Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed off Friday on the first three — and possibly last — free trade agreements of his administration, deals with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama that could be worth billions to American exporters and create tens of thousands of jobs. The three deals were years in the making, and the difficulty of bringing them to fruition make it unlikely there will be another bilateral trade agreement during Obama's current term. Obama signed them with none of the ceremonial fanfare that normally accompanies such triumphs. Republicans, while supportive of the deals, continue to find fault...

Former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo blasted Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday, saying "he is finished," in a sign the GOP’s immigration hawks may soon flock to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Tancredo, who is currently supporting former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain for the nomination, also predicted Perry would not win the nomination. "I think he has imploded,” Tancredo said. “I think he is finished and I hope I helped kick some holes in his boat."

President Obama has Twittered, Googled and Facebooked millions of American voters at his town hall meetings in collaboration with those companies, and this week he will visit another Bay Area technology firm to push his jobs message. Obama's stop Monday in Mountain View to star at a town hall at the headquarters of social networking site LinkedIn is the first of two tech-related events planned by the White House. On Wednesday, Obama will participate with Yahoo in what's billed as "the first-ever Hispanic-focused online roundtable" at the White House. The public LinkedIn event comes at the close of Obama's two-day...

Straw polls, real polls, debates, caucuses and primaries — these comprise the public side of presidential campaigns 14 months before Election Day. But behind the scenes, strategists for President Obama and his major Republican opponents are already focused like a laser on the Electoral College. The emerging general election contest gives every sign of being highly competitive, unlike 2008. Of course, at this point in 1983 and 1995, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, respectively, were in trouble; and in 1991 George H.W. Bush still looked safe. Unexpectedly strong economic growth could make Obama’s reelection path much easier than it currently...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she was “wiped out” by Kinde Durkee, a well-connected California Democratic political operative who served as treasurer for hundreds of state, local and federal campaign committees. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63299.html#ixzz1XqFoJPNN

<p>I'm a whiny Romney retard who knows nothing about the First Amendment and even less about the Sixth. That's why my revised graphic got pulled by the mods, this post was inane and stupid enough without it.</p>

The Rise of the Democratic Super-Secret PACs. Posted by Moe Lane Friday, June 17th at 7:00PM EDT Super PACs are, of course, the political groups that were set up after the Supreme Court’s landmark free speech decision in Citizens United: they are able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money advocating both for and against political candidates, but may not donate to those candidates directly. The Left ostensibly hates them, which did not stop them from using them to raise over 28 million dollars in the 2010 election cycle (44% of total Super PAC fundraising) to the Right’s over...

With proposed new district boundaries, Republicans must recruit more moderate candidates and find common ground with more Californians, experts say. ********* [snip] Labor unions, which are Democrats' biggest allies, say the combination of the "top-two" primary system and the new political maps creates unprecedented opportunities for them to influence Republican races. Last week, the Service Employees International Union launched a political action committee aimed at helping moderate Republicans be elected to the Legislature. "The California Republican Party doesn't have enough money to buy a foreclosed home in Sacramento," said SEIU Executive Director David Kieffer. Jim Brulte, a GOP operative and...

The field for the GOP 2012 Presidential primary is beginning to take shape, both in terms of who is running and who is not. Frankly, I’m neither surprised nor disappointed by Donald Trump’s announcement that he will not run. Although he promised to be an interesting candidate, it was becoming increasingly clear that he would prove to be more of a distraction than a serious contender for the office. Newt Gingrich has finally made his candidacy official, and has promptly made sure there is no chance I will be able to support his efforts by trying to co-opt Obamacare and...

IT'S MY PARTY: The Democrats in the Senate are headed to President Obama's turf on Wednesday to talk with him about the deficit and, the White House says, other things. In guidance to reporters, the White House said that at the meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Obama and the "Senate Democratic Caucus" will cover "the range of important issues on the legislative agenda, including the need to adopt a balanced approach in confronting the nation’s long-term deficit challenges." The meeting is closed to the press..

The silly season is upon us. The presidential primary season is just around the corner and for the third time in a row a relatively unpopular president is likely to be reelected while his opposition is in disarray. Almost alone among European democracies, the United States elects leaders on the basis of their campaign skills, not their governing skills. We elect the best TV performer — the best campaigner — regardless of previous experience. In Britain, only three people can be leader of the nation — the heads of the Labor, Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties. No other members of...

....Now that Republicans are running the House, Democrats have tried to stymie the GOP agenda by relying on the tactic, known as the motion to recommit. But they've failed on every one of their 23 attempts this year. ...the maneuver is aimed at forcing members of the majority into an untenable choice between opposing their party's position or casting a vote that opponents could use against them in election campaigns. For a recommit motion to work, the minority party must pick off at least some members of the majority. Thus Democrats would need at least a few dozen of the...

Americans have spent the last three generations growing detached from their communities. The book “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam illustrates the aggressive decline of civic engagement in the United States. The premise is simple; in generations past, ending with the Greatest Generation who came of age during the Depression and World War II, Americans were engaged in everything from neighborhood clubs, civic groups — and even bowling leagues. The inventions of television and radio and suburban life with long commutes have eroded the public engagement of most Americans. Information and ideas are no longer discussed in meetings, but on the...

President Barack Obama’s pledge to veto legislation containing so-called “earmarks” has so rankled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) that he has vowed “to fight to my last breath against this power grab.” “The President isn’t the only one who gets to say who will be on the receiving end of government spending,” Reid said. “All of us who must face the voters need campaign donations if we’re to be reelected. Channeling federal dollars to the businesses and interest groups who fill our campaign coffers is the payback that’s expected from these donors. Without it their incentive to give will...

I have lived in Washington for over forty years. Between us, my husband and I have worked for the federal government, in private practice, in the House, in the Senate, and for nonprofits. In those years, we've learned a fair amount about the workings of this city. But there are some things I never will understand. The first of these is the utility of relying on political consultants. I am sure there must be some good ones, but I seem never to have met them. The ones I have met seem to be largely glad-handlers, purveyors of conventional pieties,...

It's taken a good part of the past week for the breadth of the conservative achievement in the midterms to sink in. Over sixty new House seats, six Senate seats (we can safely say, no matter what occurs in Alaska, since Murkowski is a member of the Murkowski Party representing only Murkowski), thirty-plus statehouses, and no fewer than twenty "trifectas" -- that is, states in which the GOP owns the House, Senate, and governorship. The 2010 election was a victory both broad and deep, one that will be paying dividends for years to come. It could have been better. Anything,...

Are these really the "dirtiest" political campaigns in history? Have this year's negative political ads really "taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets? Is a "return to civility...a relic of a bygone era," as President Barack Obama laments?

Much is being said in the 2010 campaign cycle about outside spending on political candidates. Most recently, the Democrats have been making much of some foreign contributions to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Democrats have accused the Chamber of using that foreign money as part of the millions of dollars that the Chamber has spent trying to help Republicans to get elected, which would be illegal. The Chamber, of course, denies any wrongdoing, and the majority of the evidence would seem to indicate that they are right. What seems missing from this conversation, however, is any discussion of the appropriateness...

I have posted this to a number of threads where it was germaine to the topic. Yesterday, a fellow Freeper suggested that, with a CRITICAL election coming up on 11/2, it merited its own thread. So, here it is. Have at it!! :-)) ***************************************** Over the years – when, to steal a line from Billy Joel, I wore a younger man’s clothes – I was involved with several pretty solid conservative candidates for Congress. One was a Democrat (Lawrence Patton McDonald) – because that was the only way he could win in that district. Those old-timers who know Larry’s record...

WASHINGTON — After 18 months of careful image-making and bipartisanship, Michelle Obama is shifting course as first lady, stepping up her policy agenda and dipping into election-year politics to campaign and raise money for Democrats. Despite stinging criticism of her summer vacation to Spain with daughter Sasha — aides warned her not to go, and the backlash was fiercer than they had imagined — Mrs. Obama is the most popular member of her husband’s administration. Having worked to build good will through nonideological causes like fighting obesity and assisting military families, aides say, she is ready to spend some of...