Free Republic

For a brief moment this week, the housing crisis took a back seat to another once hot-button economic issue: the financial health of Social Security. The Social Security trustees issued their annual report Tuesday, and it showed how soon the system will run into trouble. The problem is well-known: Funded by taxes on workers' wages, the Social Security system currently takes in more funds than it has promised to pay out to retirees. And the federal government has been borrowing those surplus funds over the years. But that surplus is shrinking, and eventually the system won't be able to pay...

When Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama met in California for the Jan. 31 debate, their back-and-forth resembled their many previous encounters, with the Democratic presidential hopefuls scrambling for the small policy yardage between them. And then Obama said something about the Iraq War that wasn't incremental at all. "I don't want to just end the war," he said, "but I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." Until this point in the primaries, Clinton and Obama had sounded very similar on this issue. Despite their differences in the past (Obama opposed...

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

Now that America has seen clips of Jeremiah Wright--Barack Obama's former pastor and longtime mentor--yelling "God damn America" and referring to the United States as the "U.S. of KKK A," there are obvious questions on everyone's mind. There is, for instance, the complicated biographical question of why Obama aligned himself with Wright in the first place. But there is also the more basic political question of why the presidential candidate didn't disown Wright sooner. After all, whatever personal affection Obama felt for the man who brought him into the Christian fold, he had to realize that Wright was a ticking...

On the presidential campaign trail, it’s almost as if the 1960s never happened.Barack Obama’s much-discussed speech in Philadelphia earlier this week was not only about race. It was also about economics and, specifically, about poverty. Measures of group wealth, or the lack of it, are often used to support claims that our society is racist. Obama’s speech revealed that though he may be, to many people, a refreshingly new kind of post-racial politician and a healer, when it comes to notions of poverty and economic advancement, his ideas are right out of the 1960s and 1970s. At one point in...

For a party whose presidential candidates pledge they'll remove U.S. troops from Iraq immediately upon taking office -- without regard to conditions on the ground or the consequences to America's security -- a late February Gallup Poll was bad news. The Obama/Clinton vow to pull out of Iraq immediately appears to be the position of less than one-fifth of the voters. Nearly two out of every three Americans surveyed (65%) believe "the United States has an obligation to establish a reasonable level of stability and security in Iraq before withdrawing all of its troops." The reason is self-interest. Almost the...

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2008 – In 2006, a Five for Fighting hit single asked fans what kind of world they wanted, and now they have a forum to answer the question and help five charities at the same time. “Whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com is a ‘You Tube’ for charity, where people can upload videos related to any subject they would like, and then pick a charity from the list I’ve selected,” said John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, who created the site about a year ago. The charities include Operation Homefront and Fisher House, which support the troops, as well as Augie’s...

I’ve been thinking about this for some time. I just did a bit of googeling but found no satisfactory answers, really none at all. Many jobs require background checks. Law Enforcement and military get even greater scrutiny, and as the job level and contact with sensitive data increases the level of scrutiny goes up. Do presidential candidates undergo Security background checks? If not, WHY NOT. Could Clinton or Obama pass a security background check for a high level job at say the FBI or CIA? If someone were to apply to those agencies and it was found out that their...

All political groups agree the US lags in providing affordable care and controlling costsBoston, MA - A recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harris Interactive, as part of their ongoing series, Debating Health: Election 2008, finds that Americans are generally split on the issue of whether the United States has the best health care system in the world (45% believe the U.S. has the best system; 39% believe other countries have better systems; 15% don’t know or refused to answer) and that there is a significant divide along party lines. Nearly seven-in-ten Republicans (68%) believe...

For months, Republican party officials have watched with increasing trepidation as Barack Obama has shattered fundraising records, packed arena after arena with shrieking fans and pulled in significant Republican and independent votes. Now, with the emergence of the notorious video showing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning the country, criticizing Israel, faulting U.S. policy for the Sept. 11 attacks and generally lashing out against white America, GOP strategists believe they’ve finally found an antidote to Obamamania. In their view, the inflammatory sermons by Obama’s pastor offer the party a pathway to victory if Obama emerges as the Democratic nominee. Not only...

Arizona Sen. John McCain has rejected Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta's invitation to come to the southern Luzerne County city and discuss illegal immigration. "Senator McCain truly appreciates your invitation and the valuable opportunity it represents," a scheduling official, Jo Black, in the presumptive Republican nominee's presidential campaign wrote in a letter. Barletta's congressional campaign released the letter today. "Unfortunately, I must pass along his regrets as I do not foresee an opportunity to add this event to the calendar." Black said McCain has "tremendous demands on his time" and because of "the large volume of similar requests, events such as...

"Intellectually and fundamentally dishonest."

The prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade may be only incentive powerful enough to turn a disillusioned conservative into a motivated McCain voter this November. After the betrayals of the Bush era, many on the Right still point to the ascendance of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and proclaim, “It was worth it.” Campaigning across the country, McCain promises conservative audiences, “We’re going to have justices like Roberts and Alito.” And Sen. John Cornyn told the New York Times that judges “are the one issue that cuts across all aspects of the Republican coalition,” saying that...

Barack Obama and his supporters are fond of citing his opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as an example of his superior judgment over his rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain. To me, it’s just the opposite, and illustrates how poorly Mr. Obama, as commander-in-chief, would handle national security matters. Saddam Hussein ignored 16 United Nations resolutions demanding U.N. inspectors’ unfettered access of his facilities to locate and dismantle weapons of mass destruction. After a protracted cat-and-mouse game, Saddam finally kicked inspectors out and thumbed his nose at the world. How many more resolutions would Mr. Obama like to...

By Michael Donnella I once again had hit a writers block with almost nothing to write about for the last couple of days. Lately I have heard a lot of my fellow Republicans saying how they will never ever ever vote for McCain because of the times he has backstabbed us. I understood why many of you are angry, and why many people feel that there is nothing that Mac can say or do to re-earn your trust. If Bush, my favorite President of all time, (yes even over Reagan) were running again, many of you I suspect would be saying...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made the case Monday that she is the only candidate who can be trusted to end the war in Iraq. Clinton is attempting to return the war issue to prominence in the campaign despite early questions about whether her vote to authorize it might cost her in a head-to-head contest with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who spoke out against the war before it started. Obama responded to her criticism by rehashing that vote. Delivering what was billed as a major speech at George Washington University, Clinton said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has the wrong plan...

It was the liberals who spearheaded the civil rights movement. It was the progressives who preached freedom and equality, who challenged tradition, who demanded change and fair treatment. They were the ones who changed the flawed way Americans used to believe. And thanks to them, and the little bit of good within every one of us, racism in the traditional sense – laws denying blacks equal rights as whites – is dead. And yet people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright Jr. (Barack Obama’s pastor) still seem to be thriving on their incessant and irresponsible patterns of screaming...

RUSH: I have to go back, folks, I cannot let this end with what we did yesterday, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the spiritual advisor to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. I have been paying attention to the news media, the Drive-Bys, the mainstream media. These people are so in the tank they ought to be embarrassed. Their job is to ferret out stuff like this and hold the candidates, whoever they are, accountable. He's getting, Obama is, a total pass. In fact, the Drive-By Media mantra on Obama's pastor now seems to be, this is guilt by association. Obama didn't...

Three-quarters of Americans think the federal government is secretive. And nine out of 10 people want to know if political candidates are committed to open government before voting. Those numbers are huge and have increased in recent years, according to a scientific survey of more than 1,000 adults commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and conducted at Ohio University last month. The survey results are being released for Sunshine Week, which starts today. The special week highlights the need for transparency at all levels of government -- not just for news reporters, but for ordinary people from all...

Hillary's big weapon, hubby Bill, is turning out to be a political dud.....negative ratings of those who have a poor view of him - have been shooting up as he serves as his wife's political hatchet man. For the first time in six years, by 45-42%, more people view the ex-president negatively than positively (Wall Street Journal/NBC poll).....Forty-four percent of registered voters say the Hill-Bill union makes them "very uncomfortable." Just a year ago, only 28% had worries about the former president....Bill has since toned down his hot rhetoric, and he frequently stands in for his wife, freeing her up...