Free Republic

Are the Republicans politically suicidal? I don't think so. The public can oppose you on a specific policy question but still favor you on the issue in general. Richard Nixon was fighting an unpopular war in 1972, but he still crushed George McGovern on foreign policy. Likewise, despite the unpopularity of the Iraq war, John McCain's general hawkishness might still be an asset for him. A Democracy Corps poll, highlighted by Ed Kilgore, suggests exactly that. When presented with the choice of a generic Democrat or Republican, voters strongly prefer a Democrat. But when asked to choose between John McCain...

Armed With Self Described Qualifications As College Trip To Pakistan And Childhood Of Living Overseas, Obama Declares Himself Foreign Policy Leader This Week, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) Claimed Foreign Policy Is The Area He Is "Most Confident" That He Knows More And Understands The World Better Than Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): Obama: "[F]oreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain." (Mayhill Fowler, "Obama: No Need For Foreign Policy Help From V.P.," The Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.com, 4/7/08) http://www.gop.com/news/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=ba2b4949-3750-4494-b3b3-8c4e2cd90f62

The gay magazine “The Advocate” sat down with Barack Obama to explore his views on a number of issues. Read the interview here. Below is an interesting segment where he talks about what he’ll try to get done as President: Question: If you were elected, what do you plan to do for the LGBT community -- what can you reasonably get done? Obama: I reasonably can see “don’t ask, don’t tell” eliminated. I think that I can help usher through an Employment Non-Discrimination Act and sign it into law. Question: You think it’s transgender-inclusive? Obama: I think that’s going to...

Video clip of John Bolton on Fox News discussing Iran's nuclear activities and Barack Obama's naivete to think he can "talk" them out of it.

See No Evil: Obama’s Foreign Policy by Ben Shapiro On Tuesday morning, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran was busily installing 6,000 new centrifuges for development of nuclear material. Further, Ahmadinejad stated, Iran would begin testing a new type of centrifuge that works five times faster than ordinary centrifuges. On Tuesday afternoon, Democrat presidential front-runner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., declared that the U.S. should engage in a "diplomatic surge" in Iraq. In particular, he said, America should embrace talks with Iran. "I do not believe we are going to be able to stabilize the situation without that," Obama told...

If Sen. John McCain expects the support of gun owners in this year’s presidential race, the Arizona Republican must make an effort to overcome some decisions the National Rifle Association (NRA) has found troubling. “John McCain still has some work to do to give them a comfort level,” Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA, said during an interview with The Hill. “Truth be told, he’s not there yet.” Cox said McCain and the anti-gun control group have endured some “high-profile disagreements” in the last several years that have left many gun owners concerned about his candidacy. Specifically, McCain played...

Senate Republicans began an unusual closed-door debate on climate change Wednesday that may portend a shift toward the position of the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). The meeting of the conference launched GOP efforts to find a common position on global warming, an issue on which Republicans have been sharply divided. The issue has taken on a greater urgency within Republican circles now that all the major presidential candidates, including McCain, support mandatory controls of greenhouse gases. This represents a sharp break with the Bush administration, which has fought such proposals vigorously. Wednesday’s meeting did not produce...

Obama had told supporters at a fundraiser in San Francisco over the weekend, when asked about his ruminations over a potential running mate: "I would like somebody who knows about a bunch of stuff that I'm not as expert on. I think a lot of people assume that might be some kind of military thing to make me look more commander-in-chief-like. Ironically, this is an area -- foreign policy -- is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Sen. Clinton or Senator McCain." The account of the closed-door fundraising...

Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) -- Comments pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made over the weekend have drawn significant attention from those opposed to euthanasia. Clinton gave a convoluted answer to a local Oregon newspaper's question on assisted suicide but appeared to support the grisly practice.The Eugene Register Guard newspaper asked Clinton about her "attitude" towards the law."I believe it's within the province of the states to make that decision," Clinton said.She said she didn't know if she would have voted for the law when Oregon voters twice voted to make the state the first to legalize assisted suicide."I don't know...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton appeared on Ellen Degeneres' television talk show on April 7 to pledge support for the homosexual community if she is elected.Degeneres, who is openly homosexual, made Clinton's support of homosexuality a prominent feature of the show. Clinton, who spoke about homosexual friends and neighbors she has had in the past, vowed to procure legal recognition for same-sex couples like Degeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi."I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that people like you and Portia and others have a chance to have,...

The Baghdadis caught between these extremes know that the only thing standing in the way of another sectarian conflagration is the U.S. military. This may explain why every Iraqi who offers me a view on American politics seems to be praying for a McCain victory.

MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased? BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told Ellen DeGeneres that she will work to ensure that same-sex couples such as the talk show host and her partner Portia de Rossi are treated fairly. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that people like you and Portia and others have a chance to have, you know, rights to be able to go to the hospital, to inherit property, to make sure that you can list somebody as a beneficiary on an insurance policy," Clinton said in an interview to air Monday on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "That's...

Gun Control: Barack Obama says he won't take folks' guns away as long as they're hunters. But when the hunted are his constituents, well, that's different: He opposes concealed carry and the right to self-defense.There's something about an election that brings out the sportsman in a Democratic presidential candidate. Recall John Kerry's sudden fondness for hunting four years ago. And speaking in Idaho earlier this year, Barack Obama told the crowd, "We got a lot of hunters in the state of Illinois, and I have no intention of taking away folks' guns." Except he does. In a 1996 questionnaire, Obama...

McCain's health proposal aims to tackle costs MarketWatch News Clipping By: Kristen Gerencher 4.3.2008 MarketWatch, April 3, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Given the amount of attention focused on the differences between the Democratic presidential candidates' health-care proposals, you might think presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain didn't have one of his own. But he does. As Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spar over whose proposal would cover more people, McCain has taken a different tack that's in line with a traditional Republican approach, experts say. He doesn't talk much about universal coverage. Instead, he's said he wants...

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy. Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples "and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board. I will very much work to achieve that." Clinton's comments came in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News that was posted on its Web site Thursday. Clinton said she and her husband have many gay friends that they...

53 minutes ago (at time of posting this thread) WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican John McCain Thursday portrayed his possible Democratic presidential election rival Barack Obama as a national security neophyte who was dishonestly misrepresenting him on Iraq. Intensifying his assault, McCain questioned Obama's plan to leave a "strike force" of US troops in the Middle East after an eventual withdrawal from Iraq, and accused him of being "disingenuous" about his own Iraq stance. [SNIP] "I think somebody ought to ask what in the world he's talking about, especially since he has no experience or background at all in national security...

MANHEIM, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama took aim on Monday at potential White House opponent John McCain on Iraq, saying the Republican senator could not offer a clear definition of success in the conflict and might leave ,U.S. combat troops there for decades. Obama looked past Democratic rival Hillary Clinton before their showdown in Pennsylvania on April 22 and trained his fire on McCain, who has clinched the Republican nomination and will face the Democratic winner in November's election. Obama accused McCain of "clinging to the policies of the past." He said the Arizona senator shared a vision of...

In his March 26 speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, McCain never mentioned the need to preserve American sovereignty. He could have reassured conservatives by stating his forthright opposition to Senate ratification of the U.N.’s Law of the Sea Treaty, which provides for international control over billions of dollars worth of oil, gas and minerals and undermines American claims to North Pole riches. But he chose not to. Instead, as the Washington Post put it, McCain promised “a collaborative foreign policy,” conducted in coordination with other nations. The New York Times said he distanced himself from “unilateralism” in...

After listening to these autobiographical excerpts from Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, read out loud by Obama himself, I’m left with the conviction that, in the 2008 election we are facing the mother of all cultural battles.... But it’s now evident that even a Hillary campaign would be tame by comparison to the cultural confrontation flowing from an Obama nomination. The transformation of the 2008 campaign into a full-fledged cultural battle is what is really emerging from the Jeremiah Wright flap. A president who identifies with Malcolm X? A man who grew up alienated from ordinary American life and...