Free Republic

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders said Saturday that he supports the U.S.'s continued arming and funding of so-called moderate rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but contrasted himself with front-runner Hillary Clinton by opposing the establishment of a unilateral American no-fly zone in the country. -snip- No-fly zones have also been proposed recently by Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

There’s a kind of narrative that tends to develop about every candidate for president. Donald Trump is a braggart willing to mercilessly criticize anyone who dares to criticize him. Ben Carson’s patrician, maybe even laconic public speaking style camouflages his controversial -- even incendiary -- ideas. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is a well-funded and cerebral but socially awkward WASP. And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the boy wonder, has purchased real estate in the safest and most carefully staged campaign zip codes, biding his time for when Trump flames out. You’ll note that beyond perhaps Trump, not one of the...

The Beltway Establishment's secretive plan to hand Jeb Bush the GOP nomination by flooding the zone with candidates (also known as the "GOPe Splitter Strategy") has totally unravelled. Let's start in New Hampshire, where support for John Kasich has fallen off the cliff: The rise of anti-establishment candidates ... have stalled Ohio Gov. John Kasich's momentum in New Hampshire, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows. Kasich, who a month ago sat in second place, behind real estate mogul Donald Trump, does not rank among the Republican presidential field's top 5 this time. Kasich has distinguished himself as a...

John King Jr. was a miserable failure as Commissioner of Education in New York. He waylaid his failure in New York into the assistant’s job in the US Department of Education. He will be the new Secretary of Education. King came to New York as an extremely well-educated egghead with little educational experience and none in public schools. He implemented Common Core in a bizarre manner and blamed the horrendous results on New York’s “ignorant” children. Even though New York’s standards were the highest in the nation, he claimed the students were not used to high standards. He tied...

Reports say that the influential Teamsters union may snub Hillary Clinton in favor of endorsing a Republican candidate such as Donald Trump for the White House in 2016.Such a move would likely be a notable boost for Republicans with Independents and “Reagan Democrats,” a critical segment of swing-voters that candidates spend millions trying to woo. These “middle of the road” type voters are crucial to winning bellwether regions like Michigan’s Macomb County.Clinton also faces snubs from other powerful unions like the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, refusing to back Hillary as they try to push Vice President Joe Biden into the race.According...

An 800 ft. cargo vessel sailing from Jacksonville to San Juan in the vicinity of a major hurricane with 33 crew on board loses power, starts listing, sends a distress signal and goes missing now for four days. Drudge has a link to the story just as a side of other hurricane stories. The story goes largely ignored by the mainstream media. Even Free Republic has taken it down from Breaking and Front Page news. That's 33 souls, 28 of which are Americans, possibly lost at sea or struggling to survive. A major U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue effort...

DeRay McKesson, one of the top organizers for the Black Lives Matter movement, is seeking a meeting with presidential aspirant Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). The request for a meeting follows comments in which Rubio seemed to lend his personal support to the group’s anti-cop rhetoric. In a recent tweet, McKesson said, “@MarcoRubio, I just saw your recent interview re: the movement. Will you meet to discuss the issues, and solutions, further?” ... Rubio said that concerns held by the controversial protesters are “legitimate” and suggested that “resentment” for law enforcement was understandable.

A new poll by Pew Research released Friday shows that former Florida Gov. Jeb! Bush (R) may be going the way of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). The polling report found that Bush’s support among Republican primary voters has withered to a mere 4 percent. To make matter worse, among the majority of likely GOP voters who consider themselves conservatives, only 2 percent said they would vote for Bush. Bush fatigue is largely due to the massive change in what the electorate is looking for in a president. A majority of Republican voters...

For years, Republicans have criticised Barack Obama for not doing more to stop the brutalities carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and to fight Isis. But what they think Obama should do and what the long-term solution might be remained hazy. -snip- Republican rising star Carly Fiorina had already called on the US to enforce a no-fly zone in Syria to protect US-backed rebel fighters, as had Jeb Bush in unequivocal terms. On Friday, another Republican presidential contender joined their camp: “You enter that no-fly zone, you enter at your own peril,” said Governor John Kasich. “No more...

* Texas senator stresses his Cuban heritage on campaign trail * His father was arrested and jailed on the island * Some Hispanic voters dislike Cruz’s strident conservatismTed Cruz could have been a Miami cubanito. His father, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, desperate to flee Cuba after his youthful guerrilla activities landed him in jail, applied to the University of Texas, Louisiana State University — and the University of Miami. He chose Texas only because it was the first school to respond. “If the University of Miami had let him in, I might be a Floridian right now,” Ted Cruz told the...

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today, former Florida governor Jeb Bush turned on his former ally and protege Marco Rubio, comparing his lack of "leadership skills" to Barack Obama, even though Rubio served as Majority Leader and Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives for nearly ten years (2002-2011). Bush only mention that he "was a member of the House of Representatives when I was governor." JEB BUSH: I think I have the leadership skills to fix things, and that is my strength, and that is what I talk about. And Marco was a member of the [Florida] House of Representatives...

Jeb Bush has dropped into sixth place as real estate and TV billionaire Donald Trump is maintaining his lead in the Republican presidential campaign field, a new poll shows. In the Pew Research Center survey released Friday, 4 percent of likely GOP primary voters pick the former Florida governor as their first choice for the nomination; 25 percent select Trump, 16 percent choose retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tie with 8 percent, and 6 percent name Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. "At this stage of the 2016 presidential campaign, key issues divide both Republican...

Donald Trump again leads the Republican primary field – but his lead has dwindled since before the second debate, while Marco Rubio has seen a significant boost in support.Although businessman Donald Trump continues to lead the GOP field when it comes to presidential preference of those registered voters who think of themselves as Republican, he is by no means the best-liked contender for Republicans for those potential voters. At least five other candidates in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll are seen more favorably by Republicans than Trump. Trump’s lead has somewhat diminished in recent weeks, though he remains in first place...

If no Republican politician communicates to Spanish-speaking groups in their language of choice, the Republican Party will have a harder time earning their support. Every night, Ellen’s bar is filled with the chatter of people speaking foreign languages. There’s some French, some German, but mostly English. Donald Trump would be able to find a lot of people to chat with there, but most locals wouldn’t, because Ellen’s is located in China. Living in China for the past three years has given me a unique vantage point from which to view the “English-only” debate Trump’s candidacy has raised. Trump has attacked...

Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz gained ground on the competition in this week’s installment of The Edge, a one-of-a-kind measurement from the New Analytics Company that “scrubs” television, radio, print, internet and social media to gauge positive and negative attention for the 2016 candidates. Last week saw interest in all of the candidates muted by blowout coverage of the papal visit, and this week everyone except eighth-place Ohio Gov. John Kasich got a lift. Candidates Donald Trump, Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all rebounded...

RUSH: Broward County in Florida. Tina, I'm glad you called. I really appreciate your patience. Hi. CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you? RUSH: Well to do! Thank you very much. How about you? CALLER: Very good. Thanks. RUSH: Go ahead. Have at it. CALLER: Okay. So I went to Broward College. My daughter attends a class there. She's duel enrolled. She's a high school student, but she's taking a college class, and Hillary Clinton's supposed to appear there at 2:30 today, and so -- RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. That's now. CALLER: Yes, now. And so I left there about...

One of Donald Trump‘s favorite personal attacks on his presidential rivals is his branding of Jeb Bush as “low energy.” Bush has dismissed that label and laughed it off, but when he sat down with Bill O’Reilly tonight, O’Reilly very bluntly told him his energy is, in fact, lacking.O’Reilly told Bush he’s “been flat” and hasn’t “shown the passion and the anger and the outrage” that other candidates like Donald Trump have.Bush insisted he’s not “angry” but he’s plenty passionate about fixing the problems facing America.

The latest Pew poll shows that Jeb Bush has fallen to 4 percent in the Republican field. Donald Trump leads the field with 25 percent; Ben Carson is at 16 percent. Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio are tied for third at 8 percent of the Republican field "At this stage of the 2016 presidential campaign, key issues divide both Republican and Democratic voters, and early candidate preferences reflect some of these cleavages," writes Pew. "When Republican and Republican-leaning voters are asked in an open-ended format (no names provided) for their first choice for the nomination, none of the 15 GOP...

Senators are calling on President Obama to clarify his strategy on Syria, after Russia ignored repeated U.S. warnings and began bombing rebel groups there this week to shore up the Assad regime. -snip- Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the administration's biggest foreign policy critics, called on the administration to take stronger measures. "We should establish no-fly zones in Syria and make it clear that any aircraft that enters those zones will be shot down,” he said.

Donald Trump made a completely uncensored remark about the friendship between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Read: Donald Trump Ends Fox News Boycott, Now Goes to War With 'Forbes' He said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire: “Its political bull****. They hate each other. Trust me, I know.”