Free Republic

Donald Trump may end up losing the 2020 election in the Electoral College, but he won the campaign that ended on Nov. 3. Democrats had been talking of a "sweep," a "blowout," a "blue wave" washing the Republicans out of power, capturing the Senate, and bringing in an enlarged Democratic majority in Nancy Pelosi's House. They visualized the ouster of Trump in a defeat so massive and humiliating that it would serve as an eternal repudiation of the man. And, most intoxicating of all, they believed they would be seen by history as the angels of America's deliverance. It was...

1:10 p.m. Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota says “there are a lot of lawyers in America who can sit on the court” and Brett Kavanaugh isn’t the only person who can do the job. Heitkamp said Friday she hasn’t decided whether to support Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. But her remarks to the AP suggest she may vote no. Heitkamp is facing a tough re-election this year in a Republican-leaning state. Her decision on Kavanaugh is being closely watched.

Christine Blasey Ford was compelling and sympathetic. Clearly, she sincerely believes her account. But that doesn’t mean it’s correct. She very well could be mistaken about a long-ago memory, which is why Republicans needed to draw out the gaps in her story, walk through how others contradict her, and highlight the complete lack of corroborating evidence. The designated questioner, Rachel Mitchell, failed to do this effectively at all.

We must not sink to this level. Hard-working, law-abiding Americans are witness to bad behavior and victims of cultural bullying every day. Last weekend about 20 people protesting the nation’s immigration policies were arrested in Boston. Civil unrest — however inconvenient and damaging to the general public — has been fully sanctioned by progressives and any opposition is pilloried. Each disruption benefits from politicians and media who draw fraudulent comparisons to the civil rights movement. Online Twitter mobs are “dox-ing” (releasing personal information) and intimidating private citizens who voice their opposition to open borders. On a daily basis, concerned Americans...

<p>I have been a longtime admirer of yours. Being myself a native Texan, who now lives in Idaho with my wife (with our five kids and eleven grandkids), I have watched and applauded your career there in Texas, in the US Senate, and now while running for President.</p>

South Mississippi Tea Party chairman John Rhodes is fairly involved in politics. The Tea Party chapter he leads meets twice a month. An active supporter of state Senator Chris McDaniel in the U.S. Senate primary here, Rhodes has been intimately involved in endorsing candidates in a variety of races over the last few years, and frequently attends Republican events in the region. But when it comes to the incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran, Rhodes said has never even met him. (snip) As Cochran campaigns in the first competitive reelection battle he's faced as a senator, local Republicans say they resent the...

<p>Like progressive's worldwide, this traitor to his nation and to his nation's allies must be taken out of circulation. By any means necessary folks. Defeat them in elections, take them to court repeatedly and finally if the above methods fail; scatter their remains across the desert.</p>

The troop request on the desks of the president and his national security team outlines three options, according to a source familiar with the document. One path is not to send anymore troops to Afghanistan, considered a "high risk option." The second is to send 40,000 troops, and the third calls for a major increase in troops, far more than 40,000. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, according to the source, recommends the "middle" option of 40,000 as the minimum number needed to have a chance of success...The White House, however, is downplaying the troop numbers as the focus of the president's deliberations......

"What (Palin) had, more than anything else, was a toughness and a dedication to her position. She blew all that with her announcement today." One of the things that Palin had going for her was that she was, as Cindy McCain described her during the Republican National Convention, a "hockey-mommin' ... basketball shootin' ... moose huntin' ... fly-fishin' ... pistol-packing ... mother of five." She had been nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda," and took on the "good ole' boys" who controlled Alaska politics. However, to all but her most loyal supporters, today's bizarre press conference made her look brittle -- like a...

Yes, I'm afraid after all the hope poured out onto these pages, John McCain will lose. There are at least two very important reasons for this (and they have nothing to do with media bias). The first is - simply put - that McCain ran a lousy campaign. There was no focus on any one particular message that resounded with voters until Joe The Plumber came along (too little too late?) despite the fact that Obama's own voting record in the Senate said at least as much about his plans to "tax and spend" this country into bankruptcy faster than...

GOP, eyeing House losses, pulls out of key races, including Bachmann's race West Central TribunePublished Thursday, October 23, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) - National Republicans have yanked TV advertising for Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann's re-election bid after she suggested Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have "anti-American" views and urged an investigation of unpatriotic lawmakers. Bachmann is one of four at-risk Republican incumbents left to fend for themselves by a cash-strapped House campaign arm in the crucial final days of the campaign amid a tough political environment for the GOP. The National Republican Campaign Committee has also canceled planned TV...

Relax, people. McCain did fine. Re: Ayers. If McCain flogs that too enthusiastically he’s screwed. Obama already won a couple of news cycles last week when he painted McCain as unconcerned about the economy and wanting to debate something that happened 40 years ago.

Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the British public should not expect a “decisive military victory” but should be prepared for a possible deal with the Taliban. His assessment followed the leaking of a memo from a French diplomat who claimed that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador in Kabul, had told him the current strategy was “doomed to fail”. Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, said it was necessary to “lower our expectations”....

The Democrat's Magical Thinking by Nancy Morgan Right Bias Something very strange is happening in the hallowed halls of the old media. From the Washington Post to the New York Times, articles are starting to appear actually acknowledging that the Iraq war may be, gasp, winnable. Even the United Nations went on record, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying Iraq has made "notable progress" in the security, political and economic fields. This recent acknowledgment of the obvious has yet to extend to the Democrat Party. Despite the recent CIA assessment that portrayed al-Qaeda as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia,...

I am a small-government conservative/libertarian and have hated the concept of socialized medicine almost all my life. But now, I could live with universal health coverage in the U.S.. Here's why. We now have the worst of both worlds: we are paying for universal health coverage, but not getting it. In fact, we pay more for health care in taxes than countries that provide universal coverage. Then we pay more than that amount again in private coverage. Additionally, what we have now in the U.S. is nowhere near a free market in health care. Defending the status quo is not...

....the story made me both laugh and cry, because it reflected something so true — how much, since 9/11, we’ve become “The United States of Fighting Terrorism.” Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there’s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We don’t need another president of 9/11. We need a president for 9/12. I will only vote for the 9/12 candidate. What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But...

D for Democrat, D for Defeatist

I know I'm going to be flamed and elections are still a year and a half away but the momentum seems to be favoring Hilary as the next POTUS. The sooner Republicans and conservatives accept the fact President Bush and the congressional Republicans have so enraged their base and independents that the Democratic Party will gain even stronger control over the congress and will take back the White House in the 2008 elections. What is to blame for the collapse of the Republican dominance over the US? Corruption, arrogant refusal to heed the wishes of the public (especially on immigration...

This grand debate is welcomed but it could be that this is nothing more than a distraction from the dangerous military confrontation approaching with Iran and supported by many in leadership on both sides of the aisle. This resolution, unfortunately, does not address the disaster in Iraq. Instead, it seeks to appear opposed to the war while at the same time offering no change of the status quo in Iraq. As such, it is not actually a vote against a troop surge. A real vote against a troop surge is a vote against the coming supplemental appropriation that finances it....

Dodd: Restoring Habeas Corpus Rights, Banning Torture, Upholding Geneva Conventions Must Happen Now Introduces bill correcting Flawed Military Commissions Act February 13, 2007 Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today introduced his bill making important changes to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which in its current form, does not provide a credible process for bringing suspected terrorists to justice. Sen. Dodd was joined by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), in introducing the measure. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently sent an email to their 40,000 person email list voicing support for Sen. Dodd’s bill...