Free Republic

As evidence against my skepticism of Sarah Palin’s supposed front-runner status for 2012, I give you the latest round of Public Policy Center polls: PPP’s newest batch of 2012 Republican primary polls conducted right before last week’s election finds Mitt Romney ahead in the critical early state of Florida, Tim Pawlenty surprisingly weak in his home state of Minnesota, and Sarah Palin posting leads in Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Maine. All of her leads are relatively slim, but the fact that she’s ahead of Huckabee in Texas and West Virginia is notable, and her leads in Maine (by 23...

Tea Party, Shmea Party. Post-election surveys suggest that Mitt Romney still leads as the favored Republican presidential candidate for 2012. His lead looks especially big in New Hampshire: Almost 30 points. Does this big lead translate into a smooth ride to the nomination? That depends on whether Romney's campaign follows the path of George W. Bush's in 2000 — or Hillary Clinton's in 2008. Here's the happy scenario for Romney: Like Bush in 2000, Romney is the Republican heir apparent in 2012. Like Bush, Romney has the backing of the party's biggest donors. Like Bush, Romney has national campaign experience....

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Monday it would be "great" for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to run for president in 2012. "She would be a great thing for the Republican primary process," said Romney, a 2008 presidential candidate and a potential candidate again in 2012. "It'd be a good thing for her to get in." Romney, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) have all rallied around Palin, who on Sunday night condemned suggestions that GOP operatives in Washington were looking to stall any potential presidential aspirations...

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...

FOR MITT Romney, running for president in 2012 looks a lot like running for governor in 2002. All he has to do is elbow aside a Republican woman, run against Democratic leaders and their liberal lockstep politics, and keep talking about the economy. Eight years ago, that was the Massachusetts game plan. After Romney thrust himself into the governor’s race as the can-do candidate with a Harvard MBA, acting Governor Jane Swift took herself out of it. Romney then turned Shannon O’Brien, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and the Democratic leaders of the Massachusetts Legislature, into the so-called “gang of three.’’...

Is O'Reilly in the tank for Romney? I realize this was a charity event, but O'Reilly's snarkiness towards all things Palin leads me to believe that Romney has already made his choice for 2012. http://twitpic.com/2gt3orCheck out Romney's twitter feed for more photos.

In another life, when he had a wife and child by his side, and a home that still belonged to him, Matt Amorello once hosted a fund-raiser for Mitt Romney. Mitt, as you may recall, returned the favor . . . by crucifying Amorello. So much for Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment: Never shank a fellow Republican. I come this morning not to praise Matt Amorello, but to show what his brother Republicans seem incapable of - a little compassion. Let’s return to a steamy July morning in 2006, hours after a 12-ton ceiling panel in the connector tunnel to Logan...

Laura Ingraham was on the Glenn Beck radio show in the last hour this morning...While talking about potential candidates for 2012, She was asked if Romney was a "progressive" she said NO he isn't one of them at all...I've heard that she loves Romney like a Ken doll and is a Romneybot, but this is amazing! She also said that she would take Newt as President in a heartbeat! What gives?

A tantalizing bit of 2012 gossip dropped way, way down in an otherwise fun piece about amnesty shills boo-hooing over having (temporarily) lost McCain. Note to Politico: This is what’s called “burying the lede.” Their hope now is that Republican presidential candidates and former operatives under Bush, a reform proponent, can convince GOP congressional leaders that the issue needs to be dealt with before 2012 — or that they could risk alienating the burgeoning Hispanic vote in the crucial swing states of New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a front-runner for the nomination, has signaled...

If the Republican nomination in 2012 shapes up as a two-way race between former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, expect fireworks to fly. Last week, GOP primary voters caught a glimpse of how things might play out between the two Republican heavyweights when anonymous aides from both camps exchanged pointedly personal barbs. The scuffle began when Time magazine’s Mark Halperin anonymously quoted one Romney aide in a column last Thursday, blasting Palin for her lack of substance, “She’s not a serious human being.” Another aide to the former Massachusetts governor ripped into Palin, arguing, “If...

Oh boy, here we go again. Mitt Romney has his eyes on a major political office -- if only that damned woman would get out of the way! Romney, of course, is running for president in 2012, and has been from the moment he used a comically red meat-laden CPAC speech to depart from the 2008 GOP race. And his prospects, at least for the Republican nomination, aren't bad: He's the next-in-line guy, he'll have plenty of cash, and there just aren't that many other options. But then there's Sarah Palin. She may ultimately decide not to run, but this...

Sarah Palin's recent web video making a pitch to conservative women may have again shifted the political spotlight to the former governor of Alaska, but more than a half dozen other GOP hopefuls are toying seriously with a presidential run this summer. ......................................................... Still, few express much regard for Palin's ultimate chances. One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, "She's not a serious human being." Another Romney intimate warns, "If she's standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she's...

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney, who’s campaigned hard for Republicans across the country as he eyes a presidential run in 2012, earned high praise but couldn’t secure a solid endorsement from some GOP governors yesterday. “I think he’s going to be one of several people that are going to be seriously considered for the nomination,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was recently elected after Romney helped his campaign. “He’s an incredibly talented spokesman for the conservative cause.” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declined to comment on Romney’s 2012 chances yesterday, saying he’s too busy running his own state. Crist...

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...

1. Haley Barbour: Barbour's Republican Governors Association has become the story of the 2010 midterms. The RGA's second quarter fundraising numbers -- $19 million raised, $40 million on hand -- is an eye-popping total that should remind those who have forgotten about Barbour's reach in the GOP donor community. With Republicans poised to make significant gains at the gubernatorial level this fall, Barbour will almost certainly emerge with momentum after the November elections -- momentum that he may seek to channel into a presidential exploratory bid. 2. Mitt Romney: The former Massachusetts governor is slowly and methodically rolling out endorsements...

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney and his strategists expected his Mormon faith to fade as an issue for fundamentalist Christians during his first presidential campaign. This time around, should he choose to run again, they have doubts. ...But even as the national Republican establishment warms to Romney as never before, the former candidate and his closest aides now believe a group of voters will always be off-limits because of his religion. SNIP In Iowa, three-fifths of caucus-goers considered themselves “born-again or evangelical Christian,’’ according to a survey, taken for a media consortium as voters entered the caucuses. SNIP More than one-third...

Nikki Haley may have been the big winner in South Carolina Tuesday, but she isn’t the only Republican whose star is rising in an early state that is key to winning the GOP presidential nomination. Both Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, were also winners in the 2012 sweepstakes. They got behind Haley at critical junctures in her campaign for governor while the rest of the potential GOP presidential field either endorsed another candidate or stayed out of the fray completely. . . . . . . Former Arkansas Gov. Mike...

It appears Mitt Romney is getting a bit nervous as a result of all the well-deserved credit Governor Palin received for helping Nikki Haley in South Carolina, both in the media and by Haley herself. In fact Romney is so nervous he feels compelled to return to South Carolina to campaign for Haley before the runoff on the 22nd. Via the Politico: Former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney will soon travel to South Carolina to stump for Nikki Haley in the state’s runoff of the GOP nomination for governor.

The 2012 presidential election may be 29 months away, but the potential players are stalking each other like chess grandmasters. Tonight's round of gubernatorial and Senate primaries could provide early indicators of who is most shrewdly mobilizing their pieces into position. Three states with big races on Tuesday represent potential game-changers in 2012. Iowa and South Carolina occupy key early positions in the presidential-primary calendar, while California boasts a mother lode of winner-take-all delegates. For presumed hopefuls like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee, the calculation is simple. Endorse a statewide candidate who wins (both tonight and in November's...

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...