Free Republic

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Mitt Romney is mocking Newt Gingrich's long record in Washington and says conservative tea party voters eventually will reject the former House speaker who's Romney chief presidential rival. Romney tells reporters in South Carolina that he thinks the state's tea party voters will turn on Gingrich because of his work for the mortgage company Freddie Mac and his consulting time in Washington....

Fresh TIME/CNN first-in-the-nation polls show Gingrich dominating Iowa, South Carolina and Florida — and within striking distance in New Hampshire. Iowa: Gingrich 33 — Romney 20 New Hampshire: Romney 35 — Gingrich 26 South Carolina: Gingrich 43 — Romney 20 Florida: Gingrich 48 — Romney 25 See the full results, including how the other candidates stack up, here. Halperin's Take-Static analysis: Gingrich will be the Republican nominee....

Sen. Jim DeMint today endorsed Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenberg’s bid for Senate, throwing his support behind the GOP primary’s underdog to challenge Sen. Ben Nelson (D) next year. “Don Stenberg is a lifelong conservative with the principles, integrity, and courage needed to stand up to the big spenders in both political parties in Washington,” the South Carolina Republican wrote in a email to his Senate Conservatives Fund members. Polling shows Nelson is one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this cycle if he decides to run for a third term. He’ll decide by the end of the year...

[Jonathan] Martin [of Politico] writes: "Perry's comment (about ...Ben Bernanke's "treasonous" behavior) is exactly the sort of misstep that will worry the many GOP donors on the sideline right now who chiefly want to beat President Obama. The quote reinforces their central fear about Perry — that he has a cowboy problem — and could prompt them to remain uncommitted." This is accurate. It's also irrelevant. It's irrelevant because the "GOP donors on the sideline right now" don't matter. They think they matter, but they don't. The fact is that Rick Perry can raise $15-20 million out of Texas for...

State Rep. Thad Viers announced his candidacy Thursday for the new 7th district seat in South Carolina. Viers, a Republican serving his fifth term in the South Carolina House, told Roll Call that he’s been considering a run for a long time, but what “sealed the deal” for him was a new district being created in the northeastern part of the state and debate over the debt ceiling — what he called “the debt fiasco compromise in Washington.” The new district, allotted to the state by reapportionment, is in the Pee Dee region of the state, anchored in Republican Horry...

Sanford is being asked the hard questions by Sean Hannity now on Fox. I don't think he's made any progress in his emotional maturity. He wants to talk about economics. Is he looking for a job or testing the waters for another run for office?

A new poll from American Research Group released Monday shows that former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is leading the Republican presidential race in South Carolina, traditionally the first state in the South to hold a presidential primary. The South Carolina Republican primary -- set up with the help of legendary Republican operative the late Lee Atwater, a native of the Palmetto State -- has proven decisive in recent years, helping to erect a firewall in the region for Atwater’s candidate George H.W. Bush in 1988 and propelling front-runners Bob Dole over Pat Buchanan in 1996 and George W. Bush...

Youtube - teambachmann's channel; National Town Hall Streamed live on Jun 29, 2011

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republicans in this first-in-the-South primary state aren't too enthusiastic about the crop of GOP presidential candidates. They are fired up about defeating President Barack Obama and confident a Republican can. "I'm telling everyone that worries about the field: Elmer Fudd can win this election," says Ashby Rhame, a Republican from Sumter County. In this reliably conservative state, if not across the country, the GOP exudes optimism about making Obama a one-term president, no matter the Republican nominee....

The 2012 ad wars have officially begun. In what appears to be the first major media buy of the 2012 presidential campaign, an independent group supporting President Obama launched television ads in South Carolina on Friday attacking potential GOP candidate Mitt Romney over health care. Priorities USA Action, a so-called “super PAC” co-founded by former White House aides Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, is running the ad to coincide with a Romney visit to the crucial GOP primary state. The ad attempts to tie Romney to a House Republican proposal to replace Medicare with a voucher system, a theme that...

Barack Obama, president of the United States. And a socialist. That is the view of 78 percent of S.C. Republicans or GOP-leaning independents, according to the Winthrop Poll. Overall, Obama does not fare well in the Winthrop Poll. That is not surprising in South Carolina, a strongly Republican state that Obama, a Democrat, lost in the 2008 presidential election. Only 43.4 percent of all those polled — Democrats, Republicans and independents — said they approve of the job the first-term president is doing, compared to more than 47 percent who said they disapprove. Among self-identified Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, Obama...

BLUFFTON, S.C. -- Laura Sterling had never voted before 2008, much less been a political activist. But Friday night she was one of three self-described "little South Carolina moms" hosting a $175-per-couple reception for Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota firebrand congresswoman who is rapidly becoming the adopted favorite of many conservatives in the Palmetto State. Her latest visit, including a Monday Tea Party rally at the State Capitol in Columbia, is part of an effort to set up the possibility of strong showings in the early presidential nominating contests of her native Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. That trifecta would...

Call him the little metrosexual that could. The fussy, fastidious, and pampered senator from South Carolina just keeps chugging along supremely impressed with the face looking out from the mirror in his posh Senate office and his status as the Beltway insiders' favorite Republican. "I'm [...] at the front of the line" for Barack Obama on Capitol Hill, he brags to the New York Times, which describes his "delight" in letting "people know" how important he is. After all, he is Lindsey Graham and he is Washington, nestled among the Beltway's palace courtiers like a flea on a Carolina Dog....

Former Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul is expected to participate in a primary debate in South Carolina on May 5, the state party announced Friday. “We are thrilled by the overwhelming interest we have seen so far in this debate,” said South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd. “The road to the White House travels through South Carolina, as our Republican electorate has selected every eventual nominee since our primary’s inception in 1980. We are looking forward to our debate as the official kickoff for the presidential primary season.” Paul has filled out the paperwork for a...

South Carolina U.S. Senator Jim DeMint dipped his toe into the debate taking place concerning the 2012 Republican presidential election, offering his thoughts on former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. “One of the reasons I endorsed Romney [in 2008] is his attempts to make private health insurance available at affordable prices,” said Sen. Jim DeMint. Mr. Romney, who has received criticism from Republican leaders in recent weeks, seemed to find a supportive voice from the Republican U.S. Senator. Blaming Massachusetts Democrats, Mr. DeMint seemed to present Mr. Romney with a political strategy to address concerns over his support of the Massachusetts...

Mississippi Gov Haley Barbour will visit the Republican-heavy Upstate of South Carolina Wednesday for two private events with local GOP officials to discuss a potential presidential run, POLITICO has learned. Barbour will meet with Republicans first in Greenville and then in Spartanburg. The closed-door gatherings will include party leaders and current and former elected officials, according to a South Carolina source familiar with the events. Barbour's trip to the first-in-the-South Palmetto State illustrates his increasing seriousness about a presidential bid. His appearance in the two Upstate cities comes just a few weeks after he appeared in Columbia for the inauguration...

Most them aren’t definite no’s, but even if they’re holding out for the time being merely to see who else jumps in, that’s … not encouraging. Some, like Judd Gregg, may end up endorsing him anyway but might want to see if Daniels (or Huntsman?) declares first. Others, like DeMint, who have embraced the tea party full-fold almost certainly aren’t going to endorse him unless the entire “true conservative” bench decides not to run. Either way … not encouraging. My favorite part? Hot on the heels of a rumor that Mitt might skip Iowa, there’s now a rumor circulating that...

The consulting firm of Richard Quinn and Associates – which guided U.S. Senator John McCain to victory in the 2008 S.C. Republican presidential primary – will not advise McCain’s former rival Mitt Romney in 2012. In recent weeks numerous Palmetto politicos have been buzzing about a possible Quinn-Romney hook-up, which would have obviously upset the established S.C. political order. It’s not happening, though. In fact, Romney may not even actively campaign in the Palmetto state – choosing instead to focus his resources on the Nevada Caucus (currently scheduled for February 18) while downplaying the significance of the South Carolina vote,...

A blogger who specializes in outing “closeted” gay political figures claims that evidence of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.)’s homosexual lifestyle is about to be released. “I wonder if Lindsey Graham knows I have pictures of a man who spent the night at his house,” blogger Michael Rogers recently tweeted. A later tweet from Rogers indicated that he was meeting with an attorney on December 21 to discuss the release of the alleged pictures. On his website, BlogActive, Rogers writes that the meeting with his attorney indeed took place and that a letter has been sent to Graham’s office. “I’ve...

WASHINGTON — Gov.-elect Nikki (Namrata Kaur Randhawa)Haley, the first Sikh-American to be elected governor in the US, moved onto the national stage Wednesday as she and other newly elected GOP governors met with Republican congressional leaders to craft strategies for devolving federal power back to the states. House Speaker-designate John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chose Haley to lead off a crowded news conference at the U.S. Capitol after their closed-door meeting with 15 incoming GOP governors. “It is a great day today in D.C. because what you see is a coalition of governors who have gotten together...