Some news

Romney continues to surge in NH:

CNN/WMUR/UNH poll.
Romney: 33
Giuliani: 18
F. Thompson: 13
McCain: 12

Also, Marc Ambinder does an in-depth look at Romney's media team and the competition he has fostered.

New Hampshire numbers

WMUR in New Hampshire is reporting the results of a University of New Hampshire poll.
Interviews with 306 respondents who say they plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary, conducted by telephone on March 27-April 3, 2007. The margin of sampling error for results based on Republican primary voters is plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Romney pulls close in polls

It seems like the Romney campaign is picking up some steam. In New Hampshire and Michigan Romney is making the Republican nomination very competitive. In New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce College polled 400 likely Republican primary voters:

In Michigan, an EPIC-MRA poll shows similar results:

One man's switch to Romney

There’s an interesting op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader by Michael Moffett, a professor at NHTI-Concord and McCain 2000 supporter. He says that while he supported McCain in 2000 and holds a deep respect for McCain, he feels that Romney is the man that should be president:

The reasons are many, and they include the impressive analysis of the international situation that Romney articulated after his trip to Asia earlier this year…No prospective President can come close to offering the diverse record of executive leadership that Romney can…Our Republican standard bearer should be someone who remains true to our important principles of limited government while celebrating individual responsibility and personal liberty.

Mitt Romney is such a person.

Why the shift from McCain to Romney? Moffett has several reasons ranging from lack of executive experience to ideological differences over McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold.

One notable absence from Moffett’s reasoning: traditional social issues. Moffett does not take the opportunity to distinguish McCain from Romney on social issues. Certainly there are differences, but it is interesting that McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold have become so prominent in conservative circles, even to the point of perhaps eclipsing traditionally prominent social issues like abortion and gay rights. Indeed some of the loudest applause that Romney got in his CPAC speech was for his opposition to McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold. Is this due to the stances of the top-tier candidates on traditional social issues, or is a more significant realignment occurring on conservatives’ priority list?

Romney Relishes Obama-Clinton Spat

While visiting New Hampshire today, Mitt Romney said he was enjoying the Clinton v. Obama grudge-match. "It's great, isn't it? I love to see it when it happens on the other side."

Meanwhile, Romney obeyed Reagan's 11th Commandment with respect to his main Republican rivals, describing them as "friends" and saying "I respect them. I'm sure we'll disagree on issues from time to time, but I doubt you'll see the rancor that apparently may exist elsewhere."

I have serious doubts about whether the Republican primaries will stay very amicable, especially in the South, but we can hope.

Romney to Formally Announce Presidential Bid on February 13th

The Politico is reporting that Mitt Romney will formally announce his presidential bid at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan on February 13th. Romney then plans on traveling to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, over the next two days before returning to Massachusetts.