Free Republic

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry will officially announce his presidential plans today from Addison, Texas flanked by an impressive group of special operations veterans. Perry is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. Check out the list: Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Paul Craig Retired U.S. Navy SEAL JJ Jones Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. history and author of American Sniper Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, author of Lone Survivor Navy SEAL Morgan Luttrell Retired U.S. Marine Corps Captain Dan Moran Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Pete Scobell Retired U.S. Navy SEAL and Medal...

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond. President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of today's force. Years later, the late Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's first attorney general, said in an interview with this writer that the president had...

Can we all stop pretending that there’s any real suspense in this presidential race?As the children’s book says: Voters, it’s time to “Go the [expletive] to sleep.” You can turn off Fox, MSNBC, and CNN; you can close Twitter; you can sign off your crazy uncle’s Facebook feed. I am going to tell you, right now, what the political landscape of the future looks like so you don’t waste your time over the next year listening to a parade of pundits or watching those ridiculous primary debates. The 2016 election is going to come down to Hillary vs. Jeb, of...

Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole believes a governor, not a senator, will win the 2016 Republican nomination for president. “I think it’s going to be a governor,” Dole said Thursday after a commemorative event at Forbes Field. “I don’t know which one.” Two former governors have announced they will seek the Republican nomination: Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and George Pataki, former governor of New York. Several other current and former governors are considering a presidential run, including Jeb Bush, of Florida; Rick Perry, of Texas; Scott Walker, of Wisconsin; Chris Christie, of New Jersey;...

When Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks about immigration on the campaign trail, he hammers President Obama's policies and touts his own experience standing up to the president during last summer's border crisis. But Perry will also need to demonstrate to Republican primary voters that his nuanced approach to immigration can succeed at the federal level. Perry's path to the nomination may feature more roadblocks than there are Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas. Perry did slow the influx of Central Americans into the Rio Grande Valley during last summer's border crisis, but at great cost to his state. A...

Mark Levin addresses the talk about the type of candidate that the United States needs if we are going to have any chance of extricating ourselves from the overwhelming destruction of the Obama regime. He says it doesn’t really matter to him what the current employment of the individual that would assume the office of President of the United States. What matters are that person’s values, their vision and their leadership ability.He sees an agenda to restore the Republic, respect for the American people, stop ruling by the administrative state and regulation and the infamous pen and phone. He notes...

RUSH: A new Gallup poll out. Headline: "Americans Continue to Shift Left on Key Moral Issues." Now, before you go off getting depressed about this, let me tell you what the reason for this is, after we give you the details. "Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Moral acceptability of many of these issues is now at a record-high level." It's a subtle message to the Republican Party, and...

Rick Perry’s June event in Addison, Texas, where he is expected to announce his candidacy for president, will feature a number of retired and current Navy SEALs, according to a invite to the event. Retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose autobiography inspired the 2014 film Lone Survivor, will attend with his wife. The widow of retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, whose autobiography inspired the oscar-nominated American Sniper, will also be there. The event will also feature retired U.S. Navy SEAL JJ Jones, retired U.S. Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor Recipient Mike Thornton, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Pete Scobell, and...

Hillary Clinton is heading to the Sunshine State this week to spend time with one of Florida’s most influential Democratic donors, trial lawyer John Morgan. Morgan is not just praising Clinton’s candidacy, but actively bashing her potential Republican rivals. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Morgan took shots at Wisconsin Governor and prospective 2016 candidate, Scott Walker: “Walker would be the first president with a GED.”The Democratic donor attempted to insult Walker for not obtaining a college degree, which he opted out of in order to get started with his career. Morgan continued, calling Walker cruel names in an...

Many Americans are taking on more liberal views but Ted Cruz is sticking with his social conservatism. But will his grassroots bible belt base be enough to get him elected in 2016? The 2016 presidential primary season is shaping up to be very interesting. And although some Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have already announced their candidacies, all eyes have undoubtedly been on the GOP field, which seems to be growing every day. The GOP has been struggling in recent years, with Americans becoming increasingly more liberal, especially when it comes to social issues like the war...

“Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer said that he is ” finding some interesting, compelling things” in his investigation of Jeb Bush on Tuesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.” Schweizer reported, “We’re about four months into the research project, obviously not as global in scope as the Clintons, but you know, as governor of the state of Florida, you have a lot of things that you can do. So we’re following the money. We’re looking at land deals. We’re looking at an airport deal. We are looking at some of the educational reforms that were instituted, and some of the big corporate winners...

The Washington Post actually tweeted this out today on the Texas biker gang shootings. The race-obsessed paper wants desperately to make the story about race… And threw in a photo of Sarah Palin for kicks.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The road to the White House goes through downtown Oklahoma City this week as hopefuls in the crowded Republican field audition on a stage ideally suited for their messages about military power, religious liberty and energy independence. Eleven Republicans with presidential aspirations — including some who have not officially declared their candidacy — will speak at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which begins at the Cox Convention Center on Thursday and ends Saturday with the release of a straw poll. “This is a huge event for Oklahoma City,” said Gov. Mary Fallin, who will address the conference and introduce some...

Paul Pressler, a former Texas appeals court judge who has long been a supporter of conservative causes and active in Texas politics, announced Saturday that he is endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R) for president. Pressler, who in 2012 hosted a large group of evangelical leaders who voted to coalesce their support behind Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign as a challenge to frontrunner Mitt Romney, said he announced his endorsement of Cruz at a meeting of conservatives in Washington Saturday. “I feel that Ted Cruz is electable and he stands by his convictions in an articulate manner,” Pressler said in an interview...

It appears that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has decided to run for president again -- and he is expected to make it official in three weeks, his wife indicated Friday. On her Twitter account Friday, Anita Perry indicated that the three-term governor is excited about his potential to lead the country and asked supporters to attend an event in Dallas on June 4.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will announce his expected entry into the crowded GOP presidential field on June 4 in Dallas. Anita Thigpen Perry, his wife, emailed an invitation on Friday to supporters of the former governor’s political committee. “America is facing a time of testing, and it's clear that we need principled leadership and an optimistic vision to see us through after eight years of the Obama Administration,” she wrote. “Rick and I have been talking a lot about what the future holds for our great country, and the role our family can play in creating an America of...

FULL TITLE: Rick Perry will decide on a White House run in 30 days, telling South Carolinians that 'it's not that difficult' to secure the US-Mexico border and the White House battle is really about the Supreme Court * Insisted Barack Obama has failed because he had to learn executive leadership 'on the job' * Said the next president could dictate the course of religious-freedom laws by choosing ideologically driven Supreme Court justices *Spoke to a standing-room crowd of 150 at a BBQ joint near Greenville, SC * Suggested he would devolve more control to state governments as president Former...

The slate of contenders hoping to be the Republican nominee for President in 2016 is as crowded as it gets. The list of already-announced candidates includes Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Marco Rubio, while the likely additional candidates include Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, and Lindsay Graham. Plus, of course, there’s former Texas governor Rick Perry, who’s been not-so-subtly testing the waters for a second Presidential run for the past two years, with the three portents being his “serious” new glasses, the end of his historic tenure in Austin,...

Where do we stand on this so far among the GOP field? Rubio’s a yes, Santorum’s a no, Cruz is noncommittal, Walker said he’s already attended a gay-wedding reception but not an actual ceremony. Anyone I’m leaving out? People are dismissing it as a gotcha but I think it’s interesting as a gauge of whom each candidate’s trying to appeal to. The only real surprise among the five who have already answered is Cruz, whom I would have guessed would be a “no” to please social conservatives.Free advice from Ben Domenech to the 300 Republican candidates who haven’t yet gotten...

The field for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is as flat as any in modern memory—pretty remarkable for a party that usually has a fight but almost invariably ends up nominating whoever's turn it is. While nomination trial-heat polling tells us very little this early, there are some poll questions that are better measurements of at least where these candidates are starting out, before the campaigning, debates, and advertising begin in earnest.An April 26 to April 30 NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll asked Republican primary voters whether they could or could not see themselves voting for each of 10 different...