Free Republic

I’d intended to write about the Democratic and Republican primaries this week, but an article from the New Republic’s very smart Danny Vinik caught my eye. So, the primaries will have to wait. Referencing a piece by Ed Luce in the Financial Times, Vinik writes that Luce “overlooks a fundamental reason why [Hillary Clinton] is the early [2016] favorite: The economy is quickly improving under a Democratic president.” Vinik then cites political science research suggesting that the economy is the crucial factor in predicting elections. This is true. But there are other factors to consider as well; no model of...

The nation’s foreign policy is “a manifest disaster.” Its approach to cutting a deal with Iran on nuclear development is “catastrophically reckless.” Its policy on assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia is “incoherent.” This White House is home to the “most hostile administration to Israel in modern times.” That’s Sen. Ted Cruz’s scathing assessment of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, a blistering critique that is positioning him as the most blazingly hawkish Republican to potentially run for president in 2016. He also tellingly dubbed it “the Obama-Clinton foreign policy,” a subtle hint that he’d lob much of the same...

President Barack Obama has met privately at the White House with his former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The White House says Obama and Clinton met for about an hour in the Oval Office “to catch up and enjoy an informal discussion on a wide range of issues.” The White House did not say which issues were discussed. …

The Hill reports: “Hillary Clinton and Vice President Biden will be among the attendees at a Washington forum on Israeli-U.S. relations this weekend. Both will speak to the Saban Forum, an annual event organized by the Brookings Institution and entertainment mogul Haim Saban. Saban is also a major political donor who has pledged to support the former secretary of State should she run for president in 2016.” Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a press briefing in 2010. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Hillary Clinton, just like President Obama in the run-up to the 2008 race, will present herself as...

Until recently, the conventional wisdom among Beltway elites was that Hillary Clinton would waltz, or at least walk unassisted, to the Democratic nomination in 2016. Now that narrative has come under attack, amid mounting evidence that Hillary’s most recent quest for power has already failed.Consider, for example, the embarrassingly sparse crowd at Georgetown University on Wednesday, where Clinton delivered a lecture on “Smart Power: Security Through Inclusive Leadership.” As Hillary Clinton takes stage for policy speech at Georgetown Univ, scores of student seats, balcony are empty. pic.twitter.com/y2DzUprk8E— M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey) December 3, 2014 View from balcony as Hillary...

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood was the commander of the 16-man Special Forces security detail at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya, until the State Department ordered him and his men home on August 5, 2012 and never replaced them. Despite repeated pleas from Ambassador Chris Stevens and his State Department security officers in Tripoli that they remain in Libya, Washington wouldn’t listen. Colonel Wood remains perplexed at what happened on the night Ambassador Stevens was murdered, and in a recent conversation, recalled a similar event in June 2012 when the British ambassador came under RPG attack while visiting Benghazi. “When...

With the midterms over and the next presidential cycle officially underway, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at Georgetown University Wednesday morning to bundles of empty seats littered throughout the auditorium. In pictures, empty seats are shown throughout the balcony level of the auditorium, with other empty seats shown in the lower level as well.

Bill Cosby may face a class-action lawsuit as several of his alleged victims rally together 8 DAYS AGO NOVEMBER 25, 2014 9:14AM WHILE it’s unlikely Bill Cosby will face criminal charges over a string of fresh sex assault allegations, one of the women to accuse him has vowed to make him pay. The now 77-year-old American performer has faced weeks of renewed pressure as shocking revelations about his alleged predatory nature emerge. A total of 18 women have now come forward with consistent accounts of rape of sexual assault over more than five decades. FRESH CLAIMS: It’s unlikely Bill Cosby...

Hillary Clinton argued for forceful action to fight climate change in an environmental speech on Monday night, but did not mention the controversial Keystone pipeline. [Snip] “The science of climate change is unforgiving, no matter what the deniers may say, sea levels are rising, ice caps are melting, storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc,” Clinton said, according to ABC News. “The political challenges are also unforgiving, there is no getting around the fact the kind of ambitious response required to effectively combat climate change is going to be a tough sell at home and around the world at a...

A measly 34 percent of this group backed House Democratic candidates in 2014, creating a gap that could sunder the party's 2016 hopes.Hillary Clinton's support of deferred deportation of millions of undocumented workers might help the Democratic Party's putative presidential nominee win over Latinos in 2016. But among the voters most responsible for the Democrats' midterm wipeout this year, it could very well make things worse—and therein lies Clinton's dilemma. Support for Democrats among white, working-class voters was especially sparse this year: A measly 34 percent of them backed Democratic House candidates, exit polls found, while they fled in almost...

Sen. Mary Landrieu is relying on a close group of staunch Democratic supporters as she makes a final push to save her Senate seat from Republican challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy ahead of a Dec. 6 Louisiana runoff election. The momentum seems to favor Cassidy. The GOP quickly coalesced behind Cassidy after the general election in November in which Cassidy and Landrieu received the most votes, but neither won enough to avoid a runoff. Cassidy has received a fresh round of endorsements from big-name 2016 contenders, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ken., and Texas Gov. Rick Perry....

Majorities disapprove of Obama’s immigration move and still see Democrats as being against them. And most Democrats still don’t get it.The Democrats’ upstairs-downstairs coalition is fraying. Just ask Sen. Chuck Schumer; he’ll tell you. Last week, Schumer announced that the Democrats had lost touch with Middle America, and that Barack Obama’s agenda was out of sync with middle-class needs and expectations. For Schumer—the third-ranking Senate Democrat and his caucus’s chief message-crafter—to go on the record like that, things must really be bad. Apparently, 2016 is not shaping up as a Democratic slam dunk. At the moment, the public’s discontent is...

The National Enquirer, still basking in the glow of its takedown of philandering John Edwards, a story well known to many in the media but ignored because the man was, after all, the Democrats’ pick for veep and a darling of the left, is reporting that Hillary Clinton may be heading to rehab for a drinking problem. A  “boozed-up” Hillary Clinton suffered a secret collapse during a recent vacation – and now worried advisers want her to do a secret stint in rehab before her White House run! Sources close to the former FirstLady and ex-Secretary of State revealed the hush-hush “Rehab Before...

The National Enquirer, still basking in the glow of its takedown of philandering John Edwards, a story well known to many in the media but ignored because the man was, after all, the Democrats’ pick for veep and a darling of the left, is reporting that Hillary Clinton may be heading to rehab for a drinking problem. A “boozed-up” Hillary Clinton suffered a secret collapse during a recent vacation – and now worried advisers want her to do a secret stint in rehab before her White House run! Sources close to the former FirstLady and ex-Secretary of State revealed the...

A “boozed-up” Hillary Clinton suffered a secret collapse during a recent vacation – and now worried advisers want her to do a secret stint in rehab before her White House run! Sources close to the former First Lady and ex-Secretary of State revealed the hush-hush “Rehab Before White House” plan to The National ENQUIRER in advance of Hillary’s formal announcement to be a 2016 presidential candidate, touted for early next year. A high-level insider told The ENQUIRER: “Hillary’s social drinking has gone out of 
control! “In a hushed-up incident, Hillary was too tipsy one night and suffered a secret collapse....

“The president said [last week] that the next president needs … a new car smell, and it’s pretty hard for me to say … that she [Hillary] has a new car smell,” Schoen told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview to air Sunday on New York’s 970 AM...

As Barack Obama invites in five million illegals to scoop up American jobs, and as those normal Americans lucky enough to still have jobs wait in traffic while morons block the freeway because some Swisher Sweets-puffing felon got himself killed, Hillary Clinton’s chances in 2016 plummet. So it turns out that Obama is likely to achieve one great thing as president – he’ll keep Hillary from ever occupying the Oval Office. It is important to understand that neither the executive amnesty scam nor the bogus outrage over Ferguson actually had anything to with race per se. Obama and his gang...

Leftists looking for the perfect ornament to adorn their trees need look no further. "Ready for Hillary" ornaments are now available! I got the good news via email today from RFH. Says the promo: "Embellish your Support! Hang this elegant, gold-finished aluminum ornament proudly. Comes in a black velveteen pouch." And at only $35, a steal! We are assured that the ornaments are "USA made." OK, but are they union made? In any case, what are your thoughts on these ornaments, shown in the photo with a delicate tree limb in the background?

Will it be Democrats or Republicans who have “national appeal”? Do any of these 13 Republicans have a chance? Jonathan Easley put them out there in an article in The Hill this morning just as the National Politics Examiner published a list of Democrats. See the story link below. Let’s analyze the Easley list. He begins by positioning what are identified as the “big three”: Paul, Christie, and Bush. As porkers go, Paul doesn’t have a chance as Christie and Bush win the weigh in. Bush’s heaviness is as much of a concern as Hillary’s age, maybe. Christie loses on...

Gallup headlines: Obama Approval Drops Among Working-Class Whites. Here, “working class” includes all non-college graduates, some 60-65% of the adult white population. Gallup’s chart shows President Obama’s approval rating among white college graduates and non-college graduates from the beginning of his administration to the end of October. His 27% approval rating among non-college graduates is indeed striking: