Acting consistently the same way throught a term in office based on principle means he is a flip flopper who is acting that way because of electoral politics?

You have an agenda that is disrupting your logic.

Resolute on December 19, 2007 at 6:57 PM

What???? Maybe I misunderstand your comment?

I am a Mitt supporter, and spend an inordinate amount of time defending him from unfair and often outrageous attacks (usually about his religion). Did you read my conversation with Hening???

That being said, I don’t understand why someone should not be pardoned for a minor incident involving a BB gun when they were 13. Pardons should not be given cavalierly, but justice is not infallible.

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 5:30 PM

I apologize that I misconstrued your comment as just another partisan opportunity by another commenter to bash Mitt. Sometimes it seems that there is nothing this man can do that will satisfy the demands of some voters who are predisposed to dismiss him.

…what attracted me to the discussion was the question by Bryan what the evangelists would think, or how they would react to this type of story. It was a fair question that did not reflect on the specific candidate, or at least that’s how I understood it.

I accept and appreciate your explanation, but it still makes no sense to me. I don’t understand why an evangelical would object to this.

While it reflects poorly on one’s character to be boastful in one’s private life, when one is running for public office it seems not only proper, but necessary. Is Huckabee not touting his biography as he runs for President? How about Fred? How about McCain’s war time courage and heroism?

Kerry did it and it came back to bite him, but that’s because he was using his service in Vietnam to make us vote for him, while we all knew how he slandered his fellow troops, and so forth.

it would sound better if that super person didn’t end the ad saying that they approve. I don’t care who the candidate is, that’s just not very tasteful (or the taste isn’t very good).

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 5:30 PM

That is what the law requires, and it is John McCain’s doing. That, among other things, is why McCain is near the bottom of my list, despite his sterling record on the War (minus his unhelpful position on torture).

Peace!

A lame act of putting electoral politics over actual governance.
Hollowpoint on December 19, 2007 at 10:43 AM

That’s a fair criticism.
Buy Danish on December 19, 2007 at 10:46 AM

Acting consistently the same way throught a term in office based on principle means he is a flip flopper who is acting that way because of electoral politics?

You have an agenda that is disrupting your logic.

Buy Danish on December 19, 2007 at 5:01 PM

First of all, I have already voted for Mitt in an election.

Secondly, I have no horse in this race…yet. I’m waiting for better minds than mine to decide since they all seem tainted at this point. It is the suggestion that my entry into this thread is a wee “partisan”, when what attracted me to the discussion was the question by Bryan what the evangelists would think, or how they would react to this type of story. It was a fair question that did not reflect on the specific candidate, or at least that’s how I understood it.

Third, if people wish to list their attributes in order to win votes, that’s just peachy with me. If this was a situation that someone paid for an ad and had someone tell a story about how super someone is, it would sound better if that super person didn’t end the ad saying that they approve. I don’t care who the candidate is, that’s just not very tasteful (or the taste isn’t very good).

You and I will most likely be both pulling down the same lever or punching the same area chad on election day. My point has been that you seemed to have read something into my post that was not there, or was was not intended by me. Also, my discussing a view of Scripture is different from “using” it as a tool to trash someone. If that was not true, I wouldn’t be posting in this thread for the better part of the day. ‘Twas the Scripture comment that drew me to the discussion and not Mitt’s persona.

Shalom…….

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 3:08 PM

How my support of what a Republican candidate did makes me sound like a Democrat is beyond me.

My reaction to your comment was not because I was “offended” by your comment (that would be a typical Dem response). My reaction was based entirely on the fatuous nature of your argument, which I intuitively sense had just a bit of wee partisanship behind it. I found it galling because you used the Bible in what I view as a disingenuous excuse to bash Mitt.

What Mitt did in 1996, as a private citizen, is a story that deserves to be told. It showed admirable qualities such as leadership, loyalty, and compassion. If Fred, or Huck, or any of the candidates had a story like this to tell, I would welcome it.

The idea that candidates cannot discuss their past good deeds is absurd. How are we supposed to choose our candidates if these aspects of their biography can’t be told? Are we only to hear about what they have done as policy wonks?

I sound like a Democrat because you made a silly comment? Does the fact that you were responding to Bryan absolve you of criticism?

Buy Danish on December 19, 2007 at 12:48 PM

My comment was related strictly to the relation of what an evangelical might think given the circumstances. That was the topic before I arrived at the scene. It just wasn’t meant to be as deep as you have interpreted it.

You’re leaking gall is based on a perception that is a disconnect from my original point. Accusing me of “using” the Bible is nonsense. The topic of Scripture was part of the original article that I was giving my opinion about. It had nothing to do with which Republican candidate the ad was about, and was more about anyone approving a message after the message was how wonderful that person was.

If whatever I said offends, galls, gets your panties in a twist, that’s fine. Just at least get what I said, and what the point was correct. If you sound like a Democrat, don’t blame that on me. You need to work on that on your own.

Me too.

I tend to be an “abundance of caution” man myself, but that’s insane. I can understand why it’s something that would have been taken seriously if clearly intentional, or 13 y.o. vs. 8 y.o. or some other aggravating circumstance (and I don’t know the circumstances). But kids the same age messing around with their BB guns, one kid goes to pick up the soda cans and set them back on the sawhorse and the other accidentally lets one fly? No way. That was regular wear and tear in my day. Guess I’m officially old now.

Maybe if Bain had just taken out an ad like this in the New York media market, rather than sending all of its employees traipsing through Central Park, they would have gotten results a little faster. It’s a good story, and good for them for doing, but with the resources that Romney had, there are surely much better ways than amateur sleuthing.

Big S on December 19, 2007 at 10:14 AM

Do you mind me asking if you have children of your own?

This story, which I first heard by word of mouth and not through any media outlet, is what brought me to Romney in the first place. I’d be lucky to have a friend, let alone a business partners so willing to help bring my family back together. When he talks about the strengthening the American family, believe it.

Sorry, haterz.

My post was in reply to Bryan’s comment./Danish, you not only look like a jackass with your overreaction to my reply to someone else’s comment, you sound like a Democratic wuss with that nonsense.

We’re all for a Republican President so chill, and save your insults for the Liberals.

Danish, you not only look like a jackass with your overreaction to my reply to someone else’s comment, you sound like a Democratic wuss with that nonsense.

We’re all for a Republican President so chill, and save your insults for the Liberals.

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 11:25 AM

I sound like a Democrat because you made a silly comment? Does the fact that you were responding to Bryan absolve you of criticism?

The Parable of the lost sheep has nothing at all to do with keeping silent after rescuing someone who has gone astray.

Frankly, I don’t think what Romney did has much to do with that Parable at all, since Romney did not leave the ’99 sheep’ behind but took them with him to help out.

In any case, there are plenty of things one could criticize Romney for, but that particular criticism is ludicrous, and trying to use the Bible as an excuse to needle Romney is what made it particularly galling.

IMO of course!

We’re all for a Republican President so chill, and save your insults for the Liberals.

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 11:25 AM

Actually, *I* am not for a Republican President, *I* am for a Conservative President. Fiscal, social and The Long War (which includes illegal immmigration). If the Republican Party nominates a liberal policitian as its candidate, I will sit out the election and hope the Democrat candidate wins. If a liberal Republican wins the Presidency, it will end up moving the entire party to the left and conservative movement will take a step backwards. Instead of having two parties, one mostly conservative and one mostly “progressive”/socialist, we will have two parties, one mostly liberal and the other mostly “progressive”/socialist. And the results of a liberal Republican winning would be played in the media as the death of conservatism.

Personally, I could care less about these stupid ads. I am not swayed one way or the other on these meaningless anecdotes. I only care about things that reflect how the candidates will be on the main policy issues:

* The Long War
* Illegal Immigration
* The Economy
* Social Issues (signing/vetoing legislation and nominating Supreme Court justices and other judges)
* “Global Warming”/Emmissions

In addition to that, I want a President who will not put up with the crap/lies/propaganda of the Left (which includes the Democrat Party and their propaganda arm of the mass media). I want a President who can communicate his/her ideas and who will stand up for those ideas, no matter the political fallout and not be politically correct. In short, I want a leader.

I am a conservative and believe this country flourishes best adhering to conservative principles. And I don’t see any good happening from allowing the Republican Party to move left on many issues. The way I see it, the only way to preserve the conservative movement is to adhere to conservative principles and values. That means voting for a conservative Republican in the primaries and then NOT voting for a liberal Republican in the general election if he is the nominee. It is better the Democrats take the country left and the conservative movement stay alive than to allow the conservative movement to die as the only Party which even allows conservatism to exist to move leftward.

What I believe we should all be doing is making a list of our main policy issues and what we want from our President on those issues. Then rate each candidate on the issues as either Good/Acceptable/No Good. If a candidate has “No Good”s for important policy issue(s), then he is eliminated from consideration. Once that candidate is eliminated based on policy issues, there is absolutely no reason to go back and consider them, no matter how many of their meaningless touchy feely ads they put out. If they aren’t right on the policy issues, nothing else matters. Not how they dress, not how charming they are, not how many times they go to church. A President is for enacting policy, for foreign and domestic. What does it matter if he dresses well, is charming and goes to church, yet is wrong on all the policies?

I know many here do not agree with my philosophy on this, but so be it. I am a Conservative first, Republican-voter second. I see no point staying loyal to the Republican Party, if they do not stay loyal to conservative principles.

I wonder why charges were filed.

DrSteve on December 19, 2007 at 11:15 AM

Me too. When I was 13 (and been caught) it would’ve resulted in having my BB gun taken away and being grounded; had the police been called they wouldn’t have made an arrest without significant pressure to do so. Also, the kid who was shot with a BB would’ve been taunted as a giant wuss.

But now… yeah, I could see it happening, especially on the East Coast.

Buy Danish on December 19, 2007 at 10:29 AM

My post was in reply to Bryan’s comment.

It seems to me that this is a thread where if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all or risk looking like a jackass.

Danish, you not only look like a jackass with your overreaction to my reply to someone else’s comment, you sound like a Democratic wuss with that nonsense.

We’re all for a Republican President so chill, and save your insults for the Liberals.

I wonder why charges were filed.

So that Mitt could make this commercial years later – it’s all part of HotAir’s plan to give great press to their annointed leader.

for a very minor crime (the BB didn’t even break the skin)

I wonder why charges were filed.

And BJ Clinton was doing what in 1996 while Mitt was doing this?

You can judge what a person has inside by what he does outside, and him sending his 50 peeps to NYC and creating a media buzz to find his daughter should tell you what he has inside…fast on his feet, quick thinking, cares for his people, takes charge, anything to get results.

How can anyone NOT want this man to be President?

Hollowpoint on December 19, 2007 at 10:43 AM

That’s a fair criticism.

Mitt’s justification? A ridiculous one:

“We looked at the cases one by one, and I did not want to provide commutations to people who had had weapons violations that were going to be asking to use weapons in their new capacity,” Romney said.

I believe in being tough on crime, but refusing a war veteran a pardon for a very minor crime (the BB didn’t even break the skin) committed at the age of 13 so he could become a police officer? A lame act of putting electoral politics over actual governance.

Only after they made the evening news

Ah.

And may I say that some of the negative comments about this from the I don’t heart Mitt crowd are ludicrous. This one really stands out –

Hening on December 19, 2007 at 10:09 AM

It is unseemly to inspire people through example. We have to keep good deeds a secret! We only want to hear about the bad stuff!

It seems to me that this is a thread where if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all or risk looking like a jackass.