Romney's son visits Twin Cities with confident outlook

January 27, 2008

Daily Pantagraph

Bridget Flynn

BLOOMINGTON -- With the Illinois primary election just around the corner, Josh Romney gave a speech and fielded questions at the McDonalds headquarters Sunday about his father, Republican Mitt Romney, who is competing for the Republican presidential nomination.

Josh said that his father “wants to bring the troops home [from Iraq] as fast as we can,” but that he doesn’t want to do it in any way that might render the troops or the United States vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

Josh touted his father’s private sector experience as a business executive and experience as governor of Massachusetts, claiming that in those roles he has “gotten things done.” He emphasized his father’s Massachusetts health care reform initiatives and his inheritance of a deficit upon beginning his term, which he ended with a surplus.

Although many political experts have expressed doubt about the feasibility of Romney’s winning the nomination, Josh said that his father will gain the nomination because he is the only Republican vying for it who is conservative on fiscal issues, foreign policy issues and social issues. He said that his father, who has won the Republican caucus in Wyoming and the Republican primary in his home state of Michigan, is currently in a “two man race” with Sen. McCain.

Josh also expressed confidence that his father can defeat the two Democratic frontrunners.

“We’ll take them both. They can team up and we’ll beat them both. The key is contrast. My dad provides the strongest contrast to both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.”

Josh defended his father’s support for drilling in the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) by relating his experiences drilling oil wells on his own ranch. The wildlife, he claimed, prefer the wells because they create heat in winter.

“We have to become energy independent,” he said.

Josh claimed that his father supports all types of energy, including wind and solar. When asked after his speech about how he reconciled that statement with his father’s opposition to the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts as the governor of that state, Josh declined to comment. However, he emphatically replied, “Yes, absolutely!” when asked whether his father supports the use of ethanol as a biofuel.

Illinois State Senator, Dan Rutherford (R-Pontiac), state chairman of Illinois Romney for President, said that one of the reasons he decided to back Romney was how impressed he was with his candor when he met the candidate.

Rutherford and Josh headed to Peoria after the meet and greet to attend the Peoria County Republican Women’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

Josh, who writes a blog in which he frequently posts pictures of his father spending time his children and grandchildren, said that what he wants most for voters to know about his father is, “He is a great father. The most important thing to him is his family.”