Free Republic

Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin are the clear leaders of the 2012 Republican presidential primary field, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday. Romney and Palin were the only potential candidates to earn more than 15 percent in the poll, with Mike Huckabee trailing not far behind. The three former governors were the only candidates to receive more than 10 percent, with Romney receiving 19 percent, Palin getting 16 percent and Huckabee at 12 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came in fourth in the poll, getting 9 percent, reports Politico. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was the only other...

In 2004, the Republican master strategist Karl Rove led weekly sessions at his Washington residence where he planned the re-election of President George W. Bush. In April, Mr. Rove summoned several of the important players behind Mr. Bush’s ascendance to his home once again, this time to draw up plans to push a Republican resurgence. The landscape has changed, with Mr. Rove at times clashing with potent new Tea Party-style activists, some of whom view him as a face of the old party establishment they want to upend. Already a prominent presence as an analyst on Fox News Channel and...

As the poll numbers roll in and the sound bytes accumulate, the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidential campaign seems more and more likely. Whether or not the Republican party will say okey-dokey to her candidacy in the primaries is even more uncertain than if she's going to run or not, but if you ask me, she plans on at least giving it a shot. Sure, she hasn't actually come out and said "I will run for President in 2012," but she has promised us she would "give it a shot," assuming a few vague qualifiers be fulfilled. The success...

After helping propel several upstart Republican contenders to recent primary victories, Sarah Palin said Friday that it's time for Republicans to unite now that primary season is over. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee delivered a fiery speech to about 1,400 people at the Iowa Republican Party's Reagan dinner, the party's largest annual fundraiser. She noted that the general elections are less than two months away and stressed that Nov. 2 should be the focus of all Republicans. "This is our movement, this is our moment," she said. "The time for unity is near. It is...

Yes, children Sarah Palin really can become president of the United States. Take a look at yesterday's CNN poll. It shows Mitt Romney just three points ahead of Irish American Palin right before the kickoff for the 2012 republican nomination which begins the day after the November mid-terms. That three points is within the margin of error. It is also within the margin of error of those pundits who say that Palin has no chance to be selected. They are dead wrong and this poll bears that out. This poll says otherwise, as do a slew of results, including last...

Laura Ingraham was on the Glenn Beck radio show in the last hour this morning...While talking about potential candidates for 2012, She was asked if Romney was a "progressive" she said NO he isn't one of them at all...I've heard that she loves Romney like a Ken doll and is a Romneybot, but this is amazing! She also said that she would take Newt as President in a heartbeat! What gives?

And out-of-touch leaders don't see the need to cool things off. It is, obviously, self-referential to quote yourself, but I do it to make a point. I wrote the following on New Year's day, 1994. America 16 years ago was a relatively content nation, though full of political sparks: 10 months later the Republicans would take the House for the first time in 40 years. But beneath all the action was, I thought, a coming unease. Something inside was telling us we were living through "not the placid dawn of a peaceful age but the illusory calm before stern storms."

Raw footage of CBS News anchor Katie Couric recording voice-overs for news segments about Gov. Sarah Palin on the day she was named as John McCain’s running mate: [...] What’s newsworthy here isn’t merely that Couric mocked the GOP’s historic Vice Presidential nominee–most of us have said things we’re not proud of in private–it’s that she did so so brazenly in front of her supposedly objective news team. Conservatives4Palin raises another good point about Couric and Co.’s efforts to marginalize the former Alaska governor from day one: “[W]hat in [Palin's] impressive biography did CBS News and Couric choose to focus...

The following video was sent to C4P’s tips account. As you can see, the video shows Katie Couric preparing to go on the air on the day John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate. It shows some tantalizing hints of Couric’s attitude toward the Governor--when talking about first Trig, then Track, Couric says “where the hell do they get these [names]?...” At that point the producer running the sound board shut off the sound because he or she didn’t want to have Couric’s disdainful and contemptuous view of Governor Palin’s children captured on even an internal CBS tape...

So Mitt Romney - the venture capitalist guru who never sweats - leads all Republicans in a new Zogby poll that has him within striking distance of Obama, 45-43. Can anyone be surprised? The economy’s a mess. We’re basket cases over keeping jobs and homes. Obama’s reduced to courting Whoopi and Barbara Walters today on “The View,” hoping a cozy chat will reassure the wives of independents and/or Tea Party sympathizers who’ve abandoned the president in droves. Close your eyes. Envision, for a second, the best known GOP contenders: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul. On the Ward...

So Mitt Romney - the venture capitalist guru who never sweats - leads all Republicans in a new Zogby poll that has him within striking distance of Obama, 45-43. Can anyone be surprised? The economy’s a mess. We’re basket cases over keeping jobs and homes. Obama’s reduced to courting Whoopi and Barbara Walters today on “The View,” hoping a cozy chat will reassure the wives of independents and/or Tea Party sympathizers who’ve abandoned the president in droves. Close your eyes. Envision, for a second, the best known GOP contenders: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul. On the Ward...

How ironic that on a day when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Daily Caller released 15 pages of JournoListers’ email exchanges about a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig. It’s tough to fittingly describe these numerous members of the mainstream media who actively engaged in the debate about this conspiracy back when I was first introduced as John McCain’s running mate, and it’s impossible to legitimize any “prominent” media publication that continues to traffic in this bizarre narrative today. It wasn’t just a few fringe characters...

* Gov. Palin posted this Monday on her Facebook Notes page: Journey into the Media’s Heart of DarknessHow ironic that on a day when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Daily Caller released 15 pages of JournoListers’ email exchanges about a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig. It’s tough to fittingly describe these numerous members of the mainstream media who actively engaged in the debate about this conspiracy back when I was first introduced as John McCain’s running mate, and it’s impossible to legitimize any “prominent” media...

Sarah Palin’s speech to the 2008 Republican convention impressed more than a few doubters, including even some members of Journolist, an online community for liberal journalists. “This speech is gangbusters,” wrote Ari Melber of the Nation. “Her tone is pitch perfect.” Adele Stan of the Media Consortium agreed: “Palin is golden.” The exuberance appeared to unnerve the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky. “People get a hold of yourselves!” Tomasky wrote to his fellow Journolisters. “It’s a very good speech with good lines. But there’s very little substance.” Rebecca Traister of Salon wrote to say she was grateful for Tomasky’s message discipline. (“This...

If you wonder why so many Americans are attracted to Sarah Palin, just take a look at the crowd now nipping at her heels, doing its best to derail her appeal through personal attacks that are scurrilous. She’s been a mayor and a governor, yet they say she lacks experience, though they remain enthralled by a loquacious president whose own resume was barren by comparison. She’s a happily married mother of five, one a soldier who served in harm’s way, another a son born with Down syndrome, meaning she understands what it means to live life on life’s terms. Of...

Whenever anyone mentions the 2012 election, inevitably the name of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney becomes a topic of conversation. And when it comes to polling data, Romney is often seen as a front-runner, forecasted to be stronger than the current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Increasingly, many of those in the Republican Party think Mitt is the GOP’s “go-to” guy in the next election. I guess you’ll just have to pardon me for failing to drink the Kool-Aid regarding the former governor. I just think it’s about time somebody stated the truth about Gov. Romney. Mitt Romney...

I guess it’s time we did. Palin is one of the top two contenders for the nomination right now. She is the only candidate with an actual and substantial popular base of support, the only one who can generate real popular enthusiasm. She has little in the way of an organization of her own, but she’s the candidate in the best position to coopt the organization that the Tea Party Movement is building. And to the extent that her endorsements are perceived to have made a real difference in the primaries (as, after Georgia, they are beginning to be), that...

Sarah Palin got some push-back Wednesday, but not from one of her liberal critics in the "mainstream" media. No, it was a conservative -- and influential -- New Hampshire newspaper that tartly dismissed the former Alaska governor's recent endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte. In a front-page editorial, New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid wrote that Palin's endorsement should "neither surprise nor upset the other campaigns" since voters in the state are "rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say." Better pay attention: in a state that traditionally hosts the first presidential primary -- and will again...

A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows President Obama trailing Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich in support for the 2012 presidential election. Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Romney leads by 46 to 43 percent, ex-Arkansas Gov. Huckabee by 47 to 45 percent and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich by 46 to 45 percent. Obama is tied with ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at 46 percent. The only potential Republican candidate he leads is lesser-known Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, 44 to 36 percent. The president’s numbers are the worst ever in Public Policy Polling’s monthly survey. But the poll respondents didn’t express much...

In potentially the first inter-staff dust up of the 2012 presidential race, an aide of Sarah Palin is hitting back at Mitt Romney’s camp for saying the former Alaska governor is “not a serious human being.” Asked about the comments by POLITICO, a longtime Palin aide unloaded on Romney’s staff. “It shocks me that anyone would try to do that,” the aide said. “You’d think we’d all be working together toward a common goal – that being 2010 – and that should be the focus right now. Those who try to claim the mantle of Reagan would be good to...