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For those who believe the current commentariat consensus that Mitt Romney should be coronated as the inevitable Republican nominee, consider the excellent story by Alicia Cohn in The Hill about conservatives uniting to defeat Romney, and remember the GOP primaries in 1976 when Ronald Reagan was almost nominated after a late surge. Cohn's included one bit of news that has not been adequately covered by most media, the creation of a group of conservatives to be found at the notmittromney.com, and one subject that has also not been adequately covered: the importance of the Florida primary in late January and...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney treated supporters at a fundraiser in Virginia to a sneak peek of his inclinations regarding his vice presidential shortlist should he become the Republican nominee in 2012, according to a new report. At the Virginia Beach home of State Sen. Jeff McWaters Monday, Romney praised three up-and-coming stars of the GOP, saying his shortlist included Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Bearing Drift blog reported Tuesday

An Ohio Republican Party official sent over results from the party's presidential straw poll in a proving-ground swing state, which showed Mitt Romney the clear winner. Romney, who made the Ames Straw Poll his Holy Grail in 2007 but is bypassing Ames, Florida's Presidency V and all other such contests this cycle, won handily with 25 percent. Tim Pawlenty, who is fighting his own war for Ames, scored second place, with 16 percent. But Pawlenty was bunched with the third- and fourth-place finishers, Michele Bachmann (15 percent) candidate Rick Perry (14 percent). Perry is especially noteworthy, since he has yet...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney still leads the 2012 Republican nominee race, but the person who polled second is a bit of a surprise: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. With Palin in the race, Romney has 26 percent, Palin has 18 percent and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is third with 12 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll. However, without Palin in the race, Romney tops the field at 30 percent, Bachmann has 16%, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has 11 percent, and Texas Governor Rick Perry has 8 percent. Palin Remains a Factor The fact that Palin...

Did conservatives learn the wrong lesson from losing to Obama the first time? Recently Politico ran a piece by Alexander Burns titled “Mitt Romney’s Warning Signs.” Burns outlined three major reasons why Romney is a weak frontrunner and “remains extremely beatable.” The three reasons are: His fundraising quarter wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a tour de force either. (Romney “only” raised $18.25 million)His polling is solid, but stalled. (20% to 30% range)His personal shortcomings haven’t disappeared. Now I agree with all of the above but would like to add one more extremely important reason that explains both the lackluster fundraising...

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...

Coming out of the July 4th weekend, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the clear front-runner in the crowded Republican field of White House hopefuls — though history suggests the early lead in the polls won’t necessarily make him a shoo-in at the ballot box. Polling this far out from the first vote being cast can be a shaky barometer for who will emerge victorious from the grueling primary process. Just ask former House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — each of whom sprinted out to...

A few weeks ago, the race for the Republican presidential nomination was a jumble of candidates, none of whom seemed to be winning the party's hearts or minds: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich. For a moment, some GOP voters even pinned their hopes on pizza magnate Herman Cain, mostly because he didn't sound — or look — like the others. But now, if you talk with Republican political professionals, the GOP race has suddenly settled into a contest among only two or three potential nominees. There's Romney, still the front-runner, stolidly running a cautious and conventional campaign. There's Michele...

1) She theoretically appeals to a bigger slice of the GOP (conservatives) than Romney does (moderates-centrists) 2) Her strength is in the red states while Romney's is in the blue states 3) She is a superstar; he is not 4) She draws bigger crowds than he does on the campaign trail 5) She is a far more eloquent speaker than he is 6) She does retail politicking better than Romney 7) She is younger and has far more energy than 64 year old Romney 8) She apparently is much more Internet and social networking savvy than Mitt is. 9) Palin...

The anybody-but-Mitt Romney faction developing within the tea party may pose a problem for the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential ambitions, but some tea party organizers worry it could also backfire against the movement itself. Romney, the current Republican front runner, is viewed skeptically – at best – by many tea partiers. And disagreement over whether to actively oppose him threatens to undo the uneasy truces forged in the run-up to the 2010 midterms and undermine the fledgling movement’s influence in the GOP. The possibility of Romney winning the nomination is even reviving debate about whether activists should embrace, or even...

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...

Mitt Romney is on track to get the Republican nomination for president the same way his 2008 rival John McCain did. The former Massachusetts governor was the runner-up in the last open primary and is not facing anyone strong enough to knock him out of his place in line. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found 30 percent of likely GOP voters would back Romney. Second, at 14 percent, was Sarah Palin, who is: a) not yet running, and b) not yet literate. This is in spite of party purists' fury over Romney's record of helping people and running...

Mitt Romney may be leading in the polls, but his status as the GOP “frontrunner” is fragile at best. For all the talk of Romney’s “did-what-he-had-to-do” performance in the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, it’s widely accepted that the former Massachusetts governor is an uninspired choice for the GOP nomination. ... Historically, Republicans have nominated the runner-up from the previous election cycle, and Romney was the runner-up in 2008. But his second-place finish was exceedingly narrow — and in the end, closely contested. Once John McCain beat him in New Hampshire and South Carolina — after Mike Huckabee had...

This disarray in the Republican Party has reached some dizzying depth, Bill O’Reilly explained last night, as no candidate or public official has taken hold of the party. With several candidates as long shots or complete unknowns, O’Reilly concluded Mitt Romney had the best chance, but no one was going to defeat President Obama without having “a little Trump in them.” O’Reilly began his program last night with a quick evaluation of each candidate left: “Newt Gingrich is done as a serious candidate,” he explained, why Rep. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum were “long shots.” Sarah Palin could...

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...

...my official prediction is that Obama will be facing either Romney or Palin in 2012. IF PALIN DOES NOT END UP RUNNING, MITT ROMNEY WINS THE NOMINATION. ...If Palin runs as expected, it will be a close race to the finish between the two of them. So why is Palin the only one who can derail Romney?...When voters do not vote Palin...her support drifts to Romney more than anybody else. With Palin in the race, voters will be forced to decide whether to coalesce around one conservative candidate and win, or break apart into multiple factions and hand the nomination...

Sarah Palin emerged today from the Marriott Long Wharf hotel and said she planned to walk the Freedom Trail before heading to New Hampshire – where Mitt Romney is to announce his presidential candidacy today. “Coincidental that we’re in the same territory at the same time,’’ said Palin, a likely Republican presidential candidate. “But more power to Mitt… and best of luck to him.’’ Palin said she remains undecided on whether she will challenge Romney and other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

The cameras and national press will be treated to a - still tieless! - Mitt Romney spooning up chili and kicking back with the folks on Thursday in Stratham, New Hampshire, site of the presumed Republican frontrunner's official campaign announcement. Romney's real action, though, is unfolding far from the Scammans' lovely farm. Looking to lock in his status as the field's most able fundraiser, Romney has a coast-to-coast schedule of fundraisers slated for the remainder of June. According to a schedule obtained by National Journal - which includes a preview of a July event in London, England - the former...

The fact is that Mitt Romney is an unprincipled chameleon with ZERO core beliefs... a synthetic, calculated opportunism has taken their place. Meanwhile, most of what he actually has said and done betrays a Big-Government social liberal. Other fun facts regarding this 'conservative' fraud'spast actions, positions, and failures: refused to endorse the 1994 GOP "Contract with America" distanced himself from the Reagan legacy: "I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush" lost GOP House seats in both Massachusetts elections of his tenure, 2004/2006 (leaving Republicans with the least # of seats there since the Civil War)   strongly supported gay rights...

Stalking-horse definition: 1)Means to disguising a real objective 2)A deceptive candidate who is on the ballot or enters an election only to divide the opposition (eg conservative vote) so that his friend or ally can win the election coming up the middle In sports, there is an old saying: A team doesn't control its own destiny. In other words a team finds that it has to rely on another team not doing well or screwing up in order to advance to the playoffs themselves. In respect to the GOP primaries, CONSERVATIVES do control their own destiny. Roughly for every 1...