Free Republic

Ever since Newt Gingrich's loss in Florida's Republican primary I've been trying to read that gotcha-just-where-I-want-you smile of his. What's his plan for winning the nomination? No matter how bleak his prospects appear, he does have a plan, that we can be certain of. And whatever it is, it is patient, simple and clever. He's the same man after all who wrote a book explaining how Robert E. Lee could have won the battle of Gettysburg by simply abandoning the field July 2, marching a day south and east and waiting for the Union Army to destroy itself. As Newt...

We’ve been reading for weeks about Mitt Romney’s demise as a presidential candidate. For a candidate who’s been declared dead more often than Mark Twain, he’s showing surprising life. In his victory speech in suburban Detroit, the Michigan native called his twin victories “a giant step toward a brighter future.” Here are five reasons why the former Massachusetts governor’s wins in Michigan and Arizona are significant: 1. Considering how many mistakes Romney has made, he still won.It was a rough week with a bushel of bad press. Remember the trees being the right size. And the multiple Cadillacs in the...

DETROIT, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney was a double winner Tuesday, capturing the Michigan and Arizona Republican presidential primaries, results showed. The Detroit Free Press declared Romney the victor over his GOP rivals in Michigan. With about 74 percent of the precincts counted, Romney had 317,258 votes (41 percent) to Rick Santorum's 286,530 (37 percent), results posted by the Free Press showed. Ron Paul was third with 88,521 votes (12 percent) and Newt Gingrich followed with 50,726 votes (7 percent). Another 2 percent voted "uncommitted" and a handful of votes went to several other Republicans who are no longer...

According to a Michigan Republican State Committee (MRSC) member, Romney backers in statewide Republican leadership roles, including the governor and attorney general, pushed for an open Michigan primary. These open primary rules allow voters to vote in either party’s primary without declaring any party affiliation. As the governing body of the state Republican Party in Michigan, the state committee every four years determines the methodology of awarding delegates in the presidential contest. Although Michigan voters are not registered according to party affiliation, political parties can take steps to make it more difficult for political opponents to have a say in...

Romney Holds off Santorum, Wins Michigan Primary By Michael O'Brien . -- Mitt Romney won the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, staving off Rick Santorum in the state where Romney was born and raised and avoiding an embarrassing setback for his campaign. NBC News projected that Romney would win the Michigan primary, along with another primary that took place on Tuesday in Arizona. The crowd here at the Suburban Collection Showplace in suburban Detroit burst into cheers as cable news on projection screens reflected the projection in Michigan. Mitt Romney won the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, a victory that...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Fox News Sunday that he wants to maintain “the progressivity” of the tax code so that as Americans make more money they are required to surrender increasing percentages of their earnings to the federal government in taxes. Romney has a long record of opposing a flat tax--even investing more than $50,000 of his own money during the 1996 presidential campaign to run newspapers ads attacking then-presidential candidate Steve Forbes’s flat-tax proposal as a “tax cut for fat cats.”

<p>Kos said it was coming and now here it is. Chaos.</p> <p>Michigan Democratic strategist Joe DiSano has taken it upon himself to become a leading mischief maker.</p> <p>DiSano says he targeted nearly 50,000 Democratic voters in Michigan through email and a robo call to their homes, asking them to go to the polls Tuesday to vote for Rick Santorum in attempt to hurt Romney.</p>

A large part of the power of conservative movement support for Rick Santorum's campaign for President is that individual Tea Party and grassroots conservatives aren't waiting around for someone to tell them what to do; they are showing individual leadership by mounting-up and heading toward the sound of the guns to help Santorum in Michigan. The lead in the Michigan polls has seesawed back and forth between the conservative Santorum and the establishment favorite -- moderate former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Romney's campaign team has always claimed to be confident that their superior fundraising would give them the firepower to...

There’s a chance Rick Santorum may still scrape out a win in Michigan tomorrow. This morning’s Public Policy Polling survey has Mitt Romney leading him by just a few points, 39 percent to 37 percent. But the internal numbers look worse for Santorum, and his ongoing slide in the state seems to be due to his focus on social issues: One place Santorum may have hurt himself in the last week is an overemphasis on social issues. 69 percent of voters say they’re generally more concerned with economic issues this year to only 17 percent who pick social issues. And...

Cagey tactics that will make life difficult for Republicans on Tuesday. On Tuesday night, Barack Obama’s name will be on a Michigan ballot, but his campaign is doing everything it can to keep his supporters away from the polls. On previous Tuesdays when Republicans were voting, the re-election campaign made high-profile efforts to encourage Democrats to turn out and participate in party nominating contests in which Obama faced no serious competition. Obama organizers lured voters to Iowa caucus locations with a promise that the president would address attendees by teleconference, and Joe Biden did the same for New Hampshire house...

TROY, Mich. -- With just days to go before Tuesday’s primary, the GOP’s two leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum today appealed for support from Tea Party devotees and further attempted to burnish their conservative credentials. At a tea party event in the working-class Detroit suburb of St. Clair Shores, Santorum mocked the former Massachusetts governor for questioning his conservative record. “It’s laughable for Mr. Romney to suggest that I am not conservative,” he said, and referred to his main rival for the Republican presidential nomination as “a liberal governor of Massachusetts.” Santorum ran through a litany of grievances...

Just two days before the Michigan primary, Rick Santorum has gained the momentum going into the Michigan Primary. Two polls sampled voters both last Thursday after the debate and last night (Sunday, February 26), after Romney's disastrous foot in mouth comments over the weekend and his empty stadium appearance. Rasmussen had Obama up 6 Thursday, but now puts him up only 2, a net loss of 4 and in Rasmussen's own words a "dead heat". Mitchell/Rosetta Stone, which had Romney up 36-33 on Thursday, finds an even larger swing, with Romney dropping a point and Santorum gaining 4, a net...

Front-runners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are in a virtual tie with the former Massachusetts governor up by just two points as the Michigan Republican Primary race comes down to the wire. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Michigan, taken Sunday night, finds Romney will 38% support to Santorum’s 36%. Texas Congressman Ron Paul and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich remain far behind with 11% and 10% of the vote respectively. One percent (1%) likes another candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) remains undecided.

With a strong, successful push over the weekend to move conservatives, especially social conservatives, back to him, Rick Santorum has re-taken the lead in the latest Mitchell/Rosetta Stone Poll of Michigan conducted for MIRS (Michigan Information & Research Service) Sunday night. The two front runners are still in a statistical dead heat, although Romney (35%) has lost his lead to Rick Santorum (37%) while Newt Gingrich (9%) and Ron Paul (8%) are locked in a battle for third place. Eleven percent remains undecided.

For a while after Rick Santorum’s sweep in early February, it appeared that Mitt Romney might be on the ropes in the Republican primary. Santorum once held a significant lead in Michigan and close to a tie in Arizona, and seemed poised for another multi-state upset. According to the latest polling from PPP in both states, though, the momentum has swung in the other direction. In PPP’s poll of Michigan, Romney has begun to edge Santorum one day ahead of their primary, but also with a significant lead in early voting: Mitt Romney’s taken a small lead over Rick Santorum...

DETROIT (WJBK) -- "These babies have been accosted and victimized on our watch, so as men it's demanded upon us to stand up," said Raphael Johnson, president of Detroit 300. An impassioned plea from the men of the Detroit 300 imploring the men of Detroit to take action in the wake of so many children being murdered. "Where are the uncles, the cousins, the fathers, the brothers of these victims, these babies? Where are you at and what are you doing? Why [are] you not out marching in the street?" Johnson said. "If it applies to you, you need to...

For those out there loving the current Republican race but worrying that it has become somewhat orthodox in appearance and stable in candidates and support numbers, fear not: ABC News’ Jonathan Karl has the blind item for you. In the most mysterious and, for the GOP, worrisome dispatch on the Republican field in a while, Karl reports that a “prominent Republican senator” told him that the Party will not stand for a Mitt Romney loss in Michigan, and that he expects a result like that to lead the Senator to “publicly call for the party to find a new candidate,”...

The Republican presidential race faces a potential turning point on Tuesday in contests in Arizona and Michigan, where upstart Rick Santorum threatens to plunge an already unpredictable nominating battle into chaos. Mitt Romney, the former front-runner and presumed nominee, and Santorum are in a close race in Michigan, the state where Romney was raised and his father was an auto executive and popular governor. A Santorum win there would be a devastating blow to Romney, turning lingering doubts about his ability to win the allegiance of Republican primary voters into a deep panic in the party's senior ranks. "If Santorum...

DETROIT – A World War II veteran said nobody helped him in the minutes after he was attacked and carjacked during daylight at a busy Detroit gas station and he had to crawl across a concrete parking lot to get help. A roughly four-minute surveillance video shows 86-year-old Aaron Brantley struggling to get from the fuel pump to the gas station's door as people walked and drove by him Wednesday morning. The video was first obtained by the Detroit Free Press.

Santorum Vows to Wage a Long, Fierce Battle KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and MICHAEL BARBARO February 25 TROY, Mich. — Rick Santorum said on Saturday that the race for the Republican presidential nomination is “going to go a long time,” and he vowed that he would “fight fire with fire” against attacks from his chief rival, Mitt Romney. Mr. Santorum, who is running close to even in the polls with Mr. Romney here on Mr. Romney’s home turf, repeated his accusation that Mr. Romney and Representative Ron Paul colluded against him. On Saturday, both Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney made appeals...