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Battle of the trophy houses "It’s the battle of the Left Coast trophy homes, with White House wannabe Mitt Romney squaring off against New England Patriots. Both of the 1 Percenters have chosen oh-so-pricey neighborhoods in Southern California for their dream homes. No. 12 just moved into his massive Brentwood manse after nearly two years of construction. Romney bought an existing home in swish La Jolla that he wants to rip down and replace with a newer model. He’s been lobbying San Diego officials for permits for four years. So how do the two mega-manses stack up?" [more at URL]

Why, if there is an election in November, it will come down to Romney and Obama. Just about any question a man, woman, or child could have, God has answered in His book, the Holy Bible. Just as He has answered the question "how did the world get here?" He has also told us why, if there is an election this coming November, it will be between a Muslim and a Mormon, Obama and Romney, Obama and Obama Lite. And the devil, taking Him(Jesus) up into an high mountain, shewed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a...

On Wednesday, former Florida Governor and Republican Party heavyweight Jeb Bush endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. But some believe the Bush endorsement may actually have more to do with Sarah Palin (and her tacit endorsements of Newt Gingrich) than Mitt Romney. "I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party¹s nomination," Bush announced Wednesday. "We face huge challenges, and we need a leader who understands the economy, recognizes more government regulation is not the answer, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism and works to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to succeed." To state categorically that some in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former senator Bob Dole says GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is "getting close to the point" where he'll have to decide whether to stay in the race for the nomination or drop out. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Dole told The Associated Press he was speaking from the experience of staying in the 1988 GOP nomination fight too long.

Talk of a Mitt Romney-Rob Portman GOP presidential ticket, a leading pick among Republican insiders, picked up a flashy endorsement Wednesday from long-time political pundit and MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews. “Portman’s probably the best bet,” Matthews told the American Bankers Association convention of the Ohio senator. The former Carter speechwriter and top aide to legendary House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, suggested that the second best pick for Romney would be Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. “I think he’s looking at Virginia and Ohio” as states Romney must carry to beat President Obama, added Matthews. It's an assessment GOP officials...

Has a Mitt Romney surge begun in Michigan? A week ago, PPP had Rick Santorum up by fifteen points in Romney’s home state. In their new poll, PPP puts Romney back only four — although Santorum hasn’t actually lost any support: The Republican race for President in Michigan has tightened considerably over the last week, with what was a 15 point lead for Rick Santorum down to 4. He leads with 37% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Ron Paul, and 10% for Newt Gingrich. The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney takes a hard line against congressional earmarks, but the Republican presidential candidate had a more favorable view of federal pork-barrel spending as governor of Massachusetts. Under Romney's leadership, Massachusetts sought tens of millions of dollars in earmarks for transportation projects through the state's congressional delegation. A prime example was the $30 million his administration requested to renovate the historic Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River between Cambridge and Boston.

Whatever your perspective on how likely Mitt Romney was to lose the Republican nomination race prior to Tuesday evening, it should be acknowledged that he had about the worst results conceivable. In Minnesota, a state which Mr. Romney carried easily in 2008, he has so far failed to win a single county — and got just 17 percent of the vote. That put him 27 points behind Rick Santorum, and 10 points behind Ron Paul, who finished in second. Missouri is a less important result since its beauty contest primary did not count for delegate selection and since turnout was...

Over at Hot Air, Wolf Howling penned a comment that perfectly sums up my feelings about the Florida primary. I’ve spent the last few weeks watching Romney run the most intellectually dishonest campaign against Gingrich that I could imagine. Romney isn’t making the case that he has a better conservative pedigree, nor that his vision for America is superior or more conservative than Gingrich’s. He spent 17 million doing nothing but trying to delegitimize and demonize Gingrich with gross distortions of history. I haven’t seen anything like this since what the left did to Sarah Palin. And the last time...

First, the new set of numbers out of the Palmetto State: With three days to go until the first-in-the south primary, Mitt Romney remains in the lead in the Palmetto State, but according to a new poll, his advantage over Newt Gingrich is rapidly shrinking. A CNN/Time/ORC International poll indicates that 33% of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters say they are backing Romney, with 23% supporting Gingrich. The former Massachusetts governor's 10 point advantage over the former House speaker is down from a 19 point lead two weeks ago. According to the survey, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania...

After weeks of stalling, Mitt Romney did an about-face on Tuesday and said he will release his tax returns in April and that they will show he pays close to 15 percent of his income in taxes. Romney, a multimillionaire, has been under pressure from his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination and others to release the information. He'd previously said he wouldn't release it. He suggested Tuesday that he would make public only one year's worth of information, for 2011. Speaking to reporters after a campaign stop in South Carolina, Romney said most of his income comes from investments,...

There’s a very troubled company out there called U.S. Government, Inc. It’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And it badly needs to be taken over and turned around. It probably even needs the services of a good private-equity firm, with plenty of experience and a reasonably good track record in downsizing, modernizing, shrinking staff, and making substantial changes in management. Yes, layoffs will be a necessary part of the restructuring. A quick look at the income statement of this troubled firm tells the story. Just in the past year (FY 2011) the firm spent $3.7 trillion, but took in...

Mitt Romney told CNBC Wednesday that he’s happy to have a debate about private equity alleged role in killing American jobs — because President Obama also forced companies to shed jobs at car dealerships during the auto bailout. So it is somewhat ironic that Romney’s former firm, Bain & Company, was among the private consulting firms that advised the Obama auto bailout team. And what did Bain recommend? Cutting dealerships. Romney’s ties to Bain Capital and its predecessor firm Bain & Company have come under scrutiny in recent days as his GOP rivals accuse him of “vulture capitalism” that made...

With Wall Street out of fashion this election season, can Mitt Romney fend off the attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital? Some GOP presidential rivals, especially Newt Gingrich, have laid into his private equity past, accusing him of "looting companies" and laying off workers. While those attacks may backfire now — conservatives have rallied to Romney's defense — they might work in the general election.

On the heels of his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney took the attacks on his private sector record used by GOP rivals and turned them against President Obama. Romney’s critics have accused him of destroying jobs in order to increase profits for his investment firm, Bain Capital, but speaking Wednesday on CBS, Romney said that what he did was no different from the Obama administration’s auto industry bailouts. “In the general election I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler – closed factories, closed dealerships laid off thousands and...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Mitt Romney is the now the only candidate that a majority of conservative and moderate/liberal Republicans nationwide see as an "acceptable" GOP nominee for president. Conservative Republicans are more likely to say Romney would be an acceptable nominee than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum.

While other candidates were busy rising and falling, sinking and swimming, reaching out to experts and promoting themselves to insiders, Rick Santorum did things the old fashioned way. He campaigned. And the candidate whom the insiders ignored and disdained, came within a hair of winning Iowa. So now it's another round of Pile on Santorum. After the previous round of Pile on Gingrich. Which is how we ended up with a match between Romney and Ron Paul. What exactly is the point of destroying Santorum I have to wonder? These attacks aren't really based on ideological opposition. Not for the...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. The day after his impossibly thin eight-vote victory, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination flew here for a town hall meeting at Manchester Central High School, where he was to bask in the endorsement of his 2008 arch rival, John McCain. But the senator grimaced when he was introduced, and as Romney delivered his own stump speech, an increasingly impatient McCain pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. McCain gave...

"I'll point at my record, and I the nice thing about New Hampshire for instance we looked at the Tea Party voters. Those who identify themselves as Tea Partiers and said, 'Who's your favorite candidate?' I have a good lead with Tea Partiers and people who consider themselves very conservative. So where I'm known pretty well, where my record is pretty well known, why I have very good support from very conservative Tea Partiers," Mitt Romney said when asked how he will make his closing argument to conservatives.

Conventional wisdom is that whoever wins the Iowa caucus has an encouraging boost to get the Republican nomination for president in November’s vote. Never mind that Mike Huckabee crushed Mitt Romney in the 2008 Iowa caucus, and neither went anywhere; in the 2000 caucus George W. Bush easily beat Steve Forbes and went on to win his party’s nomination; or that in 2000 Robert Dole edged Pat Buchanan and both fell by the wayside. So while winning in Iowa is a morale booster it doesn’t mean much, and will quickly be forgotten after New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. This...