US News
Romney revives Republican bid in Michigan race
Jan 16, 2008, 4:25 GMT
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney at his election night party with his wife Ann in Southfield, Michigan, USA on the election day of the Michigan Primary on 15 January 2008. Mitt Romney took Michigan\'s Republican presidential nod tonight, beating out Arizona Sen. John McCain. EPA/JEFF KOWALSKY
Washington - Favourite son Mitt Romney revived his bid for the Republican candidacy for president Tuesday night, claiming victory in Michigan's primary vote over his chief rival Senator John McCain.
Romney had 39 per cent of the centre-right Republican vote, followed by 30 per cent for McCain, the Vietnam War veteran and one- time prisoner of war. By late Tuesday, 83 per cent of Michigan precincts had been counted.
'Washington is broken, and we're going to do something about it,' Romney declared in remarks to the cheers of enthusiastic supporters. 'Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism.'
Romney said in an e-mail to supporters that the win gave him the 'momentum' for two votes coming up Saturday - the Nevada caucuses for both parties and the South Carolina Republican primary.
Third place in the Republican race went to former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, 52, with 16 per cent.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 63, a frontrunner in last year's build up to the race for delegates, was a distant sixth place behind relative unknowns Ron Paul and Fred Thompson, and has put most of his hopes in the Florida primary on January 29.
For the centre-left Democrats, the race faded in importance after the national party refused to accept any Michigan delegates at its national convention in August in Denver, Colorado. The move was retaliation for the Michigan Democratic Party's defiance of the national party's guidelines for state-level presidential contests.
Republicans plan to only accept half of Michigan's delegate votes for similar reasons.
Tuesday night in Michigan, Democratic voters cast 56 per cent of their votes for Senator Hillary Clinton, who remained on the ballot after her chief rivals, Senator Barack Obama, 46, and former senator John Edwards, 54, had withdrawn from the Michigan race due to the squabble with the national party.
Obama and Edwards urged their Michigan supporters to check the 'uncommitted' box, which was receiving 39 per cent. Both continue to contest the Democratic nomination, including the next vote Saturday in the south-western state of Nevada.
Democrats did not entirely cede the national spotlight to the Republicans Tuesday night, holding a closely watched debate that saw calls for reconciliation after a campaign blowup over race issues between Clinton and Obama.
The next big vote for Democrats is January 26 in a separate Democratic primary in South Carolina, which will offer the first vote in a state with a sizeable African-American population.
The campaign in both parties is likely to remain hotly contested into the February 5 'mega-Tuesday' when 23 states cast primary votes. The parties won't make an official candidate choice until their conventions in August and September, just two months before the November 4 presidential vote.
McCain, 71, a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and a hawk on national security issues, had edged out Romney a week earlier in New Hampshire, and had hoped to do well in Michigan based on his 2000 victory in the Michigan primary over George W Bush, who was the eventual nominee.
Romney, 60, a wealthy businessman whose father once governed Michigan, ran a campaign pitched to the increasing economic worries in the Midwestern state, home to the embattled US automotive industry. Michigan's unemployment rate of 7.4 per cent is among the highest in the nation and far exceeds the national average of 5 per cent.
According to an exit poll cited by the Detroit News, 55 per cent of Republican voters cited the economy as the most important issue influencing their decisions.
In his victory speech, Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, mentioned his concerns about illegal immigration, pensions, tax breaks for middle-income Americans and the country's dependence on foreign oil.
He laid claim to the legacy of previous Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but did not mention current president George W Bush, whose low approval ratings have made him somewhat of a pariah in the Republican race.
McCain accepted his defeat, saying he had gotten 'pretty good at doing things the hard way.'
'We don't mind a fight,' he said, 'and we're in it.'
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Tonny, by 'hanging your hat' on Michael Moore and A. Gore your credibility went into the dumper.
a sad day .
hope he doesn't make it to president.this A-hole will be worse than bush.
Re:''Washington is broken, and we're going to do something about it,' Romney declared in remarks to the cheers of enthusiastic supporters. 'Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism.''
This was a barb aimed at John McCain who had the cojones to point out that some jobs in Michigan were gone and would never come back. He's right, some of those jobs will NEVER come back. The Big Three painted themselves into a corner, then local Democrats choked every thing else to death with high taxes trying to make up for the auto industry's decline.
Governor Romney's solution to this, what little of it that he has revealed, smacks of corporate welfare, which is one of the things already killing the United States. I am not surprised. I have yet to hear a single politician of either say one word about putting an end to corporate welfare.
Right now, the single largest corporate welfare program is our open border policy with Mexico. I do not blame a single Mexican, Guatemalan, Ecuadorian, Argentinian, Brazilian or Peruvian for wanting to be here in the United States. Were I one of them I would sneak across the border and fight to stay.
However, there are so many of them sneaking in now that they are actually depressing their own wages. That's right, wages are falling, even among illegal immigrants. All of them are mistreated by their employers. Time and half over forty? Don't let's be silly! Insurance? Hah! It is little wonder that our medical system, that Tonny is so keen to criticize, is under strain. They go to the emergency rooms when they are ill and the hospitals are obliged by law to treat them there. Emergency rooms dare not turn anyone away.
Lest you think that this is limited to ditch-digging and landscaping and other such jobs, take another look. Most of the welders, fitters, plumbers and about half the electricians working for my employer are immigrants carrying green cards. How many of them actually have legitimate paperwork is anyone's guess.
Oh, your college educated and think you are immune? You aren't. Their are more than a few of them taking up jobs as draftsman and programmers. Oh, and if you are a company needing programmers, you can obtain special privileges to bring programmers in from countries like India, Pakistan and China. US citizens can no longer count on having a job that pays a decent wage. Soon the minimum wage will be the maximum wage.
Of course, if you are a manager and want truly cheap labor that can do nothing about improving work conditions or benefits, you work a deal with the Chinese government and move your production facilities to China or, even better, subcontract all of your production to a Chinese company. Brilliant, what? In some fields of business there are actually tax advantages for doing this kind of thing.
Never mind the rest of the special tax loopholes that make our tax code completely incomprehensible, never mind the sweet heart deals at the Pentagon and other Federal Agencies, none of those amount to diddly squat. It's this package of deals for cheap labor that matters.
I have yet to hear a single politician currently running for President say a thing about actually changing any of these deals. That's because the misery in the middle class works for Democrat politicians and the GOOPERs could care less so long as the GOOPER Fat cats get their cheap labor.
I keep watching these political puppets and wonder if maybe there isn't a character called 'Shit on a Stick' about to run for President. There won't be of course. That would be too honest.
The republicans are bankrup for leadership candidates. You got the dog, Mutt Rumney; the fruitloop, Huckleberry; and the tired old man, McCain. If that is the best those fools can come up with, then they might as well go home, now.
why Mitt reminds me of Nixon?????
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tonny from belgiumJan 16th, 2008 - 05:43:13
Of course not a word on this.From the Washington Post:quote:
A separate study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine provided further evidence that the United States often falls short on health outcomes despite spending more per capita on health care than any other country. That research, also published today in Health Affairs, found that the United States ranked worst among 19 countries in the number of deaths that could have been prevented through better access to timely and effective health care.
Had the United States performed as well as the top three countries -- France, Japan and Australia -- it would have seen about 101,000 fewer deaths per year from conditions such as hypertension, appendicitis, tuberculosis, and colon and cervical cancers.
'While no country provides a perfect model of care, there are many lessons to be learned from the strategies at work abroad,' said a statement by Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, the foundation that funded the study ... unquote
One would think that saving 100?000 lives per yearwould be a priority .But other than bashing Michael Moore ,the other inconcenient source with similar information,every republican candidate is squitming to save the interests of the insurance lobby over the lives of their fellow citizens.
Same with global warming.Until very recently it was either dismissed or considered a hoax by these fine gentlemen.THe sabotage of the Kyoyo treaty has cost everybody precious time and it looks as nothing is offered but empty words.As usual the messenger bringing the bas news is ritually killed for delivering his message;hence the slander and smear campaign orchestrated against A Gore.
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