Free Republic

Flip through any list of Republicans running for president or probably running or maybe thinking of running, and you'll find at least a couple dozen names. From Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty to Michele Bachmann, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump, it's a potentially vast field peppered with outsize personalities and also folks who make you say, "who?" Why so many? "Because people perceive vulnerability in President Obama," says Darrell West, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "We have high unemployment, we have 2-1/2 wars, and there's a lot of contentiousness surrounding health care. So nobody's afraid to take on...

It is tempting -- very, very tempting -- to write off Willard "Mitt" Romney as a serious contender for next year's Republican presidential nomination. And, in fact, several knowledgeable observers already have. Romney, in case you haven't heard, embraced a healthcare reform law in Massachusetts five years ago that ended up being the model for the national program that President Obama pushed through Congress without a single Republican vote last year. He's also dogged by the impression that he's an unusually spineless opportunist (the result of the extraordinary pains he took to win over socially liberal voters in Massachusetts before...

When Mitt Romney returns to New Hampshire on Saturday to make his first public appearance since prior to the 2010 midterm election, he will have two key Republicans from the North Country and Lakes Region behind his likely presidential bid. Veteran Executive Councilor Raymond Burton of Bath and state Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley of Wolfeboro told the Primary Status they will endorse the former Massachusetts governor should he run, as is expected. They cited his background in the private sector and experience as governor as the best formula for growing the economy, creating jobs and reducing the deficit. Neither...