Free Republic

I owe everyone here an an apology for falsely believing and then promoting the idea that Romney had the ability to unify the country and create a grander GOP coalition. He did not. I am fully behind him (only GOP candidate on ballot), but can only see a narrow GOP win (if we all pull the lever). Having said that, I am also certain that this was never a moment for a polarizing figure (like Palin). To defeat Obama by a big margin, we needed an inspirational/charismatic conservative (Paul Ryan type). We did not have that choice. Oh well....lest vote...

So, how was the public convinced that MacDonald was guilty despite all of these “reasonable doubts”? Enter my old neighbor Joe McGinniss. MacDonald signed a contract giving McGinniss exclusive rights to his life story, and so McGinniss was given unprecedented access to the defense team – living with them, working with them, eating with them. But when the guilty verdict came down, McGinniss did a one-eighty on them. Apparently, falsely convicted men don’t make for good books. McGinniss decided it was a better story to agree with the jury. MacDonald wasn’t a sympathetic figure. He did himself no favors with...

True, Mitt Romney’s new nominee for vice president possesses certain attributes that Sarah Palin lacked, namely a wonky intellect and speaking voice that does not sound like nails on chalkboard. But Paul Ryan may actually turn out to be a worse veep choice than Ms. Palin for several reasons. 1. Ryan further delays, and perhaps permanently scraps, Romney’s move to the center. Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney aide, signaled that the candidate intended to reinvent himself as a moderate after winning the primary season. But we never got that promised Etch-a-Sketch moment and now, likely, never will. How is Romney...

If one of Mitt Romney's goals in choosing a running mate was to mine the same mother lode of conservative excitement that John McCain tapped by picking Sarah Palin four years ago, there's one additional dilemma for Romney to address: Palin is still around. A day after Romney unveiled House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential pick, Palin suggested in a statement posted by her Fox News colleague Greta Van Susteren that she would not speak at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa.(snip) For this reason, it was notable when she initially offered only a lukewarm reaction...

Palin will not speak at Republican conventionWASHINGTON | Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:36pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will not speak at the Republican nominating convention in Tampa later this month, she said in statement on Sunday. "This year is a good opportunity for other voices to speak at the convention and I'm excited to hear them," Palin, who was Senator John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election, said in a statement on Gretawire, the blog of Fox News's Greta Van Susteren.

I’m getting sick of the rewriting of 2008 presidential campaign history as K Street Republicans continue to assault Sarah Palin in the fear that a similarly conservative Republican will rise to the top of the VP sweepstakes. It has been so fashionable in D.C. Republican circles to bash the Palin nomination as a mistake, ill-conceived or even disastrous, that even Dick Cheney has gotten into the act. These self-serving attempts to change history are nothing more than a smear campaign designed to influence the Romney VP pick by obscuring the truth that the choice of Sarah Palin to be the...

Former vice president Dick Cheney on Monday backed off his comment that it was “a mistake” for the GOP to pick Sarah Palin as its vice presidential nominee, suggesting the comment was more about the VP process than about Palin herself. “It wasn’t aimed so much at governor Palin as it was against the basic process that (John) McCain used, “ Cheney told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview airing Monday night. “My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement: Is this person prepared to step in to be President of the United States...

Sounds like fun already ... the Tampa Bay Times released the names of some of the speakers slated for the RNC convention in Tampa later this month, and it looks to be a promising lineup. The Times reported that, as of now, it's unclear where these speakers are slotted, and the rest of the lineup--including the keynote speaker--remains unknown. Names so far include conservative powerhouses New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is also speaking. Here's a portion of the Times report: Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. John McCain and former Secretary...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, last Sunday on this week, Jonathan Karl interviewed Dick Cheney, and this is the sound bite where Cheney says that picking Sarah Palin was a mistake. And this was a toughie. It's not a defensible comment. I wouldn't even try. The thing to note about this is that shortly after this, Liz Cheney sent out the following tweet. "Rarely do I disagree with the best VP ever, but Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama and Biden combined. I have huge respect for all she's done for the GOP." So Liz Cheney tweeted that. That didn't...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC‘s Jonathan Karl Sunday that Senator John McCain’s decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 was a “mistake,” and one that Mitt Romney can’t repeat. “I like Governor Palin. I’ve met her. I know her. She – attractive candidate. But based on her background, she’d only been governor for, what, two years. I don’t think she passed that test…of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake,” Cheney explained. But now, Liz Cheney– who many respect as a conservative mind independent of her father’s former position–...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JULY 29, 2012 CONTACT: Ryan Gill at press@CampaignToDefeatObama.com or (650) 678-7732 Palin's Qualifications to Serve in White House Should Not Be QuestionedLloyd Marcus, the Chairman of leading conservative group Campaign to Defeat Obama PAC released the following statement today in response to an ABC news report that former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized Sarah Palin’s qualifications to serve in the White House: “To suggest that Sarah Palin does not possess the necessary qualifications to serve in the White House is ridiculous on its face. Ever since she was selected in 2008 by the Republican party’s...

Powerful conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., thinks former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin deserves a prime speaking position at the Republican convention. "I'd love to see Sarah Palin have a big slot — as far as speaking — because there's no one still in America that excites the base of conservatives and even libertarians as she does,” he told Fox News Thursday. “She can draw a crowd more than any other Republican, and I think has more influence in primaries than any other endorsement right now, so I think she'd be good."

Winning the presidency has a lot more to do with the charisma of the leader than it does with the policies that are brought to the American dinner table. Just look at the last sorrowful example the country was saddled with in 2008 with the current president. There is reportedly, current intrigue moving about in the backrooms of GOP political leadership within Romney’s campaign concerning Sarah Palin. It is suggested that Romney is sitting pat on the idea of not issuing Sarah Palin VIP credentials to the August RNC Convention in Tampa, let alone giving her any real speaking role....

10 Questions to ponder to why there has not been more discussion about these topics in this election cycle: 1) Have you ever wondered why there is little talk or discussion of the results of the 2010 midterm election in respect to the 2012 election, especially the fact that conservatives represented 42% of the electorate in 2010, 8 points higher than 2008 and that increase in self-identified conservatives should be exploited by Team Romney? 2) Have you ever wondered why there is little talk or discussion of Mitt Romney in most national polls not passing McCain's popular vote in 2008...

Republican Senator John McCain says he chose Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney as his running mate in 2008 because she was a “better candidate,” not because of Romney’s much-discussed tax records. The McCain presidential campaign received 20 years of Romney’s tax records, much more than what the 2012 Republican presidential nominee has revealed to date. Democrats have suggested the McCain campaign passed over Romney because they found something politically damaging. “Of course not,” McCain told Politico when asked if the tax records hurt Romney...

She is the Tea Party diva who lit up the 2008 Presidential campaign. But four years later Mitt Romney is facing one of the most vexing questions of his campaign: what to do with Sarah Palin? In an increasingly uncomfortable stand-off, he has not invited her to next month’s Republican national convention whilst she has failed to give him her full backing. Palin has also not appeared with the Romney on the campaign trail and prefers to use her Facebook page to bash Barack Obama. The result is that the Republican presidential candidate is left without the endorsement of a...

'I’M SURE I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE ACCEPTING CONSEQUENCES FOR CALLING OUT BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE FOR SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY, PUTTING US ON THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY, AND ENGAGING IN CRONY CAPITALISM,' THE CONSERVATIVE FIREBRAND SAYS

[T]he Romney campaign has not asked Palin to speak at the convention nor contacted her about even attending the party’s marquee event in Tampa. Queries to the Romney camp about any possible Palin role at the convention meet with a stony silence. Palin does not seem surprised. “What can I say?” she responded in an email from Alaska, when asked by Newsweek about the convention, just before heading to Michigan to deliver an Obama-thumping speech. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on...

One week prior to the general election, former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden took to the airwaves (on CNN) and defamed Sarah Palin, setting off a media storm over an alleged fight between Team McCain and Team Palin. They were the very early opening salvos in the battle for the party. Fox News expanded on off-the-record anti-Palin comments tonight. Was traitor Kevin Madden for those comments?

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday revived her inflammatory accusation that President Obama's healthcare law creates "death panels." Palin used her Facebook page to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the Supreme Court's upcoming healthcare decision. She said she wanted to take the opportunity to stand by comments in a 2009 Facebook post that touched off a firestorm of controversy. "I stand by everything I wrote in that warning to my fellow Americans because what was true then is true now, and it will remain true as we hear what the Supreme Court has to say," Palin said in Monday's...