Republican, Mitt Romney | featured news

Leaks are springing. Trial balloons are floating. Egos are being stroked. Wanna-bes are auditioning. And, chances are, lies are being told... Why did Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire walk in a July Fourth parade with Romney? Why did Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota turn up in Ohio and Pennsylvania during President Barack Obama's Midwest bus trip? Why did Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio write a Cleveland newspaper column criticizing the president's policies just as Obama headed for the state?

When House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, endorsed Mitt Romney for president in April, he pledged to do "everything I can to help him win." In his words, however, the one thing he can't do is make voters "fall in love" with the candidate.

News sources report that Mitt Romney's financial portfolio has included an offshore company in Bermuda that remained invisible to voters. But it may be images of the Romney clan vacationing at their $8 million summer compound on a lake in New Hampshire that have more impact... Photos of the Romney clan riding jet skis and a large power boat on vacation in New Hampshire this week led Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi to wonder if this was Mr. Romney’s “John Kerry moment” or perhaps proof of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous line about the rich: “They are different from you and me.”

Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised over $100 million in June, according to tweets and published reports...Rick Wiley, the political director for the RNC, taunted Obama campaign manager Jim Messina in a tweet that "we raised north of $100 million." He joked that Messina and Obama strategist David Axelrod will need some beers tonight.

Mr. Romney's remarks, made in a hastily arranged interview with CBS News on a national holiday, prompted renewed criticisms that he was willing to adjust his views for political expediency. Two days earlier, his chief spokesman and senior strategist had said that Mr. Romney did not believe the mandate should be called a tax.

Mitt Romney's wife has confirmed a tidbit about the vice presidential search process her husband largely has been keeping secret: He's considering choosing a woman. "We've been looking at that, and I love that option as well," Ann Romney told CBS News in a joint interview with her husband that was broadcast Thursday. She added: "There's a lot of people that Mitt is considering right now."

Mitt Romney has had a lot to say about immigration over the past few days, but what he has said adds up to a giant question mark. Rarely has a presidential candidate had as many opportunities to clarify or recalibrate his position on a vital issue, and rarely has a candidate passed up those opportunities as consistently as the former governor.

Condoleezza Rice is not interested in being Mitt Romney's running mate. In an interview with "CBS This Morning," the former secretary of state said, "There is no way that I will do this," when asked if she would accept a position as the No. 2 on this year's Republican presidential ticket.

Mitt Romney promises the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials long-term solutions to immigration concerns, but has few details... During the primaries, when he ran to the right of his Republican rivals on immigration, Romney said those here illegally should "self-deport" and leave the country. He opposed the Dream Act, which would have given a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants in college or the military. And he backed tough anti-illegal-immigrant policies in Arizona.