Free Republic

Thank you for that warm welcome. I am honored to be here. We meet tonight in the wake of a terrible storm that has hit the Gulf Coast but that hurts all of us, because we are all members of our larger American family. At times like this, we set aside all that divides us, and we come together to help our fellow citizens in need. What matters is certainly not whether we are Democrats or Republicans, but that we are all Americans. The truth is, it shouldn’t take a hurricane to bring us together like this. Every day, across...

Amid the barbs and hockey banter Wednesday night, Gov. Sarah Palin directed an emotional appeal to the hearts of millions of parents with children who have special needs, promising they would “have a friend and advocate in the White House” in a McCain-Palin administration. Palin’s offer of friendship sparked hope in many parents, advocates and lawyers as the often-marginalized subject of disabilities rights took center stage. ****** Ms. Palin’s effort to rally parents of children with disabilities has also prompted reaction among those who fear that her idea of advocacy might really mean preventing abortions of fetuses with Down syndrome,...

Last week in one fell swoop, John McCain completely changed the dynamic of this presidential election — this campaign is no longer a referendum on Barack Obama. If events of the past few days are any indication, this paradigm shift has caused a staggering existential crisis for Obama and his supporters. The Democratic Party gamble in this election was hedged on a bet that the Obama campaign could maintain the media’s focus and the electorate’s attention on “The One” to divert attention from all of his attached inside-the-Beltway strings. That illusion has been shattered. For the first time in this...

UTICA, New York - Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin left St. Paul, Minnesota, with a smallish bounce overall and some energy in key demographic groups, as the race for the presidency enters a key stage and voters begin to tune in to the contest, the latest Zogby Interactive poll finds. The McCain/Palin ticket wins 49.7% support, compared to 45.9% backing for the Obama/Biden ticket, this latest online survey shows. Another 4.4% either favored someone else or were unsure.

"Organizers of the Republican convention demanded that a group of young Republicans take down their "Build The Fence" signs, a reference to a border fence to fight illegal immigration, while at the Xcel Center last night."

Today on our NARN show, Mitch Berg and I interviewed Doug, a volunteer driver who worked for the Republican National Convention Committee in St. Paul. His customers included the Washington Post, MS-NBC, and some of the McCain campaign. According to Doug, this allowed him to peer behind the scenes in both media and politics, and he saw some very interesting things: According to Doug, MS-NBC apparently took no chances on questions from the crowd. Rather than get caught with a question that might make Republicans look good, their producer pre-screened questioners, and Chris Matthews pretended it was random. Republicans were...

In the summer of 2007, I constructed a profile and analysis on Michael Moore that illuminated the sociopathic tendencies that encompass the actions of one of the most infamous documentary creators of modern times. Within the article, Michael Moore: A Criminal Profile, which was first released in the New Media Journal and then later around the world, I took careful pains to make sure that readers understood that Moore carries the tendencies of the sociopath while not accusing him of the crimes that some sociopaths actually commit. The thrust of the article was to introduce people to the moral wasteland...

(snip) Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right. (snip) When a hate campaign goes wrong, however, disaster follows. And everything that could go wrong with the campaign against Palin did. American liberals forgot that the public did not know her. By the time she spoke at the Republican convention, journalists...

Republican presidential nominee John McCain will not be elected on his oratorical skills — compared to his opponent, they are weak and flat. He may, however, win over voters with the power of his personal story. So it went in his acceptance speech. His words lit up the Xcel Center in Minneapolis, and he himself grew noticeably more enthused as he talked about his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, how he fell in love with America and became a more humble man while held in Hanoi. The Republican National Convention started out as a bust, with a...

Shaves six points off Obama’s lead in Gallup - An uncharacteristic care package o’ optimism to tide you over for a few hours. The meme du jour isn’t Palinmania but the after-the-fact rave reviews for McCain’s speech trickling in from unlikely sources. Sample error? Maybe not: Check out the grading in Survey USA’s new national poll. For some reason the data from Tampa specifically is getting attention today, but in fact the speech played almost as well across the country as it did down there. Gallup’s got him within two now nationally after trailing by eight just four days ago;...

Democrat Barack Obama’s much-vaunted political star power took a drubbing this week as the woman in the GOP’s No. 2 spot bypassed him in favorability polls, according to Rasmussen Reports. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, virtually unknown in the lower 48 states a week ago, is now viewed favorably by 58 percent of American voters, despite days of relentless negative news reports and political attacks preceding her acceptance speech Wednesday, Rasmussen reported. Its national telephone survey found that 37 percent of voters hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom. Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52...

After the GOP attacks the media over stories about the vice presidential nominee's family, TV networks and newspapers deny bias and say Republicans opened the door to coverage. News executives Thursday tried to shake off the excoriations of the media emanating from the Republican National Convention, defending their coverage of GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as responsible and evenhanded. While top television network officials and newspaper editors largely dismissed the critiques as partisan rhetoric, some fretted that charges of media bias had reached a new and disturbing level. "I really do take exception to it," NBC News President Steve...

It's sort of hard to come away from that thinking "nonpartisanship." McCain tried to get voters to remember that man in his acceptance speech Thursday night, the one who "worked with members of both parties to fix the problems that need to be fixed." But that man has disappeared. The stage in the middle of the cavernous Xcel Energy Center was rearranged so McCain could conjure the feel of the town hall meetings he loves as he laced into "partisan rancor" and "the Washington crowd." Yet a set change could not disguise the fact that this convention -- including the...

The Obama campaign and their friends in the media are finally starting to admit that Republicans have gotten some things right. Not just in the last few days but also in the last few years. After John McCain gave what was a less-than-rousing but authentically American speech, talk at MSNBC turned to how he will use the “mistake” that has turned out to be his greatest asset. How, Newsweek’s Washington Bureau Chief Howard Fineman asked MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, will McCain’s “accidental brilliance” of picking Sarah Palin as his running mate continue to bolster his bid for the presidency? This...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican White House nominee John McCain earned a record 38.9 million television viewers during his convention speech, edging his rival Barack Obama's record from the previous week, the Nielsen group reported Friday. "Senator McCain amassed an audience of 38.9 million viewers for his speech on two fewer channels than were carrying Senator Obama's speech August 28 to 38.38 million viewers," Nielsen Media Research said in a statement.

IT’S A GRAND OLD RAG TO DENVER DEMS The Dem festivities were ened, the charade was done. The original lyrics from George M. Cohan’s “You’re a Grand Old Flag” referred to our flag as “a grand old rag,” using Civil War era slang, which Cohan changed following objections. Denver Democrats apparently preferred the original version. The party was over and it was time to trash all those flags, said the plain old delegates, the super delegates, the superduper delegates. Now, what to do with the damned things? It was bad enough that they had to wave them and pretend they...

Nielsen reports that the Republicans averaged 34.5 million viewers over three nights, making the event the most-watched convention since the company began keeping records. ...the Democrats averaged 30.2 million viewers over four nights. White viewers flocked to their TVs for McCain's speech (32.2 million versus 27 million for Obama). But among African Americans, the reverse was true. About 7.5 million African Americans watched Obama's speech last week, whereas 3.1 million tuned in for McCain's.

Sarah Palin killed. And more than killed. Much has been said about her speech, but a few points. "The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick" is pure American and goes straight into Bartlett's. This is the authentic sound of the American mama, of every mother you know at school who joins the board, reads the books, heads the committee, and gets the show on the road. These women make large portions of America work. . . .

Some highlights: Letter grade for McCain's speech: 41%-A, 22% - B Asked of 1051 registered voters (Margin of error 3.1) who saw both Obama and McCain's speeches, who has the better position on: Iraq: Advantage McCain 55-41 Energy Independence: Advantage McCain 55-42 Health Care: Advantage McCain 46-45 Education: Advantage McCain 50-45 Environment: Advantage Obama 49-41 Are Democrats more interested in reaching out to Republicans, or are Republicans more interested in reaching out to Democrats? Advantage: Republicans 35-24 (39 said same or neither) If you had to bet today, who will win in November? McCain 49-44

I have never been so moved by a political speech. The speech up until the final crescendo was workmanlike. It was only at the end that I realized it was all to lay the foundation for that incredible ending. It lays the details and facts that form the basis of the powerful emotion at the end -- made all the more powerful in that it is grounded in the real details of this man's history and the basis of his love of country. To hear the cheers rising, and McCain struggling to raise his broken arms higher with each round...

Gov. Sarah Palin's commando muscle-flex in St. Paul Wednesday night eviscerated the argument that she might not be capable of handling the vice presidency and five children at the same time. Indeed, we were left with the distinct impression that on a slow day, she could clean up America, balance our budget with a little help from eBay, and win the Iditarod -- all with 10 kids tied to her back. What Sarah Palin did not do, however, is put an end to the latest national conversation about "trying to have it all." Because the question we're all asking isn't...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama's advantage over John McCain has been shrinking since the start of the Republican National Convention, and is now down to just two percentage points -- 47% to 45% -- too close to call. This is according to Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Wednesday through Friday, Sept. 3-5.

Day 4 Day: ThursdayLocation: CapitolArrests: 400 Arrests Mark Last Anti-War March Of Convention Percussion grenades, tear gas and nearly 400 arrests marked the final anti-war march during the Republican National Convention. More than 800 arrests were reported during a week of sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent dissent. Anti-war protesters rallied Thursday at the state Capitol and then planned to march to Xcel Energy Center, where Sen. John McCain was due to accept the GOP presidential nomination. But their permit had expired, and police -- in riot gear and using horses, snow plows and dump trucks -- blocked their way. For...

Larry Kudlow has expressed his concern that has John McCain wandered off-message in the wake of the release of high unemployment numbers. On his radio show this morning, Kudlow said that McCain could sail to victory on a message of DRILL! DRILL! DRILL! and a promise to keep tax rates low. He said the current economic downturn stems from oil shock, and reminded us that the vast majority of Americans favor drilling - but McCain is skirting the message and failing to pound it home, missing a big opportunity. After the jobs report yesterday, McCain focused on, of all things,...

"She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou." — Syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg. She, of course, is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. After her triumphant speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, the johnnys-come-lately to the International Sarah Barracuda Love Fest were calling her the next Margaret Thatcher, the next Ronald Reagan, the face of "populist conservatism." It's a tad early for the Thatcher and Reagan comparisons, though the potential is there and her speech was Reaganesque in its plain talk, folksy delivery and potentially game-changing impact....

I hope Sarah Palin got a few minutes to savour her splendid performance at the Republican convention the other night. God knows, she wouldn't have had much longer. In the all-blogs-all-the-time-world in which we live, the spontaneous reaction ("She hit it out of the park," CNN's Wolf Blitzer burbled immediately afterward, before he could collect himself) is about as common as spontaneous combustion. No sooner had Ms. Palin done a little turn on the stage, embracing her gorgeous husband and their five kids, than the pundits, even those who pronounced that she'd done well, were once again having at her:...

Apparently Ted Anthony of the Associated Press thinks it is somehow "contradictory" of the GOP to show VP candidate Governor Sarah Palin's kids at the GOP convention on TV. He seems to imagine that, since the GOP objected to the media attempting to use the kids against Governor Palin, that the GOP shouldn't be allowed to have the kids attend the convention to see their Mother accept her nomination. Anthony's "analysis" hit the nets on September 3, the day after Palin's wonderful acceptance speech on night 3 of the proceedings. Naturally, the AP trolls our left leaning universities to find...

Last Tuesday, as the hordes of media that had begun to dissect every moment of her political career and personal life were distracted by speeches from Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman in nearby St. Paul, Sarah Palin sat quietly with her family for an hourlong dinner in the Skywater restaurant of the Minneapolis Hilton. It was a rare respite from the intense scrutiny she was subjected to over the first week of her new life in the national spotlight. Over the previous several days she had been portrayed as a naïf, a rube, and a bad mother. Journalists had peppered...

This was the happiest convention I have attended. In seven conventions going back to 1984, I have never seen delegates as happy. I have seen them eager, energized, committed, determined but the underlying mood last night was sheer joy. There was joy that Senator McCain had had the courage to pick Governor Palin. There was joy that she and her family had come through the week of attacks smiling and eager to campaign. There was joy that Governor Palin's Wednesday night speech completely vindicated Senator McCain's choice. There was joy that 37 million Americans had seen her speech. That is...

Special to The Stiletto BlogWow … flying to St. Paul, MN, for the Republican National Convention. I still feel like I've fallen down that rabbit hole in “Alice in Wonderland” and the world is upside down. ... Unlike my trip to Denver for the Democratic National Convention last week, there were no tears streaming down my face. I was really excited to join other Hillary Clinton supporters at the convention, and to get to know them. Also, two other members of The New Agenda were there, and I couldn't wait to meet them. Almost like a sorority! ... The media...

JUNEAU, Alaska — When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sought to illustrate her frugality and flair to delegates at the GOP convention Wednesday, she described how she disposed of a corporate jet acquired by her unpopular predecessor. "That luxury jet was over the top," Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said to loud cheers. "I put it on eBay." Palin's statement implied the plane was sold through the online auction site revered for empowering millions of small entrepreneurs, and Palin's spokeswoman insisted Thursday that the transaction occurred. But the plane failed to sell on eBay. Instead, the 23-year-old 10-seat Westwind II...

Rasmussen is unchanged from yesterday, and now includes two days of Palin's speech and one day of McCain's speech. Either Wednesday was a really bad polling day for McCain, or we are overestimating the bounce, if any, that McCain-Palin got.

It was inevitable that Barack Obama would receive a bounce from the Democratic National Convention, just as it was inevitable that John McCain would see a bounce from this weeks Republican Convention. Yet, what started out as a hopeful week for Obama, and perhaps the most challenging week of the year for John McCain, turned out unlike any pundit or reporter ever imagined. On Sunday night, the McCain campaign ...

By now nearly everyone in America knows that Sarah Palin described herself at the GOP convention Wednesday night as "just your average hockey mom." She isn't average anymore, though she can still throw a hip check. After a national political debut that ranks with Barack Obama's in 2004 and Ronald Reagan's in 1964, the Alaska Governor may be the future of the Republican Party. With his nomination last night, John McCain is now the leader of the GOP (see here). But win or lose in November, Senator McCain has elevated Mrs. Palin to new prominence and jumbled Republican categories in...

The editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD believe in giving credit where credit is due. The presidential race looks a whole lot better today than it did two weeks ago. For this, thanks are owed to two men--Barack Obama and John McCain--and to that herd of independent minds, the liberal media. First: Thank you, Barack Obama. He lacked the confidence or the strength to ask Hillary Clinton, recipient of some 18 million votes, to join him on the ticket. Such a ticket, uniting and exciting the Democratic party, would have been hard to beat in this Democratic year. Having ruled out...

Is the Mac back? Accepting the US presidential nomination for the Republican Party yesterday, John McCain turned his campaign on its head, saying he and his vice-presidential pick, Sarah Palin, would shake up Washington. snip. . . Taking a swipe at Senator Obama, he added: "I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so...

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was upset that they played video at the Republican convention that included the 9/11 attacks. Talk-radio host Mark Levin has a different opinion: This is the video that Keith Olbermann does not think we should see. Me.A friend of a friend took two photographs at 8:49 a.m., September 11, 2001, from about halfway up inisde the South Tower, 14 minutes before Islamic terrorists slammed United Airlines Flight 175 into it. Those photos are hard to look at. They show smoke pouring out of a gaping hole in the North Tower above, from where American Airlines Flight 11...

Like him or not, you have to give Barack Obama credit for waging a smart, focused campaign. Destroying the Clinton machine was a major achievement, and so was putting together a successful convention in Denver. Obama is now firmly a part of U.S. history no matter what happens in the presidential election. The problem some Americans continue to have with the senator is that he is long on charisma, but short on detail. This frightens some voters. Who the heck is this guy, anyway? So, when Obama finally agreed to speak to me this week, specifics were on my mind....

John McCain’s address to the convention was more than a speech. It was a life impression. There is no logic in trying to compare his delivery style with any other speakers at the Republican Convention or the Democrat Convention. It’s not really about style comparison. Yet that is as far as some critics have gone following McCain’s speech. They deliberate regarding his pauses, a supposed glitch or two, his soft-spoken sentences on occasion. All of that is superficial assessment. What is truly significant is that McCain’s speech was about a serving life span over years.

The national conventions are political shows staged to influence voters. Soon, we can measure the bounce that the two tickets have received from their gatherings. But the more important question is whether the conventions establish arguments that are sustainable -- over the course of the campaign and, for the winning ticket, over four years of governance. Four years ago, John Kerry's convention produced a narrative that proved unsustainable. George W. Bush's convention produced one that was sustainable until Katrina and the 2005-06 meltdown in Iraq -- yet that may be redeemed in history by the success of the surge and...

As I set fingers to word processor, I'm being transported through the night sky back to L.A. from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Many thoughts are roiling around in my head, and I'd like to share some of them with you. First, it's been unique, absolutely (a word crossword puzzlers like me see frequently) a "oner." I had the feeling right from the start this one would be like no other, and I was proven right on the first day. Hurricane Gustav blew into New Orleans right on time, and the GOP decided they shouldn't compete for...

Sean Hannity got a chance to interview Elisabeth at the RNC about her thoughts on the whole event, as well as her thoughts specifically on Sarah Palin. Needless to say, Elisabeth is stoked as are most of us, and she’s not ashamed to show it. The only question is, she agreed with Sean that “community organizer” is a bogus title, and the past week on The View, Whoopi & Sherri both said they were offended by Sarah making fun of that title. It will be interesting to see how they react to Elisabeth next week.

SARAH Palin was hailed as “Ronald Reagan in a dress” yesterday — by the former President’s son. Michael Reagan, 63, said watching the vice-presidential hopeful was like seeing “my dad reborn — only this time he’s a she”. Palin’s stirring speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night was watched by 40million people across the US. And Michael, a broadcaster and writer whose father was President from 1981 to 1989 — said: “I’ve been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan. Pitbull “I insisted he...

John McCain headed into the last 60 days of the US presidential campaign neck and neck with Barack Obama after a “Sarah Palin bounce” appeared to have all but cancelled out the Democrat’s lead in the polls. With the Republican Party finishing its convention in St Paul believing that victory on November 4 is truly within its grasp, the Rasmussen tracking poll yesterday had Mr Obama on 46 per cent and Mr McCain on 45 per cent.

Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, grabbed European headlines on Thursday with the focus either on her ideology or her gender. “The Republicans hope to have found their Obama,” opined Le Monde, the left-of-centre French daily, following the mother of five’s rousing speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday. In Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung greeted ”the rage from Wasilla [her home town]” as a woman who presented ”herself as a ”herself as a pugnacious and self-confident politician” The French media provided full coverage of the pregnancy of her teenage daughter (treatment they would be reluctant to apply to their...

Watch Todd Palin speak at a reception function of RNC. He is a very shy man!! Ha Ha!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrl1X3rRS8

I called my husband hours before the Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin was to speak before the Republican convention. I asked him how many kids she had. Five, he said without missing a beat. How many does McCain have? No clue, he said. Romney? He caught on quick (he's used to these pop-quiz phone calls). He said, well, wait, Palin's been in the news, blah blah, and I said, save your breath. I had no clue either just how many kids John McCain had, and I had absolutely no excuse: I had written TV news for a decade when four...

Sarah Palin mania transformed John McCain's presidential campaign as the Republican duo made their first appearances after claiming their party's White House nominations. In a sweep through the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr McCain was met by the kind of near-hysterical crowds previously seen only at campaign events for his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. More than 6,000 exultant supporters turned out on Friday night in Sterling Heights, a town in Michigan's Macomb County, home of the Reagan-Democrats, the small town blue collar voters who propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in the 1980s and hold the key...

On Wednesday, I called Kim and invited myself over to watch Palin's acceptance speech. Their living room, after all, seemed like the closest I could get to the conservative base. "We're energized," Scott said as we sat down to dinner before the speech. "Honestly, I might not have voted before this. But now I feel like it's 'game on.' The Democrats had an advantage in that Obama is a gifted speaker and incredibly appealing to his base. That was missing from our side. Now I at least feel like there's an equal playing field." "Exactly," Kim said. "She reminds me...

To counter Palin, Obama to dispatch female surrogates ST. PAUL: Senator Barack Obama will increasingly lean on prominent Democratic women to undercut Governor Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain, dispatching Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Florida on Monday and creating a rapid-response team to deploy female surrogates to battleground states, Obama advisers said on Thursday. Clinton's campaign event in Florida, her first for Obama since the Democratic convention last month, will include a forceful response to the searing attacks and fresh burst of energy that Palin injected into the race with her convention speech on Wednesday night, Obama aides said....