Free Republic

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...

Mitt Romney's march to a possible Republican presidential nomination just got a lot longer and harder. Front-runner Romney left Tuesday's round of three nominating contests with another reminder of his own shortcomings, after a two-state winning streak that had placed him firmly in the driver's seat in the nomination race. Bad losses to rival Rick Santorum in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota raised more questions about whether conservative Republicans are ready to give their hearts to a millionaire former Massachusetts governor who once supported abortion rights and a government requirement that people have health insurance.

Whatever your perspective on how likely Mitt Romney was to lose the Republican nomination race prior to Tuesday evening, it should be acknowledged that he had about the worst results conceivable. In Minnesota, a state which Mr. Romney carried easily in 2008, he has so far failed to win a single county — and got just 17 percent of the vote. That put him 27 points behind Rick Santorum, and 10 points behind Ron Paul, who finished in second. Missouri is a less important result since its beauty contest primary did not count for delegate selection and since turnout was...

As we enter the GOP primary season, I'm starting to notice more and more an annoying trend here in FR. It seems as though everytime there's an article, or someone posts a comment about Romney, either pro or con, it nearly always devolves into an extended, and acrimonious discussion about the Mormon faith. Those who defend it, and those who, for whatever reasons, can't abide it, both sides seem determined to wage an "end of times" batte on all the FR threads. Frankly, I'm tired of it, and just wish it would stop. I think that probably 99% of others...

The leaders of the New Hampshire Republican Party have spoken, and they have given Mitt Romney the early presidential lead in the Granite State. In the first-of-its-kind straw poll of members of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, Romney drew 35% of the total vote. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) came in second with 11%. The straw poll was conducted in Derry, NH and was sponsored by ABC News and WMUR-TV. ABC News political director Amy Walter tweeted the results of the poll this afternoon: Mitt Romney 35.14% Ron Paul 10.51% Tim Pawlenty 7.61% Sarah Palin 6.88% Michele Bachmann 5.07%

Healthcare reform is another problematic area for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as he seeks the GOP nomination for President in 2012. During Romney's tenure as Governor he submitted a plan that would cover virtually all of the uninsured in the state. Legislators and special interest groups submitted their own plans. In 2006 all of the various plans were reconciled and Romney signed into law the bill that became known as 'RomneyCare':

Given that Medicare is already on track to bankrupt the United States, you'd think the government would be looking to reduce its health care responsibilities, not increase them. However, the government being the government, is looking to take over the rest of our health care system in a move that would spike costs, ruin the quality of care, and involve the government even more deeply in the daily lives of Americans. However, let's take a look at how the state government in Massachusetts, where they have Romneycare -- which incidentally, is looking less and less appealing -- to see how...

As Jim Geraghty notes over at the Campaign Spot, the race for Massachusetts governor is heating up. Yesterday, Charlie Baker, the relatively unknown CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, announced his plans to face off against Christy Mihos in the Republican primary, in hopes of challenging incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick in the general election. As the CEO of a major regional insurance company, Baker’s a health-care guy, and that’s very important in Massachusetts. Under Patrick, the Bay State has struggled to effectively institute the comprehensive health-care plan devised by former governor Mitt Romney. Though Massachusetts has achieved nearly universal health-care...