Free Republic

PHOENIX—Bernie Sanders is unaccustomed to being heckled by protesters. The self-identified democratic socialist was caught off guard here Saturday when African-American and Latino activists jeered him at Netroots Nation. Sanders’ inability to control the audience – he tried to shut them up and then he tried to yell over them – underscores his broader struggle to expand his appeal and highlights why his summer surge is unlikely to last. The huge crowds Sanders draws are overwhelmingly white, and polling consistently shows that virtually all of his support comes from whites. After Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests on...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bernie Sanders told veterans in Iowa Friday that unlike some other politicians, he doesn't pay lip service to their concerns. "It is very easy to raise the flag at a troop deployment, it is very easy for a politician to give a moving speech on Veterans Day," Sanders said. "But it is very hard to go down that long road with the men and women who served and make sure that they continue to get all the benefits, all the healthcare, that they are entitled to for the rest of their lives." The Vermont senator told...

It’s time to draft Al Gore: If Democrats want to win, it’s clear neither Hillary nor Sanders is the way The presidential election is still sixteen months away, but this much is clear: Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable candidate. Since announcing her candidacy in April, Clinton’s stature has steadily slipped. Things got even worse this week. We learned, first, that Bernie Sanders eclipsed Clinton in small, individual donations, which is an indicator of popular support among likely voters. Second, and more problematic, the newest AP poll revealed significant weaknesses among Democrats on a host of issues, including trust, character, and...

Ask any journalist or pundit to name the most out-of-the-mainstream candidates in the presidential race, and you're almost certain to hear names on the Republican side of the aisle — people like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. But it turns the real extremists are the ones leading the pack for the Democratic nomination — at least in the public's mind.

Donors have given just $30,000 to Lincoln Chafee’s Democratic run for president, leading him to acknowledge that Democratic competitor Bernie Sanders is filling the role he hoped to play in the 2016 contest. Chafee lent his campaign $364,000, according to federal campaign finance filings. The former Rhode Island governor trails by a wide margin in fundraising. The campaign for Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton said it raised $45 million since mid-April, while Sanders, a Vermont senator, has raised $15 million since he joined the race in late April. “I always thought that there was fundraising potential for an honest progressive...

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the funding arm of the political network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, wants a lot more hard information from the crowded field of presidential contenders before deciding what to do with its considerable resources. The group is pressing every 2016 candidate to detail on the record their plans for economic growth, deficit reduction, entitlement reform, criminal justice and even foreign policy. The tax-exempt entity, a key node in a constellation of conservative entities that aims to spend $889 million before the next White House election, distributed a detailed survey Thursday to...

<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama's healthcare law by the end of the month.</p>

The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article —...

Sunday, June 14, 2015 The Democrats Have the Worst Presidential Candidates in America Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog 15 And it’s true that the Republican Party is burdened with a surplus of overqualified candidates with name recognition; successful governors, smart young senators and even a celebrated surgeon and CEO. Meanwhile the Democratic Party’s “inevitable” candidate is inevitably generating financial scandals faster than her husband generated his inevitable sex scandals. Competing against her is Senator Bernie Sanders who is currently discussing 90 percent tax rates and why he believes women want to be raped. His winning campaign...

Hillary Clinton's Saturday campaign reboot isn't just her first public rally. Coming a day after President Obama suffered an embarrassing legislative defeat, it is a changing of the guard for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: while House Republicans also voted overwhelmingly against the president on a key trade bill Friday, it was his fellow Democrats who handed him the most stinging rebuke. Just 40 Democrats out of 188 voted with Obama. Nearly 80 percent of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, went against him. A mere two of the 10 Democrats representing Obama's home state of Illinois in...

So who’s waiting in the wings with a humongous bankroll and a proven history of enforcing the type of big-government policies the Democrat faithful love? Click to the next page to find out. …when that time finally comes, and the inevitable euthanasia of Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions finally materializes, it won’t be Sanders who benefits. Nor will the other Lilliputian Democrat hopefuls, like Jim Webb, Lincoln Chaffee or Martin O’Malley. It’s going to be Mike Bloomberg.

I’m a Democrat and I am very concerned about the upcoming presidential election. Our country’s ability to tackle all kinds of inequality—racial, gender, economic and the list goes on—largely hinges on the outcome of the 2016 election, and on whether or not Democrats prevail. I want to make clear that I don’t think all Republicans are completely misguided, just many of them, such as union-bashing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and polarizing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and thuggish New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Moderates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio—although too far to the right on many issues for me—at...

I have nothing against vetting prospective Republican candidates running for President in 2016. Still, I find myself agreeing more with the sentiments of those commentators who say: “The more the merrier.” Nor do I believe that the Republican Party presidential prospectus has not turned into a clown car. Granted, I have publicly endorsed Scott Walker, already a compelling front runner without announcing his candidacy. He can ride a hog and tie up the pork in Wisconsin without blinking, who defeated public sector unions, expanded school choice, cut taxes, enacted Voter ID, passed right-to-work, and is boning up on foreign policy. Yet,...

So Linc Chafee is in the race. This brings the number of contenders up to four. You have an embittered, kleptocratic and entitled Social Security recipient; you have a sex-obsessed, corrupt septuagenarian Socialist; you have a big city machine Progressive; and you have the Wonder-Bread-and-Velveeta pragmatist. Of this crew, the only one that is a real contender is Martin O’Malley. But the real reason this bunch of northeastern Progressive white guys are in the race is to give the illusion that Hillary is not cruising to a coronation. There is undoubtedly some hope, too, that inevitable debates with one or...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Requiring photo ID is “racist,” except when it’s done by Obama, the NAACP, unions, or any other liberals Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee recently announced that he wants to be the Democrats’ 2016 presidential candidate.In July 2011, Governor Chafee signed a bill that requires voters to show photo ID. In March 2012, Obama’s Justice Department blocked Texas’s voter ID requirement, claiming that it was “racist.”However, the very same Justice Department requires photo ID for everyone who enters.So let’s say that someone is denied their right to vote because they don’t have voter ID, and they...

Well, this is a new one.While announcing his candidacy for the highest office in the land, newly minted Democratic presidential candidate and former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee made the bold case for … the U.S. to switch to the metric system?Bloomberg's Dave Weigel was there: Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, gave a brief and chipper address that called for America to re-engage with "international community" with diplomacy and "symbolic" moves. That meant everything from barring campaign donors from becoming diplomats, to allowing Edward Snowden to come home without punishment, to bringing America into the Metric system."It doesn't take long...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee formally announced his bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday, becoming the third candidate to challenge party front-runner Hillary Clinton. Chafee, 62, a former Republican U.S. senator as well as an independent for a short time, announced his campaign in a speech at George Mason University in Virginia, just outside Washington. He became a Democrat in 2013. "I enjoy challenges and certainly we have many facing America," Chafee said, adding: "Today, I'm formally entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president." Although his 2016 bid is a long shot, Chafee's...

Can we all stop pretending that there’s any real suspense in this presidential race?As the children’s book says: Voters, it’s time to “Go the [expletive] to sleep.” You can turn off Fox, MSNBC, and CNN; you can close Twitter; you can sign off your crazy uncle’s Facebook feed. I am going to tell you, right now, what the political landscape of the future looks like so you don’t waste your time over the next year listening to a parade of pundits or watching those ridiculous primary debates. The 2016 election is going to come down to Hillary vs. Jeb, of...

Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee will officially enter the presidential race on June 3, a source with knowledge of his plans told POLITICO. He’ll make the announcement in a speech he’s scheduled to deliver next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the George Mason Center for Politics & Foreign Relations in Arlington, Virginia. Following the announcement, Chafee will travel to New Hampshire on June 4 for a previously scheduled event with local Democrats in Grafton County.

Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he is not convinced Hillary Clinton will be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Clinton faces a primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and potentially Chafee himself. When asked about Clinton being pushed further to the left, Chafee brought up the scandals surrounding the Clinton Foundation and lack of accomplishments. “I would argue that between what’s happening internationally in her tenure as Secretary of State, no real accomplishments, and now these new allegations coming out about the Clinton foundation and the book coming out next week. These are real,” Chafee said.