Free Republic

Can conservatives win the battle of ideas and transform America? According to Ted Cruz, the outspoken Texas senator who won with support of the Tea Party in 2012, it’s possible.At a breakfast hosted by Politico’s chief White House correspondent Mike Allen last week, Cruz laid out four ways he thinks conservatives can win.1. Continue to fight against Obamacare.“The reason the Obamacare issue has such potency is because it’s real. Millions of people are hurt by this, and there is not a trip that I take back to Texas where I don’t run into at least one person, if not several,...

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) said Sunday that President Obama’s controversial healthcare law has been “great” for residents of his state. Crist has sharply criticized the healthcare law in the past. But the former Republican governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential short-lister is running for his old post this year as a Democrat this year. Crist said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he would have no problem running on the healthcare bill, which is known colloquially as ObamaCare, as he seeks to regain his former office. “I don’t think so at all,” Crist said when...

RNC data operatives will build a list of millions of Americans who lost coverage due to Obamacare .... "It’s early in the process because cancellations are still taking place. We’ve brought in top engineers from LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Facebook to work on the data projects,” RNC Chair Rance Priebus told the Washington Examiner. The Obamacare cancellations stand to play a crucial role in 2014. In Colorado, almost 250,000 people received cancellation notices. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo decided to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall .....after Udall and his office pressed local officials about the validity of the figures, amid reports...

The theme of Michael Tanner at the National Review is that the Tea Party has become unpopular because it’s against gay marriage and illegal alien amnesty. Yet it’s also true that the Tea Party’s clout is waning. According to the most recent Gallup poll, just 30 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the movement, the lowest level in its history. While this may technically be the lowest level, the Tea Party spent most of its time with a favorable rating in the 30s.In 2011, the Tea Party had a favorability rating of 33 percent. So the notion that...

This news hit yesterday, just before the start of CPAC 2014, but it seems to have attracted a little more attention today — perhaps in part because the CPAC conference has a controversy of its own over the pro-life issue. A new CNN poll shows a wide majority of Americans think abortion should be illegal in most or all circumstances, although it’s the circumstances that might be the issue: About one in four Americans say that abortion should be legal in all circumstances, one in five say abortion should always be illegal, and slightly over half the public thinks abortion...

The American people trust Democrats more than Republicans on some of the key issues of the day, but that has not translated into any political advantage in the battle for control of the House and Senate in this year’s midterm elections, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Midterm elections generally favor the party that does not hold the White House, which gives the GOP a head start this year. Political handicappers rate Republicans as favorites to maintain their House majority and say the GOP has a legitimate opportunity to gain the six seats it needs to take control...

(Reuters) - With Russia's incursion into Ukraine reviving Cold War-style tensions, President Barack Obama is at risk of suffering a blow to his credibility at a time when he can least afford it: as he tries to convince voters to stick with his fellow Democrats in congressional elections that will help shape his legacy. For five years, Obama has practiced a cautious approach to foreign policy crises, prizing sober diplomacy and the search for consensus over brinkmanship, in prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the deliberative style that Obama's team sees as a statesmanlike attitude in tune with Americans'...

The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats. As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements. Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall. The cancellations would have created a firestorm for Democratic candidates in the last, crucial weeks before Election Day. The White House is intent on protecting its allies in the...

February marked the fifth anniversary of the reemergence of the label "Tea Party" in American politics. It was in February 2009 that Rick Santelli delivered his famous rant on CNBC, and a few days later, a group calling itself the Tea Party Patriots was organized. Today the conventional wisdom is that the Tea Party movement is exhausted. Polls are cited showing that only one quarter of Americans express approval of the Tea Party. Democrats run ads claiming their opponents are Tea Party radicals. Many Republicans argue that Tea Party candidates have lost winnable Senate races, cementing the Democratic majority there...

Here’s a cool trick I learned at Ft. Benning’s Infantry School a few hundred years ago. Attack your enemies, not your allies. That helpful hint totally increases your odds of victory. Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (Republicanish - MI) never learned that lesson. He just had to release his own tax reform plan, no doubt in response to a groundswell of enthusiasm among his K Street sycophants. His plan cuts the home mortgage and charitable deductions while slapping a surtax on the earnings of successful people. Good thinking. Shaft the folks who saved up to buy homes, give...

Vitter Introduces Bill to Put American Citizens Ahead of Illegal Immigrants for In-State College Tuition (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) today introduced legislation to close the current loophole that allows illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition. Many states have used a loophole granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition if they graduated from an in-state high school. “Some of our nation’s highest unemployment rates are among recent college graduates, and we should be supporting policies that help American students get an opportunity to go to college and compete for good jobs,” said Vitter. “American students should always come first....

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

If the White House and the EPA is permitted to implement the MATS regulation the economy will dramatically decline. Life in America will resemble that of third world nations. It is entirely based on lies

A few weeks ago, I produced two Senate analyses. One focused on the relationship between the president’s job approval, the fate of Senate Democrats during the 2010 and 2012 elections, and what that would mean if this relationship continues through 2014. The second looked at Republican vulnerability in 2016 using a similar standard. The first piece concluded that, based on President Obama’s job approval rating, Democrats have substantial vulnerability in 2014. This vulnerability is deeper than many analysts are willing to consider right now. Over the past two cycles, the president’s job approval has explained 58 percent of the variance...

I wonder who he thinks they will vote for? Let me think about that a while, ahem, tough call. Eric Holder wants millions of convicted felons to vote, urging states to change existing laws. Holder Urges States to Repeal Bans on Felons’ Voting: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday urged states to repeal laws that prohibit felons from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to millions of people. The call was mostly symbolic — Mr. Holder has no authority to enact these changes himself — but it marked the attorney general’s latest effort to...

Sen. Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky, said his home state of Texas could easily switch from a Republican stronghold to a Democratic voting block if the GOP doesn’t open its arms and take in more working class and more minorities. “Texas will be a Democratic state within 10 years if you don’t change,” he said at a Houston dinner with Sen. John Cornyn, CNN reported. “That doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a more welcoming party. We have to welcome people of all races. We need to welcome people...

Warning billionaire former mayor and gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg is "not going away," the National Rifle Association is hoping to fire up members to help elect a GOP-controlled Senate. “We fully expect to win a pro-gun Senate in this cycle,” NRA president Jim Porter told the Washington Examiner in an interview published Monday.“It is vital certainly to our issues, but it is vital to the well-being of this country." Porter's remarks came at the start of the NRA's "Great AmericanOutdoor Show." Former NRA head David Keene told the newspaper the group will be spreading the word to supporters about...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivered a stark demographic warning to his party on Saturday, predicting that Texas – a sizable electoral prize that Republicans cannot afford to lose in national elections – may tilt Democratic within 10 years if the GOP doesn’t broaden its appeal. “What I do believe is Texas is going to be a Democrat state within 10 years if we don’t change,” Paul told the Harris County Republican Party on Saturday, according to Politico. “That means we evolve, it doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a...

Texas Democrats have fiercely defended their gubernatorial candidate, Wendy Davis, through a scandal in which the state senator was caught lying about her status as a single mother and about paying for her own education. However, now that Davis is supporting open carry laws, Democrats and gun control groups are shying away.

A supernova is the end outcome not for all stars, but stars of sufficient mass, thought to be between 8 and 15 solar masses. The process is described this way: •Gradually heavier elements build up at the center, and it becomes layered like an onion, with elements becoming lighter towards the outside of the star. • Once the star's core surpasses a certain mass (the Chandrasekhar limit), the star begins to implode (for this reason, these supernovas are also known as core-collapse supernovas). • The core heats up and becomes denser. • Eventually the implosion bounces back off the core,...