Free Republic

Lancaster, Ohio – The Romney-Ryan campaign has seized on Vice President Joe Biden's assertion during Thursday's debate that Ohio-made M1 Abrams tanks are no longer needed. The GOP ticket began running radio ads and making automated phone calls in Ohio on Friday featuring the vice president's quote, according to Republican state communications director Chris Maloney. "The military says we need a smaller, leaner Army. We need more special forces. ...We don’t need more M1 tanks. What we need is more UAVs,” Biden said while he sat opposite of Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, at the debate in Lexington,...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 48%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided. Forty-three percent (43%) are certain they will vote for Romney and will not change their minds. Forty-one percent (41%) are that certain they will vote for Obama. (More data available for Platinum Members).

Click on each state for survey details. Totals may not add up to 100% because of rounding.

As the dust of Thursday’s vice presidential debate settles, one of the storylines of Friday morning is Joe Biden’s bold statement that the administration was not told that officials in Libya requested more security before an attack that led to the death of several Americans, including our ambassador. The fact-checkers have found that to be patently false. And now, even the mainstream media is predicting it could be a problem.

Mitt Romney has taken a commanding 7-point lead over President Barack Obama in another Virginia poll. According to a McLaughlin & Associates poll that had an R+.02 sample, Romney leads Obama in Virginia 51%-44%. Among independents, Romney beats Obama by 11 points, 50%-39%. If these numbers hold for Romney, Romney could be free to expand the electoral map and more aggressively make plays for states like Michigan and Pennsylvania that were considered "reaches" just two weeks ago. In addition, this poll, which has Romney leading by double-digits among independents and has a sample that is more reflective of what the...

MITT ROMNEY: I think today we got another indication of how President Obama and his campaign fail to grasp the seriousness of the challenge that we face here in America. His campaign said this today about the Benghazi terrorist attack—they said this, and I quote, “The entire reason this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.” No, President Obama, it’s an issue because this is the first time in 33 years that an United States ambassador has been assassinated. Mr. President, this is an issue because we were attacked successfully by terrorists...

ORLANDO -- A new, exclusive News 13 Florida Decides Poll shows a new leader in the presidential race and a significant shakeup of opinions among Floridians, with potential national ramifications. The latest results, released Thursday, show Republican Mitt Romney with a 7-point lead over President Barack Obama. When asked which ticket would get their vote if the general election were held today, 51 percent of the 800 registered Florida voters polled picked Romney, with 44 percent choosing Obama.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Republican rival Mitt Romney picked up 3 points to lead U.S. President Obama 49 percent to 46 percent, a United Press International poll indicated Thursday. Romney's lead, which was within the poll's 4.5 percentage-point margin of error, was based on a national survey taken by UPI-CVoter pollsters in the days following the first presidential debate. It is the first time Romney has had the lead since the UPI poll began this election cycle. While Romney's lead is 3 percentage points among likely voters, his net gain since the seven days immediately before the debate is...

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith let his outrage fly this afternoon on Studio B, as he angrily chided the federal government for not increasing security abroad even after intelligence officials learned that there was a plot to murder American emissaries. Speaking via satellite with security expert Rick Nelson, Smith repeatedly raised his voice — not at Nelson, but at the subject overall. “What is interesting to me and might be interesting to the people at home watching as some of them with their jaws dropped is that, first of all, the man who is in charge of the security detail...

The choice between President Obama and Mitt Romney is clear. Under the President's policies, middle-income Americans have been buried. Mitt Romney will bring tax rates down and get Americans working again.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has started airing ads attacking Democrats who recently voted to continue foreign aid to Egypt, Libya and Pakistan, but one of his GOP Senate colleagues has risen to their defense. On Tuesday, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham joined West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on a conference call defending Machin’s foreign aid vote, the Charleston Gazette reported. “A lot of debate goes on about foreign aid,” Graham said. “Foreign relations are not a Democrat or Republican issue, but a American issue.” “Joe Manchin works with Barack Obama to send billions of our taxpayer dollars...

Romney’s lead widened to 5 points from 2 points on Tuesday, as he continues to chip away at key Obama support. Romney’s edge among independents widened to 20 points from 18 just a day before. Obama’s lead among women narrowed from 10 points to 8 points. Romney also continues to make inroads among middle-class voters, moving from a 6-point lead against Obama with this group to a 10-point lead. The current data include only polls taken after Romney’s resounding debate win over Obama on Oct. 3.

Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by a 2 point margin, identical to his lead in late September according to Susquehanna Polling and Research. But the Republican’s debate performance contributed to a 6 point jump in his favorability rating. In a poll conducted just after the first presidential debate, from Oct. 4 to 6, 47 percent of respondents said they support Obama; 45 percent support Romney. 3 percent support Libertarian Gary Johnson. The Obama-Romney head-to-head numbers are identical the most recent Susquehanna Polling and Research survey released on Sept. 23. The margin of that poll, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review closely...

In 2008, President Barack Obama won the independent vote over John McCain by a margin of eight points, 52-44. This morning, a new Battleground Poll has Mitt Romney massacring Obama among indies by a whopping 16 points, 51-35. That's a 24-point swing among independents since 2008, a group that makes up anywhere from a quarter to a third of voters, and yet Battleground still has Obama in the lead 49-48…? But if I'm skeptical of those bottom-line numbers, our journalist overlords who have chosen to palace guard instead of question will declare me a "truther." The Battleground Poll also shows...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only two times, since 1960, has the unemployment dropped by 5 percentage points in a two month span. The first time this happened was in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan (April & May, 1984). The rate went from 7.7 to 7.2. The total jobs created during this 2 month span was 687k. The GDP for the most recent quarter was a whopping 8%. The only other time (in over 50 years, again) is occurring right now under President Obama (Aug & Sep, 2012). The rate went from 8.3 to 7.8, with a two-month...

Crowd shot at Romney's Apopka, Fl rally.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Declaring that the nation is in a "jobs crisis," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is charging ahead with his economic arguments in spite of unemployment dropping to its lowest level since President Barack Obama took office. Romney all but ignored the positive jobs numbers while campaigning Friday night in Florida, instead highlighting his strong debate performance and presenting a more compassionate message as he sought to overcome Obama's narrow lead in the polls. He made clear earlier in the day that he did not agree with the president's assessment that the unemployment statistic — it dipped...

The quarterbacks don't play against each other, not technically at least, but when the Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots on Sunday, it will be impossible to separate the two, their shared history, their rivalry and their greatness. Peyton Manning versus Tom Brady, maybe for the final time. Enjoy it. Savor it. Watch every play. This could be it, a final farewell to the best matchup of the past decade, one the National Football League recognized and fostered and treated us to for 10 seasons, just because it could. Every regular season since 2003. Three postseasons. Two AFC title...

Few disagree that Mitt Romney won Wednesday night’s presidential debate. Even fewer would argue against the notion that Romney sorely needed that performance to put his campaign back on track. With the national polling averages hovering around three percent in Barack Obama’s favor, Romney’s inability to gain traction was resulting in a pundit-driven drum beat of inevitability. Not so fast there, muchachos. Polling in key states has shown a widening gap, but in many states, the spreading numbers have been more meandering that directional. True, if it had continued that way the election could have gently slid into the point...

Virginia remains a nail-biter in the first post-debate survey of the key battleground state, with Mitt Romney edging slightly ahead. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Virginia Voters, taken last night, shows Romney earning 49% support to Obama’s 48%. Three percent (3%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)