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A day after losing Mississippi and Alabama to Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney took his campaign to a state where he had no public schedule, no time carved out to mingle with voters, and no rallies or town halls. While Mr. Santorum and Newt Gingrich hunted for votes in Puerto Rico and Illinois, Mr. Romney traveled to New York City to raise money and reassure top Republican donors — a constituency that favors his candidacy, and one perhaps most rattled by his inability to win the confidence of the party’s conservative base. Mr. Romney has raised more than $63 million, twice...

Last Saturday, the Maine Republican Party declared Mitt Romney the winner of the Maine caucuses. The non-binding caucuses were a low turnout affair, but Romney's victory over Ron Paul - who he beat by less than 200 votes - was a chance for Romney to reclaim some momentum in the wake of Rick Santorum's three-state sweep four days earlier. Now, however, it looks like Romney could ultimately be stripped of that victory. If that happens, it will be the second time this cycle Romney has been stripped of a caucus victory. The first came in Iowa, where Santorum was declared...

...a pair of polls...ought to be scaring the pants off of Romney’s camp. A PPP Michigan poll shows Santorum leading...by a 39-24 percent margin. The ARG poll also has him ahead, though by a smaller 33-27 percent differential. ...if any in his campaign were inclined to dismiss Santorum’s surge...this poll is proof they are dead wrong...a loss in Michigan would be fatal to [Romney's] presidential hopes...the air would go out of his inevitability balloon and Santorum would, despite his threadbare national campaign, assume the unlikely role of frontrunner. ...a defeat [in Michigan] would be considered a personal repudiation of [Romney's]...

At 10:45pm, MSNBC reported that 21% of the votes were in. Romney with 3642 votes (39%), and Gingrich with 2573 vote (27%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp: Six minutes later, at 10:51pm, MSNBC reported that only 19% of the votes were in -- Romney with 3569 votes (42%) and Gingrich with 2059 votes (25%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp:

He’s worth $250million and is running for the White House, but Mitt Romney is still trying to portray himself as an ordinary down-to-earth guy. The GOP presidential candidate has been condemned for saying he has been worried about getting a ‘pink slip’ at least twice in the past. Opponents said this was a poor statement to give about job termination notices because Mr Romney has always had money to fall back on.

UPDATED: Mitt Romney got 20 fewer votes in Moulton precinct, Appanoose County GOP chairman says!!!!!

Mitt Romney has risen to the top of the Republican heap, and now leads by four points in the RCP Average. As little as a year ago, most observers considered this an impossible feat. Romney's poor showing in 2008, combined with the increased salience of his decision to sign a universal health care bill in Massachusetts that included an individual mandate, seemingly made him radioactive to the Republican Party. Yet here we are today, with Romney potentially poised to wrap up the GOP nomination by the end of February. What made this possible? Commentators such as Ed Kilgore on the...

A New Hampshire surrogate for Mitt Romney said at a local political event that it's evident he will be the Republican presidential nominee and suggested that "beliefs and principles" should not be the deciding factor for voters. State Sen. Gary Lambert said the most important thing is to nominate somebody who can defeat President Obama. "I don't get it. This is not about picking a favorite, it's not about picking someone you like," Lambert said. "It's not about picking someone even with your own beliefs and principles. This is about picking a person who can beat Barack Obama, period."

This little snippet from last night's Iowa caucus coverage is just a taste of what Fox News served last night. Ed Rollins summed up their praise for SuperPACs quite well here. I only have one remaining question: Why is Karl Rove still employed by Fox? Key point by Rollins: BAIER: We were talking tonight about SuperPACS and how much they're going to play. If there is a lot of support that coalesces around Santorum as the conservative alternative, SuperPACs could play in places like New Hampshire or South Carolina. ROLLINS: SuperPACs can play anywhere at this point in time and...

Don't be conned into nominating Mitt Romney.

"I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists tied to my..." [then a reporter takes Romney to task].

Several news reports have it that Romney did not win the Iowa Caucuses. Mr. True supposedly has a photo showing 2 votes for Romney, not 22, on a piece of paper. Barring any objective, verifiable proof that shows more than 12 votes mistakenly being credited to Santorum, Romney lost. On the flip side, if Romney did win, the Weekly Standard, in a news piece entitled "Answers from Iowa," says that Romney's 24.6% in the Iowa Caucuses was the worst ever (for either party) for a candidate winning the Iowa Caucuses. Romney spent millions in Iowa, had the worst percentage ever,...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. The day after his impossibly thin eight-vote victory, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination flew here for a town hall meeting at Manchester Central High School, where he was to bask in the endorsement of his 2008 arch rival, John McCain. But the senator grimaced when he was introduced, and as Romney delivered his own stump speech, an increasingly impatient McCain pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. McCain gave...

DES MOINES, Iowa - With only eight votes separating them, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have proved after last night’s Iowa primary vote that the battle between moderate and conservative forces in the Republican party will continue to both define and divide the GOP 2012 caucuses. Ron Paul landed in a close third place, while U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the strongest social conservatives in the race, announced the end of her candidacy Wednesday after coming in at sixth place. In the final count released this morning, Santorum’s 30,007 (24.54%) votes were defeated by 30,015 (24.55%) cast for the...