Posted on 07/01/2008 4:56:30 PM PDT by Plutarch
Sen. John McCain will choose businessman and former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney as Vice President, in his bid for the White House this November, a source closely connected with the McCain campaign, who asked to remain anonymous, told us earlier this afternoon.
Though others were close in the running, the choice ultimately came down to the moneynot the man. According to our source, the campaign narrowed their Vice Presidential options to Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, the two most successful opponents of McCain in the bid for the Republican nomination. But despite Huckabees sway with far Right conservatives and evangelical voters, Romney packs the deepest fund-raising pockets.
As a successful businessman and prominent member of the staggeringly wealthy Mormon community, Romney brings with him the potential to raise upwards of $60 million in 30 to 60 days, whereas Huckabee could only raise $10 to $15 million, says our source.
McCain needs those types of numbers to be competitive with the money-sponge that is the Obama campaign, which has 1.7 million individual donorsas well as the Hollywood machineand is ringing-out advertising dollars across the country, saturating voters in his 50 State Strategy to win the White House.
How the hell did the publisher of the Top 20 Side-Boobs of All Time get this scoop, you must be asking yourself, right now. (We were asking ourselves the same question.) And heres the answer: Its all part of the McCain campaigns plan to directly target college-age voters, in an attempt to sway them away from Sen. Obama, says our source.
Additionally, the campaign wants to solidify their ticket far in advance of the Obama campaign making their VP choice, in order to get a head start on the surge in fund-raising they expect to receive with the announcement of Romney as the Republican VP pick.
So next time two dudes in suits knock on your door, they might want more than to proselytize about the Book of Mormon
UPDATE: We understand better than anyone how crazy it seems that we got this story first, so a healthy level of skepticism is expected. But we stand by the accuracy of our reporting on this, and will give you as many new details as possible in the coming daysincluding the name of our source, if we can.
A lot of ad buys have to happen between now and then. The phrasing is “define the opponent”. If the other guy is defining your message, you can’t win. If he also is the only guy painting his own portrait, it will have no blemishes.
The hired guns cost a lot of money. The ultra detailed focus group polling also costs a lot of money. It will get spent before the 84 million shows up, and . . . best to keep in mind that this was always projected to be a 1 billion dollar campaign start to finish. Frankly, 84 million may not suffice.
Yet another liberal tactic, unfounded accusations. No it wasn’t Reaganesque nor have I ever met Reaganesque. Waiting for the next liberal play, to call me a liar. Join the conservative cause & lose the anger man.
I agree with that. We need an artist to show Alfred E. Neuman and Barack H. Obama side by side like the libs did w/ W.
If he needed Romney’s money and was seriously considering him, he would have named him VP by now. What’s the hold up? He doesn’t want Romney.
I don’t like the idea. I don’t think Romney is a man of much conviction. He ran as two different people in his campaigns in Mass and his campaign for the presidency. The Mitt who ran in Mass was a pro-gay, anti-gun, not opposed to abortion candidate. The Mitt who ran for president was a very different man indeed.
Critical tidbit in the Rasmussen polling. Third party people are no larger than they ever have been. In fact, smaller.
This means the wackos on the thread insisting on hunkering down and playing defense with some ultra right wing southerner with the potential of bringing ZERO additional electoral votes are of absolutely no consequence. If they were, it would show in the polling. Playing defense and trying not to lose states is the path to defeat when polling shows Colorado is already lost, with Iowa and New Mexico.
Romney could add Michigan. Michigan is 17 EVs and polls say Iowa, NM and Colorado will be lost. It would require Michigan to offset them. He might not add it, but he, alone of any conceivable GOP nominee, could add it.
There really is no choice in the matter. It’s about EVs and it’s not about anything else.
Just like Ronald Reagan who as Governor of the state of Calif. signed into law the 1st abortion bill & raised taxes by over 1 billion amongst other rather liberal actions. But he was in a liberal state as well & had to deal w/ that accordingly.
By the time he ran for President, things had changed dramatically. Could the same be said for Romney? I don't know for sure, but like Reagan, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Conservatives generally believe in repentance. Liberals believe there is no need.
You know what? I agree with you. I believe this was discussed a while ago. The pictures are excessive in number and kind and inappropriate for a conservative forum. A true conservative would be gentlemanly enough to realize that.
The Romney is not conservative mantra is silly. It Doesn’t Matter.
The person he has to be rightward of is not McCain. It’s Obama. He is that.
Because he is rightward of Obama, that is the only requirement for him provided he can bring something else to the table. As I just pointed out, he is the ONLY GOP candidate with a shot at Michigan, which is absolutely required if CO, NM and IA are lost.
I find all the pictures of kids a little disconcerting, especially in today’s day & age.
I'll take the endorsement of the National Review, among others, over such debauchery. This is exactly the kind of thing Conservatives should be fighting against, not elevating. Appealing to base motives and desires is the core of the Democrats, not the GOP.
Wake up people!!
Some of these guys may be just too young to know better. But most should! Wake up people! Indeed!
!!!
I don’t want to rail on him personally, just point out that we might swallow his constant smear campaign a little easier if we didn’t have to gag down the hypocrisy.
Thank you Owen.
Creepy, really.
"Whatever you are smoking is making you delusional. I have been anythign but "ra ra" or blind. Blindness is where you seem to be - blind with hatred."
Nope, since the hysteria comes from the sycophants. Falsehood #1.
"Try to be a little coherent, why don't you?"
Falsehood #2.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. After all, we have McCain at the helm. At least Newt is articulate and has great ideas. Given a fair fight, he'd out-talk and out-govern Obambi a million times over."
OK, a debatable point. Newt couldn't maintain his Speakership. He got us the majority in Congress, but he almost lost it for us. Dole's getting attached to him hampered his Presidential campaign in '96. Newt is an idea man, but he's far better as an advisor than as an actual leader. His falling in with the global warming hucksters hasn't been a good thing, either.
"Supporting Fred while he was in the race. He dropped out."
OK, I'll presume you're being honest on the first part.
"I'm from Ohio. At that point, the only people still in the race were Huck and McCain. While the issue was still undecided, I sure as heck wasn't going to vote McCain."
OK, so you're from Ohio. Wasn't there an option for "unpledged" ? I stated clearly after Fred dropped out, "None of the above." It should've been taken all the way to the convention with a large contingent of the party making it plain that the remaining candidates were completely unacceptable.
"If he chooses a liberal, I agree. But don't you believe people can grow? Don't you believe they can change their minds?"
Yes. The question is a matter of timing and the motivations. He remained a liberal until the day he left office last year and then "all of a sudden" he decides to be a "Conservative" as soon as he runs for President 5 minutes later ? Down around here we call that "bull$hit." Huckster did the same damn thing. At least in the case of Rudy, he conceded he was a liberal but that he would appoint Conservatives (although that's another debatable point -- why would you appoint people that are of a completely different ideology than you ?).
"Or at least, realize that it is politically stupid to be a liberal Republican on a national scale? In Massachusetts, Romney ran and governed to the left because the state is left leaning."
Do you know who Don Carcieri is ? Because if you did, you'd realize the fallacy of the above rationalization.
"I don't believe he will be the conservative we would like."
Because he's not a Conservative at all. Not in his ideology, and not in his character. Real Conservatives don't have to resort to bribery and paying professional shills and trolls to misrepresent his record.
"But I do think he is shrewd enough as a politician to move more to the center right than he was as governor. I'm choosing to accept his lip-service because right now our choices are very slim. I am hoping that he has indeed grown up a bit."
You just don't understand the man's motivations. If you know Al Gore, you'd begin to "get it." *omney has always been a con-man looking for the short cut. Problem is, the short cut is the way to the White House.
"Reagan did it. Bush I even became more pro-life. It is possible."
You've just done it again. You've repeated the falsehood that Reagan was pro-abortion. He was NEVER pro-abortion. What, again, you fail to understand that *omney's position on abortion is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Sorry, fieldmarshaldj, you have no grounds to say what I have and have not studied, and you don't get to define conservatism as "supports only the people I like"."
As with anyone, you are entitled to your own opinions. But you are not entitled to your own facts. You want to believe something about these people to justify they've seen the light. I'm here to tell you they haven't, and that they are most assuredly a part of the problem.
"Huck is a great speaker. Personable. Pro-life and pro-Israel (two very important issues). Perfect? No. But, the longer this nation continues the less perfection we are getting in Washington precisely because corruption is corrupting on a larger scale each day and the good guys blemishes are being used to destroy them. That's bull. I haven't lived a perfect life. These guys aren't perfect either. We work with what we have though, if at all possible."
Huckster's PAC just endorsed a fatally crippled RINO past his prime for reelection in Alaska. Huckster himself crippled the AR GOP to the point that they are at their weakest state in 42 years. He kept on Clinton appointees, routinely sabotaged Conservative candidates in his state, kept the spigot open for illegal slave labor for Tyson and had the nerve to badmouth concerned citizens that they were less than Christian for opposing the invasion. Is he pro-life ? Yup. He's also the worst thing that ever happened to the AR GOP since Reconstruction. It's going to take years to undo the damage he did to the party infrastructure. I'd use your location in Ohio against you, but all you need to do is play close attention to certain leaders to see what they're up to. I don't need the media to tell me what's happening, I go to the source.
"Last time I looked, Massachusetts was nowhere near being a healthy GOP hotspot. Further, I don't see that Romney killed what was there."
Massachusetts was once one of the premier Republican states in the nation. For awhile, it went into decline. With Reagan, it went back to supporting the national ticket. We were competitive in half the Congressional districts. With the election of the worst RINO Governor in MA history, Slick Willie Weld, *omney's mentor, between the two of them, in a 16 year period, they killed the resurging party that was tired of Dukakis liberalism. Killed it. Go do some research (or research my posts on the subject, I've written many essays on the MA GOP, to the chagrin of cretins like Reaganesque) and you'll be shocked.
"No, it is like an American conservative looking at her choices for President and trying to find ANYTHING positive about any of them. Frankly, we are in a pathetic mess but it would be far better to have McCain/Romney than Obama."
If those are the choices, we've already lost.
"Who is in the state legislature in Mass?"
Who made the legislature the most rodent in America ?
"It's like the President, could Bush REALLY fix the economy?"
Yes.
"You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear if the sow is really a wild rabid boar. The Massachusetts Legislature is one of the worst in the nation. Romney isn't Jesus."
He isn't ? Well don't let his supporters know that. They'll eat you alive. Go read some of their posts calling him "Savior." That, FRiend, is sick and blasphemous.
"He can't heal an institution that is so far gone as to vote the way it votes in most cases."
Then you've just conceded that *omney was utterly incompetent. He couldn't do anything. You know what's funny... he didn't really want to be Governor. He's only wanted one job all along, the one denied his "brainwashed" father... the Presidency. He couldn't get off of Beacon Hill fast enough.
"Perhaps, but I would rather vote holding out hope that a guy means what he says than allow a person to win who is blatant about his baby killing."
The difference here is that Obama is at least being honest that he supports infanticide. *omney is just telling you what you want to hear hoping you'll be fooled. Fact is, he doesn't give a damn about the life issue. It's all a nuisance to him.
"Fieldmarshaldj, stop with the insults. Of course, we realize that this is a possibility. You do not understand the gravity of the situation that this nation is in right now. We are being very realistic and don't like this choice at all; but, barring McCain choosing someone who comes out as a far left liberal, we have to support the party's candidate against Obama."
I do understand the gravity of the situation. That's why I'm telling you that you're putting your faith in a man who has a pathological habit of lying. What's it going to matter to me after all is said and done and you find out it was all fraud, come crawling back to me and said, "I'm sorry, you were right all along." That won't matter by then. If I'm the last person in America to expose this man as a fraud (with the record that's all there for one to see), so be it. Folks will have to kill me to shut me up. Go watch "High Noon."
"I had great uncles who served. My grandpa wanted to serve but couldn't because of his eyesight. Others in my family did not join the military but love their country and support the military. One doesn't have to be in a military family in order to be patriotic. Thus far, I see no grounds for your distrusting him in this area."
You just illustrated my point perfectly. YOUR family served. So have mine. Yet to HIS family, with a large number of eligible males (or females for that matter), they have conspicuously avoided military service. They seem to think putting on the uniform is for pissants. I find that elitist and offensive and downright unpatriotic. Yet another reason not to trust him. You'll find a LOT of other FReepers share this same concern.
"Baloney."
And absolutely true. You would be a fool to place any trust in this flim-flam man. Put your faith in the Lord, not in another lying politician.
"You can't have it your way, FMDJ. I HAVE studied Romney. My study just contradicts your opinion and you're being a obstinate bore in asserting otherwise. I know what I have studied. You don't. Your protests don't change a thing, but do make your arguments sound more hollow."
Like I said, you're entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. You're just lying to yourself if anything I've said about the man is false.
"No name recognition, and in case you haven't noticed, McCain isn't exactly a live-wire on the attraction scale. I hardly know he is running. I like Portman, but again, no name recognition. Romney isn't as good of a speaker as Huck. Huck isn't as smart in business as Romney. And, again, given that these are our choices, the whole election stinks."
Sanford is the best Governor in the country. His name recognition will rise as soon as McCain announces him as his running mate. He doesn't turn off ANYBODY except for big government liberals. He has the character, the accomplishments, and the leadership to be President of the United States. Go do some research on the man. He is the ultimate anti-*omney. And thank heavens for that.
I’m sorry, I thought you were supporting *omney ?
See my post on people “changing their minds.” It’s all about the timing and the motivations, baby. At least you’re admitting *omney is a liberal. Why is it in neighboring RI, a rodent state, that Don Carcieri somehow governs as a Conservative ? I guess that goes against your ludicrous argument that only a lib can govern a lib state, now don’t it ? ;-)
BTW, where’s that “Great Conservative” friend of yours that worships *omney you keep talking about from MA ? Let him post here. Or is he too timid to do so ?
So now you speak for God?
Yea, just as I did Reagan as Governor & President. And?
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