Free Republic

Campaigning at town halls across America, I am often asked about my plans to reform our public schools. And the answer begins with two points on which most everyone agrees: Every public school child deserves a first-rate education. And too many of our schools are producing second-rate results. Beyond that, the education debate divides quickly into two camps. Some say all that's needed is more taxpayer money, along with more prekindergarten and after-school programs. Others believe that the basic structure of the education system is flawed, and that fundamental reform is needed. You can put me squarely on the side...

In January 2007, with Iraq in flames and Democrats set to take over Congress, President Bush had two options. He could side with Senator Barack Obama and begin a gradual drawdown of American troops in Iraq, leaving the Iraqis to a grim fate and dealing a serious and consequential blow to American interests in the Middle East and beyond. Or he could side with Senator John McCain and change strategies, sending additional troops to Iraq in an effort to secure the population and assist the Iraqis in their fight against al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias--the so-called "surge" policy....

From the outset of his burst upon the national scene (is it not strange that such an apparent super star could have been so anonymous in the Illinois State Senate, a body wherein it takes so very little to stand out? But I digress), I have always felt that Barack Hussein Obama bore a striking resemblance to Will Smith. As the campaign unfolds, and we learn more and more about our junior senator, perhaps it is fitting to pirate a proper nick name, "The Fresh Prince of Hot Air," a slight variation of the early success of his look alike....

Foreword by TexasDarlin: Techdude’s latest report, written exclusively for the TexasDarlin blog, is mind-blowing. This report responds to critics; solves the “security border” mystery; AND exposes THE SMOKING GUN that will be conclusive in proving that the Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) proffered by Barack Obama on his official campaign website IS FAKE. I am grateful to Techdude for his dedication to the truth, as I am to Polarik, Michele (who donated her COLB), Judah Benjamin, JimJ, the No Quarter team, and everyone who supports our efforts. The only edit I’ve made to this report is to provide bolded headings...

In December 1966, when John McCain requested his first combat assignment in Vietnam, Barack Obama turned 5 years old and was enjoying the freedoms a child should enjoy. As Obama turned 7, McCain had survived a burning jet fire on the USS Forrestal and had just flown his 23rd bombing mission over communist North Vietnam. In 1973, as Obama reached age 12, McCain was finally released from a prisoner-of-war camp in the Hanoi Hilton. At age 15, when Obama was still in high school, McCain became the commanding officer of a Naval Training Squadron in Florida. He turned a poorly...

Here is video of Democratic operative Donna Brazile, on This Week today, admitting what everyone already knows -- that Barack Obama has injected race into this campaign repeatedly. His campaign has denied that is the case, but even Democratic leaders like Brazile know it is impossible to deny. . . (see video)

If Barack Obama is elected president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will support him in fulfilling his vow to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which currently protects states from having to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states as they ordinarily would be required to do by the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution. "Yes," Pelosi said Thursday at a press conference, when CNSNews.com asked if she would support Obama's policy.

The battle for the Senate has been overshadowed by the presidential race, but just as important as who will reside in the White House is whether Democrats can get 60 seats in the Senate. The "Magic 60" would give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, and the keys to true power in the Senate. Assuming that their party leaders could keep Democratic senators in line, 60 votes would mean a fast track for their agenda, prevent Republicans from blocking it and a clear path for their nominations for the federal bench.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed that energy and the gasoline crisis have "emerged as the dominant economic issue," said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's Polling Institute. Mr. Richards spoke at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Thursday morning. Voters say they are more concerned about energy than the war in Iraq, according to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, who also spoke at the Monitor breakfast. The new poll found that while Senator Obama leads Senator McCain in all three states, Obama's lead has narrowed in the past month. Florida and Ohio are now too...

When is the McCain campaign going to get serious? It seems to be marking time with softball ads, more appropriate to the soundbites campaign media spokespeople exchange with one another than to strategic paid media hits. One ad talks about how the media loves Obama. Another mocks him as a celebrity. Each throws pitty-pat punches, far short of the kind of knockout blows one would expect from a presidential campaign. Were I a donor to McCain's campaign, paying for these pathetic spots, I would demand a refund. Or sue for malpractice. Yet despite this softball nonsense, Obama remains vulnerable, no...

There are four justices over seventy years of age: Stevens 88, Ginsberg 75, Scalia 72, and Kennedy 71. Of these, only Scalia is conservative. With McCain, the GOP can own the Court for decades with conservative replacements. But will he campaign on this issue?

Sen. John McCain continues to slam rival Barack Obama for wanting to raise taxes on Social Security, even as he periodically explains that he might be willing to do the same. At times the Republican presidential candidate leaves audiences thinking he won't raise taxes no matter what. At other times, he says all options are on the table and parties will have to work together to find a solution. "I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it," Sen. McCain said Wednesday at a town hall meeting outside of Denver. He said Sen....

WASHINGTON -- As the presidential candidates enter the three-month sprint to November, Barack Obama must be wondering: If that did not do it, what will? The antecedent of the pronoun "that" is his Berlin speech. The antecedent of the pronoun "it" is assuage anxieties about his understanding of the need to supplement soft power (diplomacy) with hard power (military force). He spoke in Berlin at the bullet-scarred base -- it was in the crossfire 63 years ago as Russian troops neared Hitler's bunker about a mile away -- of an 1873 monument to German militarism. To be precise, the monument...

Is it just me or have the political parties switched roles this election? The normally hapless Democrats have become an imperious, on-message political machine. The habitually martial GOP, which stays on message like drill sergeants stay on G.I.'s, lacks an overarching message this year, to the point where its conservative base is as energized as a turtle. Ever since the formative Reagan era, in which the GOP emerged from its post-Watergate swamp of embarrassment and strategist Lee Atwater propagated the Big Tent myth, Republicans have run aggressive, targeted, laser-like message machine presidential campaigns. What else could have transformed an inarticulate...

Election '08: Barack Obama the lawyer-organizer could use a crash course in economics. His economic plan's assumptions, based on long-discredited Marxist theories, are wildly wrongheaded.In arguing for a heavier mix of government, he assumes that capitalism unfairly favors the rich, almost exclusively so, and fails to spread prosperity. "The rich in America have little to complain about," he carps. "The distribution of wealth is skewed, and levels of inequality are now higher than at any time since the Gilded Age." Obama cites data showing a yawning gap between the income of the average worker and the wealthiest 1%. He thinks...

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.” Details are in this six-page policy paper. The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall. “This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold...

ST. PETERSBURG — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said today he would be willing to open Florida's coast for more oil drilling if it meant winning approval for broad energy changes. "My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. "If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't...

July 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the California Marriage Amendment debate heats up Barack Obama and John McCain have made clear their respective positions on the issue. Two weeks after the California Supreme Court announced its decision to allow same-sex couples to "marry", opponents of same-sex marriage succeeded in placing on the November ballot a proposed constitutional amendment which states: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." If passed, the measure would reverse the recent court decision. Mr. Obama recently made his position public in a letter sent to a San Francisco homosexual...

(Last part of a three-part series) Here is the final installment of the reasons to vote against Barack Obama: * Mr. Obama's irrationality pervades his approach to most issues. It is not just his idea of raising taxes even knowing it will cut government revenue, job growth, and economic vitality. It is not just announcing his Iraq/Afghanistan plans first, and fact-finding and going there second. Consider some of his other proposals. Let's start with his proposals for socialized medicine, and giving everyone the same coverage that members of Congress now get. His plan would include coverage for 10 million illegal...

Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has done something that few Republicans thought possible just a few months ago: given them hope. United behind a renewed push for offshore oil drilling, Republican members of Congress and the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, think they have found their best political issue of the 2008 campaign. McCain strategists and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill say the issue, which polls suggest Americans favor by healthy margins, lets Republicans demonstrate their plans to address the anger over high gas prices as well as the broader economic distress that many voters feel. Because most Democrats, including Sen....