Transforming Debate for Inclusive and Impactful Participation
Objective: To empower thousands—or even millions—to contribute meaningfully to debates by leveraging structured organization and robust evaluation criteria. Together, we can ensure every voice is heard and every idea is thoughtfully considered.
When Ann Coulter was at the CPAC convention earlier this year, she said that "if both major parties' nominees are pro-abortion, we can pretty much hang it up as a country." I think she was right. If we didn't have MR as the pro-life standard bearer, we would be in dire straights right about now.
The only (formerly) top tier candidate, John McCain, who is pro-life, fell on his sword for the Immigration bill. The remaining pro-life Republicans are mired at or below 2%.
One thing that I think is worth considering is that younger voters in the 18-30 age bracket are dramatically more supportive of politicians who propose policies that respect life in all it's stages. I really feel that those Americans who have labored long and hard to move this country away from the "culture of death" are starting to see the first fruits of their labors.
Mitt is right on this issue and as we get into the general election campaign mode, wait until you see the television ads that Team Romney will produce to drive home the stark choices before the electorate, when it becomes apparent that MR will be the ONLY viable pro-life candidate. I believe the pendulum is swinging back towards us and I see an exciting opportunity for us to begin the process of restoring the rights of the pre-born for the first time since Roe v. Wade.
I have news for you "<a href="http://youtube.com/user/EmergencyCheese ">EmergencyCheese</a>" people stopped doing the air quotes thing about 5 years ago. Also the people on a stick is kind of an example of the problem with you tube…
It's not that our presidential candidates are "too important" to talk to you, but everyone is too important to talk to you. I know you "YouTubers" have found a forum that makes you feel important, but you are not. You tube levels the playing field, so any narcissistic idiot with a camera (myself included) can think they are the center of the universe.
EmergencyCheese says that the snow man asking a question at the last debate is part of the reason that young people are connecting with politics…
That is the problem with YouTube. People just make crap up. Are "young people connecting with politics"? What evidence do we have that young people are connecting with politics? The real question is what has the YouTube done to improve the debates? Nothing. They are a freek show. Youtube, can improve politics, because it cost less to get your message out, but having CNN pick from YouTube videos, instead of the typical townhall where they have real people standing their in real life, within the townhall, does nothing but promote YouTube.
EmergencyCheese says the CNN YouTube debate was the highest rated presidential debate among 18 to 35 year olds. Yes. It was promoted as something new and different. But is the next YouTube debate going to be higher rated after the gimmicky way that CNN promoted it?
EmergencyCheese asks, "would you rather have the debates be boring, Governor Romney?" HELL YES! Politics are not here to entertain. If people don't care about issues enough to watch unless a snow man ask the questions, THAN WE DON"T WANT THESE TYPE OF PEOPLE PARTICPATING IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS!
He goes on to call the professional journalist "vanilla" and says that we have to choose between them (turning off young people) and engaging them with youtube.
EmergencyCheese says, "tell me republican candidates, are you also too important to answer questions from parents with children serving in Iraq."
Again, I restate my thesis. We are all too important to listen to what these idiots on YouTube have to say. Do not waste your time! Mitt Romney has been having these forums called, "Ask Mitt Anything". Let me give you the gist of them. You can "Ask Mitt Anything". So no, Mitt Romney is not afraid of taking questions from anyone. He has been doing it with actual people in the same room as him, not with a TV screen where someone is able to put together some artificial "production".
Perhaps Mitt Romney is strategic enough to not walk into a trap where CNN gets to ask republicans the questions they have always wanted to, while hiding behind the public.
So you think EmergencyCheese is pretty stupid, for asking the question about being afraid to take questions from real people, when Romney, McCain, and Rudy have been doing that for months in townhalls across the country. So you think he must be pretty embarrassed, right? There is not much more that he could do to embarrass himself right? Well…
EmergencyChees asks the stupid question, how can you take on terrorist, when you are too afraid to go to the YouTube debate? Lets think about this for ½ a second… Do you notice any problems with his logic? Maybe any hypocracy? No? Perhaps you see a problem that he didn't have a problem with the Democrats not wanting to go to a Fox debate? If EmergencyChees had any logic to use, he could see that the democrats didn't want to go on the fox debate for the same reason that the republicans didn't want to go on the YouTube debate… they didn't see it being in their best interest…
Now that we are talking about interest, EmergencyCheese spends all his life on YouTube, do you think he is an impartial witness? Perhaps he has a dog in the race? Perhaps he is insulted that Mitt Romney thinks is "is not important" that he is a "nut" that he "wastes his time" that he "should get a real job" or "get a degree" or "make something of himself" instead of "wasting all his time on the computer posting videos to his friends, when he should just go over to their house".
So EmergencyCheese and all his budies that spend 5 hours a day on YouTube and Myspace all want validation that they are not losers. Well, he isn't going to get it from me, and I hope Mitt Romney doesn't give it to him.
John Le Carre quotes said, "A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world." I computer doubly so.
EmergencyCheese says "the internet is making regular people more powerful every day". Lets just put aside weather or not EmergencyChees is "regular" or not, and go straight to the heart of the problem…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance says the only thing in life that matters in art, and science is quality. EmergencyChees warns politicians if they don't embrace "the new" format (YouTube) they and their politics will become "irrelevant". I have a hard time imagining a world where someone who gave the valedictorian speech, with a degree in English, who graduated with honors (Cum Laud) from Harvard Law school, and as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business school, who went on to run one of the most successful businesses of the 90s will ever become irrelevant in a world that has anyone that still values quality. Mitt Romney is not on trial, in my mind. The question for me is if our horse and pony show of a political process, can still pick a person like Mitt Romney, or if the people who Google "Paris Hilton" will pick our next president.
On Thursday Governor Mitt Romney joined his wife Ann, daughter-in-law Mary and grandson Parker in Spartanburg, South Carolina where they met with voters at The Beacon Drive-In and later traveled to West Columbia for a barbeque picnic with local residents.
ADEL, Iowa (AP) - Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Friday that the country is angry over the lack of progress in the Iraq war, a stinging assessment of the Bush administration's handling of the conflict from a Republican candidate.
Campaigning in Iowa, the former Massachusetts governor also argued that despite the nation's frustration over the war, voters aren't ready to replace President Bush with a Democrat.
"I know the Democrats are getting all ready, they are measuring the drapes and getting the carpet all ready for how they are going to take over the White House, and I think they are going to get a big surprise," Romney told a crowd gathered at a golf course. "America is not happy with how the war in Iraq is going, and is angry. But America is not about to take a sharp left turn and put somebody in the White House who would turn America into a European-type state."
While Romney supported the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and backs Bush's current troop increase, he has repeatedly said the post- invasion period was "mismanaged" with a lack of preparation for the insurgency and adequate planning for a government handover.
Before various New Hampshire audiences on Wednesday, Romney said he would wait until a mid-September report from U.S. generals in Iraq before deciding the next course of action that he would support. He said if the surge succeeds, he believes it will allow U.S. troop withdrawals. He had refused to detail alternate scenarios should insurgent violence continue unabated.
On immigration, Romney adopted a hardline stance.
"I ... don't think it makes sense to have an immigration policy that says that if an illegal couple—a couple that comes across the border illegally—has a child here, that child becomes a U.S. citizen, that then the whole family gets to come in, if you will, through 'chain migration,'" he said.
Gov. Romney Stresses The Importance Of Winning In Iraq And Defeating Radical Islam Globally. "The congressional debate in Washington has largely, and myopically, focused on whether troops should be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan, as if these were isolated issues. Yet the jihad is much broader than any one nation, or even several nations. ... The jihadist threat is the defining challenge of our generation and is symptomatic of a range of new global realities." (Gov. Mitt Romney, "Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges," Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007)
ABC'S GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "National security, you're a management consultant again. You've come into the United States looking at the commander-in-chief. Do you keep him or let him go?"
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Well, you have to look at Iraq and Iraq was superbly executed in terms of taking down Saddam Hussein's government. But I think everybody recognizes, from the president to Tony Blair to Secretary Rumsfeld that post the period of major conflict, we had major problems in the way we've managed the war in Iraq, and that has contributed to much of the difficulty we have today. It was under-planned, under-prepared, under-staffed, too low a level of troops, under-managed."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "But how do you explain why all that planning wasn't done? President Bush is a Harvard MBA, too."
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Well, everybody has their own management style and their own approach and I respect enormously the approach other people. Mine is just different. And if you read "Cobra II" and "Assassins' Gate" and "Looming Tower" and some of the reports of the events leading up not only to 9/11, but to the conflict itself, there's a sense that we really weren't ready for the post major conflict period. And that has resulted in a blossoming of the sectarian violence, of insurgents within the country and from without, and a setting which is a very troubled, difficult position."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Yet, you support the president's decision to send more troops right now."
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Yeah."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "How much time do you give it to work?"
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Well, it's not years. I think you're going to know within months."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Mayor Giuliani said the other night he's not confident it's going to work. Are you?"
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Well, you know, I think it's hard to predict whether this troop surge will work, but I'm absolutely confident it's the right thing to do."
"She can do what she likes – but I take exception to her conclusions. I don't think we should run our foreign policy based upon elections, election schedules or anything of that nature. We should look at the interests of America and our friends and our citizens and our solders and do what it's our collective best interests. This president has taken action which he believes is calculated to make America a safer land. We should not make decisions based on an election schedule...I would not move to those choices unless we were convinced there was no prospect of success with the current strategy...A number of mistakes have been made and those mistakes have contributed to some of the challenges we now face...I'm glad we're seeing a change in strategy. I'm glad we're adding to the mission of our military the protection of the safety of citizens in and around Baghdad., I don't know how you could rebuild a country and an economy if you have your capital city is literally all covered by what we call a red zone. You know you've failed if you have a red zone. The conduct of our policy in Iraq has been fraught with a number of mistakes."
Governor Mitt Romney, Adam Nagourney, The New York Times, January 29th, 2007
In Responce to Hillary Clinton, who said that President Bush needed to resolve the war he started before he left office and not hand it off to his successor
2006
"I wouldn't presume to present a plan different from that of the President. But I believe he was right to take on the war on terror on an aggressive front rather than a defensive front. We toppled the government ... walking away would mean a humanitarian disaster. We're there and we have a responsibility to finish the job." Response to Bill O'Reilly Sept, 27 2006
"I agree with the President: Our strategy in Iraq must change. Our military mission, for the first time, must include securing the civilian population from violence and terror. It is impossible to defeat the insurgency without first providing security for the Iraqi people. Civilian security is the precondition for any political and economic reconstruction.
"In consultation with Generals, military experts and troops who have served on the ground in Iraq, I believe securing Iraqi civilians requires additional troops. I support adding five brigades in Baghdad and two regiments in Al-Anbar province. Success will require rapid deployment.
"This effort should be combined with clear objectives and milestones for U.S. and Iraqi leaders.
"The road ahead will be difficult but success is still possible in Iraq. I believe it is in America's national security interest to achieve it."
Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, finds strength in her family and her horses – and she's emerging as a potent political force this campaign season.
"Ann deserves a lot of credit," says GOP pollster Neil Newhouse. "Politicians talk about family values, Ann and Mitt Romney live them."
Her husband calls her "one of America's great moms" – a description she's "totally satisfied with."
Mrs. Romney, 58, invited PEOPLE into the sunshine-yellow sitting room of her Belmont, Mass., home on June 12 to talk about her Mormon faith, raising five boys, living with Multiple Sclerosis – and her designs on the White House.
Here is the complete interview:
What do you most want people to know about you? The thing people are most curious about is that I have MS and then the fact that I've overcome it. When you're used to being healthy and strong and vibrant and everything and then – bang – overnight you're desperately ill, it's frightening. People liken it to the same stages you go through grieving a death, where it takes a long time to accept it. Now that I've had it a number of years, I spend a lot of time on the phone privately talking to people who have just been recently diagnosed. That's my way of helping others. I always recommend going to a good doctor, doing the right medicines and then combining that with holistic [treatments.]
Opens Up
Ann RomneyPhoto by: Rob Carr / AP
What was your experience with MS like? I had a very aggressive deterioration where I went from a matter of – October to December [1997] – of my whole right side going completely numb and being completely weakened and, I mean, I don't want to get that graphic about what happens, but you lose bowel and bladder control. It's so scary, you can't even imagine. I thought it was moving so fast it was going to kill me. But for me, I was put on [a 9-month course of] intravenous steroids and that worked like a charm. The thing is, you want to caution that everyone's diagnosis is different and everyone's treatment is different. I was having enormous fatigue and that's where the holistic part helped me. So, the steroids worked for stopping the progression and the holistic part helped me with energy.
You used horseback riding as therapy? This enormous joy and passion that I had with riding horses got me out of bed, got me motivated, got me physically moving again, removed me to a very happy place and I would have so much joy and happiness and just so much fun while I was on the horse that I would even forget I was sick. Now I was really, really weak at the beginning when I was first riding. I had always dreamed that I might be able to even compete in the Grand Prix ring. Well, last year, not only did I compete, I earned the Gold Medal for the United States. Not only did I compete in Grand Prix, I'm also the highest-ranked Grand Prix rider in New England. Amateur, but still.
How did your husband take your diagnosis? He was amazing. Initially we were both devastated. There was a lot of education we had to absorb about the disease. When he really helped me was when I was going through this really depressed period where I felt like I was 80 years old, there was nothing I could ever do again and life was over for me. I was of no use to anybody. It wasn't as though I was suicidal, but I was at the point where I thought, Couldn't I please just have cancer and die? And that's when Mitt would look at me, like, what? Finally he just said, 'I don't care if you aren't able to do the things you used to do, those things don't matter. We can get through anything together. As long as you're just still here, everything will be okay.'
PEOPLE EXCLUSIVE: Ann Romney Opens Up
Ann and Mitt Romney at a campaign stop in Iowa.Photo by: Joshua Lott / REUTERS / Landov
What drew you to the Mormon Church? A hundred-percent personal thing. Mitt was the first Mormon I met and we began dating in high school. I just started asking him questions. I was curious.
What about the faith appealed to you? I think it was just their belief in God and Jesus Christ and the plan of Salvation and our purpose here in life and all of those things that I think were being answered by the faith.
Was your family okay with it? Oh, no! My dad was mortified. Can you imagine? The great agnostic that he is? Then, a few years later, not only did I get baptized, but my two brothers did, too. A few years later, my father was now telling all of his friends, "You got a problem with your teenagers? Send 'em to Brigham Young University. You can't believe it; it's the greatest place."
What are some of the misunderstandings about the church? Polygamy, obviously is one, but that's just going to take such a long time. It's not practiced and it just drives me crazy every time I see these specials about 'Oh, the Mormons and the polygamy.' And they always equate Mormon and polygamy as if they still do it. Sometimes it's frustrating for me that the church doesn't get more aggressive about it, too, making it really clear that they're really opposed to it.
Do you follow all of the Doctrine and Covenants, the sacred undergarments, no hot drinks or alcohol? Well, you know, I mean, we're practicing and active, so you can imagine we do some of the things that you'd expect. My kids don't drink and don't smoke. For me, that's been a great blessing actually, raising boys.
Have you seen Big Love? Nope. Never seen it.
Law & Order (starring Fred Thompson, who's expected to enter the GOP race)? I have seen it. Love it.
PEOPLE EXCLUSIVE: Ann Romney Opens Up
Ann Romney stands by husband Mitt.Photo by: Steve Pope / Landov
As first lady of Massachusetts, you were active in teen pregnancy prevention and faith-based work with inner-city children. Would you continue these in the White House? I think that would be very similar. MS awareness and working to make sure that at-risk youth make right choices. Every child is terrific they just need to be given the opportunity to make the right choices so they can have a more fulfilling and rich life.
You made the decision to stay at home and have an interesting story about finishing your college degree. I was going at night, taking this Harvard extension program and finishing my hours. I had maybe just a semester's worth of hours to do. I remember taking Josh, who was a baby then, to the class, nursing him in the back of the class. I think that was a first. It's one of those things where the professor is like, Wait, wait, wait, this is liberal Harvard, but what am I going to do about that woman in the back with a baby that's nursing? He just kept pretending like I wasn't there. There was a blind man sitting at the back of the room with me and finally after a few weeks of class, he goes, "I gotta ask you a question, what's that noise over there?"
In the circles you're in, do you ever feel self-conscious or apologetic about the choices you've made? Never. Motherhood was my career, and I'm totally satisfied with that and the blessings that come with that. I feel it's been a privilege to be able to be a stay-at-home mom. I know there's so many women who would love to be and don't have that option and so for me it was a privilege to be able to have that option. And I value women that struggle and wish they could stay at home full-time but don't. And then I value women, too, that choose professionally to have a career.
What's your favorite memory from raising five boys? It was wild. It was rowdy. There were times when seriously you just wanted to pull your hair out because you'd wish they would just be quiet for a minute, or sit, or even bake cookies or pick up their dishes or any of that, which never happened spontaneously. But then there were the fun times when honestly, they were so silly, the five all together that you just laughed a lot because there was just so much exuberance and happiness. I learned a lot from having boys.
Did you have any help? No housekeeper. Nothing. No.
What keeps you in love with your husband? No one's ever asked me that. I think we enjoy each other's company very much. We just enjoy being with each other. Sometimes we can just sit in a room and not talk; it doesn't matter. We just want to be together.
Jack's in New London was a happening place this morning, July 25, when I arrived about 10:15 am. It helps to know the area, so I didn't even try to park at Jack's since I assumed the lot would be full. It was.
So, I scooted directly down to the Kearsarge Regional Middle School which is behind Jack's and parked the ole' gal and walked up to Jack's. The place was full when I arrived with some spillover outside.
Since I'm an "undecided" at the moment, I was asked to give an interview for the local Argus-Champion paper. The nice young reporter, Phillip, diligently wrote everything down I said so check it out next Wednesday. Hopefully, he won't misquote me on anything, but then, hey, I've been called names and misquoted before. Likely, I've misquoted people as well. I hope I don't do that here, but I'm a lefty, took some notes in shorthand and longhand and wrote a lot while I was listening to Mitt.
I really wanted to ask him if his father was a baseball fan and that's why he named him Mitt. However, it seemed there were much more pressing issues to address during the Q&A so I refrained. But, I'm still curious. Does anybody know?
I spoke with one of the nice young staffers, Christy I think, first and queried her on some war issues. She was well-prepared and knew her stuff. I had previously been sent some info on Gov. Romney's stance on major social issues, immigration, and protecting traditional marriage from the very nice, Emily Cantin, one of the field reps, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting.
Please take all of this with a grain of salt, but I think this is the gist of what Gov. Romney had to say about a lot of different things.
I met him outside first and introduced myself and asked him if I could ask him a question about the war. He said, of course, I'll call on you during the Q&A.
One thing for certain is that he definitely looks like Presidential material and has the demeanor, a strong handshake, and seems very comfortable in his own skin. He was tan and perfectly coifed, of course. In fact, with temps in the 90's and high humidity my long, thick, rather coarse, just washed hair was starting to frizz a bit and I wanted to ask him what hair product he recommends for smoothing out one's hair since his looked so sleek and smooth with just the right amount of graying so as to look distinguished.
"The total education of our children is the measure of a generation's success or failure," said Romney. "We need to make sure our education system takes our kids from kindergarten all the way to being qualified for a good paying job." 02-26-2003 Press Release
