Free Republic

Link only, per FR copyright rules

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Wednesday strongly defended the top advisers from his 2008 presidential campaign in the face of sharp criticism from his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. McCain, in a telephone interview with Reuters, singled out campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace for praise after Palin blasted the pair in her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." "There's been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace...

Reminds me of Jim DeMint notoriously saying that he’d rather have 30 pure conservatives in the Senate than a centrist Republican majority, presumably so that he could lose with honor on every single vote. Remember that old commercial about pollution where Iron Eyes Cody turns to the camera and a single tear rolls down his cheek? That’s Frum when he reads this. The poll indicates that a slight majority, 51 percent, of Republicans would prefer to see the GOP in their area nominate candidates who agree with them on all the major the issues even if they have a poor...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Fewer than three in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin's qualified to be president, according to a new national poll - the least of any of the five potential candidates included in the survey. But another woman tops that list in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday: two-thirds of the public thinks that Secretary of State HIllary Clinton's qualified for the Oval Office. That's more than Vice President Joe Biden, who's currently next in line for the presidency. According to the poll, 28 percent of Americans say Palin is qualified to run the White House, with seven...

Here is a video report on Gov. Mitt Romney and his activities these days to campaign for Republican candidates in 2010, and raise money. His PAC is dishing out money to GOP candidates across the country, which could result in many of them owing him in the future. Romney is being strongly critical of President Obama, and says Obama has already done a lot to rejuvenate the Republican Party. Romney is acting very much like someone who intends to be a candidate for the GOP Nomination in 2012. . . . (VIDEO)

What a great election yesterday! It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey. The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism is still alive and well. We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources...

(snip) The GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia are breeding a new competition among Republicans to take part of the credit. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, potential rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, both tried to bask in glow."We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources to be competitive against his better-financed opponent," Romney told supporters of his Free &...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may have worked with Democratic candidate Stephen Pagliuca, but he’s supporting fellow Republican Scott Brown in this race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. The 2008 GOP presidential contender is headlining a fundraiser Friday night in Brown’s hometown of Wrentham.

Cape Cod, Mass.My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state. Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have...

Looks like there’s at least one high-profile Republican who won’t be voting for Sarah Palin should she run in 2012. Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s top political strategist in 2008, told a forum in Washington today that nominating Palin as the party’s next presidential nominee would be “catastrophic” for Republicans. “I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate,” Schmidt said. “In fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result.”

Utahns continue to open their wallets for Mitt Romney. The former leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City raised about $125,000 at a Tuesday dinner held at the Little America Hotel, according to his spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. Fehrnstrom said 150 people attended the event, which cost contributors $1,000 a plate or $5,000 for special access to a VIP reception before the dinner. "Mitt Romney appreciates the support, and the money raised will allow him to stay active politically and help the Republican Party come back strong in the 2010 elections," Fehrnstrom said.

Despite a torrent of criticism from the media, Democrats and even some in her own party, Sarah Palin remains the hottest brand name in politics. Her recent resignation was perplexing. It’s raised doubts about her viability as a potential presidential candidate. Still, she remains extremely popular with the GOP grass roots, and most Republican Party leaders would jump at the chance to have her headline one of their events. That’s the picture that emerges from interviews with dozens of GOP state and local leaders from across the country. As part of an effort to gauge Palin’s popularity with the rank...

As more and more of the country is realizing Obama is a communist and a monumental disaster, dreams of 2010 and 2012 are vivid and nightly. Race for 2008 posted its analysis of each candidate on domestic and foreign policy. I included their analysis on Governor Palin and Mayor Giuliani, since I think they would make a great team. I do not believe he is a RINO, they have similar political styles and they are friends. You can also check-out their analysis on Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge, Mike Huckabee, Gary Johnson and Ron Paul.

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program.“Detroit needs to be...

The national health care reform debate is far from settled, but one of the casualties is already clear: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Three years ago, Romney was heralded for his innovative effort to institute near-universal health care in his state. But now that the issue has emerged as a partisan fault line and the Massachusetts plan has provided some guidance for Democratic reform efforts, Romney finds himself bruised and on the defensive as the GOP rallies around opposition to President Barack Obama’s plans. When Romney came to Washington last week to speak to social conservative activists at the annual...

(snip) Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, told Reuters that it was vital for Republican candidates in 2010 to "not just talk about our principles but hold true to them.""We're a party that doesn't believe in spending money we don't have. And Republicans that can show that they have been fiscally conservative will stand in stark contrast to the extraordinary deficits and forecasts of even greater deficits that are coming from the Democrats," said Romney, who ran for president last year and lost the party's nomination to John McCain. (snip)

On this morning's news: MassCare has added 488,000 people to the healthcare rolls. Result: MA now has a serious shortage of OB/GYNs, Urologists, Internal Medicine specialists, Dermatologists, surgeons, and others. Doctors are fleeing MA's insane politics and taxes. Criminal aliens are choking the system (signs in MA hospitals now have to be in NINE languages, and every illegal gets assigned a tax-paid translator at the hospital). Just a small taste of ObamaCare, I assert.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – An old rivalry flared up again at the annual Values Voter Summit on Friday, when Mike Huckabee took aim at the health care system in Massachusetts that was implemented in 2006 by then-Gov. Mitt Romney. Huckabee — who did serious damage to Romney's presidential hopes last January by winning the Iowa caucuses and has made clear his disdain for the former Massachusetts governor — told the crowd at the conservative conference that the Bay State health care system is a model for the kind of government-run health care President Obama wants to implement. "It's going to bankrupt...

Well, at least someone has found some good news in these nerve-wracking days of watching President Obama walk us ever closer to an economic precipice. In a very funny piece at the American Spectator online, Ben Stein rapturously thanks the president for “reviving a party, the GOP, that many had left for dead.” How has he done it? By naming “men to office so wildly irresponsible, so extreme in their positions, so vulgar in their means of expression, that they have made the Republican Party regain its of gleam of gentility and good graces. I am not talking only about...

Things may look bleak for President Obama in the first week of September. They'll look a lot different a few months from now. The cooler days of September have brought no change in the heated political weather. The stakes in the battle of health reform are too high to permit a cooling off, whatever the President may wish for. The outcome will be politically and historically decisive—for the Obama presidency and for both political parties. So let’s look past the arguments of the moment to a vantage point a few months ahead, when the commentators, many of whom today doubt...

A May 2009 video of California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman praising Van Jones, which was posted by TWI yesterday, has inspired a parody video from the campaign of California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. It touches all the bases, portraying Whitman as an out-of-touch elitist who hobnobs not just with a man who called Republicans “assholes,” but with Jimmy Carter. Michael Goldfarb has Whitman responding by saying she “did not do a background check of his past over dinner” and “it’s clear that he holds views that I entirely reject.” But that doesn’t even cover her comments in the original video....

Even if the former governor of Alaska fades away before the 2012 presidential election, David Frum thinks “the Palin problem is still with us.” And as long as that’s the case, Frum — the conservative pundit and former George W. Bush speechwriter — will be here, too. “Why were conservatives vulnerable to somebody like this?” Frum mused about Palin recently in an interview with POLITICO. “The things that prevented them from seeing her are all still there. And we see them during this health care debate.” It’s been seven months since Frum parted ways with National Review to launch his...

Governor Deval Patrick is scheduled to make an announcement this afternoon about special election to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Patrick is scheduled to make the announcement in the press briefing room at the State House, according to his staff. No details were released about the substance of the announcement. [Snip] It is an election that has considerable national implications, as Democrats try to maintain a 60-seat majority in the Senate. State lawmakers are also still trying to weigh one of Kennedy's final wishes: He wanted the governor to have...

David Frum: Barack Obama's Lockerbie sleight of hand Muammar Qaddafi delivered President Obama a welcome gift this week — a gift made all the more valuable by the remarkable lack of curiosity of the U.S. press about what exactly was contained inside the box. The hero’s welcome given to the convicted Lockerbie bomber in Tripoli diverted media attention from embarrassing questions about the bomber’s release to the much easier issue of the bomber’s reception. Now the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy will drive the entire subject into the back pages and specialty blogs. President Obama is unlikely now to have...

Earlier this month, we used DirigoChoice in Maine as an example of the disaster a public-plan health-care reform can generate. Cato Institute looks a little farther down the coast to Massachusetts, where the state began its own health-care reform complete with individual mandates and a government plan. Cato calls it an “almost perfect” mirror of ObamaCare, complete with promises of reducing cost and extending care — that failed in both respects: Massachusetts reduced its uninsured population by two-thirds — yet the cost would be considered staggering, had state officials not done such a good job of hiding it. Finally, Massachusetts...

With the media reeling from the death of Sen. Kennedy, an underreported story is the sleazy machinations of the Massachusetts Democratic Party to ensure another Democrat replaces Kennedy. The Democrats aim to milk Kennedy's passing in every way. They are already portraying socialized medicine as the fitting tribute to the late millionaire, but the more disturbing prospect is their shameless manipulation of the law regarding his successor. The Republicans need to get in the mud on this one and stake out their own strategic ground. When Sen. Kerry ran for President in 2004, Sen. Kennedy feared that should Kerry win,...

Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country, according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs after passage of a landmark 2006 law that mandated coverage for nearly everyone... The report by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care foundation, showed that the average family premium for plans offered by employers in Massachusetts was $13,788 in 2008, 40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent... Last month, the commission suggested that private and public insurers scrap their...

Dumb yet fascinating. Obama’s birth certificate won’t be an issue in the primaries (let’s hope) so how the big three rank is unimportant — unless Birtherism is actually a proxy for other political dynamics, in which case this becomes an interesting little data point. But if it’s a proxy, what’s it a proxy for? Level of education? Regional identification? Something else? My hunch is that the further right you go, the more Birther-y you get, not because you’re any more credulous on the merits of the birth-certificate argument but because the more adamant your opposition to Obama’s agenda, the more...

Mitt Romney’s political committee in July spent $187,000 maintaining an impressive political infrastructure, but it raised only $178,000 — its worst monthly haul of the year, and the first time the committee has spent more than it raised. To be sure, fundraising tends to slow in the summer particularly in off years — but, by comparison, in June, Romney’s political action committee, Free and Strong America PAC, raised $299,000, and in May it brought in $455,000. The July figures come courtesy of a report filed recently with the Federal Election Commission by the PAC, which finished last month with $833,000...

(CNN) -- If Washington wants health care reform with bipartisan support, experts say consider what former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accomplished as governor in Democratic Massachusetts. "You don't have to have a public option," Romney said. "You don't have to have the government getting into the insurance business to make it work." Three years after enacting its own version of reform, Massachusetts now has near-universal coverage. Taxpayer watchdogs say it's affordable. "There is this widespread assumption, that is treated as fact, that it's breaking the bank in Massachusetts ... it's not breaking the bank at all." said Michael Widmer...

HEALTH CARE’S silly season is upon us. If we can be sure of anything, it is that President Barack Obama and his congressional allies will do whatever they can to hide the cost of their health plan. Lucky for them, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, has shown the way. In 2006, Romney enacted a health-reform package strikingly similar to what Democrats are pushing through Congress, including individual and employer mandates, private health-insurance subsidies, broader Medicaid eligibility and a new health-insurance “exchange.” Lately, Massachusetts officials have been forced to raise taxes and cancel some residents’ coverage to pay for...

Just heard on Hannity, Romney will be in a few mintues

BOSTON — The state’s highest court has ruled that sex offenders convicted before 2006 cannot be forced to wear GPS devices if they violate probation or parole. In the 4-3 decision, the Supreme Judicial Court said a 2006 law requiring all sex offenders to wear GPS devices cannot apply retroactively. David Frank, of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, said the case was a balancing act between public safety and constitutional rights. “The court had to balance the right of the public to protect itself against sex offenders and those who have been convicted of certain crimes versus a defendant’s constitutional right to...

 Things are changing.  Obama's starting to tank, and the media's not so much focued on "who" the leader of the Republican Party is, or will be.But it's a good question.  Personally, I think the grassroots is the "leader" of the party at the moment, which is just fine.But there are other questions.  Who would you like to see begin to take greater leadership role?  Who do you want for a nominee in 2012?  What direction should the party take?  What issues should it focus on?  How the the Republicans in Congress approach "working with" Obama?All important questions.We're keeping this survey open...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the hope of many self-described conservatives during the 2008 presidential race, and was the apparent frontrunner in an early 2012 presidential poll in New Hampshire last week. The question facing most conservatives these days is: Who is going to be the standard bearer for the conservative wing of the Republican Party into the 2010 elections and beyond? The GOP has few genuine conservative voices left who are capable of credible leadership on a national level. While it's too early to start putting former GOP presidential nominee John McCain's face on a milk carton, any...

Did you hear about the latest episode involving talk radio host and NYT bestselling author Mark Levin ? The guy went out and said the President and his friends were engaged in a "ruthless war" of "unmitigated plunder of the public trust." Winding up in a serious rant he assailed "the purchase of votes, the corruption of elections officials, the bribing of legislatures…and the flagrant disregard of laws" that "threatened the very foundations of democracy." He even got religion, saying it was time to "drive the money changers out of the temples of democracy." Later he went the inevitable Hitler...

What is the difference between communism and socialism? There is no major difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same eventual end. Communism sets forth enslavement of the population by means of force, socialism -- by vote. It is like the difference between murder and suicide. One is death by force, one is death voluntarily. Socialism may be established by force, as in the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or by vote, as in Nazi (National Socialist) Germany. The extent of socialism may be complete, as in the former USSR, or partial, as...

Linked to FR post regarding P & G product line (Corporate Wall-of-Shame). Here is one of my letters... TO: Men's Warehouse From the reports I have seen, Men’s Warehouse has either 1). Independently determined that there is an inflammatory nature to the comments posed on ‘The Glenn Beck Show’ that just happens to coincide in time with a threatened boycott by an organization called “Colors of Change”, or 2). That in order to avoid controversy, Men’s Warehouse will cave to any organization that threatens to Boycott? I want to remind you that Men’s Warehouse didn't seem to have a problem...

Has anybody heard anything from Romney on this hot health care issue. I seem to find him absent on this debate.

A new presidential poll has former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney the early favorite of the GOP pack in New Hampshire for the 2012 primary. Romney was the top pick of 50 percent of Granite State Republicans surveyed, while recently resigned Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tied former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a Fox News host, at tallied 17 percent each. Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fourth with 13 percent, while highly touted Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty garnered a paltry 3 percent. Romney narrowly lost the 2008 New Hampshire primary to Sen. John McCain.

Hugh Hewitt talks health care with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. AUDIO HH: Joined now by former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. Governor Romney, welcome back to the program, always a pleasure.  MR: Thanks, Hugh. It’s good to be with you, Hugh.HH: Tell me what your thoughts are as we watch the debate over President Obama’s proposed radical revisions to American health care are.MR: Well, I think he’s going way beyond what the American people think is right, and way beyond what’s necessary. I think we all recognize that we have a problem, that people are worried that if they...

In recent months, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has hit the speaking circuit like a man determined to be president who knows he needs to get an early start. Last week brought news that Romney had secured a major publisher for his forthcoming book, “No Apology: The Case for America’s Greatness,” in which he stands bravely against all those who insist that the U.S. is a mediocre country that’s done more harm than good. Even before the recent Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford flameouts, Romney looked like the right’s favorite son for 2012. He’d garnered National Review’s 2008 endorsement as...

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) generated the kind of buzz other politicians covet when he launched his bid to help rebrand the Republican Party last spring. Television crews and reporters wedged themselves among the crowd of party faithful to cover the National Council for a New America's first event at a packed pizza parlor in an Arlington, Va., strip mall. The resulting coverage dominated cable news chatter for the next week. Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney were also on board. But the council has since flamed out – at least publicly. Since its launch, the National Council hasn’t held a single...

Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the 1920s – the booming home of a glamorous new industry, a place where huge fortunes were conjured in years, sometimes months. But while the creators of the computer industry have as yet bequeathed very little to the built environment, the automobile industry piled up around it an astounding American city, in astoundingly little time. The Detroit of 1910 was thriving Midwestern milling and shipping entrepot, a bigger Minneapolis. The Detroit of 1930 had rebuilt itself as grand metropolis of skyscrapers, mansions, movie palaces and frame cottages spreading northward beyond the line of sight,...

Sarah Palin finally came out and made her stance on illegal immigration clear. She is pro amnesty for illegal aliens. In an interview to Univision she stated unequivocally that she is for a pathway to citizenship. In the same interview she says she is against amnesty for illegal aliens. Have your cake and eat it to, I think that is called. Back on the same day that John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate I started investigating Palin's past on illegal immigration. I invited others to send in anything they found. There was nothing on the record. Many...

Consider this: In the first half of 2009, Mitt Romney’s political committee paid $188,000 to a small army of consultants, Newt Gingrich’s dropped $628,000 on charter flights, Mike Huckabee’s wrote staff paychecks totaling $131,000 and Sarah Palin’s spent $107,000 raising more money. All four are considered potential presidential candidates, and the flurry of campaign finance activity, outlined in reports filed late last month with the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, may hold clues about their prospects — and intentions. Each insist they’re using their efforts to help rebuild the party — and the conservative movement — after the...

Gov. Charlie Crist says his health-insurance idea should be a national model, even though it's done little to help Florida's uninsured. BY MARC CAPUTO TALLAHASSEE -- A success rate of less than a tenth of a percent might not sound like much, but to Gov. Charlie Crist it's campaign-trail bragging material for healthcare reform. Crist's new Cover Florida healthcare proposal has signed up only 3,757 people in a state with nearly four million uninsured. Meantime, an estimated 77,250 Floridians have lost health-insurance coverage since Cover Florida began releasing statistics in March. Yet Crist touts Cover Florida as a ``national model''...

It used to be tough and unrewarding to be a crank. You had to communicate by inky mimeograph. The big media monopolies refused to accept your calls. Your neighbours ignored you or laughed at you. How that has changed! Modern communication technology has empowered cranks, enabling them to build entire virtual crank communities. It has multiplied the number of media outlets --and thus the number of hours to fill -- creating new crank opportunities on radio and television. Among the greatest beneficiaries of these new opportunities: the cranks known as "birthers." The birthers claim that U. S. President Barack Obama...

Someone sent this video to me as a means to saying Romney isn't a "real conservative." I'm curious to see if any of you agree with this analysis, and why. Please post your thoughts directly on the blog in response to this post. I will add my comments in a later post...