Why Buddha for Mitt?

Buddha is a nickname given to me in high school by one of my best friends and refers to my position as spiritual leader of our CASH ltd. group. Being the 'spiritual leader' makes reference to my being slightly less impulsive than him and not as big a natural brown-noser as our other group member.

I have been a conservative since before campaigning for Goldwater as a 9th grader in 1964. My political leanings have tended to be libertarian/constitutionalist with a desire for a strong national defense. I'm fiscally in the Milton Friedman camp of "politicians tend to spend just over the amount of tax revenue", ergo, the key to holding down spending is to hold down tax revenue. I'm also quite sure that there is no such thing as a "free lunch".



I have admired the strength of character that President Bush has shown in a number of issues including fighting radical jihad and taking a stand on protecting human life. I have been far less impressed by his ability to enunciate his values in uplifting and inspirational ways. Thus, my support for Governor Romney.



I think that Mitt Romney now holds the key conservative principals which are vitally important for our country today; A strong military, a drive to protect life and the traditional family, and a commitment to hold down taxes. In addition, I think that he has shown the ability to articulate these values in a way that people can understand and, more importantly, the ability to talk about them in a way that inspires others to want to support those same positions, not by just expressing platitudes, but also by using strong logic as well as appealing to the positions of the founders. Governor Romney has also demonstrated the real world experience of analysis, hard work, and team-building that will serve him well as chief executive and commander-in-chief.

I have studied many of his positions and observed closely the campaign to date and continue to strongly support his campaign. As I have reviewed some critiques of his position changes, I have determined the following: I'm glad that he changed his position on abortion and has fought against destructive stem-cell research. I believe he has always supported traditional marriage. I don't believe that being opposed to discrimination against gays and being for traditional marriage between a man and a woman are mutually exclusive. I think the same applies to support for legal immigration while opposing open borders and amnesty to illegal aliens. His positions, even while running for Senate in Massachusetts have remained much closer to conservative principals than his Democratic opponents and much more conservative than many pundits like to think they were.



We need a president who not only supports conservative principals, but who is also able to powerfully declare them. I think that Governor Romney is better when pontificating principals than he is when power-pointing programs, and he is very good at that. His talk on "Faith in America" had to be the most outstanding political talk this year, and perhaps for many years. I hope that his advisers are wise enough to encourage him to speak out on principals. Many of his ads are very upbeat and encouraging. I hope the people will see that. I think in general the media is too cynical to report upbeat, but that talk was so good that even many of them were unable to put it down for many days until they began to nit-pick some of the minor points. I'd like to see him develop some strong sound-bites. Ronald Reagan got to us with "In this immediate crisis, Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem." Mitt said, "When I am serving as your president, I will need the prayers of all the people." Whoever becomes president will need the prayers of all the people, let's hope that he deserves them.