Free Republic

It's not unusual for a Liberal Democrat to refuse to come on FOX News Channel with their Republican opponent. But, why in the heck did Republican, West Virginia, Senatorial Candidate John Raese REFUSE to come on "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace" today and face-off with his Democratic opponent, Gov. Manchin? He was invited to be on the program but refused. Are all the friggin' Republicans trying to lose this election? He gave Manchin a free pass. Watch the lying, position-changing, Obama-loving Manchin go up more in the polls after today.

Charleston, West Virginia - Sarah Palin endorsed West Virginia's Republican Senate hopeful John Raese on Twitter this week – but she mistakenly identified him as a candidate in Pennsylvania. (The erroneous tweet was quickly replaced.) Raese, battling Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin in a race most polls suggest is a toss-up, doesn't seem to mind. "I am just honored that Sarah Palin would endorse me," he told CNN Friday. "I know my wife and 1,000 conservative women across West Virginia support her very much. I am just pleased to get that endorsement. GOP candidates running in competitive states and districts this...

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely West Virginia Voters finds Raese with 50% support to Manchin’s 43%. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided. The West Virginia race now shifts back from a Toss-Up to Leans Republican...

WEST Virginians must soon choose who will represent them in the U.S. Senate for the next two years. The issue in the race is how Democrats have used their 59-41 majority,  and whether West Virginians want to see more of the same. The Daily Mail endorses Republican John Raese. Make no mistake. That choice is painful. Gov. Joe Manchin is one of the most engaging and effective governors in the state's history. He has tackled many of the state-erected barriers to economic growth - a broken workers' compensation system, uncompetitive tax rates, an unfair legal climate. The governor also has...

... The ascendancy of John Reese is a huge surprise to the political establishment around the nation. Raese has run three unsuccessful statewide campaigns so far, two for senate and one for governor. Joe Manchin, on the other hand, is a popular governor with a plus 60% approval rating in West Virginia. How he got from that point to trailing Raese is the riddle of the 2010 election nationwide. Republican challengers around the country have been successful at tying Democrats to immensely unpopular Barack Obama social welfare state programs. In West Virginia things are no different. Joe Manchin would have...

There's been some buzz today about a new poll that shows Democrat Joe Manchin moving into a double-digit lead over Republican John Raese in the West Virginia Senate race. The survey, done for Marshall University, has Manchin at 48 percent, with Raese at 38 percent and 12 percent not sure. The results are out of line with other recent polling. A Rasmussen survey taken at the same time shows Raese leading Manchin by 49 percent to 46 percent; a CNN poll taken a few days earlier has the race tied at 44 percent; and a PPP poll has Manchin leading...

A new Marshall University/Orion Strategies poll shows Gov. Joe Manchin ten points ahead of Republican senate candidate John Raese, 48 percent to 38 percent. Twelve percent of voters remain undecided. Curtis Wilkerson, owner of Orion Strategies, is the campaign manager for Democrat congressional candidate Mike Oliverio. West Virginia Wesleyan College political science professor Robert Rupp was a consultant on the poll and is a Republican, according to Politico.

Democratic Governor Joe Manchin, after recent moves to highlight his independence from the Obama agenda, is now once again in a near tie with Republican challenger John Raese in West Virginia’s special election for the U.S. Senate. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Raese edging Manchin 49% to 46%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are undecided.

These days Governor Joe Manchin seems determined to be the most anti-Obama Democrat in the land -- who else has literally fired a bullet through a bill supported by the President? -- but he can be at a loss of words when asked to explain his earlier support for President Obama on health care reform. In an interview on ABC News Top Line, Manchin was asked about positive statements he made last year about the President's push for health care reform.  This is an exact transcription of what he said:  "That was during, there is, you need health care reform,"...

Former President Bill Clinton and ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are lining up on opposite sides in West Virginia's Senate race, a key contest that could determine control of the Senate in the November election. Clinton spent Monday in West Virginia, hoping to boost Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin's campaign as it struggles against wealthy Republican businessman John Raese. Meanwhile, former vice-presidential candidate Palin announced she was backing Raese on her Facebook page, hoping to again demonstrate her political clout...

Monday October 11, 2010 Pro-Life Democrat Joe Manchin Calls for ObamaCare Fix or Repeal By Peter J. SmithCHARLESTON, West Virginia, October 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a significant public break with the national Democratic Party, pro-life Democrat Gov. Joe Manchin III said that while he supports reforming the health care system, he would like to see the new national health care law either fixed, or failing that, repealed.Manchin is trailing behind pro-life Republican John Raese in West Virginia’s U.S. Senate race. He is trying to distance himself from the policies of President Barack Obama and national Democrats, especially on...

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D), who is in a tough fight for a Senate seat, said Monday he'd support repealing the healthcare reform law if it can't be fixed. Manchin, who's been falling behind in his race against Republican John Raese, said that he supports repealing part of the bill, but would support repealing all of it if a partial repeal doesn't fix its problems. "The president's plan -- 'Obamacare,' as it's been called -- is far too reaching. It's overreaching. It needs to have a lot of it repealed," Manchin said Monday on Fox News. "If you can't...

YouTube - Manchin Instant

Charleston, W.Va. (AP) -- Gov. Joe Manchin's aides filed suit Wednesday against Obama administration coal mining policies as the West Virginia Democrat wages a fierce Senate race against a Republican who paints him as a rubber stamp for the president. Manchin on Wednesday denied any connection between the federal lawsuit and his campaign to finish the remaining two years of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd's term. The Democratic governor said the suit was already being prepared amid rising concern that U.S. coal policies harm West Virginia's mining economy months before Byrd died in June. . . . GOP...

Republican John Raese now holds a six-point lead on Democratic Governor Joe Manchin in West Virginia’s shockingly competitive U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in West Virginia finds Raese with 50% support, while the state’s highly popular governor earns just 44% of the vote. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. These findings now move this race from a Toss-Up to Leans GOP in the Rasmussen Reports Election Senate Balance of Power rankings. Raese, a businessman and unsuccessful Senate candidate in 2006, first edged ahead of Manchin last...

YouTube - Raese - Rubber Stamp Joe

Both leads are within the margin of error but don’t worry about that. The important thing is the tea leaves showing how the races might break over the last month. In Angle’s case, the worry has been that undecideds will tilt towards Reid in the crunch on the theory that the devil you know is preferable to the one you don’t. Not so, if FNC’s numbers are right: Angle’s moved up four points in this poll to lead 49/46 with five percent undecided (or voting other). In the last poll, with 10 percent undecided/other, she was stuck at 45 percent...

Democrats have a mountain to climb in West Virginia. The latest Fox News battleground state surveys of five key states shows Republicans in good position to gain two seats and hold two seats left open by GOP retirements. Democrats, meanwhile, are well-positioned to hold only one. The polls in West Virginia, Connecticut, Nevada, Missouri and Ohio show varying degrees of success for Democrats in dealing with low approval ratings for President Obama and his policies. In West Virginia, even a popular governor cannot escape the gravity of Obama's bad numbers, while in Connecticut lukewarm ratings for Obama seem to do...

If the predicted tidal wave of Republican victories takes place on November 2, there will still be two months between the elections and the swearing in of new lawmakers during which the current Congress can and most likely will try to push through more unpopular and unaffordable legislation. Representative Tom Price (R-Georgia) offered a resolution in July that would have cancelled that so-called lame duck session, calling for Congress not to assemble on or between November 2, 2010 and January 3, 2011 except in the case of an emergency requiring immediate action. It cites reasons including the 111th Congress' loss...

An aggressive conservative group linked to former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove is launching a get-out-the-vote blitz in West Virginia to help Republican John Raese in his bid for U.S. Senate. The group, American Crossroads, says the effort will be extensive and will use enhanced voter files and data on early and absentee voting patterns to target Republican and independent voters with mailers and phone calls. The Mountain State is the ninth where American Crossroads is investing. The others are Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington.