Dear Family and Very Special Friends:

Since Tuesday Night I have been struggling with feelings that can best be described as “bereavement”, aka, “grieving”. As a physician I recognize that I am experiencing the aspects of the classic stages of grief described by Dr. Kubler-Ross:

Denial >> Anger > >Bargaining >> Depression >> Acceptance

Each stage is rather time dependent, and they sometimes jump back and forth. I have wanted to write to you all, in part to be your “Grief Counselor”, but I have had to heed the admonition, “Physician, Heal Thyself” first. So please forgive my delay in reaching out to you while I’ve been trying to rush my own Acceptance. I haven’t achieved that fully yet, and probably won’t for a while, and maybe never will completely. It remains a mystery to me how our nation could have chosen such a pathway of sustained and further inevitable failure over the best person to present for the presidency in recent history, with proven abilities and track record to fix broken things and to bind up the wounds of a bitterly divided nation.

On the positive side, let me say to each of you that the experience of getting to know so many people who are just WONDERFUL in their love of God, Country and Sound Principles, has been incredibly sweet and uplifting. I want to thank you each personally for your responses to my requests for support for Mitt, for your leadership in the cause of trying to get him elected, for the goodness of soul I feel in each of you, and for the bonding that all of this has brought about between us. Along with the following statement from the late Howard W. Hunter, former leader of my Church (It was he , BTW, who recommended to Mitt and me 44 years ago that we read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, to understand principles of success, which go far beyond financial success!), the bonds of friendship forged in this campaign are the most comforting walls I’m leaning on at present. Said he, “If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ …, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right.”

While I have been trying to “get a grip”, one of my dear younger sisters, Tanya Skeen, of Charlottesville, wrote the letter that essentially I knew I was going to write to you, but hadn’t been able to just yet. So please read her thoughtful reflections, with which I fully agree.

Sincerely,

Dane McBride

Letter from Dane’s Younger Sister, Tanya

My Dear Romney Supporters and Friends,

I would like to thank everyone who worked in any way to elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. I so appreciate your support and encouragement, and I especially appreciate knowing that there are so many who share the same hopes and desires for this wonderful country. I am very disappointed with the results of the election, but I agree with those who would encourage us to pray for President Obama and for this country. I have not lost faith either in our country or in the God who led and inspired our Founding Fathers in the establishment of our Constitution.

We must, I believe, be judicious in how we support the President. We owe it to our future generations to be sure that we do not blindly support those policies that are counter to what we know to be right. I believe in supporting what is right, not simply an elected position. Therefore, I cannot easily and quickly dismiss the several ways that this president has weakened our country, particularly when, as far as we know, he will continue with this same kind of leadership. I think of the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

I love our country and will try to do my part to protect and defend our freedoms and liberties. If our leaders do not do the same, and if those leaders are not truthful with our citizens, and if they promote measures that are designed to undermine the natural family and take away our freedoms and rights, I will do all that I can to support changing that leadership through the democratic process.

We live in a country founded upon Judeo-Christian values, blessed by God, as long as we remember Him. I cannot support actions that are contrary to those beliefs and values, such as same sex marriage, ignoring pleas for protection to Americans, abortion on demand, redistribution of wealth, socializing medicine, and weakening our military. In Proverbs 4:7, we are told, “With all Thy getting, get understanding.” With this “understanding” it becomes incumbent upon us to become informed, and when necessary, to do what is within our power to protect and defend our liberties, our families and our religion.

I do not believe that the Lord wanted Obama to win, but I do believe that He gave us our moral agency, and with that, we are free to choose, and we are accountable for our choices. The Lord blessed us with Mitt Romney, who could have restored America to its greatness. The majority of America rejected that blessing. To me, this is tragic. I am not concerned with which party wins the election, I am concerned with America staying America, being strong and true and free – and better! – and being “one nation under God.” However, I do not believe God has or will abandon us. We must now look ahead. We must do what we can to prepare for the future – whatever that may bring with it. As Mitt Romney stated earlier, with Obama’s past record, we have been forewarned about the future of our country.

I do, however, have hope for the future. Let me share a quote with you that I so appreciate from a leader of our church. When speaking about a month ago, he referred to both domestic and foreign issues and said, “The Lord knows the schedule of the train…, and the train is running on time.” It brings me great comfort to know that God is all knowing and all powerful. I am so thankful for His great love for us.

There can be good things that come from this loss, and I am grateful for the good. Mitt Romney has given us the very best example of what a president could be. There is nothing amiss in his character or his background. I am hopeful that if honesty, integrity, patriotism, Biblical values, and true leadership, are once again valued as they should and must be, that new leaders will come forth to bless our country in the future. I think as the campaign progressed it showed that there can be a bright future for the Republican party. We have, as Dr. Charles Krauthammer put it, a new generation of Republican leaders, who in only a couple of years will be prepared to lead our country, such as Sen. Ayotte, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Texas Congressman Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, and others. He pointed out that Obama is a “man of the Left” and won by being “small and negative.” Romney went “large” and “did honorably well.”

It is also very heartening to me to have seen so many people in our country who have enthusiastically supported the values that Mitt Romney has supported in his campaign. As my brother Dane McBride reminded me, if God were prepared to save Sodom if only 10 righteous souls could be found, then we can be encouraged that we can still have His blessings. I know that there are millions of God-loving people who love our country and have hoped and prayed for righteous leadership.

As we hope for the future, we need to also learn from the past. Mitt endured attacks from the Obama Campaign, the mainstream media, and frequently, even attacks from members of his own party. (My opinion is that the Primary debates seemed to be bent on destroying the best qualified person and with disregard, provided our opposition with fodder for future attacks. Loyalty and support seemed to trickle down eventually, but quite slowly.) We also need to learn to better communicate conservative values to the younger voters, Hispanics, and others, in ways that will resonate with them. Yesterday, I met with some local Republican women leaders, and we discussed possibilities we might consider in this effort. (Ideas that I think can really work!)

We have truly been the recipients of some of God’s choicest blessings. As stated in the beautiful prayer at the Romney Rally in Lynchburg, Virginia, given the day before the election, “This is a land which is choice above all other lands.” No other country has as many freedoms as we are blessed with in America. We must be diligent in maintaining our freedoms and never become casual about them or complacent, as we go forward in this uncertain time. We must never forget from whom those blessings come, and how easily they can be lost if we are not diligent.

Thank you all for your support, your many hours of service, and your love of God, family and country. What a blessing and joy it has been to my family and me to work side by side with such great people as you. I pray that God will continue to bless Mitt Romney and his family, and others, for their patriotism, courage, sacrifices, for all that they have endured, and their goodness.

May God bless America, and may we pray for the president to lead our country with integrity and a commitment to what America has always stood for.

Much warmth and gratitude,

Tanya K. Skeen

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, said that Mitt “is the most qualified leader to run for president in my lifetime!”

Mitt Romney sacrificed up to $2 billion to serve, first as CEO of the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games, then as governor of Massachusetts, and now as presidential candidate. In each of those circumstances he either took a salary of $1 or he donated what he would have received to charity. For the Olympics, he not only gave up his salary, he and Ann donated $1 million to the cause. The games were going through hard times financially as a result of the bribery scandal, and donations were needed to help right the ship financially. To Mitt it was clear that he had to set the example if he was going to ask others to donate.

No doubt political opponents will downplay this assessment of his career, as I have written about previously, but the evidence is there. Anyone with any integrity will acknowledge that money is not what motivates Mitt. Indeed, I would argue that is clear that he does what he sees as his duty. Of course he is well off financially, and he can afford to do what he has done for the Olympics and in politics, but how many other servants of the public interest do we see cut from this particular cloth of service to others?

I picked up this story on Newsmax.com in a piece by editor Christopher Ruddy entitled,  A Sacrifice of $2 Billion for America by Romney. There Ruddy wrote:

If you watched the media, you would think Romney is a greedy elitist. However, the three recent presidential debates showed the Republican presidential candidate to be a man passionately concerned about the future of America, and determined to do something about it.

But the true level of Romney’s passion about this country are in the numbers — his personal financial numbers, that is.

Ruddy cites an article in Forbes by Nathan Vardi entitled, Mitt Romney: The Most Expensive Political Career in American History: “Lots of people pay a high price for getting into politics, but no one has likely given up more, at least financially, than Mitt Romney.” That piece, also worth reading, cites another analysis done by Bloomberg that came up with similar results. The second piece, however, can’t resist the temptation to detail the Democrats’ populist complaint’s about Mitt’s wealth. Nevertheless, it at least points out Mitt’s charitable efforts over the years.

The bottom line here is to say, sure,  Mitt has made a lot of money, but his willingness to leave it all aside, even as early as 1994 when he ran against Ted Kennedy, speaks volumes about who he is as a person. As Ruddy wrote, his success “goes to show that not only is would-be president Mitt Romney an experienced businessman, he’s a very good one as well.”

Recent changes in the polls in Mitt’s favor seem to indicate that the more Americans see of Mitt, the more they are convinced that he is the man the country needs elect as its president.

I am posting the results of this poll from ABC News from three days ago for two reasons. The first is that I can’t believe that a national news organization would actually poll such a question. But then again, they also asked about the chances the candidates would go bungee jumping (Obama 60% and Romney 21%), so why should they not ask about babysitting?

That being said, I also believe that folks are totally wrong in their perceptions. In fact,I referenced this issue as far back as 12 December 2011 when I wrote about Mitt Romney actually changing diapers.

The important issue and bottom line here, however, is that poll illustrates just how little people know about Mitt Romney. By all accounts and evidence, he is a great father and grandfather (18 times over now!). He not only spends time with his family, but it is clear from the success he and Ann have had with their sons, they have done an incredible job.

According to reporting on the same poll in USAToday, people think President Obama would be a better babysitter than Mitt, 49% to 36%. Extremely sad here is the fact that these numbers are simply one more piece of evidence that the Democrat’s disinformation campaign has been terribly effective!

Contemplating tonight’s debate, I fear viewers will witness an attempt by President Obama to paint a less than attractive picture of Mitt, which will stem from his own poor performance the first time out as well as by poll numbers changing in Mitt’s favor. Thus, it seems useful to once again revisit some of the stories that have recently come to light and that reflect Mitt’s true values. Anyone who looks closely at his life is bound to see the fine person he is, which is why the Obama Campaign goes to such lengths to cast Mitt as some sort of mash-up of Simon Legree, Gordon Gekko, and Jack the Ripper, all rolled into a figure whose appearance is “straight out of Hollywood casting,” as he has been described over the years.

The first debate went a long way to dispel that negative image, but more can be done to help counter the attacks that will without a doubt intensify over the final three weeks of this election. To that end, Glenn Beck highlighted four stories four weeks ago that demonstrate the sort of person Mitt Romney is. Unfortunately those stories have received little or no attention over the years.

As Tiffany Gabbay described Beck’s motivation for airing those stories on The Blaze TV, she also added a crucial observation about Mitt:

One of the common criticisms leveled against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is that he almost comes across as being “too” put-together and restrained when it comes to showing emotion. While Ann Romney has provided much warmth and been a good focal point for campaign-watchers seeking insight into the softer-side of her husband, those whose lives have been touched and changed for the better by the GOP nominee are speaking out to share their personal stories of compassion, comfort and support.

Unlike the president, whose critics often cite the unusual nature of his seeming lack of friends, peers, colleagues and girlfriends from the past, Romney’s life appears to have been full of personal connections with everyday people who remember him fondly.

I wrote about one of those stories four weeks ago in response to reactions on the Left to Mitt’s “47% comment” that has made the rounds in the press. That specific demonstration of Mitt’s kindness involved the sons of the Nixon family who were paralyzed in a terrible car accident. While Mitt did various things for the family over the years, most notable was the fact that he personally covered the entire cost of the education for both of the boys.

All four of the stories at The Blaze TV are interesting, but one in particular that caught my attention was the one told by Ken Smith, former director of the New England Center for Homeless Veterans. He explained during his interview with Beck how he had invited Mitt Romney and Senator Kennedy to tour the center during the 1994 election. The center he directed at the time is the largest in the country and houses 500 homeless veterans in an old VA hospital in downtown Boston.

Smith said that Senator Kennedy accepted his invitation but stopped by for less than half an hour and then left. During Mitt’s visit, however, Mitt asked to see the books, which he studied for close to an hour before asking for more information regarding what Director Smith considered to be his biggest challenge. He responded, “Paying the milk bill!” and went on to explain that they went through 7,000 pints of milk each week. As Mitt prepared to leave, he joked that perhaps they should teach the veterans to milk cows.Knowing Mitt, this was without a doubt a joke, influenced by the upbringing he received from his father that involved work at every turn.

The remark was of course viewed as insensitive and was widely panned in the media. Mitt of course called the next day to apologize. Later, and to Smith’s surprise, he noticed over the next two years that the milk bill was half what it was supposed to be, which he was told was due to a donation by a donor who wished to remain anonymous. Smith later learned the unnamed donor was none other than Mitt Romney. As he later explained in a January article on the Veterans Today Web site,:

Romney didn’t send out a press release during his campaign. He didn’t boast about his donation, and he hasn’t mentioned it since. In an election where his Romney’s opponents have painted him as cold and heartless, the donation shows Romney at his most compassionate.

Glenn Beck’s video is certainly worth watching to get the full story:

This image was posted on Power Line and originally came from Bob Owens at

I wanted to post something on the debate, which by every single account I have seen on the left as well as on the right, Mitt won by acclamation. Some of the comments I have read have been so funny that I decided to go for a little humor here.

For example, I quite literally did in fact Laughed Out Loud when I saw the picture on the right. This was the image Bob Owens placed on his blog to describe the results of Wednesday’s debate in Denver. It was re-posted by Steven Hayward at Power Line, a blog I have enjoyed reading for several years now. I really enjoy reading Hayward, who this time described the fallout from the debate as President Obama getting thoroughly “Eastwooded.” He added:

Last night was one of those nights when it is really fun to watch MSNBC. There’ve been many of those—the 2002 midterm election (though James Carville putting the paper bag over his head on CNN that night was something to savor, too), the 2004 election, and the 2010 midterm election—but last night was so off-the-chart delicious that I think we need to invent a new multi-syllabic German word for it: how about Matthewsmaddowschultzenfreude?

There are some lessons here. Remember how lots of people wanted Newt Gingrich as the nominee because he’d tear up Obama, and the media while he’s at it? The trouble with that view is that Newt’s abrasiveness turns off a lot of people in the middle. I’ve wondered for a while whether Romney’s Mr. Roger’s demeanor might actually play well in debate for the simple reason that his more gentle manner can deliver attacks without arousing the visceral dislike of the many people who hate the rancor of politics today.

The entire post is worth reading in its entirety, but I have never doubted Mitt’s ability to stand up to Obama in a debate, despite the feelings of so many that Gingrich would do a better job.

Next is the video I found, also posted by Steven Hayward on Power Line.  He came across a very funny animation from Taiwan that, among other devices like boxing and kickboxing, combines characters from Sesame Street and intimations of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I have never seen, but the title seems to say it all! The chainsaw image was no doubt suggested by James Carville Democratic consultant and commentator on CNN and picked up by The Daily Caller. Carville was basically making excuses for what happened:

President Obama came there, he wanted to have a conversation. It takes two people to have a conversation. Mitt Romney came there with a chainsaw. You can’t talk to a chainsaw!”

Watching this brought me to Twee thist:

https://twitter.com/Bush46/status/253938840706904064

My take is what I have always said about Mitt Romney. He is the smartest guy in any room he enters and will be more focused and work harder than anyone I know.

Well, for those not scared by the thought of animated blood and core, the piece from Taiwanese video is pretty funny. My guess is that it is perhaps a bit brutal for some, but it is nevertheless representative of what happened at the debate. Enjoy! (If you are up for it!  :-)  )

I knew that our partner at MittTheMan.com, Dane McBride, was going to be at the Republican National Convention. When you know someone who is at a place where there are television cameras, it is quite natural to watch and wonder, as I did, “Will I see Dane?” The voice of reason then kicks in, “No way, José! Not with that many people there!”

Yet, as my wife and I watched Mitt walk down the aisle to give his acceptance speech, I thought I saw a familiar face. Since we were watching on the DVR, I was able to back it up again to make sure what I saw is what I thought I saw. Have a look at the video and watch Mitt’s face during the slow-motion part:

For sure, there was our good friend, Dane, standing (as Dane later told me) on the Virginia governor’s chair! As he leaned over several people to shake Mitt’s hand, you can see Mitt’s face light up as he says his old friend’s name, “DANE!” with great expression. Mitt then points in acknowledgment to something Dane said and laughs, responding to a very simple joke that goes back 44 years to the time they worked together at the mission headquarters in France.

Dane (left) and Mitt (right) bring some levity to challenging times in Paris in 1968

Each time I watch the video I can’t help reflect on the changes that life has brought over the past 46 years, since the time when we were in France as young twenty-something missionaries. All of our paths have crossed a few times, but for Dane, the interaction has been more frequent, with various anecdotes captured in stories such as this recent one from a Virginia newspaper.They had worked together at the mission headquarters in Paris where they had many formative experiences and some fun ones as well, such as represented in the above picture. Mitt, Dane, and others pulled the skit together to help put a tragic event and challenging times behind them.

A challenge of lesser magnitude had also arisen in roughly that same time frame, which Dane recounted to Boston Globe writers working on Romney Revealed (Michael Kranish and Scott Helman). We all knew that Mitt was madly in love with Ann when we were in France, so when she wrote she had dated another guy at BYU, Mitt’s anguish was extreme. Dane describes Mitt’s reaction to her letter, saying that ”was the only time I’ve 

Mitt and Ann are front and center and Dane is the handsome guy on the far right.

ever seen him where he couldn’t focus on anything else… He was just kind of worthless.”

As we all know, things worked out for Mitt and Ann, and Dane even had the opportunity to be a part of their wedding as shown in the photo on the right. Later they shared a close friendship at Brigham Young University (BYU) during the time they lived in the same apartment building and assembled meals from whatever ingredients happened to find themselves in their refrigerators.

Mitt sent a telegram to announce to mission buddies, Bill Ryan and Dane McBride, his impending marriage to Ann. (Note the addressee: Ryan McBride, which was perhaps one way Mitt found to economize on the telegram!) The date listed is 14 February, but their parents convinced them to put the wedding off a month.

Despite the friendship that has spanned the years, their closeness has taken a back seat to the situation in which Dane and Mitt now find themselves. As I watch the video of Mitt walking down that aisle to give his acceptance speech in Tampa, shaking hands and greeting as he went, I experience a certain pleasure and excitement as I see the joy fill Mitt’s face as he greets Dane. Also in my mind, I believe events could well have put Mitt in another place from where he might like to be. I know that if he were the selfish person some people accuse him of being, he would NOT be doing what he is doing!

As to why he is subjecting himself to all this, contrary to the opinion of some, I have no doubt that Mitt is running for president as a way of serving his country. Knowing him and seeing him in the middle of those thousands of people, I also have no doubt that if he could have it any other way, he had much rather be hanging out with his children, his grandkids, and friends like Dane.

As far as things go for Dane, he is doing more than his part. He collected signatures in the cold and rain of November to help get Mitt on the ballot in Virginia. He has also responded to more requests from the media than he wants to remember, as they have searched for insights into who Mitt is and what he has done in his life.

He has done more than that, however. Just two weeks ago, responding to a request from the Romney Campaign, Dane put together a fundraiser in Roanoke with only six days advance notice. He did that in addition to another event he was helping to organize that same night at Roanoke College. Not only was the fundraiser a success, but they raised $350,000 in one night, more than has ever happened in Roanoke, according to local GOP officials. And yes, Dane also paid the $10,000 for a ticket to the dinner that he helped organize. “How could I ask others to do what I was unwilling to do myself?” he told me.

But please know that this is not just for the sake of friendship, this sort of effort from Dane’s sincere and profound belief that Mitt Romney is the man that we need as president of these United States, a belief grounded in a friendship that goes back 46 years!

I had heard of the recent campaign event where Mitt had corrected a crowd who had supposedly been chanting, “Ryan! Ryan! Ryan!” by telling them to change their chant to “Romney, Ryan! Romney, Ryan! Romney, Ryan!”

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan at a recent campaign event.

Knowing Mitt, I was incredulous. In fact, anyone who knows Mitt would know that he would never do what he was accused of doing. So I set it aside and went on to other of life’s pressing concerns. Earlier this afternoon, however, while listening to a recording of Rush Limbaugh’s program from yesterday, I heard a caller set things straight. Timmy from Columbus had attended the event in Ohio and told Rush about the report on MSNBC on the event To him it seemed to be an apparent  attempt to achieve maximum embarrassment for Mitt.

Timmy described to Rush what he had actually witnessed, stating that the crowd had chanted “Romney! Romney! Romney!” Timmy assured Rush that it was very clear to anyone there that Mitt was seeking to extend the crowd’s enthusiasm to Ryan. Rush added that this would be more in keeping with the sort of person that Mitt is.

Wanting to know more, I searched out the MSNBC video and saw where the video editors had posted “Ryan! Ryan! Ryan!” as a subtitle on the screen. You can see for yourself here as Mika Brzezinski introduces their version on Morning Joe. You can also see supposed conservative, Joe Scarborough react as described by Business Insider, which seemed to take some perverse delight in describing Joe’s reaction:

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Scarborough said.

“Sadly, I say this about Mitt Romney: He’s a great man. He’s a great father. He’s a great husband. He’s a great businessman. He’s a great turnaround guy,” Scarborough continued.

“He’s just a horrible politician. One of the worst.”

How big of a deal is this? Jazz Shaw at HotAir.com says not so big:

If you really think Scarborough is trying to get Obama reelected, I honestly don’t know what to say to you. This was really a case of nothing to see here… move along.

Huh? Joe Scarborough does not need to be trying to get Barack Obama elected to be doing a crummy job! What Scarbough should be doing is to deliver news and commentary in a way that reflects reality rather than some perspective that he has arrived at by swimming in the partisan sewage that seems to be flowing through MSNBC these days. Conservative Joe? I don’t think so!

What Scarborough failed to see is that this is all absolutely bogus and is just one more attempt to make Mitt into a gaffe machine, all this to solidify that meme in the minds of American voters.

Finally, in addition to Rush Limbaugh’s caller Timmy, who was at the event, Dan Gainor at Fox News has also called out MSNBC for their faulty reporting. Gainor added in his analysis that a reporter who had been at the event had contacted Huffington Post, which had initially reported the event, and wanted to clarify that “the crowd was chanting Romney’s name, not Ryan’s, and that Romney added his running mate’s name to the chant, not the other way around.”

Update: Joe Scarborough doubles down on his assessment of what happened at the Romney/Ryan rally. As reported on Strokes of Candor:

See, the real version of the rally does not fit Joe’s narrative of Romney being a fool and a horrible politician, and since he tweeted Friday night those opposing MSNBC’s version of the events were liars before the embedded journalists came forward to clear the record, he stuck to his guns. The Blaze broke the story that MSNBC misled viewers with the video but Breitbart ran with it making Morning Joe the topic of conversation Friday afternoon by thousands on Twitter.

Update #2: Scott Johnson at Power Line describes the situation a bit more elegantly than I did. Where I wrote of Scarborough’s “swimming in the partisan sewage that seems to be flowing through MSNBC,” Scott describes Scarborough as “the predictable Stockholm Syndrome effect, as David Brooks’s tenure at the New York Times has had on him,” (Note: See Wikipedia, which describes the syndrome as “a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors”). Attorney and Power Line writer Johnson summarizes::

I think Joe Scarborough is less a perpetrator than a victim in this matter. He is a victim of MSNBC’s own shoddy partisanship and propaganda. He hangs around with a bad crowd. He wants to be liked.

But character is fate. His pathetic response to the controversy suggests that he needs some help. He needs the kind of friend who could pull off an intervention before he terminally embarrasses himself. Or does MSNBC mean never having to say you’re sorry?

A few days ago I wrote a post discussing Mitt’s comments regarding the 47% who pay no taxes and what reporters say he said. They use terms he never did, speaking of “freeloaders.” Others say he “dissed” 47% of the country. The point has become a primary focus in President Obama’s campaign ads and the president himself has raised the point in his speeches.The problem with this notion, as I wrote then, is that anyone who knows Mitt knows that he is not the hater that so many seem so willing to make him out to be.

Rather than simply rail about the comments, however, I would like to take a closer look at the sort of person that Mitt is in reality by exploring instances from Mitt’s life that illustrate how he is in fact caring and sensitive about the condition of others. As we have previously written, we started MittTheMan.com because we became increasingly irritated at the erroneous perceptions that people have regarding Mitt. This all began four years ago and finally crystallized last October in our project to develop the site to document the sort of person Mitt is up close and personal.

Our effort was complemented a couple of Friday evenings ago by interviews that Glenn Beck did on TheBlaze TV. While Beck’s comments about Mitt in the past have failed to provide what we feel has been a fair depiction of Mitt as person, it would seem that he is now taking steps to change that.

The first story he presented was of the Nixon family, who experienced in 1995 a terrible tragedy involving four of their six children that is recounted in this newspaper account published in connection with the publication of a book in which they recounted their story..

Reed Nixon with his parents Sheryl and Mark
(Worcester, MA Telegram & Gazette Staff/STEVE LANAVA)

The four were returning from a church event in a car driven by Reed, accompanied by two of their friends. Reed, who is shown in the adjoining photo, was paralyzed from the neck down. Reed’s mother Sheryl is holding a photo of Reed’s brother Robert with his fiancee, Katie.

When Sheryl and Mark received word of the accident, they were in two different areas of Massachusetts and rushed to see their children who had been transported to three different hospitals. There they learned that two of the children, Reed and Robert were paralyzed from the neck down.

The short version of Mitt’s involvement is that he came to their aid in several ways. The first occurrence came the Christmas after the accident when Mitt called and said he wanted to stop by on Christmas Eve. He arrived with his three sons who were still at home, all laden with presents. Later, Mitt participated in races to raise money along and showed his kindness in various ways. One day Mitt caught Mark off guard one day with a totally unexpected surprise. He  pulled Mark aside and said that he was going to cover the college education for both Reed and Robert.

Does anything else need to be said? The full story is worth watching in its entirety.

Mitt at a Recent Rally

A “secret video” that the Mother Jones Web site brought to light a couple of days ago supposedly tells the world what Mitt Romney really thinks about people around him, especially those who have made less money than he has:

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don’t assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them.

For good measure, the writer, Über Liberal and longtime Democrat apologist David Corn, provides a hat-tip to the Mitt-is-Extremely-Rich meme by adding that Mitt was ”at ease with the well-heeled group” who attended the fund-raiser. Corn added later, that in “this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open.” Of course Mitt has said that perhaps he could have said what he did a bit more delicately, but he continues to stand by what he said.

The New York Times blog provides a somewhat more dispassionate recounting here, explaining that Mitt said at the fundraiser that 47% of the electorate will vote for President Obama no matter what. He explains his reasoning, saying that these people pay no income taxes and thus will not be influenced by his plan to reduce taxes.

Nevertheless, some people begin to hyperventilate as they hear also Mitt say on the tape:

There are 47 percent who are with him [Obama] , who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.

As an example of the extreme hyperventilation, one writer at Bloomberg declares that the election is over:

You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney’s campaign for president.

Readers who would like an excellent (i.e. more balanced) assessment of what this revelation might mean for the election going forward should read the post by Hotair’s Ed Morrissey that sums up the situation: “In the end, the American people will decide this election not on quips but on records and policy, as they always have.”

That is my assessment as well. Anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he has always looked to serve others and would never disdainfully consider others who are less fortunate than he. That is not who he is as a person. What we continue to see in the press are the reactions to what writers say Mitt said rather than what he actually said, and people react accordingly.

That said, the purpose of MittTheMan.com is to recount stories that illustrate the type of person that Mitt Romney is as a simple way to counter these kinds of awful things that are said about him. As we enter the home stretch of this election, we will increase our pace in that effort.

President Obama and his supporters continue to find every excuse imaginable to distract voters from actually reflecting on Obama’s record over the past four years, which can be easily summarized: Disastrous national debt, higher unemployment, greater number of food stamp recipients, and higher levels of poverty. The bottom line is that the politics of distraction and destruction is in full sway and only promises to get worse as we get closer to election day.

Mitt and Ann Speak at Nevada Rally

With respect to distraction, the comment that I just encountered on Twitter is another to add to the growing list from the Democrats, the accusation that Mitt dodged the draft:

@bush46 @mittromneyto @voting4romney surprised they invited a #draftdodger to speak

— its me (@_its_all_good_) September 11, 2012

The Tweet has to do with the terrific speech that Mitt gave to the National Guard Convention in Reno, Nevada, earlier today. His remarks mostly avoided politics and praised the National Guard for their service, and he received a standing ovation. This idea is one on which I have written before, and while the accusation is not new, I find it in some ways surprising. Indeed, given the history of Democrat superstar, President Bill Clinton, it seems downright bizarre that President Obama’s supporters would be bringing this up. With respect to Clinton, I had heard accusations regarding his avoidance of the draft, but I only today delved into the background of what had happened. Anyone interested in the subject can read a letter Clinton wrote from Oxford (where he was on a Rhodes Scholarship) to the Professor of Military Science at the University of Arkansas. Based on a post I found on another site, the whole series of events surrounding Clinton’s actions to avoid service is complex to say the least. Was he a draft dodger? I will leave it to others to decide for themselves.

The bottom line of this whole story around the Vietnam era is that according to an article on conscription on Wikipedia,

The United States enlisted 8,744,000 servicemembers between 1964 and 1975. Of those, 3,403,000 were deployed to Southeast Asia.^[49] From a pool of approximately 27 million, the draft raised 2,215,000 men for military service during the Vietnam era.

Doing the math on the number of those drafted from the pool of draft-age young men at the time, that comes to 8% of the population being drafted. That means of course that 92% of young men at the time were in the same category as Mitt Romney and were not drafted. Using the Wikipedia numbers again, we see that others chose to voluntarily enlist which raised the numbers of those serving in the military to 32%.

As to those of us who served as missionaries in France at the time, I can say as I have already written that dodging the draft was not our purpose in becoming missionaries. In fact, of the nine in the group with Mitt and me that left for France on 4 July 1966 two of us are retired Air Force officers. One fellow missionary from that group retired with the rank of colonel, and I am a retired lieutenant colonel. Dane, my colleague on MittTheMan.com severed for a few years as a doctor in the Army. All of us strenuously object to the accusation of draft dodger.

As I reread these paragraphs, I guess this all might in fact add to the distraction. Nevertheless, I felt it important to add to the context in which the draft dodging accusation is being made. How odd is it that the same sort of people who make that accusation of Mitt Romney happen to be the same sort of people who had no problem with Clinton’s actions! It is nothing if not hypocritical to suggest that Clinton was qualified to be Commander in Chief and then say that Mitt is not.