Mark Ellis would like to give Romney a bit of advice with his campaign.
Where do I get off offering advice to you, Mitt Romney?
I represent just one vote, but at the risk of seeming presumptive I’m going to respectfully exercise my right to free speech in an attempt to clarify what I’d like to see from your campaign going forward.
In 2008, after a brief and unrequited fling with Rudy Giuliani, I moved over to the Huckabee camp. I stayed there until John McCain’s inevitability left me no choice but to cast my vote for him, with an able assist from Sarah Palin. In this election I have supported Romney 2012 from the jump, most visibly with my op-ed in Portland’s Oregonian, “The Unwounded Warrior,” but also in face to face bull sessions with family, friends, associates and other conservatives, some of whom were quite resistant to my core equation: “He can win.”
Here are some thoughts about how candidate Romney can offer me an assist in my continued advocacy for the man I believe will be the next president of the United States. I’m sure the professionals around you have figured all this out, but it never hurts to hear from a voter.
Make sure that anyone who denigrates your Mormonism as a means to attacking your candidacy gets quickly consigned to a rhetorical circle of political hell. We don’t judge religious beliefs like that in this country, not even theologies which contain radical elements that seek to knock our buildings down. I’m Catholic, and I never gave your religious faith a second thought. Fair-minded voters shouldn’t either.
You took a hard line on illegal immigration during the primary campaign. Don’t go soft on us now. Hispanic Americans with a stake at the economic table understand that if our national lifeboat is swamped it will capsize, and we’ll all be circling the Euro-Socialist or Third World drain. President Obama’s maladroit economic policies have resulted in the undocumented crossing back over the southern border in droves. They’ll come back for a Romney recovery and blunt its economic power. Keep rocking the boat on American citizenship.
Don’t worry about palling around with Trump. Smart conservatives distanced themselves from the birther nonsense long ago, but when the Donald talks tough on China’s egregious trade and monetary manipulations, and suggests we “take the oil” from the ingrate Iraqis, it resonates. Worry more about bad actors hiding in the woodwork, guys like Jack Abramoff. Don’t give libs any viable guilt-by-association cudgels.
Never apologize for your wealth. You’re worth $250 million and counting. So is Oprah, George Soros and Rush Limbaugh, so what?
Speaking of Rush, he always cautions against Republican centrism. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you talk a good bipartisan game it will appeal to crossover Dems, and make it seem as if you are appealing to all Americans. The only Republicans Democrats ever accept are other Democrats, like Jon Huntsman. Of course we want disaffected Democrats to come over. But this is a center-right nation; you don’t need them to win.
Please don’t be reticent about talking tough, and passionately. Your financial pedigree and political endurance has gotten you to the threshold of the Oval Office. Now show us what moves you, what you deeply care about, the way you did in Mike Huckabee’s forum with the father whose son had been badly wounded in Afghanistan.
Regarding your choice of running mate I’ll take my cue from Senator Marco Rubio, respect the process and keep my opinions to myself.
Finally, look, I love dogs, more than a lot of people, actually. I wasn’t thrilled about Seamus’s rooftop ride. There’s a difference between a dog sticking his head joyously out the window of a speeding vehicle and riding strapped on the roof like a crate of camping equipment. I forgive you.
Good luck, Governor.
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AP photo
Here I was, hoping someone would try to talk Mitt into understanding the common person’s life, how silly it is of him to tell people my age to borrow $20,000 from their parents (which would be about a third of my parents combined yearly income… yeah, sure Mitt, that’s not unrealistic at all!) to start a business, and how the poor don’t need help. But no, I was wrong.
We don’t need any more Ayn Rand in this country. We really don’t.
A conservative Republican in Portland, Oregon? I heard rumors such things existed, but I never quite believed it. He must feel like he’s in the lion’s den.
But I’m sure it was perfectly acceptable to you to talk about Obama’s religion. I’m sure you were also perfectly fine with the continual spreading by the right wing fundies that Obama is a closet Muslim. The hypocrisy from the right is truly astounding. I also find it completely shocking at how little they can actually think. It has been proven time and time and time again that what the right advocates is simply incorrect. Not “up for debate” but wrong. As in factually, unequivocally wrong. People like you represent pretty much everything wrong with this country, and you are… Read more »
I was about to ask if that was satire, but apparently not.
Yeah, I was kinda hoping the same.
Micheal, Thank you for your thoughtful comments and especially for you service to our country. I have heard from other conservatives who feel the GOP has moved too far right socially and are the bastion of disparate wealth. I respect that personal choice; in 1992 I jumped ship and voted for Clinton because the GOP wasn’t working for me. Just as many conservatives say they fear the party is in danger of abandoning core values with the nomination of Mitt Romney. I agree with neither, I don’t want Romney moving to the center, and it would be okay with me… Read more »
Your party has been committing acts of treason for the past 3 years. Your party held a gun to the head of this nation and the world and said, “Do as we say or everyone gets it!” The republicans are doing their best to ruin this country and the planet for the sake of a wealthy few. I make $50,000 a year. A much larger percentage of my income goes to taxes than Mitt Romney. Why?
Also, we did not help them rid their country of a tyrannical leader. We invaded their country on false pretenses and bombed them back into the stone age without any sort of reconstruction plan. The Bush administration decided they didn’t like Saddam and unilaterally decided that he should be gone. I’m sorry but you don’t get to say that people who talk about Romney’s Mormonism should be pilloried and then give Trump’s racism a pass. Romney should have absolutely nothing to do with Trump and his racist hatemongering, but you have no problem with it because it helps with the… Read more »
“and suggests we “take the oil” from the ingrate Iraqis, it resonates”
Wait, are you suggesting that’s a good idea? That we have a right to take the natural resources from another country?
Not to mention, that is a flipping offensive statement.
Mark, I have a big problem with two things you say in particular here – First, you say, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you talk a good bipartisan game it will appeal to crossover Dems,…” Next you say, “But this is a center-right nation; you don’t need them to win.” I strongly disagree with you on both points, and heres why. First, I challenge the idea that the US is a ‘center-right’ nation. Perhaps it seems that way in the echo chambers of most conservatives political lives, however, in reality I think that the US people aren’t… Read more »