1. Mitt Romney is the nominee of the Republican Party
In a nominating process that did not allow votes for any other candidate, Mitt Romney is the nominee of the Republican Party for President and Paul Ryan is the nominee for Vice President. This gives both Romney and the RNC access to post primary money for the first time this campaign.
Congratulations to our former governor.
2. Bill Weld says mea culpa
Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld apologized profusely to the 100 or so assembled members of the Massachusetts Delegation and their guests. State House News Service had the story.
In October 2008, Weld supported Romney over Sen. John McCain in the 2008 GOP presidential primary and then backed Sen. Barack Obama for president in the general election because, he said, the Democrat possessed calm and intellect, calling Obama "a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America's standing in the world."
"I was part of the army that thought he was going to be absolutely fabulous as a president," Weld told reporters, suggesting he began to sour on Obama as the economic recovery stagnated and he saw more of the president's attitude toward spending.
Weld did not rule out going to work in a Romney administration, if the governor would have him: "I hope to be welcome in Mitt Romney's Washington and I don't know what the role would be, but if I weren't inside I'd be pinging and kibitzing from the outside. A lot of his people are good friends of mine," Weld told reporters.
3. Floor fight fizzles, but grassroots remain determined
The establishment at the RNC rammed through rules for the next nominating convention aimed at avoiding the "unpleasantness" of the prolonged, sustained campaign of Ron Paul and the Liberty Delegates. Red State has been all over this story.
Reports that the floor fight threat is over might be designed to calm the grassroots and get them to ignore what is coming at 2 o'clock.
The first rule to be proposed is one that would give the Republican National Committee the power to change rules between conventions with a three-quarters vote of the RNC. One source tells me, "With a Republican President, of course this is doable. Everybody will roll over if a President Romney asks them too. They'll be able to get Ben Ginsberg's proposal next year."
In other words, if Team Romney prevails in this rules change, they don't have to worry about Ben Ginsberg not getting his way today on the delegate changes. They'll be able to do it later when the press and grassroots are not watching.
The second rules change would front load winner takes all primaries. Grassroots conservatives point to both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as reasons to stop this rule. Had there been front loaded winner takes all primaries, neither the Gingrich nor the Santorum campaigns would have been able to get any traction.
Red State also reports that this was John Sununu and Ben Ginsberg's chance to settle old scores.
4. ConventionWatch.org launches
The Franklin Center has launched ConventionWatch.org, which is covering the RNC and DNC. The folks at the Franklin Center have given Red Mass Group permission to publish their articles during the conventions. First up is video of the above mentioned aborted floor fight.
5. Deval Patrick still not showing up to work
Another August Day, another 24 hours with nothing on Deval Patrick's schedule. Since the early month flurry of bill signings, the Governor of the Commonwealth has been conspicuously absent from the acts of governing the Commonwealth. His published scheduled has been void most days this month. It seems as if he's checked out.
