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Businessman Donald Trump’s support among Republican voters has hit a new national high of 49 percent, according to a CNN/ORC poll. By contrast, the party's nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, didn’t reach 49 percent in a poll until mid-April of that year. As YouGov’s William Jordan noted, Romney’s highest polling number prior to that was 40 percent, which he achieved once in mid-January 2012 and once at the end of February. Support for Trump has been over 40 percent in the last four national polls, and flirted with the 40 percent mark in some polls in early December. Single polls...

A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America.

Political consulting and morality go together about as well as that famous fish and bicycle. Lawyers have constructed a neat paradigm obligating them to handle any and all clients, a very convenient way to maintain pretext of high road while taking any road possible. So it is with political consultants. For years when asked my positions on issues, my standard response has been, “I don’t have positions, I have clients.”

Harry Reid spent months attacking Mitt Romney in 2012 for not releasing his tax returns. Now the Democratic leader is at it again, after Romney suggested this week there could be a "bombshell" in Donald Trump's tax returns. An incredulous Reid mocked Romney's statements about Trump's taxes when the Nevadan was asked about them on Thursday. "Ha, ha. (Romney) never gave us his tax returns. Who was the brainchild that got him to do that?" Reid said at a news conference."He gave us a summary. He never gave us his tax returns." Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/harry-reid-mitt-romney-taxes-219780#ixzz41Hlejj4eHarry Reid spent months attacking Mitt...

Donald J. Trump ‎‎@realDonaldTrump I'm going to do what @MittRomney was totally unable to do- WIN! 11:44 AM - 25 Feb 2016 4,453 4,453 Retweets 11,489 11,489 likes

During a phoned-in appearance on Fox News Wednesday afternoon, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney dropped a big ole’ a dirty bomb on Donald Trump. Speaking to Neil Cavuto, Romney said, without any evidence, that he has “good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes.” As someone who suffered through every moment of Romney’s feckless presidential campaign, the first thing I thought to myself was “Where the hell was this killer when we needed him most?” Listen, I have no issue with Romney dropping a dirty bomb, especially on a Donald Trump who is the master...

Karl Rove believes there is still time for Republicans who don't want Donald Trump to be the 2016 GOP nominee to get behind a candidate - but it's running out. In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal out Wednesday night, the former senior adviser to President George W. Bush took stock of Trump's recent string of victories. -snip- Before the op-ed was published on Wednesday, Trump was already going after Rove on his favorite medium of attack. "Big defeat last night in Nevada for Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. @KarlRove on @FoxNews is working hard to belittle my victory....

Donald Trump fired back at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for wondering Wednesday if a "bombshell" was sitting in his unreleased tax returns. Fresh off his victory in Nevada, Trump fired off a trio of tweets at Romney, calling him a "fool" and a "tough guy" for his attack, adding that he should have beaten President Obama as the Republican nominee in 2012. >>>Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrumpWhen Mitt Romney asked me for my endorsement last time around, he was so awkward and goofy that we all should have known he could not win!<<< >>>Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump "@Ward_II: Oh great...

Donald Trump is leaving the door open to not releasing his tax returns, just hours after Mitt Romney warned Wednesday that the billionaire's tax documents could contain a "bombshell." The GOP front-runner said in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper that he will "make a determination over the next couple of months" as to whether he will release his tax returns... It was also an attack steeped in irony, since Romney was on the receiving end of similar claims by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, when Democrats eviscerated him over his fortune and business record during the 2012 campaign. Reid...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stated that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz(R-TX), and Florida Senator Sen. Marco Rubio(R-FL) ought to release their taxes for “the last two years that have already been filed” and that there’s “good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes” on Wednesday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on the Fox News Channel. Romney began by saying that both Trump and Democratic candidate Senator Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) were connecting with voters who were upset with the Washington, which hasn’t made progress. He added, “I think there’s...

2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Wednesday on Fox News there is good reason to believe there is a "bombshell" to be found in Donald Trump's back taxes. Asked by host Neil Cavuto why he hadn't officially backed a Republican for the 2016 nomination, Romney said he would like to see the back taxes from several of the candidates. Taxes were a sore spot for Romney in 2012, with then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) publicly accusing him of not even paying them. "This will give us a real sense of whether these people are on the up...

Donald Trump took a swipe at Mitt Romney on Wednesday night, complaining to a TV interviewer that the 2012 Republican nominee was attacking him via a new super PAC formed for that purpose. Trump, speaking to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, was asked about Our Principles, the group run by former top Romney aide Katie Packer that has been running ads portraying him as a fake conservative. Story Continued Below “They are all aiming at me, I guess, and that’s fine. And so far, it‘s been only driving my numbers up. They should have devoted more time to Mitt...

With Donald Trump’s ruinous domination of the Republican primary polls showing no signs of abating, top leaders in the GOP are reportedly now preparing for the possibility of a contentious brokered convention next year in Cleveland. If that happens, a small group of wealthy donors and die-hard loyalists close to Mitt Romney will be ready with a strategy to win him the nomination from the convention floor.

EXCERPT Anyway, Charlie Rose with Mark Halperin last night. Charlie Rose said, "Are you saying, Mark, that if the Republican Party unites against Donald Trump, that they can't stop him?" HALPERIN: The establishment now will not accept Trump as the nominee. They will fight him to the end, including at the convention if they need to and I think they'll run someone else if he does become the nominee. ROSE: Meaning somebody's in the field -- HALPERIN: No! Someone like Mitt Romney or Mitch Daniels, someone else to step forward to say, "We've got a safe place to vote because...

Link only http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mitt-romney-could-stop-donald-trump-seriously_56689e49e4b080eddf56dc2d

For Republicans fearful of Donald Trump becoming their party’s presidential nominee, a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters offers a three-word solution: Willard Mitt Romney. If the former Massachusetts governor were added to the mix of the 14 other Republican candidates running in the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire voters would, if the election were held now, give him a 2-to-1 win over Trump, the leader of the field. Romney, who said as recently as last week that he is not interested in running, did not file for the New Hampshire primary...

Rumors are starting to fly that Republican elites are considering adding Mitt Romney to the Republican primary in a last-minute attempt to destabilize the popularity of non-traditional candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, The Washington Post reported. But this seems to be mostly rumor and speculation from his friends, since Romney himself has said he won’t run again and no one has gone on record yet with specific plans to draft him. What’s really going on? Here’s what you need to know....

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, sounded off on the possibility of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Romney’s 2012 running mate, as the next Speaker of the House. Romney told show host Jake Tapper Ryan as Speaker of the House would lessen the possibility he could make a future run for president. “We need Paul in two spots at once,” Romney said. “You know, there haven’t been a lot of people that have gone on from speaker to the White House, so I’d hate to lose him as a potential...

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney listed a half-dozen Republican candidates he said could qualify as mainstream conservatives his party could live with in a general election — and said he didn’t think Donald J. Trump was one of those. Mr. Romney, a two-time candidate who was the party’s standard-bearer in 2012, ticked off New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and businesswoman Carly Fiorina as viable options. -snip- Mr. Romney did not mention retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who along with Mr....

THERE IS one man who can save the Republican Party, and his name is Mitt Romney. Seriously. Seven years after Romney crashed and burned in the 2008 Republican primary and three years after he beat a weak GOP presidential field before losing to President Obama, he is still the party’s best hope of winning back the White House.