Free Republic

President Obama and congressional Democrats face an uphill climb to reclaim the support of independent voters who vaulted them to the White House and huge majorities in Congress in 2008. At the end of the bitter, intensely partisan battle to pass Mr. Obama's health care overhaul plan, independent voters, once captivated by hopeful campaign promises, are feeling burned and appear eager to oust Democrats in November's midterm elections. "There is an overall sense of frustration that no one is listening," pollster Scott Rasmussen said about a problem that has plagued the political party in power for decades. Mr. Rasmussen said...

There is a quiet anger boiling in America. It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans -- and see their government reward those who do not. It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought down the...

("Joe the plumber")

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic...

Moran, a thickly built Virginian with a temper that runs hot on occasion, was summoned from his inner office by the noise of angry protesters interacting with his staff, according to the congressman's account. He confronted the protesters, prompting staff to step between them and the activists to ask whether Moran needed "bodyguards" to protect him. "We're not protecting him from you, we're protecting you from him," a staffer explained.

1. A new Quinnipiac national poll provides us a detailed look into the composition of the nascent tea party movement. The conclusion? It looks a lot like the Republican party. Nearly three-quarters of those who identify with the tea party movement say they are Republicans while just 16 percent describe themselves as Democrats and five percent call themselves independents. Tea party types are also far more favorably inclined to the Republican party with 60 percent viewing the GOP in a favorable light as compared to just 20 percent who view the party unfavorably. Just eight percent of tea parties regard...

The man who berated and tossed dollar bills at a man with Parkinson's disease during a health care protest last week says he is remorseful and scared. "I snapped. I absolutely snapped and I can't explain it any other way," said Chris Reichert of Victorian Village, in a Dispatch interview. In his first comments on an incident that went viral across the Internet and was repeatedly played on cable television news shows, Reichert said he is sorry about his confrontation with Robert A. Letcher, 60, of the North Side. Letcher, a former nuclear engineer who suffers from Parkinson's, was verbally...

What does everyone think?

It is unwise to give people the idea that they have nothing to lose. Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Our politicians are failing that test shamefully, and it is up to us to send them the report card. We hope they will get the message from the 2010 and 2012 elections, so that my dream will remain only a dream, and not become a real nightmare when the patient people lose their patience.

America Prepare... For This Is Our Future Short Term If Obama and Pelosi have their way. Yet … 90 million well armed Americans will rise and prevent us from ever being in such a position. Video is here (see link) America Remember in November It will be Impossible to Forget as next up are more Marxist Measures and Takeover such as: Article lists what is next here We are guaranteed higher unemployment, inflation and economic collapse. In November if we have free elections we will eject them all. All Socialists and Communists will be ousted, even with fake ‘community organizer...

On a bright, brisk afternoon in mid-February, with snow still thick on the ground from storms that had battered Washington the week before, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele met with more than 50 members of the Tea Party, the Twitter Age conservative movement that is reshaping the U.S. political landscape. Steele, RNC chairman since January 2009, had invited them to the plush Capitol Hill Club, built as a clubhouse for the party's top brass next door to RNC headquarters. According to several accounts, not long into the meeting JoAnn Abbott, an activist from Virginia who calls herself the 'Tea...

I’m not crazy about congressional Democrats right now. As I write this, Congressional Democrats are engaged in a furious partisan battle to pass their idea of healthcare reform. Alas it is an idea the majority of Americans do not share. It is in fact an idea that the majority of congressmen do not share, which is why President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are twisting arms, bribing, cajoling and threatening all manner of mischief in order to eek out a majority vote – or non vote -- on a bill the people have made clear they do not want....

4:25 p.m. WASHINGTON -- Chaos reigns at the Capitol. It's just hard to say whether it's crazier outside the building or inside. As House Democrats began the final slog toward health care reform—an 11-step process that began at noon Sunday—protesters gathered on the Capitol's south lawn, waving signs and chanting "Kill the bill!" and "Naaaaancy!" Republican members of Congress periodically emerged and waved from the balcony, to cheers. Rep. Steve King (R-NY) dangled a "Don't Tread on Me" flag, while another Republican held up a giant "No!" sign. Some Democrats braved the hordes, as well: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) ventured...

Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling "you're a disgrace to your office" and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill. In a moment of apparently unscripted political theater, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched arm in arm — with civil rights pioneer John Lewis — across the Capitol complex while protesters yelled at them and police held a barricade. The Pelosi disruption came inside the Cannon office building, where Democrats where whipping...

The level of intense anger at Washington is heating up as several high-profile groups are calling on millions of Americans to slam Congress with phone calls, e-mails and faxes demanding that lawmakers vote "no" on the health-care bill. As WND reported, reforms pushed by President Obama and other Democrats may be approved without ever actually having a direct vote, but could be "deemed" to have been passed and then signed into law by Obama. The process is called the "Slaughter Strategy," named for Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Rules Committee. Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that focuses...

Biden: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."... "We're going to control the insurance companies."

The political commentariat doesn't know what to make of those thousands of Americans who have spontaneously thronged to tea parties and town hall meetings to oppose the big government programs of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.Some on the Left attack them as fascists or racists, though evidence of that is sorely lacking. David Brooks in the New York Times compared them with the New Left campus radicals of the 1970s, which comes closer to reality but doesn't quite ring true.Some tea partiers, citing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, compare themselves with the patriots of 1776 and...

STOP OBAMACARE REDEYE EXPRESS TO WASHINGTON, 3-16, FROM OHIO This is our last chance to stop government mandated healthcare and save our freedom. Luxury coach (video entertainment system with 6 screens, reclining seats and a john) leaves from the Flower Factory parking lot located at 929 North Lexington-Springmill Road, Ontario, 44906, (a suburb of Mansfield). It’s across from Lowes. Please park on the south side of the lot. Bus departs at 11 PM on Monday, March 15 Bus arrives at Union Station at about 7:30 AM on Tuesday, March 16 Eat breakfast at the gigantic, excellent food court in Union...

For many Americans the distance between what they believe is best for the nation and what government actually does has become an infuriating chasm that was never meant to exist in a representative government designed to reflect the will of the majority. No other single public policy so reinforces a perception of self-dealing, unfairness and incompetence as the corrupted federal tax code. Bloated beyond decipherability at 67,500 pages of regulations, the income tax system is driven by personal power, lobby profits and, through tax inducements and penalties, a changing menu of citizen and business manipulation. Married people pay higher rates...

A lot of people see doom on the Democratic Party's horizon this fall. Respected political analyst Charlie Cook has even said he believes Republicans will recapture the House this year. But Howard Dean, the former governor who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee until last year, believes things might not be as bad as they seem. "I think what you're going to see in the fall is not so much an anti-Democratic vote, I think you're going to see an anti-incumbent vote, and I think that's going to include Republicans," Dean said in an interview with Salon on...