Free Republic

Election '12: The Republican presidential front-runner is oddly silent on Washington's momentous budget talks. Mitt Romney can run, but he can't hide his positions forever. Massachusetts' former governor went to North Hollywood, Calif., on Wednesday with a "what else is new?" observation. "The president's policies almost without question have caused this recession to be deeper and longer than it would have been," he said. There's no "almost without question" about it. But it takes more to be elected president than pointing out what 14 million unemployed Americans — 6.3 million of them out of work for more than six months...

The presidential field may be wide open, but one candidate is playing the role of the inevitable front-runner, as his performance at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference this weekend shows. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought with him to the event a large entourage that stayed for several days, while most other potential candidates dropped in and out of the conference to make their speeches and headline a reception or two. Other serious contenders brought just a few key staffers, but many didn't even have their top political aide in tow. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas...

With the latest poll showing him within striking distance, GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker hopes a shot of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s star power combined with a bid to revive outrage over a welfare abuse scandal will drive supporters to the polls and push him over the top in a neck-and-neck race with Gov. Deval Patrick. “I’m thrilled to have a chance to campaign with (Brown). . . . I think it’s going to be the kind of thing that’s going to help us close the deal for Tuesday,” Baker said yesterday at a campaign event outside South Station. The...

Mitt Romney has to be scratching his head. "What did I ever do to him?" The "him" in this case is former three-term Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, who came out of left field Monday to accuse Romney, a Republican, of being "a lousy governor" when Romney served as chief executive for one four-year term ending in 2006. Dukakis, politically inactive since leaving the Statehouse in 1990 after a failed bid for president against George H.W. Bush in 1988, let loose with a surprising critical barrage against Romney during a videotaped interview with the State House News Service. Read...

'It all depends on the voters,' he said. 'This thing is not a done deal.' These were the words of Dick Morris on Fox News this evening as he described the Sunday vote on ObamaCare--the 2 trillion dollar takeover of the U.S. Healthcare System. Morris, who worked for Bill Clinton, stated that for every Congressman who changes his/her vote to 'yes' the opposition is matching with those who change their vote to 'no.'

The Massachusetts treasurer said Tuesday that Congress will "threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years" if it adopts a health care overhaul modeled after the Bay State's. Treasurer Timothy Cahill - a former Democrat running as an independent for governor - said the 2006 law has succeeded only because of huge subsidies and favorable regulatory changes from the federal government.

(snip) Hoping to pull in some more cash for the final stretch of the general election, the Brown campaign also circulated a fundraising letter penned by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). Romney touts Brown's credentials as a fiscal conservative while also noting, in bold, that he would become the critical 41st Republican vote against the health care bill when it comes back to the Senate for final passage. Democrats passed the bill on Christmas Eve with 60 votes, just enough to overcome the prospect of a GOP filibuster. (snip)