Free Republic

From the first day of 2011, Mitt Romney was the favorite to win the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign. No one else was even close. The 2016 outlook could not be more different. Offered the choice to bet on one single candidate to win the nomination versus the rest of the field, the choice would have to be "the field." For the first time in years, there is no one next in line. And without a former vice president or powerhouse former candidate looking likely to run, Republicans are shaping up to spend the next year and a half fighting...

Happy new year! Welcome to the start of the presidential campaign marathon. For your consideration are five likely candidates, each representing a distinct segment of the U.S. political spectrum. Republicans have three probable candidates. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would represent the business conservative wing of the GOP -- Pew Research estimates this is 12 percent of likely voters. Bush would be the favorite of the big GOP spenders, the one percent that favors capitalism over democracy. Jeb's strengths are national name recognition, personable manner, Hispanic spouse, and reputation for moderation on social issues. His weaknesses: high unfavorability ratings and...

It’s happening again … and there doesn’t appear to be anything anyone can do to stop it. We’re referring, of course, to the quadrennial election of an American president – which has followed an eerily predictable pattern in 2008 and 2012. It’s gone like this: An “electable” status quo candidate with support from the left-leaning media and the “Republican” establishment gets swept to the GOP nomination – via Borg-like assimilation. At that point, the media shifts its narrative on a dime and begins perpetuating marginal distinctions between two eerily similar ideologues – hoping to portray the big government “Republican” nominee...

First Of All, Its A "CNN Poll". So already we can assume they probably did not call people in "Crucial Purple" States". Maybe the far left media is already working on their own version of "Operation Chaos"?.Making sure they keep Ted Cruz and Scott Walker out of the race and polls. As the media keeps bringing up the 2016 race and potential candidates, they seem to be focusing on Bush, Christie, Romney and Paul. And please! enough of the biased polls with GOP candidates against Hillary! We all know that most Conservative candidates will beat Hillary. Lets just wait till...

Early presidential polls are not predictive of much, but they do reflect current sentiment. In that regard, the latest CNN/ORC poll should cause the punditocracy to rethink its take on the Republican race. For starters, at 6 percent and 4 percent respectively, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) are not front-runners, nor arguably even top-tier contenders. The media infatuation with Paul reflects, one suspects, their enchantment with his systemic criticism of the police and fondness for anti-interventionism. Neither is in keeping with dominant GOP opinion, so it should not be all that surprising that he has sunk in...

Congratulations to Texas Senator Ted Cruz for winning the Federalist Today Presidential Straw Poll with 26% of the nearly one thousand votes cast. Placing a respectable second and third, Senator Rand Paul (22%) and Governor Scott Walker (16%) showed that they also have considerable support among the “lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray” Federalist faithful. The political insider would, undoubtedly, not be impressed. Good luck getting Senators Cruz or Paul elected President of the United States. Any such insurgent’s campaign will be undone by a press that favors Democrats, a bare-knuckles Republican establishment that favors milque-toast candidates, and...

In a new poll of likely Republican primary voters nationwide by Zogby Analytics, 2012 GOP nominee Romney leads the pack with 14%, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (12%), Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (10%), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (8%), former Arkansas Governor and now Fox News Host Mike Huckabee (7%), Florida Senator Marco Rubio (7%), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (5%), Rep. and former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (4%), Texas Governor Rick Perry (4%), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (3%), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (3%), South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (2%), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (1%), and both...

You could make quite a lengthy list of Democrats and Liberals who were primarily elected because there was a "D" next to their name. Pretty much what we have seen in the last two presidential elections. He may as well join the club that elected Maxine Waters, Al Green & Alan Grayson. Is it safe to assume that over half of Manhattan are not exactly educated? And to think half of them were going to vote for Anthony Weiner? And we thought California was one of the dumbest states in the nation when it came to electing their leaders!

“Who is Ben Carson? Where did he come from?” asked CNN’s Jake Tapper after a CNN poll revealed that Carson, a political novice, was running second to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Carson has also placed second in other national polls, second in Iowa surveys and in the high single digits in New Hampshire. So just how seriously should we take Carson’s potential bid for the White House? Seriously enough. He could make some noise, particularly in Iowa. But not seriously enough to believe that he has any real shot of winning...

Early national presidential primary polls are, at best, rough indicators of who will eventually become the party's standard-bearer. But the Republican primary field is especially scattered heading into the 2016 cycle, which is one reason why Jeb Bush's recent moves toward a candidacy are getting so much attention. In fact, the GOP field is more scattered at this stage in GOP primaries since at least 1987, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The table below looks back at early Post-ABC surveys in the past five open Republican primary contests. A few findings help give a sense of just...

And who hasn't seen Jeb Bush over the last few months speaking to the media on either his views on current events or a possible run for President? He just comes off as rather dull. And a candidate's charisma/personality is generally the first aspect we look for in choosing a candidate. Jeb Bush would be the Vanilla Candidate if he chooses to run. We have not had a very entertaining President since Bill Clinton. And we also have not had anyone that would compare to Reagan as well.This time around we definitely have several candidates with intriguing personalities and would...

In Timothy Carney's Dec. 9 article, the Washington Examiner senior political columnist makes the case that the conventional wisdom is wrong when it comes to why white Southerners have fled the Democratic Party. It's not because of the GOP's very successful Southern Strategy, which played up the racial fears and prejudices of white Southerners in response to an increasingly empowered black population. For Carney, the South no longer has a white Democrat in the U.S. Senate for two reasons and two reasons alone: the Democratic Party is hostile to guns and God, two things that every Southerner hold dear. Carney...

The likely Democratic presidential nominee needs to duplicate, or at least come close to duplicating, Obama's performance among African-Americans. It's a tall task. Mary Landrieu lost her runoff race Saturday because President Obama isn't well-liked, national Democrats abandoned her, and, statewide, Louisiana pretty much only elects Republicans. But Democrats and their likely presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, might squirm the most over her defeat for a different reason: The longtime senator couldn't get enough support from African-Americans. Like Landrieu, Clinton (or whoever becomes the party's standard-bearer) will try to win over black voters at the same rate Obama did in both...

Alabama Republicans will host Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at its winter dinner on Feb. 20. If a new AL.com poll is any indication, he will get more than a warm welcome. A recent AL.com poll puts Paul ahead of nine other leading contenders for the GOP presidential nomination. Paul garnered 43 percent of the vote, followed by Ted Cruz at 31 percent and Dr. Ben Carson at 14 percent. Of course, the poll is not scientific. And it's interesting to note the poll was shared widely among Paul supporters, showing up on sites such as dailypaul.com. Paul, a favorite among...

Patriot Action Network's Patriot Caucus is hosting a final 2014 poll to gauge the views of our members when it comes to 2016. We know it's early, but truth is some of these campaigns will likely begin kicking into gear the first quarter of 2015. With this in mind, please consider selecting your first pick for 2016 ....

Majorities disapprove of Obama’s immigration move and still see Democrats as being against them. And most Democrats still don’t get it.The Democrats’ upstairs-downstairs coalition is fraying. Just ask Sen. Chuck Schumer; he’ll tell you. Last week, Schumer announced that the Democrats had lost touch with Middle America, and that Barack Obama’s agenda was out of sync with middle-class needs and expectations. For Schumer—the third-ranking Senate Democrat and his caucus’s chief message-crafter—to go on the record like that, things must really be bad. Apparently, 2016 is not shaping up as a Democratic slam dunk. At the moment, the public’s discontent is...

Republican voters nationwide look towards 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney to get back in the game for 2016, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday. Voters give the former Massachusetts governor the top rank at 19 percent in an early glimpse of the 2016 presidential race. Romney continues to insist he will not seek the White House for a third time. With Romney out of the race, however, former Gov. Jeb Bush leads with 14 percent, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 11 percent. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a conservative Tea Party favorite, gets 9 percent, while...

With the GOP poised to take over the Senate and strengthen its control of the House in January, all eyes are now turning to 2016's presidential race. And while Democrats have a single strong contender - paging Hillary Clinton - the Republican side remains up in the air. The Hill recently listed what 16 possible presidential contenders in what one strategist described as the "most open field we've ever seen." Here's the likely contenders in the class of 2016: First String Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) - One of the most recognizable names in the field, Paul he's comfortable in front...

With the 2014 election now in the history books, the reality is that the 2016 campaign is upon us. And you can expect Texas to get more time in the spotlight now that the 2016 GOP presidential primary is a main attraction. Four candidates with direct or indirect connections to the Lone Star State are on most early lists of top potential candidates: Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and two scions of families with strong Texas ties — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of former Texas Congressman (and frequent presidential aspirant) Ron Paul, and...

Will it be Democrats or Republicans who have “national appeal”? Do any of these 13 Republicans have a chance? Jonathan Easley put them out there in an article in The Hill this morning just as the National Politics Examiner published a list of Democrats. See the story link below. Let’s analyze the Easley list. He begins by positioning what are identified as the “big three”: Paul, Christie, and Bush. As porkers go, Paul doesn’t have a chance as Christie and Bush win the weigh in. Bush’s heaviness is as much of a concern as Hillary’s age, maybe. Christie loses on...