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I was thinking this morning about how much things have changed since I started this blog. On March 2nd, 2007, I sat down at the computer and did a Google search for “Mormon” and “president.” I had heard that some Mormon guy was running for president, and so being curious, I wanted to learn more about him. I read blogs and listened to interviews and looked at everything I could find, for hours. And I was completely impressed. Here, finally, was a candidate that I could agree with. I was so impressed, in fact, that I started up my Mitt blog that night. I posted my first post about 3:00 in the morning, March 3rd, and haven’t looked back since.

Back then, everyone was saying that this was Giuliani’s game. He was way ahead in the national polls, everyone knew him, everyone loved him. It was his to lose. And quite frankly, I think he has lost it, because of his refusal to engage in the early primary states (who has the media been focusing on these last couple of weeks? Mitt, McCain, and Huckabee. Giuliani is rarely mentioned, and that’s because he isn’t a contender in either early state, and in fact doesn’t really start to get into it until February 5th. That’s over a month away. By that time, I think everything will have shifted so much that Giuliani will be an afterthought.) But back in March of last year, hardly anyone paid attention to Mitt. He was behind in the early states (Iowa and New Hampshire) and was nowhere to be seen in the national polls. Mitt? Who’s Mitt?

Mitt supporters kept saying, “Just give Mitt time. Let him get his message out there, and people will learn to love him.” I remember being laughed at by political junkies who said that Mitt had so little national exposure that there was no way he could touch Giuliani or even McCain. Mitt was a losing game.

May rolled around, and I did an interview with Political Vindication. I remember (I think it was Frank) asking me why Mitt wasn’t doing well in the polls. He wasn’t known nationally, and had just barely pulled ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire. Mitt really couldn’t be considered a front-runner when he was doing so poorly nationally, right?

So today, when I heard that for the first time, Mitt has cracked the top spot in a national poll, I just had to smile. I’ll say the same thing today that I said back when Frank questioned me: National polls don’t mean squat. You need to win in a state-by-state basis, not on a national basis, and so national polls are little more than a name recognition game. But the point here is: Mitt actually now has name recognition. “Mitt? Mitt who?” is now a thing of the past. Everyone knows who Mitt is (well, almost everybody.)

I’m proud of Mitt and how far he’s come. I’m proud of the close group of Mitt supporters who have been cheering him on, even when many people didn’t know who he was, and didn’t care. I’m glad that I stuck with him, even when the flavor-of-the-month meant many people were “hearting” Thompson or Huckabee. Mitt has gone so far and done so well because he’s intense, and works hard. He doesn’t expect to win even if he doesn’t run, like another candidate I can think of.

No matter what Mitt’s final tally is in the Iowa caucus, I’ve got faith that he’s going to pull out the nomination, and that’s because in the end, it all comes down to who has the ground game to get voters to the booth. And no one has better ground game than Mitt.

Havs

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