My Pick for President

It's no secret I'm backing Mitt Romney for president. I have since the day he announced. I was impressed with him the first time I saw him, at the Olympics in Salt Lake City when he gave a speech at the opening ceremony. This was a guy who was obviously a gifted orator and leader, having turned the troubled Olympic organizing committee completely around from bankruptcy to success in about a year. When he became governor of liberal Massachusetts, I paid attention whenever I heard some news about stuff he was up to, and was always impressed. When I heard him describe his health care plan for the state, I remember thinking that here was a guy who had accomplished near-universal health care without resorting to government control over the system. A free market solution to a problem no one had ever been able to solve. And working with uber-liberals like Ted Kennedy.

So when he announced for the presidency, I wrote a check the same day, and have continued to do so periodically ever since. To my mind, he has easily the best resume of all the candidates. He's been a huge success in business, having made hundreds of millions of dollars there. By all accounts, those who worked with him during those years, as well as various journalists and others who have met him since, all remark that Romney is the smartest person they have ever met. He had a reputation in the business world of always seeking out the arguments from both sides of a challenge, and then making a decision as a leader should. These are very positive qualities for leadership of any kind.

He is unapologetically devoutly religious. He was a missionary as a young adult, having traveled to Europe evangelizing, another admirable quality. And as a religious American, he properly understands the value to this society of our traditional Judeo-Christian value system and specifically of the critical foundation of The Family to this society. He walks the talk, too: He has been married to his high school sweetheart for 35 years, and they have 5 children and multitudes of grandchildren together. All 5 of his children actively campaign for him.

So here is a guy who is highly intelligent, a proven leader who has governed a state, a successful businessman at the heights of big business, and a devoutly religious family man. Is this not the man you want running for the office of President?

The Competition
A quick word about Romney's opponents. By the way, while I have differences with every one of these men, any one of them would be a far better choice for President than any of the Democratic candidates, and I will strongly back whoever the nominee is in the end.

Mike Huckabee - Arkansas governor for over 10 years, he has the leadership experience, no question. He's also devoutly religious and very personable. My problem with him is that he's been too soft on illegal immigration over the years, as well as soft on crime, not particularly conservative on taxes, and appears to know virtually nothing about the world outside of the U.S. In these dangerous times, that is scary.

John McCain - I met McCain in 1985 when he spoke to my ROTC detachment in Arizona. McCain is a true war hero and by far the strongest of any candidate on the military in general and the Middle East wars in particular. He's also very strong fiscally, speaking out forcefully against congressional "earmarks." Unfortunately he's too liberal for me on just about every other issue: Immigration (views as bad as President Bush's); campaign finance "reform"; and he built the "Gang/Group of 14" that prevented the G.O.P. from permanently killing the ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees a few years ago. He's also 71 years old and would get slaughtered a la Bob Dole in a general election.

Rudy Giuiani - Strong on the war and on the military, like McCain. Good on fiscal issues. Governed weakly when it came to illegal immigration but seems to have the right ideas today on that. Very bad on social issues like gay marriage, abortion, etc. His personal life is also a train wreck, having been married several times and flaunted one mistress in front of his then-wife in the same house, then moving out to live in a house with homosexual friends. Hard to imagine he would be strong on Supreme Court nominees and/or pro-life, despite what he claims.

Fred Thompson - I don't even know what Fred's views are on just about anything. People say he's the conservative, the only true one, in the race. Yet he got in relatively late, seemed to try to dodge one debate in particular, and never appears to have any energy. He seems older and slower than McCain. He comes across as though he got dragged into the race and might just walk out at any time.

The rest of the field has zero chance of doing anything at all in this race. Our candidate will be one of the guys mentioned above. An important question for all of them, too, will be "can he beat the Democratic ticket?" Out of those above, I think Romney has the best shot at this, followed by Huckabee and then McCain. Bottom line: Romney is the man. Support him now and we have a shot at winning in November. If he drops out we're in real trouble.