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If Mitt “Peacetime” Romney Can Only Get to 23% Post-Announcement, He’s Not Going To End Up Breaking 30% in A Multi-Candidate Field Posted on June 13 2011 - 7:56 AM - Posted by: Ian Lazaran Here is what the race looks like when you average the six polls (the polls are from the Washington Post/ABC News, Quinnipiac, Reuters/Ipsos, Fox News, and the two polls released this morning from CNN and Gallup) that have been conducted after Mitt “peacetime” Romney formally announced that he was running for the presidency. Romney 23% Palin 17% Cain 8% Gingrich 7% Paul 7% Bachmann 5%...

This disarray in the Republican Party has reached some dizzying depth, Bill O’Reilly explained last night, as no candidate or public official has taken hold of the party. With several candidates as long shots or complete unknowns, O’Reilly concluded Mitt Romney had the best chance, but no one was going to defeat President Obama without having “a little Trump in them.” O’Reilly began his program last night with a quick evaluation of each candidate left: “Newt Gingrich is done as a serious candidate,” he explained, why Rep. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum were “long shots.” Sarah Palin could...

Ah, the travails of polling! Attempting to handicap a race when it hasn’t really started — and when the contestants haven’t yet entered the arena — is a tricky business. Reuters and Fox News team up this week to demonstrate just how tricky it can be. While Reuters declares Sarah Palin as the front-runner in its latest survey, Fox News scores her as an also-ran — as does Quinnipiac in a third poll this week.First, Reuters reports that Palin took a slight lead over Mitt Romney in their latest survey: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday afternoon finds Sarah Palin...

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, the second part of which aired tonight on the network, presidential candidate Mitt Romney pushed back against the host's questions about how his Mormon faith might influence his policy should he win the White House in 2012. Asked whether it's actually possible to separate his faith from his job as president should he be elected, Romney responded, "Absolutely. You don't begin to apply doctrines of a religion to the responsibility of guiding a nation or guiding a state." Romney explained that he opposes abortion rights and that he is in favor of gay...

The insiders are largely agreed: Sarah Palin isn’t really running for president. She is more interested in making money and getting publicity. So her movie, bus tour, and poll numbers mean nothing. Zero. Nada. The best example of this is probably found in Byron York’s column today: “The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president,” says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. “She’s making money, she’s moved on, she’s kind of an entertainer rather than a politician. She still has some sway with the grass roots, but she is not going to run.”...

The Mama Grizzly is coming out of hibernation. This weekend, Sarah Palin is launching her "One Nation" bus tour, visiting historical sites across the country. Palin will start on Memorial Day at the Rolling Thunder weekend motorcycle rally that starts at the Pentagon. Where it will end has yet to be announced. But given Palin's other recent move—the announcement of a feature-length film on her tenure as governor—it looks as if her ultimate destination may be the White House. Whatever Mitt Romney had on his plate for Memorial Day, he'd better make room. If we assume—for the purposes of page...

Romney to announce in New Hampshire next Thursday.

Mitt Romney still has a major lead over his GOP rivals among Republican voters in New Hampshire. But a new CNN-WMUR poll finds that an overwhelming majority of Republicans in the key primary state still have "no idea" who they will support in 2012. According to the poll, 32 percent of GOP voters in the state back Romney for the Republican nomination--a 23 point lead over his closest competitor, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who received 9 percent support.

Once upon a time there was a president, wavering in popularity. He was deemed by some political pundits as “highly beatable.” He had just done his whole thing with health care, which left voters fuming, and two years before the presidential election, Republicans picked up a slew of seats in the House, taking control. But then, the Republican Party did the unthinkable: It gave the nomination to a guy because it was essentially “his turn,” and the candidate got shellacked by the incumbent Democratic president. That president was Bill Clinton; the “It’s His Turn” candidate was Bob Dole; the year,...

The Republican presidential field is starting to look like “ The Hunger Games,” with those who had no fight in them, those who overplayed their hand and those who were undisciplined out of the fight to the finish before the real contest begins. Mitt Romney - a stronger, well-fed combatant - is eager to enter the arena. Alarmed by the alacrity with which at least half a dozen contenders fell by the wayside, some well-heeled spectators are rushing to support him even before they have a chance to size up the other combatants – some of whom are in stealth...

ABC News' Amy Walter reports: A new ABC News/Wash. Post poll finds that in a head to head match-up against President Barack Obama, 70% of those who say they are Tea Party supporters say they'll vote for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president--compared to 69% for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Seeming Tea Party favorites like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, meanwhile, draw 61% and 60%, respectively....

If you believe, as I do, that leaders are handpicked by the elites to achieve a means to an end, then Mitt Romney is the logical choice to be the next President of the United States. The fact that he infuriates a lot of the folks on this blog proves he is the best candidate. Because any successful Republican needs to be two things, okay make that three, in order to walk into the WH. ONE be white, TWO be a non-offensive white and THREE be married to a hot blond. But, as the Shamwow guy would say, there's more!...

A new poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney narrowly leading President Obama in a hypothetical general election matchup in Florida.

Last August, I wrote the following about Mitt Romney’s odds of winning the Republican nomination: In a sense, the stronger President Obama looks next year, the better Romney’s chances of being nominated. He needs the prospect of an uphill general-election battle to keep his potential rivals for establishment support safely on the sidelines. And then he needs that same establishment to rally around him once the primary voting starts — not out of love or admiration, but out of fear of the populist alternative. Six months later, this is almost exactly how things are playing out. In many ways, Romney...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to hold the pole position for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll. But the surprise runner-up to Romney was the two-term Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who moved up from fifth place when the last ranking of the potential GOP White House contenders was conducted a year ago. Romney's assets and liabilities are well known and haven't changed much since last January. He has a national network of political and financial supporters left over from his unsuccessful run for the 2008 Republican nomination, a command of economic issues...

<p>WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he'd lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.</p>

Much of the punditocracy is obsessed with Sarah Palin. It's understandable on several levels. First, she makes for good copy and has a knack for coining catchy phrases ("death panels") and new words ("refudiate" -- it's now in the dictionary). She is controversial and opinionated, so given the choice between, say, a story on John Thune and one on Palin, it's a no-brainer to choose the best-selling author, TV reality show star and Tea Party darling. But conservatives suspect there's also some mischief-making afoot -- the desire by liberal-leaning members of the media and the White House to make Palin...

Mitt Romney hasn't changed a bit, and carries even more damning baggage. The serious rumblings are already out there. Undaunted by the failure of one of the most expensive presidential primary runs in history, Mitt Romney apparently wants to take another shot at getting the GOP’s nomination. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is “quite sure” Romney will run, and has said that the former Massachusetts governor “would be my preference.” Sadly, there’s a hoary tradition in the GOP that certain establishment-favored candidates, even though they’re not the best available, have somehow earned “their turn.” That belief has usually led the party...

Tea Party activists are injecting into the 2012 GOP presidential primary an element of antiestablishment volatility that could hurt Mitt Romney’s possible bid while benefiting a fast-growing crop of conservative candidates, political observers say. “It is wide open,’’ former House majority leader Dick Armey, one of the leaders of the Tea Party movement, said of the potential field of candidates. In a twist of GOP tradition, the nominee could be someone Americans know little about, he said. “The defining influence electorally in America is we are tired of big-shot insiders taking care of themselves and one another,’’ said Armey, chairman...

Washington (CNN) – His party got its clock cleaned in Tuesday's midterm elections, but according to a new national poll President Obama remains competitive in hypothetical 2012 presidential election matchups, especially against Sarah Palin. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday also indicates that at the unofficial start of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the field of possible contenders appears wide open with no front-runner. According to the poll, 21 percent of Republicans say they would most likely support former Arkansas Gov. and 2008 GOP White House candidate Mike Huckabee for their party's 2012 presidential nomination, with 20...