Mitt Romney presidential candidate profile bio beliefs religion governor
Name: Willard Mitt Romney
Date of Birth: March 12th, 1947
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
Marital Status: Married to his High School sweetheart, Ann Romney
Religion: Christian – Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
Career:
Romney’s primary career after college was working as a vice president of Bain and Company, Inc., a Boston-based management consulting firm that he left to start his own; he co-founded a firm called Bain Capital. He was the head of the company for 14 years, and were wildly successful. Bain Capital’s average annual internal return rate on realized investments was 113%. Their success came primarily from leveraged buyouts.
After great success with Bain Capital, Romney left to head the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Mitt was not the original CEO of the 2002 Olympics but was asked to come save a failing effort. The 2002 Olympics were in terrible debt and behind schedule, but Mitt was able to successfully turn around the Olympics. As of today, it is estimated that Mitt and his wife Ann are worth anywhere from 190 and 250 million dollars.
Political Career:
Mitt’s political career began in 1994 when he won the Massachusetts Republican Party’s nomination for United States Senate. Although he lost the election, Romney still sought after a government seat. After successfully leading the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics he then ran for Governor of the state of Massachusetts. The campaign proved successful, despite residency challenges due to his move to Salt Lake, Utah during his job with the Olympic Committee. Mitt was elected the 70th Governor of Massachusetts.
Achievements / Major Events:
Mitt Romney can be credited as the man who saved the 2002 Olympics in Salk Lake City. In 1999, the Olympics already had a 400 million dollar deficit, and many were beginning to think they would have to scale down the games so that they might take place. In February, Mitt entered the scene. He was hired as the CEO of the Organizing Committee, and he reformed the policies and managed to boost fundraising. Ultimately, the games profited 100 million dollars despite the previous shortcomings and new 300 million dollar security budget.
Platform or Opinions on Major issues:
Many individuals believe that Mitt Romney is wavering and does not have firm opinions because he has changed his stance on certain subjects.
Gun Control
Romney has said that he is in support of the right to bear arms, and does not wish to hold this right captive as it is stated in the U.S. Constitution. Although this statement has been recently made, past campaigns have been brought up to show that he was, at one point, in support of moderate gun control, and the ban of semi-automatic weapons. Mitt continues to support this stance today.
In 1994, Romney supported the Brady Bill, which gave a five-day wait on all gun sales, and also banned certain semi-automatic rifles. He also signed a 2004 institution of permanent ban on semi-automatic weapons.
He has stated in the past that he is not a fan of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and didn’t care if they were a fan of him. However, just before running for 2008 candidacy, Romney actually joined the NRA, and has since declared that he owns a gun, and goes hunting with his sons.
Abortion
Romney has stated and remains firm in the belief that abortion should be illegal in all cases except in cases such as rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
In a debate against Edward Kennedy (when Romney was running for Senate) in 1994, however, Romney stated that abortion should be legal but that it should be equally safe. Kennedy was surprised and asked that if abortion was wrong, that Romney might want to consider discouraging it.
Mitt Romney merely stated that his beliefs were his own, and that he wouldn’t force them on anyone else. Romney does not, however, wish to be known as a “pro-choice” politician, but in his 2002 race for governor, Romney felt that he wished to respect the choice of women, as it is a “deeply personal one.”
However, as of 2004, when in a meeting with the Havard Stem Cell Institute concluded, Romney felt that the value of life had been cheapened, and he wished to revoke his opinions as anything but “pro-choice.”
Since then, and in his Presidential campaign, Romney has made the stance of being pro-life just so long as the birth isn’t a cause of rape or incest, and that the life of the mother is not in danger.
National Security
Mitt Romney will continue in the War in Iraq as long as there is successful progress with America’s involvement. Although he has been quoted that the current problem has been in the management of the troops in Iraq, he believes in more troops in Iraq, and thinks that his management of the situation may prove successful if he is elected President of the United States.
Romney believes that America must strengthen the military by increasing the size of America’s military by 100,000 troops. He believes that America must transform the domestic civilian international efforts to meet the new generation of global challenges that the U.S. faces, and ensure our intelligence and law enforcement efforts are able to address these threats before they reach the U.S. shores.
He wishes to strengthen American troops, and defeat the violent threats of peace to all nations, not just America.
Drugs
Notably one of the stronger arguments Romney has faced is the legalizing of marijuana for medical reasons.
Romney believes that there needs to be a stronger “Just Say No” approach to drugs. He believes that medicinal drugs and marijuana is just another entry approach to getting kids hooked on drugs.
He has said to have great respect for the ability of American’s to market things to people, and wishes that they would take the same effort to effectively market a “No Drugs” policy to the kids and people around the country to not do drugs.
Health Care
Romney believes that there are significant changes that need to be made in America when it comes to health care insurance:
He wants health insurance more affordable.
- He wants to provide access to quality health insurance to every American.
- He wants to reduce the fear of losing insurance by losing their jobs.
- He wants to reduce the rate of spending of spending in health care.
*Notably: April 26, 2006 Mitt Romney signed the Massachusetts health reform law. Mitt successfully championed this new law as the governor of Massachusetts that made Health Insurance available to everyone.
Taxes
As the Governor of Massechusetts, Romney lowered some taxes while eliminating certain tax loopholes and increased certain fees for services.
*It must be noted that when Mitt assumed governorship the state was 1.2 billion in debt and in 2006, 1 year before the end of his term, the state had a 700 million surplus.
In 2007, Romney said that he was going to be eliminating the capital gains tax and since then, has stated that he favors removing any taxes related to capital gains for other investments on all families or individuals who make less than 200,000 dollars annually.
Education
Although Romney believes that parents and teachers have a partnership in the education of a child, and that the Federal government should rarely step in to tell schools how to teach kids, he does believe that it is good to have high standards, and to set goals high enough to encourage kids to live up to those standards.
Romney claims that, although he doesn’t wish to overstep boundaries in leading the Federal government in the education of children, there were some things as Governor that he learned did well with students.
- High standards.
- Encouraging youngsters to reach for those standards.
- Rewarding those who do well.
- Teaching kids how to speak English so that they can succeed in America.
- Give better teachers better pay.
When Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, it was the first state to ever have the highest scaled scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading and Math exams in Grades 4 and 8 within the same year. Romney thinks education is extremely important, and he wishes to see children succeed.
