Free Republic

The upcoming meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and his one-time rival, Sen. John McCain, was set in motion during a phone call over the weekend between Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain's closest friend. In an interview Friday, Graham said that Obama requested the meeting during a 20-minute phone call that the South Carolina senator described as a "pleasant" discussion about how they could work together effectively. "We just talked about the desire to find something meaningful to work on," Graham said. "He was very nice to me, said that he considered me a serious, reform-minded senator that he...

Frankly, I don’t give a damn about the Republican Party. When a pair of shoes is worn out, I throw them away. If I can resole them, I do. If I can’t, they go in the trash. I don’t look back, I don’t mourn them, I just dump them. Same for my political party. If it helps me serve my country, fine. If it doesn’t, to hell with it. It’s as simple as that. And as the Republican Party lies in tatters on the ground, blown to smithereens by a philosophical suicide, it is no surprise that those who claim...

Four years ago, in the week after the 2004 presidential election, we were working furiously to put the finishing touches on the book we co-authored, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America." Our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by "social fundamentalists," the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it...