As indicated yesterday, ACU President David Keene endorsed Mitt Romney. Here’s Keene on the Laura Ingraham show talking about his decision:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=yb_g1gJCjL0[/youtube]
One more clip where Keene discusses the importance of keeping the conservative coalition together:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=5N5S4ei2Fz0[/youtube]
November 30th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Jump on the ban wagon!!!
November 30th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I find Mr Keene’s thoughts leading up to his decision very interesting. He clearly had not intended to endorse during the primaries, yet saw circumstances unfolding in such a way that he could no longer remain on the sidelines. Good for him. Yet another solid conservative behind Mitt.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
The leader of the American Conservative Union endorsing Romney is huge. This should help Romney in the polls everywhere.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
DaveDeacon – do you mean “band” wagon or “ban” wagon?
November 30th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Even as a Romney supporter, I don’t think the endorsements make a big difference. Did Pat Robertsons endorsement do anything for Giuliani? Maybe, but there isn’t real evidence for it. I guess it is a positive story that adds to the overall image, but I don’t think it creates any huge change.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Greg, endorement is only as effective with your own audience. Dobson’s endorement has more weight than Robertson’s because of his bigger audience and there are more of them who trust him more than Robertson. I do not know what kind audience Keene has. I suppose, at least, it will help Romney greatly if this race do end up at a convention in Minn. But other than that, what kind of audience does Keene have and how much do they trust his words – anyone know?
November 30th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
The ACU is a huge organization and this endorsement will help Romney. David Keene was very instrumental in the early Reagan campaigns and he’s a great asset for Team Mitt.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Keene’s motivation is to keep the conservative coalition together.
Let me be honest, here. The reason the conservative coalition is coming apart at the seams is in large measure due to the fact that we had a majority in the House of Representatives for 12 years, and a Republican in the White House for the past 7 years, and what do we really have to show for it? Expanded federal programs; porkbarrel legislation; lack of fiscal restraint; tax cuts, but only temporary; no meaningful reform of the federal government; no meaningful reform of the tax codes; an expanded federal role in education; the inability to confirm Pres. Bush’s more conservative nominations to the federal judiciary; Bush’s inability to get anything substantive through the Republican Congress in 2005-06. The fruits of the electoral victories of the conservative coalition seem rather hollow.
This is why I think we, and by “we” I mean conservatives, need to take a different tact than trying to prop-up an ineffective and largely symbolic paradigm. And it’s why I can’t figure out why such super brains as Laura Ingraham, and Rush — the whole lot, really — continue to harken back to a mythical “Reagan Coalition” which has largely dissolved into mindless emotive sloganeering (“God! Gays! Guns!”) since Reagan left office.
The New Deal Coalition lasted a generation, but it fell apart beginning in the late ’60s. The Reagan Coalition lasted a generation, but I think conservatism has lost its intellectual edge, and is in need of some revitalizing. People like Laura Ingraham will have no role in that revitalization, nor will folks like David Keene, who continue to prop-up an increasingly ineffective coalition. Fresh thinking is needed. I guess conservatives, by our nature, aren’t really inclined to “fresh thinking.”
November 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Another dorky, far-right, nut-job endorsement for Mitt
November 30th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Greg Allerton,
I think whoever we get will bring fresh thinking. With Huckabee we
will get a Republican bleeding heart liberal who mainly wants the presidency to
push his religion. With Giuliani we will get a mayor who knows how to be ruthless
to get what he wants and doesn’t care too much about who gets hurt along the way.
With Romney we will get a rich guy with a nice family who has changed his views
for political expediency but knows how to organize and get things done.
I pick door number 3.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
http://confessionsofapoliticaljunkie.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-often-do-candidates-do-stuff-like.html
Good story on Mitt’s work ethic – involves San Diego fires.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
If Mr. Keene is so intent on keeping the “conservative coalition” together he should have endorsed someone else. I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t support, let alone vote for, shallow opportunists who will say whatever they have to get elected. Me, I personally prefer people who actually have at least some convictions and run for president for reasons greater than mere prestige.
I thought that the conservative coalition wants people who say what they mean and mean what they say, those who actually have strong beliefs and will not adapt those beliefs to suit whichever way the political winds may blow. Sure people might think what Romney says now sounds great, but when it comes time to make a tough decision, one that might hurt his approval ratings, I have no confidence Romney won’t just take the easy way out and do what’s popular, damn the long-term consequences to America.
You vote for Romney you’ve been bamboozled into thinking you’re getting Ronald Reagan. But who you’re really getting a shallow, chicken-hawk, opportunistic coward who not only never served his country but equates those who have to political campaign staffers.