Free Republic

It wasn't hard to spot which of the genteel homes in Salt Lake City's Harvard-Yale neighborhood belongs to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's son, Josh — there was the 30-foot motor home squeezed into the driveway earlier this week. But the oversize vehicle dubbed the "Mitt Mobile" wasn't parked for long in the area known for brick Tudor houses, manicured lawns and quiet, tree-lined streets. With Josh, 31, behind the wheel, the motor home was headed to Iowa today. There, the only one of Mitt Romney's five offspring living in Utah plans to spend much of the summer campaigning for...

The May 27 editorial "Campaign Finance Flip" criticized Mitt Romney for calling for the repeal of the McCain-Feingold law. Mr. Romney attacks McCain-Feingold because it imposes a "free-speech blackout period," banning groups from mentioning a federal candidate's name just before an election. There is no doubt that this amounts, as Mr. Romney says, to "unprecedented restrictions on the political activities of everyday Americans." And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argues that even grass-roots lobbying should be banned during the blackout periods. It comes as a surprise that incumbent politicians have the constitutional power to prohibit people from criticizing them, but this...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney outline their respective foreign policy visions in the next issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, offering sharp contrasts on issues including the war in Iraq and climate change. Obama advocates a phased withdrawal of U.S. combat forces, to be completed by next March. Romney notes that there is "no guarantee" that the administration's current strategy will succeed but says that "the stakes are too high and the potential fallout too great to deny our military leaders and troops on the ground the resources and the time needed to give it an...

Presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had a very frank conversation with veterans this Memorial Day at the American Legions Post 72 in Alton. Romney, met by a full house, talked with the veterans in attendance not only about veterans' affairs and military stance, but the condition of the country and where it is headed with respect to things like energy and immigration. "These Americans that are willing to put themselves in harm's way for their country should know that their country will take care of them when they come home," Romney said. Romney, who maintains a residence...

This is the first poll out for the 2008 Kansas primary, and the results may startle you: Research 2000 Kansas GOP Primary Brownback - 18% Romney - 17% McCain - 13% Giuliani - 13% F. Thompson - 7% Gingrich - 6% Tancredo - 2% All others - 1% or less Survey was of 400 likely voters, done May 21-23, and has an MoE of 5%. Romney plays well in red state country despite never having campaigned there, while Giuliani and McCain struggle. Additionally, this canÂ’t bode well for Brownback, being statistically tied in his home state. On the Dem side,...

White House hopeful ex-Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) told a Florida crowd Thursday that he was “shocked” by recent comments from potential presidential rival John Edwards, who said this week that there is no war on terror. Edwards, the former Democratic senator from North Carolina, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City Wednesday, said, “The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It’s a bumper sticker, not a plan.” In a press conference just before noon today, President Bush said such a notion is “naïve.” Romney didn’t...

Islamic organizations regularly accuse non-Muslims of "Islamophobia," a fear and disdain for everything Islamic. On May 17, this accusation bubbled up again as foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference called Islamophobia "the worst form of terrorism." These ministers also warned, according to the Arab News, that this form of discrimination would cause millions of Muslims in Western countries, "many of whom were already underprivileged," to be "further alienated." In America, perhaps the most conspicuous organization to persistently accuse opponents of Islamophobia is the Council of American Islamic Relations. CAIR has taken up the legal case of the...

An Arizona state lawmaker is calling for U.S. Senator John McCain to resign. State Representative Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican, says McCain is spending too much time on his Presidential campaign and missing too many Senate votes. According to the Washington Post, McCain missed almost 50% of Senate votes during the current session. The only other senator with a worse record is South Dakota's Tim Johnson, who is recovering from a brain hemorrhage. Pearce says, "I am calling on the Senator to show up and vote, or if he's going to be a fulltime candidate, then yes, he ought to...

With President Bush staying on the sidelines in the 2008 race, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts has looked very much like the choice of the next-best Bush: Jeb, the former governor of electorally crucial Florida. Jeb Bush's former aides have flocked to Romney's camp. Romney has listed him among his potential running mates, and Bush associates say the president's brother has steered them to Romney -- his fellow businessman-turned-governor -- when asked for advice on the presidential race. But with Romney seeking to distance himself from his rivals by opposing the Senate immigration bill, Romney's relationship with Jeb Bush...

I know I should have blogged more today, but frankly I’ve been inconsolable. Yet another John McCain conference call with the blogosphere has come and gone, and once again I wasn’t invited. I guess Dr. Rosenheifen and I will be spending another week discussing those inferiority complexes that come from having been a social pariah in junior high school. (It wasn’t my fault – most of the other kids supported John Anderson for president. Should have I even aspired to be liked by such cretins?) Anyway, I should really send the bills to the McCain campaign. Truth be told, I...

Mrs. Ann Romney: Photo from Five Brothers Blog I realize it’s early in the campaign, but as a wife and a mother, I cannot help but notice that not a lot has been mentioned in the MSM yet about potential First Ladies, and the importance of the role they play in a Presidency. In reality, it is a factor that should be taken as seriously as the candidate himself. Like the President, the First Lady represents us all, and I will be forever appreciative to Laura Bush for returning a more traditional sense or dignity, charm, and graciousness back into...

The Shot has learned that following the GOP state convention, over 400 delegates stood in line for over an hour to meet Governor Romney personally. A Romney staffer told The Shot they expected half the crowd. These pictures were taken by a Romney supporter. No, this isnt the line to the American Idols on Tour concert.  This is outside the SC Romney headquarters on Gervais Street in Columbia.

It’s early yet, but I’m already worried. I’m worried about Bill and Hillary’s possible return to the White House -- that their personal life may become front-page news again. The first shot was fired across the bow one year ago. The New York Times interviewed 50 people who know Bill and Hillary. The reporter attempted to get a "grab" -- a regrettable choice of words, I know -- on the married life of the power couple. That prompted columnist David Broder to call their marriage the "elephant in the room" (or, as he should have said it, the elephant in...

HILLSDALE, Mich. - In a speech to Hillsdale College graduates yesterday about confronting a world filled with evil, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said America should combat radical Islam by bulking up its military. "There is no safe place if evil is unrestrained," the former Massachusetts governor said during his address at the campus 80 miles northwest of Toledo. "The weak may hide, but they become weaker still, until at last they are discovered and easily conquered. History teaches us this: The best ally of peace is a strong America." Mr. Romney proposed adding 100,000 troops and keeping defense spending...

Would you expect a former writer for the Village Voice and The Nation to be harshly critical of soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore and his band of not-so merry manmade global warming alarmists? Neither would I. Yet there it was in the leftwing newsletter CounterPunch, written by editor Alexander Cockburn. *****Critical Update: Cockburn's article published by The Nation. Entitled “Hot Air, Cold Cash; Who are the Merchants of Fear?,” the piece absolutely eviscerated all those advancing the theory of anthropogenic global warming for what Cockburn believed to be financial and political gain (emphasis added throughout): No response is more predictable than the...

With almost 18 months left until the general election, it is becoming painfully obvious to those who look through the media smokescreen that Barack Obama is not ready for prime time. A nice smile, two autobiographical and admittedly not strictly factual books, and a ready supply of feel-good bromides about fighting cynicism do not a capable president make. John Hinderaker of Powerline has done an admirable job of exposing the sheer reckless mangling of facts by Obama (and his Media Matters defenders) when he attacked Detroit's Big Three and ludicrously claimed that Japan's automobile fleet gets an average of 45...

In all my years in the pro-life movement, I have always believed that our goal was not only to change laws, but to change minds -- and we have changed many minds. Ronald Reagan, Henry Hyde, and countless others who at one point supported abortion rights later came to understand that human life at its very beginning moments must be protected. We take pride in the work of these individuals, because in their changes of heart, they proved that the mission of the pro-life community is not only sacred, but it is also capable of winning new adherents and allies....

"A 50-ish couple is strolling along the beach when they stumble onto the proverbial genie in a bottle. The wife rubs the bottle, the genie pops out, and the 50-something woman makes her wish: to be covered in jewels. Poof! She's draped in gorgeous jewelry from head to toe. Seeing the efficacy of the wishing, the man also gives it a stab. 'I wish I were married to a woman 30 years younger than me.' And poof! The man instantly turns 80." Chuckles from the fundraiser crowd. Mitt Romney continues, "Be careful what you wish for. I wished for public...

AFTER THE Democrats won back Congress and the socially liberal Rudy Giuliani and the Jerry Falwell-bashing John McCain emerged as the Republican presidential front-runners, many political observers theorized that the Christian Right's power was on the wane. Last week's Republican presidential debate suggested otherwise.Indeed, with the candidates more or less agreeing on such major foreign policy issues as the Iraq war and preventing a nuclear Iran, each distinguished himself mostly by how close or how far he stood from the Christian Right. But history shows that Republican presidential candidates who fall on either end of the continuum, who either embody...

In the first poll of New Hampshire Republican Primary voters since the GOP debate at the Reagan Library last week, Mitt Romney, former Governor of neighboring Massachusetts, jumps into a breathtaking lead over Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain, according to a SurveyUSA poll of likely NH Republican Primary voters conducted exclusively for WBZ-TV Boston. Romney gets 32% today, measurably better than Giuliani at 23% and McCain at 22%, who tie for 2nd place. Actor Fred Thompson, who was not included in previous SurveyUSA polling of New Hampshire GOP Primary voters, but who is included in these results, finishes 4th, at...