The news of the day is that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) is withdrawing from the GOP presidential primary race, effectively handing the nomination to John McCain (RINO-AZ). Unlike Senator McCain and Senator Clinton (I'm leaving out Senator Obama because he hasn't really had to campaign on anything solid, yet) he conducted his campaign with grace and class, which is probably some of the reason he lost. Governor Romney was also the last chance conservatives had that anyone with a semblance of conservative beliefs might make it to the White House in 2008. His critics said he came to his conservative viewpoints late in life, but I would rather see someone who admits mistakes and is willing to change beliefs when confronted with contrary facts and evidence than I would someone who sticks to the same tired, wrongheaded politics of class warfare, lies and spin, and mudslinging (and the policies resulting therefrom) just because they think it will get them into or kep them in power (see: McCain, John and Clinton, Bill and Hillary). Governor Romney gave a great speech to CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) today, and it's definitely worth passing along. Here's the link and some key excerpts below. We'll miss you Governor Romney, and God help us all after November 2008. We will have a big government socialist in the White House, it's only a matter now of what color, gender, and political party letter after the name will be behind our new President.
"Culture makes all the difference. What is it about America's culture that's led us to become the most powerful nation in the history of the world? Well, we believe in hard work and education. We love opportunity. Almost all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came here for opportunity. Opportunity's in our DNA. Americans love God, and those who don't have faith typically believe in something greater than themself -- a purpose-driven life, if you will. And we sacrifice, as Americans, everything we have, even our lives, for our families, for our freedoms, and for our country.
These values and beliefs of free American people are the source of the nation's strength and they always will be.
The threat -- the threat to our culture comes from within. In the 1960s there were welfare programs that created a culture of poverty in our country. Now some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven't give up. At every turn they try to substitute government largess for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk taking and opportunity. Dependency is culture killing. It's a drug. We have got to fight it like the poison it is.
The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless, and tolerance for pornography, even celebration of it, and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare, have led to today's grim realities. Sixty-eight percent of African-American kids born out of wedlock; 45 percent of Hispanic kids, 25 percent of white kids -- how much harder it is for these kids to succeed in school and in life. A nation built on the principles of the Founding Fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home. ...
It is the common task of each generation -- and the burden of liberty -- to preserve this country, expand its freedoms and renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future.
To this task, accepting this burden, we're all dedicated, and I firmly believe, by the providence of the Almighty, that we will succeed beyond our fondest hope. America must always remain, as it has always been, the hope of the Earth."
