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Mike Huckabee had a fairly serious interview with Mitt Romney on Fox News tonight (no "Cat Scratch Fever" this time?) in which the current candidate shrugged off the Chris Christie wooing that is in part born of a rejection of Romney by donors and some establishment figures. Per POLITICO's Emily Schultheis, who helpfully tuned in, Huckabee asked a question about how Romney contends with the repeated new candidates whose names get mentioned. Romney was all praise for Huckabee and his strengths: Romney: "I think we want to win. I think the people in our party want to make sure we...

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...

It's amazing that most of the presidential candidates manage to find time to run for president when they're so busy running for national superintendent of schools. Republican candidates typically tell us in one breath they want to get the federal government out of education and in the next that they have some really swell ideas for educational reform they'd like to implement (impose?) once they're in charge of the federal government. Take Mitt Romney, if you can. (I know, he can be pretty hard to take at times.) At Thursday night's (more of less) debate in Orlando, Mitt was his...

LEBANON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in danger of losing his 2012 Republican primary front-runner status, on Wednesday tweaked his position on global climate change, saying he does not know if humans are the primary cause. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, also said he would not place restrictions on carbon emissions if elected and did not favor spending heavily on climate solutions. He was asked about global warming at a town hall meeting in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and said he believed the world is getting hotter and humans contribute in some way to the change. "Do I...

Luxury jets, hotels on Mitt Romney’s $5 million campaign tab (flip-flop alert) "... Mitt Romney shelled out more than $5 million in campaign cash over the past three months, including blowing $80,000 on hotel rooms in Las Vegas, $50,000 on a security squad and $125,000 on private jets — despite a pledge to scale back on luxury travel, new campaign filings show. The Beverly-based flights were aboard a 2005 Cessna Citation CJ3, an eight-seat luxury corporate jet with leather interior and a staggering $5.8 million price tag. "News of the flights comes after an April speech in Iowa, during which...

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...

Mitt Romney could face strong resistance in a potential White House bid from Tea Partiers troubled by the healthcare plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts. In an interview on CBN’s The Brody File Show, Amy Kremer, director of grassroots and coalitions for the Tea Party Express, one of the most public Tea Party groups in the country, was asked if Romney’s hand in the enactment of the Massachusetts healthcare plan would fly with the Tea Party movement. “I'm being honest here. You can't get away from that,” Kremer told host David Brody. “These people don't have short memories. They're...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLb-NY4p1q0

"He said it doesn't matter who wins Tuesday, the party needs to get behind those candidates because that's the only way they'll win in November.

Laura Ingraham was on the Glenn Beck radio show in the last hour this morning...While talking about potential candidates for 2012, She was asked if Romney was a "progressive" she said NO he isn't one of them at all...I've heard that she loves Romney like a Ken doll and is a Romneybot, but this is amazing! She also said that she would take Newt as President in a heartbeat! What gives?

Sarah Palin's recent web video making a pitch to conservative women may have again shifted the political spotlight to the former governor of Alaska, but more than a half dozen other GOP hopefuls are toying seriously with a presidential run this summer. ......................................................... Still, few express much regard for Palin's ultimate chances. One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, "She's not a serious human being." Another Romney intimate warns, "If she's standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she's...

To understand why Democrats ever picked Mondale, you have to understand where the party — and where the country — was in 1982 and 1983, when the nation’s verdict on Reagan and his policies was far less positive. In those days, with unemployment surging over 10 percent and the president’s popularity slipping to sub-Carter levels, Democrats mistakenly assumed that the ‘80 election had been a mirage. The electorate, they figured, had acted in haste and was rapidly returning to its senses. The results of the 1982 midterms, when Republicans (who had begun the cycle with claims that they’d win...

The 2012 presidential election may be 29 months away, but the potential players are stalking each other like chess grandmasters. Tonight's round of gubernatorial and Senate primaries could provide early indicators of who is most shrewdly mobilizing their pieces into position. Three states with big races on Tuesday represent potential game-changers in 2012. Iowa and South Carolina occupy key early positions in the presidential-primary calendar, while California boasts a mother lode of winner-take-all delegates. For presumed hopefuls like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee, the calculation is simple. Endorse a statewide candidate who wins (both tonight and in November's...

BEDFORD, N.H. - When it comes to health care, Mitt Romney is hoping to have it both ways, even as he accuses the White House of doing the same. In the weeks since President Obama and the Democratic Congress enacted their health care overhaul, Mr. Romney, the once and presumably future candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has confronted an issue that is alternately viewed as a strength and a vulnerability. As he promotes himself as a problem-solving pragmatist, Mr. Romney can justifiably point to the landmark universal coverage law in Massachusetts that he, as governor, proposed in 2006. But...

Mitt Romney offered an enthusiastic defense last night of the comprehensive health care law he helped create four years ago in Massachusetts, even as he pointed to crucial distinctions between it and a similar national program enacted last week by Democrats. “Overall, ours is a model that works,’’ Romney said in response to a question after a speech at Iowa State University. “We solved our problem at the state level. Like it or not, it was a state solution. Why is it that President Obama is stepping in and saying ‘one size fits all’ ’’? Obama’s signing of a federal...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Mitt Romney is likely one of several Republican candidates who will vie for the GOP nomination and the right to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama. For his 2008 attempt at representing Republicans, Romney caused consternation by talking about his position change on abortion and he is doing it again. Appearing on the "Imus in the Morning" radio program with Don Imus this morning, Imus asked Romney to revisit his position change. "Well, you know, I never really called myself pro-choice, but I did say when I was running for governor that I would keep the...

It's early, but Mitt Romney still seems intent on repeating his mistaken 2008 handling of the abortion issue. Here he was today on "Imus in the Morning":

I watched the Mitt Romney interview on Fox News Watch with Chris Wallace this morning. I actually watched twice, I was stunned. What a debacle! Apparently, this was his opening gambit in his 2012 Presidential campaign, since he has written a book. Wallace, by far the most skilled of the talking head interviewers, pressed Romney on his two primary claims: that Obama has spent his first year apologizing for being an American, and that his health care plan is awful. Romney was unable to delineate any major differences between the plan he developed in Massachusetts and Obama’s, except that the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested Sunday that his decision on whether to run again for president may hinge on the outcome of the November midterm elections. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested Sunday that his decision on whether to run again for president may hinge on the outcome of the November midterm elections. Romney, who was beat out for the GOP presidential nomination by Sen. John McCain in 2008, told "Fox News Sunday" that he's not making any calls quite yet. He said that he will wait at least until the end of the year, after the voters have...

In a vacuum there’s nothing newsy about this, but 2012 isn’t a vacuum. We’ve talked before about the developing narrative: Palin vs. anti-Palin, “true conservatives” vs. centrists, blue-collar vs. white-collar, and … populists vs. “elitists.” With Beck having brought down the house at CPAC and the GOP in the grip of tea party fee-vah, why oh why would a potential nominee spritz cold water on populism? Branding, dear boy, branding: As Mitt Romney sets out this week to promote his new book, “No Apology,’’ he is also auditioning for a rapidly disappearing role in American politics: a politician who is...