Life after defeat for Mitt Romney

[Davidtheman100]

Life after defeat for Mitt Romney: Public praise, private questions
By Philip Rucker

BOSTON — Mitt Romney began his retreat from public life Wednesday at a private breakfast gathering with a couple hundred of his most loyal and affluent campaign benefactors. The former Massachusetts governor, humbled by the thumping that ended his six-year pursuit of the presidency, reminisced about the journey and tried not to cry.

Romney waxed about the roaring crowds in the campaign’s closing days and the feeling that he was winning, said donors in attendance. He commended Stuart Stevens, his chief strategist, as well as his senior aides, and then went around thanking donors one by one.

“Mitt was vintage Mitt,” said L.E. Simmons, an oil investor on Romney’s national finance committee. “He was analytical, no notes, spoke from the heart and was very appreciative.”

But Romney’s top aides, who only a couple of days ago were openly speculating about who would fill which jobs in a Romney administration, woke up Wednesday to face brutal recriminations.

Some top donors privately unloaded on Romney’s senior staff, describing it as a junior varsity operation that failed to adequately insulate and defend Romney through a summer of relentless attacks from the Obama campaign over his business career and personal wealth.

“Everybody feels like they were a bunch of well-meaning folks who were, to use a phrase that Governor Romney coined to describe his opponent, way in over their heads,” said one member of the campaign’s national finance committee, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“Romney World,” the fundraiser added, “will fade into the obscurity of a lot of losing campaigns.”

Stuart Stevens, who as Romney’s chief strategist was the recipient of some of the harshest blame, did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Nor did many of Romney’s other top advisers, who during Romney’s concession speech were visibly shell-shocked.

Bob White, Romney’s close friend and business partner who chaired the campaign, strongly defended Stevens and the rest of the staff in an interview a few weeks ago.

“Mitt never doubted his team, and the reports of infighting were not true,” White said.

In Washington, meanwhile, scores of transition-team staffers who had been preparing for a Romney administration started packing their belongings Wednesday.

Mike Leavitt, the former Utah governor running the transition, convened a conference call at 10 a.m. to inform the staff they had until Friday to organize their files, return their laptops and cellphones and vacate their government office.

At the Wednesday breakfast, Romney told the donors he believed Hurricane Sandy stunted his momentum in the final week of the campaign, according to multiple donors present.

Although Romney himself stopped short of placing any blame on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who praised President Obama’s leadership during the storm, several Romney supporters privately pointed fingers at the outspoken governor.

“A lot of people feel like Christie hurt, that we definitely lost four or five points between the storm and Chris Christie giving Obama a chance to be bigger than life,” said one of Romney’s biggest fundraisers, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Another major Romney fundraiser said Christie’s embrace of Obama after Sandy walloped his state only deepened a rift that opened between the Romney and Christie camps over the summer.

Christie and his wife were unhappy with Romney’s vice presidential search process, believing they were “led a little bit far down the garden path” without being picked, the fundraiser said.

Romney advisers have said they were disappointed with Christie’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention because they believed the speaker focused too much on himself and not enough on the candidate. Republicans close to Christie, however, said the Romney team approved the final draft of the speech.

Some Romney advisers insisted Wednesday that tensions with Christie have been overstated.

“The problem with Sandy was not Chris Christie,” said one political adviser. “The problem with Sandy was we couldn’t talk about the choice argument for the last week of the campaign. At a time when Barack Obama’s campaign was small, it allowed him to be bigger, and provided him a vehicle for him to show he can be bipartisan.”

Christie on Wednesday defended his work as a surrogate on Romney’s behalf, saying, ”I did my job.”

“I wouldn’t call what I did an embrace of Barack Obama,” Christie said at a news conference. “I know that’s become the wording of it, but the fact of the matter is, you know, I’m a guy who tells the truth all the time. And if the president of the United States did something good, I was gonna say he did something good and give him credit for it.”

He continued, “But it doesn’t take away for a minute the fact that I was the first governor to endorse Mitt Romney, that I traveled literally tens of thousands of miles for him, raised tens of millions of dollars for him and worked harder, I think, than any other surrogate in America other than Paul Ryan, who became his running mate.”

The time will come for Romney and his campaign leadership to fully assess what went wrong. Some of his top donors immediately pointed to the campaign’s early strategic decision to frame the race as a referendum on Obama rather than a choice between two different governing philosophies and leadership styles.

A second member of Romney’s national finance committee said that while the campaign’s tactics and fundraising organization were executed well, the strategy and message were “total failures.” This fundraiser added that the campaign’s cautious and adversarial relationship with the news media proved detrimental.

“That strategy was we don’t want to define differences, we want it to be a referendum not a choice, but it was always going to be a choice. Elections are a choice. Their fundamental premise was incorrect — and when you’re incorrect on this level, you are shunned by people in the party,” said the fundraiser, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

But Romney, those close to him said, is not second guessing the counsel or work of his staff. After he spoke at Wednesday’s breakfast, Simmons said he spoke privately with Romney.

“I said, ‘So what are you going to do for the next few weeks? Let’s do something fun,’ ” Simmons recalled. “And he said, ‘Uh, I’m going to be really busy.’ He said, ‘I have 400 people to get great jobs for.’ ”

Late Wednesday afternoon, as sleet fell in Boston’s North End, Romney visited his campaign headquarters for one final staff meeting. He thanked his aides and said goodbye. His Secret Service detail gone — and with it his code name, Javelin, after a car once made by his father’s company — Romney was spotted driving off in the backseat of his son Tagg’s car. His wife, Ann, was riding shotgun.

If anyone rewatches the presidential debate between Obama and Romney they'll realize that not only has Obama not come through with anything he had claimed he would, he was actually wrong statistically and in the economics category he was blown away in every way, shape and form by Romney. I think Obama is the reason for this politically correct full-of-bullshit America we have now where they're glorifying criminals over police and the self entitledness of the public is pathetic.. It shows in his pathetic approval rate.. Even crats getting sick of him..

[BayGBM]

If anyone rewatches the presidential debate between Obama and Romney they'll realize that not only has Obama not come through with anything he had claimed he would, he was actually wrong statistically and in the economics category he was blown away in every way, shape and form by Romney. I think Obama is the reason for this politically correct full-of-bullshit America we have now where they're glorifying criminals over police and the self entitledness of the public is pathetic.. It shows in his pathetic approval rate.. Even crats getting sick of him..

Perhaps Romney should run again.  Or did you think America was in a state of bliss when Obama took over and "ruined" it all? 

Stop making a fool of yourself. 

[Davidtheman100]

Perhaps Romney should run again.  Or did you think America was in a state of bliss when Obama took over and "ruined" it all? 

Stop making a fool of yourself. 

Whens the last time there was a riot to that extent where the city had to have a curfew and continued through new york as well... Where police were disrespected as they are these days? The likes of this has NEVER BEEN SEEN.. And to think that people support this lunatic is beyond me.. Cannot even call terrorists..Terrorists! "Islamic extremism" Of corse i'll be made a fool of myself if you put words in my mouth...Never said America was in a state of bliss..I've never heard a president brag about things that are either not because of his own doing, or because the public has no concept of things..

Gas prices has nothing to do with Obama..Had nothing to do with Bush either..Foreign economics not wanting America to be self-sufficient backfired wholeheartedly..But you'll hear the Obama lovers who drive a prius with the re-elected sticker on their back window bragging to the intelligent folk who are laughing in their head about how stupid this person is for saying that...who gives a shit if there are more jobs now? There is now petitioning for min. wage to be raised more than ever because all he did was create shit jobs through temporary programs..I'll even go as far as saying he's a pedophile..(just kidding)

[andreisdaman]

Whens the last time there was a riot to that extent where the city had to have a curfew and continued through new york as well... Where police were disrespected as they are these days? The likes of this has NEVER BEEN SEEN.. And to think that people support this lunatic is beyond me.. Cannot even call terrorists..Terrorists! "Islamic extremism" Of corse i'll be made a fool of myself if you put words in my mouth...Never said America was in a state of bliss..I've never heard a president brag about things that are either not because of his own doing, or because the public has no concept of things..

Gas prices has nothing to do with Obama..Had nothing to do with Bush either..Foreign economics not wanting America to be self-sufficient backfired wholeheartedly..But you'll hear the Obama lovers who drive a prius with the re-elected sticker on their back window bragging to the intelligent folk who are laughing in their head about how stupid this person is for saying that...who gives a shit if there are more jobs now? There is now petitioning for min. wage to be raised more than ever because all he did was create shit jobs through temporary programs..I'll even go as far as saying he's a pedophile..(just kidding)

This is so mind-boggling wrong that I can't even muster a response....I'm gonna blame your idiocy on your having only 39 posts..you need more experience here

[chadstallion]

Whens the last time there was a riot to that extent where the city had to have a curfew and continued through new york as well... Where police were disrespected as they are these days? The likes of this has NEVER BEEN SEEN.. And to think that people support this lunatic is beyond me.. Cannot even call terrorists..Terrorists! "Islamic extremism" Of corse i'll be made a fool of myself if you put words in my mouth...Never said America was in a state of bliss..I've never heard a president brag about things that are either not because of his own doing, or because the public has no concept of things..

Gas prices has nothing to do with Obama..Had nothing to do with Bush either..Foreign economics not wanting America to be self-sufficient backfired wholeheartedly..But you'll hear the Obama lovers who drive a prius with the re-elected sticker on their back window bragging to the intelligent folk who are laughing in their head about how stupid this person is for saying that...who gives a shit if there are more jobs now? There is now petitioning for min. wage to be raised more than ever because all he did was create shit jobs through temporary programs..I'll even go as far as saying he's a pedophile..(just kidding)

if this poster didn't write in complete sentences I would guess 333386/SC has returned!

[BayGBM]

if this poster didn't write in complete sentences I would guess 333386/SC has returned!

Ouch! 

[LurkerNoMore]

if this poster didn't write in complete sentences I would guess 333386/SC has returned!

My first thought as well.  The mental impairment is about the same.

[Davidtheman100]

You know nothing of mental impairment based on a post you don't agree with...It is okay if the liberal Hilary Clinton fans band together and want to create change together it's rather cute to the queer eye...But not mine i see right through the politically correct bullshit and use the logical approach to things..Mentally impaired for that? I think not.

[chadstallion]

You know nothing of mental impairment based on a post you don't agree with...It is okay if the liberal Hilary Clinton fans band together and want to create change together it's rather cute to the queer eye...But not mine i see right through the politically correct bullshit and use the logical approach to things..Mentally impaired for that? I think not.

except some of us have seen 35,000+ similar posts from SC/333386. so we know of what we speak.

[BayGBM]

Welcome to the Romney primary
By Maeve Reston

Mitt Romney, the man Republicans were so quick to dismiss after his failed 2012 presidential bid, is suddenly in high demand among his GOP colleagues.

The former Massachusetts governor and his wife, Ann, dropped in for "a fun and informal" lunch Monday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba, at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, following through on an invitation extended by the Bush family months ago.

The meeting followed an overnight sojourn this weekend by Chris Christie and Marco Rubio at the Romney's vacation home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on the eve of their appearance in the town's July Fourth parade. The two candidates and their families joined the Romneys on their boat on 72-square-mile Lake Winnipesaukee.

Aides familiar with the Bush visit stressed it was purely a social occasion, and that the families talked not only about policy but also the triumphant finish of the U.S. women's team in the World Cup — noting that they were joined by President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, as well as Jeb Bush's son, George P. Bush, and his wife, Amanda. And everyone at the Christie-Rubio gathering similarly dismissed endorsement speculation by saying they passed the evening talking sports over a Fourth of July barbecue of hot dogs, baked beans and potato salad.

Since forgoing a third presidential bid in January, Romney has insisted he has no interest in being a kingmaker in the 2016 race. But as the contenders jockey for his favor -- and, in some cases, chase his lead on thorny issues -- it's beginning to look like the 2016 Romney primary is well underway.

And he seems more liberated to speak out than when he was fighting for the White House himself.

"Given the chaos that's going on on the Republican side of things, he has some ability to bring some order to the chaos and help remind people what big issues actually do matter — and to be a little bit of a rudder for these candidates, who he recognizes can sometimes get seared by the winds of the primary process," said GOP strategist Katie Packer, who was Romney's deputy campaign manager in 2012.

It is an ironic twist for a man once criticized as the very definition of the vanilla candidate, calibrated and cautious at every turn when he was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

Romney was one of the first prominent Republicans to bluntly call for taking down the Confederate flag in front of the South Carolina state capitol after the racially motivated massacre of nine people at a Charleston church last month.

"On the Confederate flag issue, he wanted to be out early making a strong statement — saying this is the right thing to do, irregardless of the South Carolina primary," Packer said. "He sees an opportunity for himself to be the voice of reason in the chaos."

Over the weekend, he denounced Donald Trump's suggestion that immigrants coming across the border from Mexico were rapists and criminals, saying the remarks were harmful to the image of the Republican Party.

"I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans and I feel it was unfortunate," Romney said.

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's longtime adviser and close associate, said the most likely scenario for the primary "is that he will remain neutral until we have a presumptive nominee."

"The reason for that is because there's a bunch of candidates who are close to Mitt on the issues — and if they're all competing with one another, he's going to stay out of it," he said.

Still, as much as the contenders might like an early endorsement, Romney seems far more interested in weighing in on the issues that matter to him right now.

On Saturday in Wolfeboro, Romney told reporters that he had "no plans to get behind anybody," noting that many of them had helped him during his campaign.

"I'm going to be as loyal to them as they were to me," he said.

Though many of the candidates frequently call on Romney for counsel, he declined to offer his advice -- at least publicly -- on how they should conduct their campaigns.

"These guys will make their own mistakes," he quipped to reporters. "Hopefully they won't follow mine."

With many friends in the race, he has also been generous in offering introductions to the donors who raised more than a billion dollars to power his 2012 run for the presidency. More than a half dozen 2016 candidates attended his annual "Experts & Enthusiasts" summit in Park City, Utah, where they were given entrée to donors who could help their respective bids.

In an interview with Fox's Megyn Kelly from Deer Valley, Utah, before that donor retreat in June, Romney insisted he would stay "forcefully neutral" in the Republican primary and would not give his stamp of approval to any of the contenders.

He told reporters at the "E2" summit that there were as many as eight GOP candidates who shared similar views on the issues and described a narrow scenario in which he would endorse. He might weigh in, he said, if the race got down to two contenders — and one of them came far closer to sharing his vision for America than the other.

"How it will sort out among those people, time will tell," Romney told reporters at the gathering in Park City. "You just can't predict who is gonna star in the debates, who is going to put in the time in New Hampshire with all of the town meetings, who is going to visit the different counties of Iowa and then emerge."

"I think it will probably narrow down at some point to a smaller group than 15, but I don't know who those (candidates) will be. I'm not sure they'll all be the eight that I'm closest to from a policy standpoint, it may be some I have a little more distance from," he said.

Romney has taken pains not to show favoritism, but he is clearly closer to candidates like Rubio — who worked hard for Romney from the early days of his campaign — than Jeb Bush, with whom he shares a cordial but not close relationship.

For now, his former advisers say he is pleased with the strength of the field and content to just watch the show — particularly on the Democratic side, where Bernie Sanders seems to be closing in on Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"I thought on the other side it would be kind of boring," he said this weekend, "but Bernie Sanders has made it kind of exciting, so we'll see."

[BayGBM]

Mitt Romney weighs in on 2016, says Trump ‘will not be the nominee’
By Philip Rucker

Mitt Romney long ago ruled out a presidential run in 2016, but he is hardly retired from politics.

As he answered questions from college students for an hour on Wednesday, it became clear that Romney is a keen if not obsessive observer of the campaign’s twists and turns and has strong ideas on what the Republican Party and its eventual nominee must do to win back the White House.

“The Democrats have done a great job characterizing my party as the party of the rich,” Romney said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He added: “Rich people have gotten richer under President Obama. It’s the poor and the middle class who are suffering. It’s the poor and the middle class who need conservatives.”

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, spoke Wednesday afternoon at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington. One of his former campaign aides, Jake Kastan, who is now pursuing an MBA at Georgetown, invited Romney to visit and moderated a question-and-answer session with a few hundred fellow students.

Assessing the presidential contest, Romney said he was surprised at how it was unfolding. Romney seriously considered entering himself in what would have been his third quest for the presidency, but he decided against it in January.

“I would have never predicted that the leader of my party at this stage would be Donald Trump and the leader in their party right now would be a socialist,” Romney said, referring to Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont.

Romney had sharp words for Trump, a billionaire businessman and reality television star who endorsed Romney in 2012 and donated to his campaign. Explaining the Trump phenomenon, Romney said, “Frankly, when you light your hair on fire, you make the evening news, and some people have a lot of hair lit on fire.”

“The attention that Mr. Trump has brought to the process is welcome,” Romney said. “We like the fact that people are watching the debates. That’s the positive side. The negative side is that he’s said some things that he described the other day as being ‘childish.’ . . . I’m afraid he brought attention to [immigration] in a way that was not productive and not appropriate in saying the things he did about Mexican American immigrants.”

Romney said he is concerned that several candidates — he did not name names — have made statements “that some minority populations look at and say, ‘Wow, I guess they don’t like me very much.’ ” He said Republicans must communicate with heart and say, “We like legal immigration and we like helping people.”

Romney said he sees the Republican contest breaking into two brackets: “the more insurgent, outspoken, tea party perhaps bracket” and “the more mainstream conservative bracket.” In the former, he placed Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. In the latter, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, retired technology executive Carly Fiorina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Romney was definitive in predicting the front-runner’s fate: “Donald Trump will not be the nominee. Ultimately our nominee will come from the mainstream conservative bracket. I don’t know who that will be.”

Reflecting on the anger many voters feel toward politicians, Romney said he has been reading the writings of John Adams, the nation’s second president, and cited a letter that Adams wrote to John Taylor: “He said, ‘Every democracy murders itself. Every democracy commits suicide.’ ”

But Romney said he believed the American people would “do the right thing.”

“I know there’s some skunks in any endeavor — business, politics — and they get most of the visibility, but there are also some really good people,” Romney said.

Throughout his hour with students, Romney repeatedly referenced specific things he would do if he were president. In Syria, for instance, he said he would “wall off” and “isolate” President Bashar al-Assad. Romney was particularly animated about the Iran nuclear deal, saying that “Donald Trump was right: [President Obama] is a terrible negotiator. I can’t imagine a worse negotiator.”

On domestic policy, Romney said he would “put a stick in the heart of generational poverty” and dramatically overhaul the 1960s-era social programs that he said had failed in the war on poverty. This was a core part of Romney’s message in January as he toyed with a run.

Romney appeared relaxed with the students, joking, “I was approached in the airport some time ago. Someone said, ‘You look familiar. Who are you?’ I said, ‘Tom Brady.’ ”

At another point, Romney sang the virtues of the Netflix series “House of Cards” — though he noted, “I will not take inspiration from Frank Underwood.” Playfully motioning to a reporter, he added that he does not endorse murdering journalists.

With the clock nearing an hour, Romney got his 15th and final question. It came from Kastan, who said his mom wanted to know whether Romney would reconsider his vow not to run again.

“We’ve made that decision,” Romney said.

Afterwards, a Washington Post reporter noted the continuing calls from Romney’s friends to draft him into the race and asked whether his answer was a definitive “no.”

“You know, the unavailable is always the most interesting, the most attractive. Ha, ha, ha,” Romney said, laughing as he made his way out of the auditorium. He was off to the airport and had a plane to catch.

[Primemuscle]

“The Democrats have done a great job characterizing my party as the party of the rich,” Romney said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He  added: “Rich people have gotten richer under President Obama. It’s the poor and the middle class who are suffering. It’s the poor and the middle class who need conservatives.”

One might ask why Mitt, being super rich, would be a Republican. Are we to believe his higher purpose is to help the poor and middleclass so they can stop suffering?

[andreisdaman]

“The Democrats have done a great job characterizing my party as the party of the rich,” Romney said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He  added: “Rich people have gotten richer under President Obama. It’s the poor and the middle class who are suffering. It’s the poor and the middle class who need conservatives.”

One might ask why Mitt being super rich would be a Republican. Are we to believe his higher purpose is to help the poor and middleclass so they can stop suffering?

I think the public has never truly bought into "Mitt Romney...public servant"......and he destroyed himself with the 47% comment which really re-inforced that notion

[BayGBM]

Mitt Romney: Obama must wage war on the Islamic State, not merely harass it
by Mitt Romney

On Friday morning, hours before news broke that terrorists killed 129 people and wounded hundreds of other innocent victims in coordinated, bloody attacks all around Paris, President Obama told Americans that “we have contained” the advance of the Islamic State.

Now that the Islamic State is claiming credit for these attacks, we know just how wrong he was.

After Paris, it’s clear: Doing the minimum won’t make us safe. It’s time the president stopped hedging and took meaningful steps to defend us and our allies.

The president was right when he called the Islamic State a cancer, but it is a cancer that metastasized on his watch. Paris is proof. So are Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa. What we saw Friday we will see here if we continue on the present course. It’s time to change that course, secure the safety of our homeland and preserve our democratic values. Now is the time, not merely to contain the Islamic State, but to eradicate it once and for all.

We must begin by identifying the enemy. We will not defeat it if we are afraid to call it by its name. These heinous acts of terror are waged by radical Islamists: jihadists. And the Islamic State represents the branch of this ideology that currently poses the greatest threat. Islam is not the enemy, but the enemy lives within Islam. Accordingly, the broader Islamic world will play a critical role in this war.

We must wage the war to defeat the enemy, not merely to harass it. For over a year, the president has clung to the hope that an air campaign is sufficient. It demonstrably is not. He must call in the best military minds from the United States and NATO, actually listen to what they have to say and finally construct a comprehensive strategy that integrates our effort with the Kurds, Turks, Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians.

Leading Muslim nations and peoples must immediately engage in a sustained global campaign to promote tolerance and eschew violence. The Islamic State’s recruiting propaganda must be countered by a much larger, more focused effort to discredit it and replace it with traditional Islamic values.

The West must stop the insanity of welcoming hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East without knowing who exactly they are. Women, children and the elderly, perhaps, but not thousands upon thousands of single young men.

Only America can lead this war, and that leadership means being willing to devote whatever resources are required to win — even boots on the ground. We have the best-equipped and most dedicated military for good reason. The president must stop trying to placate his political base by saying what he won’t do and tell Americans what he will do.

We must do what it takes.

[BayGBM]

N.H. primary poll puts non-candidate Romney first
by James Pindell

For Republicans fearful of Donald Trump becoming their party’s presidential nominee, a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters offers a three-word solution: Willard Mitt Romney.

If the former Massachusetts governor were added to the mix of the 14 other Republican candidates running in the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire voters would, if the election were held now, give him a 2-to-1 win over Trump, the leader of the field.

Romney, who said as recently as last week that he is not interested in running, did not file for the New Hampshire primary ballot by the deadline last Friday. He would have the support of 31 percent of Granite State Republicans compared with 15 percent backing Trump, the poll indicates.

With Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, out of the picture, Trump continues to dominate. Trump has 22 percent support, double that of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who ran second in the poll, with 11 percent.

“Donald Trump’s loyal 22 percent goes a long way in New Hampshire,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. “As long as the remaining 78 percent is split relatively evenly among the six or seven major contenders, we’re getting close to ‘Trump-mate’ in the Granite State.”

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has been in second place in New Hampshire in most polls for much of the past month, ran third in the new poll, with 10 percent — a showing that comes amid new scrutiny of Carson’s statements about his own past and about foreign policy.

Ohio Governor John Kasich and Texas Senator Ted Cruz were tied for fourth, with 9 percent, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush had 8 percent. All others had either 4 percent support or less.

The poll of 500 New Hampshire Republicans and independent voters who said they intend to vote in the Republican primary was taken last Tuesday through Thursday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

These poll numbers do more than simply provide a snapshot of where the race stands with 10 weeks to go before the New Hampshire primary. For the first time, polls in Iowa and New Hampshire will help determine who can make the cut at the next Republican debate in December.

On Friday, CNN released criteria stipulating that a candidate must have a polling average of at least 3.5 percent nationally or 4 percent in Iowa or New Hampshire. In this New Hampshire poll, eight candidates would quality for the main stage, but Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who registered at 3 percent, would be dropped for the first time. Paul also is below the necessary level in Iowa and nationally.

Still, the New Hampshire primary remains in flux, with 18 percent undecided on whom they would vote for. If Romney were in the field — having missed the filing deadline he could now participate only as a write-in candidate — roughly one in three voters would abandon their current choice to follow him.

Sean McDonough of Windham, N.H., a 49-year-old mortgage originator and father of three, is one of them. McDonough, who was among those polled, said in an interview that he wants a businessman to run the country.

Today he prefers Trump, but he would back Romney instead, given the opportunity, “because when it comes to talking with leaders in other countries, Romney is probably a better person to do that.”

The poll also found that New Hampshire GOP voters’ priorities have changed in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. All year, jobs and the economy had been the top issue among these voters, but now 42 percent said terrorism and national security are the most important issues facing the country.

This does not appear likely to have much effect on preferences in the race for the GOP nomination, however, with one in four saying that Trump was the “best equipped” to handle the American response to the Islamic State. Another 13 percent believed that Rubio could lead the response better than others.

Rubio, in fact, is emerging to be a consensus pick among mainstream Republicans. He had the highest personal favorability rating among those polled and he led others as the second-choice candidate of those polled. Further, Rubio was viewed as the second most likely to win in the general election, behind Trump.

Angie Murphy, an 87-year-old from Bedford, N.H., has become more interested in Rubio in recent weeks, drawn to his youth and his presentation.

“I think he is a young, intelligent man who has the perfect background of his Cuban parents that will be perfect for today,” Murphy said.

Meanwhile Carson, who officially filed to put his name on the New Hampshire ballot on Friday, still has a good deal of support in the state.

Sarah Hilman, a 68-year-old retired day care worker in Wakefield, N.H., said she liked that Carson “doesn’t panic” under the intense media scrutiny.

“He seems like he is very cool-headed, and he has been on the hot seat lately,” Hilman said. But Hilman said that if Romney suddenly got into the race, she would have to give him another look.

“I am on the fence on that one,” Hilman said. “He was a very successful businessman. The fact that he does have a little bit of political experience would probably not be a bad thing.”

Cruz is also becoming the choice of many conservatives in the state and has nearly doubled his support in the last month, compared with other polls of New Hampshire Republicans.

That Cruz “stands up for the Constitution” is the reason that Chuck Martin, a 44-year-old engineer from Merrimack, N.H., is supporting him. “The country is in crisis,” Martin said. He believes Cruz is the most likely to follow the Constitution because he has proven he will “not compromise on principles” and has argued in front of the US Supreme Court.

The poll put Bush at sixth place, but the difference between Rubio’s second place and Bush’s sixth was within the poll’s margin of error.

The person who fared worst in the poll was Romney’s 2012 primary rival, Rick Santorum.

[240 is Back]

Repubs have such little faith in their candidates... They put a 2 time loser like Romney first?

Gulp.  Not good. 

[BayGBM]

Mitt Romney Could Stop Donald Trump. Seriously.
But when will he make his move?
by Scott Conroy

CONCORD, N.H. -- The last man standing in the way of Donald Trump's increasingly viable path to the Republican presidential nomination may not be one of his 2016 rivals, but rather a reassuring face from the GOP’s recent past: Mitt Romney.

No, there is no longer any serious discussion of the 2012 Republican nominee making a late entry into the current contest as a white knight embarking on one last quest to derail a singularly dangerous foe or sideline the caustic front-runner’s ideologically similar GOP competitors. That window, which has long been closed, is now welded shut by a secure fusion of filing deadlines and logistical realities. 

But even from the sidelines, Romney holds serious leverage over the direction of the Republican primary -- more sway than many of the candidates themselves. And that's especially true in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, where he remains particularly popular among the GOP rank and file.

“If Romney were to get involved in the last month before the [New Hampshire] primary and say, ‘Listen, there are a lot of great people in this race, but Candidate X is the person I’m going to stand with, I think the earned media would be tremendous,” said one high-level New Hampshire Republican strategist, who, like other sources in this story, requested anonymity in order to speak more candidly. “And if he decided not only to go in to endorse, but also hit the road with that candidate, it could be determinative.”

“He would be, more than anyone else, the game-changer on the ground in New Hampshire,” the strategist added.

The GOP race in New Hampshire, where all of the establishment-backed candidates are making their do-or-die stands has become -- for now, at least -- a battle for second place among a half-dozen contenders left in the front-runner's dust. Trump has held a comfortable and consistent lead in New Hampshire since July. But a Suffolk poll last month showed that if Romney himself were a candidate, he would have a 2-to-1 lead over Trump in New Hampshire -- where the former Massachusetts governor maintains a lakeside home and cruised to an easy victory in the 2012 primary.

If Romney were to take that goodwill and back one of the establishment-friendly GOP contenders, Republican powerbrokers agree, it would upend the race’s dynamic and, in turn, reverberate far beyond the Granite State.

But it's less clear which candidate Romney would be inclined to get behind.

Romney has long expressed public and private admiration for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) -- both of whom visited Romney’s Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, home for an intrigue-filled sleepover party last 4th of July weekend. Romney also exchanges emails from time to time with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and maintains a personal relationship with several other candidates.

With an unusually large percentage of key Republican donors still on the sidelines, Romney’s financial network could help shape the race into a binary choice by elevating one GOP contender as the consensus alternative to Trump, even before any voting begins. In the aftermath of Trump’s recent inflammatory comments calling for a ban on Muslims traveling to the United States, operatives from several campaigns are laying out the case quietly for why the Massachusetts Republican to do just that.

“I think there’s a world that exists where he sees how the environment looks in January and endorses then, before New Hampshire,” said one high-level operative to a candidate who has been seeking Romney’s support.

Former Romney aides and other party strategists told The Huffington Post that the 2012 GOP nominee is receptive to concerns about how a divided GOP field is helping Trump -- whose standing in the national and New Hampshire polls has topped out in the 30 percent range. But Romney isn't sure how to best respond.

“Mitt is reluctant, as nothing seems to touch this guy,” said one person who is close to Romney.

While the data-obsessed Romney is hesitant by nature to act impulsively, the consensus among those who know him is that he won't hold stubbornly to a preconceived timeline about when to make a move if he determines that Trump’s potential to wreck the party’s chances in 2016 demands haste.

"He probably won’t endorse right away," said one former top Romney campaign official. "But I could see him feeling a moral obligation to do so if Trump still is around."

Among the factors weighing on Romney’s mind, his associates say, is the mild sense of disappointment he harbors with the GOP field for allowing the race to get to a point where a gleefully deceitful reality TV star could be so far ahead with just two months to go until the New Hampshire primary.

As Romney sees it, the best strategy would have been for a GOP candidate to have adopted an overtly anti-Trump strategy some time ago. One former senior aide pointed to the way Romney successfully attacked former Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) on Social Security and immigration as soon as the Texas Republican entered the 2012 primary; or how his super PAC promptly upended Newt Gingrich in Florida on the heels of the former House speaker's South Carolina primary victory.

In that vein, most people close to Romney do not believe that he is currently inclined to offer an endorsement prior to the New Hampshire primary. Better to have an anti-Trump candidate emerge on his own merit, the thinking goes, than to play kingmaker for one. And plus, the grind of the primary campaign -- even one pulled to these nativist depths -- builds political character that will be useful to the eventual nominee in the general election, assuming it’s not Trump.

"He recognizes from the candidate’s standpoint, the campaigns and candidates have put themselves on the line, they are doing the hard work and putting in the 20-hour days right now," said Kevin Madden, a former Romney adviser. "When you do that and have outside observers who don’t have stakes in the game making grand projections about the race -- it annoyed him when he was in the race, and I think he is sensitive to doing it now."

Yet by all accounts, Romney is moved by the drama of the moment. He cares about the Republican brand and is acutely aware of the damage that a vitriolic, demagogue-driven primary can inflict, having watched his own presidential bid suffer from rhetorical and policy shifts rightward.

And when it comes to grand gestures to help block the party from digging itself into an even bigger hole, Romney can draw from personal history.

His father, George Romney, famously protested the nomination of Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) in 1964. Lore has it that the elder Romney walked out of the convention hall when Goldwater was nominated, though some have called that tale into question. Regardless, the image of a conscience-driven son following in the footsteps of his beloved father -- staging a dramatic protest against an unsupportable potential nominee -- isn't difficult to conjure.

"Remember, his father wouldn’t endorse Goldwater," said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.). "It is important what the establishment figures do to a nominee if the candidate is too far to the right."

[240 is Back]

there's a LOT of talk about the GOP making a Romney-Ryan II ticket to stop trump at the convention.



by that point, you'll have hilary donating millions of dollars to keep Trump in the race.  LOL.  She is benefiting so much.  Trump being anti-muslim is all over the news.  She skates on by, up 30 points over bernie. 

[andreisdaman]

there's a LOT of talk about the GOP making a Romney-Ryan II ticket to stop trump at the convention.



by that point, you'll have hilary donating millions of dollars to keep Trump in the race.  LOL.  She is benefiting so much.  Trump being anti-muslim is all over the news.  She skates on by, up 30 points over bernie. 

Agreed.....I've never seen Hillary with such a low profile.......all networks focusing on Trump is really helping Hillary fly under the radar and be less controversial than she is.....haven't heard anything about the email investigation....just birds tweeting in the trees

[headhuntersix]

I guess that's all a matter of perspective. They released email proof this week that DOD through AFRICOM had assets ready to go to support the fight in Benghazi and DOS turned them down. So all the rumors about Gen Hamm getting into with his staff...must have been something to it. Hil lied straight up multiple times and nobody was held accountable. I guess its good she's low key...she's just as surprised as the RINO's that Ol Donald has struck a nerve with the electorate. Most polls have his Muslim idea pretty popular along with favorable ratings on assault weapons. Must make her and Obama's head explode. Oddly the two highest least favorable ratings running...Trump and Hil.

[andreisdaman]

I guess that's all a matter of perspective. They released email proof this week that DOD through AFRICOM had assets ready to go to support the fight in Benghazi and DOS turned them down. So all the rumors about Gen Hamm getting into with his staff...must have been something to it. Hil lied straight up multiple times and nobody was held accountable. I guess its good she's low key...she's just as surprised as the RINO's that Ol Donald has struck a nerve with the electorate. Most polls have his Muslim idea pretty popular along with favorable ratings on assault weapons. Must make her and Obama's head explode. Oddly the two highest least favorable ratings running...Trump and Hil.

I don't know if Hillary is guilty or not...I suspect there is some lying going on....and no way should she have had her own server in her house...that's really shady in my opinion.....but the funny thing is that the FBI STILL has not definitively said that she did something wrong and that the emails have risen to the point of being top secret and harmful to national security....I don't know what is going on with the investigation but it makes you wonder if they REALLY have something or not

why would Obama be upset about what Donald trump says???..he's out the door soon.....I'm actually glad he's leaving.....he's too much of a lightning rod for guys like you who want to blame the president for EVERYTHING

[BayGBM]

Mitt Romney urges voters to choose Cruz in Utah and ‘future contests,’ with an eye on delegates
By David Weigel

While Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) headed to the second of three long-scheduled town halls in Utah, Mitt Romney announced that he'd be voting for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in this coming Tuesday's caucuses.

"The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention," Romney explained on his Facebook page. "At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.  I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail."

The call for an open convention by the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP nominee contradicted messages that Kasich and Cruz were pressing as they campaigned ahead in Tuesday's Western contests. Cruz would need to win around 78 percent of the delegates available in coming primaries to win the nomination outright. Nonetheless, he claims that a delegate win, not an open convention, is his goal.

"Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination: ours and Donald Trump's," he told supporters at his Tuesday night election rally in Houston. "Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever."

Kasich, meanwhile, is pointing to the late-voting Midwestern and Northeastern states to argue that Cruz's best primaries are behind him. Cruz, who lost every Southern primary outside his native Texas, has outperformed Trump in caucuses and Western states, but underperformed him in places like Ohio, Vermont and Massachusetts. Kasich, who has rarely been attacked on the trail or in ads, enjoys the biggest crossover support from Democrats and highest favorable ratings of any remaining Republican candidate.

Yet Utah, where Kasich has several key endorsements, is seen as the sort of place where he can only hurt Cruz. The Beehive State holds binding "winner-take-most" caucuses, where any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote grabs all 40 available delegates. If no candidate reaches a majority, the delegates are distributed proportionately.

There's been no public polling of Utah since the primaries were narrowed down to three candidates, but there is strong evidence, based on the vote so far by Mormon Republicans, that Cruz has an advantage. (Trump fared terribly in the more Mormon parts of Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming.) Were Cruz to take 40 Utah delegates, he'd cut back into the lead Trump built on March 15. Were he to win 49 percent, he'd take just 20 delegates.

After March 22, the primaries shift to Wisconsin, then to a quintet of Northeastern states.

Romney's own vote and advice cut against Kasich's theory of the primary, and Cruz's confidence -- though they do allow the Texan to claim that the party establishment is acknowledging him as the stop-Trump candidate.

In Utah, Kasich has so far offered the same pitch that sold well in Michigan and Ohio, but poorly in the South. When one voter asked why he canceled a debate that had been scheduled for Monday in Salt Lake City, Kasich insisted that voters would get more from direct campaigning than from a debate Trump had already canceled on.

"If we don't have the number one guy there, there's no point in having a debate," said Kasich. "I can use my time more effectively by doing things like this."

[BayGBM]

Romney argues to vote for an open convention
By Jennifer Rubin

Like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mitt Romney does his party and the country a service by a no-nonsense stance on Donald Trump:

    This week, in the Utah nominating caucus, I will vote for Senator Ted Cruz.

    Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism. Through the calculated statements of its leader, Trumpism has become associated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence. I am repulsed by each and every one of these.

    The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention. At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.

    I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail.

    I will vote for Senator Cruz and I encourage others to do so as well, so that we can have an open convention and nominate a Republican.

Romney does not bother touting Cruz. The salient point is that Cruz is not Trump and can stop Trump from getting to 1,237 delegates.

Romney does not insist Cruz must be the nominee; to the contrary Romney makes clear Cruz is a vehicle to an open convention. It is an important distinction that should alleviate voters’ queasiness about voting for Cruz. They are essentially voting for an open convention to stop Trump.

Romney does not humor Kasich, who persists with the canard that he can arise from the ashes of the convention as the nominee. As the winner of one primary and a fraction of the delegates others have accumulated lay claim to the nomination, Kasich cannot be the answer to a deadlocked convention, especially in a year in which the electorate has rebelled against political insiders just like the crew trying to foist Kasich on the GOP. There is no groundswell of support for Kasich aside from his team of stale Beltway consultants. An effort to throw the nomination to him would be seen as no more legitimate than an effort to parachute in a non-candidate.

And finally, Romney makes clear that opposition to Trump is grounded in morality and decency. Trump’s philosophy — an “ism” like other dangerous causes built around a cult figure — is not something one can accommodate. It is incompatible with conservativism and little “d” democracy.

Romney and other respected Republicans — former Cabinet members, Bush 41 and Bush 43, former VPs and highly-respected, retired military officials should appear either in person or in media in each and every remaining primary and caucus state to reiterate that message. It is especially critical that they make that case in California, whose 172 delegates must be kept out of Trump’s clutches. It is time they defended the GOP from a putsch by the Trumpkins.

The message, in short, is not merely #NeverTrump, but #YesOpenConvention.

[BayGBM]

Mitt Romney will skip Trump’s nominating convention in Cleveland
By Philip Rucker

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, plans to skip this summer's Republican National Convention in Cleveland where Donald Trump will be officially nominated — an unusual move that underscores the deep unease many Republican leaders have about the brash celebrity mogul as their standard bearer.

A Romney aide told The Washington Post by email Thursday morning, "Governor Romney has no plans to attend convention."

Romney has been one of Trump's chief critics this spring. He delivered a searing, point-by-point indictment of Trump in March — from his business record to his character to his divisive campaign-trail rhetoric.

Trump, who endorsed Romney in 2012 and raised money for his campaign, has since been harshly critical of the campaign that Romney ran. In an interview last month, Trump told The Post that he understood it would be “very hard” for Romney to attend the convention but that he would have no qualms about him being in Cleveland.

“I don’t care,” Trump said. “He can be there if he wants.”

Romney's announcement comes after the GOP's two living former presidents — George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — announced Wednesday night through their spokesmen that they did not plan to endorse a candidate this year.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party's 2008 presidential nominee, also plans to skip the convention in Cleveland. McCain is facing a potentially difficult reelection campaign in Arizona, a border state with a large Latino population where Trump's hard-line position on immigration may prove polarizing.

[Straw Man]

Mitt Romney will skip Trump’s nominating convention in Cleveland
By Philip Rucker

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, plans to skip this summer's Republican National Convention in Cleveland where Donald Trump will be officially nominated — an unusual move that underscores the deep unease many Republican leaders have about the brash celebrity mogul as their standard bearer.

A Romney aide told The Washington Post by email Thursday morning, "Governor Romney has no plans to attend convention."

Romney has been one of Trump's chief critics this spring. He delivered a searing, point-by-point indictment of Trump in March — from his business record to his character to his divisive campaign-trail rhetoric.

Trump, who endorsed Romney in 2012 and raised money for his campaign, has since been harshly critical of the campaign that Romney ran. In an interview last month, Trump told The Post that he understood it would be “very hard” for Romney to attend the convention but that he would have no qualms about him being in Cleveland.

“I don’t care,” Trump said. “He can be there if he wants.”

Romney's announcement comes after the GOP's two living former presidents — George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — announced Wednesday night through their spokesmen that they did not plan to endorse a candidate this year.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party's 2008 presidential nominee, also plans to skip the convention in Cleveland. McCain is facing a potentially difficult reelection campaign in Arizona, a border state with a large Latino population where Trump's hard-line position on immigration may prove polarizing.

I suspect this is how most people in the country feel about Romney