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Romney Passes On 2016 White House Run
Mitt Romney won't test the presidential waters a third time.& The 2012 GOP nominee for President told backers this morning that he while he knows he could win the 2016 nomination, he wants to give other party leaders a shot.& Romney revealed his decision on a conference call, saying the next generation of conservative Republicans may be better equipped to defeat the Democratic nominee.& He went on to add that he feels it's essential for a Republican to win the election.&
Recommended StoriesLindsey Graham Mulling White House Run | The Daily Caller
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Lindsey Graham Mulling White House Run
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4335975The hawkish Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says he is thinking about running for president in 2016.
, the senator, running for re-election to the Senate this year, said: “If I get through my general election, if nobody steps up in the presidential mix, if nobody’s out there talking — me and McCain have been talking — I may just jump in to get to make these arguments,” Graham said.
Graham, 59, also dismissed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 43, as a presidential candidate, saying he is too young. “He’s a good guy, but after doing immigration with him — we don’t need another young guy not quite ready,” Graham told the outlet. “He’s no Obama by any means, but he’s so afraid of the right, and I’ve let that go.”
Graham’s sidekick, former presidential nominee John McCain, is nudging him to get into the race.
“I’ve strongly encouraged him to give it a look,” McCain said. “I think Lindsey has vast and deep experience on these issues that very few others have. I happen to like a lot of these guys — I like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie. Ted Cruz has gone out of his way to tell people how much he agrees with me on national security.”
Asked about Rubio, McCain said “he’s probably as articulate as anyone in our party” but “doesn’t have the background that Lindsey does.”
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., where he struck a defiant tone when asked about fiscal issues in the Garden State.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., where he struck a defiant tone when asked about fiscal issues in the Garden State. (Olivier Douliery / TNS)
GOP governors exploring a presidential bid, and whose states are in fiscal straits, have some &splainin to do
GOP governors testing waters at CPAC are weighted down with their states& fiscal baggage
After bolting to national prominence on a record of bringing public employee unions to heel and taming runaway pension costs like those that have challenged state governments across the country, Chris Christie hit a very large hurdle recently.A state court ruling last week caused the retirement policies Christie had battered through New Jersey's Legislature to unravel spectacularly, leaving the state with a massive deficit driven by pension costs that Christie had not, it turns out, gotten fully under control.The judge ruled that Christie had violated state law by not making almost $900 million in required payments to the state pension fund in order to balance last year's budget, a move the governor had planned to repeat for the current fiscal year.Among Republican governors hoping to become president, Christie is not alone in having troubles back home.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker also faces a big deficit, which he has tried to close by cuts to the budget of the state university system, long the state's crown jewel. And Louisiana's Bobby Jindal is struggling with the fact that the state has gone from a giant surplus to a giant deficit under his stewardship.In an election season in which voters have a sour view of Washington, governors have unquestioned political appeal. But the problems that the GOP trio have run into in the last few weeks are a reminder that being a chief executive comes with downsides too.When all is well, a governor can tout his record of decisive action. But right now, governors who marketed themselves as fiscal miracle workers are scrambling to avoid damage from dour headlines.
-->Still standing, but wounded. Even before the state's fiscal problems made headlines, Christie's position in the presidential field had been on the decline.Conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, who interviewed Christie onstage at CPAC, pointed out that in one recent poll of Republican voters, he did worse than Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who has become a favorite among conservatives but an extreme long shot for the party's nomination.&The budget provides more ammunition to Republicans who don't like him in the first place,& said Jack Pitney, professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican party official. &It's a convenient place to hang their misgivings and animosities.&There is no shortage of ammunition. New Jersey's credit rating has been downgraded eight times during Christie's tenure. Polls show that voters at home have lost confidence in his financial management.
The state, according to data compiled by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is one of the least financially secure in the country. Its rainy day fund is so small, it could keep government running for just three days.&These candidates won't be courting voters until later, but these troubles are raising doubts with the money people and party activists they need to court now,& said David Redlawsk, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University in New Jersey. &Potential supporters are not flocking to Christie the way they did in the last presidential election, when they were begging him to run.&For Jindal, a budget crisis is creating even more unwanted baggage.&It's one thing for a Republican governor to be controversial and unpopular in a Democratic state like New Jersey or Wisconsin, and quite another to have rock-bottom ratings in a deeply conservative state like Louisiana,& said Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at University of Virginia. &In that sense, Jindal is in a deeper hole.&Analysts say the culprit in his case is not so much the governor as plunging oil prices, which deprive Louisiana of tax revenue it relies on to pay for schools, roads and other services. But such are the perils of being the state's chief executive. When things go wrong, the governor gets blamed.Jindal's strategy at CPAC was to change the subject. He did not talk about state budget issues, preferring to steer conversation toward radical Islamic terrorists, Obamacare, White House immigration policy and how federal education policy oppresses his son, a second-grader.He also took shots at the GOP leadership in Washington.&It is time for our Republican leaders in Congress to grow a spine,& he said.
Walker, who has long profited politically by portraying himself as a target of liberal attacks, embraced the criticism he is facing at home as a mark of his courage. And the crowd embraced him.&We are a state that has been taxed and taxed and taxed, and today I am proud to say after four years as governor we've reduced the burden on hardworking taxpayers by nearly $2 billion,& he said. &How many other governors can say that?&Although budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin will be controversial at home, they may play well among Republican primary voters, many of whom see universities as hotbeds of liberalism.All three of the governors went over well at CPAC. How voters in Iowa, the first caucus state, and others on the primary trail will respond remains to be seen.&Iowans hate debt,& said Tim Albrecht, a GOP political consultant in Des Moines. &These governors will need to spend a lot more time explaining to voters here why they are having these budget difficulties.&Twitter: @evanhalper
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defended his credentials as a &reform-minded conservative& Friday, even as he held firm to positions that threaten to undermine his standing with party activists, telling skeptics that he hoped to be their &second choice& to win the GOP presidential nomination.
 Technology mogul Carly Fiorina muscled her way into the crowded field of Republicans positioning for a 2016 White House bid with a blistering attack Thursday on Hillary Rodham Clinton and an appeal to Republicans to consider nominating a woman.
 The South Carolina Senate voted Monday to pull the Confederate flag off the Capitol grounds, clearing the way for a historic measure that could remove the banner more than five decades after it was first flown above the Statehouse to protest integration.}