Wyoming Vote Tracker

My fellow Wyomingites and Americans, it is with a heavy heart that I write this entry. I have not yet perused other blogs on this issue, though I will soon. For now, I am writing my thoughts and what is on my mind and what I see as the next step in the Republican presidential nomination process.

It’s not too much of a secret that I am a fan of Rep. Duncan Hunter. After Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Primary, the great congressman of California withdrew from the race. I honestly didn’t think it would happen so soon, but as broken as my heart was, it did.

I began contemplating over the weekend who would fill the void as it were. I did take in watching the Patriots and Giants win their respective conference championships (though due to some technical difficulties, I only got to see the Overtime portion of the Giants game). I thought it was kind of interesting considering the irony of the two teams in this season’s Super Bowl.

Anyway, back to politics. There are some interesting factors to be accounted for, but I have to admit that after Rep. Hunter, former TN Sen. Fred Thompson really attracted my interest. I was set to say all kinds of nice things about him in the coming days, but just before noon Mountain Time, Jan. 22, Rush Limbaugh noted the breaking news that Sen. Thompson had just pulled out of the race.

That raises an interesting question that I’m not yet sure on the answer to. What happens to the four delegates selected in Wyoming that now have no candidate to support? I know that a delegate that is pledged to a candidate is committed to that pledge unless that candidate releases them from the pledge. Presumably, withdrawing from the race would release them. But do they have to wait for the candidate to endorse someone else and follow that or are they free to choose on their own, perhaps going with the other eight to Mitt Romney’s column, or even go uncommitted? I suppose time will tell.

So here we are, the slate narrowed down to five.

• For all the small government positions taken by Rep. Ron Paul, I still cannot mesh my stance on the war with his stance, so he is still of my list.
• Former Gov. Huckabee has still not sold me that he would be a trustworthy conservative. Yea, some pro-boarder security/anti-illegal immigration groups have waved the Huckabee banner, and he even signed a pledge about not raising taxes, but I’m not so sure the conversion on these issues is quite genuine yet. Plus there’s school choice, entitlement programs, and so on.
• Sen. McCain just seems like he’s in this more for the revenge than anything. OK, so he won South Carolina, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the South or the country is going to go for him. Besides, I’m a bit dumbfounded that he’s not confident in the REPUBLICANS to get him enough votes. This is the primary/nomination process!!! Quit going for DemocRAT and Independent voters in this stage. The DNC is not the party that awards you delegates for the Republican nomination.I also think the Arizona Senator is the king of red flags: authoring legislation attacking the First Amendment, a compromise on which judicial nominees can get a floor vote, opposer of lower taxes, supporter of the war (as long as detainees get access into our courts), supporter of amnesty “a $5,000 ticket to citizenship,” and so on and so forth (out of respect for the McCainincs that wish people like me would just “shut up” about why we don’t like McCain). For the life of me, I still can’t figure out why Kansas Republican Sen. Brownback (who is conservative on everything except immigration) endorsed his Arizona colleague (who is conservative on almost nothing).
• “America’s Mayor,” Rudy, as one of my friends says, Ghoulliani. He has a lot of perceptions to overcome in his own right: Second Amendment, big government, lack of social conservatism. To his credit, he’s probably one of the staunchest supporters of President Bush as Commander in Chief (yes, even more so than McPain).
• And then there’s Mitt Romney. Former Governor of Massachusetts, hero of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and a seeming political convert on the social conservative values. Yet another perception to overcome.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been looking at Gov. Romney, preparing for the day that my candidate of choice might not make it, and it happened twice in a short time frame. My intrigue for Gov. Romney increased when he won 8 out of the 12 delegates selected in Wyoming’s Republican County Conventions. Right now, he is almost as unnoticed as being the current Republican front runner–he does have the lead in the national Republican delegate count–as Wyoming’s Republican County Conventions were.

The former Massachusetts Governor has not wasted his time campaigning to Democrats and Independents in the less conservative states. He is trying to earn the support of the party whose blessing he seeks. As a Republican, he wants to earn delegates through Republican votes.

Other trustworthy, conservative, pro-life, small government, Wyoming Republicans have spoken well of Gov. Romney on all the issues. It is true that in the past I have been leery of seeing Mitt Romney become the GOP nominee. While I’m sure that he will say and do things outside of the theological realm that I disagree with, I believe that Mitt Romney can effectively lead this nation through the continuing war on terrorism, though the process of securing our boarders, though any economic corrections that may have the need to take place.

I believe that he will also continue promoting a culture of life through judicial nominees he will likely get to select and that he will also promote strong family values that conservatives and Americans hold dear. With that, I yield my endorsement for the Republican presidential nomination to former Governor Mitt Romney.

You can learn more about the Mitt Romney campaign by visiting MittRomney.com

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