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President Obama’s re-election campaign launched Part 2 of its strategy to discredit Republican Mitt Romney this week, pouncing on his record as Massachusetts governor after more than two weeks of attacks on his private-equity years. The campaign released a five-page memo and a four-minute Web video Wednesday characterizing Romney’s leadership of Massachusetts as a failure, and senior adviser David Axelrod announced that he will host a news conference in front of the state house in Boston Thursday morning to drive home his criticism of Romney’s record. “When it comes to Mitt Romney and his economic philosophy, the facts are clear,”...

AS MITT ROMNEY pursues his bid for the presidency, his record as Massachusetts governor will come under scrutiny, including how the state's economy performed during his administration. Our analysis reveals a weak comparative economic performance of the state over the Romney years, one of the worst in the country. On all key labor market measures, the state not only lagged behind the country as a whole, but often ranked at or near the bottom of the state distribution. Formal payroll employment in the state in 2006 was still 16,000 or 0.5 percent below its average level in 2002, the year...

Share688 As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney apparently wasn’t all that concerned about rising gas prices. In fact, he viewed them as a net positive that would encourage conservation and get people to abandon their automobiles in favor of biking or walking. Naturally, he was also on the climate change bandwagon and he even predicted in 2005 that so-called clean energy was poised for “explosive growth” over the next decade. Today of course he is all about drilling, which is a good thing. But the question is: Are there any issues left out there on which Romney has not yet...

Another Tuesday, another failure by Mitt Romney to line up the party faithful behind him. Not only did Romney lose yesterday's contests in Alabama and Mississippi, but he finished third in both, putting him behind Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. Even though Romney remains well ahead in the delegate count and even though he'll still likely win the nomination, he just can't put those nagging doubts among conservatives to rest. CNN political contributor Paul Begala writes for The Daily Beast that Romney has gone from inevitable to unelectable: "Somebody strap him to the roof of one of his Cadillacs and...

MITT ROMNEY may be as close to a walking, talking dollar sign as presidential politics has ever witnessed. If money were made flesh, it would apparently have fair skin, flawless hair and an off-key tropism toward patriotic anthems. I say that only partly because of all of those awkward asides of his, the ones that keep reminding voters, who need no further reminding, that he’s loaded. And I’m not really focused on just how loaded he is. With a personal net worth in the vicinity of $225 million, Romney is no Warren Buffett, no Bill Gates. There have been more...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There was a column by Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (it's some months ago now) and I'll never forget this piece. Henninger writes really brilliant stuff pretty consistently. And in that column some months ago, he made the observation that Mitt Romney, a good guy, was always going to have to be nudged to conservatism; was always gonna have to be nudged to the right as he navigates his way through the Republican primaries. I think Henninger has been borne out; his piece is accurate. Romney has become a better debater. But the real evidence...

“You’ve got to stop the spread of crony capitalism. [Obama] gives General Motors to the UAW. He takes $500 million and sticks it into Solyndra. He stacks the labor stooges on the NLRB so they can say no to Boeing and take care of their friends in the labor movement. . . . He has to bow to the most extreme members of the environmental movement. He turns down the Keystone pipeline, which would bring energy and jobs to America. “My view is capitalism works. Free enterprise works. . . . There’s nothing wrong with profit, by the way. That...

FLORENCE, S.C. — Mitt Romney delivered a 13-minute speech here on Tuesday morning, shook hands with an audience that filled only a small part of a ballroom and caught a plane for a fund-raising gala in New York, a clear sign that he is looking beyond South Carolina. The outward confidence in Mr. Romney’s posture belied a deeply uncertain and fluid conclusion to the Republican presidential primary here. His rivals have shifted away from assailing his business record and are reminding conservatives through radio and television advertisements about the health care bill he signed as governor of Massachusetts and about...

Mitt Romney has been thought for months to have the New Hampshire primary in the bag. But one vote he didn't have locked up until Wednesday was that of Steve Rowe, a Vietnam-era veteran who spent much of the 1970s aboard the USS Saratoga, a US Navy supercarrier. Like a lot of New Hampshire residents, Rowe headed into the final week before the presidential primary still unsure whom to support. It was only the endorsement of another Navy vet -- US Senator John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee -- that moved Rowe into the Romney camp.Rowe showed up early...

Newt Gingrich opened the Sunday morning GOP debate by going on the attack against Mitt Romney, taking the bait in a question from moderator David Gregory by delivering a lengthy denunciation of Romney’s record and economic platform. “I think what Republicans have to ask is who’s most likely to survive in the long run” against President Barack Obama, Gingrich said. Gingrich called Romney a “a relatively timid Massachusetts moderate who even The Wall Street Journal said had an economic plan so timid it resembled Obama” and noted that during Romney’s administration, Massachusetts was “fourth from the bottom” in job creation....

Commentary: Looking at his record, it's a losing argument BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Is Mitt Romney for real? Romney, who may well be President Barack Obama's opponent in 2012, he had great time last week blaming the president for the current jobs shortage. Speaking to the CPAC right-wing conference in Washington, D.C., Romney said that the dismal employment situation, a year after Obama took office, showed the president was a "failure" who was "going downhill faster than... Lindsey Vonn." OK, let's take him at his word. Then what does that say about Romney? The Republican contender was the governor of Massachusetts...

Conventional wisdom is that whoever wins the Iowa caucus has an encouraging boost to get the Republican nomination for president in November’s vote. Never mind that Mike Huckabee crushed Mitt Romney in the 2008 Iowa caucus, and neither went anywhere; in the 2000 caucus George W. Bush easily beat Steve Forbes and went on to win his party’s nomination; or that in 2000 Robert Dole edged Pat Buchanan and both fell by the wayside. So while winning in Iowa is a morale booster it doesn’t mean much, and will quickly be forgotten after New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. This...

And they're pulling out all the stops to prevent it... Even in the wake of a really unprecedented series of attacks on Newt Gingrich from Team Mittens, the GOP Beltway suits, and allied media types, the Georgia doughboy stands up a couple points nationally... while the upcoming primary slate still seems to heavily favor a Gingrich nomination. You scoff? OK, assume worse-case for Newt in Iowa (although one fresh poll still has him right at the top, with many undecideds expected to break back Gingrich's way).  Then -say- Newt scores a second or third in NH... he won't be doing any...

“Why Is No One Attacking Romney?” That’s the question I have been pounding all fall, particularly in the past 6 weeks. It’s also the question asked by Alex Roarty at National Journal:**snip** Think where Romney would be if he had been the recipient of the negative ads in Iowa on the scale directed at Newt:**snip** History tells us where we will be when there is a sustained anti-Romney negative ad campaign. It worked for Ted Kennedy (focusing on Bain) and John McCain (focusing on flip-flops and lack of core conviction). It also started to work over this summer and fall...

Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date. The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president. Ten percent (10%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) A week ago, Romney trailed Obama 44% to 41%. The week before that, he held a...

7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth Dec 27, 2011. by John Hawkins Mitt Romney was a moderate governor in Massachusetts with an unimpressive record of governance, who left office with an approval rating in the thirties, and whose signature achievement was a Hurricane Katrina style disaster for the state. Since that's the case, it's fair to ask what a Republican who's not conservativeand can't even carry his own state brings to the table for GOP primary voters. The answer is always the same; Mitt Romney is supposed to be "the most electable" candidate. This is a baffling...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a conservative. At least, that is the point the former Massachusetts governor is trying to make with a new TV ad airing in Iowa. The new ad, titled “Conservative Agenda,” shows Romney speaking on the stump and meeting with voters, as he makes a series of commitments. “I am going to do something to government. I’m going to make it ‘Simpler, and Smaller, and Smarter,’” Romney says. “Getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally making government itself more efficient.” Romney pledges to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul and balance...

Newt Gingrich intends to draw a contrast of his own with Mitt Romney when he buses through Iowa next week in the lead-up to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses – and he’s going right for Romney’s economic plan and experience. The Gingrich campaign has spent the past week on the defensive in the face of criticism from Romney himself that the former House speaker is unreliable, from the Romney campaign for not being staunchly conservative, and from a Romney-affiliated “Super PAC” with an onslaught of negative advertising. But after spending the week scolding the Romney camp for negativity in order...

It might have been Mitt Romney’s most revealing moment in all the Republican debates. Badgered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was continually interrupting him, Romney appealed to CNN moderator Anderson Cooper to reassert the rules of the debate: “Anderson?” That one-word plaint could stand for all of Romney’s straight-arrowness. It is a virtue and a curse. “Scandal” and “Romney” are two words you expect never to have to see in a sentence together. He’s every bit as upstanding as you would expect from a former Mormon bishop, a father of five and grandfather of 16. Romney is a familiar...

BOSTON — On the Republican campaign trail, the health care debate has focused on the mandatory coverage that Mitt Romney signed into law as governor in 2006. But back in Massachusetts the conversation has moved on, and lawmakers are now confronting the problem that Mr. Romney left unaddressed: the state’s spiraling health care costs. After three years of study, the state’s legislative leaders appear close to producing bills that would make Massachusetts the first state — again — to radically revamp the way doctors, hospitals and other health providers are paid. Although important details remain to be negotiated, the legislative...

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

Those words were spoken today by Georgette Mosbacher, RNC Finance Co-Chair and huge GOP fundraiser, after Chris Christie’s announcement. The “we” is all the big bundlers, fundraisers, and money folks who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the field to be set — and that quote represents the coalescing around Mitt Romney that is expected to happen rather quickly now. Mosbacher went on to say: “I think tomorrow, we’ll be contacting one another and probably put something together with Romney… And I would say that the race is now Romney and Obama. Quite frankly, the enthusiasm wasn’t there...

Election '12: At more than 150 pages, Mitt Romney's long-winded "jobs plan" is an attempt to portray him as the candidate of substance. Unfortunately, it's more a pondering than a plan.

A large group of 2008 Barack Obama supporters are now banking on Mitt Romney for the upcoming presidential election. That’s according to a report from Fox News that says a shift in Wall Street support could mean as much as a $150,000 boost for Romney’s campaign. “I think Romney could at least split Wall Street with Obama, which is something McCain really didn’t do,” said Charlie Gasparino, a reporter for Fox Business News. None of the expected bank presidents showed up to a recent fundraiser for President Obama, he added.

As a presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney says he opposes revenue-boosting tax increases. But back when he was Massachusetts' governor, he bragged about them. The Romney administration in 2004 and 2005 quietly highlighted the state's recent tax and fee hikes as part of an effort to persuade the financial rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings to improve the state's bond ratings.The administration's bullet-point presentations to the agencies, made public through freedom of information requests, sought to make the case that Massachusetts had "acted decisively" to address the state's fiscal problems with a combination of streamlining, belt-tightening budget cuts,...

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, citing the growing cost of maintaining the state’s transportation infrastructure, said today the administration may soon be seeking an increase in the gas tax. Reports indicate that the state’s transportation needs appear to be growing faster than the state can afford to repair and update its infrastructure. Mr. Murray said a discussion about raising revenues for transportation needs is coming in the next year or two. “I think there are still a few items left on the ‘reform before revenue’ punch list, but I do think we are getting close (to needing to look for...

In his latest Time column, Republican super-strategist Mike Murphy outlines why the Michele Bachmann surge may be short-lived, and why it helps Mitt Romney for the time being: Finally, the billion-volt electron microscopes of the national media will soon be trained on Bachmann now that she’s the official Iowa front runner. I’ll bet dollars to Minnesota lutefisk that despite her new squad of professional handlers, we are in for more of Bachmann’s factual fumbles. Her latest mix-up, confusing the birthplace of beloved American icon John Wayne with that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, hints that Michele’s next moves on...

1) She theoretically appeals to a bigger slice of the GOP (conservatives) than Romney does (moderates-centrists) 2) Her strength is in the red states while Romney's is in the blue states 3) She is a superstar; he is not 4) She draws bigger crowds than he does on the campaign trail 5) She is a far more eloquent speaker than he is 6) She does retail politicking better than Romney 7) She is younger and has far more energy than 64 year old Romney 8) She apparently is much more Internet and social networking savvy than Mitt is. 9) Palin...

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain ripped former one-term Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney after finding out Romney’s recently-released schedule didn’t have The Daily Caller/Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)/YouTube debate on it. Cain says he wants the American people to hear from all the Republican presidential candidates, not just some. “Governor Romney, saying you’re a businessman simply isn’t enough,” Cain said in a statement. “I hope you will participate in this debate to showcase what experiences and vision we each have, and which of us would be able to best help stabilize and grow our economy.” Cain also said he thinks...

"People have a right to say, 'Why is it that your state was 47th in the country in job creation when you were governor?' " Axelrod said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Deval Patrick’s records under lock & key "You think all those cyber sleuths searching Sarah Palin’s e-mails would get a similar thrill looking at, say, Gov. Deval Patrick’s BlackBerry? The answer is no, and not just because MSNBC would never mobilize an army of reporters to go after a Democrat. The real reason people will never see Patrick’s e-mails is because they can’t. The Massachusetts governor is citing a court ruling used by Mitt Romney and Paul Cellucci to exempt himself from the state public records law." "Let's con them all!"

If Mitt “Peacetime� Romney Can Only Get to 23% Post-Announcement, He’s Not Going To End Up Breaking 30% in A Multi-Candidate Field Posted on June 13 2011 - 7:56 AM - Posted by: Ian Lazaran Here is what the race looks like when you average the six polls (the polls are from the Washington Post/ABC News, Quinnipiac, Reuters/Ipsos, Fox News, and the two polls released this morning from CNN and Gallup) that have been conducted after Mitt “peacetime� Romney formally announced that he was running for the presidency. Romney 23% Palin 17% Cain 8% Gingrich 7% Paul 7% Bachmann 5%...

He’s a flip-flopper who can seem disconnected from average citizens, and wears health care reform as a political albatross around his neck. That’s the standard line of attack against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But, the same critique could also apply to President Obama. That means if Romney gets past GOP doubters and wins his party’s nomination, the 2012 election could be a head-to-head between two men with similar vulnerabilities. On the surface, they have little in common. Romney and Obama represent dramatically different backgrounds and cultivate vastly different political images. But they share some interesting traits. With or without...

As the field of prospective Republican presidential candidates for 2012 begins to take shape, one name keeps rising to the fore: Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, Romney makes me uneasy like few other "conservatives" do. As this is about to publish, it appears likely that Romney will officially announce his candidacy soon. Yet I cannot, will not, endorse this man, for three key reasons.

Sarah Palin emerged today from the Marriott Long Wharf hotel and said she planned to walk the Freedom Trail before heading to New Hampshire – where Mitt Romney is to announce his presidential candidacy today. “Coincidental that we’re in the same territory at the same time,’’ said Palin, a likely Republican presidential candidate. “But more power to Mitt… and best of luck to him.’’ Palin said she remains undecided on whether she will challenge Romney and other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Romney. How does that sound? Better than President Gingrich, President Pawlenty or even President Palin? You betcha. Why? Because for all his flip-flopping and lack of charisma, Mitt Romney is a serious person — an “adult” in today’s political parlance — with a real track record of accomplishment. This week, Romney actually showed what any serious Republican hopeful in the 2012 presidential election campaign needs to show: the beginnings of a backbone. It looks like Romney may have flipped his last flop on what is supposed to be the bane of his existence, the statewide health-care...

On his first trip back to the nation's first voting state as a soon-to-be declared presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reaffirmed his support for federal ethanol subsidies -- an always important campaign issue in Iowa that figures to take on an even more central role in the divided GOP field. "I support the subsidy of ethanol," Romney told a potential voter after an event here was cut short by a fire alarm. "I believe ethanol is an important part of our energy solution in this country." Support for ethanol subsidies has long been considered a political necessity for...

Romney to announce in New Hampshire next Thursday.

White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin lead a narrower field of potential rivals for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, according to a poll released on Thursday. The Gallup survey is the organization's first since Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and real estate mogul Donald Trump opted out of the slowly evolving primary race. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and so far the apparent front-runner, led Palin by 17 percent to 15 percent, well within the poll's 4 percentage points margin of error. Texas Representative Ron Paul ranked third at 10 percent. But the...

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney announced this afternoon that a veteran public relations consultant was joining his burgeoning campaign as a senior adviser. Mark DeMoss is currently president of the DeMoss Group, which is a large Atlanta-based public relations agency that focuses on serving Christian leaders, businesses, and non-profit organizations. SNIP The campaign press release did not mention any religious component to DeMoss’s role, although in 2008 he was on the Romney campaign’s Faith and Values Steering Committee and spoke out prominently about why evangelical Christians should not discount Romney because of his Mormon faith. DeMoss said in an interview later...

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is emerging as the man to catch in the narrowing Republican presidential field, grabbing a clear head start in fundraising, organization and experience despite vulnerabilities that still might undo him. With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels becoming the latest respected Republican to forgo a candidacy, many party insiders say the field is largely set. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Olympic Games organizer, is in front. "It's Romney's to lose," said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign. He said Romney's biggest advantages are his personal wealth, fundraising know-how and experience as...

Alternate headline: “Politico buries lead.� “It’s possible someone may get in later on,” Gillespie said, “but Republican activists, officials and donors are going to begin picking a horse from the current field. We have a field that will produce a nominee capable of beating Obama next November.”…Republicans officials have no idea what [Palin is] planning, although they agree she would have tons to lose by entering a race that would cost her the mystique she has built up. And Romney advisers said her entry would help the former Massachusetts governor dramatically.“The shock value would cause elected officials and party officials...

About a year ago, I thought a Daniels-Ryan GOP ticket for the 2012 presidential race would have been ideal. Alas, Gov. Mitch Daniels is not running for the presidency. Neither is Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, John Thune, or Jim DeMint. Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and Jeb Bush probably won’t run either. Paul Ryan would still make a good VP choice, but he isn’t running for president. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, and Rick Santorum are all “dark horse” candidates. They stand little chance. Jon Huntsman is too liberal (and was in the Obama...

With Mike Huckabee's exit from the race, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin are now on top of the Republican field, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. Twenty percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters say they'd support the former Massachusetts governor, while 18 percent say they'd support the former Alaska governor. Newt Gingrich comes in third place with 11 percent. In the April 15-20 poll, Huckabee had 16 percent (tied with Donald Trump). Romney had 13, Palin had 10. While Romney and Palin now share the top spot, Gallup's positive intensity tracking shows Republicans feeling less enthusiastic about their two...

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I LOVE and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! Exhortations… Phil 4:1 So after one weekend the Republican field is becoming clear as glass to everybody but Bill Crystal. We have one who has beautiful hair, a nice figure, perfectly manicured face and hands against Sarah Palin. With the dropping out of Huckleberry Hound and the Trumpster as well as the self assassination of Gingrich we are really down to Sarah and the Mitt. After a year of hearing how she doesn’t have...

With Mike Huckabee out of the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, three known politicians, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich emerge as leaders in Republicans' preferences... Palin's support is more intense. A higher percentage of Republicans have strongly favorable opinions than is the case for the other two, giving her a slightly higher overall Positive Intensity Score despite her higher strongly unfavorable percentage. Gingrich and Romney have similar Positive Intensity Scores. ...There is no clear front-runner in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination. Palin, who has given no indication of whether she will run for the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pulled in an eye-popping $10.3 million during a national fundraising effort Monday that he described as the kick-off to his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. The event was staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the site was no accident: Nevada is key to Romney's early primary state strategy. Nearly 800 participants dialed for dollars all day and hauled in nearly $4 million more than when his campaign staged a similar event four years earlier. Romney has been scarce on the campaign trail in recent months as he's focused heavily on...

Listening to and watching Donald Trump talk with Fox News’s Sean Hannity about how rich he is and how smart he is was truly a vomit-inducing moment. The notion that this extremely successful egomaniac would ever be President of the United States is surreal. It’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on steroids. Now we learn that he is going to announce whether he is going to run on the season finale of “The Apprentice.” The show is scheduled to air on May 15. Reportedly he will hold a press conference to announce the decision about being a candidate in the...

Currently, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is being billed as a genuine conservative who can defeat Barack Obama, reform the federal government, and balance the budget. Yet a close examination of the governor's record and statements reveals that he is actually a strident liberal who cannot be taken seriously. It has frequently been said about Mitch Daniels that he "turned deficits into surpluses" as governor. The only problem with this claim is that it's not true. According to the CNBC/Forbes.com, which annually ranks states according to business climate, Indiana has a $1.4-billion budget deficit as of FY2011. That same CNBC/Forbes.com list...

Bartlett, NH - Leftover 2008 campaign signs outside the Carroll County Republican Committee dinner announce what's on everyone's minds, even Ann Romney's. "And I'm the one that is encouraging Mitt to think about pushing forward and think about running. So, yes, yes I am. I'm pushing him," she said before her husband took the podium. It's his first public speech in New Hampshire since the mid-term elections, and Mitt Romney sounded an awful lot like a candidate. "It's gonna take more than a good speech on his part, more than rhetoric to put Americans back to work. It's going to...