Free Republic

Chris Christie Destroys President Obama at the RJC

Mike Huckabee’s supporters might not rush to the side of Sarah Palin, despite the conventional wisdom that she’ll be the key beneficiary of his decision not to run for president next year. Both the former governor of Arkansas and former governor of Alaska are populist Republicans with strong evangelical credentials. Yet there are some significant differences between the two that suggest Huckabee supporters might not flock to Palin en masse. Style Palin’s and Huckabee’s rhetorical styles couldn’t be more different. Palin mocks her Democratic opponents; Huckabee tends to engage them and look for common ground. When first lady Michelle Obama...

The prospective GOP candidates are behaving like Ruling Class. Did they learn anything from 2010? The inestimable Karl Rove (inestimable, in that conservatives either wish to buy him a scotch or label him Ruling Class, dependent on whatever he last said to Bret Baier) published a WSJ op-ed on March 17 claiming “The GOP Race is Underway.” Don’t worry, the piece sums: the failure of anyone to step ahead in the 2012 GOP race is tactical. Mitch “Mitt” Huckaromney is busy analyzing, outreaching, and sweater-testing and any day now he’ll reveal himself as the George Washington you’ve been asking for...

As Simon says politics is all about connection and he has grasped a key political fact about Sarah Palin. There are, already, a considerable number of Americans who would sleep more easily in their homes with the knowledge that this fascinating and rather mysterious woman was keeping watch over their land…

In town to give a talk on civility, I was surrounded by women who wondered what I thought of Sarah Palin's Newsweek cover. "Why aren't women coming to her defense?" they asked. "Why are the media being so rough on Sarah?" Having been enjoying a self-imposed moratorium on all things Palin, declining numerous interviews to discuss her latest self-promotional tour, I was surprised by the questions. My thoughts lately have drifted toward the sense that, though Palin is very much a celebrity, she's no longer running for public office, at least officially. Ergo, radar gets a rest. As for her...

For years, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has been excoriated by the GOP for his “unprincipled,” pragmatic decision making. Yet, like President Barack Obama, Specter has always been more attentive to the needs of those who sent him to Washington than to demands that he toe the party line. It’s no surprise that the GOP now says Specter switched to the Democrats just to save his own skin. But it would stand Darwin on his head were senators unmindful of their political survival. No, the real question relates to the GOP’s survival. A party whose domestic policy consists of setting...