Free Republic

Don't expect to see Mitt Romney at the Republican Party's national convention this summer. An aide to the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee confirms that Romney isn't planning to attend the convention where Donald Trump is expected to become the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nominee. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Ted Cruz's claim on Thursday that he never knew or worked with John Boehner has been called into question following the revelation that the Texas senator once served as the former House speaker's lawyer.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Colorado GOP said it is investigating after a tweet was sent out from its account with the message: "We did it. #NeverTrump." Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House told Denver's KMGH that his organization "would never do that." Now, the Colorado GOP is investigating to try and figure out what unauthorized person sent it out from the organization's Twitter account. The tweet popped up on Twitter minutes after Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz scored all of Colorado's delegates.

It's far from an exact comparison, due to primaries being on different dates and a lower threshold of 1144 Delegates required. However, there were four candidates on March 18, 2012 (Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul (Ron). As I recall, the talk from Republicans was of Romney's inevitability. Fast forward to today, Trump has 678 Delegates, yet all the talk is of a Brokered Convention. Funny how the Republican Party was happy to support an unapologetic Pro-Amnesty, Pro Obamacare, Global Warming True Believer, labeling him a "Conservative". 2012 Delegate Breakdown at the link. http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/delegates

The Anti Trump "War on Women" ad, being given tons of free air time by all the cable news channels, is from "Our Principles Pac", a Pac tied to Mitt Romney, and funded primarily by Marlene Ricketts. Marlene Ricketts is the owner of the Chicago Cubs, and mother of the current Nebraska Governor, Pete Ricketts. Her Husband, Joe Ricketts, is the founder of TD Ameritrade. http://www.inquisitr.com/2817315/marlene-ricketts-mystery-anti-donald-trump-donor-revealed-as-chicago-cubs-owner/ https://ballotpedia.org/Our_Principles_PAC

On Fox and Friends Weekend, Fox News showed a video of Sen. Rubio from last night responding to a reporters' question if he'd support Trump as the Republican nominee. Rubio responded, "I don't know". A change in position for the Senator from ancient history...last Thursday. No link as of yet.

This should be the perfect contest to judge the influence of the Romney Campaign, and yes, it is a Campaign. Romney took over 62% of the vote in the 2012 primary. Idaho has a 23% Mormon population and a 22% Evangelical population. Idaho is a closed primary. Donald Trump has a 13 to 19 point lead in current polls.

Donald Trump on Wednesday picked up his first congressional endorsements, as Reps. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said they would back his candidacy. [snip] Hunter told Politico on Wednesday that he too would back Trump. "We don't need a policy wonk as president. We need a leader as president," he said.

BREAKING NEWS: Romney just named Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential nominee Yeah -- THAT Paul Ryan. The architect of the Republican plan to kill Medicare. But here's the thing: in a poll this week, only 46% of Americans even had an opinion of Ryan (38% had never heard of him). These next hours are critical. We need to contact key voters immediately and make sure they know about the Romney-Ryan plan to put millionaire tax cuts over Medicare for seniors. We might not be able to out-spend Romney and the Koch Brothers but we have to reach every last...

Two 16-year-old boys were killed, and three other people were wounded, in separate shootings within hours on the South Side. One of the 16-year-olds, Nathaniel Gonzalez, was standing on the sidewalk in the 5900 block of South Laflin Street in the Englewood neighborhood when someone in a dark-colored car opened fire around 3:45 p.m. Thursday, authorities said. Gonzalez, of the 4700 block of South Damen Avenue, pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. Police had no other details. Six hours later, two boys ages 16 and 17 were shot in an alley in the 7500 block of South Paulina Street in the...

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum holds a four-point lead in his home state in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the upcoming Pennsylvania Republican Primary. A new statewide telephone survey finds that 42% of Likely GOP Primary Voters support Santorum, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney picks up 38% of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul earns seven percent (7%), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at six percent (6%). Two percent (2%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Newt Gingrich is cutting back his campaign schedule, will lay off about a third of his cash-strapped campaign’s full-time staff, and has replaced his manager as part of what aides are calling a “big-choice convention” strategy, communications director Joe DeSantis told POLITICO. Michael Krull, a former advance man and a college friend of Callista Gingrich’s who took over the campaign after a staff exodus in June, was replaced last weekend by Vince Haley, who has worked for Gingrich for nine years and currently is deputy campaign manager and policy director. “We’re focusing exclusively on what it’ll take to win what...

This is what is being pushed today in conservative media. At first, I thought it was just me receiving emails urging me to begin rallying around Romney “for the good of the party” and “for the good of the country.” Apparently, I’m not alone, and apparently, Mark Levin is receiving such emails too. I thank those of you who sent me such emails, but I’ll give you my answer here, in the open: I have deleted your emails with extreme prejudice. (That means that I deleted them, then undeleted them, and deleted them AGAIN…just for fun.) I actually printed one...

Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP's newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul. Part of the reason for Santorum's surge is his own high level of popularity. 64% of voters see him favorably to only 22% with a negative one. But the other, and maybe more important, reason is that Republicans are significantly souring on both Romney and Gingrich. Romney's favorability is barely above water at 44/43, representing a 23 point...

The Iowa Republican Party will announce the official winner of its Jan. 3 caucuses on Thursday morning, and Rick Santorum is holding out hope that he’s eight-vote loss will suddenly become a win. But does it even matter? In a word, yes. But there’s also little reason to believe it would recast the Republican presidential race in any major way. With the official announcement set for 9:15 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, news that Santorum actually won the first-in-the-nation contest would surely be seized upon by the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign as proof of its momentum and to call into question...

Santorum came out swinging early in the debate putting Romney on the defensive about false ad his Super PAC is running:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- It's conventional wisdom in Republican circles here in South Carolina that if Mitt Romney wins the state's primary this Saturday -- having already won in Iowa and New Hampshire -- he'll be the GOP presidential nominee. "If for some reason he's not derailed here and Mitt Romney wins South Carolina -- no one's ever won all three -- I think it should be over," Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday. "That would be quite a testament to his ability as a candidate and a campaigner." But what if Romney did not actually win Iowa? That could change...

After a two day meeting at a ranch outside of Houston a group of 150 Christian leaders, business leaders and conservative activists have coalesced behind Rick Santorum. Friday night surrogates from every GOP campaign (except that of Jon Huntsman) attended the meeting and made the case for their candidate. Saturday leaders took part in a "passionate time" of discussions about what they're looking for in a conservative leader. After three rounds of balloting Santorum emerged as the candidate leaders feel they can support. (snip) So what does this mean? Expect conservative groups to start individually motivating their constituents to work...

After a two day meeting at a ranch outside of Houston a group of 150 Christian leaders, business leaders and conservative activists have coalesced behind Rick Santorum. Friday night surrogates from every GOP campaign (except that of Jon Huntsman) attended the meeting and made the case for their candidate. Saturday leaders took part in a "passionate time" of discussions about what they're looking for in a conservative leader. After three rounds of balloting Santorum emerged as the candidate leaders feel they can support. (snip) So what does this mean? Expect conservative groups to start individually motivating their constituents to work...

Levin is rather dismayed at a video that has emerged where Mitt Romney is not only misrepresenting capitalism, but saying that he isn’t a classical Republican when it comes to economics, which he also misrepresents. Levin says he just doesn’t know who Romney really is: I honestly do not know if Mitt Romney is a conservative or not! I honestly don’t know if he’s a free market conservative or not! He has evolved on every single major issue I can think of, and not over a course of time, but over a course of a few years. Pro-abortion, now pro-life....