Free Republic

Conservative scholar and talk radio host Mark Levin said the GOP is "a party in trouble" that must nominate a bold conservative for president in 2016 if they do not want to get walloped yet again. Speaking at Values Voter Summit on Saturday with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Levin, who is cementing himself as the intellectual godfather for conservatives in the age of Obama, said moderate candidates favored by the establishment and stand for nothing will never appeal to Americans who are hungry for leadership. "It's very, very, important that we nominate a conservative for the first time...

After a week of watching you guys dry-heave at the thought of another Romney run, I thought it’d be fun to wind down on Friday by having you dry-heave at the thought of Bush’s candidacy instead. Dude, this is happening. Or is it?But people who have met in recent weeks with Jeb Bush in New York, Washington and Florida say they are far less certain that a campaign will ultimately materialize. Some described Bush as deeply engaged on issues beyond his usual focus on immigration and education, suggesting he was very much preparing for a national race. Others said it...

One perk of sitting on the Senate Banking Committee, as Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby has for three decades, is that its regulated industries provide a deep-pocketed donor base. But to adapt scripture, to whom much is given, much should be required. Mr. Shelby has amassed $17.8 million in his war chest, according to his campaign committee's second-quarter filing with the Federal Election Commission. His committee has spent about $179,000 this cycle, which includes $4,400 at the Senate Gift Shop and $1,000 at Chick-fil-A. That's a lot of cole slaw and chicken nuggets. The Senate baron has also rung up $10,400...

Many GOPers continue the self-deception—she’s not running. Here’s a whiff of reality from a Republican. She’s running, and she’s formidable.Over the last two years I have engaged in countless discussions with Republican friends and colleagues about whether Hillary Clinton would run for president in 2016. What I discovered were two distinct schools of thought: Republicans who were hopeful that she would not run, and Republicans who were confident that she would not run. Both camps believed that Clinton would bow out or not win her party’s nomination for one or more of the following reasons: She has secret health problems....

Two potential presidential candidates come to a conservative Christian cattle call.Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, two Tea Party senators in the hunt for the White House, find themselves in a nearly identical position these days. Both sons of celebrated conservative leaders, they regularly speak at the same events, criticize the same Democratic President with a similar message of back-to-basics constitutionalism, and poll nationally at about 10% among Republicans in the way-too-early 2016 polls. But on Friday, as conservative Christians gathered in Washington for the Values Voter Summit, their differences were far more apparent than their similarities. Paul stood behind the...

I’ve been mostly ignoring the various “Romney 2016!” trial balloons floated by various parties over the last six months or so (including by some of my dear friends, alas), but now that someone as sober and well-informed as Byron York has weighed in with a “this could happen” column, it’s worth saying something about why the possibility keeps coming up. Part of the answer can be found in Henry Olsen’s helpful analysis, from earlier this year, of how exactly Republican presidential primaries tend to shake out. Olsen offered a four-group typology of G.O.P. primary voters — secular conservatives, religious conservatives,...

She's been to New Hampshire three times and South Carolina once. She's heading to Iowa this weekend, and then North Carolina and Michigan after that. Clearly, Carly Fiorina is thinking about 2016. But is anybody thinking about Carly Fiorina? The former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2010 Senate candidate is hitting the campaign trail in the lead-up to Election Day for her new super PAC, teaching activists and politicians how to talk to female voters—and building herself a grassroots base in a half-dozen electorally important states in the process. While her efforts are focused on helping the GOP win control of the...

It’s now or never for Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor flirted with presidential runs in 2008 and 2012 but ultimately demurred, always with the flickering possibility of mounting a campaign down the road. But at 61 years old, the second son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush is now likely facing his last shot at the White House.

No need to wait for former FLOTUS/Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to make up her mind about whether she wants into the Oval Office come 2017. United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President CEO Javier Palomarez seems to believe there’s a perfectly viable alternative primed and ready to launch.

n one of his first public appearances of the 2014 campaign, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida had a vivid preview Wednesday of the challenges he would face with his party’s conservative base should he seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Standing alongside Thom Tillis, the North Carolina House speaker and Republican Senate candidate, Mr. Bush outlined his views on two of the issues he cares most passionately about: immigration policy and education standards. But as Mr. Bush made the case for an immigration overhaul and the Common Core standards, Mr. Tillis gently put distance between himself and...

Is Mitt Romney, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination and lost in 2008, ran again and won the nomination but lost the general election in 2012, really thinking about running yet again for president in 2016? Many Republicans have simply assumed not. Romney has seemed to discourage such talk in media appearances, and there has been a general belief that after losing as the party's nominee, the 67 year-old Romney would return to private life for good. That belief is wrong. Romney is talking with advisers, consulting with his family, keeping a close eye on the emerging '16 Republican...

She likely will announce a second bid after the November midterms as Howard Gordon and Dana Walden begin to rally: "People have been very 'Let's wait and see' until now. People are starting to get excited," says Gordon.It's back to the future for Hollywood's Democratic activists, many of whom are convinced that former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will run again for president and are lining up to show support. As Clinton, 66, was in New York on Sept. 21 for the annual Clinton Global Initiative gathering, the leading pro-Clinton super PAC held an event for more...

Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) gave a ringing endorsement to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. “Most people think that she is a moderate, kind of middle-of-the-road type of politician,” Harkin said. “This is way off the mark. She is much farther to the left and a lot more progressive in her thoughts and her inclination than most people may think. That’s why she has my unconditional support should she choose to run for president in 2016.” if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at... http://azconservative.org/2014/09/19/dem-operative-says-obama-planning-october-surprise/

C’mon, you know I had to blog it. I’m thisclose to starting an official RomneyWatch™ feature for this subject on Hot Air. Although, given the conditions she lays out in the clip, I should probably call it JebWatch™ instead. (JebWatch™ alert: He’s headed to the early primary stateof South Carolina next month to raise money for Nikki Haley.)If memory serves, Ann was the Romney who was most adamantly opposed to Mitt running again in 2012. The 2008 campaign had been disappointing, grueling physically and emotionally, and she didn’t want the family to endure another ordeal. She came around eventually. You would think...

Ann Romney on Tuesday added a little more fuel to speculation that her husband, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, may make a third run for the White House. On Fox News’s Cavuto, Ann was asked about a scenario in which former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a moderate Republican and a potential 2016 candidate in his own right, decides not to run. “Well, we will see, won’t we, Neil?” Ann said to show host Neil Cavuto. “I think Jeb probably will end up running, myself… He’s probably looking at it very carefully.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton seems more eager to talk about her soon-to-arrive grandchild than her plans for a potential presidential run, but her husband seemed more than happy to allude to both prospects Monday.. Bloomberg’s Charlie Rose interviewed the former president during the 10th Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Monday, the international gathering sponsored by his family's foundation. Rose danced around the specific question of whether Hillary Clinton will run in 2016, presumably because Bill Clinton has repeatedly insisted that he does not know. But he pressed Clinton for clues about what another Clinton presidency might look like, while...

Former Florida governor's likely candidacy reveals how desperate GOP establishment has become to avoid Rand Paul. A dozen years after he ran his last political campaign, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is gearing up for a 2016 presidential bid – a campaign that would open up a new front in the Republican Party’s ongoing civil war. Mike Allen reports in today’s Politico Playbook that according to Bush’s friends, he’s “leaning more yes than no” on launching a run. He’s campaigning for Republican candidates in Senate battlegrounds like North Carolina and Kansas, and Allen reports, “has headlined several fundraisers where the...

On Tuesday morning, The View’s “conservative” co-host Nicolle Wallace gave a ringing endorsement for Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) should he decide to run for president in 2016. Unfortunately for the New Jersey governor, her reasons for supporting him probably won’t help him win over many Republican primary voters. During a discussion about Chris Christie’s 2016 prospects, Wallace eagerly threw her hat in for the New Jersey Republican and proclaimed that “his politics are an interesting and progressive and modern swath of the country and I’d like to see him in.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The segment began with a discussion of Governor Christie’s weight...

“Unless,” the neurosurgeon and conservative activist adds in a caveat during his interview with Hugh Hewitt, “the American people indicate in November that they like big government intervention in every part of their lives.” What are the odds of that happening? Bernie Sanders isn’t running for re-election to the Senate, and neither is Harry Reid, who looks more likely than not to become the Minority Leader in January. So yeah, Ben Carson is running for President, QED: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Is this to be taken seriously? This interview was significant enough for Politico to pick it...

Our famously gaffe-prone vice president, Joe Biden, has outdone himself. He stumbled through not one, not two, but three gaffes in less than 24 hours. For him, that's a personal best or, more accurately, a personal worst.. Yet if it is better to be criticized than ignored in politics, he can take little comfort from the way that hardly anyone outside of the Republican National Committee, whose website called it "Gaffetastic," seemed to care.