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<p>WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush, who’s seriously considering a 2016 presidential bid, has sprinted to the front of the Republican field in a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.</p> <p>Former GOP nominee Mitt Romney remains on top, with Bush, a former Florida governor, a close second. Take away Romney, and Bush leads the field.</p>

On her last Sunday as host of CNN's State of the Union, Candy Crowley received a fist bump from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who thanked her for a "job well done." "I just want to congratulate you," Schumer told Crowley. It's been an amazing 27 years. You're the best of the old-school journalism. You study it thoroughly. You ask the hard questions. You get the answers. And there's no gimmicks or anything else."

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, George Will -- this was during the roundtable discussion, George Will discussing Mitt Romney. WILL: It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology. RUSH: Did you hear that? George Will characterizing Mitt Romney as the Republican Party's Michael Dukakis. Michael Dukakis, a Democrat loser running for office in 1988, one of the most famous things that Dukakis did was he...

Over the last several months, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has been giving speeches, campaigning for candidates, appearing at public forums, and meeting with wealthy donors, which has led many people to believe that he may soon enter the race to become the next Republican presidential nominee. On Dec. 1, Bush told a gathering of business leaders at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington that he would make a decision about his political future “in short order.” But Bush’s recent business ventures reveal that he shares a number of liabilities with the last nominee, Mitt Romney, whose career in private equity...

Link Only http://www.sltrib.com/home/1935667-155/news-roundup-jeb-bush-may-have

In mid-November, conservative news outlets posted multiple videos of Jonathan Gruber, an MIT health economist who worked on Romneycare and Obamacare, crediting the "stupidity" of American voters as one reason that the health law passed. The videos were not flattering for Gruber; Democrats have moved quickly to distance themselves. And, perhaps more consequentially, they have breathed new life into the Obamacare opposition effort. Today, the House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing with Gruber titled "Examining Obamacare Transparency Failures." ... Here'a a quick guide to who Jonathan Gruber is, why he's at the center of this controversy, and what it...

Mitt Romney held meetings with donors in New York this week that left one attendee convinced he is running for president again in 2016. A member of Romney's inner circle who spoke to Business Insider said the former governor of Massachusetts traveled to New York City on Monday where he met with key financial backers of his past campaigns to lay the groundwork for a 2016 White House bid.

Former Massachusetts Governor and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney believes Republicans should "swallow hard" and pass a permanent amnesty bill in the wake of President Barack Obama's executive amnesty that even Romney conceded would encourage more illegal immigrants to enter the country.

Go out and vote today, I will. There are good folks to vote for in some cases. One in my case and I will write-in names for others. I hope Scott Walker wins today in Wisconsin because he should not be punished for demanding concessions from government employee unions and getting his state's fiscal house in order. I'm not endorsing Walker's back down regarding same sex marriage. I'm also not endorsing Walker for president in 2016 either. I wish my governor would have done the same in Pennsylvania, but it hasn't happened. Governor Tom Corbett raised gasoline taxes, agreed to...

Mitt Romney is keeping a very high profile this midterm-election season by campaigning coast to coast for Republicans, and two recent polls suggest why he might be encouraged to stay active in politics. Romney and his family say Mitt will not be running for president in 2016, but in August the two-time presidential candidate and 2012 GOP nominee made sure to add, “circumstances can change.” GOP strategist Mark McKinnon describes what what those changing circumstances could look like. “If Jeb Bush or Chris Christie do not run,” McKinnon tells National Review Online, “then one could make an argument for Mitt...

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Sunday that if Republicans win the U.S. Senate after Tuesday's election, they will send immigration reform legislation to the president's desk. "You'll see a provision first of all to secure the border, second of all to deal with those who have come here illegally and third [to] make sure our immigration policies are open and transparent," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday." "That's going to happen," Romney continued. "You're going to see a bill actually reach the desk of the president if we finally have someone besides Harry Reid sitting in...

Mitt Romney predicted on Sunday that a Republican Senate would break through congressional gridlock and pass legislation on immigration reform and trade. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee warned that President Barack Obama would move after Tuesday's midterm elections towards "amnesty" on immigration reform, a reference to the White House's decision to delay executive action on immigration until after the elections. But Romney said a Republican Congress would pass a more conservative immigration bill focused on border security that the president would sign. “You’re going to see a provision, first of all,...

Is it relevant that his favorable rating among the general public is 36/47? Or that 58 percent think he doesn’t care about their problems versus just 42 percent who think he does? Or that 52 percent believe he’d lose again to Hillary, with a mere 24 percent confident in Romney victory? Seventy-two percent of Republicans say he’s qualified to be president while independents split 49/30 in favor of those who agree. And yet, he trails Hillary 43/32 in a hypothetical 2016 match-up, with fully 13 percent saying they wouldn’t vote if given that choice. Sounds like just the sort of...

Looking for a personalized photo-related gag to pull for Halloween this year? Look no further than this head-in-a-jar prank. It’s quite easy to pull off and doesn’t require too much time or money. This idea is by Mike Warren, who regularly posts crazy project ideas to his Instructables account. The basic ingredients of the prank are a print of your face, a large glass jar (free of designs on the surface), and some food coloring. There’s one step that will take a bit of know-how: creating the print itself. You’ll need to photograph your head from three sides: left, head-on,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Real estate mogul and conservative provocateur Donald Trump has a concise, clear message for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney: You “blew it” in the last election, so don’t even try to run for president again. “No. I don’t think he should run. He had his chance and he blew it,” Trump told Breitbart News during a phone interview on Tuesday. “He had a great chance of winning. He should have won. That was an election that frankly should have been a much easier election than the probable 2016 candidate Hillary. That was an election that should have been won...

Hillary Clinton remains the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, while Mitt Romney barely leads against a scattered group of Republicans. Among registered voters, former Secretary of State Clinton leads the potential 2016 Democratic field, with 64 percent of the vote. She has a sizable lead on Vice President Joe Biden (13 percent) and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (11 percent), according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

That would be Mitt Romney, supported for the GOP nomination by 21 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That’s double the support of his closest potential rival, but it also leaves 79 percent who prefer one of 13 other possible candidates tested, or none of them. When Romney is excluded from the race, his supporters scatter, adding no clarity to the GOP free-for-all. In that scenario former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have 12 or 13 percent support from leaned Republicans who are registered to vote. All others have support in...

Here we go again. While most Republicans cringe at the very thought of another Mitt Romney campaign, for some reason Bill O’Reilly is sure he’s going to the nominee again, and Ann Coulter responds heartily, “I HOPE so!!!’

Well-known Wedding Crashers star John McCain seems excited that a sequel to comedy classic Dumb and Dumber is finally coming out this fall -- based on this hashtag and exclamation-point-dotted tweet he sent out Wednesday, at least. Fellow film star Mitt Romney has also seemed intent on getting everyone excited about Dumb and Dumber To. On his frequent media appearances -- sometimes it feels like Matthew McConaughey is the only person getting more attention than Romney! -- he is often prone to quoting Jim Carrey.

Former governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tells an Obama joke that is drawing roars of laughter from GOP audiences. Romney's story, which nails the president's weakness, involves golf champion Phil Mickelson and the grand slam tennis great Andre Agassi. As he tells it, Obama goes to a bank to cash a check, but without any ID on him. The teller says he can't cash it without identification, pointing out that Mickelson proved who he was by tapping a golf ball into a cup, and Agassi did it by belting a tennis ball into a tiny target. "Is...