Free Republic

The Republican National Committee made a bold decision that the media elites treated like an anti-democratic outrage. The RNC pulled out of the allegedly bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. This decision is not an outrage. It's long overdue. The Democrats are allergic to doing any primary debates on Fox News. It's only in the last two cycles, the Trump cycles, that they accepted a Fox News moderator in the fall -- and that was Chris Wallace, who escaped to CNN. Republicans should be very demanding about what constitutes a fair debate. At this point, the RNC should copy the DNC...

Although most viewers will not be on the edge of their seats for the final presidential debate tonight, it will be nothing short of a spectacle of frenzied accusations, heated tempers, and vague and incomplete policy descriptions. Debates rarely sway support for either candidate. However, since the first encounter between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden was widely labeled anything but a debate, and the second planned meeting between the two was hastily cancelled, the final debate will give voters one last opportunity to measure each candidate as they spar on the same stage. And it will no doubt provide...

Officials for the City of Cleveland said 11 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus could be traced back to the Sept. 29 presidential debate. The cases were a result of debate pre-planning and set-up, with the majority of cases impacting out-of-state travelers, particularly debate organizers and members of the media. The news comes after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the virus. Out of an abundance of caution, the president was transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday. "As the cases involve people in and out of state some of whom may be...

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman's proposal that Joe Biden shouldn't debate President Donald Trump unless "a real-time fact-checking team" is part of the mix is an ironic illustration of the closed-mindedness of the left. Why would Friedman want a candidate who is eager to contrast his views with Trump's to impose conditions that would make a debate less likely, unless, of course, Friedman realizes that the failing Biden would be particularly disastrous in a debate? That seems to be the case here, as Friedman's other condition -- that Trump agree to release his tax returns for 2016 through 2018...

For more than a generation, James Carville's campaign maxim, "It's the economy, stupid," has been held up as an essential truth of American politics. There's no denying that a strong economy is an incumbent president's best friend. Seventy-three percent of voters currently rate the economy as a very important issue. As a result, if the economy remains strong for another 1 1/2 years, many analysts believe President Donald Trump will be favored to win reelection. On the other hand, if a recession hits next year, we will almost certainly have a new president in 2021. However, recent data about the...

If President Obama had the time for some introspection on the campaign trail, he might take offense at all the media speculation (and in many cases wishful thinking gussied up as speculation) that his response to Hurricane Sandy will give him the edge going into Election Day. In effect, people are saying: "Obama is doing the minimum requirements of his job, what a game-changer!" Now, one could quibble about whether he's really doing what a president should. He's handing out a bunch of checks, which is warranted, but he has staff to do that. Moreover, presidential photo ops at disaster...

I confess a certain fascination with debate prep. What is it, exactly? What did Mitt Romney do that earned him such a commanding win in his first debate with President Obama? What did the President not do? In the second debate, was President Obama better prepared, or just more energetic and focused? Could Mitt Romney have prevented an underwhelming moment on Libya with a few more drills alongside Rob Portman? I raise these questions because as the final debate draws near, I wonder how Governor Romney’s time is best spent. Is it a matter of homework alone, or something deeper?...

You don't watch the DNC debates, they're stupid! Realizing ratings failures, the inability to exploit "the message", the ever decreasing amount of time remaining, large number of candidates, growing sum of personal attacks, commitment to socialized government, the DNC has pooled resources and reformatted their approach. In so forthwith, the same rules which govern elimination "Survivor" law have been accepted. Who will be voted out first? The strongest contender? Braun? How would that affect the femanazis? Sharpton? How would the minorities react?...