Free Republic

One chunk of the Republican electorate has proved an incredibly fickle voting bloc, denying party unity while the nominating process dragged on. It’s the same group of conservative voters that went from candidate to candidate, looking for an alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Now, out of options, it seems that those who identify themselves as tea party supporters are finally coming home to the presumptive nominee. (snip)

Very, very good e-mail lists — and an internal debate over whether to use them. “I'm getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve,” writes one young Mormon. LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- At Mitt Romney’s first rally here earlier this week, there were plenty of hints that the enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 was stacked with Mormons. Kids walked around in BYU sweatshirts, moms chatted about LDS youth groups, and at least one supporter was overheard talking about making phone calls for the candidate as part of "family home evening" -- a weekly family...

Even if Mitt Romney wins in Florida on Tuesday, he still may lose the presidency come November. The old adage of “divide and conquer” may work well in war, but in politics it’s not always a smart strategy, especially in Republican primaries. Ronald Reagan’s name has been evoked quite often in this race. The Gipper must be turning over in his grave that Mitt Romney has so badly violated his 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Reagan’s law not only sounds great, it’s smart politics. Reagan understood that the very same Republicans a candidate attacks...

Santorum says Romney nomination "will destroy this country"

All I'm hearing from those-who-like-to-tell-us-how-to-vote (MSM/GOP establishment/Ann Coulter) this week is how Romney is "feeling confident" while Rick Santorum is soaring  (an unsinspiring politician Romney/Obama would love to face), yet Reaganite warrior Newt Gingrich (of whom they are both terrified) is now 'demoralized', with 'little chance of winning', etc... and all this derived from a vote count representing of just 4% of Iowa's tiny, rural population.  Yes, MSM/Left know perfectly well that this is the flakiest GOP primary electorate in history -and Santorum not even 10% as brutally-vetted/slandered as Bachmann, Cain, and Gingrich have been: might be good to consider at this point why some...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is shrugging off reports that the vote count from Iowa’s caucuses might be wrong, saying the errors appear not to change the fact that he and Mitt Romney were nearly tied. Santorum tells Fox News that a party official says the two cases in which errors were reported in the count from Tuesday night nearly cancel each other out. A Ron Paul supporter told Des Moines TV station KCCI that the posted count from his precinct in Appanoose County gave Romney more votes than he actually received. The GOP chairman...

Caucus Vote Counter Says Romney Mistakenly Given 20 Votes (Video report at link) DES MOINES, Iowa -- Caucus night was chaotic in many places, with hundreds of voters, candidates showing up and the throngs of media who followed. The world's eyes were on Iowa. But in the quiet town of Moulton, Appanoose County, a caucus of 50 people may just blow up the results. Edward True, 28, of Moulton, said he helped count the votes and jotted the results down on a piece of paper to post to his Facebook page. He said when he checked to make sure the...

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...

Talk with Tea Party leaders here in South Carolina and you quickly realize that the toughest job in the Mitt Romney campaign would be the assignment of doing outreach to these activists. Maybe not a mission impossible, but close. They really want no part of Romney. And there appears to be little he could say or do between now and Jan. 21, the date of the South Carolina primary, to change that. The Massachusetts health law Romney enacted as governor with its individual mandate called Romneycare by critics is just one of several reasons they give for their animus. There...

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has rocketed ahead of President Obama and taken his biggest lead yet in a national head-to-head matchup, a new poll showed today. Romney topped Obama 45 percent to 39 percent in the Rasmussen Reports survey. “It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date,” said the pollsters.

Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date. The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president. Ten percent (10%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) A week ago, Romney trailed Obama 44% to 41%. The week before that, he held a...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Mitt Romney is mocking Newt Gingrich's long record in Washington and says conservative tea party voters eventually will reject the former House speaker who's Romney chief presidential rival. Romney tells reporters in South Carolina that he thinks the state's tea party voters will turn on Gingrich because of his work for the mortgage company Freddie Mac and his consulting time in Washington....

Gingrich's support on the rise this month by Jeffrey M. Jones PRINCETON, NJ -- Republicans are most likely to name Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as their first choice for their party's 2012 presidential nomination, with Herman Cain close behind. Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%. Mid-November 2011 results: Next, I'm going to read a list of people who are running for the 2012 Republican nomination for president. After I read the names, please tell me which candidate you are most...

From the W moment he launched his presidential campaign on a windy New Hampshire morning in June, Willard Mitt Romney has been the acknowledged front-runner in the Republican race. He has raised more money, earned more support from his party's establishment, hired more paid staff and secured more endorsements than any of the seven other "major" GOP candidates. There is but one nagging thing keeping Romney from being dubbed the "inevitable" GOP nominee in 2012 - a solid 75 per cent of the voters in his party simply cannot stand the guy. "He is cold gravy," said Stephen Schneck, a...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Republicans are most likely to name Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as their first choice for their party's 2012 presidential nomination, with Herman Cain close behind. Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%. [snip] ....Implications With the first official nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses, now just six weeks away, there is no clear national front-runner for the Republican nomination....

Two of America’s most active national tea party organizations say former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has made no effort to win them over, despite his apparent need to attract more grassroots support. “As far as I am aware, we’ve had no contact with Romney’s campaign, nor have any of his representatives reached out,” Mark Meckler, co-founder and national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, told The Daily Caller. Meckler, however, acknowledged: “We haven’t had a lot of contact with the candidates in general, though [congresswoman Michele] Bachmann, [businessman Herman] Cain, and [former House Speaker Newt] Gingrich have all spent a lot...

The evidence suggests otherwise — but for the wrong reason. There’s a long list of reasons why Mitt Romney might not be our best choice to go up against Obama, and some of them are really good reasons. One reason is Romney’s part in creating the Massachusetts health system that Democrats claim (perhaps rightly) was the blueprint for ObamaCare. Another is that as governor of a very liberal state, Romney signed into law all sorts of bills that are going to be used by Democrats to persuade many middle of the road and even conservative voters that there really is...

Any candidate for president can fall victim to occasional stumbles, lapses, gaffes and clunkers. But Mitt Romney has a shot at raising ineptitude to an art form. The other day, he had to answer a question about how the economy has fared under the current administration. Before he was done, though, Romney managed to give the impression that if he dove off a dock, he'd miss the water. He also undermined his chief assets in the campaign: a supposed mastery of economic issues and a reputation for competence. Over and over, the former Massachusetts governor has accused President Barack Obama...

After all Sarah Palin did last year to contribute to the GOP's historical 2010 win, and all that she has gone through to shine the light on true conservative values, I am amazed how some of those on the right still disparage her. Jeff Kuhner of the Washington Times, and a fill-in host for Michael Savage, echoed leftist reporters like Susan Milligan of U.S. News and Bill Keller of the New York Times. Mrs. Palin (should she run) may be able to win the GOP nomination. The presidency, however, is a bridge too far. The media will eviscerate her. Outside...

The talking heads in the media are all tingly that "Mitt"-for-brains Romney is "winning" the GOP Primary polls by "double digits" because he got 27% in a Florida poll. You expect this kind of baloney from CNN but even "Fox and Friends" was repeating this nonsense this morning. Since Romney has 27% and Palin (who is not even running yet) has 17% and Bachman and all others get 10% or less, they report this as somehow showing Romney being in the lead, and a repudiation of the TEA party in the GOP. This is totally ass-backwards. Romney is LOSING by...