Free Republic

For Mitt Romney, the stakes have never been higher. “If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” a top GOP senator told ABC News. Politico’s Mike Allen reported that top Republicans are “poring over filing deadlines” in primary states and are devising a plan that would allow a new candidate to enter the Republican primary, in the event that Romney loses his home state. Enter Michigan Republican governor Rick Snyder. Snyder, who endorsed Romney this week, brushes off Romney’s lagging poll numbers, describing the situation as “very fluid.” “I think it’s still fairly early in the process,” Snyder...

Ron Paul finished ahead of Newt Gingrich on Saturday in a straw poll taken during a Gwinnett County Republican meeting in Suwanee, Suwanee Patch reports. Paul collected 115 votes to Gingrich's 73 in voting at Collins Hill High. Finishing third was former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum with 60 votes. Mitt Romney, currently the overall delegate leader among GOP candidates, got 25 votes. During his speech, Gingrich outlined his presidential plans and called President Obama the "most dangerous president in modern American history." The meeting was just one of Gingrich's campaign stops today. Early Saturday morning, Gingrich, along with former candidate...

[Big SNIP] ....If Romney can't win, he'll be certain that the person who beat him is so damaged, so beaten up by his negative campaign ads that they will have no chance against Obama. Unfortunately for Republicans, it creates a lose-lose situation. Mitt Romney cannot defeat Obama. His flipping and flopping is well documented and will be highlighted by the Obama campaign as the signature of one with a lack of character. He is such a poor speaker in interviews that he attempted to appeal to the middle class by trying to bet Rick Perry $10,000 and later saying that,...

Newt Gingrich’s campaign is threatening to sue TV stations in upcoming primary states that are airing or plan to broadcast an ad from a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC accusing the former House Speaker of supporting the “one-child” Chinese policy that has been criticized as inhumane. The ad in question, which is the work of the Restore Our Future super PAC and is already airing in the former House Speaker’s home state of Georgia, asserts Gingrich “co-sponsored a bill with Nancy Pelosi that would have given $60 million a year to a U.N. program supporting China’s brutal one-child policy.” A letter...

The central narrative of the Republican nomination contest is easy to summarize: Any candidate who is perceived as the main opponent to Mitt Romney immediately ties or leads Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum's surge tracks with recent precedent. His support is about the same as Rick Perry's at his peak. A little higher than Herman Cain's crest. A little lower than Newt Gingrich's pinnacle. But Santorum is not only Romney's latest challenger, he is the most serious. Perry did not possess presidential-level skills. Cain lacked any apparent qualification for high office. Gingrich managed to systematically confirm every doubt about his style...

The Republican presidential primary just won’t quit. Despite the tacit and vocal assumptions of state GOP organizers in January, no candidate has gathered overwhelming momentum just yet. The race did not, in fact, wrap itself up quickly: Instead, Mitt Romney won New Hampshire, Florida, and (tentatively) Maine; Rick Santorum won Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado; Newt Gingrich won South Carolina; and the campaign persists. Now, thanks to delayed primaries in two significant states, the race could take even longer, and a back-loaded calendar could make late May and early June an important time for the candidates. The Texas Republican Party announced...

Mitt Romney campaigned this week in Michigan with Republican Governor Rick Snyder who said: “Our country has never elected a president born and raised in Michigan.” Given the oafish way Mitt Romney is campaigning, it never will. Mitt Romney is doing in Michigan what he did in South Carolina, when Republican Governor Nikki Haley endorsed him and Newt Gingrich promptly thumped him. In Minnesota, Republican ex-Governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed Mitt Romney just in time for another thumping, this time by Rick Santorum. His plan is to line up the party’s establishment and beat up on his opponents in the race....

Last Saturday, the Maine Republican Party declared Mitt Romney the winner of the Maine caucuses. The non-binding caucuses were a low turnout affair, but Romney's victory over Ron Paul - who he beat by less than 200 votes - was a chance for Romney to reclaim some momentum in the wake of Rick Santorum's three-state sweep four days earlier. Now, however, it looks like Romney could ultimately be stripped of that victory. If that happens, it will be the second time this cycle Romney has been stripped of a caucus victory. The first came in Iowa, where Santorum was declared...

Mitt Romney will not take part in March 1 debate in Georgia, the final debate before Super Tuesday on March 6, his campaign said Thursday. And Rick Santorum looks like he will sit it out as well. [snip] By not attending the debate, Romney’s campaign appears to be trying to de-emphasize its importance and instead relying on his overwhelming financial advantage on the airwaves. Romney’s campaign and a super PAC supporting him have all but drowned out their opponents with ads. The debate is in the state Gingrich represented in the U.S. House, but both Romney and Santorum have signaled...

The SuperPAC promoting Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign is unleashing radio ads Thursday in three key states as well as nationally on popular conservative talk shows. The target of the independent group’s attack ads isn’t Rick Santorum, who has surged to the front of the race, but rather Mr. Gingrich’s favorite nemesis, Mitt Romney, along with the faceless enemy known as the Republican “establishment.” The five ads called “Time to Choose” – two run a full minute, the others go 30 seconds – build on Mr. Gingrich’s own increasingly angry statements in the past two months about the GOP “establishment” and...

WASHINGTON -- There is a grisly pallor that has beset former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Then, too, there is a lumpiness: to his face, to his features, to his – well -- to his lump. When he walks into a room I feel rather sorry for him, but then I feel rather sorry for Bill Clinton too and for Hillary. No longer do I call her "Bill's lovely wife, Bruno." She looks grandmotherly rather than tough. I guess maybe her coeval from the 1960s generation of student government goody-goodies, Newt, looks grandfatherly rather than brainy. What does Al...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will speak on campus Monday night, Hillsdale College administrators and representatives from his campaign confirmed. Students have also invited Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney to speak at what could be the college’s first presidential candidate symposium. At press time, their campaigns had not committed to the event. Santorum said he was looking forward to visiting Hillsdale to participate in the forum. “I am excited to share my vision for a brighter America, and the life experiences that have helped shape those positions,” Santorum said. The Hillsdale College Constitution Symposium, a coalition of students...

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on Newt Gingrich to tell the Justice Department to release its records of the House Ethics Committee's investigaiton of his conduct. From a news release: "The committee inquiry centered on Mr. Gingrich’s use of tax-exempt organizations for political purposes and he was ultimately sanctioned for making false statements to Congress. The ethics committee forwarded its files to DOJ and the IRS for further action in 1997. Last month, CREW sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to both federal agencies requesting the records. This week, DOJ denied CREW’s...

Could there be a real awakening - the removal of the Establishment's shackles from elected officials and their votes - if Americans vote in a non-Romney nominee? I imagine the GOP Establishment cringes at the idea - the spectacle and sense of power that would create [shrink government; states' rights, remove Federal Agencies.....] in "We the People!" This conservative "revolution" could have positive consequences outside of the Executive. Will our elected officials' loyalty return to their constituents and away from their fear of party leadership's power over their re-election fate? Will they remember who they serve? Will more conservatives rally...

While Ron Paul is still in search of his first win of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, one of his Iowa strategists, A.J. Spiker, was elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. Spiker will fill out the remainder of Matt Strawn’s second term, which will end in January. Strawn resigned after being criticized for his handling of the Iowa Caucus results and the ensuing certification process. The selection of Spiker by the Republican State Central Committee (SCC) has raised questions from some Republican activists. Spiker is an unabashed supporter of Ron Paul and was on his payroll. Since being...

.........Verniece Zorn, a 70-year-old retired printing company worker, said she made a promise to herself years ago that if Gingrich ever ran for president, she would support him. She liked the newsletters he had sent her as a Georgia congressman. Zorn, who identifies herself as an evangelical Christian, said she has looked beyond Gingrich’s multiple marriages and acknowledged infidelities, and she believes he is the most capable leader in the race. “None of us are perfect. We all have our little hang-ups,” said Zorn, of Stockbridge. “He’s my first choice. I believe he knows more than all of them put...

The Houston Chronicle is reporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry is quietly fundraising for Newt Gingrich, the man he endorsed for president when he dropped out of the race. Perry has not made any public speeches on Gingrich's behalf yet. How is Perry raising money for Gingrich? Perry has sent an email to potential donors with the title "Bold Reagan Conservatives." In the email he touted what he believes are Gingrich's conservative qualities, stating that giving his campaign money would send a message to President Barack Obama.

Mitt Romney wants to be the next president of a country in need of serious and sweeping economic reform. And here are the first two points in his 59-point economic plan: 1. Maintain current tax rates on personal income 2. Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends, and capital gains Now imagine private-equity boss Romney back at Bain Capital sitting down to read his team’s 59-point turnaround plan for some troubled widget maker. And imagine if the first two action items started with the phrase “Maintain current ….” Romney probably wouldn’t bother reading any further before tossing the report in...

Bound by a common desire to deny President Obama a second term, restive activists gathering Thursday for the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington find themselves lacking a clear champion in the suddenly scrambled Republican race to choose an alternative. CPAC attendees — expected to number more than 6,000 from across the country — pride themselves on maintaining varying degrees of independence from the GOP. The three-day gathering kicks off two days after primaries and caucuses in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri raised doubts once again among conservative voters about presumed GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum, a social...

<p>WASHINGTON – Rick Santorum is back! Is Herman Cain next? Do you think Rick Perry is kicking himself for dropping out of this race? Paging Sarah Palin!</p> <p>The keepers of political conven-tional wisdom are sobbing in a bar next to the gamblers who took the Pats and gave the points. Nothing is deterministic in sports or politics. This is why they play the game (and hold the election).</p>

Political reporters make for lousy gravediggers. Find a primary, pick a day, and I can point you to a story pronouncing the campaign “over” or “almost over” or over, pending the judgment of a proverbial Fat Lady. Let’s make it easy and start last month. On Jan. 10, as Romney was winning New Hampshire, NPR quoted a Republican strategist who counted the margins and pronounced the race “over.” On Jan. 18, the Los AngelesTimes informed us that South Carolina’s primary “could essentially end” the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns. Two days later, NBC News told us that a Romney win in...

Sorry, Ann. I have adored you as a commentator, as you know, and appreciate your kind words about me in the past. But in discussing the individual mandate in your piece last week, "Three Cheers for RomneyCare," you honestly don't know what you are talking about. In the process, you are transgressing on my own work and past policy achievements, and grossly undermining the policy and political case against Obamacare. Read on, and I will explain in full. It was me, working for and with conservative health policy guru John Goodman, who first rang the alarm bell for conservatives over...

Johnstown, Colo. — Mitt Romney wrapped up his campaign for Tuesday's Republican presidential contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado with an effort to match his rivals' appeal among religious conservatives who have long resisted his overtures. At a morning rally in this town on the northern Colorado front range, the former Massachusetts governor echoed rival Rick Santorum's fierce attack Monday on an Obama administration rule that will force many religious employers to include birth control in the health plans of their workers. ...It was a rare openly religious appeal from Romney, a Mormon whose faith has drawn wariness among some...

LAS VEGAS – Nevada Republicans early Monday released the final results of their Saturday morning caucuses. As projected, Mitt Romney easily won for a second time after his 2008 victory in the state. Romney finished with 50 percent. Newt Gingrich came in second with 21.1 percent, edging out Ron Paul who had 18.7 percent. Paul won second place in Nevada in 2008. Rick Santorum finished last with 9.9 percent. The results came nearly two days after voters began casting ballots Saturday morning. GOP officials blamed the delay on voting discrepancies and the old-fashioned voting method of handwritten ballots.

Newt Gingrich’s post–Nevada caucus speech included about three minutes of inspired moments about issues and ideas in his usual imaginative and intellectually robust style. So why does he not just stay with that — given that he often seems more dynamic and glib than Romney in his attacks on Obama, and not long ago gained ground despite the attacks against him? Instead, he now turns ad nauseam to the tired reasons why he loses — yes, including lots of Mormons in Nevada — and ends up as Richard Nixon not going to get kicked around any more. But whether he...

SPARKS, Nev. — With Friday’s jobs report punctuating the nation’s steadily improving conditions, Mitt Romney and his advisers are confronting an unexpected economic turnaround that threatens to undercut the central rationale for his candidacy. The Republican presidential front-runner and his advisers moved Friday to adjust their rhetoric on unemployment and rejected the notion that good news for the country spelled bad news for Romney, instead insisting that his economic mission always has been bigger than just jobs....................

.......The Democrats and the Obama re-election machine have sat by and watched the Republican Follies over the past 48 hours, and by doing nothing they have gathered manna from heaven for the upcoming campaign. First, Gingrich is carpet-bombed in Florida, reacts petulantly is taken off his game and forgets what won South Carolina for him... .....Then Romney is seized by foot-in-mouth disease. By claiming he doesn't care about the really poor and would fix any holes in the safety-net he has reinforced the image of a greedy Wall Street banker out to make money at any cost. ....Mitt Romney then...

..Mr. Romney has captured the Republican flag and will carry it into battle this Fall. If he loses, those people who believed devoutly that the times require something more than a standard-issue Republican for whom all things political are negotiable and to whom there is no dispute that cannot be settled by compromise … those people will be saying, "Never again." If, on the other hand, Mr. Romney wins, what then? Does anyone expect that when he gets to Washington and starts running the government like a business, entitlements will reform themselves, the deficit will shrivel on its own accord,...

The owner of the Bunny Ranch in Nevada, featured in an HBO reality series, and several prostitutes are on the record supporting GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul. News Video

CNN) - Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann denied reports that she was negotiating an endorsement of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Bachmann, who suspended her presidential campaign last month, said on Wednesday that she is not ready to back a candidate. "I know there was a lot of speculation earlier today. Governor Romney had gone to Minnesota. People were putting out rumors that I was going to be endorsing. I am not," she said. "I'm not in negotiations to do an endorsement, so I want to make that absolutely clear. I have absolutely no plans to do that."

Fresh off his big win in Florida Tuesday night, Mitt Romney made the most stunningly stupid remark of his campaign. “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there,” Romney said in an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien this morning. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.” "There are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, 'That sounds odd,'" O'Brien...

Mitt Romney's plastic and philosophically vapid campaign secured an easy victory in Florida on Tuesday night. Sunshine state GOP voters swallowed his "electability" argument whole, according to the exit polls. It appears that country club Republicans have succeeded again in duping the GOP electorate into crowning a "centrist" Republican. Never mind that "centrist" Republicans rarely win the center. They usually lose the center while sapping the spirit of the party's conservative base. Out of Bob Dole's and John McCain's tattered Big Tent steps another "reformed" RINO, Mitt Romney, who will receive, should he win the nomination, a similar thumping from...

The Republican primary campaign has highlighted the barely concealed contempt in which Mitt Romney holds the electorate, especially the Republican electorate. One adviser has expressed his astonishment that GOP voters fall for clowns like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich: >>>> “They like preachers,” the adviser said of the tea party demographic. “If you take them to a tent meeting, they’ll get whipped into a frenzy. That’s how people like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich get women to fall into bed with them.”<<<< That is an insult putatively directed at Romney’s rivals, but which reflects heavily on the voters themselves. Another...

In Europe, there has been over the past two years a seismic shift in the opinion of the American president, who was once thought of as an agent for "hope and change" (something many in Europe could not explain either). I have often written about the opinion many in Europe have of Barack Obama. Yesterday one of my favorite columnists, Janet Daley, who writes for The Telegraph in Great Britain, penned an outstanding article clearly calling out Barack Obama for who he is and what he is doing. The title of the piece: "Barack Obama is Trying to Make The...

The RepublicanParty has a tenuous hold on the conservative movement in America. At present the only home for the 40 per cent of the electorate that identify themselves as conservative is the Republican Party, but it appears that those who are nominally identified as the "Republican Establishment" are doing all they can to alienate the vast majority of the current base of the Party. There is no office on ConnecticutAvenue in Washington with a sign reading "The RepublicanEstablishment" or the "The Democratic Establishment"; rather it is an amalgam of like-minded groups with one common interest: control of the government purse-strings....

Will the Tea Party be asking (demanding!) that Senator Marco Rubio (VERY PUBLICLY) ask Mitt Romney's campaign to shut down their "Tom Brokaw" ad -- in light of the fact that when Sen. Rubio VERY PUBLICLY inserted himself in the Florida GOP Primary battle, Newt Gingrich pulled that Romney ad ? Does the Mitt Romney ad of a 14 year old NBC news lead story about Newt Gingrich (charges he was cleared of) offend Sen. Rubio or will he sit silent? Is Sen. Rubio merely an "immigrant issue" politician or is he a fair representative of ALL Floridians? NBC has...

MIAMI — Facing the unthinkable here just seven days ago — a second loss in a row to Newt Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s campaign team hatched a two-part plan to win in Florida: make Newt mad and Mitt meaner. [snip] If Mr. Romney does win here on Tuesday, it will have been through a blistering and unrelenting series of attacks. His campaign has pressed everything at its disposal into service to eviscerate Mr. Gingrich, painting him as an erratic, unreliable Washington insider in mailings and television advertisements, at two critical debates here (where his team made sure Mr. Romney had...

Carlos Perez, one of Ronald Reagan's closest Miami advisers and a Radio Mambi talk host who is influential in Florida's Cuban-American community, says there is growing resentment among Hispanics due to “lies and distortions” from GOP candidate Mitt Romney targeting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Perez told Newsmax in an exclusive interview Saturday afternoon that a backlash is brewing against the Romney campaign’s allegation that Gingrich tried to undermine former President Ronald Reagan’s agenda. Perez was a close adviser to President Reagan, and Reagan even acknowledged his Cuban-American friend's achievement during a State of the Union address. “Among Cuban-Americans, you...

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Newt Gingrich said today he was not happy with his uncharacteristically flat debate performance Thursday night, when he seemed passive despite repeated jabs from a hard-charging Mitt Romney. But he said it was not his fault. “You cannot debate somebody who is dishonest,” Gingrich told reporters. “You just can’t. People say I’m a good debater. I can’t debate somebody who won’t tell the truth.” Gingrich said he was stunned by Romney’s repeated distortions. “A couple of scenes you can go back and replay,” he said. “I was staring in amazement. I know what he’s saying...

WASHINGTON (AP) — NBC has asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to pull a television ad that's made up almost entirely of a 1997 "Nightly News" report on Newt Gingrich's ethics committee reprimand. ......NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp says the network's legal department has asked the campaign to remove all NBC News material from its ads. Brokaw says he's "extremely uncomfortable with the extended use" of his image. Romney spokesman Rick Gorka says the campaign hasn't received formal notification from NBC and had no immediate comment.

CLICKSince Friday morning, the Romney campaign has been beaming an unusual 30-second spot into media markets across the state of Florida. It consists almost exclusively of a vintage video clip from Jan. 21, 1997, the day Newt Gingrich was sanctioned by his House colleagues after an ethics investigation. What makes the ad striking is the content: NBC Nightly News anchor (at the time) Tom Brokaw, is introducing his network's report that evening on Newt's downfall earlier in the day. That's all there is, and the video bite is perfectly sized for a political ad. The Romney researcher who discovered...

Newt Gingrich will attend a presidential candidate forum Saturday in Winter Park, site of a tea party rally. The rally, one of three events by Tea Party Express today, will be held in front of Aloma Church at 1:30 p.m. The church is at 1815 State Road 436. It is also the location for the First Awake! Presidential Candidate Forum and Q&A. So far, Gingrich is the only candidate who has committed to attend. Amy Kremer, head of Tea Party Express, said her group's bus tour, which started in Jacksonville Saturday morning, will make its third and final stop of...

In throwing their support to Newt Gingrich, a group of Florida tea party leaders risk throwing away their clout and credibility, observers of the movement say. "The Florida Tea Party Coalition With Newt" endorsed the former House speaker on Thursday, saying they would "help defeat Massachusetts Moderate Mitt Romney and then President Barack Obama." “It is clear to me and many others in the tea party movement that Newt is the Reagan conservative that America needs,” said Peter Lee, founder and director of the East Side Tea Party of Orlando. Lee was joined by statewide tea leader Patricia Sullivan, who...

In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Newt Gingrich has a sizable lead over his Republican rival Mitt Romney. NBC reports: Gingrich leads Romney 37 percent to 28 percent nationally among registered Republicans likely to vote in the primaries; Rick Santorum is in third with 18 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 12 percent. There is a bit of a problem for Gingrich, however. "Though Gingrich is the preferred candidate of GOP primary voters, he performs the worst of all Republican candidates tested against Obama, including Santorum," NBC reports. Romney fares best against the president, trailing Obama by...

MOUNT DORA - Newt Gingrich lashed out Mitt Romney in Mount Dora Thursday, saying the former Massachusetts governor is guilty of lies, desperation and hypocrisy that should make "every American angry." Speaking at the Lakeside Inn before a crowd of about 1,000, the former House speaker said Romney is being fueled by Washington lobbyists and special interest money, as evident by all of the negative advertising hitting the airwaves in Florida. "I am running for president to represent you, not to represent the Washington lobbyists, not to represent Goldman Sachs, not to represent the people who have been ruining this...

Republicans are worried sick about Newt Gingrich’s ascendance, while Democrats are tickled pink. Yet no responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency. ....And it’s the flagrant irresponsibility of many of his propositions – for example, that presidents are not bound by Supreme Court rulings, that the liberal Ninth Circuit court of appeals should be abolished, that capital gains should not be taxed, that the First Amendment guarantees freedom “of” religion but not “from” religion. It’s...

........It is difficult to convey to NRreaders, much less to NewYorkTimes readers, just how astonished and annoyed the grassroots activists in Florida are. These are not people who hold party posts or are on LarrySabato’sRolodex as potential sources. They are the people who dropped what they were doing in 2010 and dashed off to the aid of their party in its hour of manifest need. They restored order to the public square, imposed clarity on the party message, sent a human wave of self-declared reformers to Tallahassee and Washington, and then said, with a sigh of relief, “There.You guys can...

......The Drudge outburst seems to reflect a growing sense among the conservative opinion commentariat that Gingrich as nominee is a serious liability in a pivotal election year, a fact the GOP base has yet to fully grasp. The pundits apparently view themselves as the sober older sibling warning a starry-eyed sister about the hot guy on the Harley who's been around enough to leave a mark.

....Romney supporters have launched a last-minute attack on Gingrich seeking to impugn the former House speaker’s close working relationship with President Reagan and his dedication to Reagan conservatism. But efforts to cast Gingrich as anti-Reagan are doomed to fail, political observers say. “There is something truly obscene about the full-blown assault on NewtGingrich’s strong Reagan conservative history from and on behalf of Mitt Romney, who unabashedly ran away from the Reagan legacy and conservative principles in his 1994 Senate campaign and 2002 gubernatorial campaign,” William A. Jacobson, associate clinical professor at the Cornell Law School, writes on the Legal Insurrection...

Mitt Romney has been attacking Newt Gingrich for alleged ethics violations during his tenure as speaker of the House. But as Byron York writes, the Gingrich ethics scandal was a product of vindictive partisan politics, it was inflamed by a complicit press corps, and it resulted (with little press coverage) in the Clinton-era IRS’s exoneration of Gingrich. York writes: “Before the Iowa caucuses, Romney and his supporting super PAC did serious damage to Gingrich with an ad attacking Gingrich’s ethics past. Since then, Romney has made other ads and web videos focusing on the ethics matter, and at the Republican...