Free Republic

Supporters of Ohio governor John Kasich held signs at last Tuesday’s victory party memorializing his vanquished Democratic opponents: Ted Strickland, in 2010; Ed Fitzgerald, in 2014. And then a third name, as yet unchallenged: Hillary Clinton. Those signs would have looked ridiculous in 2011, when Kasich’s attempt to reform the state’s collective-bargaining agreements ended in a “citizen’s veto” of the legislation in a statewide referendum and gave the Democratic party an off-year tune-up ahead of the 2012 presidential election. Now, you don’t have to be a Kasich Crazy to think he has a chance at the Republican nomination in 2016....

Now that two of the last three Democratic presidencies have been emphatically judged to have been failures, the world’s oldest political party — the primary architect of this nation’s administrative state — has some thinking to do. The accumulating evidence that the Democratic party is an exhausted volcano includes its fixation with stale ideas, such as the supreme importance of a 23rd increase in the minimum wage. Can this party be so blinkered by the modest success of its third most recent presidency, Bill Clinton’s, that it will sleepwalk into the next election behind Hillary Clinton? In 2016, she will...

Sure, it’s Paul Begala, but he’s not wrong — at least, not here. Even more amazing, Van Jones isn’t wrong either in saying that Democrats may need to look harder for anyone else who might still be on the bench. This is what three cycles of decline have produced for Democrats in the Barack Obama era (via Daniel Halper): “If Hillary Clinton doesn’t run,” [CNN's Jake Tapper] asked, “who’s on the bench then?”“No one,” said Begala. “No one. My party–it’s not fair, there are impressive people, that I think could be good presidents, but don’t have I think the...

- Today seems a fitting day to review this again - One of the frustrating realities of our polarized time is the media creating a skewed and left leaning view of all things political. However, even with this headwind, each day many more people choose to engage in an honest discovery and understanding of what’s going on. Whether because they stumble upon a concern, or whether they happen across some information that makes them rethink their prior position and views, it can lead to an engagement with us from a perspective of their only reality view having been determined by...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election victory in a state that twice voted for President Obama instantly catapults him to the top tier of contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, should he choose to run. But beyond the boost to his political career, his win also represents victory for conservative governance. When Walker took over as governor in 2011 after being elected during a wave election year for the GOP, he could have pursued the easy path, as Republicans often do — passing a few safe, small-bore policies without upsetting established order. Instead, facing gaping budget hole, he attacked the...

Mitt Romney is keeping a very high profile this midterm-election season by campaigning coast to coast for Republicans, and two recent polls suggest why he might be encouraged to stay active in politics. Romney and his family say Mitt will not be running for president in 2016, but in August the two-time presidential candidate and 2012 GOP nominee made sure to add, “circumstances can change.” GOP strategist Mark McKinnon describes what what those changing circumstances could look like. “If Jeb Bush or Chris Christie do not run,” McKinnon tells National Review Online, “then one could make an argument for Mitt...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee, remains among the most popular of possible 2016 Republican candidates – but just among Republicans. In the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, 75% of Republicans hold a favorable opinion of Romney, far more than say that about nearly all other GOP possibilities. ......................................................... Romney’s popularity with Republicans does not extend to the rest of the population, however. Overall, he is seen unfavorably. And when it comes to whether or not Romney should try again for the Presidency in 2016, Republicans are divided at the moment. The country overall would rather he stay...

Run, Jeb, run. I mean it, despite two powerful arguments against a presidential run by Jeb Bush — one specific to the former Florida governor, one more generic.

It has been clear for some time that a significant portion of the Republican establishment in Washington wants Jeb Bush to run for president in 2016. Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, the party's senior-most elected official, has even departed from his formal posture of neutrality to openly pine for the former Florida governor to enter the race. Bush's family name notwithstanding, Boehner and other top Republicans see him as the candidate with the gravitas and fundraising potential to overcome a flawed field, unite the party, and stand on equal footing with Hillary Clinton, the prohibitive Democratic favorite.

It seems increasingly likely that Jeb Bush will run for president. (Even his son is talking up the prospects.) What remains to be seen is whether Jeb Bush can actually win. A lot of GOP establishment types are excited about a Bush candidacy. But don't expect the grassroots to eagerly embrace a former Florida governor who has made a habit of moderately breaking from conservative orthodoxy on big issues like immigration, or who recently (mildly) singled out Fox News for criticism. As the editor of the Washington Free Beacon said:

It wasn’t quite an “out-of-the-mouths-of-babes” moment -- George P. Bush is 38 years old -- but it was newsy nonetheless. Yesterday Jeb Bush’s eldest son told Jon Karl of ABC News that he believes his father is “giving this serious thought in moving forward ... that he'll run." Jeb’s thinking about running for president has been one tea leaf that many pundits have had a hard time reading. Unlike some of his fellow Republicans with 2016 aspirations, the former Florida governor has played it close to the vest. His big brother said recently that he believes Jeb would make a...

Will another member of the Bush family dynasty make a run for the White House? In an interview in College Station, Texas, this week, George P. Bush told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl he thinks his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will “more than likely” run for president in 2016. “I think it’s actually, I think it’s more than likely that he’s giving this a serious thought in moving forward,” George P. Bush told Karl aboard his campaign bus in College Station, Texas. “More than likely that he'll run?” Karl asked. “That he'll run,” Bush said. “If you had asked...

It was just another routine photo-op at a Republican field office Tuesday morning until Mike Huckabee decided to improvise. In a cheeky attempt to bring himself level with Cody Hoefert -- the 7-foot-tall co-chairman of the Iowa Republican Party -- Huckabee pulled up a chair and began to climb atop it. He didn’t have to complete the physical joke to get the laughs he was looking for from the group of gray-haired volunteers who had assembled for his appearance with Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst. “Golly!” the 5-11 Huckabee marveled. “I’ve never felt like a shrimp like this before.”

“Far too often, what passes for history is nothing more than rehashed, undocumented folklore and myth, and this is especially true with ‘cocktail history.’ Not so with this fine book, Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt. It is well-researched and documented, while also immensely enjoyable to read.” —Philip Greene, vice president, co-founder, and legal counsel of the Museum of the American Cocktail and author of To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion “This charming and erudite book is full of surprises. I never dreamed that the presidents were such boozers! Pour yourself a toddy and ponder a vexing question:...

Guerrilla street artist SABO, who made headlines with his Gwyneth Paltrow "Obama Drone" poster, has struck again -- this time ahead of Hillary Clinton's upcoming Democratic fundraiser at Tavern restaurant in Brentwood, Calif. The Los Angeles artist early Friday hung signs depicting Wizard of Oz flying monkeys holding "Hillary 2016" signs from traffic lights and pasted them on utility boxes near the San Vicente Boulevard restaurant.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could be forgiven if he had chips on both shoulders as big as those shoulders. This year, the first of his second term, has been overshadowed by often partisan investigations, more protracted than productive, of the involvement of several of his former aides — he fired them — in the closing of some access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

Michele Bachmann, the retiring Minnesota congresswoman and former presidential candidate, is again hinting that she may be interested in another run for the Oval Office. “I don’t know how you’ll see me, but I would like to be in a situation where I can offer an opposing viewpoint to Hillary Clinton,” Bachmann told Politico in describing her post-congressional plans.

Ted Cruz is running for president. The only thing left for him to do is say so. According to sources close to the Texas senator, Cruz could be preparing for an end-of-year announcement and is now dedicating considerable time and effort to cultivating a foreign-policy foundation that might help his candidacy stand out in what is guaranteed to be a crowded field. "At this point it's 90/10 he's in," one Cruz adviser said. "And honestly, 90 is lowballing it."

The gunman parked his black Honda directly south of the White House, in the dark of a November night, in a closed lane of Constitution Avenue. He pointed his semiautomatic rifle out of the passenger window, aimed directly at the home of the president of the United States, and pulled the trigger. A bullet smashed a window on the second floor, just steps from the first family’s formal living room. Another lodged in a window frame, and more pinged off the roof, sending bits of wood and concrete to the ground. At least seven bullets struck the upstairs residence of...

She's been to New Hampshire three times and South Carolina once. She's heading to Iowa this weekend, and then North Carolina and Michigan after that. Clearly, Carly Fiorina is thinking about 2016. But is anybody thinking about Carly Fiorina? The former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2010 Senate candidate is hitting the campaign trail in the lead-up to Election Day for her new super PAC, teaching activists and politicians how to talk to female voters—and building herself a grassroots base in a half-dozen electorally important states in the process. While her efforts are focused on helping the GOP win control of the...