Youtube battles

The last few days have seen a furious round of attacks on governor Romney, led by an anonymous leak of Romney's 1994 debate video with Ted Kennedy. In the video, he's seen expressing a number of liberal positions. He insists that he has no intention of following the Reagan/Bush model, argues for "abortion rights", and suggests support for allowing gay individuals to participate in Boy Scouts of America. The video quickly appeared on youtube and ignited a firestorm of controversy. None of this was news to supporters of the governor, having made its rounds in written form weeks ago. Conservatives understandably find these former positions troubling, but Romney's "Youtube response" showcased not only his conservative credentials now but a level of savvy, on the ball response, that hasn't been approached by any presidential candidates thus far. George Allen could learn a thing or two from the Mittster.

Where should Romney announce?

With Romney's official presidential announcement likely to come within the next month, an interesting question arises: where should Romney announce? This is a surprisingly important question, because it can help set the tone of a campaign. John Edwards recently announced his candidacy in a flood torn area of New Orleans. This makes perfect sense for his image as a populist, man of the people candidate. Edwards' "Two Americas" schtick only seems mildly outlandish in such a setting. Many speculate that Barack Obama will announce on Oprah. Again, this would reflect his image as a larger then life media sensation. The ideal setting of a Romney announcement is not nearly so easy to decide. On first blush, a candidate with Romney's limited name recognition would seem to be well served by announcing in the most wide-reaching forum possible. So perhaps something similar to Obama's Oprah idea. This makes even more sense when you consider Romney's particular strengths: he's an attractive, charismatic man who's visibility would only enhance his stature. Put him on TV in front of 10-20 million people, and he's going to win an awful lot of converts.

I happen to think Romney could get alot of mileage out of this option, but I think its worth considering other possibilities. With the possible exception of Fox News programs, any announcement through the MSM is liable to re-inforce the image many might have of Romney as a North-Eastern elitist. So I'm going to go ahead and suggest another option. No, not the in the trenches setting that Edwards adopted. I'm not yet convinced that's a setting he'd seem natural in. Instead, I think Romney might want to consider announcing on a radio program such as Rush Limbaugh. On the one hand, it announces Romney to precisely the type's of people he must win over: the Republican base. It also allows Romney to stay in relative obscurity for a little while longer. I've always felt that, with the general Republican tendency to nominate the front-runner, a Romney candidacy's best hope was to become the insurgent outsider. Allow Rudy and McCain to, to some extent, soak up the spotlight while Romney quietly advertises and creates a grassroots movement. Obama will burn out. He has no option but to do so. A Romney candidacy which quickly rides into the front of the American consciousness might well do the same. But if Romney can find the right balance between winning over batches of movement conservatives, while staying relatively below the radar, he might just have staying power.

Romney Blitzes for Bucks!

(Picture courtesy of mymanmitt)

Yesterday, Romney held the first fundraiser of his campaign. They'd hoped to raise $1 million. Instead, they brought in just over 6.5. Here's part of the story:

Romney's highly choreographed event, held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, drew 400 of his biggest supporters, who spent all day soliciting money from friends and contacts around the country.

"They blew me away with their success," Romney told reporters at an evening news conference. "And we will be able to continue to build slowly but surely a highly successful financial effort and campaign. This is not, if you will, a big flash and disappearance."

Tom Tellefsen, a private investor from California and one of Romney's national finance cochairmen, said the daylong blitz would "send a very strong message" to others in the race, both to top-tier rivals such as Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and to "those that are considering or haven't really yet laid the groundwork that maybe they should have."

From what I've heard, this shatters the single day fundraising record since the 2001 campaign finance reform went into effect. So needless to say, this is likely to boost Romney's candidacy in a big way. He's showing serious fundraising prowess and, as Romney's chief campaign financial planner Steven Zwick noted, "Money talks, but early money screams". With numbers like these its pretty fair to say that the business community in particular are very excited to have one of their own in the race. It's only a matter of time before more conservatives follow suit.

No New Taxes!

Today Mitt Romney signed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", promising to hold the line on the marginal income tax rate, and simplify the tax code. To my mind, this is a significant step. Romney has never run an organization that didn't have success and is famous for his obsession with balancing budgets. By pledging to simplify the tax code, Romney essentially confirms what I always suspected: spending will decrease during a Romney administration. Waste will be reduced. Programs will be streamlined. And entitlements will be reformed. All good stuff, and additional reasons to support Romney.

Innaugural Post

For some time now I have been considering starting this blog, but I have been held back by a few factors. First, I know next to nothing about computers. Don't expect anything fancy here, at least for awhile. Second, while I've been a long-time New Jersey resident, I've been attending college in Massachusetts for the last 16 months. Finally, the sheer number of pro-Romney blogs has led me to suspect that another Romney supporter, far more talented than I would eventually create a New Jersey based blog. But Romney is possibly less then a week from formally announcing his candidacy and there have been no takers. So here I am. Why do I support Romney? In short, I believe him to the singularly most successful candidate the Republican party has had available in decades. His single term governorship was just the tip, and the cap (thus far), of a lifetime of achievement. After completing a joint business and law program at Harvard Univserity (graduating in the top 5% in the former and cum laude in the latter) Romney, embarked on a business career. Barely 30, Romney had, in 1978, already achieved the status of vice-president within Bain and Company. By 1984, he had left the company to form Bain Capital, a spin-off venture capital firm. The company soon became wildly successful. This article highlights Romney's skills and business successes here. In 1990, he returned to Bain & Company, which was in financial ruin at this point, and returned it to financial solvency. After a failed attempt to wrest Ted Kenney's senate seat away, Romney found success again during the 2002 Winter Olympics. He literally returned the games from the dead, both fiscally and publicly. His governorship has displayed these same traits; an ability to turn around desperate situations and a willingness to attack issues that might present him with political difficulties. He's championed a Massachusetts universal health care plan which, despite utilizing conservative principles of free market and individual responsibility, has hurt his standing to a degree among the very Republican primary voters he so desperately needs to woo. In 2006, when a section of the Big Dig Tunnel collapsed, Romney immediately took charge of the situation, despite the political wasteland that all those who associated themselves with the disastrous Big Dig had fallen into. He has shown himself to be a conservative leader on nearly every issue of importance to Republicans. He can return fiscal conservatism from the abyss it has disappeared into. He can, with his charisma and intelligence, articulate a socially conservative message so that it is palatable to moderates and independents. For all these reasons and more, Mitt Romney is my choice for 2008.