Free Republic

Intensity matters in politics and, at times, is more important than approval. It may be, and the ratings certainly suggested this was the case, that the television viewing public preferred Jay Leno to David Letterman when choosing which late-night talk show to watch. From a political standpoint, however, it would do a candidate for elective office little good at the polls to announce he was a "Leno person" or to denounce Letterman. Preference in late-night talk show hosts is simply not an issue on which people vote. On the other hand there are issues which, while they matter little to...

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs once again dismissed conspiracy theories about the president's citizenship ... ... in his daily briefing Monday, noting that proof of President Obama's birthplace had been posted online and Obama's citizenship had been demonstrated "ad nauseam." But Gibbs, sounding alternately bemused and exasperated, told White House reporters that conspiracy theories about the president's birthplace would never go away. "I hate to indulge, in such an august setting as the White House briefing room...the made-up, fictional nonsense whether the president was born in this country," Gibbs said. "If I had some DNA, it wouldn't assuage those...

Conservative political strategist Floyd Brown, who gained a sort of immortality during the 1988 presidential campaign for an ad attacking Democratic candidate Mike Dukakis over the furloughing of a violent prisoner, has a new article up at WorldNetDaily attacking CNN for shutting down Lou Dobbs’ coverage of “birthers.” CNN president Jon Klein had credited CNN’s political researchers with debunking the story. Brown and his wife/co-author Mary dissent: *** If “the political researchers” at CNN had made more extensive inquiries than just repeating a public statement made on June 7, 2009, by the Department of Health spokesman to a local newspaper,...