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Mitt Romney, during campaign stops in Michigan yesterday, embraced his Michigan roots for all they’re worth. As he watches his popularity plummet in the state in which he grew up, he seems to be grasping at anything to keep from sinking any further. Romney tried to hit all the right buttons in order to resonate with Michigan voters leading up to their February 28 primary, by making himself one of them again. “I was born and raised here. I love being in Michigan,” Mr. Romney said. ”Everything seems right here. You know, I come back to Michigan; the trees are...

The response seemed to defy the rough-and-tumble rules of modern politics. One of the nation’s most prominent opponents of same-sex marriage, Maggie Gallagher, had just told aides to Mitt Romney that she was endorsing Rick Santorum, a favorite of social conservatives, and encouraging her supporters to do the same. So what did the Romney camp do? A few hours later, it invited her to send over a copy of her forthcoming book, for which Mr. Romney, it suggested, might provide a flattering blurb. “It was,” Ms. Gallagher recalled, “extremely unusual and gracious.”

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.

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.

Santorum Catches Romney in GOP Race Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters. Santorum is now the clear favorite of Republican and GOP-leaning voters who agree with the Tea Party, as well as white evangelical Republicans. Currently,...

Mitt Romney often runs away from the comparisons drawn between ObamaCare and RomneyCare. Romney routinely deflects the similarities by saying that the plan he put in place was a "federalist" approach, and constitutional issues conservatives raise about the individual mandate aren't viable when enacted at a state level. But Romney wasn't always as critical of the President's plan as he is today. In a March 2010 interview with the Emory University student run newspaper The Emory Wheel, following a stop at the university on his book tour Romney praised President Obama for the similarities between ObamaCare and RomneyCare. Romney commented...

* Try Moderately Severe, or Severely Moderate!* By: Larry Walker, Jr. *Mitt Romney told a gathering of conservative leaders and activists Friday that he is severely conservative, or something. "I was a severely conservative Republican governor," Romney told the audience regarding his time in office, pointing out his support of traditional marriage and abstinence education. Sure Mitt and maybe God resides near a star called Kolob. Hey, I’ll send you a quarter so you can call someone who gives a flip!Now being far more conservative than Mitt, I’m not so certain that government should even be dabbling in matters of...

Mitt Romney wanted to use his CPAC speech Friday to allay concerns about his candidacy on the Republican right, but with one ad-libbed word he reinforced conservative fears that he’s not one of them. “I was a severely conservative Republican governor,” Romney told the annual gathering. The response was immediate. “Severely?” “I have never heard anybody say, ‘I’m severely conservative,’” Rush Limbaugh noted on his show. “That didn’t get a lot of applause,” firebrand Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) observed with a tight smile. “Some things are too funny to comment on,” a laughing Newt Gingrich commented as he walked into...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) made a concerted effort to woo a conservative crowd today by talking about his opposition to gay marriage even before plans to slash the deficit. He also peppered his speech before a full house at CPAC with the word “conservative,” frequently in the form of “we conservatives.” “I did some of the very things conservatism is designed for… and I’m not ashamed to say I was successful in doing it,” Romney said for his first standing ovation, and his longest round of applause.

How disastrous was Specter prevailing over Toomey in 2004? In April 2009, Specter switched parties giving the Democrats a 60th vote in the Senate when Al Franken was declared the winner in Minnesota and sworn in after court challenges in July 2009. Specter put that vote to good use casting the 60th vote for cloture on Obamacare in late December 2009. Having enabled Obamacare to proceed to a full vote, Specter cast the 50th vote for Obamacare (guaranteeing passage because Biden could cast a tie breaker): They’re nothing if not prompt. Voting has begun on HR 3590, the Senate’s health...

Mitt Romney is in danger of losing his fourth straight state in Saturday's caucuses in Maine, where he and his allies have been all but absent from TV. That's no coincidence. Over the past month, he has won in states where he and an allied super PAC, called Restore Our Future, have pounded his rivals with millions of dollars in negative ads. But he has tended to lose big when he has stopped using his power to crush other contenders by spending a ton of money — particularly on TV.

Rick Santorum backed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004. It was a tough race with Toomey mounting a credible, well-financed challenge. Toomey’s candidacy, by his own estimation, was one of the precursors to the Tea Party movement: The “battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party” between big spending moderates and committed conservatives that was evident in 2004 may have inspired subsequent Tea Party efforts, Toomey suggested. Despite losing out on key endorsements from leading Republican figures in 2004, Toomey believes his primary campaign created a strong foundation for conservative activism that translated into victory in 2010....

Mitt Romney, asked if there were any lessons learned in the wake of losing all three Republican voting contests Tuesday night, said that he simply “wasn’t there to respond” to former Sen. Rick Santorum’s attacks in the days leading up to voting. But today, speaking to reporters on a tarmac in Atlanta, where he flew from Colorado after losses in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado Tuesday night, he did not hesitate to go on offense, accusing two chief GOP rivals of behaving “like Democrats.”

C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe that Romney’s criticism of President Obama is hypocritical because as governor he did not lift the state-level requirement of contraception coverage. “The initial injury to Catholic religious freedom came not from the Obama administration, but from the Romney administration,” Doyle said.

First, he called Adelson to convince him to stop adding financial support of Gingrich via his SuperPAC. When that didn’t work, he piled on some more of his own money, and those who fund the SuperPacs advocating on his behalf or at least slamming his competitors. When that didn’t work, some shills in the press dropped the conspicuous rumor that Newt’s “…hold a press conference after the Nevada Caucus on Saturday, raising new speculation about his future in the race,” implying he would get out Saturday evening. This was solely to try to undermine the vote in Nevada in Romney’s...

Mark Levin dismantles Ann Coulter's pathetic arguments in defense of RomneyCare on his nationally syndicated talk radio program. - 02/01/12

BOSTON (AP) — Attorney General Martha Coakley is heading to Washington to make a legal case for the national health care law that was modeled after Massachusetts' own landmark 2006 health care law. On Thursday Coakley will defend the constitutionality of the national law at a National Press Club event called "The Affordable Health Care Act — Constitutional or Not?" Coakley will explain why the results in Massachusetts show Congress had a constitutional basis to enact health care reform including the so-called individual mandate.

London, England-In yet another outrageous piece of social engineering from our coalition government, pensioners will be encouraged to downsize to smaller properties allowing local councils to rent their homes out as council houses and manage the tenancy. Local authorities will ‘help’ older people move from their homes into ‘more suitable accommodation’. Grant Schapps, the Housing Minister, who is a conservative member of parliament claims the scheme will solve a so-called ‘housing crisis’ as well as creating a system that will ‘permit access to various sources of wealth’ that are currently not being used to pay for care. Read that as...

Sure, Mitt Romney just had a huge win in Florida—but his favorability ratings have been sinking miserably since the New Year. Andrew Romano on why the GOP’s long primary race in 2012 won’t mirror the Dems’ in 2008. Plus read more Daily Beast contributors on what Romney’s Florida victory means. On stage last night in Ballroom C of the Tampa Convention Center, Mitt Romney, the winner of the 2012 Florida Republican primary, tried his darndest to simulate the emotional state that Homo sapiens refer to as “happiness.” “Our opponents in the other party ... like to comfort themselves with the...

Ann Coulter wrote an article today called “Three Cheers for RomneyCare” where she defended Mitt Romney and RomneyCare. Mark Levin decided to read her article, fresh off the presses, on the air and go through it line by line, “reeducating” her on why RomneyCare is not only wrong, but a big problem for Mitt Romney and all of Massachusetts. This is the rebuttal in its entirety. It runs 30 minutes: (click the source link)

At some point in this year’s presidential campaign, perhaps on a debate stage, President Obama is likely to repeat his claim that the Massachusetts health-care law signed by Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006 was the inspiration for the federal health-care plan that he himself signed in 2010. Obama knows that his signature legislative accomplishment remains unpopular. But he also knows that policy experts of various political stripes have claimed that Obamacare is essentially Romneycare taken national. If Romney is the Republican presidential nominee, as he seems likely to be, Obama will try to block him from taking advantage of his...

Poor Ann Coulter, one can only imagine how she must have struggled to come up with this bit of drivel: RomneyCare is teh Bomb! After all, Mitt Romney signed it into law, how could it possibly be bad? I wonder if Team Mitt made it mandatory for her to write, that being one of RomneyCare's prime malefactions Coulter simply dances over as if it's no big deal. There really is nothing new in her item, nothing at all; it's sophistry wrapped around old information, or argument, all of it dealt with previously and broadly. From a conservative perspective, the only...

Ann Coulter wrote an article today called “Three Cheers for RomneyCare” where she defended Mitt Romney and RomneyCare. Mark Levin decided to read her article, fresh off the presses, on the air and go through it line by line, “reeducating” her on why RomneyCare is not only wrong, but a big problem for Mitt Romney and all of Massachusetts. This is the rebuttal in its entirety. It runs 30 minutes:

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Ronald Reagan’s 1961 Coffeecup speech – full text Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program. There are many ways in which our government has invaded the precincts of private citizens, the method of earning a living. Our government is in business to the extent over owning more than 19,000 businesses covering different lines of activity. This amounts to a fifth...

If only the Democrats had decided to socialize the food industry or housing, Romneycare would probably still be viewed as a massive triumph for conservative free-market principles -- as it was at the time. It's not as if we had a beautifully functioning free market in health care until Gov. Mitt Romney came along and wrecked it by requiring that Massachusetts residents purchase their own health insurance. In 2007, when Romneycare became law, the federal government alone was already picking up the tab for 45.4 percent of all health care expenditures in the country. Until Obamacare, mandatory private health insurance...

In 2006, Massachusetts enacted landmark health care reform legislation that promised to extend health care coverage to all citizens while significantly lowering costs. The law imposes mandates on residents to obtain health insurance and on employers with 11 or more employees to provide health insurance for their employees. It also expands Medicaid coverage and establishes a health insurance subsidy program. Additionally, it creates an insurance exchange, the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector, which helps individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid purchase competitively�priced health plans. Now that the law has been in effect for more than five years, we can begin...

I came home and was totally bummed by the results so far. I looked for anything on FR to cheer me up. Finally I succumbed and went to the former-other favorite website Drudge and begrudgingly clicked on the 'Landslide' article - blah blah blah and there, at the very bottom - I found my glimmer of hope: In a positive sign for Gingrich, exit polls showed evangelical voters trending for the former House speaker. The exit polls showed Gingrich with 40 percent among that group, and Romney with 36 percent. But the margin was wider for Romney among seniors and...

Santorum Was Right About Romneycare January 30, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Wall Street Journal, Grace-Marie Turner: "Rick Santorum went for the jugular in Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, exposing Mitt Romney's weak and contradictory defense of his Massachusetts health-reform law. Mr. Santorum attacked Mr. Romney's claim that the individual mandate affects only'the 8% of people who didn't have insurance.'Mr. Romney insisted that'92% of the people in my state had insurance before our plan went in place. And nothing changes for them.'Mr. Santorum blasted back that'what Governor Romney said is just factually incorrect,'because the mandate affects 100% of the residents...

Mark Levin discovers video of Romney thanking Ted Kennedy for his essential help in passing Romney-care Mark Levin is asking why have we never seen/heard of this??

Here is a video compilation of how Democratic tallking heads justified Obamacare at the time of the vote in the House on the reconciliation bill (h/t CWLsun in Tip Line). It’s the same way they will justify it in this election cycle. (Warning: Sound volume uneven) http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/01/how-did-they-justify-obamacare-at-the-time-you-know-the-answer/

Romney will not distance himself from RomneyCare. Here's why: Romney wants to impose RomneyCare on all 50 states!! That is absolutely correct. He's already recruited Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi as his healthcare czar to get it done. Romney claims that he wants to repeal ObamaCare, but he's already lined up Pam Bondi to head up his national healthcare task force to push RomneyCare on all 50 states. After all that has been said and written about socialized healthcare and individual mandates, Romney and Bondi, still LOVE RomneyCare and should he become president will attempt to impose it on ALL...

After many months of getting a pass, it seems that the other candidates are willing to finally start hitting Governor Mitt Romney on his major weakness: The Massachusetts Health Care Insurance Reform Law. The bill, known by most as Romneycare, is (as we all have been saying for many moons) the basis for the much maligned Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise affectionately known as Obamacare. I’ve been in endless debates and discussions with Romney supporters and surrogates for some time now as they paint a beautiful picture of the ultimate State’s Rights battle. They claim that Romneycare vs...

Pam Bondi makes a big show of opposing FEDERAL intrusion into our lives, but she is fine with STATE intrusion into our lives. Note how she blusters of the federal government while embracing state authority. The problem is the trampling of the rights or the INDIVIDUAL. The Romney bandwagon is all smoke and mirrors. Romney is no conservative.

If we are going to be stuck with ObamaCare or it's clone RomneyCare, we can salvage some good by requiring the use of the mandatory insurance card as a voter ID card. Is there any politician out there bold enough to add a voter ID rider to the enabling legislation? Perhaps the left's fear and loathing of honest elections would be enough to slay this beast?

Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There's one thing I'm gonna start focusing on here. Romney in the debate last night said all of this talk about health care is not worth getting angry about. And, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is. It is worth getting angry about. It is worth being angry about, and it's worth staying angry about. There was a great exchange between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney on this and Romney got a little flustered because Santorum had his best night. They're out there saying Santorum won the debate. Does that mean he's the nominee? Well, that's how we've...

I have not been able to find the entire On The Record Bondi interview, either in video OR professional transcript, so I transcribed it myself. Hopefully the full segment video, with transcript, will become available, so any mistakes I may have made can be corrected. Below is the transcription of Greta's Pam Bondi interview, transcribed directly from the TV segment [the later rebroadcast]. (Note: In the rebroadcast, there was a second or two in which there was a loss of audio and a black screen; I have noted it in the transcript]Greta's 1-27-2012 interview On The Record with Pam Bondi...

Moreover, as a political argument, how will Romney be able to employ our most potent weapon in a way that won’t be perceived as hypocritical? Try to imagine a general election debate over healthcare between Romney and Obama: Romney: “Obamacare is a disaster.” Obama: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. People outside of the exchange will be unaffected by the changes. Further, Mr. Romney, we actually got the ideas of subsidized healthcare exchanges and the individual mandate from you. Weren’t they pretty successful in Massachusetts?”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Romney supporter, let the cat out of the bag last night. The Florida Republican told Greta Van Susteren that Mitt wants Romneycare in every state. She also said she would be on Romney’s Health Care Advisory Team when he’s president .Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi who’s fighting to repeal ObamaCare appeared on Greta, tonight, defending RomneyCare. She says Romney’s health care plan is not the same as ObamaCare and, in fact, Romney’s plan reduces costs. She goes on to say that Romney wants all states to impose similar laws (including mandates) and that she...

The Beacon Hill Institute study found that, on average, Romneycare: •    cost the Bay State 18,313 jobs; •    drove up total health insurance costs in Massachusetts by $4.311 billion; •    slowed the growth of disposable income per person by $376; and •    reduced investment in Massachusetts by $25.06 million. And remember that RomneyCare relied on FedGovCare as a sturdy crutch: “He also noted the state’s health-care costs have been heavily subsidized by billions of dollars in federal aid through a Medicaid waiver program.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi who's fighting to repeal ObamaCare appeared on Greta, tonight, defending RomneyCare. She says Romney’s health care plan is not the same as ObamaCare and, in fact, Romney's plan reduces costs. She goes on to say that Romney wants all states to impose similar laws (including mandates) and that she and is all for it. She went on to explain that she's going to be on Romney’s Health Care Advisory Team when he’s president! What this means is that while Romney may say he wants to repeal ObamaCare, he actually agrees with it. He believes that...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying We’re not going to do repeal. You’re not going to repeal Obamacare… It’s not a total repeal… You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president… You can’t whole-cloth throw it out.

Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate...

Under attack for his healthcare plan in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney tried to downplay the issue. Responding to attacks over his healthcare plan in Massachusetts, former Gov. Mitt Romney said the plan is “not worth getting angry about” in Thursday’s Republican debate. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (Penn.) hit Romney over a plan that has many similarities to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, often refered to by Republicans as "Obamacare." RELATED ARTICLES Santorum hits Romney on healthcare

Some investments listed in Mitt and Ann Romney's 2010 tax returns – including a now-closed Swiss bank account and other funds located overseas – were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement the GOP presidential hopeful filed in August as part of his White House bid. The Romney campaign described the discrepancies as "trivial" but acknowledged Thursday afternoon that they are undergoing an internal review of how the investments were reported and will make "some minor technical amendments" to Romney's financial disclosure that will not alter the overall picture of his finances.... Among the assets omitted is a Swiss...

As Governor of Michigan original rino herd elder George Romney met with Saul Alinsky and found him to be someone the country “ought to listen to.” The progressive Republican father of the liberal Republican Willard Romney actually acknowledged that Alinsky had a “Strong influence” on his son according to “Romney’s Way” a 1968 book by T. George Harris. This certainly goes a long way toward explaining how a “conservative” Republican like the younger Romney could not only concoct Romney Care. It sheds light on Willard Romney’s Alinsky-like deviousness in destroying all hard drive evidence that would expose the deliberations that...

Panacea, Florida (CNN) -- While media outlets and Beltway pundits might use state polls to gauge the race in Florida between GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, Ron Crum uses poles. Fishing poles. Crum, a Republican small business owner in this sleepy seaside town south of Tallahassee, calls Romney a multi-millionaire who expects to get breaks because he's rich -- be it a low tax rate or the GOP nomination. But former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Crum says, is a man who understands the plight of the working class and can articulate conservative principles effectively. Picking up...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying