Gov. Mitt Romney at The Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference:
"I think we'd have to admit that the blame doesn't all belong to the Democrats (I'm sucking up to the MSM here.) We Republicans have to put our own house in order. We can't be like Democrats – a party of big spenders (I had no problem with big spending until I started running for president) . . .
"We can't have ethical standards that are a punch line for Jay Leno (I've appeared on his show, and have also been a Leno punch line). When Republicans act like Democrats, America loses (when I ran for the U.S. Senate against the Aquatic Wonder in Massachusetts in 1994, I acted like a Democrat) . . .
"We've got to start acting like Republicans, not earmarking Republicans, not big government Republicans, but like Reagan Republicans and Teddy Roosevelt Republicans. They led us along the right course (and please forget that I was never a Reagan Republican throughout his presidency) . . . Hillary Clinton fundamentally doesn't trust the private sector . . . She sees the problems in health care, for example, and proposes more government (the health care bill I signed into law as Massachusetts Governor not only proposed more government, but achieved more government) . . .
"The Katrina clean-up didn't look like Republicans were in charge (in case you didn't notice it the first time MSM, I'm sucking up to you again) . . . Now is the time, this is the place, for Republicans to stand together – to stand for Republican principles (I recently figured out the meaning of those principles).
