Free Republic

Former presidential candidate Ron Paul reacted to President Obama's SOTU address with John Stossel on Fox Business Network. Paul said in the speech, "certainly we didn't get any answers tonight" to the key issues facing the nation. "Everything on the surface looks like it's welfare-ism and warfare-ism. But I think underneath there's a smoldering desire that is growing by leaps and bounds that saying that a lot of people in this country have had enough of it..."

Yep, Sen. Rand Paul - some Libertarian leanings and all - (and not all bad, either, especially with his middle of the road approach on foreign policy, him being neither interventionist nor isolationist) is certainly not a shill for the GOP-e... and we have had enough of that. Rand Paul will deliver the Tea Party, while Rubio gives us Dem lite.

For many Americans, Fox News is their “alternative” choice for news. They’ve made it the No. 1 cable news network, largely because they believe its “fair and balanced” promotional slogan. Many even believe Fox leans to the right and provides news they can’t get anywhere else. But is Fox really different from the rest of the media? Or has it been successful merely at positioning itself as different? Would it surprise you to know that individuals at News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, gave nearly six times as much money to Barack Obama than Mitt Romney in the...

Rush is right! And the GOP-e along with the Morrises, the George Wills, etc, failed in their predictions. Morris admitted he had egg on his face, but I did not see George Will admit this. Maybe he did, but I didn't see it. Are the now obsolete? Are the Krauthammers, the O'Reillys, the Vannitys, Rollins, etc also obsolete? Is Vannity still going to continue having the same ol same ol on his show? And what about the other shows on FOX News? Are they going to continue having RINOS/CINO guests/hosts on their shows? Mitt Romney got fewer votes than McCain...

A review of The Case for Polarized Politics: Why America Needs Social Conservatism, by Jeffrey Bell By Ramesh Ponnuru Posted November 5, 2012 Jeffrey Bell, a longtime conservative activist and former president of the Manhattan Institute, has written a book that attempts a novel reinterpretation of American social conservatism and of American exceptionalism. His thesis is that what distinguishes the U.S. from Europe, socially and politically, is the social conservative movement, a claim in which this movement's friends and foes alike may find merit. The distinctive characteristic of this movement, according to Bell, is literal belief in the most-quoted sentence of the...

Where's Waldo? No, where's Romney. Who knows where he will be or what political position he will change or pivot on. On one page you look for Waldo, er, I mean Romney, and you find him among a crowd of Tea Partiers, on the next page he is standing among a crowd of moderates, and then on yet another page he is hanging out with Democrats! Romney will without reservation repeal OdumbaCare! Now he likes the idea of keeping the policy of covering pre-existing conditions, and likes the idea of extending to age 26 staying on the parent(s) health insurance....

Liz Goodwin. The Ticket. 56 minutes ago... Mitt Romney told the Denver Post on Monday that is he is elected president he will not cancel President Barack Obama's deferred action program for young illegal immigrants before instituting another immigration plan. ...

Mitt Romney has muddied his message on the GOP's signature issue of taxes at a time of growing frustration in the party about the direction of his campaign. Now struggling in the polls, the Republican nominee said this week that President Obama had not raised taxes and downplayed the tax relief in his own proposal... "It's not a particularly compelling message to tell people you're not going to see much of a tax cut in the way most people think of tax cuts," said Jim Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute... Larry Kudlow, a prominent supply-side commentatot said he was...

Before the barrage of ad homs begins, ask yourself this question: why did the Romneys let themselves get sucked into this kind of talk on Meet the Press (with David Brooks) on Sunday in the first place? Why is she saying that they (the Romneys) know what it is like to struggle, and then proffer her own personal health struggles as evidence that they know what it is like to struggle? Why are they letting themselves get sucked into this.... .... because the inevitable question surfaces and arises: voters will feel empathy towards Ann Romney, but they will ask how...

On August 2nd, 5 GOP candidates seeking re-election to the Tennessee State legislature discovered just how dangerous it can be to disdain the wishes of those conservatives who helped put them in office. In 2010, members of various Tea Party groups in Tennessee donated the necessary time and money to put Republicans in charge of both the legislature and the governor’s mansion for the first time in 150 years. But after 2 years, not one of the top 10, Tea Party priorities placed before the Republican–controlled legislature had been implemented. Those priorities were based upon “…re-asserting state sovereignty over unconstitutional...

Missouri and Michigan hold primary elections next Tuesday! Sarah Steelman and Clark Durant should be supported over the establishment go-along candidates!

The Marketplace Fairness Act is in short a national sales tax on online purchases (that is an extreme layman's view).  See the full run down at Breitbart.The List of Republicans supporting this bill are:

After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves in January 2009 to announce his hope for the failure of Barack Obama's policies. He was very quick to make sure people understood he was not against Obama due to the color of his skin, but solely due to his policies. In the same vein, I would like to announce a similar sentiment. I agree with Rush that Obama's polices should fail, and I hope they do. I also hope that the policies and philosophies of Mitt Romney fail as well.

We can take it for granted that Tom Cruise – whose divorce proceedings are already such a catastrophe for Scientology – will never talk in public about Xenu. The existence of this intergalactic emperor, who flourished c 75,000,000 BC, was top secret until the Church’s enemies took to the internet. Advice to journalists: if you ask Cruise about Xenu, the doors of Hollywood (where the Church wields immense influence) will slam in your face. On the other hand, it’s safe to ask any Scientologist about Kolob. This is the star, or possibly planet, that is closest to the throne of...

Orrin Hatch is responsible for the Dream Act, the provisions of which Obama is now implementing through executive order. Hold him accountable! Remove him from office on June 26th!

During his first 18 months as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney spent considerable time hammering out a sweeping climate change plan to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions... Before doing an about-face toward the end of his term as he began to prepare for his first run for president, Romney pushed to close coal-fired plants, encourage the development of renewable energy and contain sprawl - steps similar to some President Obama has taken. Indeed, one of Romney's top environmental staffers, Gina McCarthy, now runs the air pollution unit of the EPA under Obama. John Holdren, a scientist Romney turned to...

RNC Chairman reince Priebus on MSNBC (May 7, 2012) [1:57-2:32] Andrea Mitchell: "Let me ask you about this whole issue of gay marriage and give you a chance to respond... what is the latest position of Mitt Romney and Republicans on this issue [same-sex marriage]?" Reince Priebus: "Governor Romney and the Republican Party have been pretty clear, marriage is between one man and one woman. We believe ultimately that you can't federalize that kind of mandate, which is why we believe that individual states can make that decision on their own..."

Tea Party Upstart Mourdock Defeats Longtime Indiana Sen. Lugar By Kim Geiger May 8, 2012 Richard Mourdock has defeated longtime Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana in the Republican primary, according to an Associated Press projection, ending the career of one of the Senate’s most pragmatic politicians and casting a cloud over GOP efforts to win control of the chamber. Mourdock, state treasurer in Indiana, campaigned as a conservative alternative to Lugar. He became a darling of the tea party movement after he began a legal challenge to the terms of the Obama administration’s bailout of Chrysler. Mourdock was endorsed...

ANDERSON, Ind. — Just days before his first competitive election since Gerald Ford was president, Dick Lugar is standing before a municipal power plant here extolling the value of his international Rolodex — a list he boasts is longer than that of “any other public servant in Congress.” “We have, because of the years gone by, at least two world leaders coming through our office every week,” the six-term Republican senator told the small gathering of local energy leaders Friday afternoon in this county seat 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis. “Why does that make a difference? It makes a whole...

A deeply divided contingent of more than 1,200 Republicans has gathered at a Sparks casino to elect delegates to the national convention in Tampa, Fla. Within an hour of the convention being gaveled open, accusations of fake ballots, scuffles over seating and brief disagreements over rules erupted. Overall, however, business proceeded rather smoothly with a delegation that seemed tipped toward Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is scheduled to speak this afternoon. Josh Romney, whose father Mitt Romney is the presumed GOP nominee, gave a brief speech to the crowd, focusing his attacks on President Barack Obama. “This is a very...

Sarah Palin has endorsed Richard Mourdock in the GOP Senate primary in Indiana dubbing the insurgent challenger as the "conservative choice" in the race against Sen. Dick Lugar. ... "Indiana deserves a conservative in the Senate... and not just go along to get along with the vested interests of the permanent political class in D.C." ...

On Hannity's show "Hannity's America," last night I could swear that near the end of his show he asked those on the invited panel "Is this Reagan versus Carter?" Did anyone watch his show last night and hear this, as he said this pretty fast? As if Romney is Reagan. Obama is Carter, but Romney is no Reagan. Romney is a Rinocrat.

I can't keep up with what Romney is supposedly going to go with concerning illegals. First it was the ridiculous idea from Romney that illegals will self-deport. Remember Daniel D. Portado? Then there was the buzz that some kind of Kobach plan would emerge. Now there is supposedly going to be some type of Rubio Quasi-Dream Act. Who knows what Romney is going to go with. I guess more poll testing, and/or focus group work from the Romney campaign is needed before a plan emerges.

04/17/2012 Constitution Party National Convention to Meet in Nashville Amidst Unprecedented Voter Dissatisfaction with Obama and Romney Constitution Party National Chairman, Jim Clymer, announced the 2012 National Convention of the Constitution Party which will be held April 18-21 in Nashville, Tennessee. “American voters who support limited, constitutional government, traditional American values, the protection of American jobs and preservation of individual liberty can take heart! They will not be limited to a difficult choice between Obama and Romney as the one likely to be the least threat to their life, liberty, property and other interests. The Constitution Party will be offering...

The Democrats have found their kind of war. It's the "war against women" they have conjured for the Obama Presidential campaign run. Should be fun, but don't look for any of the combatants to speak for the realities of today's women. Still, there's an opportunity here for Mitt Romney, if he'll seize it. The White House has wasted little time capitalizing on Mr. Romney's perceived weakness among women. Polls show the President with a 20-point advantage over the Republican with women voters. Team Obama is hoping to use the recent fight over mandated insurance coverage for contraception to broaden the...

As noted on another thread, political pundits often compare presidential elections to previous ones. In the case of Romney vs. Obama, conservatives should look north to the Dominion of Celine Dion and Maple Syrup. This is a repeat of John Tory vs. Dalton McGuinty, the 2007 election in Ontario during which the two candidates contested governance of Canada's largest province. The only difference, other than citizenship, is that John Tory was not Mormon. He was a nominal Protestant, for the most part indistinguishable from the Kennedy Catholic he was challenging. Nevertheless, religion would cost him the election. As Ontario Liberal...

http://www.mittvmitt.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K9njHHyRI7g (half a million hits and climbing)

Walter Jones’ campaign is having to dig deep to try and showcase their candidate’s former conservative credentials. Recent Facebook posts labeled ‘From the Archives‘ show two photos of a young Walter Jones with conservative stalwart Senator Jesse Helms nearly 20 years ago. That was then. This is now. Let’s get a little more current, shall we? Cut and Run “Cut and Run” Jones with progressive left-winger Dennis Kucinich.Jones voted for Kucinich’s articles of impeachment against Bush in 2008. Jones also voted numerous times with Kucinich and Pelosi to pull out of Iraq long before the job was done.Support for Dodd-Frank...

One of Mitt Romney's fundraising "bundlers" works as a lobbyist for the Green energy firm Ener1, which became a flash point for Republicans last week after it filed for bankruptcy three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the Obama administration...

According to the following from Zerohedge, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, American Spectator, Politico, Dirtdiggersdigest and others, Romney is about as big a pro-crony capitalism, taxpayer-funded corporate welfare hog/queen as you can get. He will make Obama look like an amateur. Hence, why Wall Street is lining up behind Mitt Romney. You can't have what many on Wall Street want and support free enterprise. Corporatism/crony capitalism/corporate welfare should be eschewed by conservatives. If only many in the so-called conservative media would be honest with people instead of trying to mischaracterize and pigeonhole Gingrich... Zerohedge On Mitt Romney's Defense of Bain...

Instead of appealing to voters to vote for him based upon x,y and z, he panders for votes by trying to increase his opponents negatives (as in FL) above his own by massively outspending them on negative ads. This approach has led to his negatives skyrocketing and his positives declining among independents and moderates. Fivethirtyeight and others have been monitoring this, and it isn't pretty. With each battle won (temporarily in Iowa and now Florida), he is headed to surpassing Obama's negatives or having lower positives (some show he already has) and he will ultimately lose against Obama if he...

This morning I authored a Vanity Post declaring that under no circumstance would I vote for Romney. Even though I am a lifelong Republican and have NEVER voted for a Democrat in my 60+ years, I am finished with the biased liberal media (including Fox) and the Republican establishment selecting my (losing) candidate. Here are some of my reasons: In 1976, a sitting MODERATE Republican president named Gerald R. Ford ran against a two-bit peanut farming liberal Georgia governor and LOST. 1n 1992, a sitting MODERATE Republican president named George Bush ran against a liberal Arkansas governor with a history...

In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corporation, a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts. During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corporation was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests. ... By the time Damon pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of $25 million - and paid a total of $119 million in what was, at that time, the largest penalty of its...

It wasn't really a TARP style bailout - worse - Romney's Bain placed a $10 million dollar liability with the taxpayers. All this while he benefited $4 million dollars directly... The facts of the Bain & Co. turnaround are a little more complicated, but a Bostin Globe report from 1994 confirms that Bain saw several million dollars in loans forgiven by the FDIC. Fact remains an FDIC bailout only occurs when the Fed and politicians agree, not to mention the bailoit comes from funds paid by every bank customer who eats highet costs as a result of funds going to...

"...Mitt Romney says he saved Bain & Co. but he didn't tell you the day he took over he had his predecessor fire hundreds of employees or the way the company was rescued was with a federal bailout of $10 million dollars. According to the Globe, Romney's company failed to repay at least $10 million dollars to a failed bank and the rest of us had to absorb the loss. Romney, he and others made $4 million dollars in this deal which cost ordinary people $10 million dollars. Mitt Romney - maybe he's just against government when it helps working...

In the Republican presidential candidate debates this weekend, Mitt Romney repeated his claim that he is an effective leader who created a "net net" of 100,000 jobs while he was working in the private sector. But three recent reports, by the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and by Fact Check.org, the nonprofit nonpartisan project run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania say that the Romney campaign has yet to offer convincing proof to back up the claim. ... It hardly seems plausible to suggest that he created the positions that make up the current...

Gordon Gekko Romney is being taken to task over his proclivities, and activities at Bain. To make it short, Romney engaged in what is commonly known as asset-stripping. My point in this thread isn't to delve into the minutiae of what asset-stripping entails, but rather to point out that Romney is attempting to pigeonhole Gingrich as being anti-free market capitalism through the use of a false choice: If Gingrich doesn't support what Romney did at Bain, then he is anti-free market capitalism. Romney's false choice... And all the while, Romney is trying to use a smokescreen to cover what he...

Romney: "I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists tied to my..."

Romney has a record where he touted his belief system, policy proposals, etc, when running for U.S. Senator against Ted Kennedy. He has a record as governor. But Romney says ignore THOSE specifics - here is who I claim to be now, and what I claim to stand for. And he says now to take him at his word about who he is and what he stands for. But he is low on specifics, especially tonight, and throughout the debates, Romney has been heavy on platitudes and speaking moatly in generalities (I will restore America, America can be great again,...

Don't be conned into nominating Mitt Romney.

"I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists tied to my..." [then a reporter takes Romney to task].

Several news reports have it that Romney did not win the Iowa Caucuses. Mr. True supposedly has a photo showing 2 votes for Romney, not 22, on a piece of paper. Barring any objective, verifiable proof that shows more than 12 votes mistakenly being credited to Santorum, Romney lost. On the flip side, if Romney did win, the Weekly Standard, in a news piece entitled "Answers from Iowa," says that Romney's 24.6% in the Iowa Caucuses was the worst ever (for either party) for a candidate winning the Iowa Caucuses. Romney spent millions in Iowa, had the worst percentage ever,...

Though Romney is personally not working with any pro-Romney super PAC(s), can Romney at least tell them or ask them to cease any potential negative attack ads aimed at Gingrich or someone else? If he doesn't, is he still taking the high road? Secondly, how could pro-Romney forces ask pro-Obama forces to do the something if they won't? How can pro-Romney RINOS and CINOS berate Obama surrogates for saying something about Romney if pro-Romney surrogates do the same to GOP candidates?

... Mitt Romney set a new all-time record for the lowest winning share of the vote (for either party) in the Iowa caucuses - 25 percent [24.6%] - one point lower than Bob Dole's 26 percent level of support in 1996. That's well below the 31 percent tally that every previous Republican winner except for Dole had achieved... Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich both matched or surpassed the 13 percent level of support that John McCain on his way to winning the Republican nomination received in Iowa... Lastly, Romney failed to equal the 25.2 percent share of the vote that...

Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere 8 votes in Tuesday's caucuses - a margin that amounted to a tie in the crucial opening act in the 2012 presidential race and propelled the newly reshaped contest to New Hampshire and beyond... The final count, as reported by Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn showed Romney winning 30,015 votes to Santorum's 30,007 votes, or 24.6 percent to 24.5 percent. Paul finished with 21.4 percent.

Remember Gray Davis, the Democrat ex-governor of California who preceded Ahhhnold? Davis spent milllions of dollars on ads trying to get his poll numbers up, and it didn't work. His poll numbers wouldn't go above around 39% even after millions of dollars were spent. Not a percent increase even. Not one perecent... Enter Mitt Romney. In 2008, he pulled in 25.2% of the vote in the Iowa Caucus. Millions spent since then, and in the 2012 Iowa Caucus, according to Fox News, 99% reporting, he is at....wait for it... 25%. CNN has 100% reporting, and has Romney at 24.5%. So...

As Matthew Boyle noted, the ad wars for New Hampshire are about to heat up. Here is the full-page Union Leader ad that Mitt Romney can look forward to seeing when he arrives New Hampshire tomorrow…

It doesn't matter if Mitt Romney wins the Iowa caucuses tonight. He is about to experience a severe political hemorrhage over his refusal to disclose his tax returns...

Second part, final part. Some in the GOP and "conservative" talking heads need to do the same for both: chastise Obama for not wanting to run on his record and his gearing up to run a super negative campaign against the eventual GOP nominee and also chastise Romney for not happily running on his record, and sitting back and letting others do his attacking for him against fellow GOP candidates. Romney needs to run on his record, right? What is in Romney's record that he shouldn't be proud of?

Obama cannot run on his record (Obamacare, Frank-Dodd, Porkulus, the bailouts, Obamacare exemptions for some and and some states, but not others, green jobs, etc, ) and doesn't want to run on his record. He will smear the eventual GOP nominee, and run a negative campaign, and actually let superpacs do it for him. Same with Romney. He cannot run on his record as governor, his position on global warming, etc, and so, sit back, say nothing, and allow superpacss to run his GOP opponents (like Gingrich) into the ground through negative campaigning. I don't care for Newt "Scozzafava" Gingrich,...