Free Republic

It's official: Nicolle Wallace really doesn't like Sarah Palin. On today's Morning Joe, Wallace—who was Palin's chief handler during the 2008 campaign—took the occasion of Palin's speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday to jab at the former veep candidate. Wallace had been asked to comment on conservative columnist Byron York's panning of Palin's speech as "long, rambling, and at times barely coherent." York's column also passed along criticism of the speech by a number of Iowa Republicans. Wallace said that it was interesting to see York come "full circle," since back in 2008 he had been a staunch...

August 29, 2012 RNC Bus Driver “Gets Lost” Forcing VA Delegates to Miss Crucial Rules Change Vote Joel Griffith An RNC bus driver transporting the Virginia delegation to the convention seemed to have lost his way to the destination yesterday. The delegation, led by long time conservative activist Morton Blackwell, was prepared to vote against the proposed rules change. However, the delay meant the Rules Committee meeting had adjourned prior to their arrival. Delegates remaining on board the bus were unable to participate in the proceedings. In an age of GPS, cell phones, and other forms of instant information access,...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has now secured at least 88 of the 155 delegates at stake in the Texas Primary, bringing his secured delegate total to 1174, 30 more than necessary to win the majority of the delegated needed for the GOP nomination. With 4% of Texas precincts now reporting, Romney has consistently maintained or increased a 60 point lead over his nearest competitor, Congressman Ron Paul. In the contested race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, David Dewhurst is holding a 48% to 31% lead over his nearest rival Ted Cruz in a nine person contest.

Newt Gingrich plans to formally suspend or end his presidential campaign next Tuesday, senior Gingrich aides told Fox News.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt Gingrich's daughter says the former House speaker will "reassess" his campaign after the votes are tallied in Delaware, potentially setting the stage for his exit from the Republican presidential race. Jackie Gingrich Cushman said Tuesday that her father's campaign has slimmed down but is still winning over voters who aren't yet sold on Mitt Romney, who has effectively clinched the GOP presidential nomination. Despite trailing Romney in convention delegates and fundraising, Gingrich has vowed to campaign until the party's late-summer convention in Florida. Gingrich is carrying more than $4.3 million in debt and has been spending...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – There is increased speculation Friday evening about the political future of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Sources told NewsChannel 36 Gingrich has canceled all of his appearances in North Carolina next week. Gingrich was scheduled to make multiple appearances throughout the state, including a visit to Lincoln Charter School in Denver next Wednesday. Fourth graders planned to present him with an American history project. “We are disappointed that the Gingrich camp has decided to cancel the entire NC tour,” said Lincoln Charter School Chief Administrator Dave Machado. “We were looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the...

One chunk of the Republican electorate has proved an incredibly fickle voting bloc, denying party unity while the nominating process dragged on. It’s the same group of conservative voters that went from candidate to candidate, looking for an alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Now, out of options, it seems that those who identify themselves as tea party supporters are finally coming home to the presumptive nominee. (snip)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Former Vice President Dick Cheney walked without assistance and spoke for an hour and 15 minutes without seeming to tire in his first engagement since getting a new heart three weeks ago. Cheney even threw in some political plugs amid much reminiscing before the Wyoming Republican Party state convention in Cheyenne on Saturday. He said presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is going to do a "whale of a job."

This video is a remarkable demonstration of why I will NOT vote for this unmitigated Fraud. He is just as fabricated as Barack Obama. But even Obama doesn’t have to pay his drones. That is perhaps the key difference between Obama and Romney. I wouldn't be surprised if Romney's campaign is employing illegal aliens to hold his signs. If he is, I guess we will find out in the general election as another means of exposing his hypocrisy. Obama will have fun pointing out in the debates that he took Romney’s advice on the federal mandate and the media will...

With his chances of gaining the GOP nomination slipping, Rick Santorum said on Monday that, if asked, he would consider an offer to be Mitt Romney’s running mate in the fall general election. The former senator from Pennsylvania responded “of course,” when David Brody asked him the question during an interview for the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The organization that ignited the tea party as a national mass movement gave Mitt Romney perhaps his biggest victory yet, deciding to drop its opposition to his candidacy, a top executive in the group told The Washington Times. FreedomWorks, which organized the Sept. 12, 2009, mass demonstration on the Mall, says that while it will not give an explicit endorsement, the time has come for Republicans to unite around the former Massachusetts governor and focus on defeating President Obama. “It is a statistical fact that the numbers favor Mitt Romney,” FreedomWorks Vice President Russ Walker told The Times on Tuesday....

No link yet. I'm just seeing it on CNN. Reuters said Fox called it as well.

Some conservatives speak volumes as they try to pillory Steve Schmidt, the strategist who helped run John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and lately has been getting attention thanks to Woody Harrelson's portrayal of him in the movie, "Game Change."Pay a visit to Conservatives4Palin.com. There, you'll find everything critical about Schmidt. There's a link to a Washington Times piece that denounces him as "a longtime loser," and a broadcast by an angry New York-based radio talk show host, Mark Levin. "Steve you're quite the punk. You really are a punk," Levin said, incensed that Schmidt would dare to belittle McCain's vice...

With former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich low in the polls and splitting the conservative vote with former Sen. Rick Santorum, commentators and pundits have suggested that Gingrich should drop out of the GOP race. Political analyst Scott Rasmussen told The Daily Caller that a dispassionate reading of the tea leaves suggests they’re right. “I think if [Gingrich] dropped out, it would be good for the party and it would be good for Santorum and Romney,” Rasmussen said. “It is much easier and much healthier for the Republican party if you have Santorum and Romney going head-to-head and Ron...

What was once a 15 point spread has closed to 4 points. PPP reports: The Republican race for President in Michigan has tightened considerably over the last week, with what was a 15 point lead for Rick Santorum down to 4. He leads with 37% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Ron Paul, and 10% for Newt Gingrich.The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining than Santorum falling. Santorum's favorability spread of 67/23 has seen no change since our last poll, and his share of the vote has dropped only 2 points...

Questions Surface On Gingrich Campaign Travel Payments By Luke Rosiak February 17, 2012 When Newt Gingrich’s campaign disclosed in October it planned to pay the candidate $70,000 for travel expenses in the third quarter, the transfer was an anomaly among presidential campaigns. But weeks ago, the former House speaker revised his third-quarter bill: He actually expected to personally receive $115,000 of the funds donated to his campaign to reimburse himself for expenses during that period. The campaign would not explain how the candidate forgot about $45,000 in receipts, what they were for or why the campaign wasn’t simply paying the...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying

This is nothing new, as campaigns have been paying people to become active for years now. And it is not illegal, as far as I know. There's nothing wrong with paying someone to help spread a message. However, it does show the limited motivations within the Romney campaign. There is not much grassroots here in South Florida if people have to be paid to get out and spread a critical message about the future of this country.

Which pill do you choose? The red pill? Or the blue pill? The color blue on the shirts of South Florida Romney “supporters” may correlate with the pill they chose to take, as was evident with one individual who, on camera, stated he was paid to wear the Romney shirt and create the impression at the voting location that there was significant support there. Romney "Supporters" Paid to be Romney Supporters

A combative Mitt Romney on Monday broadened his call for Newt Gingrich to release records from his work as a consultant, speculating that those documents and records from a House ethics investigation from his time as speaker could show “potentially wrongful activity of some kind.” “We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich,” Romney told reporters at a media availability here. “And so let’s see the records from the ethics investigation, let’s see what they show. Let’s see who his clients were at the time he was lobbying Republican congressmen for Medicare Part D.