Free Republic

One of the things fellow Republicans and political observers have never liked about Mitt Romney is the wholesome piety he exhibits on the stump, while his hacks and PACs engage in some of the ugliest politics around. He can flash that plastic smile and pretend all he wants, but people know the cold fish doesn't shy away from the politics of personal destruction. If anything, his campaigns embrace it more than most, while feigning ignorance and pretending otherwise himself.This is why so many people in the GOP have come to dislike Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney backer and New Jersey Gov....

Mitt Romney told CNBC Wednesday that he’s happy to have a debate about private equity alleged role in killing American jobs — because President Obama also forced companies to shed jobs at car dealerships during the auto bailout. So it is somewhat ironic that Romney’s former firm, Bain & Company, was among the private consulting firms that advised the Obama auto bailout team. And what did Bain recommend? Cutting dealerships. Romney’s ties to Bain Capital and its predecessor firm Bain & Company have come under scrutiny in recent days as his GOP rivals accuse him of “vulture capitalism” that made...

Mitt Romney has been thought for months to have the New Hampshire primary in the bag. But one vote he didn't have locked up until Wednesday was that of Steve Rowe, a Vietnam-era veteran who spent much of the 1970s aboard the USS Saratoga, a US Navy supercarrier. Like a lot of New Hampshire residents, Rowe headed into the final week before the presidential primary still unsure whom to support. It was only the endorsement of another Navy vet -- US Senator John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee -- that moved Rowe into the Romney camp.Rowe showed up early...

Christie is leaving the door open. "If Gov. Romney comes to me and wants to have a talk about that, we'll have a full conversation about that and then Mary Pat and I will make that decision about what we want to do with our future," Christie said in a Fox News interview before Christmas. "But my view is, I think if you fast-forward the tape to a year from now, I think it's going to be President-elect Romney and some other VP-elect - and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey." Christie repeatedly has said he would not be...

According to the Quinnipiac Poll released Monday, Romney leads the field among Florida Republicans with 36 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 24 percent, then Rick Santorum at 16 percent. Behind them, Ron Paul has the support of 10 percent of Florida Republicans, Rick Perry has five and Jon Huntsman trails with two percent. The poll also found that 54 percent of Florida Republicans say they could change their minds in the coming weeks.

(CNSNews.com) - Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania won a plurality of votes from the Tea Party supporters who attended Tuesday night's Iowa caucuses, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won a plurality of those who say they oppose the Tea Party, according to an entrance poll published by CNN. Sixty-four percent of caucus-goers described themselves as Tea Party supporters, 10 percent described themselves as opponents of the Tea Party, and 24 percent said they were neutral about the Tea Party. Among Tea Party supporters, Santorum won 29 percent and Romney and Rep. Ron Paul tied for second with 19...

Not only does he blast Romney and Paul, but he goes after Ann Coulter and others for trying to destroy these other candidates in favor of their candidate. And he defends Santorum, Newt, and Perry against these attacks, but even more so he talks about the kind of candidate we want as president which is more important that the cherry picking of someone’s record that’s going on right now. This is an excellent monologue as Levin holds nothing back, replete with passion and much yelling of the truth. Just how I like it:

Santorum says Romney nomination "will destroy this country"

'A house divided against itself cannot stand," is attributed mainly to Newt Gingrich's and Barack Obama's favorite Republican, Abraham Lincoln, but its appeal to unity has been around since the Gospel of Mark. As is its habit, the Republican Party is trying to affirm this eternal truth one more time. Much as it benefits the incumbent president, there is little point in not admitting the obvious: The Republican divider is the party's front-runner, Mitt Romney. This is the one clear message delivered the past half year by the patient people of Iowa. Once all the other top-tier Republican presidential candidates...

... Mitt Romney set a new all-time record for the lowest winning share of the vote (for either party) in the Iowa caucuses - 25 percent [24.6%] - one point lower than Bob Dole's 26 percent level of support in 1996. That's well below the 31 percent tally that every previous Republican winner except for Dole had achieved... Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich both matched or surpassed the 13 percent level of support that John McCain on his way to winning the Republican nomination received in Iowa... Lastly, Romney failed to equal the 25.2 percent share of the vote that...

Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere 8 votes in Tuesday's caucuses - a margin that amounted to a tie in the crucial opening act in the 2012 presidential race and propelled the newly reshaped contest to New Hampshire and beyond... The final count, as reported by Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn showed Romney winning 30,015 votes to Santorum's 30,007 votes, or 24.6 percent to 24.5 percent. Paul finished with 21.4 percent.

Some are sanguine about the Mitt Romney's chances of wrapping up the nomination if he wins Iowa and New Hampshire—but Joe Scarborough's prediction in such case was sanguinary. On Morning Joe today, Scarborough predicted "there will be blood" among conservatives if they see Romney cruising to the nomination. View the video here.

Mitt Romney once again pitches himself as the presidential candidate best poised to effectively reform government, in a new ad set to run in Iowa. The 30-second spot, which features footage from a speech by the former Massachusetts governor, will run in the Hawkeye State ahead of the first-in-the-nation Jan. 3 caucuses. "I'm going to do something to government. I'm going to make it simpler and smaller and smarter, getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally making government itself more efficient," Romney says in the commercial, titled "Conservative Agenda."

LANCASTER, N.H. – Mitt Romney today said that the $40 many Americans would lose if the payroll tax holiday isn’t extended would make a “very substantial difference” to those who would be without it. “It’ll be the difference between having a meal that includes meat or just Hamburger Helper,” said Romney in an interview with ABC News’ John Berman aboard his new campaign bus in northern New Hampshire. “It could be the difference between being able to take your family to McDonald’s at the end of the week. It means the difference between being able to go to a movie...

Mitt Romney has a plan. A plan to solve the “immigration problem.” And it will come as no surprise to those following the GOP presidential debates that the answer of Romney — the former Governor of Massachusetts and father of the “individual mandate” — is more government. At last week’s debate, Romney announced his idea for dealing with the more than 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States in defiance of applicable federal and state laws. On stage in Sioux City, Romney laid out for Republicans his plan for a national identification card system to distinguish between...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leads the GOP field in Iowa according to a new poll, holding a double digit lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. In a new Rasmussen Reports poll, Gingrich holds 32 percent among likely caucus goers. Mitt Romney comes in with 19 percent and businessman Herman Cain holds 13 percent. Ron Paul received 10 percent support but no other candidate broke double digits. The poll also found that although 77 percent of respondents said they would vote for any GOP candidate who received the nomination, 32 percent said that they would consider a third-party candidate...

....Patrick, a Democrat, is a close friend and supporter of President Obama, and is expected to play a prominent role in his reelection campaign. “As you know, state law strictly prohibits you and your staff from using public resources for political campaign purposes,” reads a letter sent this afternoon by Matt Rhoades, Romney’s campaign manager. “Under state law, a public employee may not provide services to a candidate or campaign during his or her work hours.” “Nonetheless, it is evident that your office has become an opposition research arm of the Obama reelection campaign,” the letter added, citing Reilly’s comments...

Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe. Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel. Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, said the governor’s aides did nothing wrong.

Romney is No Conservative “We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.” “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers. Don’t give up your ideals, don’t compromise, don’t turn to expediency —...

Mitt’s GOP Plank – Talking Points Mitt Romney opposed the two most successful conservative policy efforts of the last 30 years… the Reagan policies of the 1980`s and the Contract With America of the 1990`s. I have always been impressed with any so-called ‘self-proclaimed conservative’ or ‘Republican’ who parrots discredited Keynesian economic thinking, believes in man-made climate change and embraces government ‘mandates’ and social engineering. There is nothing in Mitt Romney’s record that indicates that he is anything other than a liberal progressive Republican ‘masquerading’ as a palatable conservative. Mitt Romney represents everything that is wrong with the Republican Party...