Union Leader Explains Why Vote McCain and Not Romney

The Romney backlash: Conservatives are coming home

THERE IS A reason Mitt Romney has not received a single newspaper endorsement in New Hampshire. It's the same reason his poll numbers are dropping. He has not been able to convince the people of this state that he's the conservative he says he is.

Like a lot of people in New Hampshire, we wanted to believe Romney. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. We listened very carefully to his expertly rehearsed sales pitch. But in the end he didn't close the deal for us. Now, two weeks before the primary, the same is happening with voters.

Republicans and right-leaning independents in New Hampshire gave Romney a chance. His events have not been sparsely attended. Nor have they been scarce. He's made more campaign stops here this year than any other Republican, even John McCain.

And after a year of comparing Romney to McCain, of sizing up the two in person and in the media, Granite Staters are turning back to McCain. The former Navy pilot, once written off by the national media establishment, is now in a statistical dead heat with Romney here.

How could that be? Romney has all the advantages: money, organization, geographic proximity, statesman-like hair, etc.

But he lacks something John McCain has in spades: conviction.

Granite Staters want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth. John McCain has done that day in and day out, never wavering, never faltering, never pandering.

Mitt Romney has not. He has spoken his lines well, but the people can sense that the words are memorized, not heartfelt.

Last week Romney was reduced to debating what the meaning of "saw" is. It was only the latest in a string of demonstrably false claims -- he'd been a hunter "pretty much" all his life, he'd had the NRA's endorsement, he saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. -- that call into question the veracity of his justifications for switching sides on immigration, abortion, taxes and his affection for Ronald Reagan.

In this primary, the more Mitt Romney speaks, the less believable he becomes. That is why Granite Staters who have listened attentively are now returning to John McCain. They might not agree with McCain on everything, as we don't, but like us, they judge him to be a man of integrity and conviction, a man who won't sell them out, who won't break his promises, and who won't lie to get elected.

Voters can see that John McCain is trustworthy. Mitt Romney has spent a year trying to convince Granite Staters that he is as well. It looks like they aren't buying it. And for good reason.

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McCain tops list of thankworthy

By Wayne Woodlief Thursday, November 22, 2007 http://www.bostonherald.com

Character, conviction personified

Today’s the day again to thank all the pols and pundits who’ve made me think anew or laugh or sometimes shout. Some have been outrageous, some have been straight arrows, but none that I’m grateful for has been dull.

I’m most thankful for Sen. John McCain, the one candidate for president who stands up for what he believes and says it plain, regardless of the political cost.
He’s ardently backed the troop surge in Iraq (losing some independent support along the way) even as he rebuked President Bush for not sending in more troops when the war first began, as McCain had advocated.

He stuck by the doomed immigration bill he co-authored with Sen. Edward Kennedy, though it cost him deeply among the conservative and important Republican Iowa caucus electorate. Yet that compromise bill was the closest we’ve come - or may come - to a solution that would both secure our national borders and open a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants. For all the screaming and degradation of McCain by the hard-righters, why haven’t they found an answer?
The Arizonan has bucked the president on torture and on those so-called “signing statements” by which Bush asserts he can disobey whatever parts of bills passed by Congress that he chooses, without vetoing them.

He has heart and fortitude. McCain was given up for dead a few months ago when his presidential campaign had overspent and was in disarray. Yet he is rising again as he focuses on the New Hampshire primary, where an upset of Mitt Romney would catapult McCain forward. Already, he has passed Fred Thompson, is edging by Rudy Giuliani for second place and has Romney in his sights in the Granite State.

In the latest Fox News poll, voters nationally also rate McCain as the Republicans’ best hope against Hillary Clinton. In trial heats, Clinton beats Giuliani by 4 percentage points, Thompson by 9 and Romney by 13. But she and McCain are in a virtual tie, with the former first lady at 46 percent and McCain at 45 percent.

So keep telling it straight, brother McCain. You could win this thing yet. And even if you lose, you’ll feel better about yourself.

Reprinted from: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1046301&format=text