CPAC went well for Romney. The question can be asked, does this mean much for Mitt. Obviously I think it does. Here are 7 areas I think Romney stands to gain from his solid showing this weekend:

1. His speech shows he can speak and win over skeptics. He clearly did that. I read several stories of former skeptics now leaning to him. KLO herself had grown skeptical to a certain degree, and she swung herself back. From what I understand he impressed the bloggers at Bloggers row for visiting ad taking questions.

2. He got huge press out of this. I don’t know if it will translate into the polls, but it gives him momentum. Right now the CPAC straw poll results are on Drudge and WaPo.

3. Like it or not, McCain has had a crappy weekend. I know it’s not nice to say his campaign is over (and I don’t think it is) but several people (Erick and Dick Morris) have begun to talk that way. McCain is worse off today than he was last Saturday. There is something symbolic for conservatives to see him announce on Letterman and diss CPAC within a day of each other. McCain supporters may not like that or think it’s unfair, but unfortunately it’s already out there.

4. CPAC will help Romney woo potential staffers, endorsements and bring in more needed cash. It definitely doesn’t hurt.

5. Romney’s campaign pledges to veto spending and fight McCain-Feingold are terrific promises which will win him votes, and the latter can’t help McCain.

6. Brownback and Huckabee, the anti-Romney candidates, will no doubt begin rethinking their campaigns. They are running nearly totally on being the anti-Romney and this weekend they learned it doesn’t quite work with the base.

7. The biggest thing to learn from Giuliani’s speech, is he can quote Reagan and sound good doing it. It doesn’t hurt, but in the end he won’t last long skating around social conservatives. Remember most of the straw poll votes were cast before he spoke I don’t think his speech really helped Giuliani’s numbers.

I don't know what this will translate to over the next coming weeks. I will venture to guess it will give steam to the Romney train and get his name out there as one of the favored conservatives.

Well it has begun. Romney has a great showing at CPAC (wins straw poll, kills Rudy in a speech showdown) and we already have people crying over it. Where I blog at www.race42008.com already has people in the comments sections crying (link.)


Liz A. Mair is just realizing she has been laying down on the wrong set of tracks, and is trying to save face.











I posted on Romney killing the competition in the GOP insiders poll at www.race42008.com only to see people cry and whine on that one too.

People, get used to it.

Details here.

Update:
21 percent for Romney
17 for Rudy
14 Gingrich
13 for Brownback
12 McCain

Labels: cpac

The New York Times is reporting that Mitt Romney hit a homerun with his speech at CPAC whereas Giuliani left the attendees a bit lukewarm.

Mr. Giuliani arrived to a rousing reception, but the room grew silent and restless as Mr. Giuliani wandered through a speech that lasted 40 minutes. By contrast, Mr. Romney arrived to a much more subdued reception but left to rousing applause.

“The governor knocked this speech out of the park,” said Paloma A. Zepeda, a marketing consultant and conservative blogger who said she came into the room with “serious doubts” about Mr. Romney, and left saying she was leaning toward supporting him. By contrast, she said, Mr. Giuliani “took a risk by coming to C.P.A.C., and he managed to not allay a single conservative fear about a Giuliani candidacy.”

Labels: cpac, Giuliani, mitt romney

I've been privileged to receive an advance copy of "A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney", Hugh Hewitt's new book on Governor Romney. I've promised Hugh not to post any reviews or details until the publication date but that doesn't mean you can't order it now!

I will give you this. If you are a Mitt Romney fan this book will be a great please for you to read. If you are not a Romney fan this book gives you a very honest and open look at Mitt and his potential to take the White House in 2008. In short. I highly recommend it.

You can order it from Amazon here

I know this poll and some commentary were posted already . . . but I've done a little more digging into the data and found some great things for Romney . . . thought I'd share them here.

Finally a poll that means something!

We all know that Romney is starting his slow rise in the national polls (which are 96.7% just about name recognition), but he still trails dramatically in those . . . usually to "Rock-star Rudy" and even McCain. Romney's polling much better in early primary states than in national polls.

But, here's a poll that actually has some more value to it (LA Times article with analysis and full pdf of the poll)

Essetially, RNC (Republican National Committee members) have Romney as the one they think will win the GOP nomination. Rudy and McCain trail behind. Romney was the 1st choice of 20% and 2nd choice of another 15% of the RNC members surveyed (with a HUGE 36% still undecided). However, 30% feel that Rudy is the GOP's best candidate to win the general election (with Romney coming in 2nd with 17%). This is significant, because it shows that much of Rudy's support derives from the "I'll support him because I think he can beat the Dems" camp . . . not "I think he'll be the best POTUS to represent GOP/Conservative values". However, I think that as Romney gains more traction, shows his effectiveness in speaking/debating, and leads the charge against the Dems, more and more people will realize that he could spank Hillary (or whoever)--they will then be less likely to support Rudy or McCain "because they can win".

One thing I love about Romney is that he's a "Win-Win" candidate in these respects. Yes "he'll be the best POTUS to represent our values" and Yes "I'll support him because he can beat the Dems". It's not a "one OR the other" conflict with Romney like it is with EVERY other GOP candidate.

Strengthening this argument, when RNC members were asked point blank "Who would you like to see at the Republican Candidate for President?" Romney won handily with 18% (Nearly doubling up on the other contenders, Rudy at 10% and McCain at 9% . . . Huckabee made a showing at 4%, but only 2% said Gingrich, and Brownback didn't even register on that question)

When asked "Is there any one candidate you would REFUSE to support?" only 1% said Romney or Rudy . . . while 11% said McCain. Their's been a LOT of press lately about how McCain's candidacy is imploding. This poll certainly supports those claims and are not the figures "the frontrunner" should be seeing.

Some other interesting tidbits from the poll: Romney had the highest "Favorable" rating at 83% and the lowest "Unfavorable" at 8% (excluding the lesser known Huckabee) Rudy tied Romney at 83%, but had a slightly higer "unfavorable rating" at 10%. Gingrich had a 15% unfavorable rating, Brownback 20%, and McCain a whopping 38%. Since I love numbers (and since it makes Romney look even stonger when displayed this way) some of the cadidate's Favorable/Unfavorable Ratios are below:

Romney 10.4
Giuliani 8.3
Gingrich 5.2
Brownback 2.3
McCain 1.5

However, the DNC members seem to be MUCH kinder to their own with the following Favorable/Unfavorable Ratios:

Obama 30.7
Richardson 29.7
Gore 18.2
Clinton 18.2
Edwards 14.8

Also, 98% of DNC members were "satisfied" with their current candidates compared to 85% of RNC members. Those Dems sure are riding high after BARELY gaining the congressional majority! Remember how all the talk before the 2006 elections were that Hillary would be "unelectable" in a general election? Well, I guess their one election cycle win was enough to give them LOADS of confidence to the point that Hillary's electability (or lack thereof) doesn't seem to concern them anymore. This is the silver lining of the Nov. losses as (which I'm very happy about!)

The DNC members are also kind to African-Americans, Hispanics, and Women with over 3/4th of respondants stating that our nation was ready for a president from each of those demographics (i.e. Barak, Richardson, or Hillary). The RNC wasn't far behind with a vast majority saying the same thing.

Was there any group/individual these DNC committee members weren't kind to? (surely not from this group of leaders for the "party of tolerance" right?) Well, while RNC members thought our nation was also ready for a Mormon president (77% at least), the DNC showed it's lack of religious tolerance by less than half of them (48%) stating that our country was ready for a Mormon president. I guess religious discrimination is exempt from their "codes of tolerance."

Moving on . . .

Of the DNC members surveyed, a full 59% of them said that Healthcare reform was among the three items of importance for the next POTUS to address (handily beating out Iraq . . . also, only 2% of them thought "Al-Qaeda/Osama bin Laden/Global Terrorism" merited a "top three" distinction, and a similar 2% for "Immigration Reform"). . . who better to beat them "on their turf" of Healthcare than Romney? That's one reason he has been more and more attacked by the DNC (frequent press releases) and the Mainstream media (MSM). They know he presents their biggest obstacle for their goal of getting a liberal in the White House.

This poll is an early sign of good things to come!

Jeff Fuller

We got a quick chance to talk to Mitt as he made his way down bloggers row.

A new LA Times Poll among Washington insiders shows that Romney (20%) has the lead with Giuliani (14%) in second and McCain (10%) in third. Clinton won on the Democratic side.

Among Republicans, Romney had the most backing among party insiders, with 20% support, followed by Giuliani with 14%, McCain with 10% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia — who has said he might enter the race in the fall — with 8%.

In a potentially worrisome sign for McCain, just over 1 in 10 RNC members said they would not support him if he won the party's nomination in his second attempt.

"It shows just how much resistance there is within the Republican establishment to McCain and how open the party is to candidates who either aren't very conservative, like Giuliani, or only recently minted conservatives, like Romney," Cook said. "McCain has worked pretty hard since 2000 to be a team player, but these numbers would suggest that there is still a problem for him."

The poll was completed by the LA Times and polled members of the DNC and RNC national committees.

"The DNC and RNC members are not just delegates" to the national nominating conventions, said Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan campaign analyst in Washington. "They are key organizers and opinion leaders. They can help build or kill a groundswell, make a candidate's challenge in a state easier or much harder. They matter a lot."

After the great night Romney had at CPAC, with the whole blog-o-sphere in near unanimity, WaPo writes a piece doing there best to make Romney's appearance look like a flop.

You have got to read it.

Send the author an email and tell him what a tool he is.

As I sit in my hotel room going over a busy couple of days, CPAC has been amazing. The speakers, the exhibit rooms, and just the people have been great. As Justin commented earlier, Mitt Romney was awesome today at the speech. Just being in the same room with the guy was just awesome. He really focused on the issues that are key to 2008 and for being the No.3 guy, he should be number one! After his speech, I went to the Mitt Romney rally, which was amazing. Mitt hit it off with a great joke and after that the crowd was with him completely! As I cheered on, Mitt with the other participants, I really felt, this is the guy to win it for the Republicans. I will type more about the conference when I get home tomorrow, but all i have to say is GO MITT GO!!!!! Oh, does anyone know how I can work on his campaign in MO???

Grover Norquist & Ann Romney

Labels: cpac, video