Free Republic

...played a role in the death of Ilyona Soptic at age 55. The ad features Joe Soptic, 62, of Missouri, who lost his job when GST Steel of Kansas City—owned by Bain and other investors for eight years—was closed. As melancholy music plays, Mr. Soptic says that when the plant closed, he and his family lost their health-care coverage and "a short time after that, my wife became ill." Her illness was diagnosed five years later. "I don't think Mitt Romney understands what he's done to people's lives by closing the plant," Mr. Soptic says in the ad. The steel...

Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India. This revelation comes mere days after the Democratic chair attacked presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for holding money in Swiss bank accounts in the past. "Americans need to ask themselves, why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?" the DNC chair, a chief surrogate for President Obama's reelection team, said on Fox News Sunday two days ago. "Just...

Ed Rendell joins Harold Ford and Cory Booker as critics within Barack Obama’s own party of his electoral strategy of demonizing private equity. In a BuzzFeed article that focuses on the larger disconnect between Obama and Democratic Party institutions, Zeke Miller gets the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania — a state critical to Obama’s re-election hopes — on the record as decidedly uncomfortable with the tone of Team Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital: Rendell joined the chorus of criticism of Obama’s attacks on finance, whose leaders have written checks to many members of both parties. “I think they’re very disappointing,”...

When I see the fervor of Sarah Palin’s fans — and by no means just those who swell the adoring crowds who go to her public appearances — I am convinced that the question is not, “How can she win the GOP nomination?” but “How can she not win it?” When you have anywhere between five and fifteen GOP candidates, all expressing basically the same conservative views, how can anyone other than the only one with the passionate fan base possibly win? And yet: Reading between the lines of what conservative-movement people are saying and writing, there is a great deal...

A journalist yesterday asked me a thought-provoking question: Why does Sarah Palin command so much media attention? By most measures, she currently stands about equal in the Republican field alongside Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and only a little ahead of Newt Gingrich. Yet the cable shows do not erupt when Mitt Romney makes a speech. Newt Gingrich is on Twitter almost every day, but his messages don’t make news. So why Palin? Five guesses. 1) She polarizes. Modern media culture favors contrast and conflict. Sarah Palin serves both up by the bucketful. Most presidential candidates present themselves as gracious and...

You know, many mediocre politicians are using the tea party as a vehicle to get elected.. It's weird. Many politicians claim they are conservative but don't have a track record we can check. Other politicians who are truly conservative, but unfortunately have this long track record, are brutally attacked for any little mistake they made in the past. This is ridiculous. Maybe the best way to get true conservatives elected is to put substance over rhetoric.

Spencer Bachus is trying to dig out out of the hole he dug when he slammed Sarah Palin this weekend. Bachus is in line to chair the powerful Financial Services Committee, but is facing a challenge from Ed Royce of California, and now from pro-Palin Tea Partiers who will watch this decision by John Boehner for signs of old boy networks trumping the new politics of grass roots activism. Most of the focus of the Tea Party activists had been on the competition between Fred Upton and John Shimkus for chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but with...

WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican says Sarah Palin cost the GOP control of the Senate. Questioned about those comments on Tuesday, a spokesman for Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama said the remarks had been taken out of context but didn't retract them. Bachus, in line to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, initially blamed Palin last week at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. According to the Shelby County Reporter, he said the Senate would be in Republican hands if not for losses by tea party candidates endorsed by the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential...

Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin. She who can rouse the base like none other is now She to Whom Respect Must Be Paid. Like it or not. Many within the so-called party establishment don't quite know what to do about Palin. She's adored by Tea Partyers, to whom she conveniently attached herself as soon as she sensed a shift in the air. A rogue like Palin isn't going to let a rogue movement fill a stadium - or a desert - without her. She also...

Does this really surprise anyone? Currently, the liberal psuedo-news site the Huffington Post has a gigantic picture of former VP candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and a 99 font size (and all capital letters) "GOTCHA" on the front of their website: The picture, which intentionally tries to mock Palin, links to an article by the Huffington Post that states that Palin "misquoted" a story in the Wall Street Journal. However, if you wade through the article and past the liberal slant, you would realize that Mrs. Palin is telling the truth. If you read the article, Palin stated that...

COLUMBIANA — Shelby County’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin likely cost the Republican Party control of the U.S. Senate. Bachus made his remarks on Nov. 4 at the monthly luncheon meeting of the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, held at the Columbiana United Methodist Church. “The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware,” Bachus said. “Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate.” He said Tea Party candidates did well in U.S. House races, but in the U.S....

Thought I should start an open threat post-election. Some observations: 1: Christie O'Donnell was a disaster. Despite plenty of money she received less votes than the GOP candidate for the Delaware's sole Congressional seat. I knows it pains me to say this but Rove was right. Angel was another huge disappointment. She recevied less votes than the total GOP vote for the Congressional seats in NV. Lets stop running amateurs who provide plenty of material for the likes of SNL and John Stewart.Related to (1). Strong conservative candidates with experience and good backgrounds did very well for example, Rubio, Paul,...

Meghan McCain had a few choice words for Christine O'Donnell on 'The Talk' (weekdays, syndicated), questioning the GOP Senate candidate's state of mind, but declining to comment specifically on Sarah Palin. "I ... called her a nutjob," McCain said tersely of O'Donnell. "I feel the same way right now." When asked by Julie Chen whether she thought Palin was unfair to father John McCain's campaign team after the 2008 Presidential election, McCain was cagey and instead mentioned who she plans to support in 2012. "It's irrelevant at this point. I've so moved on," she said. "I'm looking at 2012. I've...

David Frum has finally jumped the shark. Some conservative/right-of-center folks may have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before but playing the race card is something that is universally despised by conservative and moderates. Frum pulls the race card from the bottom of the deck against Governor Palin's new ad: Here’s Sarah Palin’s new ad. Lots of images of the former governor speaking to adoring crowds, meeting admirers, encountering women and children.... Republicans normally work hard to ensure that their ads feature non-white faces, to present an image of welcome and inclusion. In Palin’s ad --...

Yesterday, I was interviewed by a reporter for CBS, for a story on the diverse groups of people supporting Sarah Palin online. The reporter authored a book on Palin last year, after being embedded with her vice presidential campaign, following a stint covering Mittens Romney. I can’t imagine how many cucumbers-and-mayonnaise sandwiches this guy had to eat on the Romney Express (to nowhere), but I gave him the same kind of awed respect I grant anyone who’s ever spent more than half an hour with Tim Pawlenty — and didn’t succumb to T-Paw induced narcolepsy. We (the reporter and I,...

The liberal media watchdog group Media Matters is fuming over CNN’s hiring of conservative RedState blogger Erick Erickson. In a document provided POLITICO that Media Matters plans to post on its blog Tuesday, the group accuses Erickson of having a “long history of incendiary, sexist and racially charged statements.” “If you need any further proof that the liberal media bias is a myth, CNN just hired someone who called David Souter a goat——ing child molester,” Media Matters Vice President of Research and Communication Ari Rabin-Havt told POLITICO. The document includes many other profane Erickson statements, including the vulgar phrase highlighted...

Mara Gay Contributor AOL News (March 16) -- This time, it's partisan. About a month after a billboard of former President George W. Bush with the question "Miss Me Yet?" was spotted beside a Minnesota highway, a similarly mysterious billboard has appeared in the state. This one features Ronald Reagan, and, unlike the original billboard, the message is unmistakably conservative: "Remember Real Hope and Change?" the sign asks, openly mocking President Barack Obama's campaign slogan.

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

COL John “Jack” Sallee was a good man. Witty, charming, and decisive, he had a way of cutting through the BS. He was my Commanding Officer in the Army. I was sorry to hear of his passing. He prominently displayed a sign on the wall of his office in the headquarters building. Perhaps it was a warning to his troops, but I think it was an endearing, sort of self-deprecating reminder. In big, bold letters it read: “DON’T DO DUMB THINGS”. It was simple, eloquent, and said it all—good advice for all of us. I wish Sarah Palin had met...

Anyone see the hit piece on Palin? I can't believe what I heard/saw.