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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the Muslims he knows are "peace-loving and America-loving individuals." At a campaign event in Cedar Rapids Friday, the subject of how to handle the threat posed by radical Islam was raised. As reported in the Des Moines Register, Romney reminded the gathering he had grown up in the Detroit area which has a large Muslim community.

This is purely anecdotal, so I hope others out there chime in with what they are seeing and hearing on the ground where they live. If you have been reading this site since 2008 or are at least vaguely aware of our coverage of Willard “Mittens” Romneycare, you’ll know that from the day after John McCain’s defeat three years ago the “Romney Guys” in Chicago have been pushing Romneycare’s nomination for 2012. These “Romney Guys” are 70% of the reason I have nothing but disgust for Willard “Mittens” Romneycare: the people he has always surrounded himself with are vile, permanent...

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney met with former President George H.W. Bush Thursday, but Romney aides say no endorsement is coming. The former Massachusetts governor ventured onto the turf of a rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, to meet with Bush and his wife, Barbara, in the living room of their Houston home. Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said Romney and the nation's 41st president are friends, but added that the visit doesn't mean Bush will endorse Romney. Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said the meeting was a courtesy visit, noting that Bush has met with other GOP presidential hopefuls, including Jon Huntsman.

Should Mitt Romney be the nominee of the Republican party for president in 2012? Perhaps. Should voters support him because he's the "inevitable" nominee? No. For one thing, his nomination is evitable - perhaps all too evitable (see below). For another, we are a proud, self-governing people. We're sometimes even an obstreperous bunch—and a good thing it is for the cause of liberty. We often balk at yielding meekly to claims of inevitability. Here in America, we the people rule by electing. We don't bow to those anointed by pundits. But really, you might ask - isn't Romney inevitable? And...

Don’t expect Mitt Romney to backtrack on his Massachusetts health-care plan at any point this election cycle. “I am sure there are many people who have calculated, and perhaps correctly, that the healthcare plan I put in place in Massachusetts is not good for me politically, and if I want to encourage my political future, I should say it was a mistake and walk away from it,” Romney told Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto in an interview set to air later tonight. “You have seen a lot of candidates look at their biggest vulnerability, call it a mistake, and...

Rick Santorum on Monday accused GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney of being more liberal on gay marriage than President Barack Obama. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, made his remarks during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show. When Ingraham asked Romney's stance on a proposed bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Santorum answered: “I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage.” DOMA is the 1996 law that bars federal agencies and the military from recognizing the legal marriages of gay...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

RINO. Three words: liberal progressive RINO. Add a fourth, fifth, sixth, etc: unprincipled, untrustworthy, flip-flopper, aisle-crossing, fraud, liar, political whore. And a few more: abortionist, gay rights panderer, gun-grabber, global warming advocate, big government mandate lover, socialist healthcare pusher, constitution trampling, liberal judge appointing, TARP loving, bailout loving, stimulus pushing Keynesian statist. That my friends, is no definition of conservative or of conservatism. Not even close. In fact it's the exact opposite. Free Republic is and will remain an exclusive pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-constitution, pro-small government, pro-capitalism, pro-defense, pro-borders, grassroots patriotic conservative site, regardless of party politics. I support...

Mitt Romney’s problem with the Republican Party is not just that he previously held liberal positions on a wide-ranging array of issues. That can be explained away, at least a bit, as pandering necessary to win votes in a Democratic state. The deeper problem is that Romney was promising behind closed doors to act as essentially a sleeper agent within the Republican Party, adopting liberal stances, rising to national prominence, and thereby legitimizing them and transforming the Party from within. Today’s Washington Post has more detail: Mitt Romney was firm and direct with the abortion rights advocates sitting in his...

A day after refusing to oppose repeal of Kasich’s measure, Romney waffled about his straddle, saying he opposed repeal “110 percent.” He did not, however, endorse the anti-mandate measure, remaining semi-faithful to the trans-Appalachian codicil pertaining to principles, thereby seeming to lack the courage of his absence of convictions. Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable; he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate. Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the Tea Party and other conservatives, who will be...

Campaigning in Ohio today, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stopped by a Republican Party phone-bank making calls in support of Gov. John Kasich's government union reform referendum, but refused to endorse the actual referendum. CNN's Peter Hamby called the scene an "incredible moment in politics."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign said Tuesday that he will not sign a conservative Iowa Christian group's far-reaching pledge opposing gay marriage, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to reject it. Two of Romney's rivals for the Republican nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed the The...