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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama's decision to meet with the families of victims of the Colorado shooting was "the right thing." The Republican presidential candidate spoke to donors in San Francisco Sunday night at roughly the same time Obama consoled grieving families in Aurora, Colo.

(BOWLING GREEN, Ohio) -- Back in May, Mitt Romney was criticized for not immediately rebuking a woman at a town hall who said President Obama “should be tried for treason” with democrats saying he stood “silently” during attacks on the president. But Wednesday, during a town hall in the battleground state of Ohio, Romney didn’t miss a beat when one woman referred to Obama as a job-killing “monster.” The woman, who did not identify herself to the crowd more than saying she is an “angry mom,” was telling Romney about her son’s struggling business and said, “He’s had to lay...

Romney’s Palin Problem: Where’s Her Convention Invite? Jul 16, 2012 1:00 AM EDT Mitt still hasn’t invited Sarah to the GOP’s nomination assembly in Tampa, and the Tea Party is livid. Peter J. Boyer on how the snub could sabotage Romney’s tenuous ties to the grassroots—and why Palin is keeping the week open, just in case.

One of the few Republicans in the country who's been tirelessly pushing for the implementation of Obamacare at the state level has been tapped to head Mitt Romney's transition team, should he become president. Former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, and his consulting group Leavitt Partners, are the primary advocates within Republican circles for implementation of Obamacare's exchanges. It just so happens that his consultancy is one of the major beneficiaries of the taxpayer funded gold mine of hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange implementation grants. But that's a coincidence, of course.

In a sign that Mitt Romney's campaign team plans to adjust following growing criticism from fellow Republicans, CBS News has learned that Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden will soon be taking on a larger and more visible role within the campaign. Sources tell CBS News that Madden will be spending more time on the road with Romney and is likely to become a more public presence as a TV spokesperson for the candidate. He will hit the road with Romney next week, following Romney's New Hampshire vacation. This move to make Madden a more public face of the campaign...

Kevin Madden, a Republican communications expert with long ties to Mitt Romney, will become a more frequent and visible spokesman for the presidential campaign, a source close to the decision said on Friday. The increased responsibilities for Mr. Madden came in the wake of criticism from nervous Republicans about Mr. Romney’s campaign team. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the campaign “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb.”

Romney seems to have a "tin ear" when it comes to listening to conservative views. Since it is nearly impossible to mount a successful campaign against him now and come up with another viable candidate who can win in the November election, we need to be sure that our voices are heard and heeded by the Romney campaign. Question: Do conservatives have someone in Romney's inner circle who can influence him and make sure he sticks up for our values? Is there anyone from FreeRepublic who can represent us and our concerns on his team? How can we get a...

Rep. Allen West suggested late Monday that Mitt Romney re-evaluate his campaign advisers, hours after top Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom said on TV that the individual mandate of President Barack Obama’s health care law is not a tax. “It’s a tax,” the Florida Republican told Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. “I think that the governor probably needs to look at who he has within his circle of advisers, and probably get … them to provide the right type of counsel and advice.”

Mitch McConnell is in the headlines again for saying the odds are against those wanting repeal of Obamacare. “[I]t’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place,” he said in part. For once, let’s give McConnell the benefit of the doubt and suggest he is talking about the present Congress, not the next Congress, though in actual context he seems to mean both. Let’s be charitable. The truth is, I don’t expect Republicans in Congress to be fully committed to repeal next year even if they have Mitt Romney in the White...

It's becoming clear that Romney has decided to focus on the economy at the expense of everything else, even issues that could play to his political benefit. He's avoided criticizing the administration's handling of the botched Fast and Furious operation, even as it threatens to become a serious vulnerability for the president. He's been silent in responding to Obama's immigration executive order, not wanting to offend receptive Hispanics or appear like a flip-flopper. He appears more likely to tap a safe, bland running mate like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty who won't do him any...

July 3, 2012 Romney Campaign Declaring Cease Fire on Health Care Posted by Staff In the aftermath of the Supreme Court health care ruling, the early conventional wisdom was that an unfavorable health care ruling at the court would be good for Republicans politically, even as it was a serious policy setback for conservatives. But that's not shaping up to be the case. Mitt Romney, after giving a brief statement decrying the decision, has been virtually silent on criticizing the health care law. He's been on vacation and his campaign has been giving off clear signals that it doesn't want...

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday rejected a Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, repudiating a contention made in last week’s Supreme Court decision that the law’s requirement that individuals carry medical coverage amounts to a tax. The Romney team’s refusal to invoke the word “tax” with regard to the individual mandate puts the candidate at odds with others in his party at a moment when Republicans are attempting to capi­tal­ize on the Supreme Court’s decision, which deemed President Obama’s health-care law constitutional. Some Republican-led states are trying to thwart the legislation’s effort to cover the poor. In an...

While Congressional Republicans have seized on the Supreme Court’s ruling that President Obama’s health care overhaul is constitutional as a tax, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s top campaign strategist undercut that line of argument Monday, saying that the governor agrees with Mr. Obama that the law is not a tax. “The governor has consistently described the mandate in Massachusetts as a penalty,” Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr. Romney’s strategist, said on MSNBC. “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court; he agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia, which clearly states the mandate was not a tax.”

During her appearance on Fox News, Palin added that she expects presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to make good on his promise to repeal Obamacare if he elected in November. "First on the list of priorities must be repealing and replacing Obamacare with something that makes more sense," she said. Earlier that day Romney had slammed the Supreme Court ruling, re-affirming his promise to help repeal the health care law as president. "Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion. Obamacare cuts Medicare - cuts Medicare by approximately $500 billion. And even with those cuts and...

<p>Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the power to do just about anything it desires provided it's called a tax. It's hard not to notice that the Progressive march toward totalitarianism in America has a decidedly bipartisan feel. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the high court's majority opinion, is an appointee of "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush.</p>

Liberal political consultant James Carville sent a fundraising email to supporters of upstate New York congresswoman Louise Slaughter entitled “The Tea Party is Over.” In the email, Mr. Carville claimed the Tea Party isn’t entirely finished, but he said they can be eliminated by donating to “proud Democrats like Louise Slaughter.” “These Tea Party Republicans have worn out their welcome. But I’m telling you — getting rid of ‘em won’t be easy. They’re not leaving on their own. We’re going to have to boot them out the door like unwanted house guests,” Mr. Carville wrote. “That’s why we’ve got to...

Now that Mitt Romney has secured the GOP nomination, he is obviously free to be himself. His masquerade as a conservative is over as he has returned to many of the moderate to liberal stances he held as Governor of the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. He has also returned to being the polite politician who treats his Democratic opponents with respect. Mitt Romney only gets nasty against other Republicans. In the GOP primary, the Governor eviscerated his opponents with high priced, non-stop, hard hitting attacks. He is not employing the same tactics in his general election showdown against President Obama,...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday Mitt Romney blew it with the response to all the immigration rulings at the Supreme Court. And the Obama administration reaction to it. And the regime basically telling Arizona, "We don't care. We're gonna have spies tattling on you if you start stopping people," and so forth. Yesterday was a warning, I think. Yesterday was a red flag for the Romney team. Yesterday... And it's the first time in a long time. It's the first time I have thought this in a long time. The Romney team was not ready for primetime on this illegal...

In Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the federal government has no basis to nullify the "show me your papers" provision of Arizona's immigration law. Conservatives Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, moderate Anthony Kennedy, liberals Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- even Obama appointee Sonia Sotomayor -- all shot down the administration's effort to stop that part of the law. (Obama appointee Elena Kagan stayed out of it because she had taken part in the action as a member of the administration.) Yet even with that unanimity -- a position supported, if the polls are...

On Monday, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said that he was “dejected” after Mitt Romney’s avoided taking a strong stand on President Barack Obama’s directive enacting portions of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. “It goes back to what my mother taught me, ‘a man must stand for something, or else he’ll fall for anything,’” said West. Romney appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday where he was asked repeatedly if he would repeal President Obama’s directive. Romney avoided taking a firm position on the matter during the interview, but indicated that he supports the underlying...