Free Republic

Feb 25, 2012 (Weekend Edition Saturday) — The presidential candidate loosened up a bit in his home state, politicking in a way that hasn't happened lately. Many of the states that have voted recently are just too large to shake everyone's hand. But not everyone is giving Mitt Romney a warm welcome ahead of Tuesday's primary. Mitt Romney is on a bus tour across Michigan, hoping to win the votes of the state where he grew up. With primary day Tuesday, Romney seems to have closed the gap in polls with Rick Santorum. This trip has the feel of those...

ARIZONA & MICHIGAN... we must not let Romney win those delegates PERIOD... Newt is WAYYYYY behind and Santorum will beat Romney by a huge margin if the Newt folks vote for him privately... publicly they can say they would rather have Newt but it is about beating the Romney/Paul coalition in Arizona & Michigan to give Rick the momentum to sweep Super Tuesday... There is no reason at this point to split the conservative vote and let Romney take Arizona/Michigan Bottom Line Folks.... If we can keep Romney from winning Arizona/Michigan he is TOAST and will quit before Super Tuesday......

Romney "squeezes" Detroit event into deserted stadium.

The topsy-turvey GOP presidential season just flipped again as a new poll shows Mitt Romney has jumped to the lead in both Michigan and Arizona just days before pivotal primaries in both states. The former Bay State governor has 40 percent of the vote to 34 percent for red-hot rival Rick Santorum in Michigan, Rasmussen Reports states today. The survey of likely Republican voters was taken last night a day after the CNN debate where Romney went on the attack against Santorum’s record in the U.S. Senate. Michigan holds its primary Tuesday night. So does Arizona, where Romney is also...

True to a primary season already marked by sudden and surprising ups and downs, Mitt Romney has jumped back into the lead in Michigan’s Republican Primary race. The vote’s on Tuesday. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Michigan shows Romney with 40% of the vote and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum with 34%. The poll was conducted on Thursday night, following the last scheduled debate among the GOP candidates. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The Senate Government Operations Committee Tuesday approved legislation (Senate Bill 971) to prevent the unionization of graduate student research assistants (GSRAs) at the University of Michigan. The vote was 3-2, with Republicans in support and the Democrats opposing. The measure would also apply to all other Michigan universities. It now moves to the full Senate where it is expected to be voted on soon. In 1981, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) determined that GSRAs were not employees, and therefore were not eligible to be unionized. Senate Bill 971 would codify that 1981 decision into law. The reason the legislation...

Here's a great way to visualize former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's inability to inspire Republican primary voters: Imagine the candidate delivering a major speech at a pro football stadium. Now picture that instead of 65,000 cheering supporters, his actual audience is about 1,200 people seated quietly on the field directly in front of him. Unfortunately for Mr. Romney, no one needs to imagine that scenario. It's what actually happened today at Detroit's Ford Field. Instead of the major economic address promised by his campaign; the small audience was subjected to the same old policy ideas, quips and nervous laughter we've...

So far, this looks like a good morning for Rick Santorum. A new poll in Michigan shows him clinging to a narrow four-point lead over native son Mitt Romney, he’s made the ballot in Indiana after a recount, and women are flocking to his side even after a week of the media hype over contraception. Let’s start with the recount: The original tally showed he fell eight signatures short in the 7th Congressional District, which is entirely in Marion County. Candidates must collect the signatures of 500 registered voters in each of the nine congressional districts to be on...

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly’s message to the city’s residents in the 2011 budget was they’d have to pay higher taxes due to severe budget issues. Yet, a look at gross income shows that the top city administrators saw lucrative pay increases while many lower-paid Dearborn employees took pay cuts in 2011. While Mayor O’Reilly’s salary stayed relatively the same — his gross income increased by $500 in 2011 from the previous year, seven top administrations saw their gross income increase by 8 percent to 12.8 percent from 2010 to 2011. Those pay increases came when the city’s General Fund...

The buzz before last night's GOP presidential debate was that former Senator Rick Santorum could solidify his front runner status with a win and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney could be in big trouble if he lost. Well, Mr. Santorum didn't win and Mr. Romney didn't lose and that's about all the news that was made at debate #20. Forget those two tedious hours, a new 30 second ad from the Santorum campaign could have a much bigger affect on the race in general and Tuesday's Michigan primary in particular.

Okay, so now that Rick Santorum has shown us that he CAN be aggressive in battle it is time for him to go back to being humble.. answer attackers with short responses and stick to the issues of Ecconomy, National Security, and Illegal Immigration... Only give short responses when asked about abortion and contraception and remind the questioner that WE THE PEOPLE DON'T CARE about that right now.... let the attackers appear foolish as they are, do not give them the time of day.. we know Rick is pro-life, got it.. now back to the issues of the day... Stay...

A bill introduced in the Michigan Legislature would outlaw death threats against public officials or their immediate family members. But even before it was formally introduced, questions arose: Why just public officials? Why not everyone? Public officials are defined in Senate Bill 943 as the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, directors of state executive branch principal departments, members of the state Legislature, and justices and judges of the state judiciary. People elected or appointed to these posts but not yet serving are included as well. Sen. Darwin Booher, R-Evart, the bill sponsor, defends limiting the scope of...

President Obama and his West Wing aides ignored a subpoena of documents pertaining to the Solyndra loan guarantee even after congressional investigators met with White House officials to negotiate the scope of the subpoena, according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "The White House's failure to comply with today's document deadline is a sad milestone on the path chosen by this administration to obstruct and delay our investigation rather than cooperate and help deliver answers for taxpayers," committee chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns R-Fla., said in a statement this evening. House investigators...

This is a winner Video...apeaks to making America Independand of the OPEC war lords.Newt talking for 30 minutes with no visible notes.

In Michigan, Santorum supporters planted hundreds of campaign signs in Shelby Township prior to Mitt Romney’s appearance today. Some of these signs were planted alongside sidewalks and roadways across from and surrounding the Romney campaign stop. Approximately two hours before the scheduled event, Romney campaign staffers, including Dennis Lennox of Topinabee, MI, began planting Romney signs in front of the location. Around the same time, several other people, who refused to identify themselves, began uprooting hundreds of Santorum signs along the roadway leading to the event. Signs placed at a commercial intersection were also removed. When asked to explain his...

Tied up in Michigan: New NBC/Marist poll -- Romney 37%, Santorum 35%, Paul 13%, Gingrich 8%... But NBC/Marist also has Romney with a sizable lead in Arizona – Romney 43%, Santorum 27%, Gingrich 16%, Paul 11%... Organization is helping Romney in both states (see his early-voting/absentee advantage), but ideology is hurting him (Tea Party supporters and conservatives breaking toward Santorum)… General-election numbers: Obama leads in Michigan, but trails in Arizona… Three questions heading into tonight’s GOP debate in Arizona… It’s the 20th of the cycle, and it begins at 8:00 pm ET… And Obama’s corporate-tax plan. Less than a week...

Ex-President George W. Bush tells auto dealers he'd bail out automakers again

Last spring, a caller to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy unleashed a profane series of death and bomb threats in phone messages left at the Center's headquarters in Midland, Mich. On Feb. 2, a Laura Campbell of Waukegan, Ill., was charged with making death and bomb threats against the Mackinac Center on April 1, 2011, according to court documents. She was to be arraigned on those charges Feb. 15, but the arraignment was rescheduled until next week, according to Kim Nerheim of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Attorney charged that Campbell used a telephone to make an “alleged...

Michigan lawmakers who have endorsed Mitt Romney are worried about his prospects in the state with only one week to go before the critical primary there. Polling shows a tight race in Michigan, despite the fact Romney was born and raised there and his dad was a former Michigan governor. “I think Romney is going to do a good job. Will he do enough to win as strong as he needs to in Michigan? It remains to be seen,” said Michigan GOP Rep. Tim Walberg, who resides in the southeastern 7th District. Concern among Romney’s Capitol Hill backers hasn’t yet...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Newt Gingrich will not campaign in Michigan in advance of next Tuesday's primary there: Spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed Monday night that the campaign is scrapping tentative plans to travel to Michigan at the end of the week ahead of the state’s Feb. 28 primary. Gingrich is spending Tuesday and Wednesday in the other Feb. 28 primary — Arizona — but that is mostly for the sake of Wednesday night’s debate, and his public schedule will be light.