Free Republic

Several top staffers have left Rick Santorum’s campaign to create a new super PAC, a move spurred by the cash-strapped candidate’s anemic fundraising. Campaign manager Terry Allen, Iowa state coordinator Jon Jones and digital strategist Steve Hilliard — Allen’s son-in-law — departed several weeks ago, leaving the winner of the 2012 Iowa caucuses without a campaign manager and raising questions about whether Santorum can last until Iowa votes on Feb. 1 next year... The former Pennsylvania senator had among the worst fundraising hauls of the entire presidential field, raising only about $600,000 and spending about 60 percent of that in...

It wasn't too long ago that Rand Paul was viewed as a serious threat to the GOP nomination. Not any longer.One of the big mysteries of the Koch brothers’ lavish gala this past weekend is the fact that Rand Paul was not in attendance. You’d think that the Kochs would at least insist that Paul come to the fete to do a dramatic reading of John Galt’s “Atlas Shrugged” speech for the billionaires in attendance, but he didn’t show. Some reports suggest that he was invited, but declined. Perhaps his feelings are hurt that they also invited Scott Walker, Ted...

Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes finally answered the question that political pollsters have been struggling to answer: Why is Donald Trump so popular across so many demographic groups? His theory is that while "everybody is trying to be the kinder, gentler, you know, the compassionate conservative," that's not what the "average American" actually wants. He broke it down further, using a dog analogy. "The average American," Starnes explained, "they don't want one of those metrosexual purse dogs, they want a pit bull in the White House." Donald Trump, presumably, is the pit bull. A candidate such as Jeb Bush,...

Democrats and their votersI would like to address myself to the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refugees teeming to America’s shore, the homeless, the economically, socially, and mentally tempest-tossed. Also, I’d like to address the young, the hip, the progressive, the compassionate, and the caring. I’d like a word with everyone who votes for Democrats. Democrats hate your guts. Democrats need your vote and they’ll do anything—no matter how low and degrading—to get it. They hate you the way a whore hates a john. All politicians hate people. Politics is a way to gain power over people without justification...

For a 56th birthday present to himself, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina) took perhaps the most aggressive step yet against the Republican Party's establishment. It marked perhaps the most bombastic challenge to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) leadership, and another point at which long-simmering tensions within the Republican caucus have exploded out into the open. Meadows introduced a resolution on Tuesday that aims to force Boehner from his post. The resolution will now be referred to a powerful House committee full of members loyal to Boehner, and has no chance of succeeding. But the message he had attempted to send...

The obvious problem when trying to rank the 10 people most likely to wind up as the Republican presidential nominee next year can be summed up in two words: Donald Trump. On one hand, Trump is ahead in most national polls on the nominating contest — an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll out Sunday puts him at 19 percent, four points clear of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and he even leads (or comes close to leading) in surveys conducted in early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.On the other hand, he is Donald Trump. I put the question of...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich officially announced his presidential run Tuesday, telling a crowd at Ohio State University that "the sun is rising" in America again. "I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support, for your efforts because I have decided to run for president of the United States," he said. In a speech that described the woes of Americans worried about lost jobs, health care costs and crushing student debt — and that made a point to reference the specific worries of minorities — Kasich also tried to strike an optimistic note. ''' The former congressman...

DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) -- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and four other GOP presidential candidates are at a luxury Southern California resort speaking to the billionaire Koch brothers and other conservative donors. Industrialists Charles and David Koch have convened about 450 like-minded business leaders this weekend to listen to Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former technology executive Carly Fiorina.On Saturday, Charles Koch welcomed the donors and encouraged them to stop "crony capitalism" -- even if those policies hurt their bottom lines.

'The entire MSNBC panel was shocked that Trump is soundly defeating both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in their home state of Florida in a new poll.' Bloomberg Mark Halperin making excuses, but says Trump has Florida ties and he's a great fit for Florida. Scarborough: Donald Trump is just pounding the Republican field and other makes salient remarks. See the video at the link.

Donald Trump won't be getting my vote in the GOP presidential primary. However, contrary to popular belief, I'm grateful he's put the GOP on life support, and he isn't alone. Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio are doing what's been unseen since Ronald Reagan--speaking above the political and media elite and connecting directly to the people. I suspect Trump will fade. And when he does, those who can effectively communicate a vision for America with passion and optimism along with a plan to restore her to prominence will be poised to siphon off his supporters. So how...

RUSH: Carly Fiorina was on CNN on Tuesday night The Lead with Jake Tapper. Setting this up, I want to go back and repeat, air something I said on April 7th of this year. Think of it as advice for the Republican presidential candidates. RUSH ARCHIVE: The ultimate reality is that every Republican in the primary has a common enemy, and it's Hillary Clinton. All 14, 15, or 16 of them simply make it an objective to begin the campaign against Hillary Clinton during the Republican primary and not wait until after the primary. I think the sooner these candidates...

There are two things we're looking for in the ideal Republican Party nominee for president in 2016. The first is integrity. I define integrity as a consistency in two areas: Right belief and right behavior. Now, notice I didn't say perfection. No one is perfect, which is why we need a Savior. However, consistency is attainable for those who seek to live a life of integrity.  Candidates also need to possess the necessary skill set to confront the spirit of the age. And that means when you broadly look at the long view of a candidate's career you see far...

Matthew Rozsa explains why Donald Trump isn’t really going to run for president. You’ve probably already seen the title of this article, but in case you didn’t read it carefully, allow me to reiterate: Donald Trump isn’t going to run for president. He doesn’t have the guts to do it. I’d like to say that I was ahead of the curve in realizing this, but for the past few months I’ve been swept up in the same “Trump is running for president (totally for reals, you guys)” narrative that has consumed the rest of the media. Instead it was my...

Donald Trump has criticized or mocked conservative candidates, politicians, and pundits nearly five times as often as liberal-leaning folks on his personal Twitter account. A Washington Examiner analysis of the individuals Trump has mentioned on his Twitter feed — excluding mentions included in retweets or quoted tweets — found that the Republican presidential hopeful strongly prefers to launch attacks against members of his own party on social media. On June 21, less than a week after launching his presidential bid in New York City, Trump tweeted that GOP strategist Karl Rove "spent $430 million in the [2014 campaign] cycle and...

The results of the first major test of the 2016 presidential race were announced this past week: the initial six months of fundraising numbers for the slew of candidates running to be their party’s nominee next year and for aligned super PACs. As with any test, some people passed with flying colors. Others, well, didn’t. Here are the winners and the losers of the cash dash for those contests and other races. WINNERS ● Jeb Bush Sure, we all knew the former Florida governor was going to raise scads of money, largely through his Right to Rise super PAC. But...

AMES - Moments before she would hear 10 Republican presidential candidates speak, a woman from Ames said she would like to see 16 years of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the White House starting in 2017. Judging by the response from the thousands who attended Saturday’s event, which was organized by Iowa’s largest Christian conservative organization, that woman is not alone. Trump — who made some particularly provoking comments — Cruz and Bobby Jindal received some of the most vociferous responses during the fourth annual Family Leader Summit, held Saturday in an auditorium on the Iowa State University campus....

Want updates on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign? You’ll have to search next to their headlines on Kim Kardashian, says the Huffington Post. In a mocking note about the billionaire businessman Friday morning, the liberal site announced it would be treating the Donald’s White House run as “Entertainment.” After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won't report on Trump's campaign as part of The Huffington Post's political coverage. Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump's campaign is a sideshow....

How worried should Republicans—and everyone else—be about Donald Trump, the man who’s turning the party’s presidential contest into a circus rodeo? Not very. What his popularity blip reveals is just how weak the right has become. Herman Cain was polling as high as 26 percent between October and November 2011. Trump has a long way to go to match last cycle’s comic-relief candidate. The occasionally bankrupt billionaire’s best number so far has been 17 percent. His polling average, even after weeks of hype, is about 10 percent. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, has been routinely polling around 15 percent against Hillary...

A line of people stretched outside Joey's Diner in Amherst Thursday morning ahead of Scott Walker's first New Hampshire campaign event in more than a month. Call it pent-up demand; call it curiosity; call it a candidate’s emerging base of support. Whatever it was, this much was true: the crowds waiting to see the Wisconsin governor were too big for the restaurant to hold. So the campaign staff improvised, backing up a red pickup truck to the front door. "Were going to try to fit as many people inside the diner, standing-room only, after he arrives," one staffer told the...

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he would be open to having Donald Trump as a running mate in 2016. Appearing on Your World with Neil Cavuto on Friday, the host put the question to him at the close of an interview that mostly focused on illegal immigration. http://www.westernjournalism.com/ben-carson-just-came-out-with-a-surprising-announcement-about-donald-trump-thatll-scare-dems-silly/