Free Republic

Iowans have a profound opportunity and a great responsibility to make the first in the nation recommendation for president to the rest of America. Of 300 million Americans, one in 100 are Iowans. Of Iowans, only about one in 15 will attend either the Democrat or the Republican caucus. Your vote in the Iowa caucus will likely have 1500 times more impact than that of the average American. This is a profound responsibility. It is our duty to determine the most important issues and set criteria for how we make our decisions. Iowans have a unique and historic opportunity to...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Romney sharpened the sell for his health care plan here at Des Moines University. For the first time, he gave a time frame on its follow-through, and he provided a bit more context about his own background on the issue before touring the Skiff Medical Center in Newton. “I just want to underscore something,” he said, concluding his address at the university, “we can get everybody in this country insured…. My estimate that from the time you would put in place this program, pass the legislation necessary to put in place this program, within four years...

A Romney-appointed judge freed a deranged thug in Massachusetts who went on to murder a young couple in Washington state. It’s a nightmare of a story with shades of Willie Horton. If not for its hard-wired, soft-on-crime DNA, the Left would have a field day with this tragedy. Will Romney’s opponents run with it or stay away lest their own complicity in revolving-door horror stories come back to bite them?

A group of 9/11 firefighters and victims' family members with eyes on derailing Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is close to a decision on forming an entity that would run issue ads in key early nominating states. "TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down," New York Fire Chief Jim Riches told ABC News. The final decision about the formation of an outside entity will happen sometime within the next few weeks after the group finalizes its plans at a meeting scheduled for after Thanksgiving. So far, though, under Riches' leadership, the group has sought...

I’m no tech head, but I think I know a thing or three about the Internet and how it works. And as far as I can tell, it works pretty well. More than 1.4 billion people around the world seem to be emailing each other a lot, and those emails get delivered a lot faster and more reliably than “snail mail.” Lots of people are innovating around the Internet – voice calling over the Internet, e-commerce, blogs, education, employment, and healthcare services, music and video streaming and downloads, and such – and lots and lots of people are profiting from...

Fred Thompson may have started his presidential campaign late, but he is the first candidate in either party to come out with solid plans to reform Social Security and immigration. And while most candidates have called for increasing the size of the military, Thompson laid out a detailed plan to achieve that end in a Tuesday speech at the Citadel Military College. On these issues, Thompson has set a standard for specificity, conservatism, and soundness that we would like to see the other Republican candidates measure up to. Thompson would borrow the best Democratic idea on Social Security, creating investment...

As the new week begins, Fred Thompson has gained six points on Rudy Giuliani in the latest Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll. On Friday, Thompson trailed Giuliani 28%-18%, and even saw that deficit move to twelve points on Saturday at 30%-18%. But in polling completed fully after last week's debate, Fred has reversed that trend the last two polling days and now trails Rudy 29%-23%. Significantly for the future, Fred continues to be seen as the most conservative candidate. 29% Rudy Giuliani 23% Fred Thompson 13% Mitt Romney 9% John McCain 8% Mike Huckabee The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll...

To look forward you need to step back and know where you have been. The fight for effective government, low taxes, and a secure America has been never ending. Conservatives remember 1994, when Republicans shocked the political establishment and took over the House of Representatives and the Senate. ABC’s Peter Jennings called it a “temper tantrum,” merely an emotional response. What he, the media, and the Democrats failed to realize was it was a reaction to decades of Democratic notions of bigger, more expensive government. The earthquake came about because Republicans told voters they would fight for things like lower...

Rudy Giuliani's decision to push his lead national fundraiser, Anne Dunsmore, out the door has been in the works for close to two weeks, according to Giuliani insiders, who claim that the candidate himself made the decision to can Dunsmore, who previously had done extensive work for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. "We set a goal, and two weeks ago it was clear we weren't going to make the goal," says a Giuliani adviser. That goal, according to other Giuliani staff, was a $20 million quarter. "We set a goal that would keep up in line with the Democratic frontrunners,"...

For months, Fred Thompson has been a political tease -- not quite a candidate for the White House, but playing the part as well as he did the gruff district attorney on "Law & Order." Now, the sand in the hourglass finally appears to be running out. With the "unofficial" Labor Day kickoff to the fall campaign just days away, Thompson's quips about "testing the waters" are wearing thin, even for Jay Leno, who joked that "it's not wrinkles on his face anymore. He's starting to prune up from being under water so much." With summer all but gone, the...

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson (R) seems likely to announce his candidacy for president this month, but journalists and rival campaigns will have to wait a while to see how much money he has raised, as Thompson's late entry into the '08 race means he won't have to file a detailed report on his fundraising until the end of September.

Expect Fred Thompson to vault to the top of the polls as soon as he enters the Republican race for president later this month. The former senator and actor has hired his production staff, orchestrated the advance publicity and carefully worked his audience, which is desperate for a star to lead the GOP out of its funk. Many of the conservatives who make up the core of the party – and who are most likely to vote in the primaries next year – think Thompson is just what they need. Already, Thompson scores second in most polls of GOP candidates,...

The Washington Post reports that the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is predicting that he’ll raise less money this quarter than the GOP primary leading $21 million during the first three months of ‘08. And, like the first quarter, Romney is expected to dump a couple more millions of his personal fortune into his campaign. The paper says Romney will still likely take in $13 to $20 million, still quite a hefty sum.

State GOP unites behind Thompson Top members of Tennessee’s Republican Party — often divided between its social versus economic wings — has quickly coalesced behind Fred Thompson’s undeclared presidential bid. While Thompson’s support has grown in the Volunteer State, it has conversely caused a drop in what once was rising support in Tennessee for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Minus a few holdouts, leading Republicans in the state are now almost all in former Sen. Thompson’s camp. Rep. Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) said Thompson’s interest in running most clearly hurt Romney’s chances of winning the primary in Tennessee. “Mitt Romney is...

As a matter of efficiency, it’s not odd for a national political operation to digest whole campaign structures at the statewide level. Fred Thompson seems to be doing this in Georgia. We’ve gotten word that Joel McElhannon, the Republican political consultant who helped put Casey Cagle in the lieutenant governor’s office and Jim Whitehead into a run-off for the 10th District congressional race, is being gobbled up by the Thompson campaign as some sort of Southern coordinator. McElhannon confirmed the move, but referred all other questions to the campaign. Thompson has a fund-raiser here on Friday, one of his first...

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The venue was vintage Fred D. Thompson: a gun shop. Perfect for the down-home, Washington-outsider candidate who campaigned across Tennessee in the 1990s with a red pickup truck, rolled-up shirt sleeves and a straight-talking attitude. But there was a difference on Thursday. Thompson was dressed in a dark blue suit, a white shirt and shiny black loafers as he chatted with gun purchasers. And as he sped away to visit a diner, it was in a caravan of a black Chevy Suburban and a black GMC Yukon, each with tinted windows and filled with advisers. Welcome to...

The video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ21qXPjLEM

This has been a good day for America. For a while, it didn’t look like Washington was going to listen to us regarding real immigration reform. Thankfully, we’ve been spared a serious mistake, but I wonder if things would have turned out the way they did without the work done by the bloggers, talk radio and the American people. Rush, Hannity, Laura Ingraham, RedState, Powerline, Pajamas Media and a lot of others have done a great job. Take that, Fairness Doctrine. I’m up in New Hampshire today. Met some great people and got to help the state GOP up in...

Context: I voted twice for Bush 43. I did so, in large part, because he was moderately isolationist and had the promise of sufficiently greater Conservative Leadership principle and methodology than his opponent(s). And, I did so BECAUSE of his opponent(s). Enter, post-inauguration, a rapidly collapsing dot com industry, and a budding recession. He talked of tax cuts, spending constraint, and Government growth caps. He had me at “hello.” September 11, 2001 forever changed the man George W. Bush, along with the rest of the country and the world. I support the man still, as my President and as my...

Earlier this evening Fred Thompson and a few hundred supporters had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the "stump speech" for his upcoming campaign. While he may still be "testing the waters", its clear that not only is the water warm, if it were much hotter, it would be boiling. I'm going to dispense with any pretense that Fred Thompson isn't going to run for President. I'm just happy to be able to see if from the beginning... One thing that is clear is that this is a man with a message. I will do my best to...