2012 Presidential Election, Republican Presidential Candidate | featured news

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, is set to declare Monday afternoon that he is opening a presidential exploratory committee, a step that formalizes a campaign for the Republican nomination that he has been pondering for more than a year.

The Republican National Committee is considering sanctioning the GOP presidential primary debates and then selling the broadcast rights to news outlets, two Republicans with knowledge of the idea tell CNN.

The early Republican favorite is wearing Gap skinny jeans and going tieless on network TV. But despite his makeover, he still has a hard time connecting with voters.Defying his reputation as a 1950s square, the new, more casual Mitt Romney is popping up around the country as he readies a second run for president.

Aides say the former speaker of the House will become the first major Republican candidate to enter the 2012 race.

Republican Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Friday of presiding over "the greatest job loss in modern American history" in a speech to conservatives that strongly hinted at a run for president.

Potential Republican presidential candidates flocked to a gathering of conservatives on Thursday to road-test a message that basically boiled down to this: Beat President Barack Obama in 2012.