Free Republic

10 common sense reasons based on my knowledge of human perception, human relationships and leadership and motivational skills why I believe Mitt Romney will NOT maximize conservative, evangelical turnout and lose to Obama: 1)Lack of AFFINITY for Mitt Romney among voters. For those in Rio Linda, it means a lack of identification or a NATURAL LIKING or a lack of CONNECTION between people. Romney is simply not a lot of people's cup of tea demographically or culturally, let alone politically. 2)Extreme anger and indignation at Romney's carpet-bombing tactics against both Gingrich and Santorum. Many conservatives will be willing to forgive...

The inimitable, quintessentially monikered CHARLES M. BLOW That didn't take long. As we’ve gotten around to casting votes to select a Republican presidential nominee, the antiblack rhetoric has taken center stage. You just have to love (and despise) this kind of predictability. On Sunday, Rick “The Rooster” Santorum, campaigning in Iowa, said what sounded like “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” At first, he offered a nondenial that suggested that the comment might have been out...

President Barack Obama will raise money in early October with a Missouri businessman whose company benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit to develop a wind power facility in his state. Tom Carnahan, a scion of Missouri’s most prominent Democratic political family, is listed on Obama’s campaign website as a host of a $25,000-per-person fundraiser to be held in St. Louis on October 4. His energy development firm, Wind Capital Group, was helped by a sizable credit authorized in the stimulus, for an energy project in northwest Missouri.

She’s a true democrat. We all know the democrat solution to every problem is to spend more taxpayer dollars. Rep. Maxine Waters believes we need to blow another trillion dollars to jump-start the economy. The far left politician was on Meet the Press this morning, via The Right Scoop:

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) tells Don Imus this morning he thought ht would have been a "good President." In fact, he added, "a great President." Transcript below: DON IMUS: "I think you would have been a much better President than the guy we have now, don't you agree with that?" SEN. JOHN KERRY: "You've asked me that before. Every time I come on you try to get me to --" IMUS: "-- I'm not trying to get you to do anything. I'm trying to get you to be honest." KERRY: "I'm always honest." IMUS: "Well, you would've been a much...

U.S. commandos missed with their first shot at Osama bin Laden, when the world’s most wanted man poked his head out of a third-floor room to see what was headed his way, according to U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Bin Laden ducked back in, and the Navy SEALS quickly followed and finished the job, Chambliss said in a telephone interview this afternoon. The missed shot was a new detail in the emerging story of the 40-minute raid on the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. Chambliss also said commandos found a pistol and AK-47 in...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich plans to officially enter the presidential race early next week, he told Hotline On Call before Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner. "I'll be in by the 10th or 11th," Gingrich said, without elaborating on where or how he would announce his candidacy. Gingrich had previously hinted that his announcement could come this week, telling reporters in Philadelphia on Thursday, "I would just say to folks who are really curious: Watch Facebook and Twitter in the next week. I think you'll have all the information you need." But Gingrich walked back from that statement on Saturday,...

<p>Setiously, is this guy in love with himself? What is it with he and Lady Gaga and him doing pieces on her all the time? He puts her up on some kind of pedestal like she's someone with importance.</p> <p>Did anyone hear O'Reilly's opening? He says he invited O'Donnell on his show tonight but her handlers declined. O'Reilly the blowhard then says she didn't come on because it would have been a "tough forum!" "Really Bill...kind of like the tough forum similiar to the softballs you threw Obama when you interviewd him?</p>

According to Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor, Americans are just not intelligent enough to understand what Obama was trying to say in his speech Tuesday evening.  He says that Obama speech was written to a 9.8 grade level of understanding.  I guess us hicks in the hinterland just don't git wat Obama were trying to tell us unejacated folk out here.  Despite using slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, Payack says that because Obama used 19.8 words per sentence, that our ability to go comprehend what he was saying went right over our heads. Payack...

VIDEO HERE.

NORMAN, Okla. – Prolific mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner, known for popularizing recreational mathematics and debunking paranormal claims, died Saturday. He was 95. Gardner died Saturday after a brief illness at Norman Regional Hospital, said his son James Gardner. He had been living at an assisted living facility in Norman. Martin Gardner was born in 1914 in Tulsa, Okla., and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago. He became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features and stories for several children's magazines. His creation of paper-folding puzzles led to his publication in Scientific...

Shakira is being interviewed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta and he asks about her visit with the Mayor and Chief of Police, of Phoenix and she says at one point "If this law was already in effect, today, for example, I could be detained and arrested and taken away. Because, I don't even have my drivers license here" "I mean, I'm completely undocumented, here today!" Dr. Gupta then asks "So you didn't bring your papers to Arizona?" Shakira then feigns exasperation, saying "I didn't. NO" Dr. Gupta then says "This is an important point. That's exactly what people are worried about"....

O'Reilly! Just shut up!

Since signing the health care reform bill, President Obama has been traipsing about the country trying to sell it. It’s not really working for him. According to a CBS News poll released on Friday, President Obama’s approval rating on health care sank to a personal low: 34 percent. (His overall approval rating in the poll was also a new low for him: 44 percent.) This is in large part because of Republican recalcitrance. The left loves him. The right not so much. Actually, not at all. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, Obama’s job approval rating among...

PERHAPS ONE OF THE greatest failings in the run-up to the financial meltdown was a lack of perspective -- an inability by many market participants to see the big picture. Not so with Kevin Duffy and Bill Laggner, principals of the Dallas-based hedge fund Bearing Asset Management. With the help of their proprietary credit-bubble index, developed in 2004, the managers sounded early warnings on housing and credit excesses, and capitalized handsomely on their forecasts by shorting Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, money-center banks and brokers, builders, mortgage insurers and the like. Students of the Austrian school of economics, which espouses a...

NEW YORK (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday threatened to sue conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for writing in a column that the civil rights leader played a role in two New York race riots. In a column published by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday about his derailed bid to become part-owner of the St. Louis Rams, he accuses Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson of making comments that helped get him booted from a group that was trying to buy the NFL team. Limbaugh derided Sharpton as having played "a leading role in the 1991 Crown...

A study in contrasts: President Obama's Rosh Hashana message compared to message for EID-UL-FITR and Ramadan #1 ROSH HASHANAH THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 17, 2009 www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Videotaped-Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-occasion-of-Rosh-Hashanah/ Below is a transcript of the President's videotaped remarks on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah. To watch the video or read translations of this message, please visit: www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Warm-Wishes-for-Rosh-Hashanah/. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF ROSH HASHANAH As members of the Jewish faith here in America and around the world gather to celebrate the High Holidays, I want to extend my warmest wishes for...

Here is video today of Fox News breaking away from President Obama's Town Hall Meeting in New Hampshire, and saying it appeared the crowd assembled was more of a "campaign stop." The fox analyst said it is clear the atmosphere was very "friendly," and that it had been prepared by staff that way. Fox carried the President's opening statement and the first few questions, all of which were total "softballs," including one from what looked like a nine year old girl. . . . . (Watch Video)

Newsmax CEO and Editor Christopher Ruddy appeared on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show with nationally syndicated radio show host Mike Gallagher. O'Reilly and Ruddy sparred over whether Obama should release his birth certification.

BEIJING -- George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, said Saturday he has confidence in China's economy and believes it is recovering fast from the economic downturn. Soros made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua after meeting with Chen Feng, chairman of China's HNA Group. Soros has invested 50 million US dollars into Hainan Airlines, a subsidiary of the group. Soros said China's economic growth had benefited from globalization, and China benefited from the financial crisis because it was not directly affected. "Its financial institutions are largely unaffected," Soros said, noting that with a good balance sheet, China was...

Here we go again. Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore is going offer his solution to societal ills through one of his documentaries. If Moore's past movies are any indication of the coverage he will get, it is sure to be a media hit. Already, Huffington Post blogger and MSNBC daytime anchor Carlos Watson is praising praised Moore's early promotion of the flick. "Michael Moore, the filmmaker, is back and this time he was taking aim at Wall Street," Watson said on June 15. "[H]e did a very funny thing, Sarah, this weekend when you showed his documentary in some of the...

Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. He arrived in London last Tuesday, has been to Strasbourg, Prague yesterday and now he's off to Turkey. It shows, I suppose, that he cares about the outside world and that is 'A Good Thing'. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact.

Vice President Joe Biden told a joke about Barack Obama's birth certificate at the Gridiron dinner in Washington, D.C. last night.The joke was reported by Mike Allen at Politico in his article about Biden's intentionally funny speech (as opposed to his usual foot in mouth routine.):"You know, I never realized just how much power Dick Cheney had until my first day on the job. I walked into my office, and you know how the outgoing president always leaves the incoming president a note in his desk? I opened my drawer and Dick Cheney had left me Barack Obama’s birth certificate."Numerous...

Gaudete, gaudete, gaudete! Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice! A few years back, under another screenname, I was banned from this site for bashing Catholics. Today I are one, and just went to my first Gaudete Sunday mass as an adult. While unintentional, I realize now that I was being something a couple of steps above a boor, and probably deserved it. I would like to apologize to backhoe, Jimrob, and everybody whom I may have hurt, and ask humbly for forgiveness and acceptance. I'm not around the forum much anymore, and my contributions are less than minimal, but I just wanted to...

Obama's Cabinet: Start With Al Gore __ By Richard Cohen Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A19 If there is a single appointment Barack Obama could make to signal how dramatically things will change in Washington, it would be to name Albert Gore Jr. -- former House member, former senator, former vice president, former presidential nominee and current Custodian of the Planet -- as secretary of state. For all the other aspirants to the job, sorry -- this is an inconvenient truth. Can you imagine a bolder statement about a new direction when it comes to global warming and the general care...

--SNIP-- Anyone who has watched Joe Biden over 35 years in the Senate might have a little bit of trouble recognizing the guy who is running to be Barack Obama's Vice President. Oh, yes, he looks like the same fellow. But traveling with Biden during this campaign has sometimes been like reporting on a politician packaged in shrink-wrap. While his windy, off-point pontification was the stuff of legend among his Senate colleagues, Biden is now leashed to a teleprompter even when he is talking in a high school gym that is three-quarters empty. The exposure hound who in recent years...

BIDEN: "This election year the choice is clear. One man stands ready to deliver change we desperately need. A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States...BARACK AMERICA!!!"

It's hard for Obama supporters to play the age card any longer, as their potential veep is all of six years younger than McCain. His mouth will be an absolute time bomb. Will he refer to Delaware as a "slave state" again? Will he discuss who's behind the counter at 7-11s? I'm reminded of a Rudy Giuliani response when Biden took a shot at him - "Joe's a good guy, we all criticize each other during this time... But for Joe Biden to talk about qualifications - he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run...

In choosing Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, Barack Obama has acknowledged his own shortcomings while recognizing that the election he and his people thought a cakewalk a few months ago is now a battle royale along the lines of the 2000 and 2004 contests. Republicans would do well not to celebrate too much over this choice. On the surface, it may appear to be a mistake - an almost comically bad selection by Obama due to Biden's well known (and well documented) verbal gaffes. And, as Politico points out, this should worry the Obama camp: But...

Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge. The nearest we get to this now is celebrating...

Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore delivers a speech on America's future energy needs in Washington July 17, 2008.

People got very excited in 2004 when NASA's rover Opportunity discovered evidence that Mars had once been wet. Where there is water, there may be life. After more than 40 years of human exploration, culminating in the ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission, scientists are planning still more missions to study the planet. The ­Phoenix, an interagency scientific probe led by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, is scheduled to land in late May on Mars's frigid northern arctic, where it will search for soils and ice that might be suitable for microbial life (see "Mission to...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling,...

President Bush has won the Battle of September. When he turns over the presidency on Jan. 20, 2009, there will likely be as many U.S. troops in Iraq as there were when Congress was elected to bring them home in November 2006. That is the meaning of Gen. Petraeus' recommendation, adopted by President Bush, that 6,000 U.S. troops be home by Christmas and the surge of 30,000 ended by April. Come November 2008, there will likely still be 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Will this make America safer, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked. "I don't know," answered the general. An...

The recent and tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota raises many questions in Americans' minds about our aging infrastructure, and what is being done to maintain it. Questions such as: "Was I-35 an isolated accident or are we approaching days when crumbling bridges and bursting pipes will be regular features on the evening news?" The poor ratings on the inspection report of that bridge, and similar deficiency findings on as many as 25% of our bridges suggests the latter. Estimates on what it will cost to bring deficiencies in our infrastructure back up to par range from massive to astronomical. Billions...

What's in a name? For Chris Matthews, a lot. Discussing foreign policy on this afternoon's "Hardball," host Matthews advanced this astonishing theory. HARDBALL HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you have a sense, though, well certainly I have it, that just by his name, Barack, ah, Barack Hussein Obama, by his background, having grown up in Indonesia which is a largely Muslim country, that he would have a feel perhaps other presidential candidates don't have of how to connect with that part of the world, the billion people, that we seem to have such a problem connecting with and avoiding war with....

Hi Bill, I've been a subscriber to Free Republic for about two years. I've been involved in a lot of Freeper discussion groups and have led several threads, including one where I identified myself as a black Freeper, with no blatantly racial kickback. What the Freeper spokesman should have mentioned is that the discussion threads are SELF-POLICING...when someone gets out of line, my experience has been that somewhere down the thread, THEY WILL BE CALLED ON IT. Free Republic is first and foremost, a meeting place for conservatives. The discussions run overwhelmingly along ideological lines, that at times have racial...

NASHUA, N.H. - Aiming to create the first generation in which all Americans serve their country, Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd is offering a range of initiatives to encourage — and in some cases compel — community service. "All Americans should serve our country," the Connecticut senator said in remarks prepared for delivery Saturday. "Endowed as we are with so many gifts, is it too much to ask that we each give something back to this remarkable place?" He proposes making community service mandatory for all high school students, doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 and expanding...

Republican (in name only) Senator Chuck Hagel, darling and hero of the leftist media, appeared on 'This Week' yesterday. It was there that he used the "I" word....impeachment. Hagel's all upset about the war and says some see impeachment of the president as an option to stop said war. Of course, Hagel is running for president...and whenever he criticizes George Bush the media considers him the most important, solid, hard-core Republican ever. This is all despite the fact that 99% of Americans outside of Nebraska have never heard of Chuck Hagel and couldn't pick him out of a lineup. The...

That's it. Nothing following.

Six years after Donald Rumsfeld agreed to a second tour of duty as secretary of defense, to rebuild the military, Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker told Congress his Army "will break" if not relieved of the present burdens. Colin Powell says the Army is "almost broken." This week, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is a significant risk that the United States today may be unable to respond quickly and fully to another crisis should it arise. Howls erupted across the spectrum for more billions for more men for the Army and Marine Corps....

<p>Senator Chuck Hagel has career advice for a new generation of Americans. “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. ... Don't hide anymore; none of us.” – Slate Magazine.</p> <p>I’ve sold before to make both ends meet. I’ve sold water filters, men’s clothes, housewares and fast food that will up-armor your arteries. I don’t talk this talk to brag; retail selling is often the bottom rung on the employment food chain. It’s what you do to help pay for school, or because your resume doesn’t support more responsible employment.</p>

Chairman Joe Biden of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was trying to uphold two resolutions yesterday: one criticizing the [...]administration's Iraq policy and the other Biden's own resolution to himself -- to stop talking so much.[...] Biden's other resolution failed, by a voice vote -- Biden's voice.The Delaware Democrat and presidential hopeful ran the hearing more like a talk show host than a chairman: inviting the other senators to speak and then commenting on each senator's remarks.He opened the hearing with a 3,000-word statement in which he used the word "I" 88 times, including a lengthy discussion of the types...

HAPPY MONDAY!

A West Point Cadet sends this along with the photo below: I'm a cadet at West Point, and tonight at our game against the Air Force Academy, a big sign emerged, and it was shown to the Corps of Cadets, who cheered wildly, and then shown to the Air Force cadets, who also cheered.

A Statement from John Kerry As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop. I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended. It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion...

In a venomous broadside, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's firebrand Left-wing leader, described President George W Bush as a "devil", "sick man" and an "alcoholic".The comments, to the United Nations General Assembly, and later away from the podium, were dismissed by American Republicans and Democrats alike as the offensive outpourings of a publicity-hungry demagogue. But Mr Chavez had his eye on a different audience - and indeed electorate. For Venezuela is making a strong bid to secure one of Latin America's seats on the UN Security Council. That would give his hand-picked envoys the platform to act as champions of an emerging...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

Right. That’s it. Entre nous c’est terminé. After 42 happy years I am getting a divorce from America. From the very emerging of my childhood consciousness I have been aware that in the eyes of billions of people around the world I have won first prize in the lottery of life. I possess it, the thing competed for by everyone from Rupert Murdoch to the most desperate Mexican wetback, and I have it by simple dint of my nativity, on the Puerto Rican Health Scheme, in New York General Hospital, NY, NY. I am entitled to an American passport. I...