Free Republic

Former White House political strategist Karl Rove warned Senate Republicans in a meeting this week not to become overly reliant on their conservative base as they head into what could be a tough 2020 presidential election. Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush’s top political strategist, was brought in by Senate GOP leaders to speak to the 22 Republican incumbents up for reelection at an all-day planning session Thursday hosted at Nationals Park in southeast Washington, D.C. GOP lawmakers are getting nervous about next year’s election as polls show President Trump’s approval rating dropping during the 28-day government...

The Republican Party will lose the White House, the Senate and many of its House seats if Donald Trump becomes the party's presidential nominee, according to Karl Rove. "If Mr. Trump is its standard-bearer, the GOP will lose the White House and the Senate, and its majority in the House will fall dramatically," the Republican wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. Rove, who was a top adviser to former President George W. Bush, said nominating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for president could also be dangerous. "If the nominee is Ted Cruz the situation is still dicey," he...

Joining CBS's "Face The Nation" on Sunday, Karl Rove suggested that Americans who grade Senator Ted Cruz highly in terms of his presidential readiness are too ignorant to know what they are looking for in an ideal presidential candidate. When Rove was asked to opine on a poll querying Iowa Republican caucus goers' views of the GOP candidates' readiness to be Commander in Chief, he said of these likely voters, "I don't think they know what they want." "I don't think they know what they mean when it comes down to specific candidates," he said of Iowa Republicans. "They want...

'I'm itching for a fight on a whole range of issues." President Barack Obama made that threat last week as Congress moved to pass his bipartisan tax-cut compromise. Why was Mr. Obama so pugilistic? It was partly to reassure unhappy Democratic liberals, especially bitter Democratic congressmen. Many are from gerrymandered districts where little news about the midterm elections has apparently penetrated. But a scorched-earth policy doesn't make sense for the Obama White House. Independents voted Republican last month by a 59% to 38% margin not because they thought Mr. Obama too civil, his course too centrist, and his bipartisanship too...

Via Mediaite, yet another clip of 2012 pot-stirring awesomeness from Laura Ingraham. First she had Palin on and pressed her not only on what Barbara Bush said but on Chris Christie’s dig at her on Leno. Then Huckabee came on and she started pushing his buttons about being looked down upon by the squishy egghead city slickers who don’t know the Real America the way he does. Now here’s Rove being nudged to defend the Bushes from the Huck/Palin populist onslaught. She might as well start calling these segments, “You Gonna Take That?” I can’t wait to see what she...

The idea that government can spend our way to prosperity doesn't make sense to voters. The rock star Sara Bareilles sang at President Barack Obama's Las Vegas rally for Sen. Harry Reid in October. Her biggest hit, "King of Anything," includes the lyrics, "You've got the talking down/Just not the listening." That pretty well sums up Mr. Obama's reaction to last week's midterm. The president rejects the idea that voters don't like his policies on jobs and the economy.