from EFM: Why We Support Mitt
Editor's Note: The summary below is based primarily upon our first support statement, drafted when this site launched in 2006. It holds up well, we think, but since 2006 the case for Mitt Romney has only grown stronger. While EFM believes that cultural issues are -- and will remain -- central to the life and health of our country, we cannot focus on cultural issues to the exclusion of the very real economic and military challenges we continue to face. While the surge has led to a fragile victory in Iraq, our economy has not fared so well. Between now and the date when Governor Romney decides whether (or not) to pursue the Republican nomination, we will often speak of the "relentless logic" of his candidacy. After all, which (potential) candidate combines his level of proven economic expertise with the right character, temperament, resolve, and commitment to life and the family?
We want a candidate who shares our political and moral values and priorities, can win in 2012, and can govern effectively thereafter by articulating and implementing an intelligent, values-based governing strategy. This is just what Mitt Romney did as governor, this is just what Mitt Romney did in business, and this is what he would do as president.
Governor Romney Shares Our Political & Moral Values
Political and moral values are informed by -- but not the same as -- one's religion. That's why we are not casting our lot with the person whose theology we like most. History shows that to be a poor approach.
For example, in 1980 voters had two choices: a divorced movie actor who did not regularly attend church and was not on good terms with all of his children, and a once-married Southern Baptist whose evangelicalism was at the core of his public identity. Voting on the basis of whose religious doctrine was better would have meant electing the second guy -- Jimmy Carter -- over the first, Ronald Reagan. Excluding those who don't hold to orthodox Christianity would also have meant excluding such great Americans as Thomas Jefferson -- who denied the divinity of Christ -- from positions of authority. But Is anybody going to argue someone else should've written the Declaration of Independence?
We need a president who embraces a comprehensive and positive values agenda: standing for the sanctity of life, protecting traditional marriage, defending religious liberty and basic human rights at home and abroad, combating poverty and disease within the world's poorest communities, fighting for better quality of life for our citizens, and winning the War on Terror.
We need a president who has the right economic values. We too often place the economy and culture in completely separate spheres, content to worry about "social issues" when (and only when) our paychecks are secure. This is exactly the wrong approach. Governor Romney understands that the health of the economy and the health of the family are inextricably intertwined. There can be no long-term prosperity without healthy families, and it is a profound moral problem when we pay for the sins of the present by bankrupting our children
Governor Romney Can Unite the Conservative Movement and Forge a Winning Coalition
If the debacle of 2008 taught us anything, it's that you cannot abandon the base and win an election. We must unite fiscal and social conservatives within the same tent. We cannot argue over which of the self-described "wings" of the party are most crucial. At its best, the Republican coalition combines a fierce commitment to national security, sound economic conservatism that is responsive to changing economic conditions, and an abiding commitment to life and the family. When this coalition breaks down, when any one of the three "legs" of the stool break, we lose. And lose big. In 2008 we nominated a national security conservative who knew very little about the economy (and was dangerously prone to ineffectual bouts of populist outrage), seemed to enjoy skewering fellow Republicans, and held many religious voters in near-contempt. In the next primary season, we must choose better.
But there's more than that. Above all else, the president has to lead -- he has to be a good executive. Fortunately, Governor Romney has been a leader longer than he has been a politician. Prior to his political career, Governor Romney helped to launch the very successful Bain Capital -- which helped launch such successful franchises as Staples and the Sports Authority -- and then led a turnaround at Bain Consulting. He also saved the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City which, prior to his leadership, were mired in debt and corruption but subsequently became one of the most successfully-run Games in memory.
And he's governed in a difficult political environment, too. Massachusetts is the most left-wing state in the union. If you think Bay State Democrats aren't any different from their Arkansas or Alabama or Tennessee counterparts, try defending traditional marriage or vetoing stem-cell funding up in Boston, as Governor Romney did, and see what they do. But Governor Romney did -- in addition to helping turn the economy around, opposing driver's licenses and in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants, and defending Catholic Charities' right to restrict adoptions to man-woman couples. No other candidate has a record of such successful, across-the-board conservative leadership—especially on such hostile terrain.
Summing It All Up
Mitt Romney has been a standout conservative governor of a very liberal state. He believes in the traditional family, and he has fought for it -- just ask Massachusetts' pro-family leaders. He's admitted he was wrong on abortion, and is now solidly pro-life -- as his record in Massachusetts testifies. He also opposes embryonic stem cell research's speculative and open-ended carelessness with human life. He's shown courage under fire in several challenging situations, and has lived out his values (both publicly and privately) during a time when other Republicans, sadly, have not.
In addition, we challenge our readers -- friendly or hostile -- to name one national political leader on either side of the aisle with a better record of business and economic leadership than Mitt Romney. We do not know what the economy will be like in 2012, but if it's anything like it is today, who would you want at the helm? The former community organizer we have today? Or the founder of Bain Capital, the man who rescued the Salt Lake City Olympics, and the Governor who brought a state back from the brink of bankruptcy?
In other words, he's not just a man evangelicals can support -- he's the best choice for people of faith. It's not even close.
David French
David, a graduate of Harvard Law School and David Lipscomb
University, serves as Senior Counsel and director of the university
litigation project for a large non-profit Christian legal organization.
He is also a Captain in the United States Army Reserve and recently
returned from a year-long deployment to Iraq with the 2d Squadron, 3d
Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he earned a Bronze Star.
The former president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, he also taught at Cornell Law School and served as a partner in a large law firm. He is the author of four books, including A Season for Justice: Defending the Rights of the Christian Home, Church, and School, and numerous op-eds. Regularly interviewed by both print and broadcast media, David has appeared onThe O'Reilly Factor, ABC World News Tonight, The Fox Report with Shepard Smith, Special Report with Brit Hume, and Your World with Neil Cavuto, among others. He has also been profiled in the Christian magazines Charisma and Prism and appears regularly on dozens of Christian radio programs. He is married to Nancy French.
Nancy French
Nancy is the author of Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject
Became a Liberty Belle (Time Warner, 2006).She began her writing career
as a Philadelphia City Paper columnist tackling politics, religion, and
culture with a light, humorous touch; her articles have also appeared
in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Nancy is an alumna of David Lipscomb University, an evangelical college
in Nashville, and New York University, where she studied English and
philosophy. Her writer's website can be found at NancyFrench.com and
her grassroots political site at TNforMitt.com. Nancy and her husband,
David, live with their three children in Columbia, Tenn. and are
members of Zion Presbyterian Church.
In the summer of 2007, Nancy became involved in a book project with Ann Romney. Nancy was also hired as a consultant for the campaign from October until December of 2007, working to get Governor Romney on the primary ballot in her home state of Tennessee. EFM disclosed both developments immediately.
Charles Mitchell
Being EFM's resident Yankee, Charles now works in the non-profit arena
in his native Pennsylvania. He graduated summa cum laude from
Bucknell University, where he was featured in a New York Times
Magazine
cover story and, more importantly, where he was converted to
Christianity. He was subsequently a colleague of David French's at the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, during which time Human
Events
named him one of the top 10 young conservative activists in America,
and then the program director at the American Council of Trustees and
Alumni. As he has progressed through these various roles, his hairline
has begun to resemble David's more and more. Charles has been
interviewed on C-SPAN, NPR, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and The News
Hour with Jim Lehrer and has written for the Washington Times,
the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Townhall.com, the Harrisburg
Patriot-News,
and other publications. Charles, his wife Charissa, and their daughter
Adeline live just across the Susquehanna River from Pennsylvania's
capital city of Harrisburg and attend a congregation of the
Presbyterian Church in America.
Ed. Notes
>Co-founders
David French, Nancy French and Charles Mitchell have
kept this site going for over four and a half years now. A
Facebook page went up on Feb. 12, 2010; first to write on the wall was
Nate Gunderson (Mitt Romney Central). Although Romney did not
appear at the big Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New
Orleans in April 2010, Evangelicals for Mitt made a major effort there,
setting up a table and running an ad in the conference program.
Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Ron Paul.
Activity has continued in 2011: 23 postings in January ranging from
a post linking to an article on Sen. Lindsey Graham saying Romney is
most
likely to be the nominee to a post on Romney's upcoming appearance on
"Letterman;" numerous postings in February when Nancy French went to
CPAC ("a two hour drive in the driving snow, a flight, a train ride,
and a Metro ride on the Red Line"); and 15 postings in March.
Through mid-April there were nine postings including a couple on Jon
Huntsman, one on "Health Care Federalism" by David French, and the
video from Romney's exploratory announcement, under the headline "Game
On!"
