You will laugh. I promise.

Video will be up later.

Stay tuned for Mitt soon!




MP3 File

According to Novak, McCain really screwed up his Sunday "Meet the Press" interview:

One Democratic leader referred to McCain's performance, in suggesting President Bush's additional 21,000 troops may be inadequate, as "comatose." A Republican adviser to McCain said it was one of the worst performances ever on "Meet the Press." The senator's defender said he could not be expected to be cheerful about a plan to send additional U.S. troops in harm's way.

It was pretty bad.

Novak also said this:

A footnote: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is picking up support for president among House Republicans, headed by former Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Which is more interesting when you start to think about it. The latest polls seem to have Romney making small gains. Straw polls he beats the field almost everytime. I think the straw polls reflect the people who are paying attention and what they see. The MSM Polls reflect the basic name recognition Romney needs to overcome.

Despite all this you don't see Romney out in the limelight too much. I think (I am no strategist- but this is what I hope) that Romney is intentionally steering clear of the public light and concentrating on the back round. Right now 9/10 Americans wonder why we want leather manufactured by Rawlings running our country. My guess is Romney is locking up all the key people he can, brining in all the money in the world, then in a month or two we are going to see a blitz that will rival the 85 Bears.

BTW, isn't that Rawlings site pretty cool?

Once thing is clear from this conference: we have tough issues to tackle.

Below is an important debate between Lawrence Korb and Bill Kristol. It get's pretty intense but Bill comes out on top in my mind.




MP3 File

Though not something to be touted widely this provides an interesting look at how the real opposition, liberals and Democrats, view the Republican race for President. From a lunch with Billionaire liberal George Soros speaking on the Republican race:

"John McCain", he(Soros) said, had “compromised far too much with the Bush
administration” and was unlikely to win the Republican nomination. And who will
win? Mr. Soros said he thinks the leading possibilities are former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Read the whole post here. The rest is mostly about his investing and his activities in Davos at the World Economic Forum.

Of course with McCain out he is still towing the conventional wisdom here but his thoughts on McCain are interesting

For some reason they wouldn't bite

Listen in.

Labels: audio

Ed Gilespie introduced Gov. Bush.

I'm a couple sessions behind. Right now we're listening to a panel on Conservative Social Issues.

For now... here's a quick video of Jeb talking about numerous issue:

Labels: nri, video

Iowans for Romney has great coverage of the great meeting in Iowa yesterday. 300 people showed up for luncheon.

One bit of news is Romney also had some people signing for the Aimes Straw Poll. The other breakng news is that Mitt wore a blue tie.


***Update***

Jim Kinnick who runs Iowans For Romney,emailed me this short synopsis at my request:

On January 26th I had the opportunity to hear Gov. Romney speak at Beck's Restaurant in Waterloo, Iowa.

An overflow crowd of over 300 Iowa Republicans attended the 11:30 AM event. For a weekday event held in the middle of the Iowa winter, that's a very impressive turnout. Mitt spoke of his conservative values and drew upon his experience in both the private and public sectors. After a speech highlighting his core conservative beliefs and values, Gov. Romney took questions from the audience. Romney spoke of how foreign policy is no longer a "black and red checkers game", that the Cold War is over but we have new challenges to face. On domestic issues Gov. Romney stressed raising the bar on education and made it clear that the issue of education should not be ceded to the democrats. Many in attendance filled out cards to support Romney at the August 11th "Iowa Straw Poll". Jim Kirkpatrick

Jim is doing a great job in Iowa promoting Romney along with our own Jeff Fuller (pic of Jeff up on Jim's site also.)

Jeb Bush gave a very good speech. You can hear the whole thing here:



Later I will point out a very sharp rebuttal against the conservative Achilles heal, immigration. I've made the journey and I'm with Jeb.

And here is the exchange that really shocked the crowd. Jeb's plea for the Conservatives to rethink their strong anti-Immigration tendencies:

Labels: audio, event, nri

Bring out your brains!

John O'Sullivan, Clifford May, David B. Rivkin, Moderated by Andrew McCarthy!

Great discussion dominated by O'Sullivan's first comments. I'll have a blurb on that shortly. Here's a picture:



Here are some opening remarks by Johnny O!

Labels: event, nri, video

Now we're onto the "debate" about Religious Conservatives. The title of this session was "Resolved: Religious Conservatives are Critical to Building a Republican Majority"

The debaters are Ralph Reed (one of the founders of Christian Coalition) and Ryan Sager, the author of The Elephant in the Room.

This is an interesting debate... not calling into question whether or not the Christian base is vital to our coalition (which Sager did not dispute) but rather trying to gauge what elements of the electorate we need to curry favor with. The most prominent issue was same sex marriage, not as a constituency... but as an issue that Sager believes will hurt us in the end.

Sager cites some very stark numbers about who we lost and by how much. Reed, in contrast, cited the absolute lock of activism we have among conservative Christians.

Sager says you have to look at the reality that the issue of homosexuality and immigration is that we don't like it. It's an ugly political reality. Reed counters and says that supporting marriage is not biggotry. Sager clarifies and says he's not saying bigotry.

Reed: People make moral choice with which we disagree because we are in a free society. It's not an issue of heterosexual. It's called America. All we are saying is that the institution should be preserved. The other thing is that we have a council of timidity and retreat. "If it's such a liability why the left has tried to get religion. If imitation is the highest form of flattery...." You can finish the sentence. It's a good argument.

Sager: One tactical point. The reality is that the more they do that the less we can use that as our one of our issues. (See Laura's comments from last night about a

Michael Novak, the moderator, had a great line: Conservatives come in all vintages.

Some quick videos:

First Ralph Reed:



Next, Mr. Sager:
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Labels: event, nri, religion

Is Lachlan McIntosh (executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party) rooting for John McCain? Would the Democrats Rather go against McCain? Read this article and tell me what you think:

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=179468

We should wonder why the Boston Herald doesn't mention that Mitt Romney has Jim DeMint's endorsment?  Wouldn't a Conservative Republican rather have Jim DeMint than Lindsey Graham? You be the judge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_DeMint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham

Is the Boston Herald also rooting for McCain? I wonder why? You be the judge.