Free Republic

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have much in common. Both were pragmatic as governors, mild-mannered as candidates and more comfortable balancing budgets at their desks than clinking glasses at a political dinner. The two Republican leaders’ personal rapport is cordial. But they are hardly chummy — and at moments their relationship has been strained, with each man’s intertwined political network carrying some grievances with the other’s. As Bush, 61, and Romney, 67, explore presidential campaigns in 2016, they are like boxers warming up for what could become a brutal bout, sizing each other up and mulling whether or when to...

Jeb Bush’s moves to attract supporters and donors this week put the 2016 race for the White House into sharper focus earlier in the new year than other presidential hopefuls probably anticipated. One apparent result: Mitt Romney, the Republican standard-bearer in 2012, told a group of donors Friday that he is “seriously considering” a third try for the White House after all. Romney continues to lead in polls that include him in the GOP field. With casual but succinct Instagram videos shot on a New York street and posted Tuesday on his Facebook page — one in English, one in...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2015/01/10/straw-poll-predictions/21576395/

In a move that surprised his most loyal supporters and former staff, Mitt Romney told several donors Friday he is seriously considering a third run for the White House… “Mitt has been a terrific leader for the Republican Party, but if he runs again, he’ll have to earn it again,” said veteran Republican operative Phil Musser, a former Romney supporter. His firm is already handling preliminary campaign work for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but Musser says he has not committed to a candidate… “Jeb Bush forced everyone’s hand,” said Barney Keller, a Republican strategist. “If he’s serious, Romney needs...

A tidbit buried at the end of a Romney adviser’s longish rationalization of why Mitt Romney may yet again run for the GOP’s nomination suggests Romney does not think Jeb Bush has what it takes to win the GOP nomination. BuzzFeed reports: According to one former adviser, the biggest political question Romney will be considering as he makes his decision is whether Bush will be able to make it to the general election. “Look, Jeb’s a good guy. I think the governor likes Jeb,” the adviser said. “But Jeb is Common Core, Jeb is immigration, Jeb has been talking about...

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Mitt Romney told Republican donors he may pursue another presidential run at a meeting in New York. The Washington Post writes: Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential campaign in 2016, according to a source present at the meeting. Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign. The former Massachusetts governor held a...

Romney tells donors he is considering 2016 campaign Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential campaign in 2016, ... “I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines ... Zwick said.... Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign. The former Massachusetts governor held a lengthy meeting on Friday with about 30 major...

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said that the president was bothered “a ton” by the thought of Mitt Romney winning the presidency and reaping credit for Obama’s perceived economic successes, saying that it could’ve been a massive setback for left-wing economic policy. Pfeiffer was speaking with the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and Jennifer Bendery. “The thing that worried him most about losing was the idea that he would lose, Romney would come in, the economy would now do what it’s doing, because it’s on a trajectory –” Pfeiffer began, “and all the credit would go to Romney,” Stein interjected....

Happy new year! Welcome to the start of the presidential campaign marathon. For your consideration are five likely candidates, each representing a distinct segment of the U.S. political spectrum. Republicans have three probable candidates. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would represent the business conservative wing of the GOP -- Pew Research estimates this is 12 percent of likely voters. Bush would be the favorite of the big GOP spenders, the one percent that favors capitalism over democracy. Jeb's strengths are national name recognition, personable manner, Hispanic spouse, and reputation for moderation on social issues. His weaknesses: high unfavorability ratings and...

In a Wednesday post, Hot Air reported on something a friend of Mitt Romney said about the 2012 presidential candidate’s desire to enter the 2016 race. It seems that if it looks like Jeb Bush is the frontrunner, Romney will sit the next race out. However, if Ted Cruz is on his way to the nomination, Romney will enter the race to save the Republican Party and the country from the conservative firebrand. One of the many raps against Cruz is that, while he is the favorite of the conservative, tea party base, he lacks the ability to reach out...

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney is eyeing a third run for the White House and will get in the race in the coming months if he doesn't like how the GOP field is looking, his longtime friend Kem Gardner said Monday. "I know exactly what Mitt's going to do," Gardner, a real estate developer who helped bring Romney to Utah to lead the 2002 Winter Olympics, told KSL News. "I think over the next few months, a lot of things will happen." But Spencer Zwick, who raised $1 billion for Romney's 2012 campaign, said the decision is a personal...

The TEA Party divided the GOP for six years. It was destructive and a failure to negotiate much needed legislation throughout the 112th and 113th Congress. TEA Party goals are destructive rather than constructive. Congress’ poor favorability rating can be attributed directly to the party within a party which is supported by the most wealthy Americans such as the Koch brothers. In 2008 the TEA Party was making plans for a presidential bid in 2016; they will fail. Although politicians may be extremists, the majority of Americans are more centrist. The TEA Party made a splash in 2008 and again...

To the surprise of no one who has been following the will-he-or-won’t-he back-and-forth of the past few weeks, it looks he will. Jeb Bush is running for president. Okay, he’s not running; he’s just “actively exploring” running. And Napoleon was “actively exploring” invading Russia. Let us conservatives hope, then, that Jeb doesn’t meet his own Waterloo in 2016. The real surprise is that, almost before the pixels have dried on the pundits’ computer screen, Jeb Bush has moved to the head of the pack of presidential hopefuls, leading runner-up Christie by a full ten points according to a CNN poll....

I told you last night, there was only one way for this year to end on Hot Air. May one word ring in your ears as the ball drops, my friends: Romneymentum.Hopefully you’re all already liquored up sufficiently to dull the pain. “I know exactly what Mitt’s going to do,” [Ken] Gardner, a real estate developer who helped bring Romney to Utah to lead the 2002 Winter Olympics, told the Deseret News. “I think over the next few months, a lot of things will happen.”…“If it’s Ted Cruz that’s the candidate, he’s in. If it’s Jeb Bush, he’s probably not,”...

Mitt Romney is eyeing a third run for the White House and will get in the race in the coming months if he doesn't like how the GOP field is looking, his longtime friend Kem Gardner said Monday. "I know exactly what Mitt's going to do," Gardner, a real estate developer who helped bring Romney to Utah to lead the 2002 Winter Olympics, told the Deseret News. "I think over the next few months, a lot of things will happen." But Spencer Zwick, who raised $1 billion for Romney's 2012 campaign, said the decision is a personal one for Romney...

Welcome 2015! It’s going to be an important political year with the Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate and the approaching open 2016 presidential election. The GOP’s extensive field includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Mike Pence of Indiana and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal. While Cruz is no favorite of the D.C. 
establishment, his political backbone in working to stop the Obama agenda will be an advantage. Unlike Speaker John Boehner, Cruz embraces November’s message that Americans overwhelmingly reject Obama’s policies, including amnesty. Paul should be...

Since forming a presidential exploratory committee earlier this month, Jeb Bush is being considered a serious Republican candidate for president. But as George Will astutely pointed out last week, Bush has two significant hurdles; his support for Common Core and immigration reform. Will correctly points out that his support for the latter is far more nuanced than people understand. Bush does not advocate for more immigration through family reunification, which is the agenda of radical immigration activists, but instead for meeting employment needs, and he supports a path to legal status instead of citizenship. However, his support for Common Core...

The Revenge President The men behind Obama took a calculated gamble in 2008 that the nation was ready for the first post-American president, a man with no meaningful cultural roots in the nation he would profess to lead. They relied on the intrinsic good-heartedness of the electorate to show their lack of prejudice in voting for a man with an exotic Arabic/Muslim name only seven years after the atrocity of Sept. 11. They counted on the innate good will of the American people, judged that the time was right for a black president, and then went out and found the...

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus reportedly told a donor that he blamed 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign for the candidate’s poor showing at the polls. The New York Times reports that a donor met Priebus during an RNC fundraiser in New York and told the chairman that the GOP’s intense primary season didn’t give Romney the time to pivot back toward the center after primaries, where he needed to appeal to the party’s more conservative base. But Priebus reportedly said that the problems ran deeper than the structure of the primaries, noting Romney’s widely reported comment that “47...