Free Republic

Last week I came out as a 2016 supporter of Hillary Clinton - and a 2020 supporter of Bernie Sanders. Four years ago, I was excited about electing a woman president. I admired Secretary Clinton’s experience, and I thought she was the unbeatable candidate in the race. While I loved what Bernie was saying, I found it hard to believe at the time that he could get elected. He seemed almost too good to be true. But hindsight is 2020. Donald Trump won for a number of reasons we all can name - from the Russians to James Comey to...

"Mitt wants to run. He never stopped wanting to run," an anonymous senior adviser of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign recently told New York magazine. Other members of Romneyworld have denied the former governor is interested in another campaign. But at this stage in the 2016 race, Mitt Romney should start preparing to get back in the arena.Romney should be ready to enter the field to save his party from an awful reckoning between its leadership and its base, a reckoning that has been brought on by Donald Trump's campaign. Trump has proven that the "strongest GOP primary field in...

Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative activist and top Santorum supporter, tells National Review Online that Santorum is “reengineering” his presidential campaign. “You can’t repeat the same behavior and expect different results,” he says. “We’ve got to do things different. We’ve got to reengineer the campaign. We’ve got to add things, take things out, and make changes. Everyone recognizes that, from the candidate on down.” Earlier today, Viguerie, along with a group of movement leaders, met with Santorum at an office in northern Virginia. For over an hour, they discussed ways to revive his bid. “We came up with a number...

Like Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day," Rep. Paul Ryan appears condemned to repeat the same experiences over and over again. When Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, unveiled his House budget proposal this month, you could almost hear strains of "I Got You Babe" - the song that awakens Murray day after day after day. And like the good people of Punxsutawney, Pa., the masses on Capitol Hill seem oblivious to his plight as he patiently treads the same ground one more time. Budget resolutions are required by law, though the Senate hasn't passed one in years. Big and unwieldy, they...

Scott Pelley, CBS "Evening News" anchor: How do you create jobs in this country? Robert Johnson, founder of BET: Unfortunately now, I don't think we have the leadership either in the White House or the Congress to end what I call a zero-sum game mentality towards the U.S. economy. And until both parties agree that the goal is to rebuild the American economy to reflect the 21st century on a global environment - we're going to be stuck. And it's a little bit frightening from the standpoint of a business person and particularly an African-American business person. Pelley: What do...

Andrew Breitbart said he wouldn't release his final photo of Rep. Anthony Weiner, an X-rated close-up, because the congressman had owned up to his Internet affairs. But he'd hold into it, he said Tuesday, as "an insurance policy" in case Weiner tried to get revenge on the blogger. Unfortunately for Breitbart--and for Weiner--that policy no longer holds, because on Wednesday a pair of radio DJs seem to have leaked a photo of Breitbart displaying the money shot on his iPhone.

By the time they're done with him, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will look like a leading Democratic spokesman as the party moves quickly to harness his attacks on Republican plans to change Medicare. According to party sources, they plan to use Gingrich's assault on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's plan in a bid to knock down every Republican who voted for it. "By calling Paul Ryan's budget 'radical' and 'right-wing social engineering,' Newt merely echoed criticisms millions of Americans across the political spectrum have voiced at house Republicans' budget for weeks now," says Ryan Rudominer, a Democratic consultant...

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Capitol Hill in 1994 in an effort to lobby support for a universal health care plan for which she was sharply criticized. WASHINGTON, June 9 — No policy issue has bedeviled Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more than health care. Ever since the collapse of her proposal for universal coverage in 1994, critics have used the issue as prime evidence in their case that she is, at heart, a big-government liberal with a zeal for social engineering. But now, as Mrs. Clinton heads into her re-election campaign and a possible bid...

<p>WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.</p>