Free Republic

Months away from Election Day, the Democrats are already cutting and running away from Obamacare. Clinton is the man to help them embrace it, attack obsessed Republicans—and win.Let Bill do it. With Democrats facing a daunting midterm season, it’s time to bring in the Big Dawg, not just as a campaigner but as a strategic driving force with the resources to deploy and dominate the message wars from coast to coast. Put him in charge of one of the existing super PACs—which would instantly multiply its fundraising—or form a new one that can operate on a genuinely super scale, with...

MSNBC host Al Sharpton is back at the White House today, this time for a Holy Week prayer breakfast with President Obama and dozens of faith leaders. Sharpton’s arrival comes just two days after Obama embraced the controversial activist and former FBI informant at a New York event hosted by the liberal broadcaster. Obama used the Sharpton event to accuse Republicans of trying to reverse the 1965 Voting Rights Act and intentionally suppress black voters with state laws requiring voters to show identification. “The real voter fraud is those that try to deny our rights by making arguments about voter...

The horses are lining up in the gates. Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee (seriously he’s going to run again I think) Rick Santorum (this guy has nothing else to do), Jeb Bush, Rick Perry may make another run, and who knows who else, are all chomping at the bit. The 2016 nomination isn’t that far away. They can all taste it. Within this battle for the GOP nomination is a battle for the Republican Party of course. Will the hostile takeover of the party continue or will the GOP revert to another establishment retread at the helm. Will the...

The poll was conducted between March 19 and 23, a week before the White House declared “mission accomplished” on ObamaCare, so maybe it’s simply missing a recent surge in enthusiasm among lefties. The first rule of ACA polling, though, is that the numbers rarely move much no matter what’s going on with the law. They dipped after the Healthcare.gov Chernobyl in October, they bounced back a bit as sign-ups improved, but overall they’ve been steady at around -10 or -12 for years now. Hard to believe that an enrollment milestone will shift that trend markedly and durably, especially with premiums...

BRANFORD -- There's a new keeper of the Kennedy flame. Ted Kennedy Jr. -- cloaking himself in the legacy of his father and uncles, from their familiar cadence to their crusade for social justice to their wavy hair -- finally acquiesced Tuesday to the overtures of Democrats who have long tried to lure the advocate for the disabled into running for office. The 52-year-old lawyer from Branford launched his candidacy for state Senate during a rally in his hometown, where retiring incumbent Edward Meyer introduced Kennedy as his heir apparent in what could become the most-watched race ever for the...

Considering the Obama administration’s implicit and explicit support in ousting Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi (both whom were subsequently replaced by Muslim Brotherhood governments), and the administration’s ongoing attempts to force Bashar Assad to cede control of Syria to al Qaeda rebels, the transgressions of Senator Yee highlight yet again a disturbing trend in the American government to provide aid and comfort to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. (And, lest we forget Fast & Furious, Mexican drug cartels, including the infamous Sinaloa cartel.) If Senator Yee is found guilty of his crimes, he should be charged with...

Sarah Palin, who announced a number of midterm endorsements recently, signaled a spring awakening for fellow mamma grizzlies this week, throwing her support behind three female House and Senate candidates on Thursday after backing Iowa’s Joni Ernst the day before. The latest Republican recipients of the Tea Party star’s coveted imprimatur are Florida Senate Majority Leader Lizbeth Benacquisto, who’s running in her state’s 19th Congressional District; and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and Minnesota state Sen. Julianne Ortman, both of whom are U.S. Senate candidates. All three endorsements were announced on the former Alaska governor’s Facebook page, and...

CPAC, that great annual gathering of conservative red meat and can-you-top-this condemnation of President Obama, came to an end Saturday (with a petulant, syntax-challenged stemwinder from Sarah Palin, natch). In passing, Lexington mentions something that's long puzzled me: "It is traditional for journalists to be a bit sniffy about CPAC straw polls, and with reason…CPAC attracts a very specific slice of the conservative movement, and its straw polls have a woeful record of predicting actual presidential nominees. Half the voters in this year’s effort were aged between 18 and 25, and two-thirds were male. Many seemed keen on Mr Paul’s...

THE COMMON wisdom holds that the GOP 2016 presidential race will boil down to a joust between the “establishment” and the “insurgents.” The former will allegedly be more moderate and the latter more conservative. Since most polls for two decades have shown that around two-thirds to 70 percent of self-described Republicans call themselves conservative, this elite narrative will focus on just how much the establishment candidate will need to be pulled to the right in order to fend off his insurgent challenger. And since the Tea Party has clearly become a vocal and powerful insurgent element in the GOP, the...

There’s no way around it. America’s political establishment wants Bush vs. Clinton II. Is resistance futile? Every single Romney donor we spoke with this week listed the former Florida governor as their top choice… Also, with solid name recognition and the Bush political machine behind him, Romney donors believe Jeb is the most electable of the potential Republican candidates. For Romney donors, electability is the single most important trait. “If Jeb Bush is in the race, he clears the field,” said one major Romney donor. “You would have someone who has the talent that is equal to Mitt. The natural...

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s former campaign manager, is still making $7,000 per month from Obama’s 2012 campaign, Politico reports. While the campaign ended nearly a year-and-a-half ago, Messina has not entirely finished “winding it down.” The lengthy Politico article reports on how Messina is attempting to become a Karl Rove-like figure for the Democratic Party. Messina—like Rove before him—has gravitated away from the party and campaign system in which he cut his teeth toward the unlimited-money outside infrastructure that reshaped politics after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision. It’s a notable shift, given that Democrats up...

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...

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...

David Axelrod, President Obama's top strategist when he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2008, wants Democratic donors to focus on the 2014 elections, rather than Clinton's likely campaign. "With the Senate seriously at risk, and the Koch Brothers spending prodigiously, shouldn't Dem funders be focused on '14 and not '16 races?" Axelrod tweeted Thursday afternoon, in what appears to be a very thinly veiled allusion to the Clinton machine that is already coming together. The tweet comes just days after a Wall Street Journal report on Democratic concerns that the early support for Clinton could hurt the Democratic Party's midterm efforts....

Yesterday Governor Palin penned a post on her Facebook page expressing her support of Senator McCain in the face of censure by his own party in Arizona. In many ways, it echoed the op-ed she wrote for the Arizona Central when she endorsed Senator McCain’s re-election nearly four years ago. Governor Palin’s support of Senator McCain shows far more of her character than of his merit. As Governor Palin wrote last night: We live in a time of diminishing virtues because of societal influence towards total self-centeredness. This is unfortunate and makes raising families, conducting business, and governing that much...

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Republican Party formally censured Sen. John McCain on Saturday, citing a voting record they say is insufficiently conservative. The resolution to censure McCain was approved by a voice-vote during a meeting of state committee members in Tempe, state party spokesman Tim Sifert said. It needed signatures from at least 20 percent of state committee members to reach the floor for debate. Sifert said no further action was expected. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers declined to comment on the censure. But former three-term Sen. Jon Kyl told The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/1mIyKyy ) that the move was "wacky."

PICK YOUR POISONS … For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, the “Republican” Party is coming apart at the seams as factions of increasingly divergent political ideologies battle for a shrinking pool of the electorate. And the camps are getting increasingly belligerent … In one corner we have big government “neoconservatives” – fiscal liberals who are wholly owned subsidiaries of America’s military industrial complex. These “Republicans” want no changes to the status quo in Washington, D.C. – with the exception of perpetual funding increases for the bloated U.S. military. In another corner we have big government Bible Thumpers...

It’s the biggest gay nightclub in one of D.C.’s coolest hoods. Town, on U Street, held a Saturday night-sized crowd, but it was Wednesday and barely after 8 p.m. “I’m ready,” shouted a partygoer, as others simply woo-ed. Then the music turned off and a political advertisement played on the televisions above the bar. Lots of screams and applause proved that this group was, in fact, Ready for Hillary. In the 2008 cycle, it was Barack Obama who cornered the market on cool. He was the new guy, the basketball player, Oprah’s BFF. He was the candidate who wanted you...

The Baldwin County Republican Party announces that former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin will be the featured speaker at their annual dinner. The dinner will be held April 25 at the Orange Beach Event Center at The Wharf in Orange Beach. “We are excited to bring Governor Palin to Baldwin County. We have had an amazing response with ticket sales so far, including selling out of our Gold Sponsorships,” said Matt Simpson, chairman of the BCRP. “The dinner will be a little more than one month before the June 2014 primary so we are expecting a large turnout from throughout the...

Abandoning Michigan in the heat of the election was seen by major observers as presidential candidate John McCain effectively throwing in the towel.It also marked a very severe break with the strategists of McCain team ("McCain's tactically understandable but strategically stupid decision to visibly abandon Michigan was made without Palin.") by his running mate Governor Sarah Palin who, very publicly, decried the move. "Sarah Palin questioned Republican presidential candidate John McCain's decision to abandon efforts to win Michigan, a campaign move she said she learned about Friday morning when she read it in the newspapers. In an interview with Fox...