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Just before Thanksgiving last year, a group of former aides to Mitt Romney convened at his salmon-colored Belmont home, many of them gathering for the first time since Romney had disbanded his presidential campaign some nine months before. Romney had invited them for a post-mortem of the election weeks earlier, the type of dispassionate assessment that the Harvard Business School alumnus so enjoyed. But over cookies, they found few of the metrics for success that Romney prized -- Republicans had been decisively thumped at all levels -- and his attention shifted from 2008 to the future.

Don't trust him. He's a RINO. Worse than a RINO. He's the enemy within. You never know where he honestly stands on any issue. What he promises today, he flips on tomorrow. It all depends on which way the political winds are blowing and which office he's running for. He's a liar. He's a big government socialist. His RomneyCare state run health care system is a big government boondoggle. It's tyranny. Government provided, er, forced health care is tyranny not freedom or free markets. Do not believe the socialist propaganda supporting such nonsense. Socialized medicine is simply another step to...

After only two months of the Obama presidency, Americans are horrified, angry, depressed, and on the verge of full-scale revolt against the president and his toadying Socialist acolytes for doing their best to destroy our once-vibrant economy, inflict decades of debt on our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and usher in what historians will surely record as The Age of The Hubristic and Incompetent Presidency. This assessment is borne out by polls, man-and-woman-in-the-street interviews, escalating unemployment figures, and creeping inflation which threatens to become the hyperinflation that will put the final nail in an economy that up until 2006 – when...

Barack Obama on his “Most Excellent World Tour” (The Iraq Stop) defends his position that the surge in Iraq did not work. In an interview on ABC (All Barack Channel) Obama would not acknowledge that the surge in Iraq has been successful. (Video Included)

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Senator Barack Obama was confronted with a question at a town hall in Powder Spring, GA that has plagued him since the start of his general election campaign: has he been flip-flopping and moving more toward the center, and can he make his Iraq position clear? The question came from a former Republican, who worked for Bobby Kennedy when he was 15. Although the man called the flip-flopping charges, “nonsense,” he asked the Illinois Senator to clear up any confusion. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” Obama shot back quickly....

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fraudulent Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears. The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the detective work of independent investigative journalists and imaging professionals in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate the Daily Kos,...

02/14/08 by Antenna Wilde On Feb. 13th Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would try to advance a revision bill (S.2248) that would prohibit the CIA from using interrogation techniques not authorized by the U.S.Army Field Manual. "Agreeing on one standard of interrogation will help restore our moral leadership in the world, and certainly that is needed," said Reid. "In the long run, torture does not help the United States. The information isn't reliable, puts our troops at risk and undermines our counterinsurgency efforts." This echoed the long held opinion of Sen.John McCain, R-Az., who was expected to be...

02/14/08 by Antenna Wilde Let me say first, that I have always admired Senator McCain's adamant stance against the use of torture, and have often defended that position against some McCain bashers I've encountered in the blogosphere. Now, however, I'm feeling like a belittled idiot. On Feb. 13th Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would try to advance a revision bill (S.2248) that would prohibit the CIA from using interrogation techniques not authorized by the U.S.Army Field Manual. "Agreeing on one standard of interrogation will help restore our moral leadership in the world, and certainly that is needed," said...

(CNN) — Mitt Romney predicted Sunday his party's conservative base will rally behind him on Super Tuesday in order to prevent John McCain from winning the Republican nomination. "What I have to do is continue to see what's been happening the last few days, specifically that is conservatives across the country are saying, 'whoa, we have to get behind Mitt Romney,'" he said on CNN's Late Edition. "You've got people like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham and the list goes on and on and on — Hugh Hewitt, Lars Larson — conservative voices, both from radio and from publications, are...

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 4 /Christian Newswire/ -- Peter LaBarbera, founder of Republicans For Family Values, today criticized GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his "novel pro-homosexual positioning in the GOP." On Dec. 16, Romney (the alleged "conservative" in the race) told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "it makes sense at the state level" to enact pro-homosexual "sexual orientation" laws. (Last week, CNN's Roland Martin reported that Romney told him that he opposes "gay marriage," but supports "gay rights.") LaBarbera issued the following statement: Mitt Romney just doesn't get it on the homosexual agenda, and if he doesn't get at after...

Only a fool, or maybe a couple of talk radio hucksters, would consider wasting a vote come Tuesday on our native carpetbagger, Mitt Romney. And to tell you the truth, I think the allegiance of the radio blow-hards is as much a scam as Mitt’s allegiance to Massachusetts. You didn’t need to be George Will to figure out what the deal was when Mitt and the lovely Ann blew back into town from Salt Lake City with their matching black leather Olympic jackets five years ago. Mitt Romney was in a rush to pick up what Humphrey Bogart stashed inside...

NEW YORK -- One of campaign 2008's mysteries is Mitt Romney's free ride from pro-lifers. His anti-abortion declarations are eloquent, as is everything the silver-tongued former Massachusetts governor utters. But once again his rhetoric is at war with his record. "Many, many years ago, I had a dear, close family relative that was very close to me who passed away from an illegal abortion," Romney said while challenging Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy's 1994 re-election. Since then, Romney and his family decided "we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter." Romney...

As he tries to regain his footing after a tough loss in Florida's presidential primary, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney faces an unusual problem for a presidential hopeful: making sure he carries his home state. The Florida results this week have added to momentum for Romney's chief rival, US Senator John McCain, and some analysts see that surge spilling over into Massachusetts as the GOP primary season heads into next week's Super Tuesday contests in 21 states. Adding to potential problems for Romney is his declining popularity in the state. Romney antagonized many in the local GOP during his single...

DENVER, Jan. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- A new 527 political group, American Right To Life Action (ARTLaction.com), has sent 524,000 anti-Romney emails targeted primarily to Florida registered Republican voters. The text of that email: American Right To Life: Evidence proves Romney is Pro-abortion American Right To Life Action is proving to voters that Mitt Romney's record, below, is recently and aggressively pro-abortion. The group's ARTLaction.com site documents Romney's recent promotion of abortion with links to official government websites, Romney's own campaign, mainstream sources, and audio and video clips of the candidate himself. Mitt Romney claims, "On every piece of legislation,...

The EcoCons and the conservative Eastern GOP elites praise the business acumen of the vain BAIN CAPITALIST of the GOP presidential race, Willard Mitt "the Flip" Romney. According to the establishment elites, Mitt’s the ONE who understands all of that complicated economic jibber-jabber that just has to be a mystery to all of the other candidates. And even the Gucci Chameleon himself dares voters to look at his record. But just as when Gary Hart threw down such a gauntlet (albeit on his sleazy personal life), glancing behind the tidal wave of TV ads isn’t pretty. If Mitt’s the job-creating,...

(CNSNews.com) - According to recent reports, the cost of Massachusetts' health insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), meanwhile, has been on the presidential campaign trail praising the program he put into place. According to The Boston Globe, the cost increase is largely due to an increase in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized health insurance. State and federal taxpayers are likely to shoulder the cost increase. "Essentially, the people who signed up under the mandate were the people who were getting subsidies," said Michael Tanner, director of...

Reporters don't like to call politicians liars, even when they lie. We tend to use euphemisms — "at odds with the facts" being a favorite. But Mitt Romney is a liar — a flagrant repeat offender. Everyone knows it, and the press doesn't quite know what to do about it. Yesterday, Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson couldn't take it anymore, interrupting Romney when he said, "I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists that are tied to my —" "That's not true," Johnson interjected. "Ron Kaufman's a lobbyist." Kaufman, a longtime Massachusetts politico and a lobbyist, has...

The Republican candidates all played nice in Thursday’s debate, and they have all played nice on the airwaves. Not a single negative advertisement has been aired on real television in Florida. However, most of the campaigns have been using the internet quite liberally to slap around their foes. Not that “liberal” is a word that Republicans like to use. In fact, the latest web-missive from the Romney campaign is an internet-only ad called “Democrats’ Favorite Republican.” It basically says John McCain isn’t Republican enough for the Republican primary in Florida. Canidates release web-only ads, because they don’t want to spend...

AS FORMER Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared his Presidential candidacy, he could not have been more telegenic. With his angular jaw and slicked-back, dark hair, Romney is the GOP's George Clooney. Who needs the White House? Romney should become a movie star. He already is a highly skilled actor. Romney is either a rock-ribbed conservative who played a Rockefeller Republican to get elected in Massachusetts, or a limousine liberal portraying a conservative to win the 2008 GOP nomination. This fine thespian has lost himself so thoroughly in both these roles that no one really knows where the performer ends and...

MEDIA ADVISORY, Jan. 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- American RTL Action president Steve Curtis is challenging the wisdom and pro-life leadership of Ann Coulter for her endorsement of pro-abortion Mitt Romney for president. The group's ARTLaction.com site documents Romney's recent promotion of child killing with links to official government websites, Romney's own campaign, mainstream sources, and audio and video clips of the candidate himself: Mitt Romney claims, "On every piece of legislation, I came down on the side of life." "That is a lie," said Curtis, former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. In April 2006 Romney signed the Massachusetts Health...

Mitt Romney (R) vs. Barack Obama (D) Hotline/FD Obama 56%, Romney 26% CNN Obama 59%, Romney 37% USA Today/Gallup Obama 57%, Romney 39% Real Clear Politics Average Obama 54.3%, Romney 35.3%

As former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney looks ahead to Saturday’s GOP doubleheader, his campaign is banking on a big win in Nevada while ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Arizona Sen. John McCain rip each other apart in South Carolina. Few recent polls have taken the political temperature in Nevada, but Romney’s internal polling shows him in serious contention for the top spot there. Romney advisers were quick to point out he will hardly be absent from South Carolina, where he is scheduled to follow the media swarm today. “No one is conceding anything in South Carolina,” said Romney senior...

DETROIT - Mitt Romney scored his first major primary victory Tuesday in his native Michigan, a win he desperately needed to give his weakened candidacy new life and set the stage for a three-man Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days.

DETROIT -- It may just be that this time, momentum is on Romney’s side as he battles here to win the early primary in Michigan. Romney took the stage at the bottom of a large atrium at Lawrence Technological University here before one of his wildest, most roaring audiences in weeks. Red foam mitts and long, red balloons dotted the crowd of more than 500, and a big chunk of supporters were decked out in multiple articles of Romney gear. When Romney launched into his now standard lines about the trouble with Washington, he fell into a call-and-response with the...

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has reversed his position on a federal ban aimed at workplace smoking and now believes the issue should be addressed by state and local governments. The about-face is apparent in a Huckabee campaign statement, sent to The Hill Tuesday evening in response to questions about the smoking ban proposal. It clashes with the stance Huckabee has taken during his race for the White House and with his record as governor of Arkansas, when he signed into law a measure prohibiting smoking in most indoor public places. (snip) Huckabee’s campaign, however, is backtracking. In its statement...

Mr Romney was the third Republican victor in the first four states to vote in the 2008 primary season, further roiling a volatile nomination fight that lacks a clear favorite. The former Massachusetts governor defeated John McCain, the veteran Arizona senator who was hoping that independents and Democrats would join Republicans to help him repeat his 2000 triumph here against George W. Bush. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, trailed in third, and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson was waiting for the top three candidates in South Carolina, already campaigning. Mr McCain said he had called Romney to congratulate him...

Brit Hume just called it.

"Michigan is like the canary in the mine shaft," Republican White House contender Willard Mitt Romney told voters in Warren Friday. "What happens in Michigan is going to happen to the rest of the country." He also claims in a campaign commercial, "I understand how the economy works. There's a lot we can do to strengthen Michigan." One could take Romney seriously as an architect of economic redevelopment if he had displayed such skills as Massachusetts governor. Instead, his reign was a parade of economic stagnation and retreat. He even advocated an SUV-tax increase that would have hammered the very...

January 12, 2008 -- IT looks like this year's primaries have put "pander bears" on the endan gered-species list. Bay State Sen. Paul Tsongas coined the phrase in 1992 to describe his Democratic primary opponent, Bill Clinton. But it's the Republican electorate that's punishing the fakes and frauds this year. - Of course, that Romney would be losing because he's viewed as a phony is no surprise. He's had a lot of "conversion" stories to tell on the campaign trail, and voters find it hard to trust a flip-flopper. Giuliani's pandering isn't stifling him in the same way - yet....

I was asked in another thread to explain my preference for Mike Huckabee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951938/posts?page=191#191 While I expect to receive several negative responses to the following answer, I am posting here in an attempt to raise the bar. Here goes. In 2007, I was looking into the future presidential season with a sense of trepidation because of the contentious nature that it always seems to have. I was anxiously hopeful, but not enthusiastic about the process, or any of the candidates, but I made a point of watching the initial debates and watching a lot of C-Span coverage. Fully expecting to...

While former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is counting on his home state of Michigan to deliver him a key primary win next week, he faces fierce competition from both the left and the right in the form of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Some Republican moderates in Michigan who backed Romney's father, George, the state's governor in the 1960s, view his son's emphasis on conservative values with skepticism. "I was an original Romney girl," said JoAnn VanTassel, who served as township supervisor of Lake Orion, Mich. and is backing McCain. "I knew both George and...

Mike Huckabee yesterday contradicted his own top immigration surrogate, announcing he will not support a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens. It was a stark reversal after The Washington Times reported that James Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, said Huckabee promised to pursue an amendment to the Constitution. In an article in yesterday's editions, Huckabee's spokeswoman did not challenge the former Arkansas governor's statements to Gilchrist...But by yesterday afternoon, Huckabee had backed away..."I do not support an amendment to the Constitution that would prevent children born in the U.S....

(CNSNews.com) - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney found himself over the weekend defending the near-universal health insurance plan he succeeded in implementing in 2006 as Massachusetts governor. It is a program, however, that some conservative pro-life leaders claim has had the consequence of advancing abortion and Planned Parenthood. Romney answered questions about the plan from ABC's Charlie Gibson and fellow Republican candidates during the GOP debate at New Hampshire's St. Anselm College on Saturday. "A lot of people have ideas about health care and improving health care," Romney said. "We took the ideas and actually made them work in our...

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan. 4 /Christian Newswire/ -- Peter LaBarbera, founder of the Republicans For Family Values website, issued the following statement on Mitt Romney's stunning Iowa Caucuses defeat Thursday: There is a story the media missed in its reporting of Mitt Romney's humiliating loss in Iowa to the comparatively vastly under-funded Mike Huckabee: how a dogged "truth campaign" by pro-family advocates -- mostly from Romney's own state of Massachusetts -- to educate social conservatives on his liberal record on abortion and homosexuality helped seal his defeat. Much as Romney tried to run away from his pro-abortion and pro-gay past --...

HAS Gov. Mitt Romney become more conservative in the past few years or has he shrewdly tacked to the right to get the Republican presidential nomination? We don't know. What we do know is that Romney's record involves more than just switching from a few liberal positions to a few conservative ones. It represents wholesale conversions on issue after issue, sometimes back and forth, and with some false biographical statements thrown in. Any candidate for office is allowed to change his mind. People learn new facts or have personal experiences that bring them to new understandings. Not every switch is...

NBC’s Ann Curry interviewed Mitt Romney on Friday morning's Today on the impact of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and in a tough interview, she dismissed Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy credentials. When Curry questioned Romney’s foreign policy experience, Romney noted that Reagan "was a governor, not a so-called foreign policy expert." Curry dismissively stated "Reagan was not elected at a time of war." No, Reagan was just elected in an intense point in the Cold War. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan and U.S. diplomats were still being held hostage in Iran. Romney did say that Reagan was "elected at a time of...

WARNINGS ARE written like a billboard all over Mitt Romney. He has used his fortune to buy the most transparently shameless act of political plastic surgery I've ever seen. His blatant flip flops on a laundry list of key issues are pure calculation to win conservative votes. His loose regard for truth puts him in league with Bill and Hillary Clinton. To measure Mitt Romney's allegiance to our party, look no further than the words of top Massachusetts Republicans who have seen him in operation over four years. Former Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci, former state treasurer Joe Malone, former state...

CHICAGO, December 26, /Christian Newswire/ -- Peter LaBarbera, longtime pro-family advocate and founder of the Republicans For Family Values website, is calling on pro-family leaders who have endorsed Mitt Romney to withdraw their support for his candidacy in light of his recent comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" supporting pro-homosexual "sexual orientation" state laws. "Mitt Romney's Christmas present to the homosexual lobby disqualifies him as a pro-family leader," LaBarbera said. "Laws that treat homosexuality as a civil right are being used to promote homosexual 'marriage,' same-sex adoption and pro-homosexuality indoctrination of schoolchildren. These same laws pose a direct threat to...

As we reported on the blog yesterday, a group calling itself American Right to Life Action, is running TV ads against Mitt Romney here in Iowa on the Fox News Channel. In Tuftonboro, N.H., Romney said about the ad, from ABC News' Matt Stuart, "I don't know who that is. I'd be interested to know who is really behind that group. I'm very proud that the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which is the premier right-to-life group in Massachusetts, awarded me their leadership award. My record in being pro-life is very clear as the governor of Massachusetts and my guess is...

YOU'VE SEEN the cover stories. You've heard the jokes. Mitt Romney's flip flops have provided endless fodder for the late night talk show circuit. But just beneath the humorous surface lies the Democratic strategy for defeating a Romney ticket come November, and history shows this strategy works. American voters don't trust chronic flip floppers. Sure, everyone is free to switch a position here and there, but too many changes of heart and you risk offending the country's sense of integrity and fair play. George Bush's 2004 victory over John Kerry is a great example. My Democratic friends groan when I...

Contact: Press Office, 571-730-1010; www.Fred08.com MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 19 /Standard Newswire/ -- According to an article in today's Weekly Standard, advisers to Mitt Romney have been attacking Fred Thompson on campaign finance reform. This is ironic given Mitt Romney's past support for publically financed elections, campaign spending limits, and abolishing political action committees. 2002: Romney Went Further Than McCain-Feingold And Supported Public Financing Of Campaigns By Taxing Political Contributions. "...he suggested an alternative funding method. Instead of providing campaign funds from state coffers, his plan would tap 10 percent of the fundraising of candidates who choose to raise money privately."...

Mitt Romney's campaign has normally run with the smooth efficiency the candidate -- a former venture capitalist -- himself exudes. But cracks have begun to show, perhaps indicating the strains since his frontrunner status in Iowa was stolen by Mike Huckabee. Last Sunday, Mr. Romney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and twice claimed he had won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in his 2002 race for governor of Massachusetts. Wrong. While Mr. Romney got a respectable "B" rating from the NRA, it was his Democratic opponent, Shannon O'Brien, who actually got an "A" grade from the gun-rights...

Romney On MLK Recollections: Look Up "Saw" In The Dictionary Mitt Romney has been forced to get into some serious verbal gymnastics over his previous declaration about seeing his father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, marching with Martin Luther King. A close examination of the historical records shows that the elder Romney, while he was a strong support of civil rights, never actually appeared with King. "I've tried to be as accurate as I can be," Romney told reporters. "If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of — in...

Hillary Clinton has been a much better senator than Barack Obama. She has been a serious, substantive lawmaker who has worked effectively across party lines. Obama has some accomplishments under his belt, but many of his colleagues believe that he has not bothered to master the intricacies of legislation or the maze of Senate rules. He talks about independence, but he has never quite bucked liberal orthodoxy or party discipline. If Clinton were running against Obama for Senate, it would be easy to choose between them. But they are running for president, and the presidency requires a different set of...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Democrat Hillary Clinton got visibly emotional at an Iowa campaign event Monday morning designed to showcase a softer side of the New York senator. Flanked by childhood friends and constituents who each offered testimonials on the Democratic presidential candidate, a glassy-eyed Clinton spoke noticeably softer than most past appearances on the stump. "It is very exciting for me to have so many of my friends from my entire life who have come out here, to talk with Iowans, to answer questions, to give you some insight and information about our relationships, about what I've been trying to...

Hard to conjure up that image but it's true. Thomspon sends out an e-mail blast taking issue with Romney's statement today on MTP that "every piece of legislation which came to my desk in the coming years as a Governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." The "fact check" includes this: "Romney's health care legislation provides taxpayer-funded abortions for a co-pay of just $50. Romney vetoed EIGHT provisions in his health care bill that he deemed objectionable, including the expansion of dental benefits to Medicaid recipients. He did not veto Planned Parenthoods' guaranteed position...

Mitt Romney is worried about religious intolerance. He fears religious and nonreligious people will unite to punish him because of his Mormon faith. He thinks it would be much more in keeping with America's noblest traditions if Mormons and other believers joined together to punish people of no faith. On Thursday, Romney showed up at the George H.W. Bush Library in College Station, Texas, to announce that even if it costs him the White House, his Mormonism is non-negotiable. That came as a relief to those who suspected he would defuse the issue by undergoing a Methodist baptism. Like John...

It is hard to say whether Mike Huckabee is betrayed more often by his memory or his principles. Running for president, at any rate, is hectic and may just stretch our former governor’s capacity. Huckabee has told many untruths about his record and his past stands during the course of the long campaign for the Republican presidential nomination but one of the strangest occurred in Iowa the other day. A big part of his campaign in that state where evangelical conservatives predominate in the Republican Party has been his staunch and unrelenting opposition to abortion. While most of his Republican...

Conservative and liberal bloggers alike are buzzing about Mitt Romney's alleged statement to an Islamic businessman that he "cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified" for a Muslim, based on the percentage of Muslims in the U.S. Romney quickly disputed businessman Mansoor Ijaz's account of their exchange, but Ijaz stands by his telling. To make matters worse for Romney, TPM Election Central just dropped another bomb: apparently two NV GOPers had asked Romney a similar question several months ago and gotten a similar answer, which one of them even described as "racist." Will this hurt Romney among IA...

A Republican abortion-rights group is set to begin an advertising offensive against Mitt Romney on Sunday in Iowa and New Hampshire, attacking him as a flip-flopper on the issue. The group, Republican Majority for Choice, will begin airing a 30-second spot in both states that highlights some of Mr. Romney’s past statements on abortion, starting with the clip that has been around for months on YouTube from his U.S. Senate campaign against Senator Edward M. Kennedy when he pledged to support abortion rights. The group will also run full-page ads in the Des Moines Register, Concord Monitor and Manchester Union...