Free Republic

A second Democratic campaign has been caught mistaking a foreign ship for a U.S. Navy vessel in images meant to brag on the candidate's devotion to the military. A month after the Democratic National Convention featured Cold War-era Soviet ships on a giant screen as a former Navy admiral representing the Obama campaign praised American veterans, the Democrat running for Senate in Connecticut featured a foreign sub in a television ad promoting his efforts to create jobs at the state's sub-maker, General Dynamics' Electric Boat of Groton. Instead of Groton-made subs, the ad for Rep. Chris Murphy featured a Norwegian...

I wish the Republican Platform was binding. Why? Because the GOP, for all intents and purposes, has just proposed to eliminate the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with a host of other government programs, agencies, and departments.More specifically, they endorsed the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which means they put themselves on record in favor of getting rid of all federal spending and intervention that is inconsistent with the Founding Fathers’ vision of a...

There aren’t Greek columns tall or wide enough to camouflage Barack Obama’s impending North Carolina catastrophe. In September, the campaigner-in-chief will travel to Charlotte for his party’s presidential nominating convention. For once, the incurable jetsetter may wish he had stayed home. Obama’s stage managers envision a triumphant, unifying coronation reminiscent of their 2008 DNC production in Denver. But the southern swing state is turning into a Democratic disaster zone. Start with the North Carolina Democratic Party. At the state party convention last week, Obama for America was AWOL. The glaring absence of high-level national Obama surrogates was noted “as odd,”...

Several insiders interviewed for this story said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will present a unique challenge to Romney’s team: Will they give her a prime spot to satisfy her fans, or reduce her role because of her polarizing nature? “You want people to generate interest and passion,” said one Republican who has organized conventions before and who, like others, didn’t want to be named. “Sarah Palin goes to a very small segment, relatively speaking, of the Republican Party. And you’re trying to put together a rainbow coalition.” (Democrats faced a similar situation in 1992, when then-Gov. Bob Casey of...

Mitt Romney holds a solid lead in delegates over his competitors for the GOP presidential nomination, according to a new count from the Republican National Committee. Wins this week by Romney in three primaries pushed him past the halfway mark in the delegate count, although his nearest competitor, Rick Santorum, contests the way the delegates are being awarded. Romney leads all contenders with 573 delegates, more than double his closest rival, Santorum's 202, out of a total 1,144, according to the RNC. Newt Gingrich, who has dialed back his campaign to making phone calls to delegates, has 132 while Ron...