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 Saturday, March 10, 2007
 Former Lt. Governor of Florida Toni Jennings under Jeb Bush wrote a commentary in the Tampa Tribune on Romney today:
On the blogosphere many are trying to discount Romney's CPAC showing (not just the poll). Yet clearly when the dust settles it will be remebered as an early victory for Romney. Toni goes on,
Out of all the contendors in the field, I would say Romney is the strongest in terms of pure leadership abilities. McCain has never led anything, unless you count his gang of 14, and the effort to stifle grassroots organizations right to free speech. Rudy did do a great job with 9-11, I won't deny it. But it's safe to argue he just happened to be in the right place at the right time, it's not like he had a choice in the matter. I guess he could have abdicated his office and ducked out, but that would have been an egregious sin, not the working standard among mayors. So his 9-11 mayoral experiece is a positive, but it's not going to win him an election. Romney, it should be noted, gave up a quite successful buisness to run the Olympics and he did it for free. Romney chose to fight for traditional marriage, something he easily could have backed off from. Romney chose to be proactive and work for Health Care reform and he chose to turn a 3 billion deificit into a 1 billion surplus without raising taxes. He chose to veto government waste over and over and he chose to veto over-the-counter abortives. Toni wraps it up here:
Yes, well...I will keep my mouth shut here, but you can guess. Friday, March 9, 2007
It is a fast and furious task to keep up the campaigns as the primary engines churn and the full-court press for good people, good donations, and good endorsements heats up.
Big stories with this update: John McCain takes the slight edge on congressional endorsements, Mitt Romney holds his lead on state specific and current/former elected officials. But Rudy is an enigma to me. My sources tell me his financing is going swimmingly but the local organizations are either still maturing or just not public. Granted he seems a bit late to the game. If you have any updates in this regard please pass them on.     Labels: charts, endoresements, Endorse, graphs, state specific Thursday, March 8, 2007
 Hey that rhymes! And it sound good to say it out loud too because Team Romney is coming together nicely! Robert Bluey reports that Mindy Finn has accepted an offer from the Romney campaign to serve as Romney’s director of eStrategy. I've met Mindy a few times. My sources tell me that she's a dedicated worker who knows her eStuff. MMM contacted Mindy just minutes ago. Her reaction? "I'm excited to roll up my sleeves and start working for Mitt!"Read the BlueyBlog for more details. I agree with Rob. The puzzle is almost complete! Labels: campaign, mindy finn, robert bluey, team romney
The latest Gallup poll has some interesting conclusions from the pollsters:
Both Romney's overall likability numbers and likebilty numbers among Democrats have risen.  Yet his name recognition is still low, thus showing that Romney's chance to define himself (as noted by Gallup) is still strong.  But the real story is shown among republican respondents to the poll, as reported at The Politico:
Wow! Romney's likability among republicans has climbed nearly 12% Both Giuliani and McCain have dropped. It is starting to look like Romney's showing at CPAC and his TV adds are paying off. I did a rather informal check on www.pollingreport.com and found that Romney has climbed an average among all the polls by 1 percent each month since December- 5%, 6% and 7% in February. So far the first few polls in March have Romney averaging 9%. These aren't huge gains like Rudy's, but with Romney's favourability climbing and Rudy's slipping, we are starting to see the kind of growth that Romney needs. (First two graphics are courtesy of Gallup and the last one is pulled from www.politico.com  Labels: fundraising Wednesday, March 7, 2007
 That's right, good ole Brian Camenker, is becoming frustrated in his plans to thwart Romney: "I’m just at a loss," Camenker says, "to understand how a major pro-family leader could endorse a candidate for president of the United States who continues to support adoption by homosexuals and has said that homosexuals should have these rights to adopt children — and also [that homosexuals] should have the right to domestic partnerships."Sorry Brian. Maybe the desperation in the first half of your statement is a product of the lies in the second half? Who is this leader Brian is crying about? None other than James Dobson. The head of a Massachusetts pro-family group is troubled that Focus on the Family founder and chairman Dr. James Dobson is reportedly considering endorsing former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for president. A video posted on YouTube shows Romney telling conservative commentator Ann Coulter and American Center for Law & Justice chief counsel Jay Sekulow that he had a "good meeting" with Dr. Dobson for "two hours," and that the ministry leader was "still open" to backing Romney’s run for the White House.Well it's not official, but I have it on good word Carmenker was celebrating in December that Dobson was starting to turn against Romney. Maybe Carmenker should realize it's better to have a seat at the table than waste away throwing fruitless lightning rods. Backyard Conservative has a good rundown on Romney's fund raiser in Chicago.
 ERRORS!!!! I love the Evans-Novak report but there are numerous errors in today's issue: Giuliani had absolutely no presence there whatsoever. Not a single sticker, sign, T-shirt, or visible volunteer was present for Giuliani at CPAC. Yet somehow, without trying, he succeeded.It's true there were no PRINTED stickers, signs or t-shirts... but there were numerous volunteers. Proof... you want proof eh? This was right in the lobby. There was a guy standing right there organizing things. Later he did some news interviews with news crews. OK... more Evans Novak chicanery: Romney's young volunteers -- he bussed in and paid for scores of students, many or mostly Mormons -- were ubiquitous carrying his signs and passing out his stickers. His speech, delivered in his typical staccato style, was not bad. He also pleased conservatives with specific promises for keeping down government spending and repealing McCain-Feingold. But much of the applause in the room was clearly driven by the volunteers, who were carefully placed throughout the large ballroom at Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel.I'm not even sure where to begin.
Unlike Romney's cash-rich operation, Brownback's homespun campaign just had to make a strong enough showing at CPAC to prove that he does not belong in the second tier of candidates.
Labels: cpac, evans novak According to the Washington Post (registration required) John McCain is lobbying to change the primary nomination rules in California to allow "independants" to vote in the Republican Primary. While this is interesting on a strategy level, it is also interesting for what it says about McCain. Captain's Quarters has some good commentary on the topic...
"McCain would appear to be conceding that conservatives would more likely back Romney at this point in time. Even there, McCain would be playing a dangerous game by forcing an open primary, because Giuliani would attract more of the moderates and centrists, especially in California. The Republicans in California, especially the conservatives, would resent this effort, precisely because it would dilute what little influence conservatives retain in the state." "It's hard to see where McCain wins anything with this effort. If he wants to champion conservatism, one would expect him to keep or even strengthen its influence in the primaries. Then again, one would expect McCain to have met with conservatives at CPAC, too. The campaign seems a bit rudderless at the moment." For more discussion of the CA primary in the upcoming election click here. Tuesday, March 6, 2007
 Everyone is suddenly jazzed about Mitt Romney. I have friends who were on the fence talk about how energized the CPAC speech made them. Even my own wife (who puts up with all of my Mitt stuff) said "I got chills!"So you may be asking: "WHAT CAN I DO?" There are three aspects to this race: the ideas, the organization, and the money. As we've noted on My Man Mitt, Mitt has an advantage in each category in many ways. As demonstrated by his CPAC speech we has the ideas, as demonstrated across the country on endorsements he has the organizational edge and we think that his financial prowess will be evident shortly. Now that the early fights are panning out, McCain is losing steam and Rudy has nowhere to go but down Mitt is nicely positioned to take the lead in the race near the end of the summer or early fall. Right now however the need is fundraising. What can you do?
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