Free Republic

Today in oh-fer-cryin-out-loud: In an article titled "Romney 2016 is for real," The Washington Examiner’s Byron York looks at the movement to keep Mitt Romney—yes, that Mitt Romney, the oddly robotic candidate who looks like Mr. Fantastic, the wealthy former consultant who casually makes $10,000 bets with his opponents, the policy-specifics averse former Massachusetts governor who inspired so little enthusiasm as he topped the GOP ticket and lost by three points in 2012—in the mix as a potential contender for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016. Why, you might wonder, would anyone want Romney to run again? He offered...

Ann Romney on Tuesday added a little more fuel to speculation that her husband, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, may make a third run for the White House. On Fox News’s Cavuto, Ann was asked about a scenario in which former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a moderate Republican and a potential 2016 candidate in his own right, decides not to run. “Well, we will see, won’t we, Neil?” Ann said to show host Neil Cavuto. “I think Jeb probably will end up running, myself… He’s probably looking at it very carefully.”

National Review columnist Mark Steyn blasted claims by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others that the best strategy is to allow Obamacare to crumble under its own weight and only then seek to repeal it. Filling in as host on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show Monday, Steyn, author of “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,” explained to a caller named “Joe” that there is no reason to believe congressional Republicans have the will to repeal anything, especially considering that Carter-era institutions like the Department of Education and the Department of Energy have managed to flourish even in times of...

He keeps saying no to third run for the White House, but another new poll – this time in Iowa – indicates Mitt Romney would be the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination if he changes his mind. A USA Today/Suffolk University survey of Iowa voters released Wednesday should add to the feeding frenzy over a possible 2016 presidential bid by the 2012 GOP nominee. While the former Massachusetts governor's repeatedly said he's not running again, the attention such speculation captures is a sign of the wide open nature right now of the upcoming Republican nomination race.

I was in a spiritually-oriented meeting a week ago, and there were about fifty people in the room.  Halfway through, a guy in the center of the room chimed in and announced that he was going to open his speaking time by sharing with us his personal, painful example of the worst kind of betrayal.  We all leaned a bit closer to listen as he described, with tongue secretly hidden in cheek, a time when he bit into what he’d thought was a chocolate chip cookie–only to realize with shock and dismay that it was actually a raisin cookie. He was making a wry...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in a close contest against potential GOP rival, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in a 2016 general election matchup in New Hampshire. Clinton has single-digit leads against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. She has a wider lead over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. But, only against Cruz is Clinton supported by more than 50% of New Hampshire voters. Clinton does better than each of her potential opponents among independent voters. The gender gap in all of these matchups is wide....

Mitt Romney loyalists are trying to gin up the narrative that Republicans just can't get enough of Romney.“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” Spencer Zwick, "a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council," claimed to the Washington Post. The Chamber of Commerce, which has vowed to wage war on the Tea Party and push through amnesty legislation, glowingly praised Romney, alleging he would be in a "commanding position" if he entered the 2016 race. Romney is reportedly set to make trips to West...

President Obama thumped Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, but now their political standings seem reversed. During a summer in which Democratic candidates are keeping their distance from an unpopular president, Romney is emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most in-demand campaign surrogates. Over three days in mid-August, Romney will campaign for GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates in West Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas, aides said. In September, he is planning visits to the presidential swing states of Colorado and Virginia. Romney is filling up his October schedule, as well. “Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama...

UNKNOWN QUESTIONER:“Um, you mentioned the Health Insurance Exchanges for the States. And it’s my understanding that if the States don’t provide them, that the Federal Government will provide them.”M.I.T. economics Prof. Jonathan Gruber:“Yeah, so these Health Insurance Exchanges —once you go on MA-HealthConnect.org and CRS [is] in Massachusetts—will be these new shopping places. And they’ll be the place that people go to get their subsidies for health insurance. “In the law it says [that] if States don’t provide them, the federal backstop will. The Federal Government has been sort-of slow in putting in this backstop, I think partially, because they...

... It seems to us Gruber has an awfully broad definition of "typo." A typo is when you write "established by the Stake" when you mean to write "established by the State," not when you write "established by the State" when you mean "." Nonetheless, many ObamaCare supporters agree with Gruber that the passage in question was, as others have put it, a mere "drafting error"--that Congress could not possibly have meant to exclude the federal exchange from the subsidy program. Many, but not all. One who disagrees is Jonathan Gruber, who not only is a supporter of ObamaCare but...

Despite his continuous denials, some still believe that Mitt Romney will run for president in 2016. Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, went one step further saying that the former Massachusetts governor will be occupying the White House after the next presidential election. “I think he actually is going to run for president. He probably doesn’t want me to say that. A hundred times he says he’s not, but Mitt Romney has always accomplished what he has set out to do,” Chaffetz told MSNBC. “I think he’s proven right on a lot of stuff. I happen to...

Mitt Romney is looking to keep his sterling endorsement streak alive as the 2014 campaign transitions from primary to general election season. The former GOP presidential nominee has a perfect record after getting involved in a number of competitive Republican races this year. Now, with Senate control on the line and his party eager to add to their House majority, he’s turning his attention to helping many of those same candidates in tough fall battles. ADVERTISEMENT Free from the pressures of daily life in the spotlight, Romney has undergone a latter-day renaissance, rebuilding his public image after a brutal 2012...

The official topic of the conference, emblazoned on materials handed out to guests gathered here at a luxury Norwegian-inspired resort, was “The Future of American Leadership.” But the unofficial theme was made clear not long into breakfast on Friday, when a guest asked Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky the question on everyone’s mind: Is Hillary beatable?(SNIP) “This is the place where, I believe, the future of the party is really going to come out of,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York hedge fund manager and former Romney fund-raising bundler. “This is the Republican Party’s Bell Labs. This is our R...

All signs point to California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as successor to Virginia's Eric Cantor as House majority leader next week when the Republican conference votes. On Wednesday, as he came to grips with his shocking congressional primary loss to Randolph-Macon College Economics Professor Dave Brat, Cantor described McCarthy as his "good friend." One might question the value of being endorsed by the guy who just got shellacked by 12 points after outspending an unknown opponent 50-1. But remember, this is the House Republican conference under discussion here. Who is Kevin McCarthy? As chief whip, McCarthy has been the least visible...

Mitt Romney can still draw a crowd. Some top supporters and donors from the former Massachusetts governor's two presidential campaigns are gathering starting Thursday for Romney's retreat in Park City, Utah. They'll be joined by a bunch of political leaders who may hope to follow in Romney's footsteps by winning the Republican presidential nomination. This is the third year in a row that Romney has hosted the event, which is being held at the upscale Stein Ericksen Lodge at the Deer Valley Resort. The first came came during the 2012 presidential campaign as the then-GOP nominee was facing off against...

The Republican party's worst fears about Obamacare are coming true, according to a Politico article published Monday. Thanks to "intransigent Republicans" who opted out of forming exchanges in their own states and "ambitious Democrats" who botched the creation of them in theirs, 36 states now rely on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange. With two more states joining next year, the article reminds readers that, back when Congress needed to pass the bill in order to find out what was in it, a large federal exchange wasn't supposed to be part of the new health care law: The federal option was supposed...

 SEE: The GOP Establishment Wants to Run on Fixing -- Not Repealing – Obamacare ”In David Jolly's campaign, he didn't say "repeal" Obamacare. He said "fix" it. But the Republicans are taking this thing to, " No, no, no, no! He said to fix it." The Republican establishment obviously has a campaign game plan involving Obamacare, and it does not include repealing it, folks. The Republican establishment apparently doesn't want to campaign on repealing it. They want to campaign on fixing it.” What Rush Limbaugh may have missed and has been obvious to me from the very beginning is, when...

Ramesh is kind enough to cite a recent piece of mine for Forbes, describing it as a continuation of my “lonely campaign to get conservatives to drop the idea of ‘repealing and replacing’ Obamacare and instead to embrace reforming it.” But it’s only lonely if by lonely he means “shared by a large plurality of the electorate.” Let me cite the data. A Pew Research poll asked whether or not politicians should “make the law work as well as possible,” or “make it fail.” The “work” side won 30–19 overall, and 36–19 among independents. (“Make it fail” won among...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may take another run at the White House, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer said. "I have a source that told me that if Jeb Bush decides not to run, that Mitt Romney may actually try it again," Schieffer said during a panel discussion on the CBS Sunday morning news show.

"With the news this week that more than 600,000 Washington residents have acquired new health care plans through the state exchange, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said it’s unlikely the Affordable Care Act will be repealed.... "...She also discussed... the feasibility of immigration reform this year..."