Free Republic

Just wanted to REMIND all that, just like the founder of this website, I believe the real enemy isn't Donald Trump (I am a Cruz supporter), nor should Ted Cruz be the real enemy for any Donald Trump supporter. The REAL ENEMY is THE ESTABLISHMENT AND SELLOUTS as embodied currently in Marco Rubio. Carry On..

If the internecine warfare between the two top populist candidates continues, the conservative majority of the Republican Party could once again be forced to live with a nominee chosen by the Establishment. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump placed first and second in Iowa. But if they don’t now combine forces and put aside their rancor, they may each find themselves losing the nomination to the third-place finisher, Establishment favorite Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Entering New Hampshire, Cruz and Trump have to play it smart. Cruz must recognize that he needs Trump to win in the Granite State. If...

There hasn’t been this much excitement in the luxury boxes since the 1991 Kentucky Derby when Mane Minister showed at 87-1. Marco Rubio’s expected third-place showing set off a frenzy of spin and sly promotion in the commentary class. The conventional wisdom is that Rubio is the more electable Republican in November as compared to Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. The conventional wisdom is wrong, just as it was in 2012 and 2008. Marco Rubio has two significant problems that render him a problematic November candidate. The first is his record on the most important issue of the year. The...

WHY WE ENDORSED Endorsing a candidate for President is a serious thing, and, done properly, should be the result of extensive research and reflection. Making an endorsement on behalf of a large national organization that represents millions of supporters is an even more sensitive endeavor. Consequently, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, as a result of extensive polling and discussions with our Coordinators and supporters across the nation, enthusiastically endorses Senator Ted Cruz for President of the United States. WHY WE ENDORSED Endorsing a candidate for President is a serious thing, and, done properly, should be the result of extensive research...

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is one of the best new Senators elected in 2014, and we at RedState were proud to support him in the primaries. After keeping a low profile his first few months in the Senate, the 43 year old freshman has gradually been building a higher profile as a conservative reformer, and has recently started grilling Donald Trump on Twitter. Today, Trump fired back - and Sasse responded in kind, giving The Donald a taste of his own medicine. Sasse started bearing down on Trump on Sunday, beginning by noting - as many elected Republicans have -...

One of the interesting assumptions infecting this election season is that a self-funded wealthy candidate is less likely to make corrupt deals. If a candidate doesn't solicit money from the public (which, by the way, every candidate for president does), so the story goes, he won't be beholden to do favors. But what if a candidate had a ready reserve of millions? Could that candidate buy off media outlets, public figures and educational institutions? Answer: probably, if he knows how to do the deal. Expenditures on behalf of a campaign, of course, must be reported to the Federal Election Commission....

Mr. Trump, I knew Ronald Reagan. And you’re no Ronald Reagan! Of course, I am stealing that line — with a twist. Donald Trump shouldn’t mind. He’s been stealing my dad for his own purposes. Trump frequently invokes Ronald Reagan’s name to defend his sudden, 180-degree switch from being a life-long, pro-Clinton Democrat to a Reagan Republican. Both men did make a switch, but almost all the similarities between the two end there. Ronald Reagan’s odyssey from Hollywood liberal to conservative backer took place over almost two decades. Starting with his 1964 “Time for Choosing” speech that galvanized Americans for...

With less than a week to Iowa’s caucus, Donald Trump has convinced enough elected officials, insiders, and lobbyists to prefer him to Sen. Ted Cruz. A field of economics known as “public choice” explains why: Trump threatens their interests less than Cruz. Trump is the candidate of bread and circuses. His rallies feature immense crowds that show up to hear him insult, gloat, boast, growl, bark. Trump is spectacle by design. His campaign operation compares favorably to the French philosophy behind professional wrestling. The wealthy reality TV star rents movie theaters and entertains fans with a combination of ego and...

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. This sound aphorism may have a less pithy political corollary: Never attribute to strategy what can be explained by emotion. Only this truth can help us understand why Republican officials have started saying they prefer Donald Trump to Senator Ted Cruz as their presidential nominee. Congressional Republicans would supposedly come out ahead with Trump because he would be a stronger nominee and a more cooperative president. These arguments are so weak that they can be understood only as rationalizations for a passionate hatred of Cruz felt by Republicans...

Life as a Trump spokesperson has got to be a degrading existence. Your job, essentially, is to defend every public utterance of a guy who changes positions every half hour, but refuses to ever admit that he has ever been wrong. As the Right Scoop notes, part of the job description of being a Trump spokesman is literally believing that Donald Trump has never been wrong, even when Donald Trump disagrees with previous things Donald Trump has said. Supporters of other candidates do not have to do this. Rubio's supporters don't have to say that Rubio was never involved in...

I am so sick of the lack of logic used on Free Republic when some argue either for or against Trump or Ted Cruz whom I do not support, or at least a declaratory opinion/argument by a creeper who AT LEAST explains his or her line of reasoning/thinking. All of the blustern(either made up in someone's mind) or taken directly from either of the campaigns (which are not based ON ANY evidence other than the candidate or a surrogate's opinions are worth NOTHING). As conservatives, libertarians, tea partiers, Christians, constitutionalists, nationalists/Proud Americans, Republicans, yes even some moderates, shouldn't we at...

RTX22LO4 Why does Ted Cruz, left, make so many references to Cicero, right? And what does that mean for his hopes in the 2016 presidential election? REUTERS U.S.TED CRUZCICERO Ted Cruz's onstage appearance with Sean Hannity was going well. It was February 2015, and Cruz, like all the other GOP hopefuls, was at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C., being lobbed softballs by the Fox News talking head. Hannity was playing a little word game. "I'm going to ask you about three people, first words that come to your mind," Hannity said. "Barack Hussein Obama," Hannity prompted. Cruz...

While many GOP primary voters are looking for a stalwart conservative behind whom to throw their support, electability will almost certainly play a large role in how people choose their candidates in the upcoming primaries. So, just who would perform the best in a potential head-to-head matchup against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton? According to a recent Fox News poll, all of the top candidates would defeat Clinton in a national contest:

HI-larious. Sen. Ted Cruz, responding to a barrage of attacks from a sitting GOP governor and businessman Donald Trump, Wednesday said his campaign raised $700,000 in the hours after he was pointedly criticized by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. Mr. Cruz, speaking to reporters in New Hampshire, said party leaders in Washington are so fearful of his candidacy that he believes they are rallying behind Mr. Trump rather than Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida – a rival of Mr. Cruz’s who has been considered an establishment favorite. With enemies like those, who needs friends, right? Cruz continues to have plenty of...

At some point during the past week I entered a Twilight Zone episode where constitutional conservative Sarah Palin thinks Donald Trump is the future of America and elder statesmen Bob Dole thinks Ted Cruz, more so than the third-party-flirting former Democrat Trump, is the one with the loyalty problem to the GOP. Incidentally, didn’t this guy endorse Jeb Bush? Why is he talking up Trump here? “I question his allegiance to the party,” Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. “I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’ — not very often.” Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the...

Exeter, N.H. — I’ve spent the past couple of days on the campaign trail in New Hampshire with Ted Cruz. A few things are immediately clear: Cruz is an incredibly disciplined campaigner: There’s general agreement among the reporters covering him, including the network embeds who have been with him for months, that he’s a boring candidate from the media’s perspective because he so rarely veers off message. Another reporter offhandedly compared him to Jeb Bush, whom he said he’d enjoyed spending time with far more because Bush was like a little kid who got himself into trouble any time he...

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...

GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4)– Colorado Congressman Ken Buck has thrown his support behind fellow Republican Ted Cruz for president. Buck, a Republican representing Northern Colorado, announced his endorsement on Wednesday. He will also serve as the Colorado chairman for Cruz’s campaign. “We need a strong, conservative leader in the White House,” said Buck in a statement. “Ted Cruz is that leader. He has consistently and passionately fought hard against the Washington establishment in order to restore the power back to the American people. We need Ted in 2016 in order to help restore America back to the principles that made this...

There's an assumption among casual consumers of politics that establishment Republicans loathe Donald Trump. Not really true. Yes, they worry about what Trump might do downballot to the GOP if he is the nominee. But most view him with some mix of puzzlement and fascination. The Republican establishment saves its actual hatred for one man and one man only: Ted Cruz. Witness Terry Branstad, the four-term governor of Iowa and, without question, the face of the Republican establishment in the state. On Tuesday, he told reporters that he wants to see Cruz beaten in the Iowa caucuses in 13 days...

Altoona, Iowa (CNN)—Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad called for Ted Cruz's defeat Tuesday, in a dramatic and highly public repudiation of the Texas senator just two weeks out from the Iowa caucuses. Speaking to a small group of reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona, where several 2016 presidential candidates are slated to speak, Branstad labeled Cruz a "big oil" candidate whose victory would be "very damaging to our state." "It would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him," Branstad said. "And I know he's ahead in the polls but the only poll that counts is...