Free Republic

Part of the Donald Trump appeal is that he is a great businessman, and he certainly has taken his dad's business and grown it to big heights. But Trump is less of a business manager, and more of a marketing genius-a PT Barnum. He knows what to say and do to promote. It's why he is leading in the polls, and why he gets all the free airtime from the media. His record as a COO/Manager, etc. is uneven. He has built businesses and he has destroyed them, as witnessed by his four bankruptcies. The Donald will correctly say he...

Most of us who have followed the GOP nomination contest expected Donald Trump to show his posterior pursuant to his loss to Senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses, but it is unlikely that many expected him to crack up after only one defeat. Nonetheless, that seems to be what is happening. Even when he reverted to his trademark antics only one day after an uncharacteristically rational concession speech, few students of the Donalds weird campaign could have been surprised. It is difficult, however, to escape the conclusion that Trump is losing it when he claims that Cruz foisted Obamacare...

The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local): --------------------------- 11:05 p.m. Donald Trump says the dispute over Iowa's caucus results, in which he finished second to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is yesterday's news and he's more focused on the next race. Trump, who on Wednesday was accusing Cruz of election fraud and calling for an Iowa do-over, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he's so focused on the Feb. 9 contest in New Hampshire that "I don't care about that anymore." Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday that "based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa...

The Iowa caucuses have solidified Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as two of the leading candidates in this cycle: Sanders is the democratic socialist channeling liberal disenchantment with the Goldman Sachs wing of the party, while Trump represents the frustration of Republican blue-collar, white, middle-class voters with global competition and immigration. Both of them are leading a revolt against their respective party elites. The similarities don't end there. You might think the two candidates have wildly different views on the signature domestic issue of the last six years: health care reform. But you'd be wrong. Sanders' plan, to the extent...

A Midway businessman is facing charges under Utah's commercial terrorism statute after investigators say he took scores of free tourism brochures out of stands owned by a competitor and replaced them with his own brochures. Scott Jay Eckersley is charged in 4th District Court with four counts of commercial obstruction, a second-degree felony. Wasatch County prosecutor Mckay King said the charges are appropriate, based on the allegations against Eckersley. Over the past year, Eckersley went to the Zermatt Resort & Spa in Midway four times and "totally cleaned out" a competitor's display of free tourism brochures, according to Wasatch County...

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is using video of former President Jimmy Carter against rival Donald Trump. A new ad released Thursday quotes Carter, who said Wednesday that if he had to pick between the two, he "would choose Trump" over Cruz. "Trump has proven already that he's completely malleable," Carter, a Democrat, continues in the clip. "I don't think he has any fixed opinions that he would really go to the White House and fight for. Ted Cruz is not malleable."

Little Rock, Arkansas Donald Trump, in a tit-for-tat with his chief rival coming out of Iowa, accused Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of bearing direct responsibility for the Affordable Care Act."Ted Cruz gave us Obamacare," Trump said at a Wednesday rally in Little Rock, Arkansas.The line of attack invoked the landmark health care law that is anathema to many conservatives. Cruz, for his part, has accused Trump of supporting Obamacare, too, accusing Trump as holding the same position on healthcare as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Trump's rationale for his claim is a little roundabout. It's based on the fact that...

One of the things that has troubled me the most about Donald Trump is his lack of emotional maturity. Unlike a reality TV show host, it is vital that the President of the United States be very grown up and mature. But Trump, time and time again, acts like a child, name calling, holding grudges, and crying when things don't go his way. Case in point, the Iowa caucuses. On election night Trump grudgingly congratulated Ted Cruz. But now he's saying that Cruz "stole" the Iowa Caucuses by repeating a news report that Ben Carson was about to leave the...

In the lead-up to Donald Trump's loss in Iowa, staffers sought additional funding for campaign infrastructure and were denied. Now, six days from the New Hampshire primary and looking for his first win, Trump is still refusing to shake up his ground game. He has added just one paid organizer in the state, a move that came a month ago. Instead, he is pushing ahead with plans to campaign outside of the state in the final week of voting and will count on the glamour of famous surrogates, including his sons, who plan to tour New Hampshire beginning this weekend....

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is already looking ahead to forming his top White House team and is considering one of his sons as the head of the Interior Department. In an interview with Petersen's Hunting, he offered both his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, as the cabinet secretary because they are hunters and anglers and members of key conservation and Second Amendment groups. In the interview with editor Mike Schoby, Trump said that "ideally" he wants an outdoorsman to run the agency that manages federal land. "Ideally yes, they'd be better at it," said Trump. In the interview with...

For those of you who haven’t had time to research the details of the recent brouhaha between Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, here’s a quick rundown of the facts. Monday, February 1 – Carson’s campaign announced that he would be delivering his post-caucus speech before the caucus results came in and then would immediately fly not to New Hampshire but rather to his home in Florida. This is how campaigns usually signal their candidate is about to drop out of the race. Monday, February 1, 6:29 p.m. – Marco Rubio supporter Conrad Close tweeted, “Rubio campaign pushing the narrative hard...