The Romney/Ryan Express

[Warph]

      Romney Accepts Nomination: 'Now Is the
     TimeTo Restore the Promise of America'

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/30/romney-accepts-gop-presidential-nomination/

[Warph]

           

The Republican convention.... after a bunch of testimonials from Olympic athletes, businesses saved by Bain Capital, and others about what a good person Mitt Romney... wrapped up with rambling musings by Clint Eastwood, an impressive speech by Marco Rubio, and then the presidential-candidate's acceptance speech which I thought was close to being excellent.

What are your thoughts on the last night of the convention and especially Romney's speech?  Do you think the convention succeeded in its stated goal of introducing Mitt Romney to the American people... and of humanizing him?  Will the convention prove to be a successful infomercial for the Republican party?

Next week, starting Tuesday, will be the Democrats' turn.  I hear it will be a veritable abortion-fest.  Expect to hear from a college student at a Catholic colleges whining for her right to free birth control, from teacher union leaders praising our public schools, from in-your-face gay activists, from Obamacare fans, and from would-be comedians mocking conservatives, moderates, creationists, gun-owners, and the general public in general.  Democrats, especially when they play to their base, sometimes over-reach.  They think they are populist, but they are not, and they may come across in ways they do not intend, putting off more voters than they attract.  But I guess we'll see, won't we.

.....Warph





Exceptional
By Robert Stacy McCain on 8.31.12 @ 6:11AM

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/08/31/exceptional

Mitt Romney stakes his campaign on the America Dream.

TAMPA, Florida -- The polls showed a dead heat.... as Mitt Romney took the stage Thursday night to accept the Republican Party nomination, but the polls could not begin to capture the wild chances of improbability in what is sure to be a hard-fought campaign this fall. And the man who introduced the GOP presidential nominee Thursday night was the surest testament to how miracles happen in America.

Marco Rubio wasn't supposed to be there. In May 2009, more than 15 months before the 2010 Republican primary in Florida, the GOP establishment endorsed Rubio's opponent, then-Gov. Charlie Crist, believing him to be the "safe" choice as their party's Senate nominee. Crist had statewide name recognition and a strong fundraising base, and so he was endorsed not only by the state party chairman, but also by the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

One poll showed Crist leading Rubio by 37 points:
(The very Liberal Tampa Bay Times): 
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/2009/06/poll-crist-59-rubio-22-mccollum-41-sink-39.html


Crist had every tangible advantage, but what he did not have was the support of the conservative grassroots, which were just then coalescing into the Tea Party. Crist had embraced President Obama's $800 billion "stimulus" plan, and his endorsements from the GOP Establishment proved to be the kiss of death, rallying a nationwide movement behind Rubio. And so the young senator who introduced Mitt Romney on the closing night of the Republican National Convention was a living embodiment of the miraculous power of the American dream.

Rubio spoke of that dream, describing how as a nine-year-old boy in 1980 he watched the GOP convention with his grandfather, a refugee from Cuba's communist dictatorship. "As a boy, I would sit on our porch and listen to his stories about history, politics and baseball while he puffed on one of his three daily Padron cigars," Rubio told the thousands of Republican delegates gathered inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum. "I don't recall everything we talked about, but the one thing I remember, is the one thing he wanted me to never forget. The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve, but there was no limit to how far I could go, because I was an American."

The crowd went positively wild with cheers and applause, and when they calmed down, Rubio continued: "For those of us who were born and raised in this country, it's easy to forget how special America is. But my grandfather understood how different America is from the rest of the world, because he knew what life was like outside America."

What Rubio was describing was a doctrine known to political philosophers as "American exceptionalism," and the 41-year-old senator went on to describe its foundation in religious belief, that America is "special because we've been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.... Our national motto is 'In God we Trust,' reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all."

Words can scarcely describe the enthusiasm that swept through the auditorium at that moment. In a skybox suite five floors above the stage, where I was a guest of the Republican State Leadership Committee, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. They were neutral, objective tears, because I remembered when Marco Rubio was 37 points down in the polls, and here in Tampa I was watching an honest-to-God miracle. If it had been up to the party leadership, Charlie Crist would have been up there on stage. Instead, Crist is now disgraced and discredited, an unpopular loser who will speak at next week's Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Anything can happen in America and, with less than 10 weeks to go until Election Day, it is impossible to know who will win the White House in November. The Real Clear Politics average of national polls shows a neck-and-neck race, but as of Thursday night it seemed entirely within the realm of possibility that Mitt Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, might win in a landslide. And if the Republicans do win, much of the credit will go to the ruthless efficiency of the campaign team organized by Romney. No one can deny that Romney and the Republicans put together an excellent convention. The most offbeat moment of the weeklong event in Tampa was a smashing success.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html

C'mon: Even the most hard-boiled liberal must admit that Clint Eastwood's Thursday night appearance was hilarious. Rambling and low-key, Eastwood improvised a comedy routine in which he "interviewed" Obama, represented by an empty chair, and drew a standing ovation when he declared, "We own this country."

The night ended with Romney's acceptance speech -- arguably his best ever, although the former governor of Massachusetts has never been famed as a spellbinding inspirational orator. But Romney made the case that inspirational oratory is no substitute for sound policy and competent leadership. "What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound," said the former CEO of Bain Capital. "It doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs. What America needs is jobs -- lots of jobs." He later mocked the absurdly irrational "hope and change" rhetoric that marked Obama's 2008 campaign: "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family."

Romney closed by invoking an America that represents "the best within each of us," and made a promise: "If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it."

If Mitt Romney is elected president on Nov. 6, it won't necessarily be because America believes in Mitt Romney, but because Mitt Romney believes in America.

[Warph]

The Ryan Vision: Let's Get This Done

By David Limbaugh
8/31/2012

http://www.rightwingnews.com/column-2/the-ryan-vision-lets-get-this-done/

The Democrats and their mainstream media cheering section can huff and puff at Paul Ryan's convention speech, but they can't blow his house down. It was built on a solid foundation.

So powerful was the speech that the liberal establishment is reduced to wailing about alleged lies the speech contained -- dishonest and easily refuted allegations. Ryan delivered a substantive indictment of the Obama administration's failed record and a content-rich, realistic plan for putting this nation back on track to economic growth and fiscal recovery, a plan that includes "protecting and strengthening" Medicare, not "raiding" it.

Don't listen to the naysayers. Ryan began with a humble acceptance of his "calling" and "duty" to help restore America. His message was positive. "I know we can do this," he said, not dwelling on the malaise in which Obama's disastrous policies have placed us but offering a specific blueprint to deliver us from this quicksand.

He carried forward this same theme throughout the speech: He said that when he accepted the nomination, he told Mitt Romney, "Let's get this done"; and in closing the speech, he converted the slogan into a formal offer to the American people, promising that if elected, he and Romney would put America back on a path to fiscal redemption.

Ryan offered a succinct but irrefutable critique of Obama's economic record: 23 million unemployed or underemployed, 1 in 6 Americans living in poverty and one-half of college graduates unable to find work they've studied for or any work at all.

More importantly, he emphasized that Obama has no new ideas to deliver us from this quagmire. Under a second Obama term, nothing would change -- Obamanomics being but a ship trying to sail on yesterday's wind.

Obama's grandiose stimulus plan, involving "the largest one-time expenditure of the federal government," not only didn't work to create jobs but also took us into deeper debt. The money wasn't "just spent and wasted; it was borrowed, spent and wasted." Instead of giving us the jobs we needed, he forced Obamacare on us against our will, and he gave us Solyndra and its ilk -- replete with corporate welfare, political patronage, cronyism and "make-believe markets." Indeed.

Obama's stimulus debacle was a microcosm -- albeit a gargantuan one -- of the ideas that Obama has advanced and that Romney and Ryan would reject in favor of America's founding ideals. Ryan was eloquent in articulating the contrast. Under Obama, he said, the government has tried to divide up wealth. Under Romney and Ryan, Americans -- not government -- would create wealth.

Ryan expanded on the contrast, saying that Obama sees America as a place where everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond their control, with government there to help them cope with their fate.

The new administration, he assured us, would give us the exact opposite -- a land where government is limited (to 20 percent of gross domestic product) and liberty is championed. He weaved in the story of his own family experiences and his mother -- his "role model" -- to personalize the point. He urged us not to buy Obama's message and record of despair and to reject the stifling notion that we can't do any better -- ideas wholly inconsistent with Ryan's personal experiences and the lessons his parents taught him.

Ryan said, in essence, "How dare you tell me and other Americans we have to accept whatever circumstances we find ourselves in and not try to improve our lots in life?" He said, "I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself and define happiness for myself." In other words, in the America in which Ryan grew up and that he and Romney will try to restore, no government and no politician will predefine limits on economic growth and individual liberties -- above all, the pursuit of happiness.

Ryan said that the American dream is grounded in freedom, not a planned economy in which equal outcomes are sought in lieu of equal opportunity. He underscored not simply that central planning doesn't work but that it's morally inferior, contrary to the claims and "sanctimony" of its leftist proponents.

Ryan promised that they would lead on the tough issues and be men of action -- rather than of endless empty rhetoric -- and would spend the next four years not blaming others but taking responsibility. They would immediately end the current administration's practice of replacing our founding principles and begin to reapply those principles.

Obama tells us that Republicans want a smaller America, but as Ryan conclusively demonstrated in his speech, it is Obama who envisions a limited, anemic America with a finite pie, incapable of a robust economic future.

In Romney and Ryan's America -- as in Ronald Reagan's, Jack Kemp's and Condoleezza Rice's -- "it doesn't matter where you came from; it matters where you're going."

[Warph]

Friends of Romney convey Mitt's love,
concern Ted, right, and Pat Oparowski

By: Hope Hodge
8/30/2012 08:42 PM

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/08/30/friends-of-romney-convey-mitts-love-and-concern/

Thursday night's speech lineup included a trio of Olympians, an A-list movie star, and a powerful U.S. Senator.

But perhaps the most impressive address came from an elderly couple who had trouble reading the teleprompter and stumbled a little over their words.

Ted and Pat Oparowski, originally of Medford, Mass., talked about their young son David, diagnosed at age 14 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Mitt Romney, then a leader in their church, befriended David as he struggled with his illness, buying the boy a box of fireworks at one point to cheer him up, and later, on David's request, helping him write a will so he could give his prized rifle, skateboard, and fishing gear to his friends.

"You cannot measure a man's character based on words he utters before adoring crowds during happy times. The true measure of a man is revealed in his actions during times of trouble," Ted Oparowski said. "The quiet hospital room of a dying boy, with no cameras and no reporters – that is the time to make an assessment."

Romney stayed with the family even at David's death, Pat Oparowski added, delivering the eulogy at the boy's funeral.

"We will be ever grateful to Mitt for his love and concern," she said.

Though the couple's emotional talk brought tears to the eyes of many, it wasn't the only insight of the evening into a man who friend's called deeply caring and generous with time and resources.

Click here to view their speech:

Pam Finlayson, who also was a member of Romney's church, talked about how Romney had come to the hospital to visit her after her daughter Kate was born very prematurely.

"I will never forget that when he looked down tenderly at my daughter, his eyes filled with tears, and he reached out gently and stroked her tiny back," she said. "I could tell immediately that he didn't just see a tangle of plastic and tubes; he saw our beautiful little girl, and he was clearly overcome with compassion for her."

When Kate passed away 26 years later from a congenital condition, Mitt and Ann Romney stopped their work on the campaign trail to reach out to Finlayson, she remembered.

"It is with great excitement and a renewed hope, to know that our country will be blessed as it is led by a man who is not only so accomplished and capable, but who has devoted his entire life quietly serving others," she said.

Click here to view Pam's speech:

In every phase of his life, a stream of speakers said, Romney had embodied compassion, hard work, and principle.

The crowd thrilled when 15 Olympians, including Mike Eruzione, hockey player of "miracle on ice" fame, figure skater Scott Hamilton, and speed skater Dan Jansen took the stage to talk about how Romney had saved the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics from the brink of financial disaster.

"Mitt is a brilliant leader who is committed to the highest ideals, and he is a wonderful and caring family man," Eruzione said. "America desperately needs Mitt Romney's leadership today. Please join me in making him the next president of the United States."

Business leaders, including Staples founder Tom Stemberg, talked about Romney's record of success and character while in leadership at Bain Capital, while Massachusetts political leaders including Romney's former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey discussed his work to help the state lead the nation in education.

This extended tribute concluded with a video showing the Romney family as Mitt and Ann raised five boys, showing scenes of the Republican nominee stopping work to play with his sons, and featuring Ann telling of how Mitt chose her to carry the Olympic torch in Salt Lake City, saying that she was his hero.

Romney's job this week was to show a more personable and genuine side of himself to the American people. By the time he took the stage at the end of the night Thursday, his work was all but done.

Click here to view a video of Jane, a liberal democrat who is a friend:

[/font][/size]

[Warph]

The Fantastic Romney Video You Probably Didn't See

By Guy Benson
9/3/2012

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Hot Air's Allahpundit are in rare agreement: A video produced for the Republican National Convention that played on the evening of Mitt Romney's acceptance speech should have been featured more prominently in prime time. Why? It was touching, humanizing and uplifting – and it also highlighted Romney's professional accomplishments in a very compelling way. Because the 'likeability' factor is such a major component of this campaign, why wouldn't RNC organizers have moved heaven and earth to ensure that tens of millions of voters would be exposed to such a brilliant piece of biographical art? Before we tackle that question, let's watch it. I realize that 10:30 is a decent chunk of time to invest in a YouTube clip, but c'mon – it's Labor Day, and the video is well worth your time:

[Warph]

 
7 Incredible Personal Stories About Mitt Romney That You May Not Know

Townhall Columnists John Hawkins
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/09/25/7_incredible_personal_stories_about_mitt_romney_that_you_may_not_know      


Over the last few months, it has been absolutely stunning to see Mitt Romney, of all people, portrayed as some sort of greedy, ruthless, unfeeling corporate raider who plows over everyone who gets in his way so he can make a few dollars more. Of all the criticisms you could aim at Mitt Romney, there is none that has less validity than that one. In fact, the vast majority of people who read this column -- whether they're liberal, conservative, or moderate -- probably don't personally know a single person who has proven to be more generous and compassionate than Mitt Romney. Yes, really. It's okay if you're skeptical -- but, you won't be after you finish reading this column.


1) Mitt Romney saved the life of a 14 year old girl: Imagine what it would be like if we could have this kind of decisive people-centered leadership in the White House..
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-mitt-romney-saved-girls-life-means-11248776.html?cat=9

In 1998 the 14-year-old daughter of one of Romney's partners at Bain Capital, Robin Gay, had disappeared after attending a rave party in New York City. The distraught father was beside himself with terror of what may have happened to his little girl.

Upon hearing of this, Romney stopped all operations at Bain and flew himself and all of the company's employees to New York to conduct the search. Using his contacts with establishments in New York that did business with Bain and an outlay of cash, Romney led a search for the girl from a command post he had set up in the LaGuardia Marriott that involved a private detective, Bain employees and customers putting up posters, handing out flyers, and interviewing prostitutes, drug addicts, and other street people in New York, and coordination with the New York Police.

A break came, after media publicity of the search, when a teenage boy called a tip line asking if there was a reward. He hung up, but not before the police traced the call to a home in New Jersey. The girl was found in the basement of the house undergoing withdrawals from a hit of ecstasy.
Romney, through his efforts, had saved the girl's life.


2) Mitt Romney gave milk to a V.A. hospital: This is the kind of thing Mitt Romney has done for people in need who cross his path.
http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/09/12/the-incredible-stories-of-character-the-media-isnt-telling-you-about-mitt-romney/

He shared a story of a V.A. hospital in Boston that Mitt Romney stopped at while on the campaign trail running against Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy had made a thirty minute stop at the same location a couple of weeks prior.

After touring the V.A. hospital, Mitt asked to look at their books. After he spent forty minutes going through their books, he told them, "You run a very good place, very tight. Very good." Romney asked to go on another tour of the hospital, and after spending an hour and forty minutes there, the last question he asked was, "So what... what do you -- what are you lacking? What do you need help with?"

The response? "Milk."

Since the press was around, snapping photos and asking questions, Glenn explained that Romney did a really awkward joke where he said, "maybe we should teach everyone here how to milk a cow."

Of course, that's all the press cared to hear and ran with a story that claims "Mitt Romney says veterans should have to milk cows."

"This is where it gets good," Glenn started. "Romney calls him up the next morning."

Romney first apologizes to the man who runs the hospital for any problems the attention from the press jumping on his words brought to the hospital. He next offers to help with the milk situation.

"Friday comes, and the milkman comes," Glenn continues. "This is what the vets needed – they needed 7,000 pints of milk a week. Milkman shows up, 7,000 pints. The head of the V.A. hospital asks, 'Where did all this come from?' He [the milkman] said 'an anonymous donor.' Now, the guy didn't put it together."

Glenn explains that when the next week rolled around, the milkman shows up again, and continued to show up every week for two years. After two years of delivering 7,000 pints of milk a week to the hospital, as the milkman is retiring, the man finally gets him to reveal the anonymous donor.

It's Mitt Romney.

"Mitt Romney was writing a personal check and didn't want anybody to know for two years and provided the vets with all of their milk in Boston," Glenn explained to listeners this morning.

When Romney became governor, he sent a bill through to help the V.A. hospital – it was down to the dollar.


3) Mitt Romney helped a dying 14 year old boy write his will: In a profession filled with people who steal the credit for every good thing that happens and pass the buck at every opportunity, Mitt Romney's humility -- which is a wonderful trait in a human being, but a maladaptive one in a politician -- has kept him from hammering home stories like this in every swing state.

Pat Oparowski talks about the loving friendship Mitt Romney developed with her dying son David, remembering,
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/31/old-romney-friend-brings-tears-to-rnc-as-recalls-his-private-compassion/

"David, knowing Mitt had gone to law school at Harvard, asked Mitt if he would help him write a will. He had some prize possessions that he wanted to make sure were given to his closest friends and family. The next time Mitt went to the hospital, he was equipped with his yellow legal pad and pen. Together, they made David's will. That is a task that no child should ever have to do. But it gave David peace of mind. So after David's death, we were able to give his skateboard, his model rockets, and his fishing gear to his best friends. He also made it clear that his brother Peter should get his Ruger .22 rifle. How many men do you know who would take the time out of their busy lives to visit a terminally ill 14 year old and help him settle his affairs?"

David also helped us plan his funeral. He wanted to be buried in his Boy Scout uniform. He wanted Mitt to pronounce his eulogy, and Mitt was there to honor that request. We will be ever grateful to Mitt for his love and concern."

Ted Oparowski summed it up nicely when he said,

"You cannot measure a man's character based on the words he utters before adoring crowds during times that are happy. The true measure of a man is revealed in his actions during times of trouble — the quiet hospital room of a dying boy, with no cameras and no reporters."


4) At one point, Mitt Romney was doing 10-20 hours a week of volunteer church service: At the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney's friend and fellow church member Grant Bennett talked about the Mitt Romney he knew.

While raising his family and pursuing his career, Mitt Romney served in our church, devoting 10, 15, and even 20 hours a week doing so. ...Drawing on the skills and resources of those in our congregation, Mitt provided food and housing, rides to the doctor, and companions to sit with those who were ill. He shoveled snow and raked leaves for the elderly. He took down tables and swept floors at church dinners. He was often the last to leave. Mitt challenged each of us to find our life by losing it in service to others. He issued that challenge again and again.

What do you think the chances are that the current occupant of the White House would voluntarily shovel snow and rake leaves for the elderly without any television cameras around?


5) Pam Finlayson talks about how Mitt Romney treated her family and her extremely ill child: Pam Finlayson gave one of the finest speeches at the Republican National Convention when she talked about her family's experience with Mitt Romney.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/31/old-romney-friend-brings-tears-to-rnc-as-recalls-his-private-compassion/

Later, when Finlayson and her husband Grant had a baby girl born dangerously premature, the man who decades later would stand at the threshold of the presidency was a steady and supportive presence at the hospital.

"Kate was so tiny and very sick," Finlayson recalled. "Her lungs not yet ready to breathe, her heart unstable, and after suffering a severe brain hemorrhage at three days old, she was teetering on the very edge of life."

"As I sat with her in intensive care, consumed with a mother's worry and fear, dear Mitt came to visit and pray with me," she continued, as the partisan crowd listened in rapt silence. "I will never forget that when he looked down tenderly at my daughter, his eyes filled with tears, and he reached out gently and stroked her tiny back."

"I could tell immediately that he didn't just see a tangle of plastic and tubes; he saw our beautiful little girl, and he was clearly overcome with compassion for her."

The little girl was slated for surgery around Thanksgiving, and Finlayson recalled Romney and his sons showing up with a Thanksgiving feast for the preoccupied parents. Finlayson said she later learned from Ann Romney that the food had been prepared by her husband.

Kate Finlayson survived, and the two families remained close, said Finlayson, who even babysat for the five "rambunctious" Romney sons before the family moved from Boston.

Last year, Kate Finlayson died at age 26 from complications she'd battled from birth, her mom said. And although Romney was in the midst of preparing his bid for the presidency, they remembered their old friends in yet another hour of anguish.

"When they heard of Kate's passing, both Mitt and Ann paused, to personally reach out to extend us sympathy, and express their love," Finlayson said.

"When the world looks at Mitt Romney, they see him as the founder of a successful business, the leader of the Olympics, or a governor," she said. "When I see Mitt, I know him to be a loving father, man of faith and caring and compassionate friend."


6) Mitt Romney and his sons saved a family and their dog from drowning: Mitt Romney saw people in trouble and he didn't wait for the government to save them, he made a REAL gutsy call, and did what he had to do to save their lives.
http://newjerseyhills.com/hunterdon_review/news/tewksbury-family-saved-from-sinking-boat-by-mitt-romney/article_845a5ee6-7399-11e1-8060-0019bb2963f4.html

But way back in the summer of 2003, the then-Massachusetts governor made the news for a very different reason: He helped save a Tewksbury family from drowning in New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee.

The Morrisseys of Tewksbury were motoring their vintage wooden boat through the large lake on July 4 weekend that year when, around sunset and about 300 yards from shore, the vessel began taking on water. Robert Morrissey attempted to dial 911 on his cell phone, only to lose the device in the water as the boat started sinking rapidly.

That's when Romney, who owns a home on the shore of the lake, and two of his sons jumped on jet skis and rode out to assist the six people, along with the family dog, struggling in the water.

The Romneys took two of the passengers ashore, and others in the area helped the rest of the family—and the dog, too — make it back to land without injury.


7) Mitt Romney pays for the college education of two boys who were left as quadriplegics after a car wreck: As you read this, imagine how you'd feel about Mitt Romney if you were Mark and Sheryl Nixon. Americans would be fortunate to have someone like Mitt Romney doing his best to try to help them.

Mark and Sheryl Nixon, along with their sons Reed and Rob and their daughter Natalie, told of a car accident that left Reed and Rob quadriplegics. Although the Nixon family knew of Romney and Romney had served as their Mormon stake president, they weren't well acquainted.

Reed and Rob returned home from rehab in the late fall, near Christmas, Mark said. Around that time, Romney called and said he'd like to do something for the two boys. So Romney, his wife Ann, and three of their sons brought Christmas gifts to the family.

While Romney later offered to pay for Reed and Rob's entire college education, that Christmas Eve visit stands out in Mark's mind, he said, because instead of vacationing in Utah, New England or the Caribbean, the Romney family was visiting the needy.

"That actually, to me, has been more important to me than the financial help he gave," Mark said.

"After the initial experience of showing up, he didn't check that off his list and say, 'I did my duty,'" Natalie added. "He has, year after year, shown up at 5K races to run the event and participate."[/font][/size]

[Diane Amberg]

Now I know lies and tall tales, exaggerations and such run rampid during the silly season, but I heard something yesterday  that I found very troubling.
   Because of transportation, storage and distribution problems ,the general long distance public is being asked not to send goods to Sandy victims.  Then I hear Mitt suggesting that people send stuff to the hurricane areas. He doesn't get it!
So then I hear that at a rally yesterday,where ever he was, he sent staffers to a local grocery store to buy $5,000.00 in goods. He supposedly had the staffers pass them out, outside the seating area of the rally and then as the attendees came in, they handed the can, or whatever, to Mitt, who was taking them and bagging them for donation to hurricane victims.
   Can someone tell me if this really happened? If so, I'm shocked he would do such a fake and dishonest thing. I'm all set to vote for him ,but if that's the way he'll do things...well, I really have to wonder. Anybody have any trustworthy information?

[redcliffsw]

Isn't it usually the socialists and big government people who give the orders and take the credit?
It's no surprise that you don't like Romney lending a hand and aiding the Sandy disaster.

[Diane Amberg]

You aren't helping with that smart A## answer! You don't understand! NJ and NY Red Cross et al, have specifically asked that hard goods and clothes, food etc. NOT be sent.They have no place yet to put donations or deal with big trucks coming in and no way yet to distribute it.  The electricity isn't even all back on yet. Many roads are not yet out from under the floods.  Trains are just partly running and the subways are only pumped out here and there. You can't even yet get through the Holland Tunnel into NY.
  You really just don't get it do ya! Get off the personal agenda will ya? Make you sound very ignorant.
  . I just want to know if he did it and if so why he would be so uncooperative and make a big political deal out of it. If he did it ,no I don't like it!
  If he wanted to do a $ collection for the Red Cross, Salvation Army and others there, I'd be all for it. But to refuse to cooperate with the Red Cross? Who does that!

[jarhead]

I can tell you one that will not donate one red cent to The Red Cross----ME-before one penny goes to the needy their CEO is paid $651,957 plus expenses. Then only pennies on the dollar goes for what people thought they were donating for.
Salvation Army , yes I will and do.