Free Republic

The latest news on what Newt Gingrich is correctly calling a roller-coaster ride: Mitt Romney is now leading in Michigan, according to one poll.Real Clear Politics says Romney's leading Santorum by 2 points in a new Mitchell/Rosetta Stone poll. Santorum's still slightly ahead in Michigan in the RCP poll average, but the gap between him and Romney has been narrowing in the past few days.The Michigan primary is next Tuesday.Among other campaign-circus stuff found this morning during my surfing:Politico's "Mitt's Burn Rate a Boon for Obama.""Mitt Romney is burning through cash�more than twice as fast as he's raising it, new...

A central strength most pundits (including this one) have cited when describing Mitt Romney as the Republican front-runner is money: He has it, his opponents do not. The 20 days leading up to Super Tuesday will show whether we were right. Romney and a super PAC that backs his campaign are about to embark on an all-out television blitz aimed at tearing down Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, an assault that already adds up to more than $5 million in key primary states -- and there are few signs either of Romney's rivals have the financial ability to respond. Ad...

Mitt Romney's overall favorable ratings have dropped, while Rick Santorum's standing has jumped among Republicans, according to a new national survey. A CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday indicates Romney's popularity has especially taken a tumble among Republicans, with a 13-point decline in positive reviews from his own party.

When Mitt Romney was 20 years old, he watched his father enter the Republican presidential race as a towering figure—a self-made auto executive turned popular progressive governor—and leave it a punch line. George Romney’s undoing was Vietnam. He attempted to approach the issue subtly, adjusting his position as events changed and his convictions deepened, but finally and famously met his undoing by employing the term “brainwashing” in explaining how he had come to distrust the official briefing on the war that he’d received from the Johnson administration. His campaign was subsequently chewed to bits between the twin gears of a...

Mitt Romney's 'favorable' rating among voters is now almost as low as Newt Gingrich's. Mitt Romney's 'electability' edge is shrinking. Earlier this week, DCDecoder wrote about the Republican establishment’s opposition to Newt Gingrich, and the widely held Beltway belief that he would be “unelectable” in a general election. -snip- And now it turns out, Gingrich’s favorability ratings aren’t actually any worse than Romney’s. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Tuesday, Mitt Romney’s unfavorable rating has skyrocketed to an all-time high of 49 percent, with his favorable rating hitting a new low of 31 percent. Those numbers are...

"Negative ads work" has long been political conventional wisdom, but now we have a new case study to prove it. Mitt Romney says he lost the South Carolina primary because he was "vastly outspent with negative ads" by Newt Gingrich—which isn't true, by the way—and implied that he's winning in Florida because of his own negative ads against Gingrich. How can you tell the mud-slinging works? The top four searches for "Gingrich" are "Callista," "Newt ethics violations," "Newt wives," and "Newt scandals," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reports, results he says "prove that the negative ad barrage from Romney and...

1) He's not a conservative. There have been a lot of conservatives who've talked a good game during the primaries and then have let us down in D.C., but if Mitt Romney becomes the nominee and gets elected, some people seem to be hoping that he'll be the first Republican moderate to go to D.C. and turn into a fire-breathing conservative. Based on his record, if Mitt Romney is nominated, he will be the least conservative candidate since Nixon. >snip 2) He doesn't believe in anything politically other than Mitt Romney. What conservative cause has Mitt Romney ever fought like...

Everybody here, myself included, is desperate that Romney not be the Republican candidate for president. I suggest that the most cost-effective way of accomplishing that would be to bring Natural Born Citizen ballot eligibility suits against him in a few states, and try to get a few rulings in our favor before the RNC convention. I have read that there is no evidence that Romney's father was naturalized before Romney's birth. If he is found to be ineligible anywhere before the convention, his delegates won't matter. Worst case there would be a brokered convention. Why isn't anyone trying this? Lack...

And all it is is anti-Newt 24/7. All he's giving me in these campaign commercials are reasons NOT to vote for Newt, but has yet, in any commercial, in any meaningful way, to tell me why I should vote FOR him. Perhaps that's because he and Ears have far too much in common. Exposing his actual positions would confirm he's nothing more than Ears-light. We don't need that. I may be one of those gun-totin, bible-thumpin, God-fearin, hard-workin Southern guys we hear so much about, but I ain't stupid. I don't react well to negative campaigning. All I am is...

Debating in Tampa Florida this month, Mitt Romney strongly denied that his investment company Bain Capital did "any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare." However, under Romney's "supervision," Bain purchased and ran the Damon Corporation which pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges - as a result of tens of millions in systemic Medicare fraud... According to a cited Forbes report, in 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp. a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts. "During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney personally sat on the board of directors.."...

PLEASE LISTEN TO A ROMNEYBOT who gets shredded in a radio interview............

I’ve been saying; ever since Romney announced his candidacy, that there was very little difference between him and Obama. Now, that fact is echoed by ultra-liberal George Soros… and he ought to know a liberal when he sees one.

Mitt Romney just can’t close the deal. Twelve days ago, Mitt was the toast of the GOP. This morning he’s just toast.Twelve days ago, he’d won a “historic” two in a row — Iowa and New Hampshire — and he had a double-digit lead in South Carolina.Now it turns out Mitt didn’t even win Iowa.Mitt had the governor of South Carolina with him, but Newt Gingrich had the two real power brokers — Juan Williams of Fox News and, more importantly, John King of CNN. Those were his foils in the two South Carolina debates.Two minutes into the two-hour Thursday...

With Mitt Romney facing the biggest challenge to his presidential aspirations since he announced his candidacy, his aides acknowledged Friday what seemed unthinkable just seven days ago: He could lose the South Carolina primary. After arriving here last week fresh off of what seemed to be two victories in a row in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Romney was suddenly confronting the prospect of leaving as the winner of only one of the first three nominating contests. Having been stripped of his victory in Iowa on Thursday after a recount that gave the state to Rick Santorum, Mr. Romney now...

In a new Korean-esque political ad, pro-Newt Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future illustrates what a debate between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama might look like in a general election. It’s pretty brutal in labeling Romney a flip-flopper on abortion rights, gun control and health care policy. “I agreed with Gov. Romney on many things,” the Obama character says, “but this presidential candidate Romney, I don’t even know the guy. Then again, he doesn’t seem to know himself.” The fake Romney responds, “Oh, come on!” before hanging his head as the audience laughs. Watch:

WASHINGTON (AP) — TITLE: "Easy Answer" LENGTH: 30 seconds AIRING: On South Carolina broadcast and cable stations. KEY IMAGES: A series of jarring noises that sound like slamming metal doors punctuate alternating images of President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. A male narrator intones darkly as he reads the script addressing Romney's record. "Obama supported the Wall Street bailouts. So did Romney," the narrator says. "Obama gave us radical Obamacare — that was based on Romneycare. Obama's a liberal on social issues. Romney once bragged he's even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues. "Why would...

There is now polling indicating a possible Newt Gingrich surge after Monday night's debate - A Rasmussen tracking survey has him just three points behind Mitt Romney. Notably, Rick Santorum may need to start wearing a lifebelt rather than a sweater vest - he appears to be sinking fast. But the surest sign that the Romney campaign considers Gingrich the main threat here in South Carolina was a conference call just now in which top surrogates for the GOP frontrunner unloaded on the former House Speaker. It was quickly followed by web ad featuring Talent slamming Gingrich as an "Unreliable...

Newt Gingrich appeared incredulous after being told of the latest attacks by GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney. ”Wait, wait, wait.  Hold on. They’re saying I helped re-elect a Democrat?” Mr. Gingrich told reporters in Winnsboro, S.C., adding, “That’s just stupid.” Earlier Wednesday, the Romney campaign set up a conference call with two former lawmakers who lashed out at his leadership as House speaker, saying it helped to re-elect President Bill Clinton. The campaign also released a new Web ad,  calling him “unreliable.”Mr. Gingrich said he helped create the GOP’s first House majority since 1928. “So what did Mitt Romney do?  Who...

GOP front-runner Mitt Romney struck an especially low blow at Newt Gingrich in South Carolina Tuesday: He compared the former speaker to Al Gore. Speaking at a rally at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., the GOP front-runner derided Mr. Gingrich’s claim during a debate Monday night that he had a hand in the creation of millions of jobs during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Mr. Romney noted that Mr. Gingrich was only in his second term in the House when Mr. Reagan became president, and argued that the private sector, not government, is responsible for job creation.

Think Mitt Romney has been hit hard this Republican primary campaign? Try reading through what John McCain had in store for the former Massachusetts governor in 2008. Two hundred pages of what appears to be the McCain campaign’s old opposition research book against Romney was published on Tuesday by BuzzFeed, offering in great detail a litany of potential vulnerabilities in his record. Many of the issues – like Romney’s past support of gay rights and abortion rights – are familiar to GOP voters, but at minimum, the book serves as a vivid reminder of why many conservatives are wary of...