couple of weeks ago, O'Reilly said that Mitt Romney is his early favorite. to win the 2008 presidential election over Hillary Clinton
(TRAVERSE CITY) — Fox News commentator Bill O'REILLY told a gathering here today that Massachusetts Gov. and former Michigander Mitt ROMNEY is his early favorite to win the 2008 presidential election over U.S. Sen. Hillary CLINTON (D-N.Y.) in what he sees now as the likely head-to-head race.Speaking at the Michigan Future Forum, sponsored by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, O'Reilly said former frontrunner U.S. Sen. John McCAIN (R-Ariz.) will be hurt for his "soft" positions on the terrorist interrogation and border security issues.
The host of the "No Spin Zone" and the "O'Reilly Factor" added that another top-tier Republican candidate, Rudolph GUILIANI, the former New York City mayor, is being hurt by his inability to handle the press and his mushy positions on issues. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt GINGRICH and U.S. Sen. George ALLEN (R-Va.) round out the top five candidates on the GOP side.
But in the last two weeks, O'Reilly said he's seeing a lot of reasons to give Romney an edge.
"He's photogenic. He's articulate. He's got money. New Hampshire likes him. This guy . . . you watch him," O'Reilly said.
That's as close to an endorsement as I've seen from a pundit at this point of the game.
Further, when Bill O'Reilly interviewed Ann Coulter last week on "The Factor" the following exchange occurred:
O'REILLY: Is there anything that could make you vote Democrat? Is there any scenario that you could envision you supporting the Democrat candidate for president?COULTER: If Zell Miller were running against John McCain.
O'REILLY: You're not a big McCain fan, are you?
COULTER: No. Actually, I don't really like any of our front-runners.
O'REILLY: Really?
COULTER: I think it's going to be somebody else.
O'REILLY: I think it's going to be Mitt Romney.
COULTER: Actually, of the ones they talk about ... he's my favorite. It's somebody out of the blue.
O'REILLY: I think Mitt Romney is the guy on the inside track that very few people know about.
#3 Ann Coulter: . . . see just above. A conservative "shock jock" (even though she doesn't have her own show). Not the most tactful pundit, but does carry a lot of weight among staunch conservatives. Also, Coulter helps run an influential conservative news source and website--Human Events Online (which in the past hasn't been too friendly to Romney though one of their editors, Ivy Sellers, is a BYU alumnus-that can't hurt)
THE NEXT TIER (hard to rank these): Mort Kondracke: Frequent pundit (a proclaimed Moderate) on Fox News and other shows. He's also the Executive Editor of "Roll Call." Kondracke has frequently had good things to say about Romney on various shows including his Fox News show with Fred Barnes "The Beltway Boys". In an opinion piece not too long ago Kondracke liked Romney's policy stances quite a bit.
Hugh Hewitt: Conservative Radio Talk show host has long been hosting Romney on his show. He's not "on the record" as endorsing Romney . . . but he sure seems to be quite praiseworthy. It was at Hewitt's suggestion/request that Lowell and John started the Article6Blog.
Michael Medved: Just two days ago, Michael Medved (Conservative talk Radio host) was inteviewing John Halpern about his book, "The Way to Win", and Medved had this to say about Romney:
“We’re talking with Mark Halpern, the author of “The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008” and political director of ABC News. One thing about your book that I mentioned, I was struck by something that isn’t in there. You talked about the likely Hillary Rodham Clinton race for the Presidency in 2008, but nowhere in your book, and I checked the index, do you mention the name of the gentleman I believe to be the most likely next President, and I’m wondering if that’s a conscious omission. I happen to believe that…it’s obviously a long way to 2008, but I think that Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, is a likely Republican nominee and winner.”
Glenn Beck: Prominent Talk Radio host (3rd most listened to talk show in America among Adults 25-54) and has a nightly show TV show on CNN's Headline News.
On his TV show he recently opined:
Well, today the real story is that someone with actual power and intelligence agrees with me. Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts. He issued a statement saying, quote, "State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel. For him to lecture Americans about tolerance and violence is propaganda, pure and simple." Thank you, Mitt Romney. Finally someone besides a radio talk show . . . saying what the rest of America is thinking. If you want to know the truth, don`t listen to Harvard which calls the speech quote, "a free exchange of ideas."Listen to Mitt Romney who says that Khatami is nothing more, quote, "than a wolf in sheep`s clothing," end quote. A wolf that we are allowing to walk right into the hen house. Mitt Romney will be on my radio program tomorrow morning to talk about this, and we`ll of course keep our eye on the rest of the Khatami visit and update you as things develop.
Also, it probably doesn't hurt that Beck is LDS (baptized convert in 2000)
Laura Ingraham (and Bob Novak?):
As reported at the Article6Blog . . .
I happened to be listening Laura Ingraham's show this morning during the second hour, about 40 minutes ago. In an interview with Robert Novak, Laura brought up Dobson's comments yesterday [that he thinks many Evangelicals will not end up voting for Romney because he's Mormon]. Going from memory, here's what I recall:Laura expressed shock at Dobson's comments. She said she had received a great deal of e-mail from conservative Christians expressing strong disagreement with Dobson, saying "we love Romney."
She mentioned Novak's column. Novak said that there were a number of "respectable," well-known, and prominent evangelical leaders who are privately telling him the same thing Dobson was saying. I do not recall if he said those evangelicals told him that they personally would have trouble supporting Romney. Nor did he say if those statement were recent, or dated back to his April 27 column. I believe he used the present tense, as in, "they are telling me." Novak said those people "would blow your head off" if you revealed what they had privately said about evangelical support for Romney. Novak said rather forcefully that he thinks this is "un-American."
Novak also opined that Romney needs to address this issue– something we have also said many times.
Laura said that "we can't have this," or words to that effect. Novak said that with George Allen faltering, Romney was shaping up to be the conservative Republican standard-bearer for 2008, and that the campaign must not be a "theological debate." Laura heartily agreed.
Others that keep saying nice things about Romney are K-Lo (Kathrine Lopez--the editor of National Review Online--including "The Corner"), David Frum (Former GW Bush Speechwriter and the guy who apparently came up with the "Axis of Evil" title/strategy for Bush) here and here, and Doug Wilson, the CHAIRMAN of Townhall.com (great conservative site where he recently wrote an Op/Ed titled "Mitt Romney for President?" that is pretty darn praiseworthy of Romney!)
In a different vein, two influential MSM political reporters for presidential races, David Yepsen (here and here) and David Broder, seem to be pretty high on Romney's chances.
All of this "good will" should help to build Romney's poor name-recognition. Once he officially announces his candidacy, his performance in cold-call phone polling will show him climbing up the ranks over the next year.
Romney is certainly a step up from McCain, Giuliani, Rice and Hagel.
How about Mike Huckabee? Yes, he is Gov. of Arkansaw (like Beezlebubba), but hasn't he been a steady, ethical conservative hand down there? (Quite unlike Beezlebubba.....)
Huckabee's problem, with me personally, is he tendacy to be pro-illegal immigration. He makes no bones about it. He says and tries to push bills through the Arkansas legislature that most Americans oppose in regards to immigration (granting in-state tution to illegals.)
Never happen, I'll get flamed for this, but there'll never be a POTUS name Huckabee-Huckleberry, never.
Besides, elect Mike and watch for a fat tax and other nanny state interventions into the food market. Guaranteed.
And he's an anti-tobacco kook and wannabe food policeman.
Rapid escalation of the nanny state with him in charge (well, even more so than now).
Ditto that.
I picked Romney as the winner a few months ago.
"It's somebody out of the blue."
I sure hope so, because all of them now up there, are worthless GOPer-RINOs, IMO.
The lib-dem garbage have an even bigger problem with losers, traitors and seditionists. Their selection committee should be on suicide watch.
It needs to be an *unknown*, who takes the Conservatives and the feckless GOP, by storm.
He's shown himself very capable of fiscal management, having turned two thinks around which were considered FUBAR-- the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and Massachusetts. He did make an attempt to reign in the Massachusetts supreme court on the gay marriage thing and took his opposition about as far as was realistically possible in that state. He is on record as being pro-life, though I can't say what he has actually done (or even could have done) as governor of Massachusetts.
The few times I've seen him on C-Span, he does come across as a very good speaker and has the looks that should appeal to the soccer mom crowd. He also seems to be one of the few with the backbone to take on Hillary rather than shrink.
He does have an interesting tie-in to the reddest of the red states and the bluest of the blue states. Still, I'm not really enthused about him and I can't say why. Maybe it is just the New England connection. The last really good president to come from that region was Calvin Coolidge. So count me skeptical, for now.
This could change if he were to name a solid conservative (preferably a southern governor) to the second spot on the ticket. Right now, all the contenders mentioned are either RINOs (Guliani, McCain) or have personal problems or backgounds which would render them unelectable (Allen, Gingrich).
I would take Huckabee over Hillary Mao Clinton anyday.
I really, really hate all this jockeying for name recognition this early in the campaign for President. I'm of the opinion that many people vote for the name they've heard most often.
While I'm overjoyed Kerry and Gore are not, and will never be president, I'm not too happy with some of the things President Bush has done. I think George Bush was pushed on the Republican constituency with the help of the MSM, and I don't want that to happen again. (FWIW, I was a Forbes supporter.)
I like Romney, I would love to see the RATS make his Mormon faith an issue. I know that would be one of their attck points. That would blow up in their faces
Duh!
Huckabee is very pro illegal. Not gonna happen.
I think it should be a Coulter/Malkin ticket in 08.
Let's give the ladies a chance.....
Yep, plus he is Mormon. A huge chunk of evangelicals wont vote Mormon Inc. Period.
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