Duncan, Blackburn support Romney

There was speculation earlier this week that Knoxville Representative Jimmy Duncan was "supporting" if not "endorsing" Mitt Romney for President. According to the News Sentinel this is rumor no more:

Can a Mormon from Massachusetts carry Tennessee and become the next U.S. president?

Two of Tennessee's U.S. House members, John J. Duncan Jr. and Marsha Blackburn, hope so. They are backing him as the best pick among the known Republican candidates.

In interviews, both praised his record as governor of Massachusetts for four years, ending in January, managing the state operations without raising taxes.

Duncan, a Knoxville Republican, said he met Mitt Romney about a month ago and found him articulate and with good answers to various questions.

"That's a really difficult thing for a fairly conservative Republican to be governor of a liberal Democratic state like Massachusetts," Duncan said.

Honestly, if the Democratic party has to lose in 2008, progressives couldn't have a better ally on domestic issues than Mitt Romney. The guy is as liberal as any Tennessee Democrat, he's just a Republican because he's more conservative than most of Massachusettes.

I hear many progressives saying Rudy Guiliani is a good progressive Republican candidate, but Rudy's hawkish tendancies scare me. On all other matters Guiliani is a great candidate, but the elephant in the room is foreign policy and this guy wouldn't think twice about mopping up Iraq and moving on to Iran. We don't need another gunslinger in the oval office.

One thing to Republicans do have going for them are vibrant characters. Everyone on the Democratic side seem so stale and rehearsed. Hillary Clinton couldn't buy my vote. John Edwards' message is so old it needs a walker. Barack Obama is a "black: man who's family owned slaves...seriously?

I think the Democrats best hope is Bill Richardson. Have you seen the creds on this guy? If he wasn't a Latino in this xenophobic era of American history, he'd be unstoppable. Sad, but true.