Free Republic

Republicans might not particularly like Mitt Romney, but they may have to learn to live with him if they want to take the White House next year. So suggests a poll released today by Purple Strategies, which surveys voters in 12 swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. President Obama's approval rating in the swing states is in peril -- just 41% overall and 37% among independents -- but his saving grace seems to be that voters there are even more sour on the Republican candidates. This critical block...

This time, Mitt Romney has a clear pitch: I'm the strongest Republican to challenge President Barack Obama on the country's single biggest issue — the economy. "He created a deeper recession, and delayed the recovery," Romney said Saturday, previewing his campaign message before Republicans in this influential early nominating state. "The consequence is soaring numbers of Americans enduring unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies. This is the Obama Misery Index, and it is at a record high." "It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work — it's going to take a new president," said the former...

In the days immediately before and after passage of the landmark health care reform bill, Mitt Romney responded so forcefully as to suggest his own political fate is tied to the new law. It may well be. Just as health care, or “Obamacare,” as it is derided on the right, hangs over this year’s midterm elections, it is already casting a shadow on the 2012 presidential contest — and its GOP front-runner. What was once thought to be an asset for Romney, his passage as Massachusetts governor of a health care mandate for the state’s residents, now poses a potentially...

Washington » The snows that obliterated Washington last week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously. Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself. This was not the first time that Palin has impressed me. I gave her high marks for...

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those reading 2012 implications out of Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney’s monthly PAC newsletter provides some insights. Brown, R-Mass., is featured in two pictures in the newsletter, and Romney takes full ownership of his victory: “As supporters of the PAC, you deserve a thank you,” the newsletter from Romney’s Free Strong America PAC reads. “Your support made it possible for Governor Romney to get behind Senator Brown from the very beginning, when polls showed him a 30-point underdog and everyone assumed the outcome was pre-ordained in favor of the Democrats.” “Governor...