Free Republic

NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The candidates may be spending Thanksgiving in Iowa or New Hampshire instead of at home this year as the primary calendar quickly comes to an end with just six weeks until the first votes are cast. As noted last month, each month the story line seems to take a new shift, and yet again this month we have another new story with the rise of Newt Gingrich. Among Republicans, one in five (19%) would vote for Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain in the GOP primary while 16% would vote for former Massachusetts Governor...

Cain will sit for an hourlong taped interview with the Union Leader, publisher Joe McQuaid announced on Twitter on Monday... Just last week, Cain backed out of a Union Leader interview because the paper insisted on a 60-minute, on-camera sit-down, as opposed to the 20-minute, camera-free conversation Cain hoped for. The newspaper blistered Cain in a Monday missive titled, “Recording Cain: What’s he afraid of?” McQuaid told POLITICO’s Reid Epstein that Cain’s spokesman “called me up this morning and wondered if they could come in one day next week for an hour-long interview and have C-SPAN there.”

Herman Cain leads the Republican presidential field in Iowa, according to a new poll released Thursday. The Iowa State University/Gazette/KCRG poll found that the former Godfather's Pizza CEO leads the GOP field in Iowa with the support of 24.5 percent of Republican voters. Cain is followed by Ron Paul with 20.4 percent of the vote, then Mitt Romney with 16.3 percent. The poll's findings are somewhat in contrast with a number of recent national polls that found Cain's recent front-runner or near-front-runner status disappearing in light of allegations that he sexually harassed a number of women while he was president...

If Governor Brewer Can Stage a Comeback, So Can Governor PalinPosted on January 04 2011 - 6:30 PM - Posted by: Ian Lazaran Some will argue that it’s unreasonable to claim Governor Palin can come back against Obama under the reasoning that Reagan was able to do so against Carter in 1980 because Reagan was an once-in-a-lifetime political talent. Some will also argue that it’s unreasonable to claim that Governor Palin can come back against Obama under the reasoning that George H.W. Bush came back against Michael Dukakis in 1988 because Bush was a sitting VP who faced a weak...

So the year ends with the media pushing the notion that Barack Obama -- having had one of the worst years in presidential history -- has salvaged both his presidency and his re-election chances with his stunning "comeback" in the dwindling hours of the lame-duck session. Don't believe a word of it. If generals are always fighting the last war, then the pundits are always reaching for the last cliché. Did Bill Clinton face a similar dilemma back in 1994, after Newt Gingrich and the Republicans ate his lunch? Did he not come back to marginalize Gingrich and -- that...

The trailer for Gibson's new film, The Beaver, received its premiere on US television this weekend, amid doubts that it would be the ideal role to kick-start the actor's rehabilitation. Gibson plays Walter Black, a lonely man who is depressed after being abandoned by his family. He begins communicating through the puppet, which he gives a personality and a British accent. The film was directed by Jodie Foster, who co-stars as Gibson's wife Meredith. It is rumoured to be surprisingly good, despite its inauspicious premise.

Few icons of the American way of life have suffered more in recent years than homeownership. Since the bursting of the housing bubble, there has been a steady drumbeat from the factories of futurist punditry that the notion of owning a home will, and, more importantly, should become out of reach for most Americans. Before jumping on this bandwagon, perhaps we would do well to understand the role that homeownership and the diffusion of property plays in a democracy. From Madison and Jefferson through Lincoln’s Homestead Act, the most enduring and radical notion of American political economy has been the...

The star may be Pee-wee, but his new live stage show is absolutely huge. "The Pee-wee Herman Show," opening next month in downtown Los Angeles at Club Nokia theater, cost millions to mount. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982. So, why now? "Well, you know, I really want to make a movie version of 'The Playhouse,' my Saturday morning kid show," Paul Reubens said in an interview earlier this week in which he stayed in his exuberant Pee-wee persona. "This seemed like a great way to do it: Reintroduce it, get back...

Since the beginning of the weekend, blogs and the MSM have been full of the news that the public option has not only made a "comeback," but that it is a virtual certainty to pass. This has proven to be a bunch of hogswallow as the whip tally sheet in the House shows, via Greg Sargent's The Plum Line: "The document - compiled by the office of House leader James Clyburn - was distributed privately at a meeting between Clyburn and House progressives today where the fate of the public option was the subject of some contentious debate, with liberals...

[...] After two decades as one of the fastest-growing metropolises in the U.S., Las Vegas has seen its population growth flatten. It's got the highest foreclosure rate of any major metro area, and the unemployment rate jumped from 3.8% to 12.3% in just three years. Even if you have a job, it's not a good time to have your wage be dependent on lavish tips. The No. 1 convention city has also had a wave of cancellations from the AIG effect — companies don't want the bad publicity of being seen in Sin City. Just as Las Vegas was the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite crushing defeats in the last two elections, Senate Republicans have new "energy and enthusiasm" for winning back the majority, according to their leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "President Bush had become extremely unpopular, and politically he was sort of a millstone around our necks in both '06 and '08," McConnell told reporters Friday. "We now have the opportunity to be on offense, offer our own ideas and we will win some." Many of those ideas get presented as amendments to Democratic bills, and even though they're usually defeated, they can draw attention to GOP policy...

Over the Top was clearly one of the great movies ever made. First and foremost, it has a plot that everyone can relate to. I mean, it feels like just yesterday that my dad won custody of me in an arm wrestling contest. Second, you have to watch the VHS promo from the 80s. It's classic and I am insisting right now that the 2012 GOP nominee use that voice over guy on EVERY commercial.

Remember when Mickey Rourke was hot? Check him out in the photo above from when he made 9 1/2 Weeks with Kim Basinger. Rent the movie. Watch it. Then tell me the dude wasn’t hot. He specialized as the dashing bad boy and never struck me as the type to do whatever he’s done to his face. He seemed to not care about his looks. He was ruggedly handsome and was into boxing and living on the edge. Apparently he cared more than it seemed he did. Then he kind of disappeared from the movie scene for a while. He’s...

Fuld weighs comeback with advisory boutique By Francesco Guerrera in New York Published: December 12 2008 23:43 | Last updated: December 12 2008 23:43 Dick Fuld, the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, is planning a comeback and has told friends he might launch a small advisory firm to harness his contacts in US companies once the dust settles on Lehman’s bankruptcy. People close to the situation said Mr Fuld’s plans were neither firm nor immediate because the legal and political fall-out from Lehman had still to play out. In October, Mr Fuld and other Lehman executives received subpoenas relating...

OSLO (Reuters) – A giant bat with a wingspan up to 5.5 feet has made a comeback from the brink of extinction in Tanzania in a rare conservation success, an environmental group said on Friday. Numbers of the Pemba flying fox, a type of fruit bat, have risen to 22,000 since it was rated critically endangered two decades ago when "only a scant few individual fruit bats could be observed," British-based Fauna and Flora International said. In a release coinciding with Halloween, it said that the bat's maximum wingspan was "greater than the height of the average British woman."

IS John McCain starting to stage a comeback? Perhaps, according to new poll numbers from Gallup, the respected polling organisation. McCain is now within two percentage points of Barack Obama in one Gallup poll, trailing by just 49-47%. He trails by wider margins in other Gallup polls. But even there, he gained in recent days leading up to Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate. Gallup is breaking its polls into three categories as the campaign enters its final weeks: one of registered voters, one of likely voters that expects higher turnout from young people and others, and one of...

The Boston Red Sox, down 7-0 in the 7th inning, score 4 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th inning, and one in the bottom of the ninth to survive in their series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The series now switches to Tampa for Game 6 on Saturday, and - if necessary - Game 7 on Sunday. Tampa now leads 3-2.

George W Bush has picked himself up off the floor and reopened a narrow poll and credibility lead over Al Gore in the US presidential election. Mr Bush went into last night's second televised debate with Mr Gore oozing with fresh confidence after a damaging week for the Democratic nominee. Since opening up a lead over Mr Bush in mid-August, Mr Gore has struggled to rebut damaging claims that he bent the facts during last week's first televised debate....The vice-president still leads in the most recent polls in the battleground states. Although Mr Gore was at first widely perceived to...

After John McCain's bold decision to suspend his campaign, he has stunningly erased a three-point lead and now is tied with Barack Obama at 46-46 in Thursday's Gallup Poll. The poll included interviews taken on Wednesday -- when McCain said he would fly to Washington to work on the bailout bill, suspend his presidential quest and possibly not appear at Friday's scheduled debate. Those were bold decisions, and maybe Americans appreciated them. On the other hand, the Gallup pollsters point out that McCain has been gaining on Obama for days. And interviews on Wednesday did not show any dramatic shift...

HAVANA (Reuters) - The era of Fidel Castro appeared to be ending July 30, 2006, when the ailing leader handed over power to his brother Raul Castro. But two years later, he remains a force to be reckoned with in Cuba and to some degree on the international scene. Although he no longer rules the Caribbean island as he did for almost 50 years, the 81-year-old still has his brother's ear and is using a newfound career as a newspaper columnist to make his views known. Diplomatic cocktail gossip in Havana centers on whether he is using his clout to...