Free Republic

LEBANON, N.H. -- Can you discern, deep in the new Republican Party -- amid the conservative warriors and tea-infused crusaders -- a faint moderate heartbeat? Hardly anyone is asking that question this month, in the wake of the Republican tsunami that swept Democrats out of office and swept a Republican majority into the Senate chamber. But two unrelated events this month make the question worth posing, if only to explore the possibility and to understand the political landscape here in the state that only 15 months from now will hold the first presidential primary. The first of those events took...

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...

Richard Winger over at Ballot Access News has an EXTREMELY interesting post (link via here) on the mess that the Virginia Republican party has found itself in over… access to the ballot in Virginia. For those coming in late, background here and here: the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich both had too many signatures tossed; Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann didn’t even try. Of the seven candidates, one (Romney) had more than enough signatures (15K) to bypass the verification...

There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify. But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures was put on...

Nancy and David French...are perhaps the most visible evangelical supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. They started a group called Evangelicals for Mitt... SNIP Though David and Nancy French deny it, campaign finance experts say the couple’s group looks like a thinly disguised extension of the Romney campaign. “They appear to be able to spend lots of money, but won’t say where it comes from,” says Fred Wertheimer...“It is circumstantial evidence, but it suggests this is a shell group for a Romney operation.” Indeed, what is perhaps most interesting about Evangelicals for Mitt is how apparent its links to...

In a new website, in a controversial ad that was launched and then quickly pulled, and in the now-infamous touching episode during Tuesday’s debate, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is handling rival Rick Perry as if the Texas governor’s poll numbers were not at a paltry single digit. He is, in short, treating Perry more and more like Perry has Herman Cain’s numbers. Why? Because despite the terrible reviews of Perry’s debate performances and the ugly polling data that show him struggling even in his base in the South, Perry is still Romney’s biggest threat. Perry did, after all, best...

DES MOINES, Iowa: Republicans Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann took veiled swipes at surging presidential rival Herman Cain Saturday as six of the party’s White House hopefuls courted social conservatives at an Iowa forum. Appearing separately before about 1,000 conservative activists, the Republican candidates all pledged to protect the unborn, defend traditional marriage, limit government and bring an end to the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama. But Cain, the former pizza executive, came under indirect fire for seeming to suggest earlier this week that while he opposed abortion, government should not be trying to tell a woman what to do...

Mitt Romney must have really been angry after last night's debate, because today his campaign released an attack ad which questioned Governor Rick Perry's intelligence, debate performances, and his ability to lead. According to reports, it portrayed Mr. Perry as a "moron" and an "idiot in general." And just as quick as it was put up, it vanished. And now the only thing you get when you try to watch the video is this: A conservative website that saw the video described it thusly: ...[With] some doofy facial expressions and looooong pauses mid-sentence during answers, it’s clear enough what lesson...

Mitt Romney is going negative on Rick Perry, and he's using one of the most tried-and-true methods: the Internet. Today, Romney for President Inc. launched (snip) an anti-Rick Perry website aimed at undermining the former Massachusetts governor's best-funded opponent. snip The Washington Post shows other anti-Perry Web domain names are being gobbled up snip While no one is claiming ownership of the anti-Perry domains, The Post's Philip Rucker and T.W. Farnam note that the same day the domain names were purchased, Romney's campaign bought $2,851 worth of domain names at GoDaddy.com, which was the same vendor that sold the anti-Perry...

The New York Times trashed his book on Sarah Palin. Politico noted that it had united Palin with her fiercest antagonists - the dreaded "lamestream media" - in opposition to its prurience and spiteful tone. But now Joe McGinniss is defending himself. The muckraking author of The Rogue spoke to Lloyd Grove of Newsweek about his Palin tome and the reaction to it, which has primarily consisted of denunciations of the most salacious details he revealed about Palin. (Denouncing salacious gossip being, of course, the best excuse for repeating it.) McGinniss "dismisses the notion that his unremitting hatchet job on the...

Another Texas governor who drops his “g’s” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: Lightweight, incurious, instinctual. Strip away the euphemisms, and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: is he dumb - or just misunderestimated? Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles,...

The buzz about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s possible entrance into the presidential race grows, but the Republican’s cheerleaders ought to tread carefully when it comes to a Perry candidacy — very carefully.

Romney leads our newest poll with 22% to 17% for Herman Cain, 15% for Sarah Palin, 9% for Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty, 8% for Michele Bachmann, 7% for Ron Paul, and 1% for Jon Huntsman. Romney's strength is with those voters for whom electability is the paramount concern. He gets 27% with them to 14% each for Cain and Palin and 12% for Pawlenty. With GOP partisans more concerned about ideology Romney is third at 16%, behind Cain's 22% and Palin's 18%. If Palin doesn't run Romney's lead expands. He gets 27% to 20% for Cain, 13% for Bachmann,...

Mitt Romney boosted sales of his book this spring by asking institutions to buy thousands of copies in exchange for his speeches, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. Romney's book tour ran from early March to late May of this year, and took him to book stores, universities, conferences, and private groups around the country. Their giant purchases helped his book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, debut on top of the New York Times bestseller list, though with an asterisk indicating bulk purchases.

The latest poll in the governor's race shows Gov. Deval Patrick and Republican challenger Charlie Baker running neck-and-neck. But when the poll expands to included so-called "leaners" it's bad news for independent Tim Cahill. According to the new Rasmussen Reports survey, Patrick leads Baker 42-to-38 percent. Cahill is a distant third with 11-percent. But, when pollsters asked the undecided voters which candidate they're "leaning" towards, the numbers change. Patrick leads Baker 45-to-42 percent, while Cahill loses more than half his support and drops to 5-percent. The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted Wednesday, September 15. The margin of error...

If former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has any 2012 presidential aspirations at all, then it was a mistake to help raise money for the Iowa Family Policy Center, a former Republican Party of Iowa chairman and adviser to Terry Branstad said Wednesday Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Des Moines last year promoting a book. “Maybe Mr. Huckabee shouldn’t be raising money for an organization that says it won’t support the Republican nominee in Iowa,” said David Kochel, a veteran GOP strategist who has done consulting work for Branstad’s campaign for a fifth term as governor. He previously advised former...