Free Republic

In the 2008 Virginia Senate race, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Democrat Mark Warner leading Republican Jim Gilmore 53% to 38%. Both men are former governors of the state of Virginia.

Like every great sales pitch, Mitt Romney's case for Mitt Romney is low on the hard sell. At the Sheraton Hotel here one recent morning, the boasting is handled by a former governor of South Carolina, who opens this "Ask Mitt Anything" session with a precis of the candidate's career. This includes academic achievements (Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School "in four years!") and election as governor of Massachusetts in 2002, which is described in a tone befitting a miracle. "He ran for governor in the bluest state of all blue states," says James Edwards, "the bluest state you...

Ohio is important state in presidential politics. Just ask Sen. John Kerry who might now be finishing up his first term in the White House had he won Ohio. So it’s worth noting that the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute has a survey which shows Democratic front runner Sen. Hillary Clinton leading former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front runner, by seven points, 47 percent to 40 percent. They were tied in an August poll done by the same organization. Her lead against former Sen. Fred Thompson was even greater at 12 points, 49 percent to 37 percent....

On an average Saturday morning, there are five blue Toyota Priuses in the parking lot of our synagogue. I know because my children count them, starting with ours. They could do this with any popular item they own, of course (not that they have too many chances in our late-adapting household). But their hybrid love made me cringe last week, when the New York Times ran a story about the success of the Prius (purchase required), and I saw myself in it. Why are Prius sales surging when other hybrids are slumping, the Times asked? Because buyers "want everyone to...

Giuliani leads GOP pack, but survey says he'd lose to Clinton or Obama. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani holds a strong lead among California Republicans likely to vote in the GOP presidential primary Feb. 5, according to a Field Poll released Tuesday.But the survey found Giuliani's chief opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, would fare better in California against the Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a potential November 2008 general election match-up.Each of the three Democratic top-tier candidates -- Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards -- held leads over either...

Here are the three leading candidates for president in the Republican party, a party based in the South and in the interior, rural in nature, and backed in large part by social conservatives: the senior senator from Arizona, a congenital maverick with friends in the press and a habit of dissing the base of his party; the former governor of deep-blue Massachusetts, son of a Michigan governor, a Mormon who looks, sounds, and comes across as a city boy; and the former mayor of New York, the Big Apple itself, ethnic and Catholic, pro-choice and pro-gun control, married three times,...

For this reason, contrary to conventional wisdom, a victory by Rudy Giuliani would strengthen even the socially conservative agenda in the long run. As the new Fox Dynamics Poll shows, 65 percent of Americans would be “comfortable” with a Rudy Giuliani administration. Being comfortable is a major step in the right direction. Americans might actually listen to him when gives the State of the Union (without a teleprompter no less, as he usually speaks with note cards or does so extemporaneously). A Giuliani administration that would focus on fighting the Islamic Extremists, reducing the size and scope of government, handling...

I guess the results of this poll from Siena College shouldn't be surprising. In short, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton have big leads among registered voters in our great state. Rudy Giuliani having a 47-20 lead over John McCain is to be expected.

GENTLE PEOPLE WITH FLOWERS IN THEIR HAIR January 8, 2007 The San Francisco metropolitan area has a higher percentage of people who are regular drug users than any other major metropolitan area in the United States, a study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found. According to the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health 2002-05: Nearly 13 percent of San Francisco residents reported using some type of illicit drug, such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin, in the previous month; the national average is 8.1 percent. Other areas with drug-abuse rates higher than the national average included...

Slate’s media critic Jack Shafer reports on scholarly research about media bias by two University of Chicago economics professors, Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro that analyzes Congressional floor speeches to link specific phrases to Republicans or Democrats based on frequency of use: "Prior to reading this paper I would have associated "reform" with Democraticspeak, but Republicans have so completely co-opted the word that it doesn't appear on the Dems' list in any form. ... As you might suspect, the Democrats own the word "cuts" in all its variations: "budget cuts," "Medicaid cuts," "bill cuts," "spending cuts," "cut food stamps,"...

The single most powerful factor in California's politics -- one that underlies its chronically dysfunctional government -- is the ever-widening division between Californians as a whole and those who vote. California's population is growing strongly, and with virtually all of that growth stemming from immigration and the state's economy continuing to mutate, it has become the globe's most complex society. Ironically, however, little of that complexity is reflected in the body politic, as last week's election confirmed anew. Ever-fewer Californians are voting, creating a widening gap between the characteristics and priorities of voters and those of the overall population. The...

U.S. Senate - Dianne Feinstein (D)* Governor - Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)* U.S. House of Representatives 1 Mike Thompson (D)* 6 Lynn Woolsey (D)* 7 George Miller (D)* 8 Nancy Pelosi (D)* 9 Barbara Lee (D)* 10 Ellen O. Tauscher (D) * 11 Jerry McNerney (D) 12 Tom Lantos (D)* 13 Fortney "Pete" Stark (D)* 14 Anna G. Eshoo (D)* 15 Mike Honda (D)* 16 Zoe Lofgren (D)* Statewide Offices Lieutenant Governor - John Garamendi (D) Secretary of State - Debra Bowen (D) Controller - John Chiang (D) Treasurer - Bill Lockyer (D) Attorney General - Jerry Brown (D) Insurance Commissioner...

Insults, injuries: Mass. man beaten at N.Y. stadium By Jessica Heslam Boston Herald Media Reporter Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - Updated: 04:29 AM EST While his helpless, pregnant wife watched in horror, a Woburn man says, he was viciously beaten outside the Buffalo Bills’ football stadium last week by a liquored-up mob of New York fans embittered after the Pats crushed their team. “I thought they were going to kill him,” a pregnant Diane Donaghey said yesterday of the booze-fueled ruffians who allegedly attacked her husband, Barry, 30. The couple filed a police report and have retained a lawyer. They...

. . . Party hearty:The state Republican Party is so emboldened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's surge in the polls that it's turning its attention -- and money -- to the down-ticket races such as lieutenant governor and attorney general. The first beneficiary of the newfound GOP largesse was Tom McClintock, the conservative GOP nominee for lieutenant governor whom the new, more moderate Arnold seems to be avoiding like the plague. He got a GOP-paid TV ad slamming rival Democrat John Garamendi. Next up was attorney general candidate Chuck Poochigian, who got a radio ad labeling Democratic rival Jerry Brown...

EAST HARTFORD -- A Manchester Board of Education member is facing criminal charges, including driving under the influence and resisting officers, after his arrest outside the Venus Lounge, an East Hartford strip bar known for prostitution and drug activity, police said. John M. Rowe, a Democrat elected in November to a three-year term, refused to submit to sobriety tests and threatened recrimination to the officers during his June 2 arrest, police said. Rowe, 41, of 31 Gerard St., Manchester, was so inebriated that an officer had to hold him up to keep him from falling over during his arrest and...

POW! (How far should I go to protect my rights?) BAM! (What's my position on gay marriage?) ZING! (Look out for that embedded reporter!) In today's comic books, superheroes aren't just thinking about how to defeat the usual kryptonite-wielding villains. They're also tackling topics such as terrorism, war, and civil liberties as a heavy dose of 21st-century reality seeps into their alternate universe. In Civil War, a sprawling new Marvel series, superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America must choose sides over whether the government should be allowed to register them. In a comic book called Ex Machina, a 9/11 hero-turned-mayor...

What a disturbing statistic: Between 2000 and 2004, about 183,000 more people left New York state than moved here from other states. If that isn't seen as a signal that something has to change in the way this state conducts its affairs, then no signal at all will be recognized. While New York was losing all those people in a mass exodus, Florida was gaining a like number. The repercussions of that kind of exchange are numerous, but the most important and crippling effect is economic. We are losing tax revenue. The loss of residents indicates a loss of jobs....

January 25, 2006 The urban angle It’s when you no longer know where your milk comes from, let alone where you got your opinions, that you have become over-urbanized. I note, with Allan Gregg, that the Conservatives did not win a single seat in Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver -- our three largest cities. Let me enlarge on remarks I have made in many previous columns, applying the famous Red State/Blue State division in the U.S. to circumstances in Canada. I disagree with Mr Gregg that the inner urban constituencies should be assuaged. The future of Canada, as the U.S., is...

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga the man that runs the most successful political blog in America can't afford the Blue state of California: "So I'm getting a little frustrated with the Bay Area real estate market, and for the first time in years I'm casting about the rest of the nation to see if there's anywhere else where I could possibly live." How ironic,a guy who supports a party that promotes Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac,land-use restrictions,zoning,open space laws,and unions is unable to buy a house in the very Blue area of Northern California. All this from a guy who's got a law degree......

Massachusetts lost residents for the second year in a row, new federal Census estimates show, underscoring an accelerating population shift from the Northeast to the South and West that threatens to erode the state's political and economic clout. Only two other states, along with the District of Columbia, lost population from July 1, 2004, to July 1 of this year, according to US Census estimates released yesterday. The Bay State lost about 8,600 residents, or .1 percent of its population, according to the estimates. If the trend continues, specialists say, the state will face serious consequences: fewer seats in Congress,...