Free Republic

It's becoming clear that Romney has decided to focus on the economy at the expense of everything else, even issues that could play to his political benefit. He's avoided criticizing the administration's handling of the botched Fast and Furious operation, even as it threatens to become a serious vulnerability for the president. He's been silent in responding to Obama's immigration executive order, not wanting to offend receptive Hispanics or appear like a flip-flopper. He appears more likely to tap a safe, bland running mate like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty who won't do him any...

Prominent Dems including White House chief of staff Jack Lew and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have repeatedly argued in recent days that the fee for not buying insurance under the health care law is in fact a penalty and not a tax. They got support from an unexpected quarter on Monday: the Romney campaign. Mitt Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Daily Rundown that he agrees - the fee is a penalty and not a tax, as the Supreme Court ruled last week. "The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court," Fehrnstrom said. "He...

DECEMBER 31, 2007) MassResistance is the major pro-family activist group in Massachusetts. We've been fighting for pro-family causes here since the early 1990s. We saw the Romney administration close up (although very few social conservatives were actually involved in it). We're disturbed at recent claims that Romney's campaign is making about his record. We offer the following to set the record straight. (See our Romney Report, published in November 2006.) Basically, Mitt Romney campaigned - and governed - as a social liberal. Sodomy laws and domestic partner benefits. When campaigning for governor, Romney told the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows that...

Mitt Romney's plastic and philosophically vapid campaign secured an easy victory in Florida on Tuesday night. Sunshine state GOP voters swallowed his "electability" argument whole, according to the exit polls. It appears that country club Republicans have succeeded again in duping the GOP electorate into crowning a "centrist" Republican. Never mind that "centrist" Republicans rarely win the center. They usually lose the center while sapping the spirit of the party's conservative base. Out of Bob Dole's and John McCain's tattered Big Tent steps another "reformed" RINO, Mitt Romney, who will receive, should he win the nomination, a similar thumping from...

Winning in politics isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. But how important a factor electability should be in a voter’s calculation remains very much in the eye of the beholder, leading to an active debate within the parties about who has the best chance to win next November — and how much it should matter. That fight is played out every four years as the two parties pick their presidential nominees. The party establishment — and many members of the media — tend to focus heavily on electability while the party’s activist base prizes ideological alignment. “Electability usually doesn’t matter...

In 1972, Brazilian biologist Francisco Varela introduced the concept of “autopoiesis,” which explains the process by which cells regenerate and replace themselves. According to the theory, human cells die and are replaced; so every ten years or so, you are literally an entirely different person than you were before. So if you called your car-insurance company to tell them the speeding ticket you got in 1998 wasn’t you, you’d actually be right. Seeing as how I’m reaching the end of my 30s, I figure I’m due a new body. I hope model 4.0 will be taller and skinnier; if it’s...

For any other candidate, raining on a presidential announcement parade would be seen as sabotage. Not former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The 2012 presidential candidate told CNN’s Piers Morgan Monday that he wasn’t offended when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire on the same day he was set to formally announce his intention to seek the 2012 GOP nomination for president. In fact, though Romney shared his plans one week in advance and Palin insisted on keeping the destination of her top-secret bus tour under wraps until the day before her New...

As the field of prospective Republican presidential candidates for 2012 begins to take shape, one name keeps rising to the fore: Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, Romney makes me uneasy like few other "conservatives" do. As this is about to publish, it appears likely that Romney will officially announce his candidacy soon. Yet I cannot, will not, endorse this man, for three key reasons.

Sarah Palin emerged today from the Marriott Long Wharf hotel and said she planned to walk the Freedom Trail before heading to New Hampshire – where Mitt Romney is to announce his presidential candidacy today. “Coincidental that we’re in the same territory at the same time,’’ said Palin, a likely Republican presidential candidate. “But more power to Mitt… and best of luck to him.’’ Palin said she remains undecided on whether she will challenge Romney and other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

Stalking-horse definition: 1)Means to disguising a real objective 2)A deceptive candidate who is on the ballot or enters an election only to divide the opposition (eg conservative vote) so that his friend or ally can win the election coming up the middle In sports, there is an old saying: A team doesn't control its own destiny. In other words a team finds that it has to rely on another team not doing well or screwing up in order to advance to the playoffs themselves. In respect to the GOP primaries, CONSERVATIVES do control their own destiny. Roughly for every 1...

The Mama Grizzly is coming out of hibernation. This weekend, Sarah Palin is launching her "One Nation" bus tour, visiting historical sites across the country. Palin will start on Memorial Day at the Rolling Thunder weekend motorcycle rally that starts at the Pentagon. Where it will end has yet to be announced. But given Palin's other recent move—the announcement of a feature-length film on her tenure as governor—it looks as if her ultimate destination may be the White House. Whatever Mitt Romney had on his plate for Memorial Day, he'd better make room. If we assume—for the purposes of page...

Mitt Romney 25% Sarah Palin 16% Newt Gingrich 11% Everybody else below 6%

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney announced this afternoon that a veteran public relations consultant was joining his burgeoning campaign as a senior adviser. Mark DeMoss is currently president of the DeMoss Group, which is a large Atlanta-based public relations agency that focuses on serving Christian leaders, businesses, and non-profit organizations. SNIP The campaign press release did not mention any religious component to DeMoss’s role, although in 2008 he was on the Romney campaign’s Faith and Values Steering Committee and spoke out prominently about why evangelical Christians should not discount Romney because of his Mormon faith. DeMoss said in an interview later...

A series of messages forwarded to The Daily Caller show a top aide to former Alaska Gov. and possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin mocking top political figures and even her boss’s own daughter, Bristol Palin. RedState.com founder and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is “a total douchebag,” wrote Palin speechwriter and domestic policy adviser Rebecca Mansour in a May 22, 2010, message. “Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.” (Erickson said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley invited him to the rally). Mitt Romney supporters are “wacky as hell,” Mansour wrote,...

Herman Cain leads presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney as the top choice of Republican primary voters in the race for the 2012 Presidential nomination. Among all voters, no one in a list of 13 possible GOP candidates leads President Barack Obama.

About a year ago, I thought a Daniels-Ryan GOP ticket for the 2012 presidential race would have been ideal. Alas, Gov. Mitch Daniels is not running for the presidency. Neither is Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, John Thune, or Jim DeMint. Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and Jeb Bush probably won’t run either. Paul Ryan would still make a good VP choice, but he isn’t running for president. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, and Rick Santorum are all “dark horse” candidates. They stand little chance. Jon Huntsman is too liberal (and was in the Obama...

The race to win the GOP presidential nomination – is gearing up. It, too, has a large field, but this race is a marathon that takes four years to complete. Now, the time has come to begin handicapping the 2012 primary race. This list represents a snapshot of a moment in time, with fluid odds and a constantly changing field. Keep in mind that if this list were compiled a year ago, Mark Sanford's name would have been included – and possibly John Ensign as well. But that's horse-racing. Just ask the owners of Eskendereya, the consensus favorite to win...

John Ziegler posted an editorial on his website highlighting Gov. Palin's decision not to accept an invitation to attend this year's CPAC conference (see yesterday's excellent post by TR and Doug for more on the background to this decision). You may remember that Ziegler confronted David Keene about his anything-but-conservative record as ACU chairman during last year's WCPAC conference, leading him to conclude that [T]he vast majority of the conservative “movement” is “led” by fakes, flakes, freaks, frauds, phonies and sell outs who are far more interested in protecting their own little thiefdoms than promoting the cause. It seems Gov....