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A Mormon President? David M. Bresnahan David M. Bresnahan has over 30 years of experience in journalism, public relations, and broadcasting. He has authored several books, hosted talk radio programs, owned a radio station, on-line newspapers, and other businesses. He maintains a web site at www.Bresnahan.org where more information can be found about his work. David M. Bresnahan May 4, 2006 Day after day some newspaper somewhere decides to run the same old tired story about unannounced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, declaring that a Mormon could never be elected president because the evangelical Christians would never support him. The...

Gov. Mitt Romney knows he must make the speech of his life from the presidential campaign pulpit to set American voters at ease with his Mormonism, just as John F. Kennedy did in 1960 to help them accept his Catholicism. Romney said he knows he has to give a speech along the lines of the famous address in which Kennedy told Houston Protestant ministers: “I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.” Romney said he would insist his loyalty as president would be to the American people, not the Mormon...

Prominent, respectable Evangelical Christians have told me, not for quotation, that millions of their co-religionists cannot and will not vote for Romney for president solely because he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If Romney is nominated and their abstention results in the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton, that's just too bad. The evangelicals are adamant, saying there is no way Romney can win them over.

April 24, 2006 Issue Copyright © 2006 The American Conservative  Where Have All the Conservatives Gone?  The Republican Party’s top contenders for 2008 aren’t paleoconservatives—or any other kind.  By W. James Antle III  Come 2008, who will succeed George W. Bush at the helm of a troubled Republican Party? Though the next presidential race is far off, the question is already on conservatives’ minds.The last few months haven’t been kind to Republican operatives who assumed President Bush’s slide in popularity would be temporary. Instead, his approval ratings have settled below 40 percent, averaging 38 percent over the last four Gallup...

Comedian-turned-liberal radio yakker Al Franken says Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is smarter than President Bush - but he still wouldn’t want him in the Oval Office. In an interview with the Herald, the die-hard Democrat admitted that Romney “did himself a lot of good” by overhauling health care in the Bay State. “I think he’s smarter than Bush,” Franken said of the conservative governor, who is contemplating a run for office. “I don’t think Bush is dumb but I think he has some real shortcomings in terms of being able to concentrate,” Franken said with a laugh. As for Lawrence...

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey stood by her patron’s record on prison issues yesterday, endorsing Gov. Mitt Romney’s trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to “share” his ideas on penitentiary reform despite the fact that Romney’s state correction experience amounts to a photo op in a prison parking lot. “I think the governor, by appointing Kathy Dennehy, has taken great strides in reforming the prison system,” Healey said. “Dennehy has taken it on herself to implement wide-ranging changes” in the problem-plagued department. Department of Correction Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy is joining Romney on the trip. Dennehy was named commissioner in 2004 and oversees...

BOSTON -- During last year's St. Patrick's Day breakfast in South Boston, Democratic Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi abandoned the good-natured roasting typical of the event to acidly kid about the airline tickets he saw sticking out of Governor Willard Mitt Romney's pocket. "I don't want to keep you too long. You can leave any time you want," he said, to which the ever-unflappable Romney shot back, "I'll be here until you get funny." It was enough cool to make DiMasi lose his for a moment. "You being President of the United StatesO That's a joke," he sneered. A...

Hillary beats Allen; Rudy beats Hillary; McCain falls; Romney rises By: DaveGOP · Section: Diaries Just a notch to the right of the nation in the last two election cycles, Florida voters are once again making their preferences known regarding the next presidential contest, with mixed news for the Big Four.  The poll was taken by Quinnipiac University, with the full results posted here: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x12942.xml?ReleaseID=906 Rudy Giuliani beats Hillary by 12 points among Florida voters, garnering 90 percent of Republicans and increasing his margin over the senator by 2 points from February. As in the recent Cook poll, John McCain...

Recently when Fox TV anchor Chris Wallace attempted to plumb the depths of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Mormon beliefs, the prospective candidate grew restless, as he often does when pressed about religion. Then he parried with a line worthy of Jack Kennedy:     "America has a political religion . . . people who are elected . . . [take] an oath to abide by a nation of laws and the Constitution, above all others." Amen.     Romney should sharpen that sound bite and stay on message. Like it or not, questions about Mormonisms will hound him wherever he goes,...

Looking toward 2008.The non-McCain primary has begun. There are two major slots in the battle for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination — one for Arizona maverick John McCain, the other for some other candidate. So the battle is on to be, as insiders put it, "the non-McCain," the conservative who will try to stand athwart the sometimes unorthodox, party-defying McCain for the nomination.McCain is assured top billing in the nomination race, and his challenge has little to do with other candidates — his imperative is to re-assure GOP regulars that they can trust him. But there will be clawing to...

Going into last weekend's Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his staff said they were expending no energy on and had only fleeting interest in a straw poll assessing the potential 2008 presidential candidates. Even after he finished a surprising second in Memphis, behind Tennessee native son Sen. Bill Frist, Romney was modest, declaring: "I really don't read into a straw poll very much, certainly not at this point. This is, what, three years away from the '08 race?" It turns out not all his supporters had a similarly distanced view. Roughly 200 Romney backers camped out...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and a possible candidate in 2008, says his party does have a message for the electorate: Vote for change. "Don't let anybody tell you we Democrats don't know what we stand for," the Massachusetts senator said in comments prepared for delivery Wednesday to the Communications Workers of America. "Give this country a Democratic Congress and you will see a difference on Day One, and a fundamental change of direction for Washington." Democrats have come under increasing criticism for lacking a unified message that would allow them to capitalize on...

From an email to Kathryn Jean Lopez: I was a delegate at the Southern Republican Leadership convention and voted today for Mitt Romney in the straw poll. It was an exciting experience. Mitt's speech on Friday was well received and there were at least two standing ovations during his presentation. All in all, I thought the convention was a rousing success and I was gratified to see Mitt come in second. In watching the post-straw poll coverage on MSNBC (where was Fox News during all of this?!!), Chris Matthews opined out loud that he thought Romney's campaign probably had success...

We heard some buzz about this last night, but this morning's front-page story in the Tennessean about the hometown boy's big win, also includes some interesting nuggets on how MA Gov. Mitt Romney was able to score his impressive second-place finish. Romney, very quietly, worked with some Volunteer state supporters to bring in some college students from Union University. The school, which, btw, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, is in Jackson, TN, in between Memphis and Nashville. Also note in the story, the efforts of Romney's Southern backers to cast him as the best candidate in the field...

Restless Republicans are already looking beyond the embattled presidency ... to the 2008 campaign. ... The delegates were voting in an informal "straw poll" to test the popularity of White House hopefuls including those in attendance -- Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. George Allen of Virginia, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. ... Despite controlling the White House and Congress for most of the past five years, many Republicans feel both have fallen short on a number of issues including tax reform, fiscal...

March 11, 2006 SRLC Straw Poll: Frist Wins; Romney Second After five hours of voting and with more than 1,400 ballots cast, The Hotline SRLC Straw Poll has come to a close with a tremendous turnout. Sen. Bill Frist (TN) led the pack with nearly 37% of the vote, followed by MA Gov. Mitt Romney with 14%. Sen. George Allen (VA) was tied for third place with Pres. Bush (10%), despite Bush being a write-in candidate. Hotline Straw Poll Unofficial Results Candidate Raw %age Bill Frist 526 36.9% Mitt Romney 205 14.4 George Allen 147 10.3 Pres. Bush (write in)...

Ok let us just say that 2008 comes down to Mitt Romney and George Allen, who would you support and why? In my opinion both men are social conservatives. Romney gets attacked for being a northern RINO, but he had to run as a social moderate in order to be elected Governor in Teddy's backyard. Romney in my opinion would have an easier time defeating the Democratic opponent. He is smart, good looking, charismatic, and is a Northerner. He will be able to swing some moderate Northern states. However, Romney is a mormon. Although that would not preclude me from...

2008 Livingston County Poll Results The Livingston County Republicans held a 2008 poll for President at our Lincoln Day Dinner. Each attendant at the Lincoln Day Dinner had the option to vote. We had 97 voters, which was approximately half of the attendants. Each person voted once. The results are as follows: Governor Mitt Romney - 24.74% Senator John McCain - 18.56% Senator George Allen - 17.53% Congressman Mike Pence - 14.43% Former Speaker Newt Gingrich - 11.34% Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani - 10.30% Congressman Tom Tancredo - 1.03% Mar 11th, 2006: 14:10:21 Write in: Secretary Condoleezza Rice -...

2008 is already here. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke at the Greenville County South Carolina GOP convention today. He was articulate and personable and was received very well, even by the most conservative of attendees. The result of this appearance cemented in my mind that Romney will not only be competitive but a force in 2008. Let's take a look at 2008. Here is the breakdown of all the factions in the GOP primary electorate and the pieces of the pie. Bush Wing 30% of the Party Center Right, Moderate Conservative including Conservative "pragmatics" or "realists." This wing contains those...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney courted support for a potential presidential bid during a stop in South Carolina this weekend. Local leaders said he is beginning to build his own political base like the other presidential hopefuls that have been drawn to South Carolina's first-in-the-South 2008 presidential primary. Romney, attending a private dinner Friday night with 50 political activists in Spartanburg, ''wanted us to think about helping him with a ground game in Spartanburg County if that came to be," Spartanburg County GOP chairman Rick Beltram said. Yesterday, Romney capped his weekend visit with a breakfast with state...