Free Republic

I’m surprised, not because I think Hillary’s wildly more popular than O but because, in year six of an increasingly lame lame-duck presidency, you’d think “anyone but Obama” sentiment would be high on both sides. And since Hillary’s the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, she’s the obvious “anyone” in a poll like this. Democrats can idealize her and pretend that she would have avoided all of the mistakes that Obama’s made; Republicans, having concluded that no one could possibly be worse than The One, can prefer her on those grounds alone.But that’s not what we see.The obvious explanation for the Democratic numbers,...

Douglas Band, former President Bill Clinton’s top aide, plans to vote for Mitt Romney in November, according to a report in The New Yorker. In an extensive article on the complicated and often unpleasant relationship between Bill Clinton and President Obama, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports that Band intends to cast his ballot for the former Massachusetts governor this fall. “According to two people with direct knowledge, Douglas Band has said that he will vote for Romney,” Lizza writes. “Band declined to comment.” Lizza explains that Band believes an Obama defeat will bode well for Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects....

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pressed by her husband and a top Obama aide to consider replacing Vice President Joe Biden just a couple of weeks ago, claims the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Amateur." But Clinton, exhausted from four years of international travel and diplomacy, shrugged off the suggestion to lay the groundwork for her own 2016 bid with her husband at her side, according to author Ed Klein. "As recently as a couple of weeks ago, the White House was putting out feelers to see if Hillary Clinton was interested in replacing Joe Biden...

As the Biden-Clinton chatter swirls, best-selling author Edward Klein says the White House has “put out feelers” to the Clinton camp about the veep spot. Here’s the transcript from CNBC’s The Kudlow Report: KLEIN: Larry, just before we went on the air tonight, I checked with my sources in the Clinton camp and I took notes because I want to be careful. And here is what they told me: Up until just a couple of weeks ago, the White House was putting out feelers to see if Hillary would accept the vice-presidential nod and replace Joe Biden. Bill Clinton was,...

Joe Klein (author of "The Amateur")said his sources in the Clinton camp told him that Jarrett invited Hillary to lunch two weeks ago and asked her if she would accept the VP slot to replace Biden. Hillary refused to encourage an offer. Klein said that Bill and Jarrett (and it is assumed Michelle and Barry) were for it, but Hillary figured that if Obama lost, she would be finished and she wanted to preserve her options for 2016.

Sarah Palin told Obama to dump Joe Biden yesterday. Barack Obama defended Joe Biden yesterday for his outrageous racial remarks. He also told reporters that he will keep Joe on the ticket despite calls (from Sarah Palin) to dump him. FOX News reported, via Free Republic: President Obama defended Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday against criticism of his remarks that Republican repeal of Wall Street regulations would put voters “back in chains.” Obama also brushed off Sarah Palin’s suggestion on Fox News that he drop Biden from the ticket in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Palin, the...

Sarah Palin has said that Joe Biden’s controversial ‘put y’all back in chains’ comment should be the ‘nail in the coffin’ for his career and suggested Barack Obama replace him on the 2012 ticket with Hillary Clinton. She added that she hoped Obama would not take such a step because ‘an Obama/Clinton ticket would have a darn good chance of winning’. But Palin’s unsolicited advice to Obama, while clearly mischievous, underlines the extent to which Biden has become a national laughing stock and a potential liability for the Democrats, despite his popularity among party activists and much-vaunted authentic style and...

Show of hands: Who here still thinks Vice President Joseph R. Biden will be on the 2012 ticket? Really? All of you? So wrong. The Great One, Sir Barack Hussein Obama, will replace the bumbling, buffoonish Mr. Biden with Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, maybe at the Democratic convention, maybe just before, in a last-ditch effort to win re-election. The wild and crazy move is all the talk outside the Beltway. One state Democratic leader even tells me the bumper stickers are already printed, sitting in a warehouse in (where else?) Little Rock, Ark. Another party bigwig says she is “99.9...

Show of hands: Who here still thinks Vice President Joseph R. Biden will be on the 2012 ticket? Really? All of you? So wrong. The Great One, Sir Barack Hussein Obama, will replace the bumbling, buffoonish Mr. Biden with Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, maybe at the Democratic convention, maybe just before, in a last-ditch effort to win re-election. The wild and crazy move is all the talk outside the Beltway. One state Democratic leader even tells me the bumper stickers are already printed, sitting in a warehouse in (where else?) Little Rock, Ark. Another party bigwig says she is “99.9...

Hillary Rodham Clinton has been on a bit of a roll lately. First, the secretary of state was the focus of a weeklong Internet rage, “Texts with Hillary,” that showed a stock photo of her exchanging spoof text messages with various people. Then, on Saturday night, she was seen dancing and drinking a beer with a group of bodyguards and aides at the Cafe Havana to toast the impending end of the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. Today, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed her for his program, “The Situation Room,” after he accompanied her and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), in no uncertain terms, shot down the possibility that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be on the 2012 Democratic presidential ticket alongside President Obama. Wasserman Schultz said "absolutely" that Obama would run with Vice President Biden in 2012. "I'm a hundred percent confident that Joe Biden and Barack Obama are gonna run together as a team," the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee said Tuesday on MSNBC. She said "no" directly in response to a straight question as to whether Clinton would be on the ticket instead of Biden. Clinton has repeatedly said she...

I just received a call, ("out of area" on caller ID) from the "Draft Hillary 2012" campaign. It started by saying the country would be better off with Hillary because the "robber barrons on Wall St. would be in jail and students would be able to afford tuition". Have any other FReepers received this call? My husband and I are both, unfortunately, union members. I wonder if this is why they called our residence.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is still alive and today it emerged from the shadows to remind supporters that she "made history" in the 2008 campaign and that mementos from that bid are now for sale. In an E-mail, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign revived speculation that she is still interested in the Oval Office despite new denials that President Obama is considering replacing Vice President Joe Biden with his secretary of state. [Read Veep Fights: Clinton Vs. Bachmann.] The E-mail comes as a new Washington Whispers poll finds that Clinton is the runaway favorite of those seeking a third...

At this point, President Obama has got to be sick of hearing about buyer's remorse from Democratic voters; and I'm sure Hillary Clinton is getting sick of hearing about why she should run against Obama in 2012, but the calls for Obama to step down and for Clinton to step up are only getting louder. Democratic pollsters Doug Schoen and Patrick Caddell have said Obama should step aside before, and they did it again over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of...

When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality—and he must reach the same conclusion. He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside...

With poll after poll showing President Obama’s prospects sinking along with the economy, wild scenarios suddenly pop up in conversations. Some Democratss, for example, believe there is a small but growing chance the president will pull a Lyndon Johnson and decide not to seek re-election. Then there’s the perennial Hillary guessing game. Actually, there are two Hillary guessing games. The first, and more likely, is that the secretary of state would switch jobs with Vice President Joe Biden and take his place on the ticket. The White House denied that idea when it initially emerged, saying Obama already told Biden...

This probably won’t go over too well down on Blue Heron Farm, but the Democrats’ best chance of keeping the White House next year may be to adopt Barack Obama’s old slogan, “change.” And by change, I mean dumping Obama. Presidents who preside over recessions usually don’t get re-elected. A president who has presided over the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression has even worse odds.

Otherwise sane people speculate that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will resign her post and challenge President Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012. But Hillary's futile challenge would have a far more damaging effect than that inflicted on Al Gore by persona non grata Ralph Nader in '00. After Dems get through blaming her for Obama's fall '12 defeat, neither Bill nor Hillary would be able to get a table at Fatburger. Here are the 10 reasons why she won't do it. 10. She's not a fool. If she ran, she'd lose. The Clintons couldn't defeat Obama when...

Hillary Clinton Told You So Button 2012 If Hillary Clinton's primary voters and President Obama had their relationship status listed on their Facebook pages, it would change from “Married” to “It's complicated.” To be fair, Hillary voters never fell in love with Obama, they just fell in line. Their relationship is less like a Julia Roberts chick flick and more like a Bengali arranged marriage. Because of their arrangement, Hillary-loving Obama voters are quick to jump ship whenever Mr. Hope-and-Change looks like he's getting played again by his political opponents, is in over his head or is dissing their...

We all know that Hillary Clinton came close to winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2008. She wasn't successful, but some people clearly haven't forgotten about what could have been. The Secretary of State joined New Zealand Prime Minister John Phillip Key and New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray Stuart McCully for remarks Thursday at Wellington's Parliament Theatrette, and the Prime Minister made a little slip up. "And we, in a purely bilateral basis, have concerns about the fact that Australia has an FTA," began Key. "They’re a very important part of our market in New...