The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Conservatives Launch NotMittRomney.com

Posted on | November 7, 2011 | 40 Comments

New Media genius Ali Akbar strikes again with NotMittRomney.com, a petition endorsed by many familiar names — including John Hawkins and Pamela Geller — and gets a write-up from Zeke Miller at Business Insider:

A coalition of conservatives have launched a campaign against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s candidacy to prevent him from becoming the GOP nominee next year.
The group’s website, NotMittRomney.com, already features a web ad against the former Massachusetts governor — and they plan more “aggressive” steps in the coming months. …

Read the whole thing. Here’s their first 30-second video:

Here’s their press release:

Coalition of Conservatives Launches
“Not Mitt Romney” Effort in Early States
New Web Site with Petition, Web Ad
and Publishes Iowa and NH Op Eds
MYRTLE BEACH, SC — Today conservative activists, operatives and bloggers are announcing the formation of a new “Not Mitt Romney” (NMR) coalition dedicated to preventing Romney from winning the Republican nomination.
Three of the coalition’s cofounders had a guest column published in the Des Moines Register on Sunday, “Conservative Iowans owe it to Nation to Reject Mitt.” They also had a guest column published in today’s New Hampshire Union Leader.
NMR Coalition co-founder Ali Akbar, a Republican communications consultant and Vice President, Digital Strategy, at Vice and Victory Agency, said, “Primaries are a good place to vet and try a candidate. Mitt Romney is that candidate and this primary is far from over. A nominee, worse a President, whom we have no idea where he stands on the issues presents a danger to our Party’s brand and this unique time in history where true reforms can actually happen. The American people want truth and the Republican Party would do well to offer it, lest we snatch defeat from victory’s jaws again.”
NMR Coalition co-founder John Hawkins, a professional blogger who runs Right Wing News, said, “In 2008, conservatives let the GOP Establishment and the mainstream media select our nominee for us. How did that work out? Does anybody really have the slightest idea what Mitt Romney would do as President? Nobody can even reasonably predict where he’ll be on any issue six months from now, much less what he’d do if he became the leader of the free world.”
NMR Coalition co-founder Matt Mackowiak, President of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC, said, “Mitt Romney is an honorable man, but he is not a conservative that we can trust. America faces greater challenges today than at any time in the last 70 years. Nominating a candidate whose history has shown a commitment to opportunism rather than conservative principles is a recipe for electoral disaster next year. Nominating a candidate for whom the base has zero enthusiasm is also a recipe for electoral disaster next year, as it was in 2008. I desperately want to defeat President Obama for reelection and absolutely believe that this coalition effort is helping achieve that. We need bold colors, not pale pastels.”
The coalition, which was publicly created by 20 individuals, launched http://www.NotMittRomney.com on November 6, 2011, the one year anniversary of Election Day 2012. On the site, the public may sign an online petition agreeing that “Mitt Romney should NOT be OUR nominee,” access information about Romney’s career of flip flopping on major issues and invite others to join the effort.
In addition to the website, the Not Mitt Romney coalition launched a twitter account (@MittFlipFlops) and twitter hash tag: #NotMitt. . . .
This coalition campaign will include targeted voter contact in early states, which will include phone and door to door contact, email marketing, paid and earned media and online targeting.
This coalition is not paid for by any candidate campaign or Super PAC, but rather is organized solely by its creators, who include supporters of many of the other conservative candidates who are running and some who remain undecided.

I was asked by Ali to endorse the petition, but of course I am strictly a neutral objective journalist, so I can merely report on the existence of the petition, which cannot be considered an endorsement.

NotMittRomney.com

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney

Comments

40 Responses to “Conservatives Launch NotMittRomney.com”

  1. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:17 pm

    I do not like the idea of a circular firing squad.  Promote the candidate you like, do not tear down ones you dislike.  I am not a big fan of Mitt Romeny and do not want him to coast into a nomination–but I am not sure this is a good idea. 

  2. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:23 pm

    To repeat: I am merely a neutral objective journalist. Deciding whether this is a good idea isn’t my job.

  3. Dave
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:26 pm

    Would you say that if a pro-abortion Democrat was poised to win the nomination?  ‘Cause that’s what’s happening here.

    Doesn’t go far enough because it’s not a credible threat.  There must be a promise of a revolt of the conservatives if Mitt is selected.  They think we’ll come home in November 2012 and vote for the RINO.  We must assure them we will not.

    Has anyone registered ObamaBeforeMitt.com?

  4. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:27 pm

    I think we need to find a consensus on who NotMittRomney should be.

    Oh, er, sorry…

    MIC CHECK!

  5. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:32 pm

    Uh, Stacy, your name is featured prominently as a signer of the petition, so while I signed it too, unless someone put your name there without your consent, you’re doing a little more than just reporting about it. 

    edited to ad: never mind, I see they’ve removed it.

  6. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:34 pm

    Well your name WAS on the thing as a signer when I saw it a few hours ago, I just went back & see it’s gone now. It had said :
    Robert Stacy McCain
    Professional Blogger

  7. rosalie
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:39 pm

    I think we have to stop playing nice (with our own party).   Where does it ever get us?   They’re promoting Romney and that’s who we’re going to get stuck with.  And Romney will stick it to us just like O.

  8. rosalie
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:44 pm

    I think your “neutral” position is debatable, Stacy.

  9. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:49 pm

    At least Stacy you are not going to a press conference today wearing a red dress…like some other blogger we know. 

  10. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:55 pm

    Now that I would not sign, Cthulhu before Mitt yeah I’d sign that one too.

  11. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:56 pm

    RSM just needs his fedora of freedom to complete his iconic look! 

    Two can play this game Gloria! 

  12. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 12:57 pm

    Change of heart or did you determine it created an ethics problem?

  13. rosalie
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:02 pm

    I think we have to stop playing nice (with our own party).  If we do nothing, we’ll probably get stuck with Romney, and he’ll stick it to us just like O.  Of course, Romney will always be a gentleman as he’s doing it.

  14. smitty
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:05 pm

    Times like this are when it’s better to be the lowly co-blogger than the marquee name, eh, @rsmccain ?

  15. smitty
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:07 pm

    Not so sure about Mitt, @rsmccain . Since it seems he’s been getting voice coaching from Tom Brokaw, I’m moving from projectile vomiting to merely queasy at the thought of supporting Romney.

  16. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:31 pm

    I know Mitt has flipped and flopped on this issue, but do you believe he is really a pro abortion democrat? 

    Again, I am no fan of the guy, but that is exaggerating isn’t it? 

  17. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:36 pm

    Yes, the problem isn’t that Mitt is a pro-abortion Democrat.  It’s that we don’t really know what he is.  Maybe, if he’s elected, he’ll make Reagan look like a squish.  I could totally see that outcome, if Mitt believes he has a better future doing that than something else.

    It’s that he doesn’t appear to have a strong sense of political principles.  

  18. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2011 @ 1:39 pm

    He’ll make a lovely concession speech in the wee small hours of 07 November.

  19. Chakam
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:00 pm

    You people just need to get on board with the GOP Program.  Mitt Romney is the anointed champion.  It has been written already.  The next months of “campaigning” is just smoke and mirrors.  The beltway elite have spoken, and you filthy peasants need to suck it up and stop all this dissension and sniveling.  Mitt Romney is the GOP Golden Boy, like it or not, (and we don’t really care if you do like it), so you need to send him your money and support him.  Or else.

    Mitt for President!  –The preceding message brought to you by the official RINO’s R Us Committee and has been underwritten by the Weak-Assed GOP Puppet Coalition of America.

  20. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:06 pm

    I think we all know Romney is a pragmatic moderate Republican.  Generally pro business.  Not a lot of core conservative principles. 

    I am not a fan.  But I am 100% sure he would be better than Obama.  I would prefer a more conservative candidate be the nominee.  But with the exception of Huntsman (I could just not force myself to pull the lever for that metrosexual), I would vote for any of the GOP candidates over Obama (even nutty nut cluster Ron Paul). 

  21. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:11 pm

    I agree, except that I’d even vote for Huntsman over SCOAMF.

  22. Paul T.
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:24 pm

    Yeah, but where do conflicted people who think sex is icky because you have to put things inside other things but who still want to be important like conservatives but not if they have to like Ronald Reagan because he was even ickier because he was all old and wrinkly and and I’m never gonna be like that and a bunch of other stuff like self-satisfied nationalism and consumerism and I’m never gonna be like that either except when I am go?

    Maybe here?

    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/the-greening-of-conservatism/

  23. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:36 pm

    If it comes to Mitt or Ron come May 8, I’m checking Ron Paul. Mitt is merely another Big Government Republican and his differences with Obama are all in the margins. If Mitt or Obama are president in 2012 in the end we end up in the same place. That end might be ten or twenty years down the road but the destination is the same.

    PS: I will do nothing that helps Mitt get the nomination.

  24. Jthom26837
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:38 pm

     Here’s The six Million Dollar Question: Does this sound like that everybody’s turning their heads( I mean Conservatives as well as liberals) towards Wasilla, AK? I dare shout ‘Sarah Palin Where are you?’

  25. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:40 pm

    While you are being sarcastic, Mitt is not a RINO he is the epitome of what it is to be a mainstream Republican.

  26. Daily scoreboard « Don Surber
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:42 pm

    […] 13. From Robert Stacy McCain: “Conservatives Launch NotMittRomney.com.” […]

  27. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:43 pm

    Shouldn’t that be in quotes or do you not think Megan McCain will notice.

  28. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:52 pm

    “Obama before Mitt,” eh?

    RINO.

    So you want more Justices like Sotomayor and Kagan?  And 200-300 other lifetime appointments to the federal bench by Obama?

    Your perfidy will be damaging America long after you are forgotten.

  29. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:53 pm

    They violated his confidentiality agreement.

  30. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2011 @ 2:57 pm

    Hawkins:  “In 2008, conservatives let the GOP Establishment and the mainstream media select our nominee for us.”

    Really?  I seem to remember primaries.  Fred, Rudy, Mitt, and Huck all participated.  Even Ron Paul was there.  Looked just like a democratic process to me.

    So what are you saying, John?  That the Republican primary electorate is a bunch of sheeple, being led by media, BUT now with your glowing brilliance to guide them back from the Dark Side, they can redeem themselves?

    Other than a publicity stunt for the founders and the possibility of damaging the nominee, what possible good can come of this?  Would their efforts not be better spend promoting a conservative candidate, if that’s what they really want?

  31. ThePaganTemple
    November 7th, 2011 @ 3:00 pm

    One sure way you know Mitt is not a conservative is that if he were one, he could have easily run for office in Michigan and won just as easily as he did in Massachusetts and could have governed as a conservative, although he might have been obliged to play to the unions a la Thad McCotter.

  32. SDN
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:35 pm

    As long as the Republicans allow open primaries, that “Republican primary electorate” needs to be in quotes.

  33. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:38 pm

    Jeez, Gloria did not wear red today, but purple.  I bet Dan did not get the memo to wear a purple dress today. 

  34. Anonymous
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:48 pm

    Romney compresses rather than expands the space “between the parties” where democratic freedom exists.

  35. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:56 pm

    http://theulstermanreport.com/2011/11/07/white-house-insider-they-got-obamacare-%E2%80%93-now-they-want-the-2nd-amendment/

    FYI.  Not sure what to make of this. 

    Bob, Pagan and McGehee, check this out.

  36. Joe
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:58 pm

    http://theulstermanreport.com/2011/11/07/white-house-insider-they-got-obamacare-%E2%80%93-now-they-want-the-2nd-amendment/

    I am not sure what to make of this (it is either made to look like a Hillary supporter or actually from a Hillary supporter).  But FYI. 

  37. ThePaganTemple
    November 7th, 2011 @ 7:02 pm

    I glanced through it, from what I can tell the “Insider” sure is awful protective of Hillary Clinton, and he seemed somewhat speechless when Ulstermann brought up Rahm Emmanuel. But then again, I don’t know if there really is an Insider or not. This might be some made up shit for all I know. I’d have to check into it some more before I’d have enough of an informed opinion to say much at all. But I’ll say this, Hillary is at least tacitly involved in the Arab Spring movement, in my opinion, and I think she’s involved in Fast And Furious as well, at least at the margins.

  38. Chakam
    November 7th, 2011 @ 9:21 pm

    Hmmm…you might be onto something there, Adobe.  That would explain a lot.

  39. ThePaganTemple
    November 7th, 2011 @ 11:20 pm

    That’s a decision made at the state party levels. They do that thinking they can attract more people into the party if they allow independents to vote in their primary elections. I think its a stupid idea myself, but its going to take a whole lot of hell raising and threats to cut off funding and donations before they’ll agree to change it.

  40. Perfect: Conservatives Unveil NotMittRomney.com « All-American Girl for the Restoration of Values
    November 8th, 2011 @ 2:30 am

    […] (h/t: The Other McCain) […]