Free Republic

Anti-Donald Trump forces are expanding their offensive against the Republican front-runner, releasing a TV advertisement in Florida just days before the state's primary that spotlights a former Trump University salesman who says he was "ashamed" to work for the online school. In the 60-second ad, the employee, named Cliff, describes receiving "nonstop calls with complaints" from customers unhappy with Trump University services. He also talks about the school's low ratings from the Better Business Bureau. "I think I walked away from the job because I couldn't sleep at night," Cliff says. "With Donald Trump, you always have to read the...

The new ad from American Future Fund Political Action. Offensive. Out of Control. America Can do Better.

With Wall Street out of fashion this election season, can Mitt Romney fend off the attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital? Some GOP presidential rivals, especially Newt Gingrich, have laid into his private equity past, accusing him of "looting companies" and laying off workers. While those attacks may backfire now — conservatives have rallied to Romney's defense — they might work in the general election.

Money may not be buying Mitt Romney much Republican love, but it’s going a long way toward helping him buy the next best thing: endorsements in the GOP primaries. Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC and its affiliates states have lavished close to $1.3 million in campaign donations to federal, state and local GOP politicians, almost all since 2010. His recipients include officials in the major upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in three southern Super Tuesday states where he was trounced four years ago. In New Hampshire, a U.S. senator, a congressman, 10 state senators...

Did someone create a company for the sole purpose of giving to a political action committee trying to boost Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign? That's what it looks like. As The Ticket reported earlier this week, three firms gave $1 million apiece to Restore Our Future, a conservative "super PAC" planning to spend millions to help Romney's White House bid. One of those companies was W. Spann LLC, a mysterious New York-based company that apparently closed up shop last month shortly after its contribution to the pro-Romney PAC. As NBC News's Michael Isikoff reports, the company was formed in March...

With attendance bursting at the seams, this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference clearly benefited from the new recruits and fresh energy stirred up by the nascent tea party movement. But the secret ingredient to the enormous success of this year’s largest-ever CPAC was the steady hand of experienced leadership behind the scenes that ensured everything went smoothly. It is precisely that kind of skillful guidance that will be needed for the tea party movement to coalesce and realize its enormous potential. Spontaneous, grassroots uprisings are exhilarating and the tea parties and health care townhalls last year helped flatten the Democratic...

(excerpt) This moment at CPAC is even more important for the conservative movement as it happened at an important time when there is already a generational change going on in America. Boomers are fading, Xer’s are ruling, and Millenials are finding their way. Forty-eight percent of those who participated in the CPAC straw poll last week identified themselves as students. They are the future of conservativism. And they shouted down an anti-gay bigot. There will surely be other homocon-related clashes within the conservative movement, just as the Democrat Party has regularly used the gay community as pawns in their re-election...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney blamed President George W. Bush for the Republican Party’s slow start in advancing clear alternatives to the stimulus package, and said the party needs a more unified voice if it is to stand up to the Democrats. “I wish the president would have laid [a stimulus package] out before he left office, so that in September, October, November, December, there would have been a stimulus plan,” Romney said in an interview with POLITICO, adding that the GOP has yet to come up with unified policy proposals or a clear, positive voice. “What’s challenging about being...