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Mitt Romney leads the VP Stakes at GOPNation.com. Vote today for your choice for VP! The top three so far are Romney (25 percent) Condi Rice (18) and JC Watts (14). http://gopnation.com/wordpress/?page_id=357

Why McCain Should Pick RomneyStephen M. Studdert, FSM Editor-at-Large.John Nance Garner IV, the nation’s 32nd Vice President, once described the office of the vice presidency as being "not worth a bucket of warm spit."  Unlike most past elections, this year things are different. Throughout most of the primary season the major issues facing the next president seemed to be getting out of Iraq and how to solve growing health care problems. No longer.  Today the country is immersed in what may well prove to be a deep and lingering economic crisis, with cracks appearing everywhere in our private and public...

Mitt Romney: "Look at my Record"

SENECA, S.C. -- Thompson took a couple of shots at Romney and Huckabee on authenticity and immigration, respectively, when given the chance here during a radio interview and questions from the crowd that followed. “I haven’t changed positions,� Thompson told about 125 people packed into the Seneca Family Restaurant in the northwest socially conservative reaches of the state. “I have been consistent… I haven’t had to have that long a memory to remember where I stand. All these other fellows, you wouldn’t recognize them from where they were their entire political lives before this.� Later, a man, who is actually...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — U.S. Sen. John McCain (30%) has an 8% lead over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (22%) while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (18%) is in third place to a telephone poll of likely voters in the South Carolina Republican Primary conducted by Mitchell Interactive Wednesday and Thursday night January 16 & 17, 2008. Fred Thompson (13%) is in fourth place followed Rudy Giuliani (5%) and Ron Paul 4%. Ten percent are undecided. Mitchell Interactive is an East Lansing, Michigan and Washington, DC based national political polling and market research company. The survey of 897 likely Republican...

McCain's Misleading Mailer January 15, 2008 He faults Romney for "providing" state funding for abortions that Romney didn't seek, and courts ordered. Summary McCain is sending out a postcard mailing in South Carolina that is misleading on more than one point. It says that "Romney provided taxpayer-funded abortions," a distortion. Romney's Massachusetts health-care plan faced a court order requiring abortions to be covered. It says Romney "refused to endorse Bush Tax Cut Plan," but fails to note that McCain himself voted against it. It says, "Hillary tried to spend $1 million for a Woodstock museum" until "John McCain said NO."...

Hard to conjure up that image but it's true. Thomspon sends out an e-mail blast taking issue with Romney's statement today on MTP that "every piece of legislation which came to my desk in the coming years as a Governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." The "fact check" includes this: "Romney's health care legislation provides taxpayer-funded abortions for a co-pay of just $50. Romney vetoed EIGHT provisions in his health care bill that he deemed objectionable, including the expansion of dental benefits to Medicaid recipients. He did not veto Planned Parenthoods' guaranteed position...

The other day, Jonah put some distance between himself and NR’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. I’d like to do the same. Romney strikes me as impressive, but also as terribly flawed. Over the next couple of days, I’ll do my best to explain. In the meantime, one observation. Endorsing Romney, the editors explained that they had decided against Fred Thompson largely because “Thompson has never run any large enterprise.” This brought to mind another Republican candidate—one whose management experience, like that of Fred Thompson, was limited to having served as a partner in a law firm. Abraham Lincoln.

The colorful brochure from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign looks like many of the political fliers flooding Iowa mail boxes this time of the year. But there is a difference. The piece is Romney's first to single out his rivals by name, a shift that shows him becoming more aggressive in the final weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses. The mailing juxtaposes photos and quotes from Romney showing his support for a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman with photos and quotes showing Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson all oppose...

This is why a lot of people wanted Fred Thompson in the race. Who do you trust? Mitt today or Mitt from...whenever he changed his mind on abortion. What? Three years ago? That doesn't smack of a real change of heart more than a political calculation. If the abortion issue doesn't bother you then listen to Mitt run from the "Reagan-Bush" years.

Yesterday, Senator Fred Thompson issued a statement on the Supreme Court's decision to grant certiorari in the District of Columbia gun ban case. It reads, in part: I’ve always understood the Second Amendment to mean what it says – it guarantees a citizen the right to “keep and bear” firearms, and that’s why I’ve been supportive of the National Rifle Association’s efforts to have the DC law overturned. In general, lawful gun ownership is a pretty simple matter. The Founders established gun-owner rights so that citizens would possess and be able to exercise the universal right of self-defense. Guns enable...

Thompson skids while Romney, Paul climb in N.H. pollCNN 19 November 2007 WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has skidded into sixth place in a new CNN/WMUR poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, edged out by ex-Libertarian and anti-war congressman Ron Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney topped the poll, widening a lead he has held for months in neighboring New Hampshire, while Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani were running close in the second and third spots. The CNN/WMUR poll was conducted by...

Governor Romney on the Need for a Federal Marriage Amendment Friday, Sep 14, 2007 Governor Mitt Romney MSNBC's "Morning Joe" September 14, 2007 MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: "Do you support a national constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage?" Governor Romney: "Boy, I sure do. You know, that's a topic that's really, I think, very important to the country because marriage is not just about adults. Marriage is about the development and nurturing of kids, and in my view, the development of a child is enhanced by having a mom and dad. And so, I think it's very important that we have...

From Thompson for President Communications Director Todd Harris. Statement on Romney's South Carolina Cover-Up "Fred Thompson entered the race for president just days ago, talking about uniting our country around a core set of conservative beliefs. According to the Washington Post, it is now clear that while Fred Thompson is working to bring our country together, an increasingly desperate Mitt Romney and his campaign are already hard at work to divide us, practicing the lowest kind of politics. "Today's half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test. The Romney campaign has paid Warren Tompkins...

Governor Mitt Romney Press Conference at Massachusetts State House, June 16, 2005 Gov. Romney answers questions at press conference 6/16/05. (Following the formal announcement of the citizens initiative petition for the constitutional amendment regarding marriage, Gov. Mitt Romney gave a press conference at the State House. MassResistance was there, tape recorded the proceedings, and took the photo at the left. We've highlighted some of the interesting parts of his talk.) Governor Romney (opening statement): It's my understanding that the Massachusetts Family Institute has authored and is proposing an amendment relating to gay marriage. And there are a couple of things...

ASHLAND, N.H., Sept. 3 -- Former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee will grab most of the headlines this week as he enters the race for the White House, but Mitt Romney likes where he stands in the contest for the Republican nomination. "When I started running seven months ago, I was at 5 percent in the national polls," the former Massachusetts governor said at a question-and-answer session here. "Now I won the Iowa straw poll; I'm ahead here in New Hampshire, ahead in Michigan, ahead in the Nevada." The energetic Romney, who is shown jogging in a television ad that...

Very damaging video on Mitt Romney, in his own words....

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney has cited the social welfare network of the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group as a role model the U.S. should copy to help promote "goodness" and "freedom" around the world. Sections of Hezbollah's social welfare network, including schools and camps, are routinely used by the terror group to indoctrinate students in anti-Israel propaganda, instruct in military tactics and promote Shiite Islamic beliefs, including the waging of a final, apocalyptic world battle against "evil." The former Massachusetts governor this weekend was asked during a campaign stop in Iowa whether he would renew President Bush's $50 million...

BEDFORD, N.H. --Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who supports an assault weapons ban, said he sees no problem with a Manchester City Republican Party's fundraiser where guests will use Uzis and M-16 rifles. "No one is suggesting that automatic weapons be made available to the public. No one is suggesting that automatic weapons be made legal," Romney said at a town hall meeting in a school gym. "I support the Second Amendment. I support the ban on (automatic weapons). They're not connected with a fundraising event where they're using weapons not available to the public."

Republican Mitt Romney directly appealed to social conservatives in South Carolina on Thursday, criticizing Democratic rival Barack Obama for supporting age-appropriate sex education for children as young as kindergartners. "Senator Obama is wrong if he thinks science-based sex education has any place in kindergarten," Romney told some 150 people at a restaurant in the northern part of the state. "We should be working to clean up the filthy waters our kids are swimming in." The criticism was part of a broader effort by the Romney campaign to heighten its presence in the early voting state, which holds its primary Feb....

Internal Mitt Romney Document Questions Rudy Giuliani on Abortion by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor February 27, 2007 Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Another leading presidential candidate has seen an internal document finds its way to the press. Last time, it was a campaign memo regarding Rudy Giuliani, whose campaign worried about his pro-abortion views alienating GOP voters. This time it's Mitt Rommey and the document discusses Giuliani. The Romney memo discusses concerns about voters seeing the former Massachusetts governor as flip-flopping on key issues such as abortion. Romney campaigned as a pro-abortion candidate when he sought a Senate seat in 1994...

Romney's Changing Views: Candid or Convenient? As Candidate Builds Support From Conservatives, He Confronts Accusations He's a Flip-Flopper By MARCUS BARAM Feb. 23, 2007 — - One candidate believes abortion should be legal, endorses embryonic stem cell research, supports a minimum wage increase, believes gays and lesbians deserve full equality and should be allowed to serve openly and honestly in the military, and opposes capital gains tax cuts. The other candidate is firmly against abortion, opposes stem cell research, vetoed a minimum wage increase as governor of his state, vehemently opposes gay marriage and wants to maintain the "don't...

Abortion Doubts Dog GOP Top Three By: Jonathan Martin February 23, 2007 01:59 PM EST An increasingly tense war over abortion has emerged as the early test of conservative bona fides among the leading GOP presidential contenders. To many on the right, the top three candidates are failing it because they’re faking it. “Come off it, guys, this is kind of unseemly,” says David Keene, the influential president of the American Conservative Union. “The people you’re doing this to aren’t stupid. Eventually they’ll figure out this is all bull.” Keene’s harsh words reflect a harsh reality for the top-tier candidates:...

BOSTON - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's political record is relatively brief — four years as Massachusetts governor and a failed campaign for the U.S. Senate. That's enough, however, for Brian Camenker, a conservative gadfly and longtime thorn in Romney's side, to write a 28-page report that portrays Romney as sympathetic to gay rights and sexual behavior that clashes with his burnished image as a defender of traditional values. Camenker's report, which has been making the rounds of conservative blogs and Web sites, threatens to undermine Romney's carefully crafted image, portraying him as far more liberal on social issues, particularly...

(AP) BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney, a fierce opponent of gay marriage and possible presidential contender, on Friday asked Massachusetts' highest court to force a proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment onto the state's 2008 ballot. Romney filed the request with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court -- the same court that ruled 4-3 in 2003 that the state could no longer deny marriage licenses to gay couples -- after lawmakers postponed action on the question until January. The move by lawmakers was widely seen by supporters and opponents of gay marriage as a way to kill the measure. Romney is...

Massachusetts may witness a "What's the Matter With Kansas" moment as a result of this weekend's decision by the state Democratic Party to endorse the 2003 Goodridge ruling legalizing gay marriage. Apparently, party officials believe that the only people who have issues with the ruling are reactionaries, homophobes, or fundamentalists. The problem, of course, is that there are a lot of people--independents, moderates, and even some liberals--who don't necessarily think it was the best of ideas for the state Supreme Judicial Court to revise the definition of marriage, and won't be too thrilled that the party seemingly doesn't care about...