Free Republic

Mitt Romney has stopped Jeb Bush from locking down a significant faction of deep-pocketed Republican donors and top presidential campaign staffers, for the moment. But money and talent won’t stay frozen for long. And multiple Republican insiders said Monday that Romney has a short window of time in which he has to make a decision about whether to mount a third run for the White House — or let the dream of the presidency go forever. One 2012 Romney aide said the former Massachusetts governor might need to make up his mind in the next week. Most people who spoke...

Shortly after Election Day in 2012, a Mitt Romney supporter moaned to POLITICO about the failed GOP nominee’s performance: “We had no message, and we gave it to the worst communicator in the world.” Two years later, Romney is mulling over another campaign for the White House, and this time, he says, things will be different. In meetings with and individual calls to donors, supporters and former staffers, Romney is making it clear that he is likely to run, putting his time frame for a decision at “weeks, not months.” Romney, who made a fortune in the financial sector and...

The Republican senator received raves from an audience at a policy conference at the Heritage Foundation Monday.Ted Cruz has already solidified his 2016 agenda. And some conservatives can't get enough of it. On Monday at the Heritage Foundation's Conservative Policy Summit, a two-day policy primer in Washington, the Texas senator and likely presidential contender laid out the points of his platform for the newly sworn in Republican Congress—and urged his colleagues to stick to their campaign promises. "Let's stand up and lead," he said. "Let's lead with a big, bold, positive agenda, that says to the American people, 'You had...

Dear Mitt, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye. And I've been tough on you in the past but you need to hear this from someone...drop the idea of running again. It must stick in your craw that you lost to an idiot like Barack Obama. But that's the problem, you...lost...to….an…idiot…like...Barack...Obama. Yes, defeating an incumbent President is hard but it's a lot easier in times of economic distress (see Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, granted he invented his own time of distress but "it's the economy stupid" carried the day). Even with crushing levels of unemployment, anemic growth...

Rick Santorum may have his faults as a potential presidential contender, but he is dead right about Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.): “Do we really want someone with this little experience? And the only experience they have basically — not [Sen. Marco] Rubio, but Cruz and Paul because I don’t think Rubio is going to go — is bomb throwing? Do we really want somebody who’s a bomb thrower, with no track record of any accomplishments?” Cruz may suffer from a lack of consistency, an erratic foreign policy and a grossly inappropriate temperament, but he does, to...

With a full year to go before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, the Republican Party 2016 Presidential field is taking shape and Dignitas News Service handicaps the futures odds for the nomination and VP slots. While the Democrats wait to see if anointed candidate Hillary (vacated hyphen) Clinton will indeed be their lone contender, the GOP field is shaping up to provide a true horse race in the quest to take the Oval Office. While not dismissing the possibility that an heretofore unknown, minor candidate may make their presence felt, we have limited the field to established and...

On Sunday's broadcast of ABC's This Week Democratic strategist and Clinton confidant James Carville predicted not only will Mitt Romney enter the presidential race, but that he will campaign as the "conservative alternative" to Jeb Bush. "Of course he's going to get in and he's going to run against Bush from the right," Carville said on the panel portion of This Week. "I think he has a strategy that he didn't have before. And his strategy is he's the conservative alternative." VIDEO at link.

Mitch McConnell has pledged that "regular order" will be restored to the Senate under his leadership, but his biggest obstacle to achieving that goal may not be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, but fellow Republicans, particularly Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. With a potential run for the Republican nomination in 2016 in mind, Cruz has "a vested interest in pulling his colleagues to the right in a highly public manner, one that probably won’t be consistent with making deals with the White House," reports The Wall Street Journal. Despite receiving criticism for his filibuster of a vote on Obamacare, which many...

No one appears to be taking a pass on the GOP race for the White House in 2016, setting up the possibility of a primary for the ages. It’s a complete turnaround from 2012, when Mitt Romney was the clear favorite and big-name rivals took a pass on challenging either him or President Obama. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former governors Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Mike Huckabee (Ark.) are showing no hesitancy this time around — and there isn’t a possible Democratic candidate scaring away any Republicans. New players like Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted...

I enjoy a good “maybe Huckabee’s going to be president” story the way I enjoy a good campfire ghost story. They’re BS, we all know they’re BS, but there’s nothing more satisfying than watching the terror build in your audience as you tell it. They’re even better than “Romney’s 2016!” stories. Well done, Scott Conroy. This one’s the political equivalent of “The Golden Arm.” [T]here is little doubt that a substantial segment of the South Carolina Republican electorate remains culturally and ideologically aligned with Huckabee—giving him a distinct chance of success in a state where he retains a wide swath...

Aaron is much more conciliatory toward, and much less overtly terrified at the thought of a Mike Huckabee Presidential campaign. I do not share his remarkable confidence that our esteemed electorate will not happily embrace the guitar-toting Southern progressive with what is left of their hearts and minds after a long and arduous primary season. People, let's be real. Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum for that matter, aren't really Republicans. I mean, as a RINO heathen, I can obviously spot another of my species, and these two are it, though, while I'm teetering on the edge of full social anarchy,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rick Santorum says he's in for 2016. Rick Santorum has invited former aides to Washington next week for a "private briefing" on his plans for a possible 2016 presidential bid. The "Personal Invitation from Senator Santorum," provided to CNN by a Republican who received it, was sent by a Santorum aide to more than two dozen "friends and former colleagues" from past campaigns and his time in the U.S. House and Senate. "As you probably know, RJS is seriously considering a run for the White House in 2016," Santorum adviser Matt Beynon wrote in the email, using Santorum's initials. "With...

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

It is truly amazing is how hostile the leadership of the Republican Party is to the people who actually make up the Republican Party. I can tell you first hand that the establishment GOP types dislike the libertarian/conservative coalition aka The Tea Party at least as much as the Democrats do. Probably more. Why? Because the libertarian/conservative coalition is a real threat to their power. Do you honestly think that the GOP as it is currently constituted wants to reduce the size of government? Not a chance. A d this is why the party has been moving since 2012 to...

Gannett paper, link only: Bobby Jindal to meet Tuesday with Iowa pastors

TV host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he is leaving his Fox News talk show as he considers whether to seek the Republican nomination for president, a decision he expects to reach in the spring. Huckabee said Saturday night's edition of "Huckabee" would be his last as he ponders his political future. The weekly show, which is taped with a live audience and features political commentary as well as interviews with guests and musical entertainment, has been on the air for more than six years. "There has been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would...

A flock of 2016 presidential hopefuls will be attending a major GOP event in Iowa this month co-sponsored by anti-immigrant gadfly Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has made outreach to minorities part of his appeal, won’t go. His office says there is a scheduling conflict. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also begged off. What to make of all this? (SNIP) He is no David Duke, but his distasteful and flamboyant attacks on illegal immigrants are well known. (SNIP) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie headlined a fundraiser for King and reportedly announced, “I will be a supporter...

Breaking: Mike Huckabee‘s final “Huckabee” will air tonight, TVNewser has learned. Huckabee will announce on his show that he is parting ways with Fox News as he explores the possibility of a presidential run. The show was taped at Fox News studios in Manhattan this evening and will air tonight at 8 pm ET. Huckabee began hosting his weekend show in Sept., 2008, months after he dropped out the race for the 2008 GOP nomination. In 2011, the former Arkansas governor teased on the May 14 episode of “Huckabee” that he would make a big announcement. At the time it...

For 2016, Republicans are understandably worried about Hillary Clinton’s massive political machine and finding the right candidate to win the White House. But Republicans are fortunate in the high caliber of the pool of candidates when it comes to a potential nominee. The national swelling ranks of successful governors and national leaders from various backgrounds present us with some great options. Ted Cruz leads the best of the best. Cruz would not only make a great president but would also be the best and strongest option to defeat Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton in 2016 is the most invincible political force...

First it was the Boston Globe. Then came the New York Times. Then Politico and Bloomberg – and now CNN. The Jurassic media is on the march, and their goal is to help the Republicans nominate Jeb Bush in 2016. In order to achieve this goal, they have started to soften the battlefield of ideas with their stockpile of shallow psychological tactics. This is just the same old psy-ops the left always tries. And why not? It almost always works on the Republican establishment in Washington. Inside the GOP-e in DC, reality does not matter -- only polls and media...