Free Republic

This weekend, a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls showed up at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. They were there to court primary voters who will winnow the presidential field next February. Judging from the speeches, it’s going to be an ugly race. What the candidates are selling, and primary voters are buying, is vituperation against people who don’t look, talk, or pray like the Republican base.............. [SNIP of stuff that sounds good to me - Santorum was on fire] ...............Mexicans, Muslims, gays, rats, roaches. Christian superiority, military contempt for the president, and gauntlets thrown down to queer-loving CEOs. It’s going to...

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took shots at President Obama’s national security policies at the Citizens United Freedom Summit. Walker mentioned he was on his way to Israel to speak to Benjamin Netanyahu and others during his trip and noted how emotional he becomes when he sees reports of terrorism. “It’s something I feel passionate about. You see people are very concerned about safety them selves and their family coworkers and their fellow citizens because of what we see around the world. Not just in the Middle Mast but now we see in other parts of the world....

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch, is unfit to be the nation’s top lawyer because of her support for executive amnesty and other positions she’s taken, the governor’s spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski tells Breitbart News.“Given Loretta Lynch’s failure to commit to protect Americans from the president’s lawless executive overreach, that even he said nearly two dozen times, she is not fit to serve as the nation’s Attorney General,” Kukowski said in an email.Walker is in New Hampshire,the first in the nation primary state,on Friday, meeting with—among other—former Sen. Scott Brown(R-MA)—who narrowly lost to Sen....

Dear Reader: You need to make up your own mind—Sarah Palin gave a pretty, gosh-darn good speech in Iowa at the Freedom Summit on January 24. And yet Sarah Palin’s speech is being universally trashed by liberals, establishment cronies, and conservatives alike. This is the end for Sarah Palin, pundits cry. Her presidential bid is over before it started. And not only that, but also Palin’s influence in the Republican Party has passed its “sell by” date. But could this amazing consensus be driven by the fact that nearly all conservatives, establishment Republicans, and liberals are rooting for some other...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-27/exclusive-steve-king-says-scott-walker-and-ted-cruz-won-the-iowa-freedom-summit

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose speech to activists in Iowa last weekend drew strong reviews, has taken the first formal step toward a presidential candidacy in 2016, establishing a committee that will help spread his message and underwrite his activities as he seeks to build his political and fundraising networks in the months ahead. Walker filed papers to set up the committee, called "Our American Revival," and a new Web site for the organization was scheduled to go live later Tuesday. The steps come after a busy weekend of pre-presidential events that included his address at the Iowa Freedom Summit,...

DES MOINES — As a chance to evaluate possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates, the Freedom Summit here in Des Moines was a solid success. Several potential candidates — Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, and a few others — left the 10-hour political marathon with their prospects undeniably enhanced. All that was good news for Republicans. But at the same time, more than a few GOP loyalists came away shaking their heads at the performance of a party star, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose long, rambling, and at times barely coherent speech left some wondering what role she...

It's official: Nicolle Wallace really doesn't like Sarah Palin. On today's Morning Joe, Wallace—who was Palin's chief handler during the 2008 campaign—took the occasion of Palin's speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday to jab at the former veep candidate. Wallace had been asked to comment on conservative columnist Byron York's panning of Palin's speech as "long, rambling, and at times barely coherent." York's column also passed along criticism of the speech by a number of Iowa Republicans. Wallace said that it was interesting to see York come "full circle," since back in 2008 he had been a staunch...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Scott Walker’s stock is soaring after a triumphant return to Iowa. The Wisconsin Republican governor delivered a pitch-perfect speech to a room packed with influential Hawkeye State conservatives on Saturday, walking them through his robust resume and ideology with a passion that surprised many. Activists say Walker came out on top after 10 hours of candidate speeches. “It was a clear Walker victory. He had expectations coming in here, he was on everyone's shortlist and he had to meet those expectations and I thought he far exceeded them,” said former Iowa Republican Party political director Craig...

Rep. Steve King has summoned the potential field of 2016 Republican presidential candidates to Iowa next month for his Freedom Summit, and they are jumping at the opportunity — underscoring the conservative firebrand’s political pull and marking the event as the first major gathering of the next campaign for the White House. Mr. King told The Washington Times that the Jan. 24 gathering in Des Moines will give the kinds of activists who turn out for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses a look at their options and will give the candidates an early reality check. (SNIP) Though Mr. Santorum achieved victory without...

The two men's presidential hopes rest on appeals to the right-wing grassroots—and those voters seem to prefer Cruz. MANCHESTER, N.H.—Rand Paul has been methodically planning his run for president. Now Ted Cruz could come along and spoil the whole thing. Both senators have a path to the Republican nomination that rests on the support of the Tea Party. And when forced to choose, that segment appears to prefer Cruz, whose speech to an activists' gathering here over the weekend was the more enthusiastically received of the two. Saturday's Freedom Summit, billed as an early audition for potential 2016 candidates,...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that, if the mainstream media and Democrats are correct that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigned because Obamacare succeeded, then every other Democrat should follow her out of the Obama administration.  Speaking at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, which was organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United, Cruz joined other potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders at the event the day after Sebelius left the administration after the disastrous Obamacare rollout.Cruz said that if people listen to Democrats or the mainstream press (Cruz apologized for repeating himself – to much laughter), "they will tell...

<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Ted Cruz says he’s optimistic about the country’s future.</p> <p>The health care law — well, that’s another story.</p> <p>The Texas senator — a possible 2016 presidential candidate — spoke before a group of conservatives in New Hampshire on Saturday.</p>

Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity Foundation held the inaugural “Freedom Summit” at the Executive Court Banquet Facility in Manchester, N.H. 26 minute video at the link

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Republican presidential primary is up and running in New Hampshire, where conservative prospects lined up in Manchester Saturday for the first cattle call of the 2016 cycle. Speakers at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit, which was sponsored by Citizens United and Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity, included Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, all of whom would be top tier presidential contenders should they run. Donald Trump also spoke. Huckabee seemed especially determined to show he could compete for conservative votes against politicians like Paul and Cruz, who have each...