Free Republic

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump continues to maintain his domineering lead in the 2016 race for the GOP nomination. With now less than 60 days to the Florida primary, Trump is leading by 32 points in the state. In a new FAU/BEPI poll released today, the billionaire real estate mogul and part-time Palm Beacher pulls a whopping 48 percent among likely Republican primary voters in Florida. Trump’s next-nearest competitor among the Republican candidates, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, takes 16 percent while the junior senator from the state, Marco Rubio, received 11 percent and the former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush carries...

The Democratic candidate is putting together a team to prepare him for taking office in January should he win the Nov 4 election. It is headed by John Podesta, Bill Clinton's chief-of-staff when he was in the White House. A senior adviser travelling with Mr Obama on his global tour told Atlantic.com: "Barack is well aware of the complexity and the organisational challenge involved in the transition process and he has tasked a small group to begin thinking through the process. "Barack has made his expectations clear about what he wants from such a process, and the establishment and execution...

This was never supposed to happen. The winner of the biggest states, the battleground states, the most electorally rich states, the more representative primaries (rather than exclusive caucuses), the contests of Democratic voters only, and likely the popular vote as well is probably headed for the history books instead of the nomination. Hillary Clinton’s end in the 2008 race, as with so many events in her life, is painful and poignant and drenched in drama. The math is unfair, and Hillary has finally found her best, winning self. But the Clintons are hearing a deafening silence from a party they...

All in all, it was a rather ignominious, belittling way to almost certainly close out the Clinton Era. Hillary would have done much better to spend the 90 minutes of Tuesday night's Ohio debate by repeatedly reading and re-reading her valedictory, closing remarks from last week's Texas match-up during which -- for a few shining moments -- a Good Hillary seemed to radiate with the grandeur of an honored First Lady and potential president of the United States. But with her national poll numbers now slipping into a double digit lag behind Obama, with her last-ditch firewalls in Ohio and...

Racked by gross mismanagement, arrogance and an inability to adapt a compelling message, Hillay's campaign has squandered her status as frontrunner and shattered the myth of her inevitability. How did a shoo-in become a has-been?

I'd be happy to be wrong. For a variety of reasons, I'd prefer Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee. But it's not going to happen. She'll be clobbered in Wisconsin tomorrow. She might run ahead, even win, the popular vote in Texas, but the delegate count will be close, probably pro-Obama. The media talk, the popular mood, the times -- they all work for Obama. Finally, there's been the Clinton campaign. Fighting, seriously, today about Obama's borrowing of rhetoric from a friend is a sign of desperation. Obama is derivative. So is everyone. And Bill Clinton --...

Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions. The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House. Mr Obama has begun calling those "super delegates" - 795 congressmen and senior party officials who could break a dead heat - who are committed to Mrs Clinton, asking them to change...

Lead in doubt, Clinton knocks on N.Hampshire doors Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:15pm EST Obama edges ahead of By Scott Malone MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton went door-to-door in freezing New Hampshire on Saturday, asking for support in the early voting state where her once-huge lead in the Democratic presidential primary race has melted away. The New York senator knocked on doors along a snow-covered block of Manchester, less than a month before the crucial January 8 New Hampshire primary, the second binding contest of the 2008 presidential campaign. "I'd be honored to have your support," Clinton said...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday. Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed. Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five...

Marital sex single greatest HIV risk for women around the world. For a growing number of women in rural Mexico – and around the world – marital sex represents their single greatest risk for HIV infection. According to a new Mailman School of Public Health Study, because marital infidelity by men is so deeply ingrained across many cultures, existing HIV prevention programs are putting a growing number of women at risk of developing the HIV virus. The findings, indicating that globally, prevention programs that take a "just say no” approach and encourage men to be monogamous are unlikely to be...

My marriage of 50 years appears to be ending, as I lose my wife to an insidious "rival". Pray for us if you're so inclined.

By Playing at 'Rage,' China Dramatizes Its Rise By HOWARD W. FRENCH Published: April 21, 2005HANGHAI, April 19 - The banners had been carefully printed, the slogans memorized, and the students and young unleashed onto the streets of China's largest, most sophisticated city, where they were to speak sacred truths and make the enemies of the people tremble. Liu Jin/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesOn Saturday, Shanghai held a clearly stage-managed rally against Japan. To some, it recalled the Cultural Revolution. Chinese today have little experience of mass organized protests, so when the Government tolerated - some would say encouraged -...

The mother of one of my wife’s co-workers has died after a brief illness.Her name was Julia.She was a warm and wonderful woman who always tried to make you feel at home, and was a wonderful cook.She was always “working the beads” (Rosary) for anyone undergoing tribulation, even when minor.I know her family would be very grateful to know that even unknown others were praying for her, as we’re all children of God.Her grandson is currently undergoing indoctrination at college, and so might gain some insight as to how humbly conservatives actually walk in the presence of God and through...