Free Republic

President Trump on Thursday hosted phone calls with dozens of bipartisan lawmakers, including every Republican senator -- except Mitt Romney. The president asked the lawmakers to serve on a panel to discuss how to move forward with reopening the economy, called the “Opening Up America Again Congressional Group.” “The president announced that he will soon provide guidance to America’s governors to determine their ability to reignite the economies in their respective states,” the White House said in a news release. “The dialogue between the president, senior administration officials and the bipartisan group of members of Congress also included a range...

The Bay State’s controversial 2006 universal health-care plan — also known as “Romneycare” — has cost Massachusetts more than 18,000 jobs, according to an exclusive blockbuster study that could provide ammo to GOP rivals of former Gov. Mitt Romney as he touts his job-creating chops on the campaign trail. “Mandating health insurance coverage and expanding the demand for health services without increasing supply drove up costs. Economics 101 tells us that,” said Paul Bachman, research director at Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute, the conservative think tank that conducted the study. The Herald obtained an exclusive copy of the findings. “The...

Nina Easton, Fortune's Washington bureau chief and a Fox News regular, helped out Mitt Romney on his new book that hits shelves today, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness." That's according to the book's acknowledgements, where Romney writes she "advised me on ways to make the message of what I had written more clear and compelling." Should a political analyst and journalist be helping out a former (and future?) presidential candidate with his book? Boston Globe correspondent Sasha Issenberg reached out to Easton and looked at whether there's any conflict given her role as political analyst, along with the...

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney is locked in a statistical dead heat with Sarah Palin for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, despite the Alaska governor’s abrupt resignation last week, according to a new poll of Republican voters. Romney leads all Republican presidential contenders, garnering 25 percent of the vote, edging out Palin (24 percent), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (22) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (14 percent) in the Rasmussen poll released yesterday.

Dear fellow Fredheads, It's time to support Mitt Romney. Can Mitt win in a general election? I don't know. Certainly he has always had a better chance than Fred. And if the opposition is Hillary Clinton, then maybe. McCain can beat Hillary. But McCain is, well, McCain. To be honest, I'm not as down on McCain as most of my fellow Jawas and you, the readers. But that's just because I've been a one-issue guy since right around, oh, let me see, I think the date was 9/11/2001. But still, McCain doesn't get that the border is tied in with...

Mark Levin's opening monologue from last night's show.

Mitt Romney has been caught in yet another lie. Only yesterday Romney’s claim of not supporting Planned Parenthood abortion mills was abruptly smashed by a photograph surfacing of him at one of their fundraisers in 1994. Today, it’s Romney’s claim that his father “marched with” famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. During his “I’m a Mormona but it doesn’t matter” speech, Mitt Romney claimed he saw his father, George Romney, marching with MLK during a 1968 civil rights march through Grosse Pointe, Michigan. It was a stirring account of the efforts of his father to show that the...

As linked from Drudge... Romney for President By the Editors Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. Each of the men running for the Republican nomination has strengths, and none has everything — all the traits, all the positions — we are looking for. Equally conservative analysts can reach, and have reached, different judgments in this matter. There are fine conservatives supporting each of these Republicans. Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates...

If Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, it will be due in large measure to his splendid and moving defense of his faith and beliefs delivered today at the George Bush Presidential Library. ---snip--- Romney did not truckle. He did not suggest that his faith was irrelevant to the formation of his political philosophy. While declaring, "I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest," he did not back away an inch from his Mormon faith. "There are some for whom these commitments are not enough," said Romney. "They would prefer it if...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - When Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson walks down the aisles of a gun show Saturday in Charleston, the game he's hunting won't be hard to spot. The former senator and actor is looking to differentiate himself from rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney - and use his appeal as a "country boy from Tennessee" who knows NASCAR and hunting to portray the city slickers as out of step with this early voting state's residents. There is little doubt gun rights are a tough issue for the front of the GOP pack. Former New York Mayor Giuliani has...

WASHINGTON — Influential conservatives said Wednesday that Mitt Romney’s naming of Sen. Jim DeMint as a national chairman of his presidential campaign will help the former Massachusetts governor woo bedrock Republicans in South Carolina and beyond. Romney named DeMint one of three national co-chairmen, along with Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt. Romney, who has moved into the top tier of GOP White House candidates, said the three men “bring an incredible depth of knowledge and experience to our campaign to build a stronger America with a stronger military, stronger economy and stronger families.” David...

The big news on Fred Thompson's site is the endorsement of Tom McClintock, a popular and conservative state senator. Nothing on Hillary's comment in the debates last night, although his immigration and border security plan is still high on the front page. I think this is another example of Thompson's strategy of choosing to not do the things the media think he should be doing. Romney and Giuliani were quick out of the box to jump on Hillary's statement and denounce driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Today, that'll show up in every story; the dominant story of the day is...

BOSTON --With a big month in Iowa looming, Republican Mitt Romney is airing a commercial focused on one of the state's hot-button issues: immigration. Five days before the latest GOP presidential debate, and 11 days before the state's straw poll, Romney trimmed a May television ad into a 30-second spot in which he reiterates his support for legal immigration, but opposition to illegal immigration. "We should put in place an employment verification system," Romney tells an audience member in a scene from one of his "Ask Mitt Anything" town hall meetings. "And then, when an employer is thinking of hiring...

Mitt Romney was credited with a political coup last Tuesday when it was announced that Wendy Long has joined his campaign as a senior legal advisor and vice chair of his National Faith and Values Steering Committee. Long is a familiar name to conservatives who follow the courts. She is chief counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, an organization of conservative lawyers that has played a critical role in the confirmation battles for appellate and Supreme Court judges including Sam Alito and John Roberts. She was a litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and previously a law clerk to...

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. --Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the U.S. Senate's failure to pass an immigration bill backed by President Bush was a "victory for the people." People-one, Washington politicians-zero," the former Massachusetts governor told reporters near Pittsburgh on Thursday. "I think the failure of this bill is related to the Washington politicians' failure to connect with the American people." Romney said he doesn't favor deporting the 12 million unlawful immigrants in the United States but also doesn't want them to receive a "special pathway" to citizenship.

What will Rudy, Romney, Gingrich, Brownback, Tancredo, Huckabee, Hunter and Gilmore do that McCain won't? Address the gathered throngs at CPAC coming up the end of this week. CPAC is the largest gathering of conservatives. Like minded folks from across the nation show up in the thousands to talk taxes, defense, terror, economic growth, gun rights, abortion, marriage, and the list goes on. This morning CPAC sent out the most recent Press Release confirming that Rudy Giuliani will be addressing the group at 12noon on Friday. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) announced that former New York City Mayor Rudy...

Did the press finally find their dirt on Romney?

Romney 245: McCain 118: Rudy 22

Remarks by the head of a prominent PR firm for faith based initiatives

BOSTON — Republican Mitt Romney, flush with cash from early fundraising, this week will air his first presidential campaign ad to introduce himself to voters in several early voting states. The 60-second spot describes the former Massachusetts governor as a "business legend" who "rescued the Olympics" and "turned around a Democratic state."Romney himself adds: "This is not a time for more talk and dithering in Washington. It's a time for action." The ad is set to air starting Wednesday in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Florida. It is the first ad by a top-tier contender in a campaign...