Michigan will be the spark that leads to Romney's nomination

So the traditional thinking is that whoever does well in Iowa, New Hamshire, and South Carolina, will win the nomination. That still may be true, except this year Michigan is third on the calander.

Here are the results from last weekend's Mackinac Straw Poll (Michigan)

Romney 39% (383 votes)
McCain 27 (260)
Paul 11 (106)
Giulaini 11 (104)
Thompson 7 (70)
Huckabee 3 (25)
Hunter 1 (12)
Brownback >1 (3)
Tancredo 0 (0)
Uncommitted 2 (16)

Again, here is the primary schedule along with our predicted winner:

January 5: Wyoming - MITT
January 14: Iowa - MITT
January 15: Michigan - MITT
January 19: Nevada - MITT
January 19: South Carolina - THOMPSON OR GIULIANI
January 22: New Hampshire - MITT

By January 22, it is a real possibility that Mitt will have won five of the six early contests!

Rudy's response?

“I hate to compare all this to baseball, but I probably know more about baseball,” Mr. Giuliani said in an interview this summer. “It is always important to win the first game of the series, and the second game of the series. But teams have won World Series that have lost the first two games, including, by the way, the Yankees.”

That may be true for the Yankees...but has any team gone on to win after losing the first 5 of 6 games?

Romney is strong where Bush is weak

By David Alvord

Let me begin by saying that I am a Bush supporter. President Bush has succeeded in cutting taxes, rebuilding the military, defeating the taliban, appointing conservative supreme court justices, foiling terror attacks, and has seriously wounded Al Qaeda world-wide.

Mitt recently commented: "Thank goodness Barack Obama was not our president last year".

Governor Romney has vowed to continue fighting for conservative values and to win the war on terror. If Iraq can succeed in establishing a strong central government that is committed to standing against terror groups, Al Qaeda will be in retreat. We will be closer to our ultimate objective of defeating radical Islam world-wide.

Mitt will continue the calling of this generation and is well equipped to do so because Romney is strong where Bush was weak.

Bush was governor of Texas, where even the democrats are conservative.
Romney was governor of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the union.

While Bush had it easy in Texas, Romney was tested and refined by Massachusetts. Romney learned that the only way you can change the tone in government is by defeating liberals.

I was proud of Mitt when I saw him stand up to the Mass. Supreme court on the issue of gay marriage.

One of the reasons for President Bush's low approval numbers is that he has disappointed conservatives and has allowed congress to spend almost as much as they did during Clinton years. The Bush presidency has been marked by a surprising low number of vetoes.

Romney, on the other hand, has said that "he likes vetoes" and will cap government spending.

President Bush has sometimes had a hard time articulating some conservative policies. Romney will not have that problem. Romney is so good at answering questions that he has the press baffled! All they can say about him is that he is too good or too polished.

Romney will be strong where Bush is weak because he has already sailed in shark-infested liberal waters and still succeeded in promoting a conservative agenda. If Governor Romney was able to do so much in Massachusetts, think of the possibilities of a President Romney, where no longer will he be that red speck in a sea of blue.

Florida might become "winner take all"

Thanks to a recent comment, we at Mitt Rocks! have done some investigating as to the status of Florida's primary election for president.

Thanks to Marc Ambinder's blog for the following information:

Some news that every Republican presidential campaign has taken note of: the winner of the Jan. 29 Republican primary in Florida could get all the delegates. The current winner-take-all-by-congressional-district rules might be jettisoned.

Here's how.

By holding its primary on Jan. 29, Florida is likely to violate the Republican National Committee's delegate selection rules. The number of delegates sent to the convention would be cut in half. If that happened, it's very likely that state chair Jim Greer would, under new powers granted to him on Saturday, elect to grant the winner of the state's primary all of its delegates.

Why? Greer wants to make sure Florida has a large presence at the RNC convention regardless of what the RNC does. And he wants to make his state remains a campaign beacon to candidates. 57 delegates is not as attractive as 114, but it's a lot more attractive, than, say, 30 delegates -- or the number of delegates the winner would have earned under the old rules.

Here is the full text of Article M, which the state party's rules committee passed Sat.:

In the event that the RNC imposes the 50 percent delegate cut, Florida's 57 delegates will be Winner Takes All, selected by the Chairman (as opposed to current hybrid of selection by Congressional District caucuses and At Large appointments), and the WTA delegates will bound to that winner for the first 3 rounds of voting.

Of the early states, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Delaware are winner-take-all, thanks to the direct intervention of Giuliani partisans on the state committees. If Giuliani's Feb. 5 strategy pays off, he can thank his campaign's behind-the-scenes political maneuvering.

All the more reason to "Rally for Romney"! The governor just might need Florida's 57 delegates to take the wind out of Rudy's sails.

New schedule looks good for Willard

Here is the primary schedule. The States listed in red are those that Mitt Rocks! predict that Romney will win...and slingshot him to February 5, then on to the nomination:

January 5: Wyoming (12 of 28 awarded, presumably cut in half to 6)
January 14: Iowa (41)
January 15: Michigan (61, presumably cut in half to 30)
January 19: Nevada, South Carolina (81)
January 22: New Hampshire (24)
January 29: Florida (114)*
February 2: Maine (21)*

SUPER TUESDAY February 5: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia (968)

* the January wins may cause Romney to Sweep Florida and Maine. Watch for a Thompson win in South Carolina and some votes for Rudy in Florida. But these states are not winner take all and a decent showing for Romney in Florida will wipe Giuliani off the board! By February 5, Fred will want to go back to Law and Order while Rudy can make a date to appear on Saturday Night Live; dressed as a transvestite for a sing along with John McCain.

Brownback...where are your supporters?

Anti-Romney Ad: $100,000
New suit: $1000
Speechwriter: $3000
Banners: $2000
Haircut: $100
After hours of work and preparation, having no one show up: Priceless!