Free Republic

Just weeks after going 2 for 22 on the basketball court, President Barack Obama went to shoot hoops again -- but this time there were no camers allowed. He was joined by his former aide Reggie Love,who played basketball for Duke. Here are today´s pool report: Sunday morning hoops -POTUS,wearing baseball cap and casual clothes,trotted down north steps of WH to waiting motorcade at 9:24 am. Arrived at FBI for basketball 9:30 am.… Potus sighted trotting up steps of North Portico, accompanied by another tall man, but WH not revealing identity of hoops companions. .. As he reentered WH after...

I'm conservative/libertarian. My family are all Obama 'Rats/moochers/OWS types. We had just watched the movie "Lincoln". I opined that it was good (and unusual) to see a Hollywood movie cast middle-aged, white, male Republicans in a favorable light. Yes, of course, the conversation immediately became about race. A few of my family said that at some point in history Republicans became and Democrats and vise-versa. I thought my head was going to explode. I am a huge fan of history and absorb it - especially the civil war. But I had never heard this before. Should I buy more duct...

We mighta, coulda, woulda, shoulda, still-some-day-may elect a president serious about the matter of the nation's freedoms. Or, possibly, not. The second possibility -- so an ancient mariner reflects -- arises from a sea change in our culture. It could be that more than half of us - a fast-rising proportion -- don't understand "serious" the way it was understood until half a century ago. The loose, lax, louche United States of 2012 seems dissimilar in important respects to the country that chose Dwight D. Eisenhower for president. A week after the Nov. 6 debacle, the post-mortems go on: the...

Despite statements by Vice President Joe Biden, the State Department is about to begin formal negotiations over the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, a top State Department official said Tuesday. Last week, U.S. and Afghan negotiators met in Kabul to talk about the Bilateral Security Agreement that will govern the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, when President Barack Obama said the combat mission in Afghanistan will end and the U.S. will complete the transition of the entire country to Afghan government control.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his pro-life views clear today in response to a question from a reporter on the campaign trail in Ohio.Romney said he would govern as a pro-life president, de-fund the nation’s largest abortion company, and reinstate a policy preventing taxpayer funding of international abortion promotion efforts on the part of Planned Parenthood.“I think I’ve said time and again that I’m a pro-life candidate and I’ll be a pro-life president. The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I’ve indicated that I...

The amazing conclusion to yesterday’s snafu involving the Democratic platform’s language on Israel. After an evening of bad press they decided to reinsert the language about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, along with some language about God after people noticed that the phrase “God-given” in the 2008 platform had been dropped in the new one. Simple process, in theory: Have someone from the floor propose adding the new language, then let the delegates approve it via a voice vote. The result? A trainwreck so awful that even Paul Begala didn’t try to spin it. As you’ll see, Villaraigosa’s astonishment...

- After sharp criticism from Mitt Romney and Republicans, the Democrats have reinstated the language into their party platform that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well as the words "God-given" that were removed in this year's platform.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The last time Alice Heiman participated in the Susan G. Komen walk in San Francisco to raise money for breast cancer, she gathered a group of friends and made a big trip from her home in Reno to support a cause close to her heart. This year, though, nine months after the national organization sparked outrage when it refused to fund Planned Parenthood, she's ignoring donation requests that keep popping up in her inbox and has no plans for a return trip. She's not alone. Just days before Sunday's 5k Race for the Cure along the Embarcadero...

Here's the dilemma: Talk radio and other parts of the 'conservative' media started defending Mitt Rmoney several weeks ago. IIRC, the first 'defense' was actually made to protect Ann Romney from the "stay-at-home" charge. So, Rush and Co. are now promoting Rmoney, after they first dismissed him, then they defended him. I will vote for neither Rmoney or Obama. I will "wait and see" (WAS). I will vote "none of the above" (NOTA). If Rmoney wins AND governs as a conservative for four years, THEN I'll vote to re-elect him in 2016. Not before. (Another Freeper mentioned this exact strategy...

With the economy threatening to fall into another recession and job growth plummeting, Obama came before the American people today demanding taxes be raised on those making over $250,000 a year, including what he admitted would include 3% of small businesses. Even if that 3% is correct, which is disputed, that 3% means a tax increase on 900,000 small businesses. That's nearly a million small business owners who will now be even more crippled and have less capital available to expand their payrolls -- which of course means fewer jobs for the middle class and the poor who would like...

http://www.wepolls.com/p/9637685/Will-his-endorsement-of-same-sex-marriage-help-or-hurt-Obama-in-November 66 votes Hurt 30% 113 votes Help 51% 32 votes No Difference 15% 9 votes I don't know flag 4%

RNC Chairman reince Priebus on MSNBC (May 7, 2012) [1:57-2:32] Andrea Mitchell: "Let me ask you about this whole issue of gay marriage and give you a chance to respond... what is the latest position of Mitt Romney and Republicans on this issue [same-sex marriage]?" Reince Priebus: "Governor Romney and the Republican Party have been pretty clear, marriage is between one man and one woman. We believe ultimately that you can't federalize that kind of mandate, which is why we believe that individual states can make that decision on their own..."

Mitt Romney is shifting to the center to attract important voting blocs that he may have alienated in the bruising Republican presidential primary.Romney has recently sought to ingratiate himself with voters in industry-heavy Ohio, women, Hispanics and college students by softening his tone on a range of issues. “Romney is starting to shift to the center. He knows he needs to get independent voters in November, and if he doesn’t he’s going to lose,” said Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Campaign aides, wary of the flip-flopper label that plagued Romney during the...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations: "The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations. The Obama administration is also deeply committed to listening and responding to what Americans across the country have to say about proposed rules and regulations. "As a result, the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of...

Think Progress flags an amazing exchange on CNN, in which Eric Fehrnstrom, a top adviser to Mitt Romney, seems to confirm that the conservative positions Romney has been forced to take during the primary won’t be a big deal because he can simply erase them once he becomes the GOP nominee: HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election? FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like...

In Puerto Rico, for the price of 20 delegates, Mitt Romney sold out his conservative principles. There is a long history of Congress requiring English to be the language of government and schools for territories seeking to be admitted to the Union — e.g., Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. For all of the territories that had large non-English speaking populations, Congress announced before the territories voted on the question of statehood that a change in language policy would be a prerequisite for statehood. In the case of Puerto Rico, where according to the latest Census only 15% of residents...

Will Mitt Romney flip-flop on climate change if he’s elected president? Some big donors are betting on it.Romney and his super PAC have taken millions from funders with strong green streaks — despite the fact that the former Massachusetts governor has run to the right in the primary, proclaiming doubts about global-warming science and trashing President Barack Obama’s greenhouse gas emissions policies.Julian Robertson, founder of the Tiger Management hedge fund, helped put cap-and-trade legislation on the map with $60 million in contributions over the past decade to the Environmental Defense Fund. Now, Robertson has given $1.25 million to Romney’s Restore...

OMAHA, Neb. — Former Sen. Bob Kerrey is reversing course and says he’ll seek the Democratic nomination for the Nebraska seat he once held. Kerrey’s announcement Wednesday comes just weeks after he publicly rejected a run to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. It’s also just two days before Nebraska’s candidate filing deadline. The 1992 presidential candidate and former Nebraska governor previously said not running was in his family’s best interest. Kerrey’s announcement gives new hope to national Democrats desperate to stop Republicans from netting four Senate seats this fall and regaining control of the chamber. But it’s also sure...

To understand Mitt Romney, you have to understand the most difficult passage of his political life: how he changed his position on abortion. Not the story he tells about it, but the real story. Romney began his political career as a pro-choicer. In the story he tells, he had an epiphany, a flash of insight, and committed himself thereafter to protecting life. But that isn’t what happened. The real story of Romney’s conversion—a series of tentative, equivocal, and confused shifts, accompanied by a constant rewriting of his past—paints a more accurate picture of who he is. Romney has complex views...

This video perfectly encapsulates why I will never vote for the biggest flip-flopper to ever grace a presidential election, the person who chooses the most politically expedient side of an issue, Mitt Romney. This video by the DNC proves they are aware of Romney's greatest weakness: himself. In 4 minutes it completely destroys any credibility Romney might have on any issue.If Romney becomes the nominee, this video will be used to demoralize the conservative base, suppressing turnout in November and leading to another 4 years of Obama. We cannot let this happen!

Romney's candidacy also runs counter to almost every political trend in the book right now. He's the antithesis of everything the Tea Party stands for -- a moderate establishment-endorsed, principle-free Rockefeller Republican. On the other hand, he's like a bad guy straight out of central casting for the Occupy Wall Street crowd, a conscience-free 1 percenter who makes $10,000 bets and lectures the public about how corporations are people -- while hordes of poor and middle class Americans that he fired trail in his wake telling tales of woe about how Romney made their lives into a living hell.

From Sen. Obama’s Floor Speech, March 20, 2006: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt...

Mitt Romney once again pitches himself as the presidential candidate best poised to effectively reform government, in a new ad set to run in Iowa. The 30-second spot, which features footage from a speech by the former Massachusetts governor, will run in the Hawkeye State ahead of the first-in-the-nation Jan. 3 caucuses. "I'm going to do something to government. I'm going to make it simpler and smaller and smarter, getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally making government itself more efficient," Romney says in the commercial, titled "Conservative Agenda."

In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" a few days ago, Mitt Romney was asked whether, given what we know today, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do. Romney wouldn't say. "Oh boy, that's a big question," Romney answered. "And going back and trying to say, given what we know now, what would we have done? Would we have invaded or not? At the time, we didn't have the knowledge that we have now." Romney mentioned intelligence before the war suggesting that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. After the war, U.S. and international...

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich told a South Carolina town hall on Monday that as president he would block federal funds to any city that "declared itself a sanctuary" for illegal immigrants. Gingrich, fresh from a key endorsement from an influential New Hampshire newspaper, is on a three-day swing through South Carolina, an early primary state that his campaign has dubbed his "southern firewall." "No American president has the right to side with foreigners," Gingrich told a crowd of hundreds at the College of Charleston, after reciting a list of 16 countries that he said...

<p>SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — As other Republican candidates have stumbled their way toward the presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has put together what would seem to be all the elements of a winning campaign: an effective staff, a robust treasury and smooth, knowledgeable performances both in debates and on the trail.</p>

Southfield, Mich. — As other Republican candidates have stumbled their way toward the presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has put together what would seem to be all the elements of a winning campaign: an effective staff, a robust treasury and smooth, knowledgeable performances both in debates and on the trail. But for months, the threshold of support for the former Massachusetts governor hasn't inched above a quarter of Republican voters in national polls. For many GOP voters in early primary states, hesitation about Romney comes back to one thing: their perception that he has routinely molded his views to suit the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was accused on Wednesday of flip-flopping for comments he made in 2007 indicating he was open to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Romney's remarks, made on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he was a candidate for president, were circulated by rival Newt Gingrich's campaign the day after the former Speaker of the House of Representatives came under similar fire for suggesting during a debate Tuesday night that he was in favor of such a pathway for immigrants. Opponents of a pathway, a large swath of the early-voting Republican electorate, have...

Question: Why would Mitt Romney repeal Obamacare if he took office, like the beltway losers say he will? It was a great surprise when Mitt jumped into the race with his speech that he was not going to denounce Romneycare, even though it would have been a political no-brainer to do so. He instead decided that his move in Massachusetts was an example of States Rights, presumably to try to fool tea party folks with his zingy buzz words. The tea party movement is dominated by people who know, instinctively, or by studying the Constitution, that our federal government has...

GOP presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney sought to rebuff critics’ contentions that he is a “flip-flopper” by insisting that he has “been as consistent as is humanly possible.” “Everyone knows that variety is the spice of life,” Romney suggested. “No sane person orders the exact same item from a menu every time he dines. Different days, different occasions call for different decisions. Americans want a president who is consistent enough to recognize this reality and revise his policies to fit constantly changing circumstances. They don’t want somebody who robotically strives for lower taxes and spending regardless of circumstances.”...

Answering a charge that's at the root of his campaign's inability to break out from the Republican field, Mitt Romney rejected the notion that he's a candidate without a core at the start of tonight's presidential debate. (snip) "I think people understand that I'm a man of steadiness and constancy," Romney responded.As proof, he cited the fact that he's been "married to the same woman for 25" years -- before correcting himself to say it's been 42. "I've been in the same church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years, and I left that to...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney discussed his reputation as a flip-flopper at Wednesday night’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, disputing the characterization and calling himself “a man of steadiness and constancy.” Romney was asked to address the “issue of character” after he mentioned the auto bailout, which he has been accused of switching positions on. The Democratic National Committee has been bracketing Romney in Michigan with ads attacking him for flip-flopping on the issue.

Can a conservative case be made for Mitt Romney? Michael Gerson tried mightily at the Washington Post yesterday, leaning heavily on Romney’s business experience and cultural background to argue that Romney’s current positions are probably more natural to him than those he adopted for more than a decade as a Massachusetts politician. Unfortunately for Gerson, he has to come up with some way to explain why Romney wouldn’t slide back to his earlier positions once he faced some political headwinds on the national stage, and this is the best Gerson can do: Romney’s main political vulnerability is a serious one....

Speaking to voters in Pittsburgh, Mr. Romney said, “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign rolled out a fresh attack Thursday against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, saying that Mr. Perry’s new plan to reshape Social Security doesn’t square with his previously stated stances on the issue. The campaign shot out an email blast contrasting Mr. Perry’s five-point Social Security plan — which calls for preserving the benefits for current and near-term beneficiaries and allows younger workers to invest in personal savings accounts — against statements cherry-picked from in his book, “Fed Up!,” in which he wrote that the program has been something Americans have been forced to accept...

Mitt Romney has put a lot of work into reversing the perception, prevalent during his 2008 campaign, that his ideological compass only follows the magnetic field of whichever electorate he happens to be trying to win over. The title of his campaign book, No Apology, was as much a statement of principle as it was a potshot at the (entirely fictional) bowing and scraping Obama has done overseas. He’s refused to cede an inch on the merits of his Massachusetts health reform program, despite the incredibly inconvenient fact that Democrats cribbed from it when they wrote their national overhaul. And...

In an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

......"It's a "pattern time and time again," said senior campaign strategist David Axelrod. "It’s consistent with a guy who ran for the governorship and the Senate in Massachusetts as a pro-choice moderate who supported civil unions and environmental protections to the guy you see today hard after the Tea Party vote who has thrown all his positions over.” If "you are willing to change positions on fundamental issues of principle, how can we know what you would do as president?" asked Axelrod. The Democratic National Committee has already established a YouTube channel called "Which Mitt" which highlights his Mitt-flops."..................

Mitt Romney appeared to be softening to the Occupy Wall Street protests on Monday, taking a more sympathetic tone as he remarked on the movement, which he had called “dangerous” just a week before. “I look at what’s happening on Wall Street and my view is, boy, I understand how those people feel,” he said at a town hall event in Hopkinton, N.H. “Because with median income down 10% ... with chronic unemployment, long-term unemployment worse even than the Great Depression, the people in this country are upset. And I understand middle Americans saying, ‘Wait a second, what’s going on?...

Mitt Romney faced relentless criticism four years ago for changing his positions on abortion and gay rights and equivocating on other issues, including immigration and gun control. This year, the former Massachusetts governor has largely escaped such attacks as he competes again for the Republican presidential nomination. That might be changing.

Mitt Romney and President Obama are carbon copies when it comes to environmental policies.

So former mayor Ed Koch has changed his mind after hearing President Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly last week and will back him for reelection after all. Mr. Koch, a DFB, or Democrat From Birth, created quite a stir several weeks ago when he endorsed Republican Bob Turner in the special election in New York's heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District against Democrat David Weprin. Mr. Koch urged voters in the predominantly Jewish district to vote for Mr. Turner as a way of sending a message to President Obama that they opposed his policies regarding Israel - his "open...

Sen. John McCain on Monday strongly disputed a U.S. diplomatic cable that said he pushed to help Muammar Qadhafi’s regime obtain military hardware two years ago, calling the notion “outrageous.” The 2009 cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks and written by staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, said in particular that McCain, at a meeting with Qadhafi and one of his sons, promised to help Libya obtain C-130 Hercules military cargo aircraft. (snip) On Monday, McCain told Foreign Policy magazine that the diplomatic cable was incorrect, and that he had never pledged any help to Libya in...

A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009. The cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks, reveals the pledge came at meeting that was attended by other prominent members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).In the meeting, Muatassim Qadhafi, the Libyan leader’s fifth son and national security adviser, requested U.S. assistance in obtaining military supplies, both lethal and non-lethal. The cable indicates that McCain was the dominant voice among the congressional delegation in a...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has joined Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Pennsylvania Rick Santorum in signing a pledge to oppose same-sex marriage on a number of specific fronts. The three candidates signed the pledge advanced by the National Organization for Marriage, which has led national and state campaigns to limit marriage to a man and a woman. The signature of the front-runner, Romney, is a bit of a coup for the group, as he's been careful about committing to other pledges, including a broad promise to a socially conservative Iowa group that caused trouble for other candidates....

Mitt Romney, who has been noticeably quiet during the debt ceiling debate, issued a statement today in opposition to the current deal that would hike the debt ceiling. “While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican Members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal,” Romney said in a statement this morning. He said that if he were president he would have a “cut, capped, and balanced budget” and criticized the current deal for “open[ing] the door to higher taxes and put[ing] defense cuts on the table.” Michele Bachmann announced her opposition...

Rick O'Donnell, a former special adviser to the University of Texas System who received a $70,000 settlement, this week skewered top UT officials for trying to block the release of faculty productivity data, accusing them of orchestrating a scare campaign to pit donors and alumni against regents pushing for changes at the system. He also took shots at state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who chairs the higher education committee, saying she went to bat for university brass due to overly cozy relations between lawmakers and public universities. Faculty and administrators "basically want to be left alone," O'Donnell said. "They push...

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a Boy Scouts ceremony on Wednesday that the federal government is rudderless, kicking off a trip to California that has stoked speculation that he will enter the Republican contest for president. Perry fondly recalled his boyhood as a Scout in Texas, including his first visit to Washington, and applauded the group for promoting values such as fellowship, self-reliance, dedication and perseverance. "I really wish we saw more of that sort of courage throughout our society, yep, including in Washington, D.C.," he said. Perry didn't mention President Barack Obama or any politician...

Eighty-one House Republicans voted both ways...

Whether Gov. Rick Perry of Texas takes the stage wearing a suit or jeans, he walks with a confident swagger in cowboy boots. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie owns any stage because of his blunt talk and seemingly unpopular remedies. Outspoken former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin breaks political stereotypes with her unpredictability. These three share something: They are popular Republicans who are not seeking the party's 2012 presidential nomination — yet. Republican voters and political strategists lately are speculating whether one of the three might be a better choice than any of eight declared GOP contenders. People are thinking about...