Free Republic

Mitt Romney’s twin wins over the weekend in the Maine caucuses and the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual straw poll leave the GOP presidential-nomination race right where it’s been all along — in trouble and waiting for a Prince Charming. In Maine, Romney won with 39.2 percent of the vote, less than four points ahead of Ron Paul. The principal “not-Romneys” — Paul and Rick Santorum — took 53 percent of the roughly 5,600 nonbinding votes cast, about 2 percent of the state’s Republican electorate. Romney’s numbers were similar in the CPAC poll, in which he grabbed 38 percent of...

There is a new national poll of Republican primary voters just out from Public Policy Polling which has some good news for Rick Santorum the ex-Pennsylvania senator who on Tuesday beat Mitt Romney in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. -snip- The immediate worry for the Santorum campaign is that they are likely to be on the end of a furious negative advertising campaign ahead of the Arizona and Michigan primaries at the end of the month. That is how the Romney team dealt with others who threatened their position and what is likely to happen now.

Rick Santorum is about to see the kitchen sink up-close. So far he hasn’t been a threat, so he hasn’t faced much harsh scrutiny, much less the attacks that are about to come his way. His candidacy is for real, and Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney both know it. While Gingrich thought he could isolate Romney and become his lone real competitor, yesterday’s results, combined with a deflating Gingrich campaign, have allowed Santorum to leapfrog Gingrich as the more viable Romney alternative today. It’s not in Gingrich’s nature to give up. Attacking Romney hasn’t gotten him to where he thought...

As Rick Santorum counted up his victories Tuesday night, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney signaled the campaign would take a tougher approach toward his resurgent rival and portray him as a Washington insider.

Over at Hot Air, Wolf Howling penned a comment that perfectly sums up my feelings about the Florida primary. I’ve spent the last few weeks watching Romney run the most intellectually dishonest campaign against Gingrich that I could imagine. Romney isn’t making the case that he has a better conservative pedigree, nor that his vision for America is superior or more conservative than Gingrich’s. He spent 17 million doing nothing but trying to delegitimize and demonize Gingrich with gross distortions of history. I haven’t seen anything like this since what the left did to Sarah Palin. And the last time...

The Case for Romney - A president who owes you is better than one who owns you. [BIG snip] Let me try to offer some solace. Even if Romney is a Potemkin conservative (a claim I think has merit but is also exaggerated), there is an instrumental case to be made for him: It is better to have a president who owes you than to have one who claims to own you. A President Romney would be on a very short leash. A President Gingrich would probably chew through his leash in the first ten minutes of his presidency and...

The 2012 Republican primary race has passed well beyond the rabbit hole into some extra-dimensional bizarro world where up is down, black is white and the allies of the candidate who disavowed Reaganism would have us believe that the leader of the “second stage of the Reagan Revolution” is somehow insufficiently Reaganesque. It’s no secret that the GOP establishment backs Mitt Romney. The same folks who gave us John McCain and Bob Dole have picked their winner. When Mr. Romney is down, their panic shows. They start floating desperate ideas like late-entry candidates or a brokered convention. They also pull...

Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the “elite media” and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning. Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter. If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud. It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real, and they need to come clean about the man they really know before it’s too late.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new surrogate for Mitt Romney warned Saturday night that if Newt Gingrich is the nominee he could give Democrats united control of Congress. Henry Barbour, a top Rick Perry fundraiser who endorsed Mitt Romney after the Texas governor dropped out, said Gingrich could not beat President Obama and would cost Republicans many House and Senate seats. Barbour told The Hill that endorsing Romney and coming to his South Carolina rally was a "very easy decision" because of Gingrich, who he said would turn the presidential race from a referendum on Obama into "the adventures of Newt...

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Don't be conned into nominating Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere 8 votes in Tuesday's caucuses - a margin that amounted to a tie in the crucial opening act in the 2012 presidential race and propelled the newly reshaped contest to New Hampshire and beyond... The final count, as reported by Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn showed Romney winning 30,015 votes to Santorum's 30,007 votes, or 24.6 percent to 24.5 percent. Paul finished with 21.4 percent.

Dear Iowa Caucus participants, You have been told for the better part of year now who it is that you must choose. Beltway insiders have insisted upon thrusting establishment candidates upon you. Libertarian anarchists have swopped into your state shouting that you must support Ron Paul, while toking on the marijuana they soon believe President Paul will make legal. You've been openly mocked by Governor John Huntsman from Utah--who ironically seeks your support. Ann Coulter has defied every conservative principal she's ever espoused by trying to brainwash you into thinking that Mitt Romney is the best that you have to...

And they're pulling out all the stops to prevent it... Even in the wake of a really unprecedented series of attacks on Newt Gingrich from Team Mittens, the GOP Beltway suits, and allied media types, the Georgia doughboy stands up a couple points nationally... while the upcoming primary slate still seems to heavily favor a Gingrich nomination. You scoff? OK, assume worse-case for Newt in Iowa (although one fresh poll still has him right at the top, with many undecideds expected to break back Gingrich's way).  Then -say- Newt scores a second or third in NH... he won't be doing any...

Less than two weeks before Iowa Republicans make their crucial caucus choices on the night of Jan. 3, George H.W. Bush offered words of support, if not an official endorsement, to an old friend, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a story today in the Houston Chronicle. “I think Romney is the best choice for us,” former President Bush told the newspaper. “I like Perry, but he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere; he’s not surging forward.” The former president’s choice is a blow to native son Rick Perry, the Texas governor who has had a long-standing feud with...

I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. "California: It's All True." It is so vast and sprawling a place, so rich and various, that whatever you've heard about its wildness, weirdness and wonders, it's true. That's the problem with Newt Gingrich: It's all true. It's part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It's also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president. Ethically dubious? True. Intelligent...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Sunday that he cannot support GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich because the former House speaker lacks leadership skills. “I am not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich’s having served under him for four years and experienced his leadership. Because I found it lacking often times,” Coburn said on Fox News Sunday. The Oklahoma senator served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. “There’s all kind of leaders, leaders that instill confidence and leaders that are somewhat abrupt, leaders that have one standard for the people that they are leading and a...

On Friday, I suggested that Republicans “could pull a name out of a hat and find a more consistent and personally stable conservative” than Newt Gingrich. Many smart conservatives seem to agree. (VictorDavisHanson points out that with Gingrich as the nominee the GOP would forfeit the “crony capitalism” issue; No one has been a bigger crony than he.) The latest and perhaps brightest warning flare to the right is sent up by GeorgeWill. There are too many delicious lines in his column from which to choose a favorite. (e.g.,“There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich’s unrepented role as a hired...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

Mitt Romney doesn’t generate enthusiasm from the conservative base, according to one GOP insider, but he’ll still take the upcoming Iowa caucus. The big winner, though, is Fox News. “It’s gonna be Romney, and the party is miserable,” observed a Republican agent just back from the presidential contest in Iowa. “One day Bachmann, the next day Perry, then another day Cain, now Newt. The flavor of the day will pass. Why do many Fox contributors become candidates? It gets you in the debates and polls. But it doesn’t stick. Iowa is about paying an organization to show up. They are...

Is there anyone sane left in the GOP establishment? Does plain old common sense and gut instinct no longer matter to those who purport to speak for the party? Have conservative principles and traditional values become nothing more than meaningless rhetoric to those so desperate to hang on to imagined power? As the Republican establishment lines up like lemmings behind Mitt Romney, it would be illuminating and in fact critical to look at the news for just the last couple of days with regard to this untethered and pliable candidate. A good place to start would be Romney refusing to...

As a guest on Glamour magazine's recent panel for 20-somethings at Barnard College, Meghan McCain said, “I think the idea of a Romney president, as much as it will probably piss off everyone in this room, is a lot more feasible than you think with Obama’s numbers right now. But the thing about politics is it’s not over till it’s over, but I don’t think Michele Bachmann is going to be the nominee.”

Ann Coulter + Laura Ingraham = two Ivy League BA holding women w/ law school degrees who at some point in their life, likely dreamt of holding high political office (Coulter almost ran for Congress in Connecticut!)--but neither had the courage to challenge the old boy establishments of which they hail from, so they instead "followed the rules of the system" (as ivy leaguers are trained to do) and settled for the sole outlets by which feminist-minded women (the conformist breed of feminist) can gain the kind of stature they were desiring: This meant settling for something "easier" and less...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be surging in polls of Republican primary voters, but his party's Insiders aren't convinced he'd be the best general election candidate. More than two-thirds of Republican Insiders say Mitt Romney has a better chance than Perry of defeating President Obama in 2012, according to this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be surging in polls of Republican primary voters, but his party's Insiders aren't convinced he'd be the best general election candidate. More than two-thirds of Republican Insiders say Mitt Romney has a better chance than Perry of defeating President Obama in 2012, according to this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll. Many Republican Insiders acknowledged Perry's appeal to conservatives but questioned his ability to win over independent voters. "Perry can fire up the base, but this election will be won in the middle, not on the fringes," said one. Said another, "Having trouble ID-ing a...

A large group of 2008 Barack Obama supporters are now banking on Mitt Romney for the upcoming presidential election. That’s according to a report from Fox News that says a shift in Wall Street support could mean as much as a $150,000 boost for Romney’s campaign. “I think Romney could at least split Wall Street with Obama, which is something McCain really didn’t do,” said Charlie Gasparino, a reporter for Fox Business News. None of the expected bank presidents showed up to a recent fundraiser for President Obama, he added.

Rick Perry who just announced his candidacy received more votes than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. How much longer can Palin just drive around the country not doing much of anything and still expect to run for POTUS? A potential candidate without the organization to even manage 100 write in votes looks really really bad.

Romney, Bachmann, Cain Lead The Pack Among GOP Primary Voters Thursday, June 16, 2011 Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the race for the Republican nomination, but Michele Bachmann has surged into second place following her Monday night entry into the campaign. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters, taken following the candidates’ Monday night debate, shows Romney earning 33% support, with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann a surprise second at 19%. Georgia businessman Herman Cain is in third place with 10% of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich picks up nine percent...

“I think I line up pretty well with the Tea Party,” he said in response to a question from The Daily Caller after touring the Derry Feed and Supply store. “They want to see smaller government. So do I.”

With Sarah Palin fever sweeping across the media again, persistent Palin critic and conservative commentator George Will clearly was not excited by the speculation surrounding her potential run for President. Donna Brazile, Jonathan Karl and Ed Gillespie joined in on the conversation, yet Will had the most pointed remarks regarding how Palin is a “genius at manipulating” the infinite media attention she receives. Christiane Amanpour began the segment commenting “no one steals a show like Sarah Palin,” and while Will admits she will have a huge impact on the nomination process if she does decide to run, he still dismisses...

“Umm, I think the Tea Party is dying out a little, but you know I am moderate and I really want a Republican in office, but we have to really start to be realistic about the kind of times were living in. And EXTREMISM just isn’t going to work.“ Really Meghan? The Tea Party is extreme? The only reason your RINO father did as well as he did in 2008 was because of Sarah Palin. Go have fun cheerleading for Mittens and that other RINO Huntsman. video at link

"The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president," says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. "She's making money, she's moved on, she's kind of an entertainer rather than a politician. She still has some sway with the grass roots, but she is not going to run." "I don't think she's going to run," says a Republican close to Tim Pawlenty. "She has faded a lot in the last few months. I look at what she's doing now and say that she's found a way to get back in the story." Maybe these representatives...

DALLAS – Mitt Romney has all the trappings of a GOP presidential front-runner except for one important thing: enthusiasm from party activists. Romney raised a remarkable $10.25 million on Monday; Republican officials from across the nation meeting the next day in Dallas mostly shrugged. In nearly two dozen interviews at the Republican National Committee's spring meeting, no one fully embraced Romney, and several said they'd like to see other candidates enter the race.

Mitt Romney wants his money to show his might. The all-but-declared Republican presidential contender, who has kept his head low for much of the year as he collected cash, raised $10.25 million in a single day Monday after bringing together his network of wealthy donors to dial for dollars in a city with no shortage of them. It's a hefty one-day total that Romney's team hopes will show his strength in the emerging GOP field. Romney's phone bank fundraiser at the Las Vegas Convention Center, much like one during his first attempt at the Republican nomination, was the centerpiece of...

Romney haul from National Call Day in Vegas: $10.25 million

Bill Kristol posts that he now believes that Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann will indeed all declare. The National Journal simultaneously reports that a Newt Gingrich declaration is imminent. Haley Barbour is definitely out. Marco Rubio is definitely out. Mitt Romney is clearly in. Tim Pawlenty is clearly in. Trump incredibly also seems inbound. Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, and Paul Ryan remain wild cards. Here’s one way to analyze what happens next. I sort the Republican candidates into three piles: CANDIDATES WHO COULD WIN THE NOMINATION Christie Pawlenty Ryan Romney (Bachmann is too obviously crazy. Daniels will be...

Unless you have been involved in an airplane crash in the mountains and have had no food for days –– and some would argue even then –– cannibalism is a bad option. So why has it become such a popular pastime for the Republican Party? The candidates who are admitting they might run against President Barack Obama in 2012 have almost no chance at competing with him –– much less making him a one-term president. If the Republicans are serious about beating Obama, they need a conservative who can exist closer to the middle of the political spectrum. Ron Paul...

Republicans must "be careful" before nominating a presidential candidate identified with the Tea Party movement, a veteran former senator said Friday evening. Former Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) warned his party against nominating a candidate too quickly after the early caucuses and primaries, urging the GOP to instead pursue someone with more national appeal. "If you're going to nominate a national candidate, don't make the mistake of assuming that those who attend the early caucuses and the early primaries speak for the nation as a whole," Bennett said on Fox News. "If you're going to have a national candidate, you'd better...

Former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett urged Republicans to nominate a presidential candidate with a "national view," and not focus on the ideological purity found in the early caucuses and primaries. "If you're going to nominate a national candidate, don't make the mistake of assuming that those who attend the early caucuses and early primaries speak for the nation as a whole," he said, speaking to Greta Van Susteren on Fox News on Friday. Bennett referred to 2010 midterm Senate races as a "cautionary tale" to Republicans whose candidates fail to attract moderate voters, in particular Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's write-in...

WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - A group of Republican activists was sorting out the field of prospective 2012 presidential candidates on a cold night here recently when talk turned to Sarah Palin. In a state whose caucuses will kick off the nomination contest, no one stands clearly above the others, suggesting the competition here is as wide open as it is nationally. But what these voters said about Palin might give the former Alaska governor pause as she considers whether to run for the White House next year. Christi Taylor, a physician, put it this way: "As a woman, and...

South Carolina Republican and conservative firebrand Sen. Jim DeMint introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, the first official step in bringing the House-passed repeal bill fight into the staid upper chamber. But a slew of mostly moderate senators declined to support DeMint’s legislation, raising questions on the unity of the Republican caucus. Backing him are 34 Republicans including Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and Republican Whip Sen. John Kyl of Arizona. Conspicuously absent from the list of cosponsors are Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine,...

You might expect that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of the top likely candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, would cozy up to tea party followers anytime he can. But he’s actually steering clear of the movement, The Boston Globe reports. “Romney for the most part is inaccessible,’’ says Andrew Hemingway, chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Liberty Caucus. “[Minnesota Gov. Tom] Pawlenty, I could call him right now and say, ‘Let’s have coffee.’” Romney has kept his distance from tea party activists in key primary states, including the state viewed as a must win for him – New...

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire Tea Party movement activist Andrew Hemingway is not lacking in contact with likely presidential candidates. He’s talked hockey with Tim Pawlenty. He sat down with former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum at the Concord Country Club. And plans are in the works for Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to appear before a group of Hemingway’s fellow conservatives. the notable exception among the field of would-be GOP presidential contenders? Mitt Romney. “Romney for the most part is inaccessible,’’ said Hemingway, a Bristol resident who is chairman of the state’s Republican Liberty Caucus. “Pawlenty, I could call him right now...

The time has come to put any thoughts of Sarah Palin running for President to rest. I say that not because I dislike her; on the contrary, I'm a fan. I think she did an excellent job as a vice-presidential candidate in 2008 and has been an effective spokeswoman for conservative causes in the years since. But there is no way she is ever going to be elected President, and the sooner Republicans get over that idea, the better. SNIP No one with a 59 percent unfavorability rating among independents has the chance of a snowball in Hell of being...

Well, this really was what the inside-the-beltway Republicans were hoping for—Sarah Palin has effectively sunk her campaign for president, just as she was trying to launch it. Last week she gave a fireside chat that was to connect her with “average Americans,” a straight-look-into-the-camera moment for eight minutes without a cutaway or even a camera push-in or pull-out, an attempt to show that she could be “presidential” on the very day the president was in Tucson delivering one of the most compelling speeches of his life. The Republicans, who follow politics closely, work in the campaigns, and run the party,...

Congratulations, Mitt Romney! You have won the Hillary Clinton seat for the 2012 primaries. You're the long-distance frontrunner who is now expected to win New Hampshire. The Magellan poll of "likely 1,451 Republican primary voters," about 2/3 GOP registered and 1/3 independent: Mitt Romney - 39 percent Sarah Palin - 16 percent Mike Huckabee - 10 percent Newt Gingrich - 8 percent Ron Paul - 7 percent Tim Pawlenty - 4 percentanother candidate - 4 percent Rick Santorum - 3 percent Haley Barbour - 1 percent Romney has to be considered the frontrunner, even though he's polling only 7 points...

In a much hyped battle for chairmanship of the Massachusetts Republican Party, Jennifer Nassour fended off the challenge of Bill McCarthy.

"It doesn't sound like her when you read the materials," former White House press secretary said on "FOX News Sunday" today.Dana Perino: Palin Doesn't Sound "Authentic"

<p>Sarah Palin is widely considered to be a leading candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. And while an October story in Politico made a splash (and drew Palin's wrath) by quoting anonymous Republican "insiders" attacking Palin, we've noticed a different, striking pattern in recent weeks: More and more prominent Republicans are publicly voicing doubts about Palin.</p>

Nicolle Wallace, a former colleague of Sarah Palin, has become the latest senior Republican publicly to round on the darling of the Tea Party movement, saying that her opponents should avoid criticising her directly and let her expose her own multiple flaws. SNIP "She has very obvious deficiencies that will reveal themselves as the nominating contest gets closer," she told The Daily Telegraph, adding: "Let her shoot her moose or whatever the heck she does on her [television] show, it will all work out." SNIP "What's troubling is she has missed an opportunity to go beyond the platitudes and deepen...