Free Republic

Steve Welch was a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate this year The Sunday morning before the election, my daughter and I attended a candidates' breakfast in Chester County. The room was packed with passionate Republican volunteers. The energy level bordered on exuberance, as people believed Pennsylvania was in play in the presidential race. In fact, one ardent political operative for the Pennsylvania Pastors Network told me he believed Mitt Romney would likely win Pennsylvania by 10 points. That night, my three children, my wife, and I trekked out to Bucks County to attend a Romney rally. We arrived over an...

Brace yourselves, conservatives. What I’m about to say will hurt, and it should hurt -- and I’m not the first to notice. (Kudos to Rush Limbaugh, who noticed and is hitting this point hard.) Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election not so much because he got fewer votes than Barack Obama but because he got fewer votes than John McCain in 2008. Additional votes are still coming in, but, as of the time of my writing, Romney received around 57.8 million votes in 2012. In 2008, John McCain received 59.9 million. Romney got over 2 million fewer votes than McCain....

It's one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch. These are the kind of numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such results may not be so startling after all. "We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic," said Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. "It's kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia."

Newt was on with Piers Morgan tonight and said that he believe Romney will carry both Pennsylvania and Ohio. First on Pennsylvania, he said people tend to forget that the state has a Republican governor, a Republican senator, a Republican House majority, a Republican state House and Senate and it’s coal country where they are not happy with Obama. He also says regarding Ohio that in coal country there will be quite a few Democrat votes cast for Mitt Romney, so it can’t be taken for granted that just because it’s a Democrat vote it is an Obama vote. He...

Dick Morris just said on FoxNews that Romney will win PA. A lot of people think he is nuts. A lot of people think PA will disappoint again. But, here are the reasons Romney will win PA. In the past week, Romney, the GOP and PACs have dumped more than $5 million into ads. Obama's coffers are empty. Recently the Obama campaign had to go to Bank of America for a loan. The Democrat response to the Republican spend in PA has been $650,000.The Democrats have been caught flat footed. They have not been expecting this end game. If we...

One of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) advisers denied a report that the governor turned down an invitation by Mitt Romney to appear at an event with him on Tuesday. Christie Adviser Bill Palatucci denied a report in The Huffington Post on Monday which said that Christie turned down an invitation by Romney to appear at a campaign event on Tuesday, according to CNN. Asked by CNN if Christie had been invited to appear at the event in Morrisville, a suburb of Philadelphia, PA, Palatucci told CNN "no."

Mitt Romney has been chanting “one more day” all day today on the stump, but as it turns out, he will campaign for yet another day, Tuesday, Election Day. A campaign official said today that after Romney votes in his hometown of Belmont, Mass., tomorrow morning he will head to two swing states, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The stops will be in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It was not immediately clear how many events would be held in each state or what kind of events they will be.

This is happening right now at Mitt Romney’s rally in Pennsylvania. Apparently it’s freezing, and Romney’s staff is refusing to let rally-goers leave. People are begging reporters for help. Absolutely incredible. From the NYT’s Michael Barbaro: "We've got to get out! My daughter is frostbitten," begs mom, asking to leave Romney rally. Staffer replies, "It's not cold enuf for that." "There are several people here at PA rally who want to leave and aren't being let out." "Man just pulled me aside and said his son is near hypothermia."

DALLAS TWP. – C.J. Good was succinct. He voted for former Gov. Mitt Romney because “I’m a Republican. (President Barack) Obama had his chance.” Considering Good is a Dallas Middle School eighth-grade student still a few years away from actually registering to vote, one assumes he is Republican in spirit at the moment, but as he “worked the polls” in the school lobby Friday, he kept his approach apolitical, handing out ballots without comment.

Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Lara Brown, Villanova, Mittens can win Friday, 11/2/12 - Batchelor 9pm Start 19:00 minutes

Romney will win Pennsylvania Posted By Michael Hudome On 3:43 PM 11/02/2012 @ 3:43 PM In Opinion | No Comments Despite all the hype, it’s going to be a short election night. The Keystone State is the key reason. Pennsylvania will go for Governor Mitt Romney. Reasonable prognosticators — and even the MSNBC crowd — will realize once the results are in from Pennsylvania that the other three time zones won’t matter. Once upon a time, Pennsylvania was a pivotal swing state. But in recent years it has been reliably Democratic in presidential elections. Certain other patterns have persisted as...

Romney ahead of Obama in Pennsylvania by Four Posted on November 2, 2012 by eriecogop Susquehanna Polling and Research results for Pennsylvania released today shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama 49% to 45% among 1376 likely voters. Two percent are undecided and 3% are for other candidates. In the same sample Republican Tom Smith leads Senator Casey by two percentage points in the race for the United States Senate seat from Pennsylvania. Smith is at 48% to Casey’s 46% according to this poll. Diana Irey Vaughan (R) is tied with McCord at 45% each, David Freed(R) trails Kane by 45%...

According to a new poll from Franklin and Marshall, Mitt Romney is just four percentage points behind President Barack Obama … in Pennsylvania. In September, that gap was a full nine points. “Momentum is with Romney,” says poll director Terry Madonna. Madonna thinks that Romney may run out of time to make up that deficit. But the internals of the poll are shocking for Obama. Romney is ahead of Obama in terms of who the public believes can best fix the economy. Obama’s personal favorability is down from 2008; they’re actually at George W. Bush numbers circa 2004. And voter...

October 31, 2012 Pennsylvania Poll: Romney Within Four, Despite D+13 Sample By Guy Benson 10/31/2012   Behold, Franklin and Marshall's new poll of Pennsylvania:   Before we get to the internals, notice the basic trend line.  This month, Mitt Romney broke into the mid-40s, while Obama dropped back into in the upper 40s.  Remember a political rule of thumb: An incumbent with universal name recognition who is polling below 50 percent is typically seen as vulnerable. Now, a slightly deeper dive.  Mitt Romney leads independents by 16 points in this poll, 48/32, with 10 percent undecided.  If the Republican...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Mitt Romney is suddenly plunging into traditionally Democratic-leaning Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and his GOP allies are trying to put Michigan into play. It's forcing President Barack Obama to defend his own turf - he's pouring money into television ads in the states and dispatching top backers - in the campaign's final week.

Two media-tracking sources say Mitt Romney's campaign has started reserving TV time in Pennsylvania for the final two days of the campaign, including Election Day. The initial placements come as the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future is buying over $2 million in time there, and as Crossroads is also going up with a buy over $600,000. The Obama campaign, forced to expend resources there, has responded with a defensive buy of over $600,000. The Romney buy is intended to signal the campaign considers the state, which Republicans have made plays for in past presidential cycles but went for Democrats...

Rendell: "Startling upset’ for Romney ‘a possibility’ in Pennsylvania" When Governor Ed Rendell made these comments last week, he was clearly sending a desperate call to Chicago for help in the Keystone State. At the time, his comments were met with derision and scorn from the Obama High Command who were feeling secure in their own predictions of a landslide victory. What a difference a few days makes. Not only has Minnesota has been moved to “Lean Dem” and the Obama Campaign is up in that state with a significant television buy, but the Chicago gurus have heeded Governor Rendell’s...

This morning President Obama’s campaign indicated they are going on the air in Pennsylvania and sending Joe Biden to the state trying to protect a state that just one week ago was considered to be safe ground. One possible reason? The enormous GOP edge in absentee ballot returns in the state, creating an enormous and unexpected hole for the President’s campaign to dig out of. In 2008 the GOP edged the Democrats by just 2% in absentee returns. As of today the GOP’s lead is 18.8% — a 16.9% bump in a state Obama won by 10% in 2008. Republicans...

With one week to go, states that were once considered Obama strongholds now look less solid. Republican groups are putting resources into Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Team Obama brushes off these incursions as wishful thinking by Republicans, but noticeably they are putting money and muscle into both states. Minnesota has been added to Bill Clinton’s schedule. And, Obama campaign officials admitted that they will once again start running ads in Pennsylvania. See all of ABC’s race ratings and make your own electoral map. So, what is happening in Minnesota? Demographics. As our ABC/Washington Post poll has shown, Romney has a substantial...

Scranton native @JoeBiden coming to Pa to campaign on Nov. 1, Obama camp sez