Free Republic

 For Senator Jim DeMint, the prospect of Mitt Romney securing the GOP nomination sooner rather than later is a good thing.  In remarks made on Thursday that were reported by CNN, the reliably conservative South Carolinian and Tea Party favorite suggested that closing out the Republican presidential contest means "we [Republicans] can focus on the real problem which is Obama."At this point in the nominating fight, the delegate math is strongly working against Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.  It would take more than Hail Mary passes for either man to win the Republican nomination; it would take near miracles.After a...

On today’s Martha MacCallum Fox News Channel interview, former (liberal state) New Hampshire Governor John Sununu made astonishing statements on Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts record that look to be the opposite of what Mitt Romney’s actual record has been reported to be. But don’t take my word for it, you decide: Sununu stated that as Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney cut spending and taxes: Romney consistently likes to paint himself as a turnaround artist in Massachusetts claiming he “closed a nearly $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes” while Governor. The facts do not back this up. According to Jason Szep...

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney sought to use the coveted endorsement of Jeb Bush on Wednesday to amplify his call for Republicans to rally behind his candidacy and get on with the mission of ousting President Obama............... But if the endorsement held the potential to further choke off the oxygen to Mr. Santorum’s insurgent candidacy, the Romney campaign inadvertently gave Mr. Santorum a new supply when a senior adviser went on CNN and seemed to suggest that Mr. Romney’s conservative positions in the primary season could change like an Etch a Sketch drawing. “I think you hit a reset button for...

Thanks to some remarkable reporting from Big Hollywood, it has become increasingly clear the upcoming HBO movie "Game Change" is less a political melodrama than an all-out attempt to destroy the person and reputation of Sarah Palin. The movie is based on a poorly researched book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, and it was criticized at the time of its publication by Howard Kurtz, then a media reporter for the Washington Post, and the New York Times for its overreliance on unsourced "deep background" interviews that were difficult to verify. Two of those sources have been revealed, according to...

John Hinderaker encapsulates an assumption which has started to take hold among many of Mitt Romney’s backers: that the fault for what appears to be an increasingly likely 2012 election loss lies with conservatives for making this a real primary. Speaking of the see-saw of not-Romney candidates, he writes: The same pattern has been repeated more than once during the current, discouraging presidential nominating process. If the GOP loses this year’s presidential contest, the party will have no one to blame but its own activists. I'm hearing this meme repeated by many increasingly dejected Romney supporters around Washington, D.C. See,...

Back in the thick of the 2008 Republican presidential race, I asked a captain of American finance what he had made of Mitt Romney when they were young colleagues at Bain & Company. “Mitt was a nice guy, a smart businessman, and an excellent team player,” he ­responded without missing a beat. Then came the CEO’s one footnote, delivered with bemusement, not pique: “Still, whenever the rest of us would go out at the end of the day, we’d always find ourselves having the same conversation: None of us had any idea who this guy was.” Here we are in...

I haven't watched Fox News Channel since the day Fox and Drudge all went on their Romney brainwashing spree. Today I decided I would watch my television before browsing FR. Tried CNN, and within 15 seconds of turning on the channel there was some "news" about some gay guy. Sure it's possible, maybe something actually did happen to a gay guy this week, but I am certain there were at least 10,000 more important things which happened in the world just so far this morning than some gay guy. Media, just shut up about gay guys. We don't actually care...

On Friday, Ann Coulter turned up on Medved's radio show to talk about Mitt Romney. During the interview Coulter claimed that conservatives aren't going for Mitt because he's "too square". Coulter has not only jumped the shark by endorsing Romney in the first place, she's gone stupid. Conservatives don't like Romney for one obvious, glaring reason: he can't be trusted. Ann (along with many other Romney supporters) has become expert at providing lame excuses and explanations for Romney's past proclamations that he was "more gay-friendly" than Teddy Kennedy, has "always supported a woman's right to choose", and "doesn't want to...

H.R. 796, which Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich voted for, was intended to preserve the right of pro-lifers to protest at abortion clinics. In 1993, President Clinton proposed a law, supposedly to protect abortion clinics from violence. In reality, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act has been used to prevent pro-lifers from coming anywhere near abortion clinics, stifling their first-amendment rights. Pro-life Republicans and moderate Democrats (they existed back then) attempted passage of H.R. 796 to head off this threat to constitutional liberties. The bill would still create a federal law to prevent the physical obstruction of clinic...

At 10:45pm, MSNBC reported that 21% of the votes were in. Romney with 3642 votes (39%), and Gingrich with 2573 vote (27%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp: Six minutes later, at 10:51pm, MSNBC reported that only 19% of the votes were in -- Romney with 3569 votes (42%) and Gingrich with 2059 votes (25%). Here is the screen shot: And here is the screen shot with a time stamp:

Reporting from Port Saint Lucie, Fla.— Dubbed the "proxies with moxie," Mitt Romney's congressional backers have been crashing Newt Gingrich's events to offer a counterpoint to the former House speaker's remarks. It's an unusual tactic to begin with, but their collisions with Gingrich's testy spokesman, R.C. Hammond, have made their sparring into the campaign trail's version of must-see TV. Gingrich said he doesn't mind their presence, which he said is a sign of desperation by Romney. "They send a member of Congress, we send R.C. It's a slight overmatch — R.C.'s a little bit more informed than they are, but...

. . . of online media manipulation isn’t exactly new. In fact, it goes back well before Romney’s 2008 campaign got underway in earnest. It seems to date back to sometime in 2005, when RNC operatives arranged a meeting between Matt Drudge and Matt Rhodes — a highly placed operative in the Romney organization. Last year, a delegation of RNC officials flew to Miami Beach, where Drudge lives, for a dinner at the Forge steakhouse to introduce the Internet maven to Matt Rhodes, the party’s new opposition research director. Due to Drudge’s now-close friendship with Romney’s chief aide and longtime...

Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate...

In the middle of last night’s debate, I actually tweeted about it because the difference was audible: Mitt Romney’s applause, for the first time that I can remember, was louder than Newt Gingrich’s. The Gingrich campaign can think of just one possible explanation as to how Mitt Romney could have inspired such a response in his audience: He must have unfairly packed the hall. “They definitely packed the room,” Kevin Kellems, one of Gingrich’s senior advisers, told The Huffington Post early Friday morning. “The problem for them is their candidate, at several junctures, couldn’t remember what he had said before...

(CNN) - Mitt Romney's campaign released a blistering new Florida television ad against Newt Gingrich on Monday, eight days before the Sunshine State's presidential primary. "If Newt wins, this guy would be very happy," the ad's narrator says, as a photo of a smiling President Barack Obama appears on screen. The 30-second commercial, "Florida Families," is set to air statewide in Florida. In a part of the country that saw large amounts of home foreclosures, the ad particularly strikes Gingrich over his time as a consultant at mortgage giant Freddie Mac. "While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis,...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV)-- Mitt Romney took the stage in front of hundreds of supporters and thanked them for their help in taking second place in South Carolina. "Thank you so very much," he said to the crowd. "You should hear it when we win!" He went on to thank South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and his campaign staff and told the people of South Carolina that he owed them "so much." But in the end, it was another candidate who walked away with the primary win. "I want to congratulate speaker Gingrich for a hard fought race," said Romney. "Tomorrow...

Last night, BuzzFeed got a hold of the 2008 John McCain campaign's research book on Mitt Romney. In over 200 painstakingly researched pages, it notes every slip-up, political fib, and potential liability for Romney going forward. And of course it picks apart all the times Romney has said one thing, and then when the political winds changed, said something else. Read more: 14 Bald-Faced Mitt Romney Flip-Flops That Were Dug Up By John McCain

A recount of the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican caucus results has Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination by 34 votes, with data from 8 precincts missing and never to be certified, GOP officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday. Despite Santorum's advantage, the state Republican party views the results as a wash.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iowa Republican Party will certify this month's presidential caucuses as a split decision between former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, citing missing data from eight precincts, the Des Moines Register reported on Thursday.

Newt Gingrich appeared incredulous after being told of the latest attacks by GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney. ”Wait, wait, wait.  Hold on. They’re saying I helped re-elect a Democrat?” Mr. Gingrich told reporters in Winnsboro, S.C., adding, “That’s just stupid.” Earlier Wednesday, the Romney campaign set up a conference call with two former lawmakers who lashed out at his leadership as House speaker, saying it helped to re-elect President Bill Clinton. The campaign also released a new Web ad,  calling him “unreliable.”Mr. Gingrich said he helped create the GOP’s first House majority since 1928. “So what did Mitt Romney do?  Who...