Free Republic

One word, my friends: RINOgeddon. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that Christie earns 21% support when Republican voters are asked whom they would vote for if the party’s primary in their state were held today. Florida Senator Marco Rubio runs a close second with 18% of the GOP vote, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 16% and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul with 15% of the vote. Congressman Paul Ryan, the unsuccessful Republican vice presidential candidate in 2012, picks up 13% of the Republican vote, with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker dead last at six percent (6%)....

Money line: “This is what I do for a living.” Didn’t he predict a Bush/Clinton race in 2016 just nine months ago? If he believes what he says here about the parties swinging like “pendulums” from moderate nominees to ideologues and then back again, why would he have named Jeb as a strong contender last November? In fact, the roots of the counterargument are in Matthews’s own shpiel here: Most of the time, they head to the center. This is what Republicans did most successfully in 1952 – when, after twenty years of Roosevelt and Harry Truman – they wanted...

Des Moines, Iowa — The front line of the Republican civil war may be Grand Avenue, a hilly road that cuts through the heart of Iowa’s biggest city. On one side of the street is the gold-domed state capitol, home to Republican Terry Branstad, Iowa’s longest-serving governor. On the other side is a weathered brick building housing the Iowa GOP, which is chaired by A. J. Spiker and David Fischer. Both men are faithful allies of Ron Paul, the retired Texas congressman who twice ran for the Republican presidential nomination. These days, relations between the two camps are as messy...

Representative Steve King of Iowa, a prominent House conservative, says Congress should be cautious about rushing immigration reform, especially after Monday’s bombing in Boston, where three people were killed. “Some of the speculation that has come out is that yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa,” King says. “If that’s the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture.” On immigration, King says national security should be the focus now, and any talk about a path to legalization should be put on hold. “We...

Federal investigators are probing allegations that Rep. Michele Bachmann, or members of her staff, inappropriately used money raised during her presidential campaign, her lawyer and former campaign staffers said today. Bachmann has not been formally accused of any wrong doing, but staffers said they had been questioned by federal authorities. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics. Bachmann's attorney confirmed to ABC News.com that Bachmann was being probed by the OCE, but denied any wrongdoing. "There are no allegations that the congresswoman engaged in any wrongdoing," campaign lawyer William McGinley told ABCNews.com in a statement....

In an interview with the Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, state Rep. Dan Muhlbauer said governments should start confiscating semi-automatic rifles and other firearms. Muhlbauer, a Democrat from the western Iowa town of Manilla, is a cattleman and farmer. The newspaper reported that he owns a .410 shotgun, a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol. “We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the semi-automatics and all of them,” Muhlbauer told the newspaper during a December 19 audiotaped interview. “We can’t have those running around out here. Those are not...

I really hope you hold accountable every conservative writer you see in the next few days freaking out over “Obama winning Ohio!” because this is ridiculously apocryphal; anyone who has ever lived in the buckeye state should know it is going to award its 18 electoral votes to Mitt Romney this year and it won’t even be close. Look for Romney’s win to be a 54% to 46% blowout for Republicans. That’s because Ohio is not a swing state this time around…since Obama’s deliberate push to the Left over the last four years has forced a pendulum correction shift that...

A new Resurgent Republic poll shows Mitt Romney continues to hold a massive lead over Barack Obama. Mitt leads by 12 points with independent voters.(CHART AT LINK) According to Megyn Kelly on America Live, Romney’s numbers with independent voters is the sharpest tilt since Ronald Reagan’s 49 state landslide in 1984.(VIDEO AT LINK) More from Drudge: WISC: R 49% O 49%... COLO: R 50% O 47%… RASMUSSEN THURSDAY: R 49% O 47%… IOWA: R 49% O 48%... OHIO: R 49% O 46%...

While all national attention is focused — indeed riveted — on the seven to nine swing or battleground states, a major shift is taking place in the rest of the country: Voters are turning off Obama and onto Romney. In the forty states where the Obama campaign has not spread toxic negative ads against Romney, the Republican is gaining by leaps and bounds and will likely carry a bunch of “non-swing” normally blue states. Specifically, Romney is now three points ahead in Pennsylvania, one point behind in Michigan, and only two points behind in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Together, these four...

It's well known that Ohio is the key, and that Ohio state polls seem not to follow the national trend (Romney should be leading by at least 3-4, no polls showing him better than tie instead). RCP average in 2008 missed the real result in many states by several points (2.1 in Ohio, 2.5 in Indiana, 3 in Pennsylvania, 3.5 in Colorado, 5 in Arizona e 6 in Nevada) so maybe it's just due to the margin of error but it's worrying anyway. Anyway if Romney loses Ohio he has to win Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin and New Hampshire (if he...

Mitt Romney is now leading in every state in today’s Solid South, including the three – Florida, North Carolina and Virginia – that Barack Obama won in 2008 and where his campaign has expended considerable muscle, money and candidate time. Moreover, the nationwide polls also show a marked shift to Romney since the first debate. The President, however, still maintains leads in most of the battleground states. In Florida, with a substantial 29 electoral votes, virtually all polls now give Romney the lead, with the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average showing a 2.1 point lead for the Republican challenger. The...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa --- Republican president nominee Mitt Romney will visit Cedar Rapids Wednesday evening, hours after President Obama has a rally in Davenport. The visits by the presidential candidates signal the intensity in the race in the final two weeks of the campaign. “It’s incredibly tight” in Iowa, Romney spokesman Shawn McCoy said Monday. “We’ve got a lot of momentum in this race, momentum we’ve gained as Iowans have heard more about Gov. Romney’s message.” Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley thinks the race is too close to call in Iowa....

I have a lot of respect for my Libertarian friends, and they are frequently the first people I’d like to have a discussion with about a new policy or political controversy. I find most of them to be intelligent, thoughtful, well-read people. I also find that in large part Independents (including the Tea Party) often have much in common with the right when it comes to the issues of this particular election–economics and the over-reach of the Federal government. But I do think that to actually vote for a 3rd party candidate in a tight general election (as this one)...

Yes, yes, I know, this comes from Kos’s pollster. What can I say? If the left can cling bitterly to Rasmussen as a bulwark against terrible numbers from Gallup, I can cling to this. RCP’s average already had New Hampshire within a point so the new PPP number there isn’t news. The Iowa number is. This is the first poll in a month showing Romney ahead in the state, notwithstanding his blockbuster debate two weeks ago. NBC’s poll last night, in fact, had O up by eight points in Iowa, a ridiculous figure given that Obama’s worried enough to have...

On October 15th, the Washington Post did on article on early voting in Iowa and how it is "looking good for democrats." They explained that of all ballots cast, it's 53% democrat and 28% republican - a 25% lead. In 2008, democrats won the early vote by 18% Now, today, only 3 days later, the Iowa Secretary of State reports of ballots cast, it is now 49% democrat and 30% Republican. That's a SIX POINT swing in just 3 days. Furthermore, the ballots "requested" is 46% to 31%. A report from Politico yesterday said this: "Republican voters’ requests for ballots...

Mitt Romney leads President Obama in national polls, and the president is approaching his all-time low in the RealClearPolitics average. Romney leads in some key swing states (e.g., Florida, Colorado and North Carolina) and has largely erased the deficit in others (Ohio, Virginia, Nevada). His approval rating (the likability rating so many liberals have obsessed about) is in positive territory; the gap between the two candidates’ approval ratings has all but disappeared. Obama is below 60 on Intrade. Crowds for Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are swelling in battleground states like Ohio. The Associated Press reported: The crowds tell...

GLIDDEN, Iowa - William J. Clinton and three other locals — Tim, Jeff and Jack, who declined to give their last names — sat at the Dairy Mart lunch counter, a Carroll County roadside staple on the Lincoln Highway for more than 60 years. Besides a name, Clinton said, he shares only one thing with America’s 42nd president: “We are both from the South and both Democrats.” He and his lunch-counter buddies voiced displeasure with America’s direction. “Let me tell you something,” Clinton said. “It takes more than pretty words to run the country. I was fooled once by the...

Less than an hour after President Barack Obama had stepped off of the Democratic National Convention stage, Republican challenger Mitt Romney's campaign announced 15 new, state-specific television advertisements which the campaign says will run in 8 battlegrounds. A week ago, Romney was officially made the Republican Party's presidential nominee, granting him access to a substantial war chest set aside for the general election. His campaign largely stayed off of television during the Democratic National Convention, which concluded after Obama's speech on Thursday. --snip-- Now that Romney has officially been named the GOP nominee his campaign will get its hands on...

Clint Eastwood is the “perfect icon” for the GOP, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said Tuesday, describing the legendary actor as “an old angry white man spewing incoherent nonsense.” The Des Moines Register reported the 72-year-old Harkin made his comments on the Iowa delegation’s breakfast this morning in Charlotte, N.C. “We’ve got our work cut out for us this week, folks, following the Republican convention,” Harkin told the delegates. “I mean, how are we ever going to match Clint Eastwood? I got to thinking he is the perfect icon for today’s Republican tea party: an old angry white man spewing incoherent...

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- With the first lady at his side, an energized President Obama wrapped up his bus tour of Iowa on Wednesday, firing up crowds in Dubuque and Davenport by outlining the huge stakes in November and urging Iowans to stand with him to "finish the work we started together four years ago." Under mostly clear skies in picturesque settings along the Mississippi River, the Obamas recaptured at least some of the magic that embodied the unlikely 2008 run that put them in the White House. Yet despite the meticulously scripted events and adoring crowds during the president’s three-day...

“I have nightmares about the electoral college coming down to 266-266, with Iowa to decide it,” said longtime Iowa Democratic operative Jerry Crawford. “It’s not as far-fetched as it might sound.” Added Dave Roederer, who ran the George W. Bush operation in Iowa: “This is an unprecedented five-city tour. I doubt he’s here for the mountains.” Iowa has long been a place of practical and symbolic importance to Obama. It was in Iowa where Obama delivered perhaps the most important/best speech of his 2008 candidacy (at the 2007 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner) and it was in Iowa where the idea of Obama...

President Barack Obama assailed rival Mitt Romney's opposition to tax supports for wind power, delivering an Iowa-specific critique Tuesday on the Republican challenger in that crucial Midwestern state. Obama's deputy criticized GOP budget plans to overhaul Medicare, cut trillions of dollars from social programs and lower taxes on high-income taxpayers. Iowa is a center of wind energy production in the United States and the Obama administration credits tax breaks for helping build that industry. Obama has called on Congress to extend the breaks. Romney opposes it. Obama, on the second of a three-day Iowa bus tour, noted that Romney once...

Sarah Palin dropped in Saturday at a major summer dinner hosted by one of Iowa's top GOP businessmen, a source in attendance at the event says. The former Alaska governor paid a visit to the get-together hosted by wealthy energy executive Bruce Rastetter, mingling with a crowd of upwards of 750 people. Palin stayed for a full three and a half hours, the source said. She wasn't the only pol there — Gov. Terry Branstad and Reps. Tom Latham and Steve King were present — but she was the only national figure. In 2011, Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty and Michele...

Sarah Palin heaped praise Saturday on Deb Fischer, the Republican running against Bob Kerrey for one of Nebraska's seats in the U.S. Senate. Palin had just eaten lunch with Fischer and was taking a look at items in the La Vista Cabela's, talking with a couple customers and signing a man‘s cap. She called Fischer a “hard-working, very grounded, down-to-earth, patriotic American woman.” Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate four years ago, said that as a Nebraskan, Fischer knows agriculture and could “help common-sense, constitutional Americans.” “We need more of that when it comes to regulation and policy,” Palin said...

A google search using the term, “McCain voters say they wished they’d voted Obama” shows about 7,450,000 items, but searching through them yields not a single article about voters feeling this way. When most people are asked, “We all know people who voted for Obama and say they wished they had voted for McCain, but where are the people who say they voted for McCain but wish they had voted for Obama?” they start laughing. By now, we have all heard the public “secular confessions” of the Barack Obama supporters who wish they hadn’t done what they did. These people...

Not too long ago pundits were arguing that Mitt Romney’s path to 270 electoral votes was “narrow.” We didn’t buy it. Lo and behold, conventional wisdom has now changed. The Associated Press writes: “Warning signs for Obama on tight path to 270.” The AP explains: Obama’s new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he’s to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November. Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the...

On his show Tuesday night, Ed Schultz took on birthers — specifically those in Iowa and Arizona who have brought President Barack Obama‘s eligibility for office back into headlines recently. He asked, isn’t this just racism? The Iowa GOP chairman, Don Racheter, and Arizona’s secretary of state, Ken Bennett, have recently questioned Obama’s natural-born citizenship (though Bennett said he’s not a birther, he sought verification of Obama’s birth certificate from Hawaii, saying it’s possible he’d take Obama off the ballot otherwise). Schultz asked his guest, Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson, “Is this just another form of racism being played...

Former MSNBC contributor and conservative author Pat Buchanan appeared on Fox’s America Live with Megyn Kelly on Monday where he said that President Barack Obama’s recent embrace of gay marriage imperils his presidency. He said that gay marriage rights is the “heart of the cultural war” and that Republican voters are “right now riding to the sound of the guns” to get behind Republican candidate Mitt Romney as a result of Obama’s support for same-sex marriage rights. RELATED: Pat Buchanan To Hannity: Liberals ‘Use Terms Like Bigot… To Set Up An Inquisition’ What the President has done is forfeit –...

First lady Michelle Obama, making campaign stops in Nebraska and Iowa on Tuesday, boosted her husband's credentials while appearing to make small contrasts with his likely rival Mitt Romney, lauding President Barack Obama's core set of values and relaying stories of his modest upbringing. Appearing alongside Warren Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska, Michelle Obama touted the White House-backed provision named for the billionaire investor, which would place a minimum 30% tax on Americans making more than $1 million a year. The "Buffett Rule" was blocked in the Senate last week. In explaining the president's commitment to helping Americans who are struggling,...

When all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern tonight in Florida, the winner of the state’s Republican primary may not initially be apparent. After all, the winner takes all, which means the candidate who gets the most votes gets all of the delegates. But the state, with 10 different media markets and a cultural mélange that ranges from Alabama South to Cuba North, is by no means homogeneous. Here are five crucial indicators to keep track of as the returns come in: Absentee VotersThe first key factor is, about a third of Florida voters have already cast their ballots, and...

IN the five days since his almost-victory in the Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum’s critics have tried out an unusual line of attack against the former Pennsylvania senator. Not content with the many targets that Santorum’s record presents, they’ve gone after the way he and his wife, Karen, handled the premature delivery and death of their fourth child, Gabriel, in 1996. At 19 weeks of pregnancy, Gabriel was found to have a potentially fatal fetal abnormality. After a risky intrauterine surgery, Karen Santorum came down with an infection that ended up triggering labor. The baby lived for just two hours, and...

If Rick Perry was a legitimate conservative (which I always warned he was not) he would have dropped out of the campaign today and endorsed Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich. Yet "Pay-for-Play" Perry stays in, and heads for South Carolina. So what's the deal? The big winner of Perry staying in, by far, is Mitt Romney. The big loser is the conservative movement and the candidates who appeal to that movement. Keeping in mind my long-held view that Perry is not conservative, just a "pay-for-play" guy, what is in it for Perry? 1. Perhaps Romney offered Perry a...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — If this is Mitt Romney’s idea of a victory rally, one shudders to think what would have happened if he had lost the Iowa caucuses. The day after his impossibly thin eight-vote victory, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination flew here for a town hall meeting at Manchester Central High School, where he was to bask in the endorsement of his 2008 arch rival, John McCain. But the senator grimaced when he was introduced, and as Romney delivered his own stump speech, an increasingly impatient McCain pulled up his sleeve and checked his watch. McCain gave...

It seems like only yesterday that Sarah Palin stepped into a pair of red, Naughty Monkey peep-toe pumps and blew up every assumption about the Republican Party and women. With a briefing book in her hands, a baby on her hip, and a party enamored with her, Palin created the impression in 2008 that the GOP was not only willing, but eager, to elect a women to the highest, or at least second-highest, office in the land. On the high heels of Palin-mania came a slew of fresh Republican faces like governors Nikki Haley in South Carolina and Susanna Martinez...

Traveling around Iowa to cover today's caucuses, Washington Blade journalist Chris Johnson met up with some often overlooked voters: young gay men willing to confess Republican-leanings. Well, five of them, anyway. "I come from a farming family, so it’s conservative or Catholic," said a 21-year old, Bryan Pulda. "Our personal views are more reflected in the Republican candidates.” Ryan Schrader also traced his political leanings to his family, saying, “I come from a very conservative background myself. My family is very conservative Baptists." Like Pulda and so many other Iowa voters, Schrader's faith also influences his political preference. In this...

Michele Bachmann had high hopes going into this Presidential campaign. She saw herself as the second coming of Sarah Palin. A new and improved version of Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, Bachmann is not a new Sarah Palin nor an improved Sarah Palin. Michele Bachmann is in last place in most of the polling. Every recent poll put Bachmann in last place heading into the caucuses, a far cry from her summer win in a state GOP straw poll. But top campaign advisers vowed she would prove the recent surveys wrong by activating a support network built through her visits to small...

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) -- Daniel Bradshaw, a young barber at Platinum Kutz in central Des Moines, hovers over a customer's half-trimmed head, clippers in hand, talking about the good old days of 2008. "Yeah, I was all for Obama. He was the man!" proclaimed Bradshaw, 32, whose friends call him "Mr. Puerto Rico" and whose colleagues sometimes refer to him as "Mr. Steal-Your-Client." As he brushed the hair clippings off his apron, he goes on: "I even got to meet him, once. He was all that." Or so he thought. Bradshaw, like many of his fellow Democrats, feels let...

In Monday afternoon Fox News interview, ex-Alaska Guv praises Santorum again and adds "Donald Trump has a lot to offer." Palin: "I did praise Rick Santorum and I'll praise him again...

(VIDEO AT LINK) With the Iowa caucus just hours away, Ron Paul's supporters released a new long-form video featuring the endorsement of a Mitt Romney impersonator and highlighting Paul's many policy positions. With the January 3 Iowa caucus approaching quickly, Republican presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul returned to Iowa on Monday. Paul had been in Texas to ring in the new year and to take a breather from the hectic campaign activity that has become a standard practice in this volatile GOP presidential primary. And true to their activist grassroots form, Paul's passionate supporters turned up the heat on New...

Mitt Romney's top ten is made up of Goldman Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse (Switzerland), Morgan Stanley, Barclays (UK), Bank of America and JP Morgan. In contrast Romney's co-frontrunner in Iowa, Ron Paul, has a top three donor list made up of the US Army, US Navy and US Airforce.

Welcome to the Post’s new politics and culture blog, “She the People: The World as Women See It.” Though dedicated to the proposition that politics properly understood encompasses just about everything, I thought we’d start with some predictions about Tuesday’s caucuses in Iowa, where a bunch of our writers rang in the new year with Republicans. My own bet is that Rick Santorum will indeed score the surprise of the night, just as he told me he would . Yet even if he wins outright, four years from now in Iowa, I further predict that we in the media will...

I have recently been very critical of Congressman Ron Paul on WeArePolitics for a myriad of different reasons that main one of which is that I feel that he is very detrimental to the Republican Party. A party that he has absolutely no loyalty to nor allegiance. Paul, as I have written before, has run a slash and burn campaign in Iowa, and it is certainly working for him....At the expense of a few of the other candidates and in particular former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Paul's campaign has been running non stop ads in Iowa about Newt that contain...

I vote for Newt! --- * Newt Gingrich? * Mitt Romney? * Rick Perry? * Michele Bachmann? * Rick Santorum? * Jon Huntsman?

Iowa is not one those states that dominates the news around the year. But every four years, Iowa gets a real chance to lead, when the primaries roll around. This year the Republicans have a large field of announced and unannounced candidates. Sarah Palin is not running, yet. But she certainly has imprinted on the GOP base, and Tea Party, and were I in Iowa, and able to write in my choice I would write in Sarah's name. Would that hurt other announced candidates? Certainly. It would hurt Bachmann, and Paul and maybe Santorum. And they all have their strengths,...

The 2012 White House contender Michele Bachmann is projecting herself as “America’s Margaret Thatcher” ahead of the January 3aucuses. “What we needed [in 1980] was the most articulate conservative we had to hold Jimmy Carter responsible and we got Ronald Reagan. And at the same time across the ocean there was another country, an ally of ours called Britain. Britain was also suffering under socialist policies. They needed a strong conservative too and up rose a woman and her name was Margaret Thatcher,” The Telegraph quoted Bachmann, as saying. “She was the Iron Lady and she led Britain back to...

NEWTON, Iowa -- As they waited for a bus dubbed the "Constitution Coach" to pick them up at the Des Moines airport and bring them to their makeshift lodgings late Tuesday, about two-dozen college-aged Ron Paul volunteers mingled in the cold night air. The sudden appearance of a reporter's notebook and tape recorder drew comments befitting a group of young people who proudly wear their skepticism on their sleeves. "What's the article you're going to be writing, man?" "Yeah, what's the spin, bro?" Asked where they had flown in from, the answers ranged from California to Virginia -- with one...

As the race for the Republican presidential nomination hots up, the candidates have been dropping hints about their possible running mates. Newt Gingrich today said he would 'certainly' consider asking Sarah Palin to join him on the ballot, while Mitt Romney was accompanied on a campaign stop this morning by Chris Christie, the popular Governor of New Jersey. Both those GOP heavyweights were thought of as potential candidates for the top job before announcing that they did not intend to run. Mr Christie endorsed the frontrunner Mr Romney in October, but Mrs Palin has yet to give her support to...

The man who ran Herman Cain’s Iowa campaign, before he dropped out of the presidential race, announced he is now supporting Newt Gingrich. Larry Tuel was Cain’s state campaign director until Dec. 3. Friday he endorsed Gingrich in an email to The Des Moines Register. Tuel said in his email that the former House speaker "is intelligent, positive and has the best grasp of policy and the role of government as it relates to tax, spending and regulatory power. I particularly appreciate his national tax policy, welfare reform, and ideas for reducing and refocusing regulatory authority to solve our deep-rooted...

Iowa GOP Presidential Poll – 12.28.11 Among Registered Voters Who Will be Voting in Iowa's Republican Presidential Primary InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research 2011 1. If the Republican presidential caucus or primary were held today, would you vote for Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, someone else or do you not know who you would vote for? (CHART AT LINK)

Fresh off of his endorsement from former KKK Grand Wizard and former Congressman from Louisiana David Duke, we find this photo of Congressman Ron Paul with former Klansman, former Nazi and current radio show host and moderator of Stormfront.org Don Black. Pictured next to Black in the cool hat appears to be his radio sidekick and son Derek. (Here's an interesting note....Derek's mother is David Duke's ex-wife. Que the banjos.)