Free Republic

SAN DIEGO — Mitt Romney's unexpected step into the 2016 presidential contest is drawing enthusiasm from the GOP's most passionate conservatives. But not because they want him to win. For the first time in recent memory, prominent conservatives see a Republican presidential field that could have as much competition among the party's establishment-minded prospects — like Romney — as its fiery conservatives....

Liberals don't want to jinx it. It terrifies the right. And the press would prefer a nail-biter. But the fact is that finding Romney's path to victory is getting harder every day. There's a secret lurking behind everything you're reading about the upcoming election, a secret that all political insiders know—or should—but few are talking about, most likely because it takes the drama out of the whole business. The secret is the electoral college, and the fact is that the more you look at it, the more you come to conclude that Mitt Romney has to draw an inside straight...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney attracting 49% of the vote, while President Obama earns support from 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. The numbers are similar to the 49% to 43% advantage Romney enjoys on the question of who is trusted more to handle the economy.

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thundered out those captivating words at his first inaugural speech in 1933. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney must seriously confront the political ghosts haunting his decision to let Sarah Palin speak at the GOP National Convention in August in Tampa, FL. Allow Palin to speak so that a Romney administration can turn economic retreat by Obama into economic advance. This is the time when Romney has the...

In a rare, unscripted moment, Mitt Romney joked with Brian Williams after the famed NBC anchor asked the Republican presidential candidate would pick a “incredibly boring white guy” for Vice President, as reported by Politico. “You told me you were not available,” Romney said with a chuckle. “Touche, governor,” Williams responded.

A whole raft of economic survey information released recently shows a leaky economy is threatening to help sink Obama’s reelection chances this fall. On Thursday, pollster Rasmussen published results of their daily consumer confidence numbers showing the index at its lowest point at any time since the start of 2012.“The Rasmussen Consumer Index,” writes Rasmussen, “which measures consumer confidence on a daily basis, fell another point on Thursday to the lowest level of 2012. At 78.5, confidence is down three points from a week ago, down three points from a month ago and down 11 points from three months ago....

Republicans are kidding themselves if they believe Mitt Romney, at least his current iteration, can win the election merely by attacking Barack Obama. Given Romney’s lack of conservative principles, perhaps that is for the best. Who is Mitt Romney? What does he believe? Where are his core principles? There is no need to seek penitence if you don’t know the answer to the preceding questions. After all, no one could provide a consistent answer. Romney was for gun control before he was the NRA’s proudest supporter, for health care reform before he championed the repeal of Romneycare (excuse me, Obamacare),...

In a campaign in which candidate gaffes have helped fuel a relentless barrage of attack ads on both sides, President Obama has been far quicker than Republican challenger Mitt Romney to jump to his own defense. Obama's rapid-response effort -- in which any criticism of the candidate is swiftly rebutted in the media -- has so far proven far more reliable and effective than Romney's and that's starting to concern some Republicans. Romney had been scoring points against Obama by mocking the president's claim to business owners that "you didn't build that." So the president responded with an ad of...

Powerful conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., thinks former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin deserves a prime speaking position at the Republican convention. "I'd love to see Sarah Palin have a big slot — as far as speaking — because there's no one still in America that excites the base of conservatives and even libertarians as she does,” he told Fox News Thursday. “She can draw a crowd more than any other Republican, and I think has more influence in primaries than any other endorsement right now, so I think she'd be good."

Which candidate do you trust more on issues of national security? Barack Obama - 77% Mitt Romney - 23% Total Votes: 4,127 Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Completely ignoring her original CPAC speech claiming that the GOP would loose if Mitt Romney was their nominee, she and others proceeded to make the exact opposite case that ONLY Mitt Romney had a chance in hell of winning in November.  It seems hell is closed for expansion renovations.A new Economist/YouGov poll shows that twice as many Americans believe that Mitt Romney eliminated many jobs as opposed to creating many.  Wasn’t this supposed to be his big selling point?Remember, all the reasons the RINO’s, and betraying turncoats like Coulter, gave us to toss aside the most powerful conservative Speaker...

She is the Tea Party diva who lit up the 2008 Presidential campaign. But four years later Mitt Romney is facing one of the most vexing questions of his campaign: what to do with Sarah Palin? In an increasingly uncomfortable stand-off, he has not invited her to next month’s Republican national convention whilst she has failed to give him her full backing. --snip-- The result is that the Republican presidential candidate is left without the endorsement of a woman who can energise his base in a way he can only dream of. The former Massachusetts governor - who is so...

(BOWLING GREEN, Ohio) -- Back in May, Mitt Romney was criticized for not immediately rebuking a woman at a town hall who said President Obama “should be tried for treason” with democrats saying he stood “silently” during attacks on the president. But Wednesday, during a town hall in the battleground state of Ohio, Romney didn’t miss a beat when one woman referred to Obama as a job-killing “monster.” The woman, who did not identify herself to the crowd more than saying she is an “angry mom,” was telling Romney about her son’s struggling business and said, “He’s had to lay...

Rahm Emanuel to Mitt Romney: ‘Stop Whining’Jul 15, 2012 12:41pm Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said this morning on “This Week” that presumptive GOP nominee for president Mitt Romney should “stop whining” about attacks on his Bain record and just defend himself. “What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something to you or Putin says something to you?” said Emanuel. ”I give him his own advice. ’Stop whining.’ Defend — if you want to claim Bain Capital as your calling card to the White House, then defend what happened to Bain Capital.”

Host Bob Schieffer says he has just found out that Romney is running an ad during the commercial breaks “using me….It is something we didn’t know about when this broadcast started" . Schieffer says, “obviously, I have no connection with the Romney campaign. It was done without our permission. It comes as a total surprise to me”...(2 videos)

Jay Severin -- one of Romney's biggest supporters and a professional campaign manager -- spoke about the state of the presidential campaign. After first acknowledging that Independents do not like negative ads, he stated that unless Romney starts fighting as hard against Obama as Obama is against him, Romney loses. It's that clear to so many people on the right. Why Romney is being Mr. Rogers is open to debate. Romney is of the 50s and 60s generation, when the idea of an Obama in public office would have been regarded as either a stupid joke or alternate universe science...

Dear Mr. Romney: Since you apparently have advisors that are very clever people, perhaps a word from a troglodyte like me might be refreshing. In the last two weeks, you have tried to explain the difference between "off-shoring" and "outsourcing" with respect to the economy, and despite the great gift handed to you by our addled Chief Justice, John Roberts, you insisted on playing a semantical game between calling Obamacare a "constitutional tax" or an "unconstitutional penalty." Let me give you a clue: the overwhelming number of people who understand and/or appreciate the nuances in such parsing of the language...

In a sign that Mitt Romney's campaign team plans to adjust following growing criticism from fellow Republicans, CBS News has learned that Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden will soon be taking on a larger and more visible role within the campaign. Sources tell CBS News that Madden will be spending more time on the road with Romney and is likely to become a more public presence as a TV spokesperson for the candidate. He will hit the road with Romney next week, following Romney's New Hampshire vacation. This move to make Madden a more public face of the campaign...

Kevin Madden, a Republican communications expert with long ties to Mitt Romney, will become a more frequent and visible spokesman for the presidential campaign, a source close to the decision said on Friday. The increased responsibilities for Mr. Madden came in the wake of criticism from nervous Republicans about Mr. Romney’s campaign team. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the campaign “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb.”

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Mitt Romney is planning to fortify his communications and messaging team by adding seasoned operatives, advisers close to the campaign said Thursday, after withering criticism from prominent conservative voices that his insular team has fumbled recent opportunities. Romney’s advisers insisted that he would keep his inner circle intact amid growing concerns about the Republican presidential candidate and his campaign. The tempest began with a weekend tweet from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and burst Thursday onto the pages of his newspaper the Wall Street Journal, as its conservative editorial board opined that Romney’s advisers were “slowly squandering an...