Free Republic

There are so many good conservatives in and running for office that could take America back from liberal socialists and moderate spend thrifts that it’s hard to know them all without excessive effort. Sens. Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Reps. Paul Ryan, and candidate Elizabeth Cheney are all known names, but somebody has something bad to say about everybody. Romney was equally conservative but allowed his name to be smeared by moderates led by Boehner in Congress who cost him the election by attacking conservatives. Tea Party members need to stop being churlish when it comes to some of...

Few on the center-right grasp the politics of polarization. The idea is to always have someone more extreme than you making your position closer to the relative center and moving the ball further in your direction. The Democrats and the left have known this for years. Look at all the real crazies they have accumulated over time and molded into an almost groupthink legion. Then note that barely a word of chastisement comes from them when they say wild and crazy stuff or do wild and crazy things. Try the counterpart to the Tea Party - the Occupy Movement. Both...

e are already at the point in this prematurely unfolding 2016 presidential campaign when a glance down the list of prospective candidates can cause most observers to wince. As that seductive and sultry crooner Peggy Lee once sang, “Is that all there is?” At the U.Va. Crystal Ball, we currently have 11 Republicans and nine Democrats as probable or possible presidential contenders. The Democrats have fewer and more tentative contenders because of the paralyzing gravitational pull of “Planet Hillary,” as the New York Times Magazine described the Clinton operation. The former secretary of state is a kind of massive Jupiter...

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texans went to the polls on Tuesday in primary elections where the top candidates for governor were expected to post easy wins and favorites of the conservative Tea Party movement are trying to topple established Republicans in several races. U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, will win his race easily, opinion polls show. Attorney General Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate for governor, and state Senator Wendy Davis, the top Democratic Party candidate, were also expected to win by wide margins. Voting closes at 7 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Run-off elections will be held on May...

Hillary has to wonder how she can campaign before her massive crowds of 300 to 1000 and deal with dozens of people screaming back at her,"What Difference Does It Make" and, "You Let Them Die !!!".Is there a purple state out there where Hillary will allow anyone into her rallies?What will her staff do?Interview everyone before they enter the arena and make sure they don't have extra magic markers to alter or make new signs?

Who’s likely to do well in New Hampshire’s 2016 first-in-the-nation presidential primary? It’s a preposterous question, here in 2014, but what the heck? We asked six experts to weigh in on some of the biggest political players. Our analysts are Wayne Lesperance, political science professor at New England College; Phil Boynton, president of the University of New Hampshire College Republicans; Peter Burling, Democratic national committeeman; Dante Scala, professor of political science at UNH; Jess Steever, vice president of the Plymouth State University Democrats; and Brandon Lemay, public relations officer for the PSU Democrats. Today, our panelists consider the Republicans. Tomorrow,...

Governor Sarah Palin tweeted this today: Sarah Palin ✔ @SarahPalinUSA Remove from Congress all Potted Plants...... http://fb.me/6Jv64aAkT 10:32 AM - 21 Feb 2014 133 Retweets 101 favorites This serves as her comment to the linked article at Townhall from Judge Andrew Napolitano about President Obama’s unconstitutional power grab and the lack of Congress to even attempt to stop him: The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing. A glaring example of the impending triumph of a constitutional evil that could be stopped by folks...

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) may be the brightest light to adorn the Republican party in many years. He knows how to make the case for conservative ideas, pointing, for example, to the contrasting fates of Detroit and Houston to illustrate the superiority of conservative policies. So it’s particularly galling to see that rather than train his fire at Obama and the liberal machine that cocoons him, Cruz has become a one-man wrecking ball against Republicans. His most recent foray into sabotaging his colleagues concerned the debt-limit increase. Because Speaker Boehner sent over a “clean” debt-limit bill, Republican senators had...

Every year my local County Republican Committee does a "Lincoln Day Dinner" as a fundraiser to replenish our coffers. Monies used to maintain our headquarters, (which is rent free)maintain a web site, phone, printed material, etc... The problem we are experiencing is with the "Republican" base anger. In our county, republicans hold every elected office except the Sheriff. Romney won our county. We are delivering the vote, but people are so angry at the national party and I am understanding with their dissatisfaction, which I agree with. I believe we need to grow our elected officials', take them for a...

Ask any of the twenty to twenty-five per-cent of the uninformed, questions regarding the 2014 mid-terms,odds are they will be as naive as the people who have no idea who the Vice-President is.A huge chunk of those who voted for Obama will not be in any hurry to vote in the mid-terms being they will be too occupied with either their free phones,flat-screens,free gadgets,and wolfing down their free meals and getting fat!,This is the primary reason the Rats Are In Panic Mode!,Most of the base is either so dumb or just too lazy to vote!,Yet 70 or so Million Conservatives...

ABC chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl says many of Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s fellow Republican senators despise him — like, really, totally hate him. “The Republicans in the Senate had this all set. This was going to be able to pass with only Democratic votes. He stands up, says ‘I’m going to filibuster’, suddenly they need 60 votes,” Karl explained on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, speaking of last week’s vote to increase the debt ceiling. “I’ll tell you, Ted Cruz is so hated among his Republicans now — more so than even during the shutdown — that at...

Can you just imagine if for example,Rick Perry and every Governor in Purple Swing States decided to make a few changes in how every precinct is run?Lets say,from this point on "Only Republicans&Conservatives"will be counting ballots.Or maybe even,all registered Republicans and Conservatives do not need ID to vote,"But All Democrats"are required to present Proper ID.Can you just imagine what would happen in DC?,What? Governors are making up new laws without even taking a vote?, Hmm? now that would be interesting to see how it plays out!

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/15/president-election-2016-hillary-clinton-column/5340999/

He said this at a conference organized by House Democrats, who’ve spent several years in the minority and are doomed to spend at least a few more at the hands of The Party That Doesn’t Exist. My favorite part in the clip below is where he touts the fact that ObamaCare, which has been underwater in public approval since the day it was signed, nonetheless hasn’t annoyed quite enough people to build a majority in favor of repeal (yet). To hear him talk, there must be a Democratic landslide brewin’ in November. But he’s not wrong about the fracturing of...

Wendy Davis told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper on Wednesday that “Texas is not really a red state, it's just a non-voting state.” Sure Wendy, sure. Well, she is right about Texas being a non-voting state. Texas is one of the worst performers when it comes to voter turnout. In 2010, just 36.4 percent of registered voters actually voted, making it the worst state for turnout. In 2012, Texas ranked 48th in voter turnout, according to a report from the University of Texas at Austin. In fact, Texas has had lower voter turnout rates than the national average since 1972. But...

President Obama gave a pep talk to House Democrats at their retreat in Maryland this morning, saying he was “grateful” for Nancy Pelosi’s team and “looking forward to making sure that this year we keep on making progress, even if we continue to get a little resistance from the other side.” “Part of what I’d like to think makes us Democrats is not simply some abstract ideological set of beliefs, but the fact that we’re reminded every single day that we’re here to help a whole bunch of folks out there, our neighbors, our friends, our communities, who are struggling...

Most of the political world’s attention this week was focused on Speaker John Boehner’s decision to let President Obama continue borrowing without limit until next March. Speaker Boehner’s decision to break with his conference — and break with his own dollar-for-dollar rule in raising the debt limit — shows that the House GOP conference is without leadership today. While this should strike fear in all who hope to see a conservative governing majority by 2017, Heritage Action’s Conservative Policy Summit showed that there is a path out of the wilderness, if only Washington’s political class can find the courage to...

I was planning to write about this before Ed beat me to the punch so let me ask my two questions belatedly. One: Would this be a bona fide run to try to win the nomination or a niche candidacy a la John Bolton or Peter King? King and/or Bolton won’t run because they think they can win but because they want someone to answer Rand Paul on foreign policy and don’t trust any of the big-name candidates to do it effectively. Scarborough may feel the same way about Ted Cruz’s brand of tea-party conservatism. He won’t do any better...

Michelle Malkin doesn’t run away from fights, she runs toward them. And she’s running faster than ever headlong into the 2014 Republican primary battles on behalf of upstart conservative candidates who are mounting insurgent challenges to the GOP old guard. Twitter is Malkin’s weapon of choice. Battles with her almost always devolve into wars, and those who follow the conservative social media scene know she has a proven formula online: Taunting quips from foes bring out the full force of her Twitter arsenal, with snappy replies, catchy hashtags and the mobilization of a legion of energized followers. Malkin, 43, says...

Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin would prove "formidable" in a 2016 run for president, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol predicted Thursday. "She's a huge political talent. She has a real populist streak, and a real feel for, sort of, middle America in a way that very few politicians do," Kristol told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The truth is, she might be kind of formidable," he added.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Her biggest obstacle, Kristol maintained, would be explaining why she stepped down as Alaska's governor before serving her entire term. Kristol advised the next Republican nominee to "spend some time...