Free Republic

Discouraged with the lack of private sector investment in the green energy economy, Vice President Biden recalls the same frustration in a speech to american steel workers in 1973: 'In World War I we made a mistake,... we bombed the wrong steel mills.' JOE BIDEN: "You know it reminds me, I remember back in 1973, I came from Pennsylvania and steel and coal were a big deal, particularly steel. I remember making a speech to the United Steel Workers sponsored by US Steel. There were 3,000 people there and I was a young Senator. Come out and I say, 'you...

The Democratic National Committee had a clever response to Donald Trump's announcement that he is running for president, treating a candidacy observers often view with suspicion as the most serious yet. "Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days," DNC national press secretary Holly Shulman said in a statement. "He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward hearing more about his ideas for the nation." Compare that to the DNC's statements on other candidates. Shulman called fellow GOP candidate Rick Santorum's ideas...

The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article —...

Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP chapter president who was accused of pretending to be black, said Monday that she would step down.

I's hard to think of a more bizarre story, or one more representative of contemporary America, than that of Rachel Dolezal. Dolezal is an academic and activist who represented herself as African American for many years, earning a degree in Africana studies, even ascending to the position of president of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the NAACP. As police killings show, the African American community needs more change As police killings show, the African American community needs more change Dolezal's parents, however, have recently made matters uncomfortable for her, telling the media that she is in fact Caucasian and showing...

Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) and Astrobotic Technology Inc. are pleased to announce a joint effort to facilitate the development and delivery of the first payload from Latin America to the Moon. Astrobotic and AEM have entered into an agreement outlining a commitment by both organizations to enable a Mexican payload to the Moon. Through this partnership, AEM will take its first step to another planetary body. "Opening access to the Moon is precisely at the core of Astrobotic's mission," said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic. "AEM's rising space science and exploration community is yet one more example of the immense...

Just one voter showed up to Rick Santorum's campaign stop at a restaurant in Hamlin, Iowa, on Monday, according to Politico. With a population of 300, Hamlin eventually saw four Iowans assembled around the 2016 Republican hopeful's table where they munched on breaded tenderloin and a side of onion rings, Politico reported. Santorum told The Des Moines Register he wasn't surprised by the low turnout — it was all part of the plan.

WASHINGTON -- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Sunday that he supports a constitutional amendment that would bar the Supreme Court from granting marriage equality rights nationwide. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision this month that could grant, for once and for all, same-sex couples the right to wed across the country. But Walker said on ABC's "This Week" that he would support amending the constitution to protect states that still want to ban same-sex marriage. "I personally believe that marriage is between one man and one woman," Walker, a prospective GOP presidential candidate, said. "If the...

... "We're looking for an economic vision that's going to create jobs and opportunities for the ladder of success to reach down to everybody."

[...] "He is actually getting better every day," offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said on Wednesday. "He works extremely hard. He is getting comfortable in what we do. He is having more good plays than bad plays out here. He is doing a very good job." [...] Now with the Eagles, and after spending two years working on his throwing motion, quarterbacks coach Ryan Day said he can see the hard work Tebow put in paying off. "He is working hard out here just like everyone out. He has some good throws, some throws he wants to get back," Day said....

Sepp Blatter has resigned as Fifa president amid growing pressure following widespread allegations of corruption at football's world governing body. A new election will be held on May 13th.

In a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the upcoming Supreme Court decision on gay marriage has "validity" but is not "the final word." Santorum, who officially announced his candidacy last week, was asked by Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd if he agreed with Mike Huckabee's assessment that states should take action to disregard a ruling many experts expect to be in favor of attempting to redefine marriage in the United States. "Well, I think the Supreme Court has, as an equal branch of government, the ability to overrule Congress and the president," declared...

With this cycle’s plethora, at long last, of potentially strong Republican candidates for president, those of us on the right should be hopeful — right? Sorry, but I’m in grump mode. On multiple fronts, I don’t like what I see. Granted, some of the frustrating developments are mere satellite issues, not central to the campaign’s ultimate result. Still, they rankle. The Debates Let’s start with the much-discussed decision by Fox News and the Republican National Committee to limit the first debate to the top ten competitors as ascertained via an average of recent polls. Limiting the participants to ten is...

Mika Brzezinski just can't contain her liberal bias. On today's Morning Joe, Mika admitted that the the MSM has a double standard when it comes to reporting controversial things that Democrats and Republicans have done or said. Yet she promptly turned around and applied that same double standard to Bernie Sanders and Rick Santorum. Discussing Bernie Sanders having written in 1972 that women fantasize about being raped, Mika agreed that if Rick Santorum had written the same thing, the press would go crazy. However, Mika claimed that wouldn't be because Santorum's a Republican, but rather would be due to "his...

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...

Rick Santorum kicked off his campaign for president by blasting President Obama’s horrendous strategy to fight ISIS. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the former senator said that Obama is more interested in fighting a “public relations war than a real war.” [VIDEO] “This is a public relations war that the president is fighting, he’s not fighting a real war. We’re not doing any substantial damage on the air against ISIS.” His solution is based on a little thing Obama’s sorely missing: common sense. “We have to step up the bombing campaign, and you can’t do that unless you have more boots...

Conservative radio host Mark Levin scolded some Fox News talking heads today for “mocking” Rick Santorum right after he made his presidential announcement. And while he didn’t name any names, it was the hosts of Fox News’ The Five that reacted immediately to Santorum’s announcement during their hour. more...

Failed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain decried former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) for entering a presidential race he is unlikely to win. The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO tweeted about Santorum’s “doomed presidential bid” and lobbed another bomb at ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, mocking Santorum for making his announcement in an interview with the “pretend journalist.” (Stephanopolous’ standing among Republicans has fallen considerably since POLITICO reported that he had given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation.) The tweet linked to a blog post published by columnist Robert Laurie on the Cain TV website on Thursday, questioning “why every GOP throwback candidate feels they...

CABOT, Pa. — Rick Santorum, the brusque and deeply conservative former senator who won nearly a dozen contests in the 2012 race for the Republican nomination, announced here Wednesday that he would seek to recapture that fleeting magic by entering a crowded primary likely to be far more difficult than the last.

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...