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Via The Hill: "Restore Our Future, an outside group backing Mitt Romney, is taking its first shot at Rick Santorum. The group is running ads in South Carolina and Florida criticizing Santorum for supporting earmarks, part of multi-million dollar ad buys running in the states." Fair? In context? All the possibly clarifying facts disclosed? Of course not.

Mark Levin, being a disenfranchised Virginian, weighed in on the Virginia ballot fiasco, saying that the compliance rules were changed a month ago and that it is not the fault of the candidates. In fact, he believes the rules were changed to help shove Romney down our throats.

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) campaign honeymoon appears to have ended, as other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination begin voicing open criticism of Romney. Romney, by virtue of his status as the putative frontrunner in the race, is now facing increasingly vocal criticism from his competitors, criticism that had otherwise been muted or nonexistent so far in the campaign. The attacks suggest that the campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination hasn't just begun, but has advanced to the point where candidates have started to throw elbows in order to jockey for position with primary voters. There was no...

If Mitt “Peacetime” Romney Can Only Get to 23% Post-Announcement, He’s Not Going To End Up Breaking 30% in A Multi-Candidate Field Posted on June 13 2011 - 7:56 AM - Posted by: Ian Lazaran Here is what the race looks like when you average the six polls (the polls are from the Washington Post/ABC News, Quinnipiac, Reuters/Ipsos, Fox News, and the two polls released this morning from CNN and Gallup) that have been conducted after Mitt “peacetime” Romney formally announced that he was running for the presidency. Romney 23% Palin 17% Cain 8% Gingrich 7% Paul 7% Bachmann 5%...

Mitt Romney may have enraged the GOP base with his answers on anthropogenic global warming, but as Politico reports, he won’t back down from them in the face of withering criticism from conservatives. Instead, he appears to be offering a compromise. He’ll continue to declare his belief in AGW, but promises not to do anything about it: Mitt Romney won’t be doing any apology tours on climate change.The early GOP presidential front-runner has broken with his party’s conservative ranks to declare global warming a real threat to the planet that merits some sort of action to curb heat-trapping emissions.But the...

It seemed like a straightforward question on a second-tier issue: Would Mitt Romney disavow the science behind global warming? The putative Republican presidential front-runner, eager to prove his conservative bona fides, could easily have said what he knew many in his party’s base wanted to hear. Instead, the former Massachusetts governor stuck to the position he has held for many years — that he believes the world is getting warmer and that humans are contributing to it. Romney’s answer to a question about climate change last Friday during his first town hall meeting since announcing his second presidential campaign allowed...

I’m not saying every tea partier is against Mitt Romney, but many prominent Tea Party groups are saying no to Romney for President. FreedomWorks, an influential Washington-based group working within the Tea Party movement, say they do not support Mitt Romney for President, because of his moderate record as governor. The group’s communications director said, it’s because “Romney has a record and we don’t really like it that much.” Brendan Steinhauser, the group’s liaison to smaller, grassroots organizations said, Romney is, “inauthentic.” They also have some beef with RomneyCare. Also, the Tea Party organization’s president and CEO Matt Kibbe was...

Former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the Federal Elections Commission has dropped a campaign finance complaint filed against last year her by the state’s Republican Party. Writing on Twitter early Thursday afternoon, the tea party-backed Republican announced “Breaking News! FEC dismissed the DE GOP Ex-Chair’s complaint against me.” O’Donnell’s Christine PAC did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. The complaint against O’Donnell alleged that she and the Tea Party Express had violated campaign finance rules barring coordination between PACs and candidates.

Palin fires shot at Romney at Bunker Hill By NBC's Shawna Thomas, Alex Moe, and Mark Murray In remarks made at Bunker Hill in Massachusetts -- of all places -- Sarah Palin fired a shot at Mitt Romney over the health-care mandate that Romney signed into law in the state in 2006.The remarks came just before Romney formally announces his presidential bid in nearby New Hampshire, which Palin also plans to visit later today."In my opinion, any mandate coming from government is not a good thing, so obviously ... there will be more the explanation coming from former governor, Romney,...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Romney. How does that sound? Better than President Gingrich, President Pawlenty or even President Palin? You betcha. Why? Because for all his flip-flopping and lack of charisma, Mitt Romney is a serious person — an “adult” in today’s political parlance — with a real track record of accomplishment. This week, Romney actually showed what any serious Republican hopeful in the 2012 presidential election campaign needs to show: the beginnings of a backbone. It looks like Romney may have flipped his last flop on what is supposed to be the bane of his existence, the statewide health-care...

Mitt Romney's speech to supporters in Des Moines Friday was cut short by a fire drill thanks to a bag of burning microwave popcorn. The former Massachusetts governor and soon-to-be official 2012 presidential candidate was fielding questions about his commitment to the first-in-the-nation state at Des Moines' State Historical Society of Iowa building when a fire drill forced him to cut his appearance short. "Discretion is the better part of valor," Romney said, urging people to head outside as the alarm sounded in the background. "I wasn't trying to get out of tough questions, I promise," he said later.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I LOVE and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! Exhortations… Phil 4:1 So after one weekend the Republican field is becoming clear as glass to everybody but Bill Crystal. We have one who has beautiful hair, a nice figure, perfectly manicured face and hands against Sarah Palin. With the dropping out of Huckleberry Hound and the Trumpster as well as the self assassination of Gingrich we are really down to Sarah and the Mitt. After a year of hearing how she doesn’t have...

In light of Mike Huckabee's announcement that he was not running in 2012, I thought it would be appropriate to compare presidential prospects of Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney in respect to gaining the nomination and how well they each might do in the general election if either one was the GOP nominee. So with that in mind here are 10 points to consider: 1) From David Bernstein: a) Of the 28 caucuses and primaries that Mitt Romney competed in up to and including Super Tuesday in 2008 he finished worse than second in 6 races--happened to be in six...

I took a much needed break this weekend with friends and family and so I wasn’t around to blog the big news. Mike Huckabee is out of the running for the Presidential nomination. Now, I said as early as February 22nd that I was betting Huckabee wouldn’t run. So I’m happy to have a winning prediction under my belt. But besides that, this really shakes up the calculus for 2012. Iowa is now going to be wide open, and it leaves the “not Mitt Romneycare” position as one much easier to fill. The question is, who does this benefit? Palin?...

Unless things change, the man (or woman) elected in 2012 will be the last American president to preside over the world's leading economy. If things get really bad, he will find himself presiding over the early stages of American collapse. Not "decline" but "collapse." "Decline" is what happens when you're Britain in the 1940s and you cede global dominance to a major ally that shares your language, legal system, cultural inheritance and broad geopolitical objectives. That deal isn't on offer this time round. Nor was the United Kingdom circa 1948 in thrall to anything like the same levels of spendaholic...

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) healthcare speech drew quick support from fellow Bay State Sen. Scott Brown (R), who called Romney's defense of the state's healthcare plan "courageous." Brown, who's up for reelection in the typically Democratic state next fall, offered Romney political reinforcement following the former governor's highly anticipated healthcare speech on Thursday. "Governor Romney showed a lot of courage today by standing his ground on the reforms he put in place in Massachusetts," Brown said in a statement. "What he did as governor worked for Massachusetts by getting health insurance to more people."

Karl Rove on how Donald Trump's birther obsession hurt his presidency chances, Obama's Paul Ryan fixation and 'hot mic' comments and more.

A new poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney narrowly leading President Obama in a hypothetical general election matchup in Florida.