Free Republic

Eight Democratic senators stand between the Medicare and the destruction of the senior health care program as well as the ruin of American medicine generally.

"SCF is a political action committee dedicated to electing strong conservatives to the United States Senate," the PAC's website declares. "We do not support liberal Republicans and we are not affiliated with any Republican campaign committee."

The contests for statehouses in New Jersey and Virginia are the best referenda the country could ask for on Obamacare, and Congress would be wise to wait to see how these two states vote in November before it takes any final vote on the president's plans to radically rewrite the rules of American medicine. Recent polls show that Republican Bob McDonnell in Virginia leads his opponent Creigh Deeds by double digits. An anti-Democrat trend is also shaping up in New Jersey where GOP nominee Chris Christie is also far ahead of incumbent Jon Corzine. Both New Jersey and Virginia went...

Hugh Hewitt talks health care with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. AUDIO HH: Joined now by former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. Governor Romney, welcome back to the program, always a pleasure.  MR: Thanks, Hugh. It’s good to be with you, Hugh.HH: Tell me what your thoughts are as we watch the debate over President Obama’s proposed radical revisions to American health care are.MR: Well, I think he’s going way beyond what the American people think is right, and way beyond what’s necessary. I think we all recognize that we have a problem, that people are worried that if they...

President Obama's decision to unleash his operatives at the DNC,  surrogates like Barbara Boxer, and his staff like Linda Douglas to slander and attempt to intimidate opponents of Obamacare not only has badly backfired, it has opened another front the president now finds himself fighting on:  Does he intend to be the new Nixon, rather than the new FDR? Like Nixon, will he unleash a political operation that spirals out of control and ends his presidency? More than a million people have signed a petition to stop Obamacare, and the president and his Chicago-rules enforcers have serially insulted each one of them and every...

A glimpse into the future if the DNC controls talk radio, too.

Hugh Hewitt talks with Charles Krauthammer regarding the Gates matter.

HH: Because it is Thursday and we are lucky, we begin with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s work at www.steynonline.com. Mark, an amazing press conference today by the Speaker of the House, who apparently is not opposed to waterboarding, depending upon what year you talk to her in. MS: Yes, it’s interesting to me the evolving defense mounted by Mrs. Pelosi. She’s effectively digging down, I think, here, and absolutely denying what would seem to be the version of events recounted by the CIA and other parties that she was aware not only,...

My Fellow Texans, I will be moderating a very special event, Monday, April 27th, as Dallas/Ft. Worth based News Talk 660 KSKY Radio welcomes nationally syndicated talk hosts Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt for their kickoff of the "Obama First 100 Days" National Tour at the Special Events Center in Garland, Texas. America has seen significant change since January 20th and Texans, like you and I, have a lot to say about the direction we’re currently headed. I am honored to have been invited to moderate this significant event, one that gives everyone an opportunity to voice their...

Hugh Hewitt, a political pundit radio personality, wants the Mormon presidential election runner Mitt Romney in the Whitehouse—very badly. He casts his pre-election vote in writing A Mormon in the Whitehouse? (Regnery, 2007). In defense of Romney, Hewitt also defends Mormonism better than some Latter-day Saints (LDS). This is strange for a Presbyterian, as what Hewitt claims for himself. It is possible and logically consistent that Hewitt could defend Romney as a republican without defending Mormonism, but he chooses otherwise. The reason that I find this strange is that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed that God appeared to...

I'd like to know where to file my application to become one of the president's appointees to join the remade Board of Directors of General Motors. I don't know a lick about making or selling cars, but I think I have a pretty persuasive case to make for membership nonetheless. First off, in the new era biography is everything, and I grew up in a car town --Warren, Ohio. It was home to the old Packard Electric and still is the next door neighbor to Lordstown, still turning out excellent GM cars and slated to produce the Cruise in the...

HH: It’s Thursday, that means we begin as we do on every Thursday when we are lucky with Mark Steyn, Columnist To the World. You can read all of Mark’s work at www.steynonline.com. Mark, the Senate Budget Committee today passed a plan that calls for a deficit of $1.2 trillion for 2010, and then crowed that it’ll be all the way down to $508 billion in 2014, which is more than double, it’s actually triple what George Bush’s 2007 budget deficit was. I guess elections have consequences. MS: Yes, they do, and if you remember, the Democrats were scathing about...

"I won." When President Barack Obama used those words to reply to Republican objections to the massive spending bill working its way through Congress, he did much more than deliver a good laugh line and declare the GOP proposals irrelevant.

President George W. Bush departs with low approval ratings. Appraisals of presidents sometimes change over time, and sometimes they don’t. *snip* No doubt the Internet dervishes will pepper this and other assessments of Bush with their standard displays of anonymous ferocity. There are a lot of 14-year-olds with Internet connections. But when the Jon Meacham of 150 years from now goes about his task with Bush, that historian will have as much material and more, as did the author of “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.” And the verdict will be nearly the same: Here was an extraordinary...

HH: I begin this hour as I do most Thursdays when we are blessed and thankful with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. Mark Steyn, you got much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving? MS: Yes, I think so. I’m thankful to be blessed to live in one of the greatest nations on the face of the Earth, and the reasons for that blessing, those blessings, are somewhat in dispute between Republican and Democrat voters, but I think we should all be able to agree that we are nonetheless blessed for whatever reason. HH: I agree. Now I do want...

The last thing you want to think about right now is the 2012 GOP primary calendar, but I am afraid you have to, if you want the RNC chairmanship contest to have meaning and the GOP to have a good chance of recapturing the White House four years down the road. Each would-be RNC leader should be asked about the 2012 presidential primaries they will be overseeing. Specific questions need to be posed, and concrete answers delivered. The RNC must begin now to consider overhauling the presidential nominating process three years hence for the simple reason that the process as...

Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 H1: Christopher Hitchens, Mitt Romney Hugh Hewitt Hewitt: Hour 1 - Hugh catches up on politics and the shape of the Obama (Clinton) administration taking shape with Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens, and then talks Big 3 auto bailout and what the Republicans need to do next with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Hugh Hewitt just announced that Dean Barnett has died.

The latest round of polls from the very reliable Strategic Survey shows John McCain ahead of Barack Obama in Ohio and Florida, but behind by seven points in Pennsylvania. McCain is likely to lose formerly red states Iowa and New Mexico, may pick up New Hampshire, and is battling for Colorado to the finish. With ten days left and the markets continuing their extraordinary volatility, voters' stomachs are churning and the country is at a decisive crossroads. Obama represents a huge, very sharp turn left. Will the voters reconsider, especially the "racist rednecks" of Pennsylvania? Democratic icon Congressman Jack Murtha...

HH: Joe the Plumber is under the skin of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. To discuss the amazing Joe, Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. Mark, what do you make of the Joe the Plumber episode in the campaign now? MS: Well, I think this is actually critical. I think Joe the Plumber is worth more than all the expensive campaign consultants that John McCain has got on his payroll, because he’s usefully crystallized what’s at issue here. You know, McCain didn’t actually explain it very well last night. Joe the Plumber does a rather better job of it. But...

Thanks to the now famous Joe the Plumber, all of America has been served notice of Barack Obama's plans for the American economy. Obama intends to spread the wealth around: From your accounts to those of his friends and supporters. Rarely have we had candor from Obama in this long campaign, and even rarer have been the efforts of the Manhattan-Beltway media elites to tease the details out from the Chicago machine's favorite pol. But in a matter of two minutes, Joe's objections to Obama's soak-the-small-businesses-of-America's tax plan evoked from Obama not just a rebuke about the need to take...

Yes, of course it is. Three weeks ago John McCain was ahead, and a furious attack on Sarah Palin was underway. And Americans were several trillion dollars richer. Our stocks will recover if the American economy, powered by democratic capitalism's relentless innovation and productivity, is allowed to work its magic again. That is the record of our often disparaged but inevitably triumphant attachment to economic liberty. The task for John McCain between now and the time the last vote is cast on November 4 is to speak this truth and articulate this record and thus help repair the damaged confidence...

HH: To discuss it all and get the day started off, the hour started off, Mark Steyn, Columnist To the World. Mark Steyn, another terrible day. We’re now down to about 20% in a week, which is getting to rival the big day in 1987. What’s your sense from the experts you’ve been talking to and listening to of whether or not we’re at the bottom?  MS: Well, a few days ago, there was an argument about these swings and roundabouts in the markets as to whether they were going down because Congress wouldn’t pass the bailout package, or because...

Fired Up Crowd Cheers Warning To McCain Palin About Obama-Pelosi

Hugh Hewitt just reported on his show that Dean Barnett of The Weekly Standard, and Hewitt's substitute on his radio program, is hospitalized in serious condition with cystic fibrosis. Prayers are requested.

LISTEN ONLINE. LISTEN ON KRLA 870 IN LOS ANGELES

Because the country cannot afford the greatest gamble in its modern history at this moment in time. A confrontation with Iran looms and instability in Pakistan grows. The Islamist threat has been beaten back in Iraq, but continues to nurse its fanatical hatreds in many other places, from Waziristan to London. Israel is ringed not with an enemy that wants a state but by two enemies that want Israel to be destroyed. The world's financial system is teetering, and the estrangement between the American people and their government has never been this deep in modern times. The cost of energy...

In her first radio interview since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin joined Hugh Hewitt on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”  (Listen Here)Hugh Hewitt: Governor, your candidacy has ignited extreme hostility, even some hatred on the left and in some parts of the media. Are you surprised? And what do you attribute this reaction to?Sarah Palin: I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying, “You know what? It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.” I think that that’s kind of taken some people...

HH: Governor Sarah Palin, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Great to have you. SP: Hey, thank you so much. Nice to hear your voice. HH: Governor, your candidacy has ignited extreme hostility, even some hatred on the left and in some parts of the media. Are you surprised? And what do you attribute this reaction to? SP: Oh, I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what? It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency, and I think that that’s kind of taken...

"I will air an interview with the governor at the top of the first hour and repeat it in the third hour."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 The Summary Of Today's Events Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:59 PM The financial crisis continues and Congress is deadlocked. John McCain leads by suspending campaign, postponing the debate, and urging the president to call a key leaders summit, to include himself and Barack Obama. Obama refuses McCain's call, demands the debate go forward, and sputters about being available if he's needed. President Bush convenes the meeting that John McCain suggested. Obama blinks and agrees to attend. The president addresses the nation, explains the history of the cris, and describes an outline of the proposed action....

Either Obama's dim as can be, or he is angry at having been thrown bckwards week after week. When Obama denies having targeted Palin, keep in mind that everyone instantly made the connection. Is Obama really that clueless? An angry outburst does less damage than his pleading he didn't mean it that way.

There was a lot of audio today, including Barack Obama's tutorial on the Second Amendment, which began with his declaration that he believed the Second Amendment was an "individual right," and which concluded with what was intended to be the reassuring declaration that there was no need to worry because he didn't have the votes he needed in Congress to take away your guns even if he wanted to. Which he doesn't want to. He just wants to take away the guns of kids in inner city Philadelphia. Though he neglected to provide us with the test for determining which...

What a rout. Up early to watch the pundits on parade for a couple of hours, and the lefty talking heads and the MSM anchors are fleeing Sarah Palin like a building on fire. No more chants of "inexperience," and only the most indirect of references to her family. Until yesterday the collective MSM sneer was that Palin was "Hello Kitty," reeling backwards under the pressure. Now she's Gorgo, smashing up the MSM's cars. The dismayed punditry is pondering the "meanness" of her attacks and her lack of details on health care refom. A complete triumph over the Beltway-Manhatan media...

Those who listen to my radio show know that I spend my mornings and some evenings practicing and teaching law. For the 20 years since I left Washington, D.C., I have been a land use and natural resources lawyer, guiding landowners –principally home builders but also churches and commercial developers—through the maze of federal, state and local regulatory permitting that blankets the use of land in the U.S. I have had clients throughout the west, and this has meant appearing hundreds of times before city councils, county boards and regional and state commissions and agencies. It has meant thousands of...

Scan the lefty blogs and you will see furious, even unhinged, attacks on Governor Palin. Which has to mean that the Obamians are unsettled, perhaps intuiting that every time they raise her "inexperience," they indict the resume of their own presidential nominee. The Palin-Obama contrast is sharpest when it comes to battling corruption. Obama is a product of cronyism, and has never lifted a finger to battle the corrupt practices of the Cook County/Daley machines. Read Freddoso's book where it is all spelled out, or just ask yourself how Obama came by his house. Obama talks of reform but has...

Memo To Team Obama Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 1:24 PM Please keep talking about Sarah Palin's inexperince in foreign affairs. By reason of just her work with Canada, she's light years ahead of Obama.

Conservatives are thrilled with the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running-mate. Scroll through the postings at RobinsonandLong.com, or listen to the hosts and callers on any of the talk shows today. There are six reasons, all of them huge and enduring. First, over the past month we have gone from hoping Senator McCain would win to thinking he might actually be able to win. With the selection of Governor Palin most of us are convinced he will win. Which means the country will be well led on the war for at least another four crucial years. The reason...

Romney, of course. The same factors in Romney's favor -- pull in Michigan, Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire, the energy brought by his organization-- are still there, but the pick of Biden calls for a very experienced debater as the only thing Slow Joe has going for him is the thousand or so primary season debates he has under his belt. Romney has the same sort of experience in the one setting where the veep nominees get the nation's undivided attention. There is also the stark contrast between Romney's experience outside of politics --business and the Olympics-- and the emerging...

As Obama's very big adventure gets underway in Denver, he has a problem. Lots of problems, actually. First, Obama appears to be prompter-dependant. The story that he cannot string together coherent arguments away from a prompter surfaced on Thrusday and Rush gave it huge legs. Now even the MSM will be watching to see if The One is using a virtual cheat sheet on the road. Then there's the lingering triple play of scandals: Obama's vote and speech against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act that stuns and repulses even moderate pro-choicers; his ties to Bill Ayers and the ongoing...

And that, in my opinion, is a very good thing. Here is a transcript of the Archbishop's recent appearance on  Hugh Hewitt's radio program. And here is an excerpt: HH: Now Archbishop, let’s dive into the book. Again, for the benefit of people tuning in, it’s Render Unto Caesar: Serving The Nation By Living Our Catholic Beliefs In Public Life. And I want to emphasize, it’s not just for Catholics, though that’s obviously the intent of this. I was trying to figure out your motive, and then I came across a quote from a Vietnamese bishop, later made a...

That's what Mike Allen is reporting, and Mike knows his stuff. [snip] Plus, whispers from my Dem friends about the Obama collapse. They know he'll give a great acceptance speech (but what if he doesn't?) but untethered to the prompter, his ums and ahhs have begun to be noticed far and wide.

I am reading through the Obama push-back on the Corsi book to get ready for an appearance on Hannity and Colmes tonight, and the shoddy work product put out by Obama could well throw fuel on the fire. Corsi's certainly got errors in his book, but Obama's team is trying too hard when they assert about unrepentant terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in response to Corsi that "AYERS AND DOHRN ARE MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT WITH TIES TO THE MAYOR" (p. 16 of the Obama document) or that with regard to Alice Palmer --the Illinois State Senator that Obama's...

Hugh was just notified by email that the Mexican army is preparing to mount a coup in Mexico City. Does anyone have any information concerning this?

<p>That's from John McCain's statement on Georgia yesterday, and in those few words is contained a large argument why voters should elect the Arizona senator and not Barack Obama.</p> <p>The world in which we live cannot be captained by a rookie without any meaningful executive experience, an enormous ambition, a radical agenda, and a long record of hard-left freinds and mentors that we have to expect would dominate his administration from day one. The irsk Obama represents is huge.</p>

The blast-off didn't materialize, and the Dalibama found his numbers falling in Ohio, Pennsylvania an Florida. Even worse, the late night comics were having a field day with his "inflate your tires, end the energy crisis" pronouncement. Michelle Obama returned to the political lists, and is her habit, she portrayed a grim America the outlines of which just don't register with most voters, even among many of the single moms and working mothers she was appealing to. Mrs. Obama told a crowd she didn't want Obama to run, but then changed her mind: But then I had to take a...

Obama, extolling a new approach to education in Pennsylvania this past weekend: "When you start working with teachers, tapping into their creativity, then you start designing curriculums that tap into the childrens' creativity. I was at a wonderful charter school in Colorado, ah, that had designed the entire school year --each year was designed around a theme-- and this is a majority Hispanic school, but the theme that year, they called it "Passages." And it was all about the African American experience. And so they incorporated music, you know, ah tracing sort of the history of African music through blues...

Thursday's 5-4 decision awarding "unlawful combatants" at Gitmo --terrorists-- the "privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" has left millions of Americans stunned. What in the world is the majority of the Supreme Court thinking? Justice Scalia, writing in dissent, was blunt: America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United...

Thursday's 5-4 decision awarding "unlawful combatants" at Gitmo --terrorists-- the "privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" has left millions of Americans stunned. What in the world is the majority of the Supreme Court thinking? Justice Scalia, writing in dissent, was blunt: America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United...

Interviewed by Hugh Hewitt today, Mark Steyn said that posts from FreeRepublic were introduced into evidence in the Canadian proceeding against him.