The Rise and Fall of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign

Well, there hasn't been much to write about lately, so I decided to make this random post. enjoy! Check out the link on the right of the page that says "My Helium Articles" It is a link to a website where I have written a few articles about other subjects as well as politics.

Every person who decides to run for President of the United States knows that there will be challenges along the way. That is part of the process. A great way to judge a candidate’s ability to be president is to observe how he or she reacts to opposition. Each candidate in this year’s presidential cycle faced unique challenges in their run. In the following paragraphs I will briefly describe and analyze the campaign of one of these candidates; his name is Mitt Romney.

Romney officially began his campaign for presidency February 13, 2007. At that point he was not very well known, and he had a long journey ahead. It was a journey that would require all of his time, and the help and support of his family and friends. Romney’s preliminary success was almost instant, as he won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, garnering 21% of the vote. Romney began holding fund-raisers and in the first quarter of his presidential run he raised over 23 million dollars in addition to just over 2 million dollars that he contributed from his own fortune. He began to spend this money on advertisements in two crucial states; Iowa and New Hampshire. These advertisements focused on his conservative credentials and he began to lead in the preliminary polls in those two states.

Things were looking good for Romney, and he began to receive better name recognition. However, along with his rise in the polls came an increase in the scrutiny that he received. This was the beginning of Mitt Romney’s downfall. One of the main issues that came up was Romney religion. Romney is an active and involved member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons). Many people were wary of his religion, because of his beliefs which differ in some parts from the “mainstream Christian” beliefs. From nearly the beginning of the campaign Romney had to try to prove to the voters that his religion would not affect his ability to lead the country. The religion issue came to a climax when Romney gave a speech entitled “Faith in America” in which he explained that authorities from his religion would not affect his presidential decisions. Although he was able to calm the fire slightly, it still burned brightly in the hearts of many people who didn’t feel comfortable supporting a “Mormon”.

Romney continued working hard and was poised to win the Iowa caucus. Those plans changed when another no-name candidate came into the spotlight. That candidate was named Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was a former Southern Baptist preacher, and was very popular among evangelicals in Iowa. His popularity soared through the roof in the weeks preceding the Iowa caucuses and that resulted in a victory in the first of many contests. This put a dent in Romney’s armor and forced him to change his strategy slightly.

At that point Romney began to run ads which some construed as negative, in which he compared his record with his opponents’. Romney’s competition took advantage of this to point the finger at him and labeling him as the first to go “negative”. His top two opponents took every chance that they could to point it out in their interviews, apparently not seeing the irony in what they were doing. Nevertheless, Romney made a comeback and won some key primary contests and caucuses, which put him in the delegate lead for the time being.

In the interim between the first rush of primaries, Romney’s opponents and the media threw everything that they had at him in debates and in other interviews. He was accused of “flip-flopping” on several key conservative issues. The major issue that he was questioned on was his switch from being pro-choice to being pro-life. He explained that he had been pro-choice in the first case because of a close family member who had died of an illegal abortion, and for that reason he thought that it abortions should be safe if they were going to be performed. Romney gave his reasoning for the change, explaining that he had learned more about the issue, and could not support the stem-cell research that was being performed as a result of abortions. Despite Romney’s explanation he had already been labeled a “flip-flopper”, and that is one of his main challenges in his presidential run.

Romney hung in there until Super Tuesday, hoping to come away with big wins which would keep him in the running. Unfortunately the states which he won did not give him the amount of delegates that he was hoping for. Within a week of realizing his chances of capturing the nomination were slim, Romney gracefully bowed out claiming that he didn’t want to deny the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, John McCain, the opportunity to begin his national campaign.

Romney’s run for president ended sooner than he, or many of his supporters, would have hoped, but it was far from a failure. Romney received the name recognition that he so desperately sought during his entire campaign, he engaged in many debates in which he looked very professional and presidential, and he set himself up for a potentially successful career in politics; which could possibly even include another presidential run in the years to come.