Free Republic

Even as Texas Gov. Rick Perry moves into the lead as Republican voters’ preferred presidential candidate, a Fox News poll released Thursday shows that voters are more likely to view him as “too extreme” than former frontrunner Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney. In addition, most American voters -- including a majority of Republicans -- think former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin should stay out of the presidential race. Perry receives the support of 26 percent of GOP primary voters in the new poll. That’s up from 13 percent in early August and enough to edge out Romney as frontrunner. Currently Romney captures...

The economy continues to be the number one issue on voters’ minds. At the same time, voter perceptions on the importance of national security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have fallen to new lows. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 84% of Likely Voters rate the economy as Very Important in terms of how they will vote in the next congressional election. That’s up from 74% in early June and 76% in April. Still, the number of voters who feel this way about the economy has remained fairly consistent since January 2008. (To see survey...

Not two weeks removed from cheers surrounding her momentous victory at the Iowa GOP's Straw Poll, there is a growing chorus of criticism about the way Rep. Michele Bachmann has been conducting her campaign in the Hawkeye State. Can the "Barack Obama rock star crap." That comes from Judd Saul, who helped organize the Blackhawk County Lincoln Day Dinner. The fundraiser, which was the day after the Straw Poll, was Texas Governor Rick Perry's first presidential campaign event in Iowa. It was held in Waterloo, a place where she is no stranger. Bachmann proudly states she is from Waterloo and...

President Obama continues to lead all named Republicans in early polling on the 2012 race for the White House, but the numbers suggest a competitive race may be possible. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows the President earning 43% of the vote if Texas Governor Rick Perry is the GOP nominee. Perry attracts support from 40%. Ten percent (10%) say they’d prefer some other candidate while seven percent (7%) are not sure. If Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is the GOP candidate, the president leads 43% to 39%. In that match-up, 12% would prefer some other candidate and seven percent...

The inclusion of likely candidate Rick Perry has tightened the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination dramatically, with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney still ahead – but just barely. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters finds Romney earning 22% support, closely followed by Perry, the Texas governor who is expected to enter the race soon, with 18% of the vote. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is in third place with 16%. (To see survey question wording, click here .) In mid-June , Romney posted a 33% to 19% lead over Bachmann among likely primary...

A recent Gallup poll shows 53 percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, Reuters reports. The poll shows a significant change in mood on the issue from a year ago, when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony. The latest Gallup findings, Reuters reports, are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has gained a newfound majority among Americans. According to Gallup, Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53...

Spain emerged as one of the most anti-Semitic countries in the European Union in 2010, and the Spanish government has done nothing about it, according to the authors of an annual report that tracks anti-Semitic violence on the Iberian Peninsula. The "dangerous" and "extraordinary" rise in anti-Semitism comes at a time when Spain is mired in the worst economic recession in its modern history, and the authors of the report conclude that Jews are increasingly becoming a scapegoat for the economic and social problems facing Spain. The document titled "Report on Anti-Semitism in Spain in 2010" was jointly produced by...

Are whites on the verge of becoming a minority of the American population? That's what some analysts of the 2010 Census results claim. Many go on, sometimes with relish, to say that this spells electoral doom for the Republican Party. I think the picture is more complicated than that. And that the demise of the Republican Party is no more foreordained than it was a century ago when Italian, Jewish and Polish immigrants were pouring into the United States in proportions much greater than the Hispanic and Asian immigration of the past two decades. The numbers do appear stark. The...

Defense Minister tells Wall Street Journal that Israel must be on guard considering the unrest sweeping the Arab world, adding increased aid could help make Israel a 'stabilizer in such a turbulent region'. Israel may request an addition $20 billion in military aid from the United States in light of the unrest sweeping the Arab world, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday. Barak deemed the changes in the region a "movement in the right direction", and said that in the long run, Israel should not fear the "movement of Arab societies toward...

As the abortion and gay marriage debates simmer beneath the national brawl over spending, a new poll shows Americans are becoming much less conservative when it comes to social issues. A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday showed growing support for legal abortion, gay marriage and marijuana legalization. The shifting attitudes on the latter topic were particularly dramatic. Americans opposed legalizing marijuana by an 81-16 split two decades ago. The latest poll showed just 50 percent now oppose the change, while 45 percent support legalizing marijuana. On the abortion question, the survey showed Americans trending toward supporting abortion rights after...