Free Republic

It’s not Adam Driver’s acting skills that landed him prime roles in the upcoming “Star Wars” movie or HBO series “Girls.” It’s white privilege. “It’s a little surreal,” Driver says of being cast by top Hollywood directors in a new VMan magazine interview. “I love (Martin) Scorsese and (Steven) Spielberg – I probably watch Jaws twice a year. To work with them is a little out of body. It’s obviously extremely flattering, and weird. I’m a straight, white male, and I’ve had more opportunities than other people have, unjustly. And I’ve been lucky on top of that.”

Sen. Ted Cruz today invited President Obama to accompany him to a golf course on the Texas-Mexico border, telling conservatives at an Americans for Prosperity summit in Dallas he thought that was “the only way there is a chance in heaven that he might come” to the region. The Texas Republican and potential 2016 presidential contender also heavily criticized the president’s foreign policies and suggested that the U.S. should bomb ISIS “back to the stone age.” “Tonight I am officially extending an invitation for Barack Obama to come join me at the border in Texas,” Cruz said. “I figured the...

Is there such thing as “class” in America? Not if you ask Rick Santorum. The once and possibly future GOP presidential candidate spoke to a Republican gathering in Lyon County, Iowa late last week and shared this piece of advice with his party: “Don’t use the term the other side uses.” That includes the “middle class.” Santorum proceeded to tear into President Obama for constantly invoking the term “middle class” in his speeches about the economy. “Since when in America do we have classes?” Santorum asked. “Since when in America are people stuck in areas or defined places called a...

Senate Republican John McCain, one of the most vocal advocates for American military intervention in the crisis in Syria, is firing back after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times last week, in which the Russian chastised Americans for considering a military strike in Syria and slammed the notion of American exceptionalism. In an op-ed submitted to the Russian newspaper Pravda, McCain tells the Russian people that Putin "rules for himself, not you." The piece was posted on the paper's website, Pravda.ru, shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, Moscow time. He also says that although he has been...

"Go f— yourself," Boehner repeated. Politico reports on the exchange: House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. “Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. Reid, a bit startled,...

Inside sources close to Rick Santorum are saying the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 GOP contender is already organizing for a run in 2016. On the other side of the aisle, investor Warren Buffett is already touting his choice to succeed President Obama in the White House. A leading evangelical leader who is close to Santorum and asked not to be identified, told The Christian Post on Wednesday that Santorum is "organizing and making all the necessary preparations" for another run in the 2016 Republican primary. "Rick's getting ready organized and is not going to be behind the eight-ball when...

(CNN) - Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum offered no insight into his own political future in a Friday CNN interview, but did offer his thoughts as to why the Republican nominee lost to President Barack Obama on Tuesday. "What Mitt Romney, in my opinion, didn't do was go out and vigorously defend the beliefs that he said he espoused and didn't go on the offense," Santorum said in an interview to air Friday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." "And when you're playing defense, which is what I believe the campaign was doing and Republicans were doing generally throughout the...

Romney Dings Obama for 'Gifts' to Minority Voters By Devin Dwyer | ABC OTUS News – 2 hrs 21 mins ago President Obama today heaped praise on his defeated rival, GOP nominee Mitt Romney, saying the former governor's record and ideas "could be very helpful" in shaping policy over the next four years "My hope is, before the end of the year… that we have a chance to sit down and talk," Obama told reporters in his first post-election press conference. But even as Obama extended something of an olive branch - which some skeptics saw as disingenuous - Romney...

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana fiercely shot back at Mitt Romney’s claim Wednesday that President Barack Obama outmatched the 2012 Republican presidential nominee by offering "gifts" to African-Americans, Hispanics and young voters. “I absolutely reject that notion,” Jindal, who was a surrogate for Romney’s campaign, said at the Republican Governors Association conference in Las Vegas. “I think that's absolutely wrong.” “I don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party,” he continued. “That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election.” Romney made the comments on...

A handful of prominent Republicans criticized Mitt Romney for his disparaging remarks about President Barack Obama’s “gifts” to core constituencies, saying that it was the wrong message to send voters as the party tries to rebuild itself after a bruising defeat. “I don’t think it’s helpful,” Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told POLITICO at the Republican Governors Association conference on Thursday. “I guess my feeling is that we need to turn the page, and we need to focus on the future and not make excuses for the past.”

BOW, N.H.—Hours after a shooter killed a dozen people in a Colorado cinema, Mitt Romney scrubbed a scheduled campaign rally Friday and instead offered his somber condolences and prayers to the victims and their families. “Our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy. Ann and I join the president and first lady and all Americans in offering our deepest condolences to those whose lives were shattered in a few moments, a few moments of evil in Colorado,” Romney told a few hundred people gathered at a lumber yard here. “I stand before you today not as a man...

Via CBS News’ Mark Knoller

WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum wants to ensure the GOP's policy platform represents conservatives' interests. Newt Gingrich wants help retiring his campaign debt and repairing his reputation.Both Republicans are expected to endorse their former rival Mitt Romney — and signal to their backers to fall in line behind the party's presumptive nominee — but each wants assurances that Romney will deliver for them. Neither is rushing toward the task.Meanwhile, it doesn't appear that Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is going to go that way. Paul is still in the race and hasn't yet recognized Romney as the party's nominee. The tea...

President Obama holds a 50-to-45 percent lead over Mitt Romney in Florida, according to a new poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. PPP also tested four potential Florida running mates for Romney — Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Allen West — and found that only Bush would have a positive effect on the GOP ticket in Florida. A Romney/Bush ticket would narrow Obama’s advantage to 49-46, within the poll’s 3.7 percent margin of error. The survey of 700 Florida voters was taken Thursday through Sunday. The Obama/Joe Biden ticket holds...

Former Governor Mitt Romney is already offering top donors access to a special "Presidential Inaugural retreat," planned on the assumption that he will be elected president this November. The offer, in a fundraising email circulated by a top Georgia supporter to fellow Republicans and obtained by BuzzFeed, is one of several goodies offered to those who contribute more than $50,000 to the joint fundraising committee known as "Romney Victory," a program whose outlines were first reported by POLITICO. Those donors will be named "Founding Members" of Romney Victory and invited to a California retreat with Romney and offered "yet to...

"We have come together at critical times times and made the sacrifices necessary to preserve our liberty. So a campaign based on attacks, a campaign based on demonizing one another, that's not going to be successful. This country is going to be successful by pulling together, by recognizing that we have some common challenges and working together to overcome those things," Mitt Romney said on "Hannity" tonight. "The President's a nice guy, but we just can't afford him for four more years. Our kids can't afford him. We have to get back to machine who know what is it takes...

Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative activist and top Santorum supporter, tells National Review Online that Santorum is “reengineering” his presidential campaign. “You can’t repeat the same behavior and expect different results,” he says. “We’ve got to do things different. We’ve got to reengineer the campaign. We’ve got to add things, take things out, and make changes. Everyone recognizes that, from the candidate on down.” Earlier today, Viguerie, along with a group of movement leaders, met with Santorum at an office in northern Virginia. For over an hour, they discussed ways to revive his bid. “We came up with a number...

(Sigh...) How else can I start? I support Rick Santorum, donated to him, but I'm losing count of the times I watch him on a live interview and feel the need for a facepalm. God love you, Rick, but you do not think well on your feet (or perhaps someone working for isn't doing his job prepping you). When Chris asked Rick about siding with "big labor", the right answer was that "there are valid reasons for labor unions and I'll support them when it's fair to do so. Unions get a bad rap when union leaders abuse their leverage...

FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Republican leaders and voters, frustrated by their party's prolonged presidential contest, are increasingly coalescing behind front-runner Mitt Romney. Yet Rick Santorum on Thursday urged conservatives not to forsake their principles under pressure. He did so by conjuring the memory of Ronald Reagan, still the conservative icon, at an oddly symbolic place: the jelly bean factory that created the former president's favorite treats. "Let them know, conservatives all across this country have not given up the fight, we're not going to concede to the moderate establishment who wants to convince everybody that it's over, it's time to go...

Campaigning in former President Reagan's hometown before last week's Illinois primary, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum asserted that he was the only candidate "who stands on the pillars of what Ronald Reagan built as the modern Republican Party."Speaking in the shadow of a statue of Reagan, Santorum proclaimed: "Let the voice of Reagan be heard across this land."And it isn't just Santorum: During the GOP presidential debates, Reagan's name was invoked nearly 250 times by the GOP field.But many historians argue that if Reagan had a true heir, he or she might raise taxes, compromise with Democrats and put aside...