Free Republic

All the clues suggest Sarah Palin is right in the mix for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Consider the niche she’s carved since resigning as Alaska governor last year. A best-selling memoir, with another book in the pipeline. Keynote speaker at the National Tea Party Convention. Frenzied supporters attaching near biblical significance to every Facebook post or Tweet. And a litany of successful primary endorsements – including just this week, with obscure Alaska Senate contender Joe Miller appearing, in what would be a stunning upset, to have tipped out sitting senator (and Palin arch-nemesis) Lisa Murkowski.Just one problem: the family....

I had never met Steve Schmidt and only knew him through the media. When I found myself seated at the former McCain campaign manager's table at a Washington dinner hosted by The Week magazine, it was like a flashback to the 2008 campaign. Schmidt is instantly recognizable with his trademark shaved head, his bulldog physique, and the restless intensity that marks him as a political operative of the first order. He had spent 10 weeks trying to mold Sarah Palin into a plausible national candidate, and when the campaign ended, he assessed her shortcomings, as she did his, in what...

Liberals’ Five Favorite Republicans Democrats have broken up with the Olympia Snowes and Christie Whitmans of old. But even in this polarized political moment, there are five Republicans they have learned to love. By Annie Lowrey Newsweek Web Exclusive Mar 15, 2010 In today's hyperpartisan political climate, liberals—especially far-left progressives—have turned on the more moderate conservatives they once loved. Christie Whitman? A failure as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. Olympia Snowe? A lost cause and waste of time in the health-care-reform fight. Arlen Specter? Well, now he's a Democrat, and not the base's favorite one. You don't see the...