Attended one of several Attended one of several Mitt Romney bowl day house parties he scheduled today in the homes of suburban Des Moines supporters. The event was held in the nicely furnished basement of the Pleasant Hill (east Des Moines) golf community home of Peggy Richardson. With the USC-Illinois Rose Bowl matchup just kicking off on the flat screen television behind him, Romney, with his youngest son, Craig, in tow, gave a brief little speech reiterating his “strength” themes. “I want to strengthen our military…our economy…and finally I want to strengthen our families,” he said. Though Romney promised to fight “radical violent jihad” in every corner of the globe (comparing it to cancer cells that must be eradicated completely), he never mentioned Iraq, for some of the beleaguered Republicans in the audience was a major sticking point for them. Christine Stefani, a 41-year-old administrator for John Deere and sister-in-law of the hostess, considers herself a Republican who is becoming “more conservative” as she ages. (She voted for Al Gore in 2000, but for George W. Bush last time.) Calling herself a “soft Romney” supporter at this point, she said she thinks Republicans like her will be more involved this time around. “I’m not sure where we are with resolving the war in Iraq, but I think we need to gravitate toward taking care of things and getting our people home,” she said. “I want to make sure we are at a good point so we can leave.” “We need to get out of the war. The war is also endangering the economy. We cannot police the world, we cannot solve the world’s problems,” echoed Dean Cooper, the Richardsons’ 56-year-old next-door neighbor, and a homebuilder, husband and father. He and his elementary school teacher wife are also disaffected with Bush on No Child Left Behind, which he called a “farce that needs to be totally revamped.” Cooper said he would caucus with the Republicans on Thursday, but would consider crossing over to vote Democratic in the general election if the nominee is not one of the top three contenders, and instead is either Bill Richardson or Joe Biden. And he doesn’t like Mike Huckabee, saying that the Republicans have already “strayed too far to the right” and sees Huckabee as problematic in that way. Romney seemed very stiff in this forum. He’s not a very good small-talker, and tends to be awkward. He also, not surprisingly, tries to be so agreeable. When Dean Cooper’s wife drilled him about NCLB, he was quick to say he supports the notion of testing students but thinks she’s right about the problems with the Bush-promoted policy. One final, funny moment: The former Massachusetts governor was trying to invoke some patriotic sentiments by weaving language from "American the Beautiful" and just could not remember the phrase "amber waves of grain," botching it a few times before several attendees (and this reporter) actually felt so bad we near-simultaneously blurted out "amber" to get him unstuck. --Tom Schaller
