Free Republic

WASHINGTON — After he left Wall Street to enter politics eight years ago, Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, began fielding the occasional question of when he intended to run for president. “It has come up in jest any number of times,” said Mr. Himes, who always has his answer ready. “There could be constitutional questions.” Mr. Himes, you see, was born in Peru in 1966 while his father worked for the Ford Foundation. That makes him one of at least 17 current members of Congress who, because of their birth outside the United States, could run afoul of the...

Pointing to the effects of "horrible" super-PACs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday said America needs to come up with a solution to keep big money out of politics. "Well, I think you need it, because I think PACs are a horrible thing," Trump said on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked if he would pursue campaign finance reform. The billionaire businessman, who said he is self-financing his campaign, said the wall separating super-PACs and candidates running for public office is illusory. "First of all, everyone's dealing with their PAC. You know, it's supposed to be like this...

In a rare interview, Linda Tripp, a pivotal figure in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, revealed on Sunday it was common knowledge while she worked in the West Wing that Bill Clinton had affairs with “thousands of women.”

When Ben Carson was rising in the polls, Donald Trump was quick to attack the former neurosurgeon for being "pro-abortion not so long ago." The attack was more than a bit hypocritical because Trump himself was "very" pro-abortion not so long ago. In 1999, Tim Russert asked Trump if he would support a ban on "abortion in the third-trimester" or "partial-birth abortion." "No," Trump replied. "I am pro-choice in every respect." Trump explained his views may be the result of his "New York background." Now that Ted Cruz has attacked Trump's "New York values," Trump's views on abortion will be...

The phrase is just vague enough to suggest Trump doesn't care about this or that issue that voters do, but not lock Cruz into any one attack. How it played at a tea party convention in South Carolina over the weekend.MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — What are New York values? That’s been the subject of much discussion among the political class since Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz started using the phrase to jab ally-turned-rival Donald Trump, igniting a controversy that led to an unexpectedly stirring Trump defense of his home city during Thursday’s debate and a winking non-apology from Cruz the...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Democratic White House hopeful Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he is “very healthy” and will soon release his medical records, responding to a report that a prominent Hillary Clinton ally was preparing to press the 74-year-old senator to prove he's fit to be president. “Of course we’re going to release our medical records,” Sanders said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Thank God, I am very healthy. We will get medical records out the same way that Secretary Clinton has gotten her records out. It is not a problem.” The issue came to the...

Hillary Clinton and her team are definitely hearing the shuffling footsteps of Bernie Sanders creeping up behind them. The former Secretary of State and her surrogates have been firing back at the Vermont Senator in a serious fashion this week, seeking a way to blunt his recent gains in the polls. The problem for Bernie seems to be that he’s not used to being attacked and has little experience in how to respond. The gut level impulses of either Sanders or somebody on his staff are showing now that the pressure is on because he’s backing off on some of...

For the 2016 elections, the Democrat candidates are virtually unanimous on gun control.  They support President Obama's executive orders, and want to go beyond what he is pushing: From the hill: "I absolutely agree with what the president is trying to do with his executive order," Sanders said to a cheers at a Democratic candidate forum. Clinton was not in attendance. "I know I'm being attacked as being a stooge for the NRA. Well, some stooge, I have a D-minus lifetime voting record," he said. From Time.com: Today, Clinton's calculus has changed. She has come out this campaign in...

Three truths fuel Donald Trump. One, Barack Obama is the Dr. Frankenstein of the supposed Trump monster. If a charismatic, Ivy League-educated, landmark president who entered office with unprecedented goodwill and both houses of Congress on his side could manage to wreck the Democratic Party while turning off 52 percent of the country, then many voters feel that a billionaire New York dealmaker could hardly do worse.

... Traditionally, candidates who have attracted strong evangelical support have in part emphasized the need to lend a helping hand to the economically stressed and the least fortunate among us. Such candidates include George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. But Cruz's speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them. When he is speaking in a church the contrast between the setting and the emotional tone he sets...

How the Republican frontrunner took advantage of Americans' cynicism and distrust. People are scratching their heads wondering how Donald Trump is still dominating the Republican primary race. Theories abound--a surprising number of which are astute, but incomplete. Arguably, the best takes on the causes of Trump-ism have come from Nicco Mele and Norm Ornstein, but most analysts have sought to push exclusive or simplistic theories. The truth is, there is no one explanation for Trump's staying power, be it stagnant wages (which can be blamed on immigration, automation, and globalization), white fears of a minority-majority nation (see why immigration is...

Here is a recurring frustration during election season: Candidates who seem attractive before the race begins suddenly sound squishier or change their positions once they hit the campaign trail.On the issue of cronyism, there is one noticeable exception during this year's campaign. In spite of what could be perceived as a political risk, one candidate has remained true to his opposition to (and his commitment to end) the terrible renewable-fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol and other biofuels into the gasoline supply, thereby driving food prices up and creating all sorts of distortions in the energy market: That's Senator Ted...

<p>In 2008, our nation broke through a barrier, electing an African-American to be president of the United States.</p> <p>In 2016, another barrier may very well be broken. All polls indicate that a woman or a Latino has a very good chance of being elected to be our 45th president.</p>

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is promising, if elected president, to pull the United States out of the nonbinding climate change accord that nearly 200 countries agreed to earlier this month. Cruz, a GOP presidential candidate, on Tuesday told reporters in Tennessee that the agreement is part of an extreme focus on climate by President Obama. "Barack Obama seems to think the SUV parked in your driveway is a bigger threat to national security than radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill us. That's just nutty," he said, according to The Washington Post. "These are ideologues, they don't focus on the...

Concern about the rise of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is now spreading from the GOP establishment to the Democratic hierarchy and the campaign of Hillary Clinton. There is increasing agreement among political leaders of both major parties and by the Washington-based punditocracy that Trump can no longer be dismissed as a boisterous former reality-show host or a bizarre sideshow. He has been leading the opinion polls for the Republican nomination for many weeks, indicating that his support is strong and durable, and he widened his lead in the latest CBS News-New York Times survey released last week. Thirty-five percent...

Buried in a National Journal story about the importance of “non-voters, a group that, in Amer­ic­an politics, is usu­ally either ig­noted or scorned,” is anecdotal evidence that Donald Trump may galvanize voters who sit out elections because they can’t stand traditional politicians from both sides of the political aisle. According to Frank, “the only can­did­ate he felt talked any sense was Don­ald Trump, ‘who doesn’t walk around the is­sues, says what’s on his mind.’ He said a Trump nom­in­a­tion would make him con­sider a trip to the vot­ing booth.” Frank found Marine Corps veteran Bobby Beote at the other end...

Political commentators have asserted for months that Donald Trump’s dominance of the Republican presidential field is fueled by his anti-immigrant rhetoric. As Thomas Edsall put it: Donald Trump's success is no surprise. The public and the press have focused on his defiant rejection of mannerly rhetoric, his putting into words of what others think privately. But the more important truth is that a half-century of Republican policies on race and immigration have made the party the home of an often angry and resentful white constituency -- a constituency that is now politically mobilized in the face of demographic upheaval. This...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday called for Republicans to abandon the corrupting influence of the Koch brothers and other wealthy energy magnates. "This is a party that rejects science and refuses to understand that climate change is real," he said of GOP during the annual Blue Jamboree in North Charleston, S.C. "I understand if you stand up to the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry, that you'll lose your campaign contributions," the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate added. "[Climate change] is already causing devastating problems all over this world. To hell with the fossil fuel industry. Worry more about...

According to the newest state-wide poll of Louisiana taken Thursday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) 71% has inched to within just 4 points of his Democrat opponent, John Bel Edwards. Earlier in the month, Edwards had been handily beating Vitter by as much as +22 points. Proving once again why early voting is an appallingly dumb idea, while the Syrian refugee debate appears to be helping Vitter gain ground (he leads on this issue 40% to 36%), according to the Huffington Post, more than a quarter of a million votes have already been cast in Louisiana. Like almost...

ormer Secretary State Hillary Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, gave a national security address in which she outlined her plans for defeating ISIS.* * The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or DAISH/DAESH in Arabic is a militant group that has called itself the Islamic State.