Ann Romney: Campaign bracing for long nomination fight
Council Bluffs, Iowa (CNN) - Ann Romney said Wednesday that her husband’s presidential campaign is bracing for a protracted Republican primary fight that could become a race for delegates extending well into the spring.
“We are ready and prepared, for however long, whether it’s quick or fast, to get Mitt the nomination,” Romney told about 30 Republicans gathered in a supporter’s home in Council Bluffs. “I am confident he will get the nomination, and by the way, I am also extremely confident he will beat Barack Obama."
Romney was echoing comments made by her husband, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, earlier in the day.
Recognizing that an unexpectedly strong challenge from Newt Gingrich may force him to campaign beyond the first four nominating states to clinch the nomination, Romney told Fox News that the primary process “may take just a few weeks, but it may go on for months.”
His wife was on message Wednesday as she courted potential caucus-goers in western Iowa.
After a 10-minute speech that focused on her husband’s values and devotion to family, Ann Romney veered into a lecture about the byzantine delegate rules that were enacted by national Republican officials in the summer of 2010 to govern the presidential nominating process.
“The Republican National Committee changed the rules on us this time, which means everything is going to be stretched out longer than it has in the past,” she said, sounding more like a political strategist than political spouse. “Last time, the states were winner-take-all, a lot of them were. This time, it’s proportional. It’s done deliberately to make the process last longer. So we are planning on whatever it’s going to take for however long it takes. We are ready to do it. We are organized.”
Romney is in the midst of a tour of Iowa and New Hampshire living rooms, where she tells audiences about her personal struggles with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.
She speaks about the “personal side” of Mitt Romney and his devotion to his wife and family - “The side you haven’t maybe heard,” as she explained in Council Bluffs.
The itinerary is implicitly aimed at contrasting the Romney’s sturdy 42-year marriage with the rocky personal life of Gingrich, who has been married three times.
Romney said that as president, her husband will have “the character and the integrity to make us proud and to trust him.”
“He has strong family values, and that’s what matters to him and that’s where his world is,” she said. “That’s what motivates Mitt.”
“The motto that our family lived by when Mitt was in the home and we were working doing everything is, no other success can compensate for failure in the home,” she added.
Candidate Romney has been criticized by some Iowa supporters for not spending more time campaigning in the state ahead of the January 3 contest.
As she left the event, Ann Romney was asked by a reporter if her husband would step up his Iowa politicking.
“Yes,” she answered. “More.”
Also see:
Romney video ties Gingrich to left
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Maybe she will tell us way none of there five sons volunteered for military service !
Mitt wont !
I, for one, support the RNC's choice to switch to proportional delegation. That forces the nomination process to be much, much more democratic.
She looks so nice in little girl bracelets on one arm and her daddy's watch on the other – ha ha ha ha ha
Not exactly the gold helmet and diamonds like Newt's wife.
The ongoing vetting process of the GOP candidates is a worthy and healthy exercise. When the Republican nominee is finally named, watch out Obama! The WILL of Conservative and Independent voters will blow you away next year. Today in a one-one interview, our President took NO responsibility for the state of our economy and continued to place blame on everyone but himself! Same old rhetoric from this one-term Joker and the house of cards he tries to build by smear campaigns and dividing America by Social Class WILL come crumbling down. It's all about Obama's record and
His RECORD is abysmal!
Romney is the ONLY Republican candidate can beat Obama.
As an independent in Ohio, I voted for Obama, but I will vote for Romney. The main reasons are Romney live an exemplary life; has executive experience and can really get things done....
That Ann is so zany with her professed confidence that her little flipper will win anything. He's a career candidate, Annie.
Mrs. Romney, assuming that your Janus-faced husband wins the GOP nomination, what are you going to do when Ron Paul runs a third=party campaign? Or when Donald Trump runs third party? Or both of them? If either or both events occur, the Republican nomination won't be worth a bucket of warm spit.
She is following the script written by Rove and her evil student Beth!! Ann, Americans are smarter than that!! please go tell your circus clown its over! its over and he can goprroud! -ly flip-floping.
I wonder if Mrs. Romney understands being the FLOTUS is WORK something of which she is NOT accoustomed to. Mrs. Romney also needs to understand she won't be able to sit around all day long and order EXPENSIVE horses and such while someone waits on her around the clock. She knows absolutely NOTHING about "the people" outside her palace or her society. As for her husband beating "Barack Obama", I see she's just as arrogant and disrespectful as her draft dodging husband and I really don't think she wants to be on a stage right now with Michelle Obama A woman who WORKED her way up and who REALLY knows what it's like to live from paycheck to paycheck and own ONE house. Bring it on Ann Romney but don't cry at what will be thrown your way!
A long nomination fight doesn't worry the Romneys. They have very deep pockets from all of money Mitt made in the private sector by destroying American jobs.
Which Romney she's taking about? The Monday Romney? The Tuesday Romney? Wed, Thr, Fri, Sat or Sun Romney?
I am sure one of those Romneys may give OB a run for his money but, not one is present long to continue a long drawn out fight
to get to the general election. Gold calf.
Way to go Ann Romney! Mitt will go the distance to defeat Obama and turn the economy around.
thanks missus Mttens but any good GOP wife is back in the kitchen making cookies and tea for the Stepford husbands
How much of his own money is Willard willing to spend to get the nomination?
“He physically, personality-wise, comes across as if he was designed by East German scientists to be the perfect android politician. And his answers come across that way.”
– Jonah Goldberg of National Review
– And this quote is from a hard-right republican!!!
Romney has no soul, no core beliefs other than his belief that he is "entitled" to be President. This and his CONSTANT phony gyrations on multiple issues show that he stands for NOTHING – He's a suit, an expensive empty suit, with perfectly coiffed hair.
Why do I care what Ann thinks? Will Ann set policy? What authority does Ann play in her marriage? Equal? Submissive wife? What role will she play if Romney is elected and she is First Lady? Again, why should I care what Ann thinks?
hee, hee, hee, hee, she wants to be first lady...nonsense...