May 22, 2008
Romney Launches Free and Strong America PAC
As I and many others have postulated before, Romney’s gracious bowing out of the GOP primaries this year was a huge move in uniting the party as well as the first step in preparing for a run in 2012 should McCain lose this November. Since that time, Romney is doing exactly what he needs to build support among conservatives and the GOP party faithful — making speeches at GOP conventions and Lincoln Day dinners, headlining fundraising events for groups such as the Susan B Anthony List, filling in for Paul Harvey on his radio news show, and yes, fundraising and campaigning for John McCain.
This morning, the Romney team launched their new PAC: Free and Strong America.
The name is lifted from a line in his “Faith in America” speech:
“You left us, your children, a free and strong America. It is why we call yours the greatest generation. It is now my generation’s turn. How we respond to today’s challenges will define our generation, and it will determine what kind of America we leave our children, and theirs.”
The PAC is more or less a reassembling of the Romney campaign team, including big names such as James Bopp, Peter Flaherty, Vin Weber, Carl Forti (CEO of Freedom’s Watch), and of course, Beth Myers and Kevin Madden.
The main purpose of the PAC is to harness and funnel Romney’s fundraising capabilities for conservative candidates in the upcoming election. They’ve selected 7 House candidates to back so far - and Marc Ambinder notes, “Make no mistake: the candidates Romney’s PAC is supporting are all solid conservatives.” And, Free and Strong America is supporting John McCain for President.
Of course, the PAC also acts as a vehicle to allow Mitt to stay in the political spotlight as well: he is featured on the homepage as the chairman of the PAC and there’s a “Learn About Mitt” tab for his biography of accomplishments.
http://race42008.com/2008/05/22/romney-launches-free-and-strong-america-pac/trackback/
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
If all you’ve got are lemons, make lemonade. Romney has no political future outside Utah, so I guess forming a PAC is the next closest thing.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Wait?! Didn’t Romney promise to back to the business sector if voters rejected him? Nothing says “voter rejection” like spending $59,821,909.00 of your own money and getting 272 delegates in return.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
So Romney, who will be at McCain’s house this weekend, has signaled his exit from the VP considerations by forming his own PAC. Like I said, don’t expect anyone at McCain’s party to be selected as his running-mate.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
2008 is not a good year for Mr. Romney, however, I do think it is extreme to say he has no future outside of Utah; we just do not know what the future holds. I contribute to enough PACs as it is, so to be honest, I cannot see myself giving money to this PAC. However, I wish well with this PAC. Who knows, he may be a player in 2016, but who can tell the future.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
We both could be wrong, but I think you are right Big S, I doubt that Mr. Romney will be the VP this year.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
i think he did pretty well given where he started. He’s doing everything right; doing the most good now while keeping options open for 2012. I don’t understand why some conservatives are so against this guy. In many ways romney is almost too good to be true. And then when it turns out he is that good, a small minority get consistently hostile.
And why on earth is it bad that he spent his own money? Are you sure you’re posting on the right website? I read somewhere that romney’s dad told his kids to “wait until you’ve made your money before you get into politics. You don’t want to owe people favors that may cause you to compromise what you believe.” (paraphrasing) I’m sorry, but I prefer romney’s method. I see his hard work yielding financial fruits as evidence of virtue, not vice (most optimistic capitalists share this view). How can anti-romneyites that claim to be conservative take issue with this?
Also, if you followed the primary, you’ll know that romney came awfully close. Huck hurt romney and shaved enough off his success to give it to John McCain. What blows my mind though is that huck has an immensely more troublesome record than anything romney has. How did huck get past the screeners…man, it still blows my mind.
Competency, merit, and integrity will win out in the end assuming the individual in question can endure long enough. Romney has shown every indication that he is capable of this and that he intends to. Thank goodness for that.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
[...] Matt C. Romney is doing exactly what he needs to build support among conservatives and the GOP party [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
sampo, as a Romney supporter, I don’t expect him to be VP either. But aren’t you glad that he’s taken initiative to help get your guy elected? He’s put differences behind him for the good of the party. Would you have some decency and stop mudslinging the guy? During the whole election you were giving him garbage for not being a real conservative. I think through this PAC he’ll become more well-known and show that he is serious about the conservative cause, all of it, social, economic, and security conservativism. He may never get the chance again to be president, but he will get the chance to shape this country for the better and still has a lot to give. His actions should be applauded not belittled.
And going back to the election, there were lots of other states Romney had been projected to win which could have made it still a competitive but ultimately loosing race for Romney. It’s very possible he could have held up the nomination for McCain until convention if he wanted to, but he chose the higher road and did not.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
So you guys think McCain’s house party this weekend is a decoy? I hadn’t thought of this PAC as signaling Romney’s withdrawal from VP consideration, but you may be right. I still hope he gets picked though.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Sounded FANTASTIC until you said the PAC backs McCain. Solid conservative? I don’t think so. I’d vote for Romney and any other competent conservative, and I support an effort to reform the Repub party, but not one dime to McCain. I’ll have to check out the rest of the list.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Emtee:
I have to both agree and disagree with you. Regardless of whether or not Mr. Romney will eventually reach his political goals, he is certainly is an influential American and mostly for the good. Whether or not I agree with all the goals of this PAC, I admire him for putting his money where his mouth is and proting his ideas. While I agree with you that Mr. Romney is more Conservative than not, none of our candidate are true Conservatives. While Mr. Romney could have make the race more competative, it would have been difficult for him or anybody else to beat Mr. McCain in 2008. In 4, 8, 12 & even 16 years from now, the country and the candidates will be a little different and we will see what happens.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
So you guys think McCain’s house party this weekend is a decoy? I hadn’t thought of this PAC as signaling Romney’s withdrawal from VP consideration, but you may be right. I still hope he gets picked though.
Not really a decoy, but instead a campaign event for influential conservatives. As I have said elsewhere on this site, McCain would be stupid to tell the possible VP selections who their competition is. Maybe this conference is to set up a search committee. Perhaps McCain will “Cheney” one of these people, and make him/her the running mate, but I think it’s more likely that he’s asking for their input and help, rather than making this group of people the de facto shortlist.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Only one problem - everyone knows these people are on the list even if not at the top. Also remember he had another bar-b-que earlier and Pawlenty, Huckabee, Huntsman and others attended. Notably, Graham and Lieberman attended the earlier event so I surmise that they are surreptitiously screening them. Also, Whitman and others are probably probing them for their ability to discuss economic issues.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hi, there!
I am trying to donate, but “Contribute” button does not let me do do…..kepps asking for donation amount which has been selected.
Please advise.
Sincerely,
Mary H. Puckett
Mobile:214-384-0603
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Mitt is a force of nature. He might well win this thing for McCain single-handedly whether he’s on the ticket or not.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
LOL.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Romney’s PAC -> “Free and Strong America PAC”
Huckabee’s PAC -> “Huck PAC”
No further comment.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
rpm - one word why Romney is so strongly disliked by many: Opportunism.
In early 2007 he looked at the field and saw Rudy and McCain, 2 men who hardly fit the mold of a conservative’s conservative, leading the field in the early going and made a calculated decision to run as far right as possible. Given that his record didn’t even come close to matching his rhetoric and every day another example of Romney pandering to a certain voting bloc came forward enough GOP voters realized he was a fraud. While some in the talk radio and cable news crowd got behind Romney very late in the race it was clear he was their choice only by default; had Romney really been able to “wow” anyone early on his support wouldn’t have come as late as it did.
Romney can make all the speeches, give all the interviews on Fox News and start all the PACs he wants, none of it is going to convince thinking people he is not an opportunistic politician who is willing to say whatever he has to to win votes.
That my friend is why Romney is so strongly disliked by so many.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
“Romney can make all the speeches, give all the interviews on Fox News and start all the PACs he wants, none of it is going to convince thinking people he is not an opportunistic politician who is willing to say whatever he has to to win votes.
That my friend is why Romney is so strongly disliked by so many”
But if he maintains the positions that he strongly campaigned on this past time it would hard for anyone to oppose him in the next cycle.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Dan:#18
If one is determined to dislike someone else, they can always find a reason. It is simply human nature. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”
A company I used to work for once gave ten shares of stock worth $100 to each and every employee. I overheard one person complaining, “They can’t fool me. They just want people to like working here.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Dan:
I get the argument but I just don’t agree with it. Any of those politicians you mentioned are opportunist too. I hope you know that. That’s the nature of the game. I just don’t think romney is by even half as much as some nut jobs think. By the way, some hardcore conservatives lined up with Romney from the start. remember Coulter? And also, don’t forget that he was a republican governor in MA! I saw a video once of a speech he gave to the mass legislature, and wow, maybe 15 % of the people would stand and clap. Talk about a blue state. That fact that he accomplished ANYTHING there is worthy of gratitude.
I still think it’s something else. I agree with mark: if someone is determined not to like a person, they will. I’m just amazed at how romney wasn’t welcomed by such a dedicated few… You’d think such a talented and competent person would be a welcome asset to the right. Again, I think it’s something else. Four years of lime-lighted solidarity with conservatives though will hopefully be enough the next time around.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Mary Puckett: Are you trying to contribute to the Free & Strong America PAC and having difficulty with that? If so, please contact them directly — their e-mail address is on their web site.
I don’t see anywhere to contribute to Race42008.com, so I don’t think that’s what you meant.
By the way, I don’t think starting a PAC means Mitt is ruling himself out of the VP slot. If he is selected for VP, he could easily have other people run the PAC as long as necessary.