Free Republic

The race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination has started, though the election itself is 32 months away. Even in a place so brash and up-front as the United States there is some subtlety, at least at this stage, about the process. Sarah Palin, beloved of much of middle America despite her limitations, is doing the equivalent of turning up at weddings and bar mitzvahs and, as we say in Britain, putting herself about. However Mitt Romney, the man deemed by America's media to be the front runner, is (as his greater experience would seem to dictate) more sophisticated in...

SAN FRANCISCO Political speculation swirls. Meg Whitman, billionaire former eBay CEO and leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California, supposedly prefers not to run in tandem with Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination to run against the three-term Democrat Barbara Boxer. Fiorina, who advised John McCain's presidential campaign, was mentioned as his possible running mate. Whitman supposedly thinks two female former tech tycoons on the ticket would be one too many. Furthermore, Whitman supposedly harbors national ambitions, perhaps as 2012 vice presidential running mate with Mitt Romney, her business mentor and...