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Rahm Emanuel to Mitt Romney: ‘Stop Whining’Jul 15, 2012 12:41pm Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said this morning on “This Week” that presumptive GOP nominee for president Mitt Romney should “stop whining” about attacks on his Bain record and just defend himself. “What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something to you or Putin says something to you?” said Emanuel. ”I give him his own advice. ’Stop whining.’ Defend — if you want to claim Bain Capital as your calling card to the White House, then defend what happened to Bain Capital.”

The Donald is back and better than ever. Today, Donald Trump explained that Mitt Romney should release his tax records … but not until Barack Obama releases his college records. “Obama should give his college applications and records – you talk about transparency,” said Trump. “We will learn more about Obama when we look at those college applications than any other thing that can happen.” President Obama has already refused repeatedly to hand over such records, lumping the entire topic in with talk about his birth certificate. Trump, of course, is eminently correct. Those who call for Romney to release...

In an interview with Republican strategist Steve Schmidt on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie portrayed Mitt Romney's decision not to release more tax returns as a sign of guilt: "Mitt Romney is within the letter of the law, but he's on the low end of the norm. Do you think that he's left the impression with voters that perhaps he does have something to hide?" A list appeared on screen of the amount of tax returns released by other presidential candidates in past years as Schmidt provided a bland response that only reinforced Guthrie's assertion: "...when you don't disclose...

Republicans fired back Monday after President Obama suggested business owners owe their success to government investment, with Mitt Romney's campaign calling the remark "insulting." The president made the comment Friday during a speech to supporters in Roanoke, Va. Arguing that business owners got help from others along the road to success and suggesting they should pay more in taxes in return, he said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told FoxNews.com on Monday that the remarks "reflect just how unqualified he is to lead us to a real...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum was back on the stump in his home territory of western Pennsylvania over the weekend, but this time in a new role: Mitt Romney's attack dog. "The republic is at stake," Santorum told a crowd gathered in the hot and cramped Victory Center, many of them wiping their brows. "One man is who we have to put our trust in to go out and fight that battle, and win that battle. And we must rally behind and do everything we possibly can to support Gov. Mitt Romney so he's the next president of the United States."...

'I’M SURE I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE ACCEPTING CONSEQUENCES FOR CALLING OUT BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE FOR SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY, PUTTING US ON THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY, AND ENGAGING IN CRONY CAPITALISM,' THE CONSERVATIVE FIREBRAND SAYS

PAWLENTY GETS A SECOND LOOK: Mitt Romney has already made his decision on who he’ll pick as his running mate, an announcement which could come this week, according to a New York Times report, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who shares a close relationship with the Romney family and has become an energetic cheerleader for the GOP nominee, sits at the top of the list four years after he was passed over for the number two spot by John McCain. “After a short-lived presidential bid of his own last year, Mr. Pawlenty is again being considered for the Republican...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting 46% of the vote, while President Obama earns 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) more are undecided.

The "Super PAC" backing Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney saw its best fundraising month yet in June, raising some $20 million and by far outpacing its chief rival group backing President Barack Obama. The pro-Obama Super PAC, Priorities USA Action, also had its best fundraising month in June but brought in $6.1 million.

"The only thing weaker than the economy is Mitt Romney's electoral skills." Such was actually said on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday by Rana Foroohar, Time magazine's assistant managing editor in charge of economics and business (video follows with transcript and commentary): Time Mag Editor: 'The Only Thing Weaker Than the Economy Is Romney's Electoral Skills' BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: Let me-- let me go to Rana because you-- you wrote something very interesting the other day. You said that since 1967 when consumer confidence is as low as it is right now the incumbent is always defeated. Does that mean...

[T]he Romney campaign has not asked Palin to speak at the convention nor contacted her about even attending the party’s marquee event in Tampa. Queries to the Romney camp about any possible Palin role at the convention meet with a stony silence. Palin does not seem surprised. “What can I say?” she responded in an email from Alaska, when asked by Newsweek about the convention, just before heading to Michigan to deliver an Obama-thumping speech. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on...

Bentley said that Romney’s refusal to release more returns has created a “distraction” that Democrats were successfully exploiting. “I just believe in total transparency,” Bentley told ABC News at the National Governors Association conference. “In fact, I was asked today that question — do you think that Governor Romney should release his tax returns? And I said I do. I said, I release my tax returns. I may be the only public official in Alabama that does, but I release mine every year and I just believe that people should release their tax returns. And if you get them out...

There are a lot of people who have been saying a lot of things about the way elections are run in the United States ever since the Supreme Court opened up new avenues of campaign spending in the Citizens United case. This wasn't always the case. Back in 2008 nary a word was heard when Barack Obama announced he would be the first general election candidate to refuse public funding for his presidential campaign, a good government safeguard in place since Watergate. If that were not bad enough, none of the so-called campaign watchdog groups showed any interest in the...

Raise your hand if you're surprised by this.  Dishonorable people behave dishonorably (click through for video):   Ed Schultz, MSNBC: "Now the Romney campaign wants President Obama to apologize for Stephanie Cutter's remarks, you heard earlier, we played on that conference call about Mitt Romney either being a liar or a potential felon. Will there be an apology?" Ben LaBolt, Obama campaign press secretary: "There won't be. You know, Mitt Romney has been telling voters, since he ran for office in Massachusetts, that he left Bain in 1999. And the Boston Globe reported today that that wasn't true. Actually, that's...

Mitt Romney will hold interviews today with ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News and CNN that will run this evening, sources tell POLITICO. The network interviews, which will be taped later this afternoon, will air during the nightly news casts. Jon Karl will interview Romney for ABC; Peter Alexander for NBC; and Jan Crawford for CBS. Jim Acosta will interview Romney for CNN. Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, which was called into question again yesterday, and his vice presidential pick will almost certainly be topics of discussion.

Rick Santorum will appear Saturday at an event for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, according to a Romney campaign official. The event, a campaign office opening outside of Pittsburgh, marks the first time Santorum will officially campaign for his former Republican primary foe...

There's not a ton of news coming out of Mitt Romney's interview tour on Bain Capital this evening. In an interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl, the Republican presidential candidate made this comment that would seem to deflate the latest Condi-for-VP boomlet: KARL: I want to ask you about a report that popped up about Condoleezza Rice being near the top of your list of potential running mates. I know you’re not talking about the vice presidential search process but just tell me this: you said earlier that your running mate will be pro-life. Do you still stand by that. ROMNEY:...

WILSON, Wyo. – Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Republican fundraisers Thursday night that Mitt Romney is the "only" man who can make the right decisions in unexpected foreign policy crises. The presumptive 2012 Republican presidential nominee called Cheney a "great American leader" -- and didn't mention former President George W. Bush in a 20-minute speech to a country club reception. Cheney said serving under four presidents taught him that a surprising international crisis is inevitable. "When I think about the kind of individual I want in the Oval Office in that moment of crisis, who has to make those...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Romney not backing down, here, grab audio sound bite 16. This is a new TV ad from the Romney campaign. It's titled "No Evidence." ROMNEY: I'm Mitt Romney, and I approve this message. ANNOUNCER: When a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? The Obama outsourcing attacks, misleading, unfair, and untrue. There was no evidence that Mitt Romney shipped jobs overseas. Candidate Obama lied about Hillary Clinton. HILLARY: So shame on you, Barack Obama. ANNOUNCER: But America expects more from a president. Obama's dishonest campaign, another reason America has lost confidence in...

A new television advertisement from the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacks President Barack Obama's campaign for spreading lies and dishonest attacks. Watch the ad, titled "No Evidence," here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L6b9F9IiAZw

OVERVIEW Despite the stagnant economy and broad dissatisfaction with national conditions, Barack Obama holds a significant lead over Mitt Romney. Currently, Obama is favored by a 50% to 43% margin among registered voters nationwide. Obama has led by at least a slim margin in every poll this year, and there is no clear trend in either candidate’s support since Romney wrapped up the GOP nomination. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 28-July 9, 2012 among 2,973 adults, including 2,373 registered voters, finds that Romney has not seized the advantage...

Has anyone noticed that Rasmussen has Romney winning or ahead in the 7 Toss Up States? If you scroll over each of the states it looks like a uphill battle for Obama. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/archive/2012_electoral_college_scoreboard

ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; SURPRISE NAME EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

The Romney campaign announced today that it raised $106.1 million in June, its best fundraising month to date. The money was raised by Romney for President, Romney Victory and the Republican National Committee. The campaign reported having $160 million on hand at the end of the month. June’s loot far exceeds May’s total of more than $76 million, out-raising the Obama campaign by $16 million. The Obama campaign has not yet released its own fundraising numbers for the month of June.

Kevin Madden, a Republican communications expert with long ties to Mitt Romney, will become a more frequent and visible spokesman for the presidential campaign, a source close to the decision said on Friday. The increased responsibilities for Mr. Madden came in the wake of criticism from nervous Republicans about Mr. Romney’s campaign team. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the campaign “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb.”

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has now secured at least 88 of the 155 delegates at stake in the Texas Primary, bringing his secured delegate total to 1174, 30 more than necessary to win the majority of the delegated needed for the GOP nomination. With 4% of Texas precincts now reporting, Romney has consistently maintained or increased a 60 point lead over his nearest competitor, Congressman Ron Paul. In the contested race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, David Dewhurst is holding a 48% to 31% lead over his nearest rival Ted Cruz in a nine person contest.

Mitt Romney’s campaign manager rejected efforts to use President Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in ads attacking the president, as reportedly planned by a “super PAC” working toward electing Mr. Romney in November. “Unlike the Obama campaign, Gov. Romney is running a campaign based on jobs and the economy, and we encourage everyone else to do the same,” the campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement on Thursday morning. “President Obama’s team said they would ‘kill Romney,’ and, just last week, David Axelrod referred to individuals opposing the president as ‘contract killers.’ It’s clear President Obama’s team...

Trent Lott famously said "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott said in an interview. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." - and I know what I think. I want to know what you think. Has she(Coulter) surrendered to the progressives within the republican establishment?

Mitt Romney was not his first choice for president, but conservative political activist Scott Magill has come to accept that Romney is now his only choice. So Magill is looking for reasons to get jazzed about the candidate he once dismissed. His list so far: Romney is a Republican who would sign into law legislation passed by a GOP-led House. Romney has started to hit the right talking points. If elected, Romney would have to listen to the conservative base - or risk its wrath at reelection time. Also, and perhaps most important, Romney is not Barack Obama. The conservative...

Fox News & CNN are projecting Romney wins MD in their banners. Santorum wasn't on the DC ballot. Wisconsin polls close at 8pm CDT/9pm EDT.

On Wednesday, former Florida Governor and Republican Party heavyweight Jeb Bush endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. But some believe the Bush endorsement may actually have more to do with Sarah Palin (and her tacit endorsements of Newt Gingrich) than Mitt Romney. "I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party¹s nomination," Bush announced Wednesday. "We face huge challenges, and we need a leader who understands the economy, recognizes more government regulation is not the answer, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism and works to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to succeed." To state categorically that some in...

No link yet. I'm just seeing it on CNN. Reuters said Fox called it as well.

As reality began to sink in to the losing McCain presidential campaign in late October 2008, a senior communications adviser, Brian Jones, sent out a comprehensive strategic memo seeking to protect campaign manager Steve Schmidt‘s reputation, the central figure in the HBO political drama Game Change, Politico’s Maggie Haberman reports. “A week out from the election, named and unnamed sources are beginning to pin some of the blame for McCain’s likely defeat on Steve Schmidt,” Jones wrote in the memo. “Thankfully, and rightfully so, some members of the political punditry are already coming to his defense (Rove, McKinnon, Scarborough), however...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends). Looking at Tuesday's upcoming primaries, the GOP race in Alabama is essentially a three-way tie, while Mitt Romney leads by eight in Mississippi. Nationally, Romney now leads Rick Santorum by 12 points. Regardless of who they want to win, 80% of Republican Primary Voters nationwide believe Romney will be the party's nominee. With the...

Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he’s “not going to say outrageous things about the president.” Trouble with that statement is that “outrageous” is a pretty subjective adjective. Outrageous to whom? Apparently, Romney meant to say he’s not going to say anything about the president that would outrage the left — because he doesn’t seem to be afraid to say something about the president that would outrage the right. In fact, he did just that earlier today, when he essentially said the president shouldn’t be held responsible for the high price of gas. “I think people recognize that the president can’t precisely...

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign gathered the national press corps in their campaign war room this morning to deliver a simple message: It would take an "act of God" for any candidate not named Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination. The Boston-based campaign projected confidence in Romney's ability to win the nomination given the emerging delegate math in the campaign following last night's Super Tuesday contests. "We will get to 1,144 whether it's on someone else’s timeline, or on our timeline," said one top Romney aide. "We will get to 1,144 and be the Republican nominee." The background briefing...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Mitt Romney leads Rick Santorum by 16 percentage points in Feb. 29-March 4 Gallup Daily tracking of national Republican registered voters' preferences for their party's nomination. Romney is at 38%, Santorum 22%, Newt Gingrich 15%, and Ron Paul 12%. Santorum led Romney by 10 points as recently as Feb. 20. Romney's current 38% of the vote is the highest percentage any candidate has obtained since Gallup Daily tracking of the race began on Dec. 1, and comes in the wake of Romney's wins in the Feb. 28 Michigan and Arizona primaries. Romney won the Washington state GOP...

DETROIT, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney was a double winner Tuesday, capturing the Michigan and Arizona Republican presidential primaries, results showed. The Detroit Free Press declared Romney the victor over his GOP rivals in Michigan. With about 74 percent of the precincts counted, Romney had 317,258 votes (41 percent) to Rick Santorum's 286,530 (37 percent), results posted by the Free Press showed. Ron Paul was third with 88,521 votes (12 percent) and Newt Gingrich followed with 50,726 votes (7 percent). Another 2 percent voted "uncommitted" and a handful of votes went to several other Republicans who are no longer...

For those out there loving the current Republican race but worrying that it has become somewhat orthodox in appearance and stable in candidates and support numbers, fear not: ABC News’ Jonathan Karl has the blind item for you. In the most mysterious and, for the GOP, worrisome dispatch on the Republican field in a while, Karl reports that a “prominent Republican senator” told him that the Party will not stand for a Mitt Romney loss in Michigan, and that he expects a result like that to lead the Senator to “publicly call for the party to find a new candidate,”...

After Gingrich Newt scored a surprise blow-out victory in South Carolina last week, the former Massachusetts governor not only unleashed a political broadside of epic proportions. "It not about winning here anymore," one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. "It's about destroying Gingrich — and it's working." After two standout debate performances that put him up 9 points in recent polls, Romney is keeping the pressure on Gingrich, looking to score a blow-out victory of his own here. To that end, Romney has rolled out a team of surrogates in the Sunshine State to take the fight to Gingrich in person: from...

Facing the unthinkable here just seven days ago — a second loss in a row to Newt Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s campaign team hatched a two-part plan to win in Florida: make Newt mad and Mitt meaner. -snip- A team of some of the most fearsome researchers in the business, led by Mr. Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, spent days dispensing negative information about Mr. Gingrich, much of it finding its way to the influential Drudge Report, which often serves as a guide for conservative talk radio and television assignment editors and to which Mr. Rhoades has close ties. The...

Not too many months ago, likely voters trusted Republicans over Democrats on all ten top issues. It was probably too much to expect those heady days to continue, and I suspect that the GOP presidential primary season has damaged the party’s standing. That is unfortunate: if the Republican candidates had devoted their energies to non-stop attacks on President Obama, the result would have been positive. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and the bashing of fellow Republicans that we have seen over the last couple of months has no doubt damaged the party’s brand.

MIAMI — Facing the unthinkable here just seven days ago — a second loss in a row to Newt Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s campaign team hatched a two-part plan to win in Florida: make Newt mad and Mitt meaner. [snip] If Mr. Romney does win here on Tuesday, it will have been through a blistering and unrelenting series of attacks. His campaign has pressed everything at its disposal into service to eviscerate Mr. Gingrich, painting him as an erratic, unreliable Washington insider in mailings and television advertisements, at two critical debates here (where his team made sure Mr. Romney had...

The Romney campaign sends along a statement by Bob Dole pasted below. Relations between Dole — an establishment figure in the party — and Gingrich were well known to be tense during the 1990s. Here it is: I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a...

Jon Huntsman has halted his campaign for president, leaving Romney the only serious choice on foreign policy.

Trolling a bit admittedly, but it appears that even if Romney secures the nomination, he is destined to lose due to good, old-fashioned religious bigotry.

There's been a fair amount of chatter/concern that the importance of Florida's Republican primary could be dramatically diluted if the RNC further penalizes the state for its early primary by allocating its delegates proportionally, rather than winner-take-all. After all, divvying up 50 delegates four or five ways would make the state a lot smaller prize for the winner. On a conference call with reporters today, however, RNC officials all but dismissed the prospects for Florida losing its winner-take-all status. As it is the state's number of delegates will be slashed from 99 to 50, and there is no mechanism to...

US election 2012: Mitt Romney On Course For Historic Double Victory Mitt Romney could strike a decisive early blow in the contest to pick the Republican party’s presidential nominee by becoming the first candidate ever to win both the first two states to vote, opinion polls suggest. By Jon Swaine 01 Jan 2012 The former Massachusetts governor leads the party field both in Iowa, where tomorrow’s caucuses will give the candidates their first test, and in New Hampshire, where voters go to the polls next Tuesday. If successful, Mr Romney would become the first Republican challenger in the modern primary...

My choice for President is Mitt Romney. I just shuddered at that statement. But there it is. There is the reality that 13 debates, months of bickering and intrigue, and countless discussions with conservative brethren have brought me. It is kind of a sad reality. Is this the best conservatives could do? So here has been my calculation for who I would support, from the beginning. First, the candidate must be electable and able to defeat Barack Obama, both electorally and intellectually. Second, they must broaden the base of the Republican Party, both on the conservative and moderate sides. Third,...

Time to close ranks behind Romney. He will beat Obama.