Free Republic

Mark Levin is now insisting that Romney reveal his plans on how he wants to replace Obamacare and fix the other entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, etc. He understand that there may be strategic reasons for keeping it quiet, but considering the fact that Romney is making some very liberal appointments to his team including his transition team appointment Mike Leavitt, a guy who has been pushing for health care exchanges in the states, Levin feels its high time for Romney to explain to the American people what we should expect from a Romney presidency in terms of repealing/replacing...

Not that there's anything wrong with that! Keynes' theories remain the essential guide to understanding recessions. The real news in Mitt Romney’s interview with Mark Halperin, as Charles Pierce points out, is that Romney openly repudiated the central argument his party has been making against President Obama for the last three years: that he spent too much money and therefore deepened the economic crisis. Indeed Romney himself had been making this very case as recently as a week ago (“he bailed out the public sector, gave billions of dollars to the companies of his friends, and added almost as much...

PHILADELPHIA -- Mitt Romney's aides soft-pedaled his latest tax pronouncements on Monday, insisting he wasn't tipping his hand when he told donors privately that he might seek to end the tax break for mortgages on second homes and curb other deductions for the wealthy as part of tax reform. "He was just discussing ideas that came up on the campaign trail," said former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri, a frequent campaign surrogate. The remarks, made at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida and overheard by reporters, did not mark any "change in policy," Talent said on a conference call with reporters....

A day before a campaign rally in Georgia, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum won a suburban Atlanta straw poll with 40-percent of the vote. The straw poll was conducted Saturday, Feb. 18 by the Coweta County GOP. Continue reading on Examiner.com Santorum wins straw poll in advance of Georgia rally - Atlanta Political Buzz | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-atlanta/santorum-wins-straw-poll-advance-of-georgia-rally#ixzz1mrzjmeiA

Although there is much talk among political observers about the possibility of a brokered GOP convention in Tampa, Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer is not buying it. "The last time we had a brokered convention was in the 1940’s, and we’re four contests in that have awarded delegates," Mr. Spicer told me on Wednesday. "We are four weeks and four states into a process. I get that it’s the buzz, but I literally spend as much time worrying if some space alien attack happens."

As his formidable campaign marches inexorably toward the nomination, Mitt Romney should learn a vital lesson from the guy who beat him in his first race for public office: Sen. Ted Kennedy. In 1980, Teddy lost his own bid for the presidency because he couldn’t answer a simple question about why he wanted the job. Like Kennedy, Romney could undermine his confident drive to unseat a stumbling incumbent unless he prepares clear, concise, and forceful responses on what he means to do with the office he seeks. Near the end of the disastrous Jimmy Carter administration, most analysts expected an...

He’s too handsome, too rich, and too pompous to win the hearts of ordinary Americans.Republicans are doing something quite strange at the moment. They are in the process of choosing a candidate whom hardly any of them actually likes. Though Mitt Romney won the Florida primary handily yesterday, rumbles of dissatisfaction with him continue.* Romney isn’t so much winning the Republican nomination as having it default to him for lack of any compelling alternative. The case for voting for Romney goes as follows: Of the Republican presidential candidates, he is the only one with any real chance of defeating President...

(CNN) - Mitt Romney's campaign released a blistering new Florida television ad against Newt Gingrich on Monday, eight days before the Sunshine State's presidential primary. "If Newt wins, this guy would be very happy," the ad's narrator says, as a photo of a smiling President Barack Obama appears on screen. The 30-second commercial, "Florida Families," is set to air statewide in Florida. In a part of the country that saw large amounts of home foreclosures, the ad particularly strikes Gingrich over his time as a consultant at mortgage giant Freddie Mac. "While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis,...

GOP front-runner Mitt Romney struck an especially low blow at Newt Gingrich in South Carolina Tuesday: He compared the former speaker to Al Gore. Speaking at a rally at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., the GOP front-runner derided Mr. Gingrich’s claim during a debate Monday night that he had a hand in the creation of millions of jobs during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Mr. Romney noted that Mr. Gingrich was only in his second term in the House when Mr. Reagan became president, and argued that the private sector, not government, is responsible for job creation.

If you were trying to come up with the atrocious candidate imaginable to go toe-to-toe with Barack Obama in 2012, you couldn't do much worse than Mitt Romney. He was an unpopular, moderate Governor who has lost 2 out of the 3 major elections he's run in and whose signature issue, Romneycare, was an enormous failure. Moreover, he's so uninspiring that he makes Bob Dole look like Ronald Reagan and that's before you consider that his incessant flip-flopping that makes it impossible to really know where he stands on any issue. Romney's candidacy also runs counter to almost every political...

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...

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...

Some foreign policy experts who joined Mitt Romney's campaign have lobbying and business backgrounds that could shape the advice they give to the Republican presidential candidate. Their interests include lobbying against cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan and ties to defense companies with government contracts for cybersecurity, Navy shipbuilding and ballistic missile interceptors — all issues that Romney has cited in recent ... Former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, named last week as a special adviser to Romney on foreign policy, lobbied this year for the Council on Pakistan Relations, a U.S.-based support group trying to stave off reduced economic aid...

Early and volatile, the Republican Presidential nomination race—at least for now—appears to be settling into a contest between consistent front runner Mitt Romney, and the latest surging, “non-Romney alternative”, former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately the CNN/Heritage Foundation/American Enterprise televised debate of last week did not highlight the yawning gap between these front running contenders’ views on the existential threat doctrine of our Islamic enemies: jihad and its motivational, sacralized religio-political “law”, Sharia. During an interview with US News reporter Dan Gligoff published June 3, 2009, Mitt Romney offered the following bizarre observation about the living Islamic institution of jihad,...

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...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

Back On Top: Mitt Surges Ahead In New Poll As Half Of GOP Think He Will Be The Nominee By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 13th November 2011 Mitt Romney has a growing lead in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination with almost half of the party's voters expect him to be the nominee. Twenty-eight per cent of Republicans backed the former Massachusetts governor, giving him a lead of eight percentage points over his nearest challenger Herman Cain in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken November 10-11. Romney was five percentage points ahead in a survey November 7-8. 'Most presidential': Almost half...

There are two, primary things that have fueled Mitt Romney's campaign -- his image as an economic guru and the idea that he's the most electable of the Republican nominees. But there are joint arguments that call the latter into question. First, there's the theoretical argument -- made today by Red State's Erick Erickson in a blistering, bruising post -- which claims that Romney is a certain loser against Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack...

It might have been Mitt Romney’s most revealing moment in all the Republican debates. Badgered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was continually interrupting him, Romney appealed to CNN moderator Anderson Cooper to reassert the rules of the debate: “Anderson?” That one-word plaint could stand for all of Romney’s straight-arrowness. It is a virtue and a curse. “Scandal” and “Romney” are two words you expect never to have to see in a sentence together. He’s every bit as upstanding as you would expect from a former Mormon bishop, a father of five and grandfather of 16. Romney is a familiar...