Free Republic

I used to think Rubio embracing amnesty was terrible for Jeb. If Bush ran in 2016, I assumed, he’d run as a loud and proud fan of immigration reform, vowing to give the GOP’s wealthy business class all the cheap, legal labor it could handle. Rubio joining the Gang of Eight suddenly meant that there would be two candidates in the race who could fill that niche — and Rubio was younger, less likely to alienate conservatives, more likely to appeal to Latino voters, and unencumbered by “Bush” baggage. He out-Jebbed Jeb! In hindsight, though, Rubio going all in for...

The campaign to draft Dr. Ben Carson into a presidential run is clearly bigger than some flash in the pan and worthy of serious consideration, particularly given his showings in multiple polls. (Of course, I’ve been of the opinion for some time that he really doesn’t need that much coaxing and may well be enjoying the idea of needing to be teased into the fight.) One group which is most directly involved in the effort is Run Ben Run, which has already raised more than $12M toward the effort. But where is that money now? For the most part, it’s...

Potential Democratic presidential candidates and the Hawkish Republican hopeful were fare better among the Jewish electorate in the State of New York, then the sort of moderate Republicans, according to new poll conducted by the Siena Research. While in general, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren on the Democratic side, and Chris Christie, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush on the Republican side, are seen as the best choices for President, among Jewish voters, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are the most preferred candidates for president. According to the poll, if the elections were to be held today, 51 percent of registered...

By gum, he sounds like presidential material to me. Your move, Jeb. .@SonyPictures don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 18, 2014 More than 13,000 retweets as I write this. Clearly there’s a demand for countermeasures among an American public that doesn’t like the idea of foreigners, especially savages like the Kim cabal, holding veto power over their culture. (Too bad China, Kim’s chief patron, already sort of does.) Am I right, though, in thinking that no major Republican pol aside from Romney has said anything...

Jeb Bush may be top dog in the latest 2016 polls, but he’s woefully behind the rest of the GOP field when it comes to friends, likes and retweets. The former Florida governor took to social media Tuesday to announce that he will “actively explore the possibility of running” for president in 2016, tweeting a link to a statement on his Facebook page. Journalists and political junkies leapt at the news, but Facebook fans … not so much. As of early Tuesday afternoon, hours after Bush’s 10 a.m. announcement, his tweet had amassed 5,700 retweets and 2,200 favorites. On Facebook,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Bob in Nashua, New Hampshire, as we head back to the phones. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello. CALLER: Yeah, thanks, Rush. Yeah, this theme of the GOP establishment that the Tea Party and conservatives are the main enemy not the Dems, it's nothing new. It goes back, really, to the 2008 presidential election when the Republican establishment -- or at least many in the establishment -- sabotaged McCain-Palin. Because, to them, Palin was the bigger threat, the bigger enemy than the Democrats winning. You know, the funny thing is now more than six...

Mitt Romney has become the acid reflux candidate: He just keeps coming back up. There has been poll after poll, story after story and now, over the weekend, a “Ready for Romney” website emerged that may or may not be serious. (I am guessing “Masochists for Mitt” was already taken.) The Mitt boomlet is driven by three major forces: First, the belief that the potential Republican field for 2016 is so weak — even though you can find more than a dozen reasonably serious candidates in it — that Mitt will rise head and shoulders above it. It’s the Simon...

The most dishonest advertising in The Washington Post isn’t selling soap or shoes or automobiles. It doesn’t come phonier than this: “Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.” Rubin spent 2012 insisting that every conservative presidential contender was unelectable except Mitt Romney, who was neither conservative nor electable, as it turned out. Rubin’s still at it, as in her latest screed from Sunday, headlined “Senate passes spending, GOP still despises Ted Cruz: The cromnibus passes despite Ted Cruz's ego trip.” Which part of the GOP? The wing of the party...

Good question, but the question Jeb should be considering is how do you survive two tons of ROMNEYMANIA dropping square on your head. ‘Cause it’s comin’, son. No, seriously, with each passing day this sounds more like Huntsman II. But with lots, lots, lots more money involved. “I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’” Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he told Mr. Bush. In the past few weeks, Mr. Bush has moved toward a run for the White House. His family’s resistance...

For most of the past year, Mitt Romney supporters have publicly said he should consider running again. And for most of the past year, Romney has seemed uninterested. Until recently. While some people close to Romney insist he hasn’t moved from saying he has no plans to run, the 2012 Republican nominee has sounded at least open to the idea in recent conversations, according to more than a dozen people who’ve spoken with him in the past month. In his private musings, Romney has sounded less than upbeat about most of the potential candidates in the 2016 Republican field, according...

The Republican Party’s largest donors all seem to have the same idea. They’d like the 2016 presidential nomination race settled early on in the cycle. And, if you believe the reporting of the New York Times (and in this instance, it may be accurate), they’d like it to be one of the following three candidates: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or, wait for it, Mitt Romney. The conceit of the article is not crazy. If a critical mass of GOP fat cats gets together on a candidate, the odds will shift in favor of that person. But there’s a big problem...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: Apparently back then when Romney was thinking of putting [Chris Christie] on the ticket when he was running, when he was running, he discovered there were some problems, alright? Do you think he might use those problems against him next time? DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: Well, that opposition book is rather thick. If Romney doesn't use it, somebody else will. MATTHEWS: And therefore -- but I keep thinking Romney is going to be the nominee after all this is over. CORN: No. MATTHEWS: Look, I'm pretty good at this. CORN: No. No... He's not going to run....

Former Massachusetts Governor and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney is not yet ready to relinquish his title as the head of the pale-pastels establishment wing of the Republican Party to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. "A senior Republican who has met with Mitt Romney" tells Politico that Romney is telling donors on Wall Street "not to commit to a candidate that is not their first choice and that they aren’t excited about. He does not think much of the current field and does not think it is jelling. He still views himself as the leader of the establishment wing of...

We’ve had our issues with a lot of decisions made by this governor. But we do have to give him kudos for his positions on illegal immigration. In 2013, he resisted General Assembly efforts (led by Thom Tillis) to water down e-verify citizenship requirements for the state’s employers. Gov. Pat has made another wise move on the amnesty front by joining a 17-state coalition (led by Texas) challenging Barry’s executive order: […] McCrory’s press office issued a statement Wednesday announcing the legal challenge. “The president has exceeded the balance of power provisions clearly laid out in the U.S. Constitution and...

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. The source, who was at one of the meetings, said other attendees included developer Stephen Ross, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, and hedge funders Julian Robertson and Paul Singer. A...

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.

Mitt Romney may say he's not planning to make a third run for the White House, but according to a new CNN/ORC International poll, Republican voters aren't ready to give up on the idea just yet. While there is no clear frontrunner for the Republican ticket in 2016, most likely GOP voters say they would choose the former Massachusetts governor for the nomination, among 16 potential contenders. According to the survey, 20 percent of voters say Romney would be their first choice for the nominee, with retired neurosurgeon and conservative activist Ben Carson coming in second with 10 percent of...

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.

Just earlier this month, the midterm elections ended in a major drubbing. Republicans gained ground in the Senate, House and in Governor’s offices all over the nation. Now, just three weeks later, the first election polls are out, not for next year, but the year after. 2016. That, of course, the year voters select the next President of the United States. The poll might seem premature to some, but the two year mark is right around the time candidates start making their official announcements to run for office. It turns out, the top vote getter in the first Quinnipiac poll...

Past and perhaps future presidential hopeful Mitt Romney came to Chicago last night and, in blunt and sometimes surprisingly candid comments, acted like someone who probably won't run again but is leaving the door open in the apparent hope that his party might call. In a speech and question-and-answer session with the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, the man who lost to Chicago's Barack Obama in 2012 says he's "not planning" to seek the 2016 nomination—language that politicians frequently use to suggest they haven't decided but are keeping their options open. The former Massachusetts governor declined to elaborate,...