Free Republic

Joe Scarborough is done with Donald Trump. After months of amiable interviews and a report that their "friendship" was making NBC executives uncomfortable, the host and the presidential candidate have recently been bickering on Twitter. And now the feud has ratcheted up another level, with Scarborough on Monday ripping Trump's "racist statement" that a federal judge of Mexican descent is inherently biased against him. Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, has criticized Trump before. He has said he could never vote for the presumptive GOP nominee, so long as Trump refuses to back off his proposal to temporarily ban...

While the presidential horserace will consume much of the political media’s attention over the next year, muted Running Mate Match Game speculation is already underway. One figure that generates a disproportionate amount of discussion on this front is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Despite a series of public demurrals, Rubio-for-VP buzz is unlikely to dissipate any time soon. In Rubio, Republicans have a gifted politician, a very effective communicator, and someone who has earned near-universal admiration among conservatives. He also hails from a critical swing state, and could almost single-handedly put a coveted and growing demographic into play, virtually overnight. Rubio...

BOSTON -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is stepping back into the public spotlight after spending two years behind the scenes laying the groundwork for a second presidential campaign. (snip) Romney has shifted from social issues that brought accusations of flip-flopping and undermined his 2008 White House bid. With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, his new focus is on economic themes and fix-it skills he claims as a former businessman. That plays to what some observers believe would be his strength in a second race. They could also distinguish him from potential rivals such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,...

Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall a century ago has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber. But today ex–New York mayor Rudy Giuliani sits at or near the top of virtually every poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Already, Giuliani’s popularity has set off a “stop Rudy” movement among cultural conservatives, who object to his three marriages and his support for abortion rights, gay unions, and curbs on gun ownership. Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the website Right Wing...

But is California's governor really a closet Democrat? The question has been raised by journalists and conservative critics, who never tire of taking note of Schwarzenegger's politically assertive wife, his hiring of Democratic aides, his liberal social values, his championing of public works projects and, of late, his compromises with the Legislature's Democratic leadership on a minimum-wage hike, mandatory prescription drug discounts and a measure to fight global warming. To attempt to answer that question is not to end a conversation but to begin it. Schwarzenegger routinely sides with business and asserts quasi-libertarian views on individual freedom. When the governor...

Live Thread

Boston — The words emanating from Gov. Mitt Romney’s mouth on Wednesday conveyed he was not running for re-election next year. Yet the theatrics at his State House news conference portrayed him as a presidential contender. From the dual banks of lights erected at stage right and stage left, to the new $2,500 podium shaped like the one President Bush often uses in the Rose Garden, Romney’s staff left no detail to chance as he ended one phase of his politicalcareer — and potentially opened another

OMAHA -- Okay, now that the election is over, are you ready to talk about 2008? Chuck Hagel is. The Republican senator from Nebraska has been thinking seriously about 2008 since he won reelection in 2002, and mulling a run for the White House even longer. He has a long history of doing, and getting, what he wants. He's ready -- well, ready to talk.

Enough With The Neocon And PaleoconCarping—I'll Stand With George W. Bush In 2004 Like most Toogood Reports readers, I observed this year's battles within the conservative ranks with profound discomfort. In my mind, there are far too many real enemies out there to waste time and print fighting one another. It seems that the world of conservatism has been split up between the "conservatives" and the "paleo-conservatives" or between the "conservatives" and the "neo-conservatives." Both sides present themselves as the bona fide article and the other side as the one in need of a prefix. Personally, I just want to...