Free Republic

Lowcountry businessman and independent U.S. Senate candidate Thomas Ravenel today issued the following statement challenging Lindsey Graham to stop “warmongering and fearmongering” and provide taxpayers with the specific costs associated with his vision for Iraq. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Graham said U.S. president Barack Obama needed to “go on the offensive” against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “First of all, I’m confused by Senator Graham’s statements,” Ravenel said. “Didn’t his buddy John McCain recently pose with ISIS fighters that our government supported in Syria? How exactly does he square that? Why would we support...

This was, of course, inevitable. Democrats across Florida heard a mysterious recorded call over the weekend that seemed aimed at attacking likely Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist. The voice in the recording? Charlie Crist. “Hi, this is Charlie Crist calling to set the record straight. I’m pro-life. I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, I support traditional marriage, and I have never supported a new tax or big spending program. It’s sad that in his fourth try for governor my opponent has resorted to distortions and untruths. … Floridians need a consistent, conservative governor that they can trust. I would appreciate...

In the history of a particular high school back in the 1960s, no pregnant student was allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony. A leftist group threatened the school with a lawsuit, which led to the school rescinding its policy. A pregnant student walked across stage to receive her diploma. The following year, 23 students pranced across the stage, pregnant, at graduation. The moral: you get what you tolerate. The GOP continues to shove tired old RINO primary candidates down our throats – bullying our Tea Party candidates with their deep pockets and dirty tricks. A most recent example is...

In a piece that came out election night, but reads as if it had been written two weeks earlier after a lunch with Lamar Alexander’s pollster, WaPo‘s Sean Sullivan and Robert Costa write: “The Tennessee Republican easily won his primary Tuesday against a conservative insurgent who sought to bury him over his vote [for amnesty 'comprehensive immigration reform'] … snip The success of Alexander [and 'comprehensive' backers] Graham, Collins and Ellmers could be just the evidence pro-reform Republicans have been desperately searching for to coax House leaders into action.” On her Friday show, Laura Ingraham rightly held up this piece...

Yes, this is the genius masterstroke the DC GOP has been waiting for. You have to hand it to the establishment. They keep trying. So what if Romney is another big government Republican which a large part of the GOP vote couldn’t really support in 2012. The consultants which got paid big time during the 2012 Romney run could get paid again! And if Romney could somehow get the nomination it would be another blow to the libertarian/conservative coalition in the Tea Party. Win/win. Well not for the American people, and probably not for Mitt Romney. But certainly a win...

Two Republican Senate candidates in Alaska refused to sign an anti-amnesty pledge during a Sunday debate. Conservative candidate Joe Miller asked his two opponents to sign a pledge that reads, “I will oppose any attempt by Congress or the President to grant amnesty (any pathway to citizenship) for illegal aliens.” Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, who is supported by Karl Rove and other pro-amnesty Republicans, and Lt. Gov Mead Treadwell, who has said he supported a pathway to citizenship, refused to sign it. According to the Associated Press, Treadwell has criticized Miller for linking illegal immigrants to increased gang...

The number of Obamacare enrollments for top health insurer Aetna is plummeting, according to a report from Investor’s Business Daily. Aetna’s enrollment reached 720,000 by May 20, after the final end to the the extended open enrollment period. But by the end of June Aetna had less than 600,000 paying customers, IBD reports, and the company expects paying customers to fall to “just over 500,000″ by the end of 2015. That would be a drop of just under 30 percent from the May sign-up numbers — the last time the Obama administration released its official Obamacare enrollment tally. Aetna’s reported...

It’s one thing for Democrats running in red parts of the country to sound like Republicans on the campaign trail. It’s another when Democrats running in purple or even blue territory try to do so. Yet that’s what’s happening in race after race this season. Faced with a treacherous political environment, many Democrats are trotting out campaign ads that call for balanced budgets, tax cuts and other more traditionally GOP positions. Some of them are running in congressional districts that just two years ago broke sharply for President Barack Obama. The Republican-flavored ads provide an early glimpse of how Democrats...

It’s one thing for Democrats running in red parts of the country to sound like Republicans on the campaign trail. It’s another when Democrats running in purple or even blue territory try to do so. Yet that’s what’s happening in race after race this season. Faced with a treacherous political environment, many Democrats are trotting out campaign ads that call for balanced budgets, tax cuts and other more traditionally GOP positions. Some of them are running in congressional districts that just two years ago broke sharply for President Barack Obama. The Republican-flavored ads provide an early glimpse of how Democrats...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee, Independence USA, has purchased $150,833 in television ads in an effort to defeat Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and support his opponent, Milwaukee police Lt. Chris Moews. In response to the news of Bloomberg's ads, Clarke said in a statement: "I trust the voters. The voters can't be bought." The ad buys by Bloomberg's PAC come on top of $400,000 in media ads purchased by the Greater Wisconsin Committee to try to beat Clarke, who is seeking his fourth term in Tuesday's Democratic primary election. Also on Friday, Citizens...

A pilot project at 25 Pima County polling places will have workers asking voters to scan their driver’s licenses with an iPad. The goal is to replace the signature roster books currently used at the polling places, Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson said. Poll workers will use the iPads to scan voters’ driver’s licenses and verify their identification. Voters will then sign their names on the iPad screens with their finger. The information scanned will be matched to data already contained in county databases that’s filled out when a person registers to vote, Nelson said. An Arizona driver’s license...

A lot of focus this election season is trained on the battle for Capitol Hill. And rightly so, with the majority in the Senate up for grabs and Democrats hoping to avoid another harmful midterm election in the House. But there are also a host of gubernatorial battles being waged this year. In fact, the midterm elections every four years mark a bonanza of statehouse contests. Thirty-six of the nation’s fifty states will be choosing their chief executive this November.In 2010, the last midterm election, thirty-seven gubernatorial elections produced a staggering 17 partisan takeovers – 11 by Republicans, 5...

Kansas may have a Senate race after all. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Kansas Voters finds incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts with just a four-point lead – 44% to 40% - over Democratic challenger Chad Taylor. Seven percent (7%) like some other candidate in the race, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Kansas was conducted on August...

The emerging conventional wisdom that the Tea Party is being vanquished by the GOP establishment, based solely on the fact they are beating primary challengers, is exceedingly myopic. If you believe that, you have a very superficial view of what constitutes “winning.” These primaries are forcing the allegedly mainstream candidates to move far to the right and the performance of the past few years proves that when this happens the Party stays far right as a result of this threat. Primaries can be very effective tools if used properly — and if they are backed up by money and influence,...

I was in a spiritually-oriented meeting a week ago, and there were about fifty people in the room.  Halfway through, a guy in the center of the room chimed in and announced that he was going to open his speaking time by sharing with us his personal, painful example of the worst kind of betrayal.  We all leaned a bit closer to listen as he described, with tongue secretly hidden in cheek, a time when he bit into what he’d thought was a chocolate chip cookie–only to realize with shock and dismay that it was actually a raisin cookie. He was making a wry...

Polls from major networks, researchers and newspapers agree: America’s in a bad mood. In just one week, polls found politicians of all stripes are hitting approval numbers with record lows. The president finds himself roughly as popular as a trip to the dentist. The entire Democratic Party gets the thumbs down. Oh, and so does the Republican Party. But it doesn’t stop there. Americans are also bummed out about the future in general, especially the economy. Things are so low that even an old favorite, sugar, polled poorly. (See the latest congressional polls from POLITICO's Polling Center) Pollsters say it...

Republican challenger Thom Tillis has pushed slightly further ahead of Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely North Carolina Voters shows Tillis earning 45% support to Hagan’s 40%. Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate in the race, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

PPP's newest Arkansas poll continues to find an incredibly tight race for the Senate. Republican Tom Cotton is at 41% to 39% for Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor, 4% for Green Party candidate Mark Swaney, and 3% for Libertarian Nathan LaFrance. All four PPP surveys of this race in the last year have found the candidates within 3 points of each other one way or another. When supporters of the third party hopefuls are asked who they would choose between the two major party candidates, Cotton's lead remains 2 points at 43/41, suggesting this may be a race where their presence...

When it comes to the general election, Mark Begich continues to have modest leads over all of his potential Republican opponents. In the most likely match up with Sullivan he gets 43% to Sullivan's 37% with a bevy of third party candidates combining to get 7%. When you take them out of the mix Begich's lead is 45/41. Begich has held a lead in the 4-7 point range over Sullivan in all four of PPP's polls of this race over the last year. The numbers for Begich against Treadwell are pretty similar. He has a 42/37 lead when the entire...

Abbott said requiring voters to present government issued IDs is “the first step in the process is to ensure that only those that are legally allowed to vote actually vote.” Under the law, seven forms of identification are accepted at Texas polling stations, among them state drivers’ licenses and identification cards, election identification certificates, military IDs, passports, citizenship documents with photos, and concealed handgun licenses. And noticeably absent from that list: student identification cards. Ryan Haygood, director for the Legal Defense Fund’s political participation group, said student IDs were specifically left off the list because they fail to prove whether...