Romney joins 2008 presidential race"We have lost faith in government," Romney said in his native state as he formally entered the 2008 race. "It is time for innovation and transformation in Washington. It is what our country needs. It is what our people deserve."His political resume thin — he served just one term as Massachusetts governor — Romney sought to turn that potential weakness into a strength, portraying himself as the best candidate to meet the country's challenges given his venture capitalist background and proven leadership in the public, private and volunteer sectors.
In doing so, he attempted to draw a stark distinction between his qualifications and those of his top Republican rival, four-term Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona, who is widely considered the GOP candidate to beat after losing to George W. Bush in 2000.
"I don't believe Washington can be transformed from within by lifetime politicians," Romney said, an obvious swipe at McCain without mentioning his name. "There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements — and too little real world experience managing, guiding, leading."
"I don't believe Washington can be transformed by someone who has never tried doing such a thing before, in any setting, by someone who has never run a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world," said Romney, who added: "Talk is easy, talk is cheap. It is the doing that's hard."
Although he is not well-known nationally and hardly registers in public opinion polls, Romney is considered a serious candidate in the same tier as McCain and former two-term New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Both political celebrities rank at the top of most polls. All three are expected to be able to raise the millions needed for a strong bid.
Yet, all three also have taken positions that don't necessarily sit well with the GOP's conservative base that is pivotal in deciding the outcome of the Republican primaries. Romney also faces doubts among some religious conservatives because if elected, he would be the first Mormon president.
Romney, who ran as a moderate in a failed 1994 Senate campaign and his winning gubernatorial campaign eight years later, is trying to convince the party faithful that he is a solid conservative and sincere in his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, two issues critical to the GOP base.
As he tries to runs to the right of McCain and Giuliani, Romney wants to avoid being seen as a Massachusetts liberal flip-flopper, a label that led to the downfall of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee
John Kerry in his race against
President Bush.
Hours after announcing his candidacy, Romney addressed some 300 people who braved the snow to see the candidate at the state fairgrounds in Iowa, the first stop on a campaign tour of the early voting states that will end with a major fundraiser in Boston.
Romney's shift on some issues didn't bother at least one voter.
"I know he's changed his views, but I'm satisfied," said David Bowen, who works at an agriculture seed company in Grimes, Iowa. "He has more solid social views than anyone, including the other Republicans."
Romney, 59, was a businessman who spent years amassing a fortune by helping found a venture capitalist firm that invested in fledgling businesses and guided them to grow into healthy corporations.
In 2002, he triumphantly turned the scandal-plagued Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City into a success. As governor, he led Massachusetts out of fiscal woes without raising taxes and pushed through a comprehensive overhaul of the health insurance system.
He hopes his record of accomplishment across those sectors will trump any uneasiness conservatives may have about his right-flank credentials and any skepticism they may feel about his Mormon faith.
Some 24 percent in a USA Today-Gallup poll released Tuesday said they would not vote for a Mormon. Almost half in a recent Newsweek poll said the nation is not ready to elect a Mormon president.
In a coming-out of sorts, Romney announced his long-expected candidacy in Michigan, the place of his birth and upbringing as well as an important stop on the path to the GOP nomination.
Just outside of Detroit, Romney laid out his campaign themes before several hundred sign-waving supporters at the sprawling Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. It was a site chosen for its emphasis on ingenuity that dramatically transformed the nation.
The past meeting the present, Romney spoke from a podium in front of an American Motors Corp., Rambler from yesteryear and a Ford Escape Hybrid in the airport-hangar-like museum. He invoked the memory of his late father, George, who served as governor in the 1960s and made an unsuccessful bid for president.
Romney's wife, Ann, his five grown sons, five daughters-in-law and 10 grandchildren sat off to the side of the main stage as he spoke of the need to strengthen families.
"America can't continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home," he said, adding that values and morals are "under constant attack" and promoting families where a mother and a father are in each child's life.
At home, Romney called for reining in government, making it smaller and less bureaucratic with fewer regulations, and giving power and freedom back to the people, in part, in the form of lower taxes, better schools and more available health care.
On Iraq, Romney reiterated his support for President Bush's policy in the nearly four-year-old war, although he did not name the president, and said that failure in Iraq "could be devastating" for the United States and could mean a future with far more military involvement and far more loss of American life.
Obama has easy trip to New Hampshire
Obama, who entered the race on Saturday in his home state of Illinois, came to New Hampshire on the heels of New York Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton. She faced criticism last weekend for not saying her vote to authorize the use of force in
Iraq was a mistake.
Obama, by contrast, faced little of that skepticism. Even his sharpest questioners began by offering praise and support.
"He hasn't gotten into specifics, but that'll come," state Rep. Jeffrey Fontas said after a Nashua house party with 60 activists. "It's early, so we'll see more and more."
That house party in Nashua brought questions about:
_An Equal Pay Act. Obama helped a state measure during his time in Illinois but didn't commit to a national version.
_Childcare. Obama said it was a problem; he didn't offer specifics.
_The USA Patriot Act. Obama is against parts of it but didn't offer an alternative.
Even while the first-term senator from Illinois didn't have specific solutions, voters in this first-in-the-nation primary state gave him a pass.
"He takes time, he answers fully," said state Rep. Melanie Levesque. "I think we need people who can bring people together. He can do that. We're going to have a tough decision to make."
Obama called for a national solution to health care but stopped short of endorsing or rejecting proposals for mandatory insurance. He said more young people should consider teaching but stopped short of specific incentives.
Later Monday, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Obama discussed Iraq. "Unless we bring that war to a close, we cannot deal with all those other problems I just mentioned," he said. "Not only has it resulted in the tragic loss in our brave soldiers, but it means we're spending $400 billion rebuilding Iraq with money that could have been used here."
Obama did outline an energy plan — a reduction in emissions, cap-and-trade plans for polluting industries, and development of biofuels including ethanol. He also repeated his stance on gay marriage — that civil unions are fine, but marriage is a religious bond.
"I believe that every American has basic rights that have to be respected," said Obama, who noted that his parents perhaps broke the law when they entered into a biracial marriage in the 1960s.
A member of the university audience asked about his appeal to social conservatives. Obama said one of the best lessons he learned in politics was that he couldn't make 100 percent of voters happy. He then noted his friendship with the Rev. Rick Warren, who leads one of the nation's largest megachurches.
And of course this has recieved a lot of attention:
Targeted blogger quits Edwards campaign
One of the chief campaign bloggers for Democratic presidential candidate
John Edwards quit Monday after conservative critics raised questions about her history of provocative online messages.
Amanda Marcotte posted on her personal blog, Pandagon, that the criticism "was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign." Marcotte said she resigned from her position Monday, and that her resignation was accepted by the campaign.
Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign, confirmed that Marcotte was "no longer working for the campaign." She declined additional comment.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded last week that Edwards fire Marcotte and a second blogger, Melissa McEwan, for remarks he deemed anti-Catholic. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, called the messages personally offensive, but decided to keep Marcotte and McEwan on staff.
"No matter what you think about the campaign, I signed on to be a supporter and a tireless employee for them, and if I can't do the job I was hired to do because Bill Donohue doesn't have anything better to do with his time than harass me, then I won't do it," Marcotte wrote Monday night.
Earlier Monday, Marcotte wrote on her personal Web site, "The Christian version of the virgin birth is generally interpreted as super-patriarchal, where ... women are nothing but vessels."
Donohue called both Marcotte and McEwan "foul-mouthed bigots." He did not return a phone call seeking comment Monday night.
McEwan remains on the Edwards campaign staff. She did not return messages left Monday.
― PPlains (PPlains), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link