Free Republic

WHAT'S THEIR PROBLEM WITH ROMNEY?February 22, 2012 As governor of one of the most liberal states in the union, Mitt Romney did something even Ronald Reagan didn't do as governor of California: He balanced the budget without raising taxes. Romney became deeply pro-life as governor of the aforementioned liberal state and vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill. (Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich lobbied President George W. Bush to allow embryonic stem cell research.) Romney's approach to illegal immigration in Massachusetts resembled what Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona is doing today, making her a right-wing heroine. Romney pushed the conservative alternative to...

Conservative columnist and Conservative Political Action Conference fan favorite Ann Coulter took to the stage at CPAC Friday afternoon to offer some comments about her frustrations with President Obama, her support for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the general unattractiveness of liberal women. In response to an audience question regarding how a person could be both a women and a conservative, Coulter explained that is what true women actually are. “I think all real females are right-wingers,” Coulter said, ” and I can tell you that based on experience — and my bodyguard will back me up on this —...

What's contorting right-wing heroine Ann Coulter? Could her unflagging devotion to Mitt Romney be as simple as a mid-life return to a sorority girl crush? Is the real Ann Coulter being held hostage at the Oasis Vineyard, and being impersonated by Michaele Salahi? Or is it possible that Ann doesn't really believe in anything. A successful female Stephen Colbert, saying and doing outrageous things that get attention and sell books. Just another publicity... enthusiast? The Salahi conspiracy makes the most sense to me.

If only the Democrats had decided to socialize the food industry or housing, Romneycare would probably still be viewed as a massive triumph for conservative free-market principles -- as it was at the time. It's not as if we had a beautifully functioning free market in health care until Gov. Mitt Romney came along and wrecked it by requiring that Massachusetts residents purchase their own health insurance. In 2007, when Romneycare became law, the federal government alone was already picking up the tab for 45.4 percent of all health care expenditures in the country. Until Obamacare, mandatory private health insurance...

I read Ann's latest column with a heavy heart. I came away with the unmistakable feeling that she has lost faith in the philosophy and movement she has been a firebrand for until now. And I think about how it happens that a person at the age of 50 becomes the very cheerleader for the status quo that she argued against these many years. I believe it is true that as we age we develop different thoughts about things, through experience, through people we meet, through having to be forced to take a position on something we cannot imagine when...