Free Republic

When Glenn Beck made his Fox debut, some shrewd conservatives responded with a wink. Maybe the show was paranoid and hysterical. Maybe Beck was none too scrupulous about facts and truth. But why be squeamish? The other side did as bad, or nearly. And see how usefully he mobilized the base! Those shrewd conservatives assumed Beck was working for them. Big mistake. Beck is working for himself – and he chooses his targets according to his own scheme of priorities.... Glenn Beck is not the first to make a pleasant living for himself by reckless defamation. We have seen his...

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...

If Barack Obama had to stand for reelection today he'd win by as much as he did last year, if not more. He leads Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Sarah Palin by anywhere from 7-15 points in hypothetical 2012 contests. Huckabee comes the closest, trailing Obama 48-41. In the six months PPP has run this poll he has been the most competitive Republican every time. Obama's lead has increased from 47-44 over the former Arkansas Governor a month ago. Mitt Romney does next best, down 48-39. In some ways he looks like a stronger general candidate than a...

After a month without Lines -- on Friday or any other day -- Fixistas need their, um, Fix. And, of course, we aim to please. So this week we are doing two Lines -- one today looking at the ten most influential Republican leaders in the party and then one tomorrow ranking the ten Senate races most likely to switch parties in 2010. Republicans have seen something of a reversal of fortune since we last penned a Line looking at their relatively meager list of leaders. (snip) 10. John Cornyn 9. Sarah Palin 8. Mitch Daniels 7. Mike Huckabee 6....

Canadians are not Americans. That’s not to say there aren’t similarities. With a majority of the population deriving from Northern Europe, a British cultural matrix, and Anglo-Saxon systems of law and government (excepting Quebec, Canada’s wild card in all things), it couldn’t be otherwise. Like the U.S., Canada was settled through mass immigration over an extended period, with a national character formed by the impact of the frontier. Canada is second only to the U.S. as a technological culture, rivaling us in scientific research and application. It could be said without much exaggeration that the U.S./Canada form a unique double...

The canary is dead. Massachusetts, the model for the ObamaCare universal insurance plan, is the canary in the health care coal mine. Yesterday, its obit appeared on the front page of both The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe-Democrat. Both papers reported that our Commonwealth Care reform isn’t working as planned. A new law that was supposed to control costs and drive prices down (sound familiar?) has instead sent costs soaring. Under the “beta” version of ObamaCare here in Massachusetts, premiums have jumped 7 to 12 percent just this year. That’s about twice the national average - and it’s...

It is a shame that the current health care debate hardly resembles a debate — rather, it has devolved into a screaming match among the fiercest partisans on both sides. For more than 60 years, presidents from both parties have tried to pass meaningful health care reform. There is no doubt that the sector needs reform now more than ever, but that does not mean we should be hastily or superficially negotiating a bill that carries a price tag of $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years and that could fundamentally alter more than 15 percent of our entire national...

MITT ROMNEY isn’t openly running for president yet, but he’s clearly focused like a laser on 2012. And seldom has a noncandidate done so well by doing so little. That’s mostly because an astonishing number of his putative 2012 rivals have obliged Romney by systematically stumbling. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s stock sank like a stone after his amateurish, underwhelming response to President Obama’s February address to Congress. Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as governor of Alaska has only exacerbated doubts about her abilities. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Senator John Ensign have been badly embarrassed by soap opera...

While he remains publicly coy about the possibility of another White House bid, Mitt Romney has a calendar that tells a very different story. From returning to a key early primary state to delivering an address before a social conservative conference and reuniting with members of his campaign-in-waiting, Romney is scheduled to spend a good deal of his September in a fashion befitting a man very much interested in running for president. snip............................ On Saturday, Sept. 19, Romney will speak at the Values Voters Summit, an annual conference in the capital, put on by the Family Research Council, that frequently...