Will the GOP Unite? Please?

Now that Mitt Romney has enough delegates to be named the GOP's presidential candidate, can we all let out a collective "whew?" Of course, this isn't a "finally, it's over" whew, but a "whew" that says we can finally wipe our brow and move on to the next challenging phase of this daunting process.

Regardless, a big question still remains: will the GOP unite around Romney? I ask this because I find two damaging things to be apparent right now:

1. So many people know so little about Mitt Romney, and what they do know seems to be composed of one-line talking points spouted off by the liberal mainstream media. This first bullet point is projected mainly at the "other guy republicans" and some doubting independents out there. An example of this is, "Massachusetts was 47th in job creation under Romney." Yes, an empty one liner... yawn. Why did I bring this talking point up? Well, if you look deeper, it doesn't tell the whole story. "47th in job creation" (which is a RATE-based statistic... a decrease in unemployment relative to every other state) when you're already doing very well in the field doesn't present a very solid case. Once you're already near the top overall (Massachusetts was), there isn't much room for improvement. For example, if the worst state for employment overall went from an 11% unemployment rate to a 4% rate, that would be a huge drop, and it would most likely be the "best state for job creation." If you're already at 5.6% like Massachusetts was (the US was at 5.8%) when Romney took over, there isn't much room to get better. In spite of all that, under Romney, Massachusetts DID see an improvement in employment overall, and it had a better unemployment rate that the US in nearly ever year under his watch. And with respect to improvement (job creation), it beat the US average for employment growth rate along the way, too. See this graph for the brief analysis (you know I love Excel spreadsheets):

 Click the graphic for a pop-up view. Source: Google Public Data

Regardless, people will still spout off "Massachusetts was 47th in job creation under Romney." I wonder if they've ever looked at the whole picture. I wonder if they truly understand what they're saying. Additionally, people will spout off other liberal media falsities claiming Mitt Romney is a "vulture capitalist" that "raided companies and left them riddled with debt," and on and on and on. Most people do not have a shred of understanding regarding private equity, but they will slam Romney's time at Bain Capital none the less. Sigh. All of these inaccuracies will hurt Romney, and I believe it's our job to spread truth. 

2. Ron Paul, a commendable representative and American citizen (I wrote about this here: http://loudmouthelephant.blogspot.com/2011/11/hey-mainstream-media-is-ron-paul.html) still pulls a lot of support away from the GOP. His followers are die-hard freedom lovers (nothing wrong with that), that seem to follow Paul and his views to no end. Why am I bringing this up? Because Ron Paul is still a republican, and Romney needs all the GOP support he can get. In order to defeat Obama, who, in my opinion, is the biggest threat to personal liberties and freedoms we've ever faced, I believe Ron Paul supporters need to swallow their pride and get behind Romney. Many will claim that Romney and Obama are the same. Again... yawn. This goes back to point number 1. When challenging these views, I seem to be met with the same liberal-media styled empty talking points that are pretty baseless and even sometimes shameful. I ask Paul supporters to get rid of these false assumptions that Romney and Obama are the same and work towards the common goal of removing a HUGE government democrat from the White House. I ask you, what would you rather have: 4 more years of Obama, or 4 years of a new, conservative direction? 

So what should we do? Simply... unite! We can work together. We can end this division. Whether we are Paul fans or Tea Party Patriots, we can end this petty bickering and unite under our common goal: defeating a threat to our nation. We can use blogs and worth of mouth communications to bring the GOP together behind our candidate. We can use facts to dispel liberal media lies. Together, we can do this, but infighting and party splitting will certainly ruin us and our chances. 

What do you think? Can we do it?