Posted on 08/17/2012 3:40:53 PM PDT by mkjessup
I've been on FR since 2003. Hard to believe next March will be my 10th year here, assuming I don't get zotted for one reason or another, lol
To that handful of detractors who would LIKE to think this is my opus, guess again suckers - I would never give you the satisfaction of it. Now that we have that out of the way, why this vanity?
First of all, I'm posting this in News/Activism not because this is sourced from a network, newspaper, etc., but because I've noticed that nobody else worries about posting their vanities in the 'Personal/Blogger' section, so WTH should I?
Now for the purpose of my writing today: after a great deal of soul searching and I might add, a goodly amount of prayer, I have come to the conclusion that my vote in November must and will be cast for the GOP ticket of Romney and Ryan. I did not reach this decision easily. Even a casual review of my past posts will reveal that I have reviled, ridiculed, lambasted and sneered at Mitt Romney with the best of them. I've posted my own home brewed graphics to the laughs of my fellow FReepers, I have been steadfast in saying 'no damn way' would I ever even consider voting for that liberal Republican from Massachuetts, no way would I reward the GOP elites with my vote after they've pissed on conservatives from sea to shining sea. The Party of Reagan is no more, let no one deceive you. We as conservatives are more at home in the Tea Party, and yet what was for a short while the natural home for conservatives, i.e. the Republican Party is an unfamiliar neighborhood, a place that sometimes looks like the place we remember, but upon a second glance, we realize that everything is different now, everything has changed.
Now there are good and Godly conservatives who in a perfect world, WOULD be viable candidates for the Presidency, there is no need to list them all here, we all have our favorites and we all know who we would prefer to be voting for. Our own Tom Hoefling would be a better President than the miserable Kenyan sonuvabitch that is stinking up the White House right now, hell *I* would be a better President than that despicable usurper and liar, and so would most of you, my fellow FReepers.
Now I can recite (and in the past, I have) endless reasons as to why I could not and would not vote for Mitt Romney. In many ways it galls me no end to have reached the conclusion that my own Constitutional duty is to vote for a guy that I had sworn never to vote for. It really REALLY starches my shorts however I have had to question my own perspectives, my own views and ask myself the question, "can I honestly justify another four years of what one of my heroes Senator Joe McCarthy would certainly have labeled a 'Communist regime'?
I cannot do that. I do not like the presumptive GOP nominee, I do not agree with many of his past positions. However I cannot deny that one and only one of the two major party candidates for President is going to be sworn in next January. It will either be that treasonous little bastard 0bama, or it will be Mitt Romney. Anyone, and I mean ANYBODY, who thinks that Tom Hoefling, Virgil Goode, or any other non-'Rat/non-GOP candidate is going to be sworn in as our 45th President next year, I will personally bet $100,000 against that happening at any odds they wish, because that is how likely it is that NEITHER 0bama or Romney will end up being elected in November. I won't lose one dime on that sort of wager.
So how do I justify voting for the GOP and Romney this time around? Well, some things I do NOT believe about Romney is that he hates America, that he hates our capitalist system, that he wants to weaken our national defense, sell out our allies and reward our enemies. I don't agree with nor support his religious faith. But his belief in the tenets of Mormonism is quite frankly between him and God. Now while it is easy to find all sorts of things about the Mormon faith that fly in the face of basic traditional Christianity, if the choice is between a closet-crypto Muslim in the White House, and a church going, charitable, prayerful Mormon who doesn't cheat on his wife, doesn't smoke dope, doesn't even drink (is that true? I'm not sure but I think Mitt is a tee-totaler), I'm pulling the lever for that Mormon guy.
Picture all of America on a gigantic airliner, streaking through the sky, when word comes back from the cockpit that Captain 0bama has never even flown a plane of this size or any size, he's been reading the instruction manual from a hidden teleprompter on top of the instrument panel, we're headed for a bad patch of CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) and the illustrious fake pilot is going to try and fake his way through that turbulence, and it is a foregone conclusion that "we're all gonna die!" - but up in first class (of course, lol) Mitt Romney stands up and informs everyone that he IS a licensed pilot, and that he can get our airliner away from the turbulence, down to a safer altitude, get us back on the proper heading, and land safely at our destination. He offers to take the controls. SOME passengers question him "have you ever flown a plane like this?" and he answers honestly "no, not quite this size, but I AM a pilot, I HAVE flown in difficult circumstances before, and I've got more skills than that fake pilot up in the cockpit that we are about to crash with". Who the Hell is going to argue against that logic? No other pilots on board. No parachutes. And indeed, a fool and an oaf at the controls of the cockpit. WTF do we have to lose?
And another analogy that I've already posted recently, which is that conservatives need to do what the Western allies did in World War II, they did not particularly like Joe Stalin, in fact they knew him to be a rotten communist sonvuabitch but the "enemy of our enemy was our friend" (or at least a convenient ally) and the GREATER enemy was in Berlin, in the form of Hitler and we needed Stalin and his troops to attack the Nazis from the East, and that is why we sent them tons of lend-lease assistance to help them accomplish that. And what kind of fools would have urged a different course in that war? A course of telling Stalin and Soviet Russia that they were "on their own" and they would receive no assistance from us? Can you imagine for just a moment if Nazi Germany had prevailed on the Eurasian continent, the Swastika flying all the way from London to Vladivostok?
Now having painted that sort of grim picture of alternate history, I think we can agree that for all of Mitt Romney's faults, he is not a Joe Stalin, he may be a liberal but he is no Communist.
Can we say the same for 0bama and his crew of America-hating scumbags?
Now a powerful factor in my decision to support the GOP ticket was in fact, the selection of Paul Ryan as Romney's VP running mate. Now Paul Ryan is nobody's fool. If there was anybody I wanted to have the ear of 'President Romney' it would be Vice President Paul Ryan. Everyone keeps saying "if Romney would just move to the right", well I believe Paul Ryan is the best person to accomplish that task. They seem to have a good chemistry and that bodes well for the success of their ticket. The polls show Romney-Ryan up, and 0bama and the 'Rats freaking and shrieking as their numbers decline.
Now I have myself made the argument in the past that the only difference between Romney and 0bama is that 0bama is driving us to the edge of the cliff at 100 mph, and Romney is going to reduce our speed to a thrifty 55 mph. And even IF that were to be proven true, I'm not in any hurry to reach the edge of that cliff.
Now in closing, I ask the following question: how many of us would clench our teeth and pull the lever for Gerald Ford, or Bob Dole, or any other establishment RINO if it meant the end of 0bama? To get that filthy Communist out of the White House, I would (to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill) 'consider writing in the name of the devil himself', and so for that reason my friends and FRiends, I will support and vote for the GOP ticket of Romney & Ryan in November, not because everything about it excites and pleases me, but because I cannot be a party to another 4 years of the Kenyan traitor staining and besmirching the Office once held by the greatest President of all history, Ronald Wilson Reagan. I submit that Reagan would vote for Romney. We can be assured that Sarah Palin is going to vote for Romney. So will Newt Gingrich. So will Rick Santorum. So IF I am making a mistake by casting my vote for the GOP this year, I will be in good company.
Thanks for your kind consideration.
Mark Jessup
Thank you, I agree with every word.
This conservative site, while disagreeing with you, has called a truce to let you Romney devotees have your say.
I guess we will hear a lot from you guys.
You know this might be an opportune time to point out that as a majority of posters commenting on my humble vanity adamantly oppose you, that nobody twisted your arm to bring you into this thread just to have your ass handed to you.
Nothing personal, just sayin’.
“Justify your moral slip of convenience SOMEWHERE ELSE”
Where is it written that you have a say in where mkjessup posts?
*BEAT OBAMA*
Thanks Meg, but that’s ok - the joker in question has pledged their fealty to Virgil Goode in Virginia, which unfortunately is going to be one of the places where there exists the possibility that if Virgil Goode could sap off enough votes, he could tip the state into the ‘Rat column in a close contest, and depending on how close the national race is, Virgil Goode could end up being one of the factors (perhaps the only factor) that assures the re-election of 0bama.
And won’t those Virgilantes be proud of themselves when America is cursed with another 4 years of 0bama?
I’m hoping those folks of such a mind in Virginia will give their heads a shake and realize what is really at stake here. It was not an easy thing for me to go from Mitt-basher to Mitt-voter. As I said in the beginning of this thread, I don’t love Mitt, I don’t even like him, but I don’t have to like him if he is able to purge the White House of that miserable little Kenyan pretender.
Thanks for your comments Meg, I appreciate them.
I can respect those (such as the owner of this site) who choose not to support Romney as our nominee. I can respect people taking a principled stand. What I don't respect however are those who spam these threads over and over with their ugly screeds and their demonization of people who do not 100% agree with them. Do they really think these tactics are going to win people over to their side? What these tactics do however is divide us into factions when we should be on the same team, which must be a source of comfort to the Obama camp.
I refuse to take part in these wars but I have no problem stating my own views on the matter. Romney was not my choice. Pretty much since election night in 2008, I had set my sights on Sarah Palin becoming the 2012 nominee and setting things right again with respect to the presidency. However, my dreams were shattered last October when she decided to not run at all. Rather than pouting like a child, stamping my feet, etc., I started looking at the other candidates. Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Santorum, etc.
I never saw the appeal that Newt Gingrich had with this forum. I always thought of him as a self-important buffoon, an entrenched "go along to get along" party hack who enriched himself at the public trough at our expense. Somebody who was part of the problem in D.C., not part of the solution. Yet all that said, if he was our nominee, I'd still be supporting him over Obama.
I believe Romney won the nomination because he ran a smart campaign. While other candidates got caught up in the circular firing squad during the primaries, Romney stayed in the background, looked good in the debates, and methodically racked up the delegates. Thus when the primaries were over, Romney was not only the last man standing but he had the necessary delegates to secure the nomination.
So now the fact is that Mitt Romney is the only man standing between us and an Obama second term, which most of us believe will be the end of our nation as we know it. So the question remains: Is Romney so bad that we are better off with an Obama re-election?
My answer to that is a resounding NO!
For all his faults, Mitt Romney is Winston freaking Churchill compared to Barack Obama and the America-hating scum that surround him. We must remove Barack Obama this November. We must.
I will be among the first ones to hold Mitt's feet to the fire if he doesn't fly right after his election. But between now and November, I'm not going to bash Mitt Romney because he is the only person that can send the moving vans to the White House on the evening of January 19th.
Now a few things about the RECENT conduct of Mitt Romney. I must say that I have so far been impressed with the campaign that Mitt has been running since he wrapped this nomination up. No major blunders (despite mainstream media trying to manufacture them). Mitt's been like cool hand Luke these past few months. Piling up money left and right (that he can't spend until after the convention). Choosing an excellent running mate who is not only conservative but ready for prime time. Bubblehead Katie Couric is probably afraid to interview him. Now I loved Sarah Palin but during the 2008 election, I cringed whenever I saw her going up against the mainstream media talking heads who were out to get her. She just wasn't ready for that. Paul Ryan - he will eat them for breakfast and they know it.
Speaking of Paul Ryan, if this is indicative of how Mitt Romney is going to choose his staff and cabinet after he is elected, then I think a lot of us here are going to be pleasantly surprised. Remember that Mitt Romney did an excellent job picking subordinates when he headed Bain Capital. He has a knack for surrounding himself with top-notch people and this is a very important skill for a chief executive to have.
With regard to Romney's stint as Massachusetts governor, remember that he had to work with state legislature that was 90% Democrat. The Democrats controlled the entire state so while I personally was disappointed with Romney's job performance as governor, I'm hard pressed to see what he could have done differently given the environment he had to work in. As for RomneyCare, that's an awful stain that he's going to have to bear. But I also realize that this would have happened with or without Romney and had a Democrat been governor, we would have been saddled with a much more onerous and intrusive health care plan.
I also understand that Romney has taken some inexcusable positions with social issues over the years. No defense for that other than the fact that he's been silent on them since securing his nomination. Perhaps when given a Republican House and Congress, a President Romney will have no need to pander to the homosexual lobby crowd and such. Regardless, we still have the alternative of Obama and so I'll take my chances with President Romney.
So in closing, I thank you for starting the thread and the interesting discussion that followed. I've been a member of this Free Republic for fifteen years and I've been supporting it with $30 a month for most of this time. I'd hate to have those 15 years pissed away on account of a small cadre of ABR people who seem to feel that anybody voting for Mitt Romney is some kind of turncoat, so I'm not going to engage them and add to the infighting that is going on. But I'm not going to stay in the shadows either. I am voting the Romney/Ryan ticket in November and then I'm voting Tea Party conservative all the way downticket. We are going to build on our gains of 2010 and I'm banking that President Romney will pleasantly surprise us all. If not, we will at least have Obama licking ice-cream cones and playing golf on a full-time basis while the Republican controlled House and Senate go about setting things right in our country once again.
My pleasure.
I don’t recall one Romney suppporter here during the primaries.
We are fighting to rescue the nation from Obamanation, his Czars, his whole administration.
Romney made a good choice for VP. He may pleasantly surprise us..but first he must beat the Marxist.
I pray Goode doesn’t spoil the Virginia vote and give the state to Obama..What possible good can that do?
Obama is destroying the nation we love.
Sam, I thank you for your wise commentary and your reality-based view of the situation. I commend, endorse and echo your sentiments 100 percent. Your post #286 should be saved for re-distribution as necessary (and in fact I’m going to copy/paste it to my friends and family both on and offline (assuming that’s ok with you, with proper attribution).
This vanity may be the first that I’ve ever posted in all of my years on FR (I honestly can’t remember), but I have been wrestling with this issue for many many weeks, and after reaching the decision that I did, and posting what I have, I now have peace of mind, the kind that says I will do all that I possibly can do to see that filthy Kenyan Kommunist thrown out of OUR White House in November.
Ronald Reagan would vote for Romney. Sarah Palin is voting for Romney. So too are Gingrich, Santorum, Perry and Cain. I have no doubt that my very favorite former Congressman, Duncan Hunter of California (who would have made an excellent President), will be voting for Romney.
I remember well the campaign slogan of the GOP in 1980, “The time is now, Reagan-Bush” and although I wasn’t all that enamored with Poppy Bush on the ticket, I pulled the lever enthusiastically for the Gipper. Now, 32 years later, the slogan could well be “Time has run out, vote Romney-Ryan, while you still can.”
My best to you and yours Sam, thanks for the comments.
Thank you for the kind comments and yes, absolutely feel free to re-distribute my comments anywhere you see fit that will help the cause. This is a public forum and I expect that whatever I post here can be seen by anybody at anytime.
Ya haf to unnerstand the Dems see politics as a broken-bottle, knife and gun, bar-room brawl...in other words “war” for survival...
In the words of one helluva an American
“As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
Donald Rumsfeld
I may not agree much with Romney ....but unlike Obama, he DOES have the executive skills and experience to get the job done.
I sure do wish it’d been Palin , however..
Your post # 286 is outstanding. It crystallizes the issues for all of us in this campaign, along with a historical perspective that I and many others here share with you.
Thank you.
Your level of BS and dishonesty and distortion and anti-Reaganism, and anti-conservatism, is high.
Reagan-*””did evolve to be solidly pro-life. Despite his (then) scandalously liberal personal life as a divorcee (Jane Wyman)””
You lied to smear Reagan, Reagan was always pro-life and never known for a scandalous personal life.
Reagan-*””Thank goodness that conservatives supported him despite his Libertarian social leanings “”
You keep lying, Reagan was the first pro-life and social conservative presidential hero of the social conservatives. If you want social libertarian go with HW Bush, or Carter, or Ford, or Clinton, etc. not the hero of the religious right.
*””I think that the points that you make about Romney aligning himself with mainstream Rockerfeller/Country Club Republicans, or cozying up with the ruling Democrat power brokers while he was in business at Bain Capital in Boston are consistent with a pragmatist who is working with the existing power structures, or positioning himself to get elected in Massachusetts. (such as registering as an independent, and voting for the local candidate from Mass, Paul Tsongas in the Democrat primary, but not in the general election). Any responsible executive has an obligation to manage a favorable relationship with the political powerbrokers - it is common to contribute to both sides like Trump does.””
Wow, lots of lying, I never said that stuff, or anything close to it, because that is a fake description that you made up of Romney’s political past.
*””The rumor I heard on abortion is that a Romney family member died from an illegal abortion, but that is just an unsourced rumor.””
I don’t know whether you are lying here, or just don’t know much about Mitt Romney, I think that you just don’t know much about Romney.
*”” His ACU rating of 88% while Govenor shows that he was not the unmitigated liberal that he is painted as by some on this forum.””
Come on guy... The ACU doesn’t rate governors.
*””He was considered by many in the Republican establishment as too conservative for the 2008 nomination.””
We missed that at freerepublic, care to share with us?
Well-said Sam
I supported Ron Paul for various reasons. He has, as have all the other candidates, added depth and texutre to the discussion. I support Rommney/Ryan because I am positive that permitting Hussain and his henchmen to win again will enslave my children and rob me. And rob the country.
There were tons of them, in 2008 and in this cycle, many got banned, many of his 6 year supporters are still here, lots and lots of them.
Excellent, SamAdams!
*””I think that the points that you make about Romney aligning himself with mainstream Rockerfeller/Country Club Republicans, or cozying up with the ruling Democrat power brokers while he was in business at Bain Capital in Boston are consistent with a pragmatist who is working with the existing power structures, or positioning himself to get elected in Massachusetts. (such as registering as an independent, and voting for the local candidate from Mass, Paul Tsongas in the Democrat primary, but not in the general election).””
I didn’t say that, I said this.
“That doesn’t describe Mitt Romney at all, Romney knows exactly who he is, and has passionately advanced his politics, with money, fund raising, campaigning, governing, and he has been bold in his speaking for, and advancing liberalism, and now he is the presidential nominee of the republican party.
Romney set out 5 years ago to create the myth that Reagan was pro-choice, he has spread it on TV, radio, in interviews , calling Reagan “adamantly pro-choice”.
Romney despises Reagan, Reagan ran against his father in the presidential primary of 1968. Mitt Romney renounced his republican party membership in 1979, because of Reagan winning the nomination.
After leaving the party because of Reagan, Romney became a supporter of liberal republicans through the 1980s, until 1989, after that, all of Romney’s donations went to democrats, Romney even did democrat fundraising and voted democrat, and then in October of 1993, after Reagan was gone, and Bush defeated for reelection, Romney rejoined the GOP.
In 1994, Mitt was giving to, and fund raising for Planned Parenthood and campaigning on having been anti-Reagan during the Reagan years.
When 2005/6 came, and it was time to take over the GOP at the national level, he did almost an entire reversal of all of his public politics and beliefs, did it work? Read your posts, look at who the nominee is, it worked.”
Being a voter in a battleground state is quite a bit different than being a voter where small cnances are presented by the action of casting a vote.
I my state, my vote gets rid of Claire McCaskill in the US Senate and gets a hard headed conservative Akin in her place with the experience of already having served in the House.
Likewise, the very real odds are that Missouri voters will not give a majority to Obama and thereby deny him the electoral votes to win. It is a bell weather state in most elections.
Running against Obama is a typical Republican compromised candidate. But with the weak field that ran against him is that his responsibility?
I will take his willingness to work with a Republican Congress to be worlds different than what would result from an Obama election.
Now if I lived in a solid leftist state and felt my vote was little more that a drop in the bucket trying to put out the fire of leftist socialism, I would be pissed that no “game changer” had risen from the ranks. I would think that my anger should be shown to those promoting others.
Both of these instances are understandable, but I am from Missouri and here we want the proof, the chance, the exhibit of what you can do — we say, Show Me and that is what my vote will allow.
*””Romney aligning himself with mainstream Rockerfeller/Country Club Republicans, or cozying up with the ruling Democrat power brokers while he was in business at Bain Capital in Boston are consistent with a pragmatist who is working with the existing power structures, or positioning himself to get elected in Massachusetts. (such as registering as an independent, and voting for the local candidate from Mass, Paul Tsongas in the Democrat primary, but not in the general election). Any responsible executive has an obligation to manage a favorable relationship with the political powerbrokers - it is common to contribute to both sides like Trump does.””
That isn’t what he did, or was doing.
Having left the GOP, and being anti-Reagan, Romney became a supporter of liberal, anti-conservative republicans through the 1980s, until 1989, after that, all of Romney’s donations went to democrats, Romney even did democrat fundraising and voted democrat, and then in October of 1993, after Reagan was gone, and Bush defeated for reelection, Romney reregistered republican.
Romney donated to Democrats: Not “Boston” democrats, although he did do fund raising for Planned Parenthood.
Democrat Congressman Dick Swett of New Hamshire, the next election Swett was defeated by republican Bob Smith for a Senate seat.
Congressman John J. La Falce (D New York) and Douglas Delano Anderson, an unsuccessful Democratic primary candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Utah Republican Jake Garn, who retired that year.
The two Democratic House members who Romney funded were solidly liberal. For 1992, Rep. Swett had a 32 rating (out of 100) from the American Conservative Union and an 85 from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. That year, LaFalce scored a 12 ACU rating and a Swett-like 85 from the ADA.
Mitt Romney held a fund raiser for democrat Dave Anderson in an effort to take the Utah Senate seat of Jake Garn (R-UT), who was leaving, luckily republican Bob Bennet, defeated Mitt’s candidate for the Utah Senate seat.
Meanwhile, Romney supported the Massachusetts GOP with a $2,000 check on April 13, 1988, and another $1,000 on July 17, 1989. However, he did not write another check to Republicans until he donated another $1,000 to the Massachusetts GOP on October 27, 1993. So, between July 1989 and October 1993, Romney exclusively financed these three Democrats.
Romney voted for Paul Tsongas in 1992, when Tsongas crushed the opposition in the secret ballot, Massachusetts primary, with 67%, while Clinton got 11%, and HW Bush got 66% in the republican primary.
We don’t know how Mitt Romney voted in the general election that year.
“As for being a party builder, his leadership as titular head of the Massachusetts Republican Party has been disastrous, with the state GOP suffering massive losses during his tenure,”
***Mitt Romney— “My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helms”
Alrighty then, you have convinced me....... I am voting for obama. snort///////
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