Doubtful social conservatives giving Romney chance

WASHINGTON (AP) — This year, pocketbook issues seem to matter more than pulpit preaching among cultural conservatives and at least some are willing to embrace Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who they've long looked at skeptically.
"No one's perfect," says Larry Smith of Newport Beach, Calif., one of thousands of conservatives gathering in Washington this weekend to hear from the slate of GOP candidates at the annual Values Voters Summit. Smith cast the choice before him as a compromise, and says he's leaning toward the former Massachusetts governor. Even though Romney has strayed from conservative orthodoxy on some social issues in the past, he still posts a strong record as a businessman.
"He has the skills to help us on this particular issue, at this particular time," Smith said.
By that, he means the economy, with its stubbornly high 9.1 percent unemployment rate and sluggish growth.
If interviews with conference attendees are any indication, that's what is giving Romney his best shot at winning over some of the social and Christian conservatives who he failed to attract in his first campaign in 2008 and is trying to make inroads with this year.
Romney was to speak to the group Saturday, a day after his chief rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, took the stage to strong applause and criticized Romney for his shifting position on abortion, without ever using Romney's name.
"For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to follow the prevailing political winds," Perry said in a speech that at times felt more sermon than political pleas.
But a pastor who endorsed and later introduced Perry quickly served up a reminder of Romney's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly called Mormons.
"Rick Perry's a Christian. He's an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ," said Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas. "Mitt Romney's a good moral person, but he's not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity."
Perry made clear that he disagrees with Jeffress.
Asked by reporters Friday night in Tiffin, Iowa, whether Mormonism is a cult, Perry replied, "No."
The gathering came the same week that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both announced they would not run for president, leaving donors and grass-roots conservatives up for grabs — and giving Romney an opportunity to try to cast himself as the candidate who can appeal to a broad swath of the GOP.
It's a shift from four years ago, when Romney focused his campaign largely on social issues that would play well with this audience. It didn't work; he couldn't overcome skepticism of his Mormon faith and his record of reversing himself on issues like abortion rights and gay rights. And these voters aren't a natural fit for Romney with others like Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — who have long championed their causes — in the race.
But many of the roughly two dozen interviewed indicated that because the GOP field lacks a candidate that perfectly fits their wish list, they were willing to consider backing someone who doesn't stack up perfectly but who may have the strongest chance at beating President Barack Obama. Many said Romney may well fit the bill.
"If you go with your gut, that's fine. But I would lean toward the person who is more electable," said Johnny Lee, a 57-year-old federal worker from the Washington area. He is considering backing Romney, as well as Georgia business executive Herman Cain and Santorum. Among Lee's many considerations is who would fare best at the ballot boxes against Obama.
"If you're going with your values and there aren't enough people who share those values, you're not going to win the change in leadership this country needs," Lee said. "And we need a change."
At this venue at least, it seems that activists aren't heeding Bachmann's warnings not to settle for a candidate who isn't rock solid on their issues.
"It's time for the Republican Party to nominate someone who will lead the whole country," said Chris Balkema, a 40-year-old Caterpillar employee from Channahon, Ill. "We don't need to settle. But we need someone will lead the left, right and center of this country, while defending the Constitution."
Balkema said that could be Romney, although he wasn't ruling out others.
Even so, Bachmann — who is a favorite of tea partyers, home schooling parents and grassroots activists — pitched herself as a pure conservative voters need, and urged them not to choose a moderate candidate who might not share their values.
"Conservatives, we can have it all this year because Barack Obama will be a one-term president," she said, bringing the audience to its feel late Friday evening. "Let's finally have one of us in the White House."
She then hinted at Romney's changing shape on abortion rights and gay rights.
"You won't find YouTube clips of me speaking in support of Roe vs. Wade. You won't find me hemming and hawing when it comes to defining marriage as between one man and one woman."
Some agree with her.
"We chose someone last time who was willing to cross the aisle on anything," said Dwayne Owens, a 67-year-old from Southside, Ala., pointing to 2008's unsuccessful presidential nominee Sen. John McCain. "We can't nominate someone whose sole message is compromise. We need someone who is willing to get in a dogfight."

40.Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan (/ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975) and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor.

Reagan was born in Tampico in Whiteside County, Illinois, reared in Dixon in Lee County, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. Upon his graduation, Reagan first moved to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in 1937 to Los Angeles, California. He began a career as an actor, first in films and later television, appearing in over 50 movie productions and earning enough success to become a famous, publicly recognized figure. Some of his most notable roles are in Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later spokesman for General Electric; his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he began to support Republican Party candidates in the early 1950s and eventually switched to theRepublican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against labor unions, and ordered an invasion of Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984, proclaiming that it was "Morning in America". His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, such as the ending of theCold War, the 1986 bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire",^[1] he supported anti-communist movements worldwide and spent his first term forgoing the strategy of détente by ordering a massive military buildup in an arms race with the USSR. Reagan negotiated with General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, culminating in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals.

Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year; he died ten years later at the age of 93. He ranks highly in public opinion polls of U.S. Presidents and is credited for generating an ideological renaissance on the American political right.