2008 GOP Presidential Candidate News

[paineinthearse]

This thread is for hard news of 2008 rethug presidential candidates. Try to keep posts related to a particular person in that thread. If you have news of someone with no thread, start one, with the initial post containing biographic information.

[paineinthearse]

1. Mitt Romney

http://www.mass.gov/portal/index.jsp?pageID=gov2terminal&L=2&L0=Home&L1=Romney%20Team&sid=Agov2&f=gov_mittromneybio_homepage&csid=Agov2&b=terminalcontent

Mitt Romney



Governor Romney has been an effective leader in both the business and public service worlds. With the 2002 Winter Olympics mired in controversy and facing serious financial crisis, Governor Romney was asked to become President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Although the challenge seemed daunting, he was compelled to assume the task by both the urgings of his wife, Ann, and by the memory of his father, George Romney, who had been a successful businessman, three-term Michigan Governor and tireless advocate of volunteerism.

In his three years in Salt Lake, Governor Romney erased a $379 million operating deficit, organized 23,000 volunteers, galvanized community spirit, oversaw an unprecedented security mobilization to ensure public safety and led one of the most successful Olympics in our country's history.

From 1978 to 1984, Mr. Romney was a Vice President of Bain & Company, Inc., the Boston-based management consulting firm. Later, as the company's CEO, he led it through a highly successful turnaround. Today, Bain & Company has 25 offices worldwide and over 2000 employees.

In 1984, Mr. Romney founded Bain Capital, one of the nation's most successful venture capital and investment companies. Bain Capital founded, acquired or invested in hundreds of companies including Staples, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, and The Sports Authority.

Governor Romney has been deeply involved in community and civic affairs, serving extensively in his church and numerous charities including City Year, the Boy Scouts, and the Points of Light Foundation. In 1994, Governor Romney was the Massachusetts Republican nominee for United States Senate.

Governor Romney received his BA with Highest Honors from Brigham Young University in 1971. In 1975, he was awarded an MBA from Harvard Business School and was named a Baker Scholar. In 1975, he also received his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Governor Romney, 57, and his wife, Ann, have been married for 35 years. They have five sons (Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig), five daughters-in-law (Jen, Laurie, Jen, Mary and Andelyne) and eight grandchildren.

[paineinthearse]

2. Romney campaign coffers growing: Two accounts aimed at broader US reach

Romney campaign coffers growing
Two accounts aimed at broader US reach
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | February 13, 2005

Governor Mitt Romney has assembled a substantial fund-raising operation over the last two-plus years that encompasses five separate campaign accounts, including two funds clearly aimed at helping him win political allies outside Massachusetts in the event he chooses to run for president in 2008. The network comprises the Commonwealth PAC, which distributed money to politicians in 16 states last year, the Republican Governors Association campaign account, which Romney will help control when 36 states have governor's races in the 2006 election cycle, two separate state Republican Party accounts, and Romney's personal campaign account.

Together, the five accounts linked to Romney raised about $6.6 million in 2004, a total that includes about $1 million in Massachusetts-based donations that went into the multimillion-dollar Republican Governors Association account. The money is a fraction of the estimated $182 million raised by John F. Kerry's campaign for president as of last summer, but at this early point in a presidential campaign, strategists often focus on creating a list of donors rather than collecting large amounts of money.

The network reveals an operation possibly under construction for a national campaign, even as Romney aides insist that he is consumed with his job as governor and giving no thought to running for president. His aides and supporters said in interviews that his involvement outside the state has been thrust upon him, and that Romney's interest in developing the fund-raising operations stems from his desire to help Massachusetts gain influence in a Republican-controlled Congress and White House. "Governor Romney is increasingly being called on to help his party," said his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom. "He is a leader nationally, and people are excited about the success he is having in Massachusetts. A major benefit of his rising national profile is that it enables him to do more for Massachusetts."

A Globe analysis has found that executives from a handful of Massachusetts-based corporations, including Bain Capital, Fidelity Investments, and several smaller venture capital firms, form the base of the Romney operation. Many of the donors have contributed to at least two of the accounts since Romney took office in early 2003. Avi Nelson, a Republican activist and former US Senate candidate, said Romney's financial moves had never been previously seen in Massachusetts politics. He attributed this to Romney's bringing his private-sector expertise into the political arena.
"Nobody has done it before," Nelson said. "It just wasn't done. I give Romney credit for coming up with new ways of doing things in politics that are important for the doing. It is natural he would think of creative ways, now that he is in the public sector."


more...

[sallyseven]

3. As a Mass resident let me tell

you that Romney will be voted out of office In 2006. People are not happy.

[Ken Burch]

4. OK,then, what about the dreaded JEB?

You think they won't try to keep the dynasty going?

[paineinthearse]

10. Romney stumps in Missouri

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/79CEE1900249BE9C86256FAE0021FDC1?OpenDocument&Headline=At+annual+meeting,+Missouri+GOP+savors+its+hold+on+power

At annual meeting, Missouri GOP savors its hold on power
By Jo Mannies
Post-Dispatch Political Correspondent
02/19/2005

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri Republican activists, still giddy over the party's takeover of state government, happily re-elected Ann Wagner of Ballwin as head of the state party Saturday and embraced next year's quest to re-elect U.S. Sen. Jim Talent of Chesterfield.
Wagner, Talent and new Gov. Matt Blunt were among the Republican leaders spotlighted this weekend as hundreds of party loyalists gathered for their yearly Lincoln Days festivities, coincidentally held this year in a hotel on Blunt's home turf.

<snip>

The keynote speaker at Saturday's dinner, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a possible presidential candidate, sympathized with Missouri's budget plight. At a news conference, he said, "Medicaid is the Pac-Man of our country," eating up state budgets everywhere. Massachusetts does not have as difficult a time because only 7 percent lack medical insurance; in Missouri it is closer to 20 percent.

<snip>

In a jab at the rival Democratic Party, the governor asserted that to find its Missouri supporters, "You have to go to places where nobody wants to live anymore."

more......

Reporter Jo Mannies
E-mail: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

[paineinthearse]

11. Parents rebuke Romney for gay marriage comments

http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=70416

Parents rebuke Romney for gay marriage comments
By Associated Press
Friday, February 25, 2005

BOSTON - Gay and straight couples and their children delivered a letter to Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday condemning his recent remarks to South Carolina Republicans as ridiculing same-sex families. Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, led a contingent of about 40 people who delivered the letter to the governor's office and requested a meeting. But Romney was out of state to deliver a speech in Utah. ``You are certainly entitled to court the right wing of your party,'' the letter read, ``but we respectfully ask that you not do so on the backs of Massachusetts families headed by same-sex couples.''

Speaking Monday to fellow Republicans in Spartanburg, S.C., Romney said same-sex couples ``are actually having children born to them. ... It's not right on paper. It's not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and a father.'' Though Romney has declined to say whether he plans to run for president in 2008, the South Carolina speech was broadcast live on C-SPAN and was widely seen as an early step in establishment himself as a candidate.

The governor ``can do what he needs to do to enhance his career,'' said Julie Goodridge, 47, who brought the couple's 9-year-old daughter Annie to the Statehouse. But ``it's ``completely inappropriate for him to make derogatory comments about families in the commonwealth.''

``The governor has made clear that he does not support gay marriage,'' Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said. ``However, he has consistently advocated respect and tolerance for gays and lesbians and their families.''

[paineinthearse]

12. Father's path not lost on Romney

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2005/03/06/fathers_path_not_lost_on_romney/


Young Mitt Romney (right) welcomed his parents at Orly Airport, south of Paris, for a visit in December 1967. At the time, Mitt was a Mormon missionary and a student in France. (AP File Photo)

Father's path not lost on Romney
Parallels, traps as he tests waters
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | March 6, 2005

WASHINGTON -- At the 1964 Republican Convention, 16-year-old Mitt Romney was sitting in the balcony of San Francisco's Cow Palace when, as he recalls it now, he saw his father stand up and walk out to protest nominee Barry Goldwater's explosive statement that ''extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Michigan Governor George Romney's popularity among GOP moderates was thus sealed, and three years later he emerged as an early favorite for the 1968 Republican nomination.

But the Romney family's road to the White House came to an abrupt end even before the first New Hampshire primary votes were cast, mostly because of a single, provocative statement about the Vietnam War. And Mitt, then a Mormon missionary in France, was left with a formative appreciation for the treacherous waters of national politics -- and the lesson that any successful presidential run requires meticulous planning and discipline.

''The world of politics is turbulent and changing and dynamic," the Massachusetts governor said in an interview Friday. ''Public life has extraordinary rewards. It also is a very mercurial setting. A slip of the tongue or a misstatement can lead to a significant reversal."
Interviews with Romney intimates, including his chief strategist Michael Murphy and financial backer J.W. Marriott Jr., paint a portrait of a man who, having made a fortune as a venture capitalist, is an opportunist in the classic sense of the word, intent on remaining nimble and prepared to take advantage of shifting fortunes. ''As a businessman you keep your options wide open," said Republican strategist and pollster Richard Wirthlin, who met with George Romney when he ran for president and has informally advised his son.

Clearly, Romney is calculating his odds. In the interview, Romney compared himself to other governors. He estimated that his success with the Olympics added 10 percent more visibility nationally, while being governor of a large state such as Massachusetts added another 5 percent. Now, as Romney strategists start to assess his presidential chances, supporters say, he is keenly aware of the parallels to his father's aborted political career, and determined to avoid the traps that doomed it.

more....

[paineinthearse]

13. Romney won't discuss electoral plans

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/04/romney_wont_discuss_electoral_plans/

Romney won't discuss electoral plans
Says he plans to announce decision in fall
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff | March 4, 2005

Amid growing speculation that he will give up the governorship after one term to run for president, Governor Mitt Romney yesterday said, ''I love the job and plan on keeping it" but declined to state definitively that he would run for reelection in 2006. ''You can probably tell that the proposals that I've made this year are probably as far reaching, if not more so, than in virtually any other state in America," Romney said, referring to his plans to expand healthcare coverage and create jobs.

''I've got a lot that I want to do as governor of Massachusetts, and I'll be surprised if I can get it done in two years, so you can expect to see me around for at least another six." When asked directly whether he will run again, however, Romney said he will make a formal announcement in the fall.

The Republican governor's statements were made after recent visits to Missouri, South Carolina, and Utah, trips that have fueled speculation that he is mulling a presidential bid. Some political observers believe that Romney will forfeit the corner office so he can accentuate his conservatism for GOP primary voters without fear of a backlash from more moderate voters at home. Others say he needs a second term to burnish his resume. In yesterday's remarks, Romney appeared to backtrack, albeit slightly, from statements he made last December.

''Plan on it," the governor said when asked in December about running for reelection at a ribbon-cutting event in the North End. ''I'm not making an official announcement until the time comes, but plan on me being there." arlier that same week, Romney said flatly, ''I am going to run again." ''They say: 'Oh, he's not going to run again. He's not going to run again.' Well, I've got some news for them: I am going to run again. So come on in, I'm happy to face them," Romney said, addressing his Democratic rivals. ''And if they want to think about whether they're going to face an opponent named Romney in the fall, the answer is, yeah, that's what they should plan for."

[paineinthearse]

15. The problem with the stem cell bill

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/06/the_problem_with_the_stem_cell_bill/

The problem with the stem cell bill
Mitt Romney
March 6, 2005

A FUNDAMENTAL principle of an ethical society is that no life should be exploited for the benefit of another. A just legal code recognizes the inherent value of every life. This is where our founders began: Every human being has inalienable rights, and first among them is life.

This is the principle at stake in the debate about human cloning -- a debate which will soon take a momentous turn in Massachusetts. The Legislature is considering a bill to permit research based upon cloning human embryos. Our challenge is to establish a standard that both encourages the stem cell research that saves lives and sets the ethical limits that respect lives.

Supporters of the bill are correct that state law regulating embryonic research is ambiguous and in need of revising. A proposal designed to give the law clarity, however, should not be vague on the matter of human cloning. This is the problem with the bill. Despite the comforting assurances of its supporters, it would not ban human cloning. On the contrary, the bill would countenance the cloning of embryos for research, and it may invite even worse abuses down the road.

The bill's sponsors promise us they have ''crafted strong ethical safeguards," resting their case on the distinction between cloning for human reproduction and cloning for research. Research cloning involves the creation of a human embryo for purposes of experimentation, with the intent to destroy it. Reproductive cloning would continue the process by implanting this embryo into a uterus.

However, the process of cloning only occurs once, with the creation of the embryo -- a unique genetic entity with the full complement of chromosomes. Once cloning occurs, a human life is set in motion.

Calling this process ''somatic cell nuclear transfer," or conveniently dismissing the embryo as a mere ''clump of cells," cannot disguise the reality of what occurs: A genetically complete human embryo is brought into being. It is manipulated and experimented upon like so much research material. And then that emerging life is destroyed and discarded. Imagine row after row of laboratory racks, filled with growing human embryos: a ''Brave New World."

Some fear that, without cloning, Massachusetts biotech could fall behind other states. That is not the case. Only 3 percent of the biotech companies nationwide are doing stem cell research of any kind. The figure is even smaller in Massachusetts. And avenues to obtain stem cells other than by cloning are ample.

Stem cell research does not require the cloning of human embryos. Some stem cells today are obtained from surplus embryos from in-vitro fertilization. I support that research, provided that those embryos are obtained after a rigorous parental consent process that includes adoption as an alternative. Further, the greatest successes in stem cell research to date have come from the use of adult and umbilical cord stem cells. Stanford professor William Hurlbut, a physician and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, has proposed a promising approach. Known as altered nuclear transfer, this method could allow researchers to obtain embryonic stem cells without the moral shortcut of cloning and destroying a human embryo.

A bill that includes methods such as these and bans all human cloning would receive my full support. I share the excitement and hope that new cures to terrible diseases like multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, and Parkinson's could soon be within our reach.

Like other powers gained through modern science, the power to clone life presents a challenge not only of intelligence and resourcefulness, but also of character and conscience. Massachusetts has never been short on any of these qualities, and our best traditions of science and social conscience are needed here as well. By using the powers of science wisely, by doing the right thing in the right way, our state can set the standard for all America and for all the world.

Mitt Romney is the governor of Massachusetts.

[democratreformed]

5. Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee

Just to reinforce my "gut feelings":

"Just like Clinton
Get ready for another Arkansas governor with a clever slogan to hit the presidential trail. This time it's Republican Mike Huckabee, who's calling himself a "new Republican" as he ramps up for the race. Like Bill Clinton , the guv is popular, plugged in, plays an instrument--guitar--and even hails from Hope."

Link: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050221/whispers/21whisplead_2.htm

Another link: http://www.arktimes.com/Weblogs/WeblogItemList.aspx?WeblogID=dabe8285-8214-4a72-ae7c-7ed16bb5ed5b

Biographical info: http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,C_GOVERNOR_INFO%5ED_119,00.html

[pauliedee]

16. Fat pig has no chance

[pstans]

6. I don't see Republicans voting for...

a guy from Mass. or a guy from Hope, Arkansas. It just sounds too much like the last 2 guys the Rethugs trashed.

[Dickie Flatt]

7. Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's Governor

Tim Pawlenty (born November 27, 1960) is a Polish-American politician. He is the 39th governor of Minnesota starting his term on January 6, 2003.

He had served as the majority leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives prior to being elected governor, beginning his term in the House in 1992. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Minnesota. His wife, Mary Pawlenty, is a district judge in Dakota County. He is a Republican.

He campaigned in 2002 on a pledge not to raise taxes to balance the state's budget deficit. He also supported requiring visa expiration dates on driver's licenses, a 24 hour waiting period on abortions, implementing the state's conceal-carry gun law and changing the state's education requirements. During the 2003 session, all these issues were passed except the "expiration dates on driver licenses". Like his predecessor Governor Jesse Ventura, he has a weekly call-in radio show.

Pawlenty has faced some criticism for traveling abroad while the economy and living conditions deteriorated after September 11. He has made trips to Kosovo, Poland, Iraq and the Czech Republic. These trips were either to see Minnesota troops or "trade missions" intended to increase Minnesota's profile in post-Communist Eastern Europe.

(From Wikipedia)

[Dickie Flatt]

8. Conservatives Say Pawlenty Is Potential Presidential Candidate - ABC News

From ABC News:

The confetti had barely settled after the inauguration of George W. Bush when hundreds of the nation's top conservative activists gathered in Orlando, Fla., during the last week in January for a meeting of the Council on National Policy.

Members of the council, an influential and private group that works behind the scenes to influence Republican politics, were already pondering the election in 2008. ...

In informal conversations, as described by two of the participants, more than a dozen names were thrown around — most notably that of popular conservative Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Other potential candidates such as Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were discussed as well, though Bush has said he will not run in 2008. ...

Two people familiar with his political planning say Pawlenty wants to expand his political profile with the hopes of landing on a short list for president — or potentially for vice president or Senate candidate.

[Dickie Flatt]

9. PawlentyForPresident.com is registered by a state GOP legislator

Domain record

Domain name: pawlentyforpresident.com

Registrant:
Patrick Garofalo (U6ETB)
5997 193rd Street West
Farmington, MN 55024
United States
Phone: [phone] x

Record last updated on 2004-01-15 00:00:00
Record created on 2004-01-15 00:00:00
Record expires on 2007-01-15 00:00:00

Garofalo is a Republican legislator in the Minnesota House of Representatives. He also owns PawlentyForGovernor.com, the web site used by Pawlenty for his 2002 campaign for the governor's office.

[Phoenixblade444]

14. I went behind enemy lines for this news

I checked out the forum on Ronaldreagan.com and the buffoons are sayin that they have to go hardcore. (Enter at your own risk, they're crazy) They kept saying that if they have McCain go, many republicans won't vote out of disgust. They're crazy, and this may be their downfall.

I heard Condi/Frist
All sorts of things.

[paineinthearse]

17. Paging Dr. Frist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.Biography

First elected to the U.S. Senate on November 8, 1994, Dr. Frist was the only challenger to defeat a full-term incumbent in 1994 and the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928. A fourth generation Tennessean whose great, great grandfather was one of Chattanooga's 53 original settlers, Dr. Frist is the 54th U.S. Senator from Tennessee. On November 7, 2000, Bill Frist was elected to a second term in the United States Senate by the largest vote total ever received by a candidate for statewide election in the history of Tennessee.

Born and raised in Nashville, Bill Frist graduated in 1974 from Princeton University where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1978 he graduated with honors from Harvard Medical School and spent the next seven years in surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital; Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England; and Stanford University Medical Center. He is board certified in both general surgery and heart surgery.


In 1985, Dr. Frist joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he founded and subsequently directed the multi-disciplinary Vanderbilt Transplant Center, which under his leadership became a nationally renowned center of multi-organ transplantation. A heart and lung surgeon, he performed over 150 heart and lung transplant procedures, including the first successful combined heart-lung transplant in the Southeast.


Dr. Frist is particularly passionate about confronting the global AIDS pandemic. He frequently takes medical mission trips to Africa to perform surgery and care for those in need. As Senate Majority Leader, he continues to raise awareness about the HIV/AIDS crisis throughout the world. (To see photos of Senator Frist's meetings with foreign leaders, click here.)


Dr. Frist rose rapidly through Senate leadership. In 2000, he was unanimously elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 107th Congress and in December 2002 was unanimously elected Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate (108th Congress). Under his leadership as Chairman of the NRSC, for the first time in history, the party of the President won back majority control of the U.S. Senate in a midterm election. He assumed his position as the 18th Senate Majority Leader and 14th Republican Floor Leader having served fewer total years in the U.S. Congress than any previous leader.


He currently serves on the following committees: Finance; Rules; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). In the past, he has served on the following committees: Foreign Relations, Budget, Banking, Commerce, and Small Business. In 2001, he was named one of two Congressional representatives to the United Nations General Assembly.


Senator Frist and his wife, Karyn, have three sons: Harrison, Jonathan, and Bryan. They are Presbyterians. He enjoys flying (commercial, instrument, and multiengine pilot), running (seven marathons), medical mission trips to Africa, and writing.

[paineinthearse]

18. Frist makes diagnosis via video tape!!!!!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1324444

[paineinthearse]

19. Dr. Condoleezza Rice

http://www.state.gov/secretary/

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the 66th Secretary of State on January 26, 2005. As she stated at her confirmation hearing, "we must use American diplomacy to help create a balance of power in the world that favors freedom. And the time for diplomacy is now."

Prior to becoming Secretary of State, Dr. Rice served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor.

She also was in government service from 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, when she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

Looking back on that historic period, Secretary Rice recognizes the importance of unity of purpose and values and the strong support from the Congress in the advance of freedom. "Our task and our duty is to unite around a vision and policies that will spread freedom and prosperity around the globe."