Romney Campaign Press Release - Senator Bob Dole: "Mitt Romney is the Kind of Man that Iowans Should Support"

Senator Bob Dole

Open Letter To The Voters Of Iowa

December 18, 2011

Full Letter Below:

An Open Letter to the Voters of Iowa

On January 3, the Iowa caucuses will gather and take a momentous first step as the Republican Party begins the process of selecting a nominee for the position of President of the United States.

A great deal is at stake.

In the last few years, our beloved country has fallen on rough times. We have now gone 34 months with unemployment over 8 percent, the longest such stretch since the Great Depression. Nearly twenty-five million Americans are unemployed, working part-time when they would like to work full-time, or have simply quit looking.

Millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure. Around three out of four Americans believe our nation is headed in the wrong direction. And they are right; our nation is indeed headed in the wrong direction. We need to turn it around.

A number of my friends are currently candidates seeking the GOP nomination. But the time has now come for us to decide who among them can defeat Barack Obama in 2012. I've made my decision, and I believe our best hope lies in Governor Mitt Romney.

I've known Mitt and his family for decades. His parents instilled in him a strong work ethic, rock-solid conservative values, and a deep sense of service to others. These traits—which have shone through in both the debates and my own visits with him—will serve him well in the White House.

As President, Mitt Romney will succeed in turning this country around. He rescued a flailing Winter Olympics when it was mired in financial scandal. He was an exceptional Governor of Massachusetts, who managed to both balance the state's budget and cut taxes while dealing with an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature.

Before his time in public service, Mitt Romney spent his career in the private sector, solving real problems in the real economy. He has helped to start or turn around numerous Main Street businesses that you know, like Sports Authority and Staples. He wasn't just an investor. He got his hands dirty, and one of the results was the creation of tens of thousands of jobs. He has the experience and talent to get America back on the right track.

Governor Romney has already presented a bold, sweeping, and detailed proposal to guide this turnaround. It is more than just a jobs plan. It is a fundamental reorientation of the American economy on the basis of conservative principles. It takes power from the federal government in order to get Washington out of the way so that America can get back to work.

The nation can't afford four more years of Barack Obama's failed leadership. We absolutely need to choose a nominee who can win next November. I've run for President myself and twice I had the deep honor of finishing first in the Iowa caucuses. I have many friends in the state. Some of them even call me the President of Iowa. When I say that Mitt Romney is the kind of man that Iowans should support, I know whereof I speak.

And one last point: when it comes to agricultural policy, you can trust Mitt—I do.

God Bless America,

Senator Bob Dole