Free Republic

(Reuters) - In contrast to 2008, Democratic President Barack Obama cannot count on a wave of support for his re-election bid next year from well-known moderate Republicans. Unhappy with Obama's handling of the economy, conservative backers from three years ago are either sitting on the fence or have thrown their lot in with Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney. Known as "Obamacons," moderate Republicans helped make the Democrat's case in 2008 that he was a new breed of "post-partisan" politician who would work with both parties. Obama's youth and the narrative of electing the first black president also attracted Republicans...

I suppose I have to accept the insanity that some glassy-eyed Republicans are considering voting for Barack Obama, but I don't have to like it. Whether or not this is an example of the liberal media trying to create rather than report news, The New York Times is reporting that small enclaves of Republicans are meeting around the country to discuss their support for Obama. Let's call them "support groups." One such support group in Indiana is calling its attendees "whispering Republicans." Fittingly, these renegades, as the Times called them, met over iced tea and brownies, as if to signify...

I saw a Republicans for Obama bumper sticker the other day and couldn't help laughing out loud. Republicans for Obama is an oxymoron. Oil and water, fire and ice. Impossible. Then I stumbled across a news article about this craze that featured two "Republicans" who are supporting the O Man. Former GOP Senator Lincoln Chaffee, who put down the bong long enough to vote for John Kerry in 2004, and Jim Leach, former Iowa Congressman who always looks concerned, have jumped on the Obama bandwagon. Neither man is a conservative, and both were voted out of office, so this isn't...

Why this lifelong Republican may vote for Obama The party of Bush and McCain outsourced the hunt for bin Laden, failing to accomplish a vital mission since 9/11. By Michael SmerconishSep. 11, 2008 | Where the hell are Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri? And why does virtually no one ask anymore? What's changed since the days when any suburban soccer mom would have strangled either of them with her bare hands if given the chance? And what happened to President Bush's declaration to a joint session of Congress nine days after 9/11 that "any nation that continues to harbor...

THE MORE I LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT “the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate,” the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. In 1964, at the age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater. My senior thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual revival in America. Twenty years later, I was invited by William F. Buckley Jr. to join the board of...

My party has slipped its moorings. It’s time for a true pragmatist to lead the country. THE MORE I LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT “the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate,” the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. In 1964, at the age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater. My senior thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual revival in America....

"I do know libertarians who think Obama is the Antichrist, that he's farther left than John Kerry, much farther left than Bill Clinton, and you'd clearly have to be insane to vote for this guy," said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "But there are libertarians who say, 'Oh yeah? Do you think Obama will increase spending by $1 trillion, because that's what Republicans did over the past two presidential terms. So really, how much worse can he be?' And there are certainly libertarians who think Obama will be better on the war...

Mr Powell is now a four-star general in America’s most surprising new army: the Obamacons. The army includes other big names such as Susan Eisenhower, Dwight’s granddaughter, who introduced Mr Obama at the Democratic National Convention and Christopher Buckley, the son of the conservative icon William Buckley, who complains that he has not left the Republican Party: the Republican Party has left him. Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska and one-time bosom buddy of Mr McCain has also flirted heavily with the movement, though he has refrained from issuing an official endorsement.The biggest brigade in the Obamacon army consists...

Here's a recap of Republicans, Republicans-turned-independents and conservatives who supported who supported Obama for President in 2008. They supported an Undeniable Disaster & a Historic Failure. Shame on them. --------- Elected Officials: Jim Leach, Former Congressman from Iowa "For me, the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally. We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that."Lincoln Chafee, Former United States Senator from Rhode Island "As I look at the candidates in order who to vote for, certainly my kind of conservatism was reflected with Senator Obama, and those points are that...

A new poll spotlighting the faith community's outlook on the 2012 campaign shows that evangelicals have high views of Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, less-than-enthusiastic views of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, and low views of President Obama. SNIP Among evangelicals, Huckabee's ratings (88 percent favorable, 11 percent unfavorable) led those of Palin (79 percent favorable, 21 percent unfavorable), Gingrich (57 percent/37 percent), Romney (56 percent/29 percent and Ron Paul (51 percent/26 percent). Obama, though, is viewed favorably by only 6 percent of evangelicals. Ninety-four percent view him unfavorably. The Barna survey was based on interviews with 1,021 adults nationwide...

(snip) McCain admitted while he felt invincible as a 20 year old testing himself and the very expensive planes the government allowed him to operate. “I wasn’t even very distressed when I found myself in my airplane sitting on the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay one fine day,” McCain confessed in front of his son and other young aviators. “I swam to the surface, went to my quarters, changed my clothes, took a couple aspirin and headed out for another night’s entertainment with my fellow bachelor officers. “Kick the tires and light the fires.” I loved the image of a...

Politics is often a game of who-do-you-fear-the-most. The pragmatists, the “mavericks,” the oh-goodness-gracious-somebody’s-going-to-call-me-a-homophobe Republicans must be taught an object lesson – good, hard and fast. Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, a Lady Gaga Republican, is the perfect candidate for a shock-and-awe campaign. His vote to sodomize the military, by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, should be his political obituary, writ in 24-point type. Brown pleaded for conservative support in the January 19 special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat. (Given the way things turned out, the enormous Ted must be smiling from that Au Bar in the sky.) The man...

WASHINGTON — Senator Scott Brown’s decision to buck his party leadership in recent days on the “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ military policy and on a nuclear arms treaty has set off a new wave of anger among some of the activists who helped elect him — and renewed talk among conservatives that he might face a primary challenge. Tweet 1diggdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis Some Tea Party movement leaders who dislike Brown’s votes acknowledge that the Massachusetts Republican has demonstrated his independent and pragmatic streak, and by doing so may strengthen his chances at reelection in 2012. No primary challenger has emerged,...

Well. We've just seen, the fruits of our corrupt, lame, spineless and wimpy "Republicans" idea of how to deal with democrats: Surrender. Abject surrender. How deeply disappointing this month has been.

"My view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks" Rarely do you see a politician quite this honest: Last Wednesday, just hours after securing the position of chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., told the Birmingham News that "in Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks." In the very next paragraph, the newspaper reported that Bachus "later clarified his comment to say that regulators should set the parameters in which banks operate...

(snip) Saturday's debate on the repeal of the "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy was only half an hour old when the Arizona Republican burst onto the floor from the cloakroom, hiked up his pants and stalked over to his friend Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Ignoring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who had the floor, McCain hectored the men noisily for a few moments, waving his arms for emphasis. When McCain finally stormed off, Durbin shook his head in exasperation and Lieberman smiled. A minute later, McCain returned - he had apparently remembered another element of his grievance -...

Jindal: As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country -- and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty. And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: 'Bobby, Americans can do anything.' Obama: ...Dillon, South Carolina - a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to...

It looks as though the USSC or for that matter any of our elected representatives are going to do anything to call into question Barrack Obama's foreign national status. So, it's up to us (American Citizens) to apply the pressure to get them to take notice. We can BOYCOTT any spending on luxury/non-essential items. This will get the governments attention. Pay your bills but don't spend your tax refund, don't spend your stimulus payment. Call in to local radio talk shows.......you know the drill. If it's good enough for Jesse Jackson, then it is certainly good enough for us in...

Ken (liberal) Duberstein to endorse Obama. CNN's October suprise. . . Mark Levin

Kenneth M. Duberstein, Ronald Reagan’s final White House chief of staff and a former political confidant of Senator John McCain, is the latest high-profile Republican to say he will vote instead for Senator Barack Obama for president. Mr. Duberstein’s decision, confirmed in a brief interview, was not a big surprise given his close friendship with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who recently announced on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he would vote for Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, because he was disappointed that both Mr. McCain and the Republican Party have become so socially conservative and negative.