Free Republic

The Democrats have decided that agendas are overrated. Back in May, the party unveiled its "Better Deal" program, calling for expanded broadband access, an increase in the minimum wage, and paid family and sick leave. Voters didn't bite. So last month the Democrats came up with "For the People," which simplifies the platform to infrastructure spending, lowering health care costs, and draining the swamp. Again, crickets. What to do? Party leadership has declared that it's every cis-het man for himself. "We trust our candidates to know their districts and the challenges facing their communities better than anyone," House campaign chair...

Supposedly Team Paul is engaged in "initial discussions" with Santorum and Gingrich too, but c'mon. Newt's chances at the nomination are only slightly higher than Paul's are and Santorum's hawkish social conservatism makes him a total nonstarter for libertarians. Just today, Reason editor Matt Welch published a column shivering at the thought that Team Sweater Vest might be back for another try in 2016. Romney’s the only game in town for the rEVOLution, just as he’s been since the debates started. (According to Time, one of Romney’s allies joked that Paul is their “deputy campaign manager.”)This is the right time...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends). Looking at Tuesday's upcoming primaries, the GOP race in Alabama is essentially a three-way tie, while Mitt Romney leads by eight in Mississippi. Nationally, Romney now leads Rick Santorum by 12 points. Regardless of who they want to win, 80% of Republican Primary Voters nationwide believe Romney will be the party's nominee. With the...

(CNN) – Newt Gingrich is edging out his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in Mississippi, according to a new poll. The American Research Group survey of likely Republican primary voters released Friday showed Gingrich with 35% support, followed by Mitt Romney with 31%, Rick Santorum with 20% and Ron Paul with 7%. Gingrich's margin over Romney increased slightly among those who said they will definitely vote in the March 13 primary, 37% to 30%. Santorum garnered 17% support and Paul received 5% among the same group. The poll was conducted after Super Tuesday, when each of the GOP White...

FOX News says Romney & GOP kept Gingrich off of Virginia ballot

For one brief moment, Rick Santorum was the ideal Republican candidate for 2012, the perfect consonance of Don't-Tread-On-Me libertarianism and traditional cultural conservatism. When asked about contraception, which Santorum and the Catholic Church hold to be destructive of marriage and family, Santorum replied, "You know, here's the difference between me and the Left, and they don't get this. Just because I'm talking about it doesn't mean I want a government program to fix it. That's what they do. That's not what we do." This helped explain why so many liberal politicians and journalists were misunderstanding or lying about what Santorum...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum labeled Rush Limbaugh "absurd" over disparaging remarks from the radio talk show host directed at a law student who testified before a House panel in support of access to contraceptives. "He's being absurd, but that's you know, an entertainer can be absurd," Santorum told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday. "He's in a very different business than I am."

In a potentially ominous Super Tuesday setback for Rick Santorum, a campaign filing mishap in Ohio could leave him ineligible to be awarded 18 Buckeye State district delegates -- more than a quarter of the total at stake there, ABC News reported Friday. Ohio has 66 delegates total, with 63 at stake on Tuesday. Santorum failed to qualify for any district delegates in three Ohio congressional districts representing nine delegates because he didn't turn in names there. ABC News reported that in six other congressional districts, the former Pennsylvania senator's campaign submitted fewer names than required to be eligible for...

UPDATED: COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even if Rick Santorum wins Ohio on Super Tuesday, he won’t be able to claim all of its delegates. In fact, he is at risk of forfeiting more than one-quarter of them. In three of the state’s 16 congressional districts, including two that are near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania, Santorum will lose any delegates he might have won because his campaign failed to meet the state’s eligibility requirements months ago. Those three districts alone take 9 delegates out of a total of 66 off the table for Santorum. But it gets worse: Nine more Ohio delegates...

THE PROBLEM WITH SANTORUMFebruary 29, 2012 Even when I agree with Rick Santorum, listening to him argue the point almost makes me change my mind. I also wonder why he's running for president, rather than governor, when the issues closest to his heart are family-oriented matters about which the federal government can, and should, do very little. It's strange that Santorum doesn't seem to understand the crucial state-federal divide bequeathed to us by the framers of our Constitution, inasmuch as it is precisely that difference that underlies his own point that states could ban contraception. Of course they can. States...

A few hours ago I posted a piece titled Why Santorum is Toast and gave 10 reasons why I think he could be. Now I am going to take the other side of the argument and provide 10 reasons why one shouldn't write Rick Santorum off just yet: 1)In the two month history of the GOP primaries/caucuses and taking the main states into consideration only once has any of the candidates gone two in a row: a)Iowa (Santorum) NH (Romney) b)NH (Romney) SC (Gingrich) c)SC (Gingrich) Florida (Romney) d)Florida (Romney) Nevada (Romney) e)Nevada (Romney) Colorado (Santorum) f)Colorado (Santorum)Arizona(Romney) The trend...

Rick Santorum won Southwest Michigan's delegates during Tuesday's primary election. ...Mitt Romney may have won Michigan's primary, but he will not get all 30 of the ... in the 6th District, indicating the two delegates would go to Santorum.

There’s a chance Rick Santorum may still scrape out a win in Michigan tomorrow. This morning’s Public Policy Polling survey has Mitt Romney leading him by just a few points, 39 percent to 37 percent. But the internal numbers look worse for Santorum, and his ongoing slide in the state seems to be due to his focus on social issues: One place Santorum may have hurt himself in the last week is an overemphasis on social issues. 69 percent of voters say they’re generally more concerned with economic issues this year to only 17 percent who pick social issues. And...

In a potential Election 2012 matchup, the president leads Mitt Romney by a 46% to 42% margin. If Rick Santorum is the Republican nominee, the president leads 47% to 44%. Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

In trying to clarify recent comments from Rick Santorum about President Obama's "phony theology," the candidate's new national press secretary made a gaffe of her own, saying Obama had pursued "radical Islamic policies" . Alice Stewart, who had worked for Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign before signing on with Santorum earlier this month, made the slip during an appearance this afternoon on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." The segment focused on the former Pennsylvania senator's line of attack on Obama for his environmental policies, which were guided, he said in Ohio this weekend, by "some phony ideal. Some phony theology." "As he...

“We have to look at the root cause of why the economy is struggling as much as it is,” Santorum said. “Government intervention. Government regulation. Government taxation. Government is crushing and destroying the American spirit and the American free enterprise system.” Santorum said that government spending was impinging on personal freedoms and ultimately chipping away at what made the country great. “When the government gets as big as it’s gotten and starts to take over more of your life, then you get smaller as the individual, you get weaker, you lose control over your lives. You lose the rights that...

Excerpts from American Thinker by Edmund Wright: Couldn’t agree more To be sure, the only reason Santorum has gotten away with this is that no one has taken his candidacy seriously enough to bother to look. He has not been above the fray. He has been off to the side of the fray. Ironically, he has been the “look at me” candidate all along, so now perhaps it is indeed time to look at him. Be careful what you wish for, Senator. Oh My! Rick actually published a Pamphlet in his failed 2006 Campaign which tried to show Pennsylvanians how...

Mitt Romney was the inevitable nominee — until he wasn't. In order to sustain a lead, a candidate's message must resonate with the heart and the mind. Mr. Romney's cakewalk to the nomination has been stymied by the inability to get anyone excited about his campaign. He has supporters but not believers. Rick Santorum's message resonates with voters' hearts and minds (this week at least), because he is a true believer. He believes in his message, and his message is consistent with core Republican values. What gave Mr. Santorum the edge in Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri can give him...

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, following his wins last week in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, has now jumped ahead of Mitt Romney in Michigan's Republican Primary race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Michigan shows Santorum with 35% of the vote to Romney’s 32%. Well behind are Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 13% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 11%. Only one percent (1%) prefers some other candidate in the race, while eight percent (8%) are undecided.

4 months to the California Primary, but fresh after caucus wins in Colorado and Minnesota and in Missouri's non-binding primary, Rick Santorum draws to within a whisker of nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney, 33% for Romney, 31% for Santorum, effectively even, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego and KFSN-TV Fresno. Santorum leads Romney among seniors, among evangelicals, among pro-life voters, among Tea Party members, among those who say they are "very conservative," and in the Central Valley region of California.