Today we attended a GOP picnic in Salem, New Hampshire, which featured several rising Republican stars and two presidential contenders, Jon Huntsman and Buddy Roemer. Also Ann Romney was attending while representing her husband Mitt. The first one speaking was Buddy Roemer, the former Governor of Louisiana. Everybody knows that Roemer cannot win but still he is quite an interesting candidate. Harvard MBA graduate, Roemer “served four terms in the United States Congress from 1981 – 1988 as a conservative Democrat who often broke ranks with his party to vote with President Reagan, and was Louisiana Governor from 1988-1992 as both a Democrat and Republican.” Buddy gave a very inspiring and interesting speech, which actually was well received by the public. His main economic argument was that business and trade relations with China are killing the United States’ economy and that the American companies shipping jobs abroad should be penalized. He was also attacking Mitt Romney by labeling him a candidate of big money and an elitist. But Ann Romney, who was standing closely to the microphone, just smiled and didn’t pay much attention to Buddy’s attacks. She was actually the next one to speak. While Mitt Romney is a contender for the GOP nomination, she is a candidate for the next First Lady. She was wearing picnic clothes, white jeans and a blue shirt, but exposed huge amounts of expensive jewelry. She is apparently a fond of yellow gold jewelry and specifically likes bracelets. We didn’t see any white gold or too many diamonds on her. And, unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to recommend to her that she visits our BabyBluu Deals to supplement her jewelry collection before the next picnic. Ann Romney spoke how she originally didn’t want Mitt to run for the President again after they lost in 2008. But then she changed her mind when she saw what Barack Obama has done with the American economy. They are doing that (running for the President) for the generation of their grandchildren and she has seventeen of them. And then the time came for Jon Huntsman, who proved to be a big deal that day. As for a candidate who polls only 1% among GOP voters, he really generated some enthusiasm among those gathered. One could feel that in the air. Good looking, well spoken, easy going, Huntsman had a great last week when he announced his plan to save American economy from a disaster and create more jobs. His economic agenda got almost unanimous recognition from the Tea Party, Wall Street Journal and the Republican intellectual circles. Huntsman is definitely a GOP contender with the best resume and record of accomplishments, but it seems like there is something wrong with his campaign team, which has had problems to brand him properly and promote his inspiring story and vision for America. If David Axelrod was running Huntsman’s campaign, he would be the President of the Universe already (that’s a speculation of course because nobody likes David Axelrod and who would want him for a campaign manager?). Although Huntsman had bad performance in the last GOP debate, he is an inspiring speaker with a lot of potential. And unlike other GOP candidates he puts a lot of details in his speeches, not only empty slogans, so when he finishes you really have something concrete to think about. Anyway, good luck to all of them because the race is just beginning!
Buddy Roemer speaking in Salem, NH
Ann Romney speaking in Salem, NH.
Our editor Sebastian Aulich and Governor Jon Huntsman - Salem, NH
