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Mitt Romney from the presidential campaign trail

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 11 months ago

Mitt Romney from the presidential campaign trail.

The Hugh Hewitt Show

2-9-07 at 6:40 PM

 

 

 

HUGH HEWITT: I begin today with Governor Mitt Romney, former governor of the great state of Massachusetts. Governor, you’ve been in Texas this week. Good politicking down that way?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Did very well in Texas. I was in Texas, and then headed up north to Michigan, and then have been in South Carolina, and right now, I’m in Alabama.

 

HUGH HEWITT: That’s quite a schedule, Governor. Now I want to see if you’ve had the opportunity over the last two weeks to follow the debate over Iraq in the Senate and the House, and your reflections on those “debates.”

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, you know, there’s something that Senator Vandenberg of Michigan said long ago. He said politics should end at the water’s edge. While we’re dealing with America’s interests abroad, and the lives of our fighting men and women, we really have to put politics aside, and I wish I could see more of that being done out of Washington. It’s been so partisan, and there’s been so much posturing. I think most people recognize that we’re not going to turn and run away from the scenario there, because that would cause a potentially huge casualty to our interests in that region, and it could also put our friends at risk. At the same time, they recognize that as long as there is the reasonable probability of a pathway to success, and by success I mean a stable Iraq with a central government, then that’s a pathway that is in our interest to pursue. And at this point, that means bringing in additional troops, doing our best to secure Baghdad, and we’ll see within months if that’s working.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Do you think that the Republican leadership in the Senate, Senator McConnell and others, managed to convey good messages or mixed messages over the course of those two weeks?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, I haven’t watched the TV closely enough, because I’ve been traveling around the country to know how effectively we’ve been able to communicate. But by and large, the best communication from our party is going to come from the administration. And it’s going to be hard for people to understand what one Senator or another is going to say, but fortunately, I think the American people by and large recognize that there is a great interest on our part not to have that part of the world devolve into a regional conflagration where Iran and Saudi Arabia and others are somehow drawn into that conflict. And that’s the effort that’s trying to be prevented at this stage.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Now you were in Israel a couple of weeks ago talking about Iran. Yesterday, the supreme leader of Iran issued a series of threats directed at the United States, backed up by some display of weaponry not before seen used by the Revolutionary Guard. That situation appears to be growing much more malevolent, much more dangerous as the weeks go by, Governor. Do you believe that our country is aware of the breadth of that threat?

 

MITT ROMNEY: You know, our intelligence about what’s going on in Iran is of course somewhat limited. Our experience in Iraq tells us that we can’t rely 100% on our intelligence efforts in the Middle East. What we do know, of course, is that the leadership of Iran, and particularly Ahmadinejad himself, have threatened a genocidal approach to our friends there, the Israelis. They have threatened the world with the prospect of a nuclear bomb. And in this kind of setting, this is not a time for us to say let’s sit down and see what we can give them, and negotiate with them. Instead, this is a time for the people of Iran to recognize that their leadership is taking them down a very dangerous path, one that would lead to economic isolation, diplomatic isolation, and potentially becoming a member of the circle of suspects, meaning nations that could end up being suspects as a result of nuclear weaponry being used anywhere in the world. So this is a time for us putting the pressure on Iran, and just like we did on Apartheid South Africa. It’s not time to do what Hillary Clinton suggested doing, which suggested a level of timidity that’s quite troubling.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Now to switch to domestic politics, you gave a speech in Detroit to the economic club there. You said make the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent, reform the tax code, and then you brought up tax free savings. What chance does that have, Governor, of getting through a Democratic Congress?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, I actually think tax free savings, the way I described it, has a very good chance of getting through, as well as making the tax cuts permanent. You see, if we do not make the tax cuts permanent, there will be a huge increase in the tax rate for the American people. We’d lose the child care credit and a number of other features that have become a part of our system, and there’s just no way the American public’s going to sit still to see a massive tax increase. It would slow down our economy, it’s the exact wrong place to go. The savings plan which I proposed is quite simply this, and that is the American people shouldn’t have to pick and choose among all sorts of little government programs that tell you where you can save and what you can use your money for, and when you can take it out. Instead, you ought to be able to save a certain number, and I use this as an example, $5,000 dollars for a couple filing jointly. $5,000 dollars of dividends, interest and capital gains, and if you earn that amount or less in a year, you pay no tax on it. So you can save where you want, and you can use it when you want it, and you don’t have to pay taxes on your savings.

 

HUGH HEWITT: All right. Again, I think…that’d be a great plan. I just can’t see Democrats going for that, but maybe you can get it through.

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, the reason I think it has prospects is that as long as the number is something like $5,000 dollars that people can save tax free, you know, it has such a positive impact on middle class Americans. This is not something that Bill Gates is going to get excited about, because his capital gains interest and dividends is probably a billion dollars a year. This is something where a couple that’s saving for kids going to college, or perhaps saving for an addition on their home, or a vacation they want to take, this is something for middle America. And I think the Democrats are going to have a hard time not providing the tax savings for middle America to be able to save their income the way they want to.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Now Governor, in an era of global warming almost hysteria, you also took on CAFÉ standards, which is a little bit against the grain in Detroit, saying in part that CAFÉ has real problems, it distorts the market, it penalizes domestic auto makers, it can ignore technical realities. What do you propose to do about CAFÉ standards?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, I didn’t propose throwing them out. What I did say is before we raise them substantially, as some people are suggesting, much to the applause of the TV cameras, that we have to sit down with a wide array of experts, economic as well as automotive, and fuel experts, and we have to sit down with the industries that we care about, and say let’s look at alternatives other than the CAFÉ model, because the CAFÉ model has resulted in declining fuel economy in American automobiles over the last twenty years. The average miles per gallon of the fleet of cars and light trucks in this country has actually been going down. It’s getting worse. Our economy is. And so, I want to see if there’s not a method that does a better job of increasing our fleet economy, and at the same time doesn’t hurt our domestic manufacturers, and I think there’s some other alternatives that are being proposed. Let’s look at them, let’s consider the pros and cons of each. I’m not going to select on at this point, but I’m going say we ought to be open to a less distortive vehicle than the CAFÉ vehicle.

 

HUGH HEWITT: All right, I want to turn now to politics. A story from the AP yesterday announced that you had raised online at www.mittromney.com $1.4 million dollars in the first 30 plus days of the campaign. I think that’s between $50,000 and $60,000 bucks a day, Governor. I think it doubled the next closest person for whom we have data, John Edwards. Are you a little bit surprised by the online fundraising going on?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, we’ve put together a very sophisticated online program, not only to describe my interests and my views, but also to solicit people’s support, and we’ve been very pleased with the response. This is a campaign effort which is highly innovative. We had, as you know, in the first day of my exploratory committee fundraising a call-a-thon, where we used the internet to link individuals with people around the country, and we raised $6.5 million dollars in one day. So this continues a very technologically savvy innovative campaign, and hopefully, we’ll keep this success up.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Have you followed the story of John Edwards’ bloggers, Governor Romney?

 

MITT ROMNEY: I have not followed that story.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Oh, good. Don’t make that mistake. You can read up on it later.

 

MITT ROMNEY: I saw a bit about it, that his bloggers had been outrageous in the things they had said, and you know, I have a terrific guy who used to be associated with Bill Frist’s team, and he’s keeping his blog head on.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to come back to haunt you. Now I want to talk about Hillary and Obama, who have announced that they will probably be skipping a couple of the early Democratic debates. They just don’t want to engage, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. Will you be skipping any of the general debates, Governor?

 

MITT ROMNEY: You know, I don’t think we’ve made a decision on that at this stage. My guess is that I’m going to be looking to go to as many debates as I can. I think it’s in the interest of the primary votes and the national voters to get a good chance to know the heart and the vision of each of the people running for national office. I find it a little unusual that those guys are skipping their early debates, because people want to see them. But I haven’t made a final decision on that. I don’t even know what our calendar is, but so far, we’re planning on attending the debates.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Now Rich Lowry of National Review was disappointed with you at the conservative National Review summit. Did you read that criticism? And what did you react to it?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Oh, I didn’t read the whole thing, but read the headline and the first couple of paragraphs. And gee, he’s probably right. I probably spoke too long, but that’ll sometimes happen. He wasn’t happy that I didn’t mention Iraq. I think I mentioned it, but I said that I wanted to talk about Iran instead, and spend a good deal of time talking about what I think we need to do about Iran. And you know, some speeches I talk about Iraq, sometimes Iran, sometimes Afghanistan, but overall, you know, he has some good comments, and I’ll take them to heart.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Okay, two more comments. California and Florida, big states, moving their primaries up, and you got the endorsement of Jim Bopp. We’ve got about a minute, Governor. Both those developments, how are you thinking about those?

 

MITT ROMNEY: Well, Jim Bopp’s support means a great deal to me. He’s a conservative well known. His support for life is critical, and obviously his advice in my campaign will be valuable to me. California and Florida moving up? That means that you’ve got to raise money in this campaign, or you won’t be able to go forward, and it means the big three are going to have to put the juice to our fundraising efforts.

 

HUGH HEWITT: Governor Mitt Romney, always a pleasure. Look forward to talking to you after your big announcement next week in Michigan.

 

End of interview.

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