Free Republic

How the Republican candidate lost the presidential election. < snip > ..... [Republicans] are concocting explanations and excuses for what they see as Mitt Romney's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They should realize that it was economics that sank Romney. His crucial problem was his campaign's failure to make a sufficiently convincing case on the money issues. Most postmortems have focused on the demographics of the defeat. ..... < snip > But none of Romney's demographic defeats are as significant as the electoral potential Romney missed on money issues. Election Day exit polling by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International...

Filling in on Rush Limbaugh’s Monday radio show, National Review columnist Mark Steyn said that Republicans lost big on Election Day because less engaged and more uniformed voters turned out in force. “We do very well in off years, in the midterms — 1994, 2002,” Steyn said. “Republicans can have good years then because essentially they’re low-turnout elections — people who are engaged in politics vote. In the presidential years, people voted — a broader pool of voters comes in, and they’re basically people who swim in the broader culture. They’re not people who know the name of their congressmen...

The White House insisted Tuesday that it was not aware of the David Petraeus scandal until last Wednesday, blaming FBI "protocols" for not being informed earlier. Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Obama was "surprised" when he learned last Thursday that Petraeus had carried on an extramarital affair. While the FBI had at that point already been investigating for months, Carney said "protocols" at the agency apparently kept them from notifying Congress and other agencies in the Executive Branch. In the latest shoe to drop, the FBI on Sunday forwarded to the Pentagon a case involving thousands of "potentially inappropriate"...

Sorry if this was already posted, but many people on here agreed Romney's best line last night during his huge Ohio rally was the "Revenge or love of country" voting line. I saw a ton of comments about turning it into an ad.. And they did! Already! Also notice it's 36 seconds, which means its likely for tv!

When Mitt Romney strode across the the platform Friday evening and took his place behind a podium in front of the largest crowd he's drawn this year, he sounded familiar stump speech themes of bipartisanship and economic recovery. But the parade of high-profile surrogates who opened for the candidate fixated on another, more explosive issue — one with a particular power to both animate conservatives, and frighten Romney's senior staff. For about 60 minutes before Romney took the stage, Topic A was Libya. Ever since terrorists stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in September — killing four Americans, including the...

With the Rancid Media protecting Obama from any discussion --- hell, any NEWS -- of his lethal failure in Libya, does not Romney have to bring this into the campaign? If he does not, does he deserve to win the election? If he does not, can he win the election?

Truth is not easily hidden.- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -Conventional retail gasoline averaged $3.65 a gallon in the most recent week ended October 22, 2012, yet when Barack Obama was sworn into office the price averaged $1.88. When questioned about the 94.2% increase which occurred on his watch, Mr. Obama remarked that the reason gasoline prices were so low when he entered office was because the U.S.was “in the middle of an economic depression.” However, the question wasn’t why prices were so low when he entered office, but rather why they ballooned by 94.2% on his watch. We’re still awaiting...

Artificial Demand ::“Real demand is not artificial. We should resist as much as possible the notion of providing things that are not actually demanded by anyone.” ~ American Consensus- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -The price of any product or service is normally determined by two variables, supply and demand. In economics, prices rise as demand increases, as supply decreases, or a combination of the two. It’s only when supply keeps pace with demand that the price of gasoline stabilizes or declines.Since we know that the world’s population is increasing, not decreasing, more gasoline production is constantly required, not less. It...

I suppose I should feel a little bit guilty for saying it, particularly on the pages of a politically oriented publication, but I'm pretty tired of this election. It's been going on roughly since Christmas of 2008 --- or at least it feels that way. The GOP primary was actually pretty good this year and it revved up both my interest and enthusiasm far more than the parade of munchkins on both sides four years earlier. But once it was done, the whole thing began to feel like one, long tedious slog through the summer and an exhausting swamp march...

If all the Sunday show audiences hear this kind of powerful argument,the Benghazi scandal will reach far beyond conservatives.

A lot of discussion has been made on the specifics of President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney’s tax and budget plans. Based on statements made by both presidential candidates and CBO projections, it can be concluded that there is a drastic difference between their plans. Our friends at the Tax Foundation have constructed a fun and convenient chart comparing the topline tax and budget positions of President Obama and Governor Romney:

The election may well boil down to a handful of swing states. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two of the most critical for Obama. It is inconceivable that Obama could lose those two states, with their 38 electoral votes, and win the election. Is there anything at this late date which Romney might do to make an extra pitch to voters in those northern industrial states? Yes. A news story that broke on October 20 ought to raise lots of eyebrows in those states. Two separate studies, one by Standard and Poor's and the other by ITG Investment Research, determined that...

All, What is the real status of the military vote? I see ballots destroyed in a crash, I hear nothing from Boehner, I hear a few rumblings from Graham and McCain, but the biggest stink raised was from Josh Mandell in Ohio. Does anyone know any facts or the real latest of military voting (I guess I mean overseas)? Why is Boehner silent? Makes me believe he'd be fine with 0bummer winning.

The November elections will determine the direction of US climate policy -- and therefore also energy policy and the pace of economic growth: jobs, standards of living, budget deficits and inflation. Obama has already promised to make climate change the centerpiece of his concern -- with all that implies: "Green" energy policy, linked to loss of jobs (Keystone pipeline disapproval), rising gas prices (ethanol mandates), and crony capitalism (Solyndra). By contrast, Romney is a climate skeptic -- and Ryan has been quite outspoken: the perfect anti-Gore. The science supports Romney-Ryan -- notwithstanding the UN-IPCC, and the bulk of the climate...

What would you think if you were told that the most bigoted, intolerant, hateful, and xenophobic political messages this election cycle are being spread by Obama supporters? From ridiculing and disrespecting the Mormon religion to spreading secretly taped videos recorded by an Obama supporter in a Mormon church, those on the left are sanctioning this particular form of bigotry because it’s all for the cause: Obama. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the media, where pages upon pages have been devoted to Romney’s religion. Vicious, anti-Mormon rhetoric, ramping up in the final days leading up to the election, has...

The Democratic party likes to portray itself as seeing women as equal to men. Yet it's the Democrats who think they can woo female voters by dangling free contraceptives in front of them like a carrot luring a donkey. For months America has been hearing how it's President Barack Obama who has the estrogen vote sewn up. Now, according to a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, America comes to find out that Mitt Romney is currently leading Barry the Birth Control President in the top battleground states, and the women he thought were willing to sell the country down the river...

The political landscape has dramatically changed in just thirty days. Barack Obama had the momentum. His attacks on Mitt Romney were clearly taking a toll, and the president was also outspending Romney to drive the negative messages home. The assaults suggested that Romney was both unqualified and unfit to be the president, a disconnected, "rich" elitist who could not relate to the average American nor cared about them. The Obama smear campaign was working; Romney's support was waning. The advantages enjoyed by Republican Senate candidates in a number of critical contests began to suffer. The movement against Romney transferred into...

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev meets with President Obama at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April 2010. (AP Photo/File) (CNSNews.com) – When American voters go to the polls next month, among those observing the election will be monitors from four countries judged by the veteran democracy watchdog Freedom House as “not free” and another six it regards as “partly free.”The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers will “assess these elections for compliance with international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”They will also look into voter-identification and other laws which critics have labeled “racially discriminatory.”In a...

For all the attention paid to women in this race, there's another gender gap — with white men. The Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan campaigned in northeastern Florida on Friday, where thousands of men had descended on Daytona Beach for the annual motorcycle festival Biketoberfest. A bunch of them were at Willie's Tropical Tattoo smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and listening to music. Gary Biser goes by the name "Moose." Stickers on his bike helmet say, "Life's too short to ride with ugly women," "No bar too far," and other things that can't be printed. He says he...

There are those who say that the tea party is fading in influence, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the movement is on the cusp of achieving what once seemed nearly impossible: keeping the Senate Democratic. A year ago, famed political handicapper Charlie Cook gave Republicans a 60 percent to 70 percent likelihood of capturing control of the Senate; now, he tells me the likelihood of it remaining Democratic is 60 percent. The switch in fortunes can be attributed to many causes — a slate of lackluster Republican candidates high among them — but one thing...

Mitt Romney certainly wasn’t the first choice to be the Republican presidential nominee for most limited government activists. Some have reluctantly warmed to Romney in recent months because they find him preferable to Obama. Other liberty lovers, particularly those within the Ron Paul-inspired Liberty Movement, refuse to throw their support behind Romney or Obama. Regardless of whether a liberty-minded president is an option on the big ticket, the outcomes of the congressional races are far more important, as Congress will truly determine the fiscal policies coming out of Washington. If we really want to put an end to reckless spending,...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has finally cleared what many aides have long seen as his biggest hurdle: A majority of voters now like him. According to multiple polls, Romney's favorability rating has surged since the Republican National Convention and in most he equals or bests President Obama's favorables. And late Thursday, the Pew Research Center, the poll that has been toughest on Romney's favorability, released results showing that Romney is ahead of Obama by a point, 50 percent to 49 percent. That is a stunning turnaround from March, when Obama's favorable rating in Pew was about twice Romney's, 55...

An interesting story from last winter: An e-mail friend, a staunch Republican who lives in an affluent suburb far from Washington, was watching one of the Republican debates with his wife, a staunch Democrat. He was surprised by her response to Mitt Romney. “He’s a grown-up. He’s someone who is reliable,” he told me she said. “People will feel safe if he is in charge.” I’ve been thinking about that e-mail in the wake of the first presidential debate on October 3 and the vice-presidential debate last week. (This is written on deadline before the October 16 Long Island debate.)...

The daughter of a Latter Day Saints bishop and author of a book on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism says that she has concerns about a Romney presidency. Tricia Erickson, who is now a professing Christian after being involved in the LDS establishment for 21 years, stated in an article this week entitled The Obamney Twins that while she cannot support Barack Obama, she is unable to vote for Mitt Romney either. “To me, as a conservative, a Republican and a Christian, I cannot justify a vote for either one of the Obamney baby-killing, annihilators of the family, government healthcare mandated to...

Tonight’s presidential debate is the last one that will include questions on domestic policy. The previous presidential and vice presidential debates covered a host of issues, but there are key questions still to be answered. Heritage experts submitted five issues below—with questions—that it is important to discuss before the debate moves on to foreign policy exclusively. Join us tonight at 9 p.m. ET—you can watch the debate live on our Debate 2012 page. We’ll have the live stream of the debate and a live blog of our experts’ analysis, and you can follow our tweets and chime in. 1. Welfare...

If you’re planning not to vote because your presidential candidate didn’t win the primary or because you feel disenfranchised with our two party political system, not only is that the greatest insult to every man and woman who ever died to give us the freedom to vote, it’s actually a vote for Barack Hussein Obama! So before you decide to sit this one out, you need to ask yourself the following questions: Do you want . . . * A president who has us on the road to serfdom? * A president who advocates higher taxes? Wealth redistribution, less freedom...

Dear Wavering Voter: No, abortion rights and access to contraception will not be jeopardized if Mitt Romney becomes president. Not remotely, not vaguely, not even close. No woman in America, including Sandra Fluke, will have war made upon her by a President Romney. Maybe you think the job of a president is to be our DJ-in-Chief and set the mood music for the country. In that case, the slow-jam Obama administration has everything to recommend it, while a Romney presidency may get on your nerves like a hokey country song. But it won't get in your way. How am I...

>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, the Washington Post has a new story on their latest poll, and do you know what's interesting about this Washington Post story on the latest poll? It's that you have to read a long way into the story to find out what the poll says, and you can probably ascertain the reason for that. It ain't good for Obama. The headline in this story from the Washington Post... It's actually the ABC News/Washington Post poll, so this is actually an ABC story: "Enthusiasm Rises for Romney Ahead of Debate," by Gary Langer. "Rising enthusiasm and declining...

Democratic hopes of maintaining a razor-thin Senate majority may hinge on an unexpected outside force: Libertarians. In the battlegrounds of Montana, Arizona and Missouri, polls show the Libertarian nominee poised to siphon a fraction of the vote — a small fraction, but potentially enough to tip the outcome in a cliffhanger. And with the battle for the Senate shaping up to be a coin-flip proposition, no factor — not even fringe candidates with little more than a Libertarian label to propel their campaigns — is too insignificant to dismiss. Given the small-government mantra of Libertarian voters, Democratic officials see the...

While it has been said about every election since 2000, this really is THE MOST IMPORTANT election in our lives and the history of our nation. Americans will vote for or against the candidates for President for a variety of reasons. Catholics and like- minded Christians who will vote based strictly on economic reasons would do well by considering why they should make Christian values the ultimate factor in deciding factor in how they will vote. True Christianity requires you to yield and put your opinion aside in certain areas of life. Christian doctrine on fundamentals such as the sanctity...

In a new report heralded by the NRA, the General Accountability Office finds that the numbers of Americans with permits to carry a concealed weapon has surged and virtually every state now allows pistols to be carried under garments or even in a car glove box. "The number of states allowing concealed carry permits is increasing," said the GAO. The report included two shocking numbers: -- There are currently 118 million handguns in America, either owned or for sale. -- Some 8 million Americans already have a concealed carry permit, about 1 million more than previously thought. The report found...

President Obama faces a dilemma as Mitt Romney bashes him over high gasoline prices in the final weeks of their close race. Obama must decide whether to address the attacks head-on, or stay the course on a messaging strategy that has recently been addressing prices indirectly. Democratic strategists and other experts argue that three weeks before voters go to the polls, Obama should steer clear of big messaging or policy pivots on gas prices. “Bringing the issue up this close to Election Day would be self-defeating at this point,” said Paul Bledsoe, an independent consultant who was a climate change...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported last Friday that 114,000 new jobs were created last month, according to its Establishment Survey of business payrolls that has been emphasized by the Obama Administration. That is pitifully weak, especially for what is supposed to be the fourth year of a recovery (the National Bureau of Economic Research scored the recession as officially over in June, 2009). As economist John Lott noted at FoxNews.com on October 5, the working age population grew by 206,000 last month. With two-thirds of those working as would be expected during a normal recovery, 138,000 new jobs...

Now that the average price of gasoline in the United States is clocking in at all-time record levels for this time of year, especially in California, what effect will that factor have upon the official U.S. unemployment rate, which just clocked in at its lowest level since early 2009? Unfortunately, that's the wrong question to be asking today, because it takes roughly two years for a major change in the price of oil and gasoline to play out and fully impact the U.S. unemployment rate. The right question to ask today is: "what was the price of gasoline doing two...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Camille Paglia explains why she will be voting for Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, for president In a recent interview with salon.com, Camille Paglia explained why she will be voting for Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, for president. Paglia said:The biggest issue for me is the Obama administration’s continuation of endless war, war, war. I denounced the Iraq incursion before it even happened.In Obama’s defense, he did end the Iraq War. But he did do that Libya thing, which I oppose, just as I opposed it when Reagan did it.I have been revolted by the silence...

This week, I will campaign for Gov. Mitt Romney. I believe this election will and should be about moving America back from the edge of the abyss on which we stand, where our debt and spending threaten to overwhelm and drown us. Romney's belief in free markets, limited government and trade make him the clear choice to lead our country come January. I do not, however, support a call for intervention in Syria. And, if such intervention were being contemplated, it is absolutely necessary that Congress give any such authority to the president. No president, Republican or Democrat, has the...

The opening line of the Beatles’ iconic “Sergeant Pepper’s” album is echoing in my thought: “It was 20 years ago today…” Well, not quite to the day, but 20 years ago I published an article titled, “$4 Trillion and Counting.” In it, I despaired at the rapid increase in the national debt from its first-ever crossing of the $1 trillion mark during the Reagan presidency to four times that gargantuan amount in only a decade. Today, a mere two decades later, we have quadrupled the national debt again, to $16 trillion. (That figure represents the official national debt, but if...

Be afraid. Be very afraid. The America of 2012 is not the America of 2008. If Barack Obama wins this election, the America of 2016 will resemble the beaten and bankrupt countries of Western Europe more than it will the America we grew up in. This isn’t Chicken Little speaking. Take a hard look at the trends, and then drop everything else you had in mind for the next four weeks, and make sure everyone you know votes for Romney-Ryan. We have one last chance to save the republic. 1) Dependency on government handouts: As Dick Morris points out in...

Chattanooga-area evangelical church pastors may believe the Mormon faith is a cult and may not consider Gov. Mitt Romney a Christian, but they said that won't stop them from considering a vote for him in next month's presidential election. More than eight in 10 voters in a Pew Forum poll this summer said they were comfortable with the Republican nominee's faith or it didn't matter to them. Nineteen percent said they were uncomfortable with his faith. "We are electing a president, not a pastor," said Tim Shoap, co-pastor of Signal Mountain Bible Church. "I want the best and most effective...

If Mitt Romney is elected and secures Republican control of both houses of Congress, the U.S. could be poised for a vertiginous economic snapback. To understand how, consider that the Democratic explanation for our current malaise is utterly fallacious. Mr. Obama and his allies identify the "Bush tax cuts," "two wars that weren't paid for," and "deregulation" as the causes of America's present economic doldrums. But federal outlays as a percentage of GDP under George W. Bush averaged 19.6 percent. Under Obama, spending has ballooned to 24.1 percent of GDP. Much of Bush's spending was temporary (the two wars, one...

If Mitt Romney is elected president of the United States, his religion, a serious, cultic distortion of the Bible and history in the eyes of many evangelicals, will have new standing and credibility, and likely experience an acceleration of its already fast expansion. Under Romney, some policies may languish in the swampy squish of centrism, one that embraces elements of Obamacare. If his leadership in Massachusetts is a sample, Romney may attempt to combine statist, modified Keynesian economics with Reaganesque supply-side policies, a mixture of oil and water. He is untested on national defense and foreign policy. If President Obama...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his pro-life views clear today in response to a question from a reporter on the campaign trail in Ohio.Romney said he would govern as a pro-life president, de-fund the nation’s largest abortion company, and reinstate a policy preventing taxpayer funding of international abortion promotion efforts on the part of Planned Parenthood.“I think I’ve said time and again that I’m a pro-life candidate and I’ll be a pro-life president. The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I’ve indicated that I...

Don't go there, Donny . . . Donny Deutsch has opened a can of worms—or shall we say, a carton of Clairol. On Morning Joe today, Deutsch suggested that it looks like Mitt Romney colors his hair, and argued that Americans would lose trust in a candidate who does. But could Deutsch possibly not know of the evidence that his guy Barack Obama has also grabbed the Grecian Formula on occasion? View the video and photo evidence here.

(Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, in an apparent fresh move toward the political center, said on Tuesday if elected he would not pursue specific legislation targeting abortion. "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda," Romney told the Des Moines Register's editorial board during a campaign visit to Van Meter, Iowa. Romney's comment could be construed as reassuring some women voters who have had reservations about his candidacy. In recent weeks he has taken some steps toward the political center as he tries to attract independent voters before...

"A person who gives too much importance to himself, to the extent that he does not think about the feelings and sentiments of other people is said to be a narcissist. People who are narcissists consider themselves to be perfectionists who can never do anything wrong. They are governed by their false ego which requires ample amounts of admiration and praise to survive. It is said that narcissists live in a world of their own where they can think only about their problems and issues regarding power, prestige and personal adequacy. This makes them selfish individuals who do not have...

The world is slowly returning to its proper axis after being out of kilter for a while. San Francisco is once again the best team in the NFL. The Chicago Cubs lost 100 games. Hockey players are locked out, causing the fourth work stoppage in 20 years. NBC is the number one TV network again. Nucky Thompson [1] is back and is as slimy as ever. And Nicholas Brody [2] has also returned, teasing us with the prospect that he really isn’t an American terrorist, just some poor, misunderstood Muslim convert who may be the next vice president of...

We saw a pathetic turnout among Hispanics in the Texas Democrat primary.   In fact, District 33 was created for the sole purpose of electing a Hispanic Democrat.  It elected a black Democrat because Hispanics stayed home.   Only 19,000 voted in the runoff.     Hispanic apathy is nationwide, as explained by Chuck Todd of NBC:   "And then let me give you this last one here, because this is, I think, the most important one. And that's Hispanics. The President's winning Hispanics by 50 points. He hit the 70% mark. However, look at this in terms of interest in the...

The National Rifle Association is airing a new television ad in four battleground states urging voters to defeat President Obama. The pro-gun-rights group is spending $1.3 million to air the ad in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. A spokesman said the group will be on the air with ads through election day November 6. The NRA ad suggests Obama is "attacking our Second Amendment rights" and says a vote against the Democrat...

In the debate Mitt Romney suddenly assumed the stature of a president while American hasn't found its way under Obama's failing leadership When you accumulate some of the adjectives from the pundits, the media, and other appraisals that were not from the right but from baffled sympathizers and centrists, there is no doubt that President Barack Obama clearly lost the debate this week, as a matter of both substance and tone. Take your pick from the river of insults: listless, meandering, lazy, dull-brained, long-winded, languid, and flaccid were just some of the epithets from the pundits. Even the New York...

Obama: Green energy not ‘socialist plot’ By Ben Geman - 10/08/12 09:59 AM ET President Obama quipped Sunday night that energy efficiency initiatives are not a “socialist plot” in remarks that contrasted his energy policies with rival Mitt Romney’s. The president, fundraising in Los Angeles, addressed energy during a $25,000-per-plate dinner with backers that included actor George Clooney. “On energy, I’m big on oil and gas, and developing clean coal technology, but I also believe that if we’re ever going to have control of our energy future, then we’ve got to invest in solar and wind and biofuels, and that...