Free Republic

Former Massachusetts Governor, and GOP presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney has found himself on the defensive regarding his health care reform law in the Bay State. Most of the criticism has focused on the fact that the Massachusetts reform, like President Obama’s reform, included an individual mandate, requiring that all citizens purchase health insurance or pay a fine. But, for Catholics and other pro-life voters, Romneycare holds a different problem. It explicitly provided government funding of abortion. The Massachusetts health care reform established a government funded program, Commonwealth Care, that includes coverage of abortion. Commonwealth Care was made available for free...

Cain 37% Romney 27% Ron Paul 12% Perry 6% 86% say they're somewhat or very satisfied with the current GOP field. Univ of Iowa Poll Press Release 102111

Thursday, October 20, 2011 Reflecting national trends, businessman Herman Cain has now jumped to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Iowa caucus-goers shows that Cain is in front with 28% followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 21%. Congressman Ron Paul is a distant third at 10% followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 9%, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann at 8%, and Texas Governor Rick Perry at 7%. The sixth place finish for Perry is a sharp decline from early September when Perry was the frontrunner both nationally and...

PPP (D) Ohio 2012 GOP Primary Survey Herman Cain 34% [10%] (13%) Mitt Romney 19% [20%] (23%) Newt Gingrich 14% [8%] (16%) Ron Paul 7% [8%] (13%) Michele Bachmann 6% [14%] (11%) Rick Perry 5% [21%] Jon Huntsman 1% [1%] (0%) Rick Santorum 1% Gary Johnson 0% Someone else/Not sure 12% [16%] (18%)   Would you say you are strongly committed to that candidate, or might you end up supporting someone else? Strongly committed to that candidate 29%Might end up supporting someone else 71% Second Choice Herman Cain 17% Newt Gingrich 14% Mitt Romney 13% Michele Bachmann 11% Rick Perry...

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

A Newsmax/InsiderAdvantage poll shows businessman and radio talk-host Herman Cain now leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney among likely GOP primary voters in the fight for the 2012 Republican nomination. The exclusive poll, taken in the past 24 hours, shows Cain vaulting Romney 26 percent to 24 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percent. Several other polls show similar results, establishing Cain as the new grass-roots frontrunner deadlocked with Romney, the establishment Republican choice. A new CBS poll showed Cain and Romney deadlocked, with each candidate garnering 17 percent of the vote. And a Quinnipiac University...

In the recent Presidential debate, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said America’s voters did not need to “settle” for the moderate candidate. Amen to that. And gun owners do NOT want candidates who talk out of both sides of their mouths. As the Gun Owners of America’s Board of Directors looks at the Republican candidates running to unseat radical anti-gun President Obama, we see several who have strong pro-gun backgrounds. Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman all have solid pro-gun records and deserve a hard look from pro-gunners. At least one frontrunner candidate stands in contrast with a decidedly mixed record on...

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

When Mitt Romney's second book, No Apology, came out a year ago, it looked like he was moving away from the far-right demagoguery of his 2008 bid for the presidency, and toward a more moderate centrism for the 2012 election cycle. (See "New and Improved Romney," Talking Politics, February 10, 2010.) But times change, and so does Mitt. A year later, with the Tea Party–fueled extremism of the 2010 midterms foretelling a rightward tilt to the GOP presidential primaries, Romney is tacking back — as evidenced by changes made to two sections of the text in the new paperback edition...

GOP regulars claim the "electability argument" will deliver the Republican nomination to Mitt Romney. They say things like, "Mitt Romney can win the general election by appealing to the middle. Rick Perry can't win in the suburbs of Philadelphia and Milwaukee." Simple enough -- but wrong. Romney's no stronger on this front than Perry, the frontrunner in the polls. The core reasons: Perry's support among the party's base, and his strength on the key issues of the economy and job creation. Based on what we know today, next November's election will be decided on the economy and as a referendum...

Mitt Romney just gave a more articulate defense of Obamacare than President Obama ever has. He continues to believe that the individual mandate is a good idea, despite the fact that the “free-rider” problem is a myth. His effort to make a distinction between Romneycare and Obamacare was not persuasive: If anything, he convincingly made the opposite case, that Romneycare and Obamacare are based on the same fundamental concept. In recent months, Romney has claimed that Romneycare was a specific solution for the specific needs of Massachusetts. But in his remarks, he did not name one specific aspect of the...

Republican Mitt Romney outlined a national health care plan Thursday that would empower states to decide coverage rules, spelling out differences with President Barack Obama's overhaul but refusing to renounce his own Massachusetts law that was a precursor to Obama's. The all-but-declared 2012 presidential candidate said that backing away from the plan he signed as Massachusetts governor or changing his overall health care vision would be politically expedient given that health care has become a liability rather than an asset for him among conservative critics in the past two years. But he declared, "I am not adjusting the plan to...

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) healthcare speech drew quick support from fellow Bay State Sen. Scott Brown (R), who called Romney's defense of the state's healthcare plan "courageous." Brown, who's up for reelection in the typically Democratic state next fall, offered Romney political reinforcement following the former governor's highly anticipated healthcare speech on Thursday. "Governor Romney showed a lot of courage today by standing his ground on the reforms he put in place in Massachusetts," Brown said in a statement. "What he did as governor worked for Massachusetts by getting health insurance to more people."

National Review endorsed Mitt Romney for president during the 2008 primaries. While we objected to the individual mandate he had enacted in Massachusetts — making the purchase of health insurance compulsory for residents of the commonwealth — we were willing to look past that flaw because his proposals for changing health-care policy as president were much better. But the enactment of Obamacare has raised the stakes on this issue. It is now of critical importance that Obama’s opponent in 2012 be able to make the case against the health-care law and for a sensible replacement. It is because of those...

Mitt Romney wants to become America's next president. He's been very successful, according to a number of reports, at raising millions on Wall Street. But the paper named after it, the Wall Street Journal, isn't satisfied with Romney. In a lengthy and extraordinary editorial, it calls him the worst epithet a conservative could probably think of—"Obama's Running Mate." When a political party is out of power, or at least doesn't hold the presidency, numerous dissenting voices are usually heard. It can be a fructifying time. But it can also be a time when ideological agendas are ruthlessly enforced. The Journal...

Unless things change, the man (or woman) elected in 2012 will be the last American president to preside over the world's leading economy. If things get really bad, he will find himself presiding over the early stages of American collapse. Not "decline" but "collapse." "Decline" is what happens when you're Britain in the 1940s and you cede global dominance to a major ally that shares your language, legal system, cultural inheritance and broad geopolitical objectives. That deal isn't on offer this time round. Nor was the United Kingdom circa 1948 in thrall to anything like the same levels of spendaholic...

I was not surprised to read yet another editorial in the Journal yesterday criticizing the health-care reforms we enacted in Massachusetts ("Obama's Running Mate," May 12). I was, however, not expecting the distortions of what we accomplished. Let me deal with some of them. One, the editorial asserts that people in Massachusetts who wouldn't buy coverage, even though they could afford it, was not a major fiscal problem. But as a state we were spending almost $1 billion on free care for the uninsured. What we did was convert that money into premium support for those who needed help buying...

When Mitt Romney's second book, No Apology, came out a year ago, it looked like he was moving away from the far-right demagoguery of his 2008 bid for the presidency, and toward a more moderate centrism for the 2012 election cycle. (See "New and Improved Romney," Talking Politics, February 10, 2010.) But times change, and so does Mitt. A year later, with the Tea Party–fueled extremism of the 2010 midterms foretelling a rightward tilt to the GOP presidential primaries, Romney is tacking back — as evidenced by changes made to two sections of the text in the new paperback edition...

Mitt Romney, the AP reports, has stepped down from the board of the Marriott hotel chain, another methodical step toward his 2012 run. His aides have told other Republicans that he expects to launch his campaign in April.

Barack Obama would easily take Nevada if he had to stand for reelection today...unless the Republicans nominated Mitt Romney. Obama has early double digit advantages against Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin in the state but has just a single point edge over Romney. Nevada is one of the few swing states we've polled in the last couple months where more voters approve (50%) than disapprove (46%) of Obama. Like everywhere else in the country Democrats are largely happy with him and Republicans are most unhappy- what sets apart his numbers in Nevada is his popularity with independents, 55%...