John Ramsey became old enough to buy a Carlsberg nine months ago. The 21-year-old college student from east Texas isn’t old enough to serve in Congress. His intellectual role model, U.S. Texas Representative Ron Paul, has been in Congress 22 years -- longer than Ramsey has been alive. Yet, Ramsey is leaving a mark on U.S. politics that may outlast his political mentor and presidential candidate, Paul. The college senior spent $1.3 million of his own money to create a super-political action committee, Liberty for All Super PAC, that backs candidates who endorse what Ramsey calls “freedom philosophy.” The dogma includes policies championed by Paul, such as supporting free-market economics, protecting civil liberties, slashing government spending and opposing most U.S. military action. Ramsey’s super-PAC passed ... Continue reading →

Mitt Romney promised today that by the end of his first White House term, he would have shaved the unemployment rate to 6 percent. Sounds ambitious, right? Maybe not so much. While the figure represents a whopping 2.1 percent drop from today’s national unemployment rate, it’s about the same as the one congressional budget analysts have projected the U.S. will hit under current economic trends and existing laws, and — according to Romney himself a few weeks ago — “not cause for celebration.” “I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, we’d get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent or perhaps a little lower,” the presumed Republican presidential nominee told Time ... Continue reading →

Romney Rejects Wright-Based Attack, Decries Obama Tactics By Julie Hirschfeld Davis - 2012-05-18T10:44:04Z Enlarge image Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney Edward Linsmier/Getty Images Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said, “I hope that our campaigns can respectively be about the future and about issues and about a vision for America.” Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said, “I hope that our campaigns can respectively be about the future and about issues and about a vision for America.” Photographer: Edward Linsmier/Getty Images A Republican strategist’s plan to air racially tinged ads against President Barack Obama drew rebukes from Mitt Romney and other Republicans while sparking a fresh debate over what -- if anything -- is off-limits in the presidential race. Both Romney and a billionaire ... Continue reading →

Mitt Romney came bearing warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies. One day after his campaign froze out the national reporters traveling with him — blocking them from approaching Romney as he greeted voters and granting interviews only to local television stations and a conservative blogger — the former Massachusetts governor thawed out. He strolled to the back of his campaign plane on two separate occasions to chat with the journalists on board, held a brief press conference, and later gathered the traveling press around him on an airport tarmac to show off a silly picture of one of his grandkids. “I’ll show you what it’s all about for me,” Romney said, brandishing his iPad to show a photograph e-mailed by his daughter in law of 5-year-old ... Continue reading →