Free Republic

An Open Letter to Honest Conservatives who are still undecided: Since her botched introduction to the American People by the McCain campaign, it's been an incredible battle for Sarah Palin to get her message out through the fog of misinformation thrown out by the Obama-Loving media, and the RINO's looking after their own self-interests. Right from the start, operatives within the GOP working for McCain fed a hungry media with just the lies that they craved. What a coincidence, they were Romney operatives who'd joined the McCain team, but never stppoed working for Romney. They did immeasurable damage to her,...

As Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington struggled to find agreement on spending cuts and extending the debt limit, Mitt Romney struck a conciliatory note in New Hampshire on Monday by lamenting partisan feuding while touting his record of working with Democrats — even the Senate’s onetime liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy. [...] At both stops, Romney pointed to the warmth between former President Reagan and former Democratic House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill as an example of what is needed in the Capitol. “I worked with [former Massachusetts Sen.] Ted Kennedy, for Pete’s sakes,” Romney said in Concord, noting...

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...

In several threads recently at FR I have focused on the proposition that only the future candidacy of Sarah Palin has the potential to possibly derail Mitt Romney as he mounts a relentless campaign to win the GOP nomination next year and that indeed a Romney-Palin showdown is really inevitable. Now I would like to address why I believe it is in the best interest of Sarah Palin, Palinistas, conservatives, evangelicals, and Tea Party supporters to make that argument much sooner in the GOP primary process than it would be later in the process or not at all. Here are...

"Um, let me tell you in my view it is not a good idea to go into a contract like was organized by the Republican party in Washington laying out a whole series of things which the party said these are the things we are gonna do. I think that's a mistake. I think instead that if you wanna get something done in Washington you don't end up picking teams with Republicans on one side snd Democrats on the other entering into a contract and saying ok were all gonna do this and if course then that works then the...

Mitt Romney did a good job at Monday night’s Republican presidential debate. But not that good. The former Massachusetts governor used his previous presidential campaign experience to come across as polished and presidential in the debate. It helped that his opponents refused to go after him, preferring instead to play nice and criticize President Obama. It’s a lot easier to win a contest when the other side isn’t playing too hard. But Romney apparently let his good night go to his head. Like a smart candidate, Romney stayed in New Hampshire and did some retail campaigning on Tuesday. In the...

"Despite my affiliation with the Republican Party, I don't think of myself as highly partisan." -- Mitt Romney in his book No Apology And there it was again. Front and center in last night's CNN New Hampshire debate with Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney twice -- not once but twice -- illustrated his problem as a presidential candidate and potential Republican president in the post-Reagan era. Midway into the debate Romney answered a question on how to deal with the issue of raising the debt limit by saying that as president he would concentrate on "reining in...

"...We Mitt fans encourage you to check out this web page ----http ://www.freerepublic.com/ -unmarkedpackage / ------ that has been put together to inform others about Gov Romney's record (which has been unfairly distorted ). He governed extremely conservatively for a true blue place like Massachusetts . if he can do those things there , I think it bodes well for what he can accomplish in Washington. Please consider endorsing Mitt Romney and joining his campaign of excellence, optimism and progress for the future . It would be the best thing that ever happened to our country in a long time...

Ah, the travails of polling! Attempting to handicap a race when it hasn’t really started — and when the contestants haven’t yet entered the arena — is a tricky business. Reuters and Fox News team up this week to demonstrate just how tricky it can be. While Reuters declares Sarah Palin as the front-runner in its latest survey, Fox News scores her as an also-ran — as does Quinnipiac in a third poll this week.First, Reuters reports that Palin took a slight lead over Mitt Romney in their latest survey: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday afternoon finds Sarah Palin...

I'm told by two reliable sources that Rudy Giuliani intends to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. He may throw his hat in the ring soon. Rudy's theory of the race: In the fall of 2007, he decided he couldn't compete with both Mitt Romney and John McCain in New Hampshire, and disastrously decided to try to pull back there and pitch his tent in Florida. This year, he'll commit everything to New Hampshire, where he thinks he has a good shot at beating Romney—whom he criticized there earlier this week. He then thinks he can beat...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change. "I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. "It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors."

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Romney. How does that sound? Better than President Gingrich, President Pawlenty or even President Palin? You betcha. Why? Because for all his flip-flopping and lack of charisma, Mitt Romney is a serious person — an “adult” in today’s political parlance — with a real track record of accomplishment. This week, Romney actually showed what any serious Republican hopeful in the 2012 presidential election campaign needs to show: the beginnings of a backbone. It looks like Romney may have flipped his last flop on what is supposed to be the bane of his existence, the statewide health-care...

Has anybody else been told not to run for President, besides Palin, ever? Palin been told not to run by the media and by Conservatives. In the last 40 years, who else has been told they would be a better kingmaker?

On his first trip back to the nation's first voting state as a soon-to-be declared presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reaffirmed his support for federal ethanol subsidies -- an always important campaign issue in Iowa that figures to take on an even more central role in the divided GOP field. "I support the subsidy of ethanol," Romney told a potential voter after an event here was cut short by a fire alarm. "I believe ethanol is an important part of our energy solution in this country." Support for ethanol subsidies has long been considered a political necessity for...

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is emerging as the man to catch in the narrowing Republican presidential field, grabbing a clear head start in fundraising, organization and experience despite vulnerabilities that still might undo him. With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels becoming the latest respected Republican to forgo a candidacy, many party insiders say the field is largely set. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Olympic Games organizer, is in front. "It's Romney's to lose," said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign. He said Romney's biggest advantages are his personal wealth, fundraising know-how and experience as...

Mike Huckabee’s supporters might not rush to the side of Sarah Palin, despite the conventional wisdom that she’ll be the key beneficiary of his decision not to run for president next year. Both the former governor of Arkansas and former governor of Alaska are populist Republicans with strong evangelical credentials. Yet there are some significant differences between the two that suggest Huckabee supporters might not flock to Palin en masse. Style Palin’s and Huckabee’s rhetorical styles couldn’t be more different. Palin mocks her Democratic opponents; Huckabee tends to engage them and look for common ground. When first lady Michelle Obama...

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) healthcare speech drew quick support from fellow Bay State Sen. Scott Brown (R), who called Romney's defense of the state's healthcare plan "courageous." Brown, who's up for reelection in the typically Democratic state next fall, offered Romney political reinforcement following the former governor's highly anticipated healthcare speech on Thursday. "Governor Romney showed a lot of courage today by standing his ground on the reforms he put in place in Massachusetts," Brown said in a statement. "What he did as governor worked for Massachusetts by getting health insurance to more people."

"In a previous post, Elephant Watcher examined how Huckabee's starting position for the 2012 race differs from when he ran in 2008. It's worth conducting a similar analysis of the Romney campaign...."

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney offered a tepid defense of the Massachusetts health care law, suggesting to an audience last night at the Granite State’s first forum of the 2012 presidential campaign that he would sign it again if given the chance.

Donald Trump fired back at Karl Rove on Tuesday for labeling his possible White House bid a “joke,” saying the one-time senior adviser to President George W. Bush “should be ashamed of himself” for the role he played in pushing an agenda that turned voters against Republicans and paved the way for the Obama presidency. Mr. Trump, the billionaire real estate developer and reality-TV-show star still weighing a 2012 race, said in an interview that the Republican brand was so tarnished after the Bush-Rove years that even “Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have beaten” President Obama in the 2008 presidential race. “Honestly,...