Five Brothers: The Romney Campaign Blog

Campaigning in Michigan and Indiana

I spent a few days in Michigan and Indiana traveling from the top of the Upper Peninsula all the way south to Indianapolis. It was a lot of driving, 10 hours the first day, and I must admit that I was wiped out by the end of the trip. I still have no idea how my dad maintains the pace he does.

I was able to teach another Government class. I'm really beginning to enjoy teaching, this could be a new career when the campaign is all over.

Doing some politicking at a diner in Sault Saint Marie (good luck pronouncing the name of that city correctly).

Getting some tough questions from the NBC affiliate in Marquette, MI.

Meeting with supporters and some old friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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Posted at 2007-11-27 03:22:42 by Josh Romney  |  Comments [1]

ComMITT 2 the Future

As many of you know, Mary and I have been very involved in Students for Mitt this past year and we wanted to tell you about an event this week especially for students: ComMITT 2 the FUTURE.

On November 29th at 8:00pm EST, Students for Mitt in all 50 states and at hundreds of colleges and universities will take part in ComMITT 2 the FUTURE (C2F). Students for Mitt will make calls from dorm rooms, apartments, and classrooms helping to fundraise and reach voters in early primary states. At 8:00pm EST, Students for Mitt will gather together at a specific location on their campuses and watch a special web-video. You can watch a special introductory video and then signup to be part of ComMITT 2 the FUTURE today by visiting www.MittRomney.com/Students

Hope you enjoy the event!

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Posted at 2007-11-27 01:38:58 by Craig Romney  |  Comments [1]

Thanksgiving Rematch

As Tagg mentioned, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend with a large portion of the family in town for a delicious feast. It was also a great opportunity to reflect on how blessed we are to live in this great country. But, contrary to Tagg's report, the best part of the weekend was the touch football on Thanksgiving morning. I've attached a few shots below. Tagg and I took on Craig and Mitt, and the wrong team won. A rematch between my brothers is scheduled for Wednesday in Florida before the CNN-You Tube debate.

Clear visual evidence of offensive pass interference :)

Kingsley gets in on the action.

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Posted at 2007-11-26 02:49:03 by Ben Romney  |  Comments [1]

Great Weekend in NH!

We had a great Thanksgiving with my wife's family and my Mom and Dad, Ben and Ande, and Craig, Mary, and Parker all joining us at our house for a huge feast (my wife and mother-in-law did a great job cooking, and my Mom and Ande pitched in with a few dishes as well, including my Dad's all-time favorite sweet potato recipe). But the highlight was the chance for a bunch of us to join my Dad on the campaign trail Saturday and Sunday in New Hampshire. He held 5 town hall meetings and made numerous retail stops all across the state.

A lot of people assume that we would do well in NH because my Dad was Governor of the neighboring state and because he spends his summers in Wolfeboro. But we started at only 5% in the polls back in January. Jim Merrill has done a great job leading our campaign there, and his organizational strength coupled with my Dad being a great candidate with a strong message has helped us get to the overwhelming level of support we enjoy there now. All weekend long we had hundreds of people coming to the town hall meetings, and there was a palpable level of enthusiasm that you could tell totally energized my Dad.

Rudy is clearly feeling the pressure to win the primary (finally set at January 8th, by the way) and started attacking my Dad the day after Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, he attacked him on a basis (appointments) that you'd think someone with his fairly public record of questionable appointments would avoid. My Dad showed he can be tough when he needs to be, and fired back at Rudy. The back and forth is laid out pretty well in Dan Balz's column today in the

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Posted at 2007-11-26 10:39:16 by Tagg Romney  |  Comments [2]

The Sunshine State

I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Florida earlier this week and had a great time traveling the state between Orlando, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tampa and St. Petersburg. Family is the focus of my life and my remarks typically focus on the personal side of Mitt and the success he has had as a husband and a father. In addition to my family, and of course my horses, cooking is another passion of mine. In fact, if any of you have had a chance to visit AnnRomney.com you've probably seen that I have a section on there for recipes. But what many of you might not know is that I used to run a small cooking school and love to provide cooking demonstrations. Below is a photo of me making monkey bread at an event earlier this week in St. Petersburg. Monkey bread is one of my family's favorite Thanksgiving recipes (recipe below).

Monkey Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

· 2 pkg. dry yeast dissolved in 1 c. warm water

· 2/3 c. sugar

· 1 1/2 t. salt

· 6 c. flour

· 1 stick butter

· 1 c. boiling water

· 2 eggs, well beaten

Directions:

Take one cup of warm water and pour dry yeast into the water. Allow yeast to bubble within mixing cup. Mix butter, sugar, boiling water, and salt in a glass bowl. Allow mixture to cool slightly and then add yeast (once it has bubbled) to mixture. Beat the two eggs and add to the mixture, followed by flour. Mix thoroughly. Dough will…

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Posted at 2007-11-23 02:30:08 by Ann Romney  |  Comments [8]

Announcing Nathan Matthew Romney

I'm very proud to announce the birth of my son, Nathan Matthew Romney. I have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving as mom and baby are healthy. Nate is 19.5" long and weighs in at 7.5 pounds. He was born on November 21 at 2:37 PST.

Here Nate is getting a little extra oxygen a few minutes after being born -- he was a little premature and his lungs needed a little boost when he first came out:

Here's a picture of me and Laurie proudly holding our new baby:

Our other kids, Nick, Chloe and Mia, are really excited for a new baby brother.

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Posted at 2007-11-21 08:14:43 by Matt Romney  |  Comments [26]

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted at 2007-11-21 08:00:50 by Romney for President  |  Comments [4]

The CNN-YouTube Debate … and the Turkey Bowl

Dad will participate in the first Republican CNN-YouTube debate on the night of Wednesday, November 28. We’re encouraging all of our supporters to host a “debate watch party” that night or join one hosted by a friend or a neighbor. You can easily do so through Team Mitt Action Center, so sign up if you haven’t already.

And, if you’re in the St. Petersburg, Florida on the morning of the debate, make sure to join my brothers and me for a flag football game at the Flora Whylie Park that we’ve dubbed the Turkey Bowl. If you can’t make it to St. Pete, rest assured that we’ll have a full report here on the blog.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted at 2007-11-20 06:22:05 by Craig Romney  |  Comments [2]

Ask Ann Anything

Since the launch of my website, www.AnnRomney.com, I have had the opportunity to connect with more and more wonderful supporters from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina and Florida. Throughout this campaign I have met so many people, and that is what I have enjoyed most about the last 10 months on the campaign trail.

As part of the campaign’s Ask TEAM Mitt Anything series, I will be hosting an online chat with supporters TODAY beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. I am going to be live on-line sharing a little insight into my life – not to mention my kitchen – with all of our supporters. I hope you will join me as I share more stories from the campaign trail and answer your various questions.

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Posted at 2007-11-20 10:46:04 by Ann Romney  |  Comments [5]

A Couple Pictures From Over The Weekend

Grace, Wyatt and Owen were excited to have "Papa" come in town for a few hours and help him pack for his next trip:

Even though they don't really understand the significance of what he is doing they recognize they get excited when they see him on TV or in magazines and newspapers. Like the rest of us, they are incredibly proud of him.

We also got a pic of my dad addressing a completely packed house at a breakfast event in Park City:

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Posted at 2007-11-19 06:29:56 by Josh Romney  |  Comments [3]

Your Friday YouTubes

And Ben sends in the following clip with the comment, "I love Japanese game shows. They can be quite fun and creative, as evidenced here."

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Posted at 2007-11-16 12:30:16 by Tagg Romney  |  Comments [13]

A Day in the Life of Mitt

Yesterday I had the chance to spend the day on the campaign trail with my dad since he came for a visit to Southern California. I get asked all the time how my dad can maintain such a high energy level for so many consecutive days. Let me say honestly I just don’t know how he does it. It’s just the way he is. He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever known, and add the fact that he’s really smart and you’ve got a great combination. Hey this guy ought to be president or something.

5am: Wake up and go for jog. There are no pictures from this because I only woke up long enough to watch him go out the door ... then I went back to bed.

6:45am – 9:15am: I took my dad for a quick tour of my community, Rancho Bernardo, so he could see the devastation from the wild fires first hand. I’ve been helping a friend of mine, Reed, whose house sustained damage in the fire. We’ve been working on removing a stump from a big tree in his front yard that burned down. My dad joined me and a few others (my co-worker, Greg, my uncle, Jim, and Reed) to put some more work into it.

Here’s a picture of us looking at the house across the street from Reed’s:

Here’s a picture of Reed showing us some damage at and around his home:

Here’s a picture of me and my dad trying to hack this stump to death:

10am: Satellite TV interviews at a hotel in San Diego with Glenn Beck from…

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Posted at 2007-11-15 06:29:26 by Matt Romney  |  Comments [13]

A Very Important Play Date

My dad was in town last week for a very important play date. I've rarely seen my dad outpaced by anyone, but he admitted he was exhausted after following Parker around the park, the merry go round, and FAO Schwartz.

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Posted at 2007-11-14 01:30:10 by Craig Romney  |  Comments [8]

Graze with the Elephants

Here are some pictures from the "Graze with the Elephants" event in Waukesha, WI. Terry Dittrich, our State Finance Chair, attended the event with National Finance Chairman, John Rakolta.

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Posted at 2007-11-14 01:26:58 by Romney for President  |  Comments [0]

A Picture From The Women's Conference

I wanted to share with you this picture I just received from The Women's Conference that was held a few weeks ago in California. Such an extraordinary group of women with which I had the pleasure of sharing the stage.

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Posted at 2007-11-13 04:33:41 by Ann Romney  |  Comments [2]

Hard Work

I’ve stated a few times that one thing is for certain on this campaign trail—my Dad won’t get out worked by anybody. Matthew Miller at Race 4 2008 recently did a few hours or research using the Washington Post’s campaign tracker. Here are a few excerpts from his blog:

"1. Romney’s the hardest working candidate in the race. After tediously tallying each campaigns events, I’ve found that Romney has held 493 events since January 7th. 50 more then his closest competitor, John Edwards. 92 more then McCain. 95 more then Obama. 125 more then Hillary. And a whopping 227 more then Rudy.

...

"4. Contrary to popular belief, Romney’s campaigning has been very broad, and hardly limited to Iowa and NH. Obama, Edwards, and Dodd have all held more events in Iowa. And yet, he still leads them, overall, by significant margins. In particular, he has held a large number of events in Florida (where he leads the field), South Carolina, California, and Michigan (he also leads here).

...

"1. Mitt Romney- 493 events

2. John Edwards- 443 events

3. John McCain- 401 events

4. Barack Obama- 398 events

5. Bill Richardson- 393 events

6. Hillary Clinton- 368 events

7. Rudy Giuliani- 266 events

8. Mike Huckabee- 257 events

9. Fred Thompson- 74 events (projection: 222)

10. Ron Paul- 113 events"

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Posted at 2007-11-13 03:57:34 by Tagg Romney  |  Comments [3]

Idaho Trip

I recently got back from Idaho where I traveled to speak to some Romney supporters. Here I am pictured with Lt. Governor Jim Risch and his son, Jason:

The Lt. Governor also gave some remarks and made a very compelling case for why we all need to work hard to get my dad elected.

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Posted at 2007-11-12 03:39:31 by Matt Romney  |  Comments [8]

"Big Week in CA for Romney"

I'll let a fellow blogger tell the good news out of CA -- from the FLASH REPORT today by Brandon Powers.

Big Week in CA for Romney - Picks Up Endorsements from YRFC & CRA

Mitt Romney has had a great week in California.

First, on Wednesday night, the Young Republican Federation of California's Board of Directors voted to endorse the Romney campaign - becoming the first grassroots group in the state to endorse Governor Romney.

To add to that, just minutes ago, the California Republican Assembly joined the YRFC by overwhelmingly voting to endorse the Romney campaign.

By a vote of 148 - 73, CRA took a big step in showing clearly that the conservative base of the Republican Party is coalescing around Governor Romney.

Primary elections are traditionally dominated by the bases of each Party - and within California, there aren't more representative voices of the conservative base than YRFC and CRA.

Like I said, it was a big week in CA for Mitt Romney.

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Posted at 2007-11-12 11:47:13 by Tagg Romney  |  Comments [3]

A Little Fun On The Trail

My goal on the campaign trail has always been to talk to as many people as I can about my dad and his vision for America. However, I also try to have as much fun as possible. I am anticipating being on the campaign trail for another full year so I make sure to make the most of each stop. I just returned from Nevada where I was able to do both.

Here's a picture of me with the incredibly dedicated phone bankers in the Las Vegas campaign office. Earlier in the day I was able to speak to four high school classes and a number of the students are here in the picture volunteering:

Here I am on the Extra Terrestrial Highway. I think we saw Dennis Kucinich driving the other direction:

At a recent coalition meeting I was coerced into a little karaoke:

Joe Brezny, the Nevada State Director, is singing back up while I get down. I'm singing Sweet Caroline in honor of the World Series Champion Red Sox (the song is played at every Fenway game):

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Posted at 2007-11-12 10:24:34 by Josh Romney  |  Comments [4]

Your Friday YouTube Clips

You might have noticed that on Fridays we have started to share some fun clips from YouTube. Let us know which ones you like. Have a good weekend.

Ben: This is one of my all-time favorites. Poor kid though.


Craig: All I can say is: Don't hassle the Hoff.

Tagg: How does he do that?


Josh: Tommy Seebach playing Apache

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Posted at 2007-11-09 02:19:33 by Tagg Romney  |  Comments [7]