Politics The Contenders: Mitt Romney
posted by on January 5 at 16:15 PM
Sure, November 2008 is nearly two years away, but it’s apparently never too early to declare one’s intention to run for president, and thus it’s never too early to get to know the people who might be the next leader of the free world. This month we’ll be taking a brief look at them.
Mitt Romney
Party: Republican
Age: 60
Status: Exploratory committee formed, likely to announce candidacy on Jan. 8
Romney, currently ending his term as governor of Massachusetts, has been busy over the last few years positioning himself to run for president as a bonafide conservative from Godless New England. As part of this process, he’s taken every recent opportunity available to go against the liberal grain of his state. The most prominent examples of this are his repeated attempts to make it clear that he doesn’t like Massachusetts being the first and only state in the nation to have legalized gay marriage. (This stance has been complicated somewhat by the unearthing, this year, of past statements Romney made supporting “full equality” for gays and lesbians.)
Romney was born in Michigan to George Romney, a former governor of that state, a one-time presidential candidate in 1968, and a former Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Richard Nixon. The senior Mr. Romney was himself born in 1907 in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Mitt Romney, also a practicing Mormon, attended Stanford for two quarters as an undergraduate and then left to go on his Mormon mission in France. When he returned, he finished his BA at Brigham Young University in Utah, graduating in 1971, and then went on to get an MBA and a JD from Harvard.
Romney then worked as a vice-president at a management consulting firm in Boston for 6 years. In 1984, he left to co-found Bain Capitol, a private-equity investment firm that he led for 14 years. In 2002, he left that work to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee, which he transformed from a fiscal nightmare into a relative success.
In 1994, Romney ran unsuccessfully against Ted Kennedy for a Senate seat representing Massachusetts. In 2002, he ran for governor of the state and won, but chose not to run again in 2006, a move that fueled rumors that he was planning a bid for the presidency.
On the issues, Romney is definitely to the right of Republican moderates like John McCain. In addition to his opposition to gay marriage, Romney supports amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay unions. He likes to say: “Every child deserves a mother and a father.”
He finds Roe v. Wade regrettable and is firmly pro-life. As governor, he vetoed bills supporting stem cell research and emergency contraception for rape victims. He supports the death penalty and three-strikes sentencing. He supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He believes withdrawing from Iraq would be a mistake.
On his more suburban-voter-friendly side, he focused a good deal of time as governor on improving education in Massachusetts — campaigning, for instance, to get every child in the state a laptop. He also instituted a state universal health care coverage plan in Massachusetts, a trial program that is being watched by other states.
But what many people want to talk about is Romney’s Mormonism. He would be the first Mormon president and has been vague about his own personal practice of the religion. When people point out that Evangelical Christians, an important part of the Republican base, don’t look too kindly on Mormons, Romney likes to respond:
Most people in South Carolina want a person of faith as their leader. But they don’t care what brand of faith that is … I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe in God. I’m a person of faith and I believe that’s the type of person Americans want.
Here’s the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club” on the issue:
He met his wife, Ann Davies, when she was in High School. They have been married since 1968 and have 5 sons and 10 grandchildren. In 1998 Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
(With research help from super-star intern Sage Van Wing)
Previously: John Edwards, John McCain, and Bill Richardson.
he's the next rick santorum
Apropos name -- his face looks like a catcher's mitt.
we're all in trouble if people are willing to buy into McCain as a "moderate".
Agreed--Mc Cain is not now a moderate, and has never been one. By most measures of Congressional votes he is firmly far right. He just talks nice...
Mitt is a great man who will make a great President, if the politics of religious hatred and bigotry can pull its head out of its collective butts, and vote for an honest, decent, successful man who will truly make a difference ... he will LEAD, rather than follow.
You say "He finds Roe v. Wade regrettable and is firmly pro-life."
You might want to correct that to "firmly against abortion, with the exception of rape, incest, or the mother's health."
Mitt Romney's gift that keeps giving was to slash $25 million in human services funding on the way out.
Nothing to do with religious hatred, my friend, it's just that, well, he sucks. If he's so damn religous shouldn't he be helping the poor and not crushing them?
I live in Massachusetts. He. Is. Awful. I mean I would take another case of herpes infected syphilis, which I got from Dan, before I would EVER live in a state ruled by him again.
There isn't anyone on the D side with his charisma, track record, or fiscal experience. Obama is too new, Edwards is a slimy, poverty exploiting trial lawyer, and Clinton is too vague. The limp-wristed socialist left underestimates this man at their own peril.
You people are pathetic when you cry about Romney's cuts to the bloated, billions of $$ out-of-balance MASS budget (which Romney balanced without raising taxes I might add). Improving the job environment (thousands of jobs GAINED) granting health care to hundreds of thousands of low income families, and doing it with the outright antagonism of the legislature is more than any bleeding heart lib ever did as governor. Look at your beloved Hillary in NY: fewer jobs than when she carpet bagged her way in, a budget that's ludicrously out of whack and not a single major accomplishment to speak of (ala health care). If you think Romney was so bad, pray tell who was the Democratic governor that balanced a 3 billion dollar budget without raising taxes? You never had it so good, and you don't have the good sense to thank heaven that a man named Mitt Romney reigned in your out of control legislature.
But I guess knocks on Romney and the herpes that you carry around from your gay romps make you feel better.
Paradoxically, it was liberal tolerant Massachussetts that could elect a Mormon.
The Christian Right barely exists there. In the USA however they are important in the R nomination process, and asking that bunch to vote for a Mormon is like asking Iraqi Shiites to vote for a Sunni.
They'd sooner vote for a black dude. At least Obama is Christian.
When I first discovered Romney, I thought he didn't have a prayer because he was Mormon. But, over the last few weeks I've looked at his record and speeches and found that he's a powerful leader. He has great potential to lead our country forward and past many problems we face today. I could care less whether he is Mormon or not. My only hope through this campaign is that he will be classified as "Romney the leader" instead of "Romney the Mormon."
"Romney the leader"?
How about "Romney the fucking hypocrite"? Yeah, I like that better. Santorum was an asshat, but at least he was consistent. I disagreed with him on nearly any conceivable position, but at least he was honest about his beliefs, and acted on them (much to my dismay, most of the time). Romney's previous support of gay rights, and his recent 180 to now hating on teh gays pisses me off to no end. Caving in to the religious right and gay bashing to score points with the wackos is not my idea of leadership. It's my idea of pandering.
Piss off Romney.
William the Conquerer used to be called William the Bastard. Anyone want to guess how he got himself re-named? Ignore Romney at your peril.
But we've already had a President who's a Moron. What's the big deal?
AS IF ANY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IS CLINGING TO SUPPORT POTENTIAL FROM THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF SEATTLE......
SOME NEED FOR POSTERS HERE TO DETACH FROM ALL THE ANGST AND ANSWER THE QUESTION, MIGHT HE BE NOMINATED ??
FROM WHAT I SEE, HE IS THEIR BEST CHANCE ..... CORRUPTION FREE. NATIONAL NAME. TEN STATES ON BOARD TO START.
HE IS A BETTER SPEAKER THAN CLINTON. PERFECT CRAGGY MALE LOOKS FOR TV.
OH, I FORGOT, RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY IS THE DECIDING FACTOR. CALL THE GHOST OF JFK FOR COMMENT ON THAT OLD CANARD.
FWIW in his departure, the good people of MA voted in an unabashed leftist, after years of mind-numbing Republican recidivism (Weld, to Celluci, to Swift (gah, hack, cough, spit, sorry about that)).
And remember: A New England Republican plays like a pinko hippie freak in Utah.
What in general programs exist for the help family with low income? WBR LeoP
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