Free Republic

With a varied cast of characters pursuing each party’s nomination for president, the subject of electability — the idea that some candidates are inherently better or worse general election candidates than others — keeps coming up. It’s come up in reference to Bernie Sanders, a Vermont socialist in a party that has seen multiple northern liberals lose the presidency. It’s come up in reference to Hillary Clinton, who would be the first woman to top a major party ticket and whose political career has been dogged by scandals. And electability questions have been raised perhaps most often on the Republican...

In his final swing through Wisconsin before the state's Tuesday presidential primary, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said states should be allowed to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Cruz took questions from Fox News host Megyn Kelly and audience members at a town hall event Monday at the Madison Masonic Center. Early in the event, a woman who described herself as a moderate, pro-choice Republican told Cruz she's afraid if he becomes president he will outlaw abortion entirely. Cruz said he wants to see people's hearts and minds changed on the issue. He argued laws should be...

In this crazy GOP primary season, I have come out frequently for John Kasich although I could have lived with Marco Rubio as well. Given the available choices, a Kasich/Rubio ticket would be a pretty formidable duo to face either Clinton or Sanders in November. For me, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are non-starters. In this post, I want to outline why I can’t vote for Ted Cruz. Cruz promises to deport 12 million illegal immigrants Not only does Cruz hold a morally reprehensible policy, in my view, but he toughened his position to pander to the pro-Trump crowd. In...

The Vermont senator fielded questions on social justice from members of the the African-American and Muslim communities at a Town Hall in Milwaukee. Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders held a Town Hall meeting tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The senator from Vermont was introduced by African-American Reverend Marcus Hart, and fielded questions from a diverse panel of members from representatives of local minority groups, including a Muslim-Americans. Sanders said he wasn't going to allow people to keep summoning "racial hatred," after he was asked a question from a Muslim-American woman, concerning what he would do to combat incitement from his Republican counterparts....

Two groups of California voters — women and Latinos — have powered the Democratic Party’s ascent here and delivered a near-death knell to the state’s Republican Party. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released last week showed that the prominence of those groups also explains why the two hottest candidates this year aren’t running away with the state. Across the country, in the states contested so far, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have forwarded a similar message on the topic of the economy: that trade deals have decimated jobs in this country and that those making less money have been...

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., recently said Congress should “look at moving forward” on legislation to consider reparations for slavery. Though hardly a firm commitment to compensatory payments for African-Americans, the remark was nonetheless a striking election-year pronouncement from the U.S. Senate candidate and top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Van Hollen made the little-noted comment Jan. 27 on WHUT-TV, the public television station at historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C. His remarks came as a response to host Rock Newman, who lamented federal lawmakers’ refusal to vote on a longstanding bill from Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, establishing...

"I want to offer myself up as a new vessel" John Kasich appealed directly to Donald Trump supporters Thursday, trying to convince them that he could better channel their anger than the bombastic front-runner. Speaking in New York City, Kasich criticized Trump for such positions as banning Muslims from entering the country and building a wall along the border with Mexico, calling them “wild-eyed suggestions” and saying that Trump is “really not prepared to be President of the United States.” But then the Ohio Governor pivoted to Trump’s voters, saying he empathizes with the rage he believes is animating their...

Ted Cruz made women the focus of his campaigning in Wisconsin, unveiling a Women for Cruz coalition on a day in which his main rival in the GOP presidential race struggled to communicate clearly his position on whether women should be punished for obtaining an abortion should the procedure become outlawed. "Trump hardly came up at the (Cruz) event, but the subtext was clear," wrote the Tribune's Patrick Svitek. "The billionaire's attacks on Heidi Cruz, which began last week in response to ad from an anti-Trump group that featured the billionaire's wife, have drawn attention to his history of sexist...

Does Senator Ted Cruz have a shot at replacing Barack Obama as leader of the free world in January 2017? I think so. All candidates love to create the impression that they will win. At a private dinner in Los Angeles Wednesday night, Cruz was no different. He knew just what to say to make the case that he’s on a winning track. The evening’s ground rules prevent me from sharing specific names and quotes. But I can write about my general impressions and observations after seeing Cruz interact with about 20 Republican players and donors, some of whom had...

It was conceivable to see a realistic path for Trump not just to the Republican nomination but to the White House, but that situation is no longer operative. Donald Trump has not had two weeks this bad since he got into the presidential stakes. His general election polling numbers tell the story: on January 31st, just two months ago, his RealClearPolitics polling average put Trump in a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton, trailing her 44-41 percent. It was conceivable at that moment to see a realistic path for Trump not just to the Republican nomination but to the White...

Breathe easy, America. Before you judge Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban too harshly, consider this: It will not apply to Muslims who are, A. Donald Trump's friends, and B. rich. Feel better? The Republican presidential candidate, with a totally straight face, told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday that he has "a lot of friends that are Muslim," many of whom are "rich" and would get special treatment to let them in the country....

MADISON, Wis. — To hell with California. The Bernie Brigade apparently wants $15-an-hour minimum wage right now, and they’re willing to pay. A Craigslist ad apparently posted Monday by Bernie Sanders backers offered “Temporary Paid Positions to Protest” the Donald Trump Rally scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday in Janesville, about 45 miles southeast of Madison. “We are seeking people to protest the Donald Trump rally in Janesville, WI. We are willing to pay $15 an hour for a maximum amount of four hours for this service,” the ad, since taken down, requested. California Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers reached...

Donald Trump likes to say he's running a campaign unlike any other. He's willing to do the things other candidates won't. Sometimes there's a reason nobody's touching the hot stove. Today, the GOP front-runner learned what happens when a candidate goes off-script on abortion. The remarks came while Trump was being asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during a pre-taped town hall about the practical implications of banning abortion nationwide. Matthews specifically pressed Trump on the criminal consequences women would face for seeking abortions if Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, were overturned. “This is not...

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election contest in Wisconsin, the state pro-life group Wisconsin Right to Life issued an endorsement for pro-life Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz over GOP rival Donald Trump. In a statement to LifeNews.com the organization said Cruz is the only candidate int he race who has always been pro-life and has the ability to defeat pro-abortion Hillary Clinton in November. “Wisconsin Right to Life’s Political Action Committee supports Ted Cruz as the only presidential candidate with a proven record on life who can win,” the group said. “There has never been an election more important than this...

Plenty of buzz about this last night, especially among anti-Trumpers struck by the coincidence of Trump superfan Newt criticizing him publicly on the same day that an even bigger superfan, Ann Coulter, called Trump “mental” in an interview. (Matt Drudge, yet another superfan, is leading as I write this with the news of Trump’s campaign manager being arrested for battery.) Are Trump’s cheerleaders heading for the lifeboats because they know something we don’t? Nah. They’re still onboard, they’re just alarmed that the captain won’t steer away from that iceberg that keeps getting closer. Trump’s fans within the commentariat have, I...

As he inches toward the GOP nomination, Donald Trump is becoming more and more disliked among American voters. Donald Trump wasn't wildly popular to begin with. And now he's becoming even more disliked among American voters, creating a significant threat to his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is, by far, the GOP delegate leader — and the only candidate with a realistic shot at winning a majority of delegates before the July convention. But at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans view Trump unfavorably — and his image rating has declined since Republican voting began in...

Unless, of course, there is some kind of separate system of justice for the powerfulÂ… The 2016 election has many bizarre aspects, but surely one of the most bizarre is the fact that one of the main presidential candidates is under active investigation by the FBI, and that this is somehow being treated as unimportant or inconsequential. Of course, everyone knows that Hillary Clinton has a pending FBI investigation, and everyone has a vague sense that it is continuing to grow rather than disappear, and that theoretically the possible consequences include indictment and prosecution. But for some reason a major...

I believe that there are a lot of things we do in life not because they will be fun, but just because we want to say we did them. For me, one of those things ended up being attending a local Ted Cruz rally last week (March 14, 2016) with a few of my friends. Before this, my friends and I had never been to any sort of political rally. This was certainly an interesting choice to be our first. Supporters in the crowd wore election-themed shirts and fervently waved posters in the air. Among the messages portrayed through this...

What’s it like to have a friend run for president? In the new issue of National Review, I have a piece about Ted Cruz. I’d like to expand on it here in Impromptus. I think that both pro-Cruz people and anti-Cruz people will find certain things of interest. Same with people in between. Okay, here we go … It’s really strange to have a friend running for president. It’s strange enough to have a friend in the U.S. Senate. There are only a hundred of them, you know. It’s the house of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Robert Taft … When...

Via RCP. My headline’s misleading, as I’ll explain in a sec, but it does capture the newsiest soundbite from this clip. Standard operating procedure when a politician’s caught in a sex scandal is for his close allies to rally around him. It was a regrettable lapse, he has much to atone for, but we all make mistakes and in the end it’s a private matter — you know how the script goes. Beck’s having none of that. If Cruz is guilty of what the National Enquirer’s accused him of, he says, I’m done. I heard that sentiment repeatedly from Cruz...