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Utah's favorite political son made no apologies Saturday for his conservative cred -- a stance thousands of backers in the Beehive State hope will propel Mitt Romney to the White House. Speaking at the Salt Palace Convention Center hall, Romney weaved wit, humor and folksy anecdotes around enough anti-Barack Obama broadsides to energize his fawning fans. Most in attendance braved a sloppy snowstorm to hoist campaign-style signs, giving Romney's No Apology: The Case for American Greatness book tour the feel of a 2012 campaign rally. "I hope he does run," Midway's Bart Kotter said afterward. "The guy is an amazing...

t’s page 258 – and suddenly we are back in Campaign Mode. The transition is very abrupt. On pages 256, Romney is describing an interesting program he advocated in Massachusetts: “a Parental Preparation Program for every underperforming school district. In order for parents in these districts to enroll their children in public school, the parents would have been required to attend classes themselves, where they would learn about the value of education as well as ways in which they could support their children’s educational experience.” On p. 257, a funny story about Romney’s business career, about his unsuccessful attempt to...

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney brought his book tour Saturday back to the city where he led the 2002 Winter Olympics, telling an enthusiastic audience he could decide by Christmas whether to run again for president. "That's not a decision we've made at this point," Romney told a 12-year-old boy from Bluffdale who said he was "asking a question that a lot of people are wondering and that's, 'Are you going to run for president?' " The cheers the question received were among the loudest during Romney's hour-long appearance at the Salt Palace as part of his national tour for...

What drives Palin Derangement Syndrome to such intensity? Did anyone except John Edwards feel this passionately about John Edwards after he concluded a losing campaign as a vice-presidential candidate? Certainly Palin has remained more prominent than most such candidates, writing a blockbuster autobiography and launching a daring raid against the Death Panel Star from her Facebook page on Yavin-4… but has she really done anything to inspire this level of personal venom?

The RINO McCain is in New Hampshire now campaigning for Kelly Ayotte, who is running for Senator from that state. According to the Nashua Telegraph, he's also co-hosting a town hall with Ms. Ayotte. The Boston Globe notes that the town hall meeting was "reminiscent of those he held during his two presidential campaigns." Fox News also reports that McCain did over 100 townhall meetings leading up to the crucial "First in the Nation" New Hampshire Presidential Primary and won, once again becoming the GOP frontrunner. So, my question for my fellow FReepers is, McCain's 2010 re-election race with J.D....

Responding to criticism that she has sidestepped media, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman held an unprecedented, hourlong conversation with news reporters Friday, laying out her positions on state pension reform, prisons and immigration while taking shots at Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican rival Steve Poizner. The billionaire former eBay CEO had her most in-depth exchange with political reporters since she entered the race last year, after arriving to cheers at the state GOP convention at the Santa Clara Hyatt. She later spoke to several hundred delegates after being introduced by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Whitman proposed major reforms to...

I have to say I got a big chuckle out of Romney’s healthcare chapter. Two years ago, I published a book on conservative reform that urged conservatives to pay more attention to the social costs of obesity. Those lines prompted National Review’s book reviewer to ceremonially drum me out of the conservative movement. Two years later, the candidate endorsed by National Review in 2008 has this to say: “One of the biggest behavioral contributors to sickness and death is our big waistlines, and the cascading negative health impact of that excess weight.” (191) Romney then proceeds through a very well-informed...

Mitt Romney’s new book, No Apology, makes a very striking contrast with the most recent book entry by a potential Republican presidential candidate, Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue. Palin’s subject is Palin: her wrongs and grievances. Unlike Palin, Romney cares about the external world. His book is an action plan, not a memoir. It is crammed with factual claims and policy recommendations, with only the lightest sprinkling of self-references. You may have already heard my theory of the two Romneys, Good Romney and Bad Romney. No Apologies is mostly written by Good Romney, but Bad Romney does make himself heard at...

COL John “Jack” Sallee was a good man. Witty, charming, and decisive, he had a way of cutting through the BS. He was my Commanding Officer in the Army. I was sorry to hear of his passing. He prominently displayed a sign on the wall of his office in the headquarters building. Perhaps it was a warning to his troops, but I think it was an endearing, sort of self-deprecating reminder. In big, bold letters it read: “DON’T DO DUMB THINGS”. It was simple, eloquent, and said it all—good advice for all of us. I wish Sarah Palin had met...

The political team that helped Scott Brown stage his improbable victory in the Massachusetts Senate race wants to apply its winning strategy elsewhere this election year. First stop: Rhode Island. The Shawmut Group, led by aides to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is helping GOP congressional candidate John Loughlin, who's campaigning to replace retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I. The Shawmut Group also is working with New York gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, Long Island congressional candidate George Demos and Massachusetts state auditor candidate Mary Connaughton.

I watched the Mitt Romney interview on Fox News Watch with Chris Wallace this morning. I actually watched twice, I was stunned. What a debacle! Apparently, this was his opening gambit in his 2012 Presidential campaign, since he has written a book. Wallace, by far the most skilled of the talking head interviewers, pressed Romney on his two primary claims: that Obama has spent his first year apologizing for being an American, and that his health care plan is awful. Romney was unable to delineate any major differences between the plan he developed in Massachusetts and Obama’s, except that the...

"Secretary Paulson’s TARP prevented a systemic collapse of the national financial system. Secretary Geithner’s TARP became an opaque, heavy-handed, expensive slush fund. It should be shut down." ~Mitt Romney This is the same line that Thune uses now. This is a ridiculous position to take. One can either recognize that the original TARP was always potentially an opaque slush fund to be used for whatever purpose the executive branch wanted, and it was therefore an outrageous measure that ought to have been defeated, or one can accept the abuses of the TARP that inevitably followed from the absurd way it...

Republican consultant Charley Manning is replacing the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh on WRKO radio starting Monday. Jason Wolfe, program director for WRKO-AM (680), confirmed to the Herald that Manning will take over the station’s weekday noon to 3 p.m. slot. Manning, who has served as a campaign adviser to former Gov. Mitt Romney, emphasized that his new show, “The Charley Manning Show,” will be local. The GOP strategist said his show will “touch on all of the local issues that everybody is talking about, but with a special look at politics.” “I’m looking forward to really getting into politics, especially...

Amid revelations about how Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio wielded his Florida GOP credit card as state House speaker (not exactly conservatively), it seems some of his most vocal conservative supporters are plenty forgiving. Rubio agreed to reimburse the state party about $3,000 after the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald bureau revealed that while House speaker he double-billed the state party and Florida taxpayers for eight flights between Miami and Tallahassee. Club for Growth spokesman Michael Connolly: "Sounds like Marco is doing the right thing reimbursing taxpayers for the $3,000. Hopefully Gov. Crist can do the same thing about that...

BOSTON -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is stepping back into the public spotlight after spending two years behind the scenes laying the groundwork for a second presidential campaign. (snip) Romney has shifted from social issues that brought accusations of flip-flopping and undermined his 2008 White House bid. With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, his new focus is on economic themes and fix-it skills he claims as a former businessman. That plays to what some observers believe would be his strength in a second race. They could also distinguish him from potential rivals such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Romney kicks off a 19-state book tour observers say could be an effort to garner support for a 2012 presidential run. The three-month tour to promote his book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," includes speeches and appearances in early-primary states as the one-time 2008 Republican presidential hopeful wages what some see as the most methodical campaign of any GOP presidential wannabe for the 2012 party nod, USA Today reported Monday. The tour begins next week. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington during the weekend, Romney polled...

Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost 5 to 1 and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendency within the Republican Party. So someone please tell me - just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney "Obama is a one term President" moment? Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote speakers from now on. What happened was predictable, given that the man he picked...

Did anyone else see this posted on the internet during the election? I remember seeing it, but, every place it was posted, it was quickly deleted. Things that make you go huh. I thought this would be an interesting thread for discussion. Prophetic Warning from Pastor Steve Foss Sat, 25 Oct 2008 I am writing to you today an urgent message concerning the coming American election. God has released me to share with you a powerful prophecy He gave me eight years ago. I have shared this prophecy in a number of public meetings, but I have never published it...

Mitt Romney got a rousing reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference. And why not? He was introduced by the new conservative hero, Scott Brown, the Massachusetts senator whose election Romney played an important role in bringing about. And I am starting to think that Sarah Palin is Mitt Romney's other best friend. First, compared with Palin, Romney is a plausible president. Many conservatives won't say that publicly for fear of alienating Palin or her followers, but they believe it. Suddenly, Romney's looking like a bit -- or more than a bit -- of a technocrat becomes an asset to...

Washington – The starting bell has just rung for the 2012 presidential election, and the unofficial Republican front-runner is … former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The occasion is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, which serves as a cattle call for presidential wannabes. For the past three years, Mr. Romney has won the CPAC presidential straw poll, and in recent months, the more scientific surveys usually have shown him coming in first for 2012. Not that any of these early polls mean a whole lot. Two years ago, even as he was winning the CPAC poll, he...