Free Republic

Donald Trump is performing about as well with Hispanic voters as GOP nominee Mitt Romney did in 2012, according to opinion polls — something that unsettles Democrats and surprises even some Republicans. Skeptics had suggested that Trump would suffer a blowout among Hispanics, given that his rhetoric, on illegal immigration in particular, has been controversial. Trump’s promise to build a wall on the southern U.S. border and force Mexico to pay for it is perhaps the best known of his campaign pledges. And at his campaign launch in June 2015, he said people coming into the country illegally were “rapists.”...

To hear the big media tell it, the Republicans are angry, split and spoiling for a fight with each other. This is not altogether bad. Democrats and cats have fought for years and the result is more cats and more Democrats. Maybe it will work for Republicans. If Hillary Clinton, plagued by persistent health issues, decides that leaving the field is the better part of inevitability, if not valor, the Democrats will see how divided they are. Bernard Sanders and his millennials would no doubt consider Hillary’s unlikely withdrawal as heaven-sent (if they actually believed there was anybody in heaven)....

Full Title: Karl Rove: Clinton Needs Make Case To Voters That "In A Time When You Want Change, You Want Stability And Continuity" Former adviser to President George W. Bush Karl Rove explains what Trump and Clinton need to focus on ahead of their first debate. Trump needs to reassure voters that he represents change, Rove says. About Clinton, he says: "Her job is to persuade [voters that ]in a time when you want change, you want me, stability and continuity." (snip) ROVE: I’d say to Hillary Clinton, you've been emphasizing a vision for the future of the country, share...

Donald Trump will win the US presidency because the same groups of people who swung the Brexit referendum will turn out to vote for him, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has predicted. Mr Farron said that the fiery Republican candidate will be boosted, like the Leave cause was, by a high turnout from people who do not usually vote. "My gut tells me he won't win. Do people really want his hand on the button? But, logically, I assume he will," Mr Farron said to delegates at the party conference. Mr Farron was taking part in a jovial conversation with...

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is responding to poll numbers and other indications of declining support among younger voters by deploying its most prominent surrogates to college campuses. The moves come a day after two national surveys, one conducted by Quinnipiac University and the other by CBS News and the New York Times, found that more than a third of voters under the age of 30 plan to vote for third-party presidential candidates. Clinton is widely despised, especially by young people. According to the Quinnipiac University poll, Clinton has the support of just 31 percent of voters...

Hillary's pneumonia could end up sickening her entire presidential bid, politicos are warning. Clinton's forced disclosure of her diagnosis after a fainting episode on Sept. 11 not only reinforced fears of her campaign's secrecy and dishonesty, but it also came at the exact same time Donald Trump suddenly decided to run a more traditional campaign. And if voter attitudes continue to change as quickly as they already have, according to polls, the Clinton camp could be facing a negative prognosis. "There can be little doubt that the presidential race has not only tightened, but there are indications that Donald Trump...

"The pseudonymous Publius Decius Mus has angered and mystified his critics with his bracing assessment of our political moment in his essay, “The Flight 93 Election,” which—along with the follow-up essay—quickly went viral and generated commentary from left and right. With so many questions and so much controversy swirling around his ideas, American Greatness spoke with Decius this week about the pursuit of greater clarity in thinking through the politics of our time."

“You are the changemakers, the path breakers, and the ground shakers,” Clinton said at the Black Women’s Agenda. Hillary Clinton on Friday celebrated the achievements of African American women, telling an audience at the Black Women’s Agenda that they were proof that “black girl magic was real.” Black girl magic, which isn’t in the dictionary just yet, is a phrase used to celebrate the awesomeness of black women. The event was hosted by the Black Women’s Agenda Symposium Workshop, which is the organization dedicated to addressing disparities faced by black women. Clinton said that all women have to work harder...

If you are the status quo candidate in a change election in which the national mood is sour and two-thirds of the electorate think the country is on the wrong track, what do you do? Attack. Relentlessly. Paint your opponent as extremist, volatile, clueless, unfit, dangerous. Indeed, Hillary Clinton’s latest national ad, featuring major Republican politicians echoing that indictment of Donald Trump, ends thus: “Unfit. Dangerous. Even for Republicans.” That was the theme of Clinton’s famous “alt-right” speech and of much of her $100 million worth of ads. Problem is, it’s not working. Over the past month, Trump’s new team,...

Clinton wanted to make this election about Trump’s fitness to lead. Now thanks to Trump's silly TV stunt, all anyone can talk about is their physical health He doesn’t need much sleep, he hates vacations, he shrugs off stress, and “I don’t get much with the colds,” Donald Trump told Dr. Mehmet Oz on Thursday, as this beyond-strange election campaign turned on the question of who has the stamina to endure the White House. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Hillary Clinton wanted to make this election a referendum on Mr. Trump’s fitness to lead. She wanted voters to focus on his vows to aggressively...

Hillary Clinton returns to the campaign trail today with a speech in North Carolina, amid a real tightening in the polls that has raised questions about whether she has been damaged by her temporary disappearance from the national spotlight. And the Clinton campaign is now hinting that it may undertake a change in strategy as the race enters the final stretch. The Clinton campaign today made a key concession about its analysis of the fundamentals of the race. This concession was made almost in passing, as an afterthought, in a statement released late last night by Clinton communications director Jennifer...

Donald Trump makes a speech about the economy at The Economic Club of New York on Thursday. "Not one single idea she's got will create one net American job or create one new dollar of American wealth for our workers," Trump said of Hillary Clinton. "The only thing she can offer is a welfare check. That's about it. Our plan will produce paychecks and they're going to be great paychecks for millions of people now unemployed or underemployed."

If Democrats are starting to panic, they should. What else do they have to throw at him? If you aren’t seriously contemplating the biggest black swan event in American electoral history, you aren’t paying attention. Fifteen months ago, Donald Trump was a reality-TV star with a spotty business record and a weird penchant for proclaiming he was on the verge of running for president. Now, he’s perhaps a few big breaks and a couple of sterling debate performances away from being elected 45th president of the United States. Trump has no experience in elected office, and unlike past nonpoliticians elected...

“Non-college educated white males”, the voting block said to be “Donald Trump's Crucial Pillar of Support”, leads one to believe that The Donald’s appeal is limited to a lower class of Americans. “Non-college educated” seems to be synonymous with illiterate or ignorant. One could almost visualize a knuckle-dragging brute, wielding a club with which to kill his lunch or subdue a mate. This is yet another indication that the elites hold Trump supporters in contempt. Hillary Clinton went so far as to call Trump supporters irredeemable, un-American “deplorables”. The assumption appears to be that a person’s education ceases the instant...

The polls have moved markedly in Donald Trump's favor of the last month. And now everybody who doesn't want him to be president is trying to figure out why — and whether he's going to keep gaining. Obviously, it's been a rough few weeks for Hillary Clinton, and most of the poll analysis has focused on how she has hurt herself and what she can do to improve her position. But here's the thought that's making me nervous: What if the shift in the polls is more about Donald Trump campaigning better? Specifically, what if it's about the fact that...

As I suggested when I gave readers a rest from me five weeks ago, the Republican convention successfully celebrated the complete rejection of the Post-Reagan Republican party: The Bushes, Senator McCain, and Governor Romney weren’t present or mentioned, or much missed. Senator Cruz, as I wrote in my last piece here, and the otherwise amiable Governor Kasich made asses of themselves, and opinion has moved on. (It was not entirely sane for Mr. Kasich, who did not utter a negative word about any other Republican during the primaries, and on his one winning night advised his countrymen to “hug a...

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday the Federal Reserve is doing what President Barack Obama wants by keeping interest rates low. Fed Chair Janet Yellen and central bank policymakers are very political, and Yellen should be “ashamed” of what she’s doing to the country, Trump said, adding the Fed is not even close to being independent. By keeping interest rates low, the Fed has created a “false stock market,” Trump argued in a wide-ranging interview in which he also talked about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s health problems . Trump said rates are being kept lower to bolster...

New York Republicans and even some Democrats called Hillary Clinton’s characterization of Donald Trump’s backers as a bigoted “basket of deplorables” a major blunder that will badly damage her already-faltering campaign. “It’s Exhibit A of her political incompetence,” a prominent Democratic operative who strongly supports Clinton told The Post. “I think a lot of Democratic strategists are in a state of disbelief at how clunky Hillary’s campaign has been. “It’s been a year-and-a-half and she still can’t answer the goddamn email question, and despite outspending Trump by huge amounts, she’s losing ground to him every day and the race is...

During my writing this election, I’ve warned Democrats and voters afraid of Donald Trump that Bernie Sanders was the only way to defeat the GOP nominee. My advocacy for Bernie in over 200 articles in The Hill, Salon, and The Huffington Post was fueled in large part by my admiration for his honesty and message. As a result of being an inspiration to millions, polls showed Vermont’s Senator consistently beating Trump by over 10 points. In contrast, Hillary Clinton was only up by 2.7 points over Trump the other day. Furthermore, time is no longer on Clinton’s side. She’ll need...

Scheduled campaign stops may also be dropped by the presidential candidate as she modifies her scedule following doctor's orders. The 68-year-old was rushed out of a 9/11 commemoration service today suffering from a “medical episode”, according to a law enforcement witness. A video later emerged of the Democratic presidential nominee, showing the dramatic moment when her "knees buckled" and she nearly crumpled to the pavement while waiting for a car to collect her. Now sources have claimed Democratic Party insiders are rushing to consider a replacement candidate in light of Mrs Clinton's poor health. Emmy Award winning New York Journalist...