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As the GOP nomination process drags on, odds against Republicans seem to be increasing: Voter turnout has dropped, and independents are fleeing Mitt Romney. Turns out, however, that the lengthy contest is just what the former GOP head sought in the first place. "I wanted a brokered convention," Michael Steele tells Mother Jones. It was "one of my goals" in rearranging the Republican nomination process: Steele hoped his party could emulate the excitement of the Democrats' 2008 primary battle.

Virginia Board of Elections: No write-ins! By Charlie Spiering Commentary Staff Writer Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (L) and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Are you a Santorum or Gingrich fan? The Virginia ballot tomorrow does not permit write-in votes for a candidate of your choice. In fact, you will only have two choices for president tomorrow. Ron Paul or Mitt Romney. Here is the statement from the Virginia Board of Elections: ATTENTION: PERSONS VOTING IN THE 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Virginia election law (§ 24.2-529) does not permit write-in votes...

First of all, RIP Andrew Breitbart, you will not be easily replaced. In your honor I have written the following.

There’s a tiny priest living in Rick Santorum’s trim, toned body, struggling to get out. The rogue priest escaped Sunday and said foolish things. The candidate most admired for plain speech made it plain and clear that he doesn’t believe in the wall between church and state and doesn’t think much of John F. Kennedy for saying he did. “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he told ABC News. “The idea that church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives...

Somebody has a decision to make.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination on Sunday, saying he is the most electable candidate in the field. “He’s the man that can carry the day,” Mrs. Brewer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

By hiring former Rep. Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.), a supporter of Mitt Romney, to head its lobbying team, Google is hedging its bets on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. The Internet giant already has close connections with the Obama administration. Company Chairman Eric Schmidt advised Obama during his 2008 campaign and is a frequent guest at the White House. Google employees are the third biggest contributors to Obama's re-election campaign, according to campaign finance data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. But with so much at stake in legislation and policy, Google wants to be on good terms...

Full-blown RINO. Via Politico: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Thursday that he found it “troubling” that the 2012 presidential candidates are “appealing to people’s fears and emotion” on the campaign trail, according to reports. Bush expressed concern about the type of rhetoric that the candidates were using, without getting specific or naming names. “I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the top choice of Republicans if the party nominates its presidential candidate at a "brokered" convention this summer, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday. Mr. Christie is favored by 32 percent of Republicans, followed by former Govs. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Jeb Bush of Florida with 20 percent each, the poll found. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is fourth at 15 percent. Some conservatives are contemplating a so-called brokered Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August, in which none of the current candidates would have gained enough delegates to win...

Mitt Romney isn't singing anymore. A little more than two weeks after his off-key but enthusiastic renditions of "America the Beautiful" captured the spirit of a candidate who had won the Florida primary and seemed on the verge of locking down the Republican nomination for president, Romney is back in lackluster mode. It's not just that Romney is facing a surprising challenge in his native state of Michigan from Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who vaulted into contention in the state-by-state nomination battle with wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. What alarms many Republican Party leaders and strategists are...

[SNIP] I'm much prepared to break out of the Washington establishment model. ........WALLACE: You were listing to some of the states. And obviously, you know, it's not only big ideas. It's also political strategy. What does it mean to Mitt Romney if he were to lose his home state and an important swing state of Michigan? GINGRICH: Well, I'd be curious what their rationales would be. Here' the guy who's been running for six years, put in $40 million of his own money last time, has outspent all the rest of us I think by three or four to one...

John Hinderaker encapsulates an assumption which has started to take hold among many of Mitt Romney’s backers: that the fault for what appears to be an increasingly likely 2012 election loss lies with conservatives for making this a real primary. Speaking of the see-saw of not-Romney candidates, he writes: The same pattern has been repeated more than once during the current, discouraging presidential nominating process. If the GOP loses this year’s presidential contest, the party will have no one to blame but its own activists. I'm hearing this meme repeated by many increasingly dejected Romney supporters around Washington, D.C. See,...

Oh my gosh! I am so very mad I am still shaking. I called the RNC today to get the definitive answer on the Florida delegate count. I was transferred to a young man named Josh and what ensued was the most infuriating, while enlightening, conversation that I have had in a long while. I first asked my question about the delegates. His convoluted answer was basically that they couldn't impose two punishments, so the one punishment imposed was taking away half of their delegates. I asked him about that rule, was that in writing somewhere. He then proceeded to...

Mitt Romney says it's been a good night for Rick Santorum, but that he still expects to become the Republican nominee for president. After losses to Santorum in Missouri's non-binding primary and the Minnesota caucuses -- where he is in third place -- Romney is congratulating the former Pennsylvania senator but continuing to focus on President Barack Obama. Despite Tuesday's setbacks, Romney says he is ready to lead the Republican Party and is happy to compare his record on leadership to Obama's.

To date, the Republican presidential primary race has been the only place to have generated any useful contributions to America's collective understanding of current events in the Middle East. Last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became the first major political figure in more than a generation to pour cold water over the Palestinian myth of indigenous peoplehood by stating the truth, that the Palestinians are an "invented people." As Gingrich explained, their invention came in response to Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement. Since they were created somewhere around 1920, the Palestinians' main purpose has not been...

In the spring of 2011, Donald Trump threatened to start a revolution within the Republican Party, appealing to the naive among Tea Partiers by promising to take on President Obama as no one else could. All too many members of the conservative media, including even some highly reputable ones, took his nonsense seriously.

Allen West has decided to switch to the newly proposed 18th district in Florida for reelection. Here is his statement below: “After much prayer, reflection and discussion with my close friends and family, I am announcing today my decision to seek reelection in Florida’s proposed 18th Congressional district. I have always believed the state of Florida would be best served by having both Congressman Tom Rooney and myself in the House of Representatives working to solve our nation’s most pressing problems. I have never waivered from my vision; to work to create jobs, restrain federal government spending, reduce America’s ever...

January 31, 2012 The Florida Smear Campaign Mitt Romney’s Fraudulent Attacks on Newt Gingrich. Thomas Sowell. The Republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to try to keep Newt Gingrich from becoming the party’s nominee for president of the United States — and some are not letting the facts get in their way. Among the claims going out through the mass media in Florida, on the eve of that state’s primary election, is that Newt Gingrich “resigned in disgrace” as speaker of the House of Representatives as a result of unethical conduct involving the diversion of tax-exempt money. Mitt...

Matt Strawn, the Iowa GOP chairman who has been embroiled in controversy since the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus results, is resigning, he announced Tuesday. “It is only because the Iowa GOP has returned as a strong and relevant voice in Iowa politics that I am now able to evaluate all the competing priorities in my personal, business and political life. The party is strong and has the resources in place for victory in November,” Strawn said in a statement. “Now is the time to transition to new leadership.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72214.html#ixzz1l4EjaGAF

No, it’s not your imagination. Things are uglier than ever in the Sunshine State. A staggering 92 percent of the political ads run in Florida over the last week of the campaign have been negative. “For as long as I’ve been in politics, 14 years, journalists call me and ask if this is the most negative election ad atmosphere I've ever seen,” says Kenneth Goldstein, president of Kantar Media CMAG, which tracks content and targeting of political advertising. “And every year I say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’" “But this year it's true. This primary season is the most negative it's ever...