Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama fired back at President Bush yesterday, accusing him of an "appalling attack" for suggesting that the Democratic presidential hopeful wanted to appease America's enemies. "Now, that's exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from the world," Obama said. "And that's why we need change in Washington. That's part of the reason why I'm running for president of the United States of America." Speaking before the Israeli Knesset earlier this week, Bush laced into those who believe that the United States should negotiate with leaders of terrorist states. Last summer,...

She can't win. The pundits say it. The polls say it. The math says it. It's even the word on the street. If Huggy Bear from "Starsky and Hutch" were around, he'd say it's time to stick a fork in her. So why does she keep going? One theory is psychological, almost Aesopian. Hillary Clinton - like her husband - is a creature who follows her nature. Scorpions must sting. Ants must save food for winter. Clintons must fight. Bill Clinton illustrated Clinton grit when he confronted Newt Gingrich during the government shutdown of the mid-'90s. "Do you know who...

Agents for Sen. Hillary Clinton, trying desperately to keep alive her presidential campaign, are privately telling Democrats that she is so "tight" with a dollar that she would not continue her contest against Sen. Barack Obama if she did not have a chance to win. That was a reference to Clinton pulling $11 million out of her family's newfound personal fortune to maintain her candidacy. Saying that she would not waste money on a futile effort, her supporters imply she will still find a path to the presidential nomination. With not enough primary elections left for Clinton to close the...

All week long, you and I have been blasting the bereft Beltway GOP leadership for their empty sloganeering and Obama-esque change obsession. Now, the NRCC is hearing it directly on its website. Reader Fritz e-mails that the comments section in the NRCC blog post by chairman Tom Cole is sizzling hot with aggravated grass-roots conservative feedback. Go check it out. A sample: This is not the message I am looking to support. The message of the Replican Part should be fundumentally different than the Democrats. We don’t need to “fix” the government. We need the Federal Government to do wnat...

John Edwards says he's not interested in becoming vice president...The former presidential candidate told the press his wishes last night in New York City. Edwards was in the city receiving an award from demos, a liberal policy research center. On Wednesday Edwards endorsed democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama. The fresh support helped add to Obama's overall delegate count. (Watch the Video)

I've long speculated that one of the reasons that Hillary Clinton is still in the race is because she wants to be running should another bombshell like the Rev. Wright scandal hit the Obama campaign. According to Hillary Clinton supporter Larry Johnson, there is another bomb out there, but it won't see the light of day until Obama is nominated: I now have it from two three sources close to senior Republicans that they have video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church. Republicans may have a lousy record when it comes to the economy and the management...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, facing a likely defeat in next Tuesday's primary election, won't travel to Kentucky before the voting, but said he hopes to have much more time to win over Kentucky voters before the November general election. He also blamed Fox News for disseminating "rumors" about him and said that that and e-mails filled with misinformation that have been "systematically" dispersed have hurt him in Kentucky. "When we're able to campaign in a place like Iowa for several months and I can visit and talk to people individually, I do very well. That's harder...

Wouldn't it be something if Michelle Obama, not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or John McCain, were the reason Barrack Obama looses the presidency? Instead of "change," the First Lady-in-waiting is sticking with old hurts held closely by certain black communities. They are those who relish the pain suffered by their slave forefathers and mothers. They revisit, over and over, what was; hurts, carefully protected and harbored as badges of honor. None of us on this land are responsible for what happened to their kin, but they don't care. They marinate in crippling history. Why? The reasons reek of the psychology...

The Popular Press is lined up outside the tuxedo rental places here in Your Nation's Capital, to get ready for what they all assume will be the Coronation of Sen. Barack Obama as the Nominee for President of the Democratic Party after the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. The endorsement of John Edwards yesterday, one assumes, also brings his eleven delegates with him. That would put Obama, according to CNN's count, at 1,910 delegates only 115 short of the 2,025 to have a majority. Kentucky (60 delegates) and Oregon (65 delegates) will hold their primaries on Tuesday. Assuming Obama and...

So we all know that Cindy McCain is loaded. She’s an heir to the Anheuser Busch fortune and has millions upon millions. I love how the McCains & Clinton’s have 10-100X the millions that Obama has and he’s the elitists. Whatever. I want to challenge the idea that money is what defines whether one is a member of the American Elite. In doing so, I rely mainly on Christopher Lasch’s work The Revolt of the Elites. According to Lasch: The new cognitive elite is made up of what Robert Reich called “symbolic analysts” — lawyers, academics, journalists, systems analysts, brokers,...

The cooperation agreement reached between prosecutors and an employee of the call-girl ring known as Emperors Club VIP will come in handy should the Manhattan U.S. attorney, Michael Garcia, decide to charge Governor Spitzer with a crime. The woman, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, who entered a guilty plea to money laundering and prostitution-related charges yesterday, would be a key witness against Mr. Spitzer if the former governor is charged in connection with patronizing an Emperors Club prostitute... Lewis, who booked clients for the call-girl service, had several phone conversations with Mr. Spitzer to hammer out the logistics of payment and...

Another 50-50 Myth Debunked by: Bethany Stotts, May 16, 2008 Do Americans live in a democracy or in a scum-ridden, corrupt regime run by elite interests? Skeptics tend to believe the latter. “Start with this reality: the Powers That Be don’t want genuine democracy...They intend for politics to be a spectator event for us, scripted by the one-tenth of 1 percent of elites who put up the controlling money,” write Jim Hightower and Susan DeMarco in their book, Swim Against the Current. While hyperbolic (as is much of Hightower’s writing), their argument exemplifies how research placing American voter turnout at...

Hey sweetie, are you bitter? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Perfect Sen. John McCain bumper sticker: Hey sweetie, are you bitter?

At 5:43 into this video, Barack Obama asserts that "has never said" he'd negotiate with terrorists. The problem with this is one of two things: Barack Obama is either lying through his teeth, or he doesn't consider the Iranian regime terrorists. Either way, he's off.

In an earlier column, I raised the matter of whether, and how, Senator Barack Obama's conspicuous intelligence may act as a barrier to his being elected president. [SNIP] In recent years, Democrats have nominated presidential candidates who are far more intelligent that their Republican counterparts. Common sense might suggest that high intelligence is necessary to be president, and conclude that we should applaud such nominations. Election politics, unfortunately, usually punishes the more intelligent nominee. Start with Nixon. Hubert Humphrey had a remarkable mind and while Nixon was no slouch, Humphrey always struck those who knew both men well as way...

This is four minutes. Worth the time even though it doesnt seem like a professional production.

As promised 2006 election: 1) Beg Muslim countries to drill more of their own oil to INCREASE supply(yes) 2) Raise Tax on oil (yes) 3) Use more corn and farm resources for fuel instead of food (yes) 4) Increase illegals food stamps to pay for increasing food prices due to #3 (yes) 5) Cut gas tax prior to election, raise even higher after election as Clinton did 1993(yes) 6) Release strategic oil supply to INCREASE supply before election, draw back to DECREASE supply after election(yes) 7) Drill our own oil to INCREASE supply (no) 8) Build more domestic refineries (no)...

Jerusalem - Jerusalem must be included in any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authrity, stressed Sen. Barack Obama's Middle East adviser Daniel Kurtzer. "It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said yesterday at a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute or JPPPI. Kutzer... was appointed as a primary Obama adviser on the Middle East earlier this year.

Republicans are bracing for a political annihilation of epic proportions after losing a special election this week in a solidly conservative district in Mississippi — yes, Mississippi. We can call this "a harbinger." And Republicans not only deserve the flogging, they should be praying for more. We can call this "creative destruction." When Democrats claim that Republican presidential candidate John McCain would mean a third term of the Bush presidency, they're not kidding. The GOP offers no coherent policy, no leadership, no imagination, no principles and, most important, it offers no choice. The Democrat-run Congress now carries an approval rating...

Republican Senate candidate Jim Ogonowski took his attacks against Sen. John Kerry's record to a new level yesterday -- television. Ogonowski, one of two Republicans vying to oust Kerry this fall, launched the first TV ad of the campaign season. The one-minute ad will air on cable stations throughout the state for the next three weeks, his campaign said. "People are absolutely fed up with the fact that he has been there so long and passed only eight pieces of legislation (since 1999)," Ogonowski said. "There's some real excitement in this state if you get to talk to people about...

With Hillary Clinton’s 40-point win in West Virginia on Tuesday, it looks as if the former first lady’s campaign will endure at least another week. And with it will continue the protracted, pointless infighting between Sen. Barack Obama’s and Clinton’s camps, sending lots of Democratic money down the primary money pit with the general election less than six months away. In other words, it’s the Democrats’ worst nightmare, outside of military success in Iraq. Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos may be a small part of Clinton’s electoral success. And it’s a small, yet sweet, consolation for Republicans and conservatives less than...

I must admit that I had just about given up on the notion that a Republican could win the White House this year. With an unpopular war in its sixth year and an economy heading into a recession, the political landscape had all the earmarks (excuse the expression) of a country that was ready to put another party in power. Additionally, with the history-making candidacies of the first woman and the first African-American with a serious chance to become the nation’s Chief Executive, it looked like curtains for the GOP. Add to that scenario the fact that conservative groups were...

Recently on a talk radio show, the guest, a Democrat, said there was little difference in policy between John McCain and the two Democrats running for President. Many of those calling in agreed. Considering McCain’s recent comments on global climate change and his position on some other issues I can understand why some might have that impression. If voters are convinced there would not be much difference in policy between a McCain and an Obama presidency, it is likely the majority will go for the young, charismatic candidate who would make history as the first black President. If they vote...

If you look a few posts below, you will find the text of President Bush’s powerful and moving speech to the Knesset today. In the course of it, he says something very general: Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this...

The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born. Terry Shoffner Clarke Reed The Republicans? Busy dying.

Spending some time on the campaign trail has confirmed a couple of thoughts I've had before I entered the Republican primary race. First, conservatism is alive and well in America; don't let anyone tell you differently. And by conservatism, I don't mean the warmed-over "raise your hand if you believe ..." kind of conservatism we see blooming every election cycle. No, I'm speaking of the conservatism grounded in principles based upon enduring truths: an understanding of the importance of human nature in the affairs of individuals and nations. Respect for the lessons of history, the importance of faith and tradition....

It had to be one of the single dumbest questions ever asked in the history of network television. Diane Sawyer was chatting up James Carville, the irascible Clinton loyalist, about the West Virginia Democrat primary. She turned to Mr. Carville and, with a glint in her eye, asked something that almost caused him to fall flat out of his cushy 'Good Morning America' chair. At least I know I certainly would have keeled over had I been asked the same thing. Referring to the much-reported exit polling in West Virginia that suggested that one out of five Clinton voters said...

I saw the list of likely retiring justices last year but didn't think to bookmark the page. Does anybody know who they are? Likely Stephens, Ginsburg. I understand that the tradition for justices is to not retire during an election year to spare the country the additional burden of nominee hearings. In this round of retirements, outgoing Constitution-ignoring justices are of course hoping to be replaced by other Constitution-ignoring justices nominated by either Obama or Clinton.

Veteran Democrat David Carlin knows what he’s going to do if Illinois Sen. Barack Obama becomes his party’s presidential nominee He’s going to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. “Any Catholic who takes the abortion issue seriously will not vote for Obama,” said Carlin, who served as majority leader of the Rhode Island Senate in 1989-90. Pro-life leaders describe Obama — who is now the heavy favorite to defeat New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination — as the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in American history. “Based on his record he appears to...

Foreign Policy: Barack Obama claims he's not an appeaser. But when President Bush attacked those who "seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists," why was the senator sure he was talking about him?"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" is the famous Hamlet quote referring to pleas of innocence that actually indicate guilt. Did Obama, the near-certain Democratic Party nominee for president, "protest too much" in complaining about Bush's speech to Israel's Knesset on Thursday? Addressing lawmakers in Jerusalem in a special session of the legislature commemorating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel, the...

If the United States shows signs of weakness, surrender, and a one-sided departure from Iraq, the rejoicing of those who predicted that they would in the end defeat us will profoundly strengthen their resolve for the next battle. Further, without an offensive thrust in Iraq, any military forts or airfields of ours would be sheltered in a defensive enclave -- announcing to those who hate us that they should keep killing two or more Americans every day, drip, drip, drip, until the American people cannot stand it any more. Weakness once shown invites fiercer aggression. Iran will thus have its...

The Obama campaign claimed to be "flattered" by the Hamas endorsement, and Obama himself told the Atlantic magazine that he understands why Hamas would support him. So what have Barack's Hamas newfound supporters been up to lately? Well, on the very day President Bush arrived in Israel to mark the nation's 60th anniversary and to renew his push for a Palestinian state as part of elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a rocket was fired into an Israeli shopping mall. The mall was devastated, and 14 innocent civilians were seriously injured. The Popular Resistance Committees, which has Hamas members, was one of...

So, Dubya goes before the Israel Knesset for their 60th Anniversary and criticizes appeasement: "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has...

The glib handling of criticism of his relationship with the anti-American ("God Damn America!") and anti-Israel ("a dirty word for Negroes") Reverend James Wright may have bought him a little time. But the legacy of dissimulation about his long-concealed identity is about to come crashing down around the ears of Barack Hussein Obama, courtesy of the assembled testimony of his family, friends, classmates and teachers. Obama's official campaign site has a page titled "Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." The page states, "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was...

The political climate couldn't be much more favorable for Democrats in their efforts to take back the White House this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will, two national political observers said in Columbus today. President Bush is unpopular, more people consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, and polls show Democrats enjoy a clear advantage on issues Americans care about, pollster Peter D. Hart and columnist Mark Shields said. Also, the economy is near or in recession, the nation is mired in an unpopular war, and for the first time in many generations, a majority of Americans don't think the...

Ninety percent of black Democrats support Barack Obama. So that might leave an observer wondering: What the hell is up with that other 10 percent? Are they stupid? Do they hate their own race? Do they not understand the historical import of the moment? I can shed some insight on this demographic anomaly. In gatherings of black people, I'm invariably the only one for the Dragon Lady. I'll do my best to explain how those of us in the ever-shrinking minority of a minority came to our position. But, before going any further, let me fully disclose my predispositions. I...

The fact that receiving Hamas support does not appear to disturb Obama should worry us even more than the fact that terrorists see something in him that they really like. The 2008 Presidential campaign has already seen a number of outlandish, and patently false, attacks. The idea that Islamic terrorists are picking a side in selection of an American president might seem to be yet another for the list…if it didn’t have its basis in truth. A few weeks ago, Ahmed Yousef, a top political adviser for terrorist group Hamas, said in an interview on WABC radio in New York...

I just read in The New York Times about an incident in a diner somewhere in Indiana. I can just see this whole scene playing out as described: Barack Obama campaigning and walking up to a white, older man who waves him off dismissively and calls him a Muslim who doesn't love his country. The key element is the inability of this man to meet the eye of Mr. Obama. His head goes down and an arm waves out to the side for the offender to please remove himself right away. Of course, the man is in a panic of...

The endorsement of Senator Barack Obama by former Senator John Edwards is a signal, though not an absolutely decisive one, of a shift in the commitment of the Democratic Party's unpledged centre. It is partly a result of sheer momentum - Edwards said as much when he said that the voters had evidently made their choice "and so have I" - but partly also a feeling of alarm at the way in which Mrs Clinton has polarised the campaign, and gone so far as to polarise it along ethnic and racial lines. Edwards himself ran a campaign very much along...

The Perpetual Motion BS Generator: Democrat Propaganda for the 21st CenturyWARNING: CONTAINS VULGARITY Both Democrats and Republicans have long understood one of basic truths about the US: "In America, you never outgrow your need for bullshit." The difference is that the Republicans seem to want to apply that maxim to make profits and get rich, while the Democrats want to use it to obtain power to take away the profits from the rich -and everyone else - through taxes and regulations. When it comes to making money, the Republicans utilize bullshit brilliantly. Advertising, Marketing, Point-of-Sale, Packaging, Sales Pitches -- all...

Republicans are and should be panicked over the fact that conservative Democrat Travis Childers just defeated Republican Greg Davis by a margin of 54%-46% in the race for a vacant Mississippi congressional seat. That seat is in a conservative district that had given President Bush a 25-point margin of victory over John Kerry in 2004 - it never should have flipped Democrat. This is the third double-digit loss in a row for Republican candidates in conservative districts across the United States. Childers' victory came one week after Rep. Don Cazayoux won a House seat in the Baton Rouge, La., area...

I just got off of another teleconference with John McCain. Here are my notes, not quotes, from the teleconference. McCain's Opening Statement I gave a speech this morning about how I would want America to look after my first term in office in 2013. I want people to see what I want to do. By 2013, I think we will have won in Iraq. There may be sporadic fighting or attacks by Jihadists, but the Iraqi military would have control of the country and American troops would be out of harm's way, even though we may still have our troops...

Every decade or so the people who control the way we see the world anoint some American politician the Redeemer of a Troubled Planet. In the late 1960s the media placed the halo on Robert Kennedy, the tragic dynast whose antiwar and civil rights credentials made him in life - as he remains to this day in death - a kind of devotional figure for most political journalists. Kennedy at least had charisma and intelligence. But to prove that these were by no means necessary preconditions for the honour, it was conferred a few years later on Jimmy Carter, the...

Filmmaker Michael Moore says he is currently working on a follow up to his Oscar-winning 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which was a scathing critique of President George W. Bush and his decision to go to war in Iraq. The as-yet untitled movie aims for a spring 2009 commercial release, a date deliberately chosen by Moore to follow this fall's U.S. presidential election. Co-financed and distributed by Overture and Paramount Vantage, the film is being described by the two studios as "searing and provocative." "He intends to examine how America's role in the world has changed over the last eight years,"...

What about Al? There is a rumor among those close to the Obama camp that this weekend will bring a big endorsement for the Illinois Senator. We can scratch John Edwards off that list, he is yesterday's news. Probably the only thing 'bigger' than Edwards would be former Vice-President Al Gore -- who will be in Pittsburgh this Sunday (May 18) to give the commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University. Gore, after his unsuccessful run for president in 2000, took an environmental path, rather than political, and has become a cult-like figure among the left and environmentally correct.

Things are so ugly for the members of the GOP right now, it’s worth pondering their political mortality: Put bluntly, can this party be saved? We talked to some of the smartest minds in Republican politics, and their prognosis is pretty grim. They think it will take pretty big changes — and possibly many, many years — to repair a Republican brand sullied by excessive spending, an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president. Republicans are deeply divided over how dramatic changes should be and how precisely to change things. But there appears to be an emerging consensus on...

Hillary Clinton plans a campaign visit to Puerto Rico in late May, and may even stop by the island before that, according to her guy in Puerto Rico, Roberto Prats. Chelsea is on the island right now, as is Michelle Obama.

From the GOPNation.com Editors: GOP voters need to realize this: unless GOP leaders in Congress are replaced, the best we can hope for this year is a President McCain with large Democratic majorities controlling both sides of Capital Hill. And let’s be frank: even a McCain election is an uphill battle at best. Consider this: In three recent special House elections, strong GOP seats (one belonging to the last GOP Speaker of the House) have gone to the Democrats, two of those in the Deep South. Plus, at the latest count, 25 GOP representatives will retire at the end of...

I am not an expert on campaign strategy, but I know a losing game plan when I see one. The Republican Party’s strategy in a series of special House elections this year has been to tie Democratic candidates to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. How’s that working? Three straight losses, all in congressional districts President Bush carried easily in 2004. Some strategy. John McCain may well win the presidential election, but at the congressional and grassroots level, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the GOP in a more severe state of disarray. The worst result yet has come from the...