WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Jon Huntsman plans a more aggressive approach on the 2012 campaign trail, boosting his profile and drawing sharper distinctions with rivals in an effort to enliven his sagging presidential bid.

Huntsman, who launched his White House candidacy with great fanfare last month but quickly fell flat, will make more public appearances and be more forceful in his critiques of President Barack Obama and his adversaries for the Republican nomination, spokesman Tim Miller said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The likely entrance of Texas Governor Rick Perry in the 2012 Republican White House race promises to dramatically reshape the field, pushing aside lesser contenders and threatening early leader Mitt Romney.

Perry, who last week said he felt “called” to a presidential run, is a staunch conservative with a Washington outsider’s political resume and a pro-business record of job growth during more than a decade as chief executive in Texas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The likely entrance of Texas Governor Rick Perry in the 2012 Republican White House race promises to dramatically reshape the field, pushing aside lesser contenders and threatening early leader Mitt Romney.

Perry, who last week said he felt “called” to a presidential run, is a staunch conservative with a Washington outsider’s political resume and a pro-business record of job growth during more than a decade as chief executive in Texas.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) – Six Republican White House
hopefuls unleashed a torrent of 140-character policy
pronouncements on jobs, government debt and the Tea Party on
Wednesday during the first presidential debate on Twitter.

The event, hosted by an online conservative Tea Party
group, gave participants a chance to raise their profile and
build their followings on the popular social media site, which
is increasingly used to distribute campaign messages.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After months of criticizing President Barack Obama’s economic leadership, the Republican White House hopefuls are turning some of their sharpest jabs on each other.

As the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination gains momentum, early front-runner Mitt Romney and rising challenger Michele Bachmann are taking heat from lagging rivals looking to narrow the gap and boost their profile.

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – The Republican presidential
contenders are pledging their allegiance — to low taxes,
reduced spending, healthy marriages and more.

The party’s White House hopefuls are under pressure from
advocacy groups seeking pledges of support on an expanding list
of social and fiscal issues, from short-term vows on
debt-ceiling talks to personal promises of marital fidelity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future as economic concerns rise and White House talks on raising the U.S. debt limit sputter, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track rose to 63 percent this month, up from 60 percent in June, with stubbornly high unemployment and prolonged gridlock in Washington dashing hopes of a swift economic recovery.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Among political insiders in the Texas state capital, one thing is considered certain: Governor Rick Perry will jump into the Republican presidential race in the next few weeks.

But what happens then, in a campaign where many Republicans are hungry for an alternative to vulnerable frontrunner Mitt Romney, is much less predictable.

NEW ORLEANS, June 18 (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry
looked and sounded like a White House contender on Saturday,
delivering a fiery condemnation of President Barack Obama and
Washington to a crowd of Republican activists chanting “Run,
Rick, Run.”

Perry, who says he is thinking about jumping into the 2012
presidential race, said Obama and the federal government was
stifling the United States with “too much spending, too much
interfering and too much apologizing.”

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Sometimes fractious Republican loyalists agreed on Friday on at least one thing about the 2012 White House race — President Barack Obama has got to go.

Many of the officials and activists attending the three-day Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans said the party should move beyond recent ideological battles and unite behind a 2012 nominee who can beat Obama.