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Folks, we live in fascinating times, a time which I believe we are going to find it more and more difficult to find political consensus in. Take today for example: Jack Cafferty of CNN is lauding CNN's new push poll of Obama's overall approval (50%) and that the Messiah will overmatch and outwit any of the GOP presidential candidates, whichever one becomes the nominee. He acted like the cat who had just swallowed the canary, he was beside himself, gloating from ear to ear. Unfortunately some posters on the right-wing blogosphere have also adopted this negative narrative and posture as...

"At a nationally televised GOP debate in New Hampshire last month, broadcast to a Sunday morning audience on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mitt Romney looked straight into the living rooms of America and told a lie. It wasn’t a major lie, perhaps more like a fib. But when Newt Gingrich challenged him about the ads that the super PAC affiliated with Romney had been running, the former governor pleaded ignorance. “I haven’t seen them,” he said indignantly. Then, barely 15 seconds later, perhaps forgetting he had just claimed never to have seen one of the ads, he offered a detailed...

Rick Santorum’s tax returns suggest his support for American manufacturing hasn’t always extended to his own automobile purchases. His 2008 return shows that Mr. Santorum and his wife, Karen, listed a German car — an Audi A6 — among their business equipment. The car was placed in service on April 1, 2008, and was driven 11,850 miles that year, more than 6,000 of them for business purposes. His personal business returns for 2009 and 2010 show that he still had a vehicle that was placed in service on April 1, 2008, suggesting that he still owned the Audi.

WASHINGTON -- There is a grisly pallor that has beset former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Then, too, there is a lumpiness: to his face, to his features, to his – well -- to his lump. When he walks into a room I feel rather sorry for him, but then I feel rather sorry for Bill Clinton too and for Hillary. No longer do I call her "Bill's lovely wife, Bruno." She looks grandmotherly rather than tough. I guess maybe her coeval from the 1960s generation of student government goody-goodies, Newt, looks grandfatherly rather than brainy. What does Al...

(TheDailyCaller.com) Rick Santorum is smoking Mitt Romney in a Rasmussen poll of Ohio Republican voters released on Thursday. Santorum gets 42 percent in the swing state, a crucial one in the general election, while Romney sits 18 points behind at 24 percent. Newt Gingrich is in third at 13 percent and Ron Paul is at 10 percent.

KENTWOOD – Jerome Bush, an 81-year-old lifelong Republican, shook GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s hand Wednesday, recalling doing the same with his father, George Romney, during his campaign for governor more than 40 years ago. “I voted for his dad,” said Bush, the former supervisor of Fillmore Township in Allegan County. “Right now, I’m still undecided if I’m going to vote for him.” It illustrates the difficulty the former Massachusetts governor is facing on the 2012 campaign trail. Three polls released Wednesday show Rick Santorum ahead of Romney in the state where he was born and raised, a place once...

CNN has cancelled a scheduled March 1 debate in Georgia just ahead of Super Tuesday after Romney, followed by Santorum and Paul, announced they would not participate. This makes perfect sense, of course. Why should Republican candidates pay respect to the heart of the South, a region which will be key to Republican success in November. No, because George likely is to go for Newt anyway, the other candidates will not even show up for a debate. Just like all the candidates ran and hid from the New Hampshire debate because Romney was likely to win. Oh, wait.

CNN canceled its March 1 Republican candidates' debate Thursday after three of four candidates declined to participate, citing busy campaign schedules leading to Super Tuesday. "Mitt Romney and Ron Paul told the Georgia Republican Party, Ohio Republican Party and CNN Thursday that they will not participate in the March 1 Republican presidential primary debate," CNN said in a statement. "Without full participation of all four candidates, CNN will not move forward with the Super Tuesday debate." Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum also said he would not participate, leaving only former House Speaker Newt Gingrich committed to attending.

Allow me to preface this deeply conspiratorial post by saying that, across the board, I do not believe in conspiracy theories. There are no conspiracy theories, only conspiracy facts. By definition, any plot to affect some outcome executed by a cabal of plotters must come to light by one of two ways – either the plot is successful and the theory become fact, or the plot fails and the theory becomes fact. Either way, there are no conspiracy theories. With all that having been said, allow me to irresponsibly advance one: Actually, I’m merely adding onto a dog pile started...

BOSTON – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has announced that he will appoint conservative judges to the federal bench if he wins the White House. In a forum hosted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Romney said he likes “strict constructionists” on the federal bench. . . . . . . . . . . Legal analysts say candidate Romney is different from Gov. Romney. Liberty Counsel Action Vice President Matt Barber said Romney’s appointments were constitutional “living document” poster children. “Many of Romney’s appointments were not only liberal, not only Democrats, but were radical counter-constitutionalists. How on earth can...

By now, it is clear that the Maine caucuses were a complete mess. Evidence is mounting that Mitt Romney's 194-vote victory over Ron Paul was prematurely announced, if not totally wrong. Washington County canceled their caucus on Saturday on account of three inches of snow (hardly a blizzard by Maine standards), and other towns that scheduled their caucuses for this week have been left out of the vote count. Now, it looks like caucuses that did take place before Feb. 11 have also been left out of final tally. As the full extent of the chaos unfolds, sources close to...

Mitt Romney's campaign and his super-PAC have begun ramping up their ad buys in Michigan to hit Rick Santorum where they believe he is weak -- by painting him as an unreliable conservative, a big spender, and too much of a social conservative to win. They need to undermine his credibility in a hurry if they want to reverse his momentum and bring Santorum back down to the second tier. Santorum will have to find a way to defend himself while getting outspent, a task that Newt Gingrich couldn’t manage, and maintain his credibility as a national candidate.In that, Santorum...

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who frequently touts his humble roots as the grandson of a coal miner, earned an average of more than $900,000 each year between 2007 and 2010, according to the candidate’s tax returns released on Wednesday. His adjusted gross income varied from about $659,000 in 2007 to more than $1.1 million in 2009. In 2010, Santorum earned $923,411. According to the IRS-1040 forms released by the Santorum campaign, the former Pennsylvania senator paid an effective tax rate of roughly 28.5 percent in 2010. That is a substantially higher rate than what Mitt Romney paid the same year,...

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison all but endorsed Mitt Romney today, telling MSNBC that Romney has the experience needed in the White House - though she said she isn't technically, formally endorsing him at the moment.

National pollsters have already released surveys showing Rick Santorum taking a lead over Mitt Romney in Romney’s native state of Michigan. Today, three state-based polls concur, showing leads from just under four points to ten points in the key battleground state. The Detroit News poll shows the tightest margin (via Politico’s Morning Blast e-mail):

Republican Mitt Romney is faltering with white working-class voters crucial to his party's drive to capture the White House, even as he tries to fend off a rising GOP challenger, Rick Santorum, who wields strong blue-collar appeal. The wealthy former Bain Capital chief has led his rivals by comfortable margins among white college graduates, according to combined polls of voters in the first five states that held presidential nominating contests. But the exit and entry surveys showed only a modest Romney advantage among whites who lack college degrees, the yardstick analysts typically use to define the working class.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum released four years of federal income tax returns on Wednesday night, showing a sharp rise in his personal wealth spurred by his growing work as Washington-based corporate consultant and media commentator. Santorum's returns show that his federal income taxes rose from 2007, when he paid $167,000, to $310,000 in 2009, then dropped to $263,000 in 2010. During that same period, his annual income surged from nearly $660,000 in 2007 to $1.1 million in 2009 before slipping to $923,000 in 2010. That amounts to an effective tax rate of about 28.5 per cent for the latter...

Pay no attention to those projected delegate counts you've seen. Though tallies show that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is ahead of his GOP rivals in the race to capture the 1,144 delegates needed to sew up the party's presidential nomination, they are misleading. They don't account for the pool of 180 delegates that have yet to be doled out by Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado and Maine, all of which have voted — opening the door for a reshuffling of the leader board in the coming months... Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, for instance, has won four contests but...

As I’ve been noting here, one key metric to determine whether the prolonged GOP nomination process is damaging Mitt Romney’s general election prospects is his standing among independents, many of whom remain sour on Obama’s economic performance. Today’s new Pew poll offers another installment. The topline is striking enough — it finds that Rick Santorum is surging among Tea Partyers and conservatives, again suggesting that they just can’t come to terms with Romney as the nominee.

I’m skeptical, especially if you count his Super PAC as part of his campaign. (And who doesn’t?) But the basic logic makes sense. If you depend heavily on a small-ish base of wealthy donors who are capped by law on how much they can give, then you’d better win early to grow that base before they’re all tapped out. If Santorum bumps him off in Michigan and Romney underperforms on Super Tuesday, it suddenly gets much harder for Mitt to lure big money with the promise of access to the eventual nominee. Romney has proved unable to tap into the...

Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his conservative bona fides following doubts expressed by Sarah Palin. The former Alaskan governor and vice presidential candidate told Fox News Sunday that she is "not convinced" by Romney's conservative instincts, indicating he may not be conservative "enough" for her. "And I don't think that the majority of GOP and Independent voters are convinced, and that is why you don't see Romney get over that hump," she said. (VIDEO AT LINK) "I'm not quite sure what she'd be referring to," Romney responded Wednesday, also on Fox News. "I'm pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, I believe in the...

Once assured of victory on friendly turf, Mitt Romney faces a potentially devastating loss in his home state of Michigan to Rick Santorum, which could upend the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Romney, the son of a popular former Michigan governor who was a one-time Detroit auto executive, finds himself trailing Santorum in one of two states that vote Feb. 28. The other is Arizona, but Santorum is concentrating on Michigan. A Romney loss in Michigan could weaken him going into the 10 "Super Tuesday" states that vote on March 6 and throw the race wide open. In response,...

Washington (CNN) - The war of commercials from the presidential campaigns and various super PACs supporting candidates is expected to intensify in the coming days and to greatly expand in its scope. Mitt Romney's campaign has now bought almost $1.2 million in ad time in Michigan, a source who tracks media buys told CNN. So far the campaign has up a positive spot in the state where the candidate talks about his Michigan roots. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding its ad strategy. With Rick Santorum vowing to vigorously compete in Michigan, which votes on...

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will endorse Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, in advance of the state's primary on Feb. 28, GOP sources told National Journal and CBS News. Snyder will announce his support for the former Massachusetts governor at a lunch in Farmington Hills, Mich., where Romney is to address the Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce and the Livonia Chamber of Commerce.

Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, has been invoked on the campaign trail often. Newt Gingrich used his release of 12 years’ of tax records as an example to push his rival to release his own tax returns. On Thursday night, Romney mentioned the fact that his father was born in Mexico in response to Gingrich’s allegations that he is “anti-immigrant,” which raises the question: If George Romney was born in Mexico, how could he run for president?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhY4oeNgAv_ldDBVVWdKUE5mOVZWdVZIdmVOa2ZCc1E As of the End of Super Tuesday based on Current Polling (State by State Breakdown in Google Doc Link) Romney - 324 Santorum - 241 Newt - 150 Paul - 51 Uncommitted/Undecided Superdelegates: 33

If Sarah is flirting, I was seduced a long time ago! For everyone who doesn't want Romney, this is huge! It's only in the modern era that Presidential nominations have been locked up before most American voters even tuned in. So this year, for the nation, the Republican Primary is kind of a return to older times, when all Americans counted, not just the few power brokers. The race has been a very rich blue blood from New England ( where he would not carry one state in the general election ) and a group of three, Newt, Rick and...

Negative ads by Romney worked to fend off the challenge of Newt Gingrich in recent weeks, and more are in the works against Santorum - although it's unclear how successful they will be. In a clear sign that attack ads are looming, the pro-Romney "Super PAC" Restore Our Future has notably ramped up its TV advertising in several states including Michigan.

Good news just keeps coming for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. Not only does a new Rasmussen poll show him leading Romney by 12 points nationally, but a new poll from the American Research Group shows that he’s also made a significant jump in the state of Arizona: The American Research Group survey shows Romney with 38% support among likely Republican primary voters, followed by Santorum at 31%, Newt Gingrich at 15% and Ron Paul with 11%.The new figures represent a significant shift since January, when a similar poll indicated Romney and Gingrich tied at 32%, Paul with 12% and...

How does an underfunded candidate defend himself against a big onslaught of negative attack ads? Newt Gingrich tried leveraging the media attention received from going nasty and personal in response and ended up flaming out in Florida and a string of caucuses in the last three weeks. Rick Santorum has decided to use humor to just attack the attack in a new ad running called "Rombo": CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO In its morning e-mail blast, Politico reports on the strategy, which purposefully avoids what it sees as the mistakes made by Gingrich in January: Campaign leaders feel that...

AUGUSTA, Maine — Pressure is mounting on the Maine Republican Party to reconsider its weekend declaration that Mitt Romney won the state’s caucuses, at least until all votes have been counted. The Maine GOP announced Saturday that Romney narrowly edged Ron Paul, 39 percent to 36 percent, in a nonbinding presidential preference poll taken during the caucuses. The margin was fewer than 200 votes. A number of communities were not included in that poll because they had not held their caucuses by the deadline spelled out by the state party. Washington County Republicans postponed their caucuses, originally scheduled for Saturday,...

As Santorum has become the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, we can expect to see a wave of negative ad hominem attacks against him not only from competing Republicans, but also from the media, academia, Hollywood, and every other liberal in America. It will probably get very ugly.

After seeing yet another controversy regarding the outcome of the Maine elections, where once again Mitt Romney may have been declared the winner of a caucus when the final tally is in question due to only 84% of the caucuses being reported and conducted because of "weather" - why do I feel like we are becoming a 3rd world country? (It's a rhetorical question; I know the answer.) Think about how much it benefited Romney for the three weeks the final votes seemed to mysteriously disappear in Iowa (or whatever the hell the excuse was). For three weeks the moderate...

This is a brilliant ad! This new ad by Rick Santorum features a Romney-look alike as “Rombo,” shooting mud at Santorum! It tells voters that “Rombo” is now going to come after Santorum with negative attacks, “slinging mud,” but that this time it’s “going to backfire.”

Santorum campaign has purchased $41K of airtime in Michigan between 2/15-2/28 vs. Romney camp: $824K

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney responds to Sarah Palin saying she is not convinced he is a conservative during his appearance on Wednesday's "FOX & Friends." "Well we should probably spend some time with Sarah Palin, although she is hard to find. She's on your show all the time," Romney said. "I'm not quite sure what she'd be referring to. I'm pro-life, pro-traditional marriage. I believe in the second amendment. As governor, I balanced the budget every year I was in office. Put in place a $2 million rainy-day fund. Cut taxes 19 times," he also said.

Via BuzzFeed. As expected, they’re going hard after his fiscal heresies. I’m giving you Santorum’s new ad here too, which is noteworthy first because he touts his tea-party cred (ironic) and second because he’s now making electability a core component of his pitch. No other Not Romney has been in that position before — but the numbers do back him up, for now: One thing that has remained constant in the ever changing GOP Presidential race is that Mitt Romney is the strongest candidate against Barack Obama…at least until now. PPP’s newest national poll finds Romney trailing Obama by 7...

Speaking at a campaign event on Monday, February 13 in Mesa, Arizona, Mitt Romney made a bold suggestion about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence: “They're either inspired by God or written by brilliant people or perhaps a combination of both.” Inspired by God? It sounds like just another sop tossed to Tea-Party constitutionalism, but Romney was in fact invoking a longstanding Mormon doctrine which views the U.S. Constitution as not only great, but literally divine.

The Mormon faith of presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been one of the hot topics throughout the Republican's campaign. But a recent photo posted on social network website Twitter took speculation about the strength of his religious beliefs to new heights. It shows the GOP nominee wearing an unbuttoned white shirt with his Mormon underwear clearly visible underneath. Also known as a Temple garment, it typically covers the shoulders and extends to the knees, in deference to rules surrounding the Church of the Latter Day Saints' temples.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum shoots to the top among Ohio likely Republican primary voters with 36 percent, followed by 29 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a Quinnpiac University poll released today. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich runs third with 20 percent, while Texas U.S. Rep Ron Paul gets 9 percent. Three weeks before the March 6 primary, 50 percent of likely Republican primary voters say they may change their mind. The first survey of likely voters can not be compared with earlier surveys of registered Republicans.

Sarah Palin slammed Barack Obama’s “un-American” actions against America’s religious institutions tonight On the Record. “Welcome to government-mandated health care,” Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin said when asked about the contraception controversy going on between the government and the Catholic Church.

The Maine Republican Party is being urged to reconsider its announcement that presidential candidate Mitt Romney won a preference poll of state caucus-goers, the Bangor Daily News reports. The Maine GOP said on Saturday that Romney had defeated Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, 39 percent to 36 percent, or less than 200 votes, in the state’s weeklong caucuses. To be counted, party officials said the meetings had to be concluded by Feb. 11. According to the newspaper, some communities that followed caucus procedure were still not counted in the final tabulation. In addition, one county was forced to postpone its caucus...

CNN Poll: Gender and Income Gaps In GOP Nomination Battle Paul Steinhauser (CNN) - A large gender gap appears to be developing between supporters of GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, as well as a split between white collar and blue collar Republicans, according to a new national survey. A CNN/ORC International poll also indicates that Santorum supporters are much more highly motivated than those backing Romney. See full results (pdf) "The new numbers indicate a split in the Republican party that goes deeper than ideology, with signs of a gender gap and class warfare breaking out in...

"After seeing yet another controversy regarding the outcome of the Maine elections, where once again Mitt Romney may have been declared the winner of a caucus when the final tally is in question due to only 84% of the caucuses reported and conducted because of :weather" - why do I feel like we are becoming a 3rd world country? (It;s a rhetorical question; I know the answer.) Think about how much it benefited Romney for the three weeks the final votes seemed to mysteriously disappear in Iowa (or whatever the hell the excuse was). For three weeks the moderate Murdoch...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney takes a hard line against congressional earmarks, but the Republican presidential candidate had a more favorable view of federal pork-barrel spending as governor of Massachusetts. Under Romney's leadership, Massachusetts sought tens of millions of dollars in earmarks for transportation projects through the state's congressional delegation. A prime example was the $30 million his administration requested to renovate the historic Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River between Cambridge and Boston.

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.

As politicians in both political parties debate Mitt Romney’s role in implementing a 2005 statute requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to dispense Plan B - an “emergency contraceptive” that studies and the pill’s manufacturer have suggested can cause early abortions - a leader in the state’s pro-life movement puts the blame squarely on the former governor.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, following his wins last week in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, has now jumped ahead of Mitt Romney in Michigan's Republican Primary race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Michigan shows Santorum with 35% of the vote to Romney’s 32%. Well behind are Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 13% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 11%. Only one percent (1%) prefers some other candidate in the race, while eight percent (8%) are undecided.

Mitt Romney may have won the straw poll at the end of the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C. over the weekend, but CPAC's real star was Sarah Palin, says Josh Lederman at The Hill. Among the many speakers, the former Alaska governor "received far-and-away the most spirited and enthusiastic reception" from the 10,000 conservative activists in attendance. And the former vice presidential candidate, who opted out of the 2012 presidential race in October, "appeared to relish her role as conservative attack dog, blasting Obama and Democrats," and bringing the crowd repeatedly to its feet. Is Palin, even from...

RUSH: I want to move on to this Dick Morris business and the attack on the Catholic Church last week by Obama. I want to ask you, if you remember back in January there was a presidential debate, a Republican debate in Manchester. Do you remember -- 'cause this is a setup for what's coming -- do you remember, we were all perplexed here. George Stephanopoulos kept hounding Romney on contraception. It had not come up, nobody had said anything about it, and we were all confused, as was Romney, what the deal was. Well, it is Dick Morris' theorem...