Free Republic

Former Gov. Mitt Romney could square off with Sarah Palin for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, but he’s already gearing up to take her on in the world of book sales. Palin’s bestseller has been racking up sales for the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate, and now Romney’s team is planning an ambitious national tour for the March release of his new book, “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.” Romney aides in Utah are hoping for up to 10,000 fans at one of the first stops on the planned tour, a March 13 signing at the Salt Palace...

They believe the liberal base expects them to deliver and will punish them if they don't. Voters are increasingly worried about unemployment, but Democratic leaders in Congress remain obsessed with passing health- care reform. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin was asked recently if a health-care bill would pass the Senate by the end of this month. "It must," he said. "We have to finish it." Still, many in the trenches are uneasy about the sprawling, complex bill they privately acknowledge has no bipartisan support, doesn't seriously tackle soaring costs and will increase insurance premiums. That may explain Majority Leader Harry...

Ambers ponders the import of the popular universal health insurance policy in Massachusetts. The weirdest thing about the Republicans right now is that their most viable candidate next time backed almost exactly the healthcare reform Obama is proposing. If Obama is a socialist, why isn't Romney?

The nation's most ambitious experiment in universal health insurance is succeeding on its own terms, and has become fairly popular, a new survey finds.

Single Payer: In Britain, where the public option is about all most patients get, a newborn has died because national guidelines recommend that the baby not be treated. Yet again, government care produces tragedy.The mother, Sarah Capewell, reportedly begged doctors to save the baby, who was born 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy. But guidelines used by Britain's National Health Service say that babies born fewer than 22 weeks into a pregnancy should not be treated. The doctors told her to consider her early labor a miscarriage, not a birth, even though, according to Capewell, the boy, whom...