Free Republic

Obama sent shock waves through political circles when announced on Monday that he had amassed $150 million in campaign contributions in September, giving him upwards of $600 million for his campaign. While his fund raising makes a mockery of McCain's paltry $100 million in taxpayer funded campaign money, the real advantage to Obama in the election is not likely to be decisive... Obama's lingering problem is that with all his money, he does not have anything new to say...But McCain's advertising is powering a bold new message, inspired by Joe the Plumber: That Obama will use the tax code to...

Political analyst extraordinaire DICK MORRIS plots out the critical states that may determine whether John McCain or Barack Obama becomes the next president. This week's results indicate McCain blundered by suspending his campaign....

John McCain isn't dead in the water. But he sure is dying. He lost the debate and the polls are dismal. Gallup has him down 50-42. Rasmussen has Obama ahead 50-44. And both polls are only partially after the debate. Obama won the debate. When the polls come in fully after the debate, the picture won't get any prettier for those of us who favor McCain. His gambit of suspending his campaign and going to Washington has failed because he did not think it through adequately or correlate it with what was happening in Congress. The Republicans teed up a...

Political analyst extraordinaire DICK MORRIS plots out the critical states that may determine whether John McCain or Barack Obama becomes the next president. This week’s poll results indicate that the Sarah Palin effect has run its course.

The conventional wisdom has it down pat: A bad economy works against the candidate from the party in power as voters take out their rage and fear on the president’s party and back the challenger, just like they did in 1992. But this is not a normal economic slowdown (or recession) and Obama is not a normal challenger. I think the conventional wisdom may be dead wrong. It is not so much that unemployment is so high (5.7 percent) or that the economy is in the tank (1 percent growth this quarter) as it is that everything seems to be...

When is the McCain campaign going to get serious? It seems to be marking time with softball ads, more appropriate to the soundbites campaign media spokespeople exchange with one another than to strategic paid media hits. One ad talks about how the media loves Obama. Another mocks him as a celebrity. Each throws pitty-pat punches, far short of the kind of knockout blows one would expect from a presidential campaign. Were I a donor to McCain's campaign, paying for these pathetic spots, I would demand a refund. Or sue for malpractice. Yet despite this softball nonsense, Obama remains vulnerable, no...

If you read, watch and hear the media describe the campaign of 2008, it appears to be the most one-sided contest since Reagan trounced Mondale in 1984. McCain always comes across as borderline senile, lethargic, and pitiful while Obama is awash in media heroics and theatrical flourishes. But the race is still basically tied according to the polls. While Obama has gotten a four point bounce, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, from his European trip and the adulatory response of the left-leaning German crowds, the two candidates have been within one or two points of each other for the...

You've probably heard the story about the tycoon who wanted to bring out a new kind of dog food. He spent lavishly. He hired the best marketing person, the top PR firm, the best ad agency, the No. 1 packaging expert, the most powerful distributor -- but the sales were flat after six months. He summoned his consultants to a meeting and asked why the food wasn't selling. "The dogs won't eat it," was the answer that came back. And so it is with Mitt Romney. Despite outspending his rivals by huge margins throughout the primaries, the dogs won't eat...

The Bush administration is crazy for mounting so vigorous a defense to the McClellan book, talking about what an ungrateful sleaze he is. All this publicity is just helping book sales and leaving the average person with the impression that a top Bush official wrote a tell-all book saying that Bush was a phony on the war in Iraq. But the fact is that McClellan's book doesn't have anything in it. It makes NO important new revelations. It says Bush was negligent on Katrina. So the news? Then he used "propaganda" to convince us to invade Iraq - well, what...

While Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hangs in there, locked in a tough race with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Republican undercard is facing obliteration in the 2008 general elections for the Senate. Polling suggests that a massacre may be in the offing — and one that’s possibly even greater than the worst of previous GOP years: 1958, 1964, 1974, 1986 and 2006. Scott Rasmussen, whose site, www.rasmussenreports.com, follows these races closely, is producing truly hair-raising polling data. Of the open Republican Senate seats in contention, Democratic victory seems very likely in Virginia (Democratic former Gov. Mark Warner now has 55...

What worked for P.T. Barnum didn’t do as well for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). When the great showman said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people,” he unknowingly anticipated the fundamental assumption that underlay the campaign of the first woman seriously to contend for the presidency. But however correct Barnum’s observations may have been about the circus audiences of years ago, it has proven a flawed premise for a 21st century presidential campaign.

Now that Hillary Clinton has been nailed in an outright fabrication of her role in Bosnia, it is time to remind ourselves of another, even more galling fantasy that Hillary tried to sell the voters. After 9/11, Hillary had a problem. New Yorkers were desperately focused on their own needs for protection and they were saddled with a Senator who was not one of them -- an Arkansasn or was it a Chicagoan? Interviewed on the "Today" show one week after 9/11, she spun an elaborate yarn. The kindest thing we could say was that it was a fantasy. Or...

Barack Obama's victory in Wisconsin on Tuesday was just the latest sign that Hillary Clinton's desperate, anti-democratic moves to salvage her bid for the Democratic nomination are destroying her last chances to win a fair fight. Loudly and publicly, the Clintons proclaim that superdelegates should feel free to ignore the wishes of the folks back home and jam Hillary's nomination through at the convention. They openly predict that they'll demand the seating of the Michigan and Florida delegations, totally contravening the party's rules. Do they think the voters aren't listening to these authoritarian pronouncements, reminiscent of the days before the...

Congressmen and women who believe that they can ignore the expressed will of their districts’ constituents and vote with impunity for whomever they want for president at the Democratic Convention had better think again. A vote for Clinton by a congressman whose district backed Obama is likely to become the single most dangerous vote the member has ever cast. If Obama loses the nomination, all will be forgotten, if not forgiven. But if he wins and gets elected, as I think he will, don’t expect much mercy from his enraged supporters. Voting one way while one’s district votes the other...

Police in Tulsa, Okla., are searching for a man who hid under a woman's car at a Wal-Mart parking lot and then licked her toes as she loaded groceries into the vehicle, according to a report. The woman said she was at the Tulsa Wal-Mart located near 81st Street and Lewis when she felt her toes being licked. She assumed it was a dog but when she looked down, she saw it was a man lying under her vehicle. "I felt something lick my foot," the woman said. "I looked at him and I said, 'What in the hell are...

I believe that Barack Obama will defeat Hillary and win the Democratic nomination. I think that this weekend's victories in states as diverse as Washington State, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Maine illustrates his national appeal and demonstrates Hillary's inability to win in states without large immigrant and Latino populations. Hillary's results on Super Tuesday, which amounted to a draw with Obama, will be her high water mark and will represent the closest she will ever come to the party nomination. Right now, CBS has Obama ahead in elected delegates with 1134, while Hillary has only 1131.By the time Virginia, Maryland, DC,...

Stop the presses! The very latest polling data from California indicates a sharp trend for Obama and against Hillary. Preliminary indications in other states are that the trend is very widespread and not just concentrated on the west coast. Pollster Scott Rasmussen's three day tracking survey, conducted on January 28-30, shows Hillary with a bare and dwindling 3 point lead over Obama in California. He has Hillary at 43%, Obama at 40%, and Edwards (two of the three days were before he dropped out) at 9%. This data compares with a 20 point plus Hillary margin in most polls in...

Once again a familiar pattern emerges, one that has occurred many times before especially after a disasterous election result for the party in question. Case in point the Republican Party which had its asses handed to them in the last federal election wherein Republicans across the board were slaughtered, not because the Republican constituency suddenly embraced liberal ideology and rejected conservatives values and principles, but because Republicans in positions of power did. Thus they were rewarded with a withdrawl of support which greatly contributed to their defeat. The crystal clear lessons of the elections of 2006, instead of being a...

Some may agree with Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) positions on his myriad of causes and enthusiasms. Others may embrace Mitt Romney’s record as governor and his experience in business. But one fact remains pre-eminent — McCain has a much better chance of winning the election than does former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). If you feel confident, for some unknown reason, in a Republican victory, it is possible that either candidate could win. If you feel the nation is aching for a Democrat, as I do, then the importance of choosing the strongest candidate fades a bit. But any rational...

What does Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama really mean? In addition to seriously boosting Obama’s chances for the Democratic nomination by anointing him as the generational heir to John F. Kennedy, there’s something else that’s just as important for the body politic: Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, and the voters of South Carolina may have personally tolled the death knell for the Clintons’ reprehensible politics of personal destruction. It’s about time. For more than 30 years, no one has been able to stop Bill and Hillary Clinton from routinely acting on their shared base instinct: to annihilate anyone who gets...

Barack Obama used his victory in South Carolina to change the dialogue with the Clintons in the presidential race. He has taken Hillary’s and Bill’s attempt to use the race issue and replied with a clever move. He has basically called their bluff. And Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama has ratified the Illinois Senator’s strategy and candidacy. So far, to summarize: Move One was when Obama arrived as a new candidate. Move two was Hillary’s comeback that she is more experienced. Move three was when Obama pivoted off her experience message and said he was the voice of change. Move...

Dick Morris just made a pretty darn good point IMHO, on Hannity and Combes (Fox News): Hillary Rodham is the person, who personally coordinated the "Bimbo Eruptions" investigations and smears of women, who her husband cheated on her with, during his terms. Not to stop his cheating. Not to ... divorce him. Not even, to discover the truth. Why?... to smear and silence... the women. Should she, be in charge of the FBI? The IRS? The NSA?...

Michigan's Meaning: GOP Chaos By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann Wednesday, January 16, 2008 The GOP race has now descended into total chaos. Mike Huckabee, John McCain and now Mitt Romney have each won an important primary or caucus and lost two others. Onetime front-runner Rudy Giuliani finished dead last in Michigan last night, falling below the somnambulant Fred Thompson and the flakey Ron Paul. The scatter-shot outcome reflects deeper divisions among the GOP's three wings: Economic conservatives are moving to Romney; social righties rallying 'round Huckabee - and the national-security types who started for Rudy have migrated to McCain...

The Thread for Wednesday, January 9th 2008

Hillary Clinton made one thing very clear at Saturday night’s Democratic debate: Her likability tour is definitely over. Baring her claws at opponents Barack Obama and John Edwards, the real Hillary was finally in evidence. The mask was off and her rage, arrogance, and sense of entitlement were on full display. It was not a pretty picture. From the first moment that she entered the stage, Hillary’s body language shrieked one thing — smoldering, simmering anger. The constant smile and the cackling laugh that have been her campaign trademark were suddenly gone. In their place was a furious, primal glare....

THE amazing victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in Iowa last night are truly historic. They demonstrate the impact and viability of a message of change in both parties. On the Democratic side, Obama - by winning in a totally white state - shows that racism is gone as a factor in American politics. On the Republican side, Huckabee's win shows how a truly compassionate conservative can win by harvesting voters who want the message of concern for the poor and for values to prevail. But what of Hillary Clinton? She's down but not out. In the first really...

As a display of affection, it could hardly have been more public. Docked in Sydney harbour on a hired yacht costing £17,500 a day, Sting gently raised Trudie Styler's left leg to his mouth - and sucked her toes. The Police singer, whose personal life has been surrounded by rumours of tantric sex and swingers' parties, also found time to massage her feet as she reclined on a sunlounger. -snip-

Mike Huckabee, the evangelical pastor emerging as a strong Republican contender for the White House, is being advised by a former Bill Clinton aide with a history of sexual scandal. As the backlash against Mr Huckabee's increasingly confident campaign gathered pace yesterday, his staff admitted that he has regular telephone brain-storming sessions with Dick Morris, a consultant seen by some as the epitome of the cynical Washington political operative. Mr Huckabee, like Mr Clinton a former governor of Arkansas, recently described Mr Morris as "one of the smartest political minds in the business". The two men have known each other...

According to The Politico, New York Post columnist and FOX News contributor Dick Morris has been secretly advising former client Mike Huckabee on his Presidential campaign. Morris claims he is acting in an entirely voluntary capacity by simply offering free advice. Keep in mind that nationally syndicated columnist George Will was pilloried by the media when it became public that he had secretly and voluntarily helped Ronald Reagan prepare for his Presidential debates in 1980. A prominent national GOP insider tells Politics1 that he believes Morris -- despite his claims to the contrary -- is paid for his services through...

<p>If you happen to see the Bill Clinton five minute TV ad for Hillary in which he introduces the commercial by saying that he wants to share some things we may not know about Hillary's background . . . beware . .</p>

AS her once-formidable lead in national polls dwindles and Barack Obama moves ahead of her in the all-important Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton will likely intensify her negative campaign against her rivals. The Clintons' political MO has always had a good dose of negative campaigning, especially when the going gets rough. There's no reason to assume that they will alter their game plan now. I remember Bill's race for re-election as Arkansas governor back in 1990, when he found himself falling behind Hal McCrae, his unknown Democratic primary opponent. After Clinton's 10 years as governor, McCrae's attacks - featuring...

Even as he continues to hold a convincing lead in the national race, Rudy Giuliani may be riding for a big fall in Iowa and the other early state primaries. Mitt Romney, despite his anemic national showing, could sweep Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan, a trifecta that could give him such momentum as to sweep him to the nomination. The numbers are scary for Giuliani (and since Mitt doesn’t have a prayer in hell of beating Hillary in a general election, scary for us all). While he holds a lead in the national polls (Giuliani 30, Thompson 17, McCain 15,...

Both 2008 front-runners are suddenly in danger in the Iowa caucus, the first electoral test of the presidential races. Coming on Jan. 3 - only four weeks before the huge set of primaries on Feb. 5 - the Iowa contest will loom large in determining whether Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani face real competition or cakewalks to their nominations. The New York Times/CBS poll released yesterday indicates real trouble ahead for both in Iowa. On the Democratic side, Clinton leads with 25 percent, followed by John Edwards at 23 percent and Barack Obama at 22 percent. In the GOP contest,...

During the Bill Clinton presidency, it became obvious that the president and the first lady were locked in a zero sum game of perception. The stronger people perceived her, the weaker they felt he was. Early in his tenure, news stories were rife about Hillary’s extraordinary influence on appointments, policy and political strategy. Each of these leaks sapped confidence in Bill Clinton’s strength and led to a drop in his ratings. The solution was to exile Hillary from the White House. She stopped attending strategy meetings, no longer had a direct or public role in policy formulation and redoubled her...

What if the current polls in Iowa are the final result? What if Romney wins in Iowa and then comes in first again in New Hampshire? What if Giuliani stumbles badly in Iowa and finishes fourth? What if Huckabee surges and finishes second in Iowa? What if Fred Thompson makes an unimpressive third-place finish there? And, on the Democratic side, what if Hillary only narrowly beats Obama in the first caucus state? With two months to go before the Iowa caucus, everything can change, and probably will, but it is worth speculating on what the impact will be if things...

It’s easy to see the disguises that the Democratic Party is planning to don for Halloween. While we can only speculate on the taxes they are planning to increase — everything would be a safe bet — it is becoming clear how they will dress the tax increases up to make the radical change they will, in fact, represent seem moderate and reasonable, even necessary to protect the “middle class.” Of course, this will take place not this year but in 2009, after they have elected Hillary as president and as many as 58 Democratic senators (possible takeaways in Minnesota,...

Rudy Giuliani has found his groove in attacking Hillary Clinton. Whether his barbs will help him beat her in the general election, we don’t know yet. But they will help him to win the Republican primary. The major reason for anyone to vote for Rudy Giuliani is that he has the best chance — we would say the only chance — to defeat Hillary Clinton. And beating Hillary is very, very, very important! It is only through the terror issue that the Republicans have a chance to win in November, 2008. If Americans retain their current complaisance, the GOP will...

Dick Morris' inside info: http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/?p=150

Dick Morris, the political consultant for Bill Clinton who resigned in disgrace, is continuing his pathetic attacks against Fred Thompson. His attacks are increasingly desperate and in some cases completely untrue. Whether that is a result of deliberate falsehood, or just laziness in checking facts, is unclear. Morris has written a number of columns in recent weeks predicting Fred's demise and asserting that his campaign is off to a terrible start etc. But as Fred continues to climb in both National and State Polls, the Morris mantra is looking pretty suspect. In his latest diatribe, he predictably rehashes the laundry...

He may be the tallest candidate in the race for president, but Fred Thompson is clearly in over his head! In both his fumbling pre-candidacy period and his hesitant, attenuated post-announcement campaign, he's given the clear impression that that he is ill-informed, inarticulate, badly briefed and downright lazy... ...But beneath his casual, disorganized and ill-informed way of running for president, one suspects an arrogance lingers -- a sense of not needing to prepare and a lethargy in the face of challenges that perhaps indicates a failure to appreciate how daunting a task running for president really is.

Democrats may hold up to 57 U.S. Senate seats after the 2008 election — almost enough to block a Republican filibuster and likely enough to assure passage of most of the Democratic program. Last week was a bad one for the GOP. Longtime Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., announced that they wouldn't seek re-election in '08, joining Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., in voluntary retirement. Add to that Sen. Larry Craig's, R-Idaho involuntary retirement. Republicans may well lose the Warner seat. Sen. George Allen lost in '06 to Democrat Jim Webb in Virginia. The most likely Democratic candidate,...

Now that Thompson has finally declared his candidacy, albeit on the Jay Leno show, many are pinning their hopes on him as a later-day Ronald Reagan. But he’s no Ronald Reagan and he’s never going to be viable. Here’s why:He’s A Political Light Weight and He’s Not Ready For The National Stage In his first week of campaigning, Thompson has shown that he has neither the substance nor the experience that is essential for a serious presidential candidate. One wonders what makes him — and his supporters — think that he is, in any way, up to the job. He...

The winner of the Hypocrite of the Year award goes to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Even though the year is far from over and is likely to have its fair share of hypocrisy, Mrs. Clinton's comment on the need to compromise to achieve political and social progress has to outclass any other current or future entrant. This woman, who refused to change a comma or a word of her 1,000-page-plus healthcare reform bill and, as a result of her intractable stubbornness, sent the bill down to defeat along with the Democratic Congress and almost her husband's presidency, is daring...

Dick Morris: Bloomberg Could Win Presidency A Michael Bloomberg presidential campaign could prove to be more than just a spoiler in a Democrat versus Republican battle he could actually win the White House as an independent, according to political analyst Dick Morris. "If Mike Bloomberg decided to run for president, he would have a strong chance of winning the election, Morris told NewsMax after Bloomberg's announcement on Tuesday that he was switching his party status from Republican to unaffiliated. "As a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, he fits what most Americans want. And unlike Ross Perot, the last independent...

I HOPE DICK MORRIS IS WRONG ON THIS ONELast night, Hannity & Colmes. Democrats plan to eliminate the earnings cap on Social Security taxes (8th paragraph, 2nd/last sentence). This means that the high-achievers in this country will pay an additional 14 percent on every single dollar they earn over the current earnings limit .. about $100,000. There is no limit whatsoever to the desire of politicians to seize the property of individuals in order to fund their political dreams. Need I say it? Adoption of the FairTax solves our Social Security problems.

The Republican Party can decide whether it lives or dies by whether or not it blocks the immigration compromise from passing this year. If they stop it from going through and a Democratic President pushes it through a Democratic Congress in 2009, the GOP will suffer as much among Hispanic voters as it did among black voters after Barry Goldwater crusaded against the Civil Rights Bill in his 1964 election campaign. Until Goldwater did that, blacks usually voted Republican. Kennedy won over about 60% of them when he called Correta Scott King while her husband was in jail. But LBJ...

HILLARY'S pollster Mark Penn recently claimed that she was leading the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in all states in all the polls. Not so fast, Mark. The latest Rasmussen poll, concluded on April 26, shows Sen. Barack Obama ahead of Sen. Clinton for the first time, albeit by the slim margin of 32-30. Two weeks ago, Rasmussen had the race tied; before that, he had her constantly in the lead. Almost all the national polls show Clinton's lead dwindling, and most show her with only a single-digit lead over Obama. The sense of Hillary's inevitability as the Democratic...

In the case of the Republican presidential primary, there are two men who aren’t there: former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.). But their presence — or absence — haunts the GOP primary nonetheless. Until they make their respective moves to enter or foreswear entering the primaries, they will freeze a critical segment of conservative Republicans who are withholding their affections from other suitors, waiting for Mr. Right to arrive. In fact, most polls indicate that these two gents account for between 15 and 20 percent of the vote in trial Republican primary heats. Not since...

The big problem in finding a conservative challenger to run for the GOP nomination is not the absence of a genuine constituency, nor is it even enthusiasm for ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Right-wingers who would pass the litmus test — guys like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, California Rep. Duncan Hunter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, or even ex-Tennessee Sen. and famous actor Fred Thompson — face the need to climb over the political corpses of former Speaker New Gingrich (Ga.) and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to...

Former Bill Clinton aide Dick Morris is bringing out a documentary in September to expose Hillary Clinton as a "phony." Morris told the American Spectator Breakfast that the documentary will present Hillary's conflicting statements side-by-side and will portray her disingenuous statements and misrepresentations alongside the facts. The documentary will also depict Bill Clinton's involvement in controversial matters ranging from his pardons as president to his work for Dubai. "You have to get to the fundamental fact of her phoniness, her lack of credibility." Morris said. "That she is pretending to be something she is not. I think you can best...