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As reported here by ABC News (online), Mitt Romney "...doesn't plan to make any endorsement at all" regarding the contentious NY23 Congressional race. What does this say about Mitt? When balanced against Sarah Palin's political courage, it seems telling. Sarah is a political alpha, a leader for the future. Mitt, in spite of his genuine conservatism and mastery of issues, is almost certainly not. You have to look no further to see why conservatives are so passionate about their support for Palin. Regardless of the arguable notion that she has yet to fully mature, she commands a degree of respect...

Cited on a variety of Internet shops like The AtlanticWire, Newser and Lara Ebke’s Red State Eclectic yesterday was a quote from Matt Lewis, writer, blogger and commentator from Alexandria, Va. He writes in Politics Daily: “If recent elections are any guide, the Republicans' heads will tell them to choose Mitt Romney. Their hearts whisper something else. Is ‘Sarah’ the name of this siren song?” W. McCahill at Newser says: “No matter what kind of gains Republicans make in the midterm elections next year, it’s going to be tough to unseat President Obama — and that’s why the GOP is...

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation. The state's system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation with 96% of its residents covered by insurance -- an even larger share than some of the plans before Congress...

Whether or not anyone prefers to acknowledge it, Mitt Romney is already the default, de facto Republican presidential nominee in 2012 – and, too, he is already the clear loser. Health care, singularly, will guarantee Barack Obama a second term – even if he never actually achieves meaningful “reform,” or even if he manages reform but it ends up becoming a festering, hemorrhaging mess … like anything the government runs. Sure, the health care issue appears to be a political landmine for Obama right now, but he just can’t lose for winning, and there’s no area in which that rings...

He had the same knucklehead idea about health care as Barack Obama. And he got it passed and signed into law years earlier. Read this article in the Wall Street Journal about the Massachusetts health-insurance mandate and you'll see why the current controversy over Obamacare is costing Romney his credibility as a candidate in 2012. Obamacare is just too similar to Romneycare. The article is about a retired couple who have health insurance but who face a $1,000 fine under the Romney reform: "Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly,...

Cape Cod, Mass.My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state. Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee Mitt Romney says President Obama is doing exactly what needs to be done by flying to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago in 2016. Romney tells ABC News that having a sitting president make a personal pitch can make an enormous difference to the 106 members of the International Olympic Committee. "I think the people in the IOC want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country," Romney said. "Does the host country really care? Is this going...

Republican Mitt Romney on Monday praised President Obama's decision to travel to Copenhagen this week to make the case that Chicago should host the 2016 Summer Olympics, saying the president's personal appeal is likely to ensure the city lands the games. Until this week, Mr. Obama had indicated he would not be able to make the trip because he was tied down in negotiations over his health care proposal. "I think his presence makes it almost certain that Chicago will win the bid," said Mr. Romney, who oversaw the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. "I think we could...

Despite a torrent of criticism from the media, Democrats and even some in her own party, Sarah Palin remains the hottest brand name in politics. Her recent resignation was perplexing. It’s raised doubts about her viability as a potential presidential candidate. Still, she remains extremely popular with the GOP grass roots, and most Republican Party leaders would jump at the chance to have her headline one of their events. That’s the picture that emerges from interviews with dozens of GOP state and local leaders from across the country. As part of an effort to gauge Palin’s popularity with the rank...

For weeks now, I've been pointing out with some regularity that while Sarah Palin is surging toward 1,000,000 fans on FaceBook--the second highest total for any American political figure behind only Obama--Mitt Romney has been stuck at about 70,000 for months. Depending on the news cycle and what she's up to, Palin gains between 1,000 and 10,000 fans per day and hasn't spent a dime to do it. Well, I guess this disparity has finally gotten under old Mitt Romney's skin because he's decided to do something about it. What something, you ask? The same thing he always does to...

(snip) Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, told Reuters that it was vital for Republican candidates in 2010 to "not just talk about our principles but hold true to them.""We're a party that doesn't believe in spending money we don't have. And Republicans that can show that they have been fiscally conservative will stand in stark contrast to the extraordinary deficits and forecasts of even greater deficits that are coming from the Democrats," said Romney, who ran for president last year and lost the party's nomination to John McCain. (snip)

Mitt Romney is an empty suit. He puts his finger up and sees which way the political winds are blowing, then takes a position. Mitt signed MassCare (with Ted Kennedy no less in the background smiling about it) into existence in 2006, and it has been a proven failure. There are plenty of stories and analyses out there describing the abject failure that MassCare is. The essential storyline is that MassCare is basically Obamacare in one state. That state has gone bankrupt trying to give everyone there universal coverage, and the result of putting so many more people into the...

There he goes again. Newsmax has published an interview with Mitt Romney in which he once again touts his big government Massachusetts health care plan as a monumental success: "What we were able to accomplish was to get almost all of our citizens insured without breaking the bank and without having a so-called public option," Romney says. "I think the program is a real success and that it can teach lessons to other states, and to the nation." To start with, Romney is wrong on the merits. Michael Cannon has done an excellent job documenting what a colossal failure Romneycare...

Here is a video montage from the Values Voters Summit in Washington this weekend, of Gov. Mitt Romney and House Minority Leader John Boehner speaking there. Romney told the crowd about Obama's leadership as President - "I'll bet you never dreamed you would look back at Jimmy Carter as the good old days." . . . (VIDEO)

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Saturday won a 2012 presidential preference straw poll of social and religious conservative activists from 49 states gathered in Washington, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said at an afternoon press briefing at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. It was sweet revenge for Mr. Huckabee, who narrowly lost a similar poll in 2007 to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Only in-person voting was permitted in this vote -- Mr. Romney had won with combined Internet and in-person voting. On Saturday Mr. Huckabee took 28.48 percent of the vote, while Mr. Romney was in a four-way...

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. Romney appealed to attendees at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday, using a speech that drew heavily from his address to social conservatives at the same hotel earlier this year. "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," he said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it...

Well, at least someone has found some good news in these nerve-wracking days of watching President Obama walk us ever closer to an economic precipice. In a very funny piece at the American Spectator online, Ben Stein rapturously thanks the president for “reviving a party, the GOP, that many had left for dead.” How has he done it? By naming “men to office so wildly irresponsible, so extreme in their positions, so vulgar in their means of expression, that they have made the Republican Party regain its of gleam of gentility and good graces. I am not talking only about...

All of you former Right Up Front readers know of my undying affection and unyielding loyalty to Mitt Romney. Indeed, he is my first choice for the nomination in 2012. Now it looks like the Stormin' Mormon may be testing the waters for an encore run at the GOP knod. Politico's Jonathan Martin has the details. After a few stops in some early primary states and lavish fundraiser at a "trendy" Washington eatery, there are many reasons for any former Romney fan to be hopeful. And who better to go up against a now-obviously undisciplined current White House resident than...

Massachusetts Cuts Back Immigrants’ Health Care By ABBY GOODNOUGH Published: August 31, 2009 BOSTON — State-subsidized health insurance for 31,000 legal immigrants here will no longer cover dental, hospice or skilled-nursing care under a scaled-back plan that Gov. Deval Patrick announced Monday. Mr. Patrick said his administration had struggled to find a solution “that preserves the promise of health care reform” after the state legislature cut most of the $130 million it had previously allotted immigrants, to help close a budget deficit. Although their health benefits will be sharply curtailed in some cases, Mr. Patrick portrayed the new program as...

Former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney will not seek the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy’s death, a Romney spokesman said Thursday. Responding to speculation that Romney may be interested in the seat — which he challenged Kennedy for in 1994 — Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney’s political action committee, told POLITICO that the former one-term governor has no interest in campaigning to replace Kennedy.

I don’t get it READ THIS : http://www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2009/08/26/romney-for-senate-succeeding-kennedy-could-help-in-2012.html) "It would be an intriguing thing if, after waiting a day or two out of respect for the late senator, Romney were to downshift and announce he will be a candidate in the upcoming election to fill Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat. Such an announcement would likely be embraced immediately by the Republicans, who would like almost nothing more than to deny Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada his new, hard-won, 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. As a self-funding candidate who has already been elected once statewide, Romney has nearly 100 percent name ID....

Politics: Should the election law in Massachusetts be changed to keep Ted Kennedy's seat filled and get ObamaCare passed? As in Minnesota and Illinois, the voters might lose again.Recognizing his own mortality and waging a valiant battle against brain cancer, Kennedy has written a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, state Senate President Theresa Murray and state House Speaker Robert DeLeo asking them to change the law so his seat might be filled immediately until a special election could be held. His letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Boston Globe, does not specially mention his illness or...

Here is video of a CNN report on what has been caled "RomneyCare" in the state of Massachusetts. According to the report, the near Universal Health Care plan signed into law there by former Gov. Mitt Romney is working. Unlike ObamaCare, it does NOT have a public option. Instead, it mandates everyone purchase private insurance, and provides subsidies to the poor to do so. The report talks to some folks in Massachusetts who claim RomneyCare is not breaking the bank as some have said, and that 7 in 10 citizens like the plan, with only 1 in 10 saying they...

Here is video of former Gov. Mitt Romney talking about Obama's handling of the Health Care debate. The interview with Romney begins on the video at the 1:37 mark. Romney said Obama is allowing too much liberal influence in his legislation. Romney said the government should not stay out of Health Care. Romney defended what he signed into law in Massachusetts that covers everyone. He said they did it without a Public Option, yet have managed to cover everyone. Romney also said the Health Care costs in Massachusetts plan is "almost exactly on budget," despite the fact many say the...

Likely 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney is publishing a book. The Republican former governor of Massachusetts has signed a deal with St. Martin’s Press to put the book out next March, The New York Times reports. The work will be titled “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness” and is currently set for 304 pages. It will read like a campaign platform, including Romney’s take on the economy, military and families, jobs, education, health care, energy and citizenship, The Times reports. St. Martin’s hasn’t revealed how much Romney will be paid. Perhaps Romney was trying to match former Alaska Gov....

Someone sent this video to me as a means to saying Romney isn't a "real conservative." I'm curious to see if any of you agree with this analysis, and why. Please post your thoughts directly on the blog in response to this post. I will add my comments in a later post...

In a blog posting yesterday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman raises questions about a recent Rasmussen Reports poll of Massachusetts voters. The poll shows that Bay State voters are less than enthusiastic about the state’s experiment in health care reform. Krugman states that “last year polling seemed to show very strong support for the Massachusetts plan.” He then asks, "So has support plunged since then? Or is the wording of the Rasmussen poll calculated to give a negative result?" Krugman must have an interesting definition of “very strong support.” The poll he cited found that just 14% want to...

C4P Takes on Mitt Romney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfnloFc4G4

WASHINGTON (CNN) – It looks like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may have one less fan. On the same day that Palin is set to transfer power to her lieutenant governor, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said her prospects for national office looked grim. “’I’ve been a supporter of Sarah Palin — at times,” Castellanos said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “She gave the McCain campaign its best two weeks. But, you know, if we’re going to be critical of Democrats when they shirk their responsibilities, we have do the same within our own house. She abandoned her state in...

"A gay rights group plans to stage a mass kissing demonstration outside the San Diego Mormon temple as a show of support for a gay couple cited for trespassing in Utah after sharing a kiss on church property. "

Glenn Beck took aim yesterday at the Massachusetts universal healthcare system, which liberals and many Democrats have touted for years as a model for the purported glories of socialized medicine. (Snip) Beck noted that Massachusetts is now spending 42% more ($595 million) on health insurance than it did in 2006, and asked rhetorically how the state will pay for an estimated $1.3 billion in healthcare this year?

What? You don't like Mitt Romney? Why not? He brought the finest health care in the world to the citizens of Mass and it's free! Abortion? I think he's against it today. Back when he was running for governor he had to be for it, Ted Kennedy and other liberals forced him to be that way. Just look at his hair dammit and then tell me, if you still can, that you wouldn't vote for him. If you still wouldn't vote for him you must be one of them there haters and bigots and with Powell on the ticket that'd...

If voters get to choose between Republican Mitt Romney and Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, a new national poll suggests the race would be too close to call. Both Romney and Obama had the support of 45 percent of respondents to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday. The public opinion polling company asked 1,000 likely voters nationwide on July 18-19 whether they would vote for Romney or Obama if the 2012 presidential election were held today. The telephone survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Utah's top pollster, Dan Jones, said...

The last few days conservatives have begun to demonize the health care system in Massachusetts. That's because, in the view of many conservatives, Massachusetts' health care system is congruent to the health care system that President Obama is attempting to construct. That's simplified. Here's how it's similar. It requires every citizen to have health insurance. It requires all employers, but the smallest, to provide health insurance to their employees. Finally, those that don't make enough money have their insurance subsidized. Here's how it's different. It has no public option.

Who knows how the Sarah Palin story will play out? It seems as if every political pundit in America has a take on PalinÂ’s resignation as AlaskaÂ’s governor. They can be mean-spirited (SheÂ’s hiding a scandal!), or cynical (Since she can rake in $60 grand and up for a simple speaking engagement, sheÂ’s taking the money and running like hell.) Some wonder whether this is her way of tuning up for a presidential run in 2012, or is the resignation a case of a hometown girl unable to stand the heat in her kitchen? We will get more information, but...

Don't trust him. He's a RINO. Worse than a RINO. He's the enemy within. You never know where he honestly stands on any issue. What he promises today, he flips on tomorrow. It all depends on which way the political winds are blowing and which office he's running for. He's a liar. He's a big government socialist. His RomneyCare state run health care system is a big government boondoggle. It's tyranny. Government provided, er, forced health care is tyranny not freedom or free markets. Do not believe the socialist propaganda supporting such nonsense. Socialized medicine is simply another step to...

Given that Medicare is already on track to bankrupt the United States, you'd think the government would be looking to reduce its health care responsibilities, not increase them. However, the government being the government, is looking to take over the rest of our health care system in a move that would spike costs, ruin the quality of care, and involve the government even more deeply in the daily lives of Americans. However, let's take a look at how the state government in Massachusetts, where they have Romneycare -- which incidentally, is looking less and less appealing -- to see how...

She pulls at the heartstrings of the Republican base, but in addition to all the peculiar problems of her own design, Sarah Palin has one obstacle she cannot overcome. Republicans like to choose the next in line—and she isn't. Sarah Palin is the bright red thread in the dull, grey fabric of the Republican Party. She is charismatic, quirky, melodramatic, and fervently anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-Obama. But there's one thing she'll never be—the GOP nominee for President in 2012. Palin has the most intense grassroots base of any potential candidate, in the true-believing core of the party. And that's worth...

I've been hearing that some groups of people are not welcome at Free Republic anymore, but I didn't believe what I was hearing because that seems like the complete opposite of "Free". I've heard that supporters of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and more are no longer welcome to post at this site. This site is about uniting people together against the liberal onslaught that is ruining our country and we could use all the help we can get right? Please correct me so I can correct others who have told me that this is...

David Keene, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union trashed Sarah Palin publicly today on NewsMax. However, a quick search of Mr. Keene's recent political contribution history reveals the following: David Keene, Managing Associate of the Carmen Group Lobbying Firm, and Head of ACU, Alexandria, VA. Political contributions in 2008 election cycle: KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 5/1/07 $1,000 Specter, Arlen (R) KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 12/19/07 $800 Specter, Arlen (R) KEENE, DAVID, ALEXANDRIA,VA 22314 THE CARMEN GROUP/EXEC 12/19/07 $200 Specter, Arlen (R) What I want to know is, how does a guy like this...

BOSTON — Massachusetts is suing the federal government over a law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. State Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the lawsuit today in federal court in Boston. It says the federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define marriage as it sees fit.

Sanford has committed sepuku on live TV. Ensign has discovered what goes on in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas. Palin is retiring from politics. Haley Barbour is a former lobbyist who runs the poorest state in the Union. Huckabee is a 5th stringer. John Thune is running for Vice President and we have no idea whether General Petraeus is a conservative or not. It looks like the only guy who can stop the Mitt Machine is Daniels. If you don't like Daniels, then Romney is the nominee by default in 2012.

At virtually any given moment, the news-cycle-driven chattering classes of politics have in the background of their computer screens or the pockets of their briefcases a Big Thumbsucking Magazine Article on a political topic that they read during periods of calm. The Big Article du jour is Todd Purdum's massive profile of Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair.Most of the buzz about the piece deals with a variety of off-the-record snarks about Palin from McCain campaign staff. Indeed, conservative columnist Bill Kristol and McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt have engaged in a public exchange of insults over alleged leaks to Purdham....

There is a gigantic amount of hostility to Romney on this forum. Personally I'd vote for Romney if he were the nominee, but I'm not really enthusiastic because of his flip flopping. He strikes me as a smarter version of GHWB. My question to you guys is if Romney is a no go for you then how about Mitch Daniels of Indiana? With Sanford's self destruction act I cannot imagine who else could possibly stop Romney's war machine. Ensign is also disgraced and John Thune is probably eyeing the VEEP position rather than being the nominee. Haley Barbour is a...

(snip) On health care, Romney pointed to the successes of his own plan but criticized Obama's for its emphasis on a public option. "The president's plan makes an enormous error by saying we're going to put government into the insurance business. We got everyone in Massachusetts insured and we did it without putting government into the insurance business," he said. "We said instead we're going to help people get private free enterprise kind of insurance they can buy from a number of different companies." He said the system led to plunging premiums while offering a healthy choice of options for...

Alaskan Governor and GOP 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin may be nice looking, but she sure wasn’t a very good candidate is the bottom line of Vanity Fair’s 9,920-word profile about her released Tuesday. The comments about her beauty weren't entirely complimentary, either. Vanity Fair writer Todd S. Purdum said her looks probably hurt her as much it helped win voters during the campaign. The brunt of his article, the notion that she was never suited to run nationally, relied heavily on unattributed quotes from McCain campaign staffers who felt she wasn’t up to snuff and refused properly study...

The NY Daily News is promoting the August edition of Vanity Fair, in which a vicious hit piece full of lies, distortions and innuendo savagely attacks everything about Sarah Palin, not the least of which is her character. The load of garbage disguised as an article was written by the liberal magazine's national editor Todd Purdam. If you don't know where he's coming from, consider that Purdam formerly worked for the New York Times, the newspaper of the Democrat Party's liberal wing.  He is married to Dee Dee Myers, who was Bill Clinton's White House press secretary from 1993 to 1994....

Mitt Romney says publicly he’s not considering another presidential campaign, most recently on Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” But many of his loyalists expect one and remain at the ready for 2012. When dozens of former Romney aides and advisers convened on the terrace of Charlie Spies’ fashionable Penn Quarter loft earlier this year on a warm February night, the purpose was ostensibly to help raise money for the Virginia state House race of Romney strategist Barbara Comstock. But Spies, formerly the Romney campaign’s CFO, wasn’t just hosting a $100 per-head fundraiser. He was also staging...

SALT LAKE CITY - There is more buzz that Kirk Jowers and Josh Romney may share a ticket in the 2010 Utah governor's race. Friday's "Swing State Project Morning Briefing" said the Jowers-Romney ticket is moving closer to reality. The Salt Lake Tribune recently reported the two men were seen together at an ice cream social hosted by Rep. Jason Chaffetz.

With South Carolina governor Mark Sanford still wondering how to solve a problem called Maria, and GOP biggies falling by the wayside, a Californian may be poised to now take the reins as the leader of the GOP 2012 possible presidential pack. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, now claims the Golden State as his full-time home since he bought a lovely beachfront estate in La Jolla where and wife Ann now reside. [...] Sanford's Maria meltdown has meant that the stash of GOP possible presidential hopefuls and leadeers is shrinking fast -- with some GOPers say Romney now looks...