Free Republic

There hasn't been a more controversial piece of Congressional and Senate legislation than the proposed health care program in my memory. In spite of polls revealing a majority of Americans oppose the current health care proposals, the Democrats are pushing hard to pass their legislation as quickly as possible. The American people are seeking to have their voices heard through their elected officials including conservatives, but the US Senate appears to be oblivious to that fact — including Republican senators such as Iowa's Chuck Grassley. Rather than fighting this attempt at an oppressive government takeover of the private sector, Senator...

The Republican polling firm Rasmussen Reports surveyed 500 "likely voters" in Iowa on September 22 and came up with bad numbers for Governor Chet Culver. Former Governor Terry Branstad leads Culver by 54 percent to 34 percent, and Bob Vander Plaats leads Culver by 43 percent to 39 percent. Culver's approval rating is 43 percent, with 53 percent of respondents disapproving of the job he is doing. Topline results and favorability ratings are here. Culver was viewed very or somewhat favorably by 43 percent of respondents and viewed very or somewhat unfavorably by 50 percent. Branstad's favorability was 64 percent,...

Harlan Muth isn’t organizing Sarah Palin’s presidential campaign, but pledges as soon as someone does, “I’ll be with ’em. In the meantime, the Marion maintenance contractor is turning heads with his “Sarah Palin 2012” poster prominently displayed on his van. “It’s getting a fantastic response,” Muth, 63, said. “So many people give me the thumbs up or honk when they see it. Some people get out of their cars and ask me where they can get a poster.” Muth, who spent 23 years in the Air Force before settling down in Marion, couldn’t find a Palin 2012 sign, so he...

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) -- the third-ranking member of the House -- is the latest Republican with (possible) national ambitions to head off to Iowa for a political event. Pence, who is due to make an as-yet unspecified appearance in Cedar Rapids on July 24th, isn't on the short list of 2012 GOP candidates, but MSNBC and other outlets have predicted he'll be in the mix. Nevada Sen. John Ensign was in northwest Iowa in early June - shortly before his career imploded -- followed by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was in Des Moines on Thursday.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential nominee John McCain is planning a visit to Des Moines on Tuesday for a round-table discussion with small business people. McCain plans to meet with a few small business people during a meeting at EFCO, a company that makes concrete forms. The round-table discussion is scheduled to last an hour, beginning at 10 a.m. McCain's wife, Cindy, is expected to join her husband during the visit. Although McCain will meet with only a few business people, his campaign says about 200 local employees will be in the audience.

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is an embarrassment, both to the Senate and to the citizens of his home state of Iowa. It is Harkin that you can see cheering on Howard Dean has he makes his famous "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004, and Harkin is the guy shouting "DO IT FOR PAUL!" as he turned a memorial service into a crass political rally when he exhorted the thousands of mourners to elect Democrats because that's what the recently dead Senator Paul Wellstone supposed would have wanted. Harkin is also known for lies about his own military experience,...

Fred Thompson's political career might very well be over tomorrow. If so, take this post as a postmortem of his candidacy. It is obvious that Senator Thompson has squandered a great deal of good will during the interminable run up to the announcement of his candidacy and his less than stellar performance in the period September through mid-December. The easy analysis is that Thompson was lazy but I don't think it was laziness. I think it was a misguided attempt to run an issues oriented campaign. Thompson's Socratic style of addressing those early crowds was a good way to discuss...

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decided in late September he would not run for president this year, Bob Walker went looking for another Republican he could support. He found Fred Thompson. "I'm interested in somebody who is seriously considering the issues not just as a political gimmick, but has real, long-term ideas in mind for fixing some very large problems we face immediately and down the road," Walker says. "I came to the conclusion that Fred Thompson was the guy in the race who had that kind of serious attitude," says Walker, a Lititz resident...

And so it begins.We wanted exciting, we got exciting.As this is written, late on the night of the caucuses, the outlines of the decisions seem clear: Barack Obama won. Hillary Clinton, the inevitable, the avatar of the machine, lost. It's huge. Even though people have been talking about this possibility for six weeks now, it's still huge. She had the money, she had the organization, the party's stars, she had Elvis behind her, and the Clinton name in a base that loved Bill. And she lost. There are always a lot of reasons for a loss, but the ur-reason in...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is already attacking the politician who appears to be his chief rival in New Hampshire, Arizona Sen. John McCain. On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Romney attempted to spin the Iowa caucuses as a defeat for John McCain, lumping McCain with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as the big losers. "The Washington insiders are being rejected," Romney said. Romney placed a distant second to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. McCain and Fred Thompson were in a virtual tie for third. Romney continued to say that placing ahead of big-name candidates Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and McCain in Iowa...

Ed Rollins is a nasty, nasty piece of work. Here he was tonight on Fox News: Rollins: The wise men like you who say Huckabee doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in heck - well, he can still go out and take his message to the people. And we’ve seen all the wisdom doesn’t live in Washington, and all the wisdom doesn’t live in the press corps.” Wallace: You can accuse me of a lot of things, but I would note we’ve had Mike Huckabee on Fox News Sunday several times— Rollins: —and we’re very grateful for the opportunity to take...

It looks like the Politico website has another fascinating scoop full of un-substantiated and un-named sources. That is that John McCain's campaign is literally hanging by a thread. He is low on money and fallen to a fourth place tie with Ron Paul in Iowa. Sources (unnamed) say that a McCain shellacking in Iowa will likely drop him out of the running in New Hampshire where is organization is running on fumes. In Iowa McCain has gone from 13% and high hopes of pulling a surprise to falling to 10% and a tie with a surging Ron Paul. UPDATE: ARG...

Johnny Dollar’s got the video of that irascible Ed Rollins shooting off his mouth. Nothing serious. Usually when Rollins shoots off his mouth he finds himself in the unemployment line or wounding the candidate he alleges to support with friendly fire. The Man Who Helped Reagan Win 49 States ™ indeed. Yea. Take “Reagan” out of that bio and what’s left of Vallejo’s finest? Ed Rollins - guiding the gay, yet somehow married to Arianna, Michael Huffington to Senate defeat? The mastermind behind billionaire Ross Perot’s Presidency? Claiming that he bribed black ministers to suppress the black vote to help...

Well, that's the rumor from Zogby polling. Musing on the Thompson campaign, there was an interesting post earlier this week by Paul Marks at Samizdata: "Fred Thompson: Too Sane to Be President?" Marks writes that the media equates a passion for campaigning with a passion for governing and serving one's country -- I'd note that "Campaign Carl" Cameron of Fox News has been particularly derisive of Thompson in this regard -- but that they're actually two different things. Marks: "But what sort of person is passionate about the political process? Not getting things done - but the process of gaining...

Ok, yeah I have small children. But that’s beside the point. I think Fred Thompson has a strong shot at 2nd place in Iowa. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because it is more likely that he will finish 3rd. But if, as I am getting from the news coverage, this McCain, Huckabee, Romney food fight on the airwaves in Iowa is souring voters to those candidates, Fred Thompson could be the beneficiary of that sentiment. Going negative in Iowa has always carried risks and Iowa is the place where dark horses rise to the top....

His liberal record went right up until his final days in office as governor. Despite what he has said since leaving office, he was always there, ready to help out to keep abortions safe and legal. His new claim is that he would have blocked it if he had the chance. Of course, Mitt. Of course you would have done that. If only the track record didn't get in the way of facts. Why do facts always have to get in the way of a good story? More hypocrisy from Mitt, after the jump. Former governor Mitt Romney's economic development...

In a last attempt to convince Iowa Republicans to vote for him this coming Thursday, Fred Thompson has put a video on YouTube in which he speaks to them for 17 minutes. In a last attempt to convince Iowa Republicans to vote for him this Thursday, former Senator Fred Thompson has put a video on YouTube in which he speaks to Iowans - and Americans as a whole - for more than 17 minutes. Instead of putting out a 30 second ad, Thompson decided to take voters seriously and to carefully to explain to them why he’s the man to...

This morning Fox and Friends concentrated on three candidates in relation the Iowa caucuses on Thursday night: the two lead candidates in the polls, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney - and John McCain... this was in spite of the fact that Senator McCain is not in Iowa (he is in New Hampshire) and that Fred Thompson is ahead of John McCain is most of Iowa polls. This is a part of pattern: last night Fred Thompson was on Fox News Sunday, but in the panel discussion, later in the show, the panellists ignored Fred Thompson. He is attacked by people,...

The man who America is not particularly interested in electing president doesn't really want the job, anyway. And while it's possible he's just playing hard-to-get, statements like this one the other day aren't helping: "I'm not particularly interested in running for president..." - Fred Thompson He defends his remark, saying it's out-of-context, but who would go into an interview and tell the employer that they hated the process that goes along with getting hired?

On the Internet as of sometime this afternoon, Fred Thompson’s closing argument to the people of Iowa. Whereas Romney is saturating the airwaves with attack ads, Thompson pays the voters the courtesy of speaking calmly, and in detail—the video runs to just over 15 minutes. Why should the good Republicans of Iowa support Thompson? Because, the candidate argues, he can win. I believe I am the only candidate in this race who can bring our party to victory in the fall. First, because of the firmness of my principles and the trust that that engenders. Secondly, because of the detailed...

David Yepsen has a horrifically bad column in the Sunday Des Moines Register. In it, he distills each candidate down to the usual cliches of the leftist/"centrist" newspaper agenda: Mike Huckabee The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has soared in the GOP race following his second-place finish in the Iowa Republican straw poll in August. He has rallied party social and religious conservatives as well as supporters of a big national sales tax to replace the income tax. He's a witty speaker and an affable politician whose criticisms of the nation's economic policies sound a lot like the populist...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn, accused some of my colleagues of "journalistic malpractice" just now on Fox News Sunday. He's referring to coverage implying that Thompson said he's "not particularly interested in running for president," like this story. As our awesome ABC News off-air reporter with the Thompson campaign advised us last night, and as Jim Geraghty at National Review points out that may not be the fairest characterization of Thompson's complete remarks. The larger point Thompson seems to have been trying to make is that he's not interested in the process of running for president, but he wants to...

Fred Thompson has picked up endorsements from three state representatives - Kraig Paulsen of Cedar Rapids, Jeff Kaufmann of Wilton and Jamie Van Fossen of Davenport -- bringing his total to six. Mitt Romney still has a prohibitive lead with 16, followed by John McCain with eight. (Table at link)

Please post any information that Fred Thompson supporters would like to know here...

DES MOINES – Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) is making a big push with supporters to raise funds to go on the air with one more ad here before the Jan. 3 caucuses. In an email from supporters with a subject line “$109,789 and counting,” campaign manager Bill Lacy makes a plea with supporters to continue contributing online to get to the campaign’s target goal of $248,846. The email contains a link to the already-filmed ad that the campaign is set to run if it meets its fundraising goal. “If we can make a big enough buy, we have a...

As Rush points out at the top of the excerpt, he does not endorse candidates in primaries. But that does not stop him from taking note of a fact that many Reagan Republicans are seeing Fred Thompson as the only true conservative in the field of Republican candidates. (VIDEO) With 13.5 million weekly listeners (some have suggested the number is closer to 20 million), Rush’s comments will not go unnoticed. Question is, is it enough to keep Fred in the race through?

Power Line hits us to a Reuters report that says illegal immigrants are going back to Mexico. A] growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States … are starting to pack their bags and move on as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants widens and the U.S. economy slows, turning a traditional Christmas trek home into a one-way trip. *** There is no tally of the number of illegal immigrants who have already left the United States, many of whom simply head south over the border with their belongings packed into a car during the annual Christmas exodus, or board...

Nashville, Tenn. - This week, PETA sent a letter to all the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates--including Sen. Fred Thompson--explaining that a 10-cent-per-pound "sin" tax on meat could go a long way in protecting the environment, reducing health-care costs, and adding dollars to the U.S. Treasury. PETA points out that meat is the leading cause of global warming--according to a 2006 United Nations report, the meat industry emits 40 percent more global-warming gases than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, Hummers, airplanes, and ships in the world combined--and has been conclusively linked to serious illnesses, including heart disease, some types of...

Steve King (R-Iowa), in his endorsement of Fred08, reveals quite a bit about his presidential assessment techniques. The GOP lawmaker says the former Tennessee senator is the only candidate who epitomizes the full spectrum of conservative values. In the past few months Steve King (R-Iowa) has had the opportunity to meet personally with all but one of the GOP presidential hopefuls. He says he carefully evaluated each man on issues he considers important for the future destiny of the United States. "I probed them and tested them on the values that I think are important," King says. After the face-to-face...

Kraig Paulsen, the Iowa House Republican Whip is backing Fred Thompson for President. Paulsen represents Linn County - which is where my home town of Cedar Rapids is located. (Endorsement Video at link)

Mark Steyn’s review of the candidate’s Christmas campaign messages is a must-read today because it’s likely to be the funniest thing you’ll see all day. Here’s a taste: John Edwards’s message is the usual Dickensian affair about the two Americas. I forget the details, but the upshot is that one America is a land of spindly emaciated Tiny Tims with barely three farthings to rub together for their next cup of gruel, while the other’s a marshmallow world where Dick Cheney, high on wassail, shoots a brace of turducken out of season, and then chows down as the Radio City...

As we reported on the blog yesterday, a group calling itself American Right to Life Action, is running TV ads against Mitt Romney here in Iowa on the Fox News Channel. In Tuftonboro, N.H., Romney said about the ad, from ABC News' Matt Stuart, "I don't know who that is. I'd be interested to know who is really behind that group. I'm very proud that the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which is the premier right-to-life group in Massachusetts, awarded me their leadership award. My record in being pro-life is very clear as the governor of Massachusetts and my guess is...

Somebody in the Huckabee camp made the mistake of insulting the leader of the conservative movement in the U.S., Rush Limbaugh. Rush responded on Friday's show and basically ripped the Huckabee camp a well-deserved new one. Whoever made the original comments clearly has not been paying attention. Some are questioning whether the Huckabee campaign can survive the shellacking it got on Friday's program. Huckabee is trying to stop the bleeding: SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The best-talking Republican politician in America has a message for the best-talking conservative voice in the country: Let's talk to one another. Mike Huckabee, taking questions...

Confederate Yankee catches Roger Simon of the Politico making a Fred Thompson visit to an Iowa firehouse sound like it went much worse than it did. Simon describes Thompson's "sour expression" on his face, and suggests that Thompson offended the firefighters when he mentioned his "silly hat" rule. CBS News - you know CBS News, that longtime friend of bloggers - offers video, that shows a lot of laughter and good spirits all around. Come on, man. Thompson apparently makes a reference to this botched story in his latest little video from the road: "Remember, we don't raise our hands...

After reading this question that was posed to Fred Thompson and his answer, I can't help but think it's a shame that he's not doing better in the campaign (h/t Instapundit): AKD: What will you do for the farmers of Bremer County? FT: (laughs) AKD: You knew this was coming, right? FT: I would continue to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I’ve been looking all over Iowa for a bad steak and I can’t find it. Been trying my best. It’s not a matter of what I would do for the farmers. Farmers are not looking for a president...

Mike Huckabee is still supporting illegal immigration: So what happened to Tom Tancredo’s Iowa supporters after his ‘big announcement’ earlier this week? We know that the former-candidate threw his support behind Mitt Romney, but on Friday Tancredo’s Iowa state chairman Bill Salier announced that he was supporting Fred Thompson. And while riding through Muscatine on the Huckabus this week, Mike Huckabee was confronted by a very well informed former Tancredo staffer who argued with the Iowa frontrunner over the issue of immigration. Deb Miller described herself as “looking” for a candidate after her old boss dropped out of the race,...

In this long election cycle, we may be learning as much about media bias as about the candidates. PJM’s Bob Owens has more on the questionable characterization of Fred Thompson by The Politico’s Roger Simon. Fire Chief Dan McKenzie cast more doubts on The Politico’s chief political correspondent Roger Simon’s version of events at McKenzie’s Waverly, Iowa fire station in Simon’s article “Fred Thompson: Lazy as charged.” Questions had been raised about Simon’s article based on a video of Thompson’s appearance, which seemed to show the candidate behaving in a radically different manner from the one described by The Politico...

Tom Tancredo may have gotten behind Mitt Romney yesterday, but the Tanc's top guy on the ground in Iowa will help out Fred. A retired Marine and active farmer, Bill Salier had served as Tancredo's Iowa state chair. He's a true believing social conservative who ran an uphill race in the '02 GOP Senate primrary that raised some eyebrows. In short: he's the sort of worker bee a campaign likes to have on its side. If Salier puts his shoulder to the wheel for Fred, he could be a major asset. M.E. Sprengelmeyer of the Rocky did a great profile...

Almost as I'd thought. The endorsement of Rep. King has begun having an impact in the Iowa poll numbers and the Thompson campaign is on the move according to this latest Strategic Vision poll. - Huckabee -31% - Romney - 25% - Thompson - 16% The anomaly in this poll right now is Huckabee (another post on that later) who when this poll was taken was at 31%. I have not heard the entire show, however the internet is abuzz with Rush's cremation of Huckabee (and for good reason...again more on that later). Huckabee's numbers are going to plummet down...

Yesterday the news was full of a new poll showing Mitt Romney coming from nowhere to tie Rudy Giuliani for first place among Republicans nationally. The surprising NBC/Wall Street Journal poll,conducted between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16, showed Romney and Giuliani with 20% each, Huckabee with 17%, and the resurgent John McCain with 14%. Combine that with an Insider Advantage poll taken on Dec. 16 and Dec 17 showing Romney recapturing the lead in Iowa,with 28% to Huckabee's 25, and a Rasmussen Poll taken on Dec. 17, showing Huckabee's Iowa lead over Romney cut to only one per cent, and...

I’d like to follow up on Roger “Event? What Event?” Simon’s Politico story with some details about Fred Thompson’s visit to the Waverly, Iowa newspaper. You know, the newspaper where Thompson’s staff made Simon and Mark Halperin wait outside. It seems that Simon appeared a bit miffed by the exclusion and that, in my opinion, colored his entire story. According to the Waverly Democrat (via an e-mail commenter), here’s what happened. Two national journalists who had covered the Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson appearance in Waterloo earlier in the afternoon showed up for Thompson’s sit-down session, but were asked by...

Seven major pollsters issued new national numbers for mid-December, after the last Republican debate in Iowa, which was hosted by the hostile Des Moines Register which is for the record, endorsing the Hillary Clinton campaign. An overall average of these seven polls is below. With Fred Thompson running 5th with only 11.3% support nationally, can Thompson really win the RNC nomination and if so, how? Can Fred Thompson Surge? The "front-runners:" Mayor Giuliani has been running the longest. He has peaked in the 20’s several times now, only to slide in the polls immediately after. He should be running strongest...

Tom Tancredo’s presidential campaign is planning a “major announcement” tomorrow in Des Moines. PJM’s Richard Miniter thinks the Colorado congressman will likely drop out of the race and endorse Fred Thompson. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tancredo presidential campaign is planning a “major announcement” at 2 PM tomorrow in Des Moines. The flash media advisory is here. “Major announcement” is code phrase used by the campaigns and understood by the press to mean “dropping out of the race.” (Some candidates have been known to abuse this unwritten understanding to win some attention for what turns out to be some boring policy speech. It...

North Carolina Right to Life PAC joins South Carolina Citizens for Life (SCCL), its sister affiliate in South Carolina, in endorsing former Senator Fred Thompson for President of the United States of America. “By endorsing Fred Thompson for President, North Carolina Right to Life PAC wants all North Carolinians to know Senator Thompson’s long-standing pro-life record, his unwavering commitment to protecting unborn children from abortion, and our belief in his ability to win,” stated Barbara Holt, PAC President. “As President, Fred Thompson will be a strong advocate for life at all stages.” Fred Thompson amassed a 100% pro-life voting record...

SoCalPundit.com endorsed Fred Thompson for the Republican nomination not because he was the candidate raising the most money or the candidate with the most name recognition (though in a national election I think he would) but because he is the true conservative candidate in the GOP field. All due respect to Alan Keyes of course. After a shaky start to a late campaign, it looked like Fred was dead in the water. But a Google search for the candidate today reveals some indication that Fred is catching up in Iowa and other early primary states where Fred must make a...

From the Thompson campaign, good ol' voter outreach via cell phone: Dear Friends, Right now, Fred is traveling all over Iowa delivering his consistent conservative message. He needs your help in getting the word out to even more people. On Thursday night and Saturday we're holding national phone banks calling Iowa voters. All you need is your mobile or land line phone and a computer connected to the internet. With Phone for Fred we provide the phone numbers and a script. Simply go to Phone for Fred and select Iowa to get started. Person to person contact will make a...

It just could happen: “But after a sluggish start, Thompson has sensed an opening in Iowa, and he’s moving decisively to exploit it. The opening arises from a combination of Romney’s changes of position on social issues and Huckabee’s stumbles on foreign-policy questions and immigration. After his winning performance in the Des Moines Register’s debate, Thompson has embarked on a lengthy bus tour of the state. During these final days, his campaign says he’ll hold events in 50 communities and will visit 54 of the 99 counties. On Monday, he picked up the surprise endorsement of Congressman Steve King. Of...

Last night in Dubuque to an excited crowd Fred kicked off his “Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down!” Bus Tour. As Fred takes his consistent conservative message straight to Iowans Fred08.com will take you along for the ride. You’ll get behind-the-scenes looks, proud FredHeads telling you why they support Fred, and strong dose of Fred speaking the truth. You’ve already seen a video from a Dubuque FredHead. Expect more of that throughout Fred’s bus tour along with pictures and observations from people on the road.

Stick a fork in him: With fewer than 20 days until the Iowa caucuses, three men in the Republican Party stand to get their tickets punched out of the Hawkeye State. While everything is still in flux, those likely winners will be Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson. Notably missing out on Iowa’s political rocket fuel is national frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. While most political insiders and pundits have known for months that Giuliani had no plans to compete in Iowa, the general American electorate probably does not. Known to not pay attention to the early political pontificating, the average...

Greencastle, Ind. - "Four years ago in this cycle there was a front-runner and his name was Howard Dean," recalls Jeri Kehn Thompson, in an interview with Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader. "John Kerry was running about eighth. You can ask President Dean how things went in Iowa." Thompson, a 1988 graduate of DePauw University, is the wife of Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson, who is currently running third among GOP candidates in an Iowa poll. She was in Louisville campaigning for her husband yesterday. The article notes that Jeri Thompson returned home to Washington immediately following her Kentucky stop so she...