Free Republic

On the day Mitt Romney formally announced his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, former Alaska Governor took a shot at his Massachusetts health care plan by criticizing government mandates. RealClearPolitics reports: ‘[E]ven on a state level and a local level, mandates coming from a governing body, it’s tough for a lot of us to accept because we have great faith in the private sector and in our own families and in our businessmen and women in making decisions for ourselves,’ Palin said. ‘Not any level of government telling us what to do.’ And yet… even her home state of...

I’m not saying every tea partier is against Mitt Romney, but many prominent Tea Party groups are saying no to Romney for President. FreedomWorks, an influential Washington-based group working within the Tea Party movement, say they do not support Mitt Romney for President, because of his moderate record as governor. The group’s communications director said, it’s because “Romney has a record and we don’t really like it that much.” Brendan Steinhauser, the group’s liaison to smaller, grassroots organizations said, Romney is, “inauthentic.” They also have some beef with RomneyCare. Also, the Tea Party organization’s president and CEO Matt Kibbe was...

In late spring 2005, Mitt Romney gathered with a dozen top policy and political advisers in a conference room near the governor’s suite on the third floor of the State House. For two years, they had grappled with the abstruse complexities of health care reform, sifting data, evaluating input from experts, and testing theories to craft a plan that would expand coverage to nearly everyone in the state and not break the bank. This was a bold move for a first-term Republican governor, some of whose more conservative advisers doubted the wisdom of a foray deep into policy turf long...

"The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president," says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. "She's making money, she's moved on, she's kind of an entertainer rather than a politician. She still has some sway with the grass roots, but she is not going to run." "I don't think she's going to run," says a Republican close to Tim Pawlenty. "She has faded a lot in the last few months. I look at what she's doing now and say that she's found a way to get back in the story." Maybe these representatives...

Why Mitt Romney still poses the greatest challenge to Obama in 2012 One of my regrets in life is losing the chance to debate Mitt Romney and whip his ass. It was the fall of 2002. Mitt Romney had thundered into Massachusetts with enough money to grab the Republican nomination for governor. Meanwhile, I was doing my best to secure the Democratic nomination. One week before the Democratic primary, I was tied in the polls with the state treasurer, well ahead of four other candidates. But my campaign ran out of cash. Despite pleas from my campaign manager, I didn't...

A crowd of about 40 in a hot warehouse stacked with plumbing supplies cheered when he said it was time for politicians to spend less time thinking about getting re-elected and more time on "thinking about how to get the country on the right track and put Americans back to work."

The Republican presidential field is starting to look like “ The Hunger Games,” with those who had no fight in them, those who overplayed their hand and those who were undisciplined out of the fight to the finish before the real contest begins. Mitt Romney - a stronger, well-fed combatant - is eager to enter the arena. Alarmed by the alacrity with which at least half a dozen contenders fell by the wayside, some well-heeled spectators are rushing to support him even before they have a chance to size up the other combatants – some of whom are in stealth...

A visit to a therapist might be necessary to help conservatives work through their issues with the current frontrunner. What if Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for president in 2012? A vast majority of conservatives become anxiety-ridden at the mere posing of this question, and many go ballistic at the thought of it actually happening. So a quick visit to a therapist may be helpful. Imagine yourself lying on a couch in the spring of 2012 with soothing music playing in the background. News breaks that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has clinched the Republican nomination for president. Your...

On Thursday, the healing begins. Mitt Romney won’t be apologizing for Romneycare in his health care speech Thursday. But he will be addressing it, according to a Romney aide.“He’ll address it, but the main focus of the speech will be what his plans will be going forward,” the aide tells National Review Online…“What will be clear is that number one, he’s got the same position as every other 2012er when it comes to the repeal of Obamacare,” the aide says. “Secondly, he’ll be the first of those candidates to lay out his plan for replacing Obamacare with reforms that will...

Is there a beer vs. wine or a mink coat vs. cloth coat divide in the Republican primary electorate that divides affluent and more well-educated Republicans from those who are poorer and less educated? According to a recent study by Gallup, there just may be. In a survey of 3,304 Republicans during the past three months, Gallup found that “Republican college degree holders are more likely than those without a degree to support Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, 21% vs. 13%. Similarly, Romney's support climbs from 9% of Republicans earning less than $24,000 annually to 21%...

Poor Mitt Romney. He already had one big strike against him — his Mormonism — even before he contemplated his second run for the presidency. But thanks to the Tea Party, he’s also under serious fire for his 2006 Massachusetts health care plan, which his conservative critics liken to Obamacare — dubbing it “Romneycare” — since both plans mandate individual health coverage and expand the reach of Medicaid... ...Obama, and his close friend and political ally, current Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who says Romney’s plan is working “brilliantly,” expanding affordable health coverage to nearly 98% of the state’s residents. The...

If you believe, as I do, that leaders are handpicked by the elites to achieve a means to an end, then Mitt Romney is the logical choice to be the next President of the United States. The fact that he infuriates a lot of the folks on this blog proves he is the best candidate. Because any successful Republican needs to be two things, okay make that three, in order to walk into the WH. ONE be white, TWO be a non-offensive white and THREE be married to a hot blond. But, as the Shamwow guy would say, there's more!...

A Florida tea party activist who's coordinating a major rally where Donald Trump is a featured speaker this weekend says he got a feeler phone call from a Mitt Romney aide the day after Trump's attendance was announced, asking if the former Massachusetts governor could also speak at the event. Everett Wilkinson, the Florida coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots and the chairman of the South Florida Tea Party, said he got a call "from Mitt Romney's person for Florida... [saying she] wants Romney to show up. And I said, 'OK, we've got a very busy schedule...' but I tried...

After reading Donald Trump's logic about why he thinks Barack Obama's presidency may be "the greatest scam in the country's history," we spent much of yesterday getting up to speed on the issue. Until yesterday, we actually hadn't looked at the birther question in detail, because we assumed it was just ludicrous conspiracy theory cooked up by folks who are desperate to do anything to have Barack Obama un-elected. SNIP SNIP do we really KNOW that Sarah Palin was born in this country? Or Donald Trump? Or Mitt Romney? A few weeks ago, Donald Trump made a big show of...

If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. The executive order would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health-care solutions that work best for them.

His convenient and implausibly explained reversals on issues say all we need to know about his character. He will do or say anything to become president. We're all for transparency these days, and if anything is transparently clear about American politics, it is that Mitt Romney will do or say anything to become president. The best guess is that at heart he is an old-fashioned moderate, business-oriented Republican (just about the last one standing). But there's no knowing for sure. He may have no sincere beliefs at all. There was a piece about Romney on the front page of the...

The signs are that Mitt Romney is running for president. With several Republicans edging ever closer to formally declaring their presidential candidacies, Romney told New Hampshire Republicans on Saturday that he’s the candidate who can beat Barack Obama on the central issue of the economy. ((snip)) A key hurdle for Romney among GOP primary voters will be distinguishing the health-care reform he instituted when his was Massachusetts governor from the nationwide plan championed by Obama.

A year before Republicans pick a 2012 candidate, their presidential outlook remains muddled. Nothing exemplifies their dilemma more than the all-but-certain candidacy of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. By traditional standards, he should be the GOP front-runner. He was the 2008 runner-up, is personally attractive and professionally successful and can mount a well-financed, professional campaign. But he doesn't even have clear support within the party's mainstream wing, let alone the increasingly influential tea party faction. His problems were evident from what he said — and didn't say — when he joined other hopefuls in wooing activists at last week's annual...

The presidential field may be wide open, but one candidate is playing the role of the inevitable front-runner, as his performance at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference this weekend shows. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought with him to the event a large entourage that stayed for several days, while most other potential candidates dropped in and out of the conference to make their speeches and headline a reception or two. Other serious contenders brought just a few key staffers, but many didn't even have their top political aide in tow. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas...

As President Obama prepares to launch his 2012 re-election campaign, one of his top advisers admits they have no idea who might be his ultimate GOP opponent. 'This is most unfathomable Republican field in my lifetime," Obama political adviser David Axelrod tells USA Today. "I don't think anybody in the media or in either party can tell you with any degree of certainty who the Republican nominee will be." But Axelrod, who left the White House last week to begin working for the campaign, went out of his way to praise one of Obama's potential rivals, Mitt Romney. The former...