Free Republic

Dear Iowa Caucus participants, You have been told for the better part of year now who it is that you must choose. Beltway insiders have insisted upon thrusting establishment candidates upon you. Libertarian anarchists have swopped into your state shouting that you must support Ron Paul, while toking on the marijuana they soon believe President Paul will make legal. You've been openly mocked by Governor John Huntsman from Utah--who ironically seeks your support. Ann Coulter has defied every conservative principal she's ever espoused by trying to brainwash you into thinking that Mitt Romney is the best that you have to...

The last Des Moines Register poll before Tuesday's Iowa caucuses was just released. Conducted from Tuesday to Friday, Mitt Romney leads with 24 percent, followed by Ron Paul at 22 percent, and Rick Santorum at 15 percent. Newt Gingrich is at 12 percent, Rick Perry 11 percent, and Michele Bachmann at 7 percent. Consider the last two days of polling separately, however, and it's Romney at 24 percent, Santorum at 21 percent, and Paul in third at 18 percent. "Momentum's name is Rick Santorum," said Register pollster J. Ann Selzer. That said, looking at only the last two days raises...

When Mitt Romney introduces himself to voters, he has a peculiar habit of guessing their age or nationality, often incorrectly. (A regular query: “Are you French Canadian?”) When making small talk with locals, he peppers the conversation with curious details. (“We stayed in the Courtyard hotel last night,” he told a woman at a diner. “It’s a LEED-certified hotel.”) And when he encounters a question he particularly dislikes, he smiles politely and behaves as if it never happened. (“Will you put Ron Paul in your cabinet?” a man asked. The candidate turned away, inquiry left unanswered.)

(excerpt...see article for more!) There are plenty of blatantly incorrect opinions about the Republican presidential primary floating around and some of them are perched in some rather prominent places... ... But none that I have seen has been more obviously and dangerously flawed than John Hawkins' column entitled "7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability is a Myth," which was recently posted at Townhall. ...And since Mr. Hawkins gave seven reasons why Romney's electability is a myth, in the spirit of conservative cooperation I offer the seven most underrated reasons that Romney is indeed the most electable Republican presidential candidate....

<p>Mitt Romney is zero for two when it comes to transparency in campaigning.</p> <p>First, Romney, breaking with the practice of previous Republican presidential candidates.....has refused to release the identities of his bundlers, the well-connected fundraisers who help the campaign haul in stacks of checks adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars....</p>

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a conservative. At least, that is the point the former Massachusetts governor is trying to make with a new TV ad airing in Iowa. The new ad, titled “Conservative Agenda,” shows Romney speaking on the stump and meeting with voters, as he makes a series of commitments. “I am going to do something to government. I’m going to make it ‘Simpler, and Smaller, and Smarter,’” Romney says. “Getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally making government itself more efficient.” Romney pledges to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul and balance...

Mitt Romney said he will not release his tax returns if he wins the Republican nomination for president, a rare move for a candidate. When asked if he would, Romney, in an unaired segment of an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, said that he doesn’t “intend to” release the returns. “I doubt it. I will provide all the financial info, which is an extraordinary pile of documents which show investments and so forth,” he said, according to video provided by NBC. When Todd pointed out that Romney had asked Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to release his returns during their 1994...

Some foreign policy experts who joined Mitt Romney's campaign have lobbying and business backgrounds that could shape the advice they give to the Republican presidential candidate. Their interests include lobbying against cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan and ties to defense companies with government contracts for cybersecurity, Navy shipbuilding and ballistic missile interceptors — all issues that Romney has cited in recent ... Former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, named last week as a special adviser to Romney on foreign policy, lobbied this year for the Council on Pakistan Relations, a U.S.-based support group trying to stave off reduced economic aid...

Boston Globe: On his financial disclosure statement filed last month, Romney reported owning between $250,001 and $500,000 in a mutual fund that invests in debt notes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among other government entities. Over the previous year, he had reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in interest from those investments. And unlike most of Romney's financial holdings, which are held in a blind trust that is overseen by a trustee and not known to Romney, this particular investment was among those that would have been known to Romney. The investment was also not on Romney’s 2007 financial...

Commentary from a frequent guest on KTRH's Michael Berry show. Endorsement comes toward the end of the audio.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: If you'll recall, I and I alone, I believe, El Rushbo long ago predicted to you, or opined that the Occupy Wall Street movement was a creation of the regime's, because Romney is perceived as Wall Street. They want Romney, and they assume they're going to be running against Romney, and who could blame them. I mean, if you're the Obama regime and you take a look conservative media today, you would have to assume that the Republican Party also wants Romney. Okay, it's inevitable. So you gear up for Romney.

DES MOINES -- On Saturday afternoon at a megachurch in Des Moines, the Republican presidential candidates will gather -- with a notable exception. ....To add insult to injury, he [Mitt Romney] will be spending the day in New Hampshire. [SNIP] "Governor Branstad has enormous respect for Governor Romney, but he has decided it's time to hold his feet to the fire," Albrecht said. Steve Scheffler, head of another Iowa social conservative group, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, also hosted six candidates -- but no Romney -- at a forum last month. "I think he's arrogant," Scheffler said bluntly in...

With all the chaos surrounding the Republican nomination race, one thing is very clear: somewhere along the way, Mitt Romney made a Damn Yankees-like pact with Satan to score this group of individuals to run against. It is certain that a vast majority of Republican primary voters do not like Mitt Romney. In fact, we can go further – they can’t stand him. That’s why he’s never broken 30 percent in any national poll of Republican primary voters. That’s why Tea Party support has shuffled from Michele Bachmann to Rick Perry to Herman Cain. Sadly, though, none of those candidates...

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk hasn't endorsed a GOP candidate for president, but it's looking more and more like he's on Mitt Romney's team. Kirk said Monday the field is getting down to "Romney and the anti-Romney," listing all of the GOP darlings -- Palin, Bachman, Trump et al -- that have fallen by the wayside. "The underlying story is the rise and rise of Mitt Romney," Kirk said. In regards to the Herman Cain sexual harassment controversy, Kirk said Cain "needs to respond and respond completely." "I do think his story is largely ending," Kirk said. "The critical thing is...

The presidential debates are Mitt Romney-centric: He gets more time on camera than any other candidate, offering some quantifiable proof that, indeed, Mr. Romney is the “inevitable” candidate — the mainstream media’s preferred choice for Republican nominee. A delightfully nitpicky review of recent debates by the University of Minnesota categorizes the ongoing debates as “the Mitt Show,” faulting the “grossly unequal distribution of face time.”

..money is the tool Mr. Romney has deployed the most widely. In the last three years, a constellation of political action committees set up by Mr. Romney in states like Alabama, Michigan and New Hampshire has tapped into his far-flung network of national donors. In turn, an analysis by The New York Times determined, those committees, under the names Commonwealth PAC and Free and Strong America PAC, have made contributions totaling more than $400,000 to about 300 local elected officials and party organizations in 31 states. Mr. Romney’s federal political action committee has donated an additional $1.2 million, including checks...

This is commentary on how the media picked Saruman(R-AZ) in 2008, in comparison to the current 2012 race. Michelle Bachmann was made to appear 'wacky'. Then Perry, the same. Remember the "big black cloud"? Now the media is trying to say he was drunk at the last debate. Now Cain and this stupid politico scandal. They're being whackified. But what of 2008? Who remembers how Huckabee was made out to be a religious whackjob? Thompson was made out to be a whacko because he didn't even want to be president. And then there's Romney. Romney was a whacko because of...

.....“Governor Perry has always released his tax returns and Mitt Romney and the other candidates should do the same.” If history is any indication, watch for Perry to push that theme hard, and for Romney to remain firm in his decision to keep his returns private. “We’ll take a look at the question of releasing tax returns during the next tax filing season,” says Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul about the Perry campaign’s request. By then, of course, the primary campaign could be effectively over. Perry communications director Ray Sullivan responds: “Governor Perry made a decision a long time ago in...

Is there anyone sane left in the GOP establishment? Does plain old common sense and gut instinct no longer matter to those who purport to speak for the party? Have conservative principles and traditional values become nothing more than meaningless rhetoric to those so desperate to hang on to imagined power? As the Republican establishment lines up like lemmings behind Mitt Romney, it would be illuminating and in fact critical to look at the news for just the last couple of days with regard to this untethered and pliable candidate. A good place to start would be Romney refusing to...

A ghost from 1968 haunts the campaign of Mitt Romney—and no, it’s not the memory of his father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, who stumbled as a leading GOP contender 43 years ago. For the younger Romney, the more worrisome blast from the past involves the campaign of Richard Nixon, who ultimately won the nomination by default but never managed to inspire real enthusiasm from the party faithful. As with Mitt, nearly all Republicans considered Nixon acceptable as a standard bearer as the former vice president positioned himself in the safe center of the party.But grassroots activists felt far...