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THE day after her autobiography was published, the cover of Newsweek magazine asked the musical question, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" It's a play on the first line of the chorus of "Maria" in the musical, "The Sound Of Music."The nuns sing of their bewildering young charge, who not only marches to the beat of her own drummer, but sings, dances and strums guitar to it. Their solution is to ship her off to a household in need of a nanny, and thus one of the most extraordinary adventures of the 20th century begins. There is a...

Officials are in the early stages of deciding if Salt Lake City wants to compete for the 2012 Republican National Convention — so early, in fact, that they have not yet formed a bid committee to decide. Salt Lake City was invited by the Republican National Committee to attend an "interested parties" presentation in Washington, D.C., three weeks ago, said Scott Beck, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. Beck attended, along with a representative from the governor's office. There, they learned what requirements in terms of amenities a host city would have to...

Currently, the only people left defending the Massachusetts health care reform are liberals who want to see Obamacare passed ... and Mitt Romney. On Sunday, while the Senate debated a bill to have the government takeover the health care system, Romney went on CNN and argued that his state takeover of health care worked out quite well for Massachusetts. Asked by John King to respond to criticism offered by his likely 2012 presidential rival Tim Pawlenty about how spending exploded in Massachusetts after the implementation of RomneyCare, Romney responded...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has his facts wrong in criticizing the health care plan Romney instituted in his state. Pawlenty has repeatedly pointed to the Massachusetts plan of his potential rival for the 2012 Republican nomination as the perfect example of how not to do health care reform. The Minnesota governor has made that case in numerous interviews, speeches and op-eds that, while not focused on the Massachusetts program, make his criticism of it clear. Presented with a clip of Pawlenty arguing that the Massachusetts plan did not come close to meeting...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney defended Mike Huckabee's clemency decision that allegedly led to the shooting death of four police officers in Washington state.. During an interview Thursday night with CNN's Larry King Live, Romney, who in his four years as governor says he did not pardon or commute a single sentence, empathized with his former political rival in the last battle for the Republican presidential nomination, saying the focus is on the tragedy that struck the lives of Washington state residents. Huckabee has come under fire because, as governor of Arkansas in 2000, he signed a clemency order for...

Here is a list of 2012 candidates. Generally, I am dwelling on the negatives as this is what is going to limit them in their ability to win but will mention any unique positives. Please share your thoughts on these or any other potential candidates. Romney - Romneycare is an albatross. He is a Mormon which impacts appeal. Is popular in Michigan due to his father. Sometimes comes across like a used car salesman. Is probably more conservative than his record and gets a bad rap due to his need to make compromises to get elected in The People's Republic....

Mitt Romney says that like other presidents, Barack Obama inherited a recession. But the former Massachusetts governor feels unlike his predecessors, Obama has made the recession he inherited worse, not better. In an op-ed in Wednesday's USA Today, Romney says what he calls the president's inability to "stem" the rise in unemployment should not be a surpise. "With no experience whatsoever in the world of employment and business formation, he had no compass to guide his path. Instead, he turned over much of his economic recovery agenda to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, themselves nearly...

(CNN) -- Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christian leaders last week issued a bold political statement. They intended to target the Obama administration. Inadvertently, they may have also hit probable Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney ought to rank atop the Republican candidates for president in 2012. He finished second in votes cast in the primaries of 2008. He is a candidate with immense private-sector economic expertise in a time of urgent economic debate. But Romney has a political problem: his Mormon religious faith. A Gallup survey in December 2007 found that 18 percent of Republicans would not vote for...

(snip) Trey Grayson, a Republican candidate for US Senate, was the keynote speaker on the issue of global warming last year at Eastern Kentucky University as part of the National Focus the Nation event. Now, why is that such a big deal? Well, the Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for Focus the Nation is none other than Van Jones. Yes, that's right, the self-proclaimed communist Obama hired to be the Green Jobs Czar that had to tuck tail and resign at midnight. WHOA Now, let's back up a bit. Here's a bit of history on Focus the...

Asked during last night’s Republican debate about whether his campaign was downplaying his health care plan, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney replied, “I love it.” While praising the plan as a model of bipartisanship — and citing support for it from both Ted Kennedy and the Heritage Foundation — Romney failed to tell viewers what was in the plan. It’s worth reminding people, therefore, that the plan Romney loves: Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties. Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies...

Congress is debating legislation that would do essentially what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts: impose a health insurance mandate, create a network of subsidies, and micro-manage health insurance policies. Before legislators take us down the same road, they should consider the Massachusetts experience. Citizens there are not impressed with RomneyCare.

... The so-called purity test is a 10-point checklist -- a suicide pact, really -- of alleged Republican positions... James Bopp Jr., chief sponsor of the resolution and a committee member from Indiana, has said that "the problem is that many conservatives have lost trust in the conservative credentials of the Republican Party." Actually, no, the problem is that many conservatives have lost faith in the ability of Republican leaders to think. The resolutions aren't so much statements of principle as dogmatic responses to complex issues that may, occasionally, require more than a Sharpie check in a little square. It's...

A new poll shows that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney now has a less than 50 percent favorability rating among Republican voters. Public Policy Polling has released its monthly 2012 survey, which finds that while 65 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and 75 percent have a favorable opinion of former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, only 48 percent view Mitt Romney favorably. Romney's popularity has fallen 19 points in the poll since May. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling says the healthcare plan that Romney passed in Massachusetts when he was governor...

Some great numbers to head into the Thanksgiving holiday from Scott Rasmussen. Rasmussen has released some numbers for the 2012 Presidential Election with the usual Republican suspects.

A top adviser on Hispanic issues to John McCain’s presidential campaign said Sunday that a joint interview with McCain and Sarah Palin planned for Univision last fall had to be canceled because Palin was unprepared to discuss Latin America policy. “She did not feel comfortable speaking about issues regarding Hispanics and Latin America,” GOP consultant Ana Navarro told Univision anchor Jorge Ramos in an interview. “Those are not topics that come up frequently in Alaska. So she asked to cancel the interview and, unfortunately, you were already there.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee will announce Monday that veteran political strategist Alex Castellanos will assume a senior communications role at the committee, an RNC official tells CNN. (snip) "Now the RNC has a new focus and direction - the 2010 elections," Castellanos said when reached by telephone. "And I am happy to help."

Big caveat right off the bat: PPP is the same polling firm that predicted a Hoffman landslide in NY-23. But (a) they had Mitt’s favorables comparable with Huckabee’s earlier in the year, so it’s not like their data’s historically been screwy, and (b) this isn’t just a one-month snapshot but a trend dating back to July.

In town to give a talk on civility, I was surrounded by women who wondered what I thought of Sarah Palin's Newsweek cover. "Why aren't women coming to her defense?" they asked. "Why are the media being so rough on Sarah?" Having been enjoying a self-imposed moratorium on all things Palin, declining numerous interviews to discuss her latest self-promotional tour, I was surprised by the questions. My thoughts lately have drifted toward the sense that, though Palin is very much a celebrity, she's no longer running for public office, at least officially. Ergo, radar gets a rest. As for her...

Link only, per FR copyright rules

(snip) During the 2008 campaign, some conservatives said they were hesitant to vote for Romney because he was perceived as being liberal on some social issues. On Friday, he seemed determined to overcome that impression. In his speech, given in a room filled with more than two dozen pictures of President Ronald Reagan, Romney gave a shout-out to the tea party protesters and spoke about his new book, "No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness." (It is slated to be released by St. Martin's Press in March.) He also said the Republican Party needed to build support among young people,...

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Wednesday strongly defended the top advisers from his 2008 presidential campaign in the face of sharp criticism from his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. McCain, in a telephone interview with Reuters, singled out campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace for praise after Palin blasted the pair in her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." "There's been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace...

The whole notion there was a conversation where I tried to cajole her into a conversation with Katie [Couric] is fiction," Wallace told MSNBC. "I am not someone who throws around the word 'self-esteem.' It is a fictional description." [SNIP] "It was never made as two working gals," Wallace said. "It's either rationalization or justification or fiction." [SNIP] "She hated me from the beginning," Wallace said. "I try not to take it personally, the fact is that she wrote a book based on fabrications... This book is a bizarre fixation on things that everyone else has moved on from."

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

After the New England Patriots disasterous decision Sunday night not to punt on fourth down with the ball on the Indianapolis Colts' 28-yard line, former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, had every right to be ticked off. Especially considering that the Pats had the lead with little more than 2 minutes left in the game. Is it possible that the team's supposedly brilliant coach, Bill Belichick, got confused and thought the Manning brother waiting patiently on the opposing sidelines was Eli and not Peyton? Whatever the case, the Colts went on to win the game with 13 seconds left in the...

Many told to expect double-digit jumps. BY ROBERT WEISMAN Bob Carroll, owner of a Billerica distributor of paint spraying equipment, recently got some really bad news from Blue Cross-Blue Shield: His company’s health insurance rates are going up 47 percent in January. So did Dan Greenbaum, president of a research firm in Boston, who’s been told to expect a 35 percent jump. And Sandy Bouchard, chief financial officer at Coady’s Towing Service in Lawrence, is trying to fathom a 28 percent hike - an extra $58,000 - in 2010. "We’re a small company, and that’s a huge raise," said Bouchard....

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Fewer than three in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin's qualified to be president, according to a new national poll - the least of any of the five potential candidates included in the survey. But another woman tops that list in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday: two-thirds of the public thinks that Secretary of State HIllary Clinton's qualified for the Oval Office. That's more than Vice President Joe Biden, who's currently next in line for the presidency. According to the poll, 28 percent of Americans say Palin is qualified to run the White House, with seven...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - John McCain's former presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt is the latest McCain adviser to cry foul over accusations Sarah Palin has penned in her yet to be released memoir "Going Rogue." Excerpts obtained by The Huffington Post characterize Schmidt in an unfavorable light, particularly in reference to the prank phone call Palin received from someone pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Right away, the phones started ringing," Palin writes. "One of the first calls was Schmidt, and the force of his screaming blew my hair back. 'How can anyone be so stupid?! Why would the president...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney delivered a scathing criticism of President Obama's Afghanistan strategy Friday night, accusing the president of delivering rhetoric and not action in the war-torn country. Quoting from a speech Obama delivered in March, Romney agreed with the president "that 'we are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies."' Romney continued on seconding the president: "I believe 'that to succeed, we and our friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's gains, and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government.'"

A former top adviser and spokeswoman to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign is pushing back against comments reportedly made by Sarah Palin in her new book. Nicolle Wallace tells CNN that Palin's account of an ill-fated interview with CBS's Katie Couric during the 2008 presidential campaign is not true.

More than a million low-income Massachusetts residents covered by Medicaid will be required to pay more for doctor visits and receive prior approval for some medications under a plan announced today by the Patrick administration to begin to close a $307 million shortfall in the state's MassHealth program.

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate. From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Kattie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy...

<p>In her new book, according to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin alleges that the McCain campaign gave her a $500,000 bill to pay for the campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She also makes the charge that the McCain camp said they would have paid all the bills had they won, but since they lost, the bills were her responsibility.</p>

WASHINGTON - Massachusetts officials are closely monitoring an abortion funding ban in the sweeping health care legislation before Congress to make sure that it does not restrict women’s access to abortion coverage in the state. Abortion is a covered service for low-income Massachusetts women enrolled in subsidized insurance plans available since 2006 through the state’s landmark health care law.But the bill that squeaked through the US House late Saturday would prohibit private insurance plans from covering abortion if they accept federal subsidies. It also bans abortion coverage in the new government insurance option. State officials say there are too many...

Mitt Romney is heading to Reagan country. The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak this Friday to the Young America's Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California. Romney is expected to be the dinner banquet speaker for the foundation's West Coast Leadership Conference, which consists of young conservatives from 44 colleges and universities across 12 states. "Young people provide much of the energy in the conservative movement, and if we are going to be successful as a party we need to harness that energy and put it work on behalf of the principles we all...

David Frum nails it today. A favorite target of conservatives (including myself at one point), Mr. Frum gets it right on his blog post about how our tip-toeing around the issue of racial pro-filing resulted in the Fort Hood disaster. Here are two excerpts.

(snip) Although some in the party believe that it should be tilting right in whom to support in future elections, he said, "I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates, referencing former President Reagan. "He was the one who coined the term 'the big tent.' He also said that you don't build something by subtraction. So we welcome people who agree with us on most issues. Some will be very conservative on some issues. Some will be less so on others. We welcome you into the party." (snip) "We have a...

(snip) The GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia are breeding a new competition among Republicans to take part of the credit. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, potential rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, both tried to bask in glow."We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources to be competitive against his better-financed opponent," Romney told supporters of his Free &...

What a great election yesterday! It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey. The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism is still alive and well. We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources...

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) on Wednesday promoted a round of Republican victories in last night's elections in a letter to supporters. The 2012 presidential hopeful plugged the triumphs of Republican gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell (Va.) and Chris Christie (N.J.), emphasizing that his political action committee's endorsement and campaign work for the two candidates. "It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey," Romney wrote. "The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism...

November 3, 2009 2:30 PM Where’s Mitt Romney? Why was the once and no doubt future presidential contender missing from NY-23? By Kathryn Jean Lopez In October, everybody seemed to be doing it — getting into the campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, that is. It was a three-way race among Republican Deirdre Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Doug Hoffman to fill the seat that had been left vacant when President Obama tapped Republican John McHugh as secretary of the Army. Endorsements became such a popular sport for out-of-state Republicans that the special election came to seem a...

Americans are looking forward to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's memoir the most out of a slew of autobiographies from Republicans set to hit bookshelves soon. Interest in Rice's book leads interest in those by her former bosses, former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as the memoir to be published this month by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), according to a poll. Twenty-two percent of Americans said they're most likely to read Rice's book, according to a poll commissioned by the CBS news program "60 Minutes" and the magazine Vanity Fair....

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may have worked with Democratic candidate Stephen Pagliuca, but he’s supporting fellow Republican Scott Brown in this race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. The 2008 GOP presidential contender is headlining a fundraiser Friday night in Brown’s hometown of Wrentham.

So tell me, how do you write a “news” story about an organization paying for a speaker when you don’t even know if the organization is paying for the speaker? Ask “journalist” Jonathan Martin. He knows all about it. You see, Jonny wrote a piss poor story the other day about how the Iowa Family Policy Center will be paying a large speaker fee if Sarah Palin comes to Iowa to keynote the IFPC’s fall funderaiser. The only problem is that Jonny has no sources confirming that any exorbitant fee is being charged or paid. In fact, he had just...

Romney ducks the leadership test What do you find most often in the middle of the road? Road kill. Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the GOP's next presidential nominee, couldn't bring himself to endorse anyone in New York state's contentious 23rd congressional district special election. The contest,.....has been a flashpoint for a party in search of its identity. An all-star lineup of national party leaders has weighed in, allowing themselves to be defined by whose side they're on. But not Romney. The former Massachusetts governor passed, and this could have serious ramifications down the road. The cliche about the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is acknowleding that the health care plan he famously implemented as governor did nothing to address costs. "We were unable to deal with - and didn't have any pretense we would somehow be able to change - health care costs in Massachusetts," Romney said in an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "We still have a fee for service, a re-imbursement system here like every other state in America. That's the way Medicare and Medicaid are structured, that's the way the insurance industry is structured." Romney said "Massachusetts is not the model"...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) will appear as the special guest at a fundraiser next week to benefit South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's 2010 re-election, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Fix. The event, which will be held on Monday in Charleston at the home of Sheila and Bill Prezzano, features a number of power players in Palmetto State politics including money men Dick Coen, Bill Hewitt and O.L. Thompson as well as former Gov. Jim Edwards, former Rep. Tommy Hartnett and Republican National Committeewoman Cindy Costa. Hosts for the event are expected to donate...

Be afraid, be very afraid of John McCain's presidential campaign manager, Steve Schmidt who has been bashing conservative talk radio, and Christians, along with Sarah Palin ever since 2008. Despite his Mr. Clean looks, I felt like taking a shower after hearing only a few minutes of his monotonous speech on CSPAN TV last week. No wonder the honorable John McCain lost the presidency, having been handled by a guy who began his political career by helping Bill Bradley, was complimented by the NY Times, honors the Log Cabin Republicans (I don't want to know what they do with their...

WEST VALLEY CITY — The head of the Republican National Committee said Friday he believes voters may have moved beyond the bias against Mormonism that hurt Mitt Romney in last year's presidential election. Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Michael Steele said comments he made earlier this year about Romney being rejected by the GOP base because of his faith were "old news." "I was speaking to an attitude or a mindset at the time that I thought was unfortunate and I said that I think (Romney) proved just how unfortunate it...

Whether or not anyone prefers to acknowledge it, Mitt Romney is already the default, de facto Republican presidential nominee in 2012 – and, too, he is already the clear loser. Health care, singularly, will guarantee Barack Obama a second term – even if he never actually achieves meaningful “reform,” or even if he manages reform but it ends up becoming a festering, hemorrhaging mess … like anything the government runs. Sure, the health care issue appears to be a political landmine for Obama right now, but he just can’t lose for winning, and there’s no area in which that rings...