Free Republic

"I'm glad you raised that, because it gives me a chance to make a point I've felt strongly about," said Frank. "In this terrible situation, let's be very grateful that we had a well-funded, functioning government. It is very fashionable in America, and has been for some time to criticize government, belittle public employees, talk about their pensions, talk about what people think ... of [their] health care. Here we saw government in two ways perform very well. ... I never was as a member of Congress one of the cheerleaders for less government, lower taxes. No tax cut would...

Chris Matthews: Did Boston Bombing Have Anything To Do With Tax Day? By Noel Sheppard | April 15, 2013 | 18:46 As NewsBusters reported earlier, MSNBC's Chris Matthews seems hell-bent on trying to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on a domestic terrorist, preferrably a conservative one. After saying shortly into his Hardball program, "Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right," Matthews later asked his guests if Tax Day had something to do with the event since it doesn't mean a "whole lot to the Arab world or Islamic world or the, certainly not to al Qaeda"...

In explaining why President Obama didn't call the Boston bombings a "terrorist attack," former adviser David Axelrod said, "I'm sure what was going through the president's mind is -- we really don't know who did this -- it was tax day": "The word has taken on a different meaning since 9/11," Axelrod said of the phrase "terrorist attack." "You use those words and it means something very specific in people's mind. And I'm sure what was going through the president's mind is -- we really don't know who did this -- it was tax day. Was it someone who was...

David Axelrod: (snip) "People are afraid of the NRA and trading their jobs for young lives in places like Chicago," he continued. "And it is a terrible blight. You know, hopefully people will step up and do the right thing. It is extraordinary to have all the country on one side and the Congress on the other."

CNN’s Reliable Sources was critical of MSNBC’s hiring of former Obama officials David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, calling it ‘propaganda.’

Press: As if media bias weren't troublesome enough, the ascent of President Obama's top strategist to a plum job at NBC creates an even bigger issue: that of the political establishment becoming the press. Where does it end? In a way, the hiring of David Axelrod as "senior political analyst" providing commentary at NBC seems like a fool's errand from a business standpoint. After all, the White House senior adviser has pretty much been giving NBC and other big media outlets commentary for free during the Obama administration, if the slavish pro-Obama media bias, as well as secretive media-political collaborations...

And it drew an immediate condemnation from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who warned there would be “no place to hide” for anyone who threatens Americans. Well, that’s because they don’t have to hide. One of the scum who is believed to have masterminded the 9-11-12 attack in Libya that killed four Americans isn’t even hiding his love of decadent Western fruity frappes. Another just got released. So yeah, there’s no place to hide. Except, at this point, the entire planet. To date, the Obama government has not retaliated against anyone anywhere for the Benghazi attack. By the way, for...

From Godlike Productions Forum: Another pair of actors in Sandy hoax exposed. 100% BUSTED! Two parents “Nick” and “Laura Phelps” [link to edition.cnn.com] “Nick and Laura Phelps also are struggling with what to tell their two children, a first-grader and a third-grader.”“When I saw those teachers, I locked eyes with them separately. If I could go back, I would embrace them,” Nick Phelps said, “because I had no idea what they had gone through.” [not the guys in the video in that article]

Obama’s top election strategist tells a Chicago audience he was surprised Mitt Romney’s team did not attack Obama more, stuck so narrowly with their base—and chose Paul Ryan for VP. President Obama’s top reelection strategist conceded surprise Monday that Republican super PACS didn’t attack Obama far earlier, Mitt Romney didn’t invest much more in ground operations, and that the Republican nominee played narrowly to the party base in picking Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate. Offering a lengthy dissection of the campaign, David Axelrod told a Chicago audience that he was “a bit surprised that super PACS, which spent...

President Barack Obama's senior campaign adviser David Axelrod said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that his next project will include inspiring young people to become "journalists." "What do you do next?" CBS's Bob Schieffer asked Axelrod. "I'm going to spend part of my time starting an institute of politics at the University of Chicago," said Axelrod. "My feeling is if I can help inspire some young people to get into this arena as candidates, as strategists, as journalists, then that would be a great contribution to make."

W 2004 vs. 2000: vote +12 m; percent change of vote margin +3% Toon 1996 vs. 1992: vote +2.5 m; percent change of vote margin + 3 % Reagan 1984 vs. 1980: huge gains Nixon 1972 vs. 1968: enormous gains Ike 1956 vs. 1952 : Vote +1.5 m; percent + 4% Usurper the First : 1940, 1944: declining margins FDR : 1936 vs. 1932 : +5 m; percent +6 % Wilson: gained 3 m votes; percentage not calculable due to Bull Moose finishing 2nd in '12

LIMA, Ohio--Speaking to reporters here on Friday after a full day of passionate campaign speeches from President Barack Obama, senior adviser David Axelrod said that Obama's enthusiasm "is coming from his loins. "I've never seen him more exhilarated than he is right now. He believes in what he's doing. He believes in what he's fighting for. You can see in the speech that he's delivering that this is coming from his loins. I just wanted to say loins," Axelrod added with a smile. "I wanted to see if I can get loins in the story."

President Obama is so excited about the final days of his final campaign that he feels it in his "loins," a senior adviser said Friday. "I've never seen him more exhilarated than he is right now," senior campaign strategist David Axelrod said at a campaign stop with the president in Lima, Ohio. "He believes in what he's fighting for. You can see in the speech that he's delivering that this is coming from his loins."

What better way to close out our Morning Of The Living Polls with this tongue-in-cheek (lip?) pledge from David Axelrod? When challenged on the sudden expansion of the electoral map for Mitt Romney into previously-considered safe Democratic states, Team Obama's communications director scoffed at the notion that Barack Obama might be vulnerable in Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Minnesota --- despite the fact that his team has shifted millions to those states this week in a last-ditch defensive effort. Axelrod tells the Morning Joe crew that he'll shave off his moustache "of 40 years" live on their show if Obama loses any...

President Obama’s senior campaign adviser David Axelrod said Wednesday he’d shave his signature mustache if Obama loses Minnesota, Michigan or Pennsylvania to Mitt Romney. “I will shave off my mustache of 40 years if we lose any of those three states,” Axelrod declared on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe." Provoked by recent polls, the campaigns have been in a turf war over traditionally blue states. The Romney campaign says it sees an opening to steal some electoral votes that many believe Obama should’ve locked down by now. The Obama campaign says this is merely posturing by the Romney campaign, and a sign...

Much of this blog is spent arguing — persuasively I hope — why the polling data and get out the vote activities favor Mitt Romney this election cycle. But if President Obama wins re-election where could all of this analysis have erred? Possibly the final remaining question that will determine the election outcome is whether Obama campaign manager David Axelrod is correct on the racial composition of the electorate being 72% White or whether is he fooling both himself and his acolytes in the media? President Obama regularly polls with national support among Whites as low as between 36 –...

Axelrod downplays polls, touts Obama early-voting edgeBy Alexandra Jaffe - 10/28/12 09:36 AM ET A top adviser to President Obama's reelection campaign on Sunday dismissed polls showing Obama lagging GOP candidate Mitt Romney as not reflective of reality. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, David Axelrod said that recent polls of the race that show Romney with an edge nationally, buoyed by a higher percentage of Americans who believe the Republican nominee would better handle the economy, contradicted what the president’s team is seeing on the ground. "In that particular poll, Candy, that may be the case, but in...

Four years ago, David Axelrod was exuberantly riding the Obama wave. Today, the poor guy sounds decidedly down in the dumps. Check out this line from an email he sent to people on the Obama campaign list: "I don't know how this is going to end. But no matter what, I know each of us will have given this campaign everything we've got." Yikes! Take two Prozac and call me in the morning if you're still trailing by five in the Gallup poll! More after the jump.

CANTON, Mass. — Mitt Romney testified under oath in 1991 that the ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg got a fair deal in the couple’s 1988 divorce, even though the company shares Maureen Sullivan Stemberg received were valued at a tenth of Staples’ stock price on the day of its initial public offering only a year later. At the time the Stembergs split, Romney suggested, there was little indication that Staples’ value would soon skyrocket. Romney’s testimony in a post-divorce lawsuit brought in 1990 by Sullivan Stemberg was unsealed on Thursday in Norfolk Probate and Family Court at the Globe’s...

As I write this, Barack Obama's gal-pal Gloria Allred and the Boston Globe have aligned themselves with the Chicago Machine in a partisan crusade to launch an October Surprise against Mitt Romney. That we all know. What you might not know is that Allred's client, Maureen Sullivan, the woman pushing to unseal the gag order on her own divorce records, is a embittered leftie, a Huffington Post "Super User," and a vicious anti-Mormon bigot. For what's obviously a manufactured reason, Sullivan blames Mitt Romney for a divorce settlement she received during the early-nineties. Time's Mark Halperin reports that while he...