Free Republic

Two polls released Monday show Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan opening up a lead over Republican challenger Thom Tillis. Raleigh polling firm American Insights, which has Republican ties, had Hagan with a 9 percentage point lead among likely voters, while Elon University Poll gives Hagan a 4-point lead. The polls are the latest in a string showing Hagan gaining ground in the campaign. Of likely voters surveyed by American Insights, 43 percent said they would back Hagan, 34 percent said they backed Tillis, the current state House speaker, and 5 percent backed Libertarian Sean Haugh. "The race has unmistakably shifted...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_12UFHSh-w&feature=youtu.be

President Obama said the long hours that some voters spent waiting to cast ballots in November require changes to the system, but a former Justice Department elections expert told WND the facts show there really isn’t a problem. J. Christian Adams worked in the Justice Department’s civil rights division and has been a vocal critic of what he sees as imbalanced enforcement of voting rights laws by the Obama administration. Adams is now an editor at Pajamas Media and author of “Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama White House.” Adams said the horror stories mentioned by Obama were...

DJIA just prior to House defeat of bailout: 10843 DJIA close the day after House defeat of bailout: 10850 DJIA just prior to Senate approval of bailout: 10831 DJIA close the day after Senate approval of bailout: 10482 DJIA just prior to House approval of bailout: 10679 DJIA close the day after House approval of bailout:??? 9999 and dropping

Barack Obama tried to present a picture of perfect poise yesterday in the face of evidence that Sarah Palin is transforming the presidential race, insisting that he was less concerned about polls and newspaper headlines than "what I can do for the country". With Democrats asking if the familiar sight of a Republican resurgence is a trend or merely a post-convention bounce, Mr Obama's mask of calm has, at times, slipped to reveal him as uncertain - even disorientated - about how to tackle the unexpected phenomenon of Mrs Palin. Although he made two weighty policy speeches in Ohio about...

Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has diminished considerably in three battleground states, according to a poll published Thursday. The Quinnipiac University polls, conducted from July 23-29, found that Obama's lead has weakened in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two key swing states in November's presidential election. The poll also found the two candidates in a virtual tie in Florida.

The Sun was the first newspaper to track down and speak to Bernard Obama, 37. Muslim Bernard - an avid Manchester United fan and Sun reader - is staying with his bingo-loving mum Kezia, 67, who has lived in the Berkshire new town for six years. Bernard leads a quiet life, running a car parts firm in Nairobi, Kenya. But he is a regular visitor to the UK to visit Elvis fan Kezia. She married Barack Obama Snr in Kenya in 1957 when she was a teenager. He later left for the US and went on to meet Ann Dunham,...

Mike Huckabee is gaining support but the primaries will be a tough contest TWO months ago most Americans knew nothing of Mike Huckabee. If they knew anything it was that he was running for president, was from the South and had once been very fat but had lost a lot of weight. Now, anyone with an interest has heard of the Republican former governor of Arkansas. He is leading polls in Iowa, the first state to vote for presidential candidates. And he is surging in South Carolina, which holds an early primary, and other big states. The former Baptist minister...

Evoking the passions and rivalries of the civil rights era, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton made deeply personal appeals to voters in the sanctuaries of black churches here today and then joined former President Bill Clinton for a march across a bridge where white police beat black Alabamans nearly 42 years ago. It was an extraordinary sight: The Clintons and Mr. Obama, competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination, locking arms — with two black congressman in between them — and walking down Martin Luther King Jr. Street to commemorate the footsteps of black demonstrators who were met with...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Illinois senator said that means "direct engagement" with Iran similar to the meetings with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. One of the most profound consequences of the administration's failed strategy in Iraq has been to strengthen Iran's strategic position; reduce U.S. credibility and influence in the region; and place Israel and other nations friendly to the United States in greater peril," Obama told the...

The advocacy groups that rose to prominence in 2004 have scaled back their federal activity this election. Instead, 527s are focusing on state issues and elections. Liberals have raised more money than conservatives. In politics, the money behind the message speaks volumes. And although the issue advocates known as 527 committees continue to be somewhat elusive, the Center for Responsive Politics has found that these tax-exempt groups are increasingly putting their 2006 money into state-level messages, instead of focusing on national issues. 527 committees raise unlimited money for political activities, such as voter mobilization efforts, and use advertising to push...