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~ (n): An office or position that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.

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Tag Archives: Mitt Romney

We Don’t Carry the Burden of Disliking One Another

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by jrbenjamin in Politics, Speeches

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Al Smith Dinner, Barack Obama, Government, Mitt Romney, politics, speech

Mitt Romney

“We have very fundamental and sound principles that guide both the president and me. He and I, of course, both feel the pressures and tensions of a close contest. It would be easy to let a healthy competition give way to the personal and the petty. But fortunately we don’t carry the burden of disliking one another.

Barack has had some very fine and gracious moments. Don’t tell anyone I said so, but our 44th president has many gifts, and a beautiful family that would make any man proud.

In our country, you can oppose someone in politics and make a confident case against their policies without any ill will. And that’s how it is for me: there’s more to life than politics. […]

At the Archdiocese of New York, you show this in the work you do, in causes that run deeper than allegiance to party or any contest at the moment. No matter which way the winds are blowing… you answer with calm and willing hearts in service to the poor and care for the sick, in defense of the rights of conscience and in solidarity with the innocent child waiting to be born. You strive to bring God’s love into every life.

I don’t presume to have all your support… and I’m certainly not going ask for it. But you can be certain that in the great causes of compassion that you come together to embrace, I stand proudly with you as an ally and friend.”

__________

From Mitt Romney’s speech at the famous Al Smith dinner, given around this time four years ago.

So much to like here. Though I didn’t vote for Mitt in the election — and wrote here and there why I decided not to — I admire the guy and, four years later, think he would have made a very fine president. I especially like how much of a gentleman he is — that he consistently brings value to the communities and organizations he’s led while never succumbing to pressure to take the sleazy way out. When a challenge arises, answer with a calm and willing heart.

You can watch the (very funny) 2012 Al Smith dinner below.

Images courtesy of Vice and Wiki

More:

  • Jefferson’s ten rules
  • JFK’s speech on leading through “the new frontier”
  • Booker T. Washington talks about how great men sacrifice for others

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama

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Mitt Romney: What Matters Most to Me in Life

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by jrbenjamin in Interview

≈ Comments Off on Mitt Romney: What Matters Most to Me in Life

Tags

Anne Romney, belief, family, interview, meaning, Mitt Romney, Stanford Business School, Stanford University

Mitt Romney

Interviewer: What matters most to you — and why?

Mitt Romney: It’s not one thing. So I’m gonna give you a longer answer.

One: I believe in God…

In believing in God, I believe therefore we are all his children. I believe that God loves all of us, and I believe that He loves us as you would love your children; some are doing naughty things, some are doing nice things, but you love them all. And I believe that I will be measured and you will be measured based upon what you have done for your fellow children of God…

The person I care for most in life is my wife.

We met in high school. I love her passionately. She is the most important person in my life. If I could do anything, on any day, it would be to be with her. That’s what I enjoy most in life.

Close thereafter is to be with my kids.

My boys and their wives and now 23 grandkids. The greatest joy I have in life is being with them, sitting around in the backyard or at the beach — that’s my greatest source of happiness and the most important thing to me.

Coming beyond that is a circle which includes my church and my sense of service to them… I happen to believe that the currency in life is the people that you love and care for you. The friends you have.

Most of what you’ve learned here, you’ll forget. The people you’ve met here, you’ll remember for the rest of your life – and will form a big part of your wealth. That’s your balance sheet when life is over. Who loves you and who you love and who are your friends.

So what’s the most important thing to me? My God, my wife, my kids, and my fellow human beings.

__________

From the end of Mitt Romney’s “View from the Top” interview on leadership and values, which he gave to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business last year.

Keep it simple. Notice what things this star in business and politics didn’t talk about in his answer.

Image credit: NPR

Read some others talk about their core beliefs:

  • Andrew Sullivan: What I believe
  • John Updike: What I believe
  • Wallace Stegner: What I believe

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Election 2012: A Prediction

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by jrbenjamin in Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Barack Obama, Democrat, Electoral College, Larry Sabato, Mitt Romney, Nate Silver, President, Presidential election, Republican, swing states

Electoral CollegeI generally think that the media’s obsession with pre-election polling — and the frenzied, horserace nature of it — is a particularly idle waste of our collective time and attention. The vote tally tomorrow is the only poll that matters.

However, with that said, I want to put on record what I think the votes will show. I do this not to promote a particular point of view (I am voting for Obama, to be clear), but instead am writing my predictions here in order to grade myself — and allow myself to be graded — once the votes have in fact been tallied.

The sources I am using to compile this state by state forecast are Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog for the New York Times, Public Policy Polling, YouGov’s data collection, and my professors of American Government and fellow classmates here at Georgetown. We have been tracking and debating these numbers for months now, and here’s what I think we will see on Wednesday morning:

Romney takes the dead Right give-aways. For the sake of this list, “dead Right” denotes states whose Republican advantage lies above 7% (the threshold for a “lock”) as well as the major national polls’ (Pew, Rasmussen, RAND and Politico) margins of error. So, here are the states that we’ll most assuredly see red come tomorrow (electoral college votes are in parenthesis): Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arkansas (6), Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (8), Mississippi (6), Missouri (10), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), North Carolina (15), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (9), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (38), Utah (6), West Virginia (5), Wyoming (3).

The final tally of these numbers: 206

Obama will take the far Left leaners. In my calculation, again, a “far Left” state is one which major national polls show to be Democratic, beyond the 7% threshold and poll’s particular margin of error. Thus, these are the states that will turn blue Tuesday: California (55), Connecticut (7), District of Columbia (3), Delaware (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (20), Maine (4), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (11), Michigan (16), Minnesota (10), New Jersey (14), New Mexico (5), New York (29), Nevada (6), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (20), Rhoda Island (4), Vermont (3), Washington (12)

The final tally of these numbers: 243

Electoral College

This leaves seven states swinging in the balance.

Colorado (9) – Colorado may be the closest state to call this election, and from what I can tell, it’s almost a dead heat. The state was a surprise win for Obama in 2008, as Coloradans are known for their aversion to big government and embrace of more libertarian policies. However, I think Obama will carry Colorado, and I say this for two primary reasons. First, Democrats won Senate and Governorship races in Colorado in 2008, signaling a paradigm shift in the state’s partisan leaning. Secondly, Politico and YouGov both give Obama a slight (1-3 percentage point) lead in the state, while Reuters (via Ipsos) is the only poll showing a lead (by 2%) for Mr. Romney. Both Sabato and Silver give a slight advantage to Obama, too.

Florida (29) – In light of its particularly sluggish economy and slack housing market, I believe that Florida will most likely tilt away from the incumbent who carried it in 2008. Mitt Romney is showing as much as a 5 point lead in some polls, as the swaths of senior citizens, which populate key counties in the state, will surely show up in high numbers to pull the levers for Romney — a man they see as less threatening towards Medicare.

Iowa (6) – As of Friday, every major poll shows that Obama is winning in Iowa (by between 2-5%). Ann Selzer and Jennifer Jacobs, who are the most rigorous state-level pollsters in Iowa, also have Obama in the lead (by 5 percentage points as of November 3rd). Thus, despite Romney’s dynamic campaigning in the state, Iowa will be blue once again.

New Hampshire (4) – New Hampshire became a surprise concern for the Democrats this year, and in response, an unusually high amount of campaigning has been done (particularly by Vice President Biden) to try to close the usually Democratic state. In contrast to its neighbors, New Hampshire is traditionally known for its moderate voting patterns, and the fact that Mitt Romney maintains a second home in the state further pulls the electorate to vote for what they see as a native son. However, despite this, I am calling New Hampshire for Obama based on the polls done by Gravis, YouGov, Politico, and the University of New Hampshire, as well as the astute analysis of the state done by Nate Silver. Larry Sabato has also called New Hampshire for Obama. NH is going D.

Ohio (18) – The candidate who has won Ohio has won the last 12 presidential elections, and there are very few scenarios in which Romney can take the White House without first taking the Buckeye state. Thus, Ohio is key to a Romney victory. However, as polls show and analysts seem to agree, Obama is holding on to an excruciatingly close lead in the state, bolstered by a growing state economy and his support for the auto bailout (and related smear campaign of Romney’s opposition to it).

Virginia (13) – Obama won Virginia by seven percentage points in 2008; however, it looks like Romney will take the state this year. Due to its rapidly shifting demographics, Virginia is a new battleground state, one which has seen some of the most intensive campaigning of this election cycle. Ipsos, YouGov, Politico, and NBC are each currently showing Obama with a slight lead, yet the margins are slim and fluctuating and fail to account for the state’s shifty voter turnout. I think it’s in Romney’s hands, but this could very well be the closest call of the election.

Wisconsin (10) – Democrats have won in Wisconsin the last six elections (yes, even Dukakis carried it in 1988). However, the Republican ticket’s addition of Paul Ryan — a native of Janesville, WI and Representative from the state’s first district — has pulled the state towards the center. However, polls still show Obama with a slight lead in the state, and Sabato has officially predicted a Democratic victory. Nate Silver has even taken Wisconsin out of his “swing state” column, giving Obama a 94.5% chance of victory. I won’t argue with that.

As a result, my prediction can be summarized in three sentences. Mitt Romney wins 248 Electoral College votes. Barack Obama wins 290 Electoral College votes. Bo the dog will be first pup for another four years.

Electoral College

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The Highlight of the Election

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by jrbenjamin in Current Events, Humor, Politics, Speeches

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Al Smith Dinner, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Barack Obama And Mitt Romney Address Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation DinnerI’ve enjoyed this election. Unlike a lot of people, and unlike in 2008, I’ve generally found this race to be both serious and stimulating in its own right and a good starter to some (sometimes fruitful) political conversations.

Last night, Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama spoke at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City. Their speeches represent — at least to me — some of the highlights of this campaign, as they’re full of alternating self-deprecation and zingers on the other guy, and each ends on notes of graciousness and rapport. The Al Smith dinner speeches are a tradition started by Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960, and they represent some of the values — of disagreement without disagreeableness — that should make us all feel that cliché phrase, proud to be American. 

Amidst the bitterness and venom of the election season, it’s refreshing to watch the following clips. (You don’t have to take sides as to who won.)

__________

Mitt Romney

“President Obama and I are each very lucky to have one person who is always in our corner, someone who we can lean on, and someone who is a comforting presence. Without whom, we wouldn’t be able to go another day. I have my beautiful wife, Ann, he has Bill Clinton.”

Barack Obama

“This is the third time that Governor Romney and I have met recently. As some of you may have noticed, I had a lot more energy in our second debate. I felt really well rested after the nice long nap I had in the first debate.”

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One Principle on Which Romney Has Never Wavered

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by jrbenjamin in Current Events, Politics, Religion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Martin Amis, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, polygamy

Mitt Romney“At this late stage it’s time to remind ourselves of a salient fact. There is only one principle on which Romney has never wavered, and that is his religion.

He is a crystallized and not an accidental believer. You can see it in his lineless face. Awareness of mortality is in itself ageing (it creases the orbits of the eyes, it torments the brow); and Romney has the look of someone who seriously thinks that he will live forever. He is a Mormon—though he doesn’t like talking about it. And if I were a Mormon, I wouldn’t like talking about it either. Whatever you may feel about their doctrines, the great monotheisms are sanctioned by the continuities of time: Islam has 15 centuries behind it, Christianity has 20, Judaism at least 40. One of the dozens of quackeries that sprang up during the Great Revival, Mormonism was founded on April 6, 1830. The vulgarity and venality—the tar and feathers—of its origins are typical of the era. But there are aspects of its history that might still give us pause.

The first Prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, had 87 wives, of whom the youngest was 14. Brigham Young, the second Prophet, was husband to 70; he also incited a series of murders (to quell intra-church rivalries). Mormons suffered persecution, and they retaliated—in 1857, for example, they killed 120 men, women, and children (the Mountain Meadows massacre). During the Civil War, the Mormons’ sympathies lay with the South, and unavoidably so, for they too dealt in human chattels; as one historian, Hugh Brogan, puts it, “Lincoln might as well have said of polygamy what he said of slavery, that if it was not wrong, nothing was wrong.” Not until 1890 did the church renounce the practice (though it persisted well into living memory); not until 1978 did a further “revelation” disclose that black people were the equals of whites—by which time Mitt Romney was 31 years old.”

__________

From Martin Amis’s coverage of the election for The Daily Beast.

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