Free Republic

White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin lead a narrower field of potential rivals for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, according to a poll released on Thursday. The Gallup survey is the organization's first since Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and real estate mogul Donald Trump opted out of the slowly evolving primary race. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and so far the apparent front-runner, led Palin by 17 percent to 15 percent, well within the poll's 4 percentage points margin of error. Texas Representative Ron Paul ranked third at 10 percent. But the...

"In a previous post, Elephant Watcher examined how Huckabee's starting position for the 2012 race differs from when he ran in 2008. It's worth conducting a similar analysis of the Romney campaign...."

Likely 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" Tuesday as part of his tour to promote his new book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness."Asked about potential rival Sarah Palin, Romney called her "terrific" and added, "she's got energy, passion." He then urged Letterman to "be careful what you say about her by the way," a reference to the feud between the two kicked off by Letterman's comments about Palin's daughter. Letterman grinned and nodded, saying, "I've had my…," before trailing off as the audience began laughing. Responded Romney: "She has a...

Mitt and Ann Romney sat for an interview with Fox News that aired this morning (video after the jump). Here are some nuggets of interesting material: When asked if he's intimidated by the big crowds and book sales Sarah Palin drew on her "Going Rogue" tour, as he prepares to embark on his own in March to promote his upcoming book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness", the former governor says he's not: "Oh no, not at all, it's great--that's terrific news. I'm glad to see people are buying books from conservatives." (VIDEO AT LINK) More on Palin: "She...