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This is a surprising result from Public Policy Polling, the occasionally partisan group which nonetheless called the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races accurately. Mitt Romney’s favorable rating among Republican voters has fallen to 48 percent–a plurality, but a weak one. And the trend lines are even more interesting. Since April, when PPP started asking the question, Sarah Palin’s favorable number has moved from 76 percent to 75 percent; Mike Huckabee’s has moved from 67 percent to 65 percent. Romney, alone, has seen a statistically significant drop from 60 percent down to 48. The results are so strange that PPP’s...

Can Sarah Palin make a political comeback? Not everyone's convinced. With Palin mania set to sweep the nation anew tied to the release of her memoir, key voices in the Republican establishment are voicing skepticism about the former Alaska governor's ability to rebuild her national standing. On ABCNews.com's "Top Line" today, Dick Armey, the former House majority leader who now heads the grassroots antigovernment group FreedomWorks, expressed praise for Palin as a "self-made woman" with a proven ability to draw crowds. But Armey said she hasn't shown a commitment to doing the hard work of rehabilitating an image that took...

Does this woman, Sarah Palin, ever tell the truth? No. Sadly, those who’ve anointed her their Obamessiah on the Right are in such teen puppy love they can’t face facts. She’s been compared to “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” but as this makes clear, it’s far more like “Mrs. Palin Brings Washington Cronyism and Back Room Deals to Alaska.”

Mitt Romney is heading to Reagan country. The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak this Friday to the Young America's Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California. Romney is expected to be the dinner banquet speaker for the foundation's West Coast Leadership Conference, which consists of young conservatives from 44 colleges and universities across 12 states. "Young people provide much of the energy in the conservative movement, and if we are going to be successful as a party we need to harness that energy and put it work on behalf of the principles we all...

(snip) Although some in the party believe that it should be tilting right in whom to support in future elections, he said, "I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates, referencing former President Reagan. "He was the one who coined the term 'the big tent.' He also said that you don't build something by subtraction. So we welcome people who agree with us on most issues. Some will be very conservative on some issues. Some will be less so on others. We welcome you into the party." (snip) "We have a...

Whether or not anyone prefers to acknowledge it, Mitt Romney is already the default, de facto Republican presidential nominee in 2012 – and, too, he is already the clear loser. Health care, singularly, will guarantee Barack Obama a second term – even if he never actually achieves meaningful “reform,” or even if he manages reform but it ends up becoming a festering, hemorrhaging mess … like anything the government runs. Sure, the health care issue appears to be a political landmine for Obama right now, but he just can’t lose for winning, and there’s no area in which that rings...

In the early stages of the undeclared race for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney is the frontrunner. The former governor of Massachusetts has the best-developed national network of supporters of any of the potential candidates. He is the one doing the most party-building across the country; of his potential rivals, only Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty comes close. He is the one to whom other Republicans are most likely to turn for answers on economic policy, and on many issues he is the only one giving them. When the auto companies came to Washington only Romney had a plan (“Detroit...

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program. “Detroit needs to...

For weeks now, I've been pointing out with some regularity that while Sarah Palin is surging toward 1,000,000 fans on FaceBook--the second highest total for any American political figure behind only Obama--Mitt Romney has been stuck at about 70,000 for months. Depending on the news cycle and what she's up to, Palin gains between 1,000 and 10,000 fans per day and hasn't spent a dime to do it. Well, I guess this disparity has finally gotten under old Mitt Romney's skin because he's decided to do something about it. What something, you ask? The same thing he always does to...

At the 2009 Value Voters Summit this past week, Mitt Romney directly addressed President Barack Obama’s incomprehensible and fatally flawed decision, unprecedented in the American political tradition, to tax future generations. In an administration quickly marked for its wistful look to the past, Obama’s decision brought to mind 15th-century Russia. Is that why they call them czars? "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," Romney said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it is morally wrong." It poisoned this most auspicious and...

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. Romney appealed to attendees at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday, using a speech that drew heavily from his address to social conservatives at the same hotel earlier this year. "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," he said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it...

All of you former Right Up Front readers know of my undying affection and unyielding loyalty to Mitt Romney. Indeed, he is my first choice for the nomination in 2012. Now it looks like the Stormin' Mormon may be testing the waters for an encore run at the GOP knod. Politico's Jonathan Martin has the details. After a few stops in some early primary states and lavish fundraiser at a "trendy" Washington eatery, there are many reasons for any former Romney fan to be hopeful. And who better to go up against a now-obviously undisciplined current White House resident than...

While he remains publicly coy about the possibility of another White House bid, Mitt Romney has a calendar that tells a very different story. From returning to a key early primary state to delivering an address before a social conservative conference and reuniting with members of his campaign-in-waiting, Romney is scheduled to spend a good deal of his September in a fashion befitting a man very much interested in running for president. snip............................ On Saturday, Sept. 19, Romney will speak at the Values Voters Summit, an annual conference in the capital, put on by the Family Research Council, that frequently...

BOSTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Republican former U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is quietly raising millions of dollars as he prepares for the 2012 campaign, analysts say. Observers say that since he lost the GOP presidential primaries last year, the former Massachusetts governor has shown his usual competitiveness and discipline in keeping his presidential aspirations in play, The Boston Globe reported Sunday. "He lost a tough race," New Hampshire state Sen. Jeb Bradley, a Republican former member of the U.S. House, told the newspaper. "After that, Mitt could have done anything he wanted with his life: back to the non-profit...

Just before Thanksgiving last year, a group of former aides to Mitt Romney convened at his salmon-colored Belmont home, many of them gathering for the first time since Romney had disbanded his presidential campaign some nine months before. Romney had invited them for a post-mortem of the election weeks earlier, the type of dispassionate assessment that the Harvard Business School alumnus so enjoyed. But over cookies, they found few of the metrics for success that Romney prized -- Republicans had been decisively thumped at all levels -- and his attention shifted from 2008 to the future.

Dumb yet fascinating. Obama’s birth certificate won’t be an issue in the primaries (let’s hope) so how the big three rank is unimportant — unless Birtherism is actually a proxy for other political dynamics, in which case this becomes an interesting little data point. But if it’s a proxy, what’s it a proxy for? Level of education? Regional identification? Something else? My hunch is that the further right you go, the more Birther-y you get, not because you’re any more credulous on the merits of the birth-certificate argument but because the more adamant your opposition to Obama’s agenda, the more...

Mitt Romney’s political committee in July spent $187,000 maintaining an impressive political infrastructure, but it raised only $178,000 — its worst monthly haul of the year, and the first time the committee has spent more than it raised. To be sure, fundraising tends to slow in the summer particularly in off years — but, by comparison, in June, Romney’s political action committee, Free and Strong America PAC, raised $299,000, and in May it brought in $455,000. The July figures come courtesy of a report filed recently with the Federal Election Commission by the PAC, which finished last month with $833,000...

A new presidential poll has former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney the early favorite of the GOP pack in New Hampshire for the 2012 primary. Romney was the top pick of 50 percent of Granite State Republicans surveyed, while recently resigned Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tied former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a Fox News host, at tallied 17 percent each. Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fourth with 13 percent, while highly touted Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty garnered a paltry 3 percent. Romney narrowly lost the 2008 New Hampshire primary to Sen. John McCain.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the Republican presidential field in the home of the nation’s first primary, according to a new poll.

In recent months, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has hit the speaking circuit like a man determined to be president who knows he needs to get an early start. Last week brought news that Romney had secured a major publisher for his forthcoming book, “No Apology: The Case for America’s Greatness,” in which he stands bravely against all those who insist that the U.S. is a mediocre country that’s done more harm than good. Even before the recent Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford flameouts, Romney looked like the right’s favorite son for 2012. He’d garnered National Review’s 2008 endorsement as...

Likely 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney is publishing a book. The Republican former governor of Massachusetts has signed a deal with St. Martin’s Press to put the book out next March, The New York Times reports. The work will be titled “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness” and is currently set for 304 pages. It will read like a campaign platform, including Romney’s take on the economy, military and families, jobs, education, health care, energy and citizenship, The Times reports. St. Martin’s hasn’t revealed how much Romney will be paid. Perhaps Romney was trying to match former Alaska Gov....

By Joshua Livestro You all probably remember my good friend Michael van der Galien. He's the guy who wrote an 'ironic' post about the star qualities of Gov. Palin which led to a little back and forth between C4P and his site, Poligazette. In all seriousness, Michael actually is a good friend of mine. He may be wrong about one big thing (i.e. his blind, uncritical support for the Mittrosexual Man), but he is right about a lot of other things. If I'd have to pick a man to stand next to me in the trenches to defend life, liberty...

This says more about the downturn in The One’s approval ratings than it does about Mitt or Sarahcuda, but you know the Hot Air policy: You can never have too many 2012 polls. Just 21% of voters nationwide say Palin should run as an independent if she loses the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Sixty-three percent (63%) say the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee should not run as an independent. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. If Romney secured the GOP nomination and Palin chose to run as an independent candidate, Obama would win the resulting three-way race with 44%...

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. The president, seeking a second four-year term, beats another potential GOP rival, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by six points – 48% to 42%.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is leading Sarah Palin in the early fund-raising race among potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates, raking in a cool $1.6 million in the first six months of the year, new figures show. Romney, who raised more than any other Republican during his time in the 2008 primary, has continued his torrid pace, more than doubling the $733,000 raised by Palin since Jan. 1. Romney’s Free and Strong America political action committee raised a total of $1,610,019 since Jan. 1 while handing out $74,000 to federal and state GOP candidates nationwide. After expenses, the PAC was...

Within the margin of error, as these early polls of Republican frontrunners always are. Interestingly, while Sarahcuda’s favorable rating among Republicans remains dramatically higher than either Mitt’s or Huck’s (partly due to the fact that she’s much better known), she can’t put any daylight between herself and them as a choice for the nomination. And then there’s this:

Early poll release this morning from Gallup on who is leading, but it's early...

One in four Republicans say Mitt Romney is their top choice for the 2012 presidential nomination -- giving him a slight lead over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. Of all the Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents polled, 26 percent favored Romney as the nominee while 21 percent preferred Palin. Nineteen percent favored former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 14 percent chose former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. While Palin trailed the former Massachusetts governor slightly in presidential preference, the majority of Republicans polled had a more favorable opinion of the Alaska governor than they did of...

Palin’s favorable rating stable after announcement of her resignation.

We all loved Sarah. She rescued the sinking McCain campaign, said all the right things and holds pretty much the same positions of most FReepers. They all love Obama. He rescued the sinking DNC, said all the right things and holds pretty much the same positions of most liberals. Dems, liberals and the MSM are condemned for their all consuming adoration, virtual blindness to any mistakes or faults and slobbering worship of the man. Yet when the same thing happens to Palin it turns into a virtue. Sarah was a real coup for conservatives. But when she announced her resignation...

Americans adore irresponsible, flashy celebrities. But they do not vote for them. Michael Jackson’s funeral crashed the Internet. Had he ever tried to run for dog-catcher, it would have been a very different story. Sarah Palin is about to experience the weight of this rule. Between her speeches and her book deal, she can reasonably hope to earn $10 million over the next two years. She’ll fly in private jets, sleep in sumptuous hotel suites, receive rhapsodic applause. Yet there will be no escaping another story line. Faced with exasperating criticism and the accumulating cares of public office—she quit to...

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other prominent party members who aspire to that role -- Govs. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, and Sen. John Ensign -- have stumbled or, in the case of Gov. Sanford, flamed out in spectacular fashion. Mitt Romney now looks by comparison...

Soon the Republican party will have no choice but to make Mitt Romney its leader. We've seen a suspiciously steady trickle of losers quietly exiting the ranks of 2012 hopefuls -- Bobby Jindal with his disastrous State of the Union rebuttal; John Ensign and Mark Sanford with their affairs; and most recently, Sarah Palin's bizarre resignation from the Alaska governorship. The only candidates left are Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty and Romney. If history is any guide, we should expect some foul disclosure out of the Huckabee camp any day now. You just can't get away with saying something like this...

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. But not Mitt Romney. For this unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential contender, it is hard to imagine how events could be moving more decisively in his favor in 2009. One can almost hear him wondering: Why didn't things break this way last year? Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other...

Many FReepers are skeptical of Romney's conservative credentials. They don't like his past positions on abortion, healthcare, and gay marriage. They feel his rightward shift on social issues to be less than sincere. Many conservatives are angered by the Left's attempts to character assassinate Palin thru silly ethics complaints. They have made Palin's administration and family into side shows. The ethics complaints have driven her to be $500,000 in debt. This situation might provide an opening for Romney to gain Palin's support. Romney could step in to pay off Palin's legal debt. He then could make a speech about how...

Sanford has committed sepuku on live TV. Ensign has discovered what goes on in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas. Palin is retiring from politics. Haley Barbour is a former lobbyist who runs the poorest state in the Union. Huckabee is a 5th stringer. John Thune is running for Vice President and we have no idea whether General Petraeus is a conservative or not. It looks like the only guy who can stop the Mitt Machine is Daniels. If you don't like Daniels, then Romney is the nominee by default in 2012.

The TEA Party movement is about kicking out the two-faced lying politicians who think more about gaining power than they do about defending our Liberty. Romney is just one more lying two-faced whore of a politician. Don't fall for his slick willie routine. He's a statist in love with socialism and government power. Don't make me start posting the videos and transcripts of his abortionist/socialist record. I have them archived and FR will be wall-to-wall Truth About Romney if he gets anywhere close to running for president. He needs to GET LOST!! DONT TREAD ON ME!!

....But there are a bevy of reasons that Romney would stand to perform well- and perhaps even win- in the race for the Republican nomination. Here are just five:Republicans Tend to Nominate People Who’ve Run for President Before. With the exception of George W. Bush, Republicans tend to favor candidates who’ve sought the nomination at least once before: John McCain (won in ‘08, lost in ‘00), Bob Dole (won in ‘96, lost in ‘80), George H.W. Bush ........

Maybe Mitt Romney should look warily over his shoulder, lest a political calamity befall him, too. Continuing President Obama's political good fortune, a growing list of possible Republican opponents in 2012 is falling by the wayside, often due to self-inflicted wounds.

At a time when Republicans desperately are searching for a unifying leader and message, and Democrats add to their ranks in Congress, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate is taking a no-excuses attitude toward his party. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney called on Republicans to "stand up" to President Obama and his policies on the economy, health care and energy, in a wide-ranging interview with FOX News. At a time when Republicans desperately are searching for a unifying leader and message, and Democrats add to their ranks in Congress, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate took...

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Huffington Post Endorses Mitt Romney By Videmus Omnia It appears the left is now trying to evolve from quoting anonymous Washington elitists, and is instead now quoting anonymous members of the "grassroots". In a piece titled "Grassroots Republicans Like Mitt Over Palin", HuffPo writer Jennifer Donahue lauds Mitt Romney: "In discussions with Republican men and women, something has replaced the head shaking of a few weeks ago. The have a reply now. And it has nothing to do with Sarah Palin saying if she runs she can beat Obama. It has nothing to do with her...

A friendly suggestion to former McCain campaign staffers. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Posted by Moe Lane (Profile) Wednesday, July 1st at 11:00AM EDT 14 Comments Background: Hot Air (Allahpundit), Hot Air (Ed Morrissey), The Weekly Standard, ConsiderThisNews (Pat Hynes), The Politico Since everybody else is piling on, let me add my own comment to the fray. If you were one of the people who participated in that Vanity Fair hit piece, and we find out your name, you will be a net drag on any national campaign for the rest of your professional career. Not because...

Mitt Romney says publicly he’s not considering another presidential campaign, most recently on Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” But many of his loyalists expect one and remain at the ready for 2012. When dozens of former Romney aides and advisers convened on the terrace of Charlie Spies’ fashionable Penn Quarter loft earlier this year on a warm February night, the purpose was ostensibly to help raise money for the Virginia state House race of Romney strategist Barbara Comstock. But Spies, formerly the Romney campaign’s CFO, wasn’t just hosting a $100 per-head fundraiser. He was also staging...

"The prevailing narrative today is that Romney has risen to the top of the 2012 Invisible Primary because he's the last man standing. True, Romney hasn't made any obvious mistakes. But his rising standing is a consequence of decisions he's made, and not just a result of the luck." "It's a credit to his communications team that he can appear on television once every two or three weeks and seem to be part of the dialog. When Romney has something to say, he'll find a venue to say it. On auto restructuring, on the Republican stimulus plan, on a free...

In another sign that he’s eying a second run for the presidency, Mitt Romney is planning a series of stops in Virginia next week to help Republican candidates running in the commonwealth’s off-year election. Virginia is one of a handful of states with competitive races this year, and one where Republican officials feel best about their prospects for victory. The former Massachusetts governor is the featured guest at the high-dollar gala next Friday prior to the Virginia GOP’s state convention in Richmond — one of the party’s chief fundraising events.

As he demonstrated in his 2008 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney is as variable as the New England weather. Still, Romney positively outdid himself last week. Speaking at a National Rifle Association forum, he blasted President Obama's healthcare plans - proposals that look a good deal like the Massachusetts coverage law Romney helped bring about. But it gets stranger still. "The best path to healthcare reform is to let the American people make their own decisions, not have those decisions forced on them by government," proclaimed the perpetual candidate. This even though Romney's most important contribution to the state's landmark law...

His support of Whitman could aid ambitions. BY SASHA ISSENBERG WASHINGTON - From a Lexington office complex, Mitt Romney's political action committee has ensured the former presidential candidate's omnipresence on cable news shows, Republican rally stages, and antistimulus T-shirts, the last available with a $50 contribution to his Free and Strong America PAC. But for the next year and a half, the center of Romney's political universe will shift west to Sacramento, where key parts of his operation have reassembled on behalf of Meg Whitman, a longtime friend and former business colleague who this month entered next year's Republican primary...