All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

The election may still be three years away, but it seems it’s never too early to speculate: A USA Today/Gallup poll sizing up the potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates was released today. Taking the top spot? Former Arkansas governor (and 2008 presidential hopeful) Mike Huckabee.

The poll found that the top four Republican contenders for the presidential nomination are Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. Seventy-one percent of declared Republicans would "seriously consider" voting for Huckabee, 65 would consider voting for Romney and for Palin, and 60 percent would consider voting for Gingrich.

Among Americans overall, the order remains the same: Huckabee leads, with 40 percent saying they would seriously consider voting for him. Romney closely follows with 39 percent. He’s followed by Palin with 33 percent and Gingrich with 29 percent.

The results suggest that the identity of Obama's 2012 opponent will rest largely on who is selected by "the Republic faithful," even in states with open primaries. No more than 20 percent of Democrats and no more than 40 percent of independent voters say they would consider voting for any one candidate.

Read full post…

Likening the president to Shakespeare's immortal Dane, former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney castigated Mr. Obama for not having already made a decision on changes in U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. (watch video at left)

Romney also suggested the lack of a "legitimate" power base in Kabul makes it harder for the U.S. to go forward, for which he also seemed to blame Washington for not ensuring that the August presidential vote, which was monitored by international election representatives, was devoid of fraud.

Romney told "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith, "This Hamlet performance that we're seeing out of the White House is very, very disconcerting."

Read full post…

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday laid to rest rumors that he is considering running for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's open Senate seat.

"Governor Romney's focus right now is on helping other Republicans run for office, and that is how he will be spending his time," Romney Spokesman Eric Ferhnstrom told CBS News.

Sen. Kennedy's death opens up a Senate seat in Massachusetts for the first time in 25 years. Under current state law, Kennedy's successor would be chosen through a special election to take place in 145 to 160 days, though Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick said he supports changing the law to allow for an interim replacement until the election is held.

There are a number of potential candidates who could run for the Senate seat, and some speculated Romney may be interested.

Romney challenged Kennedy for his seat in 1994 but lost by 17 points. The former governor and former 2008 Republican presidential candidate reminisced about that campaign in an essay he published in the National Journal. He described Kennedy's ability to charm crowds and remain politically popular.

"I could hear him bellowing and people cheering and I thought, 'He's still got it,'" Romney wrote.

He also praised the senator for both his professional dedication and personal affability.

"We come from different places politically, we weren't buddies, we didn't go to football games together, but Senator Kennedy was a very easy person to be friendly with, easy to strike up a conversation with," Romney wrote. "Whenever I needed help, Ted Kennedy was the go-to guy."

While Romney may not be a candidate for the Senate seat, it is widely believed he may be preparing for a 2012 presidential run. Romney has spent the past months cultivating strong positions on major national issues like health care and labor law reform.

Read full post…

We're two and a half years away from the 2012 Iowa presidential caucuses but that's not stopping the fevered pitch of speculation about who's up and who's down in the GOP, who might be running and who isn't.

Case in point: Gallup is out with a poll today that shows, "About one in four Republicans and Republican-leaning independents make Mitt Romney their top choice for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, giving him a slight edge over Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the choice of 14% of Republicans, with much smaller numbers choosing current Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Haley Barbour of Mississippi."

Now, while the blogosphere will light up about this "news," we should all take a deep breath before we start planning for the Obama vs. Romney debates.

Let's go ahead and turn on the time machine and go back and look at some early presidential polling in past years.

Gallup, Aug. 9, 2005: "There are two leading candidates for the GOP nomination at this point (should they end up running, of course): Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Twenty-seven percent of Republicans who are registered to vote pick Giuliani as their nominee, while 24% pick McCain. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes in third with 19%, followed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist with 9%, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 4%, and New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. George Allen with 3% each."

Friendly reminder: Giuliani didn't get past January 2008's primaries.

Read full post…

Mitt Romney has some advice for President Obama: Don't get into the insurance business.

The former Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor offered his insight on the president's health care reform plan in an exclusive interview with The Early Show Wednesday.

As governor, Romney helped the state achieve a form of near-universal health care, though he emphasized that his plan did not involve the government becoming the source of insurance for state residents. "That's a mistake," Romney said, alluding to Mr. Obama's plan, who is trying to extend health benefits for more than 50 million uninsured Americans.

A recent CBS/New York Times poll reports 50 percent think the government would be better than insurance companies at providing medical coverage.

Romney, vehemently disagreed. "It's the wrong way to go," he said.

The former GOP presidential hopeful also applauded Mr. Obama's latest comments on Iran in which he said he was appalled at the regime's treatment of protesters. Romney said he was glad he finally did "rise to the occasion."

You can watch the full video of Romney below, which follows a report on yesterday's press conference:

Unwilling to rely exclusively on RNC chairman Michael Steele's promise to transform the Republican Party into one that reaches "hip hop" voters, a group of GOP bigwigs are starting their own group aimed at bolstering the conservative movement.

Senator John McCain, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Governor Mitt Romney, Representative Eric Cantor, and Governor Bobby Jindal are among the Republican heavyweights involved in the launch of the newly created National Council for New America (NCNA). The NCNA sent out a letter from Rep. Cantor's office outlining its mission earlier today and will make a kickoff announcement later this afternoon, the Washington Post reports.

According to the letter, the group will organize a series of town halls and online forums involving average Americans and Republican leaders. The NCNA hopes that these grassroots efforts will spark an ongoing dialogue about the direction of the country. The announcement letter contains a policy blueprint that eschews social issues such as abortion and gay marriage in favor of developing solutions to issues like health care, energy, and education.

"While we will be guided by our principles of freedom and security, we will seek to include more than just our ideas," the group's letter says. "This forum will include a wide open policy debate that every American can feel free to participate in. We do this not just to offer an alternative point of view or to be disagreeable. Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

Read full post…