Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Buoyed by recent polls favoring John McCain to win the White House, Republicans are sharpening their knives while wondering which Democrat would be easier to beat in November. For months, Republican strategists have delighted over the prospect of facing off with Hillary Clinton, believing that she would be easier to beat than her Democratic rival, Barack Obama. But things have changed since the Obama campaign was engulfed in controversy over embarrassing statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons have been called anti-American. The former first lady and New York senator is one of the most...

Breaking her silence on the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s long-time pastor, Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she would have left the congregation if her pastor behaved like Obama’s. “He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton told reporters at a press conference in Greensburg, Pa. “You know, we don’t have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend,” she said. “Everyone will have to decide these matters for themselves. They are obviously very personal matters … I think the choice would be clear for me.”...

ANGELINA Jolie and Brad Pitt could be split on which Democrat to vote for in the US Presidential race - with researchers finding they are each distant relatives of a candidate. Barack Obama is apparently Pitt's distant cousin, while Hillary Clinton is related to Jolie, Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Meanwhile Republican John McCain is said to be a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush. Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society made the connections, the Associated Press reports today. Senator Obama can also call six US presidents, including George W Bush, his cousins, according to the...

DEMOCRAT Hillary Clinton has been forced to admit her dramatic account of coming under life-threatening sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia was inaccurate. Senator Clinton's spokesman Howard Wolfson admitted the former first lady may have "misspoke" when she recounted the story on the campaign trail, as she tried to talk up her national security experience. Senator Clinton had last week told of coming under sniper fire when she arrived at Bosnia's Tuzla airbase in March 1996. "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton engaged in a verbal tussle with a questioner over Iran Sunday at a town-hall style meeting after he said the New York Democrat had authorized the president to invade Iran. At the event in North Hampton, Iowa, a questioner took issue with Clinton's recent Senate vote calling on President Bush to formally call the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. He argued that such a distinction confers the president with the ability to invade the country. "Why should I support your candidacy . . . if it appears you haven't learned from your past...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Did she or didn't she? That's the question some political observers are asking about recent comments from Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, that could be interpreted as a swipe against her husband's chief presidential rival Hillary Clinton. In Atlantic, Iowa last Thursday, Michelle Obama pointed to the strength of her own family and said the next president must be "somebody that shares our values." "Is he somebody that respects family? Is he a good and decent person?" Michelle Obama asked the crowd about the next president. "Our view is that if you...

Now, I will be the first to admit that the GOP was very disappointing in the 2006 election cycle and although the Republicans have improved significantly in a lot of areas, they're still not doing as much as conservatives have asked them to do on spending, corruption, immigration, and foreign policy. That being said, while conservatives need to continue to hold the feet of the GOP to the fire, as we did in the illegal immigration fight, we should not forget the potential perils of having a Democratic President at this sensitive time in our nation's history. Today's Democratic Party...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forget Bill. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic presidential leader, has become the Republican candidates' favorite punching bag. The Republican hopefuls love to hate Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Mitt Romney argues she would turn the United States into a "big government, big taxation, welfare state." John McCain calls the New York senator an irresponsible guardian of taxpayer dollars. Rudy Giuliani claims she'd put the country "on defense against terrorism." And all three lambaste her on Iraq. At every turn, the leading GOP contenders are criticizing Clinton even as they are entangled in their own turbulent race...

Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has unveiled her economic vision. Should she be given the power to implement it, we can say goodbye to the prosperity and opportunity we have enjoyed since the Reagan years. In a speech at Manchester School of Technology in New Hampshire, Clinton said it's time to replace President Bush's "ownership society," which she called an "on your own" society, with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. Clinton said she prefers a "we're all in it together" society: "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the...

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats in New Hampshire. THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS Hillary Clinton 27 percent John Edwards 21 percent Barack Obama 20 percent Al Gore 11 percent (All other candidates below 5 percent) ___ The Granite State Poll, sponsored by CNN and WMUR-TV, was conducted between March 27 and April 2 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Research Center. For the Democratic candidates, 339 voters who say they are likely to vote in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire were asked their preference to win the Democratic nomination. The margin of sampling error was plus or...

RIVAL candidates for the 2008 presidential election in the US, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are veering onto a collision course over Iraq. As the two senators join their party's bid to crank up political heat on President George W. Bush with the conflict grinding into a fifth year, their campaigns are, in the words of one Obama aide, "savaging" each other on the war. The building confrontation, which has already sparked several rounds of shadow boxing between the rivals, is a sign the war will have a potent impact on early skirmishes of the 2008 presidential election campaign....

The press reported on Tuesday that Sen. Hillary Clinton had scored a coup in the presidential race by winning the endorsement of a key black political leader in South Carolina, state Sen. Darrell Jackson. Now it has come to light that just days earlier, Clinton’s campaign reached a deal to pay Jackson’s consulting firm $10,000 a month through the 2008 elections – a deal worth more than $200,000. "Jackson had also been in talks with Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign about endorsing him and entering into a consulting contract for more than $5,000, sources said – raising questions about whether Jackson’s...

The 2008 Democratic presidential primary season has gotten off to a good start . . . for the Republicans. While political professionals of both parties see the 2008 election as very hopeful for the Democrats, there is no such thing as a lay down hand in presidential politics. Both parties start off with a minimum level of support of 45 percent. The battle will be for the remaining 10 percent of voters who are probably moderate and less attentive to the daily news. Unfolding events will, of course, be critical; and it is in this area that professionals, expecting continued...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she would not have attacked Iraq if she were president in 2002 and would end the war if elected, as she tried to blunt rivals like John Edwards who are stoking anti-war passions in the Democratic Party. Clinton, raising her voice at one point to be heard above anti-war hecklers, suggested that calls from Edwards and others to cut off funding for President Bush's troop increase are unlikely to win approval in a narrowly divided Senate. "Believe me, I understand the frustration and the outrage," Clinton said in a speech to the...

A neat bit of polling by the Gallup Organization shows that what's hurting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries. It isn't so much her vote on Iraq or even her flip-flops on the issue. What's undermining her support among liberals is doubts about her electability. The poll results suggest that many liberals see the primaries as a kind of audition where they assess not only whether they like or agree with a candidate, but whether she can lead them to the White House in 2008. This degree of pragmatism is often seen in Republican circles, but is relatively new...

This coming Saturday, when Hillary Clinton arrives in Iowa for the first time, she'll be greeted by a series of TV commercials featuring Democrats who want no part of her as a candidate for the presidency. The 60-second TV spots, which bear the title "Trust" are the brainchild of the Stop Hillary PAC, a group chaired by former New York congressman and NewsMax.com columnist John LeBoutillier. They feature registered Iowa Democrats who all agree that Sen. Clinton cannot be trusted. LeBoutillier stressed the fact that the commercial features only registered Iowa Democrats and exposes what he called "Hillary's biggest underlying...

SENATOR Hillary Clinton holds a large early lead over other top candidates in the race for the Democratic US presidential nomination, according to a national poll reported today in The Washington Post. New York's Senator Clinton was the favorite of 41 per cent of Democrats polled, more than double the 17 per cent, second-place rating scored by Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the Post said. Former Senator John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, placed third at 11 per cent, with former Vice President Al Gore at 10 per cent. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee, came in at...

In both theory and great expectations, Tuesday is the beginning of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. By nightfall, she will have won a lopsided re-election to the U.S. Senate, with plenty of money left over to start a presidential effort. She enjoys the sort of name recognition a president might envy and has the unalloyed good wishes of Democratic activists who have been waiting all these dark and awful years for a Clinton Restoration. After all, if the Bushes could do it -- one mediocre, the other incompetent -- then why not the brilliant and dazzling Clintons? The answer might be...

US Vice President Dick Cheney said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton could win the White House in 2008 and that a potential Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, is too inexperienced. Mrs Clinton, a New York Democrat who is running for re-election, is considered a likely contender for the White House in 2008. Mr Obama, serving his first term as a US senator from Illinois, has been touted recently as a possible candidate, something he said he would consider. "I think Hillary Clinton is a formidable candidate," Mr Cheney said in an interview with Fox News' Hannity and Colmes due to air...

LOOK out, Hillary - Bill is off the leash. The gobsmacking interview with Bill Clinton on "Fox News Sunday" is the first episode of reality television starring a former president of the United States. It's why God invented YouTube. Liberals love it, especially the Fox News Channel-bashing. Conservatives think it proves every insulting theory they've ever devised to encompass this gargantuan American personality. In truth, the whole performance defies reason. It was especially odd to hear Clinton complain that "Bush's neocons" faulted him for being "too obsessed with bin Laden." Really? All I ever heard from Bush's neocons - most...