Free Republic

If patterns from 2008 are any indication, the media mogul's absence from the stump could make the president's reelection a little bit harder. Back in the heady days of May 2007, when Oprah Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama, the future looked bright for both of them. Five years later, they've both gotten somewhat bogged down. Obama, of course, won the presidency, but inherited a nation in the throes of recession. While the economy is back on course, he still faces a tough road in his quest for reeelection. And he'll be down one major asset: Oprah herself. That's because Winfrey's gotten...

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., has defeated fellow Republican Rep. Don Manzullo in the state's 16th District GOP congressional primary. The AP called the race for Kinzinger just after 11 p.m. Eastern time. With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Kinzinger led Manzullo 56 percent to 44 percent. The race between Kinzinger and Manzullo, forced because Illinois lost a congressional seat and state Democrats controlled the redistricting process, followed a common tea party-against-establishment trend in recent GOP primaries. But the script flipped here, with 10-term veteran Manzullo garnering the bulk of the tea party and movement conservative support while Kinzinger, a freshman,...

Tweaking Republicans four days before the Illinois primary, President Barack Obama said Friday that the hopefuls campaigning to take his job would do well to channel the moderation and inclusiveness of the Land of Lincoln. "I'm thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they're here," Obama told a lunchtime fundraiser in Chicago....

The two were thrown together after the Democrat-controlled restricting process was finished. Their primary has turned into a funhouse-mirror image of many races between older establishment Republicans and younger Tea Party challengers. Kinzinger won his seat in 2010 with strong Tea Party support but has developed a more centrist voting record since he entered the House, making establishment Republicans happy but angering his Tea Party base. His decision to quit the conservative Republican Study Committee and join the centrist Tuesday Group after a fight between the RSC and House GOP leaders pleased Boehner but infuriated groups like Freedomworks, which cite...

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign would like to be focusing its attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama around now. But after failing to seize control of the Republican nomination race on "Super Tuesday," Romney cannot shake off rival Rick Santorum, whom he criticized on Thursday as a political insider. Opening up a new front against Santorum, the Romney campaign accused him of being a lobbyist in his home state of Pennsylvania even before he went to Washington in 1991. Romney's campaign also attacked Santorum for holding regular meetings with lobbyists as a Senate leader, part of the Republican "K Street Project"...

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.

When it came to choosing a Republican presidential nominee, Benjamin Franklin just couldn't commit. “It's too early. There's so many qualified people,” said Don Van Gogh, dressed up as the Founding Father at the Midwest tea party convention this weekend in Schaumburg. But his fellow tea party members displayed no such indecisiveness, picking Herman Cain as the decisive winner in a straw poll. Cain, a former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show personality, has been building momentum since placing first in a similar poll in Florida a week earlier. On Saturday, he received 77 percent of the votes among...

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, her husband Todd and other members of her family were in Springfield Sunday morning to tour the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. Shortly after 11 a.m., museum officials posted pictures of the visit on Facebook. Palin's political action committee website also made mention of her stop in Springfield. NBC News' Alexandra Moe also posted a photo on Twitter of Palin's bus passing the Statehouse. According to news reports, the visit came a day after the Palins spent time visiting a historic site dedicated to another Republican president from Illinois, Ronald Reagan. Saukvalley.com reported the...

Sarah Palin's bus has been parked in Moline all day long, and it was creating quite a buzz. The question was is she actually in town? Well, she was not in town. The bus driver was told to go to Moline and wait for further instructions. Palin's bus was tucked behind Benjamin Franklin Crafts in Moline. Even though you could not see it from the main road, folks were still finding it. "I think that it spreads quickly. I think that it's really one person saw it, couple more people. But truthfully we haven't had much interest through the store,"...

While speaking at the Washington Area Community Center’s Lessons for Leaders (Washington, IL) on August 6, Coach Mike Ditka lambasted the mainstream media (MSM) and heaped praise on Gov. Sarah Palin. Said Ditka: “I understand Sarah Palin spoke here last year. I admire her. She’s a great lady, mother and wife, and that’s more important than the [bull****] the media spreads about her.” Ditka has offered up a strong defense of Palin before. For instance, in 2010, during an interview on Fox and Friends, he said “Sarah Palin is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.” When he stumped...

Sen. Althoff sets the record straight on “Illinois DREAM Act” bill. Recently, the Illinois Senate approved legislation (Senate Bill 2185) aimed at allowing student immigrants who have a valid taxpayer ID to invest in their college education – this legislation has been the subject of much misinformation on the Internet and in the media. The bill requires the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to create an Illinois DREAM Fund that will provide scholarships funded entirely from private contributions – no Illinois tax dollars will be directed toward these scholarships. In addition, to be eligible for the program, a student must be...

Special delivery for President Obama: From Romney, with love? The former Massachusetts governor and all-but-declared presidential candidate sent his leftover pizza to President Barack Obama?a>??s election headquarters after a fundraising event in Chicago on Thursday. "Great deep dish at @ginoseast. Sending the extra slices to @barackobama and his Chicago HQ team," he tweeted, adding a photo of the deliveryman. Jeff Himmel, president of Bravo Restaurants, Inc., which owns Gino’s East, wouldn't take sides, adding Obama is no stranger to his home-town restaurant's famed pies. "I’m quite certain that the President has visited our institution on several occasions and is familiar...

President Obama “never did a deal in his life except with Tony Rezko,” said Donald Trump on Fox News. “People should look into that one,” he added. Trump once again went on the offensive against Obama. His previous point of attack was doubts over Obama’s birthplace. Now, it’s the latter’s long history with Tony Rezko, who Hillary Clinton in 2008 called a “slum landlord.” Rezko is am Illinoisan political fundraiser who was convicted for fraud and bribery in 2008. He was accused of using his political position to extort money from businesses seeking contracts from the Illinois Teachers System Board...

CNN’s chief national correspondent and anchor John King was in Chicago this afternoon to report on the mayoral race. King sat down at Manny's Cafeteria with David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama, to discuss the mayoral race, Chicago politics and Wisconsin. The second part of the interview with David Axelrod will air tomorrow on John King, USA – 7pm ET. Transcript is after the jump. MANDATORY CREDIT: JOHN KING, USA HIGHLIGHT TRANSCRIPT THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. KING: Any doubt that your friend will...

Can we compare the State Of Cally,New York&Illinois to The Three Blind Mice?or Monkey See,Monkey Hear,Monkey Do? As far as conservatives see those states,they are through. Billions in debt and no way to pay it off. If this keeps up Obama will only carry about ten states in 2012.

Former President Bill Clinton is coming to Chicago in January to campaign for mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. Before serving in President Barack Obama's White House and representing the North Side of Chicago in Congress, Emanuel worked in Clinton's administration as a senior adviser for policy and strategy. Clinton is scheduled to headline a public event that highlights Emanuel's role in passing a crime bill....

When President Obama kicks off his reelection campaign sometime in the next few months, senior advisers say, it is virtually certain that his headquarters will be located in Chicago. But should it be? Full of nostalgia for the 2008 campaign and keenly aware of the anti-Washington vibe in the electorate, advocates say the arrangement would give the president's team a chance to get away from inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom and to recapture the grass-roots energy that helped Obama beat two candidates entrenched in the capital's culture two years ago. Yet no president or vice president in recent history has won reelection...

"I don't think about Sarah Palin," President Barack Obama tells Barbara Walters in a White House interview. Obama said he is concentrating on being "the best possible president" rather than the 2012 election, ABC News said in a preview of the conversation. "Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party, and I respect those skills," he said. "But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president. And my attitude has always been from the day I started this job that if I do a good job...

Sarah Palin tells Barbara Walters that she could beat Barack Obama in 2012, if she were to run for president. Ms. Palin tells Ms. Walters that she is "seriously considering running."

EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer is addressing the question, Should Hillary Clinton challenge President Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012?The latest buzz flitting among the Georgetown salons is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will switch jobs with Vice President Joe Biden and take his place on the Democratic ticket in 2012. That’s one of the tidbits being peddled by Bob Woodward to promote his new book “Obama’s Wars” and it has Democratic loyalists desperate to salvage a rapidly failing Obama presidency atwitter with unbridled joy. As a rumor, it’s intriguing. As common sense, it doesn’t pass Logic 101....