Free Republic

If Bob Dole and John McCain became our presidential candidates mostly because they were "next in line," who then fits that role this time around? Newt? Jeb? If Carter gave us Reagan, how do we make sure 0bama gives us the "next Reagan" and not the next in line?

EXCERPT Former Alaska Gov. Palin , a vocal advocate of the Tea Party movement, jumped into the heated race debate Monday night, assailing the NAACP resolution as an example of "typical divisive politics that is so absolutely unnecessary." "The Tea Party movement is a beautiful movement, full of diverse people, diverse backgrounds," Palin said on Fox News' "Hannity." "It's very unfortunate that they are taking this tactic because it's a false accusation that Tea Party Americans are racist. Any good American hates racism. We don't stand for it. It is unacceptable." Palin in turn called on President Obama and first...

Sarah is calling the Dems leftists, said that Cap and Tax and Amnesty for Illegals were up next

Please stay involved throughout the weekend on the Obamacare debate. There will be another very important rally in D.C. at noon on Saturday. If you are anywhere near the Beltway or can travel there this weekend, I urge you to participate. Jon Voight and Rep. Michele Bachmann and many others will be there...

“It’s a bit over his head,” Palin says of Obama and Health Care reform. Governor Palin appeared last night on Fox News' "On The Record with Greta Van Susteren". Gov. Palin acknowledged that some fixes are needed to the existing health care system: the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, tort reform and state rather than federal involvement. “This comprehensive takeover of the health care system that the private sector can run better than the government is nonsensical and it is not supported by the public. It is very frustrating to watch this process happen to us,” Gov. Palin...

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

Leno is back as host of NBC's late-night show at 11:35 p.m. EST Monday, March 1. Jay Leno made news when he announced that Sarah Palin will be among his high-profile guests when he returns to The Tonight Show next week. Now David Letterman's lineup for next week pits Mitt Romney against Sarah Palin on Tuesday night -- bad news for Letterman and Romney. As we have seen in the past year every single event or guest appearance by Sarah Palin brings in a huge audience where as Romney cannot scrap together 200 people . Each time she appears on...

Ron Paul was the straw poll winner at the CPAC convention last weekend – but Sarah Palin is the early frontrunner in bluegrass country. Colorado-based GOP pollster Magellan Strategies threw a POTUS 2012 question into a statewide poll of 560 Kentucky Republican voters and found Palin leading the pack with 28 percent of the vote – with Mike Huckabee a close second with 24 percent. Mitt Romney was at 16 percent, undecided landed at 14, Newt Gingrich got 12, followed by Paul with 4 percent and Tim Pawlenty dead last at two percent. The takeaway: Huckabee’s going to be a...

In a USA Today analysis of Mitt Romney's pre-2012 groundwork for a second presidential bid, Susan Page highlighted the contrasts between Romney, the choice of the Republican establishment, and Sarah Palin, favored by conservatives and anti-Washington activists such as those found in the Tea Party movement: -snip- Page notes that Romney's book, heavy on policy prescription, includes his familiar "three pillars" reference. It has also become part of every major Romney speech, especially his address to CPAC this year: Romney said there are three pillars upon which we should build: economy, security and family.This is where Romney misses the mark...

Washington » The snows that obliterated Washington last week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously. Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself. This was not the first time that Palin has impressed me. I gave her high marks for...

NASHVILLE — After flirting coyly for months, Sarah Palin this weekend launches an aggressive play to become the leader of the tea party movement, a move with major political upside for the former Alaska governor but also one rife with risk. Her positioning could boost her prospects of securing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, which she is widely believed to be eyeing. And the tea party is a natural fit for Palin, whose populist anti-Washington rhetoric and working mom persona have made her a movement favorite since its grass-roots activists burst onto the scene last year in opposition to the...

Palin calls on Obama to fire Rahm Emanuel By Michael O'Brien - 02/01/10 11:20 PM ET Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) called Monday evening for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's firing over remarks he allegedly made about the intellectually disabled. Palin, the mother of a child with Down's Syndrome, called on President Barack Obama to end Emanuel's tenure as chief of staff for having allegedly called participants in a strategy session "f---ing retarded." Palin wrote in a Facebook note that as the debate over Obama's budget begins, the president terminate the employment of one of his top...

GOP 12 notes that Sarah Palin responded last night to the question of whether it's "Mitt Romney's turn to be the next Republican nominee for President." "Well, I don't think it's anybody's turn ever. We've got to really, really work hard to build up that trust in the people for the people to elect you in a primary and general," she said, going on to call Romney "a great guy."

History turns in a moment: Harper’s Ferry, Trafalgar, Dien Bien Phu. The Democrats may have seen such a moment with Sen. Ben Nelson this week in Nebraska, so it might be worth marking that page. At year’s end it is worth looking forward to what is likely to rise ahead. These four will be key: Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and William Daley. Sarah Palin: She was seen from the very beginning as a rising star — a cultural awakener similar to Andrew Jackson — bringing a whole new cultural paradigm to the political process; a new heartland spirit...

Things look bleak right now. But as the saying goes "it's Friday, but Sunday's coming..." And I hope this cheers people up a bit...

It's not every day that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a liberal Democrat from Texas, says "I agree with Sarah Palin." She acknowledged the rarity in an interview with The Hill, but said she agrees that the Newsweek magazine cover with a photograph of Palin in running shorts is sexist. "I've never seen Governor Palin dressed in that kind of attire at a political event," Jackson-Lee said. "What is the necessity of highlighting that picture among the thousands that have been taken of her?"

After all the rhetoric is put aside, one principle ran through President Obama’s speech tonight: that increased government involvement in health care can solve its problems. Many Americans fundamentally disagree with this idea. We know from long experience that the creation of a massive new bureaucracy will not provide us with “more stability and security,” but just the opposite. It's hard to believe the President when he says that this time he and his team of bureaucrats have finally figured out how to do things right if only we’ll take them at their word. Our objections to the Democrats’ health...

One can’t help but think that her supporters are missing a valid and central point made by her detractors. She never overcame the doubts about her knowledge, credibility, and seriousness about policy during a time in which conservatives and the country face monumental challenges. I think back to the spate of post-election interviews. One after another — cooking with Greta Van Susteren and complaining to everyone who would listen — she merely re-enforced the sense that she was becoming a professional victim. Contrast that to the quintessential anti-Palin: Mitt Romney. He has spent his post-candidacy doggedly working for other candidates,...

So, Republicans, you’re looking for people who can serve as faces of a party on the upswing. What qualities would we want to see in such people? Maybe these: *They’ve served in public office and have actually governed effectively. *Rather than just talking about fiscal responsibility, they’ve made it happen under their watch. *When possible, they’ve made sure the private sector would take the lead in crucial initiatives. *They’ve taken on corrupt, entrenched interests to make government more responsive to the people it serves, even when those interests were fellow Republicans. *They pull no punches in criticizing Democrats, but they...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been accused of paraphrasing at length from an article co-written by Newt Gingrich when she gave a speech, but her lawyer says proper credit was given to the former House speaker. Blogger Geoffrey Dunn, who is writing a book about the former Republican vice presidential candidate, made the accusation on the Huffington Post Web site. Dunn compared Palin's speech introducing conservative talk show host Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, to an Anchorage audience Wednesday to the article urging Republicans to study Reagan, written by Gingrich and Craig Shirley in...