Free Republic

NYT, Examiner, Washington Post, others. Several stories at link. This one is unusual. Didn't know how to post.

It's one thing to be upset with the so-called Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Barack Obama and his destructive policies, but it's another for a GOP presidential candidate to exploit that anger illegitimately against a fellow anti-establishment candidate. Many of us have been critical of the GOP leadership for opposing conservatives in GOP primaries, not backing conservatives in office trying to do the right thing, always advising that Republicans dilute their message to attract independent voters and not sufficiently recognizing the threat President Obama represents to this nation and opposing his agenda. From the beginning, grass-roots conservatives,...

Brace yourselves, America, because this year's Republican National Convention is going to be a doozy As we crawl towards the halfway point of this execrable primary season — nope, we’re not quite halfway to the end yet! — there is one question that may come to haunt the Donald Trump campaign if he does not ultimately win the nomination: Is it already too late for him to seed state delegations with enough loyalists who will vote for him in the event the party convention in July requires multiple ballots to pick a nominee? Before we get to that, though, a...

In Politico's Playbook newsletter on Monday morning, there's a bit of inside-D.C. nonsense that neatly represents why the city's political class reads Playbook. Maybe, it suggests, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan could end up being the nominee! Skeptical? Well, A Guy did some math:

On several occasions in October, Donald Trump tweeted links to stories at Prntly.com, a blog that didn’t exist during the last election cycle. One story (now offline but copied here) indicated that Trump’s support from blue-collar workers was the highest since Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. Prntly popped up again last week as the source of a rumor about the Ted Cruz campaign. The site cut and pasted an old story about Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe. The headline suggested that perhaps Roe had approved the ad attacking Melania Trump run by an anti-Trump super PAC, but it offered no evidence...

Ted Cruz lashed out at Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that women who get abortions illegally should be punished. "Of course we shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity and the incredible gift they have to bring life into the world,” he added. Trump was asked what a nationwide ban on abortion would look like in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews. “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said. “For the woman?” Matthews asked. “Yeah, there has to be some form,” Trump responded. Trump's comments sparked a firestorm....

Donald Trump on Friday denied claims from fellow 2016 Republican presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that Trump’s friends at the National Enquirer and Trump “political henchmen” are behind a story that the Texas senator engaged in several extramarital affairs. Trump posted a statement on Friday responding to the Cruz accusation: I have no idea whether or not the cover story about Ted Cruz in this week’s issue of the National Enquirer is true or not, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it, and have not, as yet, read it. Likewise, I...

Poll: Nearly Half Of Republican Women Wouldn't Vote For Trump By GABBY MORRONGIELLO 3/24/16 A new survey of women voters suggests a general election contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could be disastrous for the Republican Party. Nearly half of the female Republican electorate (47 percent) currently has a difficult time imagining voting for Trump as the Republican presidential nominee, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Far fewer say the same of Trump's two remaining opponents, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (32 percent) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (27 percent). Trump also has the worst favorability rating...

Fox News Poll: Cruz, Kasich Ahead of Clinton In 2016 Hypothetical Matchups By Dana Blanton Published March 23, 2016 FoxNews.com Republicans are eager to win back the White House in 2016. A new Fox News national poll finds both John Kasich and Ted Cruz ahead of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in hypothetical matchups, while Donald Trump trails her. Kasich does best against Clinton. He has a double-digit advantage and also comes in above the 50 percent mark: 51 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent. Cruz is preferred over Clinton by three percentage points (47-44 percent). Clinton tops GOP front-runner Donald Trump...

In the wake of the attacks in Brussels, Ted Cruz said in part: “Donald Trump is wrong that America should withdraw from the world and abandon our allies. Donald Trump is wrong that American should retreat from Europe, retreat from NATO, hand Putin a major victory and while he’s at it hand ISIS a major victory.” Trumpsters, of course, took Cruz’s comments as a personal insult to Trump, saying that Cruz “blamed” Trump for the Islamic terror attack in Brussels. Pro-Putin conspiracy theorists InfoWars posted a video quoting Cruz saying “It is striking that the day after Donald Trump called for weakening...

March 21, 2016 DONALD TRUMP AND HILLARY CLINTON VIEWED UNFAVORABLY BY MAJORITY - CBS/NYT POLL By Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus, Jennifer De Pinto, Sarah Dutton More than half of the states have held a primary or caucus, and registered voters nationwide now hold negative opinions of the political parties' current frontrunners. More than half of voters have unfavorable views of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; each has a net negative rating in the double-digits. Trump 57% Negative vs. Hillary 52% Compared to frontrunners in previous presidential primary races, Trump and Clinton's unfavorable ratings (57 percent and 52 percent respectively) are...

Donald Trump was the clear favorite in today’s winner-take-all Arizona primary, even before the Brussels terrorist attacks. The immigration issue and the flood of early voters favors him, as does the fact that some of those early voters will have cast ballots for Marco Rubio before he dropped out last Tuesday night. If they had known Rubio would no longer be a candidate, many of those voters might have gone with Cruz. But polls have been tricky and often erratic this year (think Michigan and the surprise win of Bernie Sanders). For example, the latest poll showing a 14 point...

I raised an eyebrow at this detail in a WRAL story that’s circulating this afternoon: Last week, Trump visited Concord and Fayetteville in rallies that attracted thousands of attendees. During the rally in Fayetteville, a protester was assaulted as he was escorted from Crown Coliseum by police. A Linden man was later charged in the incident, and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigators said Monday that they are considering filing a charge of inciting a riot against Trump. Fayetteville is where one of Trump’s fans sucker-punched a protester who was being led out of the building. Trump said yesterday that he...

The violence last night in Chicago that resulted in the cancelation of a Donald Trump campaign rally won't affect the votes of the candidate's most ardent supporters – or opponents. But there are a lot of voters who want to support Trump but aren't sure about him. Then there are voters who lean against supporting Trump but who are persuadable. It is those two classes of voters who could turn this GOP primary campaign on a dime and either give Trump a runaway victory or lead to a loss of support that would hand Ted Cruz a golden opportunity to...

CBS Reporter Arrested At Trump Rally: 'I've Never Seen Anything Like What I'm Witnessing' by Ahiza Garcia and Brian Stelter @CNNMoney March 12, 2016: The president of CBS News is standing by one of the network's journalists who was arrested outside a Donald Trump rally that was canceled amid violence between Trump supporters and protesters. David Rhodes tweeted that journalist Sopan Deb, who was covering the rally at the University of Illinois' Chicago campus on Friday, was handcuffed and charged with resisting arrest. "On tape you see he did not resist, identified himself as working press," Rhodes said in his...

Donald Trump Defends Use Of Violence Against Rally Protesters Again: Supporters Should ‘Swing Back’ By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Friday, March 11, 2016 Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Friday defended his supporters’ use of violence against protesters at his campaign rallies, arguing they should respond if anti-Trump protesters start a fight. Mr. Trump cited an incident at a Nevada rally last month where he said a protester lashed out violently at security guards. “He was a guy who was swinging, very loud and he started swinging. And you know what? The audience swung back, and it...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been taking criticism from pro-life voters for his repeated claims that the Planned Parenthood abortion business does “good work” and “wonderful things.” Today the head of the abortion company took notice and said she appreciates Trump’s kind words about it. “This is one thing I agree with Donald Trump on,” Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards said. Below is the transcript and video of Richards’ interview with MSNBC: MITCHELL: “Cecile, as the head of Planned Parenthood, you’ve been through the mill with all of the controversy in the past couple of months. Here is Donald...