Free Republic

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Wednesday the odds are "50-50" that he will enter the 2016 presidential race. "I'm certainly not ruling it out," King said during an appearance on CNN's "Wolf." "Right now I'm sort of 50-50." King said he intended to make his decision by the end of June.

Wednesday on CSPAN’s “Washington Journal,” Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) discussed the Trade Promotion Authority legislation, but also took a shot at the field of Republicans 2016 presidential candidates by saying they “look like a "Saturday Night Live review.”

Republican Party chiefs are concerned that the sprawling size of the 2016 GOP field could compromise its chances to win the presidency. "We're in a danger zone," Doug Gross, a top Republican establishment figure in Iowa, told The Washington Post. "When the party poobahs put this process together, they thought they could telescope this to get us a nominee who could appeal to a broad cross-section of people. "What we've got instead is a confederation of a lot of candidates who aren't standing out — and in order to stand out, you need to scream the loudest." Former Florida Gov....

We all know that if the Republican debates include all the declared candidates that it's going to be a circus. Each candidate will only get to speak for a few minutes and we won't learn much. We'd learn more if the debates were limited to the candidates who had the greatest chance of getting the nomination. Here are the most realistic candidates--not the best candidates, but the ones who have at least a chance to win the nomination: Scott Walker: Current governor of Wisconsin, an inspirational speaker, riding high in several polls. Jeb Bush: Former governor of Florida, he's been...

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he will announce his decision about whether to run for president on June 1 in his hometown of Central, S.C., but left little doubt about his intentions by saying “I’m running.” “I’m running because of what you see on television, I’m running because I think the world is falling apart, I’ve been more right than wrong on foreign policy,” he said on “CBS This Morning,” when asked if he was running because he was unimpressed with the rest of the field (and appearing to dispense with the pretense that he hasn’t decided whether to...

Sen. Lindsey Graham will run for president, he told CBS This Morning Monday. “I’m running because I think the world is falling apart,” the South Carolina Republican said. “I’ve been more right than wrong on foreign policy.” He added that his top priorities will be working with Democrats to “go after [radical Islamists] before they come back here again.” Graham joins an increasingly crowded Republican field, which includes Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul.

Gov. Greg Abbott, once reluctant to get involved in his party’s 2016 presidential primary, has a new message for White House hopefuls: Get in line. With Texas poised to play a role in determining the GOP nominee for the first time in decades, the first-term governor is increasingly making clear he does not plan to let the newfound clout go to waste. He’s laid out five criteria for the candidates and wants them to come see the border that has been central to his agenda so far. Abbott has not decided whether he’ll endorse before the Texas primary on March...

Ted Cruz is intellectually arrogant, like Ronald Reagan. The difference is that Reagan masked his arrogance with self-deprecating humor. Sen. Cruz does a Reagan impression that would do a nightclub comedian proud, but he doesn’t have Reagan’s easy and spontaneous humor. One doesn’t think of Reagan as arrogant, but he was in fact the most arrogant leader we have had since Lincoln. He ignored the whole of the foreign policy establishment in his conviction that America stood to win the Cold War and bring down Communism. Then as now, the foreign policy establishment resembled Jonathan Swift’s scientists on the floating...

As America begins the search for a new president in 2016, many people are tired of the status quo and are looking for an authentic conservative, one who can make a difference and who has shown they are determined to make a difference. There aren’t many who fit that description like Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. In fact, there are none in the race so far who can match his record of conservatism. And he’s demonstrated an willingness to do more than just mouth conservative platitudes. When most “Republicans” were busy badmouthing ObamaCare but doing absolutely nothing to stop it,...

John Kasich is “virtually certain” to jump into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, sources close to the Ohio governor tell ABC News.

Donald Trump, a New York City businessman who may for president in 2016, in a Sioux City stop Saturday took aim at others in the field. Some of the 200 people who attended the Morningside College event said Trump delivered far more criticism of other candidates than is typically seen. http://siouxcityjournal.com/blogs/politically_speaking/hayworth-donald-trump-blasts-field-in-sioux-city-stop/article_c7076ca8-2870-58bb-891e-dc70115e526d.html

It’s clear that Jeb isn’t a conservative, but it’s mightily kind of him to be honest about it. He could also do what the Mitch McConnells of this world like to do: lie about it until they get elected after which they ‘suddenly’ become as progressive as Nancy Pelosi. That’s what Senator Ted Cruz recently said on Megyn Kelly’s show on Fox News. Well, OK, I admit I added the last part about Mitch McConnell myself, but I’m sure you get my drift. "I’m a fan of Jeb Bush. I’ll give him credit for candor and consistency. He is running...

The 2016 clown car can't get much longer -- but the Republican National Committee can't be bothered.The Republican Party has a bit of mess on its hands heading into the 2016 election season. Simply put, too many Republicans want to be president. The field of declared and potential candidates is large and in flux, and this will leave the Republican National Committee with some tough choices to make when debate season starts up. How do they decide who makes the cut for debate invitations? Do they go by polling numbers and risk letting a clown like Donald Trump through while...

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton announced today that he will not seek the GOP nomination for president in 2016, effectively leaving the foreign policy hawk’s top super PAC donors to look elsewhere for someone to back. Some have already found their candidate — or maybe more than one — though in many cases we don’t yet know whom they’ve anointed. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is the only White House aspirant whose campaign has reported donors at this point. (Mid-July, when the reports will come due, will likely be full of surprises.) Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens seems to have...

Following a trio of Republican campaign announcements last week, Ben Carson leaps to the top spot of GOP presidential candidates in the latest Fox News poll tied with presumed GOP front-runner Jeb Bush. Carson, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee all entered the race for the Republican nomination early last week, but none has seen as dramatic a bump as the retired neurosurgeon. Carson Touts Candor As A Plus For His GOP Presidential Bid Both Bush and Carson sit atop the Fox poll at 13 percent each among Republican primary voters. That's a seven-point bounce...

Warning signs abound, and the former Florida governor with the famous name hasn't even announced his Oval Office intentions. Like many candidates before him, Jeb Bush has rendered early polling in the 2016 presidential race pointless. "The polls are totally irrelevant," he told Fox News' Megyn Kelly this week. "Everyone needs to take a chill pill on the polls until it gets closer." But regardless of their ultimate predictive value, a reading of voters' early preferences and impressions still provides a snapshot of the bumpy road the son of one former president and the brother of another faces to the...

Former New York Gov. George Pataki said Thursday that he will announce at a May 28 event in New Hampshire whether he will run for president. Pataki said he was not worried about the increasingly crowded Republican field of candidates. “I’ve learned early on that you can’t worry about what you can’t control. You can only control your ideas, your vision and how hard you work, and that’s all I’m worried about,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Conservatives in America are sick and tired of letting the elitist political establishment in both parties, as well as the leftstream media, select Republican presidential nominees (RINOs who lost like: Ford, Dole, McCain, Romney), leaving the country with the false choice of two liberal candidates. One organization and one man are doing something to turn around this treacherous strategy that results in loss after loss, and has given us the worst president in history, Barack Obama. Election after presidential election, we are informed by the Karl Rove-types on who the “most electable” candidate is, and conservative icon Brent Bozell and...

Republican leaders, searching for a fair-minded but strategically wise way to conduct the presidential primary debates, are grappling with how to manage White House contenders in a sprawling field that mixes proven politicians with provocateurs and reflects an increasingly fractious party.The Republican National Committee’s decision last year to claim control of the 2016 debate process was welcomed by many in the party who believe that Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, was hurt by both the pummeling and the positions he took during the 20 debates in that primary contest.But by trying to impose order through party-sanctioned debates and limiting the...

Lindsey Graham is telling donors that June 1 is the likely date for his presidential announcement, according to several sources familiar with the conversations. The announcement would likely take place in South Carolina, possibly near his home base of Seneca, according to the sources, which would enable the GOP senator to highlight a compelling personal story not widely known outside his home state.