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| Colorado Caucus Results |
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| Minnesota Caucus Results |
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| Missouri Primary Results |
All delegates awarded through today:
Romney: 107Santorum: 45
Gingrich: 32
Paul: 9
(Total needed to nominate: 1,144)
Yes, even after last night, Romney has more delegates than the next 3 candidates combined! Nonetheless, last night showed its time for Romney to get serious and credible, and make his best case why people should vote for him. I've summarized this with the following 3 excerpts (note: the 3rd excerpt below dates from the McCain--Obama campaign):
What the Republican "Establishment" wants-- WSJ.com by Peggy Noonan: "They want to reform the tax system and begin reining in the entitlement spending that is bankrupting us. They don't read him (Romney) as the guy who can perform those two Herculean jobs, each of which will demand first-rate political talent. And shrewdness. And guts. Mr. Romney doesn't have the establishment in his pocket. He needs to win it. All the more reason for him to get serious now. If he is serious."
The Crisis Facing Mitt Romney - Forbes: "Romney needs to do what he has yet to do so far: outline a clear, unambiguous program on why he should be President, what he would do differently, and how he would get America going again. This means he needs to outline four things. He needs to explain how he would create jobs, how he would revitalize the economy, how he would balance the budget, and how he would restore America’s leadership in the world. Romney cannot simply attack President Obama, and in increasingly strident language, talk about how our country has fallen back. The American people, while certainly very unhappy with how the country has been governed, give the President at least some credit, and give President George W. Bush some blame to this day. Rather, the American people are looking for Romney to offer something he hasn’t yet: an alternative vision of how he would govern America and a clear sense of what leadership would and should look like under current circumstances. The likely Republican standard bearer needs to articulate a clear sense of ideas, directions and policies about what America needs to get moving again."
"What is your vision for America? Calling Obama a Socialist proves nothing germane to most voters while allowing the Obama camp to claim they're the victims of a smear campaign or are being targeted by ignorant racists. The truth is that voters don't care about political labels. They want to know two things about a candidate: 1. Can I trust this person to make good decisions that protect my interests? 2. How will the vote I cast on election day directly impact my life?"
It's clear Obama does not intend to exercise leadership and try to fix the long-term fiscal problems of the U.S. which can only be done by comprehensive entitlements reform and comprehensive tax reform (see my reform proposal). I've yet to hear or read how Romney (or for that matter any of the Republican candidates) propose specifically to do that. I will say that Romney (and the rest of the Republicans, excepting Ron Paul) are wrong if they think we can continue to support a bloated Department of Defense and Obama deserves credit for his streamlining thus far of DOD.
So Romney (and Santorum et al), the clock is running--it's time to put up or shut up!
It's clear Obama does not intend to exercise leadership and try to fix the long-term fiscal problems of the U.S. which can only be done by comprehensive entitlements reform and comprehensive tax reform (see my reform proposal). I've yet to hear or read how Romney (or for that matter any of the Republican candidates) propose specifically to do that. I will say that Romney (and the rest of the Republicans, excepting Ron Paul) are wrong if they think we can continue to support a bloated Department of Defense and Obama deserves credit for his streamlining thus far of DOD.
So Romney (and Santorum et al), the clock is running--it's time to put up or shut up!
