Gov. McDonnell Campaigns with Romney in South Carolina on Eve of Primary
Stops in Charleston and Greenville, S.C. Friday, with plans for more campaigning in SC Saturday morning
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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.— Can a Southern governor help keep Mitt Romney from tumbling from his front-runner position in the South Carolina GOP presidential primary on Saturday?
After endorsing Romney Friday morning, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell traveled to Charleston, S.C., Friday afternoon to campaign with the candidate, who is struggling to maintain a shrinking lead in the GOP presidential primary sweepstakes.
During his campaign swing, McDonnell repeated several times that Romney carries the values and morality necessary to lead the country.
"What we need in America more than anything right now is leadership," McDonnell said. "We need people of character who will lead this nation at a very difficult time."
Quoting George Washington, and noting he grew up just a mile from the first president’s home, McDonnell said Romney had the moral compass for the top job in the land.
"'The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained,'" McDonnell quoted.
"In other words, character counts and values matter in our people and in our leaders," McDonnell said. "So I am here to ask you to elect a man of character and decency."
While Romney took his turn at the microphone, McDonnell stood behind him as the GOP front-runner talked to several hundred potential voters at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C.
McDonnell later worked the crowd, shaking hands and fielding questions from the press.
South Carolina holds its first-in-the-South primary Saturday. The Palmetto State has picked the eventual Republican nominee since 1980, but heading into the primary, Romney finds himself slumping in the polls.
The clear frontrunner a week ago, Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is now trailing former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who in recent days has been embroiled in scandal relating to allegations of infidelity from former wife Marianne Gingrich.
McDonnell was also scheduled to campaign for Romney in Greenville and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Oft-mentioned as a possible running mate for Romney, McDonnell could deliver valuable electoral votes from Virginia, considered in recent years to be a swing state.
Ann H Csonka
2:37 am on Saturday, January 21, 2012
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained," McDonnell quoted.
Well-selected for the audience, perhaps, and character and values definitely count as critical elements of our political leaders. BUT our Guv’s righteous education is surely shining through, in spite of the U.S. of A.’s Founding Fathers’ clear dedication to separation of church and state.
Mike
10:22 am on Monday, January 23, 2012
"Founding Fathers’ clear dedication" would be the constitution, correct? If so, where in the constitution is the separation of church and state defined?
With the exception of a Thomas Jefferson letter to the Danbury Baptist Association...where in the "law of the land" (constitution) is this separation defined?
All politicians tailor their rhetoric to the audience, despite the individual political leanings.
Mike Hirsch
6:30 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
One of the reasons we have such a high sense of religious liberty in America is because the man whose birth we celebrate today--George Washington--valued religious liberty as the first of our political institutions. From the beginning of his long public career, as a fighter on the Pennsylvania frontier during the French and Indian War, Washington attributed his own survival and that of his embattled country, to the hand of Providence, the interposition of a wise and benevolent God.
He wrote to his brother that his coat and hat had several bullet holes in them.
Washington was the one who introduced the phrase "so help me God" into the Inaugural Oath for President of the United States. As he took that oath in New York City on April 30, 1789, he added those four words. The recently adopted Constitution spelled out the oath for the President, but those words were Washington's addition. And, because he set precedents every day in office, every President since has added those four words.
After adding the words, he did something else remarkable: He kissed the Bible. Now, skeptics have to answer this question: Why would Washington have kissed the Bible that tells the story of Christ's coming to save mankind if he did not believe it? Wouldn't that be a shocking instance of hypocrisy? With these words and this act he professes his faith in the presence of tens of thousands gathered to watch him take that oath.
The term you quote is absolutely not in our Consitution!
Fizban
9:42 am on Saturday, January 21, 2012
I hate to see a good man like McDonnell mixed up in politics but it beats working.
Vasquez2
11:21 pm on Saturday, January 21, 2012
Oh no...he wasn't wearing his WWJD cufflinks again, was he?
When you speak of the "Founding Father's clear dedication to the separation of church and state", are you referring to the Establishment Clause "Congress shall make no LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" or are you referring to Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Assoc. "that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE"? And what of those rights, endowed by our creator...??
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