Free Republic

Fivethirtyeight.com founder Nate Silver said that GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson have a “maybe about 5%” chance of winning the nomination on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360.” Silver put Trump’s and Carson’s chances of winning the nomination at “maybe about 5% each, somewhere around there.” Silver explained, “there are a of couple things to think about. One is that if you look back at history, you’ve never seen candidates like Donald Trump certainly, or Ben Carson win a party nomination, and secondly, if you look at the polling a lot of times, a candidate leading the...

A few months ago, I took some flack in these quarters for suggesting that, his annoying liberalism aside, Chris Matthews is in his heart an American patriot. That same patriotic proclivity displayed itself tonight. On the anniversary of 9-11, Matthews profusely praised his guest Rudy Giuliani for his leadership on that day. And in a spontaneous aside, Matthews called RFK's assassin, the Palestinian Sirhan B. Sirhan, "the first terrorist." Can you imagine Rachel Maddow—or Barack Obama for that matter—doing the same? View the video here.

Gay activists fume over de Blasio’s role in rentboy.com raidGay activists are furious over the rentboy.com raid and arrests for prostitution — and they are wondering why Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton worked with the federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. Both the mayor and Bratton march in the very same gay pride parade in which rentboy.com has a float. “Koch, Giuliani and Bloomberg didn’t go after rentboy.com. Why is de Blasio?” wondered one gay man who has used the service.

Very much worth the watch. A moment of clarity in a time of purposeful misinformation and confusion.

Dear Jim..OK, the GOP now has its candidate. McCain isn't the first choice of the majority of us on FR, and even now, there are spirited, yet for the most part, civil exchanges on the threads as to whether or not some will support the GOP nominee. One of the more unfortunate, and unpleasant events on FR was the mass banishment and/or leaving of a great many Freepers who were supporters of Rudy Guliani for the nomination. I'm posting this to see if you'd be open to the idea of inviting them to return, and see how others might feel...

We've got some real challenges facing us. FR was established to fight against government corruption, overstepping, and abuse and to fight for a return to the limited constitutional government as envisioned and set forth by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and other founding documents. One of the biggest cases of government corruption, overstepping and abuse that I know of is its disgraceful headlong slide into a socialist hell. Our founders never intended for abortion to be the law of the land. And they never intended the Supreme Court to be a legislative body. They...

Tea Party hero's roadmap to the presidency borrows from the failed presidential runs of Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani.It’s sometimes easy to forget that Ted Cruz is running for president. While other 2016 Republican candidates are out giving big speeches and attaching themselves to causes and making trips to Europe, Cruz has stayed relatively quiet, which is strange given that his animating purpose up to this point has been to loudly remind you that Ted Cruz exists. The biggest headlines Cruz has earned for himself lately were for a dumb joke he told about Joe Biden just after the vice...

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin had choice words for President Obama last night when she appeared on “The Lead” with Jake Tapper. ...“Both Mayor Rawlings-Blake and President Obama, today, using the word “thug,”” Tapper said after showing a clip of Mayor Rawlings-Blake speaking. “Sunny, you take issue that?” “I do,” Hostin responded. “It’s not a word, certainly, that I’m comfortable with. It’s not a word that I use. I think that we can all agree that that word, that term has been racialized, and I think what I saw during the riots was, I saw a lot of crimes being...

There was a time when Common Core supporters loudly insisted the program — adopted by no fewer than 46 states — was most assuredly not federal, that any allegation that this astounding national uniformity was the result of federal pressure was a nasty, vicious lie. The State Standards Initiative confidently declares as “myth” the assertions that “Common Core State Standards were adopted by states as part of the [federal] Race to the Top grant program” or that the “federal government will take over ownership” of Common Core. The Initiative’s position is clear: “The federal government will not govern the Common...

Chuck Schumer is set to get a big promotion -- and that's welcome news to Wall Street. The veteran Democratic senator from New York is widely expected to take Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's job when he retires at the end of 2016. Reid, who announced he would not be running for reelection Friday morning, quickly endorsed his New York colleague for the role. Schumer's ascension to the top Democratic position in the Senate -- and even possibly to Senate majority leader if his party regains control of the chamber -- is a boon for the finance and business communities,...

In the bad old days of New York City, the mob would decide the price of erecting a building regardless of who was planning to do it. Years after the construction of One Police Plaza, the City’s Police Headquarters, when the ceiling of the main floor started to fall down an investigation found that the mob had sold the city substandard concrete. They didn’t care who they ripped off. Hard work led by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani broke the grip of the mob on New York’s construction industry and for years afterward construction boomed because of the reduced costs of...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said officer Darren Wilson should be “commended” for fatally shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, last August in Ferguson, Missouri. “A man committed a robbery, attempted to assault a police officer, and the police officer, to save his life, shot him,” Giuliani told Fox News on Thursday. “The police officer did his duty. The police officer should be commended for what he did. He did exactly what you should do.” Wilson was cleared of any charges by a local grand jury last fall. The Justice Department last week released a report on his...

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says President Barack Obama is to blame for the police shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and other disturbing events because he sets the tone for the nation. ... Giuliani also says Obama should say the kinds of things comedian Bill Cosby used to say before he was accused of sexual assault, which Cosby denies. Cosby often exhorted black people to focus on education and parenting.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued for criminal justice reform at a historically black college in Maryland on Friday, in what has become a staple of his message to young voters and minorities ahead of a potential presidential run in 2016. Paul, who has frequently nodded to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s idea that there are “two Americas,” said in his speech at Bowie State University there’s one America where citizens are free to pursue their lives freely, and one where the federal government piles on with unnecessary laws, burdensome fines and regulations, and overly strict sentencing guidelines that contribute to keeping...

Signers include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie BakerMore than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday. The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide. In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage...

WASHINGTON -- When former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he did not think that "the president loves America," was he right? Of course he was. The record is strewn with President Barack Obama's statements of contempt for America. In a quieter setting, I think Professor Obama would agree. He would then go on to brag about his love for higher things: for humankind, for the world community, for the planet, the green planet. Recall in 2009 when Obama told a European audience, "There have been times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive toward" Europe. I...

Former New York mayor Rudy GiulianiÂ’s statement about President ObamaÂ’s lack of love for America has set off a firestorm of denunciation. Giuliani has been accused of racism, and he has even received death threats. Defenders of Obama have evoked everything from his grandfatherÂ’s (on his motherÂ’s side) service in World War II to the two years GiulianiÂ’s father served in Sing Sing to prove either that Obama does love America or that Giuliani has no standing to issue such criticism. The ranting has obscured the reasons why so many Americans take GiulianiÂ’s remarks to heart. Starting with his June...

Great job, Rudy Giuliani! The hero of Sept. 11, 2001 is the hero again. Rudy just said what tens of millions of Americans believe. Gee, I wonder why? Let me count the ways that would indicate to anyone who isn’t blind or a complete blithering idiot, that President Barack Obama doesn’t appear to love America, is “different” in his thinking than any other president, and certainly gives the strong impression his true feelings are anti-American, anti-Christian and anti-Israel. Before we get to exact quotes direct from Obama’s mouth in the past few surreal days, let’s start with the obvious. Is...

"It hit a nerve," Rudy Giuliani observed about his widely reported insight that President Obama does not love America. Amid the uproar from the liberal media that anyone would dare question a liberal's patriotism, the former mayor of New York City is not backing away from his candid comment, telling the New York Times that "I said exactly what I wanted to say. I conveyed exactly the message that I wanted to convey." Giuliani's on-target comments hit the same nerve that has produced an uproar over the new Advanced Placement U.S. History Framework, which is teaching 500,000 of our brightest...

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was more than a tad upset with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s criticism of President Barack Obama’s patriotism, saying in his Sunday sermon that Giuliani was a “privileged cracker” and a “devil.” “Giuliani says Obama does not love America,” Farrakhan said, “And instead of apologizing, they say he doubled down, he tripled down, he said, ‘I’m not taking this back. He didn’t grow up like we grew up.’” “How did you grow up, Giuliani?” asked Farrakhan. “A privileged cracker?” After that line got enormous applause, he added: “Or I should say, a...