Mitt Romney

Re: "She's Pro-Prez" letter: I am so sick and tired of reading liberal garbage letters like Barbara Ziccardi's, which puppet the same lie that Republicans, and Mitt Romney in particular, are only for the rich, and Obama is for the middle class. Mitt Romney has done more to help the poor and middle class than Obama has or ever will. Mitt Romney has taken many businesses with one foot in bankruptcy court — including many middle-class workers who would have had one foot in the unemployment line — and turned those businesses into surviving and thriving companies which not only saved jobs for many middle-class workers, but provided new jobs for other workers.

For 20 years, Republican strategists have advised presidential candidates to steer clear of "controversial" social issues. Favoring a disciplined focus on "pocketbook" priorities to reach upscale suburban voters, that conventional wisdom not only sounds appealing when the economy struggles, but also comes naturally to Mitt Romney, who personifies the party's alleged advantage on economic and fiscal matters. Indeed, Romney is under pressure to name a running mate who reinforces his reputation for businesslike competence.

The calendar says 2012. The propaganda screams Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Obama brain trust in Chicago recently rolled out its new campaign slogan: "Forward. " If the president's most extreme detractors had wanted to give him a rallying cry more freighted with leftist baggage, they could not have done better. Forward was the name of the socialist rag for which Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky wrote. Forward was the name of the newspaper Vladimir Lenin founded, and it was at the heart of one of his most famous political slogans: "When one makes a revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward — or go back.

It's Mother's Day 2012, coming up this Sunday, a time to celebrate moms, Hallmark cards, brunches and the War of the Rosen. Hilary Rosen, a Democratic Party consultant, recently unleashed this current version of the '70s debate on the roles of moms. In an interview, Rosen remarked that Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mom of five, never worked a day in her life. Of course, this forced an ultimate societal outcry that essentially said that choices by women should be equally respected.

What role should religion play in the public square? How did my own Roman Catholicism shape my work as a senator? Such questions were never far from my mind while I served in Congress. So, when Mitt Romney gave his "religion speech," I listened not as a political analyst, but as someone who wrestled with this subject for more than a decade. Romney's speech was thoughtful and courageous. Unlike John F. Kennedy in 1960, he didn't cop out and say his faith does not matter. Romney gave an impressive defense of the believer's right to be engaged in politics.

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich landed the endorsement of New Hampshire's largest newspaper Sunday while rival Mitt Romney earned a dismissive wave, potentially resetting the race in the state with the first-in-the-nation primary. For Gingrich, the former House speaker, the backing builds on his recent rise in the polls and quick work to build a campaign after a disastrous start in the summer. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has a vacation home in the state and has been called a "nearly native son of New Hampshire," absorbed the blow heading into the Jan. 10 vote that's vital to his campaign strategy.

TILTON, N.H. - A buoyant Rick Santorum on Thursday urged New Hampshire voters to reject pundits and polls favoring Mitt Romney as the Republican standard-bearer. "Don't settle for less than America needs," the former Pennsylvania senator said at an old train station here. "Don't defer your judgment to national polls. Don't defer your judgment to the pundits. " Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, eked out an eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses this week and is favored to win the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa - An Iowa caucus campaign that has cycled through several Republican presidential front-runners entered its final week Monday as unpredictable as the day that conservatives began competing to emerge as Mitt Romney's chief rival. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, released a new television commercial for the state in which he cited a "moral imperative for America to stop spending more money than we take in. " "It's killing jobs," he said. Texas Gov. Rick Perry countered with an ad that said four of his rivals combined - none of them Romney - have served 63 years in Congress, "leaving us with debt, earmarks, and bailouts.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Plunging into his campaign for a new term, President Obama tore into Mitt Romney on Saturday as a willing and eager "rubber stamp" for conservative Republicans in Congress and an agenda to cut taxes for the rich, reduce spending on education and Medicare, and enhance power that big banks and insurers hold over consumers. Romney and his "friends in Congress think the same bad ideas will lead to a different result, or they're just hoping you won't remember what happened the last time you tried it their way," the president told an audience estimated at more than 10,000 partisans at what aides insisted was his first full-fledged political rally of the election year.

It is assumed, by many Americans, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is run by left-wingers, Ivy Leaguers, quiche-eaters, peaceniks, and Democratic hacks whose eyes tear up at the mere mention of JFK. That image has persisted since 1988, when the senior George Bush painted Gov. Michael Dukakis as a softy. Yet it's bunk. The voters (only 34 percent of whom are registered Democrats) backed Ronald Reagan twice, they haven't elected a Democratic governor since 1986, and they recently approved a ballot measure to cut the state income tax. And now, with another governor's race on the horizon, they're smitten with Mitt Romney - a fiscally conservative Republican, a Mormon who touts family values, a rich leveraged-buyout executive with no government experience who looks like a cross between Hugh Grant and Dudley Do-Right.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to discuss his vision of education reform Thursday morning in one of the most heavily Democratic neighborhoods in the nation: West Philadelphia. The former Massachusetts governor will visit the Universal Bluford Charter School in the 5700 block of Media Street, for a roundtable discussion and a tour of classrooms. The 8:45 a.m. program is not open to the general public. The visit follows Romney's rollout Wednesday in a Washington speech of policy changes that would encourage more charter schools, and turn $26 billion in federal grants for special-education and low-income students into a type of voucher they could apply to tuition at any public school in their state, as well as online schools and private schools.

WASHINGTON - Targeting an issue popular with women, a key voter group, Mitt Romney assailed President Obama's leadership on education Wednesday and blamed teachers unions for problems facing American schools. The Republican presidential candidate is making education the focus of his brief campaign schedule this week. On Thursday, he will tour Universal Bluford Charter School in West Philadelphia. Romney told a luncheon of Latino businessmen and women in Washington that in the United States today, "millions of kids are getting a third-world education, and America's minority children suffer the most.

Face the harsh realities of 2012 I am an independent voter who thinks both parties are to blame for where we are as a country. I recognize that, on the Democratic side, President Obama has let a lot of folks down via promises he made while running for office, including me. However, I also recognize that Republicans are always saying no, and refuse to raise taxes. The harsh realities of 2012 dictate a flexibility in our politicians whether we collectively acknowledge it or not. We need health care for our citizens, not just someone saying that what we are implementing won't work.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney brought his plan to improve the American educational system to a West Philadelphia charter school Thursday, and suggested class size mattered little to pupils' achievement. Whereupon the teachers in the room immediately questioned his stance. Calling the gap in education performance between black and white students "the civil rights issue of our time," Romney said quality teaching and parental involvement were the keys to classroom success.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney swept all the delegates in GOP primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas and picked up more endorsements from party leaders, putting him one win away from claiming the Republican nomination for president. With no serious opposition left, the former Massachusetts governor should get that win Tuesday when voters go to the polls in Texas. Romney won all 75 delegates at stake in Tuesday's primaries. He also added endorsements from several Republican National Committee members who are automatic delegates to the party's national convention in August.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney swept the Kentucky and Arkansas Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, inching closer to the GOP nomination he is certain to win. With no serious opposition left, the former Massachusetts governor easily won both contests. He won all 42 delegates in Kentucky and at least 21 of the 33 delegates at stake in Arkansas. Twelve delegates were still undecided in Arkansas. Romney has 1,055 delegates, leaving him just 89 shy of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination for president.

CHICAGO - President Obama sought Monday to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy, sharply attacking his Republican challenger's background as a venture capitalist and arguing that profit-making alone is not a qualification for the White House. "His main calling card for why he thinks he should be president," Obama said, "is his business experience. " It was Obama's most expansive argument yet against Romney, and the president delivered it from a world stage in his hometown.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney and his Republican Party raised $40 million in April, an unexpectedly strong haul in the first month of the general campaign that illustrates enthusiasm within the GOP and threatens President Obama's overwhelming cash advantage. Since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Romney has devoted most of his time to privately courting donors so he can prepare for what may be the most expensive campaign in history. His focus appears to be paying off. In just one month, Obama's 10-1 cash advantage has shrunk to 2-1, partly because the Republican National Committee now is helping Romney.

Re: "She's Pro-Prez" letter: I am so sick and tired of reading liberal garbage letters like Barbara Ziccardi's, which puppet the same lie that Republicans, and Mitt Romney in particular, are only for the rich, and Obama is for the middle class. Mitt Romney has done more to help the poor and middle class than Obama has or ever will. Mitt Romney has taken many businesses with one foot in bankruptcy court — including many middle-class workers who would have had one foot in the unemployment line — and turned those businesses into surviving and thriving companies which not only saved jobs for many middle-class workers, but provided new jobs for other workers.

WASHINGTON - George W. Bush said Tuesday that he's backing presumptive Republican White House nominee Mitt Romney. The former president offered a four-word endorsement of Romney as the doors of his elevator were closing after a speech in Washington. Bush said: "I'm for Mitt Romney. " ABC News caught Bush after the speech, prompting his unscripted - but not surprising - endorsement. Bush's parents, former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, endorsed Romney in March during an appearance in Texas.