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Mitt Romney's top ten is made up of Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse (Switzerland), Morgan Stanley, Barclays (UK), Bank of America and JP Morgan. In contrast Romney's co-frontrunner in Iowa, Ron Paul, has a top three donor list made up of the US Army, US Navy and US Airforce.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer sat down with Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney to talk about a wide range of issues from Mrs. Romney’s health to who convinced Mitt Romney to run for president again. Highlights from the interview are after the jump. Please credit all usage of the interview to CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer EMBEDDABLE VIDEO: Romney: I would vote for Ron Paul EMBEDDABLE VIDEO: Romneys discuss their darkest hour Highlight: Romney on Newt Gingrich THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. M. ROMNEY:...

Cranky liberal standard-bearer U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s bombshell retirement announcement sent shock waves rippling through the Bay State and set the stage for an epic national clash as Democrats and Republicans prepare to do battle over a seat that until yesterday seemed staunchly and securely blue, observers said. “It will be a fun race to watch — at least fun from a distance,” said U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville), who said Democrats are launching a major push to recapture the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. “It’s not the only race in the country that both sides will be...

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt has compiled 10 good reasons why Christians should reject Mitt “RomneyCare” Romney as a Republican candidate for president. Those 10 reasons are just as relevant and applicable for Republicans in general as they are for Christians, because in all those ways, Romney is inconsistent with Republican values and the GOP platform. This is a quick summary, but you can read the full list with details at WorldNetDaily: 1.Romney forced homosexual marriage upon Massachusetts. 2.Romney is pro-abortion. 3.Romneycare is the reason we have Obamacare. 4.Romney opposes our Second Amendment rights. 5.Romney appoints liberal Democrats as judges. 6.Mitt...

Yesterday I noted here that national Republicans have opened up a new front in the Massachusetts Senate race by attacking Elizabeth Warren for embracing Occupy Wall Street—the latest effort to turn blue collar whites and independents against the protests and their populist message. Republicans are seeking to tie Warren directly to protesters who clashed with cops in Massachusetts, an effort to exploit a cultural fault line between working class whites and liberal activists that has been key to our politics for decades. This is the sort of thing that has traditionally spooked Dems, but it appears Warren is standing by...

Goaded by his rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has finally staked out his position on the controversial deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. Perhaps not surprisingly, the GOP frontrunner opposes the plan and places the blame for the “crisis” squarely on the shoulders of U.S. President Barack Obama. Color us stunned … “As president, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table,” Romney said on Monday. “President Obama’s leadership failure has pushed the economy to the...

“Add GOP presidential candidates to the list of Republicans who aren't thrilled by House Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the debt limit,” USA Today writes, adding, “Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Tuesday that Boehner's approach is ‘wrong.’ … Ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney praised Boehner, but not the plan. Spokeswoman Andrea Saul told Politico yesterday that Romney ‘applauds’ Boehner for ‘standing firm against raising taxes when our nation can least afford them.’ Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman was the first GOP presidential candidate to come out with a statement Monday supporting Boehner. He called it a ‘good first step.’” Pawlenty...

A poll unveiled this week from American Research Group shows that three Republican presidential candidates -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska -- are gaining serious momentum in Iowa, site of the first presidential caucus. Bachmann, who declared her candidacy in June and has been surging in polls at both the national and state levels, topped the poll with 21 percent. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts placed second with 18 percent. Paul, who was the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and ran for the Republican nomination in...

In the past few weeks we’ve seen the media scrambling to promote a cat fight between Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. As the UK’s Telegraph recently wrote: The first shots have been fired in what could become an ugly battle between Sarah Palin and her potential rival Michele Bachmann for the Republican presidential nomination. [...] A Republican consultant who declined to be named because he is aligned with a rival camp, said: “The claws are out. It’s the cat fight everyone has been waiting for – Queen Sarah being taken on by the Palin mini-me.” This is all obviously designed...

Reporting from Concord, N.H.— As Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington struggled to find agreement on spending cuts and extending the debt limit, Mitt Romney struck a conciliatory note in New Hampshire on Monday by lamenting partisan feuding while touting his record of working with Democrats -- even the Senate's onetime liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy. Taking a pause from a fundraising tour for two campaign appearances, Romney faced questions from voters that reflected frustration with the gridlock in Washington. During a business roundtable at a technology company in Salem, state Sen. Chuck Morse pressed Romney to explain how he...

Looking at the current GOP field, I share what seems to be the ubiquitous feeling of “blah.” Apart from Michele Bachmann, no one in the field appears to be serious about beating Obama, and the two guys getting the most love from the mainstream media, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, are destined to lose if they secure the Republican nomination. To be honest, just the fact that the mainstream media keeps them front and center should be warning enough for every lucid Republican. After all, this is the same way the media carried John McCain through the primaries in 2008:...

President Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist is dismissive of the Republicans who want his boss' job, saying they are eager to criticize the Democratic incumbent without offering substantive ways to help the country. David Axelrod says it's too early to start sizing up the competition, but he took on the emerging field of candidates when asked to assess the GOP' first major debate of the campaign season last Monday in New Hampshire. Republicans at that forum condemned Obama's handling of the economy and pledged to repeal his health care overhaul....

Democratic strategist James Carville spoke with Don Imus this morning about the Republican field of presidential candidates. While Imus joked he had a better chance of being President than Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, Carville was more interested in sharing his thoughts on Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Carville though Romney would be a very strong candidate and admitted that based on his record in Massachusetts, “I can almost vote for him.” Imus agreed and humorously suggested, “he probably knows what Paul Revere did.” Imus hesitated to take further jabs at Palin and her view on Paul Revere, instead suggesting...

Sarah Palin’s “One Nation” bus tour just happens to be rolling through New Hampshire today, en route to a big clambake on the Seacoast. Some reporters noticed this is happening on the same day Mitt Romney formally announces his Presidential bid, and asked Palin about it. She told them it was a coincidence, and took the opportunity to wish Romney “more power” and the “best of luck” before teeing off on him. It has been strange listening to some people complain this is unfair to Romney. June 2 is not Mitt Romney Day. If he wants an audience, let him...

2012 is an election of direction, will we recommit to our original economic, political and social values, or will we accept Obama's "Hope and Change"? I would offer as a premise the concept that social values are the core of the American government. One of the most important original motivations bringing pilgrims to America was freedom of Religion. People came to the new world to find a place to practice their faith in God. This motivation was so important that all colonies required potential candidates for public office to be a member of a church! In New England, the first...

Old friend Mitt Romney understands that if the occasion should ever arise, he’s not actually allowed to use a PowerPoint presentation during a presidential inaugural address — right? Mitt, right? After his performance in Michigan last week, you’ve got to wonder what form his marriage proposal took to Ann. “Listen, Sweetie, as you can see from the bar chart on this next slide, the genetic risk of me ever losing my hair is incalculably low.’’ Romney’s use of a projector and overhead screen at least week’s health care speech — billed as the most important event of his young campaign...

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee front-runner, Willard Mitt Romney kicked off his campaign today with a day-long fundraiser in Las Vegas. The day-long event features a large phone bank staffed by around 700 Romney supporters. Via a conference call, Romney informed supporters, "We're activating our campaign today." He will announce how much money was raised later today. With former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee declaring his intention not to pursue the Republican nomination, and Donald Trump bowing out today, Romney is the clear-cut front-runner for the 2012 Republican nomination. The former Massachusetts governor is joined by former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty,...

Mitt Romney must really want to distance himself from health care once and for all. The former Massachusetts governor wrote an opinion piece in Thursday’s USA Today in which he says his first act as president would be to repeal the health-care overhaul law—which President Obama has said was modeled after Romney’s own legislation in Massachusetts. Romney calls for a market-driven approach to fixing health care while “reforming” the tax code to promote individual ownership of health insurance. The plan bears some similarities to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 proposal. Romney, one of the expected 2012 GOP candidates, will speak about...

While some potential Republican presidential candidates have criticized President Barack Obama’s decision not to release photos of Osama bin Laden's dead body, presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney agrees with the president. "It's best not to release the photo because it has the potential to incite retaliatory violence against Americans," Romney said in a statement to Politico. That was the same point made by Obama....

According to Romney family lawyers it doesn't matter if Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, Kenya, or even Paris: Because his mother was an American (and not even Donald Trump questions that), he is eligible to be President. The Romney lawyers investigated this question in the 1960s, when Mitt Romney's father, Governor George Romney of Michigan, was vying for the Republican presidential nomination. George Romney had been born in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico, as his grandfather moved there with his wives in the 1880s after polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. While some opponents nicknamed him "Chihuahua George,"...