Free Republic

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has strongly supported Republican candidates and priorities in recent years. So it was notable when its leader on Monday said the GOP shouldn't even bother to field a presidential nominee in 2016 if it doesn't pass immigration reform. "If the Republicans don't do it they shouldn't bother to run a candidate in 2016. I mean, think about that. Think about who the voters are," Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue said at a Washington, D.C. panel about the economy and infrastructure. Donohue said he believes immigration reform is still doable in 2014 even though it's...

He’s a 42-year-old freshman senator, but when asked by Jonathan Karl on “This Week” if he’s ready to be president, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida answered without hesitation. “I do … but I think that’s true for multiple other people that would want to run … I mean, I’ll be 43 this month, but the other thing that perhaps people don’t realize, I’ve served now in public office for the better part of 14 years,” said Rubio. “Most importantly, I think a president has to have a clear vision of where the country needs to go and clear ideas...

<p>The Republican National Committee moved Friday to seize control of the presidential primary debates in 2016, another step in a coordinated effort by the party establishment to reshape the nominating process.</p> <p>Committee members overwhelmingly passed a measure that would penalize any presidential candidate who participated in a debate not sanctioned by the national party, by limiting their participation in subsequent committee-sanctioned forums.</p>

As we know, the search for an “establishment” candidate has been on in the GOP for a while now, a savior who can rescue the party from Rand Paul or Ted Cruz. That man, of course, is Jeb Bush. Last week on Hardball, Kathleen Parker said he is definitely running. She’s a conservative columnist but not a wacko, has establishment GOP credentials and Florida ties to boot. And she spoke with the air of someone who had had this nugget leaked to her specifically so that she would go out on national TV and blurt it out. So take the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke Saturday at the Maine Republican Convention, was the big winner in the party’s straw poll. Paul took 26 percent of the vote, to 14 percent for the second-place finisher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). With 690 ballots cast at the convention in Bangor, the order of finish was: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): 176 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 98 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 70 Dr. Ben Carson: 62 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 60 Jeb Bush: 57 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): 37 Mike Huckabee: 28 Condoleezza Rice: 26

After the 1848 revolution in France, the slogan of the non-socialist revolutionaries, lifted from a speech by Lamartine, became “the tricolor [flag] has gone around the world; the red flag [of socialism] has only gone around the Champs-de-Mars [a large park on the Left Bank of Paris].” ...................................................... John Kasich and Mike Pence, both governors of substantial Midwestern states, have been around the track many times. Both served with distinction in Congress. Kasich was a congressman from 1981 until 2001. He was a key player during the heady Gingrich days during which he became Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The GOP will never become unified until is decides what it believes. Bush should run if only to force that debate over what Republicans really stand for. Part of the reason Reagan won in 1980 was the field against him was divided. The establishment favored Ambassador Bush or John Connolly or Bob Dole or Howard Baker but Reagan forced the debate and moved the party to the right, where much of it is today. In 2016 the right of center vote will be divided among Paul, Ted Cruz, and others, just as the conservative vote was divided in 2012, allowing...

If Jeb Bush decides to run for president, he’ll have to defend his family’s controversial political name. But more immediate family concerns might keep him from running at all. Republican donors and operatives are chattering about Bush’s publicity-shy wife, so worried she isn’t on board with a 2016 White House run that they’re urging people in the family’s orbit to make the case. Columba Bush has long been deeply averse to the spotlight, especially after an embarrassing encounter with U.S. Customs while her husband was still in office. Donors also wonder whether Bush is willing to subject his family and...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he was “emphatically opposed” to federal Common Core standards after he keynoted an event for Iowa's influential homeschoolers in which he said that school choice "is the civil rights issue of the 21st century." “I don’t think the federal government has any role dictating the content of curricula. I think education is a state issue and a local issue, and ideally at the local level, because that way parents can have direct input and control of what’s being taught to their kids,” Cruz said on Tuesday after he addressed the Network of Iowa Christian Home...

Conservatives frustrated with the direction of the country think Dr. Ben Carson can change the course by winning the 2016 presidential race. Now they just have to convince him. The group, RunBenRun.org, a super PAC, has already raised $4 million toward a Carson bid for the Republican nomination and has collected 200,000 signatures for a petition to get him to join the race. John Philip Sousa IV, the group’s national chairman, said Tuesday that members are working Carson on an almost daily basis, sending along petition-drive updates and hundreds of “clamorings” for him to run, received through letters, Facebook postings...

A mention of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), a potential 2016 presidential contender, brought boos from a conservative crowd in New Hampshire on Saturday. Speaking at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, a gathering of conservative activists and figures organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United, billionaire Donald Trump said Bush’s recent comments on immigrants coming to the U.S. as an “act of love” were “out there.” “You know, I heard Jeb Bush the other day,” he said, with quiet boos and angry murmurs erupting from the crowd at the mention of Bush’s name.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn will consider running for president in 2016 -- if she sees an opportunity to do so, an aide to the 7th District Republican told RealClearPolitics. Blackburn is scheduled to be one of the speakers at a New Hampshire Republican rally this weekend but was not previously known to be mulling a White House bid. "If there's a door to kick down, she's willing to kick it down," the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. "These are the kinds of events you go to -- test the waters, and see what...

It's not likely the race for president in 2016 will pit former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and former Democratic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol predicted. "I'm willing to go out on a limb," Kristol told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday. "I think there's no way there will be a Bush-Clinton race in 2016."

"...If we don't run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we'll lose."

The 2014 midterms are looming large, and behind them, the specter of 2016. In the past year, Chris Christie has gone from being the Republican Wunderkind to elephant in the room, and Hilary Clinton is, well, Hilary Clinton. What is the modern-day Republican Party – a Völkisch (ethnic nationalist) political party become religion – to do? Clearly, it’s time for the Republican establishment to start asking themselves, “Where are we going to find a sane candidate?” (or at least sane-seeming, as 2012′s misadventure with Mitt Romney demonstrates). The answer is already in the history books, not that Republicans like to...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will make a decision on whether he’ll enter the 2016 presidential race by the end of this year, he said during an interview on Fox News Channel Sunday during the 25th anniversary celebration of his father’s presidency in College Station, Texas. ... He said in the Fox News interview that illegal immigration is, for many people, an effort to provide for their families, and “not a felony.” “It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family,” Bush said. “I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime. There should...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lead the field of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates, according to a poll released Saturday. Huckabee and Paul each won support from 13 percent of likely Republican voters when asked whom they would vote for if the 2016 Republican primary were held today. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was close behind with 11 percent, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz each received 9 percent. Rand Paul tallied 13 percent again when respondents were asked which candidate they thought could defeat Hillary Clinton in the general...

Support for a Bush candidacy is building far beyond Florida. At a gathering of prominent conservatives in Las Vegas last weekend — where presidential hopefuls kissed the ring of billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson — Bush was among those who puckered up. And the donors liked what they saw. "GOP elite hoping to lure Jeb Bush," trumpeted the headline at the top of the Washington Post's Sunday-morning paper. Some see Bush as the party's best hope. Others see weaknesses ripe for exploitation. I think both sides are right. Right now, Florida's 43rd governor towers above most of the other Republicans...

With Chris Christie in deep trouble, Republican poobahs are reportedly looking to Jeb Bush to save their party in 2016. The former two-term governor of Florida speaks fluent Spanish, is a convert to Catholicism, and has high name recognition. Jeb could raise millions of dollars over night by just saying “yes” to running. Despite all this, there are strong reasons Republicans should say no to him. 1. His last name is poison. Let’s face it, if Jeb Bush had the last name of Something Else he would have already run for president in 2008 or 2012. According to a recent...

Saturday’s Washington Post gave prominent placement to an article headlined “Influential Republicans working to draft Jeb Bush into 2016 presidential race” that detailed the establishment GOP’s desperate attempt to recruit the former Governor of Florida to run for president. The article by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa claims that “Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP’s brightest hope to win back the White House.” Rucker and...