Free Republic

Rick Santorum's latest attempt to use a Mitt Romney aide's "Etch-A-Sketch" remark against the Republican front-runner instead gave his rival a chance to fire back on Thursday, after Santorum seemed to say he'd rather see President Obama reelected than send Romney to the White House. Speaking at an event in Texas, Santorum again made the case that Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom's comments Wednesday on CNN about a "reset" of the campaign if Romney clinched the nomination showed the former Massachusetts governor's efforts to appeal to conservatives were insincere. "You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision...

Kentucky’s junior senator says it would be an honor to be considered as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Senator Rand Paul first discussed his higher aspirations at the beginning of this year. He said he wouldn’t close the door on being a Vice Presidential candidate. After a speech in Louisville today, Paul held that door firmly open, saying he wants to be part of the national debate. Paul’s name has swirled as a possible pick that would give Romney points with the Tea Party. When asked directly what he would say if Romney made the...

The link above presents videos where Newt expresses his admiration of FDR - makes me very uncomfortable that we're running to a progressive/means justifies ends from an extreme progressive... [Newt's site under] Praise for FDR When the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor threw the United States into a global war against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt rose to the challenge. He led the allies in a global war with remarkable skill and built the greatest military in history. Newt believes that without FDR’s leadership as Commander in Chief during World War II, the 20th...

In his latest Time column, Republican super-strategist Mike Murphy outlines why the Michele Bachmann surge may be short-lived, and why it helps Mitt Romney for the time being: Finally, the billion-volt electron microscopes of the national media will soon be trained on Bachmann now that she’s the official Iowa front runner. I’ll bet dollars to Minnesota lutefisk that despite her new squad of professional handlers, we are in for more of Bachmann’s factual fumbles. Her latest mix-up, confusing the birthplace of beloved American icon John Wayne with that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, hints that Michele’s next moves on...

I try to ignore the birther movement unless it inducts someone important -- a congressman, for example. The (sigh) American Patriot Foundation's announcement that Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney (ret.) has signed an affidavit supporting court martialed birther Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is actually a pretty big coup. How wild is McInerney's statement? This wild: [I]t is my opinion that LTC Lakin's request for discovery relating to the President's birth records in Hawaii is absolutely essential to determining not merely his guilt or innocence but to reassuring all military personnel once and for all for this President whether his service as...

SARAH PALIN ON THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE(From Greta Van Susteren Interview May 10, 2010 and O'Reilly interview July 9, 2010) [2008 VP PICK] - [1ST SPEECH] - [ACCEPTANCE] - [NOW, NOW] - [GOVERNOR FAREWELL] - [SARAH 2012] What follows are transcripts of the relevant parts that Palin did on immigration with Great Van Susteren on May 10, 2010, and Bill O'Reilly on July 9th. She says a lot of specific stuff here and it is clear to me that she intends To finish the fence, the physical barrier, a double fence from Brownsville to San Diego. That she will put...

Sarah Palin's Political Bandwagon Is wobbling Under The Weight of Contradictions The Sarah Palin phenomenon is finally beginning to fade as contradictions mount up, says Alex Spillius in Washington Alex Spillius 15 May 2010 We are seeing the first signs of wobble on the Sarah Palin bandwagon. This may seem a strange thing to say about a political superstar who has earned at least $12 million in the past 18 months from a publishing advance, personal appearance fees and a television punditry contract, not to forget a reality show about life in Alaska. Palin is such a boon to the...

The Tea Party movement is an interesting political phenomenon and, as with any popular social movement, it has both a good side and a bad side. The Tea Party is typically characterized as a radical group of angry Republicans, hell bent on opposing any and all things Obama. The group has been constantly lambasted by political commentators and pundits as a fringe collection of people who would love nothing more than to forever rant and chant at a Sarah Palin-palooza. But with a closer look, the movement gets a bit more diverse than that. Starting with the positive side of...

Charlie Crist has taking to calling himself a McCain-Republican in his Florida race against Marco Rubio of late. Apparently, he sees a similarity between himself and Scott Brown. I'll have to admit, calling ones self a McCain-Republican sounds better than simply calling yourself a RINO.

Declaring that she “was honored and proud to run with him,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin pushed back hard Wednesday against a report that she had disrespected Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by blacking out his name on a sun visor she wore on vacation. The website TMZ accused Palin of “a frontal attack on Sen. John McCain” during a Hawaii vacation this week: “Sarah chose to wear a visor from her campaign -- a visor that was emblazoned with the former presidential candidate's name ... that is, until Palin redacted McCain's name with a black marker.” But Palin said in...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Tuesday that he'll decide whether to run for president in 2012 sometime after this fall's midterm elections. Romney, a 2008 Republican candidate for president and rumored 2012 contender, told Fox News in an interview to air Wednesday that he and his wife would give thought to a second presidential bid in a few years. "It's always a possibility, and you keep the options open, but, you concentrate on the task ahead, for me that's trying to get some good people elected in 2010," said Romney during a "Fox and Friends" appearance. "And, I...

(snip) And as a result, the best thing they can do is to stand up and be counted. To shout down those things that are unacceptable. And then to put forward our own good ideas and we are a party of ideas, have been from the beginning. We are now. We have a health care plan. We have an energy plan. We have plans that relate to winning the war in Afghanistan. These kinds of things we got to put forward. But stopping President Obama's agenda is also a very important agenda item for us. (snip)

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. FP: Victor Hanson, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Hanson: Glad to be here again. FP: Sarah Palin is, clearly, carving out a national presence right now. It’s not just the appeal of her book, but also her outspokenness on the Copenhagen conference and other issues. What do you think she might be up to? And what is she tapping into? What are her possibilities? Hanson: I think she taps into a current of populist unhappiness in the country with Washington insiders, Big Money, and...

(snip) On Twitter, Politico's Ben Smith asks, "At this point, how is current proposal substantially different from Romneycare?" The answer is, it ain't. (snip) So now, if Obamacare passes, Romney will be left telling angry primary voters that the only real difference between the two plans is that he implemented his policies at the state level, while Obama did it through the federal government. Sure, it's clearly worse if the federal government is implementing bad policies, but it's hard to see how such an argument would pass muster with anybody but those who are already ardent Romney supporters. It's sort...

SALT LAKE CITY - Over the course of two weeks, Utah Republicans had the chance to see the two most talked-about potential presidential candidates in their party. Mitt Romney attended an event for ADX security systems and Sarah Palin visited to sign her bestselling book. The Utahpolicy.com, Fox 13 Insider Poll finds that Mitt Romney is taken far more seriously as a potential presidential candidate. 53.5 percent of Republicans say they expect Romney to be the Republican party candidate to face Barack Obama. 31.3 percent of Democrats think Romney will be the candidate. Only 4.7 percent of Republicans and 6.3...

Mitt Romney says that like other presidents, Barack Obama inherited a recession. But the former Massachusetts governor feels unlike his predecessors, Obama has made the recession he inherited worse, not better. In an op-ed in Wednesday's USA Today, Romney says what he calls the president's inability to "stem" the rise in unemployment should not be a surpise. "With no experience whatsoever in the world of employment and business formation, he had no compass to guide his path. Instead, he turned over much of his economic recovery agenda to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, themselves nearly...

The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. And she says that most of her legal bills were generated defending what she called frivolous ethics complaints, but she reveals that about $500,000 was a bill she received to pay for the McCain campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She said when she asked the McCain campaign if it would help her financially, she was told McCain's camp would have paid all the bills if he'd won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility.

I have been a minor participant at Free Republic, the Internet’s leading conservative forum, since September 2004. An online friend referred me to a discussion where members of Free Republic were talking about the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, and using my maps from this page to make a point. I had to join FR to introduce myself to that group, and thank them for visiting. Because that was right after the “Rathergate” scandal, I thus became one of the “Pajamahadeen” that had just brought down the Sauronic eye of CBS. Being a “Freeper” has been an interesting and fun...

RomneyCare is big government forcing its will on a formerly free people. It's anti-American, anti-free-markets, anti-Liberty and unconstitutional. Listen to the Reagan tape. RomneyCare is the socialism he's talking about. RomneyCare = ObamaCare. No difference. Government is not the solution, it IS the problem!! Free Republic will not support gun grabbing, abortion pushing, gay rights pushing, big government socialist RINOS!! In fact we will actively campaign AGAINST them!! Free Republic is a pro-Life & Liberty small government conservative site for pro-Life & Liberty small government conservatives!! Take a freaking hike if you don't like it. RINOS be damned!! Hope this...

The glib answer to this is to suggest that she'd do the party a great service by not running at all. Yesterday I wrote that she's a "wrecker not a uniter" and that she could hijack the primary season to disastrous effect. That's clearly one possibility. But there are others, including some which might actually help the GOP and not merely by demonstrating the limits of Palinism and, consequently, lancing that particular boil. Though I think he under-estimates Palin's fund-raising potential, Daniel Larison runs through some of the [reasons?] that make it most unlikely that Palin can actually win the...