Free Republic

In any partnership, the coin of the realm is trust and responsibility - in other words, saying what you mean and doing what you say. In the dramatic rescue on July 2 of 15 hostages, including three Americans, held captive for many years by guerrillas and terrorists, deep in the Colombian jungles, we saw a powerful reminder that the United States has no better partner in South America than the government and people of Colombia. Colombia's leaders, especially President Uribe, had promised us that our three abducted citizens would be treated no differently than the many Colombian men and women...

I can't recall details, but in one of G.W. Bush's election campaigns, I vaguely recall a Democrat operative being discovered...someone doing tv commercials or something, I think. Now I know Obama is the Anointed One, but he probably also has operatives spread across America like so many tentacles of a vast left wing organization. In fact, he PROBABLY has a friend or two in high ranking places in the McCain campaign...telegraphing to him and his lackies the next moves the Arizona senator will take. Anyone care to theorize on who that might be? :)

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

American Jewish leaders yesterday predicted a big turnout among Jews in November's presidential election in favour of Barack Obama, in spite of suspicions about his views on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, an advocacy group with strong links to the Democratic party, said: "I think Obama will win the Jewish vote by a large margin. The question is how much?" Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, said American Jews' political affinity with African Americans, born of a shared experience of discrimination, could outstrip concerns...

Squeezing his thumb and forefinger together in the back of a Manchester bar last night, Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr told a crowd of 80 that when it counts, there's that much difference between the Republicans and Democrats. Americans, he argued, are looking for something new. "The definition of throwing your vote away is to go into that voting booth and vote for one of two parties that will not change the direction this country's going in," Barr told a crowd of about 80 at Murphy's Taproom. "And that's the Republicans or Democrats."

John McCain and Barack Obama have both changed positions in this campaign. That's OK. Voters understand that politicians can and, sometimes, should change their views. After all, voters do. Witness the wide swings in their answers to opinion polls. But before accepting the changes, voters typically ask themselves three questions: Does the candidate admit he's shifting? What's the new information that altered his thinking? Does the change seem reasonable and not calculating?

Washington - In a campaign week dominated by Barack Obama's trip abroad, the pro-John McCain camp has made headlines by complaining about coverage of Senator Obama's trip abroad. For Senator McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, crying foul on the news media represents a double-edged sword. On the plus side, he plays into the longstanding narrative that asserts reporters are rooting for Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, to win in November. Hillary Rodham Clinton played that card during the primaries, to some effect, but ultimately unsuccessfully.

The media already have gone over the top with their coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's international man-of-mystery tour. The endless photo sessions with the troops, foreign leaders, waving crowds -- it's just the most contrived pack of junk I've ever seen. But shame on the folks running the McCain campaign. They knew this week of endless glory for Obama was coming. Their response? They tell McCain to attend a baseball game, hold another boring town-hall meeting, have his photo taken with another Bush, and visit an oilrig. Sounds like the work of strategists bound and determined to destroy their candidate....

Political reporters have long been obsessed with conflict between presidential candidates and their running mates, at least since the days of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. That's probably one reason why McCain's joke in Detroit last week that Mitt Romney was "doing a better job for me than he did for himself" sparked a wave of news stories speculating that McCain was seriously considering, for the vice-presidential slot, his bitter rival turned loyal surrogate. But while choosing Romney to be his running mate would make Washington journalists happy, it would be nothing short of political suicide for McCain.

The Drudge Report ran a juicy item about the fact that only one reporter showed up to cover Republican John McCain at a campaign stop in New Hampshire the other day. Just one. The lonely print reporter from the Manchester Union Leader stood on the tarmac, waiting for McCain's plane to land. McCain, obviously upset at being dissed by yet another meager media throng, didn't stop to chat. "Did you ever notice that when John McCain is on TV he's always grumpy?" asked a colleague in the cafeteria who whispered, lest others denounce him for Barackian Thought Crimes. "McCain's always...

Bill O'Reilly Nails Robert WexlerTue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:11:12 PM Bill O'Reilly did a good number on "local" Congressman Robert Wexler tonight. And I think Wexler is in a bit of trouble. You see, the longtime Democratic rep says he lives in Delray Beach and he's required to maintain a residence in his district. But he really lives in Potomac MD. The house in Delray that he calls his "offical residence" is owned by Lawrence and Roslyn Cohen, the parents of Wexler's wife, Laurie. And it's in a restricted over-55 community, which makes it impossible for Wexler and and...

This morning while trying to contact an individual who claimed to be one “James Barry” at 202-449-9737 I received a heck of a shock. See the previous article so I do not have to repeat it here. Since posting the article this morning about the above phone number being answered by the DC Lobbyist Law Firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, several things have become known that causes me to be of the opinion that HW&G is not being completely honest about the association between its firm and the owner of the phone number which I was called from and...

Obama's Premature Inauguration Syndrome is still giving him trouble, witness the mass Obama rally scheduled for Berlin's SiegessSaeule or Victory Column, to celebrate his penetrating insight in foreign affairs. Google's top listing of this Ueberphallic Prussian monument has to be seen to be believed: It is a favorite Berlin gay newspaper, as you can see. You have to admit those Germans have a sense of humor. What superficial American tourists never understand, of course, is that just about  all those magnificent European monuments stand for historical massacres. Even the big cathedrals symbolize the religious wars of the Reformation, which killed...

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- Far from Amman, Jordan, where the world's news media were fixated on Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain told a town hall meeting here that U.S. troops "have succeeded, and we will win the war in Iraq." In midday remarks to a lively crowd in the old Rochester Opera House, McCain criticized Obama for sticking to his proposal for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. "Now he wants to reverse the success we have had and set a date for withdrawal," McCain said. He did not address recent statements supporting withdrawal by 2010 from the...

WASHINGTON -- The competing tax plans laid out by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain would both add trillions of dollars to the national debt and could add to the tax system's complexity, a nonpartisan tax research group concluded Wednesday in a newly released report. Both campaigns have asserted that their plans to continue many Bush-era tax cuts and offer new reductions would aid the economy without requiring massive new spending. But the Washington-based Tax Policy Center warned that under either candidate, "the debt would likely continue to rise as it has over the past eight years." Obama's plan --...

Cheering is guaranteed at Barack Obama's speech in Berlin on Thursday, but his campaign is still frustrated and nervous. His appearance in the German capital will be a major test for Obama -- and 40 American journalists will be there to report any faux pas he makes back to the US. Barack Obama's campaign is frustrated over all the vehement discussions about his speech in Berlin on Thursday. SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that the recent criticism took the campaign by surprise and frustrated Obama's advisors. At first many Europeans complained about Obama not coming to Europe, but then the criticism...

After Barack Obama's opening day in Iraq this week, the New York Times headline read, "For Obama, a First Step Is Not a Misstep." The story, by Richard Oppel Jr. and Jeff Zeleny, noted, "Mr. Obama seemed to have navigated one of the riskiest parts of a weeklong international trip without a noticeable hitch." That was the big nail-biter: Would Obama, the first-term senator and foreign-policy newbie, utter an irrevocably damaging gaffe? The nightmare scenarios were endless. Maybe he would refer to "the Iraq-Pakistan border," or call the Czech Republic "Czechoslovakia" (three times), or confuse Sunni with Shiite, or say...

Glenn has pretty well covered the imbroglio-inducing statement, but here’s a less-examined claim that really shows how separated from reality Klein has become: Obama, the poker player, has drawn to an inside straight: the Iraqis favor his plan over McCain’s long-term bases. Only the most intellectually dishonest reading of the situation could justify that statement; the WaPo has devoted an entire op-ed to debunking the ridiculous notion that Iraqis would rather see al-Ameriki withdraw on a fixed timetable from Washington without regard to conditions on the ground: But an Iraqi government statement made clear that Mr. Maliki’s timetable would extend...

One day after it was revealed that Sen. John McCain was to hold a closed-door meeting with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, Jindal said Wednesday that there is no way he will fill the bottom half of the GOP presidential ticket. "I'm not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president," Jindal told Fox News. "I'm going to help Sen. McCain get elected as governor of Louisiana." "Let me be clear: I have said in every private and public conversation, I've got the job that I want," Jindal said. It's not uncommon for those being considered for...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Party Unity My A--! Not exactly the slogan you want heading into your presidential nominating convention, but one that is being repeated online and in neighborhood bars by a group of disenchanted Democrats, who have dubbed themselves PUMAs. Why are they angry? It all depends on whom you ask. Some of the PUMAs accuse Democratic leaders of rigging the primaries to favor Sen. Barack Obama, while others feel that he is not qualified to be the party nominee, let alone competent enough to lead the country. Kim Mann said she thinks that Obama is too liberal. Webster...

Hillary used to go ballistic in frustration at the latest rather shameless incarnation of Obama, and McCain should not fall into the same malady. He understandably is angry because Obama, whose opposition to the surge and erstwhile desire to be done with Iraq by March 2007 would have lost the war, rode the anti-war wave when it was popular, and now, in his current metamorphosis to centrist, has piggy-backed onto the good news in Iraq as if it had nothing to do with the surge — as if McCain's lonely support for it either never happened or was irrelevant. And...

If, like many Americans, you are alarmed at the thought of a Barack Obama’s leadership potential and are committed to Stop-Him-Now, we invite you to join the newly created “Obama’s Enemies List.” In true Nixonian style, Sen. Barack Obama’s paranoid website links a list of political enemies that are allegedly conducting a covert internet campaign against him. The information on the site is not only inaccurate, it does the very thing it is claiming to stop, a smear campaign. Obama may be thinking he is JFK but he is acting like Dick Nixon, completely paranoid. To Obama, engaging in...

If you want to start worrying about the presidential election this year, you can look at the comparison between 1996 and 2008. John McCain is a similar candidate to Bob Dole--a war hero, running on his experience, but also somewhat past his political prime. The Democrats had the advantage of incumbency in 1996, but of course Bill Clinton had been rebuked by voters in 1994. In July 1996, Democrats only enjoyed a 5.1 percent advantage in generic congressional polls. Yet in late July, Clinton was ahead of Dole in one Harris poll by 22 percent and in a Gallup poll...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One year ago this week, Barack Obama promised activists with the nation's largest abortion business that the first thing he would do as president is overturn every pro-life law in all 50 states. He said his first action would be signing the mislabeled Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). The measure, if it becomes law, would codify Roe v. Wade by making the infamous Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited abortions the law of the land. But it would go further and overturn hundreds of state laws that have put limits on abortion like parental involvement, partial-birth abortion...

Pick the best song for their devotion. Video at link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. stock market would fare better in the first year after a victory by Republican presidential candidate John McCain than by his Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a majority of economists at U.S. banks and research groups polled by Reuters. But the survey of 29 firms taken alongside a regular Reuters economic poll also found that economists had mixed views on the two candidates' economic plans. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "very good," 12 economists gave McCain's proposals higher marks, while nine rated the two candidates equally and eight preferred...

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, in Israel, Barack Obama once again demonstrated that his words really don't matter. When asked about his support for meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "without precondition," Barack Obama said, "I think what I said" was that he would meet with these leaders "at my time and choosing" and with "preparation." Unfortunately, for Barack Obama, that is not what he said and campaigned on for months: BARACK OBAMA: "What I Said" Was... Today, Barack Obama Claimed He Said Last Year That He Would Meet With Leaders "At My Time And Choosing" With "Preparation." QUESTIONER: "A...

(SNIP) Among those following the campaign is Shera Greenwich, a mother of two living at a shelter run by the Henry St. Settlement in New York City. As she waits to move into a subsidized apartment, she says issues including economic security and obtaining quality healthcare are her focus, and she plans to vote Democratic. "I see so much change in the future if Obama is elected President," she said. "I think he can get America back on track." OBSTACLES TO VOTING Advocacy groups campaign each election season to get the homeless to register to vote, noting they often face...

If anyone could lay claim totheir state's Republican Party, it's Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland. The 53-year-old international business consultant is the former outreach director for the Ohio Republican Party, for starters. She helped deliver the swing state to President Bush in his 2004 re-election bid in which he garnered 16 percent of the black vote. Among her Republican credentials, Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye worked in several high-level positions during the Reagan and Bush administrations of the late 1980s and was the press secretary for George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial campaign in 1994. In the 1980s, she was an assistant national desk editor...

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 23 /Standard Newswire/ -- Let Freedom Ring just launched its first television ad campaign of this election cycle titled, "Both Ways Barack", pointing out that presidential candidate Barack Obama has conflicting positions on many issues and "holds two positions at the same time" making him "worse than a flip-flopper." The ad may be viewed in its entirety at http://www.BothWaysBarack.com. The television campaign will be featured on CNN, MSNBC and FOX, awaiting clearance from other national broadcast and cable networks. Several hundred thousand dollars will be spent on the campaign in its opening phase. The national radio campaign...

While Barack Obama is speaking about international affairs in Germany before thousands of fans tomorrow, John McCain will be talking about a pressing domestic issue with an equally striking if very different backdrop. Weather permitting, McCain will helicopter from Louisiana to an oil rig in the Gulf Coast to make the case for expanded off-shore drilling, says a McCain aide.

<p>How big of a Democratic gain will occur in the Senate come November? We know that this is the right question to ask in a year of a spirited Democratic primary, much enthusiasm in the party of Jackson and lopsided Senate terrain. Twenty-three Republican-held Senate seats are up for grabs, of which five are incumbent retirements, compared to just 12 Democratic seats and no Democratic retirements. Enthusiasm plus tilted terrain equals big problems for Republicans.</p>

First, they can't even understand what the hell the Messiah is proposing. Furthermore, it is not completely clear what he is promising. [snip] “What we’re trying to do,” said one of the advisers, David Cutler, in explaining the gap between Mr. Obama’s words and his intent, “is find a way to talk to people in a way they understand.” Try English, moron. See, socialists have a hard time explaining these "complicated" policies to the little people because the have to dodge, hedge, and deflect, lest someone figure out that the policy is an utter boondoggle designed to take away our...

In fact, as much as he despised Clinton, Barr thinks President Bush is worse. "What George W. Bush has done to the fabric of our constitutional government, to separation of powers, to a government of limited powers is absolutely unforgivable," he said. That prospect is greatest in Barr's home state of Georgia. Obama is already running ads targeting an untapped pool of African Americans and younger voters. State polls suggest Barr's single-digit following pulls mostly from McCain. "If Barr can win 5 or 6 points of the total vote -- it's an if but it's conceivable -- then Obama could...

JERUSALEM — Barack Obama doesn’t travel light. Halfway around the world, the Obama campaign machine appears as sprawling and seamless as it is on its home turf. As the presumptive Democratic nominee tours five countries in five days, he brings an entourage that would make a pop star envious. A dozen top foreign policy advisers are either traveling with Obama or doing ground work ahead of his arrival in each country. This group is supplemented by his usual contingent of almost a dozen traveling aides, including chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs, and too many advance...

Boehner Rejects 'Contract With America' Republican Candidates On Their Own in Congressional Elections By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — In the 2008 congressional elections, it will be every Republican for himself. Republicans on Capitol Hill are rejecting a sequel to the successful "Contract With America" campaign that won them the majority in Congress in 1994, a top party official said yesterday. "There will be no effort to try to nationalize the elections," the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner, told reporters at a lunch sponsored by the American Spectator magazine and Americans...

Debra Bartoshevich received e-mail notification Monday evening about a conference call to decide her fate as a delegate. Rachel Strauch-Nelson, communications director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the group also tried to reach Bartoshevich by phone Monday afternoon. The conference call will take place Friday and Bartoshevich will have an opportunity to explain why she should remain a delegate despite her reported endorsement for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. ORIGINAL STORY: Members of Wisconsin’s Democratic Party will vote Friday on the delegate status of Debra Bartoshevich, a Democratic National Convention delegate from Waterford who has publicly supported Republican...

Obama to Israel: Put Terrorism in Context The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) issued the following statement today: Senator Obama in Jordan today said that terrorism makes 'Israelis want to dig in and simply think about their own security regardless of what's going on beyond their borders.' What Senator Obama fails to recognize is that the safety and security of its citizenry is the primary obligation of a country's leadership. In essence, Senator Obama is asking Israelis and the American Jewish community to put terrorism in context. Senator Obama continues his rhetoric of moral equivalence by implying that measures taken by...

A dozen top foreign policy advisers are either traveling with Obama or doing groundwork ahead of his arrival in each country. This group is supplemented by his usual contingent of almost a dozen traveling aides, including chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs, and too many advance staff to count. With layers of Secret Service agents, they zipped through Amman Tuesday in a motorcade of 20 vehicles. The mix of policy and political advisers reflects the split dimension of the senator’s tour through Europe and the Middle East: Even as his closest aides insist that the trip...

Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the guy who brought you lyrics that equate the CIA with the KKK and seem to yearn for those always mystical golden days ("whatever happened to humanity") is no student of history and would thus make a video that sounds creepily reminiscent of a -- well, hell, I hate to say it -- a Hitler rally. It's one thing for a stadium full of drunk people to shout out the name of a rock band. I'll even give a pass to people who've worked hard in a campaign getting riled up during...

Gas taxes are for the little people not Democratic party dignitaries. The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city's gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today. "There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me," Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said. ...Faatz asked if it was customary to have "fleets for dignitaries" not pay for highway taxes if they're using government fuel facilities. (Mayor...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama got more than he bargained for from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki barely after his military crash course in the Middle East's war zones began. The freshman senator, making only his second trip to Iraq in two years, after a quick tutorial visit to Afghanistan (his first), got a well-timed campaign gift from Maliki, who embraced his plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops 16 months after taking office. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Maliki refused to take sides in the race, but, when asked about Obama's pullout timeline, he said, "Whoever is...

(Reactions outside U.S. having an impact back home) If the clamor over Democrat Barack Obama's foreign trip illustrates anything beyond his sheer celebrity abroad, it is the degree to which this American election is being "internationalized." It's not simply that interest in the race outside the United States is off the charts. Or that both presumptive nominees, Obama and Republican John McCain, have interrupted their campaigning this year to boost their leadership credentials overseas. It's also the intense and unpredictable interplay between politics here and abroad - how the contest is shaping political debate in other countries, how the candidates...

id that it would fail. I supported it when it was the toughest thing to do. I believe that my record on national security and keeping this country safe is there. And the American people will examine our records, and I will win." That's John McCain explaining why he'll win. He's wrong. He's leading a loud chorus of conservatives and Republicans desperate to make the surge the defining issue of the campaign. In an editorial for the conservative Weekly Standard, Fred Kagan (the primary intellectual author of the surge strategy) wrote: "It would be hard to design a better test...

"...In Colorado, Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by seven percentage points, 49% to 42%. However, when leaners are included, McCain is more competitive and pulls to within three points, 50% to 47%..." http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/colorado/election_2008_colorado_presidential_election

In yesterday's Post, we criticized Barack Obama's plan to "give health insurance to 47 million Americans who are now without coverage." We raised the question: "Are they Americans?" - noting that the 47 million statistic includes those who've come here illegally and are subject to deportation. The Obama campaign complains that the senator has no such plan. Indeed, he's said his plan "does not" cover illegals: "We've got limited resources. And it is important for us that, when we've got millions of US citizens that aren't yet covered, it's important for us to make sure that they are provided coverage."...

The fringe candidates in this election cycle – Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Bob Barr of the Libertarians, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, Ralph Nader in his independent run – all to some extent rely on deeply paranoid conspiracy theories to power their campaigns. In this, they honor a long and embarrassing tradition for third parties, who have usually blamed their own lack of power or influence on the diabolical plots of some secretive group or another. In fact, the first significant third party in American history arose from fears that a popular fraternal organization actually constituted a...

MANCHESTER – On his third visit to New Hampshire in four months, John McCain yesterday defended his energy and tax cut plans, his votes on home heating assistance and said the United States is clearly winning the war in Iraq. McCain, placed by two recent state polls in a dead heat with Barack Obama in this battleground state, said he would consider the viability of uncapping the long-closed Seabrook Unit 2 to determine if it may fit with his plan to open 45 nuclear reactors across the country by 2030 to help the nation become energy independent. And with Obama...

Lest there be any illusions about the desired target audience for Obama’s trip, the foreign media, including the BBC, have been left on the Tarmac. Only American reporters are on board “Obama One” as his plane heads from one country to the next. He will have a 45-minute meeting on Saturday morning with Gordon Brown followed by a press conference, which Obama will conduct on his own outside Downing Street in a blatant departure from the usual protocol. There will be no Brown at his side to spoil the No 10 backdrop for American voters, even though it would be...