Free Republic

Newt Gingrich, the first candidate to campaign in Delaware, came here Monday night pushing his $2.50-per-gallon-of-gas energy plan and jabbing President Obama about comments caught on an open microphone with outgoing Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Gingrich said that Obama’s suggestion that he would have more flexibility to negotiate on nuclear arms after winning the 2012 election, was “destructive of American interests.” “This is a president who is amazingly destructive of American interests, something by the way of which we were reminded of today, when he didn’t know there was an open microphone,” he said to meeting of local Republican groups....

SEOUL, South Korea — At the tail end of his 90 minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Monday, President Obama said that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him “space.” The exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders. The exchange: President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space. President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I...

MOSCOW — In a wide-ranging attack on the United States as it elected a new president, the Russian leader Dmitri Medvedev warned on Wednesday that Moscow might deploy short-range missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad to counter a perceived threat from a proposed American missile defense shield in eastern Europe. His remarks, in his first state of the nation address since assuming the presidency in May, coincided with the election of Barack Obama and offered a chill glimpse into the potential issues and tensions confronting the new American leader when he takes office in January. Mr. Medvedev did not...

GOP lawmaker presses Obama on reports of ‘secret’ missile dealBy Jeremy Herb - 05/23/12 05:13 PM ET Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) is not backing down from his allegations that President Obama has a “secret deal” with Russia on missile defense. Turner sent another letter to President Obama on Wednesday that urged the White House to explain what missile defense deals it made with Russia, citing Russian reports that a deal was reached and then dropped without being made public. Turner and many other Republicans have seized on Obma’s “hot mic” comment to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in March, when he...

President Obama just gave the world a glimpse into his future foreign policy plans this week, should he win a second term. On tap for Obama II: more faith in our adversaries, more betrayal of our traditional allies and more unilateral indulgence in nuclear abolition fantasies. Monday, President Obama told Russian President Medvedev that “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” Medvedev responded that he would dutifully report that tidbit to Vladimir Putin back in the Kremlin. The men apparently did not realize their discussion was being caught by a live microphone. Given that the...

On the Friday morning edition of Fox and Friends, the panel discussed, among other things, President Obama’s trip to Africa along with the continuing saga of Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks. At one point, they played a clip of the president at the joint news conference in Senegal where the president admitted that he did not personally contact the presidents of China or Russia because “number one, I shouldn’t have to. This is something that routinely is dealt with between law enforcement officials and various countries.” However, host Steve Doocy and guest host Tucker Carlson were adept in pointing...

Security: The president insists he wasn't trying to "hide the ball" until after the election, but the man who as candidate pledged to "end misguided defense policies" such as missile defense is fulfilling that campaign promise. Despite the administration's rap-dancing with the help of the usual suspects in the mainstream media, it's clear that the recent meeting between President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Seoul, South Korea, couldn't be more different in tone and meaning from the one President Ronald Reagan had with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 1986. President Obama has tried to...

By Mr. Curmudgeon:The freakishly weasel-like Valerie Jarrett warned Americans not voting for President Obama , "After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded; the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go."This is what President Obama meant when he...

The sound bite went viral -- the president of the United States asking the Russian president to carry a message to Putin for "space" in dealing with contentious missile defense issues until after the election so the American president would have "more flexibility."  The photos went viral as well: President Obama's hand on Medvedev's knee, the smiling president with his arm around Medvedev's shoulder, the two of them sipping tea.It is bad, of course, on many levels, but historically consistent.  The president is notoriously hostile to missile defense, as are the Russians.  The Russians are particularly hostile to U.S. missile...

Democrats are crying foul over GOP suggestions that President Obama has a “secret deal” on missile defense with Russia. The fight began in March, when a hot mic at a summit caught Obama telling then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he’d have more “flexibility” on the issue after the election. Medvedev famously responded that he would transmit that information to Vladimir Putin, who is now Russia's president. Republicans immediately attacked Obama for making a secret deal, and they used this week’s floor debate on the Defense authorization bill to highlight their argument. No one in Congress has been more vocal about...

...Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they would sign an agreement on securing and destroying nuclear material to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, replacing a 1992 deal that expired on Monday.

The Fiscal 2013 Defense spending bill that passed the House 326 to 90 with bipartisan support Thursday evening included an amendment that would prohibit President Barack Obama from making good on a deal with Russia that he appeared to hint at earlier this year. Introduced by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), the amendment bars the administration from sharing classified missile defense information with Russia. In late March, an inadvertent hot-mic moment caught Obama asking Russian president Dmitri Medvedev for “space” until after the election, saying he would then have more “flexibility” to

The 2012 U.S. presidential election presents a contrast to the 2008 election in terms of their perceptions by the Russian elite. In 2008, then-President Dmitry Medvedev expressed a desire to work with a "modern" U.S. leader rather than one "whose eyes are turned back to the past." He was referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. But influential Russian elites voiced their support for the Republican candidate, John McCain, despite McCain calling President Vladimir Putin a KGB spy who has no soul and calling to expel Russia from the Group of Eight leading industrial nations. Even though McCain was more...

Wouldn’t you like to have been in the White House Situation Room when the president decided to take out Osama bin Laden? Thrilling, right? You’d have been part of history and have stories to tell your grandchildren. Well, you can’t. Not even if you donate a million dollars to the Obama re-election campaign. Sorry, Bill Mocker, you’ll have to wait for the movie. It’s Top Secret. Nor can you listen in when the President is at one of his G-8 Summits (or is it G-20 by now?) It would doubtless be interesting to learn what the Big Wigs are deciding...

Medvedev: Working with comrade Obama has been the ‘best three years’ for U.S.-Russian relations in a long time posted at 7:45 pm on April 1, 2012 by Morgen Richmond Throughout the 2008 campaign Barack Obama promised that if elected he would ‘restore our standing’ in the world. I’m not sure all of our allies feel the same way, but as far as Russia is concerned: mission accomplished. My colleague Barack Obama and I have once again had a constructive discussion of the various issues on the international agenda and on bilateral cooperation between the Russian Federation and the United States....

Despite a bipartisan federal law prohibiting financial contracts with the Russian government-owned arms giant Rosoboronexport, the Obama administration announced that it would be purchasing another $680 million worth of military helicopters from the state company for the Afghan regime of Hamid Karzai. The contract comes after the Pentagon already spent $411 million with the supplier since May of 2011, bringing the estimated amount of U.S. taxpayer funds funneled to the state-owned behemoth to about $1 billion in recent years. The latest deal, however, drew furious outrage from across the political spectrum. Critics and lawmakers complained that the controversial scheme would...

It remains to be seen how the media will cover the explosive revelation from ABC's Jake Tapper that Barack Obama asked Russian president Dmitri Medvedev to get Vladimir Putin to give him some "space" on missile defense so that he could be more "flexible" with the Russians in a second term. So far, the tepid coverage from National Journal and the Washington Post suggests that the media doesn't consider a request to another nation to pipe down so an American President can win a second term and deliver more favorable policy to a potential antagonist more than a "gaffe". They...

National security and foreign policy have received short shrift in the 2012 presidential-election campaign. Mitt Romney made a quick swing through Britain, Israel, and Poland to suggest he would repair strained relations with America’s closest allies. President Obama has repeatedly reminded voters that he gave the order to kill Osama bin Laden. That’s about it. For the most part, each campaign has sung a single note: Romney has tried to convince voters he can fix the broken economy. Obama has tried to convince voters that Romney is a heartless, plutocratic tax cheat and, possibly, a murderer to boot. Consequential international...

<p>The Pentagon is canceling the planned fourth phase of an anti-missile system that had been scheduled for deployment in Poland in 2022. The SM3 IIb missile was significant for two reasons: It was the only interceptor planned for the Europe-based system that could have defended the United States against an attack from Iran; and it was the component of the system most decried by Russia, which claimed that it could be used against its intercontinental missiles.</p>

The conservative super-PAC American Crossroads mocks President Obama as "President Flexible" in a spoof of Hollywood spy movies released Friday. The Karl Rove-linked outside spending group takes Obama to task in the video, titled "Operation Hot Mic," for telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday that he will have “more flexibility” to deal with missile defense after the presidential election. The private conversation was caught by live microphones. "Your mission is simple, Mr. Obama: Win one last election to gain unchecked flexibility, weaken our defenses and fundamentally transform. Dmitry will transmit the information," says a female narrator in the video....