You know this might be an opportune time to point out that as a majority of posters commenting on my humble vanity adamantly oppose you, that nobody twisted your arm to bring you into this thread just to have your ass handed to you.
Nothing personal, just sayin’.
I can respect those (such as the owner of this site) who choose not to support Romney as our nominee. I can respect people taking a principled stand. What I don't respect however are those who spam these threads over and over with their ugly screeds and their demonization of people who do not 100% agree with them. Do they really think these tactics are going to win people over to their side? What these tactics do however is divide us into factions when we should be on the same team, which must be a source of comfort to the Obama camp.
I refuse to take part in these wars but I have no problem stating my own views on the matter. Romney was not my choice. Pretty much since election night in 2008, I had set my sights on Sarah Palin becoming the 2012 nominee and setting things right again with respect to the presidency. However, my dreams were shattered last October when she decided to not run at all. Rather than pouting like a child, stamping my feet, etc., I started looking at the other candidates. Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Santorum, etc.
I never saw the appeal that Newt Gingrich had with this forum. I always thought of him as a self-important buffoon, an entrenched "go along to get along" party hack who enriched himself at the public trough at our expense. Somebody who was part of the problem in D.C., not part of the solution. Yet all that said, if he was our nominee, I'd still be supporting him over Obama.
I believe Romney won the nomination because he ran a smart campaign. While other candidates got caught up in the circular firing squad during the primaries, Romney stayed in the background, looked good in the debates, and methodically racked up the delegates. Thus when the primaries were over, Romney was not only the last man standing but he had the necessary delegates to secure the nomination.
So now the fact is that Mitt Romney is the only man standing between us and an Obama second term, which most of us believe will be the end of our nation as we know it. So the question remains: Is Romney so bad that we are better off with an Obama re-election?
My answer to that is a resounding NO!
For all his faults, Mitt Romney is Winston freaking Churchill compared to Barack Obama and the America-hating scum that surround him. We must remove Barack Obama this November. We must.
I will be among the first ones to hold Mitt's feet to the fire if he doesn't fly right after his election. But between now and November, I'm not going to bash Mitt Romney because he is the only person that can send the moving vans to the White House on the evening of January 19th.
Now a few things about the RECENT conduct of Mitt Romney. I must say that I have so far been impressed with the campaign that Mitt has been running since he wrapped this nomination up. No major blunders (despite mainstream media trying to manufacture them). Mitt's been like cool hand Luke these past few months. Piling up money left and right (that he can't spend until after the convention). Choosing an excellent running mate who is not only conservative but ready for prime time. Bubblehead Katie Couric is probably afraid to interview him. Now I loved Sarah Palin but during the 2008 election, I cringed whenever I saw her going up against the mainstream media talking heads who were out to get her. She just wasn't ready for that. Paul Ryan - he will eat them for breakfast and they know it.
Speaking of Paul Ryan, if this is indicative of how Mitt Romney is going to choose his staff and cabinet after he is elected, then I think a lot of us here are going to be pleasantly surprised. Remember that Mitt Romney did an excellent job picking subordinates when he headed Bain Capital. He has a knack for surrounding himself with top-notch people and this is a very important skill for a chief executive to have.
With regard to Romney's stint as Massachusetts governor, remember that he had to work with state legislature that was 90% Democrat. The Democrats controlled the entire state so while I personally was disappointed with Romney's job performance as governor, I'm hard pressed to see what he could have done differently given the environment he had to work in. As for RomneyCare, that's an awful stain that he's going to have to bear. But I also realize that this would have happened with or without Romney and had a Democrat been governor, we would have been saddled with a much more onerous and intrusive health care plan.
I also understand that Romney has taken some inexcusable positions with social issues over the years. No defense for that other than the fact that he's been silent on them since securing his nomination. Perhaps when given a Republican House and Congress, a President Romney will have no need to pander to the homosexual lobby crowd and such. Regardless, we still have the alternative of Obama and so I'll take my chances with President Romney.
So in closing, I thank you for starting the thread and the interesting discussion that followed. I've been a member of this Free Republic for fifteen years and I've been supporting it with $30 a month for most of this time. I'd hate to have those 15 years pissed away on account of a small cadre of ABR people who seem to feel that anybody voting for Mitt Romney is some kind of turncoat, so I'm not going to engage them and add to the infighting that is going on. But I'm not going to stay in the shadows either. I am voting the Romney/Ryan ticket in November and then I'm voting Tea Party conservative all the way downticket. We are going to build on our gains of 2010 and I'm banking that President Romney will pleasantly surprise us all. If not, we will at least have Obama licking ice-cream cones and playing golf on a full-time basis while the Republican controlled House and Senate go about setting things right in our country once again.