Free Republic

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issued a stern warning to conservatives Friday: relent on ideological purity in the primaries or risk losing the general election. "We're going to nominate someone for president who doesn't agree with you on everything and who you don’t agree with on everything," Barbour said. "But I'll tell you what. You're going to agree with them a whole lot more than you agree with Barack Obama."

On the whole, these insurgents lost big. And that's good news for the Republicans David Frum The Republican leaders won twice last night. They won a majority in the House of Representatives and a big gain in the Senate. Those leaders also won an important psychological contest inside the Republican party: Three ridiculously winnable Senate seats have been thrown away by incompetent Tea Party radicals: Delaware, Nevada, and possibly Colorado. Meanwhile two tough seats have been won by level-headed Republican moderates: Illinois and Ohio. The ultra-radical Rand Paul won his race in Kentucky and will be coming to Washington to...

Understanding the O'Donnell Voter By Ron Ross October 1, 2010 Establishment politicians think voters made a big mistake when they nominated Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware primary for Senate. Were the voters irrational or are the political pros just not seeing the whole picture? Maybe it would help the political experts if they considered the situation from the perspective of a basic tool of probability theory -- "expected value." Expected value can be an immensely useful concept, especially in the context of decision-making. It is the payoff of some outcome times the probability of it happening.... snip Now apply that...

Sarah Palin just offered a surprise endorsement of insurgent Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, calling in to Sean Hannity's radio show to offer her support. The news broke mainly on Twitter, after O'Donnell and Hannity tweeted it. Dave Weigel points out some back-story here: O'Donnell's campaign manager, Matt Moran, comes from the campaign of Dave Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in upstate New York who briefly captivated people who follow special House elections when he ran a campaign, fueled party by Palin's endorsement, that eventually forced the Republican candidate out of the race and handed the seat to Democrats. It...

I have tremendous regard for Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the outstanding service he has rendered to our nation. I met with Gen. McChrystal in Iraq, where he was joint special-operations commander carrying out the most daring and vital missions. He is a warrior and a patriot. Yet his remarks in Rolling Stone were clearly inappropriate and wrong. I understand and support President Obama's decision to accept his resignation as commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. I also, of course, strongly support the president's decision to have Gen. David Petraeus succeed McChrystal. Petraeus is a true American hero, who...

I thought principled politics was supposed to be all about me. And if it doesn't go my way, I'm allowed to throw a tantrum, turn blue, kick my feet, flail my arms, threaten to support and vote for Hillary or Obama just to make my point. I mean, I didn't get my way. This is just like not getting my candy at the checkout counter. I didn't get my toy in the toy department. People took me out of control of my party and I'm mad. If I can't control my party, then I have to play nice and be...

New Right's on target as Republicans gather in Dallas Moderates lose custody of party's mainstream As a prelude to the Republican National Convention, two factions within the GOP are engaged in a fight for the right to claim they represent the mainstream of America . But when the cards are dealt to the New Right and self-dubbed moderates of the GOP, the New Right has control of the deck in 1984. And it has succeeded in drawing up the most conservative party platform of the last 20 years. In four years, the deck will be reshuffled, and moderates of the...

A few weeks ago – in between Hillary Clinton’s official entry into the presidential race and the first Republican primary debate of the cycle – the fiery online conservative forum Free Republic marked a decade in operation as one of the premier online forums for right-wing political discussion. It also experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support. At...

Rudy Giuliani is the best presidential candidate. On Thursday, April 5, there were two articles in the opinion section that led me to this conclusion. One was "Rudy would kill pro-life movement" written by Doug Patton and the other, "A New Yorker Remembers Rudy" written by Ted Rall. Patton represents the religious right movement that has taken over the Republican Party. Within his article, he even commends Rudy Giuliani as a candidate. However he is ready to jettison a candidate on one issue only. Patton equates conservatism to pro-life. I would say that anyone who wants to have government tell...

“Sometimes, party loyalty asks too much,” said JFK. In asking conservatives to support Harriet Miers, prior to full Judiciary Committee hearings, George W. Bush asks too much. Trust me, Bush is saying. Trust but verify, they should reply. For as of today there is no evidence Harriet Miers possesses the judicial philosophy, strength of intellect, firmness of conviction or deep understanding of the gravity of the matters on which her vote would be decisive to be confirmed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. If she does not exhibit these qualities in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Harriet Miers should...