Mitt Romney

Plus, Jerry Springer finds the end of the road.

What induces someone to run against Mitt Romney in Utah?

This isn't a story about Donald Trump's takeover of the GOP.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Mitt Romney on Saturday suffered a disappointing but ultimately meaningless snub from grassroots Republicans when delegates to the state party convention declined to endorse his bid for U.S. Senate.

Is the Trump administration doing anything about an Iranian airline violating U.S. sanctions? The White House so far hasn’t commented on Mahan Air, which the Wall Street Journal reported Monday has been buying “U.S.-made jet engines and parts through Turkish front companies over the past several…

Will President Trump’s interest in new legislation to toughen federal background checks on gun purchasers last? As White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday morning, Trump is “supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system” and has spoken…

“The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” That, of course, was President Barack Obama's rather lame joke, delivered during the third presidential debate of 2012. He was ridiculing Mitt Romney’s assertion that Russia is America’s…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren and deputy online editor Jim Swift discuss gun control efforts in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, whether or not the Senate's open-ended immigration debate will yield any results, the White House's security clearance…

On Monday, Democrats outperformed Hillary Clinton in two state legislative special elections in Minnesota (senate district 54 and state house district 23B). These races didn’t generate the flashy headlines that some others have—neither seat changed hands and Democratic overperformance was below…

We’re likely to see the Memo—that’s the House Intelligence committee’s memo, written by GOP chairman Devin Nunes, alleging wrongdoing on the part of the FBI’s initial investigation into Russian meddling by Trump campaign associates—sometime on Friday. Whatever Nunes’s summary of the FBI’s FISA…

In 1898, when the 42-year-old George Bernard Shaw stepped down as drama critic of London’s Saturday Review, he introduced his successor, Max Beerbohm, 26, with these words: “The younger generation is knocking at the door, and as I open it there steps sprightly in the incomparable Max.”

He was twice on the cover of National Review. He was the subject of admiring profiles in the Washington Post, Time, and, yes, THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Throughout his first term as governor of New Jersey, he was described time and again as a “rising star” of the GOP and a certain presidential contender.…

The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Orrin Hatch of Utah, has announced that he will not seek reelection. Mitt Romney, as The Weekly Standard was first to confirm, intends to run for the seat. This news item provoked a characteristically fevered round of speculation and theorizing from the…

Sen. Orrin Hatch announced Tuesday that he would retire at the end of his term. Hatch’s retirement is interesting from a political perspective—former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, one of President Trump’s most vocal opponents within his party—may end up in the Senate. But it’s less…

The protests in Iran challenging the repressive Islamist regime present both an opportunity for the Trump administration, as one White House official puts it, and a challenge. The administration is quietly urging European and regional allies to join President Trump in offering support for the…

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is planning a Senate bid to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2018, according to three individuals close to the situation.

Republican senator Orrin Hatch of Utah announced he would not seek re-election to an eighth term in 2018 in a video Tuesday afternoon.

Former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon opined that Mitt Romney “hid behind” his religion instead of serving in the Vietnam War during a rally Tuesday night for Senate candidate Roy Moore.

If Ed Gillespie wins tonight, it’s proof that Trumpism is triumphant in the Republican party. Gillespie may have been a longtime establishment party-insider, but he spent most of his campaign fighting on populist cultural issues. If Gillespie wins, so does Trumpism.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, Congress’s longest-serving member, is privately planning to retire at the end of his term, according to a report from the Atlantic on Friday.

The evidence clearly suggests that Russia tried to influence in our election last year, and more broadly, Russia is actively trying to destabilize the U.S. both politically and culturally. Russians are running a 24/7 propaganda operation on D.C. airwaves, for crying out loud. They're not even being…

Stuart Stevens is something rare in politics: A campaign strategist who can write. Stevens has run just about every kind of campaign there is—he helped win elections for Bob Dole, Haley Barbour, and George W. Bush. He got the guy from The Love Boat into Congress and ran Mitt Romney’s failed 2012…

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid defended the unsubstantiated charges he made about Mitt Romney's tax liability as "necessary" during an interview on Nevada public radio Wednesday.

Harry Reid claims he has lost respect for Mitt Romney. It's likely Romney lost his for Reid sooner.

The Washington Post reports that last week, President-elect Donald Trump was agonizing over his shortlist of candidates for secretary of state—which included Mitt Romney, Bob Corker, Rudy Giuliani, and David Petraeus. Trump was reportedly unsatisfied with his choices when a new name, that of…

Donald Trump said on Twitter Monday he would announce on Tuesday his selection for secretary of state. The New York Times reports that Trump has picked ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Here's the Times:

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the Trump transition.

One's of Donald Trump's top aides joined a number of Trump loyalists Sunday in urging the president-elect not to appoint Mitt Romney as secretary of state, questioning Romney's loyalty and experience.

"We have to think of the future and not of the past. This also applies in a small way to our own affairs at home. There are many who would hold an inquest in the House of Commons on the conduct of the Governments—and of Parliaments, for they are in it, too—during the years which led up to this…

Hillary Clinton set out to do Donald Trump the biggest favor she could Monday night: Depict him as a normal Republican.

The national polls paint a grim portrait for the Donald Trump campaign. The current Real Clear Politics average of the two-way polls shows Hillary Clinton with a commanding 6.8 percent lead. While there is still plenty of time left in the campaign, it is difficult to overcome such a large deficit…

Any serious student of the theory and history of the Republican National Convention knows the delegates to that convention are unbound and free to exercise their judgment. If this were not the case, why did the Gerald Ford forces think it necessary in 1976 to move to explicitly bind the delegates…

A new poll from NBC News suggests other high-profile Republicans would perform better in a general election against Democrat Hillary Clinton than would presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

A group of Republican activists from Vermont and Virginia have written a letter to the delegates attending the Republican National Convention, urging those delegates to withhold their vote for Donald Trump unless and until the New York businessman releases his tax returns.

At his New York Times blog, Ross Douthat "games out" a potential third-party presidential candidacy by Mitt Romney. Douthat considers situations where Romney would place in third behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and in second place ahead of Trump but behind Clinton. Then there's the…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with staff writer Michael Warren on whether anyone will stand up to be a conservative independent challenger to Donald Trump.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney called on Donald Trump to release his tax records Wednesday in a statement posted to Romney's Facebook page.

At the Washington Examiner, Philip Klein reports that Mitt Romney doesn't intend to endorse Donald Trump.

Mitt Romney is not endorsing Ted Cruz, but he will vote for him.

Watching Mitt Romney’s excellent speech yesterday reminded me of my departed friend and colleague Dean Barnett.

With a tone of statesmanship just caustic enough to burn, Mitt Romney blasted Donald Trump in a speech Thursday. John McCain endorsed Romney's remarks later in the day. George W. Bush was quicker to criticize than both men, having stumped for his brother and saying on the campaign trail, "We do not…

Mitt Romney excoriated Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and called on primary voters to rally behind three of the remaining GOP candidates in each state where those candidates can best stop Trump. At a speech Thursday at the University of Utah, the 2012 Republican nominee warned…

Mitt Romney will deliver a speech at a Utah college Thursday morning on the 2016 presidential race.

Jeb Bush appears to be drawing some inspiration from the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Indeed, at tonight's debate Bush ripped off an attack line Romney deployed against Obama in 2012.

The Boston Globe reports that Tom Stemberg, the founder of office-supply retailer Staples, has died. Stemberg started Staples with the help of Mitt Romney's Bain Capital investment firm, and the two men became friends.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush laid out details of his economic plan in North Carolina Wednesday, focusing primarily on how he would reform the tax code as president. The proposal, Bush said, would help achieve his stated goal of four-percent annual economic growth.

Rick Santorum is keeping expectations low for his second presidential campaign. Asked if he would need to win the Iowa caucuses to stay in the race, the former senator said it “depends.”

Earlier today, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing to consider whether President Obama's pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., should be advanced to the Senate for a confirmation vote.

Summer means it's wedding season, and in Washington that means plenty of potential for conflicts of interest. Consider the wedding of one Hillary Clinton aide, attended by several members of the national political press covering Clinton and her rivals for the White House.

Mitt Romney ripped Hillary Clinton this morning for seeming untrustworthy in her weekend campaign event:

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and runner-up for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, will run for president again in 2016. The Associated Press reports:

Matthew Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:

Meet the real Mitt Romney. The Mitt Romney you thought you knew from 2012, from 2008, from his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, from his run for the Senate against Teddy Kennedy—those versions of Mitt Romney were the constructs of political consultants, artifices designed to win elections but…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker leads an early poll of New Hampshire Republican primary voters, NH1 reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on Mitt Romney, Bill Belichick, and Hillary Clinton.

Hugh Hewitt scoops that Mitt Romney will not run for presidenti n 2016. Here's Romney's statement, via Hewitt:

Mitt and Ann Romney will be having lunch this week with Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky. The New York Times, which first reported the news, thinks it might be "awkward."

Having followed Romney around in both 2008 and 2012, I was always convinced that the odds of him running in 2016 were high. For one thing, the man has a decades-long history of running for office, over and over, even after voters reject him. He’s a career politician without a “career” in politics.…

Donald Trump says he's once again considering a presidential run. He told MSNBC this morning that he'll make a decision in the next three months:

A press release tonight announces the beginning of Ready for Romney, a new super PAC encouraging Mitt Romney to run for president of the United States. 

This morning on Fox News Sunday, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said there's "no question" that he'd be a better president than Hillary Clinton.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said on CNBC this morning that he "would love to see" Mitt Romney run for president again, but that he doesn't think it's likely:

In the midst of rioting in St. Louis over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, the New York Times decided to stoke the embers of racial animus even further with an incendiary op-ed titled, "Can the G.O.P. Ever Attract Black Voters?"

It seems these days, everything's coming up Romney. There's talk the two-time presidential candidate and the 2012 Republican nominee ought to run for the job again in 2016. Writing in Politico magazine, Emil Henry makes "the case for Mitt Romney" and draws comparisons to Richard Nixon's political…

President Romney, as Marina Koren of the National Journal reports, appeared today on the television show Morning Joe and said:

PolitiFact has a pretty terrible and rather partisan history of Obamacare fact checks. However, there's one, in particular, about Obamacare that remains especially puzzling. It's the "half-true" rating the organization gave when President Obama promised that, If you like your health insurance, you…

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum spoke Thursday at the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington about the failure of the Republican party and its presidential nominee to speak to the concerns of middle class and working people. Politico's James Hohmann reports:

Mitt Romney will join forces with a former top adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod, this summer.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the future of the GOP. Hosted by Michael Graham.

Mitt Romney expressed regret at not being the next president of the United States in a speech today at CPAC:

Mitt Romney, giving his first speech since he lost his election for president of the United States:

Full prepared text of Mitt Romney's CPAC speech:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Bill Kristol:

When Chris Wallace asked Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday why he lost the election, one of the reasons Romney gave was, “Obamacare was very attractive, particularly [for] those without health insurance, and they came out in large numbers to vote, so that was part of a successful campaign.” Like much…

Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, said this morning that the media is at least in part to blame for her husband's failure to win the last presidential election:

According to Fox (and others) Mitt Romney's son, Tagg “is reportedly considering a run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.”

According to Fox (and others) Mitt Romney's son, Tagg “is reportedly considering a run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.”

Pat Riley, the president of the Miami Heat, skipped the team's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House today. Chuck Todd reports on Twitter:

Earlier today, I wrote a lengthy critique pointing out the inconvenient fact that PolitiFact's Lie of the Year -- "The Romney campaign's ad on Jeeps made in China" -- turns out to be true. It involves a lot of complicated back and forth, so I encouage you to read that post if you're not familiar…

Last month, PolitiFact selected its "Lie of the Year." Given PolitiFact's dubious record of singling out Republicans for lying far more often than Democrats, you probably could have guessed the winner of this particular sweepstakes was a Mitt Romney campaign ad:

As we survey the political wreckage of 2012, it’s worth highlighting once again that Republicans lost the presidential election for two main reasons:  They failed to get their best candidates to run, and their eventual nominee failed to make the case to voters.  The result was a relatively lopsided…

The Washington Post reports:

Glenn Hubbard, appearing live on CNBC Wednesday morning, was struck by a falling piece of the set. Hubbard, who was the chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers and an economic adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was discussing the need for Congress…

At an event in Washington, D.C. this evening, Paul Ryan asked Marco Rubio, "Know any good diners in Iowa or New Hampshire?" The reference, of course, is to the first state to hold a primary contest (the Iowa Caucus) and the first to in the nation to hold a primary election (New Hampshire).

According to an Israeli newspaper, former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the current mayor of Chicago, blasted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for betting "on the wrong man" in the last presidential election. The allegation is that Netanyahu supported Mitt Romney in the…

The White House announces that Governor Mitt Romney will meet tomorrow with President Barack Obama for lunch.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum says he is “open” to another run for president in 2016. Santorum was asked about a possible presidential campaign Monday at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. 

At this year's annual turkey pardoning event at the White House, President Barack Obama took a jab at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

In many respects, the 2012 election played out as a close cousin of the 2004 contest. A vulnerable incumbent president in a bad political environment faced a weak challenger who lacked a core ideology and who articulated no clear vision for the country. In both campaigns the challenger chose to…

Ryan Streeter writes:

Mitt Romney’s campaign can effectively be boiled down into two parts. One was his first debate appearance, during which he aggressively attacked President Obama’s abysmal record and vigorously explained and defended his own policy proposals. During the other part of his campaign — encompassing his…

With the election over, President Barack Obama lavished praise on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at today's press briefing:

Robert Robb writes:

In today's New York Times, Ross Douthat begins the debate, and, in my judgment, very much points in the right direction.

Yuval Levin, writing for National Review Online:

At Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan and Carl Cannon rightly note that “[Mitt] Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan cheered fiscal and social conservatives within the Republican Party and provided a much needed shot in the arm for Romney’s campaign.”  But they also argue that, “by choosing Ryan, Romney…

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson, A.B. Stoddard, and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

The Republican party’s brutal defeat in yesterday’s presidential and Senate races offers at least one clear, abiding lesson: Republicans can’t win without making their case.

Two thoughts for those TWS readers who—for some reason!—may be a bit down in the dumps, and especially for those who may have spent considerable time and effort trying to secure a better outcome on Election Day 2012.

Republicans never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.  In 2010, they failed to win the Senate when it was theirs for the taking. Now they’ve lost the White House to President Obama, despite his poor record and the likelihood things won’t get any better in his second term.  And they failed…

Mitt Romney delivered the following concession speech to supporters in Boston:

NBC News projects President Barack Obama will be reelected:

Mitt Romney is projected to win North Carolina, according to the Associated Press.

Fox News projects Barack Obama will win Pennsylvania. Mitt Romney's campaign gave a late push there, but it appears not to have paid off.

Obama will win Michigan and New York, Fox News projects. Romney will win Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska (or at least 4 of the state's 5 electoral votes).

Fox News projects Mitt Romney will win Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Obama, the cable news channel predicts, will win Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

Fox News projects Mitt Romney the winner of Georgia.

Vigo County, Indiana, has correctly reflected the winner of the presidency in every election since 1956, as in 2008 when Barack Obama won the county with 57 percent support and in 2004 when George W. Bush won the county with 53 percent support.

I gather the first wave of the exit poll has the right track/wrong track at around 46/52. The current Real Clear Politics polling average for right track/wrong track is about 41/54, with no poll having the right track above 43. Maybe all the other polls are wrong. Or, given that Democrats are more…

Here's a picture a Washington, D.C. polling place--at the School Without Walls High School--which clearly displays a mural of President Barack Obama:

To help readers keep score at home of the 2012 presidential election: 

A woman wearing an MIT t-shirt was barred from voting Florida, according to a local report. MIT stands for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

On the evening before the big game, both candidates showed up on ESPN's Monday Night Football.  And why not?  You hunt where the ducks are.  And on Monday night, that's where they are.

Yuval Levin, writing at National Review Online:

Since the House passed Obamacare 961 days ago, on March 21, 2010 — two days before President Obama signed it into law — all eyes have been on November 6, 2012.  As Bill Kristol wrote on March 22, 2010: 

Politico writes that Nancy Pelosi’s “drive to regain the [House] majority for Democrats is on the verge of a complete collapse.”  It adds, “Democrats are expected to pick up five seats at best — a fraction of the 25 they need.  On the eve of the election, some party officials are privately worried…

Blue Bell, Pa.

At Harry's Bar, 5 rue Daunou, 2eme, Paris—in the deepest of deep blue precincts!—Mitt Romney is doing surprisingly well in the early vote, trailing Barack Obama by only about 10 percentage points. Sophisticated statistical analyses of early voting trends suggest this may well mean diminished Obama…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Mitt Romney will win.  The tie in the polls goes to the challenger. Here’s why:

Reuters writes the following about Mitt Romney’s Sunday night rally on the outskirts of Philadelphia:  “The rally drew a huge crowd, but Romney arrived some 90 minutes after he was expected and hundreds of people streamed out of the rally as he spoke, angry and cold after waiting at a facility with…

The auto bailout debate, already a triumph of narrative over reality, took another turn for the absurd last week as both presidential campaigns exchanged salvos over what amounted to a misunderstanding about Chrysler's plan to build Jeeps in China. The dust-up began when the Romney campaign…

They have a dream. For months now, Republicans have been nursing the hope that déjà vu may be on order, that their favorite year may be making a comeback, and that their nominee, after numerous trials, may be riding a late-breaking wave. Democrats scoff, and predict the mirage will dissipate in the…

With a week to go until the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney has a decided leg up on President Barack Obama.

Six months ago, in an editorial titled “President Romney,” I speculated that Mitt Romney​—​then behind in the polls​—​could prevail this fall: “If Romney can speak to Americans’ sense that it’s a big moment, with big challenges, and if he can make this a big election rather than a petty one, then…

For the small school of political analysis that draws its inspiration from the great French 17th-century philosopher René Descartes, the cardinal methodological rule is to begin from what one can know “so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.” The only important fact about the…

The Romney campaign seems to have committed to a late push into Pennsylvania, to the derision of Team Obama. The latter sees this as a desperation ploy by a foundering campaign, similar to John McCain’s late entrance into the Keystone State in 2008. Is that right?

Last night, on Special Report, I urged Mitt Romney to step up and address President Obama's failure to explain what decisions he made and didn't make on the evening of September 11, as Americans fought terrorists in Benghazi. This afternoon it seems that Romney, not having mentioned Benghazi in his…

One thing is certain in these waning hours of the presidential and congressional election campaigns: it is Barack Obama and the current members of Congress who will have to make the initial decision on what to do about what we have come to call the fiscal cliff. By the time the new Congress and the…

The four polls taken this week in Iowa that are listed by RealClearPolitics show widely different results.  NBC/WSJ/Marist shows President Obama up by 6 percentage points — 50 to 44 percent.  Gravis Marketing shows Obama up 4 points — 49 to 45 percent.  WeAskAmerica shows Obama up 1.5 points — 48.8…

The boss, sitting alongside Kirsten Powers and Charles Krauthammer, made the case on Special Report Friday that Mitt Romney should raise the issue of Barack Obama's failure to be forthright on the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Watch the videos below:

Mitt Romney, speaking just now in Ohio:

Joe Biden revealed his vacation plans to a Miami radio station earlier today:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

When I started making election predictions eight years ago, I had a very different perspective than I do today. I knew relatively little about the history of presidential elections or the geography of American politics. I had a good background in political science and statistics. So, unsurprisingly…

It is no surprise Barack Obama’s campaign is running ads to highlight the support of former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. After all, for the most part, the military overwhelmingly supports Mitt Romney.

Sports fans in some important swing states this weekend will get a last-minute dose of politics with their football. Bankrupting America, a campaign project of the conservative group Public Notice, will be flying two banners over the fields at college and professional football games with messages…

The latest ad from Mitt Romney's campaign hits President Barack Obama for floating the idea of adding a "secretary of business" in a second term: 

Mitt Romney and President Obama are now tied in the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polling, thanks in large part to the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll released Wednesday afternoon. That poll projects an 8-point advantage in turnout for Democrats…

“We feel that we are in a very, very good place, that this race is exactly where we hoped it would be a week out,” said Russ Schriefer, a senior advisor to Mitt Romney, on a Wednesday conference call with reporters. Schriefer says the Romney campaign remains convinced that the fundamentals of the…

Barack Obama senior adviser David Axelrod promised to shave off his mustache of 40 years is Mitt Romney wins Minnesota, Michigan, or Pennsylvania. He made the promise on MSNBC--and pledged to come back on Morning Joe for the shaving.

There is a peculiar divergence between various public opinion polls at the moment. On the one hand, Mitt Romney has built a narrow but durable lead in the national polls, averaging around a 1 percent advantage over the last three weeks. This has cheered the hearts of conservatives everywhere.

Mitt Romney's campaign has a new television ad directed at voters in Pennsylvania. The ad juxtaposes Barack Obama's record and rhetoric on the coal industry with Romney's plan.

Former President Bill Clinton, using the backdrop of Hurricane Sandy, blasted Mitt Romney for criticizing Barack Obama's unkept promise of "turn[ing] back the seas":

On MSNBC, host Andrea Mitchell criticized Republican presidential Mitt Romney for making collections to help victims of Hurricane Sandy:

A Huffington Post writer caught political reporters talking on Politico's livestream, predicting that there's "a 40% chance that [Mitt Romney] says something stupid." Via Twitter:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Barack Obama hasn't been the least bit shy about showing his face on late night TV. In the past month or so alone, the president's made appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman and even did a skit called "Slow Jammin' the News"…

The latest state-by-state polling from Rasmussen Reports shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama by a tally of 279 to 243 in projected electoral votes.  Among the nine key swing states, Rasmussen Reports now shows Romney leading in Florida (by 2 percentage points), Ohio (by 2 points), Virginia…

The latest polling of likely voters from Rasmussen Reports shows that Mitt Romney has now moved ahead of President Obama in Ohio.  The poll shows Romney leading by 2 percentage points — 50 to 48 percent.  This is the fourth poll listed by RealClearPolitics that has shown Romney ahead in Ohio this…

One week before the election that will likely determine Obamacare’s fate, Americans support its repeal by an even wider margin than they did in the immediate aftermath of its highly unpopular passage. 

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume highlighted Mitt Romney’s clear advantage in Gallup, Rasmussen, and other national polling, and said, “Now…if those polls are generally correct, it is difficult to imagine that Ohio would be all that different.  Ohio has pretty closely tracked the national…

More than a dozen Twitter accounts that were used as a medium to publically threaten Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s life after the second presidential debate remain active, nearly two weeks later. This news comes after the Secret Service told this publication that it was “aware” of these very…

The bipartisan Battleground Poll, in its “vote election model,” is projecting that Mitt Romney will defeat President Obama 52 percent to 47 percent.  The poll also found that Romney has an even greater advantage among middle class voters, 52 percent to 45 percent.

On September 2, 1939, the day after Hitler invaded Poland, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made clear in the House of Commons that he still entertained hopes for negotiations with the Führer: “If the German Government should agree to withdraw their forces then His Majesty’s Government would be…

On ABC News's This Week, former House speaker Newt Gingrich suggested the White House's response to the Benghazi terrorist attack will continue to hurt Barack Obama's reelection campaign.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are tied at 49 percent in Ohio, according to a new poll from the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Ohio News Organization. Here's more from the Enquirer:

Mitt Romney has received the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest paper. The Register last supported a Republican candidate for president 40 years ago, in 1972, when it endorsed Richard Nixon. Read an excerpt from the Romney endorsement below:

Until now, most forecasters have been framing the assumptions underlying their projections on what they assume a reelected Barack Obama would do about taxes, appointments to the Federal Reserve Board, spending, the deficit and a host of other policies. Suddenly, they are back to the drawing board.…

Former Republican governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii might win one of the major upsets in the U.S. Senate 2012 elections. As the most popular GOP figure in state history and an extraordinary campaigner, I suggest this despite the fact that Hawaii is one of the most Democratic states in the nation,…

Cleveland

Newspapers endorse candidates with such solemnity that you'd think they believe their readers actually care and that elections might actually hang in the balance.  "Oh my God, did you see this, Helen?  The Times is endorsing Obama. I guess that changes everything."

President Barack Obama told Rolling Stone that Mitt Romney is a "bullshitter." Mike Allen reports:

In a one-on-one interview, President Barack Obama tells NBC's Brian Williams that he has no "real relationship" with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Attorney Gloria Allred has reportedly been planning a pre-Election Day surprise targeting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The key for the attention-seeking lawyer, it seems, is to uncover "Mitt Romney’s 1991 testimony in the divorce of Staples founder Tom Stemberg," the Boston…

Cleveland

State-by-state polling by Rasmussen Reports now shows Mitt Romney narrowly leading President Obama in the projected tally of electoral votes — 261 to 253.  Of the nine key swing states, Rasmussen’s polling (all conducted during the past week except for in Pennsylvania) shows Romney ahead in Florida…

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll projects a 5-point turnout advantage for Democrats over Republicans (34 to 29 percent) yet still shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama by 1 percentage point — 49 to 48 percent.  This is Romney’s first lead since the summer in Washington Post/ABC…

Rasmussen Reports, the first polling outfit to release a survey from Ohio taken after the third and final presidential debate, shows that Mitt Romney has now pulled even with President Obama among the state’s likely voters — at 48 percent support apiece.  This is the first time since the summer…

Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood says "when someone doesn't get the job done, you gotta hold them accountable" in a new ad from conservative super PAC American Crossroads. Eastwood famously endorsed Mitt Romney earlier this year at the Republican National Convention with an unconventional address.…

It is not even close: In a world poll of the U.S. presidential race, President Barack Obama is the clear favorite over Governor Mitt Romney. By a margin of 50-9 percent, Obama is favored in the poll of 21,797 respondents in 21 countries around the world.

During Monday night’s presidential debate, the candidates beat their breasts vying to be tougher on China. Barack Obama pointed to his accomplishments, while Mitt Romney attacked the president for being afraid to label China a currency manipulator. The amount of time devoted to America’s largest…

President Barack Obama escalated his "Romnesia" attack against Republican Mitt Romney by referencing stage three cancer at a campaign event in Florida today:

Several left-wing news outlets are reporting on a financial relationship between one of Mitt Romney's sons and a voting machine company--with some even implying that the relationship could lead to tampering with votes on Election Day to benefit the Republican. The only problem? There doesn't seem…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Boca Raton, Fla.

Mitt Romney’s aim was to present himself with the demeanor and grasp of foreign and national security issues of a president of the United States. He succeeded. President Obama sought to make Romney appear unqualified to be president and commander in chief. He failed. And that was the story of the…

Fox News host Chris Wallace said Mitt Romney seemed like the president at tonight's presidential debate:

At tonight's presidential debate, Mitt Romney said that America's enemies looked at President Barack Obama and saw weakness:

Mitt Romney is more than holding his own with Barack Obama tonight. Only two other challengers have done as well debating foreign policy with an incumbent president—Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter in 1980 and, to a lesser degree, Bill Clinton against George H.W. Bush in 1992. Reagan and Clinton…

The latest polling of likely voters by Rasmussen Reports shows that, for the first time, Mitt Romney has hit 50 percent support in Colorado — a state that Barack Obama won by 9 percentage points (54 to 45 percent) in 2008.  Romney now leads Obama by 4 percentage points in the Centennial State — 50…

Independent voters trust Mitt Romney over Barack Obama by 10 points on the question of which candidate they would trust to "set and manage" their wallet. A new poll by the Tarrance Group for Public Notice, a conservative non-profit, shows 46 percent of independents prefer Romney, while 36 percent…

Mitt Romney is far ahead of Barack Obama in Indiana, a state Obama won in 2008. The last poll of the Hoosier State showed Romney up 13 points. But down the ballot in the U.S. Senate race, the Republican candidate Richard Mourdock, the state treasurer, isn't as far ahead. That may explain why Romney…

One can’t help being in awe of the New York Times. The ingenuity it displays in running down Mitt Romney, if applied to a more useful project, would be a national treasure.

The good thing about the presidential debates is that they give us a clear idea of where each candidate wants to take the country. Not in great detail, with every twist and turn on the road to each man’s promised land marked off, but in terms of the general direction. Obama wants more government,…

Mitt Romney leads Barack Obama by four points in Pennsylvania, while Republican Senate candidate Tom Smith leads incumbent Democrat Bob Casey by two points, according to a state GOP poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research. Of the 1,376 likely Pennsylvania voters surveyed, 49 percent…

Earlier today, the Obama campaign pushed around a story that they claimed proved Mitt Romney "was against the auto bailout...but personally [benefited] from it."

Although not widely noticed, Mitt Romney seems to be on his way to capturing as much of the white evangelical vote as George W. Bush famously did in 2004. Bush got 79 percent. A Pew poll conducted before the first presidential debate had Romney getting 74 percent of white evangelicals versus 19…

Naturally, there has been plenty of talk this week about who won the debate. As I mentioned in my own recap, I thought that though Obama won more “points,” Romney did a better job advancing his argument for election.

On September 2, 1939, the day after Hitler invaded Poland, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made clear in the House of Commons that he still entertained hopes for negotiations with Hitler: “If the German Government should agree to withdraw their forces then His Majesty’s Government would be…

In their first polls conducted partly after the second presidential debate, both Gallup and Rasmussen Reports show that Mitt Romney has extended his lead over President Obama among likely voters.

The New York Times reports today that the "the Obama campaign and Democratic groups have run commercials relating to abortion about 30,000 times since July 2 — about 10 percent of their ads — including one that falsely claimed Mr. Romney’s opposition to abortion extended to cases of rape and…

At last night’s debate, President Obama said gas prices were under two dollars per gallon when he took office because the “economy was on the verge of collapse.” And that if Mitt Romney were elected he “could bring down gas prices, because with his policies we might be back in the same mess.”

No less a student of the game than George Will calls the debate:

A few weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion at the National Press Club where the heads of all of the major media 'fact checking' organizations participated. (I wrote about the event here.)

Twitchy reports that "Post-presidential debate, Obama supporters renew vows to murder Mitt Romney." The threats are numerous--and explicit and graphic. Many call for Romney's murder or assassination.

A former staffer for Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jonathan Allen, "reporting" for the Virginia-based trade publication Politico, said that "President Barack Obama scored a technical knockout on foreign policy Tuesday night, dodging and weaving his way through a…

Gallup's week-long tracking poll of likely voters finds that Mitt Romney is leading Barack Obama by 6 percentage points, 51-45.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:

Jeremy, the first questioner at last night's debate, said today that "Mitt Romney's first answer--I felt like he was staring into my soul":