In a late night Wednesday appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had some words of praise for potential 2012 rival Sarah Palin before taking a couple of veiled shots at the former Alaska governor.
Romney, who joked that it's a sure sign he's running in 2012 "if you ever see me sign up for a gig on Fox News," called Palin a "remarkable, energetic, powerful figure in my party … attractive too."
He then took a shot at Palin's decision to resign from the governor's office in Alaska before the end of her term.
"It's hard to imagine a circumstance where I would quit [the governorship in Massachusetts]. I loved it," he told Leno. "But she had her reasons."
Romney also praised former President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara Bush, calling them "remarkable people." In a recent interview with CNN's Larry King, both praised Romney, while the former first lady suggested Palin should stay in Alaska.
While most observers fully expect Romney to launch another bid for the presidency in 2012, he has been less visible in some of the early presidential states over the past few weeks than his potential rivals.
Palin was in Iowa last week for a stop on her new book tour, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have both visited the state within the past month. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who has made a handful of trips to Iowa already this year, on Monday made his seventh trip to New Hampshire.
In a letter to members of the Democratic National Committee, Minnesota's two Democratic senators argued the DNC shouldn't pick a host city for the party's 2012 convention based solely on politics.
Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar pitched Minneapolis, which hosted the Republican convention in 2008, as the "proper political setting for the 2012 election," noting its sizable population of union voters and its "political importance" in Obama's win two years ago.
The letter goes on to say the decision on a host city for the 2012 convention "has as much to do with politics as it does with logistics. To that end, please keep in mind that history shows the national political convention site doesn't necessarily influence the outcome of the election. In fact, only half the time has the state in which the DNC was hosted, went for the Democratic Party in the general election."
The other cities under consideration are Charlotte, N.C., Cleveland and St. Louis, which is seen as the favorite among Democratic insiders and the likely the preference of the White House.
Minneapolis is seen as an unlikely selection by most. Of the four states that could host the convention in two years, Minnesota is the most Democratic.
"Our state is in play and has political importance. It's time again for Democrats to lay claim to Minnesota and help regain control in 2012," the letter concluded.
A decision on the host city is expected before the end of the year.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) told a group of New Hampshire Republicans on Monday that the key to reining in the nation's debt is repealing the healthcare law, emphasizing that "nothing" in the law is worth saving.
Santorum's visit Monday to the Granite State was his seventh in just the past year as he continues to test the waters for a possible run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
The former senator, who lost his seat to Democrat Bob Casey in 2006, was quoted by The Morning Call as saying that even some of the more popular provisions of the law must be scrapped.
"First, get rid of Obamacare," Santorum said. "Repeal it. There is nothing, nothing there that is worth saving, in my opinion."
Most calls for repealing the law exclude provisions such as stopping insurers from rejecting clients because of pre-existing conditions or allowing children to stay on their parents' plan until they are 26 years old. Polls show wide support for those provisions. Voters do not like the law's mandate that everyone must buy insurance.
Asked for clarification at an evening event, Santorum stood by his earlier remarks. He said the pre-existing conditions clause in the law doesn't work because it allows people to wait until they get sick to buy insurance, which he said would cause insurance premiums to "skyrocket."
Santorum also expressed support for eliminating earmarks, something he admittedly embraced during his two terms in the Senate.
"I think the American public has spoken and they don't want Congress doing it," he said of earmarking.
Without naming names, Santorum said he had some concern over whether anyone in the current field of rumored Republican hopefuls is the right candidate to take on Obama two years from now.
"One of the reasons I'm here and kicking this around is because I'm concerned that we may not have the right person who can do those things, because we're going to be competing against a hell of a good communicator," Santorum said, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Santorum said he expects to make a final decision on a run sometime next year.
If New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) decided to wage an independent bid for president in 2012, he would end up aiding President Obama's reelection prospects, according to a new pollout Monday.
Numbers from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling show Bloomberg polling at 11 percent in a hypothetical three-way matchup with Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). Obama led the way with 44 percent to Romney's 38 percent. Another 7 percent were undecided.
Bloomberg, who flirted with an independent bid in 2008, cut into Romney's support among independents substantially. The mayor had the support of 22 percent of independents, compared to 32 percent who went for Romney.
Bloomberg also costs Romney support among some Democrats. For the small number of Dems who favored the former governor over Obama, Romney loses half of them with Bloomberg in the race.
In a two-way matchup between Obama and Romney, the president leads by just a single point — 47 percent to 46 percent. Without Bloomberg in the race, his supporters break for Romney over Obama — 50 percent to 21 percent.
Bloomberg has repeatedly said he has no intention of running for president two years from now, but that hasn't stopped speculation that the billionaire might change his mind and opt for a self-funded run in 2012.
The poll also found that just 19 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of Bloomberg, compared to 38 percent who have an unfavorable view of the mayor.
The poll also found Obama leading all other potential GOP 2012 hopefuls, but the president doesn't make it above 50 percent against anyone but former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who trails Obama 51 percent to 42 percent.
Obama leads former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 48 percent to 45 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich 49 percent to 43 percent and Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) 48 percent to 37 percent.
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson could make legalizing marijuana an issue in the 2012 Republican presidential primary if he decides to run.
"The issue of marijuana legalization is obviously an attention-getter," Johnson told the St. Petersburg Times after a testing-the-waters visit to Florida last week. "And you can't shy away from it. I have to defend it. I have to defend the position."
Johnson, a successful businessman, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995-2003. He hasn't yet declared if he'll run for his party’s 2012 nomination.
If he does make a bid, Johnson admitted it won't be easy to explain his position on the drug war to a skeptical primary electorate in 30-second TV ads.
"And it's not, really, a 30-second sound-bite deal," he said. "It's maybe about a three-minute deal."
Johnson argued that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and the cost of incarcerating smokers is too great. Moreover, according to Johnson, marijuana would be considered less of a gateway drug if it were sold alongside "more dangerous drugs'' such as alcohol.
"I don't drink. I don't smoke pot. But I've drank and I've smoked pot," Johnson told the paper. "The big difference between the two is that marijuana is a lot safer than alcohol."
The loosening of legal restrictions on marijuana use has already be an issue in several states.
Earlier this month, Arizona became the 15th state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to have passed medical marijuana laws since 1996, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group. In California, however, a ballot measure legalizing marijuana use failed to pass.
Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, the man behind the airing of campaign ads in the Washington, D.C., area earlier this year that featured graphic images of aborted fetuses, wants to take the ads national in 2012.
Terry told TheWashington Post that he's planning to recruit Congressional candidates in or around 25 of the nation's largest media markets in 2012 in an attempt to get the greatest amount of exposure for the spots.
He's also weighing his own bid for president two years from now. Terry said that would pave the way for him to run an ad during the Super Bowl, which he called "the coup de grace."
This past cycle, Terry recruited Missy Reilly Smith to run against Washington, D.C., Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D). Smith's campaign then ran the ads, the content of which cannot be altered, according to federal law.
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The ads "did exactly what they were supposed to do," Terry said. "Missy's ad got more pro-life debate, more pro-life press...in two and a half weeks than all other pro-life news that I know of in the whole country."
Smith, running as a Republican, got only 6 percent of the vote against incumbent Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton.
The ad strategy comes out of a deliberate attempt by Terry to emulate "the social revolutions of the past" -- he mentioned the American Revolution and the civil rights movement in an interview at his Northern Virginia home Friday.
"I have no question that child-killing will not be ended until America has a crisis of conscience brought about by seeing the babies," he said. "If I run for the presidency, it will be to bring America face to face with dead babies."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) ducked a question on Tuesday night about Sarah Palin's capacity to be president, telling talk-show host Jimmy Fallon "Who knows? ... It's an amazing world."
Christie appeared on Fallon's "Late Night Show," where he discussed the aborted Hudson River train tunnel and the MTV show "Jersey Shore."
Asked about 2012, he denied that he was interested in a presidential or vice-presidential run.
"Can you see me as anybody's vice president?" he asked Fallon, prompting the reply, "You and Sarah Palin!"
Christie rolled his eyes.
"You and Sarah Palin! This is it!" Fallon repeated.
Then, asked if Sarah Palin could be president, Christie joked, "Be vice-president?"
"Well, who knows, Jimmy? It's an amazing world," he said later. "I don't know, but it's an amazing world."
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