Free Republic

Jeb "I Am My Own Man" Bush, declared today that he would shape his own foreign policy when he gave a speech in Chicago today. However, I'm not sure hiring almost everyone one of his father and brother's advisors is going to help him very much since they all have blood on their hands after the Iraq war debacle. The latest Bush to consider a bid for the White House promised that his foreign policy would be shaped by “my own thinking and my own experiences.”

For the fourth consecutive year, gay conservatives will have no official presence at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. On Thursday, Log Cabin Republicans accused the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, of excluding the group of LGBT Republicans as sponsors of the annual conference. “Make no mistake: LCR is actively being prohibited from sponsoring CPAC,” said Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, in a statement. According to Angelo, discussions with the ACU and its new leadership began this past July. But the ACU said participation by Log Cabin Republicans would prove difficult due to the group’s...

The United States’ political parties have always been amalgams of factions rather than vehicles for any single interest. Partly because of the pressures of the electoral system and partly because of the republic’s vastness, forging either of the two major parties into a political monolith has been impossible; the need to cater to a wide base of Americans tends to keep the parties broad and relatively inclusive. This embedded pluralism of the U.S. party system has diminished somewhat in the current era of polarization but it has not evaporated entirely. The parties are still relatively broad churches. This is clearest...

So far in the 2016 presidential race -- and we are not yet very far into it -- Jeb Bush has been the key player. His December announcement of interest completely changed the timetable of the entire field of wannabes. He's already ahead in some key state polls like New Hampshire, even before announcing a candidacy. And his fundraising prowess is apparently off-and-running, though actual numbers won't be available until mid-July's report. And while many candidates must plead with news media for coverage, the free publicity that is any campaign's lifeblood, reporters and cameras flock to every Jeb Bush appearance....

The 3.8 percent point margin by which President Obama defeated Mitt Romney in 2012 clouds the challenge the Republicans face in 2016. Unless they are able to improve their standing by 5 to 6 points in the key electoral states, they cannot win. Romney got 206 electoral votes (carrying his closest state, North Carolina, by only 2.2 points). To add to this total, much less to bring it up to the 271 needed to win, Republicans must carry a number of states where they lost by five or more points in 2012.

The catcalling press continues to trail after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, hoping to make an issue over his lack of a college diploma, among other things. But no matter. Mr. Walker’s grass-roots appeal and business acumen have made him the victor in a new poll of Iowa voters who rank him top dog among 2016 GOP contenders. The governor garnered 24 percent of the vote; Jeb Bush and Sen. Rand Paul are tied for second place, each with 10 percent. Gov. Chris Christie is in third, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz...

Scott Walker, the little-known governor of Wisconsin, is emerging as the main challenger to Jeb Bush in the race to become the Republicans' 2016 presidential candidate. While Mr Bush is raising tens of millions of dollars and attracting huge media attention across the country, polls indicate a quiet momentum is building for the more conservative Mr Walker. The 47-year-old governor is trailing Mr Bush by just a few points in the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina - the three early voting states that will shape the course of the Republican primary election. While the 62-year-old Mr Bush,...

Yvonne Dean-BaileyA 19-year-old freshman at a Massachusetts college is hoping to become one of the youngest female state representatives in New Hampshire’s history as she enters a special election that will be decided this spring. Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood, a Republican who graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy last year, said she is hoping to bring the voice of young, conservative women to the State House. Dean-Bailey is a veteran of two prominent lawmakers’ offices, having worked as an intern doing legislative research for U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and as a field organizer in Cheshire County on Marilinda Garcia’s campaign for...

Republicans in Congress would shoulder the blame for a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security if they are unable to enact a new spending bill to keep the agency running, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The survey finds that 53% of Americans would blame the Republicans in Congress if the department must shut down, while 30% would blame President Barack Obama. Another 13% say both deserve the blame. If a spending bill is not passed by Feb. 28, the agency's funding will run out. ...

Carly Fiorina, who rose to power in corporate America to become Hewlett-Packard’s first female chairman and CEO, is aiming to smash two more glass ceilings, but this time in politics. One is the 159-year history of total male dominance of Republican presidential nominations. The other is the 225-year period when a “For Men Only” sign has hung over the door to the Oval Office. Mrs. Fiorina has no problem breaking glass to do it, candidly discussing what she sees as the foreign policy failures of George W. Bush, her opposition to amnesty and her disdain for crony capitalism that marries...

Do Republicans have a realistic chance to win the next presidential election? Some analysts suggest the answer is no. They argue that there is a 240-electoral-vote "blue wall" of 18 states and D.C. that have gone Democratic in the last six presidential elections. A Democratic nominee needs only 30 more electoral votes to win the presidency, they note accurately. A Republican nominee, they suggest, has little chance of breaking through the blue wall. He (or she) would have to win 270 of the 298 other electoral votes. Democrats do have an advantage in the electoral vote, because heavily Democratic clusters...

Media and potential opponents are scandalized that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is considering a run for president even though he didn’t graduate from college. But if Walker (who dropped out of Marquette University in his senior year) won in 2016, he would be joining an exalted group that includes the two presidents most frequently named as the favorites of the American people. Eleven presidents — exactly 25 percent — were not college graduates. Most prominent on that list are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who make up half of Mt. Rushmore’s foursome and are in the top three or top...

Scott Walker stumbled on it during a trip to London. He and the rest of the 2016 Republican presidential field will face it repeatedly in the months ahead. So it would probably be best if GOP candidates prepared a quick and clear answer to the question, 'Do you believe in evolution?' They'll have to use it a lot. If they are like most Americans, Republican candidates believe God has guided the creation of the Earth and its inhabitants. That alone is enough to craft an answer that will both represent their beliefs and work in a campaign. The Gallup polling...

The elected Chief Justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, Roy Moore, is set to be a guest on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. I don't know what the spin from Wallace will be or from any discussion that will follow, but I did receive emails this week from a Roy Moore supporter. Considering the way the media spins things in a negative way towards those who take a stand against gay marriage, I think it appropriate to share what was being said by Justice Moore supporters. I frankly don't take a position on gay marriage other than it is part...

President Obama is putting Republicans on notice that he plans to run through their cynical politics and opposition during his final two years in office. While speaking at a DNC fundraiser in San Francisco, the president said: "And one of the things I am absolutely determined to do over the next two years is not just consolidate the gains that we’ve made, not just move forward on new initiatives like free community colleges for young people around the country who need to be trained for the 21st-century economy, but part of my goal is also to restore a sense of...

On Thursday, the media went collectively insane over Governor Scott Walker’s failure to answer a question about his beliefs on the theory of evolution. A questioner asked Walker earlier this week in London, “Are you comfortable with the idea of evolution? Do you believe in it?” Walker said he would “punt” on the issue, adding, “That’s a question politicians shouldn’t be involved in one way or another. I am going to leave that up to you. I’m here to talk about trade, not to pontificate about evolution.” This led to blaring headlines throughout the media. Huffington Post said Walker “dodged”...

When Barack Obama was first elected president of the United States, it was hard to predict what the coming years had in store. That’s always the case to some degree, of course — that’s the nature of the future. But even stipulating that predictions about the future are especially difficult, the final months of 2008 were especially tumultuous and uncertain. Through all the chaos, though, at least one thing seemed certain: the Republican Party, which had just gotten blown out for the second election in a row, was in deep, deep trouble. Fast-forward about six years, and the picture is...

After losing New Hampshire, Florida, and Illinois, the presidential candidate limped along with declining support amid calls for his withdrawal from the race. He was short of funds with a thin organization. He was a beleaguered candidate. Then came the Republican primary in North Carolina, where that candidate, Ronald Reagan, defeated the incumbent president, Gerald Ford. Reagan’s North Carolina win reversed the course of his campaign, and he ultimately came within a hair of defeating Gerald Ford for the presidential nomination in 1976. Though he lost in 1976, Ronald Reagan set the foundation for his victory in 1980; and that...

A West Virginia Republican delegate previously scrutinized for his comments on a child that could come from rape has been called on to resign. The West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women created a petition on change.org calling on the lawmakers resignation. The petition explains that Delegate Brian Kurcaba, R-Monongalia, does “not represent West Virginia women and does not understand the mental anguish a woman goes through when sexually assaulted.” Kurcaba made the comments during a hearing in the House of Delegates Feb. 5 on a bill that would attempt to ban a woman from having an abortion performed after 20...

With much of Obama’s Democrat political base seeking to block misnamed “free-trade” agreements at the moment, the White House is plotting with congressional Republicans and Big Business interests to advance the controversial national sovereignty-crushing agenda disguised as a “trade” deal. According to media reports, establishment Republicans are scheming to pass “fast-track authority” for Obama’s secretly negotiated schemes as soon as the newly empowered GOP takes control of the Senate and further boosts its majority in the House. However, despite strong support from the globalist crony-capitalist wing of the GOP, the administration is expected to face serious difficulties ramming through the...