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Mitt Romney tonight pushed back against those in his party who are questioning President Obama's citizenship, suggesting his fellow Republicans should put their energy into more substantive issues. "The citizenship test has been passed," Romney said tonight on CNBC's Kudlow Report. "I believe the president was born in the United States. There are real reasons to get this guy out of office...but his citizenship isn't the reason why." Several prominent Republicans -- including Donald Trump and Sarah Palin -- have once again tried to stoke controversy by questioning Obama's citizenship even though his birth in Hawaii has been confirmed by...

This has been my best week in politics since John McCain lost to Barack Obama. I face two huge problems: getting nominated and getting elected. To get nominated, I need to discredit the Tea Party before it can veto me. To get elected, I need a double dip recession in 2012. Thanks to Paul Ryan, both these outcomes have just come a big step closer. Here’s how Ryan helps me win the nomination: This budget proposal will end in tears, especially if there is a government shutdown tomorrow. The Democrats know that few Americans understand the difference between the 2011...

Former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum slammed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney Thursday, yanking his support for the potential Republican presidential candidate. “I have a lot of concerns about him in this election cycle because of the pre-eminence of health care and the issue of Romneycare,” Mr. Santorum said. Mr. Santorum, who endorsed Mr. Romney in 2008, said he does not plan to support Mr. Romney in 2012 because “It’s a different field. It’s a different set of issues.” The announcement comes as Mr. Santorum prepares for his own run for president. The Pennsylvania Republican has traveled to a number...

It is tempting -- very, very tempting -- to write off Willard "Mitt" Romney as a serious contender for next year's Republican presidential nomination. And, in fact, several knowledgeable observers already have. Romney, in case you haven't heard, embraced a healthcare reform law in Massachusetts five years ago that ended up being the model for the national program that President Obama pushed through Congress without a single Republican vote last year. He's also dogged by the impression that he's an unusually spineless opportunist (the result of the extraordinary pains he took to win over socially liberal voters in Massachusetts before...

Bartlett, NH - Leftover 2008 campaign signs outside the Carroll County Republican Committee dinner announce what's on everyone's minds, even Ann Romney's. "And I'm the one that is encouraging Mitt to think about pushing forward and think about running. So, yes, yes I am. I'm pushing him," she said before her husband took the podium. It's his first public speech in New Hampshire since the mid-term elections, and Mitt Romney sounded an awful lot like a candidate. "It's gonna take more than a good speech on his part, more than rhetoric to put Americans back to work. It's going to...

Former Gov. Mitt Romney came under new fire from all sides yesterday over his landmark Bay State health-care overhaul as potential 2012 Republican rivals and local Democrats took turns blasting the GOP presidential front-runner. “I’ve talked to residents of Massachusetts, and what I’ve gotten is that (health-care reform is) really not working well at all,” said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is believed to be considering a 2012 bid. Johnson declined to comment on whether health care will hurt Romney’s candidacy, saying, “whatever the criticism is about a candidate, everyone already knows it. I don’t (have to) say...

The presidential field may be wide open, but one candidate is playing the role of the inevitable front-runner, as his performance at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference this weekend shows. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought with him to the event a large entourage that stayed for several days, while most other potential candidates dropped in and out of the conference to make their speeches and headline a reception or two. Other serious contenders brought just a few key staffers, but many didn't even have their top political aide in tow. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas...

Link only, due to copyright issues: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/mitt-romney-supporters-anti-sarah-palin_n_821957.html

Now that it's official Jon Huntsman is resigning the U.S. ambassadorship to China effective April 30 (presumably to make a run for the White House), the question du jour becomes whether a candidate's Mormon faith precludes a viable candidacy for the U.S. presidency. Mounting evidence is increasingly pointing to a brave new world where the perceived biases that potentially derailed Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign are dissolving and, lo and behold, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could realistically be elected president of the United States in 2012. The Washington Post currently has two articles...

DANIELS: “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels may not be a household name, but the potential 2012 Presidential contender beat out better-known politicians in a straw poll of Washington state GOP activists over the weekend,” the Seattle Times writes. In the Roanoke Conference straw poll, “Daniels led with 31 percent, well above second-place finisher Mitt Romney of Massachussetts (14 percent.)” “Daniels is reportedly close to making a decision regarding whether he will leave office in order to seek the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination,” The State column writes. “’I think I have got to make up my mind fairly soon,’ Daniels said...

Mitt Romney may very well be the front-runner for the Republican Party presidential nomination, but the big (as Donald Rumsfeld would put it) "known unknown" looming over his candidacy is to what extent the albatross of RomneyCare — the health-care reform enacted in Massachusetts under Governor Romney in 2006 that is similar in many ways to the reviled ObamaCare — will hinder him in the primaries. Romney will be endlessly assaulted about health-care reform by his primary opponents, and because the White House would prefer to face a divisive tea partier over the more broadly appealing Romney, they'll do their...

Most them aren’t definite no’s, but even if they’re holding out for the time being merely to see who else jumps in, that’s … not encouraging. Some, like Judd Gregg, may end up endorsing him anyway but might want to see if Daniels (or Huntsman?) declares first. Others, like DeMint, who have embraced the tea party full-fold almost certainly aren’t going to endorse him unless the entire “true conservative” bench decides not to run. Either way … not encouraging. My favorite part? Hot on the heels of a rumor that Mitt might skip Iowa, there’s now a rumor circulating that...

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie hosted a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday night, sitting down with Mitt Romney for dinner at the governor's mansion. Nearly two dozen people, including some of Christie's top political advisers and party leaders, gathered for the meeting with the former Massachusetts governor at Drumthwacket, according to three sources. The sources described the dinner as an informal discussion without any specific talk of endorsements in New Jersey's Republican presidential primary, which is still a year away. Romney has been laying the groundwork for a second presidential campaign, although he has not yet formally...

Mark DeMoss, a well-connected figure in the evangelical community and Mitt Romney supporter, sent a memo last week to Christian conservatives urging them to consider “a new litmus test” beyond traditional cultural issues “A candidate for president of the United States should be capable of becoming president, and then competent to be the president,” DeMoss wrote in a five-page missive sent to about 200 top pastors, donors, intellectuals and leaders on the Christian right. DeMoss, a public relations executive who also backed Romney in 2008, offered an impassioned case for the former Massachusetts governor but also took some barely-veiled swipes...

You might expect that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of the top likely candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, would cozy up to tea party followers anytime he can. But he’s actually steering clear of the movement, The Boston Globe reports. “Romney for the most part is inaccessible,’’ says Andrew Hemingway, chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Liberty Caucus. “[Minnesota Gov. Tom] Pawlenty, I could call him right now and say, ‘Let’s have coffee.’” Romney has kept his distance from tea party activists in key primary states, including the state viewed as a must win for him – New...

Belmont, Mass. — Long before it came time to actually choose a career, Peter Flaherty knew he wanted do so something exciting. “In Massachusetts, you kind of grow up with two things in your blood: sports and politics,” said Flaherty, a Belmont resident and father of three. “When I realized I was not going to be a professional athlete, I realized politics was the adult equivalent of professional sports.” Flaherty has always found room for public service in his professional life, which has seen him prosecute homicides, produce big-budget children’s movies and serve as a senior advisor to then-Gov. Mitt...

Potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, looking to bolster his foreign policy credentials, is on a Mideast swing that included a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney met the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 only to lose to John McCain. He has shown multiple signs of planning to seek his party's nomination again for the right to oppose Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012. Romney could be among as many as a dozen Republicans seeking the...

Did you get your Christmas card from the Romneys this year? No? That's odd. Did he not confirm your address the last time you ran into him at the yacht club's semi-formal restaurant? What's that? You don't belong to the yacht club? Yikes. This is slightly embarrassing. I certainly do have egg and vanilla-infused aloe facial scrub on my face ha ha ha ha. Anyway, here, you can take a peek at the one that Mitt Romney's campaign website somehow managed to get their hands on… Yes, that is a picture of Mitt Romney and his wife Ann posing with...

We thought you’d like to see Governor Romney’s wonderful family Christmas card… The inscription on the bottom reads “Guess which grandchild heard that Papa might run again?” Any guesses? Those are fourteen adorable grandchildren, for sure! An inside look…What a fantastic family!

BOSTON — Republican Mitt Romney is finding it hard to avoid comparisons between the Massachusetts health insurance mandate he signed into law and the federal version enacted by President Barack Obama as he weighs another presidential run. A federal judge struck down the Obama mandate last week, and appeals of that ruling and other court challenges are likely to wend their way to the Supreme Court during the next two years, legal experts say....