In response to the recent letter to the editor from the Romanos, I am here to stand up for Mitt Romney.
I am here to stand up and tell what I know first-hand about the man and his exemplary qualifications to lead this country.
And, unlike the current occupant of the Oval Office, he will do the tough things even if it means no second term.
He will do what is difficult versus what is politically expedient.
I lived in Salt Lake City and worked in the tourism/hotel business during the entire Salt Lake Olympic bid effort.
I saw first-hand the kind of outrageous spending that accompanied visits to our city by members of the International Olympic Committee, and knew the president of the Salt Lake bid committee a good man who was caught up in what would be an international expose of the entire bid process.
I met Mitt Romney in 2001 after he had taken the helm of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOOC) for the 2002 Winter Games.
The SLOOC offices were three floors above those of my company, and as HR VP of my organization.
I often coordinated joint tenant meetings and activities for the building. I saw his steady leadership. His stewardship of a disheartened city and team of volunteers.
I know the kinds of financial cuts that he made, and they were not popular.
Then, after 9/11 his leadership was tested at another level - how to put on a Games that would say to the world? We will not be deterred? and do it by creating a level of security that would need to be as lacking in disruption as it was effective.
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The result? An Olympic Games that made all of America burst with pride and a Games that came in not at a deficit, as had previous Games, but with money to return to the USOC and the City of Salt Lake. And he did it without apologizing to the international community.
As Mike Eruzione, captain of the1980 gold medal hockey team said recently, "Mitt Romney saved the Olympic Games." Romney did this with not one penny of salary. Romney showed me, and the world, that he is a doer, not a talker. A leader, not a panderer. And he has the track record to prove it.
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