Free Republic

How the Republican candidate lost the presidential election. < snip > ..... [Republicans] are concocting explanations and excuses for what they see as Mitt Romney's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They should realize that it was economics that sank Romney. His crucial problem was his campaign's failure to make a sufficiently convincing case on the money issues. Most postmortems have focused on the demographics of the defeat. ..... < snip > But none of Romney's demographic defeats are as significant as the electoral potential Romney missed on money issues. Election Day exit polling by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International...

Filling in on Rush Limbaugh’s Monday radio show, National Review columnist Mark Steyn said that Republicans lost big on Election Day because less engaged and more uniformed voters turned out in force. “We do very well in off years, in the midterms — 1994, 2002,” Steyn said. “Republicans can have good years then because essentially they’re low-turnout elections — people who are engaged in politics vote. In the presidential years, people voted — a broader pool of voters comes in, and they’re basically people who swim in the broader culture. They’re not people who know the name of their congressmen...

The White House insisted Tuesday that it was not aware of the David Petraeus scandal until last Wednesday, blaming FBI "protocols" for not being informed earlier. Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Obama was "surprised" when he learned last Thursday that Petraeus had carried on an extramarital affair. While the FBI had at that point already been investigating for months, Carney said "protocols" at the agency apparently kept them from notifying Congress and other agencies in the Executive Branch. In the latest shoe to drop, the FBI on Sunday forwarded to the Pentagon a case involving thousands of "potentially inappropriate"...

Sorry if this was already posted, but many people on here agreed Romney's best line last night during his huge Ohio rally was the "Revenge or love of country" voting line. I saw a ton of comments about turning it into an ad.. And they did! Already! Also notice it's 36 seconds, which means its likely for tv!

When Mitt Romney strode across the the platform Friday evening and took his place behind a podium in front of the largest crowd he's drawn this year, he sounded familiar stump speech themes of bipartisanship and economic recovery. But the parade of high-profile surrogates who opened for the candidate fixated on another, more explosive issue — one with a particular power to both animate conservatives, and frighten Romney's senior staff. For about 60 minutes before Romney took the stage, Topic A was Libya. Ever since terrorists stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in September — killing four Americans, including the...

With the Rancid Media protecting Obama from any discussion --- hell, any NEWS -- of his lethal failure in Libya, does not Romney have to bring this into the campaign? If he does not, does he deserve to win the election? If he does not, can he win the election?

Truth is not easily hidden.- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -Conventional retail gasoline averaged $3.65 a gallon in the most recent week ended October 22, 2012, yet when Barack Obama was sworn into office the price averaged $1.88. When questioned about the 94.2% increase which occurred on his watch, Mr. Obama remarked that the reason gasoline prices were so low when he entered office was because the U.S.was “in the middle of an economic depression.” However, the question wasn’t why prices were so low when he entered office, but rather why they ballooned by 94.2% on his watch. We’re still awaiting...

Artificial Demand ::“Real demand is not artificial. We should resist as much as possible the notion of providing things that are not actually demanded by anyone.” ~ American Consensus- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -The price of any product or service is normally determined by two variables, supply and demand. In economics, prices rise as demand increases, as supply decreases, or a combination of the two. It’s only when supply keeps pace with demand that the price of gasoline stabilizes or declines.Since we know that the world’s population is increasing, not decreasing, more gasoline production is constantly required, not less. It...

I suppose I should feel a little bit guilty for saying it, particularly on the pages of a politically oriented publication, but I'm pretty tired of this election. It's been going on roughly since Christmas of 2008 --- or at least it feels that way. The GOP primary was actually pretty good this year and it revved up both my interest and enthusiasm far more than the parade of munchkins on both sides four years earlier. But once it was done, the whole thing began to feel like one, long tedious slog through the summer and an exhausting swamp march...

If all the Sunday show audiences hear this kind of powerful argument,the Benghazi scandal will reach far beyond conservatives.

A lot of discussion has been made on the specifics of President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney’s tax and budget plans. Based on statements made by both presidential candidates and CBO projections, it can be concluded that there is a drastic difference between their plans. Our friends at the Tax Foundation have constructed a fun and convenient chart comparing the topline tax and budget positions of President Obama and Governor Romney:

The election may well boil down to a handful of swing states. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two of the most critical for Obama. It is inconceivable that Obama could lose those two states, with their 38 electoral votes, and win the election. Is there anything at this late date which Romney might do to make an extra pitch to voters in those northern industrial states? Yes. A news story that broke on October 20 ought to raise lots of eyebrows in those states. Two separate studies, one by Standard and Poor's and the other by ITG Investment Research, determined that...

All, What is the real status of the military vote? I see ballots destroyed in a crash, I hear nothing from Boehner, I hear a few rumblings from Graham and McCain, but the biggest stink raised was from Josh Mandell in Ohio. Does anyone know any facts or the real latest of military voting (I guess I mean overseas)? Why is Boehner silent? Makes me believe he'd be fine with 0bummer winning.

The November elections will determine the direction of US climate policy -- and therefore also energy policy and the pace of economic growth: jobs, standards of living, budget deficits and inflation. Obama has already promised to make climate change the centerpiece of his concern -- with all that implies: "Green" energy policy, linked to loss of jobs (Keystone pipeline disapproval), rising gas prices (ethanol mandates), and crony capitalism (Solyndra). By contrast, Romney is a climate skeptic -- and Ryan has been quite outspoken: the perfect anti-Gore. The science supports Romney-Ryan -- notwithstanding the UN-IPCC, and the bulk of the climate...

What would you think if you were told that the most bigoted, intolerant, hateful, and xenophobic political messages this election cycle are being spread by Obama supporters? From ridiculing and disrespecting the Mormon religion to spreading secretly taped videos recorded by an Obama supporter in a Mormon church, those on the left are sanctioning this particular form of bigotry because it’s all for the cause: Obama. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the media, where pages upon pages have been devoted to Romney’s religion. Vicious, anti-Mormon rhetoric, ramping up in the final days leading up to the election, has...

The Democratic party likes to portray itself as seeing women as equal to men. Yet it's the Democrats who think they can woo female voters by dangling free contraceptives in front of them like a carrot luring a donkey. For months America has been hearing how it's President Barack Obama who has the estrogen vote sewn up. Now, according to a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, America comes to find out that Mitt Romney is currently leading Barry the Birth Control President in the top battleground states, and the women he thought were willing to sell the country down the river...

The political landscape has dramatically changed in just thirty days. Barack Obama had the momentum. His attacks on Mitt Romney were clearly taking a toll, and the president was also outspending Romney to drive the negative messages home. The assaults suggested that Romney was both unqualified and unfit to be the president, a disconnected, "rich" elitist who could not relate to the average American nor cared about them. The Obama smear campaign was working; Romney's support was waning. The advantages enjoyed by Republican Senate candidates in a number of critical contests began to suffer. The movement against Romney transferred into...

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev meets with President Obama at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April 2010. (AP Photo/File) (CNSNews.com) – When American voters go to the polls next month, among those observing the election will be monitors from four countries judged by the veteran democracy watchdog Freedom House as “not free” and another six it regards as “partly free.”The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers will “assess these elections for compliance with international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”They will also look into voter-identification and other laws which critics have labeled “racially discriminatory.”In a...

For all the attention paid to women in this race, there's another gender gap — with white men. The Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan campaigned in northeastern Florida on Friday, where thousands of men had descended on Daytona Beach for the annual motorcycle festival Biketoberfest. A bunch of them were at Willie's Tropical Tattoo smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and listening to music. Gary Biser goes by the name "Moose." Stickers on his bike helmet say, "Life's too short to ride with ugly women," "No bar too far," and other things that can't be printed. He says he...

There are those who say that the tea party is fading in influence, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the movement is on the cusp of achieving what once seemed nearly impossible: keeping the Senate Democratic. A year ago, famed political handicapper Charlie Cook gave Republicans a 60 percent to 70 percent likelihood of capturing control of the Senate; now, he tells me the likelihood of it remaining Democratic is 60 percent. The switch in fortunes can be attributed to many causes — a slate of lackluster Republican candidates high among them — but one thing...