Free Republic

Conservatives shouldn’t fret about the politics of their nearly-presumptive nominee. Mitt Romney will most certainly govern as one of them. He’s guaranteed to — for the exact reason they think he won’t. If Romney really is the political animal his detractors on the right suspect him to be, he’ll shape his presidency with a single goal: Winning a second term. To do that, he will need to make sure there is no running room on his right for someone to launch a primary challenge.

TAMPA, Fla. — As the Republican race moves to a state defined by the extremes in recession-era America — where the underwater and unemployed live just a few miles from the 1 percent — a sharp class divide is emerging between the two top contenders. Mitt Romney’s crowds look like something out of the president’s suite at a University of Florida football game — prosperous, trim, Tattersall-clad, and supportive but not rowdy. Newt Gingrich supporters, with their spray-painted signs, American flag tees, flip-flops and fanny packs, more closely resemble a group that would fit in nicely playing a few bucks...

Almost two-thirds of adult Facebook users in South Carolina say they aren't fans of the tea party, according to a Facebook poll conducted today with POLITICO. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they are "not at all supportive" of the tea party, compared with 20 percent who were "somewhat supportive" and 18 percent who were "very supportive." Of those surveyed, women were slightly less supportive of the tea party. Just 35 percent were either "somewhat" or "very" supportive of the movement, compared with 42 percent among men. The results only represent the sentiment of South Carolina users on Facebook, not...

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa – The high water mark of Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign may have been November 27th, the day the New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed his candidacy for president. The famously conservative paper’s endorsement was a priceless gift. The former House Speaker proceeded to squander it. In doing so, Gingrich revealed that he learned all the wrong lessons from his campaign’s collapse this summer and none of the right ones from his remarkable comeback. Instead of seizing the moment and making an aggressive case for why the contest was now a two-man race between a movement conservative and flip-flopping moderate...

If Mitt Romney can’t start locking up the GOP nomination now, he may never be able to. The former Massachusetts governor’s charmed path toward the presidential nomination was made even smoother Tuesday when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie opted out of a campaign and recommended that voters choose the candidate with the “best chance” of beating President Barack Obama. No white knight from Trenton, N.J., or anywhere else is riding into the race as the establishment’s savior. Romney’s would-be chief rival for the nomination, Rick Perry, is dropping in the polls amid doubts from conservatives and pragmatists. And the one...

Last Spring in New Orleans, Jonathan Martin and I picked up a very clear sentiment from Republican activists about Sarah Palin, reporting from the Southern Republican Leadership conference that "the wide admiration for Palin among the rock-ribbed Dixie Republicans gathered in the room wasn't matched by a confidence that she was ready to run." Jeff Zeleny picks up something very similar at the Reagan Library this weekend: Roy Billings, a Reagan admirer and a longtime contributor to the [Young America's Foundation], said he liked Ms. Palin a great deal, but he hoped that she would not run for president in...