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At Ace’s site, DrewM is goofing on him for rolling out a 59-point plan that runs literally 160 pages long on the theory that no one but no one among the electorate will actually read the thing. True enough, but I don’t think Team Mitt expects any voters to read it. They expect voters to note the sheer size and detail of it and conclude, “This guy really does have a plan. He’s actually thinking about this.” Whether it’s a good plan or not, ironically, is a secondary question, but it’s been made that way by the utter failure of...

A large group of 2008 Barack Obama supporters are now banking on Mitt Romney for the upcoming presidential election. That’s according to a report from Fox News that says a shift in Wall Street support could mean as much as a $150,000 boost for Romney’s campaign. “I think Romney could at least split Wall Street with Obama, which is something McCain really didn’t do,” said Charlie Gasparino, a reporter for Fox Business News. None of the expected bank presidents showed up to a recent fundraiser for President Obama, he added.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney treated supporters at a fundraiser in Virginia to a sneak peek of his inclinations regarding his vice presidential shortlist should he become the Republican nominee in 2012, according to a new report. At the Virginia Beach home of State Sen. Jeff McWaters Monday, Romney praised three up-and-coming stars of the GOP, saying his shortlist included Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Bearing Drift blog reported Tuesday

SALT LAKE CITY — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is taking a new approach to hammering Pres. Barack Obama and campaigning in Iowa. Romney seems to be choosing his words more carefully as he verbally attacks Obama, Politico concludes in an article published Thursday. The piece compares a Romney campaign stop in Pennsylvania last month with his visit Wednesday to Southern California. "Romney spoke Wednesday in front of a long-defunct mall near Los Angeles, and repeatedly pointed out that the mall's closure wasn't entirely Obama's fault. 'Obviously, the challenges here are not all the result of the current administration,' Romney...

Ohio Republican Party donors and other attendees at the state GOP's dinner tonight picked former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a straw poll to take on President Barack Obama in 2012. Romney finished comfortably ahead of the Republican field, picking up 25 percent of the vote. When state party chairman Kevin DeWine announced Romney as the winner, a few people in the audience booed. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (16 percent) finished second, followed by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (15 percent).

An Ohio Republican Party official sent over results from the party's presidential straw poll in a proving-ground swing state, which showed Mitt Romney the clear winner. Romney, who made the Ames Straw Poll his Holy Grail in 2007 but is bypassing Ames, Florida's Presidency V and all other such contests this cycle, won handily with 25 percent. Tim Pawlenty, who is fighting his own war for Ames, scored second place, with 16 percent. But Pawlenty was bunched with the third- and fourth-place finishers, Michele Bachmann (15 percent) candidate Rick Perry (14 percent). Perry is especially noteworthy, since he has yet...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney still leads the 2012 Republican nominee race, but the person who polled second is a bit of a surprise: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. With Palin in the race, Romney has 26 percent, Palin has 18 percent and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is third with 12 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll. However, without Palin in the race, Romney tops the field at 30 percent, Bachmann has 16%, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has 11 percent, and Texas Governor Rick Perry has 8 percent. Palin Remains a Factor The fact that Palin...

Election '12: The Republican presidential front-runner is oddly silent on Washington's momentous budget talks. Mitt Romney can run, but he can't hide his positions forever. Massachusetts' former governor went to North Hollywood, Calif., on Wednesday with a "what else is new?" observation. "The president's policies almost without question have caused this recession to be deeper and longer than it would have been," he said. There's no "almost without question" about it. But it takes more to be elected president than pointing out what 14 million unemployed Americans — 6.3 million of them out of work for more than six months...

(snip) So what does Romney say to these big money donors to make them fork over their cash and convince them he's going to be the one to face off against President Obama in the general election? (snip) But his pitch also veers away from what he says on the stump. When Romney gets into the room with potential donors trying to lure them to his campaign, he's consistently asked how he's going to win. According to several donors, Romney tells the crowd that his strategy will work: they will win New Hampshire and Nevada and are hoping to "get...

The evidence suggests otherwise — but for the wrong reason. There’s a long list of reasons why Mitt Romney might not be our best choice to go up against Obama, and some of them are really good reasons. One reason is Romney’s part in creating the Massachusetts health system that Democrats claim (perhaps rightly) was the blueprint for ObamaCare. Another is that as governor of a very liberal state, Romney signed into law all sorts of bills that are going to be used by Democrats to persuade many middle of the road and even conservative voters that there really is...

Mitt Romney has been criticized for not speaking out more forcefully on the debt-ceiling negotiations. But Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, has taken a subtler tack, avoiding the issue of the debt ceiling as he presses a more general assault on President Barack Obama's economic record. That has attracted the attention of his GOP challengers, who have begun to accuse him of ducking the most vital issue of the campaign so far. "The current debate is about what kind of leadership you're going to show," former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in an interview Monday. "If you're running for president,...

Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) formally announced his White House bid last week. Yesterday, in an interview with John Roberts on Fox News, he took aim at Romney, slamming the "Obama-Romney economy." "Unemployment rising, people struggling in the Obama-Romney economy," McCotter tweeted Friday. The congressman expanded on that critique during a Saturday interview with Fox News. "We have Obama as the champion of big government, we see Romney as champion of bail out banks in Wall Street bailout. They are less rivals than they are running mates," he said. Representative McCotter defended his support of auto bailouts, "saying he's [in] favor...

Any candidate for president can fall victim to occasional stumbles, lapses, gaffes and clunkers. But Mitt Romney has a shot at raising ineptitude to an art form. The other day, he had to answer a question about how the economy has fared under the current administration. Before he was done, though, Romney managed to give the impression that if he dove off a dock, he'd miss the water. He also undermined his chief assets in the campaign: a supposed mastery of economic issues and a reputation for competence. Over and over, the former Massachusetts governor has accused President Barack Obama...

July 3, 2011 2 Republicans Open Door to Increases in Revenue By JOHN M. BRODER WASHINGTON — Two senior Republicans said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue as part of a deal to resolve the dispute over the federal debt ceiling, but they warned that there was little time to enact a comprehensive deal. One of the senators, John Cornyn of Texas, said he would consider eliminating some tax breaks and corporate subsidies in the context of changes in the tax code, provided there was not an overall increase in taxes. “I think it’s clear...

Reporting from Concord, N.H.— As Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington struggled to find agreement on spending cuts and extending the debt limit, Mitt Romney struck a conciliatory note in New Hampshire on Monday by lamenting partisan feuding while touting his record of working with Democrats -- even the Senate's onetime liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy. Taking a pause from a fundraising tour for two campaign appearances, Romney faced questions from voters that reflected frustration with the gridlock in Washington. During a business roundtable at a technology company in Salem, state Sen. Chuck Morse pressed Romney to explain how he...

The talking heads in the media are all tingly that "Mitt"-for-brains Romney is "winning" the GOP Primary polls by "double digits" because he got 27% in a Florida poll. You expect this kind of baloney from CNN but even "Fox and Friends" was repeating this nonsense this morning. Since Romney has 27% and Palin (who is not even running yet) has 17% and Bachman and all others get 10% or less, they report this as somehow showing Romney being in the lead, and a repudiation of the TEA party in the GOP. This is totally ass-backwards. Romney is LOSING by...

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has refused to sign a pledge being circulated by a pro-life group, citing concerns with the language used in the pact. Romney, a spokeswoman said, is concerned that the pact could block some federal funding from going to hospitals and would restrict his ability to appoint Cabinet members in his administration. "Governor Romney pledged in the last campaign that he would be a pro-life president and of course he pledges it today. However, this well-intentioned effort has some potentially unforeseen consequences and he does not feel he could in good conscience sign it,"...

Romney, Bachmann, Cain Lead The Pack Among GOP Primary Voters Thursday, June 16, 2011 Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the race for the Republican nomination, but Michele Bachmann has surged into second place following her Monday night entry into the campaign. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters, taken following the candidates’ Monday night debate, shows Romney earning 33% support, with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann a surprise second at 19%. Georgia businessman Herman Cain is in third place with 10% of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich picks up nine percent...

Mitt Romney may be leading in the polls, but his status as the GOP “frontrunner” is fragile at best. For all the talk of Romney’s “did-what-he-had-to-do” performance in the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, it’s widely accepted that the former Massachusetts governor is an uninspired choice for the GOP nomination. ... Historically, Republicans have nominated the runner-up from the previous election cycle, and Romney was the runner-up in 2008. But his second-place finish was exceedingly narrow — and in the end, closely contested. Once John McCain beat him in New Hampshire and South Carolina — after Mike Huckabee had...

DERRY, N.H. — Mitt Romney says he can appeal to Tea Partiers, even though activists and groups aligned with the movement are stressing that they need to defeat him in 2012. “I think I line up pretty well with the Tea Party,” he said in response to a question from The Daily Caller after touring the Derry Feed and Supply store. “They want to see smaller government. So do I.” But not everyone associated with the movement see Romney as one of them. Joe Miller, a former U.S. Senate candidate in Alaska and a Tea Party darling, is now running...