Free Republic

The illusion of supposed conservatism, for scholars like Strauss and for politicians like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, is that the political spectrum in America has shifted so far to the Left that yesterday’s liberals are today’s conservatives says Author and Speaker Jeff Nyquist... Consider the state of America: marriage is no longer an enforceable contract in most states (i.e., no fault divorce); even more telling, homosexual marriage is increasingly acceptentage of the population attending religious services has been falling steadily for years, along with honesty and our nation’s work ethic.....It would seem that conservatives have nothing left to...

"The main reason the Republican establishment overwhelmingly favors Mitt Romney over Newt Gingrich is that Romney stands a better chance of beating Barack Obama," says Jonathan Chait at New York. So it's a problem for Romney that "as the campaign goes on, this seems to be growing less true." A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that negative views of Romney have "spiked" over the past two weeks, from a net +4 favorability rating (39 positive/34 negative) to a -18 rating (31 positive/49 negative) — very similar to Gingrich's -22 rating (29/51). The shift is most notabe among independents, who...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

Romney leads our newest poll with 22% to 17% for Herman Cain, 15% for Sarah Palin, 9% for Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty, 8% for Michele Bachmann, 7% for Ron Paul, and 1% for Jon Huntsman. Romney's strength is with those voters for whom electability is the paramount concern. He gets 27% with them to 14% each for Cain and Palin and 12% for Pawlenty. With GOP partisans more concerned about ideology Romney is third at 16%, behind Cain's 22% and Palin's 18%. If Palin doesn't run Romney's lead expands. He gets 27% to 20% for Cain, 13% for Bachmann,...

This disarray in the Republican Party has reached some dizzying depth, Bill O’Reilly explained last night, as no candidate or public official has taken hold of the party. With several candidates as long shots or complete unknowns, O’Reilly concluded Mitt Romney had the best chance, but no one was going to defeat President Obama without having “a little Trump in them.” O’Reilly began his program last night with a quick evaluation of each candidate left: “Newt Gingrich is done as a serious candidate,” he explained, why Rep. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum were “long shots.” Sarah Palin could...