I think I could probably turn this into a full time profession

Liz Cheney, one of Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughters, has signed onto Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser.

Liz Cheney, the mother of five children, said in a statement: “Throughout his campaign, (Romney) has distinguished himself as a leader who can guide our country with a clear vision for overcoming the threats we face today. … I look forward to working with Governor Romney because he is the leader our country needs.”

Romney said Liz Cheney brings the campaign “years of experience helping to formulate America’s foreign policy and to advance democracy and reform in the Middle East.”

Liz Cheney previously supported former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who dropped out of the race last week.

Welcome aboard FredHeads for Mitt!

Despite the fact that Shamnesty-supporting Governor of Florida Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain yesterday, influential conservative blogger Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters announced this morning that after long and careful consideration, “I will enthusiastically caucus for Mitt Romney on February 5th.”

The Captain’s Quarter’s site meter currently reads at 37,129,643 hits. That is, without a doubt, a huge amount of far-reaching fan’s and readers who consider and value The Captain’s opinion as worthy.

McCain’s outright lies yesterday about Mitt Romney’s statements on Iraq troop withdrawal aren’t going to win him any votes either.

Not a bad way to start the day.

As you all know, and to the dismay of his supporters, Fred Thompson recently announced his retirement from the Republican Presidential Nomination process for 2008. As I wander about my favorite internet blogs and haunts, I decided that it might be kind of fun to make mention of any new converts who were previously Thompson supporters, but who have now switched over to become Mitt Romney supporters. These highly intelligent, strongly principled, politically savvy, and thoroughly informed individuals and/or groups of people will heretofore otherwise be known as…… FredHeads For Mitt (even those that are still in the seriously thinking about liking Mitt phase).

A link to the post where they publicly proclaim either their alliance, or their consideration to like Mitt Romney for President in 2008 Campaign, will be highlighted under the FredHeads For Mitt Logo that the good folks at the Romney campaign had the foresight to make up.

If you happen across a website or blog and notice a conversion, or even a hint of a conversion from Thompson to Romney, please leave a comment as to where I might find the info.

And please, feel free to snatch the FredHeads For Mitt Logo, to pass around to your friends! So far, I’ve found two today…….

Welcome aboard FredHeads For Mitt

Welcome aboard FredHeads For Mitt (still in the really starting to like this guy phase)

If you see any more converts, hollar! We’d love to link to their site and welcome them aboard!

Even the MSM couldn’t ignore Governor Romney’s win in the Michigan Primary last night.  Unlike Romney’s Wyoming victory, the cameras were rolling in Michigan for days before the contest.  They recorded Romney’s positive messages about turning around the Michigan economy, protecting our borders and defeating our enemies abroad.  These issues won Romney 39% of the Michigan vote, fully 9% more than the McCain, who finished second.

This win gives the Romney campaign the only thing it had been lacking up to this point–a first place win that even opponents couldn’t explain away.  Since January 4, various media pundits and backers of other candidates have valiantly ignored the strong second place showings, the tremendous nation-wide support, the win in Wyoming, and the fact that Romney had a majority of the popular vote and of pledged delegates.  Instead, they focused on the fact that in Iowa and New Hampshire Romney’s name was not in the number one slot.

However, this race is shaping up to be one that will be unique in the history of Presidential politics.  Prominent wins by Huckabee and McCain have brought strong conservative voices into the race to actively campaign against them.  Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh had even declared that to nominate either of these candidates would mean the end of the Republican party.  Should either of these liberal men be nominated, conservatives would have to find, or form, another party to represent the values of small government and individual freedom.

I think that the same thing would be true of a Giuliani nomination.  Giuliani does not represent the social conservative values that so many Americans hold dear to them.  Nor is it clear that he would respect promises at fiscal and judicial conservatism.  This leaves us to decide between Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.  (Ron Paul would be an ideal president–in 1824.  If only we could get the rest of the world to limit their weapons to the technology of that era then he would be a logical choice for conservatives.)

Fred Thompson seems to be a good person with a desire to do what is best for his country.  Romney, however, has a resume that is unique among the candidates.  He has spent his life learning to find new and innovative solutions to common problems.  The problems of Washington are as common as it gets, but epic in scale and with no one willing to stick out their political neck to solve them.  Romney is not a career politician and he has the drive to solve even the most difficult problems.  Romney also has the business head to understand and analyze the waves of numbers that describe our nation’s current economic status and the options for altering government involvement.

If Romney has one failing it is that he sometimes seems to view the government as the head of a large business interest.  Corporations sometimes offer benefits for the good of the employee and the good of the company at large.  Government does not have this responsibility to the people of this nation.  When government “offers” benefits such as welfare and health care to the people the price is a portion of our freedom.  Romney, in my estimation, is the most conservative candidate in this race.  But he can be much more conservative.  It is my hope that as the campaign progresses he will move in that direction.

In the meantime,  Congratulations to Governor Romney and his family.  Congratulations to all of his supporters.  And God Bless America.

It was less than five minutes into the GOP YouTube Debate in Florida for Rudy Giuliani to begin personal attacks on Mitt Romney.  As soon as they began discussing Giuliani’s efforts to make and keep New York a sanctuary city, the former mayor started dishing out insults and refused to acknowledge substance to Romney’s position.

The mayor accused Romney of doing nothing about sanctuary cities in his state during his term as govenor.  That said, he immediately began firing out quips about how Romney had illegal immigrants doing yard work.  At his mansion.  (Isn’t class envy supposed to be the Democrat’s game?)  Giuliani went so far as to dub Romney’s home a “sanctuary mansion.”

Romney’s response was calm, rational and completely ignored by Giuliani who was far too amused by his own wittiness to actually deal with the issue.  Romney repeatedly asked if it was acceptable to single out workers, working for a company hired by an individual, who looked or spoke differently from oneself and demand they prove their legal status to work in the United States.  He characterized this thinking as un-American.  (Giuliani was too busy trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard at his own jokes to notice that he sounded a little biggoted and racist on this issue.)

The implication was not lost on voters, however.  During the commercial breaks, CNN.com offered highlights and viewer commentary on the debate.  The first comment addressed Romney’s point and agreed that to suggest we aggressively demand proof of legal status from anyone who works for the businesses we patronize smacked of intollerance.

Meanwhile, Fred Thompson had the only ad that focused soley on the weaknesses of fellow Republican candidates.  (Each candidate submitted a 30 second spot and they were aired by CNN periodically throughout the debate.)  The first half of Thompson’s spot simply showed Romney stating his pro-abortion position during a debate with Ted Kennedy in 1994.  The second half targeted Mike Huckabee’s liberal fiscal record.  When asked about the ad, Thompson responded with a sly grin and a shrug.  He stated simply that those were his opponents own words.

In the time Romney was given to respond, he passionately repeated that he had a pro-choice position at the time he ran for govenor.  As govenor, when actually confronted with the issue, he found that he could not sign a bill that would mean death to thousands of unborn children.  He changed his position.  He pointed out that the change was not immediate and had been made some years ago.  He stated that his record as govenor was clearly pro-life.  He told Republican voters that he had been wrong and that if they wanted a candidate who had always been perfect they would have to get someone else.

(You’d think his opponents would figure out that he has a good, solid, rehearsed answer to this charge and quit using trying to trip him up on it.  It makes him look good and them look petty.  But, with all deference to Thompson, he did all of his “attacking” in a video.  It was done with much more class than Giuliani’s taunting.)

I don’t remember Huckabee’s response to the Thompson video.  With all due respect to Huckabee and his supporters, after a few minutes all of his pontificating just started to sound the same.

Poor John McCain was asked to relive his years as a POW while others answered a question about interrogation techniques.  He was overtly emotional as he persistently attacked Romney’s position on waterboarding when Romney did not actually disagree with him.  In fact, Romney stated clearly that he did not approve of and would not use torture for interrogation.  He further explained, more than once, that he would seek the advice of Senator McCain and others about the effectiveness and morality of interrogation methods.  However, Romney simply refused to discuss the specifics of methods he would or would not use.  He was of the opinion that that information could be useful to our enemies and that those enemies might have figured out how to tune into CNN.

All in all, Romney turned in a credible performance.  He kept his cool and didn’t let himself get tripped up too much.  He did have an awkward moment or two with questions about religion but that is a subject for another post. 

The highlight of the debate replays, in my opinion, should be his scuffle with Giuliani over immigration in which he defenitely came off best.  But you never know,  maybe by tomorrow the Giuliani camp will come up with a really good “Yo Mama” joke to even the score.