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After months of uncertainty, Mitt Romney has decided to roll the dice and go for a win in the Iowa caucus. But the former governor is betting that he can triumph in the state without any significant support from social conservatives — normally a vital voting bloc — and is making no real effort to win them over.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was accused on Wednesday of flip-flopping for comments he made in 2007 indicating he was open to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Romney's remarks, made on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he was a candidate for president, were circulated by rival Newt Gingrich's campaign the day after the former Speaker of the House of Representatives came under similar fire for suggesting during a debate Tuesday night that he was in favor of such a pathway for immigrants. Opponents of a pathway, a large swath of the early-voting Republican electorate, have...

Don’t expect Mitt Romney to backtrack on his Massachusetts health-care plan at any point this election cycle. “I am sure there are many people who have calculated, and perhaps correctly, that the healthcare plan I put in place in Massachusetts is not good for me politically, and if I want to encourage my political future, I should say it was a mistake and walk away from it,” Romney told Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto in an interview set to air later tonight. “You have seen a lot of candidates look at their biggest vulnerability, call it a mistake, and...

WASHINGTON - Among the Republicans angling to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. a year from January, Mitt Romney is the closest to achieving his goal. The former Massachusetts governor has reached the decisive phase in his presidential campaign: attempting to consolidate his support and cinch the nomination. (snip) Romney’s most ardent conservative critics have been left to rally around Herman Cain, simultaneously engaged in a book tour and presidential campaign, in a last-ditch effort to prevent his nomination. (snip) ...the Romney staff is focused on what it sees as an inevitable clash with Obama and the Democrats. But with the...

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

After watching the GOP presidential debate the other night, it was hard to avoid this conclusion: Mitt Romney looks more and more like the GOP presidential nominee. He's the best debater. He's got his issues and his rejoinders down pat. He brushes away his opponents like lint on his lapel. And all with such ease. That said, there's a teensy problem he just can't seem to beat: Conservatives don't like him. Or trust him. Or really want him to be the GOP nominee. Sure, you say, Republicans never like their nominees, and they still manage to vote for them. There...

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

Health care remains one of President Barack Obama's greatest political weaknesses. The issue remains an equally serious problem for Republican Mitt Romney. President Obama's program to centralize medical decision-making in Washington remains as unpopular as ever. Insurers are raising premiums and canceling policies. The president's promise that Americans can keep their existing coverage has turned out to be void. Health care providers and insurers are cutting back operations and dropping jobs to comply with the new law. Washington has been forced to issue temporary waivers — over 1400, as of mid-June — to moderate the legislation's impact. Moreover, ObamaCare has...

Sarah Palin has officially “jumped the shark.” Last night’s premier of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” will be remembered as the moment the once-promising, conservative darling crossed over into the absurd. Part Alaska tourism promo, part window into the family Palin, TLC’s eight-part series features clips of the former governor at home in gym shorts and shots of the family enjoying the great outdoors while she calls out folksy comments like, “this is flippin’ fun!” If that’s not enough, Palin takes Kate Gosselin (of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” fame) camping in the Alaska wilderness - the two women reportedly didn’t get...

WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican says Sarah Palin cost the GOP control of the Senate. Questioned about those comments on Tuesday, a spokesman for Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama said the remarks had been taken out of context but didn't retract them. Bachus, in line to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, initially blamed Palin last week at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. According to the Shelby County Reporter, he said the Senate would be in Republican hands if not for losses by tea party candidates endorsed by the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Monday it would be "great" for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to run for president in 2012. "She would be a great thing for the Republican primary process," said Romney, a 2008 presidential candidate and a potential candidate again in 2012. "It'd be a good thing for her to get in." Romney, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) have all rallied around Palin, who on Sunday night condemned suggestions that GOP operatives in Washington were looking to stall any potential presidential aspirations...

Nicolle Wallace on Bill Maher just admitted that she was no fan of the Tea Party. Now I knew that I was not a fan of hers because of comments she made about Our Sarah, but had no idea she was so openly against the Tea Party. Nicolle laughed hysterically at every vulgar,rude slanderous remark that Maher made about basically ALL the Tea Party candidates. She mocked COD about the first amendment? We all know that COD was only stating the fact that the phrase separation of Church and State was not in the Constitution. Nicolle was just hateful. I...

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney, having met last weekend in New Hampshire with the staff of his 2008 presidential campaign, is preparing to embark on an aggressive schedule that will take him to more than 25 states in what is seen as a prelude to another possible White House bid. The two-month itinerary will launch a cycle of politicking for Republican midterm election candidates that will make Romney one of the nation’s most visible politicians in a year when he is not on the ballot.

She's appeared at Tea Party rallies across the country and long been considered the movement's de facto leader, but a new CNN poll out Friday suggests Sarah Palin isn't the group's clear favorite for the White House.

Raw footage of CBS News anchor Katie Couric recording voice-overs for news segments about Gov. Sarah Palin on the day she was named as John McCain’s running mate: [...] What’s newsworthy here isn’t merely that Couric mocked the GOP’s historic Vice Presidential nominee–most of us have said things we’re not proud of in private–it’s that she did so so brazenly in front of her supposedly objective news team. Conservatives4Palin raises another good point about Couric and Co.’s efforts to marginalize the former Alaska governor from day one: “[W]hat in [Palin's] impressive biography did CBS News and Couric choose to focus...

The following video was sent to C4P’s tips account. As you can see, the video shows Katie Couric preparing to go on the air on the day John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate. It shows some tantalizing hints of Couric’s attitude toward the Governor--when talking about first Trig, then Track, Couric says “where the hell do they get these [names]?...” At that point the producer running the sound board shut off the sound because he or she didn’t want to have Couric’s disdainful and contemptuous view of Governor Palin’s children captured on even an internal CBS tape...

Repeat after me: “Liberal media bias is a myth”… (Daily Caller)- In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story. But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat...

Whenever anyone mentions the 2012 election, inevitably the name of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney becomes a topic of conversation. And when it comes to polling data, Romney is often seen as a front-runner, forecasted to be stronger than the current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Increasingly, many of those in the Republican Party think Mitt is the GOP’s “go-to” guy in the next election. I guess you’ll just have to pardon me for failing to drink the Kool-Aid regarding the former governor. I just think it’s about time somebody stated the truth about Gov. Romney. Mitt Romney...

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

From a remote location on an island off Alaska’s coast, former Governor Sarah Palin is blasting what she describes as the “sick puppies” in the media who immediately and ruthlessly attacked her when Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign. In exclusive remarks to The Daily Caller, Palin described “hordes of Obama’s opposition researchers-slash ‘reporters’” descending upon Alaska in the days after she was picked by McCain. She said the media became a key reason she decided not to finish out her term as governor and faults, in part, the McCain campaign for...

‘Anonymous Numbskulls’ – Romney Calls for Cease-Fire with Palin July 16, 2010 1:04 PM ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: How do you end a political food fight in 140 characters or less? A series of delectable, anonymous quotes were forming an early front in the battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination – until former Gov. Mitt Romney took to Twitter today to put a stop to it. The fun began when a pair of Romney intimates sounded off – without their names attached --about former Gov. Sarah Palin: “She's not a serious human being,” one Romney adviser told Time’s...

Fred Thompson, former GOP senator, presidential candidate, actor and prolific Tweeter, is usually one of the more entertaining pols out there in social media. Here are some of his recent bons mots: Hillary in Kiev, Ukraine: prosperity should be "equally spread". No - doesn't work. That's why you didn't speak in Kiev, USSR. #ftrs #tcot Jimmy Buffet: oil spill Bush's fault. Why trust his opinion? He can't even keep track of a shaker of salt. #ftrs #tcot Justice Kennedy: won't retire while Obama in office. So we're safe, barring accident, illness, or Rolling Stone interview. #ftrs #tcot Obama: US and...

BOSTON — I consider myself lucky to have lived in Massachusetts during the years 2003 to 2007, when the Commonwealth (God save it!) was under the barely distinguishable leadership of Willard (Mitt) Romney, an affable parachute artist from Utah who came tumbling into and out of our politics so quickly that it's hard to believe he ever was here. For the most part, Romney was the kind of Republican we'd always liked: He was rich and white, and he wasn't dramatically concerned with either the civil rights of zygotes, or where some men might be putting their pee-pees when Jeebus...

Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) held a fundraiser in Manhattan last week and outperformed Pres. Obama's own cash grab a day later on behalf of the DCCC, another sign of trouble brewing for Dems this cycle in all corners of the country. Romney headlined an event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on May 12 that raised $1.5M for his Free and Strong America PAC. By contrast, Obama's appearance at the St. Regis Hotel on May 13 raked in a lesser $1.3 million for the DCCC.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) thinks Mitt Romney will win the GOP nomination for president in 2012. Schwarzenegger predicted on the Tonight Show on Thursday night the former Massachusetts governor will emerge from what could be a crowded field. "I think maybe Romney by a hair," he said. Schwarzenegger also lamented that he can't run himself because the Constitution requires the president to be born in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly 4 million Americans—the vast majority of them middle class—will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released Thursday. The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report. Most of the people paying the fine will be middle class. Obama pledged in 2008 not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000. Republicans have criticized the penalties, even though...

Seated on the same side of an antique table before a large audience, Presidents Barack Obama and Dimitri Medvedev smile at one another as they exchange documents encased in red and black leather folders. The new START treaty has been signed, completing a journey Obama began when he visited the Czech Republic a year ago and announced his intention to begin ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He has reset relations between Russia and the United States and fulfilled a dream of another American President: Ronald Reagan. The cold war is over. Back in America, the former half-term governor of...

The Drudge Report made it the headline story Saturday night: ROMNEY WINS STRAW POLL RESULTS. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the former governor of Massachusetts, who, incidentally, signed into law the state health care system upon which Obamacare is based, narrowly edged Ron Paul in the informal poll of potential GOP candidates for 2012. Sarah Palin was third in the polling, with Newt Gingrich finishing out the top four. Some of the big guns in the conservative movement and the Republican Party will make a big story out of this, as they have been pulling for Romney since the...

Mitt Romney, the once and likely future presidential candidate, didn’t show up to address the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, but that didn’t stop him from walking away with the big prize from the gathering. The former Massachusetts governor bested the competition in a straw poll conducted here over the past two days. Romney received 24 percent of a total of 1,806 ballots cast when voters were asked to name the candidate they would support if the Republican primary for president were held today. [snip] A group whipping votes for Romney, Evangelicals for Mitt, spent the day handing out plastic pink...

April 10 Mitt Romney Wins Presidential Straw Poll at Republican Leadership Conference Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. The person who didn't attend the Southern Republican Leadership Conference won the 2012 GOP presidential straw poll. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. Sarah Palin finished in third place with 330 votes, while Newt Gingrich rounded it out with 321 votes. Several potential candidates addressed the three-day gathering which ended Saturday. Eyeing another presidential bid, Texas Rep. Ron Paul told...

Mitt Romney, along with some other Republicans likely to run for president in 2012, is raising money this year for congressional candidates who want to repeal President Barack Obama's sweeping health-care law. But as Mr. Romney tours to promote his new book, some people have been posing an uncomfortable question: If he opposes Mr. Obama's health-care policy, why did Mr. Romney shepherd a near-universal health-insurance system into law as governor of Massachusetts?

The thinking is that it won’t play well in some states, like Illinois, where the GOP’s got a shot at an unlikely pick-up, so rather than push some monolithic “repeal it” message nationwide, they’re going to let local candidates decide how much they want to push it or not. Which is politically savvy, but not a big confidence-booster in terms of their determination to roll this thing back should they get the numbers in Congress to do so. Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall might be burned by a fire that’s roaring through the conservative base:...

Mitt Romney may end up being the biggest GOP casualty of ObamaCare -- his 2012 presidential hopes dashed before he's even announced a bid. Mr. Romney has continued vociferously campaigning against ObamaCare even while defending a very similar universal health-care plan he signed into law as Massachusetts's governor in 2006. Last week, he inveighed on the National Review blog that "President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation . . . . he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends." Critically, Republicans need to win the presidency in order to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Top Republicans are starting to worry about their health care rallying cry "Repeal the bill." It just might singe GOP candidates in November's elections, they fear, if voters begin to see benefits from the new law. Democrats, hoping the GOP is indeed positioning itself too far to the right for the elections, are taking note of every Republican who pledges to fight for repeal. Such a pledge might work well in conservative-dominated Republican primaries, they say, but it could backfire in the fall when more moderate voters turn out. At least one Republican Senate candidate, Mark Kirk...

In the days immediately before and after passage of the landmark health care reform bill, Mitt Romney responded so forcefully as to suggest his own political fate is tied to the new law. It may well be. Just as health care, or “Obamacare,” as it is derided on the right, hangs over this year’s midterm elections, it is already casting a shadow on the 2012 presidential contest — and its GOP front-runner. What was once thought to be an asset for Romney, his passage as Massachusetts governor of a health care mandate for the state’s residents, now poses a potentially...

Mitt Romney, the once and likely future Republican presidential candidate, is back in Iowa today. The stated purpose of his visit, which includes speeches in Des Moines and Ames, is to promote his new book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness."The broader mission, however, is to begin to reintroduce Romney to the state that holds the first in the nation presidential nominating contest. When Romney ran for president in 2008, his most delicate task was trying to convince social conservatives that he was, in the words of former Romney adviser Mike Murphy, "a pro-life Mormon" who had been "faking...

Why the former Massachusetts governor should run health care reform. As I see it, there are three principal requirements for the job. The first is experience in management, business, and organization: maybe someone who's worked as a management consultant, an entrepreneur, and an executive in both the public and private sectors. The second is the ability and capacity to commit: someone who isn't likely to have any pressing obligations for the next several years, and who has enough cash that he or she doesn't need a large private-sector salary. Third is relevant experience in implementing a large-scale health-care reform program,...

DES MOINES — There was no doubt about the sentiments of many of those at author Mitt Romney’s book-signing at the Des Moines Public Library Monday. “I’d be interested if he ran” for president again, Scott Newland of Des Moines said as he thumbed through Romney’s “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.” Among those waving Romney campaign-like signs and wearing Romney t-shirts, Shirley Woodruff was more direct about wanting to see the former Massachusetts governor make another run for the Republican nomination. “He’s at least honest,” she said, displaying a photo of herself and Romney’s wife, Ann. “He has...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans were girding for battle yesterday as they plotted new strategies to try to take down President Obama's health plan, repeal it, or tie it up in legal knots. Just hours after the House passed a landmark overhaul, Republican strategies to fight back were emerging, even as Obama and the Democrats savored their biggest victory yet. "There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," fumed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on an Arizona radio station. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it." "Outside the Beltway, the American people...

Former Massachusetts governor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney predicted that President Obama's massive health care bill would be passed by Congress, and he outlined a legislative strategy to overturn the bill by cutting off the funding necessary to implement it. Speaking in Dallas yesterday as part of the publicity tour for his new book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, Romney said that the key to his plan was for the GOP to reclaim majorities in both houses of Congress as well as the White House. Romney said that those members voting for the health care bill...

The liberal media watchdog group Media Matters is fuming over CNN’s hiring of conservative RedState blogger Erick Erickson. In a document provided POLITICO that Media Matters plans to post on its blog Tuesday, the group accuses Erickson of having a “long history of incendiary, sexist and racially charged statements.� “If you need any further proof that the liberal media bias is a myth, CNN just hired someone who called David Souter a goat——ing child molester,� Media Matters Vice President of Research and Communication Ari Rabin-Havt told POLITICO. The document includes many other profane Erickson statements, including the vulgar phrase highlighted...

DeMint Not Sold On Romney As 2012 Approaches Sen. Jim DeMint told CNN Monday that he isn’t sure if he would endorse Mitt Romney for president if he decided to run. Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) - Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, was one of Mitt Romney's top backers during the 2008 presidential campaign – a key endorsement that helped the former Massachusetts governor boost his profile among conservatives. But if Romney decides to run for president again in 2012, a prospect that seems likely, he might have to do so without DeMint's support. DeMint told CNN Monday he isn't sure...

Bob Bennett, as you know, is the TARP-backing, Bridge-to-Nowhere-supporting, health-care-takeover-proposing RINO running for his life to win re-nomination in Utah for a fourth term. Bob Bennett’s health care proposal – it’s called the Wyden-Bennett bill, remember – includes an individual mandate, forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions, supports “domestic partner” benefits, and would cost more than $1 trillion. He is an unrepentant earmarker, whom Senator Jim DeMint has conspicuously declined to endorse for re-election. Conservatives in Utah are rallying around Bennett’s challengers, and the Club for Growth is actively working to defeat him at the May nominating convention. So who does...

Utah's favorite political son made no apologies Saturday for his conservative cred -- a stance thousands of backers in the Beehive State hope will propel Mitt Romney to the White House. Speaking at the Salt Palace Convention Center hall, Romney weaved wit, humor and folksy anecdotes around enough anti-Barack Obama broadsides to energize his fawning fans. Most in attendance braved a sloppy snowstorm to hoist campaign-style signs, giving Romney's No Apology: The Case for American Greatness book tour the feel of a 2012 campaign rally. "I hope he does run," Midway's Bart Kotter said afterward. "The guy is an amazing...

t’s page 258 – and suddenly we are back in Campaign Mode. The transition is very abrupt. On pages 256, Romney is describing an interesting program he advocated in Massachusetts: “a Parental Preparation Program for every underperforming school district. In order for parents in these districts to enroll their children in public school, the parents would have been required to attend classes themselves, where they would learn about the value of education as well as ways in which they could support their children’s educational experience.” On p. 257, a funny story about Romney’s business career, about his unsuccessful attempt to...

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney brought his book tour Saturday back to the city where he led the 2002 Winter Olympics, telling an enthusiastic audience he could decide by Christmas whether to run again for president. "That's not a decision we've made at this point," Romney told a 12-year-old boy from Bluffdale who said he was "asking a question that a lot of people are wondering and that's, 'Are you going to run for president?' " The cheers the question received were among the loudest during Romney's hour-long appearance at the Salt Palace as part of his national tour for...

What drives Palin Derangement Syndrome to such intensity? Did anyone except John Edwards feel this passionately about John Edwards after he concluded a losing campaign as a vice-presidential candidate? Certainly Palin has remained more prominent than most such candidates, writing a blockbuster autobiography and launching a daring raid against the Death Panel Star from her Facebook page on Yavin-4… but has she really done anything to inspire this level of personal venom?

The RINO McCain is in New Hampshire now campaigning for Kelly Ayotte, who is running for Senator from that state. According to the Nashua Telegraph, he's also co-hosting a town hall with Ms. Ayotte. The Boston Globe notes that the town hall meeting was "reminiscent of those he held during his two presidential campaigns." Fox News also reports that McCain did over 100 townhall meetings leading up to the crucial "First in the Nation" New Hampshire Presidential Primary and won, once again becoming the GOP frontrunner. So, my question for my fellow FReepers is, McCain's 2010 re-election race with J.D....

Responding to criticism that she has sidestepped media, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman held an unprecedented, hourlong conversation with news reporters Friday, laying out her positions on state pension reform, prisons and immigration while taking shots at Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican rival Steve Poizner. The billionaire former eBay CEO had her most in-depth exchange with political reporters since she entered the race last year, after arriving to cheers at the state GOP convention at the Santa Clara Hyatt. She later spoke to several hundred delegates after being introduced by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Whitman proposed major reforms to...

I have to say I got a big chuckle out of Romney’s healthcare chapter. Two years ago, I published a book on conservative reform that urged conservatives to pay more attention to the social costs of obesity. Those lines prompted National Review’s book reviewer to ceremonially drum me out of the conservative movement. Two years later, the candidate endorsed by National Review in 2008 has this to say: “One of the biggest behavioral contributors to sickness and death is our big waistlines, and the cascading negative health impact of that excess weight.” (191) Romney then proceeds through a very well-informed...