Free Republic

If you expected this election cycle to be tame, even for a little while longer, you were wrong. Priorities USA, the pro-Obama Super PAC which has the blessing of the President, is run by close confidantes of the President and is even going to receive fundraising help from Bill Clinton, is now running ad effectively accusing Romney of murder. The claim stems from a man losing his health insurance because a company Romney and Bain Capital tried to save eventually went under. The ad: [Ad at Link] The ad centers around the story of Joe and Ranae Soptic of Kansas...

Choosing not to eat at Chick-fil-A (or choosing to eat there, as millions did last week) because of the ownership's views on gay marriage is one thing, but calling for their business partners to disown them is a little different. I am not opposed to boycotts, or buy-cotts like the one that occured last Wednesday, although I often question their legitimacy. I am opposed to bullying from political officials and activist groups trying to drive companies out of business through coercion, as Equality Illinois' director of public policy proposes: In a petition, Equality Illinois is urging socially responsible business and...

As yet another example of how the failed renewable energy company took advantage of taxpayer funds, a new e-mail discovered by RNC Research shows that the CEO of Solyndra took the incentives from Obama's Department of Energy for granted. Take a look at how he viewed receiving your hard-earned tax dollars: All those incentives from the "Bank of Washington" and they still couldn't keep their doors open. It goes to show you that government cannot, even with all the perks at their disposal, make a business successful. It takes the free market system responding to a need to do that,...

Now my favorite football team will be owned by the brother of a Republican Governor who also runs an incredibly successful business and donates to Republican candidates. Can it get any better? Pilot Flying J CEO James "Jimmy" Haslam is set to own the team, per ESPN: NFL ownership is expected to approve Haslam's purchase at its October meeting. Commissioner Roger Goodell could expedite the process by calling a special meeting, although that is considered unlikely. The NFL helped bring Haslam to Lerner so that a sale could be completed smoothly, efficiently and with a high probability of success. Haslam...

The "Greatest Story Ever Sold" series intends to look into the distortions, exaggerations and falsehoods in Barack Obama's past. Yes, he was born in Hawaii and is a citizen, but he has not been properly vetted, by any means. His personal story is in many ways a mystery, and in too many ways, it's "made up". Get to know the real President of the United States.Aside from being a community organizer, State Senator, Senator and now President, how much do you know about the President's professional background? The answer is, not much, unless you delve into the oft-exaggerated pages of...

Working at a large chain grocery store, you get used to dealing with EBT, WIC and other forms of welfare. Sometimes it is painfully obvious the person does need some sort of help. Other times, too often I believe, someone abusing their government benefits just makes you cringe and doubt the entire system. I find myself echoing an article from a former Wal-Mart employee at College Conservative, who says it’s time for serious welfare reform. Here are some of my ideas for reform and why I believe it: Make EBT Recipients Ineligible for Large Lottery Payouts There were several customers...

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was an interesting character in the 2012 Republican Primaries that didn’t get the attention he deserved. I was never a Johnson devotee by any means, but his fiscal record was impressive and his libertarian leanings were worth giving a fair shake in the process. Now Johnson is running as the Libertarian Party candidate for President with hopes of playing spoiler, and as RealClearPolitics reports, he’s doing it with the help of Roger Stone, a rather interesting but mostly mythical operative legend: He doesn’t have a vast campaign account, as the two major-party candidates do,...

The desire to fight back against the shockingly liberal, disgustingly statist future America appears to be bound to is strong within many in our generation. We're outnumbered, the polls and statistics don't lie, but that doesn't mean we're outgunned intellectually or morally downtrodden. In fact, I would argue that our generation's Republicans, whether they be pragmatic free-market thinkers, conservative stalwarts or libertarian-minded activists, are more energetic and willing to take on the establishment than the movement's thinkers of the past. Will Barack Obama carry the youth vote, in spite of his all of that and his failed record? Probably, but...

While the political odds-makers still give the President better than even chances when it comes to holding a fundraising advantage over Romney, it now appears that the former Massachusetts Governor will be able to challenge Obama dollar-for-dollar, or close to it. The Washington Post digs into the finance situation and says that Obama and his liberal allies should be worried: Here’s a scary thought for Democrats: It’s entirely possible that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee will outraise President Obama and the Democratic National Committee in the seven-month sprint to the general election. In April, the...

As a follow up to yesterday's post about the Obama administration's closed door policies, we wanted to share just another example of the corruption of Obamacare. Emails sent by Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff and now Campaign Manager, Jim Messina, to a pharmaceutical company lobbyist were obtained by GOP investigators. These emails point to a back room deal being made between the Obama administration and the lobbyist around the time of the passage of Obamacare. The Washington Examiner reported: “What the hell?” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, who is now Obama’s campaign manager, complained to a lobbyist...

Did you know Barack Obama's administration is apparently relevant to every President's biography since Calvin Coolidge, with the exception of Gerald Ford? A hat-tip to Rob Port of Say Anything Blog for sharing this story, which highlights the ridiculous narcissism of the current White House occupant. The President's team has added shill bullet points to the official White House biography pages. Let's start with George W. Bush: In 2002, President George W. Bush’s State of the Union was the first to be live broadcast on the Internet. In 2011 and 2012, President Obama’s State of the Union speeches were available...

From time to time, we poll our editors, writers and contributors and ask them to handicap every state in the country for the 2012 election between Romney and Obama. We then average out their predictions and put together a map of the electoral college, should the average of their predictions be correct. Our current map was posted Tuesday, May 15th and has Mitt Romney beating Barack Obama by the slimmest of margins, winning with 276 electoral votes over the incumbent President’s 262. Ohio is the lynchpin for the map below, as our team only gave Romney a 52% chance of...

Every Saturday, the Poll of the Week question will ask my readers to pick their preferred Republican candidate for President, until the contest is over. Today, Republicans caucus in Washington State. On Tuesday, 10 states including the big prizes of Ohio, Virginia and Georgia vote. Where do you stand? Week One GOP Presidential Preference Poll Mitt Romney (35%, 24 Votes) Ron Paul (29%, 20 Votes) Newt Gingrich (20%, 14 Votes) Rick Santorum (16%, 11 Votes) Total Voters: 69

Last week I unveiled my first rankings and poll for the 2012 Republican field. Hundreds voted on their favorites, and the results were pretty slanted in favor of Sarah Palin. Former Governors Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney also showed strong online support. The voting added one new set of numbers to my rankings. Here are some other changes to my algorithm:

Every weekend, I will be releasing my “Horserace” rankings for the 2012 Republican Primary field. These are my rankings based on likelihood to win the nomination (not necessarily beat Obama). The first total takes into account general measures of electability (my more detailed breakout includes name recognition, fundraising ability, grassroots support and establishment support). The second total includes domestic issues, including jobs & the economy, taxes & spending, bailouts, health care and social issues. The final total (national security) includes both immigration and foreign policy in a broader sense. These totals reflect their views against the default majority position within...

Gather round people, we must take a stand Against our country’s new socialist man Against bailouts, the stimulus, a bad mortgage plan Our futures needs a-savin! So let’s vote out the cowards and promote those who stand We gotta stop Obama’s changin’ To writers and pundits with thrills up their leg We see into your eyes, yes we’ve got you pegged Your biased networks are going to cave We’re turning off the tvs and sayin’ We don’t need some rich liberals to know what to say We gotta stop Obama’s changin’ Senators, Congressmen please heed our call You don’t have...

I meant to post a poll along these lines following Romney’s victory in the CPAC straw poll but I got caught up with actual news and didn’t want to start the bloodbath that is going to be the 2012 Republican Primary battle. Unless someone does something to generate some real concensus soon, I doubt we’ll see a very easy primary. Then again, four years is a long time for someone to establish themself as “the voice of the opposition”. For this poll, I’m letting readers pick more than just their top pick:

I went on 610 WTVN in Columbus yesterday with radio host Dirk Thompson and talked about the Columbus Tea Party. It was a pretty humorous exchange and I had a lot of fun. The podcast for the show is posted (please note, that link plays the most recent show) so take a listen before Saturday, and then head down to the event on Saturday at 11 AM. I brought my Flip Camera and got some behind-the-scenes video of one of the segments. Enjoy: [Video at Link]

Attending the Columbus Tea Party? Join the Facebook Event and invite your friends!I'm proud to announce that I've been busily organizing a "Columbus Tea Party", a grassroots event to protest Governor Strickland's plans with the stimulus money, with the folks from the Ohio chapter of Americans for Prosperity. I just received final word that the permit requests are in, the organizing is well underway, and we can announce the following "official details" about the event: Who: Americans for Prosperity, College Republican Groups, ShotsontheHouse.com, and grassroots activists from across the state of Ohio When: Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 11...

want him to fail too. How could we not want President Obama to fail? It’s this simple: If President Obama succeeds at the implementation of his socialist economic policies, the country will fail, and if President Obama fails at said implementation, the country will succeed. With that established, we should all want him to fail. Only the ultra-pragmatists amongst the Conservative movement are upset about Limbaugh’s comments, and not because they disagree, but because they don’t want to see us painted as obstructionists and hate-mongers in the press. I’m here to say that it really shouldn’t matter.