Free Republic

Balance the GOP presidential ticket? Nah! That's Democrat stuff. Mitt Romney has the chance to a make a powerful statement with his V.P. choice. Governor Scott Walker -- a boring white guy's white guy -- is about to make a very powerful statement in Wisconsin. A thumbs-up by Wisconsin voters for Walker in next Tuesday's recall election would be a huge victory for bold governmental reform. A Walker victory establishes that Republicans can enact significant reforms and survive onslaughts by public-sector labor unions, the left, and the dependent classes. For conservative reformers, a Walker recall win is the modern equivalent...

After the 2010 blowout that sent so many deserving DeMarxists into retirement, I wrote that it was just the beginning. Conventional wisdom has it that the millions of conservative patriots throughout this country that came together to make this historic upset possible couldn’t make it happen again… conventional wisdom for the badly battered DeMarxists and their RINO allies, anyway. The rest of us weren’t convinced. We watched the high tide of American disgust sweep across the communist-dominated Congress with grim satisfaction. Patriot groups across the nation immediately began consolidating conservative gains and planning for the next 2012 blowout. Yes, blow...

Did Trump recently state that Obama was "born in Kenya and raised in Idonesia" ? SAN DIEGO (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney isn't taking a position on supporter Donald Trump's return to the controversy over where President Barack Obama was born. Romney said Monday evening that while he doesn't agree with all the people who support him, he appreciates their help to get him at least 50.1 percent of the vote in November. Romney's comments come about 24 hours before appearing at fundraiser in Las Vegas that Trump is hosting. Earlier this week Trump again stated that Obama...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney chose Memorial Day to proclaim to the American people his conviction that the world is a dangerous place, and the United States must remain its most formidable military power. "The world is not safe," Romney told veterans on Memorial Day. He was joined by Senator John McCain, in a speech to honor the veterans of America's wars. The United States now has two paths forward, Romney said. He called one "the pathway to Europe," suggesting Europe had acquiesced to geopolitical threats. "To shrink our military smaller and smaller to pay for our social needs."...

Not too long ago pundits were arguing that Mitt Romney’s path to 270 electoral votes was “narrow.” We didn’t buy it. Lo and behold, conventional wisdom has now changed. The Associated Press writes: “Warning signs for Obama on tight path to 270.” The AP explains: Obama’s new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he’s to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November. Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the...

US veterans overwhelmingly support Mitt Romney over President Obama and are responsible for the former Massachusetts governor's advantage among men overall, according to a new analysis released Monday. Romney leads Obama 58 percent to 34 percent among veterans, while Obama holds a four-percentage-point advantage over Romney among nonveterans, according to Gallup. According to the data, 24 percent of all adult men are veterans, compared to two percent of adult women. The data were from an analysis of Gallup Daily Tracking interviews conducted from April 11-May 24. Among all registered voters, Obama and Romney are tied at 46 percent. Romney leads...

The Obama Administration has arranged to provide—free of charge—several customized special-operations military vessels to the Government of Kenya, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has learned. Finalization of those plans came exactly one week prior to today’s explosion in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Although officially it remains unclear whether the blast was the result of a utility problem or the work of terrorists, Reuters reports that a witness saw a man place a suspicious package in business-district building right before the explosion. The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding a noncompetitive “sole-source contract to United States Marine Incorporated (USMI)...

Things have spun out of control in the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case in Sanford, Fla. (“Zimmerman’s account of killing corroborated,” Web, Thursday). The police were instantly and unfairly blasted for failing to arrest Mr. Zimmerman, the Sanford police chief stepped down when he shouldn’t have, Mr. Zimmerman was already fingered as the guilty party before a thorough and fair investigation was completed, civil rights leaders descended upon the town pointing accusatory fingers, and a bounty was placed on Mr. Zimmerman’s head. In addition, media outlets and talking heads put their own spin on the story. The case has now devolved...

UP FOR GRABS (85): Colorado (9) — Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role. Florida (29) — Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage. Iowa (6)...

A group called the Tombstone Shovel Brigade is planning an event in the Huachuca Mountains in June in an effort to make additional repairs to the cityÂ’s water supply. The City of TombstoneÂ’s waterlines and reservoirs in the Coronado National Forest were damaged by mudslides after last yearÂ’s Monument Fire, and the U.S. Forest Service refused to let the city use heavy machinery in some areas, citing the Wilderness Act. Tombstone filed a lawsuit to prevent the Forest Service from interfering with its ability to adequately access the water, but a federal judge recently ruled against the city. According to...

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge. These data, from an analysis of Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted April 11-May 24, show that 24% of all adult men are veterans, compared with 2% of adult women. Obama and Romney are tied overall at 46% apiece among all registered voters in this sample. Men give Romney an eight-point edge, while women opt for Obama over Romney by seven points. It turns out...

President Barack Obama needs an agreement with Iran to get reelected, claims a senior Iranian legislator speaking to government-controlled media. Iran is locked in talks between six world powers, including the United States, over its unsupervised nuclear program and Tehran’s demand to enrich high-grade uranium. "No international consensus will be made for any measure in the next six months and until the presidential election in the US, and at present it is the US which is in need of an agreement with Iran and attempts to lead the western sides to the same path," said Mahdi Sanayee. A member of...

The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent because another 522,000 adults quit looking for work and are no longer counted. In the weakest recovery since the Great Depression more than four-fifths of the reduction in unemployment has been accomplished by a dropping adult labor force participation rate—essentially, persuading adults they don’t need a job, or the job they could find is not worth having. In the first quarter, growth slowed to 2.2 percent and was largely sustained by consumers taking on more debt, and additions to business inventory. Gains in manufacturing production have not instigated stronger improvements in employment largely...

This ought to be fun. Barack and Michelle Obama will welcome The Most Evil Man in the World (or as he's known outside the Democratic Party, George W. Bush) and his wife Laura to the White House next week, for the unveiling of their official portraits. Of course, this comes as the current president is in full campaign mode, and W. occupies the role of Obama's eternal scapegoat. It'll be no minor miracle if Obama can make it through the unveiling without blaming Bush for something. Such ceremonies often bring together current and former presidents with rivalries, grudges or awkward...

It’s amazing what a few competitive polls can do to concentrate the mind. Democrats had taken comfort for months in the Republican Party’s seeming inability to get behind Mitt Romney, Obama’s healthy lead in the polls, and equally healthy job growth. And for a few, fleeting, moments, Democrats thought the election might just be easy. But Republican division appears to have been merely an artifact of primary politics, and Mitt Romney has proved a consistent, if unglamorous campaigner… “There was this sense maybe a month or two ago that Obama was really riding high — that he had gotten his...

Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from three Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back. “No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization,” said Mr. LaBolt. ”The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink...

<p>One of President Barack Obama’s top campaign spokesmen is a private equity manager whose firm has shut down several factories and laid off hundreds of people amid a stalled economy.</p> <p>Federico Pena’s role at Vestar Capital Partners has emerged as Obama’s aides and deputies continue their effort to portray former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s investment career as ruthless, job-destroying, profit-maximizing “vulture capitalism.” Pena has been a partner at Vestar since 2000.</p>

Obama's campaign manager huddles with Senate DemocratsBy Bernie Becker - 05/24/12 06:27 PM ET President Obama’s campaign manager huddled with Democratic senators on Thursday to brief them on the campaign’s grassroots strategy, according to lawmakers in attendance. Speaking to reporters afterward, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, a former top aide to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), said he walked the lawmakers through what the campaign was doing on the ground, and senators said the meeting did not spend much time on other hot-button issues — like the private equity experience of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. A number of Democrats have...

I’m not saying I don’t see Obama bumper stickers on Bay Area roads. I just don’t see nearly as many as I remember seeing four years ago during the hotly contested 2008 primary. Remember when it seemed as if an Obama bumper sticker was every Prius’ must-have accessory? I also notice that many of the 2008 Obama stickers mysteriously have disappeared. Where, oh where, can they have gone?

When Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., lost the GOP primary to challenger Richard Mourdock this month, Beltway types saw the voters' verdict as a victory for the Tea Party and a defeat for the kind of Republican who could work across the aisle. I think Lugar, 80, lost because he was out of touch with Indiana. He started the primary registered to vote at an Indiana home he had sold in 1977. The Lugars have resided in Virginia ever since. Lugar had been working in Washington for so long that he didn't realize he needed to keep up at least the...

During the Internet broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report Online” Wednesday, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer told viewers why the odds of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton replacing Vice President Joe Biden on the Democrats’ 2012 presidential ticket are very low. “I’d say that the Indianapolis Colts have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl,” Krauthammer said. “And I have only one reason for saying that, and that is Obama’s — I say this not as a clinician — narcissism.” “Obama, I think, can never bring himself to do something very large, like this, which would show that...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - At a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in Denver tonight, President Obama set out to upend conventional Republican wisdom that his administration has been defined by excessive government spending. "I'm running to pay down our debt in a way that's balanced and responsible. After inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts into law," he told a crowd of donors at the Hyatt Regency. "My opponent won't admit it, but it's starting to appear in places, like real liberal outlets, like the Wall Street Journal: Since I've been president, federal spending has...

Barack Obama had no national primary challengers in his second nomination race in most states, including Kentucky. Who knew it would still be a tough choice for voters? Kentucky voters in the Democratic primary preferred the empty slot to the empty suit, apparently: About two out of every five Democratic voters in Tuesday's presidential primary in Kentucky chose "uncommitted" instead of voting for President Barack Obama. "I'm at a victory celebration for 'uncommitted' who performed admirably" said [state GOP chair Steve] Robertson. "I've never met the guy but know that he highly embarrassed Obama."Robertson contended that the Democrats who vote...

Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much, if not all of Obama’s major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government. Obama certainly did not help himself in the eyes of the Court when he used the venue of the State of the Union address early in the year to publicly flog the Court over its ruling that the First Amendment grants the right to various organizations to run political ads during the time of an election. The tongue-lashing...

This column originally appeared in THE DAILY BEAST. In looking ahead toward the November election, Republican strategists should take proactive steps to avoid a damaging, dangerous conclusion to the presidential race and to prevent the very real chance that Mitt Romney will win the Electoral College even while losing the popular vote badly to Barack Obama. The problem stems from the lopsided margins President Obama will surely pile up in a few uncontested states with big populations, including California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, will prevail by comparable margins in only relatively small states: Utah, Idaho, the...

May 22, 2012 (HLIAmerica.org) - The May 11, 2012 editorial of the Toronto Star offers high praise for President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage. The editor credits the U.S. president with showing “rare courage,” while at the same time advancing the cause for “civil rights.” In approving the legalization of marriage between a man and a man, and a woman and a woman, according to the editorial, Obama is affirming the “full humanity of gays and lesbians.” He is “weighing in on the side of compassion, inclusion and equal rights for all.” How could millennia of diverse cultures, until recently,...

The state of Hawaii has verified President Barack Obama's birth records to Arizona's elections chief after a nearly three-month back and forth that Arizona officials said could have ended without the incumbent's name on its November ballot. Joshua Wisch, special assistant to Hawaii Attorney General David Louie, told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the matter is resolved after Hawaii gave Arizona the verification it was looking for. Arpaio said health officials in Hawaii refused to talk to his deputy and posse investigator on Monday, though an assistant attorney general came out to talk to the investigators. "They won't have...

The most crucial Presidential election, in a lifetime, nears.  Please read what I authored.  Is this the proper direction for America, now? It is Romney, his baggage and his ideology, vs. Obama, his baggage and his ideology. What else could the election represent? It represents the future for America and our families, now and forever.  -Lance"THE ECONOMIC FUTURE FOR AMERICA IS NOW, STARTING IN 2009", (2012).By: S. Lance SilverHow are we going to pay now and in the future for our American lifestyle? It's so simple.We create money for American expenditures currently in two methods:1. by Taxation;2. by Printing;There is...

Ahmadinejad, Farrakhan & The Black Panthers: Shocking New Details on Their Meeting & the ‘Beast’ Axis That Was Forged According to New Black Panther Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz: Envisions the “glory” of “paroling on the Israeli embassy with a hundred New Black Panthers” fighting for Palestine. Fighting white people is an “international struggle against a common enemy.” Whites are trying to “divide the non-white” population against each other Because “half of Africa” was involved in slavery “we say Africa owes us reparations, too.” Black radicals should seek “alliances that are possible right now with people who got solid track records...

Mitt Romney now leads President Obama in the race for Florida's 29 electoral votes, a significant reversal from earlier this spring, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released early on Wednesday. Romney leads Obama overall, 47 percent to 41 percent, the poll shows. Two percent of voters prefer another candidate, 7 percent are undecided, and 3 percent said they would not vote. Three weeks ago, in another Quinnipiac poll, the two candidates were statistically tied, with Romney at 44 percent and Obama at 43 percent.

Clooney’s $15 million fundraiser begs to differ.

A new government study released Tuesday says that allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire and a scheduled round of automatic spending cuts to take effect would probably throw the economy into a recession. The Congressional Budget Office report says that the economy would shrink by 1.3 percent in the first half of next year if the government is allowed to fall off this so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1 -- and that the higher tax rates and more than $100 billion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon and domestic agencies are kept in place. There's common agreement that lawmakers will...

In a blistering new ad, the Republican National Committee catches the Obama Campaign lying to the press about their influence in strong-arming Newark Mayor Cory Booker into taking back his criticism of President Obama's attack on Bain Capital.

This November, millions of conservatives will find themselves in the familiar position of holding their noses to vote for a problematic Republican presidential candidate, because the alternative is far worse.Although conservatives don’t exactly have fond memories of the candidacies of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in 1996 and Senator John McCain in 2008, the almost certain nomination of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has its own sting.In 2010, tea-party energy swept a new generation of conviction conservatives into statehouses, governors’ mansions, and the U.S. Congress. Many on the right held out hope that the big payoff would be putting...

Reporting from Carrollton, Arkansas, the Washington Post finds some locals still upset with actions of a "Mormon militia" over 150 years ago. The Post reports:On Sept. 11, 1857, a wagon train from this part of Arkansas met with a gruesome fate in Utah, where most of the travelers were slaughtered by a Mormon militia in an episode known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Hundreds of the victims’ descendants still populate these hills and commemorate the killings, which they have come to call “the first 9/11.” Many of the locals grew up hearing denunciations of Mormonism from the pulpit on Sundays,...

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said Mitt Romney is no more qualified than a plumber to be president of the United States. Repeating the White House’s latest line of attack, Biden told a Democratic audience in New Hampshire that Romney’s past as a business leader at Bain Capital is fair game for criticism. Obama and his surrogates have accused Romney of putting profits ahead of the workers at the companies his venture-capital firm invested in. “When they succeed and the company succeeds, they make money,” Biden said. “When the company they got involved with fails, they make money.” A...

I first met Mitt Romney in the fall of 1985 when he took a chance on me and my idea to sell discount office supplies. Together we then worked to found Staples. From the very beginning, I saw that he was super-frugal. He didn’t want to pay more than he had to for things like paper clips. That was the idea behind Staples. And for Mitt, cutting costs and running things well has been a consistent animating idea, whether he’s been in business or government or running the Olympics. Now that he’s campaigning for president, Mitt’s brand of leadership could...

The Republican Party must be in a pretty sorry condition these days for the hottest prospect for the vice presidential nomination is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. According to the National Journal’s Hotline “Veepstakes,” Jindal is now ranked second. He is being pushed hard by influential conservative activists such as Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Editorial writers such as syndicated columnist George Will, David Frum of CNN.com and Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner are singing Jindal’s praises and encouraging the presumptive GOP nominee to choose the Louisiana Governor as his running...

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate's top Democrat says Republicans will have to accept higher taxes on the rich and drop efforts to reshape Medicare if they want a deal on cutting the debt. In a letter to GOP senators, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blaming Republicans' "strict adherence to tea party ideology" for the failure of lawmakers to find a budget compromise.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat who landed in hot water with his party on Sunday after criticizing President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital, may have found an unexpected ally in left-wing activist Van Jones. “An urban mayor who nearly DIED saving neighbor from a fire, has earned right 2 demand integrity & courage from other leaders,” Jones tweeted on Tuesday in a message addressed to Booker’s Twitter handle. Booker, who indeed did save a neighbor from a burning building earlier this year, has been on the receiving end of much criticism from Democrats and liberal...

Anderson Cooper interviewed Obama super-PAC chief Ben LaBolt on the new Bain Capital attack strategy, and the only enlightenment that results from the exchange is an understanding of why LaBolt no longer works in the White House media room. LaBolt refused to even acknowledge Cooper’s repeated questions of how Barack Obama and his team can justify attacks on Mitt Romney’s work at Bain while holding fundraisers with Blackstone and other private-equity firms that do the exact same work as Bain. Instead, LaBolt just keeps repeated campaign talking points ad infinitum, making it clear he and the campaign have no idea...

Pandering to Hispanics will be a serious mistake for the presumptive Republican nominee. A new Public Policy Poll (PPP) – a self acknowledged Democrat surveying firm – of a large number of Hispanic Florida Colorado and New Mexico respondents, spoken to in both English and Spanish, provides a clear warning for “What’s His Name” not to pick a Vice Presidential candidate merely based on ethnicity. The poll results make it very clear that Hispanics should be appealed to on the same grounds as everyone else who realizes we are in danger of losing our country. It found the economy is...

Will the strategy of highlighting Mitt Romney’s track record at Bain Capital do more to damage the Republican nominee, or Barack Obama? A poll released yesterday by Rasmussen suggests that it might do more damage to Obama’s re-election efforts than it will to his challenger. Only 33% of a sample of 1,000 likely voters say that Romney’s record at Bain was a reason to vote against him, while 44% believe it boosts his candidacy: Democrats have begun criticizing Mitt Romney’s business record, but a plurality of voters view the Republican’s business past as a positive. A new Rasmussen Reports national...

This morning on MSNBC, former venture capitalist Sen. Mark Warner D-Va. admitted that Bain Capital was "very successful" and "did what they were supposed to do." When asked about whether attacks on private equity were fair, Warner said that he was "proud" of his previous career in the private sector but noted that public service required a "different skill set." "Bain Capital was a very successful business. They got a good return for their investors. That is what they were supposed to do," Warner said. Warner, is the founder of Columbia Capital Corp. in Alexandria, Va. which made him a...

Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.) described Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s record as one of “raping companies” in a Tuesday interview with MSNBC. ANCHOR: But, congressman, what about the counterargument to that? What about the counterargument that these attacks on Bain Capital — many see them as an attack on free enterprise as well. CLYBURN: This is not an attack on free enterprise. I would say to you, [unclear] free enterprise–I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise. but there’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something...

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Barack Obama only three points ahead of Mitt Romney, 49/46, within the margin of error. The poll also shows Obama’s advantage among women dissipating, and the President falling further behind his challenger on the economy. All of this is rather amazing, given the manner in which Republicans keep shrinking in the sample series: After months of aggressive campaigning on jobs and the economy, President Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely Republican challenger, are locked in a dead heat over who could fix the problem foremost on voters’ minds, according to a new Washington...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans remain nearly as positive toward Hillary Clinton today as they have ever been over the past 20 years. The secretary of state's favorable rating remains at 66%, within one percentage point of her record-high rating in late 1998. Her unfavorable rating of 29% ties her record low since 1993. Gallup's latest update of Clinton's favorable rating is from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted May 10-13. Her 66% favorable rating, the same as she received in March 2011 and February 1999, is one point lower than the 67% high she reached in December 1998 just after her...

I have learned that Florida election officials are set to announce that the secretary of state has discovered and purged up to 53,000 dead voters from the voter rolls in Florida. How could 53,000 dead voters have sat on the polls for so long? Simple. Because Florida hadn’t been using the best available data revealing which voters have died. Florida is now using the nationwide Social Security Death Index for determining which voters should be purged because they have died. Here is the bad news. Most states aren’t using the same database that Florida is. In fact, I have heard...

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson defended Monday controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying that it was a “source of pain” to see him criticized in the media. “I know it’s a source of pain for me to see him used as an object of degradation and manipulated the way he’s been used the media as if he’s some sort of enemy of the state. It’s not fair and it’s not true,” said Jackson on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” “It pains me to see him used as an object of degradation.” Jackson said that Wright had developed an influential ministry, one that...