Romney’s (almost) Dean Scream speech
Posted: Thursday, December 13, 2007 10:18 AM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Erin McPike
If anything is certain about the GOP presidential primary, it’s that Romney really, really wants to win Iowa. Desperately.
After hitting a post-debate party around Des Moines on Wednesday, he flew to Cedar Rapids for a Christmas/Romney rally at the Linnmar High School cafeteria, because Iowa spokesman Tim Albrecht said the campaign figured all of the other candidates would stay in Des Moines for more post-debate schedules. Giuliani’s team, however, seemed to have the same thought and scheduled an event in the same area at the same time.
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s son, Marcus, said there were about 900 supporters there as he opened the event -- loudly -- and was almost reminiscent of Howard Dean’s scream speech nearly four years ago.
Funny enough, when Romney was wrapping up his remarks, he said the following: “You're going to do something which people don’t expect, which is give me a victory. And then I’m going to New Hampshire, where I’m pretty solidly in the lead in New Hampshire, and then I’m going to be in Nevada, and I’m going to win Nevada, and then I’m going to be in Wyoming, and I’ll win that one, and then Michigan, and we’re going to end up doing real darn well. That’s at least what I plan. Brian over here was afraid I was going to scream as I was saying that -- the Howard Dean moment, but I’m not doing that. No predictions like that, no screaming allowed…. I’m going to find you, track you down, make sure you vote in the caucuses.”
Shortly after, as Mrs. Romney tried to nudge him, he said, “Ann’s pulling me off the stage, I can tell.”
Toward the end of his remarks, he teetered on the line of closing the deal and -- begging.
“And now I need you guys,” he said, launching into his conclusion. “I need you on one day to give one hour. On one day I need you to go out on Jan. 3rd. And I know there’s going to be the Orange Bowl on, I mean, who wants to get away from the Orange Bowl? There’s going to be the Orange Bowl.
“I predict bad weather -- this is, after all, Iowa, in January. And I predict bad weather and good TV, but I need you to go out on Jan. 3rd in the evening, and I need you to do something else, which is to find -- this is really tough. Can you find one other person to go with you that can vote? Maybe someone whose arm you can twist, and maybe get more than one, get two, three, four, five people to go with you and say, ‘Can you come with me? Because Iowa has a lot to say about the direction of the country.
“You’re first. Your voice is heard. We’re counting on you. I’m counting on you. Even if you think there’s somebody else better than me, come out and vote. But just vote once for him. If you like me, vote many, many times. I need your help, I need your work.”
