Remembering Romney's Olympic success

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games opening this weekend, this is a good time to take a look back at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games, probably one of the most successful in history, and remember the work Mitt Romney did to save those games.

Kirk Johnson (The New York Times) writes:

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney walked onto the Olympic stage in 1999 a rich businessman still smarting from losing his first bid for public office. He walked off, three years later, a star-polished candidate who would be elected governor of Massachusetts in a matter of months. This was the place of his emergence and his transition.

In rescuing the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, which had been tarnished by scandal, Mr. Romney learned the ways of Washington and the hurly-burly of politics, mastered the news media, built a staff of loyalists and made fund-raising connections in Utah that have proven vital to his presidential campaign.

“The Olympics gave him a public persona he didn’t have before,” said Robert H. Garff, a businessman who served as the chairman of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. “He grew into the person he is today.”

For full article, vist the New York Times.

Politico: Could Republicans win back the Senate?

Jim Vandehei and Alexander Burns (Politico) write:

Republicans suddenly have a conceivable path to winning back the Senate in November, after locking in top-flight candidates overnight in Illinois and Indiana.

A 10-seat pickup for the GOP — once regarded as an impossibility even by the party’s own strategists — remains very much a long shot. It would still require a win in every competitive race, something that happens only in wave elections like 1994 and 2008.

But only 14 months after the GOP was routed up and down the ballot on the night of Barack Obama’s election, the new political environment makes significant Senate gains likely. And within the past 24 hours, a Republican recapture of the Senate is at least within the realm of speculation.

With all the usual disclaimers attached — do not engage in political odds-making while taking medication or operating heavy machinery — here's why a Republican takeover is at least possible:

GOP officials tell POLITICO former Sen. Dan Coats will run against incumbent Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, instantly transforming Indiana into a competitive race.

Rep. Mark Kirk won the Republican Senate primary in Illinois, beating back a tea party challenge and giving the GOP the best chance of winning President Obama's former seat.

This comes one week after Beau Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, decided not to run for his father’s former seat in Delaware. Democrats have a credible backup candidate in New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, but GOP Rep. Mike Castle, who has run and won 11 times statewide, is the strong favorite.

For full article, visit Politico.

Palin: Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?

Sarah Palin took to her Facebook account yesterday to shed light on the fact that Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, used the derogatory term "f------ retarded" in one of his tantrums. Like president, like chief of staff, huh? Don't forget that Obama made a Special Olympics joke last year. It appears that this administration suffers from an empathy deficit.

The answer to your question though, Sarah Palin, is most likely not. Rahm Emanuel lacks basic human decency. We've known that for a long time.

Sarah Palin writes:

The newly-released mind-boggling, record-smashing $3,400,000,000,000 federal budget invites plenty of opportunity to debate the merits of incurring more and more debt that will drown the next generation of Americans. Never has it been possible to spend your way out of debt. So... let the debate begin.

Included in the debate process will be opportunities for our president to deliberate internally the wisdom of this debt explosion, along with other economic, military and social issues facing our country. Our president will discuss these important issues with Democrat leaders and those within his inner circle. I would ask the president to show decency in this process by eliminating one member of that inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, and not allow Rahm’s continued indecent tactics to cloud efforts. Yes, Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm’s recent sick and offensive tactic.

The Obama Administration’s Chief of Staff scolded participants, calling them, “F---ing retarded,” according to several participants, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them – is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking.

A patriot in North Andover, Massachusetts, notified me of Rahm’s “retarded” slam. I join this gentleman, who is the father of a beautiful child born with Down Syndrome, in asking why the Special Olympics, National Down Syndrome Society and other groups condemning Rahm’s degrading scolding have been completely ignored by the White House. No comment from his boss, the president?

As my friend in North Andover says, “This isn’t about politics; it’s about decency. I am not speaking as a political figure but as a parent and as an everyday American wanting my child to grow up in a country free from mindless prejudice and discrimination, free from gratuitous insults of people who are ostensibly smart enough to know better... Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

Mr. President, you can do better, and our country deserves better.

- Sarah Palin

Ronald Reagan: Miss him yet?

There's currently an e-mail making the rounds entitled "Miss him yet?" that features numerous Ronald Reagan quotes. As we're big fans of Reagan here at GOPToast (that's a Reagan quote under our name at the top of the page), here's the list of quotes. Read them over and think about what we've lost under Barack Obama.

"Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they already have it."

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

'The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book."

"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under."

For further reading, check out Ronald Reagan at the 1980 GOP Convention.

Why Avatar is the Obama of movies

Avatar was announced as one of the ten nominees for an Oscar for Best Picture on Tuesday. In honor of Avatar picking up this nomination, GOPToast brings you an in-depth look at just how similar Barack Obama and Avatar are.

Politico: Republicans to tie Obama to Democratic candidates

Jonathan Martin (Politico) writes:

HONOLULU – As buoyant Republicans devise their game plan for the 2010 campaign, party officials are counting on a boost from an unlikely source – President Obama.

A tactic that would have seemed far-fetched a year ago, when the new president was sworn in with a 67 percent job approval rating, is now emerging as a key component of the GOP strategy: Tie Democratic opponents to Obama and make them answer for some of the unpopular policies associated with the chief executive.

GOP strategists gathered here for the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting believe that now that he's fallen below 50 percent in the venerable Gallup poll, Obama will be an asset to GOP candidates, particularly in conservative or swing states.

The challenge will be to link Democrats with the administration on such issues as spending, bailouts, healthcare and cap-and-trade while not personally attacking Obama, who remains personally well-liked even as his standing erodes. So, at least in purple states or districts, don’t expect to see an ad where the faces of Democratic candidates are morphed into that of the president—a time-honored approach from past campaigns.

But Republicans are unmistakably enthusiastic – and downright giddy in some cases – about the prospect of Democrats stumping with the president in their states, a vivid reminder about how starkly different the political landscape seems now than when Obama took office.

It’s in conservative states, of course, where they’re especially pining for a presidential visit.

“We encourage him to come,” said Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere. “We encourage him to come early and often!”

For full article, visit Politico.

Scott Brown's online fundraising success

Patrick Ruffini, a political analyst involved in both the McDonnell and Brown campaigns, posted a blog entry on Engage a few days ago regarding the runaway success of Scott Brown's online fundraising. The Brown campaign in Massachusetts is something that's going to be studied for years not only due to what it meant for the Obama agenda but also how it operated in almost complete stealth.

While most of us thought it was a Quixotic campaign charging at Democratic windmills with no support from the national GOP, it turns out the campaign was just about the opposite. We already now know that the NRSC quietly pumped money into the campaign while allowing the public to think the national party had no interest in Brown's chances. We now know that Mitt Romney gave tremendous support to the campaign, staffing it and giving it access to his donor lists. Ruffini's blog gives us even more insight into the Brown campaign:

The campaign had set a goal of raising $500,000 online that day [Ed. note: This is the much-publicized money bomb] — which would have been its best day to date, but not by a whole lot. Though I have long preached that transparency in online fundraising is good, I had wondered whether exposing the campaign’s largesse, at this level, might depress future giving. It was a fleeting worry, because not only did the campaign raise $1.3 million that day, later news reports of $1 million per day actually understated the case. The moneybomb day was actually the weakest day that week.

While we were all patting ourselves on the back for the $1.3 million number on the day of the money bomb, the internal campaign knew it was just busy as usual. This has to be my favorite part of Ruffini's entire entry though:

Last-minute contributions are normally on the decline 4 days out, as people turn their attention to GOTV, but the announcement that President Obama was coming in on Sunday for a rally caused yet another boom in donations. How much was Obama’s visit worth to Brown? My conservative estimate was $900,000 on that one day alone.

That's just his conservative estimate so in all likelihood, Barack Obama's stop in Massachusetts for Martha Coakley wound up bringing in over $1 million for Scott Brown. If that's how this dynamic is going to work, let's keep encouraging Obama to stump for our opponents.

As has been said before, Scott Brown's campaign is going to be a model for this fall's Republicans. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Patrick Ruffini's name pop up with increasing frequency too.

SNL: Scott Brown drives Democrats crazy

Saturday Night Live had its first show since the Massachusetts special election and tackled the Scott Brown issue quickly. Which, according to this sketch, is what the Democratic leadership would like to do too ...

Examiner.com: The Massachusetts Miracle: Team Romney 1 - Team Obama 0

Nice article about Mitt Romney's role in Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. The article has the score at Romney 1, Obama 0, but those of us who have been keeping count know that Romney's winning by a lot more than that by now. If Romney's golden streak continues through November 2010, there will be plenty of Republicans in office thanks to Romney and Co. ready to pledge their support to him for a 2012 presidential bid.

Jordan Sekulow (Examiner.com) writes:

It was more than fitting on Tuesday night when Governor Mitt Romney came on to the stage in the Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston at 10:20pm to introduce newly Senator-elect Scott Brown, the man who had just pulled off the biggest comeback in modern day politics by capturing the Senate seat left vacant by the departed Ted Kennedy. Whether it was the fact that Governor Romney competitvely ran for the very seat in 1994 or that he had had quietly dispatched his close of advisers and confidants to manage the Brown campaign, Brown's victory has both immediate and far reaching implications that could very well culminate in an Obama-Romney 2012 showdown for the Presidency.

It does not take a sharp eye to see the glaring similarities between Scott Brown and Mitt Romney. Both Brown and Romney are confident, A-type personalities with large families who project a winning aura and a can do attitude that makes them appealing to a wide array of the voting demographic. Scott Brown methodically ran his campaign on a national security platform that called for continuing an aggressive offensive campaign against the Islamic terrorists. He denounced the Obama plan to put terrorists on trial in civilian courts and called for a return to fiscal sanity, first by pledging to do what he could to help defeat the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care plan.

In fact, Brown took a lead that he would never give up when he looked debate moderator David Gergen square in the eye and famously said, "With all due respect, it's not the Kennedy seat and it's not the Democrat's seat, it's the people's seat."

The Brown campaign was a professional wonder. The website was technologically advance, fundraising was plentiful, and the volunteers were methodically coordinate both locally and nationally. The advertisements promoted Brown's appealing biography while also tying him to the famous Kennedy tax cuts of the 1960's. In the final days of the campaign, not only did the candidate stay on message but he went on a massive retail politics efforts that made his 35 point swing look effortless. Brown's victory became such a fait accompli that the now familiar Democrat blame game between the DNC and the Coakley campaign started more than 36 hours before the polls closed. Both Brown the candidate and Brown the campaign made the Massachusetts Miracle look effortless.

Similar to the McDonnell and Christie races, Governor Romney played a critical role in Brown's victory. He heavily recruited Brown personally to run for the seat, then unleashed his massive national fundraising apparatus to give Brown a quick jump start. Governor Romney's senior inner circle managed Brown's day-to-day operations, long-term strategy, and communications effort. The Romney team of Beth Myers, Peter Flaherty, Eric Fehrnstrom and Rob Cole all went on hiatus from Romney's Free & Strong America PAC to assist Brown in becoming the first Republican Senator from Massachusetts since 1972.

For full article, visit Examiner.com.