Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA -- Mitt Romney's aides soft-pedaled his latest tax pronouncements on Monday, insisting he wasn't tipping his hand when he told donors privately that he might seek to end the tax break for mortgages on second homes and curb other deductions for the wealthy as part of tax reform. "He was just discussing ideas that came up on the campaign trail," said former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri, a frequent campaign surrogate. The remarks, made at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida and overheard by reporters, did not mark any "change in policy," Talent said on a conference call with reporters....

The New Hampshire Primary is a must win for hometown Mitt Romney, but the sudden surge of Herman Cain has now put a threat to Romney’s huge lead in New Hampshire. In a recent Insider Advantage poll Herman Cain rose to 24% while Romney has fallen to 39%. Romney has been as high as 45% in previous polls. Romney has been slipping in recent New Hampshire polls, some believe due to his pressure to move the Nevada Caucus ahead of the New Hampshire Primary. mitt-romney-town-hall-new-hampshire A win for Herman Cain in Iowa could give him the momentum to make the...

Former Bay State governor Mitt Romney supports Speaker John Boehner as House Republicans move forward. His campaign says that he is reviewing the Boehner plan. "Governor Romney thinks President Obama's leadership has been an historic failure. He applauds Speaker Boehner for standing firm against raising taxes when our nation can least afford them," says Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, in a statement to National Review Online.

Daniel Larison catches Mitt Romney trying to have it both ways on the $700 billion bank bailout: Romney says he was for Henry Paulson's good TARP but he's against Tim Geithner's bad TARP. Conveniently, this allows Romney to position himself as effectively anti-TARP under Obama while he was a supporter under Bush. Larison correctly argues, "One can either recognize that the original TARP was always potentially an opaque slush fund to be used for whatever purpose the executive branch wanted, and it was therefore an outrageous measure that ought to have been defeated, or one can accept the abuses of...