Free Republic

She's appeared at Tea Party rallies across the country and long been considered the movement's de facto leader, but a new CNN poll out Friday suggests Sarah Palin isn't the group's clear favorite for the White House.

Raw footage of CBS News anchor Katie Couric recording voice-overs for news segments about Gov. Sarah Palin on the day she was named as John McCain’s running mate: [...] What’s newsworthy here isn’t merely that Couric mocked the GOP’s historic Vice Presidential nominee–most of us have said things we’re not proud of in private–it’s that she did so so brazenly in front of her supposedly objective news team. Conservatives4Palin raises another good point about Couric and Co.’s efforts to marginalize the former Alaska governor from day one: “[W]hat in [Palin's] impressive biography did CBS News and Couric choose to focus...

The following video was sent to C4P’s tips account. As you can see, the video shows Katie Couric preparing to go on the air on the day John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate. It shows some tantalizing hints of Couric’s attitude toward the Governor--when talking about first Trig, then Track, Couric says “where the hell do they get these [names]?...” At that point the producer running the sound board shut off the sound because he or she didn’t want to have Couric’s disdainful and contemptuous view of Governor Palin’s children captured on even an internal CBS tape...

Repeat after me: “Liberal media bias is a myth”… (Daily Caller)- In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story. But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat...

Whenever anyone mentions the 2012 election, inevitably the name of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney becomes a topic of conversation. And when it comes to polling data, Romney is often seen as a front-runner, forecasted to be stronger than the current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Increasingly, many of those in the Republican Party think Mitt is the GOP’s “go-to” guy in the next election. I guess you’ll just have to pardon me for failing to drink the Kool-Aid regarding the former governor. I just think it’s about time somebody stated the truth about Gov. Romney. Mitt Romney...

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

From a remote location on an island off Alaska’s coast, former Governor Sarah Palin is blasting what she describes as the “sick puppies” in the media who immediately and ruthlessly attacked her when Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign. In exclusive remarks to The Daily Caller, Palin described “hordes of Obama’s opposition researchers-slash ‘reporters’” descending upon Alaska in the days after she was picked by McCain. She said the media became a key reason she decided not to finish out her term as governor and faults, in part, the McCain campaign for...

‘Anonymous Numbskulls’ – Romney Calls for Cease-Fire with Palin July 16, 2010 1:04 PM ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: How do you end a political food fight in 140 characters or less? A series of delectable, anonymous quotes were forming an early front in the battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination – until former Gov. Mitt Romney took to Twitter today to put a stop to it. The fun began when a pair of Romney intimates sounded off – without their names attached --about former Gov. Sarah Palin: “She's not a serious human being,” one Romney adviser told Time’s...

Fred Thompson, former GOP senator, presidential candidate, actor and prolific Tweeter, is usually one of the more entertaining pols out there in social media. Here are some of his recent bons mots: Hillary in Kiev, Ukraine: prosperity should be "equally spread". No - doesn't work. That's why you didn't speak in Kiev, USSR. #ftrs #tcot Jimmy Buffet: oil spill Bush's fault. Why trust his opinion? He can't even keep track of a shaker of salt. #ftrs #tcot Justice Kennedy: won't retire while Obama in office. So we're safe, barring accident, illness, or Rolling Stone interview. #ftrs #tcot Obama: US and...

BOSTON — I consider myself lucky to have lived in Massachusetts during the years 2003 to 2007, when the Commonwealth (God save it!) was under the barely distinguishable leadership of Willard (Mitt) Romney, an affable parachute artist from Utah who came tumbling into and out of our politics so quickly that it's hard to believe he ever was here. For the most part, Romney was the kind of Republican we'd always liked: He was rich and white, and he wasn't dramatically concerned with either the civil rights of zygotes, or where some men might be putting their pee-pees when Jeebus...

Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) held a fundraiser in Manhattan last week and outperformed Pres. Obama's own cash grab a day later on behalf of the DCCC, another sign of trouble brewing for Dems this cycle in all corners of the country. Romney headlined an event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on May 12 that raised $1.5M for his Free and Strong America PAC. By contrast, Obama's appearance at the St. Regis Hotel on May 13 raked in a lesser $1.3 million for the DCCC.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) thinks Mitt Romney will win the GOP nomination for president in 2012. Schwarzenegger predicted on the Tonight Show on Thursday night the former Massachusetts governor will emerge from what could be a crowded field. "I think maybe Romney by a hair," he said. Schwarzenegger also lamented that he can't run himself because the Constitution requires the president to be born in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly 4 million Americans—the vast majority of them middle class—will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released Thursday. The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report. Most of the people paying the fine will be middle class. Obama pledged in 2008 not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000. Republicans have criticized the penalties, even though...

Seated on the same side of an antique table before a large audience, Presidents Barack Obama and Dimitri Medvedev smile at one another as they exchange documents encased in red and black leather folders. The new START treaty has been signed, completing a journey Obama began when he visited the Czech Republic a year ago and announced his intention to begin ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He has reset relations between Russia and the United States and fulfilled a dream of another American President: Ronald Reagan. The cold war is over. Back in America, the former half-term governor of...

The Drudge Report made it the headline story Saturday night: ROMNEY WINS STRAW POLL RESULTS. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the former governor of Massachusetts, who, incidentally, signed into law the state health care system upon which Obamacare is based, narrowly edged Ron Paul in the informal poll of potential GOP candidates for 2012. Sarah Palin was third in the polling, with Newt Gingrich finishing out the top four. Some of the big guns in the conservative movement and the Republican Party will make a big story out of this, as they have been pulling for Romney since the...

Mitt Romney, the once and likely future presidential candidate, didn’t show up to address the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, but that didn’t stop him from walking away with the big prize from the gathering. The former Massachusetts governor bested the competition in a straw poll conducted here over the past two days. Romney received 24 percent of a total of 1,806 ballots cast when voters were asked to name the candidate they would support if the Republican primary for president were held today. [snip] A group whipping votes for Romney, Evangelicals for Mitt, spent the day handing out plastic pink...

April 10 Mitt Romney Wins Presidential Straw Poll at Republican Leadership Conference Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. The person who didn't attend the Southern Republican Leadership Conference won the 2012 GOP presidential straw poll. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. Sarah Palin finished in third place with 330 votes, while Newt Gingrich rounded it out with 321 votes. Several potential candidates addressed the three-day gathering which ended Saturday. Eyeing another presidential bid, Texas Rep. Ron Paul told...

Mitt Romney, along with some other Republicans likely to run for president in 2012, is raising money this year for congressional candidates who want to repeal President Barack Obama's sweeping health-care law. But as Mr. Romney tours to promote his new book, some people have been posing an uncomfortable question: If he opposes Mr. Obama's health-care policy, why did Mr. Romney shepherd a near-universal health-insurance system into law as governor of Massachusetts?

The thinking is that it won’t play well in some states, like Illinois, where the GOP’s got a shot at an unlikely pick-up, so rather than push some monolithic “repeal it” message nationwide, they’re going to let local candidates decide how much they want to push it or not. Which is politically savvy, but not a big confidence-booster in terms of their determination to roll this thing back should they get the numbers in Congress to do so. Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall might be burned by a fire that’s roaring through the conservative base:...

Mitt Romney may end up being the biggest GOP casualty of ObamaCare -- his 2012 presidential hopes dashed before he's even announced a bid. Mr. Romney has continued vociferously campaigning against ObamaCare even while defending a very similar universal health-care plan he signed into law as Massachusetts's governor in 2006. Last week, he inveighed on the National Review blog that "President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation . . . . he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends." Critically, Republicans need to win the presidency in order to...