With Gov. Mitt Romney now the presumptive nominee of our party, we can jump fully into the veepstakes. Here are the latest rankings:

1. Rob Portman, U.S. Senator from Ohio

The junior senator from Ohio is fast becoming the consensus choice among political professionals inside the party.  Elected to seven consecutive terms in the U.S. House, Portman would go on to serve as both U.S. Trade Representative and OMB Director under President George W. Bush before becoming a senator.  His extensive knowledge of policy and government and his popularity in his home state make the Ohio senator a solid, safe choice for the Romney campaign. Given Gov. Romney’s desires to choose someone prepared to be president over making a “big splash” selection, one would have to consider Portman at the top of the prepared-on-day-one list.

2. Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida

This choice seems to be the most obvious on paper. Sen. Rubio is uniquely both the darling of the Tea Party and a rising star in the GOP establishment. Groomed for years as the protégé of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Rubio became a Tea Party sensation in 2010 with his defeat of moderate Gov. Charlie Crist in both the GOP primary and general election. Rubio has gone on to meticulously manage his national image in much the same way Sen. Hillary Clinton did prior to launching her presidential bid.  Rubio’s youth, Cuban heritage, popularity with the base, and home state are all seen as adding significantly to the GOP ticket’s potential. However, his lack of experience, similar to then Sen. Barack Obama’s back in 2008, could be a key liability.

3. Paul Ryan, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin

The Wisconsin congressman has become a hero to the conservative intelligentsia and his reform proposals have become the center of much of the political debate in Washington. With the debt and entitlement crisis hanging over the election, Ryan’s plans will likely become a focus of the campaign at some point with or without him on the ticket.  Many feel that Rep. Ryan would bring the experience and budget knowledge of Sen. Portman along with the Tea Party excitement of Sen. Rubio, making the congressman the better all-around choice.  

4. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey

The brash New Jersey governor has become one of Mitt Romney’s most trusted and powerful surrogates. In some cases, he seems to make a better case for Romney than Romney has himself. Christie’s attitude and tough talk have earned him rave reviews among both establishment republicans and conservatives. However, in many corners of the conservative movement, Christie is viewed as a moderate, and pairing him with Romney could turn off these voters. But a Romney-Christie ticket could potentially realign the map, putting into play states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey that have not gone to the GOP since 1988.

5. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

The young Louisiana governor has been a rising star in the GOP for a few years now, despite his fumbled State of the Union response speech.  Jindal, at just 40, has amassed an amazing resume of varying experience; governor, congressmen, state secretary of health and hospitals, and president of  the Louisiana University System.  He has reformed and revitalized one of the most corrupt states in the country and has impressed many in both the establishment and the conservative movement with his brilliant grasp of policy. And he has proven a capable leader in times of crisis, handling natural disasters in his state with all of the competence that his predecessors lacked during Hurricane Katrina.  As the nation’s first Indian American governor, Jindal would also bring diversity to the ticket.

6. Bob McDonnell, Governor of Virginia

The Virginia governor is currently one of the most popular politicians in the country, hailing from one of the key general election states, and carrying with him a solid record on jobs and the economy.  A strong social conservative with the ability to attract independent voters and Reagan Democrats, McDonnell has positioned himself strongly for the VP nomination. Along with his statewide experience in the legislature, the attorney general’s office, and now as governor, McDonnell also brings 21 years of military service, which would make him the only veteran on either ticket.

7. Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire

The junior U.S. Senator from New Hampshire just might become the top female choice for Vice President should Gov. Romney decide to select a woman as a running mate. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is both highly accomplished and a close ally of the former Massachusetts governor. The Senator is also the most experienced of the fresh-faced crop of potential female candidates.  Her academic, legal, and public service credentials are very similar to other popular VP contenders, like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, both elected in 2009. Should Romney value adding a woman to the ticket, this mother of two would certainly have both the stature and experience to fit the bill.

8. Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota

The former Minnesota governor has been through the Vice Presidential vetting process before and doesn’t seem eager to go through it all again. However, the fact that he has already been highly vetted and is an experienced Midwestern politician could boost his prospects this time around. Since dropping out of the race and endorsing Romney, Pawlenty has become a top surrogate for the campaign, proving he could fit seamlessly into the VP role.  Pawlenty would seem to fit the same role Rob Portman would, except that he is better tested on the national stage and is just as accomplished.

9. Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana

Gov. Daniels passed on an opportunity to run for president in 2012 despite being heavily recruited to do so, and it seems could be just as stubborn when it comes to the Vice Presidency. The Indiana governor gives the standard denials that most VP contenders give, but the political class seems to believe his odds are far higher than meets the eye.  Daniels, like Portman and Pawlenty, would instantly pass the qualification test and wouldn’t be a threat to overshadow Romney. His record as governor and his mastery of budgetary matters would also help the GOP message on debt and deficits.

10. Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas

Once Romney’s most bitter rival, the former Arkansas governor is now a much buzzed about option for VP.  Huckabee and Romney are said to have buried the hatchet from their tough 2008 campaign and now members of Romney’s team are rumored to be actively discussing the Fox News host as a running mate. With the president flip-flopping on gay marriage, some feel Gov. Huckabee would help energize evangelical voters as well as blue collar voters for the Romney ticket.

Honorable Mention:  Cathy McMorris Rodgers, John Thune, Susana Martinez, Pat Toomey, Nikki Haley, Jeb Bush

Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright is back in the news in a big way.  Apparently a SuperPAC backing Romney was going to do an ad blitz aimed in that direction, but has now backed away, with some public Romney encouragement.  A far out few want to make the case that Mormonism is now on the table, and others point out that after all the Mormon talk to be shocked at the Wright talk is disingenuous.

This one is a tough call.  For one thing, Rev. Wright is an individual, not a religion.  Not only that, he is an individual that Obama claims in his “autobiography” (given the admitted use of composite characters and other literary devices the quotes are mandatory; the line between fiction and non-fiction seems to be getting finer by the moment) had enormous influence in his life.  There is also Rev. Wright’s penchant for saying distinctly political things in the context of religious discussion.

Certainly, things like this are completely out of line.  Jim Geraghty said something this morning that I find really troubling:

But one of the big reasons President Obama finds himself within a few points of Mitt Romney is the gap between what he promised and what he delivered.  As Obama addressed when he spoke to a disappointed donor, “I’m running against the Barack Obama of 2008.” So why is there that gap? (Besides the fact that immanentizing the Eschaton has always proven tougher in practice than in theory.) Why is what Obama delivered so different from what he promised? Isn’t it fair, considering the poor job the press did in examining much of his life, to ask if Obama is just a fundamentally different man than the image that was presented to the country in 2008?

Anybody besides me remember the “Mormons lie” meme?  That’s the line that bounced around a lot in the ’08 primary and surfaced in the far right corners again this time that since Mormon theology is so “changable,” Mormons must have a looser view of truth than the rest of us and therefore cannot be trusted.  In his newsletter this morning Geraghty examines Obama’s record, his governance, his campaign claims and the literary devices in his autobiography and concludes:

So what that tells us is not only that Obama will lie — just about every politician will — but he’ll offer a truly implausible lie and weather the consequences. “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”

That is all we really need to know.  Fascinating as a trip through the mind of Obama and the minds and faith that made it might be, they are not relevant.  We know Obama is a liar of stupendous magnitude.  In the immortal words of Stan Lee, “‘Nuff Said!”

Anything else casts aspersions on others of similar belief and faith that are less spiteful and vituperous that Rev. Wright.  Wrong as I think Liberation Theology is, many good and well meaning people hold it, and do good things.  For the last two days here we have discussed character.   Rev. Wright in his hatred, Pres. Obama in his lying and both in their lack of humility are men of poor character.  Religion should make people of good character, but often those of poor character gain influence within it.  To judge faith on that basis is simply to note that we are all sinners – that’s not news.

Closing Links

Thomas Sowell on racial prejudice.

Talk about majoring in the minors.

And this caught my eye as a reminder of just how ugly humanity can be.  “There but by the grace of God…,” comes to mind.

©2012 Article VI Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Romney plans to steer us away from the Greek example.
By Jim Geraghty

Mitt Romney on getting Americans to focus on the difficult, sometimes abstract issues of the deficit and accumulating national debt:

“I think it helps to translate the federal-debt and unfunded-liability numbers into personal numbers. The total amount of accumulated debt and unfunded liabilities is approximately $520,000 per American household.

What that means is that each household will be paying the interest on the debt and paying the principal on the unfunded liabilities over the coming decade or two. It means that our kids will get saddled with that $520,000 — which of course will become a good deal larger over the next four or five years if the president is reelected.
 

“That number says that as interest rates go up, as they undoubtedly will down the road, people will get burdened with a tax figure that makes it harder for them to start their lives out, get homes, and build a future for themselves. It really kills the American Dream to be burdened with that kind of a figure from the beginning of your life. And so I think that’s the most effective way I can talk about the personal impact, long term, of this debt and unfunded-liability burden.
 

“There is also a recognition in this country that what Greece and Italy and Spain are facing could conceivably be brought home to us. The recognition that you reach a point where the world decides that your obligations are perhaps not going to be met, or that they will be inflated away — in which case people will ask for higher interest rates, and you’ll find yourself in a doom loop.”

READ MORE AT NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

Did you see the frenetic diatribe from V.P. Joe Biden in prized swing state Ohio the other day? Going into Howard Dean scream mode, Biden worked himself into a lather making up stuff on how Republicans, the rich, and Mitt Romney don’t think the middle class “dreams” about becoming millionaires or president of the United [...]

Below is a schedule of the candidates activities for today. More than likely, one or more of the feeds below will cover the event(s), although, that is not always the case.

So look at the schedule below and CHECK BACK at that time of the event you'd like to view. Then click the different feed button(s) under the schedule and HOPEFULLY you will be able to view the event(s)(subject to the news media covering it).

If you like this new resource, please like us on facebook at the bottom of this page. ENJOY!

NOTE: I will update this schedule by 10 AM EST if there are any changes or additions.

REMEMBER: ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL TO THE EVENTS

View comments at the original post.

The ad will air in several key battleground states:

DAY 1:

American presidential politics always pit a Republican against a Democrat, but rarely do we see true polar opposites come together to compete as we have in 2012. In my lifetime, the last presidential election I can recall that included distinctly different candidates was the Carter / Reagan election of 1980. In so many interesting ways, [...]

News 4's Tom Wills sits down with Mitt Romney:

It was Mitt Romney unplugged — or as unplugged as he gets.

The candidate’s usually buttoned-up and bullet-point-laden stump speech here on Thursday afternoon was punctuated by a series of playful, impromptu moments as Mr. Romney reacted to a driving rain, contemplated someday moving to Florida and stopped his speech to retrieve a campaign check.

As he was about to begin his speech, Mr. Romney noticed that a group of about a dozen people sitting at the edge of a giant tent were exposed to a sudden storm. He quickly morphed into crowd coordinator, instructing the audience, step by step, how to make way for the wet supporters, whom he invited onstage.

There, they immediately blocked a carefully constructed political prop — a national debt clock. Mr. Romney didn’t seem to care.

The full story is HERE and the video below:

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from May 17)

Mitt Romney 46% (47%)
Barack Obama 45% (46%)

A survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted May 14-16, 2012. The MOE is +/-3%.

The full story is HERE.

It seems that Mitt Romney had a very busy and PRODUCTIVE month of April:

Mitt Romney almost matched President Obama in fund-raising during April after securing his party’s presidential nomination and joining forces with the Republican National Committee, the campaign will announce on Thursday.

Mr. Romney and the R.N.C. raised $40.1 million in April, just shy of the $43.6 million that Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised for the month.

The contributions on behalf of Mr. Romney represent a huge jump over the $12.6 million that his campaign raised in March. The increase was made possible by donors coalescing around Mr. Romney as the nominee and the larger donations that can be directed to the party, campaign officials said.

The full story is HERE.

If last Wednesday's 1 day effort in Florida is any indication of his tally for May, I'd say May doesn't look that shabby either.

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from May 17)

Mitt Romney 45% (45%)
Barack Obama 45% (45%)

A survey of 3,050 registered voters was conducted May 10-16, 2012. The MOE is +/-2%.

The full story is HERE.

From the official release:

Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President, Romney Victory, and the Republican National Committee announced fundraising totals of over $40.1 million in April. The campaign and RNC have $61.4 million cash on hand.

“We are pleased with the strong support we have received from Americans across the country who are looking for new leadership in the White House,” said Romney Victory National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick. “Along with the hard work of the Republican National Committee, we will continue to raise the funds necessary to defeat President Obama in November.”

“Voters are tired of President Obama’s broken promises,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. “Mitt Romney has the record and plan to turn our country around – that is why he is receiving such enthusiastic support from voters across the country. Along with the campaign, we will work to provide the resources so that we can defeat President Obama and change the direction of the country.”

FAST FACTS About Romney For President, Romney Victory, and RNC Fundraising:

· Over $40.1 Million Raised In April
· 95% Of All Donations Received In April Were $250 Or Less
· $10.1 Million Raised By Donations Under $250 In April
· 259,836 Donations Received Under $250 In April
· $61.4 Million Cash On Hand
· Contributions Received From All 50 States And Washington, D.C.

More from NPR:

The campaign for GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney and the Republican Party together raised $40.1 million in April, just shy of the $43.6 million that President Obama and the Democratic Party took in.

This is the first monthly report since Romney effectively wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination. And because money is one way to keep score during a presidential campaign, the news is getting a great deal of attention from the political media this morning.

Politico points out that “it’s a strong showing for Romney and his allies as they move into the general election. The clearer test of the Obama-Romney fundraising match-up will come with the May money reports, since that’ll be the first time both candidates will be raising campaign and victory money for the entire month.”

The Los Angeles Times says the April figures signal that Romney is beginning to “chip away” at Obama’s fundraising advantage.

Full story here.

My Case for Mitt Romney
Alecia T. Williams

Anyone who has gone through a home purchase knows that the process to apply for and secure a home loan is surprisingly tedious and ridiculously complicated.

hardmoneyloansnortherncalifornia.com

The amount of paperwork, verification and signatures needed to secure a home loan is outrageous.

It can be quite intimidating.

By the last signature, a buyer certainly feels the weight of their purchase and the responsibility in assuming a debt that will take 30 years to repay.

Banks certainly take a risk, but aside from the interest they earn, the single biggest incentive for the bank is that the house is the collateral.  They know that people feel an obligation to pay their mortgages or they will lose their homes.

The collateral keeps the borrower accountable for the debt.

 

 

Just think for a second how different borrowing is for our political leaders in this country?

Politicians draft up legislation with unthinkable price tags—literally trillions and trillions of dollars for expensive, inefficient, unproven and mostly, broken programs.

Getty Images

How are they paying for it?  After tax payer revenue has dried up, borrowed money from China covers the rest.

This lovely borrowing system has been going on for decades.  Today, America’s debt  / deficit stands at a staggering $15.7 trillion and counting. (www.treasurydirect.gov).

According to the usdebtclock.org, the total debt per US citizen is $183, 378.  That puts the debt per US family to $692,810.

I don’t know about the average person, but the fact that our government leaders have passed this debt onto each of us seems totally unfair, completely uncalled for and quite frankly, immoral.

Who is holding these leaders accountable?

Furthermore, what is the collateral on their debt?

 

This cycle continues year after year.  Decade after decade. Trillions upon trillions.  No politician has been able to adequately address the amount of overspending by our government or effectively come up with a significant plan to eliminate it.

Where is the outrage?

When Candidate Obama ran in 2008, he hinted that he was different.  He portrayed himself as being unlike his predecessors.  He boasted that he could be trusted to be fiscally responsible.

 

 

He heavily criticized President George W. Bush.  Obama said, “The problem is the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 24 presidents. #43 added 4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back—$30,000 for every man, woman and child.  That’s irresponsible.  It’s unpatriotic.” (Fargo, ND 7/3/08)

As the Romney campaign has highlighted, Candidate Obama once promised to go through the budget, “line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making new ones we do need work better and cost less.” (Denver, CO 8/28/08)

Has he done any of it?

Absolutely not.  Instead, his record reflects that his claims of fiscal responsibility were nothing but empty rhetoric used in a stump speech to pander to voters.

In just 3 1/2 years, this president has spent way more than he was allotted.  He has increased our debt by $5 trillion.  He once called President Bush “unpatriotic” for the debt he created.  What does he have to say about his $5 trillion contribution?

Will Mitt Romney be any different?

There is one blaring reason why Mitt Romney will be different: He has been trained to be accountable.

Mitt Romney has made a career out of being accountable with other people’s money.  For years, he managed millions and millions of investors’ money.  These years gave him hands-on training to never spend more than he takes in.

Romney has been trained to use discretion.  Unlike President Obama, Romney never had access to an unlimited amount of borrowed money.  Instead, he had to learn how to budget and account for every dollar and every expense.  His career reflects an individual who knows how a budget works.  He has always had to spend within limits.

Why?

For 25+ years, Mitt Romney knew that if he wasn’t accountable and fiscally responsible, he would get fired.  This is how he has been trained.  This is how he made a living and he was exceptionally good at what he did.  This training led to tremendous growth under his watch.

This is what makes him different.

America deserves more.   It is time for a leader who not only knows what to say, but more importantly knows how to act.

We must remember that something is terribly wrong in this country when it is harder for a homeowner to secure a $200,000 loan on a home than it is for a politician to rack up trillions in debt.

It is time for some accountability—because the only collateral that voters have for this reckless debt is to remove the reckless politicians.

It is time to collect.

America needs Mitt.

Please read more about why I believe that Mitt Romney is the right leader, with the right experience, who has emerged at the right time.
My blog: yesmittromney.blogspot.com

Non-union Delphi employees were given less favorable benefits than union employees during the auto bailout and GM restructuring. Despite Vice President Joe Biden saying that “most did fine,” they don’t agree. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETg6MONZalI Being a resident of Michigan where the entire election seems to rest on the issue of the auto bailout, I loved this web [...]

New Romney web ad jumps on Biden’s Delphi gaffe. The Romney team has demonstrated they have a ton of video at the ready to attack and counter-attack anything the Obama camp throws at them.

The New York Times has the story:

WASHINGTON — A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.

Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote.

The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign.

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as “black liberation theology.”

The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

A copy of a detailed advertising plan was obtained by The New York Times through a person not connected to the proposal who was alarmed by its tone. It is titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.”

Be sure to read the full story here.

Gov. Romney has reacted swiftly to this development, personally repudiating the Super PAC’s strategy of attack:

“I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described. I would like to see this campaign focus on the economy, on getting people back to work, on seeing rising incomes and growing prosperity — particularly for those in the middle class of America. And I think what we’ve seen so far from the Obama campaign is a campaign of character assassination. I hope that isn’t the course of this campaign. So in regards to that PAC, I repudiate what they’re thinking about … It’s interesting that we’re talking about some Republican PAC that wants to go after the president [on Wright]; I hope people also are looking at what he’s doing, and saying ‘why is he running an attack campaign? Why isn’t he talking about his record?’”

Read Guy Benson’s full story here.

So, Brookings releases a study that shows that Romney’s Mormon faith could help him in the general.  The press analyzes endlessley (just two examples – here and here), but in reality there is little to analyze, it’s a no-brainer.  Guess what, religious people are going to vote for someone, anyone really, that stands with them on the issues over somebody, like Barack Obama, that does not.  The fact that Mormons and traditional Christians agree on these matters just cements that rather unremarkable fact.

Fortunately, there are people out there that look at things a little deeper.  Consider Daniel Henninger:

For Barack Obama, life is politics. For Mitt Romney, life includes politics; politics, he said, does not define us.

And then consider Ross Douthat, guest writing at WaPo:

For decades, the cultural tug-of-war between the Christian right and the secular left has encouraged people to envision the American religious future in binary terms –as either godless or orthodox, either straightforwardly secular or traditionally Christian. But these examples and trends suggest a more complicated reality, in which religious institutions have declined but religion itself has not, and Americans increasingly redefine Christianity as they see fit rather than than abandoning it entirely.

[...]

But the heretical imperative in America’s religious life has usually existed in a kind of fruitful and creative tension with more conservative, institutional, and historically-rooted forms of faith –first denominational Protestantism and then later the Roman Catholic Church as well. And the post-1960s decline of these churches has taken a significant toll on our common life, in ways that both religious and secular observers should be able to recognize.

For one thing, individualistic and do-it-yourself forms of religion are less likely to bind communities together, encourage stable families, assimilate immigrants, and otherwise Americans to live in healthy fellowship with one another. It is not a coincidence that as the institutional churches have lost their purchase among poor and non-college educated Americans, that population’s social ills have multiplied and its economic prospects have dimmed.

At the same time, self-created forms of faith are also less likely to provide a check against the self’s worst impulses –whether it’s the kind of materialism that Joel Osteen’s sunny promises encourage, or the solipsism that percolates under the surface of popular spiritual memoirs like Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love.” Many of America’s contemporary crises, from the housing bubble and the financial crash to the collapse of the two-parent family, can be traced to just this tendency — encouraged by too much contemporary religion — to make the self’s ambitions the measure of all things.

Finally, when strong religious impulses coexist with weak religious institutions, people become more likely to channel religious energy into partisan politics instead, and to freight partisan causes with more metaphysical significance than they can bear. The result, visible both in the “hope and change” fantasies of Obama’s 2008 campaign and the right-wing backlash it summoned up, is a politics that gives free rein to both utopian and apocalyptic delusions, and that encourages polarization without end.

So, reading through all that, what is the religious value that matters?  It’s simple really – Character formation.  We discussed yesterday the lack of humility in the Obama White Houses’s assault on the history section of the White House web site.  That’s a lack of character.  We see Henninger naming Obama as a product of precisely the problems that Douthat describes.

Now, I am not necessarily with Douthat that all this falls from the binary view of things.  The binary view is a result of the root problem.  (Note that his argument is a bit circular when the binary view is in fact the third result of the problem the binary view causes)  The root problem is that the church, institutional and otherwise has abandoned character formation, substituting instead any number of things from mere salvation to politics to simple “success.”

Character formation results in people that are humble, that understand the proper role of politics in life, people that can love homosexuals without supporting same sex marriage – the list goes on.  Most importantly, good character can back a candidate of differing faith, but equally good character.  That’s the revelation in the difference between how religion played in the primary and how it will play in the general.

Those that thought and still think Romney’s religion is problematic in his race for the presidency should examine their character, and the efforts of their church’s to develop same.  They and the nation will be better off.

©2012 Article VI Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Gov. Romney pledged leadership and fiscal responsibility in a campaign stop in Florida:

H/T Moi

A Right Speak regular made the following comments in our chat box and I couldn't agree more:

Moi: Someone needs to write an article about voting party lines and tradition (a la Tevye/Fiddler on the Roof). Why else would an absurd number of Jews vote Democrat, despite the fact that it is
05/16/12 10:52 AM

Moi: the Republican party that consistently shows solidarity behind Israel? Why else would Catholics vote Democrat, despite the fact that the Republican party fights for pro-life and traditional marriage?
05/16/12 10:53 AM

Moi: We can also depart from religion and ask why minority groups vote Democrat (and high unemployment and welfare) when it is the Republican party that fights for more and better
05/16/12 10:53 AM

Moi: jobs and the accompanying pride and well-being. The only think I can think of that would account for this is tradition.

I think Moi hit this one out of the ball park.

I can’t speak for Jews and minorities, Moi said it all above. But as a Roman Catholic, I have NO PROBLEM pointing out the hypocrisy of any Catholic who decides to pull the lever for Obama in November.

As a Catholic, you can’t rationalize the abortion issue as a one’s personal choice and be true to your faith. That’s no different than standing by and watching someone murdered and thinking to yourself, I didn’t take that life. When actually, YOU DID. By standing by and allowing this murder to take place without doing EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER to stop it, you’re an accomplice. And that’s Just as bad.

So my fellow Catholics, stop kidding yourself. You can’t be pro-choice or neutral when it comes to abortion and be a good Catholic. They can’t co-exist!

Voting Pro-Choice Obama out of office is within your power. Time to STEP UP TO THE PLATE!

Head-To-Head: (Previous results are from April)

Mitt Romney 46% (45)
Barack Obama 46% (49)

A survey of 600 likely voters was taken May 9-12. The MOE is +/-4.1%.

The full story is HERE.
Topline results can be viewed HERE.

Below is a schedule of the candidates activities for today. More than likely, one or more of the feeds below will cover the event(s), although, that is not always the case.

So look at the schedule below and CHECK BACK at that time of the event you'd like to view. Then click the different feed button(s) under the schedule and HOPEFULLY you will be able to view the event(s)(subject to the news media covering it).

If you like this new resource, please like us on facebook at the bottom of this page. ENJOY!

NOTE: I will update this schedule by 10 AM EST if there are any changes or additions.

REMEMBER: ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL TO THE EVENTS

View comments at the original post.

For the second day in a row, Mitt Romney trashed President Obama's record on government spending, suggesting the growing federal debt is going to lead to a "dramatic" tax increase and drag down an already sluggish economy.

Speaking in St. Petersburg, Florida, the presumptive Republican nominee was flanked by a group of seniors and spoke in front of a digital sign ticking off the growing federal deficit.

Echoing his speech in Iowa Tuesday, Romney said the country needs a president who will stop the "spending and borrowing inferno" and insisted he is the man for the job.

The full story is HERE and the video below:

In a related story:

Romney raked in $2.3 million Wednesday at a Tampa, Florida fundraiser. Just 1 of a 4 stop fundraising blitz on Wednesday.

Some 200 donors on Wednesday afternoon wrote checks ranging from $2,500 to $50,000. A smaller group of about 50 supporters then attended a private luncheon with Mr. Romney at the home of Richard Corbett, who lives in the country club community and is a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner.

That full story is HERE.

Another stop will include a $50,000 a plate dinner in Boca Raton.

My cynical side tells me that Mr. Obama knowingly lies in his speeches. But then again, maybe he just does not understand business and history. By now, it is obvious to all American’s that Mr. Obama knows very little about basic business principles. Whether his errant rhetoric is dishonesty or lack of knowledge, does the [...]

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from May 16)

Mitt Romney 47% (47%)
Barack Obama 46% (45%)

A survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted May 14-15, 2012. The MOE is +/-3%.

The full story is HERE.

Head-To-Head:

Mitt Romney 45%
Barack Obama 45%

A survey of 3,050 registered voters was conducted May 9-15, 2012. The MOE is +/-2%.

The full story is HERE.

The New York Times recently came out with a poll that showed Obama trailing Romney by an insignificant amount — well within the margin of error. The same poll showed Mitt up among women. Team Obama’s response? “The poll is biased.”

Obama campaign deputy manager Stephanie Cutter dismissed today’s CBS/New York Times poll showing that 67 percent of people believed Obama made his decision on gay marriage for political reasons. Only 24 percent said that Obama did it “mostly because he thinks it is right.”

…

“We can’t put the methodology of that poll aside, because the methodology was significantly biased.” Cutter insisted on MSNBC this morning.

Three thoughts come to my mind on this:

1. When was the last time you saw a Democrat  — any Democrat — claim that The New York Times(!!!) was biased against them?
2. What will be the NYTimes response to Team Obama’s attempt to throw them under the bus like that? They can’t be very pleased.
3. Team Romney has been faced with bad polling news many times since Mitt officially announced his candidacy. (Think of all those flavors-of-the-month that momentarily soared ahead of him, for starters. There were others.) Did they ever once attempt to blame the pollster for less-than-stellar poll numbers? I can’t remember that ever happening. Can you?

I have mentioned a number of times on these pages the number one rule of organizations. They tend to take on the characteristics of their leader. You can see this play out here.

When Team Romney is faced with a problem, their first instinct is to do like their boss and identify the problem and fix it. When Team Obama is faced with a problem, their first instinct is to do like their boss and figure out how they can avoid the blame for it.

It has been my long experience that a team with the first attitude will likely succeed far more than a team with the second attitude. The first approach allows the team to rapidly identify problems and quickly deal with them. It also lets team members know that it is safe to bring up issues of concern. The second approach tends to cover up problems more than solve them. People become afraid of bringing up problems that they might get blamed for, so the tendency is to hide problems instead of dealing with them.

Things like “Julia” would never had made it very far in a team like Mitt’s that is more concerned about solving problems than affixing blame. Someone would have expressed misgivings about it, the problems would be addressed, and if they couldn’t get it to work, it would have been scrapped. In teams that place a high priority on avoiding blame, any criticism of ideas is looked upon as attempts to cast blame, and people get defensive. You do NOT want to make your boss defensive, so you learn to keep your mouth shut if you see a potential problem. So “Julia” likely sailed through the various committees and levels with nary a dissenting voice.

I suspect that this, more than anything else, may be a big reason why little if anything coming out of the Obama Campaign seems to be working. Their internal error checking is severely impaired by their instinctual blame avoidance. With Barack Obama as their head, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from April 14)

Mitt Romney 51% (46%)
Barack Obama 43% (44%)
Some other candidate 2% (4%)
Undecided 4% (6%)

With Independents:

Mitt Romney 49%
Barack Obama 45%

A survey of 500 likely voters was conducted May 14, 2012. The MOE is +/-4.5%.

The full story is HERE.

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from April 12)

Barack Obama 48% (49%)
Mitt Romney 47% (44%)

With Men:

Mitt Romney 51%
Barack Obama 44%

With Women:

Barack Obama 53%
Mitt Romney 43%

A survey of 666 North Carolina voters was conducted May 10-13, 2012. The MOE is +/-3.8%.

The crosstabs can be viewed HERE.

My Case for Mitt Romney
Alecia T. Williams

 

President Obama and his campaign staff are painstakingly watching the polls…and it is only May.  This week’s shift from gay marriage to the economy is a perfect reflection of it.

Yesterday the New York Times reported, “Most Americans suspect that the president was motivated by politics, not policy when he declared his support for same sex marriage.”

They revealed the results of a NYT / CBS News poll showing most Americans suspect that the president was motivated by politics rather than policy when he declared his support for same sex marriage.  ”Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said that they thought that Mr. Obama had made the announcement mostly for political reasons.”

This is undoubtedly concerning for the White House.  It shows that the president’s historic evolution to support gay marriage appeared “calculated rather than principled.”

Ouch.  It is never a good thing for a politician to appear insincere.

***

So how did the White House react to this poll?

They changed the conversation…again.   This time around they were forced to change the conversation to a topic that they have been desperately trying to avoid: the economy.

They did it with an attack on Mitt Romney’s business record.

The White House released a six-minute ad vilifying the role that Mitt Romney and Bain Capital played in GTS steel, a Kansas City, Missouri steel company.  Bain Capital invested in the plant in 1993, but by 2001, the mill filed for bankruptcy and shut down.

The closure resulted in 700 workers losing their jobs.

The ad depicts Mitt Romney and his partners as heartless, business tycoons who aggressively pursued wealth over compassion for the livelihood of those working at the plant.

Image from Bostonglobe.com

Interviews from disgruntled employees who described Mitt Romney as a “vampire,” make the ad somewhat effective.  But there is one detail that the Obama camp blatantly failed to mention: Mitt Romney was not even actively managing Bain Capital when the steel company filed for bankruptcy—he was working full-time as CEO to salvage the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic games.

Is it fair to blame him?

Another blaring truth?  In the 1990s, America’s steel industry as a whole was in real trouble—cheap imports were crushing the steel industry.  Two dozen steel companies filed for bankruptcy around the same time as this Kansas City plant.

Can Mitt Romney be blamed for the failure of the entire steel industry in America?

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post wrote a fascinating perspective today on this Obama ad.  He acknowledged that GTS steel was in trouble long before the Bain investment.  He referenced an article in the Kansas City Star in 2001 which showed that in 1970, the plant had 4,500 workers—but by 1983, that number had plummeted to 1,500 workers.

Why?

Poor market conditions, poor equipment, stiff competition, expensive labor costs and cheap imports had already forced layoffs years before Bain Capital showed up.

As Kessler mentioned, in the 1990′s, the steel industry in America was on the brink of collapse.

(Facts—they always offer the the most accurate perspective).

The Obama campaign chose their facts to use ”selective distortion” for their political gain.

Truth? The steel industry in America crumbled not from the evils of Bain Capital investments, but rather it crumbled from an unforeseen surge of cheap imports.

Reuters Image

GTS steel—like the other two dozen plants—didn’t stand a chance.

So how did the Romney camp react?

Well, unlike his response to attacks on Bain Capital during the South Carolina primary, this time around Romney welcomed the change of conversation.

This time, Romney is ready.

Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said today, “We welcome the Obama campaign’s attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed policies.  Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor than President Obama has for the entire nation.”

Reuters Image / Rebecca Cook

As Romney campaign strategist Ed Gillespie pointed out, the ad is simply a reflection of this Administration’s complete lack of understanding of the free market and private enterprise.

Better yet, the ad allows Romney to remind voters of Obama’s dismal record of job creation.

We will undoubtedly hear a lot about Obama “saving the auto industry,”  but as Byron York of the Washington Examiner wrote, Obama doesn’t want anyone to remember that during his rescue of GM and Chrysler, 700+ dealerships were shut down and theNew York Times reported in 2010 that as a result of the closures, tens of thousands of jobs were lost.

Does President Obama really have a record to stand on as he attacks Mitt Romney?

The answer is no.

In the past two weeks, Obama has been desperately hopping from issue to issue with the hopes that something will stick.

It isn’t working.

Today’s polls show Romney leading Obama by 3 points.  If attacking Bain doesn’t work, the message will probably change again on Monday, but it goes without saying, the Obama camp should be worried.

Furthermore, it is only May and they are already using their “big gun” attacks against Romney.  Will voters be bored with the Bain attacks by November?

Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

The Obama camp is surely on notice.

Romney is focused.  Romney is not easily distracted.  Romney’s message is resonating.

Mitt Romney has found his feet.

Go Mitt!

Please read more about why I believe that Mitt Romney is the right leader, with the right experience, who has emerged at the right time.
My blog: yesmittromney.blogspot.com

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on how the VP vetting process works. It is written by A.B. Culvahouse who lead the McCain team’s efforts in 2008. While no two vetting processes are the same, it offers some excellent insights on the process from one who has been on both sides of it.

A few excerpts:

A short list of five to 15 leading Americans soon will be notified that the presumptive Republican nominee for president believes they are serious contenders to be his running mate. They will be asked for their agreement to join him on the GOP ticket if chosen, and in the meantime, to submit to a most intrusive and far-reaching vetting by lawyers and advisers working for the campaign. No other candidate, not even the presidential nominee himself, is subjected to the same scrutiny.

…

In our current presidential election, despite the many political risks and personal indignities involved, I predict that few on Gov. Mitt Romney’s short list will decline the opportunity to be considered. In my experience, when potential VP nominees are asked to submit themselves to the vetting process, their thoughtful reasons to decline—and perhaps their ambitious motives to accept—are overcome by feelings that are more instinctively noble.In the summer of 2008 I asked each person on John McCain’s short list, “Why do you want to be vice president?” The question hardly was a surprise, but after the scripted answer was finished, every potential nominee began to speak from the heart about honor, service and obligation, on occasion with moist eyes. Their successors on the short list this election cycle deserve our respect in the same measure as they will receive our scrutiny.

That last bit is why I am convinced that despite protestations to the contrary, almost every single person who manages to make Romney’s shortlist would serve if asked. That would include Tim Pawlenty who just this week seemed to take himself out of contention.

Mr. Culvahouse also talks about the vetting of Sarah Palin. His final assessment on her? “High risk, high reward.” He stands by that today.

 

Anyone who has gone through a home purchase knows that the process to apply for and secure a home loan is surprisingly tedious and ridiculously complicated.

hardmoneyloansnortherncalifornia.com

The amount of paperwork, verification and signatures needed to secure a home loan is outrageous.

It can be quite intimidating.

By the last signature, a buyer certainly feels the weight of their purchase and the responsibility in assuming a debt that will take 30 years to repay.

Banks certainly take a risk, but aside from the interest they earn, the single biggest incentive for the bank is that the house is the collateral.  They know that people feel an obligation to pay their mortgages or they will lose their homes.

The collateral keeps the borrower accountable for the debt.


Just think for a second how different borrowing is for our political leaders in this country?

Politicians draft up legislation with unthinkable price tags---literally trillions and trillions of dollars for expensive, inefficient, unproven and mostly, broken programs.

Getty Images

How are they paying for it?  After tax payer revenue has dried up, borrowed money from China covers the rest.

This lovely borrowing system has been going on for decades.  Today, America's debt  / deficit stands at a staggering $15.7 trillion and counting. (www.treasurydirect.gov).

According to the usdebtclock.org, the total debt per US citizen is $183, 378.  That puts the debt per US family to $692,810.

I don't know about the average person, but the fact that our government leaders have passed this debt onto each of us seems totally unfair, completely uncalled for and quite frankly, immoral.

Who is holding these leaders accountable?

Furthermore, what is the collateral on their debt?


This cycle continues year after year.  Decade after decade. Trillions upon trillions.  No politician has been able to adequately address the amount of overspending by our government or effectively come up with a significant plan to eliminate it.

Where is the outrage?

When Candidate Obama ran in 2008, he hinted that he was different.  He portrayed himself as being unlike his predecessors.  He boasted that he could be trusted to be fiscally responsible.



He heavily criticized President George W. Bush.  Obama said, "The problem is the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 24 presidents. #43 added 4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back---$30,000 for every man, woman and child.  That's irresponsible.  It's unpatriotic." (Fargo, ND 7/3/08)

As the Romney campaign has highlighted, Candidate Obama once promised to go through the budget, "line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making new ones we do need work better and cost less." (Denver, CO 8/28/08)

Has he done any of it?

Absolutely not.  Instead, his record reflects that his claims of fiscal responsibility were nothing but empty rhetoric used in a stump speech to pander to voters.

In just 3 1/2 years, this president has spent way more than he was allotted.  He has increased our debt by $5 trillion.  He once called President Bush "unpatriotic" for the debt he created.  What does he have to say about his $5 trillion contribution?

Will Mitt Romney be any different?



There is one blaring reason why Mitt Romney will be different: He has been trained to be accountable.

Mitt Romney has made a career out of being accountable with other people's money.  For years, he managed millions and millions of investors' money.  These years gave him hands-on training to never spend more than he takes in.

Romney has been trained to use discretion.  Unlike President Obama, Romney never had access to an unlimited amount of borrowed money.  Instead, he had to learn how to budget and account for every dollar and every expense.  His career reflects an individual who knows how a budget works.  He has always had to spend within limits.

Why?

For 25+ years, Mitt Romney knew that if he wasn't accountable and fiscally responsible, he would get fired.  This is how he has been trained.  This is how he made a living and he was exceptionally good at what he did.  This training led to tremendous growth under his watch.

This is what makes him different.

America deserves more.   It is time for a leader who not only knows what to say, but more importantly knows how to act.

We must remember that something is terribly wrong in this country when it is harder for a homeowner to secure a $200,000 loan on a home than it is for a politician to rack up trillions in debt.

It is time for some accountability---because the only collateral that voters have for this reckless debt is to remove the reckless politicians.

It is time to collect.

America needs Mitt.

Some things are simply beyond understanding.  Seth Mandel @ Commentary:

The Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper tweeted that Obama had casually dropped his own name into Ronald Reagan’s official biography on www.whitehouse.gov, claiming credit for taking up the mantle of Reagan’s tax reform advocacy with his “Buffett Rule” gimmick. My first thought was, he must be joking. But he wasn’t—it turns out Obama has added bullet points bragging about his own accomplishments to the biographical sketches of every single U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge (except, for some reason, Gerald Ford).

He goes on to provide numerous examples.  They are breathtakingly self-important. Said Phillip Klein:

Obviously, as president, Obama can use the tools of the White House to advance his goals. But at the same time, all presidents are to some extent guardians of the institution. Sure, a lot of the White House website is naturally going to be used to promote Obama, but there are some areas that should be considered neutral ground — one of them being the history sections. White House presidential biographies are the type of thing that school kids read and they should be able to do so without being bombarded by propaganda for whoever is in power.

That’s very true, but that is putting it mildly.  Jim Geraghty in this morning’s newsletter is quick to point out:

No, what this illuminates is not Obama’s thinking – as much as we might suspect this sort of thing — but the thinking, mood, and atmosphere within the White House. Which may be even more worrisome, really; how likely is it that a staff and cabinet that reveres him as a Munificent Sun-God is likely to dissuade him when he’s on the wrong course?

How true, and the other thing that occurred to me is how incredibly immature the whole thing is.  Of course, the vast majority of adults left the Obama administration very quickly.  (Remember all those resignations?).

This whole episode should be distasteful to virtually anyone that bothers to pay attention.  And it reminds me of the fact that regardless of theological belief, the Bible contains a lot of smart things.  Things like:

1 Cor 14:20 – Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature.

Gal 5:13 – For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

I know that in my household if you had to try and put a finger on the one thing that makes Obama and his administration so unlikable, its not policy as wrong as that is.  Wrong policy is a fact of American life.  No, the one thing is the immaturity, arrogance and self-aggrandizement of this president and his administration.

Service, humility and maturity are indeed religious values, but more they are American values.  Values that have made the nation great.  They run deeper than even values about life and marriage.  These character traits are the things that have, more than anything else, made America a Judeo-Christian nation.  Further, a nation that welcomes any faith that holds those same values dear.  I think we were beginning to take them for granted.  No More.

©2012 Article VI Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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I made a post in an article asking why people think Mitt Romney is bought and paid for by Wall Street. I had one respondent who repeated that statement that both Obama and Romney have been bought and paid for. Yes, Wall Street members have donated to both campaigns. Probably a little more equally, maybe even more heavily to Romney than Obama. This is different than in the past when Wall Street heavily donates to the Democrats. Besides that, I was fired up. My response is listed out below (modified). It may come across as cheesy, and a little too heavy on the Romney-love, but it is what it is.

ROMNEY = RMONEY = (we get to keep) OUR MONEY

It's really an ignorant, non-thought out position to think Romney will be beholden to Wall Street, or any other single large entity donor. I'm not being insulting when I say that. Think about it. Mitt Romney is worth $250 million dollars. He declares about 14% in charitable donation on his tax returns. He doesn't report all of his donations, because why report it if it is of no benefit - in other words, at 14% he's maxed out his total available deductions. He donates a lot in private, possibly anonymously. And we know that he just hands money to total strangers (Bill Gates has a similar habit). He does not need money. He is not bought and paid for by Wall Street, by anybody. If anybody, it would be by the People.

If and when he becomes President, he will likely take no salary (or the minimum $1, whatever it is the law requires). He only took a dollar/year for salary as governor as required by law. He donated $1 million to the SLC Olympics and took no salary. He went back to Bain to save it from itself and took no salary. (Not in that order)

He doesn't need power. He easily had that in the private sector. When the SLC Olympics needed saving, they went to Mitt Romney. That's power. He easily won the gubernatorial race in MA... as a Republican. That's essentially unheard of and that's power. And he ran the state conservatively and fixed its $3 billion deficit and its sagging unemployment. That's power. He nearly broke the tradition of the GOP picking the Next-In-Line against McCain, using his own money. Harvard and others use Romney's private sector successes as case studies. That's power. If he wanted, he could wield power anywhere.

ALTRUISM: Altruism is a concern for the welfare of others. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of duty and loyalty. Altruism is a motivation to provide something of value to a party who must be anyone but the self, while duty focuses on a moral obligation towards a specific individual (for example, a god, a king), or collective (for example, a government). Pure altruism consists of sacrificing something for someone other than the self (e.g. sacrificing time, energy or possessions) with no expectation of any compensation or benefits, either direct or indirect (for instance from recognition of the giving).

Many people do not understand true altruism or comprehend that anyone, especially the wealthy, can possess it. The world barely understood Mother Theresa, but she was not wealthy of herself. The world barely understood Mahatma Ghandi, though he may have been wealthy, lived a life of devotion in attempting peace through peace. Mitt Romney also displays altruism through his wealth and capacity. He wants us all to be wealthy.

Mitt Romney has stated he is doing this, running for President, to right America's course. He wants to make the place better for his children and grandchildren. He wants to make it better for all of us and he thinks he can succeed. And I have no doubt he can, because his record proves it. We're on pace to have $25 trillion in debt. No single person is going to fix that in 4 or 8 years (we've spent over 120 years building this debt), not even Romney. But he is the best person to get things moving in the right direction. He's done this before, he can do it again. Wouldn't it be great to vote in Mitt Romney as President; and, as a bonus, make it easier for a President Romney by electing a willing Representative Branch that will enact the tough decisions the budget needs to have to make the US a viable, AAA rated country? We can be that light on the hill, the standard for all nations, again.

H/T Joel2012

The Obama team better be prepared to be one-upped if they plan on playing dirty during this Presidential campaign.

An according to an article in the National Review, We've already seen signs that back this up.

Some examples include:

The Washington Post piece on a supposed Romney high school hazing was answered with the internet ablaze with Obama's own voice proclaiming his heavy drug use during his college years and unkind treatment of a girl in middle school.

Then there is the liberal medias never ending remider of the Romney dog Seamus riding on the roof of the Romney family station wagon in a custom made carrier 3 decades ago. This was answered with a revelation Obama made in his memoirs about eating dog. Soon the internet was flooded with images of Obama munching on doggie sandwiches.

As the article points out:

Team Obama usually starts the exchange, either to distract from dismal economic news, or in zeal to portray Romney as aristocratic and out of touch — but without careful thinking about what the inevitable Romney rebuttal might look like.

Perhaps the Romney team has learned something from the Obama/McCain contest of 2008, not to repeat the McCain one-hand-tied-behind-the-back model.

In other words, each time we hear of an irrelevant hit on Romney, we will probably hear of something equally irrelevant — and worse — about Obama, in a way we never would have in 2008. Petty? A distraction from the failing economy? Of course, but the Romney people apparently believe that they must and will achieve deterrence by replying in kind and to such a degree that Team Obama will soon cease playing such a childish game of taunts.

As someone who was never afraid to get my hands dirty ‘when necessary’, I look at it this way, We’re in an age now of sensationalism and short attention spans. Many people only believe what they see or hear in short snippets. Obama supporters will do their best to play into this phenomenon by trying to reach those Americans who rely on TV, The Enquirer and Star Magazine for their news. Romney will need these voters as well and his supporters should be willing to go after them and set the record straight when team Obama tries to plant some anti-Romney seeds. These folks expect it and will look upon it as weakness when attacks on Romney are not answered.

“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” ~ General George Patton

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from April 17)

Barack Obama 47% (50%)
Mitt Romney 46% (44%)

With Men:

Mitt Romney 49%
Barack Obama 42%

With Women:

Barack Obama 51%
Mitt Romney 43%

A survey of 851 likely voters was conducted May 11-13, 2012. The MOE is +/-3.4%.

The data can be viewed HERE.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday painted President Barack Obama as a reckless steward of the country's economy and, as proof, pointed to "a financial crisis of debt and spending that threatens what it means to be an American."

The likely Republican nominee offered a far-reaching indictment of Obama's tenure and portrayed himself as a beacon of fiscal responsibility with the public and private sector experience to prove it.

"A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation, and every day we fail to act that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love," Romney told supporters at a downtown Des Moines hotel. He emphasized an issue that's a big concern of the middle-class voters from across the political spectrum he and Obama are wooing.

"This is not solely a Democrat or a Republican problem," Romney added, a clear pitch to independent voters who will decide the election. "The issue isn't who deserves the most blame, it's who is going to do what it takes to put out the fire."

The full story is HERE.

You can read Mitt Romney's remarks as prepared for delivery HERE and the video below:

President Obama and his campaign staff are painstakingly watching the polls...and it is only May.  This week's shift from gay marriage to the economy is a perfect reflection of it.

Yesterday the New York Times reported, "Most Americans suspect that the president was motivated by politics, not policy when he declared his support for same sex marriage."

They revealed the results of a NYT / CBS News poll showing most Americans suspect that the president was motivated by politics rather than policy when he declared his support for same sex marriage.  "Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said that they thought that Mr. Obama had made the announcement mostly for political reasons."

This is undoubtedly concerning for the White House.  It shows that the president's historic evolution to support gay marriage appeared "calculated rather than principled."

Ouch.  It is never a good thing for a politician to appear insincere.



So how did the White House react to this poll?

They changed the conversation...again.   This time around they were forced to change the conversation to a topic that they have been desperately trying to avoid: the economy.

They did it with an attack on Mitt Romney's business record.

The White House released a six-minute ad vilifying the role that Mitt Romney and Bain Capital played in GTS steel, a Kansas City, Missouri steel company.  Bain Capital invested in the plant in 1993, but by 2001, the mill filed for bankruptcy and shut down.

The closure resulted in 700 workers losing their jobs.

The ad depicts Mitt Romney and his partners as heartless, business tycoons who aggressively pursued wealth over compassion for the livelihood of those working at the plant.

Image from Bostonglobe.com

Interviews from disgruntled employees who described Mitt Romney as a "vampire," make the ad somewhat effective.  But there is one detail that the Obama camp blatantly failed to mention: Mitt Romney was not even actively managing Bain Capital when the steel company filed for bankruptcy---he was working full-time as CEO to salvage the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic games.

Is it fair to blame him?

Another blaring truth?  In the 1990s, America's steel industry as a whole was in real trouble---cheap imports were crushing the steel industry.  Two dozen steel companies filed for bankruptcy around the same time as this Kansas City plant.

Can Mitt Romney be blamed for the failure of the entire steel industry in America?

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post wrote a fascinating perspective today on this Obama ad.  He acknowledged that GTS steel was in trouble long before the Bain investment.  He referenced an article in the Kansas City Star in 2001 which showed that in 1970, the plant had 4,500 workers---but by 1983, that number had plummeted to 1,500 workers.

Why?

Poor market conditions, poor equipment, stiff competition, expensive labor costs and cheap imports had already forced layoffs years before Bain Capital showed up.

As Kessler mentioned, in the 1990's, the steel industry in America was on the brink of collapse.

(Facts---they always offer the the most accurate perspective).

The Obama campaign chose their facts to use "selective distortion" for their political gain.

Truth? The steel industry in America crumbled not from the evils of Bain Capital investments, but rather it crumbled from an unforeseen surge of cheap imports.

Reuters Image

GTS steel---like the other two dozen plants---didn't stand a chance.

So how did the Romney camp react?

Well, unlike his response to attacks on Bain Capital during the South Carolina primary, this time around Romney welcomed the change of conversation.

This time, Romney is ready.

Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said today, "We welcome the Obama campaign's attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed policies.  Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor than President Obama has for the entire nation."

Reuters Image / Rebecca Cook

As Romney campaign strategist Ed Gillespie pointed out, the ad is simply a reflection of this Administration's complete lack of understanding of the free market and private enterprise.

Better yet, the ad allows Romney to remind voters of Obama's dismal record of job creation.

We will undoubtedly hear a lot about Obama "saving the auto industry,"  but as Byron York of the Washington Examiner wrote, Obama doesn't want anyone to remember that during his rescue of GM and Chrysler, 700+ dealerships were shut down and the New York Times reported in 2010 that as a result of the closures, tens of thousands of jobs were lost.

Does President Obama really have a record to stand on as he attacks Mitt Romney?

The answer is no.


In the past two weeks, Obama has been desperately hopping from issue to issue with the hopes that something will stick.

It isn't working.

Today's polls show Romney leading Obama by 3 points.  If attacking Bain doesn't work, the message will probably change again on Monday, but it goes without saying, the Obama camp should be worried.

Furthermore, it is only May and they are already using their "big gun" attacks against Romney.  Will voters be bored with the Bain attacks by November?

Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

The Obama camp is surely on notice.

Romney is focused.  Romney is not easily distracted.  Romney's message is resonating.

Mitt Romney has found his feet.

Go Mitt!

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from May 14)

Mitt Romney 47% (48%)
Barack Obama 45% (44%)

A survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted May 11-14, 2012. The MOE is +/-3%.

The full story is HERE.

Below is a schedule of the candidates activities for today. More than likely, one or more of the feeds below will cover the event(s), although, that is not always the case.

So look at the schedule below and CHECK BACK at that time of the event you'd like to view. Then click the different feed button(s) under the schedule and HOPEFULLY you will be able to view the event(s)(subject to the news media covering it).

If you like this new resource, please like us on facebook at the bottom of this page. ENJOY!

NOTE: I will update this schedule by 10 AM EST if there are any changes or additions.

REMEMBER: ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL TO THE EVENTS

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Voters now trust likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney more than President Obama on all five issues regularly surveyed by Rasmussen Reports, especially when it comes to money.

I’m going to read you a short list of issues in the news. For each, please let me know which presidential candidate you trust more to handle that issue—Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.

Economy:

Mitt Romney 51%
Barack Obama 39%

Health care:

Mitt Romney 45%
Barack Obama 40%

National security:

Mitt Romney 44%
Barack Obama 42%

Taxes:

Mitt Romney 48%
Barack Obama 38%

Energy Policy:

Mitt Romney 43%
Barack Obama 40%

A survey of 1000 likely voters was conducted May 10-11, 2012. The MOE is +/-3%.

The full story is HERE.

Speaking to voters at Hotel Fort Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa today, Governor Mitt Romney treated listeners to a powerful, plain-spoken speech on America’s federal spending addiction and our nearly incomprehensible national debt. Prior to his appearance in Des Moines, the Romney campaign released a thought-provoking web video focusing on Iowans – “a few [...]

Robert E. Lee is often popularly thought of as a military genius. In truth, he was really very good, but not quite great. What gave him that reputation is for three years of war, he faced mediocre generals at best. It is very easy to appear a genius when faced with poor opponents, and that is all he faced until the Battle of Gettysburg where he faced George Meade.

Meade was certainly not a great general. You really couldn’t say that he a very good one, either. His grasp of strategy was not the best, nor was he inclined to show much initiative. However, he was superb at tactics, and if given a specific limited task to do, he could and would do it. It made him the perfect subordinate general. Ulysses S. Grant later kept him on as the head of the Army of the Potomac when he took over as General-in-chief. Grant would issue the orders, and Meade would competently and efficiently carry them out. It worked out very well for the both of them.

At Gettysburg Meade’s job was to hold on to the high ground against the Confederates. And as usual for him when given a specific limited task, he did a superb job.

By July of 1863, Lee had had success after success. When all you face are opponents considerably below your level, that’s an easy thing to do. Unfortunately for him, he began to believe his press clippings on how great he and his army were. He became  convinced that they were invincible, that they could do anything he asked of them. All he had to do is just say it, and it would be done. That attitude was his undoing at Gettysburg.

Even with that attitude, however, if Lee had faced at Gettysburg McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, or any other Union generals he had previously fought, he probably would have won. But he was facing George Meade, and Meade was fully up to the task at hand.

I see the same sort of thing in the Obama Campaign. For almost his entire political career Obama has faced inept, incompetent, and/or reluctant opponents. And he, with his soaring rhetoric, zero record, and fawning press won campaign after campaign. As a result, his campaigning skills and the talents of his campaign team have become the stuff of legend. The legend declared that defeating Mitt Romney was going to be a cakewalk, and he, his team, and fellow Democrats bought into it.

But the history so far suggests otherwise. Mitt Romney, unlike nearly all Obama’s previous opponents, is not rolling over and playing dead. Instead, they are proving very adept at deflecting Obama’s attacks, and even boomeranging them back on their source. This is exposing unforeseen weaknesses in Obama’s campaign. John Ellis comments:

…

Because we have been told for so long that Team Obama is the very model of the modern campaign operation, we have come to sort of believe it. In reality, they’ve been surprisingly inept since they set up shop last year. They’ve been through three slogans and four over-arching re-election “themes.” They’ve made a big deal out of Romney’s dog. They’ve introduced us to “Julia,” which seemed like a right-wing parody of the perfect constituent of the nanny state. One could on (and on).

…

Ellis makes the point that Team Obama’s incompetence to date is beginning to concern a growing number of Democrats. This election was supposed to be in the bag. This incredible campaign team wasn’t supposed to be making these many mistakes. Democratic alarm bells are starting to sound because of it.

Can Team Obama turn things around? Certainly. Anything is possible, and Romney’s team had best remember that. Unfortunately Obama’s team is handicapped by the first rule of organizations: an organization takes on the basic traits of its leader, and Obama is not much of a turnaround artist. That’s Mitt Romney’s specialty, not his.

So will they turn things around? We shall see. One thing is for certain, however. If Team Obama continue in this slipshod manner, Ann and Mitt Romney will be changing their residence to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC next January.

***Please note that the following article is solely the opinion of the author and does not speak for or represent Mitt Romney or the Romney campaign. President Obama’s announcement last week that he “supports gay marriage” helped provide a clear contrast between Obama and Romney and will almost certainly have a major impact on the [...]

Bryon York reports:

Romney team to paint Obama as lousy businessman

The Romney campaign wants to introduce a new concept into the debate over President Obama’s economic record. Imagine the president ran an investment firm. He poured billions of dollars into green energy projects that didn’t work. People lost jobs. He poured billions into sometimes implausible stimulus projects that didn’t work, either. And even when he succeeded in keeping companies afloat, as he did with General Motors and Chrysler, he did it by downsizing and laying off thousands of workers.

And now, with that record, the president is attacking Mitt Romney for a successful career as a private equity investor at Bain Capital. Obama launched the first Bain attack ad Monday morning, blaming Romney for the failure of a Kansas City steel company, a failure that resulted in the loss of 750 jobs.

…

“In the general election, I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins of General Motors and Chrysler, closed factories, closed dealerships, laid off thousands and thousands of workers,” Mitt Romney said in January. “He did it to try to save the business.”

That’s the same sort of thing private equity investors do, Romney says — they just don’t do it with taxpayer dollars, as Obama has. And Romney supporters will likely emphasize that Obama’s taxpayer-paid investments often went to people and organizations that contributed big money to Obama’s campaign.

“When you’re in the private sector, people make decisions based on profit and loss and what’s going to create jobs and what’s going to work,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie told conservative reporters on a conference call Monday afternoon. “When you have this level of government involvement in our economy, you have things like Solyndra and the decisions relative to the auto layoffs, and you don’t have that transparency, you don’t know if there’s political influence — who gets a health care waiver from the mandate and who doesn’t? — and they still don’t say how they make those decisions.”

“This crony capitalism … is rampant in this administration and is a real problem,” Gillespie said, “and yes, we are going to continue to talk about that.”

…

It has been good to watch the campaign pivot to the economy this week – that’s where it belongs (even if some can find a religion angle even there) – but the social wars of last week have left me with lingering concerns.

Two pieces reacting to the events of last week have set me to thinking.  The first is by David French:

I must confess that I awoke this Monday morning feeling a bit useless — feeling very small and insignificant in fact.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  After all, in this graduation season if I could give one piece of advice to young and ambitious graduates it would be this: “Learn to get over yourself — and quickly.”  But still, it’s not necessarily fun to feel insignificant.

Why did I feel like blowing off work, skipping even my shower, and just heading straight to my favorite video game to tune out the world?  Because last week Barack Obama accomplished more in about two minutes and thirteen seconds than I was able to accomplish in more than six years of continual effort.  Barack Obama united evangelicals and Mormons around Mitt Romney.

Boy, I know how that feels.  The second piece was by Hugh Hewitt:

Romney’s use of the capital “W” underscored his shared conviction with the vast majority of Americans that there is a God, and with the strong majority who believe God has communicated quite clearly on matters of right and wrong. “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” is the shortest summary of that set of directions.

The debate over how those directions ought to be worked out in civil society and a democratic republic goes on every day, and the large debate over the definition of marriage is one part of that back-and-forth. So too is the question of how long we ought to stay in Afghanistan, how much support we ought to give to our democratic ally Israel against the totalitarian regimes that threaten it, and how much money it is right to take from hardworking people to support those who do not work and special interests that want their projects paid for at taxpayers’ expense.

There was even some piling on as Jen Rubin chimed in by penning a faux letter from the Romney’s to the editors of Newsweek:

But really, to characterize the president as the first “gay president” was an unexpected joy for Ann, the boys and me. I’m not about to go stoking the flames of anti-gay fervor in my base. That’s not my style, and as I always say to Ann, a moment not talking about Obama’s economic bellyflop is a moment wasted. But you’ve done it for me! Why, I don’t suppose there is a social conservative activist in the country who wouldn’t toss his cookies (excuse my language) over that label. They tell me they are fired up and ready to go! It’s very important in business and government to delegate, so I am relieved that you and your other journalist friends have taken care of this for me. (Do you have Hilary Rosen’s snail mail address? We’ve been remiss in not sending her some flowers.)

But, oh God bless you both, to define the president by a rhetorical, meaningless gesture is really above and beyond anything we expected. The “recovery” president or the “jobs” president would, well, be silly, I guess. But so long as he’s carving an identity on an issue that ranks somewhere below “high speed trains” among voters’ priorities I’m just tickled to death.

I do happen to think that last week will prove to be a pivot point in this campaign and I do think it is squarely in Romney’s direction.  Last week was incredibly politically risky for the Dems.  They knew that Romney’s speech at Liberty would be the point where he pulled out all the stops to unite the social conservative base behind him, and the needed to counter it.  One must ask why this very risky maneuver was the counter move.  Why are articles like this appearing when the subject has clearly changed?

Well, for one thing, Obama’s religious credentials are completely shot.  Did you know that one of Obama’s supporters apparently offered Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, money to stop preaching during the last election cycle? We drew a line on this blog last cycle.  Wright’s religious statements were off limits; however, Wright did have a penchant for making political statements in religious contexts.  But that said, it is clear that religion means little, actually nothing, to a man that is willing to pay money to squelch it.

Another reason for the risk is worldview.  The Atlantic had a piece over the weekend on, “The Most Radical Social Experiment in Modern History.”  In her book on the Great Depression, “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Shlaes talks about FDR’s fondness for “experimentation.”  Societies are not laboratories – to experiment upon them is to show an amazing disregard for the members of the society.  We consider it evil in our society to conduct direct medical experimentation on people, but apparently, at least to one group, indirect social experimentation is just fine, despite the fact the consequences can be just as dramatic and life-changing.  (Argue about where life starts all you want, legalization of abortion has fundamentally changed our society, and the lives of the people in it, in ways that are not yet fully documented, and I defy anyone to prove me wrong about that.)

But I think the real reason for the enormous political risks we saw last week was true believer-ism.  That which the right is so often accused of is no less evident on the left.  Despite extreme accommodation in the form of civil unions, the LGBT community is not satisfied because they believe, with all possible conviction, that they are RIGHT!  Obama is going along because he simply needs all the help he can get – he is out of options.

Those of us on the conservative side of things believe in the rightness of our stance as well, and we have the evidence of history to back us up.  But we also have one other thing the left does not.  Well, at least we should if the lessons of our faith have truly taken hold – we have humility.  The kind of humility that causes us to question even the deepest of our convictions when those around us examine them.  The kind of humility that is willing to make accommodation, even in light of our convictions and historical evidence.

Lack of humility is what leads to war.  It is the difference  between our faith and the faith of Islamic terrorists.  Last week’s battle, and its evident lack of humility contains the seeds of something very ugly.  I pray we can get through this intact.  Certainly Romney’s Liberty U speech gives me hope, but I am not sure everyone was listening.

Let’s end this with a laugh…

Veiled Mormon reference just for female tweens?

And this landed in my inbox as I was writing – I cannot resist -

©2012 Article VI Blog. All Rights Reserved.

.

H/T je

Having followed Mitt Romney over the years, it was no surprise to me when I read the following from an article titled, 'Big-Hearted Mitt':

One cold December day in the early 1980s, Mitt Romney loaded up his Gran Torino with firewood and brought it to the home of a single mother whose heat had been shut off just days before Christmas.

Years after a business partner died unexpectedly, Romney helped the man’s surviving daughter go to medical school with loans for tuition — loans he forgave when she graduated.

And in 1997, when a fellow church member’s teenage son fell seriously ill, Romney sprinted to the hospital in the dead of night, where he kept vigil with his terrified parents.

These stories are similar to testimonials I had already known about Romney. Like the time Romney closed down Bain Capital and took all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to try to find one of his partner’s daughter who had disappeared in NYC. Then there was the time that an elderly neighbor of Romney in Belmont, Ma mentioned that her car was not working. She later found Romney in her garage fixing the vehicle. These are only a few of many that I’ve heard about over the years.

According to this article, the Romney campaign fears that bringing stories like these to light, might bring attention to Romney’s Mormon faith. Which for some, is still an issue. Romney himself is also reluctant to toot his own horn when it comes to personal acts of kindness. He believes that by helping one’s neighbors when in need is a natural act, not warranting any acknowledgment or praise.

As a Roman Catholic myself, I believe doing God's work regardless of your particular faith is still doing God's work. I also believe in my heart that most people of faith feel the same way.

I hope we come to a time when acts such as these can be celebrated without fear of any repercussions it may cause to ones particular career.

Today, in the Obama economy, twenty-three million Americans are out of work, underemployed, or have stopped looking for work. These are the stories behind the statistics. These are a few of the twenty-three million.

Many Americans are struggling, but still believe in this country. They deserve a leader who believes in them mi.tt/JC5U1q

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) May 15, 2012

Jeff Renner worked closely with Mitt at Bain Capital for 15 years

Transcript excerpts via CNBC:

Mitt is the most capable person I've ever known. He is incredibly energetic. The guy does not slow down. He's brilliant. He's brilliant at both the big picture level and incredibly capable in the detail level. This is a guy who got into a very competitive business that the private equity and venture capital business, not having had any background in it, taught himself the business and then left the business that had probably the best tracker over a 15-year period. So in terms of capability, I think it's hard to find another person... 

Mitt was a guy who was at all his kids' sporting events. He has the best marriage I've probably ever seen. He and Ann have a remarkable relationship and that came first. He was family first. He built Bain Capital. He also spent an enormous amount of time working with people in his community. This is a guy who spent, you know, all day Sunday working with people in his church. And not just going to church but this is a guy who went around and helped people who had their houses burned down or had an illness in the family.

Head-To-Head: (Previous results from April 18)

Mitt Romney 46% (46%)
Barack Obama 43% (46%)

A survey 615 adults (including 562 registered voters) was conducted May 11-13, 2012. The MOE is +/-4%.

The crosstabs can be viewed HERE.

I thought it would be a good idea to post as many live sources to today's GOP primaries as possible. Especially since many don't have cable access to some of these networks. I'm not sure how many networks will be covering this contests

Delegates involved in today's contests:

Nebraska 35
Oregon 28

Total 63

Not all the links below will be covering the contest during the day so you will probably need to click on different ones throughout the day.

I am also hoping to have Fox News embedded here after 7PM EST as an additional source.

ENJOY!

Check the following feeds for the primary programing: