Mitt Romney (GG file photo)
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.
After pressing the flesh outside for awhile…I was impressed that he seemed to remember a lot of people’s names, discussed things of interest to them, etc….he made his way just inside the door and grabbed a chair and stood up on it and started talking.
He told a cute little story about turning 60 last March and that his five boys had talked about giving him something special for the milestone birthday like a car. He was given keys to a car on his birthday and said he was hoping to go outside to find a new Mustang, Dodge Viper or Corvette.
Well, they gave him a 1962 Rambler American because Mitt’s dad (George) made Ramblers until 1962. They took the car for a ride and he pointed out to his kids how big the steering wheel was (necessary to turn the darn things since there was no power steering back then, no armrests, etc.) It actually brought back some found memories for me of the cars I grew up with in the 60’s.
This led into a discussion of the US auto industry. He talked about the once great industry and I sensed his true love of automobiles and he seemed to be fondly reminiscing about his childhood. He mentioned that foreign auto makers used to represent only 1% of sales and now represent 50% of US auto sales. According to him the reason that Detroit can’t compete is due to the huge “leg”….hmmm….okay that’s what I wrote down and I’m currently drawing a blank on the word…pensions, health care costs of retired UAW workers, etc. which foreign auto makers aren’t saddled with so they can be much more competitive. Then I was a bit surprised that he said he wasn’t going to reveal his ideas on how to solve the problem, but that it was between the White House, manufacturers and the Unions.
I did get the sense, however, that he did have a plan and that it would take some sacrifice on the part of the retired UAW workers. Hmmm, I wonder how anxious they’d be to have their pension or healthcare cut to make Detroit successful again?
He mentioned that Washington’s “broken”…ya think?…and the challenges are great, but the democrats have taken a sharp left-turn toward Europe and basically, that it won’t work; i.e., big government rather than his belief in small government.
His three main points were 1) military 2) economy and 3) strong families. I liked what he said about strong families and that people should get married before they have babies. He also believes that the military needs more and better care and sincerely seemed to appreciate our troops sacrifices, both past and present. And, yes, of course, war questions came up during the Q&A, but I haven’t gotten to that point in my notes yet, plus I’m still trying to think what that word is that I wrote as “leg.”
He talked about kids today being improperly exposed to an ocean of filth and being in a cess pool environment. He wants better enforcement of obscenity laws, etc. He quoted that Myspace had caught 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its website and kicked them off. He was very direct in saying that the first time a sex offender is caught: “you’re ours” and that long prison sentences should be mandated. No argument from me on this one either.
He believes in state and local control of schools, better pay for better teachers, and when asked by a teacher what he thought about No Child Left Behind, he said that he believed in it in “concept” but that the law needs improved. I’d agree. He did say that it provides a forum to see what school’s are failing etc. so that they can be improved.
So, the war question came from someone and it was a great set up for me to follow up with my questions. As he had promised, he called on me next. He supports the troop surge and believes we need to give it time to work and evaluate it in Sept. Based on the information available at the time, he supported the President although he rightly said that the war was not well planned.
He believes that we should set some clear milestones for the Iraqi government, etc….pretty much the usual so I won’t bore you with a lot of details. I specifically asked him if he thought we could win the war and while he didn’t give me a “yes” or “no”…not that I was expecting him to; he did seem to understand the complexity of the situation not only in Iraq, but the mid-east overall. When I asked him if he was in favor of a date certain for withdrawal of our troops, he said the obvious answer that he wants the troops home as soon as possible but basically it just isn’t that simple to set a specific date.
He mentioned that the VA is chronically under funded and when pressed on how he’d solve the issue, he mentioned that additional funding should come from the discretionary non-military spending budgets. He specifically said that there are 342 economic development programs and that we don’t need that many. A stem-to-stern review of military spending needed to take place to cut waste, etc. and that the federal government in general needed overhauled.
A question on health care arose, of course, and he said that 10-15% of citizens no longer have health care and that Medicaid needed reformed and that everybody needed to get “in”, but that he wasn’t for the federal government handling it because they already waste way too much money. I didn’t really get any details about what his plan is to solve this major issue, but I think I may just have neglected to write good notes at this point.
He wrapped it up with reinforcing his three positions about the military, economy and strong families.
When I got home my husband asked me how it “went” and asked if all of his answers were “canned.” I did say that his 10-15 minute speech prior to the Q&A was perhaps “canned” he definitely fit a lot in, concisely in a short period of time and answered a lot of questions already in my head. So, he did a good job.
While some of his answers during the Q&A were certainly well-rehearsed, others seemed to be a bit less so and he spoke very well extemporaneously and overall he was well-prepared. But, there were absolutely no “unexpected” or “outlandish” questions from the crowd either. There were moments of applause, but nothing earth shattering in anything he said.
I did notice a real estate agent I know from NL from a distance, in my similar age bracket, who seemed to literally be almost girlishly drooling over him. It was kinda pathetic, but maybe she’s single and drools over lots of men not just presidential candidates.
I like Gov. Romney’s apparent morals, and the last thing I want in the White House again is some unfaithful womanizer, liar or his wife, not that I was voting for Hillary anyway, so the bottom line is that Gov. Romney is still on my list of contenders, but I am still “undecided.”
I’m going to read more on him from his website, and I do have someone from his campaign sending me some info on his war and military policies so I can review them. Darn, I still can’t think of the “leg” word….somebody help?
Mitt’s Mormonism isn’t an issue for me, since he’s been long-married to the same (and only one) woman for a long time and his kids that I’ve seen on TV, all seem very nice and well-adjusted too. I also like that he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman and he’s against civil unions and he doesn’t make any apologies for his belief either.
I met his communications director, Craig, and he had some nice things to say about Meet The New Press and he said that having Gov. Romney on the show is in the works. So, whenever that happens, be sure to listen in and perhaps it will help you decide whom to vote for in the upcoming election. I haven’t ruled him out, but then I haven’t ruled anybody “in” yet either; it’s just too soon, and I need to educate myself more on all of the candidates and make a wise choice just like you need to do also. I do know I won’t be voting for any democrat, since I&
rsquo;ve seen what they’ve destroyed already in NH in a short period of time.
Amazing what a night’s sleep will accomplish. The word “leg” is for legacy. The foreign automakers didn’t inherent any legacy like the U.S. auto makers so it’s easier for them to be more competitive. Whew, I hate it when that happens.