Posted on 10/29/2008 6:34:55 AM PDT by Reaganesque
It’s been the most frequently asked question I’ve gotten from National Review Online readers and conservatives over e-mail and in person since the market chaos and subsequent bailout circus began.
My answer these last few months has always been: Turn on MSNBC. Turn on FOX. Google a conservative candidate for Congress. Romney is liable to turn up.
And yet, a ridiculous item on the Internet yesterday suggested that he’s been in hiding, keeping a “low profile nationally” and unwilling to help out Republicans who aren’t a sure thing.
There are problems with that contention: Why do I keep seeing the man on television? Is any Republican a shoe-in this year? Someone get Norm Coleman on the phone with the good news! Because Romney is scheduled to campaign with the Minnesota senator, who is fighting for his political life against the not-so-funny prospect of Senator Al Franken. The images on his website blog do not suggest someone who’s decided to sit out the election — they suggest someone still engaged in the election year. Nor does his travelog, as he’s been doing McCain surrogate events everywhere from Pennylvania and Colorado to Nevada and Texas (among other places including Oregon, Georgia, Nashville ... ). Nor do his post-debate spin-room appearances or his interview on The Laura Ingraham Show this morning suggest that Mitt is standing down on election 2008.
Romney’s been in Virginia helping Keith Fimian in that newly blue-leaning state. He’s campaigned for Michele Bachman, now a favorite of MSNBC. He’s raised money for John Sununu in New Hampshire and Oregon senator Gordon Smith — both of whose reelection prospects are far from guaranteed. The list goes on.
Since Romney suspended his campaign and subsequently formed the Free and Strong America political action committee in April, he has donated approximately $202,000 to 75 GOP candidates, according to numbers made available to NRO from the PAC. Romney has also made an additional $173,000 in donations through flexible spending accounts to five affiliated state PACS, including $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage, which is working to pass Proposition 8 in California, and $5,000 to stop a ballot initiative in Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana.
And when the McCain campaign famously withdrew from Michigan, Romney contributed $50,000 to the demoralized GOP there. According to his PAC, “The total amount of financial support to GOP candidates and conservative causes through Romney-controlled state and federal PACs is $375,000.”
The web piece further blamed former Romney aides for being the source of the Sarah-Palin-is-a-diva complaints coming out of the McCain camp, presumably meant to damage her post-election prospects should the Republican ticket lose next week. The problem with that is: Most of Romney’s inner circle is still his inner circle — some having come from the business world, others being Massachusetts people now running his PAC. Others returned to Washington, and are doing McCain surrogate work, but are far from campaign insiders. Whomever is shooting at Palin from the McCain camp is not doing Romney’s bidding.
The good news for Mitt Romney is folks care what he’s doing. And someone out there sees him as enough of a threat to their ambitions to try to wound him. That rarely happens to irrelevant also-rans.
When longtime Romney spokesman Eric Fernstrom was asked about the former Massachusetts governor’s future on Monday, the longtime aide suggested Romney’s 2008 presidential ambitions weren’t running his life: “Gov. Romney had his shot at the White House, and he lost fair and square.” After a hostile primary season that highlighted some shameful instincts hostile to religious liberty both in the mainstream media and on the Right, you might not blame Romney if he went into retreat. But he never did. Romney got on the campaign trail for John McCain, defending the free-market policies that this successful businessman could no doubt run with, if he were in the driver’s seat.
Romney’s been a team player. Is it because he wants a Cabinet seat? Ask him — but I doubt it. There are easier jobs that taking over a massive bureacracy with limited freedom. Is it because he wants to be president? Ask him, but I don’t think that’s it either — and only time will tell, anyway, who will be Right prospects in a few years.
Watching him these past few months, he acts like a man who found a home on the Right, who both personally and philosophically appreciates those who were open to what he brought to the campaign trail, and continues to want to serve his country in whatever capacity she needs him. Right now, that’s by fundraising, contributing, and campaigning for conservative candidates and causes like the Susan B. Anthony List and Proposition 8 in California.
In his final primary-campaign speech in February, Mitt Romney said:
I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.
I will continue to stand for conservative principles. I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next President of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism.
And so he campaigns for candidates who share his general vision of the world. Romney was with McCain in Ohio on Monday. He’ll be in New Hampshire on Wednesday campaigning for congressional candidates Jeb Bradley and Jennifer Horn. And then he’ll take off for get-out-the-vote rallies.
If you’re wondering where Mitt is — and you can suspend some of your cynicism — the answer might just be: Where he can be of use. If you take him at his word and his schedule, that’s what it reads like anyway.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online.
I wouldn’t have made the statement if it didn’t happen.
It didn’t take me long to find it, and I’m in the middle of fixing my husband’s PC.
Sorry; but YOU are the one who showed up as a WEEKOLD noobie, making brash statements.
What did you EXPECT??
If you've been watching FR these last few months, you would have KNOWN that would happen.
Respectfully, ELSIE
Thank you.
Mitt WOULD make good help for McCain/Palin.
There - does THAT sound like I ‘hate’ Romney?
Even Romney himself said in Iowa in January, 2008 that several mormon leaders were pro-abortion..
he kept saying it to emphasize that he meant it...
He also said at the time that several were Democrats...
I had NO clue where to look!
Good luck on the PC.
Hope it ain't the harddrive!
Governor Romney could campaign with Governor Palin daily, and castigate each and every Palin detractor in front of their very eyes, and it still wouldn't be enough.
Likewise he could talk 1000 women out of abortions in front of their very eyes and single-handedly overturn Roe vs. Wade, and they'd still claim he wasn't pro-life.
There are a number of Conservatives/Republicans we all despise, but how many of us are obsessed with patrolling these boards for articles about them in order to spew our hatred against them??
For some people, hatred, like love is an obsession. They're sick, and in desperate need of spiritual and psychological counseling.
Are you trying to tell us that EVERYTHING said about him is LIES??
What!?
You mean the OBAMA campaign has been LYING to me?
They say he is a BUSH clone!
Ooooh!
Which ones?
Thank you and you’re welcome.
you don’t see other RINOs being attacked as viciously as he is.
___________________________________
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Tell me what you think about Huckabee ??????????
You do what you can to make a difference, within the existing political framework. An imperfect Republican in power is better than a Democrat of any stripe. Would you prefer a centrist GOP governor or a leftist Dem governor, if these were your only realistic options?
Maybe, just maybe the accusations are valid and have nothing to do with jeolousy. Those who are accused of arrogance will often respond that their accusers are just "jeolous" (which if you think about is an incredibly arrogant statement that everyone else is wrong but I'm right).
And “patrician” can mean just that — classy.
Patrician can also mean snobbish. If someone avoids others because he believes he is better than them, then it should be viewed as arrogance. If Romney views himself in the same manner that you do, he would be arrogant.
He doesn’t go knock back beers with the boys, or swap dirty stories. In some people’s minds, that enough to condemn him.
I've been on both sides of that divide. When someone didn't want to take part in drinking or telling dirty stories, he was seen as "too religious" or "churchy" or "square" but not arrogant. It was seen as a rejection of our actions, not us, personally. To be perceived as arrogance, it would have to have an air of superiority, a lack of personal humility, an aloofness, not just a "no, I don't do that stuff."
Is he campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket?
Tell me what you think about Huckabee ??????????
Is he campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket?
______________________________________________
You claimed that you don’t see other RINOs being attacked as viciously as (Romney) is....
I disagree with that statement...
So I asked you...
Tell me what you think about Huckabee ??????????
I remember they clashed over illegal immigration, but don't recall anyone seething. However, the primaries are history now and the two are allies. For the good of the country.
Tell me what you think about Huckabee ??????????
Is he campaigning for the McCain-Palin ticket?
___________________________________
Probably more so and with a whole lot more enthusiasm than Romney...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.