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ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; SURPRISE NAME EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

The Romney campaign announced today that it raised $106.1 million in June, its best fundraising month to date. The money was raised by Romney for President, Romney Victory and the Republican National Committee. The campaign reported having $160 million on hand at the end of the month. June’s loot far exceeds May’s total of more than $76 million, out-raising the Obama campaign by $16 million. The Obama campaign has not yet released its own fundraising numbers for the month of June.

Kevin Madden, a Republican communications expert with long ties to Mitt Romney, will become a more frequent and visible spokesman for the presidential campaign, a source close to the decision said on Friday. The increased responsibilities for Mr. Madden came in the wake of criticism from nervous Republicans about Mr. Romney’s campaign team. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the campaign “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb.”

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Mitt Romney is planning to fortify his communications and messaging team by adding seasoned operatives, advisers close to the campaign said Thursday, after withering criticism from prominent conservative voices that his insular team has fumbled recent opportunities. Romney’s advisers insisted that he would keep his inner circle intact amid growing concerns about the Republican presidential candidate and his campaign. The tempest began with a weekend tweet from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and burst Thursday onto the pages of his newspaper the Wall Street Journal, as its conservative editorial board opined that Romney’s advisers were “slowly squandering an...

Santorum, however, noted that Romney has vowed to repeal Obama's health care law. He said voting for Romney over Obama is a "clear choice for me."

<p>Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the power to do just about anything it desires provided it's called a tax. It's hard not to notice that the Progressive march toward totalitarianism in America has a decidedly bipartisan feel. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the high court's majority opinion, is an appointee of "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush.</p>

Today is the day. SCOTUSblog live at 8:45 AM.

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ”Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events … by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.” Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought...

Why is Barack Obama’s road to re-election so steep and uncertain at this stage? There are five important reasons. 1. An indefensible record. Every election which features an incumbent is, at least in good measure, a referendum on the record of the incumbent. The problem facing Obama is that he can’t offer a convincing case that his policies have succeeded. Recall that at the outset of his presidency, Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer, “I will be held accountable. I’ve got four years… If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Yet...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has now secured at least 88 of the 155 delegates at stake in the Texas Primary, bringing his secured delegate total to 1174, 30 more than necessary to win the majority of the delegated needed for the GOP nomination. With 4% of Texas precincts now reporting, Romney has consistently maintained or increased a 60 point lead over his nearest competitor, Congressman Ron Paul. In the contested race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, David Dewhurst is holding a 48% to 31% lead over his nearest rival Ted Cruz in a nine person contest.

Mitt Romney’s campaign manager rejected efforts to use President Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in ads attacking the president, as reportedly planned by a “super PAC” working toward electing Mr. Romney in November. “Unlike the Obama campaign, Gov. Romney is running a campaign based on jobs and the economy, and we encourage everyone else to do the same,” the campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement on Thursday morning. “President Obama’s team said they would ‘kill Romney,’ and, just last week, David Axelrod referred to individuals opposing the president as ‘contract killers.’ It’s clear President Obama’s team...

Yesterday, Sarah Palin emphasized in her interview with Matt Lauer that whoever becomes the GOP nominee should not play it safe in his selection of a vice presidential running mate. She declined to answer outright whether she thinks this year’s VP nominee should have more experience on the national stage than she did in 2008, but she did say she thinks the presidential nominee should “go rogue” with his pick. Former GOP presidential nominee John McCain backed up those statements today with this: On CBS’s This Morning, McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, was asked whether he agreed with his former...

Fox News & CNN are projecting Romney wins MD in their banners. Santorum wasn't on the DC ballot. Wisconsin polls close at 8pm CDT/9pm EDT.

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s camp is defending a controversial program he created that handed out free wheels to Massachusetts welfare recipients — including state-funded insurance and AAA memberships — even as the plan drew fire from conservatives the former Bay State governor is wooing. “Over 80 percent of participants have moved off of welfare,” said Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho.

No link yet. I'm just seeing it on CNN. Reuters said Fox called it as well.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends). Looking at Tuesday's upcoming primaries, the GOP race in Alabama is essentially a three-way tie, while Mitt Romney leads by eight in Mississippi. Nationally, Romney now leads Rick Santorum by 12 points. Regardless of who they want to win, 80% of Republican Primary Voters nationwide believe Romney will be the party's nominee. With the...

In Mississippi, Santorum Makes Case For Two-Man Race By NBC's Andrew Rafferty JACKSON, Miss. -- Rick Santorum called on Mississippi voters to deliver the knockout blow that would end Newt Gingrich's candidacy and make it a two-man race between Mitt Romney and the former Pennsylvania senator for the Republican nomination. "You have an opportunity here in Mississippi to narrow this race, narrow this race to a conservative versus the insider moderate. I ask you here tonight to stand with me," Santorum told a crowd of 300 at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Wednesday. "If we win Mississippi, this...

Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he’s “not going to say outrageous things about the president.” Trouble with that statement is that “outrageous” is a pretty subjective adjective. Outrageous to whom? Apparently, Romney meant to say he’s not going to say anything about the president that would outrage the left — because he doesn’t seem to be afraid to say something about the president that would outrage the right. In fact, he did just that earlier today, when he essentially said the president shouldn’t be held responsible for the high price of gas. “I think people recognize that the president can’t precisely...

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign gathered the national press corps in their campaign war room this morning to deliver a simple message: It would take an "act of God" for any candidate not named Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination. The Boston-based campaign projected confidence in Romney's ability to win the nomination given the emerging delegate math in the campaign following last night's Super Tuesday contests. "We will get to 1,144 whether it's on someone else’s timeline, or on our timeline," said one top Romney aide. "We will get to 1,144 and be the Republican nominee." The background briefing...

[Excerpts from the news video] ... Mitt Romney- "I'm a big believer in getting money where the money is, and the money is in Washington. ... I've learned from my Olympic experience, if you have people who really understand how Washington works and have personal associations there, you can get money to help build economic development opportunities. ... We actually received over 410 million dollars from the Federal Government for the Olympic games. That is a huge increase over anything that I have ever done before. We did that by going after every agency in government. ... I believe that...