Free Republic

Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie, in case you're wondering.I’ve said this before, in various places. But here’s Andrew Ferguson, saying it over at the Weekly Standard: Boy, that didn’t take long. Over the span of a few short days in late January and early February, three members of the top tier of Republican presidential candidates demonstrated why they’ll never be president. They didn’t do anything to disqualify themselves directly, just revealed the traits that will make them appear unsuitable to most voters by the time the campaign really heats up, say, when the presidential election is a mere...

It’s good to see conservatives have gotten back to letting the New York Times choose their nominees for them. The only silver lining to Mitt Romney being pushed out of the presidential race — temporarily, I hope — is that the media’s preferred GOP candidate, Jeb Bush, is catnip to the stupidest influence-seekers, so Wall Street will be wasting all kinds of money over the next few months. Then, Shemp Bush will declare and knock Jeb out of the running, only to be replaced by Zeppo Bush. I wouldn’t be putting a lot of money on another President Bush, unless...

"In “Believer: My 40 Years in Politics,” former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod writes that the GOP candidate implied on the call that Obama had won because of his popularity in black communities, according to the New York Daily News, which acquired an advance copy of the book. Obama was “unsmiling during the call, and slightly irritated when it was over,” according to Axelrod. “‘You really did a great job of getting out the vote in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee,’ in other words, black people. That’s what he thinks this was all about,” Obama said after he hung up...

President Obama was shocked and irritated by Mitt Romney's concession call in the 2012 presidential election - and claimed Romney insinuated that Obama won only by getting out the black vote, according to a new book by presidential campaign strategist David Axelrod. Obama was "unsmiling during the call, and slightly irritated when it was over," Axelrod writes. The president hung up and said Romney admitted he was surprised at his own loss, Axelrod wrote. "'You really did a great job of getting the vote out in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee,' in other words, black people,'" Obama said, paraphrasing Romney....

As the field of possible GOP contenders for the White House start to take shape, it is important to assess what Latino voters think about the potential presidential candidates, if they even know who they are, and how they can possibly position themselves to court the Latino vote. There is no question that Republicans will lose the White House again in 2016 if they repeat the mistakes of Mitt "I would veto the Dream Act" Romney and lose three-quarters of the Latino vote. GOP Chairman Reince Preibus has said future Republican candidates "must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," while...

The Friday afternoon following Mitt Romney's decision not to enter the 2016 campaign fray, my radio show was booked solid with journalists who, like me, were trying to read the "invisible ink" in Romney's announcement, which I had obtained and posted a few minutes before the 2012 nominee began his call with donors. Getting such a scoop was a fine thing for me, but 2016 not getting Romney's participation in the primaries is a disappointment to his legion of supporters and and every political journalist in the land who longs for an "open convention" in Cleveland in the summer of...

(CNN)—Here we won't go again. No Mitt Romney 3.0. No "third time's a charm." No invoking Ronald Reagan's two failed presidential campaigns. No 47%, car elevators or dog on the roof. No Bain Capital. No Olympics. The media can say goodbye to a plethora of story lines as it prepares to cover the 2016 presidential race. But other than mourning the (substantial) loss of some well-tread fodder, the announcement that Mitt Romney will not be running for president a third time does little to change the 2016 outlook for Republicans. There's still an establishment candidate in Jeb Bush, if he...

I have to make this a quickie as I have a ski date at Deer Valley this morning.I’ll have to turn my snowboard in for skis today, as they don’t allow ‘boarding at Deer Valley. That’s okay though, I’m ambidextrous.Then I have to scamper back to the mountain bunker to watch Tom Brady whup-up on the Seahawks (apologies in advance to Seahawks fans, if there are any) so he can pick up his 4th Super Bowl ring – because what can you do with just 3 when you have 5 fingers, on both hands?So, did my post title pique your...

A new poll suggests that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush stands to gain the most from Mitt Romney’s decision not to run for president for the third time. A Fox News poll released Thursday before Mr. Romney’s decision was announced found that Mr. Bush was the second choice of many who favored Mr. Romney, and would lead the field in his absence. Although Mr. Romney would have led the field with 21% of Republicans surveyed by Fox, the poll found that in his absence Mr. Bush rose to No. 1 spot with 15%, followed by Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee...

Former Florida Governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush reportedly “never forgave” Mitt Romney for moving to the right on illegal immigration, which was perhaps one of the only issues where Romney was somewhat in line with conservatives. Romney announced on Friday that he would not make a third run for the White House, and NBC’s Chuck Todd said Romney was Jeb Bush’s preferred candidate in 2007 before Romney flipped on immigration. Todd added that “some of the interest in the race was personal” Jeb Bush “never forgave” Romney for using “immigration as a wedge issue against McCain.”

In the race for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nomination, there can be only one… establishment candidate. When the news broke late Thursday night that David Kochel, a once loyal Mitt Romney aide who managed the former Massachusetts governor’s Iowa campaigns in 2008 and 2012, had jumped ship and joined former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s camp, it went off like a bomb. The hire signaled to many that Romney’s campaign-in-waiting was floundering and that it was acceptable for donors and former staffers alike to abandon the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. What’s more, by hiring the architect of Romney’s virtual tie...

Glenn Beck suspects that Mitt Romney bowing out of the 2016 presidential race might be the result of a secret deal between him and Jeb Bush, to avoid the risk of both of them attacking each other and fighting for the same supporters while someone like Ted Cruz can capitalize on a split vote like that. Remember that secret meeting Romney and Bush had this month? Well, Beck figured that was about both men admitting they would “kill each other” and could both lose to the race to a more conservative candidate. And Beck admitted it bothers him that Bush...

I’ve been emailed this text of remarks Mitt Romney will be making to his supporters shortly: Let me begin by letting you know who else is on this call, besides Ann and me. There are a large number of people who signed on to be leaders of our 2016 finance effort. In addition, state political leadership from several of the early primary states are on the line. And here in New York City, and on the phone, are people who have been helping me think through how to build a new team, as well as supporters from the past who...

Complete Headline: The Romney Statement: Not Running. “I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee.” I’ve been emailed this text of remarks Mitt Romney will be making to his supporters shortly: Let me begin by letting you know who else is on this call, besides Ann and me. There are a large number of people who signed on to be leaders of our 2016 finance effort. In addition, state political leadership from several of the early primary states are on the line. And here in New York City, and...

Mitt Romney plans to update supporters Friday about his plans for the 2016 campaign. The Republican Party's 2012 nominee will host a conference call with supporters at 11 a.m. EST, according to an email from Romney obtained by The Associated Press. Romney will tell staff members about his plans a few minutes earlier. The former governor of Massachusetts jumped back into the presidential discussion on Jan. 10, when he surprised a small group of former donors at a meeting in New York by telling them he was eyeing a third run for the White House. In the days since, Romney...

Mitt Romney will call senior donors at 11 a.m. ET Friday to give them “an update” on his campaign plans. Sources have told The Daily Beast that the former Massachusetts governor will announce his intention to explore a third run for the White House. Romney and his senior aides believe he is the best placed candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton. In a memo sent by Romney to his inner circle Thursday, he highlighted three reasons he should run: He thinks he’s the only qualified Republican in the field, polling is favorable to a win, and he thinks he can do...

Republican Mitt Romney is to give an update to his supporters on Friday on whether he should run for president a third time in 2016 amid signs he has yet to convince some financial backers as to why he should take the plunge again. A former staffer, who asked to remain unidentified, said a conference call with Romney was expected to be held at mid-morning on Friday, and that he might give a signal as to which way he was leaning. Romney for the past three weeks has been seeking traction for another presidential run after he was defeated by...

A little nudge from Team Jeb to remind the new and improved Romney that this race will be new in lots of ways, many of which he won’t like. Interesting timing. David Kochel, a Republican strategist based in Iowa who worked on both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns, is joining Jeb Bush’s political action committee as a senior strategist and is in line to serve as Mr. Bush’s national campaign manager… “I really believe Governor Bush is the right person for the right time,” he said. “He has a successful conservative record in Florida, and I’d put that record up...

How is it possible that a president can win re-election by a relatively comfortable margin while receiving fewer raw votes than his first election? Enter Mitt Romney. A simple data comparison is very telling. That comparison is the Romney raw vote vs. all votes for congressional Republicans in a given state. Crunching the numbers, Romney significantly underperformed the Republican congressional vote totals in multiple states. In North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin -- all presidential swing states -- Mitt Romney underperformed the total raw votes cast for all Republican congressional candidates by an average of 3 percent. That means that...

I can never tell if these cross-party endorsements are supposed to serve as an underhanded dig, designed to shy Republicans away from viable candidates, or if they've just become a form of trolling. This one, for example, is baffling, because Nancy Pelosi can only want Mitt Romney to run a third time in order to ensure a Hillary Clinton victory, but yet, she can't possibly be daft enough to think that Republicans would see her ringing endorsement of Mitt Romney - yes, Mitt Romney - as some sort of clue that he's the one Democrats most fear. Either way, it's...