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Each election has what become its accepted narratives: themes that, over time, gel into what are considered reliable facts that are no longer vetted or questioned. As the Democratic campaign finally wraps up, it’s time to put two persistent ones to bed: Hillary Clinton is unpopular and limping to a finish, and Bernie Sanders is a progressive from way outside the system. Neither could be farther from the truth.

Top Republican donors may be taking their time flocking to Donald Trump, but a prominent billionaire is on board: energy and hedge fund magnate T. Boone Pickens. Pickens, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a hedge fund conference in Las Vegas, said he talked to Trump Monday and confirmed to the New York billionaire and presumptive nominee he'd support his candidacy.

"We'll wait for the official results and we can comment more directly there about our ability to work with the winners of that election", he said. The vice president looks likely to be Leni Robredo, a social activist who is now slightly ahead of Bongbong Marcos, the son of a former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He said his law and order policy had been the key to his success. On Monday, Duterte was asked to comment on his image as an advocate of mass-murder of crime suspects. But an estimated 500,000 people turned out for Duterte's last rally just as outgoing...

I know the polls say Donald Trump cannot win. But what if we are looking at the wrong poll question? What if Trump’s overwhelming negatives don’t matter? Or, to put it another way, what if the country’s negatives matter more? Right now, about 6 in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, and only 36 percent view him positively. But the country is faring even worse. In the most recent average of polls calculated by RealClearPolitics, 26.9 percent of Americans think the nation is headed in the right direction and 64.9 percent think we are heading down the wrong...

What will Cruz and Beck do now??

Heard a talking head on Fox talking about Trump and Ryan trying to come to terms over the Ryan/McConnell legislative agenda. Does anyone have a list of the legislative goals of the Ryan/McConnell legislative agenda?

Paul Ryan's challenger Paul Nehlen ripped the House Speaker for not backing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and instead "lecturing" people to unite behind conservatism. Nehlen, phoning in to MSNBC this afternoon, called Ryan the "champion enabler" for President Obama's agenda and said the Speaker is "uniting" with Obama and Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin endorsed Nehlen and told CNN she will work to oust Ryan in the primary. "Who is Paul Ryan to lecture anybody about uniting around conservatism?" Nehlen asked on MSNBC. "If you look at President Obama's top three policy initiatives -- comprehensive immigration reform, the Trans-Pacific...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has signed up to serve as a delegate for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at this summer’s national convention in Cleveland. McCarthy’s move is notable in part because House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he is “not ready” to endorse Trump, even though he is the lone Republican remaining in the contest.

Donald Trump may have thought he delivered the knock-out punch to Ted Cruz -- but the Texas senator apparently doesn't see himself down and counted out of the 2016 Republican presidential race. Not yet, anyway. Cruz, in an interview Tuesday with radio host and supporter Glenn Beck, opened the door just a crack to kick-starting his now-suspended campaign if he somehow starts winning primary contests again. Asked what he’d do if, for instance, Nebraska voters back him in Tuesday’s primary, Cruz said he assumes that won’t happen but added: “Let’s be very clear, if there is a path to victory...

West Virginia: Primary Election Day Polls open 6:30am through 7:30pm Nebraska: The 2016 Nebraska Republican primary is being held today, Tuesday, May 10th, 2016.

(Reuters) - A former administrator in Flint, Michigan, charged in a federal lawsuit on Monday that she was fired for seeking a probe into allegations the mayor tried to redirect donations to her personal campaign fund from a charity meant to help families hurt by the city's water crisis. The wrongful termination lawsuit filed in federal court in Detroit said former City Administrator Natasha Henderson was fired in violation of whistle-blower and free-speech protections under Michigan law and the U.S. Constitution. An attorney retained by the city of Flint on the matter did not immediately respond to a request for...

You are cordially invited to attend the West Virginia and Nebraska returns, tonight with your friends and neighbors here on Free Republic. TIME:When you feel like fixin' to attend between now and then ATTIRE:Anything you wish to wear Champagne will be served with a selection of appetizers and French desserts

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is annihilating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the state of Louisiana, not only with Republicans, but with key groups of Independents and Democrats too, new polling shows. In a head-to-head match-up against Trump and Clinton, Trump leads with 52 percent compared to Clinton’s 36 percent, according to JMC Analytics and Polling. Four percent said they would support a third party and just eight percent said they were undecided. Among white Independents in Louisiana, Trump is winning big, with 73 percent to Clinton’s 17 percent. And even with white Democrats, Trump leads Clinton 53 percent to...

Still shaken by Donald Trump's triumph, Republican and conservative foes of the billionaire can still cause headaches for the party's presumptive presidential nominee at this summer's GOP convention. But their options are shrinking by the day. With Trump's last two rivals — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — abandoning their campaigns, there's no remaining talk of snatching the nomination away from him with a contested, multi-ballot battle when Republican delegates gather in Cleveland. Instead, anti-Trump forces are trying to figure out how to use the GOP meetings in July to keep him from reshaping the party...

Facing a steep challenge as he prepares to meet with Republican leaders about uniting their splintering party, Donald J. Trump on Monday struck a more conciliatory tone about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. And Mr. Ryan appeared to reciprocate, saying he would step down from his position as chairman of the Republican National Convention in July if that is what the party’s presumptive nominee requests.

From The Hill: President Obama can’t wait to take on Donald Trump. Obama has been largely sidelined in the presidential contest, a last-year officeholder with high approval ratings who has repeatedly shown he likes to spar with political foes.

In the end, it was the voters of Indiana last week who effectively gave the country the outcome that had loomed for months. The 2016 election is likely to pit Hillary Clinton, who is disliked by a majority of voters, against Donald Trump, disliked by a greater majority of voters. If the rise of Trump has no obvious precedent, neither does an election like this. Clinton, whose buoyant favorable ratings in the State Department convinced some Democrats that she could win easily, is now viewed as unfavorably as George W. Bush was in his close 2004 reelection bid. Trump is...

Bond guru Jeff Gundlach trusts his instincts when it comes to his investments. Now he has a prediction about the presidential race: Donald Trump will win. The CEO of DoubleLine, which manages $84 billion for clients, told CNBC he's apolitical but said, "I think it's important for investors to deal with reality."

Donald Trump is poised to breeze through another round of primary contests this week -- while the Republican Party splinters around him. Trump's ascent to the top of the GOP, which was capped last week with Ted Cruz's devastating loss in the Indiana primary, happened so fast that even the billionaire himself was surprised. And the whipsawed party establishment now faces immediate choices -- none of which particularly appeal to them. Will they unite behind their party's standard-bearer? Will they sit out the 2016 campaign? Or will they fight on, in a quixotic quest to undermine Trump? Trump's opponents are...

Tuesday is Primary day for West Virginia and Nebraska! People might be experiencing some confusion being that the GOP have said that Donald Trump is the “Presumptive” nominee. What does “Presumptive” mean?