On the Debate, and Onward to NH Tuesday!

First of all, my apologies for some delay in sending this e-mail. I just returned from a trip to St. George, Utah where I was able to attend the temple with family and see my adopted niece sealed to her new parents. It was a life highlight for us…really wonderful and sweet and it reminded us again what life is REALLY about.

Now, back to the “secondary stuff” of politics!

A couple of brief points as we close in on the New Hampshire primary Tuesday:

(1) The Republican nomination is still very murky. Where we stand right now is that with Romney’s 2^nd place finish in Iowa and his win in Wyoming, he leads the very, very early delegate count. Also, he is neck and neck with John McCain in New Hampshire (McCain is considered to have a small lead right now). And the next states after these are Michigan and Nevada, both of which have some advantage for Romney (though the latest polls I’ve seen in those two give him only the tiniest lead right now). This sounds good, and it is. However, if conventional wisdom is to be believed (and I don’t have much reason to doubt it), New Hampshire still holds the mighty power of momentum, and Mitt very much needs to win it. And even though he’s close to the lead, time is very short and so it’s an uphill battle.

(2) Of the other candidates, Huckabee is a distant 3^rd in NH so may be seeing his downward slide begin. McCain I consider to be Romney’s principle rival overall at this point, which makes the NH result all that much more critical. Giuliani is still a possible contender. My opinion is that the others don’t have much chance.

(3) There was a notable Republican candidate debate on Saturday in NH. Since I was at the temple with family at that time, I wasn’t able to watch, so I depend on others for reaction. There’s a good and brief summary on the Evangelicals for Mitt site, just follow this link: http://www.evangelicalsformitt.org/front_page/great_job_governor_romney.php

(4) The gist of the debate summary is that Romney was attacked often by all the other candidates. To me this indicates that they all consider him the front runner at this point. It also was cause for various “viewer responses” to the debate. Some thought it was a negative for Romney, either because of the attacks or if they didn’t think he defended himself vigorously enough. Some thought that it made his rivals – and especially John McCain – look snide and mean, and Romney sympathetic. In any case it’s hard to say how it will affect the vote, though it’s unlikely to provide the big boost hoped for for Romney.

(5) Finally, if you are able and have time to make some phone calls tomorrow to Romney supporters in New Hampshire to encourage them, please go to Mitt’s campaign site (www.mittromney.com) for instructions. Again, you can do this from home, or if you have one of his campaign headquarters near you can do it from there.