Free Republic

FEBRUARY 13, 2012 Santorum’s Turn By The Editors At the moment Rick Santorum appears to be overtaking Newt Gingrich as the principal challenger to Mitt Romney. Santorum has won more contests than Gingrich (who has won only one), has more delegates, and leads him in the polls. In at least one poll, he also leads Romney. It isn’t yet a Romney–Santorum contest, but it could be headed that way. We hope so. Gingrich’s verbal and intellectual talents should make him a resource for any future Republican president. But it would be a grave mistake for the party to make someone...

Did Tuesday’s results matter? Nowhere near as much as the results from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida mattered. But primary campaigns rarely reach stasis; momentum shifts, ebbs, and flows, and the trio of contests yesterday offered a few hints that the storyline will change once again.Rick Santorum is on the verge of overtaking Newt Gingrich as the anti-Romney alternative.Santorum began this contest as the man of the hour, the little engine that could in a sweater-vest who challenged and beat the much-better-funded Mitt Romney . . . and yet he has, at the moment, an entire three...

The Case for Romney - A president who owes you is better than one who owns you. [BIG snip] Let me try to offer some solace. Even if Romney is a Potemkin conservative (a claim I think has merit but is also exaggerated), there is an instrumental case to be made for him: It is better to have a president who owes you than to have one who claims to own you. A President Romney would be on a very short leash. A President Gingrich would probably chew through his leash in the first ten minutes of his presidency and...

“We fear that to nominate former Speaker Newt Gingrich would be to blow the opportunity to win the White House next year. —The Editor”

DECEMBER 12, 2011 Newt Is the Problem On health-care entitlements, Newt has moved left. Newt Gingrich’s rise to the top of the GOP polls is fueled, in part, by Republicans’ mistrust of Mitt Romney. Romney’s signature Massachusetts health-care law, the model for Obamacare, leads many to wonder whether Romney can challenge the president on this most important domestic issue. But any conservative who opposes Romney because of Romneycare should oppose Gingrich with thrice the intensity: Newt Gingrich is one of the principal abettors of the exploding health-care entitlement state we face today. Indeed, it’s not clear what would be worse...

DECEMBER 5, 2011 Trump’s Sideshow Debate In announcing that their candidate would not attend the Newsmax debate set to be moderated by Donald Trump in Iowa later this month, the Ron Paul campaign wrote, “The selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office’s history and dignity.” We could not have put it any better than the Paul campaign, but it is bizarre that such a response was necessary in the first place. The statement goes on...

Three marriages. Two divorces. Add up the numbers, and Newt Gingrich is an improbable candidate to win over the influential social-conservative bloc in the GOP. But in this unconventional cycle, both national and early-primary-state evangelical and social-conservative leaders are signaling that Gingrich’s personal history is no insurmountable obstacle, although some would like to see him further address his past decisions. “In general, I think people who have experienced the ultimate form of forgiveness themselves are willing to extend mercy and extend forgiveness to others,” says Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “In Newt’s case, he’s...

I am willing to give Herman Cain the benefit of the doubt and assume that the sexual-harassment allegation(s) against him was entirely baseless. Here is what troubles me. Mr. Cain says: “If the Restaurant Association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it, and I hope it wasn’t for much, because nothing happened. So if there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other offices that worked for me at the association, so the answer is absolutely not.” Okay, so if I’m reading that quote right, then: 1. Herman Cain, in his role as head of...

After Rick Perry’s wobbly performance shifted some momentum back to Mitt Romney, conservatives began another round of speculation about his appeal in the early-primary states. It seems that his religious affiliation remains a serious problem for him. USA Today reported on latest Gallup poll question: Although three of four Americans say they would support a presidential candidate who is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Gallup Poll finds that 22% say they would not. That figure has not changed much since Gallup started measuring opinion on this subject in 1967. One difference comes...

Herman Cain pushed back Monday against criticism that he had unfairly called opponent Rick Perry "insensitive" when asked about a rock displaying a racial epithet at a ranch leased by the Texas governor. “All I said was the mere fact that that word was there was ‘insensitive,’ ” Cain said outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, N.Y., according to the National Review. “That’s not playing the race card. I am not attacking Gov. Perry. Some people in the media want to attack him. I’m done with that issue!” Cain was in Manhattan to meet with businessman Donald Trump.

August 20, 2011 4:00 A.M.Rick Perry Pushes Their Buttons The questions put to Governor Perry are political, not scientific. Gov. Rick Perry, pressed for his views on evolution, characterized it as “a theory” with “some gaps” in it. He went on to say that, in Texas, both conventional evolution and creationism are taught. He told a boy whose mother asked him about the subject: “In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools — because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.” This is the sort of thing that drives a certain...

Sen. Jim DeMint, whose push for more conservative senate candidates in the 2010 cycle lead to several primary challenges, is open to endorsing Mitt Romney. “I endorsed Romney last time, and I think he’s a good candidate,” DeMint tells National Review Online today in an office visit. “I’m not going to hold any one or two things against a candidate that they’ve done. I’ve had some bum votes in my life.” Instead of a perfect voting record, DeMint is looking for “the ability to inspire and show some courage and I think, take on our own party in some cases.”...

June 18, 2011 4:00 A.M. Romney’s Religion Problem Andrew C. McCarthy Mitt Romney is said to be the early frontrunner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes. One rival, Newt Gingrich, is perceived as floundering in a swirl of unforced errors and staff insurrection. Yet when it comes to Islam, which will continue to matter mightily in the next administration, the frontrunner could learn a thing or two from the flounderer. The issue is not religion. It is the seditious Islamist political program. Most Americans, myself included, would prefer not to have to think about Islam at all. Muslims forced their beliefs...

Just checked in with three GOP consultants, all of whom have been in the campaign business a while and none of whom are yet affiliated with a 2012 presidential campaign, about today’s mass exodus of staffers from Team Newt. GOP Consultant One: “Knew this was coming… I bet Perry is in this thing sooner rather than later – these guys aren’t jumping off without somewhere else to land.” GOP Consultant Two: “Knowing all those guys, they are neither impetuous not impulsive. I also have never seen a two week vacation two weeks after entering [the race]; I took that as...

A number of recent developments — the dropout of several high-profile candidates, the GOP’s special-election defeat in New York’s 26th congressional district, and the emergence of the future of Israel as a national campaign issue, among others — have greatly clarified the landscape of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign. As recently as April, a Gallup poll had Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump tied for the lead among Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters. Today, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin are alone in Gallup’s first tier. Romney leads at 17 percent, with Palin at 15 percent. Palin has embarked on what appears...

Here comes the Palin Express: In a move designed to propel her closer to a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will set out on a bus tour of the country on Sunday, making stops at symbolic sites along the way. “Starting this weekend, Sarah Palin will embark on a ‘One Nation’ tour of historical sites that were key to the formation, survival, and growth of the United States of America,” SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in a statement to RealClearPolitics. “The tour will originate in Washington, D.C. It will proceed north up the east coast.” Details were still...

With the field clarifying, Mitt Romney’s interests now align well with those of one other possible candidate: Michele Bachmann. Both of them have an interest in seeing her do as well as possible. Like Bob Dole in 1996 or John McCain in 2008, Romney is an establishment-oriented candidate with serious vulnerabilities on his right flank. To get the nomination, he needs (as they needed) to prevent the emergence of a single candidate to his right. So Dole made a tactical alliance with Pat Buchanan in Lousiana, helping to eject from the race the one candidate who could theoretically have denied...

During the 2008 election cycle, Mitt Romney was often accused of treating politics more like a consumer-focused business than an exercise in leadership. “My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo,” he said, radiating the sense that if primary voters wanted something, anything, he’d be willing to sell it. His strategists obsessed about creating and selling “Brand Romney.” To many, these efforts made him look like a crass twit, a market researcher’s caricature of the perfect Republican candidate, even as he came in second-place for the GOP nomination. This election, however, Romney may have to compete with Donald Trump.

Send In the ClownsYippee! We've all got a front-row seat at the three-ring Stupid Party circus. Am I the only potato who levitated from his couch last week when my favorite cartoon character, Mr. Newt, announced to a breathlessly waiting world that he and his running mate, Callista, were forming an “exploratory committee” for a possible presidential run next year? There he was, waddling along and grinning from ear to ear, good old SpongeBob SquarePants himself, coyly flirting with the wingnut electorate like an aging Sally Rand who left her fan collection back at the Casa di Riposo. I was...

Was it all a heist? A candidate who had persistent financial problems pulls off a surprise upset in the primary, and the conservative grassroots open their wallets wide and often in order to help ensure the campaign’s competitiveness – only to see the candidate end the campaign with nearly $1 million in unspent funds. Is this how Christine O’Donnell wanted it? Politico reported, “O’Donnell reported having $924,800 in the bank after the election was over, according to her post-general election campaign fundraising report, filed Thursday.” The explanation from O’Donnell spokesman Matthew Moran is that O’Donnell was advised by her attorney...