Free Republic

The theme of the president's 2012 re-election campaign is that George W. Bush left such a terrible mess that Barack Obama could hardly be expected to clean it up in four years. In other words, 43 months of unemployment rates above 8 percent, $5 trillion in new borrowing, $16 trillion in aggregate debt, gas prices of nearly $4 per gallon, a dive in average family income and involvement in two wars were all due to George Bush and simply too difficult for anyone else to overcome. So Obama cannot be judged on his record between 2009 and 2012. At first...

If you’re inclined to tune into MSNBC from time to time (as I am) you might remember when Touré -- one of the controversial co-hosts of the daytime program “The Cycle” -- asserted on national television last month that “voter fraud does not exist” in the United States of America. Republicans, he argued, have worked tirelessly this year to disenfranchise minority voters by forcing them to procure (and show) photo identification cards when they vote. Now, of course, one can certainly argue the varying degree to which voter fraud exists in the United States. This is an important and --...

I believe freedom is worth fighting for. I am committed to protecting the freedoms our forefathers guaranteed to us in our Constitution. There are many politicians who disagree with me, although they are loath to admit it, but their true colors show in voting records on critical legislation. And part of what makes America great is that every two years, we, too, cast our votes, rendering judgment on whether lawmakers have fulfilled their promises. And every four years, as in 2012, our opportunity extends to the highest office in the land. Less than 60 days remains before Election Day. I...

"First shot, straight through, that's how you perform under pressure," Barack Obama said in 2008. They played the quote with a video clip of Obama making a basket at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. Obama knew how to make it look easy, even though it wasn't. When he spoke at the past two Democratic conventions, he was a challenger. "I'm no longer just a candidate," Obama declared. "I'm the president." On the political front, Obama has some impressive victories. "Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did," Obama said. "I promised to refocus the...

What I have learned from the DNC over the last few days: The greatest benefit to society is if every American becomes a ward of the federal government. All social and moral obligations should be outsourced to the state, notably to the federal government. Capitalism is evil. In other words, private contracts between individuals in voluntary economic arrangements are morally reprehensible. Crony capitalism and corporate welfare are evil, except when the Democratic Party continues to get campaign contributions from the benefitted parties. Federalism doesn't exist. Meaning, if the size and scope of the federal government is curtailed, children will starve...

The case for re-electing President Barack Obama rests on five arguments, the most important of which is that Romney/Ryan represent sexism, racism, homophobia and fascism. 1) Obama "inherited" the worst set of economic conditions since World War II. False. Based on unemployment, inflation and interest rates, the recession of 1981-82 was worse. Unemployment during the early '80s reached 10.8 percent, inflation 13.5 percent, and prime interest rates reached 21.5 percent. During this so-called "Great Recession," the numbers peaked at 10.2 unemployment, 5.6 percent inflation and 7.25 percent for the prime interest rate. 2) Obama's economic policies "rescued the economy from...

The 2012 race has turned into one of Aesop's classic fables. After each new media blitz against the no-frills Mitt Romney, a far cooler President Obama races ahead three or four points in the polls -- only to fall back to about even as the attention fades. Meanwhile, the Romney tortoise, head down on the campaign trail, keeps lumbering along toward the November finish. There is nothing fancy day in and day out -- only the steady plod of a good enough convention, workmanlike speeches that pass muster, a Midwestern vice president nominee who is informed and reliable, and the...

Within minutes of Paul Ryan concluding his convention speech in Tampa, Fla., the media attacks were launched. Why, the man is loose with the facts! He only spews vitriol and nonsense. Democratic National Convention Political Director Patrick Gaspard quickly sent out a fundraising appeal: "Paul Ryan's speech to the Republican Convention tonight wasn't grounded in reality." It was impossible to tell where the Democratic Party ended and the "news" media began. Liberal arrogance often reveals itself in the smug certitude that its globe-encompassing enlightenment trumps all. For decades, the liberal media have ripped conservatives as hopelessly ignorant. From Dan Quayle...

When did... 1) ....Educated people become so unfamiliar with small business that they began to believe that a company will practically build itself as long as the government provides roads, street signs, and police? 2) ...Freedom change from something we should all be seeking to something we're supposed to be terrified to face without the government holding our hands? 3) ...We stop asking, "Can we afford this?" along with "Is this a good idea?" when it comes to government programs? 4) ...Demanding that people come to this country legally if they want to stay here and become citizens become too...

Ann Romney said on Wednesday that she felt welcomed and energized when she stepped onto the stage here at the Republican National Convention to introduce her husband, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to millions of Americans watching on television. The most important reviews of the speech came moments later from her five sons and daughters-in-law and their 18 children, who greeted her with tears and hugs. As she detailed the night before, family came first. “You know that kind of love and support that you get from your family? Well, it was that kind of reaction,” she said during...

It had the air of a debut. The 42-year-old out of the world of conservative ideas was stepping on stage at Tampa as his party's nominee for vice president of the United States. And you could tell he was happy to be there, and would be even happier once the bell rang for the main event, which will be this fall's presidential campaign. ("We can do this!") Contrary to the accepted caricature of his running mate as an over-cautious type out of the East, Mitt Romney took a flyer on this young congressman from the Midwest. He may still be...

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Republicans who are assembled here have been told time and time again that Barack Obama's great advantage over Mitt Romney is likability. And many of the 15,000 or so journalists who endured the gusts of rain on Monday and groaned in the sun on the 1.5-mile walk from the nearest parking lot to the metal detectors outside the convention press center have been writing and soundbiting that the chief task of the Romney campaign is to introduce Romney's personal background and character to the public to improve his favorability ratings. Both talking points are true,...

If you listen to America's political hacks, mainstream media talking heads and their socialist allies, you can't help but reach the conclusion that the nation's tax burden is borne by the poor and middleclass while the rich get off scot-free. Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal, and I'm proud to say former GMU economics student, wrote "The U.S. Tax System: Who Really Pays?" in the Manhattan Institute's Issue 2012 (8/12). Let's see whether the rich are paying their "fair" share. According to IRS 2007 data, the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 22 percent of national...

On the campaign trail, President Obama often makes references to Bill Clinton and the 1990s as proof that increasing taxes on the “wealthy” will be no impediment to restoring our nation's economic health. In fact, he truly seems to believe it is good for the economy, like having an extra portion of broccoli or something. Now he even has Clinton himself, in a newly released ad, stating this is the case. Recently, at various campaign stops, Obama contrasted Clinton’s policies with the "trickle down snake oil" that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are selling. He added, “It did not work...

Looking back all the way to America's Civil War, there have been three dominant presidential coalitions. The first was Abraham Lincoln's. With his war to restore the Union and his martyrdom, Lincoln inaugurated an era of Republican dominance that lasted more than seven decades and saw only two Democratic presidents: Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. The second coalition was FDR's, where he and his vice president Harry Truman won five consecutive presidential elections. Only Gen. Eisenhower could break that streak. The third was Richard Nixon's New Majority, cobbled together after his narrow 1968 victory, where he annexed the Northern Catholic...

My fellow Americans, my fellow Republicans: The 2012 election is not an election between two men but between two entirely different visions of America. President Obama and I are simply the standard bearers of opposing, and may I add, irreconcilable visions of what America is and should be. The Republican Party and I represent American values as they have been understood since the founding of our country. The Democratic Party and President Obama represent different values. This does not make any Democrat, let alone President Obama, less American or less patriotic than anyone of us here. But millions of Americans...

This week when Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song "I Am What I Am" from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles." One of the chief complaints from voters about politicians is that they too often package themselves disingenuously to get elected, only to reveal their real agenda after they've won. That is what President Obama did in the 2008 campaign when he styled himself as a unifier who wanted to bridge the partisan divide by saying, "...we are not a...

President Obama's casting of Mitt Romney as extreme is one of the most glaring incidents of political projection in the modern era. Romney doesn't approach extremism in substance, style or disposition. Obama swims in it. In an interview with The Associated Press, Obama said Romney has locked himself into "extreme positions" on economic and social issues and would implement them if in office. Accusing Romney of extremism is just another arrow in Obama's fantasy quiver, because reality just doesn't help him. Romney is anything but extreme, and no serious political analyst believes otherwise. He is certainly extremely bullish on America,...

If Obama were wise he would really ramp up his misinformation machine. He should start giving away free weed, beer, hookers, tanks of gas, kazoos, Vaseline, stretch pants, whirly hats, Flowbees and ShamWows to anyone who promises to vote for him because he just ticked off stacks of Catholics even further by dissing Cardinal Dolan for the DNC. Say “buh-bye” to a big ol’ voting block, Mr. Anti-Catholic-In-Chief. Just like I can’t imagine any evangelical who can read and who remotely takes their faith seriously ever voting for BHO, I can’t imagine a sober Catholic giving this anti-biblical, anti-Constitution president...

Our self-described most transparent administration in history is at it again. The folks who claim executive privilege over documents in the Fast and Furious case yet maintain the president wasn’t involved have decided transparency is overrated. The people who meet with lobbyists in coffee shops near the White House to keep unseemly names off the official visitor logs, have decided we don’t need to know who pays for their convention. The Washington Post reports, “In its marketing materials, the party promises that the “people’s convention,”…will be the “most open and accessible ever.” But the names of donors, some of whom...