AZ for Mitt

A blog dedicated to informing Arizonans about Mitt Romney and the campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

It appears that McCain seriously considered, and even intered into talks with Senate Democrats, the idea of leaving the GOP in early 2001. The whole story is here.

This can't help "The Straight Talk Express."

And while I'm on the topic, McCain has said that he might not beat Romney in fundraising this quarter because he got a late start and because he's not very good at it. That is called "spin" folks.

If he can raise expectations for his opponent and lower expectations for himself, it plays to his advantage by either diluting the impact of a poor performance, or making a strong performance seem even better. Besides, what does he mean he got a late start? His exploratory committee, which allowed him to raise funds, was in operation a month before Romney's.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Here is some interesting analysis of Fred Thompson by Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post's The Fix. He raises concerns about Thompson's chances.

Here is an interesting opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal that contrasts Mitt favorably against all of the other candidates when it comes to global warming (thanks to EFM):

Global warming. Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" has moved global warming to the top of the political agenda, and all the candidates with the exception of Mr. Romney seem to have signed on to federal regulation of factory emissions.

Mrs. Clinton is a global warming regulation advocate, and although the global climate warmed just one degree in the last century, Mr. Edwards says that "global warming is an emergency" and "a crisis today" that will no doubt require new taxes to do something about it. Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have sponsored a bill that would over time reduce emissions to one-third of 2000 levels, which unless other nations do the same would have a devastating impact on America's jobs and economy. Mr. Giuliani believes that the debate on global warming is "almost unnecessary" since "the overwhelming number of scientists" believe there is a significant human cause."

Only Mr. Romney sees the challenge: "Kyoto-style sweeping mandates, imposed unilaterally in the United States, would kill jobs, depress growth and shift manufacturing to the dirtiest developing nations." And "Republicans should never abandon pro-growth conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore. Instead of sweeping mandates, we must use America's power of innovation to develop alternative sources of energy and new technologies that use energy more efficiently."

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Here is an interesting piece describing the fragility of Rudy's early lead according to GOP insiders. Their prediction? He won't be the leader come the end of the year.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Here is an op-ed piece by a NH veteran who has switched from McCain to Romney.

Interesting ties between Guiliani and Hugo Chavez in this CNN story.

And here is a piece on some of Guiliani and McCain's emerging woes.

Good news for Romney out of New Hampshire.

A recent poll has him third and gaining ground...

Guiliani 29%
McCain 28%
Romney 22%
Gingrich 5%
Other 7%
Undecided 9%

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The reaction to Romney's CPAC speech has been overwhelmingly positive. Go here to read highlights of others comments, or here to read the speech (thanks to EFM).

A recent LA Times poll of RNC members gives Romney the edge amongst insiders (thanks to My Man Mitt for the heads-up):

Among Republicans, Romney had the most backing among party insiders, with 20% support, followed by Giuliani with 14%, McCain with 10% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia — who has said he might enter the race in the fall — with 8%.

In a potentially worrisome sign for McCain, just over 1 in 10 RNC members said they would not support him if he won the party's nomination in his second attempt.

And this is important because...

"The DNC and RNC members are not just delegates" to the national nominating conventions, said Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan campaign analyst in Washington. "They are key organizers and opinion leaders. They can help build or kill a groundswell, make a candidate's challenge in a state easier or much harder. They matter a lot."

Friday, March 02, 2007

My Man Mitt has some intial reaction to Romney's speech at CPAC, which is pretty good. Click here.