Free Republic

President Obama has been touring all over the midwest these past few weeks, giving speeches to crowds of fans, anxious to hear what’s next on his agenda. One could be forgiven for believing that these are less about pushing the president’s current agenda, and more about launching the reelection campaign, however this is a charge that the administration adamantly denies. But there is a very simple reason that this is viewed as more of a campaign effort. Boasting bulletproof windows, five inch thick doors, and it’s own oxygen supply, the President has made the rounds for these speeches in a...

Check out this clip [via MSNBC] from a speech President Obama gave in Illinois during his current Magical Misery Tour of the Midwest. There's PBO, in front of a corn field, the hood of a John Deere tractor peeking in from the right [imagine the poll testing--how much of the tractor should be in the shot?] And listen as PBO's voice breaks as he proclaims how great America is and how much he loves it. And we dare claim it's a taxpayer-funded political stunt?! View video here.

Obama: I have it tougher than Abe Lincoln 1 hr 28 mins ago President Barack Obama said yesterday in Decorah, Iowa, that he absorbs more political criticism than Abraham Lincoln, the assassinated 16th U.S. president, attracted from his Civil War critics. The comment came during a question-and-answer session where one invited audience member asked Obama how he deals with his congressional critics in the GOP. “The Congress doesn’t seem to be a good partner. You said so yourself, they’re more interested in seeing you lose than [seeing] the country win,” the questioner lamented. “Democracy is always a messy business in...

DECORAH, Iowa — President Obama was confronted by a tea party activist Monday night who wanted to know how Mr. Obama can call for compromise with Republicans while Democrats accuse the tea party of being “terrorists.” Ryan Rhodes, a leader of the group in Iowa, challenged Mr. Obama during the president’s open-air town hall meeting in Decorah, a town of 8,200 in the northeast corner of Iowa, as the president was taking questions from a mostly friendly audience. The tense moment came soon after Mr. Obama had told the crowd that he views himself as the reasonable one in dealing...

Ken Nichols O'Keefe doesn't fit easily into the stereotype of a peace activist. A decorated former United States marine and veteran of the Gulf War, he has the look and tattooed body of the infantryman he once was. But it's O'Keefe - self-described "world citizen" with the word "expatriot" etched into his right hand - who is leading a campaign against United States policy in Iraq by becoming a "human shield." He hopes his presence, along with dozens of similarly-minded war protestors, will prevent President Bush from engaging in a conflict that seems inevitable. O'Keefe and about 50 others left...

A PLAN by a group of peace campaigners to travel by bus to Baghdad to offer themselves to Saddam Hussein as human shields has been threatened with collapse by the personal clashes, logistical chaos and the loss of their leader. One of the group’s three double-deckers has been abandoned in Italy with engine trouble and plans to travel through the Balkans were aborted as “too dangerous”. The head of the delegation, a former American marine, has been deported from Turkey for trying to enter the country with a “world citizen” passport after renouncing his United States citizenship. The second of...