Free Republic

If Fred Thompson is nothing else he’s honest, or at least as honest as politics will allow one man to be. Presidential candidates through necessity are forced to make promises they know they can’t keep. Occasionally a candidate will say something in an unguarded moment being totally frank with his or her audience they wish later they hadn’t. At a town hall meeting in Burlington Iowa Fred Thompson was explaining becoming president wasn’t an obsession of his. He had a life before he decided to run and he’ll have a life if he isn’t the voter’s choice. The media’s reporting...

David Yepsen has a horrifically bad column in the Sunday Des Moines Register. In it, he distills each candidate down to the usual cliches of the leftist/"centrist" newspaper agenda: Mike Huckabee The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has soared in the GOP race following his second-place finish in the Iowa Republican straw poll in August. He has rallied party social and religious conservatives as well as supporters of a big national sales tax to replace the income tax. He's a witty speaker and an affable politician whose criticisms of the nation's economic policies sound a lot like the populist...

Fred, in his own words to Iowa voters, makes the case for why he’s the best man to be America’s next Commander in Chief: Video: Fred’s Message to Iowa Voters

TNR’s Noam Scheiber had an interesting item the other day, gaming out possible post-Iowa-caucus scenarios, and describing the various “paths” Democratic candidates have to the nomination. First, the three easy scenarios: 1.) Hillary wins by more than a point or two, in which case the race is basically over. 2.) Obama wins convincingly (five points or more), in which case it starts looking pretty good for him and Edwards is done. 3.) Edwards wins convincingly and Obama is third, in which case Obama is probably done and Hillary and Edwards duke it out (with Hillary enjoying a near-prohibitive financial advantage)....

<p>DES MOINES, Iowa — John Edwards has clawed his way into contention to win Iowa's caucuses on Thursday in the first vote for the Democratic presidential nomination, gaining strength even as rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have lost ground, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.</p>

The Christmas ads that showed up in Iowa and New Hampshire — and here, on the Internet — are mostly just more ads, but with a new and disturbing twist. There is Barack Obama, being sensitive by letting his wife, Michelle, speak first; Rudy Giuliani, softening his image by joking with Santa, and Ron Paul grinning in the midst of family pandemonium. John McCain reminds us he was a prisoner of war, Fred Thompson offers heart-warming snapshots of the troops and John Edwards promises not to forget the poor. The hullabaloo has come over the ad for Mike Huckabee. He...

Fred Thompson has picked up endorsements from three state representatives - Kraig Paulsen of Cedar Rapids, Jeff Kaufmann of Wilton and Jamie Van Fossen of Davenport -- bringing his total to six. Mitt Romney still has a prohibitive lead with 16, followed by John McCain with eight. (Table at link)

Please post any information that Fred Thompson supporters would like to know here...

Cannot post due to copyright issues.

In Iowa for the Christmas holidays, IÂ’ve posted the following as a three part series on the impending Iowa Caucuses and observations on the process from the ground level. On Saturday, December 22nd, I was on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. From Sunday, December 23 until Christmas Day, I was in the tiny farming town of Dunlap, Iowa in western Iowa. Saturday, December 22nd Heavy fog hung over the plains of eastern Iowa today, posing a significant impediment to seeing much of anything beyond a 1000 feet away. Nonetheless, even a passive observer wouldnÂ’t...

'Twas the week before Caucus, and all through the state, Not a creature was stirring, the blizzard won't wait. But conservatives were troubled by scary dreams, That some of the players weren't who they seemed. The candidate's finish seemed to be set, But the events of '03 some seemed to forget. With Kerry in the polls at just four percent, But out of Iowa with a victory he went. "Fred's not got a chance," the pundits did chatter, "If you think that he does, you're mad as a hatter." These are the "experts" who got it all wrong, When four...

Not even three million people live in the U.S. state of Iowa. But on Jan. 3, voters there will determine the fate of those seeking to become America’s next president. The battle has begun in earnest. The United States is a country that likes to explain democracy to other nations. It is also a country that starts wars to bring democracy to the world. It allows the candidates for its highest office, the presidency, to spend a year and a half campaigning, leaving no stone unturned as it delves into their past. Its political mood is gauged on a daily...

I'll admit it. I underestimated Tom Tancredo. I underestimated the impact he could make as a presidential candidate, particularly as a candidate who was polling, as many of us had predicted, around 2 percent. And yet, I had no idea he could take one issue and, with it, help make the Republican presidential race - and the country itself - an uglier, nastier and more mean-spirited place to be. He didn't do it by himself, of course. He wasn't even the lead player. You have to give that role to Lou Dobbs and the huge audience on his team. Still,...

Air America radio host Randi Rhodes unleashed a torrent of what's being called "liberal racism" and accused Oprah Winfrey of "acting" when she stumped for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. On her show last week, Rhodes discussed Oprah's appearances on Obama's behalf, and told listeners: "She was blacker than Obama yesterday . . . Let me tell you something. Everyone who watches Oprah are the whitest people in the world . . . Even the black men who watch Oprah are white women while they watch Oprah . . . "She's like so unbelievably white . . . Why is...

A third of the way through Thursday's final presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson made a plaintive plea to moderator Carolyn Washburn: Can't we please talk about the Iraq war? "Thank you," Washburn replied primly. "I want to take on a new issue." She then led the candidates into a discussion about flex fuels and the corporate carbon tax. Washburn, the earnest and schoolmarmish editor of the Des Moines Register, stunned the political world when she announced, at the beginning of the Republican debate on Wednesday, that she did not want to talk about Iraq...

WATERLOO -- Black Hawk County Republicans could receive some national attention during their 6 p.m. Jan. 3 precinct caucuses. That's because for the first time in 20 years when a GOP presidential nomination has been contested, all precinct caucuses will be conducted under one roof, making the Black Hawk County a convenient and prime target for national candidates as well as media coverage. The event will be at Central Middle School. Black Hawk County is believed to be one of the few, if not the only, urban county in Iowa where all Republican caucuses will be held under one roof,...

There is, in fact, a dime's worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Why, on immigration, the difference can get into real money. The Democratic candidates were sitting around a big table in a radio studio the other day participating in an altogether civil and restrained debate on National Public Radio. There were no rallying supporters in the room to rile partisan passions and agitate competitive energy. The long-form format by which only three topics were discussed, those being Iran, China and immigration, served thoughtfulness over rancor. The moderator asked the hopefuls if they believed they should...

From the day in June when I interviewed the man until this very morning, Fred Thompson has caused me to scratch my head in puzzlement and disappointment. On the one hand, Thompson displays energy, intiative, and principle in all matters of policy. He has forthrightly and uapologetically opposed Roe, arguing that abortion law should be returned to the states. He’s solid on health care. Has has displayed more courage and honesty in addressing the need for entitlement reform than all the other Republican candidates combined. In his insistence on the need to achieve victory in Iraq and prevent Iran from...

Hillary Changes: Asked directly whether she intended to raise questions about Obama's character, she replied: "It's beginning to look a lot like that." The Obama campaign quickly fought back, and the candidate himself called the new effort a sign of desperation. A new Des Moines Register poll released Sunday finds Clinton three points behind Obama, within the poll's margin of error, among likely Democratic caucusgoers. And Romney goes after Huckabee: As a consequence, Romney has begun to turn his attacks toward Huckabee as he faces the prospect of losing a state that he spent millions to win. That would be...

Republican presidential candidates have pulled out their knives for Mr. Nice Guy. A surprising surge of support for Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who had long seemed a rank outsider in the 2008 presidential race has turned him into a target six weeks before voting in Iowa. The Times of London reports that “running on a shoestring budget as an affable conservative with unrivalled religious qualifications (he is a former Baptist minister), Huckabee has been previously dismissed as an under-funded no-hoper. He is mostly known for a quirky sense of humor and his skills on bass guitar -...