Free Republic

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker joined the crowded field of Republican contenders vying for the White House in 2016 on Monday, and immediately stands out for having one of the poorest records on environmental and climate issues, according to green groups and political experts. Since taking office in 2010, Walker has dismantled several longstanding policies protecting wetlands and waterways, fast-tracked mining projects, fought climate action, slashed funding for dozens of state scientists and environmental education positions, and impeded development of wind energy in Wisconsin. "He's one of the worst," said Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Fund,...

Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR), a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, was interviewed about campaign issues, including their relationship to his faith, and responded to questions from members of the audience.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bernie Sanders told veterans in Iowa Friday that unlike some other politicians, he doesn't pay lip service to their concerns. "It is very easy to raise the flag at a troop deployment, it is very easy for a politician to give a moving speech on Veterans Day," Sanders said. "But it is very hard to go down that long road with the men and women who served and make sure that they continue to get all the benefits, all the healthcare, that they are entitled to for the rest of their lives." The Vermont senator told...

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee distanced himself from fellow candidate Donald Trump’s statements about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Saturday. “I said very clearly Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is a hero — Donald Trump will need to determine whether that’s a statement he needs to walk back,” Huckabee told a news conference, saying that he continues to speak only for himself. Reporters also questioned Huckabee about Trump’s popularity, since the real estate mogul has rocketed to number one in recent polls.

We know that Planned Parenthood receives about half a billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money each year. Most states also give the state Planned Parenthood affiliates millions of tax dollars annually. Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate of choice for Planned Parenthood employees, according to campaign financial records released Wednesday. The former secretary of state collected nearly $10,000 from nine individuals who work for the country’s largest abortion provider, including from several high ranking executives at the billion-dollar operation. The first quarter fundraising total nearly matches the amount Clinton received over the course of her previous three political runs. But...

Something strange has happened to the Republican presidential field since Donald Trump joined it a month ago: Mr. Trump and Jeb Bush are rising. Everyone else is falling in the polls, or seems stuck in place. The numbers suggest Mr. Trump is shaking up the GOP primary electorate in a meaningful way. He seems to be taking support from the most conservative and anti-Washington rivals in the field, particularly Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Mr. Bush’s rise in the polls suggests that his base of support has little overlap with Mr. Trump’s, and he therefore may...

LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Another high profile presidential candidate is making plans to visit Arkansas. On Saturday, the Republican Party of Crawford County announced Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will be their guest speaker at this year's Lincoln Day Dinner. The event will be held Wednesday, August 12th at Van Buren High School. Tickets are on sale now, starting at $75. They can be purchased here. Senator Cruz was the first Republican to jump into the 2016 presidential race. He's currently serving his first term as US Senator from Texas.

ARKANSAS (KFSM) – Following the shooting death of four Marines in Chattanooga, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has authorized Arkansas National Guard Adjutant General Mark Berry to arm full-time military personnel. The governor also ordered the Arkansas flag to be flown at half-staff on Monday (July 20), according to a news release. “Our hearts break at the news of another senseless act of violence and terror, this time out of Chattanooga,” Governor Hutchinson said. “Our prayers go out to all the families of the victims, especially the family of Staff Sgt. David Wyatt of Russellville, one of Arkansas’s own.” He continued, “I...

It’s time to draft Al Gore: If Democrats want to win, it’s clear neither Hillary nor Sanders is the way The presidential election is still sixteen months away, but this much is clear: Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable candidate. Since announcing her candidacy in April, Clinton’s stature has steadily slipped. Things got even worse this week. We learned, first, that Bernie Sanders eclipsed Clinton in small, individual donations, which is an indicator of popular support among likely voters. Second, and more problematic, the newest AP poll revealed significant weaknesses among Democrats on a host of issues, including trust, character, and...

In a speech designed to float ideas for raising incomes for “hardworking Americans,” Hillary Clinton says she’d make some changes if elected president. Clinton, considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, used her appearance July 13 at the New School in New York’s Greenwich Village to outline an economic message organized by what she called “strong growth,” “fair growth” and “long-term growth.” “We can’t create enough jobs and new businesses without more growth, and we can’t build strong families and support our consumer economy without more fairness,” she said, adding: The defining economic challenge of our time is clear: We...

John Boozman says breaches targeted ‘most sensitive information’Sen. John Boozman (R., Ark.) said personal information on the Navy’s most elite special operations team could be in the hands of America’s adversaries following the cyber attack on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Boozman told a gathering of reporters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the attacks, suspected to have originated from China, targeted the “most sensitive information we have.” “The breach there was really staggering, this magnitude some of the most sensitive information,” Boozman said. “A lot of people when you fill out a form to get a top security...

If you had to vote in your state primary/caucus today, knowing what you know now about the various declared and probable candidates, who would you vote for? Why? Who would you like to see as the running mate for your preferred candidate? If you could help staff your candidates cabinet and other top appointments, who would you choose? If you could recommend different congressional leaders than we have now, who would they be? And who would you like to see on the Supreme Court and why? And finally, feel free to donate to Free Republic.

2016: If only Wall Street bankers had listened to St. Hillary during the subprime mortgage frenzy. She now claims she warned about the risky loans. Yep, a Clinton actually went there. Her campaign may regret it. While bashing Wall Street for risky acts and "criminal behavior," Clinton in her first economic stump speech portrayed herself as the voice of financial sanity in a casino of wild greed. "As we all know, in the years before the crash, financial firms piled risk upon risk," she intoned, "and regulators in Washington either wouldn't or couldn't keep up. "I was alarmed by this...

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s standing is falling among Democrats, and voters view her as less decisive and inspiring than when she launched her presidential campaign just three months ago, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey offers a series of warning signs for the leading Democratic candidate. Most troubling, perhaps, for her prospects are questions about her compassion for average Americans, a quality that fueled President Barack Obama’s two White House victories. Just 39 percent of all Americans have a favorable view of Clinton, compared to nearly half who say they have a negative opinion of her. That’s an...

Ask any journalist or pundit to name the most out-of-the-mainstream candidates in the presidential race, and you're almost certain to hear names on the Republican side of the aisle — people like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. But it turns the real extremists are the ones leading the pack for the Democratic nomination — at least in the public's mind.

I confess that I do not begin to understand homosexual or transgender issues. As life would have it, this matter has found its way into the lives of my own circle of friends and family members, people whom I love and respect most dearly. While I acknowledge that I do not fully understand the issues which formed the basis of the case before the Supreme Court, I am comfortable with the decision and fully believe the Court is right in its ruling that laws forbidding same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Frankly, I don’t have to understand anything other than that I...

A heckler was ejected from Hillary Clinton’s economic speech in New York City Monday after asking the former secretary of state about her position on investment banking regulations. Business Insider reported that Daniel Burke, a self-identified organizer for the LaRouche PAC which supports political activist Lyndon LaRouche, yelled at Clinton at the conclusion of her speech, “Senator Clinton, will you restore Glass-Steagall?” Clinton did not respond to the inquiry, and Burke was removed from the event location, the New School in Manhattan, by security. Passed in 1933 and then repealed 66 years later, the Glass-Steagall Act separates commercial banks from...

Pundits have focused recently on Hillary Clinton’s narrowing lead in polls among a group of less well known Republicans, along with voters' growing skepticism about her integrity. But there's a more immediate threat to her electability: In the last few weeks, Clinton has lost significant ground in New Hampshire and Iowa to socialist Bernie Sanders. The latest Suffolk University poll has Sanders within 10 percentage points of Clinton, at 41-31, among Democrats in New Hampshire. Clinton is only eight points ahead of Sanders, 43-35, in a WMUR/CNN poll. In Iowa she has slipped 26 points since May. Considering this enthusiasm...

While delivering her first major economic policy speech of her campaign, Clinton today called out Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker by name to contrast her policies -- focused on strengthening the middle class and increasing wages -- against those of her front-running Republican rivals. In her remarks, delivered at the New School in downtown Manhattan, Clinton first took aim at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his recent comment that “people need to work longer hours.” (A remark Bush’s campaign said was about unemployment.) “You may have heard Governor Bush say last week that Americans just need to...

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation reports that Senator Ted Cruz (from Texas) has, during his time in the U.S. Senate, supported measures that would reduce government spending by $169.4 billion a year.Demian Brady, NTUF director of Research, is quoted by Breitbart as saying: Senator Cruz supported significant spending reductions like repeal of the Affordable Care Act and abolishing the IRS and income tax in favor of a sales tax. Combined with very minimal spending increases, these make for a legislative slate big on savings. And that’s not all. Cruz also wants to repeal ObamaCare which would reduce government spending by...