Free Republic

COMMENTARY | Proving again that one cannot make a dumb statement if one is a liberal Democrat, President Barack Obama recently had a news conference in Hawaii in which he suggested the 50th state of the union was "here in Asia." Obama has, from time to time, fractured his geography. In a speech in Iowa last year he referred to Europe as a country. Obama once referred to the 57 states of the Union he had visited at a campaign stop in Oregon. The media, when it notes them at all, tends to pass on the president's alternate geography without...

Good enough? “The video is being taken out of context,” said spokesman JD Gordon. “He was taking questions for about 30 to 40 minutes on four hours of sleep. He didn’t say anything wrong or in accurate; it just took him a while to recall the specifics of Libya.” Gordon added, “It just took him a while to gain his bearings.” The clip was posted unedited by the Journal-Sentinel so I don’t know what context he thinks was missing. Is there some context that would explain why he needed the editorial board to remind him whether Obama is pro- or...

Via Business Insider. A few choice quotes. Larry Sabato: To my memory, Perry’s forgetfulness is the most devastating moment of any modern primary debate. Rich Lowry: That might be the most uncomfortable moment I’ve ever witnessed in presidential politics. [.....] Update: CNN, live in the spin room: “I’m sure glad I had my boots on because I sure stepped in it out there.” Update: WaPo’s Aaron Blake tweets: “Top Perry fundraiser to me: ‘Perry campaign is over. Time for him to go home and refocus on being Gov of TX.’”

GOP strategist and former Bush advisor Karl Rove laid out all the reasons why he believes Herman Cain's presidential campaign is finished. In an interview with Fox Business, Rove listed several of Cain's recent gaffes — and policy positions that are out of line with many GOP voters — to show why the Cain boomlet won't continue. "I think it has created an image of him as not being up to this task," he said. "That’s really deadly." Despite the missteps, Cain's fundraising topped his third quarter numbers in just three weeks — with the campaign raising over $3 million...

John Rossomando Follow John on Twitter Confucius once said that you don’t mean what you say unless you say what you mean. But increasingly Herman Cain has shown a difficulty in conveying what he really means. And this becomes even more crucial as Cain’s views fall under the microscope that he largely avoided prior to unleashing his stroke of marketing genius with his 9-9-9 plan. But pitfalls such as the details of that plan or his stance on abortion show he either hasn’t thought through his strategy or recognized the need to message discipline. He showed excellent discipline as recently...

Tuesday morning on AM Tampa Bay on 970 WFLA, Vice President Joe Biden was asked by Jack Harris about the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The VP said "I really don't know about the Van Jones group, except what I read in the press." The group is currently protesting in New York City against the social and economic inequality, corporate greed and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government. Later in his response in talking about the frustration seen in the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street Group, Biden said "you have on the one end Van Jones'...

“With all due respect” is one of those phrases — like “no offense” or “bless his heart” — that’s often used to mask an objection or an insult. So, was Sarah Palin belittling Herman Cain when “with all due respect” she said he’s just the flavor of the week? For that matter, was it playful or patronizing on her part to refer to him by a nickname of her own devising? For what it’s worth, “Herb Cain” himself isn’t affronted by her remarks.From Dave Weigel: [T]he Cain campaign dismisses this with a laugh. “No one calls him ‘Herb’ or ‘Herm,’”...

Looks like someone in the White House press office needs to brush up on his or her U.S. geography. The press office issued credentials to those reporters and photojournalists who are covering the president’s trip this week to Washington state, California, and Colorado. The credential even provides a handy graphic highlighting (in white) which states the president will visit. The only problem? Wyoming is highlighted, not Colorado.

Obama's approval ratings, now a record-breaking low among Jewish voters, are almost as pathetic as his ability to omit gaffes from his campaign speeches (every speech he makes these days is a campaign speech). Spouting to the Congressional Black Caucus this weekend, the President somehow managed to confuse "janitors" with "Jews." (LA Times) - When you start saying, at a time when the top one-tenth of 1 percent has seen their incomes go up four or five times over the last 20 years, and folks at the bottom have seen their incomes decline - and your response is that you...

President Obama spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus awards banquet over the weekend. Those folks will stick with him in 2012, of course. But they've been somewhat miffed in recent months that the first post-partisan president is doing too many deals with those Republicans and seeming to give in. So, Obama needed to give the crowd some presidential love. He even brought his wife along. As with virtually all of Obama's speeches recently, the Democrat's remarks dealt with selling his jobs legislation, as if it wasn't DOA on Capitol Hill. The first black president got to reminiscing about some other...

While defending his call for the rich to pay more in taxes, the president said he didn’t mind people calling him a class warrior for merely asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew. Whoops! The president meant to say “janitor” instead of “Jew,” and he immediately corrected himself. After all, he doesn’t need any more problems keeping Jewish voters enthusiastic about his re-election bid.

Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus annual awards dinner in Washington Saturday night, President Obama made a verbal boo-boo. While defending his call for the rich to pay more in taxes, the president said he didn’t mind people calling him a class warrior for merely asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew. Whoops! The president meant to say “janitor” instead of “Jew,” and he immediately corrected himself. After all, he doesn’t need any more problems keeping Jewish voters enthusiastic about his re-election bid.

Our genius president is on a hurt for campaign money, and you know what that means.....gaff-o-matic time. I've been listing the gaffes of our genius president in preparation for the general election of 2012. The list is now extensive.

Mr. Shulman writes: "I don't know much about diplomatic protocols, but I would guess that waving during the group photo is something to avoid."

Styling herself a Christian Cassandra, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann declared Hurricane Irene as God’s warning to Washington. Now that we know she was only joking, we Christians can perhaps shrug our shoulders and leave the victims of Hurricane Irene to deal with its implications on their own. She was serious. She was joking. Maybe it’s her titanium spine that’s giving her the balance to shift positions. Then again, perhaps the titanium spine is a necessary prosthetic given Bachmann’s lack of Christian backbone. If Michele Bachmann actually were serious, she could certainly have drawn upon ample biblical justification. She could have wielded...

Barack Obama has gone to Congress asking for more money to spend. The President, in a rambling and tedious exercise mixing blame with demands, made quite a few dubious statements in laying out the case for Congress to vote for the plan which as yet does not exist. Much like Obamacare, Congress must ultimately vote for the bill to know what is in it. At one point Mr. Obama made a major gaffe; he identified Abraham Lincoln as the founder of the Republican Party. Lincoln did not join the Republicans until 1856, over two years after the party was founded....

MIAMI (Reuters) - For Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Hurricane Irene and last week's earthquake in the eastern United States were a message from God that Washington needs to change its policies. Even as Irene was beginning its raking course up the East Coast over the weekend, which killed 21 people and caused widespread flooding and power outages, Bachmann told senior citizens in Poinciana, Florida, on Saturday that the hurricane was an "act of God" that Washington should heed. The Minnesota congresswoman, .. recalled Washington and the east had already felt a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday. "Washington, D.C., you'd...

candidate, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Friday. Bachmann who made two appearances before enthusiastic crowds on the strongly Republican South Carolina coast, also said the appeal that helped her win last week's straw poll in Iowa will carry over into South Carolina, which has the first GOP presidential primary in the South. The Minnesota congresswoman has misspoken a couple of times in recent weeks, most recently on Tuesday in Spartanburg, when she mentioned to a crowd that it was Elvis' birthday when it was actually the anniversary of his death. Bachmann corrected herself later that day as she spoke...

Perry's announcement speech got positive coverage, but the media's approach has been growing increasingly negative. Perry has been very visible, voluble, and controversial, and the media have been portraying him as something verging on a loose cannon. One example was his response to a question about whether President Obama loves his country. Perry said the questioner would have to ask Obama--which left the impression that Perry has doubts about the president's patriotism. Another example came yesterday, when Perry called global warming "a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into...

(NewsCore) - COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Minnesota congresswoman and 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann left some listeners scratching their heads Thursday when she said during a radio show interview that the US was in danger of being eclipsed by the Soviet Union. Bachmann made the remark during an appearance on the Jay Sekulow radio show while campaigning in South Carolina. "It really is about jobs and the economy," Bachmann said when asked what was on the minds of American voters she met on the trail. "But what people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an...