Recently in Romney Category

"THE SILENT FACTOR" in the GOP primary -- Romney's Mormon religion.

THE MSM SAY HE'S not genuine.  Watch Mitt Romney at CPAC and decide for yourself.

ROMNEY HAS PULLED OUT OF THE RACE.

We'll see now if the Reagan conservatives will rally to Huckabee.  I'm happy to support Huckabee over McCain.  I believe Huckabee has a much better chance in November than many conservative pundits will acknowledge.

UPDATE:  Romney's announcement at C-PAC of his withdrawal was an endorsement of John McCain in all but name.  The next move is Huckabee's.

Hugh Hewitt gives a tribute to his man Mitt -- and endorses John McCain.

IS ROMNEY DROPPING OUT? He's at least pulling back and meeting with advisers to rethink the way ahead.

WHAT'S HUCKABEE'S MOTIVATION? He's promoting John McCain every chance he can get.  He's kicking and cutting Mitt Romney like an Arkansas chicken in a cock fight.  And he doesn't have a chance of winning the GOP nomination -- Huckabee is in single digits nose-to-nose with Ron Paul among Republican voters who are not Baptist and/or evangelical.  And the chances that John McCain will put Huckabee on the ticket are almost zero.  Huckabee doesn't gain McCain any values voters, and he costs McCain voters in McCain's favored "independent" demographic.

So what is Huckabee's motivation?  Well, it's not like Huckabee has been hiding his motivation.  Again and again he's said that what drives him in the campaign is the thing most important to him, and again and again he's said what is most important to him is his theology.  And he's used that theology to drive an identify-politics campaign that has attracted baptist or evangelical voters and almost no one else.  But what no one will talk about but which is evident if you look at the exit polls is that Huckabee has used his theological identity politics as a wedge issue against Mitt Romney.  Those who tell pollsters that it matters a lot that a candidates shares their same religion vote predominately for Huckabee -- and the person who almost never gets their vote is Mitt Romney.

It wasn't an accident that Huckabee spoke about the supposed Mormon belief that the Devil is Jesus's brother.  It's not an accident that Huckabee has repeatedly identified himself as the leader of Christians in the race, leaving unsaid what doesn't need to be said among many Baptists and evangelicals -- that Mitt Romney is a leader in a religion of what they believe are non-Christians.

So Huckabee has told us that his theology drives his campaign, he's used his theological identity as his chief means of acquiring votes, and he's used his theology directly against Mitt Romney.  So now with Huckabee not having a change of being President, and with Huckabee clearly campaigning against the strong-on-values / strong-on-judges candidate Romney and in favor of the weak-on-values / weak-on-judges candidate McCain, you've got to ask yourself what's going on here.  And although no one wants to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room, I think we should talk about it. 

John McCain is a knife-fighting, divorced fly-boy, but a conventional Christian.  Huckabee is comfortable with that.  But Huckabee has issues with the decent, hard working, good values, nice guy Mitt Romney. You've got to ask yourself what is up with that.  And then when you recall the "Jesus and the Devil are brothers" stuff and Huckabee's keynote participation in the Salt Lake City convention of the Baptists which focused in part on the theological rivalry with the Mormon religion, a glimmer of things falling into place begins to emerge.

When it comes to assisting McCain and blocking Romney, it may be about what Huckabee has been telling us all along it's about.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when or if McCain with the aid of Huckabee takes the nomination from Romney, we should all be clear why and how this happened.

One thing to note -- in the West where people know and are comfortable with Mormons, and where people historically have tended to be more tolerant than in the rest of the country, you don't see the anti-Mormon vote so much among the Baptists and / or evangelicals.   I'd be surprised to see McCain win a single state out West today besides his own state of Arizona, and he might even lose that.

FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT believes that John McCain has "allied with Democrats" as part of an effort to change the image he earned for his participation in the sleaze of the "Keating Five" scandal:

Hastert, who retired from Congress in November of last year, said McCain changed after the Keating Five .. "He was gearing up for a run for the presidency in 2000 so he had to .. clean up his image."  .. He contended that on agenda items under the Republican-controlled Congress, "it just seems like everything we did, John was someplace else .. He was against us on tax cuts and his form of immigration reform was to open the gates and let everybody in." Asked if he considered McCain a conservative, Hastert said, "In my opinion, he is not.

UPDATE:  Mark Levin talks with Hastert about John McCain:  "there are skeletons in that closet."

SECURE BORDERS ADVOCATE Brian Bilbray, the recently elected North County Congressman, endorsed Mitt Romney today.

THE NEGATIVE ON BUSH vote continues to power John McCain to the Republican nomination.  If we take a look at the Florida exit polls, we see that Romney handily defeated McCain 35% to 31% among GOP voters who have a positive opinion of the Bush Presidency.  But McCain crushed Romney 2-1 among those voters who are not satisfied with the Presidency of George W. Bush.  This huge negative on Bush vote provided McCain with his comfortable victory margin over Romney in Florida.

And one has to think this has something to do with it:  Florida Republicans are split just about 50-50 over whether reducing the budget deficit is more important, or if additional tax cuts are more important.  Romney narrowly edged out McCain among voters who see tax cuts as more important, but McCain topped Romney by a full 15 percentage points among those who identify the budget deficit problem as more important.

Romney also had problems with the Hispanic vote and the amnesty for illegal aliens vote.  Romney narrowly edged McCain among white voters, but lost to McCain more than 3-1 among Hispanic voters.  Romney also edged out McCain among voters who are opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens, but McCain's 2-1 edge among voters who favor amnesty gave McCain more than the margin he needed to win Florida.

If Romney is going to win the Republican nomination he must find a way to pull in the significant segment of Republican voters who have a negative opinion of the Bush Presidency, and who are now turning to McCain as their hope for a significant improvement on Bush's performance in the Presidency. Closely tied to this, Romney must attract the large segment of  Republican voters who are more concerned with the nation's enormous and growing budget deficit than they are with George Bush-style tax cuts promises, in the face an out of control political class and a retiring baby boom generation.  Finally, Romney needs to do much better among Republicans who are opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens.  During the campaign McCain has represented himself as a "control the borders first" guy, in contradiction to everything he's ever done on the issue of amnesty for illegal aliens.  This false pose has won McCain a big slice of the anti-amnesty voters, a vote Romney must take back if he is to win the GOP nomination.  And no where is this more true than it is in California, the biggest delegate prize of them all.

ED MORRISSEY ENDORSES Mitt Romney for President, and I've got to say I think Morrissey focuses on the central issue in the upcoming Presidential election, competence in executive leadership.  True executive competence in the Presidency is something the country has sorely lacked.  The problem is a long standing one.  It's hard to think of anyone during my life time whose shown really first rate executive competence in the White House.  But this incompetence usually fails to register with the public.  Things are different with the current Republican President -- the failures of Katrina and Iraq have galvanized public opinion.  So after 8 years of the widely perceived executive incompetence of a Republican President, the biggest advantage a GOP candidate can have going into November is the real promise of providing fundamental change in the White House from the current incompetence to proven executive experience and success.  And the glaring contrast between from the highly successful Mitt Romney, and the never-run-anything candidates Hillary and Barrack couldn't be more stark.

A side note.  One reason Fred Thompson would not have been a great candidate against the Democrats is his demonstrated lack of executive ability as shown in the current campaign.  By contrast, during the current campaign Mitt Romney as shown all sorts of executive talents -- including the ability to course correct mid-stream as conditions change.   A skill it looks like Rudy Giuliani certainly could have used.

HERE'S the Florida Republican debate transcript.  I'll have commentary a bit later.

MITT ROMNEY told a cutting Bill Clinton joke that managed to deck Hillary in the same swing.  This is the sort of thing people have been looking for from Romney, and some were beginning to think he was incapable of producing.  The capacity to do such a thing is a huge advantage in a Presidential race -- and in the Presidency itself. Part of the power of Kennedy and Reagan came from this capacity to get away scoring serious points while leaving a grin on everyone's face.  There couldn't have been a more important moment in any of the Republican debates so far.

Asked about running against the tag team of Bill and Hillary, Romney replied that he can't wait to run against them, saying,  "The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can't imagine." And then implied the nation wouldn't want to imagine it either.  Watch the video clip here.

I guessing most American's wouldn't.  An important moment for Romney and the 2008 campaign.

IT'S CLEAR WHY JOHN MCCAIN hates Mitt Romney.  John McCain very badly wants to be President.  But he's helped develop a system where it's incredibly difficult to run a competitive campaign for President without great personal wealth, Romney has that wealth, and he's using it to beat McCain to the dirt using ads which lets people know how McCain has opposed many of the things they believe in.  It's the one loophole that McCain has failed to close in his campaign against free speech and the 1st Amendment.  So what is driving that campaign?  First and foremost what we've learned about the Senator is that if you're getting information about John McCain, McCain believes John McCain has the right to be delivering that message, and not anyone else.*  We've seen this attitude from the race in 2000 against Bush, we've seen it in his arguments against free speech on the part of independent political action committees during the debates over McCain-Feingold, and we've seen it in his repeated anger against candidates who expose his record on television or in the Presidential debates.  It's essentially the attitude of a ship's captain who won't brook competitive feedback from the crew.  And it's a fundamental misunderstanding of democracy and the American system.

The John McCain we've come to know is a man with an enormous belief in his own right to shut up or angrily denounce people who speaks "truth to power" when it's his own position of power which is being contested.  The problem with Romney is that he has too much money to shut up -- and McCain can't hardly stand it.  It just isn't fair that that only thing that keeps him from rightly being shut up by McCain supported campaign finance law is that fact that he has more money than everybody else.

And in a less extreme form, I think a little bit of the same thing lies behind many of the candidate's evident resentment of Mitt Romney.  But self-financing by the very, very rich is a constitutionally protected part of a legislative regime handcuffing free speech and the 1st Amendment, a scheme which all of them have supported, and I think these candidates need to grow up, stop whining, and live with it.  If we unbound the 1st Amendment and let free speech once again rule the land, all of these candidates would have more than enough money.  The fact that they don't is their own fault.  Again, here's my advice for John McCain and the rest.  Be a man.  Stop whining.

*Of course, if the McCain message is coming via McCain friends in the MSM, well, John's willing to make an exception for that.  Kind of him, isn't it.

DEBRA SAUNDERS -- the problem with Romney.

And Michelle Malkin on McCain -- "This is cynicism on steroids with a speedball chaser."

I'VE TALKED ABOUT HUCKABEE'S role as McCain's wingman in South Carolina.  It looks like Romney may have his own wingman in Florida -- assuming current polls are reliable and Romney is surging in Florida (a perhaps risky assumption).  Giuliani is smacking McCain hard like only a New Yorker can do with hits like this.  If Giuliani were a bit more conservative he'd be my pick for the nomination -- we need a Republican leader of temper and caliber to lead the charge against the left.  If Rudy stages a late comeback and helps crush McCain in Florida, I wouldn't be unhappy.

I'M WITH ROSS DOUTHAT.  This is a two man race -- Romney vs. McCain.  Mike Huckabee can hardly get a vote outside of the "evangelical" population, and his real role now is wingman for John McCain. Giuliani, on the other hand, is crashing around the country.  Hunter is out, Fred will be out.  Paul is a non-factor.  Enough summary, here are some details other pundits have missed:

• John McCain lost to Huckabee among GOP voters in South Carolina.  McCain has yet to carry the Republican vote in any state.  Think about that for a minute.
  
• John McCain continues to do extremely well with those having a negative feeling about the Bush Presidency -- without the huge margin McCain got from these voters he would have been a loser in South Carolina
• Half of all South Carolina GOP voters believe that illegal aliens should be deported and they should not be given amnesty -- 25% of those folks voted for John McCain, who ran as the anti-illegal immigrant candidate in South Carolina.
• McCain again swept the geezer vote in South Carolina -- if the vote were up to those under 60 John McCain would have lost.
  
• John McCain is despised in much in his home region -- the West -- where he's been utterly crushed twice by Mitt Romney.
• Mormons were one-quarter of the vote in Nevada -- and 95% of them voted for Romney.  I'm thinking that's better than John Kennedy did with Catholics in 1960.
  
• Eight percent of Nevada GOP caucusers were Hispanic -- Romney defeated McCain almost 2-1 among these voters.
• Mitt Romney has a real Mormon problem.  The only part of the country he is taking by big margins are historically tolerant Western states where most folks have neighbors who are Mormon.  In large numbers "evangelical" Christians are voting on religious grounds. They explicitly tell pollsters that the religion of a candidate matters to them, and they are voting for Huckabee, McCain, Thompson -- just about anybody but Mitt Romney.  Romney gets half of the votes from the "born again" as he gets from voters of other religious identification -- a pattern you see with no other candidate.
• Huckabee continues in his failure to pull much of a vote outside of the "evangelical" population.  In South Carolina Huckabee was tied for 3rd place behind even Mitt Romney among voters who were not self-identified as "born again".
  

Nevada exit poll results are here.  South Carolina exit polls are here.

UPDATE:  Take the PoliPundit pledge!

MCAIN LEADS ROMNEY 24% - 17% in California says Rasmussen.  The significance of this comes from the fact that we're already voting out here in California  --  I cast my ballot yesterday by mail, others are voting in person at polling stations across the state.  Voting doesn't begin in California on Super Tuesday -- it merely comes to an end here on Super Tuesday. 

Here's some good news for Romney: "Sixty-three percent (63%) of Romney's supporters are certain they will vote for him. That's a far higher level of commitment than any other candidate enjoys. Just 45% of McCain's supporters are that "certain" along with 54% of those who support Thompson, 45% of Huckabee voters, and 36% of Giuliani fans."  I'd say that is open room for a Romney upset in California.  Early voters are more likely to be "certain" voters -- and conservative talk radio here in California is already going to work on McCain, beating him up especially as both wrong and dishonest on the most important issue facing California, illegal immigration.

Giuliani has dropped off a cliff here in California, falling from far out in front to 5th place at only 11% support, with only 1 in 3 of these "certain" they'll actually vote Giuliani.   If you don't have support on the influential talk radio stations, it takes major money to move opinion in California, and I very much doubt Giuliani will have the sort of cash required to do much to move his numbers.  Guiliani is perceived as weak on illegal immigration, and  he's getting little support on the radio or from conservative opinion leaders.  A Schwarzenegger endorsement might help Guiliani, but all bets are on a McCain endorsement from Schwarzenegger at some point just before Super Tuesday.  Why Schwarzenegger has held out this long is anyone's guess -- unless the snark about Schwarzenegger impending switch to the Democrat party is actually in the works.  With Schwarzenegger even dumber things have happened.  My  working assumption is that Schwarzenegger is trying to set up a  Senate seat for himself, so whatever would best serve that end is what you'll find him doing.  I'm not sure how that plays in terms of the Presidential primary.  Maybe no endorsement at all in the primary would be what is best for Arnold.  If it is, that's what he'll do.

The AP Unleashes Attack Dog On Romney Have you seen the video? Here's a Boston Globe account of the tussle.  The AP has a tag team of partisan reporters and analysts ripping up Romney under their byline -- an attack program that makes up in vitriol for what it lacks in substance.  When you see the name Glen Johnson or Ron Fournier on an AP story coving the Presidential campaign, shake yourself out the the delusion that your reading the work of a sober professional pursuing truthful news.  What you're reading is the often slightly unhinged rantings of a partisan political operative who's chosen writing for the AP as his preferred platform for committing left - Democrat political activism.  What was once a disturbing trend in journalism is now the self-evident status quo, so old hat it's as expected as seagulls at the beach.  The only folks not up on the new reality of the news business are the poor old folks who still pay for a daily paper -- the rest of us have long ago ended our subscriptions.  When the newspapers finally die, many of us will identify it for what it was, an act of self-immolation by partisans more actively interested in advocacy than the news business.

Romney's New Voice -- Running Against Bush's Washington When you're running on change you're implicitly running for the opportunity to say "so long" to what came before.  Tell me this isn't a shot over the bow of USS George W. Bush:

America now understands that Washington is broken, and we're going to do something about it. America understands that Washington has promised that they'd secure our borders, but they haven't. Washington told us that they would live by high ethical standards, but they haven't. Washington told us that they'd fix Social Security, but they haven't. Washington told us they'd get us better health care and better education, but they haven't. Washington told us they'd get us a tax break for middle income Americans, but they haven't. Washington told us that they'd cut back on the earmarks and the pork-barrel spending, but they haven't. And Washington told us they'd reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but they haven't. And who's going to get the job done? We are!

And this:

I take my inspiration from Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, who took their inspiration from the American people - hard-working American people, people who believed in opportunity, who loved education, God-fearing people, people who also love their families, people deeply patriotic. It is that characteristic of the American people that makes us the most powerful nation on Earth. Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush said we are a great and good people, it's exactly what we are. It's why we will always be the most powerful nation on Earth.

And finally this:

"I have a couple of questions for you. Is Washington, D.C., broken?"  Crowd: "Yes!" Governor Romney: "Can it be fixed?" Crowd: "Yes!" Governor Romney: "Are we the team that's going to get the job done?" Crowd: "Yes!"

(Watch the video here.)

When Mitt Romney says "I take my inspiration from Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush" what pops out is who he doesn't take his inspiration from -- Georg W. Bush.  And when he asks (expecting a "yes" answer) "Is Washington, D.C broken?",  he's  talking about a Washington that was governed by George Bush and a Congress that was Republican for most of the last decade -- and Washington that they could have fixed, but didn't.

What's important about all this is that Romney is finally sending the message of change he failed to send in Iowa or New Hampshire -- if you are repeatedly the one candidate who seems to spend most of his time defending and promising to continue Bush policies (e.g. Bush's tax cuts), the one thing you certainly aren't is the candidate of change.  And Romney's failure in Iowa and New Hampshire reflected that failure to inspire folks disenchanted with the Bush Presidency and Bush's Washington -- Romney lost in New Hampshire to McCain in large part because he lost to McCain among the majority of voters who were unsatisfied or angry with the Bush Presidency.

Michigan -- The Exit Poll Results The Main Stream Media may love John McCain, but Republican voters do not.  Michigan is the fourth state in a row where John McCain lost the Republican vote to another GOP candidate.  In Michigan is wasn't even close.  Republicans rejected Senator McCain in Michigan decisively, with 3 out of 4 Republican voters giving a thumbs down to the "front running" Arizona Senator, exit polling shows.  What was once a trend -- McCain lost among Republican voters even in New Hampshire -- is now a consistent pattern.  The choice of Republican voters -- especially non-evangelical Republicans -- was once again Mitt Romney.  Romney out-polled McCain 41% to 27% among the GOP in Michigan.  McCain proved again which voters he does attract -- those dissatisfied with the war in Iraq, and those who disapprove of President Bush.  McCain once again handily won the anti-Bush and anti-Iraq vote.

Other poll results:

• 9 out of 10 very conservative voters voted against John McCain.
• Ron Paul took 19% of the under 30 vote.
• Old Man McCain was the favorite of the over 60 crowd.
• Huckabee took 29% of the evangelical vote, only 8% of the non-evangelicals.
• 12% of voters picked Ron Paul as the candidate "who is most likely to bring needed change to the country" -- but of those voters less than half voted for Paul.