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Southfield, Mich. — As other Republican candidates have stumbled their way toward the presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has put together what would seem to be all the elements of a winning campaign: an effective staff, a robust treasury and smooth, knowledgeable performances both in debates and on the trail. But for months, the threshold of support for the former Massachusetts governor hasn't inched above a quarter of Republican voters in national polls. For many GOP voters in early primary states, hesitation about Romney comes back to one thing: their perception that he has routinely molded his views to suit the...

Washington and Des Moines - Throughout the roller-coaster Republican presidential contest, one thing hasn't changed: the stubborn refusal of many tea party supporters to warm up to Mitt Romney. The swift rise and abrupt fall of a succession of GOP candidates has been driven in part by the restless search for a Romney alternative by that group of voters, who energized the GOP's big turnaround in 2010. "They don't trust Mitt Romney," said Simon Conway, a Des Moines radio host popular with tea party followers. "Mitt Romney can be tea party one minute, and the next minute introduce 'RomneyCare'" —...

Mitt Romney, under fire from all sides on the strength of his political convictions, said Thursday he has been as consistent as a person can be during his political career. "I've been as consistent as human beings can be," the presidential candidate said in a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire's Seacoast Media Group. "I cannot state every single issue in exactly the same words every single time, and so there are some folks who, obviously, for various political and campaign purposes will try and find some change and try to draw great attention to something which looks...

Romney is Obama-Lite. Take the simple pledge: I will not vote for Romney for any reason.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) healthcare speech drew quick support from fellow Bay State Sen. Scott Brown (R), who called Romney's defense of the state's healthcare plan "courageous." Brown, who's up for reelection in the typically Democratic state next fall, offered Romney political reinforcement following the former governor's highly anticipated healthcare speech on Thursday. "Governor Romney showed a lot of courage today by standing his ground on the reforms he put in place in Massachusetts," Brown said in a statement. "What he did as governor worked for Massachusetts by getting health insurance to more people."

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, has rejected the argument that torture was necessary to successfully combat terrorism - and denied claims that waterboarding detainees provided intelligence that helped end the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. (snip) On CBS' "The Early Show" Friday, McCain denied claims made by Rep. Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who said earlier this week that through the use of such tactics, a courier for the al Qaeda leader was identified. (snip) "Through normal, conventional...

Andrew, ever since I ran into a spot of bother in Canada, I’ve found myself giving speeches in defense of freedom of expression in Toronto, London, Copenhagen, etc. I did not think it would be necessary quite so soon to take the same stand in the land of the First Amendment against craven squishes of the political class willing to trade core liberties for a quiet life. I have no expectations of Harry Reid or the New York Times, but I have nothing but total contempt for the wretched buffoon Graham. A mob of deranged ululating blood-lusting head-hackers slaughter Norwegian...

Congress should take up work on comprehensive immigration reform once the U.S. borders are secure, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday. McCain, a longtime proponent of comprehensive reform who had tacked right in his race for reelection last year, said that an immigration deal could be an area of compromise between Republicans and Democrats. "Once we get the border secured — and we can get the border secured — I would look forward to working on comprehensive immigration reform," the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said on NBC's "Today" show. The Arizona senator had in the past favored legislation that would...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues to be a highly polarizing figure, with a whopping 57 percent viewing her unfavorably according to a new poll. The Bloomberg survey, released Monday, also found that the negative feelings about Palin are particularly strong. A third -- 33 percent -- said they view Palin "very unfavorably." That's the same percentage that viewed her favorably cumulatively -- respondents who either viewed her "somewhat" or "very" favorably (!). The survey results indicate that Palin faces a significant image problem as she decides to run for president. Just look at how Pres. Obama's numbers compare. Obama...

George W. Bush is on book tour and sat down with Matt Lauer. Here is what was said about TARP: WATCH VIDEO...Lauer: You went with the TARP Program. Bush: We did. Lauer: A lot of people now call it the bank bailout and they hate it. Bush: Yeah, they do hate it. I can understand that. Look, the idea of spending taxpayer's money to give to wall street and the banks, to save them, a lot of people think they created the crisis in the first place. So I can understand the angst. But in my case, I wasn't worried...

(snip) BLITZER: Are you ready to work with the Democrats on immigration reform? GRAHAM: Yes, I'm ready to solve the problem -- the immigration problem once and for all. Start with securing the border, and if I'm not willing to work on immigration reform? Why am I up here? Because it's a huge problem for the country. Start with border security. I'm willing to do anything that makes America stronger as long as I get something for it. (snip)

Results TBD 08/24/2010 Late PM PDT/MST.

From ABC News... (snip) "McCain was supportive of the Dream Act in the past... we saw him as a champion in some ways, and we hope that comes back," said Abdollahi. Now the next paragraph is the money paragraph and I certainly hope Arizona voters are paying attention. McCain has been on all sides of this issue and now that he is facing reelection he is trying to convince voters that he will protect the borders. Let's see what he says when under pressure from the left. A McCain spokesperson told ABC News the senator will support the so-called "Dream...

(snip) Elias and other observers say that the day of reckoning for possible McCain support is Aug. 24, when Arizona voters take to the polls to decide the 2008 GOP presidential nominee’s fate against his primary opponent, GOP former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. Many observers speculate that after the primary, McCain may pivot toward the middle and could ultimately back a Schumer-Van Hollen bill.“Perhaps he’s planning on voting for it, but because of political considerations or other things he just doesn’t want to be out front,” Elias said. “At the end of the day, it may very well be that he...

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled their bipartisan blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday, a move hailed by President Barack Obama as progress on an issue for which he has been criticized for ignoring. “The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms,” the Senators said in a Washington Post editorial posted online Thursday. The Schumer-Graham outline entails four key components: a biometric Social Security identification card for employment verification; strengthened border security and interior law...

New Hampshire would seem to be surprise proof when it comes to visits from prominent people urging support for various causes, but it was something of an eyebrow raiser a when a former policy adviser for John McCain’s presidential campaign went before business folks Tuesday to say that federal oversight is needed to control greenhouse gases.“I won’t pretend that I get standing ovations,” joked Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was a staff economist for President George H.W. Bush and served as chief economic adviser to McCain’s campaign. He spoke Tuesday to a gathering of New Hampshire businesspeople at the New Hampshire Institute...

In the wake of a political setback for national health care legislation, Senator John McCain, the losing candidate in the last presidential election, advised his victorious 2008 adversary on Sunday that the way to get meaningful changes passed is to “start from the beginning” by meeting with Republicans. Mr. McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” that President Obama should sit down with Republican leaders and begin adopting some of their ideas for improving the nation’s health care system such as overhauling medical malpractice lawsuits, allowing residents of one state to buy health...

Sen. Lindsey Graham is ready to be the 60th Senate vote to get the climate change and energy bill passed, he told a Midlands audience Tuesday at Harbison State Forest. “Since they’ve got no Republicans but me, business is open,” Graham said. Graham has been criticized by his own party for pursuing bipartisan resolutions on such issues as illegal immigration and possible filibusters of judicial nominees. And he believes that the cap-and-trade bills being debated this year are another occasion to do so, he told the audience at a forestry conference hosted by the S.C. Wildlife Federation. He said he...

Senate Democrats will face a problem when they return in January every bit as tough as crafting the healthcare bill: Assembling a climate and energy package that can be shoehorned into the election-year calendar. Imposing limits on greenhouse gases is a White House and Democratic priority, but it’s stuck in line behind health care, Wall Street reform and jobs legislation. It’s also become increasingly apparent since the Copenhagen climate summit that the Senate will go forward in a dramatically different direction than the House, which approved its own climate bill last summer. Environmentalists familiar with Democratic plans say party leaders...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...