Free Republic

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...

Okay, the creepiness is overwhelming. Mitt Romney strikes me as the guy who wants to be president so bad that his ambition overrides his intellect. During last night's debate it was the cheap shot fired at Perry "well you've had a couple of bad debates" and Romney's hand resting atop Perry's shoulder. But if you've followed all the debates as I have you will notice a repeat offender. There is simply no graciousness to the man. And I'm an avowed Palinista.

This YouTube shows the episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37VcgHUFVk Romney gets very frustrated and reaches out and grabs Perry on national TV. This willingness on his part to engage in physical contact during a verbal disagreement is really troubling. Shortly afterwards he begins to belittle Perry, he begins to lecture, he whines about the rules, he gets very red-faced, and he totally loses his cool. I'm sure I don't want this man with his finger on the button. He can't seem to handle stress. He obviously got physical. It's a matter of record.

Sahil Kapur has a good piece up at TNR about the Tea Party’s plans to go after Mitt Romney because he’s not the “rock-solid fiscal conservative” they want. According to Kapur, FreedomWorks, the Dick Armey-led Tea Party organization, is threatening to “uneash part of its $25 million treasure trove in an attempt to sink his candidacy.” Meanwhile, Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate who took on Lisa Murkowski in Alaska and lost last November, has his own political action committee dedicated to going after Mitt Romney where it matters most: New Hampshire. Last November, the Tea Party swept into state...

It is tempting -- very, very tempting -- to write off Willard "Mitt" Romney as a serious contender for next year's Republican presidential nomination. And, in fact, several knowledgeable observers already have. Romney, in case you haven't heard, embraced a healthcare reform law in Massachusetts five years ago that ended up being the model for the national program that President Obama pushed through Congress without a single Republican vote last year. He's also dogged by the impression that he's an unusually spineless opportunist (the result of the extraordinary pains he took to win over socially liberal voters in Massachusetts before...

BOSTON — Republican Mitt Romney is finding it hard to avoid comparisons between the Massachusetts health insurance mandate he signed into law and the federal version enacted by President Barack Obama as he weighs another presidential run. A federal judge struck down the Obama mandate last week, and appeals of that ruling and other court challenges are likely to wend their way to the Supreme Court during the next two years, legal experts say....

Viewed in isolation, Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential candidacy is doomed. In 2008, Romney earned himself a reputation as a flip-flopper as he dramatically attempted to reshape himself as a stanch conservative despite having previously staked out liberal positions on abortion, guns, immigration and a litany of other issues. This time around, Romney faces the additional burden of trying to explain away his most significant legislative accomplishment as governor of Massachusetts -- a big government health care plan that was a model for ObamaCare. In his last presidential bid he was largely able to get a pass, because health care wasn't...

Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin. She who can rouse the base like none other is now She to Whom Respect Must Be Paid. Like it or not. Many within the so-called party establishment don't quite know what to do about Palin. She's adored by Tea Partyers, to whom she conveniently attached herself as soon as she sensed a shift in the air. A rogue like Palin isn't going to let a rogue movement fill a stadium - or a desert - without her. She also...

DAYTON, OHIO - Mitt Romney ambled through the exhibits at the InfoTech 2010 conference here the other day, shaking hands, posing for photos, sneaking an occasional chocolate turtle and, ever the salesman, promoting the candidacy of yet another Republican candidate. On this trip, he was stumping for Rob Portman, the Republican Senate candidate who is heavily favored to win his race Tuesday. Romney was self-effacing as he moved along the rows of exhibits. "This is Rob Portman, he's running for Senate," he said as he introduced the former congressman to a group at one exhibit. "I'd love for you to...

Six months ago, as the Republican base lined up against the Democratic health care overhaul, Mitt Romney stood by his signature achievement as Massachusetts governor, a comprehensive health care law that served as a model for the national program. That was then. Now, stopping “Obamacare” cold has become an article of faith on the right, and Romney is facing the prospect that his health care plan could be his undoing as a presidential contender. Conservatives, in turn, are increasingly blunt in their advice to Romney: Say you’re sorry. “I guarantee that, at the top of everyone’s list on how to...

As I type this, I am watching former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on “The Wendy Williams Show” talking about his impending talk show on Fox and am reminded, not for the first time, that quite a few presidential candidates function as if they never expected or even wanted to be president in the first place. They ran to gain a media platform. But few have done so as brazenly as Huckabee, who typically ended his homespun stump homilies with pedestrian pluckings of his bass guitar. Huckabee’s ultimate role in the 2008 race was to assist in the splintering of evangelicals...

To understand why Democrats ever picked Mondale, you have to understand where the party — and where the country — was in 1982 and 1983, when the nation’s verdict on Reagan and his policies was far less positive. In those days, with unemployment surging over 10 percent and the president’s popularity slipping to sub-Carter levels, Democrats mistakenly assumed that the ‘80 election had been a mirage. The electorate, they figured, had acted in haste and was rapidly returning to its senses. The results of the 1982 midterms, when Republicans (who had begun the cycle with claims that they’d win...

MESA, Ariz. (AP) —Once bitter rivals for the presidency, Mitt Romney and John McCain campaigned together as friends on Friday, one gearing up for a likely presidential bid and the other fighting to hold onto his seat in the U.S. Senate. The two Republicans fielded questions from a largely supportive audience of several hundred people, touching on issues including immigration and the environment while heaping criticism on President Barack Obama. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, battled with McCain in 2008 for the Republican nomination for president, then aggressively campaigned for McCain in the general election. He has endorsed the Arizona...

Sometime around the time Barack Obama won the White House, I started wondering who would inherit the Republican Party. I have to admit I felt a little schadenfreude when George and Dick drove the GOP off a cliff, but I also named this space “Common Ground” for a reason. We need to focus on what unites us more than the things that divide us. Here’s some common ground: We need two functioning political parties to continue to meet the challenges of our times. Unlike Karl Rove, I don’t want one party to run the country. Hammering out public policy through...

Yesterday, I was interviewed by a reporter for CBS, for a story on the diverse groups of people supporting Sarah Palin online. The reporter authored a book on Palin last year, after being embedded with her vice presidential campaign, following a stint covering Mittens Romney. I can’t imagine how many cucumbers-and-mayonnaise sandwiches this guy had to eat on the Romney Express (to nowhere), but I gave him the same kind of awed respect I grant anyone who’s ever spent more than half an hour with Tim Pawlenty — and didn’t succumb to T-Paw induced narcolepsy. We (the reporter and I,...

Link only, per FR posting rules

Basically, the writer is saying, Wesley Donahue who worked for Romney in the past, was involved heavily in pushing the Rumor all last year according to the email provided by Will Forks....Now considering that Romney did endorse Nikki, some are wondering why would Donahue push this story now, if he did at all? The speculations is speculation but does make sense in a way: Many expect Palin to run for President and win the Iowa caucuses (she has strong support there) even stronger if Huckabee isn't running); many expect Mitt to do very well in the New Hampshire Primary The...

The DNC gave a blind eye to Obama's citizenship when they knew he could win the Democratic nomination only because he would get most of the black vote. Then again,Pelosi and Reid don't follow the constitution anyway. Can you imagine if Romney runs and the MSM will be ripping him apart over his actual birth status? I admire Romney, and hope he runs just to watch him rip apart what the Dem's are doing. I don't think he will win though (I still see a black horse in late 2010/2011).

Here is a real mess, that is much more confusing than Obama's ineligiblity. It has occurred to me that Mitt Romney, may not be a natural born citizen, and may not even be a US citizen. I'll give the facts as I know them, and let you all research the Immigration Laws. When Congress started cracking down on polygamy, Miles Park Romney (Mitt Romney's great-grandfather) and many other families, left the United States, 5 March 1885, moved to Mexico and began their own settlement. Mitt Romney's paternal grandfather Gaskell Romney (1871–1955), fathered George Wilcken Romney, however, remained in Mexico until...

Mitt Romney has been the frontrunner for several months but Sarah Palin has been steadily climbing and closing the gap. It is essentially dead even, as of today, but for the first time she has a small lead and it is expected she will pull ahead. Intrade represents a type of stock market which trades in predictions regarding outcomes of future events. If you believe that Sarah Palin will be the Republican nominee in 2012, you can purchase a "contract" for the prevailing price, currently 25.8. Romney is currently 26.0. This price is determined by the contact traders themselves (anyone...