Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential announcement was immensely gratifying in numerous ways, including the venue he chose for it. He made his announcement at Liberty University, which is a conspicuously Christian institution located in Virginia, the veritable birthplace of the United States of America. In the world of political commentary today, we usually see analysis focusing on whether a politician or candidate hit the right themes and whether those -- and he -- will resonate with the voting public. The emphasis is usually on the game rather than the substance. Possibly underlying such punditry is the cynical assumption that a political...

Cinematically, as well as politically, we are sort of in a John Wayne moment: which is where Ted Cruz comes in. Things in this town of ours ain’t a-going real good right now. Everything, in fact, seems to be falling apart, save in the eyes of folk who wish America would either drop into the sea or fall in line with President Obama’s preachments and prescriptions. Wait! A sudden thunder of hooves in the distance! A shout! A shot! It’s… It’s… Ted Cruz, declaring his candidacy for the U.S. presidency. I do not want to be understood as mocking...

Bloomberg Politics is drawing fire from the National Rifle Association over a recent story claiming there is a potential rift between likely presidential candidate Scott Walker and the Second Amendment advocacy group. A recent Bloomberg Politics article floated the idea that Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely presidential candidate as well as a favorite of gun rights activists, may not be as "pure" as other White House GOP hopefuls, citing a 1995 bill that failed in the Badger State's legislature. The NRA also says Bloomberg's reporter failed to contact the group for comment. "Now that Walker is preparing to...

There’s a reason Ted Cruz kept asking his Liberty University audience to “imagine” a conservative president: no one of normal college age has ever lived under one. If Cruz wins the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he will only be the third movement conservative to do so, after Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. (Liberals will count George W. Bush, but he wasn’t a product of the movement in the same sense as Reagan or Goldwater even if you think he was a conservative.) Republican primary voters are starting to imagine a conservative president. In 1999, Dubya led the field by...

With Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) beginning his run for the Presidency today, I should make public the question I've suggested to reporters in private. Senator Cruz is for certain going to be joined by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who will announce in a few weeks. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who I think is underrated in his bid for the Presidency even though Jeb Bush is intent on locking up Florida, will also most likely declare his candidacy. All three of these men would make excellent Presidents. I know them personally. I backed them when they were at single digits in...

Ted Cruz, the Republican Texas senator and unofficial leader of the tea party faction, surprised exactly no one when he announced Monday that he would seek his party's 2016 presidential nomination. He may be a first-term lawmaker and he may have been born in the Canadian city of Calgary — an unusual birthplace for a wannabe American president, even if his eligibility is not seriously in question — but his ambitions have long been clear.. Normally, campaigns for presidential nominations follow a familiar ritual. Candidates say that they're forming an exploratory committee and then delay an official announcement as long...

Undaunted by an email scandal and congressional investigation, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton exuded wholehearted confidence Monday that she’ll win the White House as she publicly mused about hires for her administration. Speaking at a policy roundtable at a liberal Washington think tank, Mrs. Clinton hinted at a future job offer for Compton, California, Mayor Aja Brown. “Don’t be surprised if you get a call,” Mrs. Clinton said after praising the Democratic mayor’s anti-gang programs.“Maybe we’ll start not too far from here in a beautiful domed building, where we’ll get everybody in the same room and start that...

It is amazing how a simple question can cause a complex lie to collapse like a house of cards. The simple question was asked by Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel, and it was addressed to two Democrats. He asked what has Hillary Clinton ever accomplished. The two Democrats immediately sidestepped the question and started reciting their talking points in favor of Hillary. But O'Reilly kept coming back to the fact that nothing they were talking about was an accomplishment. For someone who has spent her entire adult life in politics, including being a Senator and then a Secretary...

The senator from Texas prepares to reprise his tea party insurgent strategy as he launches a White House bid. As the firebrand freshman senator from Texas launches his presidential campaign Monday, he will draw heavily upon his experience in 2012, when he shocked the GOP establishment and toppled a better known and better-funded opponent in a tea-party fueled primary win. Then, as now, Cruz began as a blip in the polls. Then, as now, he planned to run as an unbending conservative champion. Then, as now, the establishment was against him. Then, as now, he knew he would be outspent....

Upon Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) announcement that he’s running for the presidency, Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski said that though she didn’t agree with a single thing Cruz believed, at least the GOP’s new crop of candidates was a vast improvement over the “clown car” of 2012. Here occasional guest Donny Deutsch disagreed: “He’s Sarah Palin,” Deutsch argued Monday morning. “He’s theater. That’s what Sarah Palin was. We love the show, okay. But when it comes time for the grown-up voting…” “Please don’t make me explain why he’s not Sarah Palin,” Brzezinski said. “I would get killed.” “I’m not saying...

Let the movement begin. Starting today, all good progressives should write it on their Starbucks latte cups: Run Liz Run. And don’t stop there. Facebook profile pics, Twitter avatars, the dirty windows of your Priuses, Subarus and Range Rovers — even the Burberry sweater your Maltese named “Chloe” wears — take a Sharpie to that Shar-Pei and scrawl “Run Liz Run.” Let’s “start the conversation,” as well-meaning liberals love to say. Please. Let’s start the “Liz Warren for President” conversation. Now. GOP challengers can begin and end that conversation with an easy concept: “Hypocrisy.”

In nearly every presidential primary, a few candidates attract a lot of news media attention even though they have almost no chance to win the nomination. Sometimes they even lead national polls or win states, but invariably their appeal is too narrow to allow them to build the broad coalition necessary to unite a diverse party. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and Tea Party favorite, who on Monday became the first major candidate to formally enter the race, has seemingly been on track for this role since he first ran for the Senate in 2012. He is the darling of...

U.S. Sen. John McCain is running a “sponsored post” on Facebook with the intention of building support for a potential re-election campaign. While the intended audience is unclear, the paid post is boomeranging big time. “If I decide to stand for re-election to the United States Senate, I will give it everything I’ve got — and your continued support means a great deal to me. Please stand with me today,” the senator’s Facebook post reads.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Senator Ted Cruz has made his presidential wishes official, with Cruz’s speech streaming live on ABC News and other news outlets as of this writing, with Senator Ted reaching deep into the belief system that he says changed his life and included his parents’ belief in Christ. During the speech, Cruz related how his father and mother were drinking way too much alcohol when he was a young boy, and at one point, his dad decided he would leave the family — deserting his young son and wife. However, being invited to a Bible study changed Cruz’s father’s life,...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., on Monday is expected to announce he's running for president. However well he ends up doing in the Republican primaries, one thing is for sure — the development is terrible news for Sen. Rand Paul's presidential ambitions. Whatever small chance Paul had in the 2016 presidential race was premised on his ability to reach beyond the core supporters of his father's, by articulating a message that appealed to a broader coalition of Republicans. The biggest opportunity Paul had for growth was with Tea Party voters who would be drawn to his limited government message. The biggest...

Hillary Clinton emailed with her top advisers at the State Department about the 2012 attacks in Benghazi on their own personal emails, despite repeated assurances that she contacted employees on their official addresses, The New York Times is reporting. Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan, as well as senior aides Huma Abedin and Philippe Reines, all occasionally emailed Clinton with personal email addresses of their own, the newspaper reported. The news comes as Clinton continues to face controversy related to her exclusive use of a private email address while at the State Department. Clinton's...

On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is expected to be the first candidate to formally enter the 2016 campaign on Monday at Liberty University, called on “courageous conservatives” to help take back the country from elites who place their faith in government instead of the American people.

Now that it’s been confirmed that Ted Cruz is running for president, it’s time for everyone to weigh in, and Scott Walker was one of the first to be asked about the announcement on Fox News. Walker was very gracious to Ted Cruz, while jabbing at Jeb Bush yet again by saying we need a fresh face to combat Hillary’s haggard decrepit visage. Watch.. [comments start at 6 minute mark] [full interview with Fox runs around 8:00] While Cruz will almost certainly get a bump for being the first candidate to declare his campaign, Walker is still ahead in the...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will announce Monday that he is launching his campaign to become the 2016 Republican nominee for president. Cruz has been positioning for this nomination almost since he entered the upper chamber in 2012. His announcement takes place at a bastion of conservatism, Liberty University, the institution founded by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell. Cruz is going to run from the right. He has spent much of his short career in Washington blasting the "mushy middle" of his party (which might be news to most Democrats) which he dismisses as a "failed electoral strategy." During a recent visit...

If Ted Cruz announces he is running for president on Monday, you won’t read much about it here. Even if he is serious and not, as The Daily Beast believes, only interested in drawing attention to himself, the first-term senator from Texas is not going to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, much less the 2016 election. He is a political lightweight whose has managed to alienate just about everyone except the most reactionary of Republican activists with his bluster and sabotage. Cruz’ McCarthy-esque denunciations of his political opponents don’t suggest he’ll be able to persuade many Democrats to switch...