Romney

Some Philadelphia neighborhoods outdid themselves in Tuesday's presidential election. In a city where President Obama received more than 85 percent of the votes, in some places he received almost every one. In 13 Philadelphia wards, Obama received 99 percent of the vote or more. Those wards, many with large African American populations, also swung heavily for Obama over John McCain in 2008. But the difficult economy seemed destined to dampen that enthusiasm four years later. Not to worry.

WASHINGTON - When Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008, one of the people who reached out to the couple was newly elected President Obama. It was one of the few personal interactions between Obama and Romney. "He was kind enough to call our home when my wife was ill, and he said that he and Michelle had my wife in their prayers," Romney said in an interview after the call. "I said, 'Mr. President-elect, Ann and I have you in our prayers'. And we do. " Even as their political fates have become more entwined, Obama and Romney have had little opportunity to connect directly.

The Obama-Romney rumble will last roughly as long as the baseball season, and, just as in baseball, you can't tell the players without a scorecard. So let's score the opening week of the general election, with a thumbnail look at their strengths and weaknesses. I don't presume to know who will win, but Rich Galen, the Republican commentator and strategist, probably got it right the other day when he said he'd "probably bet the president," if only by a hair. These categories tell that potential tale.

By Matt Mackowiak Is Mitt Romney the new front-runner? Not quite, but the trends in the race are very encouraging for the Republican. National and battleground-state polls taken in the wake of his debate victory in Denver have him closing President Obama's lead, recasting the campaign for a photo finish. As the week began, RealClearPolitics' national polling average had the race tied at exactly 47.3 percent. Over the past 10 days, Obama's campaign has suffered the sort of downward spiral that the Romney campaign withstood for much of the previous month.

Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney will arrive in Philadelphia tonight on a campaign swing. According to his schedule, Romney will hold an "arrival event" at Atlantic Aviation at Philadelphia International Airport at 9:15 p.m. before spending the night at a nearby hotel. On Friday, Romney is slated to appear at a rally at Valley Forge Military Academy & College in suburban Wayne.  

When Mitt Romney was talking about his money the other day - a very rich topic, as it were - he casually remarked, "I get speakers' fees from time to time, but not very much. " Care to learn how Romney defines "not very much"? Between February 2010 and February 2011, his speaking gigs totaled $374,327. This guy clearly dwells in a rarefied realm far removed from the average Joe. What he dismisses as chump change is enough to send seven kids to top-notch colleges. His gig earnings also trump the median American family's annual income, which happens to be $60,088.

THE TEACHER who publicly embarrassed a sophomore for wearing a Romney shirt should be removed ( Daily News , Oct. 4). Not because of the teacher's obvious alliance to Obama, but for acting unprofessionally by singling out one student who was not afraid to show where she stands politically. Is this not how we want our children to be? Confident in their beliefs? Strong in their convictions? Not afraid to stand up for what they believe? It is the teacher who shamefully showed her allegiance by acting insulted, angry and surprised that one of her students disagreed with her political view.

ON DAY ONE of the post-Mitt Romney era, the nation's true Republican leader - that would be radio's Rush Limbaugh - tried to make sense of it all for his 14 million or so "Dittohead" listeners in a voice that alternated between stress and bafflement. "It's being said once again that the Republicans have an outreach problem, that we don't have Hispanics, we don't have blacks and we don't have women and we don't have . . . ," Limbaugh trailed off. "OK, fine. We don't. What are we supposed to do?

Mitt Romney's "Every Town Counts" bus tour will pass through Pennsylvania on Saturday and might make a stop in Bucks County, officials said. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is scheduled to make a morning visit to the Weatherly Casting & Machine Co. in Carbon County and then an afternoon appearance at the Cornwall Iron Furnace in Lebanon County, said campaign spokeswoman Kate Meriwether. Romney will speak at both appearances and also will tour the Weatherly facility.

BOSTON - Mitt Romney is back, if only briefly. The former Republican presidential candidate is reemerging after nearly four months in seclusion at his Southern California home. Former aides describe his burst of activity this month - a national broadcast interview, a speech at a gathering of conservatives - as a thank-you tour of sorts designed to close out a lengthy political career. His party isn't exactly clamoring for his return. In his first public comments in months, Romney used a Fox News interview to criticize President Obama's leadership.

A NN ROMNEY didn't get to be first lady, but that doesn't mean she wants the Disco Ball as a consolation prize. Sources tell TMZ.com that Mitt's honey turned down an offer to appear on the 16th season of "Dancing With the Stars. " She did appear on the season finale of the 15th iteration, voicing her rabid "Dancing" fandom, but she wasn't meant to cha-cha her way into America's hearts. No word was given for why she declined. Romney wouldn't be the first politically connected person to put on dancing shoes.

THE PARENTS OF a girl who allegedly was ridiculed by her teacher for wearing a Romney-Ryan T-shirt earlier this year are suing the Philadelphia School District for infringing on her First Amendment rights. A lawyer for the family of Samantha Pawlucy, 16, whose pink T-shirt sparked a national uproar in October, filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claiming that the district "effectively banned" her from wearing the shirt and "permitted other students to threaten her verbally and physically.

The parents of the Charles Carroll High School student ridiculed and told by her teacher to remove a T-shirt supporting Mitt Romney in this year's presidential campaign sued the teacher and the School District on Friday, claiming the act violated the girl's civil rights. Filed in federal court in Philadelphia, the suit says the district ignored Samantha Pawlucy's right to free speech, let other students threaten and harass her and subjected her "to emotional distress, simply because she exercised her First Amendment rights.

The parents of the Charles Carroll High School student ridiculed and ordered by her teacher to remove a t-shirt supporting Mitt Romney sued the teacher and school district on Friday, claiming the act violated the girl's civil rights. Filed in federal court in Philadelphia, the suit says the district ignored Samantha Pawlucy's right to free speech, let other students threaten and harass her and subjected her "to emotional distress, simply because she exercised her First Amendment rights.

NEW HAVEN, CONN. - Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School, has released his seventh annual list of the most notable quotations of the year. The original "Yale Book of Quotations" was published in 2006, and Shapiro has updated it with an annual list of the top-10 quotes. Shapiro picks quotes that are famous, important or revealing of the spirit of the times, not necessarily ones that are the most eloquent or admirable. Here's the list: 1. "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what . . . who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims . . . These are people who pay no income tax . . . and so my job is not to worry about those people.

By Salena Zito The political parties have a problem with white middle-class voters. Both major parties failed to connect with them in last month's presidential election. Many pundits have pointed to high turnout among minorities and young people as the key to Obama's victory. But Sean Trende, a RealClearPolitics analyst, points to a factor that flew under the radar: White voters did not turn out, and they did not turn out in significant numbers. Trende estimates that on Election Day, about 91.6 million votes were cast by whites, 16.6 million by blacks, 12.7 million by Latinos, and 6.3 million by other groups.

Good news for Mitt Romney! Contrary to early vote counts, based solely on computerized returns from Philadelphia's voting machines, he did not get blanked in 59 of the city's 1,687 voting divisions. A groundswell of support among people voting by absentee and provisional ballots reduced the number of divisions where Romney received zero votes to 50. In addition, the certified results show 99 divisions where Romney was supported by exactly one voter. - Bob Warner   At Great Wall, Nutter saw a Rocky fist pump First day in China, Mayor Nutter and three others - Nancy Gilboy, president of the International Visitors Council of Philadelphia, and Nutter aides Suzanne Biemiller and Duane Bumb - do the tourist thing and go to the Great Wall.

By Matt Miller I have just the thing if President Obama was serious about asking Mitt Romney to "work together to move this country forward. " Romney was a world-class management consultant with a legendary appetite for "the data. " His private-equity success was due partly to his knack for identifying and purging inefficiencies from bloated, underperforming enterprises. It's time, therefore, to set him loose (analytically speaking) on the mother of all domestic challenges: America's radically inefficient health-care system.

WASHINGTON - Three weeks after the election, Mitt Romney made it to the White House. For about 90 minutes. After an odd arrival in which a man rushed his SUV and ended up getting arrested by the Secret Service. It wasn't the start of a term as Romney had envisioned. But it was, at least, all on good terms with the man who defeated him, President Obama. Over a private lunch Thursday, Obama and Romney had white turkey chili, Southwestern grilled chicken salad, and - from the reports of it - the kind of conversation that never happens during a campaign.