Posted on 11/19/2008 12:26:59 PM PST by kristinn
A Democrat is poised to take the reins of power in Washington, D.C., and Fresno resident Jim Robinson is feeling a sense of deja vu.
It was President Bill Clinton's 1992 election that sparked Robinson's political activism, driving him to create a Web site that made him a grass-roots leader among conservatives before Clinton's term was over.
This year, as Barack Obama prepares to sweep into office on another tide of Democratic votes, Robinson and denizens of that Web site, freerepublic.com, are preparing to do battle again.
"We'll double and redouble our efforts to fight for what is right," Robinson says. "We've got people just spitting nails."
Free Republic, founded by Robinson in September 1996, doesn't attract much attention from the national press and is not well-known among political experts. Many of its postings have a decidedly fringe feel.
But long before Red State, Daily Kos and Little Green Footballs arrived on the Internet political scene, Free Republic was building an audience -- and becoming a formidable political force among conservatives and libertarians that is admired even by some who disagree with its political philosophy.
In a study last month by the Internet ratings firm comScore, Free Republic ranked fifth among political blogs, just behind heavyweights The Huffington Post, Politico, Drudge Report and RealClearPolitics.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Glad to see the article got more exposure!
.."we're gonna need a bigger server"
Now that the election is over, RCP will drop to a distant fifth.
Nice! LOL!
Not since we stopped posting AP and other driveby media articles. ;~)
The comments & debates on Free Republic forums are borne from news articles and other verifyable sources all over the globe, and are by far and away more diverse and far reaching than all our competitors combined, we usually have already researched articles for accuracy before any of the talking heads have their make up on, and our knowledge pool has no peers.
We're also one the only if not the only forum that have moderators, not to mention Viking Kittys to keep things civil.
Yeah, I could see how the Globe would consider informed, civil discourse and an aversion to sleaze out on the "fringe"
I am biased toward FR for sure, but I see bogus data expunged on a regular basis here, and reveled in over there.
Guess that's why we're “fringe”, making Kos “mainstream” by comparison.
There are too many forums/blogs, what have you, that I find the majority of posters are using the foul language "excessively" as you put it. I lose the point they are trying to make because of it and quit reading.
5th....not bad at all.
I found FR when I did a solo counter-protest of the anti-war weenies before we went into Afghanistan (and don’t you ever let ‘em tell you that they’re all for us going into Afghanistan).
There I was by myself in Copley Square, Boston....with 3000 anti-every-war weenies...and Little Bill recruited me.
The rest is in-the-streets Freepin’ history.
Amen and Congrats, Jim!!!
Let’s hunt some ‘rat!!!!!!!
Yay! Thank you Jim Robinson for giving us all a cyberhome and meeting place. Your good work may become the source of this country’s salvation (c’mon FReepers, we’ve got work to do!). God Bless you.
I love how the article describes posts here as “fringe” but Democratic Underground as “left leaning”.
We should add a self-evident truth to that old document. ?Unless stated otherwise, the media will always spin things leftward.
Huh. I had the same impression of AP stories.
“Free Republic, founded by Robinson in September 1996, doesn’t attract much attention from the national press and is not well-known among political experts.”
Yeah, Dan Rather & CBS have no clue....
FR and FReepers rock!
Fringe? As opposed to what? Academia that made excuses for Stalin for 30 years and that currently worships the world's worst dicators? The DNC oligarchy that compare our military to Nazis? Or a president-elect that exagerrated a tornado's death toll literally by 200,000% just to score a political point?
Pingers & Posters, we've got a lot of work ahead of us...
Thank you Jim & Kristinn, and to all of you.
FREE REPUBLIC - Rock On!
Freerepublic just doesn’t blog about news ....
It makes news...
Maybe more Conservative minded people will take a gander...
Thanks Jim.
No surrender. No retreat. Remember the Alamo!
Hooray for Jim and FR and hooray for the longtimers around here!
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