Free Republic

There was one race in which Palin appears not to have been much help -- and, in fact, hurt the candidate. According to a 2010 study from researchers at Stanford University, noted by Brendan Nyhan, Palin's presence on the 2008 Republican presidential ticket cost John McCain 1.6 percentage points. In an election in which 131 million people voted, that's 2.1 million votes that McCain should have gotten but didn't.... As the campaign progressed, fewer people said they didn't have an opinion on Palin. And as nearly all of those people formed an opinion on her, that opinion was a negative...

Twenty-five years ago this week, in the early hours of January 17, 1991, the remarkable Persian Gulf War political coalition assembled, and led by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, moved "from Shield to Storm." The "Shield" was Operation Desert Shield, code name for the hastily organized political and military response to Saddam Hussein's August 2, 1990 invasion and annexation of oil-rich Kuwait. The "Storm" was, of course, Operation Desert Storm. The code names were apt professional poetry A shield is a defensive armament designed to block enemy blows and buy time for a counter strike. Desert Shield was defensive....

A recent issue of Bottom Line.com included an article by Robert L. Dilenschneider titled: 10 Ways to Get Noticed. It is a simple plan to get to the top of whatever contest you are in. It is the plan Donald Trump is following. These are Dilenschneider’s suggested steps. 1. Make your message as clear as possible—even if that means sacrificing detail. It’s tempting to elaborate on everything you can do each time you run an ad or meet someone who seems interested. Don’t. People are more likely to remember what you say if you hone it down to a concise...

For an event still several days out, computer models were in remarkable agreement late Tuesday on what could be one of the greatest snowstorms in decades for the region around Washington, D.C. It’s difficult to convey what the models are projecting without appearing to sensationalize the event, but here goes: there is every indication that snow totals on the order of two feet are quite possible across parts of the greater D.C./Baltimore area, with the potential for almost as much in Philadelphia and perhaps a foot toward New York City. Anything over 20 inches at Washington National Airport would be...

The decision to censor books published in Iran is to ensure that Iranians are protected from a Western "cultural onslaught" Iran's culture ministry has decided to censor the use of the word "wine" and the names of "foreign animals" and dignitaries from any books published in the Islamic Republic. The new rules are designed to protect Iranians from what the regime calls a "cultural onslaught" by the West. Mohammad Selgi, the head of book publishing at the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, said: "When new books are registered with us, our staff first have to read them page by...

Once again the very desperate Donald Trump is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, now suggesting that Ted Cruz is worse than Hillary “when you think about it” because of his filing mistake with respect to the loan he took out to fund his Senate campaign in Texas:Donald Trump: Ted Cruz Is "Worse than Hillary, When You Think about It" (Video)You know who else thinks Cruz is worse than Hillary? The Republican establishment. I’ve said this before, that Trump fights exactly like the Republican Establishment fights when they have a conservative challenging a Republican incumbent. They will...

So many women. So many scandals. Yes, it can be very confusing writing about Hillary Clinton and her team covering up the many, many "bimbo eruptions" during the course of her and husband Bill's political careers. Therefore it is understandable that Amy Chozick, writing in the New York Times about the many scandals threatening to erode her support among women, got the names mixed up when presenting the infamous "trailer park" quote by Hillary supporter James Carville:

Jim Geraghty dives down the memory hole to remind us what Donald Trump was saying just a few short years ago, in an interview with Larry King:...

Ohio Governor John Kasich is comparing candidates like Donald Trump to the “Prince of Darkness” while declaring himself as the “Prince of Light and Hope.” “Look, we have a lot of candidates who are like the ‘Prince of Darkness,’” Kasich, who reminds voters frequently that his father was a mailman, said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I consider myself the ‘Prince of Light and Hope’ and I don’t spend all my time getting people riled up about how bad everything is.” Kasich, who struggled in the polls after he repeatedly attacked and lectured Donald Trump’s approach to...

Donald Trump holds a more than two-to-one advantage over the next closest contender in a new national poll. According to the Monmouth University survey released on Wednesday, Trump leads the race with 36 percent support nationally. That's down from 41 percent in the same survey from December, which had marked the highest point he's reached so far.

 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is a distant second place, taking 17 percent support - a 3-point gain over December. The rest of the field is largely unchanged, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in third place at 11 percent support, followed by retired neurosurgeon...

In a free country, the answer is obvious. Yet in the Supreme Court last week, it was up to Justice Antonin Scalia to ask the question. "Is it OK to force somebody to contribute to a cause that he does believe in?" Scalia asked. Note: Scalia did not ask if it is OK to force somebody to contribute to a cause he does not believe in. "I wouldn't think, your honor, that you could force Republicans to give contributions," responded lawyer Michael Carvin. "Yes," said Scalia. "That's what I'm thinking. Could you enact a law? Let's say the national political...

This week: we march! As the March for Life 2016 approaches, here's a message from me to the entire pro-life movement. Find our more at priestsforlife.org/marchforlife VIDEO ONLY ON LINK

As General Electric gears up to move its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston, the people and communities being left behind are dreading the pain to come. John Engel, a real estate agent and town councilor in nearby New Canaan, told public radio's "Marketplace" that the departure of 800 GE executives, most of whom will likely list their homes for sale, will send the local housing market staggering. Once the region loses millions of dollars in disposable income, it will ineluctably lose much of the business those dollars sustained. There will be fewer patrons to fill local restaurants, for example,...

Donald Trump is drawing support from a group not usually associated with Republican presidential candidates, radio show host and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Tuesday. "Let me tell you a phenomenon that I discovered on my radio show," Cain said during an appearance on Fox and Friends. "I get callers who call up and say, 'I am black, I'm female and I'm going from Democrat to Trump.'" "They didn't say they were going from Democrat to Republican, they're going from Democrat to Trump. I think that's part of the phenomenon," he added. "I boil (the Trump phenomenon) down...

Last night, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump’s “very special guest,” endorsed him at Iowa State University. Of course, a lot of people are shocked that she would endorse him over Ted Cruz. She’s the Tea Party darling after all, standing for conservative values from supporting gun rights to defunding Obamacare. Cruz communications director Rick Tyler said earlier Tuesday that the campaign would be very disappointed if Palin supported Trump because she:...has been a champion of the conservative cause and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly she would be endorsing someone who's held progressive views all their life on...

The first thing a great many people, politicos, and non-politicos alike, said in private conversations when they heard the news that Sarah Palin would endorse Donald Trump is, "What did he pay her?" That may be an unfair question, but it's perfectly fair to put it this way: "What has Donald Trump done for Sarah Palin?" Meaning, what has Trump done to promote the values that Palin's supporters have been advocating for the past eight years? For starters, look at the three major issues that gave rise to and have animated the Tea Party since 2008 when then-Governor Palin burst...

Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, have put an officer on leave while investigators try to figure out if he's responsible for a Facebook post urging drivers to run over Black Lives Matter protesters on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — and how to get away with it. "Run them over. Keep traffic flowing and don't slow down for any of these idiots who try and block the streets," said the post attributed to RM Roth. "Since they are trying to block the street and/or cross where there is no crossing you should not be charged with anything." Andrew Henderson saw...

Call The Rush Limbaugh Show program line between 12 Noon & 3PM Eastern Time, at: 1-800-282-2882 E-mail Rush: ElRushbo@eibnet.com or Fax Rush at: 212-445-3963 Write a letter to Rush and mail it to: The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1270 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Join This Ping List Now! E-mail Rush: ElRushbo@eibnet.com Fax Rush at: 212-445-3963, Write a letter to Rush and mail it to: The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1270 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.< Join This Ping List Now! Click Here To Join This Ping List! < AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of...

As we approach the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, pro-lifers plan to assemble for the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The annual event is a chance for life advocates to show their opposition to the legalization of abortion-on-demand in all 50 states. Abortion activists are not happy and are gearing up for a confrontation with pro-lifers. You’ve seen them before, that revolutionary self-proclaimed Communist pro-abortion group, Stop Patriarchy laying on the ground in blood soaked clothes to draw attention to women they claim died from illegal abortion. Just as they did in 2015, they are planning to...

The video was shot at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium back in October. The action starts around the :32 mark, when one gorilla crosses in front of the other, leading that one to charge and collide into him. The two shove and swipe at each other for about 15 seconds before one of the apes backs off.