Friday, Apr 20, 2007
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MKH: One of the quotes of the week, which doesn't even really need attribution at this point is, "The war is lost." Your thoughts and what you're hearing on the trail about that?
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, first of all it shows a remarkable lack of understanding by Harry Reid. The first phase of the war, the war to knock down Saddam Hussein was won by the United States, solidly, handily, decidedly, and Harry Reid is simply wrong. We won the war to take down Saddam Hussein, and to remove a sponsor of terror.
We're now in a stage of conflict, which is to help the Iraqi people rebuild their own country. That's a long process. The jury is out on that. But for him to come out and say we lost the war shows a lack of understanding of the fact that we won taking out Saddam Hussein.
And, secondly, it shows that he just doesn't understand the nature of the conflict, which we currently are engaged in. And, I go back and think about George Washington. Can you imagine how different our nation would have been if, when the troops were having a tough time at Valley Forge, he just said, "well, we've lost." Or, if Winston Churchill, when the British citizens were hiding in subway tubes, if he said, "Well, we've lost." That is not the American way.
I'm afraid there are some Democrats who can't get the word victory or success out of their lips. They see loss behind every corner, and instead of looking for our successes and our achievements, they're always looking for the losses.
Shame on Harry Reid for saying something which will be dispiriting for our troops, and used as propaganda and rallying cries for jihadists around the world.
MKH: What are you hearing from Iowans about it?
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: The response I've had as I've made my comments about Harry Reid's comments today in the three venues where I spoke, was overwhelmingly positive. The largest applause I received was talking about the misguided words that he used to say that America has lost. Did he not remember that we did knock down Saddam Hussein's government? Has he forgotten that? It's really a remarkable lack of understanding.
MKH: Speaking of Harry Reid, he and the Dems are also cooking up abortion legislation this week in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on the partial-birth abortion ban.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: I was pleased with the decision, of course, to permit states to outlaw partial birth abortion. But it underscored something else. Four justices disagreed with the majority. And that means that if the next president were to be a Democrat like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, and they appoint more judges like the four who were in the minority, they would say, in effect, that there's a constitutional right to partial-birth abortion. Late-term, very late term abortion, which is simply a very offensive practice, and it simply underscores the importance of electing a conservative Republican to be the next president.
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MKH: I work in the blogosphere where a lot of have noticed your campaign's pretty considerable online savvy. In particular, I remember you're doing a podcast with Instapundit and videotaping it for YouTube at the same time. It really sent an early message that you "get" the new media, which is not all that common among Republicans. What's your strategy?
GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Traditionally, everyone has assumed that the way to build support in a political sense is to cotton to the mainstream media. But the truth is, if you want to get support among young voters, increasingly, they don't get the newspaper. They get their news from the Internet, from the web.
And, as a result, a major part of my effort is to make sure we're communicating with young people, that we're getting our message across to people who get their information in new and more up-to-date manners. And so, yeah, we have a very active effort. My son Tagg is one of those who plays a leading role to make sure we're up-to-date with what we're doing and we're gonna continue to get our message out through the Internet. I spend a lot of time with folks that are bloggers and webcasters, and I want to make sure that we're connecting to all Americans, not just the people who read the New York Times.
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