Free Republic

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

As the blizzard of 2015 descends upon us here in the Northeast, the lack of mobility for the next couple of days gives one time to do a lot of thinking. It is now 4:00 AM here in Goshen, New York. As of this moment it's not much of a storm. That's bound to change at any moment. Outside my window there is a light powder covering my jeep, This is strange considering the fact that the nice lady on my television screen is informing me that everywhere is being hammered - particularly in New England. We shall see. The...

The U.S.-Mexico border may someday see a high-profile crosser – Pope Francis. The intrepid pontiff raised the possibility that among his future trips could be entering the U.S. border from Mexico. The pope, who made the comment while flying back recently from the Philippines, said he would do it to show solidarity with immigrants, according to the Latin Post. "To enter the U.S. from the Mexico border would be a beautiful sign of brotherhood and help for immigrants," the pope said, according to the Post and other outlets. There are some logistical factors, however, that the pope indicated he would have...

The usually grim-faced media mogul practically swooned in his seat. Moments after Jeb Bush delivered what many in the audience described as an unremarkable talk at a conference in Washington, Rupert Murdoch turned to his seatmate, Valerie Jarrett, the White House adviser, to gush over its content and tone. Mr. Murdoch was pleased that Mr. Bush, the former governor of Florida, had listed the economic benefits of overhauling the nation’s immigration system, confiding in Ms. Jarrett that Mr. Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate, had said all the right things on the fraught issue, according to three people with firsthand...

Starting Saturday at 10 a.m. ET, the Iowa Freedom Summit will be livestreamed in its entirety. Speakers include: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Steve King (R-IA), real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and many others.

By now I’m sure most of you have read or heard of Byron York’s hit piece on Governor Palin’s speech in Des Moines this Saturday. (I won’t link to it because it’s gotten enough traffic as is.) I’ve learned one way you can tell if a journalist is being fair in an article is by whom they quote. Byron York quotes one Iowan by the name of Sam Clovis, who trashes Palin’s speech along with other nameless "activists".You may think, "Wow, by listening to the words of these so-called activists and the journalists who picked up their thoughts, everyone there...

They’re baaa-aack… Those who follow this magazine know I wrote five e-books profiling the GOP circus in the 2012 Presidential campaign. This past weekend saw me put the above title to bed, the first of 2016 and two full months before I thought it would ever be necessary. It’s your official handbook to the crazy as everyone rushes to get in the race before the dark money is all sewn up by establishment candidates. I’ve profiled everyone considering a run, their record, stand on the issues and to which of the five key rabid core constituencies in the Republican Party...

Emboldened by the media attention given to their public protests, the illegal immigrant activists known as DREAMers showed up at the 2015 Iowa Freedom Summit demanding to know where the mostly conservative crowd stands on immigration. They found out when they were getting kicked out.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)DREAMers played a large role in Obama’s unilateral executive action on immigration last year. Hillary Clinton gave her support for what is widely known as “Obama’s amnesty” via a Twitter post, though that might not be enough to quell the anxiety growing among the young illegals, buzzfeed.com reported. “What else will she do?” said activist Cesar...

GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson reportedly slammed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates at a Jan. 24 press conference following his speech at Congressman Steve King's Iowa Freedom Summit. Carson, a Fox News commentator and former Johns Hopkins University pediatric neurosurgeon, seemed to hint at a series of disputes that have erupted between same-sex couples hoping to tie the knot and bakeries and other wedding-related venues operated by opponents of same-sex marriage. "What I have a problem with is when people try to force people to act against their beliefs because they say, 'They’re discriminating against me,’" he...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Chris Cillizza, Editor of the Washington Post‘s The Fix praised Scott Walker, Carly Fiorina, and Ted Cruz’s speeches in Iowa, while saying that Chris Christie was only “so-so” on Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC....

<p>DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) collapsed at an event Monday in the Des Moines suburbs and is currently receiving medical attention, according to an aide.</p> <p>“Gov. Branstad fell ill at an event today at DuPont Pioneer,” said Jimmy Centers, a Branstad adviser. “An ambulance was called and he was transported to Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. The governor was conscious and alert during the transport to the hospital. The governor had been suffering from the effects of a cold for a couple of days.”</p>

The Iowa Freedom Summit this weekend became a major event, with 1,500 voters and 200 journalists crammed into an old theater near downtown Des Moines. It showcased more than a dozen potential Republican presidential candidates, and even though big names such as Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Senator Rand Paul, and Governor Bobby Jindal didn’t make it, voters and journalists were able to size up most of the GOP field on the same stage for the first time. The field this cycle is the most open and competitive I’ve ever seen. Traditionally, Republicans have picked as their nominee the candidate...

It doesn’t happen often in politics, but every once in a while, someone pulls back the green curtain on a time-honored exercise in democracy and reveals an uncomfortable truth. Such was the case in Des Moines on Saturday when the circus came to town in the form of a dozen potential Republican White House hopefuls and the masses of journalists already following their every move.

Governor Christie moved one step closer to running for president Friday, launching a political action committee with his supporters. The new political action committee, Leadership Matters for America, will give Christie the ability to raise money and assemble a staff for a potential run for president. Christie’s establishment of the committee came just as he was flying to Iowa to woo conservative voters in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus state. The Wall Street Journal first reported early this morning that Christie’s team filed paperwork to establish the committee with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. The documents have not yet been...

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...

For the last several months, the likes of Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have dominated the media coverage of the still-nascent contest for the White House. But when the 2016 Republican presidential race roared to life this weekend with twin events in Iowa and Louisiana, two lesser-known contestants left indelible impressions on the GOP faithful. Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and current American Conservative Union Foundation Chairwoman Carly Fiorina and battle-tested Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker left the crowds stirring after a nonstop ten-hour festival in Des Moines that exposed voters to 27 speakers and at least 10...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) In the fall of 2007, as Mike Huckabee was surging in the Iowa polls, Mitt Romney’s foundering presidential campaign dispatched a camera crew to Arkansas with the charge to produce one of the most brutal ads of the election cycle. The final product — a withering spot that tied Huckabee to a 2003 murder committed by a serial rapist who was paroled while he was governor of Arkansas — never saw the light of day. But the unaired ad, obtained this week by BuzzFeed News, highlights a potentially potent line of attack on Huckabee as he considers a 2016...

RedState assisted in sponsoring Rep. Steve King (R-IA)72%‘s event in Iowa this past weekend. I did not go, but made sure to pay attention to what was going on and who said what. As I have previously written, this is the most substantive field of Republican contenders since 1980. The number of Governors, Senators, and others who are running gives the GOP a deeper bench than any the Democrats can or will muster. They also agree on most topics and are trying to nuance themselves into unique positions. I appreciate Governor Perry’s desire to paint a vision for the country....

Although he wasn’t among the two-dozen Republican leaders at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul isn’t brushing off Iowa and its first-in-the-nation caucus status. Paul, 52, who is one of the top visitors to Iowa among the presumptive 2016 presidential pack, will do four events over two days in February. Here is Paul’s schedule, according to his political action committee, RandPAC, and his Iowa-based strategist, Steve Grubbs: Feb. 6 Event details: Liberty Iowa ‘Audit the Fed’ Rally beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Jasper Winery in Des Moines, 2400 George Flagg Parkway. This event is open to the press...

Jindal: Gay Marriage Should Be Decided By States, Not Courts Jan. 24, 2015, By Tom Howell Jr. January 25, 2015 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Republican leader of one of 14 states that do not perform same-sex marriage, said Sunday he’ll defend the right of states to define marriage as they see fit. The Supreme Court is set to decide the gay-marriage question this term, but Mr. Jindal said his Christian views will not sway according to the polls. If the justices make gay marriage a national right, Mr. Jindal said he’ll support congressional Republicans pushing for a constitutional amendment...