Romney Has the Right Stuff – Newsmax 2008 Article Still Rings True Today

An excellent comprehensive look at Mitt Romney as a Presidential candidate back in 2008 still rings true today.  Ronald Keesler posted an exhaustive article making a strong case for Mitt Romney back in 2008 and it is worth a review by Michigan voters before we all head to the polls tomorrow.  The bottom line is the article makes the same case that Michigan for Mitt blog has been making — Mitt Romney is a full-spectrum conservative leader uniquely experienced and prepared to restore American greatness while earning broad support from republicans, independents and some democrats in Reaganesque fashion.

First he addressed Mitt Romney’s character and core by telling us about the rescue efforts the Michigan for Mitt blog reviewed yesterday.

Then he moved on to talk about Romney’s Reaganesque demeanor:

“The fact that Massachusetts, where only 13 percent of registered voters are Republicans, could elect Romney governor by a five-point margin (50 percent versus 45 percent for his Democratic opponent) underscores his popularity among Republicans and Democrats alike.

“In an hour-long Newsmax interview at Romney’s Boston headquarters, the candidate is Reaganesque: a man with a sunny, positive disposition. On his desk he has a desk plate that states “America Is Never Stuck.”

“Romney speaks with the effortless delivery of the best news anchors…”

Next he addressed the misconceptions about Mitt’s familial fortunes:

“If the family was financially set, it had little impact on Mitt’s upbringing. Like most other kids, he had summer jobs. His sister Jane, an actress in Beverly Hills, remembers that she was allowed to buy only one new dress a year.

“I always hated the word ‘privileged’ and I never thought we were,” she says. “My dad grew up with nothing. His father went bankrupt twice when my father was a kid.”

Then he touched on values & religion:

“George Romney [Mitt’s father] died on July 26, 1995, at the age of 88. He imparted deep values to his family, values that the Mormon Church emphasizes – strong families, honesty, giving to charity, respect for human life, hard work, and clean living.

…

“…In 1994, gay marriage had not yet become a serious issue. But in 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that marriage in the commonwealth would no longer be limited to unions between men and women, Romney pushed for an amendment to the state constitution that would outlaw gay marriage.

“In a recent interview in his corner office at his campaign headquarters, Romney sticks by his position condemning discrimination against gays and lesbians.

“I can tell you this, which is I believe gay individuals should enjoy tolerance and respect,” Romney says. “They should have equal opportunities in housing and employment. We shouldn’t discriminate against people based upon their sexual preference or orientation.

“At the same time, I believe that marriage should be reserved for a relationship between one man and one woman. For me, that’s not a matter of discrimination,” Romney adds.

…

“He feels passionately that the value of human life begins at conception,” says South Carolina state Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican who supports Romney. “The idea that he might have changed his mind [on Roe v. Wade] is very appealing to me, because we’re not going to win that debate unless people change their minds and think it through.”

“Romney has vetoed bills that authorized embryo farming, therapeutic cloning, and access to emergency contraception without parental consent. He is a critic of liberal judges who legislate from the bench, and he says he would like to see the court return the abortion issue to the people to decide.

Next was Romney’s success in saving the 2002 Olympics, an issue which I personally reflected on last week:

“In 1998, Utah state leaders approached Romney about taking over the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Olympics. More than $1 million in bribes had been paid to members of the International Olympic Committee organizers. Before the scandal erupted, the Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee (SLOC) had a projected shortfall of $397 million.

“Romney accepted the position and asked Fraser Bullock, one of the seven original partners of Bain Capital, to become his chief operating officer.

“Romney traveled all over the world to gather support, as he cut back on SLOC expenses…

“With Romney at the helm, the games ended with a surplus of $56 million. The surplus money went to fund future Olympics.”

Then it was on to review another one of Mitt’s successes, saving the state of Massachusetts from its financial peril:

“With the Olympics success under his belt, Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 on a platform of fiscal conservatism, promising to erase the state’s $3 billion deficit.

“As the new governor, Romney consolidated state agencies, cut employees, and closed what he called loopholes in the corporate tax code. He also tackled the most difficult public policy issue of all, health insurance.

“With input from the Heritage Foundation, Romney came up with a way to provide universal health insurance…

“Romney’s bottom line in Massachusetts: He erased the budget deficit he inherited when he took over, just as he’d done with the Olympics.

“When Romney left office on Jan. 4, 2006, the Bay State had a balanced budget plus a “rainy day fund” – all without ever raising taxes.”

He concluded with these points:

“Romney emphasizes four priorities if elected president: defeating the jihadists, competing with Asia, stopping runaway spending, and affirming America’s culture and values.

…

“Romney said he is “very concerned about the America that my grandkids will enjoy, and your grandkids will enjoy. It can be a stronger, more vibrant nation, or it can become the France of the 21st century – starting off as the economic superpower, military superpower, ending still a great nation, but not the world’s superpower. The choices we make today will determine whether America is a more prosperous and secure place for our grandchildren. I can help do that.”

Among former presidents, Romney admires Dwight D. Eisenhower. Besides taking on communism, “He was a person whose leadership during World War II made him someone the entire nation revered and respected,” Romney says. “And there’s nothing wrong with having heroes in positions of prominence.”

Having rescued the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Winter Olympics, Bain & Co., and his partner’s daughter, Romney could well be talking about himself.”

I invite all Michiganders to reflect on this broad spectrum of attributes that would come with a Romney presidency in contrast to the other candidates and our current President.  As Jack Welch so emphatically stated weeks ago, we are the luckiest people to have this guy running at this time.  It couldn’t seem more clear to me that our country is in dire need of a turnaround and Mitt Romney is uniquely and expertly prepared to lead such an effort.  Michigan’s native is hands-down our best chance at restoring American prosperity and greatness, so let’s get out there and vote for Mitt in the polls tomorrow and take a car full of Mitt voters with us!  

Welch: Romney is “Most Qualified Leader I’ve Ever Seen Run for the Presidency”

Jack Welch, a man who started at General Electric as a young engineer on very modest pay and worked his way up to becoming GE’s youngest CEO and among its most transformational and innovative leaders had some strong praise for Mitt Romney’s credentials to be President in the video below.  Welch said “Mitt Romney is the most qualified leader I’ve ever seen run for the Presidency of the United States”:

Here is the bulk of his comments:

“In my lifetime, Mitt Romney is the most qualified leader I’ve ever seen run for the Presidency of the United States…Let’s take him for a minute… Harvard Law School, Harvard MBA.  Starts up Bain Capital, builds it… Bain gets in trouble sometime in 1990s, Mitt comes back to fix it… Bain Capital then has its best years ever.  In ’99, leaves, goes to the Olympics, I was involved in that… we were in deep trouble.  They were losing money, they had a scandal… and then 9/11 comes and everyone wants to cancel it, we’ve got a big commitment.  He goes out there, fixes it totally.  Again, fixes that up, comes back, runs for governor, wins the governorship.  The government [is in debt].  He gets it out and gets a surplus.  Who!?  We haven’t had anybody do all these things!  Do you think Richard Nixon did that?  Do you think Bill Clinton had those credentials!?  Certainly Barack Obama didn’t have those credentials!.. I mean, come on!  We’ve got a guy here who’s a leader, that’s demonstrated beyond anyone we’ve ever had!  Great family.  This is the…!  We’re the luckiest people in the world to have this guy there at this point in time.”

Well said, Mr Welch.  At this point in time this is exactly the kind of leadership that America needs.  America is in trouble, Americans are losing money, Washington is plagued by scandals, America’s debt soars.  Mitt Romney has proven time and time again that he is a dynamic leader that will fix those very problems if hired to the task.  He has a vision and a plan for America that will fix the problems we face, but unlike all other candidates and our current President, he has the credentials, know-how, and successful experiences necessary to follow through with the task of leading America to a more prosperous future.  Indeed, as Welch related, we are lucky to have someone like this running for President.

But now is the time to follow up our luck with action.  We are lucky to have him running for President, but it requires both our vote and our invitation to others to vote to actually see America put Gov. Romney’s skills to task in restoring American greatness.  So share this video and tell people you know about how uniquely qualified Mitt Romney is to lead us to a better future.

And if you haven’t done so already, sign up for a MyMitt account to take action in ensuring the “most qualified leader” becomes our next President, and invite others to join with you.

Survey of Economists: Romney Best for GOP, Unimpressed with Obama

In an AP Survey of economists, responses from economists were quite telling when it comes to who they feel is most capable of leading the American economy.  Obama is a thumbs-down, and Romney is a thumbs-up.  Here are excerpts from the Washington Post report:

“President Barack Obama gets mediocre marks for his handling of the economy and Mitt Romney easily outpolls his Republican rivals in an Associated Press survey of economists.

“The economy — and who bears responsibility for it — is likely to be a decisive issue when voters to go the polls next November. 

“The economy is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The housing market remains weak and a debt crisis in Europe threatens growth in 2012. The unemployment rate is at a recession-level 8.6 percent, up from 7.8 percent when Obama took office in January 2009. That month, the recession was already more than a year old.

“Half of the 36 economists who responded to the Dec. 14-20 AP survey rated Obama’s economic policies “fair.” And 13 called them “poor.” Just five of the economists gave the president “good” marks. None rated him as “excellent.”…

—

“Asked which of the Republican presidential candidates would do the best job managing the economy, two thirds of the economists named Romney, one chose former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The rest didn’t pick anyone at all.

“Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics, says Romney, who ran a private equity firm before turning to politics, is the “hands down” choice among Republican presidential contenders squaring off in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

“Romney’s a technocrat,” Sinai says. “He’s not an ideologue. He has a history in the real world of business.”…

—

“An Associated Press-GfK poll of American adults earlier this month found that 60 percent of American adults disapprove of Obama’s performance on economic issues.”

You can read the full article here.

Boston Herald: Nation Needs Romney

Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. Photo credit: John Wilcox.

The Boston Herald has weighed in to the Republican Presidential primary race and has endorsed Mitt Romney, firmly stating that the nation needs his leadership now more than ever (emphasis is mine):

“…there is only one candidate in the Republican field with the integrity, the experience, the organizational strength and the intelligence to beat Barack Obama and that man is Mitt Romney.

But perhaps more to the point, there is only one candidate who can put this nation back on the path to fiscal sanity and restore it to its central role on the world stage. That candidate is Mitt Romney.

Now we are more aware than most of our former governor’s reputation for being, well, a bit stiff. But this is a contest for what we used to call Leader of the Free World (before Barack Obama downgraded the job), not Mr. Congeniality or the guy you’d most like to have a beer with.

We don’t need a buddy in the White House; we need a leader — one who can work with a deeply divided Congress and a deeply divided nation.

Romney as governor of a thoroughly Democratic state actually managed to get things done during his tenure. That may be a blot on his record to those in the Republican Party who put ideological purity above all else, but in our book that’s actually a plus…

Romney’s appeal at the national level is what it has always been here — he’s a tough, no nonsense CEO who wants to bring a sense of trust back to government. And he can attract to his candidacy that growing number of independent voters who will ultimately decide the presidency in November just as he did when he successfully ran for governor in this bluest of blue states.

Mitt Romney can get the job done — the job of running for president and the job of governing. And the Herald is pleased to endorse his candidacy.”

Continue reading the full endorsement article here.

Mitt Romney as Turnaround Specialist in Chief

Mitt Romney signs a deal with Domino's Pizza in 1998. Photo credit: AP

Boston’s WBUR recently posted a compelling article about Mitt Romney’s work at Bain which included comments from some of his colleagues that worked with Mitt and saw what he did as a “turnaround” expert.  The comments speak volumes to the leadership capacity, expertise, work ethic, data-driven drive, and can-and-must-do attitude that is so sorely needed in our nation’s highest office right now.  Let’s hear from them in the following excerpts (emphasis is mine):

BOSTON — Too much debt. Too much money being spent paying interest on that debt. Unsustainable.

It may sound like the national budget today, but the crisis was Bain & Company in the early 1990s. The Boston consulting firm was in deep trouble. Workers and clients were starting to jump ship. Mitt Romney was called in to save the day.

“There’s nobody that I can conceive of who could have come into that fractious situation, and pull that together,” said Clay Christensen, a former Romney colleague who’s now a professor at Harvard Business School.

As interim CEO of Bain & Company, Romney negotiated with banks to buy time. He convinced employees and clients to stay on. And most spectacularly, he won $130 million in concessions from the founding partners, including Bill Bain, the very man who brought in Romney to fix the mess. Christensen says it was Romney’s crowning business achievement.

“I know Nancy Pelosi very well and I know a number of the Republican leaders,” Christensen said. “Pulling those guys together is a lot easier than pulling Bain together.”

America is desperate for competent leadership in Washington D.C. right now.  The country is fractured along a seemingly impassable divide between politicians on both sides of the aisle that are unwilling to negotiate their ideals, and Americans are long tired of the broken government.  Meanwhile debt is spiraling out of control and the economy remains in shambles.  Here, above, we have a Harvard Professor and former colleague of Romney’s giving us a picture of what Mitt Romney brings to the table; namely: leadership.

We need someone who can lead America to a better future.  Gov. Romney has shown time and time again that he can and will walk into a bleak situation, bring people together, and turn things around.  And if Professor Christensen is correct in that pulling the guys at Bain together was much tougher than it would be to pull the politicians in Washington together, then we know Gov. Romney can get the job done and we know who our vote should go towards.  Continuing:

It was a remarkable political feat, considering that Romney built his career not on bringing people together, but rather on bringing companies in line. In 1984, Romney was chosen to run a spinoff venture of Bain’s consulting business — not because he was a consensus builder, but because he was a tireless pragmatic.

“Mitt’s a guy who goes and goes and goes all day long,” said Geoffrey Rehnert, who worked with Romney from the very start at Bain Capital, Bain & Company’s then-new private equity firm.

“I’ve never worked harder in my life,” Rehnert remembered. “I think the first four years at Bain Capital, I took one week of vacation. Not one week per year, one week in a four-year period.”

On the surface, Romney’s team did what other management consultants did. They’d look at a company, go through its books, find out everything they could about it and its industry. They’d even count cars in the parking lot of competitors to figure out how many people worked there. Rehnert says Romney was ruthlessly data-driven.

“Dive into the detail,” Rehnert remembered of Romney’s capability, “to the point of building models, reading legal documents, drawing slides, taking notes, and then he could zoom right back up to 50,000 feet and look down and see the big picture.”

And then decide what to do. What made Romney a millionaire hundreds of times over was the fact that Bain Capital owned these companies. The venture wasn’t simply a consulting firm that wrote a report with a list of recommendations, hoping the client company would follow through. It made the company follow through.

“He’s a very self-confident problem-solver and deal-maker, too,” said Walter Kiechel, who wrote a book on management consulting, “The Lords of Strategy.”…

And there we have additional qualities of leadership that America needs.  Given that congress decided to head home for Thanksgiving without a resolution to the super-committee’s debacle and the President was absent during that process in Hawaii with the first lady, Gov. Romney’s work ethic would be a refreshing change for Americans.  One would justifiably predict that Gov. Romney would bring a new tone, work ethic, data-driven style, and pragmatism to Washington that we haven’t seen for all too long.  The article concludes by hearing straight from Mitt Romney, so let’s hear it:

“In business, you have no choice,” Romney said at a recent stop in Exeter, N.H. “You must be fiscally responsible. If you don’t balance your budget, you go bankrupt.”

It doesn’t take much to hear the corporation turnaround specialist.

“There are some who say, ‘When you talk about cutting a program, you’re showing that you’re heartless,’ ” Romney told the audience. “I think we have to say no, no, you have to understand: we have a moral responsibility not to spend more than we take in. We have a moral responsibility to keep America the strongest nation on Earth.”

Romney’s critics say politics is different from private equity. They say running a country is not like running a company. But Romney thinks it shouldn’t be so different — that that nation’s problems can be solved pragmatically, by starting with the data.

To him, the U.S. government is not unlike a company that has lost its focus, a company that has lost track of where its money is going.

Mitt Romney would like the chance to turn it around.

Indeed.  Businesses have no choice but to balance their budget and turn things around.  In 2012, America will be given the choice to do so or not.  The government has lost focus and lost track where its money is going.  America needs a turnaround.  Let’s give this proven turnaround specialist the chance to do it.

Governor Romney says “All the streets are connected in America” – Contrast that with Obama

Anybody disappointed with Washington lately?  Gov. Mitt Romney had some inspiring words during an interview yesterday when asked about some of President Obama’s positions and class warfare inclinations.   The answer is compelling especially given today’s context of another failed congressional committee.  Here is his response (emphasis is mine):

“Look, we have, as a nation, an extraordinary opportunity ahead of us.  We have a new century.  This can be and must be an American century.  The only way that happens is if we pull together as a people.  I know there are people who want to divide American and think that somehow that will help their campaign prospects.  You can’t divide America.  We have to come together.  All the streets are connected in America.  We’ve got to encourage Main Street and Wall Street and the suburban streets and the urban streets.  We’ve got to come together as a people.  When President Obama was candidate Obama, he campaigned with a message of unity and change.  He just hasn’t delivered.  He’s done the exact opposite of what he promised in the campaign, and the American people want to see a leader who is not in this race for himself, but is in this race for America, and can bring us together, can work across the aisle to get America on the solid economic foundation it needs, that can turn this into the job creating machine we’ve always been, and can make it good to be middle class in America again.”

This statement demonstrates why Gov. Romney should be our next President.  Unlike out current President who takes the side of one group of Americans versus another, Gov. Romney understands that if elected he will be the President of the United States, and not a leader that pits one group of Americans against another.  As Mitt said so pointedly, “all streets are connected in America.” I can’t agree more.  This recent failure of the congressional supercommittee is certainly a failure of congress to come together and put country ahead of self, but it also points to the tone that was set in Washington in 2009.  We do need to come together, but that is a campaign promise that President Obama made but has failed to deliver.  The President is uniquely positioned to set the tone, be involved, and take responsibility for the course Washington takes.  An article over at Investors.com explains this well (emphasis is mine):

“Where has Obama been during this fiscal crunch time [super-committee deadline]?

He hasn’t been on the sidelines again. He’s been completely out of the country. He absolutely had to be in Cannes for the Group of 29.5 or whatever it’s called this month because, you know, the Euro crisis. And, then he was hosting another group of leaders in Hawaii with Michelle. And then, of course, there was the Australia trip…

Remember back in 2007-08 the inexperienced ex-state senator, who’d been in Washington all of 24 months, was going to fix the place up with Hope and Change? He was going to bring feuding folks together because this is America and we are better than this…

It took about 72 hours for newly-disputed president George W. Bush to have senior Democrat Ted Kennedy over for coffee in 2001 and the first of many what-can-we-agree-on conversations.  It took Obama more than 500 days to have Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell over...

Here’s the deal: Barack Obama was elected president of all 57 states. Not king. Not legislator-in-chief, maneuvering to make the other side look as bad as possible while minimally soiling his own hands. President means he’s supposed to be chief executive, as in chief of executing things, getting stuff done…

A real President Obama could be so much more, actually in charge of D.C. like he promised. Get those numbskulls from both sides together in that Roosevelt Room and tell them what they were gonna do to reach agreement or he was going outside to describe to the American people the kind of petty politics they all cling to.

He rolled his shirtsleeves up to get Obamacare passed because he wanted it. But now…..

True, such an assertive mediation strategy would require leadership, something we’ve never seen from this guy. He’s great at jogging onstage after a fawning intro to give a telepromptered speech. And he’s gotten really good too at blaming others for anything, everything.

The trouble with leadership is it takes courage and might just work. Which he knows. Imagine if this guy actually had the will and skill to broker an historic deal, to drive a bargain, with both sides genuinely giving something. It would help Americans get back to having faith in D.C. leaders again…

Obama is actually running against his own ineffectiveness. At least now we know why he wants no part of a genuine deal this year, why tumult and anger and finger-pointing are so much more preferable/profitable for him to impose on the political landscape for the next 350 days.

The full article is available here.

Image credit - Lisa 2010

When the President had super majorities in congress in the midst of economic despair, instead of deciding to bring everyone together of all political persuasions to get to work fixing the economy and creating jobs in a bipartisan fashion, we saw Obamacare forced through a deeply partisan and sneaky process without a real vote.  The President and many of his followers completely shut republicans, independents and democrats opposed to his health care bill out of the legislative process, all the while ignoring the will of the people who in majority were opposed.  Hardly the kind of “coming together” that we envisioned from an Obama presidency.

Gov. Romney signs Mass. health care reform. Photo credit: AP Photo/Elise Amendola

Contrast that with the way that Mitt Romney led his state as Governor.  He, a Republican Governor in a very liberal state with an overwhelmingly democratic-controlled legislature, was able to bring everyone together to repair the state’s nearly $3 billion deficit and passed a health care reform bill (with an actual vote, fancy that) with only two dissenting votes!  His effectiveness as a leader who could bring people together erased the state’s $3 billion deficit and created a surplus rainy-day fund, and his health care bill helped many uninsured Massachusetts voters get access to private sector health care while removing the burden they were creating on other taxpayers by showing up to hospitals without insurance.

So in 2012 we have a contrasted choice.  We either re-elect President Obama, a man who seeks to divide America and shut Republicans, Independents and even Democrats of his own party out of the political process when they disagree with him, or we can elect a new President, Mitt Romney, who has the proven experience in leading government effectively, even when his party was a tiny minority in the legislature.  Let’s pick the guy that believes all streets are connected in America.