Free Republic

On October 1, 2010, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney described the genius of the American idea and lauded its results. “No nation has done more to lift people out of poverty than this nation,” he said in remarks at Benedetto’s, an Italian restaurant in Tampa, Florida. “Our free enterprise system has lifted billions out of poverty.” Romney spoke at a “Reclaiming America Rally” for Marco Rubio, then a candidate for the Senate. It was one of three events Romney did that day with Rubio. The two men chatted in the kitchen before their remarks to a crowd that spilled into...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acpxp93P1M0&feature=g-all-u&context=G277ceb8FAAAAAAAACAA

It’s easy to collect Mitt Romney's "rich" remarks into a highlight reel. Have a few laughs. Sure, we ask, what's the guy thinking? We note that presidential races require your A-game. But then it's tempting to shrug. And say he's still on track to win the GOP nomination. That the general election will turn on the economy. Oh, those silly pundits. How they do obsess over every sound bite. But listen to Rush Limbaugh on Romney: “He comes across as the prototypical rich Republican.” And one begins to hear why Romney’s gaffes are no joke. It’s commonly said that this...

.......The Democrats and the Obama re-election machine have sat by and watched the Republican Follies over the past 48 hours, and by doing nothing they have gathered manna from heaven for the upcoming campaign. First, Gingrich is carpet-bombed in Florida, reacts petulantly is taken off his game and forgets what won South Carolina for him... .....Then Romney is seized by foot-in-mouth disease. By claiming he doesn't care about the really poor and would fix any holes in the safety-net he has reinforced the image of a greedy Wall Street banker out to make money at any cost. ....Mitt Romney then...

Even if Mitt Romney wins in Florida on Tuesday, he still may lose the presidency come November. The old adage of “divide and conquer” may work well in war, but in politics it’s not always a smart strategy, especially in Republican primaries. Ronald Reagan’s name has been evoked quite often in this race. The Gipper must be turning over in his grave that Mitt Romney has so badly violated his 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Reagan’s law not only sounds great, it’s smart politics. Reagan understood that the very same Republicans a candidate attacks...

Reporting from Port Saint Lucie, Fla.— Dubbed the "proxies with moxie," Mitt Romney's congressional backers have been crashing Newt Gingrich's events to offer a counterpoint to the former House speaker's remarks. It's an unusual tactic to begin with, but their collisions with Gingrich's testy spokesman, R.C. Hammond, have made their sparring into the campaign trail's version of must-see TV. Gingrich said he doesn't mind their presence, which he said is a sign of desperation by Romney. "They send a member of Congress, we send R.C. It's a slight overmatch — R.C.'s a little bit more informed than they are, but...

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) sharply criticized the Republican Party “establishment” for using what she called a “Stalin-esque rewriting of history” to tar Newt Gingrich as he fights for the GOP presidential nomination. Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, posted a nearly 1,400-word statement on her Facebook page on Friday in which she accused Republican party elders of employing “tactics of the left” to derail the Gingrich campaign. “The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the...

Mitt Romney Leading Polls in Florida Mitt Romney has pulled ahead of Newt Gingrich in Florida with a nine-point lead, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. 'I think if Romney wins this, it's over for Newt,' one pollster says. Fearful GOP leaders pray Newt Gingrich can be stopped in Florida By Paul West January 27 — After months of gyrating front-runners and inconclusive voter tests, a victory by Mitt Romney in the looming Florida primary would send the 2012 campaign down a well-worn path — pointing the most established GOP contender toward a highly competitive race against President Obama in...

Romney Holds 8-Percentage Point lead in Florida By Andy Sullivan JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened up a lead of 8 percentage points over rival Newt Gingrich in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in Florida, as he regains front-runner status in the Republican race. The online poll released on Friday showed Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private-equity executive, ahead of Gingrich by 41 percent to 33 percent among likely voters in Florida's January 31 Republican primary. It confirms Romney's recovery in polls, aided by strong debate performances, after a stinging defeat at the South Carolina primary vote...

As Ronald Reagan used to say: Well... Yesterday we took note of former Reagan State Department official Elliott Abrams' piece over at NRO that went after Newt Gingrich on his relationship with Reagan. While voting regularly with Reagan as a young congressman from Georgia, Gingrich, claimed Abrams, "often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides and his policies to defeat Communism." Abrams then goes on to cite " a famous floor statement Gingrich made on March 21, 1986." Or sort of cites it. In fact, I'm sorry to say, what appears to be going on here is that Elliott...

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh highlighted an article in The American Spectator by Jeffrey Lord that picked apart and called misleading Elliot Abrams’ article in National Review about Newt Gingrich. The article prompted Limbaugh to conclude Abrams must have been “spoon-fed” the material about Gingrich’s after-hours speeches on the House floor in the 1980s by rival Mitt Romney’s campaign. Read more on Newsmax.com: Rush: Romney Camp Behind Anti-Gingrich Stories

Newt Gingrich has a new unofficial campaign surrogate and her name is Sarah Palin. As the 2008 veep nominee sees it, Gingrich is getting a raw deal from the national media and conservative elite, the very same forces who conspired against her when she was on the national ticket. Palin hasn’t endorsed Gingrich — and has no official role in his campaign — but she is repeatedly surfacing at just the right times on the national airwaves to vociferously defend him. In her latest appearance, Palin stated: “Look at Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him via the establishment’s attacks,”...

It has no name yet, but something akin to “Operation: Newtralize” is building into an onslaught against Newt Gingrich’s drive for the presidency. -snip- By late Thursday the conservative blogosphere was in open revolt, with right-wing bloggers aiming their fury at Drudge for what many perceived as an attack coordinated with Team Romney.

The pro-Newt Gingrich PAC "Winning Our Future" claims that "at least six" stations in Florida have -- as of Thursday -- been telling the group they need more documentation to run their ads. "Stations all across Florida started to pull spots asking for fact checking," said Gregg Phillips, managing director of Winning Our Future, who accused the outlets of being "lazy" and suggested they were part of a coordinated effort across Florida to derail Newt Gingrich. The SuperPAC currently has three ads running in Florida. Phillips speculated this kind of fact-checking wasn't being done on Romney ads.

In the middle of last night’s debate, I actually tweeted about it because the difference was audible: Mitt Romney’s applause, for the first time that I can remember, was louder than Newt Gingrich’s. The Gingrich campaign can think of just one possible explanation as to how Mitt Romney could have inspired such a response in his audience: He must have unfairly packed the hall. “They definitely packed the room,” Kevin Kellems, one of Gingrich’s senior advisers, told The Huffington Post early Friday morning. “The problem for them is their candidate, at several junctures, couldn’t remember what he had said before...

Democrats to others they disagree with, especially if it deals with an Obama political policy: "you are a racist." McCain: Gingrich is "dangerous." Romney: Gingrich is "erratic." Lots more where that came from, too. Especially from Romney. Romney during the last debate: Santorum is "angry." Gov. Christie: Newt is embarassing to the GOP. Get ready....soon Romney and his supporters will be calling Gingrich a "racist"? There will be nastiness, but Romney started it all with his vicious ad-hominem laced ads in Iowa, and neither Gingrich, Santorum or Paul have even come close to taking the hurling of personal insults to...

Ex-Alaska topper tells Fox Business Network Gingrich is being "vilified" by GOP elites and the media. Palin: "Look at Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him, via the establishment’s attacks. They’re trying to crucify this man and rewrite history, and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."

Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan. Reagan says such claims are false. Even Rush Limbaugh, shocked by the Romney claims, chimed on his Thursday radio broadcast to say "This is obviously a coordinated attack to take Newt out here in Florida." Rush slammed the Romney-backed smear campaign against Newt. “That kind of stuff is why people hate Romney so much," Limbaugh said. Limbaugh added that Newt has always been a conservative from his early...

What's with these talking heads, Ann Coulter especially, and their vitriol against Newt? I've always liked Ann, she is SO conservative; now she's pitching for Romney and slamming -- really slamming -- Newt. I don't get it.

"The main reason the Republican establishment overwhelmingly favors Mitt Romney over Newt Gingrich is that Romney stands a better chance of beating Barack Obama," says Jonathan Chait at New York. So it's a problem for Romney that "as the campaign goes on, this seems to be growing less true." A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that negative views of Romney have "spiked" over the past two weeks, from a net +4 favorability rating (39 positive/34 negative) to a -18 rating (31 positive/49 negative) — very similar to Gingrich's -22 rating (29/51). The shift is most notabe among independents, who...