Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The Empire strikes back? First, the Republican Party made Donald Trump sign an oath of loyalty by pledging to support its eventual presidential nominee and not run as a third-party candidate. Now, the establishment GOP may be planning to do the very thing it made Trump promise not to do: bolt from the Republican party and run a third-party campaign. Mark McKinnon, former President George W. Bush’s chief media strategist, suggested a scenario to NPR the GOP elite might follow if it looks like Trump will win the party’s presidential nomination. “The Republican establishment completely freaks out. They...

I'm not among those Republicans who have “evolved” on the issue of gay rights. I didn’t need to. I’ve always been attracted to the GOP message of more freedom and less government, but thought it hypocritical and counter to the core of our philosophy that Republicans would not apply those tenets to gay rights. But of course I was often the black sheep in campaign meetings during the 1990s and 2000s. There goes McKinnon again. Taking up for the gays. Although “gay” wasn’t the word that was used back the

Supporters are as exhausted as Velma Hart, the Tea Party has momentum, and Republicans are now more trusted. Mark McKinnon on why those issues, plus nine others, spell doom for the president’s reelection hopes. President Obama’s State of the Union was strongly bipartisan and made smart moves to the center, although it missed a chance to really tackle tough fiscal issues like meaningful entitlement reforms. His Arizona speechwas terrific, his favorable ratings are climbing over 50, the economy is showing steady signs of improvement, and the stock market is up. So, how could he possibly lose his reelection bid? Just...

Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann is flirting with a run in 2012, but the GOP may not get a real shot at the White House until four years later. Mark McKinnon on why, dynasty issues aside, Bush will be a clear favorite. As the 112th Congress settles into its first week of work, political fireworks are already going off that could have a big impact on the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016. Michele Bachmann and Jeb Bush showed some leg this week and got many in the GOP steaming up. While the media fixates on a possible presidential...

One of the founders of the new political group "No Labels" ..."All they see is the poison and the hyper-partisanship," Mark McKinnon ... "No Labels" officially launches Monday with an event in New York City expected to draw 1,000 people from all 50 states. Also expected in attendance are political heavyweights such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-N.Y.), Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), along with Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), among others.

You may recall Mark McKinnon as the Republican political strategist who worked to help John McCain win the 2008 GOP nomination, but then quit because he refused to campaign against Barack Obama. You may recall Mark McKinnon as the Republican political strategist who accused Rick Santorum of having “a lack of character.” You may recall Mark McKinnon as the Republican political strategist who in May 2009 told ABC News: “If the Republican party does not expand its tent, it’s going to turn into a circus, and it’s going to become a minority freak show that sort of features Rush Limbaugh...

Two week ago, when John Heilemann wrote a cover story for New York Magazine outlining the perfect storm that could carry Sarah Palin to a Presidential election victory in 2012, I would have told you that Sarah was much more powerful as a king-maker and not a King. And then she went and bragged to Barbara Walters that she can beat Obama in 2012 this. Hah ha. Funny. In an Armageddon kind of way right? We can’t be that stupid, can we? Well… in the immortal slogan of an era long ago: yes we can! So I decided to re-read...

As Sarah Palin ponders a 2012 presidential campaign, some prominent Republicans are urging her to resist the temptation to run even as her devoted followers flock to her book tour. In recent days, a debate has broken out among Republicans over whether the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and popular activist would be able to defeat a politically weakened President Barack Obama in two years. The criticism, rejected by Team Palin, reflects concerns among establishment Republicans that the former Alaska governor lacks the gravitas to oust a sitting president, even a struggling one. Palin has a very strong following in...

US political pundits baffled as former Alaska governor gambles on nationwide book tour and reality TV show "Sarah Palin has done everything wrong according to the traditional way of campaigning," said Scott Rasmussen, a leading pollster and co-author of a book on the Tea Party. "She gave up her position of power as governor of Alaska, she wrote a book for a lot of money, she has her daughter on Dancing with the Stars, she is on her own reality TV show, she's been incredibly partisan in her politics – this is everything that a presidential candidate is supposed not...

I spent only a few hours with the former governor, helping to prepare her for the vice presidential debate in October 2008. And during that brief window, I saw Palin at one of her most vulnerable moments, when any result other than a complete train wreck seemed impossible. And yet I also saw a determined woman buckle down, recover her confidence and then storm the national stage where she more than held her own against a seven-term senator. Did she face some tough slogging to reach her remarkable perch? Sure, you betcha. I admire her tenacity, her verve, her moxie,...

O’Donnell likes nights on the town, Palin is a clotheshorse, Angle is “crazy,” Whitman is a “whore”—conservative women are being attacked from all sides, but voters will reward the victims at the polls, says Mark McKinnon. Nuts and sluts, bitches and whores: That’s the gauntlet conservative women must run to compete for the “honor” of political office today. While every campaign season is deemed more vicious than those that came before, the attacks this time around have reached a new low. Rather than debate ideas and policies, weak-minded opponents of strong-willed women resort to sexualized attacks—a cover to compensate for...

Republican political strategist Mark McKinnon – veteran of McCain and Bush presidential campaigns – acknowledged in an interview with David Frum that a third-party presidential effort for 2012 was not far off, and hinted at his involvement in one. In the podcast interview, McKinnon, who was discussing his recent Daily Beast column “A Centrist Manifesto”, lamented that “there’s nobody that gets rewarded for bipartisan behavior, [and] in fact they get punished.” To that end, he said, “there is a very real possibility for a legitimate third party effort for 2012 … American voters are so hungry for more voice, and...

Here is video of Chris Matthews saying that all of the "teabaggers" are white, while talking with Mark McKinnon...(Video)Matthews said, "they're all white, all of them, every single one of them is white." Mark McKinnon agreed with Matthews saying "I think that's a fair characterization, predominately no question."

'Taxpayer March' in D.C. Attracts Party Leaders, but Some Are Wary. BY DAN EGGEN & PERRY BACON JR. With tens of thousands of conservative protesters expected to gather in Washington on Saturday for a "Taxpayer March on D.C.," Republican officials are attempting to capitalize on a movement that lately has galvanized anti-Obama activists more effectively than the party's elected leaders in Washington. Searching for ways to compete with Democrats after two consecutive electoral drubbings, Republicans have moved past earlier uncertainty about the protesters, who organized nationwide rallies this summer that have threatened Democratic health-care plans and eroded President Obama's standing...

Mark McKinnon, vice chairman of Public Strategies & President of Maverick Media, wrote a great article for The Daily Beast titled "How her mind works" about the time he spent with Governor Palin.

Mark McKinnon and MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell share a laugh over the McCain advsior's remark about Sarah Palin.

A few words about Sarah Palin: She is one of the most fascinating women I have ever met. She crackles with energy like a live electrical wire and on first meeting gets about three inches from your face. Her instant subliminal message is: “I don’t know you very well, but I’m very clear about who I am.” She reeks of moxie and self confidence. And she’s fearless. Well, she was mostly fearless when I intersected with her. But, she was also a week out from a nationally televised debate with Joe Biden, and she knew she was in trouble. She...

Memo to my party: Blasting targets like Sonia Sotomayor is a surefire strategy to guarantee our extinction. If the GOP is ever to be resurgent, it has to pick its fights carefully. The tendency is, unfortunately, to shoot at everything that moves. Here are a couple of fights we don’t need: Colin Powell and Sonia Sotomayor. Let’s face it, Sotomayor is a political trifecta. Woman. Hispanic. Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from George H. W. Bush. Yes, Mitch McConnell has to make his pro forma gestures about doing due diligence. And it is important to fully examine Judge Sotomayor’s judicial...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) - A senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Tuesday that he was stepping down to keep a commitment he made not to campaign against Democrat Barack Obama. Mark McKinnon, who was in charge of the McCain campaign's advertising message, said he was still backing the Arizona senator, but that he was simply moving from active campaign participant to cheerleader. "I'll still be around occasionally in my lucky hat," said McKinnon, who often wears a distinctive hat. McKinnon, who was a key aide in President George W. Bush's two election victories, has expressed...

A top adviser to John McCain said Wednesday that he will step down from the Arizona senator's presidential campaign if ... "I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama," said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon ... McKinnon, who was a Democrat before serving as President Bush's ad maker in 2000 and 2004, said that he plans to be behind McCain "100 percent" no matter who the Democratic nominee is. He explained, however, that if the Democrats nominate Obama, he will be supporting McCain "from the sidelines."