Romney, No McCain, Gains Support of Republican Traditionalists

[deadparrot]

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- New Hampshire activist Bruce Keough is signing up with Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's burgeoning presidential campaign for one reason: He considers Romney the opposite of John McCain.

The Arizona senator's run-ins with the Bush administration have convinced Keough -- a former state senator who was wooed by both camps -- that Romney would be a more ideologically reliable Republican standard-bearer. ``There are many conservatives who are not enthusiastic about John McCain's candidacy,'' he said.

Converts such as Keough have pushed Romney to the top ranks of the Republican field. In Romney, who is courting social and religious traditionalists, they see a candidate who can energize Christian conservatives, stay on message and, in Keough's words, ``become an acceptable McCain alternative.''

His emergence comes after the kind of 2006 that presidential hopefuls dream of. He impressed party leaders with his TV appearances, rolled out a well-received state health plan and saw two key rivals, Senators Bill Frist of Tennessee and George Allen of Virginia, drop out of the race.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20061208/pl_bloomberg/acinhdojzkcs

[AlinPA]

1. His being a Mormon doesn't work in the South, the RW evangelical/fundamentalists

see him as a cult member.

[MADem]

4. Yep, he'll not be able to shake that BIG LOVE thing, especially since his Grampa was

a practicing polygamist who fled to Mexico. And that's not even mentioning his "brainwashed" daddy....



.....Maybe HBO's provocative peek into an FLDS community is the inspiration, because before now it's been the scandal no on has wanted to take on. Governor Mitt Romney, a presidential hopeful for 2008, makes jokes about Mormon polygamy. I'm glad he finds it so hilarious, because the last time I looked underage sex with minor girls is called pedophilia. The person committing the act a pedophile. Wife abuse nothing to laugh about. Wonder why the press never pressed that point with the Massachusetts Republican with the Hollywood good looks? Oh, right, they were too busy laughing at the handsome, smooth talking political charmer. Beware of this man, my fellow Democrats. There's danger ahead for us here.

But Mitt Romney isn't John F. Kennedy, and LDS isn't Catholicism. If Mitt thinks it is he's even dumber than his shtick.....Not all Mormons are created equal. There are the Fundamentalist LDS or FLDS, who embrace polygamy, and the Mormons who abjectly reject polygamy and have for decades. I've met many different types of Mormons, some I adore, others I find just plain frightening. It's like any other fundamentalist religious sect, which is dangerous to women, children and our society. But the negligence of the LDS hierarchy to rein in their FLDS counterparts is shameful. It's not enough to disavow them.

Republican Mitt Romney makes jokes about his religion, talking about marriage being between one man and one woman, emphasis on one woman. Yuck-yuck. Nice try, but that's not going to make you president or vice president. Why isn't Romney actually doing something about it? Calling attention to the crimnal behavior behind FLDS? You and I both know the answer. But can you imagine the White House Correspondents' dinner with Romney in the mix? You can actually hear the lines someone like Colbert would deliver in return. It wouldn't be pretty.

The Bush administration and Republicans are supposed to be for "family values." What family value is being supported by looking the other way? Why all the furor over porn on the web without a look into the polygamist communities that are flourishing out here in the west? What is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doing about the crime of polygamy and the pedophilia inherent in the lifestyle, not to mention the wife abuse? .... This criminal probe is a long time coming. Why didn't President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales act earlier? More importantly, why is Governor Mitt Romney's response a punch line? Shouldn't a good Mormon care?



http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=2340

[bluerum]

2. The health plan has NOT been well received.

Romney has been derelict in his responsibilities as governor.

He has been holding office for four years - but he has been running around the country jockeying for position in the presidential 08 race for three of them.

[alfredo]

3. Didn't Romney hire illegal aliens?

[MADem]

5. Why "Awwwww JEEEEEZ" he certainly DID!!!

Of course, if he actually lived in that PINK house in Belmont, he may have noticed that all of his lawn care workers were named Raul and Juan and Baldemar, hid behind the bushes when the cops passed by, and didn't speak ni ninguna palabra of ingles!!!

When he's not travelling around greasing palms and sucking up, he's either in his 'real' home in Utah, or his vacation estate in NH. He is NOT a Massachusettsian, any more than I am a Botswanan.

[alfredo]

8. Seems like the perfect candidate for the Evangelicals.

[skipos]

6. Romney wouldn't win MA, which is good for us. nt

[LeftCoast]

7. I wonder what they'll think of what he said in '94?

Romney's '94 remarks on same-sex marriage could haunt him

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | December 8, 2006

Comments Governor Mitt Romney made during his 1994 Senate bid, in which he said the gay and lesbian community "needs more support from the Republican Party," resurfaced yesterday, posing a potential hurdle as he appeals to conservatives for a probable presidential campaign.

Bay Windows, the Boston-based gay and lesbian newspaper, republished excerpts from an August 1994 interview the paper did with Romney during his campaign against Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In the interview, Romney said it should be up to states to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage and he criticized Republican "extremists" who imposed their positions on the party.

"People of integrity don't force their beliefs on others, they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have," Romney is quoted as saying.

Read the rest here

Looks like he's flipping and flopping. :)

[musiclawyer]

9. Good

We need to support Romney. Certain loser. Mcain still has the veneer of a reasonable moderate to people who pay no attention to politics until the weeks before an election. So he's dangerous. But he's still a vile, shameless motherfucker