Free Republic

Obama's the Perfect Candidate for the Sally Field Party by Seth Swirsky Actress Sally Field won an Oscar in 1979 for playing a union organizer in “Norma Rae.� Six years later, she won the same prized-award for her role in “Places in the Heart,� her acceptance speech earning its own special place in sound-bite history: “…I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" That about sums up what the Democratic party...

I want Fred Thompson to win the Republican nomination. (Did you hear he's surging in South Carolina?) And it's not just that the other candidates stink for various and sundry reasons--which I'll run through momentarily--or that he's the best of the worst or something. I want Fred for his own reasons. Let's run through the problems with the other guys: John McCain: He marches to his own little drummer who doesn't know the conservative rhythm. Of course there's McCain-Feingold that nifty little piece of legislation who's chief beneficiary was George Soros, but there's this other little thing: his only consistent...

Veterans of the 90’s VRWC thank Hillary Rodham Clinton for speaking to voters in Iowa from a cattle barn. After all, elections are all about the futures. Hillary was in rare form, offering us the following words of wisdom. "I've been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but I've never felt like I was the one that was being bid on," Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. "I know you're going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make...

The dead have been used, the admired exploited, and the gay outed. The 2004 election is certainly not the dirtiest campaign in American history - no sexual sleaze or corruption charges, so far - but this week has seen its share of the distasteful. Less than a day after the actor who personified Superman died, John Edwards was on the stump in Iowa: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair...

Forget about who should be president for a second. Who would you rather date: George Bush or John Kerry? According to a survey of 5,000 single men and women by the dating service It's Just Lunch, Bush wins this race. Of about 2,500 women polled, 49 percent said they'd rather date the president, while about one-third of singles said they would prefer Democratic challenger John Kerry. And 15 percent would go out with candidate Ralph Nader. Bush also wins as most charming, with 54 percent of survey participants voting for him. Forty percent found Kerry most charming; Nader got 6...

I believe I've figured out Kerry's strategy, especially in the debates. Actually, it's Schrum's stategy...he tried it with Al Gore, but Gore couldn't carry it off. With Kerry, I think it's working. Kerry is a better actor. THEIR STRATEGY: Take the "likeability" card out of contention. Create an atmosphere where Bush has to choose between hitting back hard or appearing weak if he doesn't respond to harsh lies about him and Cheney. Kerry trails in the "likeability" category, so take away the president's trump card: his connection with ordinary Americans. THEIR TACTICS: Show disdain and disrespect. Take away any atmosphere...

NOTRE DAME, IND. - When television became the principal tool for political communication, seekers of the presidency confronted a new challenge: They had to present themselves not only as plausible leaders of a world superpower, but also as visitors Americans would welcome in their homes. Television made White House aspirants guests - invited or not - in our households, and they began dropping by at all hours. Between news reports, interview programs, talk shows, chats with late-night comics, and commercials, candidates are now unavoidable as they occupy our screens and seek our support. Back in 1969, writer Michael J. Arlen...

The doomed defeatist John Kerry is a loser and a bore, says Mark Steyn, and the only thing he is consistent about is his opposition to the projection of US power in America’s interests New Hampshire I see even the editor of The Spectator, after his deplorable flirtation with ‘Tories For Kerry’, has decided to stick with Bush. So would most of those Tories for Kerry if they had to spend ten minutes in the senator’s company. As I wrote last December, ‘the only real question next November is how badly the Dems will do’. But even I didn’t expect...

Advisers to George W Bush have told him to take a leaf from the Ronald Reagan book and come across as more "likeable" than the notoriously dry and haughty John Kerry in the televised debates that may decide the outcome of the election.President Bush's talent for folksy self-deprecation, particularly about his own public-speaking abilities, has been recognised by senior Kerry aides as a big threat during the debates, which begin on Thursday. "Bush is the least understood debater of the last generation," said Joe Lochart, a former Clinton aide who is advising the flagging Kerry campaign. "But he has never...

Despite his skill in past campaign debates, Sen. John Kerry faces two mammoth strategic problems that could cripple his performance in the projected three encounters with President Bush. The first is that his popularity, even among his own voters, has eroded significantly. When the Fox News survey of Sept. 9 asked respondents who said they were voting for Kerry why they were doing so, a majority said it was more because of their dislike of Bush than any affection for the Massachusetts Democrat. By contrast, 82 percent of the Bush voters said they were voting for the president because they...

September 15, 2004 -- JOHN Kerry is in deeper trouble than the polls indicate. While the Fox News survey taken last week after the Republican convention shows Bush with a small lead over Kerry, the internal data indicates big shifts against the Democrat. For example, Kerry is now seen unfavorably by a record 44 percent of the voters (his personal worst), giving him a slightly higher unfavorable ratio than Bush — whom 43 percent dislike. (Bush's edge comes from the fact that he gets 51 percent to rate him favorably, while Kerry has only a 46 percent favorable rating.) But...

Kerry Hides as Americans Fail to Warm to His Style Posted July 1, 2004 By Scott Stanley Jr. Washington insiders are saying that John Kerry is proving to be the laziest presidential candidate since Adlai Stevenson. For three days he has been hiding out at his wife's pickle farm in Pennsylvania without receiving important visitors of any kind, and tomorrow he heads for speeches in Cloquet, Minn., and Boomer, Wis., before stumping in Iowa river towns. Then it's back to one of his wife's mansions for Independence Day, remaining there Monday with nothing scheduled. There is speculation that Kerry will...

I MET JOHN RITTER for the first time two-and-a-half years ago when he and Henry Winkler were ending their hit run on Broadway in "The Dinner Party." The rest of the cast, the great Len Cariou, Penny Fuller, Jan Maxwell, and Veanne Cox were staying with it, and Neil Simon offered Jon Lovitz and me the chance to step in for Henry and John, which, as you may imagine, took almost three tenths of a second to accept. Lovitz and I went to see it as soon as we got to New York and went up to the dressing rooms...