Romney’s 25-year career working in the private sector sets him apart from the other three Republican candidates for president. Unlike Senator Rick Santorum, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Congressman Ron Paul, Romney has never worked a single day in Washington, D.C. If Republicans truly want to change the way Washington works and get the U.S. economy turned around, it would be better to send an outsider Washington than to send someone who has made his career working in Washington.

Romney’s experience in the private sector of the economy has allowed him the opportunity to create jobs and help turn around companies such as Staples and Domino’s Pizza, which today employ more than 100,000 people. He truly has earned the reputation of being a turnaround artist. As one who is about to graduate from law school, I would love to have such an economic turnaround artist working on the U.S. economy so when I go to look for a job, I can find one.

Romney’s conservative leadership in Massachusetts — he working with both Republicans and Democrats — secured a balanced budget every single year of his four-year term. He also cut taxes 19 times and turned a $3 billion state deficit into a two billion dollar surplus without raising taxes. This is something to be commended and exemplified, not ridiculed and belittled. The ability to work with those who might or might not agree with you to accomplish the tasks that Romney was able to accomplish, is what true leadership is all about.

Romney has fought hard, and continues to fight hard, for the right to freely exercise one’s religion. For example, the Obama administration recently reported it would force Catholic hospitals and doctors to prescribe contraceptives to patients, which some in the Catholic faith saw as a violation of their First Amendment rights. When that occurred, Romney was the first to call out the Obama administration for its blatant disregard for our religious freedoms.

As a conservative, it’s appalling to watch Santorum and Gingrich attack capitalism and free markets as though these concepts are bad and destructive. Their use of these attacks against Romney is something you would expect from the Democrats or the mainstream media, but not Republicans. Romney is the poster boy for capitalism and free markets and continues to champion these principles everywhere he goes. Santorum and Gingrich also seem to think that it’s acceptable to use class warfare against Romney ­ — blaming him for his successes instead of championing those successes and telling every American they too can be successful. This election is too important to send liberal, progressive candidates such as Santorum and Gingrich up against Obama. Conservatives and Republicans need an open-minded candidate to be able to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall.

But don’t take my word that Romney is a conservative. Use Rush Limbaugh’s own words. In 2008, Rush said Romney was the only candidate in the Republican race who exemplified all three legs of conservatism — national security and foreign policy, social conservatism, and the fiscal conservatism. Yet Rush and others seem to have flip-flopped. It’s now become politically convenient for them to attack the same man who only four years earlier they were calling a true conservative.

On Feb. 28, Republicans have an opportunity to elect a true conservative, a man of high moral character, an economic turnaround artist, an individual who saved the 2002 Winter Olympics and someone who will continue to defend not only religious freedoms, but every God-given freedom. Mitt Romney is the best choice for Michigan, for America and for the Republican presidential nomination.

Kyle Haubrich is a State News guest columnist and a third-year law student in the MSU College of Law. Reach him at haubric1@msu.edu.