Free Republic

Email from Romney campaign: Over 100,000 of you joined us online last week during the first presidential debate at: http://debates.mittromney.com/. Thank you for being a critical part of our Rapid Response team. Nearly half of you used smartphones or tablets to stay engaged and help spread our message via social media during the debate. The vice presidential debate is tonight, and we'll be here online for you the entire time -- fact-checking the Obama campaign and backing Paul Ryan's arguments throughout the debate. Please join our effort. While you watch, be sure to visit http://debates.mittromney.com/ on your computer, tablet, or...

The October 3 debate ought to have been Obama's easiest to win. Although the economy is in ghastly shape, Obama's Marxist-lite rhetoric panders to the envy and greed of millions of Americans. The Democrat campaign bet heavily upon painting Romney as a rich investor with rich pals who has no idea how ordinary Americans live. Blaming misery on the successful has been the Democrat playbook since FDR (despite the fact that FDR, JFK, Al Gore, and John Kerry were and are all multi-millionaires). Polls suggested that this ploy was working again. It is not. The debate showed just how indefensible...

SAN FRANCISCO — When President Obama makes his latest foray into Silicon Valley on Monday, he will face a technology industry more engaged than ever in the wheeling and dealing of Washington, and much more forthcoming with its political contributions — including, generously, to his rival, Mitt Romney. The two candidates, and their parties, have raised more money from technology executives and investors than they did in 2008. Altogether, Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have campaigned here numerous times in the last year. And as the stakes for the industry have grown higher in Washington, both candidates have at least...

As a young single woman, Michelle Robinson was a fixture in the home of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who along with Rev. Jeremiah Wright “arranged” her marriage to Barack Obama, according to sources in Chicago who know the couple. Jackson’s daughter, Santita, is still one of Michelle’s best friends. “It all relates back to Trinity and to the Jesse Jackson orbit of blacks here in Chicago who gave Obama legitimacy and helped him establish his identity as a black man,” Robyn explained. “The political left wanted to push a black to the presidency, and the key operatives in the...

'Matchmaker' Rev. Jeremiah Wright 'provided cover for gays' After nearly four years in office, many Americans still express frustration that much about Barack Obama remains a mystery as establishment media remain incurious about the Democratic president, while seemingly ready to dispatch crack investigative teams at a moment’s notice to probe into the personal lives of Republican figures such as Sarah Palin. Largely ignored in 2008 was research by the Hillary Clinton campaign based on contacts developed with members of the church Obama attended for two decades, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. This is the first of a series...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Some shocking news in the Drive-By Media today. The election is over. Mitt Romney has lost. It's all over out there. Actually, that's not the case. The polls today are starting to tighten up exactly as predicted here. Now we're into October. The debate is Wednesday night. Have you noticed what's going on with this? The DNC and Howard Dean and a number of others... Even Obama himself is saying, "Mitt's a much better debater than I am." They're really out there lowering expectations for Obama in the debate on Wednesday night, and he's got a tough...

One study said Mitt Romney's tax-reform numbers don't add up. Another says they do..... .....The Tax Policy Center calculated that even if all tax breaks they assumed to be available under Romney's criteria were wiped out for high-income earners, it wouldn't be enough to keep Romney's plan revenue neutral. Middle- or lower-income households would need to kick an extra $86 billion a year to meet the target. How? Deductions and other tax breaks would have to be reduced by an amount outweighing their 20-percent tax-rate cut. .....Separately this week, Romney-camp economist Kevin Hassett called the Tax Policy Center report "the...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, told a West Palm Beach, Fla., television station over the weekend that he is now okay with homosexuals in the military and does not want to reverse the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. “I talked to a lot of good friends of mine who are combat leaders in the theater, and they just didn’t think the timing of this was right to do this when our troops were in the middle of harm’s way in combat,” Ryan told WPTV Saturday, when asked about the one-year anniversary...

a video made public today, but recorded sometime in the summer of 1985, Mitt Romney explains in frank terms how his then newly-minted private equity firm planned on making money. "Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startup companies and ongoing companies, then to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully, five to eight years later, to harvest them at a significant profit," Romney tells employees of Bain & Company, the consulting firm that spawned the new venture. The clip, which was given to Mother Jones by a former Bain employee, comes off...

Mitt Romney, in a joint Fox News interview with running mate Paul Ryan, accused the Obama administration of failing "to level with the American people" about how the U.S. Consulate in Libya was attacked, leaving the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. "Look, we expect candor from the president and transparency, and he continues to refuse what is said by the other members of his administration: This was a terrorist attack. We were attacked apparently by Al Qaeda and it is a very troubling development," Romney said during a campaign stop in Ohio. Romney's comments underscored complains made by...

MIAMI -- One year after the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that barred openly gay and lesbian service members from serving in the military, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in an interview with WPTV NewsChannel 5 that the controversial policy should not be reinstated. "Now that it's done, we should not reverse it," Ryan told WPTV NewsChannel 5 during a visit to Miami. "I think that would be a step in the wrong direction because people have already disclosed themselves." Ryan was one of 160 Republicans and 15 Democrats in the House of Representatives to vote...

Mitt Romney insisted his campaign is not in need of a "turnaround" in spite of polls showing President Barack Obama expanding his lead in battleground states. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," the Republican presidential nominee rejected criticism from conservative pundits who have called his campaign incompetent. "It doesn't need a turnaround," Romney insisted, pointing to national polls that have him "tied" with Obama. "I've got a very effective campaign. It's doing a very good job." …

Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama in Florida by a single point, 48-47 percent, in a new installment of the Purple Poll, a result unchanged from the poll's last installment in August. The Purple Poll is done in a dozen "purple states," states that could swing between Democrats and Republicans, by a bipartisan polling group. Overall in all 12 states, it shows Obama advancing significantly, from a 1-point deficit in August, 47-46 percent, to a 5-point lead, 49-44 percent. The result differs somewhat from a couple of other recent polls, including a Fox News poll showing Obama with a 5-point...

Sep 22, 2012 Paul Ryan Talks Space Exploration, Accuses Obama of ‘Dismantling’ the Program ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s a topic Paul Ryan hasn’t discussed before on the campaign trail, but at an event today Paul Ryan unleashed on President Obama on the issue of space exploration, saying he has “presided over a dismantling of the space program over the last four years.” “We are near the space coast, I think it’s important that we have a space program that has a clear space mission, a space program that we know where we are heading in the future, and a space...

DENVER – The campaign plane carrying Ann Romney, the wife of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, made an emergency landing in Denver around 2:25 Friday afternoon, the campaign reported via Twitter. Andrea Saul, the campaign’s press secretary, tweeted: “.@AnnDRomney plane makes emergency landing in CO. All okay. Thank goodness.” Another tweet from the campaign’s Ryan Williams described the plane as “filled with smoke.”

Mitt Romney editorial

With time dwindling for him to gain an edge in the presidential race and with an outbreak of finger-pointing signaling trouble in his campaign, Mitt Romney plans to begin an offensive this week, his aides said, seeking to give voters a clearer picture of where he wants to take the country. Amid a clamor of calls from prominent Republicans for Mr. Romney to offer a major policy address to answer voters’ continued questions about his plans, his aides said he would present a series of speeches, television commercials and events promoting his five-point economic policy, even as he concentrates on...

The November elections are a Republican landslide begging to materialize, but will the GOP make it happen? I believe so. I'm not buying these negative polls, but to increase our chances, let's sharpen the message, not dilute it. A recent Fox News story reports that Romney and Ryan are both beginning to emphasize a bipartisan message rather than sharpen the contrasts between Obama's manifest failures and their plan for America. They must not follow this suicidal path. Now is not the time for them to go all John McCain on us and downplay what Obama has done or to apologize...

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan will stop by the Danville home of a former San Francisco 49er for a fundraiser on Saturday morning. The San Jose Mercury News reports Ryan will be attend the breakfast fundraiser at the home of retired football player Brent Jones. The breakfast begins at 8:15 a.m. [...] Earlier tonight Ryan was at a fundraiser at the Alamo home of Steven Burd, the Chief Executive Officer of Safeway Inc., the Pleasanton-based grocery store chain.

Here is a live blog of the appearance this morning of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, at a breakfast fundraiser at the Danville home of former San Francisco 49er Brent Jones. 9:45 a.m.: A quick get-away for Congressman Ryan. The Republican vice presidential nominee walked out of the home with Jones. He then climbed into his black SUV-like vehicle and the convoy led by the CHP drove off. Ryan was in the house for about an hour. He's on his way to Mountain View. The valets keep running and the guest keep waiting for their cars. One...