Free Republic

Republican presidential hopefuls will line up on August 23 for the first round of primary debates. For conservatives who lived through the late 1970s and the 1980s, Ronald Reagan set a standard for how to behave as a candidate and then how to lead as a president. What were the traits and accomplishments that made Reagan the model for many subsequent GOP candidates? For me, six come to mind. First, he could win elections. It may sound trite, but the first important test for any political candidate is the ability to win. It is even more important to win reelection,...

WASHINGTON — Against the backdrop of crumbling negotiations over the GOP bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump said last week he wanted to oust incumbent U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford in 2018. The South Carolina Republican told The Post and Courier that Trump chose to convey this message through an intermediary: White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, a former member of the S.C. congressional delegation, co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus and a friend. "'The president asked me to look you square in the eyes and to say that he hoped that you voted ‘no’...

What an amazing, stunning week it has been. Donald Trump won the election, defying the odds, the polls, and beating back the intense levels of voter fraud. Donald Trump seems, to me, to be a version Ronald Reagan -- or at least a version for a courser age. Trump has his faults, to be sure. He's brash. He's mouthy. I attribute that to the rancorous inclination of these venomous times. Perhaps at this time, we do not need a bull in a china shop. Perhaps we need a bull that brings his own china to break. Here is why I...

Carly Fiorina criticized fellow GOP presidential contenders Ben Carson and Donald Trump for threatening to boycott CNBC's debate. “Well, I think apparently they’re worried about answering questions for three hours,” she told host Megyn Kelly on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” on Thursday night. “For heaven sakes, we have ten candidates on stage,” Fiorina said. "I don’t think three hours is a long time. “They also apparently asked for prepared statements,” she added of Carson and Trump. "You know, prepared statements are what politicians do. “So, honestly, here are two outsiders supposedly. Donald Trump and Ben Carson – they sound...

Should Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina win the Oval Office, she wouldn’t be making any calls to her counterpart in Russia. “I wouldn’t speak to Vladmir Putin,” Fiorina said. She would, however, rebuild a missile defense program in Poland and conduct military exercises in the Baltic States. “I would guarantee you that after four or five or six months of that kind of behavior, Vladmir Putin will speak differently with the United States of America,” she said. “It’s how people behave. He’s a bully.” Fiorina, the only woman seeking the GOP nomination, is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She ran...

For over three decades, Carly Fiorina's bachelor's degree from Stanford University in medieval history and philosophy has had little real-world application. But as she mounts a presidential bid, the Republican candidate says her degree is finally of use as she considers how she would deal with ISIS as commander-in-chief. "Finally my degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy," Fiorina said Sunday night, "because what ISIS wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages, literally." Fiorina was responding to a question from a member of the military at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire,...

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina may not be a liberal, but she certainly appears to be a fan of the liberal arts. The 2016 contender said Monday that her college degree in medieval history made her uniquely qualified to combat ISIS and other terrorist groups. “My degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy,” Fiorina said at a town hall in Windham, N.H., “because what ISIS wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages, literally.”

WWIII over CIA backed rebels? No thanks We needed a President and Secretary of State who could stymie Russia on the diplomatic front. We needed a President who was up to the task of managing the world stage. We needed a Commander in Chief who would be either feared or respected by our allies and enemies alike. We don’t have that. Instead, we’re faced with Middle Eastern chaos, a rapidly expanding global terrorist force, and a refugee crisis that is spreading to every corner of the globe. The President’s response has, so far, consisted of a feckless UN speech and...

WWIII over CIA backed rebels? No thanks. We needed a President and Secretary of State who could stymie Russia on the diplomatic front. We needed a President who was up to the task of managing the world stage. We needed a Commander in Chief who would be either feared or respected by our allies and enemies alike. We don't have that. Instead, we're faced with Middle Eastern chaos, a rapidly expanding global terrorist force, and a refugee crisis that is spreading to every corner of the globe. The President's response has, so far, consisted of a feckless UN speech and...

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina chastised the Obama administration, calling its response, or lack thereof, to Russian aggression in Syria, “weak” and willfully naïve. “We must be prepared to use force,” declared Fiorina in a hawkish response to Russian airstrikes in the central city of Homs this week that have transformed the geopolitical calculus in the region. U.S. Pentagon officials insist that the Russian aerial assault is targeting primarily non-ISIS combatants, including the American-backed moderate Syrian opposition. “I can absolutely confirm to you that they were strikes against our Free Syrian Army...

Amid conflicting reports about Moscow targeting U.S.-alllied groups in Syria, GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said late Wednesday that she backs military readiness against Russian forces. “I believe we must tell the Russians that we will conduct [and] we will secure a no-fly zone around anti-Assad rebel forces that we’re supporting,” she said on Fox News’s "Hannity." “Does that mean we might use force against Russian jets?” host Sean Hannity then asked. “Well, hopefully not,” Fiorina responded. "Hopefully, if we are signaling clearly to the Russians are intention, it will not come to that.” “But if it does come to...

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina argued the US should “secure a no-fly zone around anti-Assad rebel forces that we’re supporting” and “be prepared” to use force against Russia if need be on Wednesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel. Fiorina said, Well, first, we know what’s going on. Syria and Russia, who have had a longstanding relationship, Iran, and Iraq, are forming an unholy alliance. Russia’s intentions are to shore up, and stabilize the Assad regime. ISIS is sort of a camouflage. There is no doubt, that Russia will be conducting airstrikes against anti-Assad rebels, whether or not they happen...

Mark Levin says that Romney’s handling of the embassy attacks are perhaps his finest hour of the campaign, saying that he has handled himself in a very Reaganesque manner. He says Romney sounds like a president while Obama sounds like a drone:

NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The candidates may be spending Thanksgiving in Iowa or New Hampshire instead of at home this year as the primary calendar quickly comes to an end with just six weeks until the first votes are cast. As noted last month, each month the story line seems to take a new shift, and yet again this month we have another new story with the rise of Newt Gingrich. Among Republicans, one in five (19%) would vote for Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain in the GOP primary while 16% would vote for former Massachusetts Governor...

Herman Cain has had a tough two weeks. So, will he remain the “flavor of the day?” Or of the month? Or even into January, when the first Republican presidential primaries and caucuses will be held? That is, can the successful Georgia businessman’s popularity surge among likely GOP voters be sustained, in light of accusations by anonymous women, and some not anonymous, that he sexually harassed them— charges he strongly denies—during his tenure as the National Restaurant Association’s chief executive officer? ((snip)) That said, however, a great majority of Cain’s critics go after him, not because he is black necessarily,...

on why White House aspirants channel that previous president. "Great men have two lives," the diplomat Adolf Berle once observed, "one which occurs while they work on this Earth; a second which begins at the day of their death and continues as long as their ideas and conceptions remain powerful." Berle was speaking in May 1945, the month after Franklin D. Roosevelt died, and his words captured the enduring influence that FDR would exert over Democratic politics and liberal ideology for the half-century to follow. In 2011, they could just as easily apply to the totemic force that Ronald Reagan...

Smug and misplaced criticism of Sarah Palin feeds the resentment on which Palin and her followers thrive. Sarah Palin has the floor. Last Wednesday she wrote a comment piece, essentially dismissing the Copenhagen climate conference as a political stunt. On Thursday, she injected herself into another discussion, joining a chorus of public figures from across the political spectrum in their commendation of Obama's Nobel peace prize acceptance speech in Oslo. Her fame and access to the public sphere remain solidly intact, one year after her ticket's heavy defeat in the US presidential election. Much of the recent Palin buzz began...

A few weeks ago, Fred Thompson exited the race for President. In the wake of that decision, the FredHeads and the members of DraftFredThompson.com engaged in a whole lot of soul-searching and vigorous discussion as to what to do next. Fred's candidacy may have come to an end, but our faith in the principles that originally drew us to Fred was as strong as ever. The product of that soul-searching and vigorous discussion is Conservatives for the Advancement of the Reagan Coalition, a new organization formed to advance the key conservative principles articulated by men like Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan...

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As has been reported elsewhere today, Fred Thompson's mother is gravely ill right now. Our prayers ought to be with Sen. Thompson, his mother, his wife, and their family. This must be a very difficult time for them. All of this political stuff is of only secondary importance right now. That said, here is what I would do, politically, if I were Thompson: I would just lay low. Just wait. See what happens in Louisiana's caucuses tomorrow. See what happens in Florida next week. See who drops out of the race at some point. And then consider reviving my campaign,...