Free Republic

Excerpts: ... showed up at one of the toughtest venues in town -- as the Republican speaker at the winter dinner of the venerable Washington Gridiron Club ... The mere politeness that normally prevails in this setting disappeared in a welter of good will and produced at times the most extraordinary scene inside-the-Beltway cynics asking for autographs, an event almost as phenomenal as she is. ... her Counterpart for the night, veteran Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, ... sat unsmilingly and obviously uncomfortably throughout Palin's appearance, obviously aware that he was upstaged ... ... capable of charming an audience that fashions...

This book tour for "Going Rogue" should serve as Palin's primary. With a leadership vacuum in the GOP more evident than ever, rising to the top and staying in the spotlight is shrewd, but only if she’s ready to talk substance. From a political perspective, Palin is deeply threatening to the left. Palin also has the ability to make the left appear so vile, so rude, and so disgusting by just being herself.

House Republicans have produced a draft proposal of their own. It's much shorter and focuses on bringing down costs rather than extending coverage to nearly all Americans.

Obama threw out enough rhetorical chum to keep the liberals happy, yet he subtly staked out ground in the center on nearly every substantive issue in order to win over the moderates needed to get anything passed.

... huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions—or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry. ... Monopoly bargaining and compulsory union dues may quickly become a required standard resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses across the country being forced into unions ... forced unionization schemes ... taxing American workers' existing health-care benefits—but he would exempt union-negotiated health-care plans ... employers could allow a union to come in and negotiate less costly benefits than would otherwise be required.

OBAMA: 'I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess'...

Is it "new" to acknowledge Muslim interests and show respect to the Muslim world? Obama doesn't just think so, he said so again to millions in his al-Arabiya interview, insisting on the need to "restore" the "same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago." Astonishing. In these most recent 20 years -- the alleged winter of our disrespect of the Islamic world -- America did not just respect Muslims, it bled for them. It engaged in five military campaigns, every one of which involved -- and resulted in --...

Full text of the final, ratified Status Of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq.