2008 US Presidential Election.

BOSTON - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has had an epiphany on abortion — not once, but twice.

The first time was when Romney was a young man in the 1960s and his brother-in-law’s sister — an engaged-to-be-married teen who became pregnant — died in a botched illegal abortion.

Roughly three decades later, while campaigning for the Senate in 1994, Romney described that tragedy as the event that triggered his conclusion that regardless of personal beliefs, abortion should be safe and legal.

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Two bloggers hired recently by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards were criticized Tuesday by a Catholic group for posts they had written elsewhere on the Internet.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded that Edwards fire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

“John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots,” Donohue wrote in a statement. “He has no choice but to fire them immediately.”

The Edwards campaign declined to comment. McEwan and Marcotte did not respond to e-mails requesting a response.

Yahoo! News

MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire residents likely to vote in the Republican presidential primary a year from now think more highly of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani than any of his rivals, a poll released Tuesday shows.

Giuliani’s net favorability rating — the proportion of people viewing him favorably minus the proportion viewing him unfavorably — was 56 percent, well ahead of Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), 32 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 26 percent, in the University of New Hampshire poll for WMUR-TV in Manchester.

“He’s the lesser-known candidate, but he has that rock star quality,” poll director Andy Smith said of Giuliani. “He has a charisma that was built after 9-11.”

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Republican Mitt Romney will formally announce his candidacy for president next week in Michigan, his native state and an important early test for the GOP nomination, campaign aides said Tuesday.

The former one-term Massachusetts governor will make his announcement Feb. 13, and then will visit Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — the first states to hold 2008 contests.

He will return to Boston two days later, where he will hold what his campaign is calling “a unity event” with supporters, aides said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were not public.

The announcement had been expected.

Yahoo! News

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani will deliver the commencement address at The Citadel in the pivotal primary state of South Carolina, the military college announced Tuesday.

The former New York City mayor was asked to speak to graduates on May 5 “because of his leadership in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York in September 2001,” the school said in a news release.

Giuliani visited South Carolina last weekend, which will hold the first Republican primary in the South.

Yahoo! News

Mike Huckabee, the recently retired governor of Arkansas and prospective candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, admitted Tuesday during a press breakfast in Washington, D.C., that he is not currently in the top tier of GOP White House contenders.

CQ Politics

The following are breakdowns of the current and potential candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations in 2008. The lists for each party are divided into the following categories: officially announced candidates, possible candidates who have formed “exploratory” campaign…

CQ Politics

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) has moved a step closer to officially enter the 2008 race for the White House, but polling in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination remains little changed. Giuliani attracts 27% of the vote, down from 29% a week ago. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record)’s (R) support has held steady at 19% among Likely GOP Primary voters.

Rasmussen Reports releases updated polling data on the Republican nominating contest every Tuesday. Results for the Democrats are updated on Mondays.

While Giuliani and McCain remain in the top two slots, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) dropped a few points and now is favored by 13%. Trailing Gingrich is former Massachusetts Mitt Romney (R) at 9% and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) at 4%.

Yahoo! News

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani jumped into the 2008 presidential race yesterday, filing a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission and declaring on national television last night, “I’m in this to win.”

Giuliani’s actions were aimed at erasing any lingering doubts about whether he would enter the 2008 campaign and came after an intensive month of activity in which he has stepped up his political travels, broadened his political team and expanded his fundraising operation. A formal announcement will come later, Giuliani said.

Washington Post

Excitement spread like wildfire last week across the libertarian web: Ron Paul has entered the presidential race! Even the mainstream press took notice. As we’ll see in the interview with Rep. Paul (R-Texas) below, the excitement may have been premature.

The reason for the excitement is understandable: Ron Paul has been the most consistent successful politician advocating the limited-government principles that he sees embedded in the Constitution. Part of his appeal, to a voting base that we can safely presume isn’t as libertarian as Paul is himself, is that of the very rare politician following his own conscience and mind with steadfast integrity. Indeed, Paul is not afraid of aggravating even parts of his libertarian constituency when he thinks it’s the right thing to do, as on immigration (where he’s against amnesty and birthright citizenship, and for increased border control) and his vote this month in favor of prescription drug negotiation.

reason

Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films released John McCain Vs. John McCain today— a hard hitting short documentary, being distributed for free via the website TheRealMcCain.com and across the country via You Tube. The three minute short reveals the Senator’s flip flopping on key issues such as the Iraq War, Gay Marriage and the Religious Right. The film uses McCain’s own words to destroy the myth of the Senator as a “straight talking” politician. John McCain Vs. John McCain shows the Senator as politician prone to frequent contradictions on key issues.

“This short illustrates, that John McCain is not a ’straight talker’ but a double talker. As a filmmaker and concerned American, I felt it was important to reveal this side of John McCain since this aspect of his leadership has not been portrayed in the press” said the film’s director Robert Greenwald. The length of the video allows for it to be distributed virally for free across the Internet. Blogs and websites around the world are picking up the video and You Tube users and concerned citizens are forwarding the short to friends.

Disinfo