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The Republican nominating contest is shaping up like a great poker game. The former governor of Massachusetts is facing off with the current governor of Texas. The odds-makers are number-crunching the hands. The voters are laying down bets. And the future of America is the stake. Now, the word among the prestigious movers and shakers – both Republican and Democrat — is that Mitt Romney is holding the all-powerful electability card firmly in his delicate, city-slicker hand. Romney is seen as more temperate in his speaking mode, more sophisticated perhaps, certainly more urbane. Romney has spent nearly all of his...

BOSTON (AP) -- A day after they clashed at a GOP presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told conservatives in rival Mitt Romney's home state that their former governor sounds like a liberal. And without naming him directly, Perry said Romney has changed his position on Social Security. "Other candidates in this race have used words like `fraud' and compared it to a criminal enterprise," Perry said, referencing language Romney used in his book to discuss issues involving Social Security. "Under the media spotlight, they change their tune and they start sounding like liberals." Perry made the comments at a...

The Tampa Tribune posts a flier that the Mitt Romney campaign is distributing in Florida, attacking Rick Perry as "reckless and wrong on social security." The top of the flier has pictures of a smiling Romney and a surly-looking Perry, and reads: "Two candidates. Only one will protect what's important to you." Continue Reading "Rick Perry believes social security is a 'failure,'" the flier says, quoting the Texas governor's book. "Rick Perry believes Social Security is unconstitutional ... Rick Perry does not believe Social Security should exist ... How can we trust anyone who wants to kill Social Security?" Notably...

Aided by strong tea party support, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has surged in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, pushing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney into second place and significantly diminishing the once-rising star of Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney's loss is Rick Perry's gain in the 2012 Republican presidential race, as the Texas governor, a late starter in the wide-open Republican presidential field, is not only stealing support but also big-money backers from the former GOP front-runner. Just look at California. Four years ago, Mike Schroeder was California political director of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. This year, he dismisses Romney's second White House campaign as "disorganized." "A lot of the energy that was for Romney has gone to Perry this time around,'' said Schroeder, who has not formally endorsed a candidate. Former California assemblyman Scott...

It does not look like Rick Perry is going to be intimidated one bit by Mitt Romney or being on the national stage. Here is video of Texas Gov. Rick Perry being asked about criticism from Mitt Romney today that Romney has experience creating jobs in business while Perry does not. Perry blew Romney a kiss and said, “Give him my love” several times. He also explained that Romney is trying to compare “oranges to apples.” He said Romney’s record as Governor of Massachusetts should be compared to Perry’s record as Governor of Texas.

Washington (CNN) - In a surprise move, Senate Republicans decided not to remove Sen. Lisa Murkowski from her top position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday, according to several Republican senators who refused to explain their decision. Republicans had indicated as recently as Tuesday she was likely to lose her seniority on the committee as penalty for her write-in candidacy in Alaska. A GOP source in the room tells CNN, despite anger towards Murkowski, the conference decided not to even take up the question of the Senate Energy Committee post because "there was a sense that she's...

Former top Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson is a Washington Post columnist, and there is never a better time for right-leaning columnists to lean left than in the last weeks of an election season. (See George Will trashing Sen. George Allen in the last weeks of 2006.) His rant also may have granted Gerson a seat on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday. Gerson not only denounced Christine O'Donnell as a wacky candidate like Alan Keyes, he denounced "the childish political thought of the Tea Party." He insisted conservatives were like Bolsheviks. Bloggers like Michelle Malkin and talk show hosts like...

Karl Rove – the top GOP strategist who declared last week that Christine O’Donnell’s surprise victory does “little good” for the party – is now calling on the surprise Senate nominee to explain her comments about witchcraft. "In southern Delaware where there are a lot of churchgoing people, they're going to want to know what that is all about,” the former aide to President George W. Bush told "Fox News Sunday." “My view is she can’t simply ignore it,” he said. “She’s got to deal with it and explain it and put it in its most sympathetic light and move...

By pulling off arguably the biggest upset of the primary election season Tuesday, Christine O'Donnell shocked the Republican establishment and political pundits who didn’t think her campaign for the Delaware GOP Senate nomination had a chance. But none were more surprised then the staffers who worked for O’Donnell in 2008, when she made the second of two prior unsuccessful bids for the Senate. Continue Reading Text Size * - * + * reset Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com Listen VIDEO: O'Donnell on media Latest on POLITICO * Dean: 'I actually approve' of tea party * Pelosi keeps losing...

Karl Rove just might be too smart by half. If HE trashes O’Donnel (and makes her a sympathetic figure) then the Democraps can’t do it later (and you know they would be using ALL of Rove’s stuff... but it would be very different coming from them) It is like this- if your opponent knows you cheated on your wife and is prepared to floor you with it at a debate- you start your debate by saying “Yes, I cheated on my wife, but at least I am not as bad as my opponent who created the housing melt down...”

Neil Cavuto just teased: Is Christine O'Donnell the next Marco Rubio? Karl Rove will be here to analyze? FAIR & BALANCED.

For more than a year, Sarah Palin has been one of the most famous political and cultural figures in the country. Even by that standard, though, last week was an extraordinary one. On Thursday came word that the former Alaska governor was working on a TV series about her home state, currently being pitched by one of television's top producers. A day before that, her publishers announced she was embarking on a second book, a follow-up to her blockbuster "Going Rogue." And a day before THAT, she was the prize guest on Jay Leno's second day back as host of...