Free Republic

On the menu today: California drops a bombshell, confirming that the first American death from coronavirus occurred February 6, not February 28; a long look at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, weeks before the known start date of the virus outbreak; and a good proposal for accountability in U.S. policies regarding China.Maybe the Coronavirus Was Floating Around America Earlier Than We ThoughtThis discovery out in California is pretty significant. This doesn’t verify all of the “I had a bad flu in November or December — I’ll bet I had coronavirus” self-assessments, but it does remind us...

Was it all a heist? A candidate who had persistent financial problems pulls off a surprise upset in the primary, and the conservative grassroots open their wallets wide and often in order to help ensure the campaign’s competitiveness – only to see the candidate end the campaign with nearly $1 million in unspent funds. Is this how Christine O’Donnell wanted it? Politico reported, “O’Donnell reported having $924,800 in the bank after the election was over, according to her post-general election campaign fundraising report, filed Thursday.” The explanation from O’Donnell spokesman Matthew Moran is that O’Donnell was advised by her attorney...

The era of Michael Steele’s chairmanship of the Republican National Committee appears to be nearing its end. At least some of the men and women who aspire to Steele’s job will meet Wednesday for a debate before conservative activists and some RNC members sponsored by FreedomWorks and the Conservative Steering Committee, a group of RNC members who are worried about ideological drift in the national party organization. At least one more debate will be held in January, sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform. The first oddity in the crowded field is how many former allies of the current RNC chairman...

Because you demanded it… an update from my mentor, nicknamed Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jim: So I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails lately, all asking, ‘What does Obi-Wan Kenobi think?’ Obi-Wan Why wouldn’t they want to know what somebody from a galaxy far, far away thinks? With each passing day, this election looks more and more like it’s not of this earth. I thought things were finally starting to make sense when I saw the bad news in the Boxer and Rand Paul polls, Boxer going up 8 and Rand Paul’s lead shrinking to 2. Jim: That made sense to you?...

Jim Geraghty over at National Review Online is now clearly in the Mike Castle camp, or at least carrying lots of water for him. http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/245596/whos-backstabbing-who-delaware As I recall, National Review endorsed John McCain over J.D. Hayworth. I don't recall any concerns mentioned about his Keating Five role or his widely reported temper tantrums. No, J.D., we were told, had all kinds of flaws. Hell, he even did an infomerical promoting federal grants, which would not have to be paid back. These, they concluded, were fatal flaws. All of McCain's disastrous positions and tactics over the years -- from his opposition...

Earlier this month, Resurgent Republic — an independent public-opinion-research group headed by former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie — conducted focus groups in five key House districts, measuring how independent voters and, separately, self-identified tea-party members felt about the direction of the country. Bad news for President Obama and congressional Democrats is common these days, but these results unveiled Tuesday are simply dismal. Asked to compare Obama to a car, one Iowan chose an Edsel: “Something that had a lot of hype, but failed to live up to expectations.” Another older man described Obama as “a wrecked Ferrari, something...

Republicans will likely reclaim the U.S. House of Representatives and could win a majority in the U.S. Senate in the November elections, national conservative columnist Jim Geraghty said during a meeting of the First Monday Republican Lunch Group on Hilton Head Island. "If you're a Republican and you're staying home this year and not getting excited, just curl up and die," Geraghty said Monday, drawing laughter from the crowd. Geraghty is a columnist for The National Review and periodically offers commentary on CNN and Fox News. He is tentatively scheduled to appear Friday on "The Sean Hannity Show" on Fox...

Sound Off Connecticut's guest lineup for today. What a lineup. Jim Geraghty from the Campaign spot. His breakdown of David Plouffe’s (Obama’s campaign director and new info czar) column in the WaPo is a classic. 11:10 am.

You knew it was just a matter of time before partisan angles emerged about the disaster in Haiti. The Huffington Post takes umbrage at Rush Limbaugh: "Limbaugh also seems to feel we've done enough already for Haiti: 'We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.'" Obviously, when people are struggling to crawl out from rubble and with meager medical systems stretched to the breaking point, you've got to mobilize. But on the facts, Rush is right. The tale of U.S. foreign aid to Haiti is maddening, as well-meaning Americans dump more and more money to alleviate suffering,...

Wondering What Sarah Palin's Future Holds... A few readers have asked whether I think Sarah Palin will run for the Senate in the future. I think that would be a mistake, for several reasons, not the least of which is that, if successful, the decision would take an unique and popular outside-the-beltway executive and put her inside the Beltway as one of 100 legislators voting on every bill that comes down the pike. For now, I hope Sarah Palin gets to take a vacation and spend some much-deserved time with that beautiful family. Her experience these past four months must...

The Battleground poll on the generic ballot puts Republicans within four percent. (At RCP, it's listed as 43-40, though.) According to this chart, their last poll on that question in September of 2006 put it at 8 percent. The final numbers from other pollsters had it from 4 percent to 16 percent. Some interesting recent polling results in some House races, too. These results don't indicate, "hey, the Republican is definately going to win", but they indicate that if this is a Democratic wave year, some districts with close races just aren't showing it. In New Hampshire, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter...

I spoke to my Romney guy. They're not making any predictions, but they feel pretty good about tomorrow. Perhaps the most interesting nugget was the revelation that Team Romney has the potential for a significant margin among those who vote by absentee ballot. "We were up on TV by ourselves when we worked absentee voters — and those are usually older voters who already have fond memories of Governor [George] Romney. We may have gotten the perfect mix there." He thinks they may have "banked a lot of votes" by absentee. He paints the polls as putting his man up...

Jim Geraghty on "Voting to Kill"October 2, 2006 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I'd like to welcome to the program Jim Geraghty from National Review Online. He has a blog called The Kerry Spot, TKS. It's just a brilliant body of work. During the campaign of 2004 it was cited often by me -- not stolen by me, but cited often by me -- on this program. Jim has a book out called Voting to Kill. It's been out since September 19th. He went out and interviewed a number of Americans about the issues on their minds as the midterm elections come...

We failed you? No, oh brilliant creator of Exit to Eden, you failed. You might not think of it this way, but: Your leaders failed to upgrade the levees. You elected a bunch of weepers and blame-shifters who lost their head in a crisis. Over the past decades, your elected officials have let a criminal element incubate and grow until they ruled the streets, instead of the forces of law and order. In pop culture, a New Orleans thief is always a charming rogue with a devilish smile. In reality, they’re a bunch of thugs. If the number of residents...

Just heard from a guy I trust that the Pentagon will be releasing information regarding Able Danger in the not too distant future. The short version: Don't expect any bombshells. Thank you, Congressman Weldon, for getting just enough of this story right (the existence of Able Danger and its mission) to get folks like myself and lot of others to take you seriously. Those others weren't just bloggers, by the way - I'm talking about the New York Times, the AP, the Bergen Record... And thanks a [really bad word] heap for getting more than enough wrong that we look...

THE "FLIP-FLOP" CHARGE WAS A DIVERSION? The guys at CrushKerry.com interview a GOP campaign operative - I think I know who they're talking to, and if I'm right, their description of his title and duties is accurate - and get a sense of an emerging strategy shift on the Bush campaign:~~~~~~~~~~~ We recently expressed our frustration over the “flip-flop” narrative with a veteran GOP campaign operative in daily contact with, and in some cases working side by side with, high-level "Bush/Cheney 04" campaign officials, and asked them why, given all the evidence that this message had long since played itself...

Here in the LA Times report above:The network's new reporting will be wrapped up soon, perhaps this weekend or early next week, Howard said. More sources have come forward in recent days, and CBS is leaning on its original sources to see if they will go on the record, he added. In the Washington Post:In a related development, White House press secretary Scott McClellan hinted that more documents regarding Bush's National Guard service may soon be released. Asked whether officials in the White House have seen unreleased documents, McClellan called that "a very real possibility." Other officials with knowledge of...