Free Republic

John McCain is great in town hall meetings. He is not so good at giving major speeches. As I like to say, he can hit a curveball, but he can’t hit one off the tee. Barack Obama, on the other hand, hits a 350-yard drive every time he steps to the microphone, but has shown some vulnerability in debates. It follows, then, that if McCain is to be successful this fall against Obama, he must play baseball and not golf. McCain's latest proposal, challenging Obama to a series of town hall forums, is smart strategy. That Obama didn’t immediately agree...

It has been a refrain during the exhausting battle for the Democratic presidential nomination that once Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama emerged as the party's choice, we could finally dispense with the personality battles and get down to nitty-gritty policy differences. Indeed, now that Obama seems to have the position locked up, he and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain will have plenty to argue about. But some might be surprised at the breadth of issues on which they largely agree. On McCain's side, this is understandable. With a Republican president experiencing some of the worst approval ratings ever, it's...

Sacha Millstone is nobody's sweetie. The Democratic insider will stand up at August's national convention and cast her vote for the candidate who suspended her bid on Saturday. And then Millstone will quit the party with which she is falling bitterly out of line. "This isn't sour grapes. This is about the best candidate losing the nomination because she's a woman. It's the most blatant example of sexism in our society. This is about the party breaking my trust, women's trust. And that can't be fixed," she says. Millstone hails the day in 2007 when Hillary Clinton announced she was...

Why McCain Would Make a Better President by Aaron Goldstein McCain knows what government can and cannot do. More importantly, he knows what government should and should not do. Should Barack Obama be elected President of the United States this November his chances for a successful term in office are slim to none. As the candidate who extols the virtue of hope and change and whose audience chants in unison, "Yes we can!," Obama has set expectations so high that he is bound to fall short of lofty expectations. After all, Obama has said this election is not so much...

Even some of Sen. Hillary Clinton's most devoted supporters now privately concede the inevitability of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's winning the Democratic presidential nomination. One hint to understanding the mind-set of candidate Clinton and her devoted loyalists (the ones who refuse to acknowledge the nonexistence of any semi-plausible path to the nomination) may be found in a story popular in Spain as that country's then-aging dictator lingered in critical condition. The year was 1975, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the ruthless strongman who with an iron hand had ruled Spain for four decades, lay on his deathbed. The joke then popular...

First, my friends, a reminder of what was printed right here on January 23, 2008: After spearheading a disastrous, security-undermining illegal alien amnesty bill last year with Teddy Kennedy, “straight-talking” GOP Sen. John McCain claims he has seen the light. In TV appearances, he vows to put immigration enforcement first. On the campaign trail, he offers a perfunctory promise to strengthen border security and emphasizes the need to restore Americans’ trust in their government’s ability to defend the homeland. “I got the message,” he told voters in South Carolina. “We will secure the borders first.” But how can McCain cure...

John McCain just repudiated the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, after reports of more controversial remarks.. The Huffington Post and others are reporting that during a late 1990s sermon, Hagee said that “the Nazis had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine.” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, distanced himself from Hagee over anti-Catholic remarks that Hagee apologized for earlier this month.

I must admit that I had just about given up on the notion that a Republican could win the White House this year. With an unpopular war in its sixth year and an economy heading into a recession, the political landscape had all the earmarks (excuse the expression) of a country that was ready to put another party in power. Additionally, with the history-making candidacies of the first woman and the first African-American with a serious chance to become the nation’s Chief Executive, it looked like curtains for the GOP. Add to that scenario the fact that conservative groups were...

Recently on a talk radio show, the guest, a Democrat, said there was little difference in policy between John McCain and the two Democrats running for President. Many of those calling in agreed. Considering McCain’s recent comments on global climate change and his position on some other issues I can understand why some might have that impression. If voters are convinced there would not be much difference in policy between a McCain and an Obama presidency, it is likely the majority will go for the young, charismatic candidate who would make history as the first black President. If they vote...

“I am a part of all that I have met.” Ulysses by Tennyson The Obama-lovin’ media wants you to believe that the Reverend Wright earthquake has passed. Some would have you believe that Obama turned a negative into a positive with his embarrassing public contortionism defending Wright and giving us a history lesson on American racism from Plymouth Rock to the Freedom Riders, as if Reverend Wright’s inexcusable hate needs a context. Nothing is further from the truth. There is much to be told about Reverend Wright, Obama’s mentorship with this hate-monger, and the larger implication this relationship has for...

NORTH BEND, Wash. - John McCain on Tuesday cast Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton as latecomers to the environmental battle, saying he would be willing to debate the issue with either of them in the general election to underscore his experience with the issue. "People will trust my stewardship not only because of my background and knowledge, but also my vision for the future," he told reporters during a news conference at a nature center in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. "They have never, to my knowledge, been involved in legislation nor hearings nor engagement on...

Janesville Congressman Paul Ryan continues to attract serious attention as a prospective Republican nominee for vice president. And rightly so. One need not agree with Ryan's sincere-if-frequently-myopic conservatism to recognize the strengths he would bring to John McCain's ticket. Where McCain is ancient -- older than Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower when they attained the presidency -- and looks it, Ryan is so fresh-faced, upbeat and energetic that he sometimes seems a good deal younger than his 38 years. At that age, the Wisconsin Republican is almost young enough to be not McCain's son but the Arizona senator's grandson. Yet...

The city of San Francisco has started an advertising push with a very specific target market: illegal immigrants. And while the advertisements will come in a bundle of languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese — they all carry the same message: you are safe here. In what may be the first such campaign of its kind, the city plans to publish multilanguage brochures and fill the airwaves with advertisements relaying assurance that San Francisco will not report them to federal immigration authorities. Mayor Gavin Newsom said the campaign was simply an amplification of a longstanding position of not cooperating...

<p>But he's still a constitution trampling RINO and unless he repeals McCain-Feingold, repudiates amnesty and global warming, drops all support for embryonic stem cell research and stops talking about partnering up with the Democrats and instead swears to fight the evil bastards he won't be getting my support.</p>

By now, most McCain haters will have already skipped down to the comments section to post their expletives and tell me how it’s a free country and they have a 1st Amendment right, etc. to yammer on and on about how bad McCain sucks, totally missing the point of my post, again. But I’m here to tell you, in this free country, that in my opinion, you should SHUT YOUR STINKIN TRAP! To all you ingrates, rageaholics, and self-absorbed punks, WE KNOW YOU HATE MCCAIN. You can give yourself a rest now and stop posting on every single thread the...

John McCain's unconservativism was on display this past Wednesday in Los Angeles.  Perhaps not in all ways, but in one telling way.  Before a gathering of the World Affairs Council, the Arizona senator outlined his thinking on national security and foreign policy.  The speech's larger elements have received plenty of coverage.  One element did not.   McCain made a stalwart's argument for finishing the job in Iraq.  That's a good thing, and expected.  He made a case for greater collaboration with America's allies.  That's a nod to the prevailing sentiment that Cowboy America needs to become Settler America-you know, an America...

McCain is right on Free Trade.Conservatives rightly have many fears over John McCain. However, it is noteworthy that on certain issues — health care, earmarks, agricultural subsidies, and the subprime situation ("no bailouts!") to name a few — he is notably superior to our current president.The Club for Growth today released this statement on his free trade policy, which is also meritorious:  Washington – The Club for Growth commends Senator John McCain for calling for a new free trade agreement with the European Union. Currently, the United States and the European Union have low tariffs on most manufactured goods traded between...

If the media are on the lookout for gaffes by the presidential campaigns, they missed a big one on Wednesday, when Cindy McCain met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Kosovo’s capital Pristina, while her husband was giving a major foreign policy speech calling for “new foundations for a stable and enduring peace.” Kosovo’s declaration of independence, which McCain accepts and was implicitly recognized by Cindy McCain’s visit to Pristina, is a major threat to global peace and security. It could spark a U.S. war with Russia. It may be asking too much, however, for the media to cover...

Raleigh, N.C. — If the presidential election were held this week, Sen. John McCain would easily carry North Carolina, according to a poll released Monday. Rasmussen Reports surveyed 500 likely North Carolina voters last Thursday and found McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, holds commanding leads over the two Democratic candidates. The poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. McCain leads Sen. Hillary Clinton 50 to 34 percent, and he leads Sen. Barack Obama 51 to 42 percent, according to the poll. In both match-ups, McCain is essentially even with either Clinton or Obama among women, but holds...

At a time when the GOP presidential nominee will need more assistance than ever, a number of state Republican parties are struggling through troubled times, suffering from internal strife, poor fundraising, onerous debt, scandal or voting trends that are conspiring to relegate the local branches of the party to near-irrelevance. In some of the largest, smallest, reddest and bluest states in the nation, many state Republican organizations are still reeling in the aftermath of the devastating 2006 election cycle, raising questions about how much grassroots help the state parties will be able to deliver to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain....