Free Republic

Not only will Burlingame be the center of the Republican political universe for three days starting Friday, when White House presidential hopefuls Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich speak at the state Republican Convention, but some Democrats are taking advantage of the media spotlight shining on California, too. Billionaire San Francisco environmental activist Tom Steyer launched an 30-second ad Thursday ripping Cruz and Trump for their dubious attitudes toward climate change and urging people to vote against them. On Monday, the former hedge fund manager has announced his NextGen Climate Action super PAC would spend $25 million this year...

Ted Cruz's claim on Thursday that he never knew or worked with John Boehner has been called into question following the revelation that the Texas senator once served as the former House speaker's lawyer.

In the space of just 7 minutes here on Thursday, Ted Cruz reminded fellow Republicans that he has few friends in the party. First he tangled with former House speaker John A. Boehner, a longtime foe who so dislikes Cruz that he labeled him “Lucifer in the flesh.” Then Cruz undercut another Republican, fellow presidential candidate John Kasich, who had entered into an alliance with him to stop GOP front-runner Donald Trump. “There is no alliance,” Cruz told reporters on Thursday, acting as if a pact announced by his own campaign days before had never happened. Minutes later, Kasich strategist...

I’m glad he said this because the only proper way for this campaign to end is with Kasich deciding, out of pure pique, to compete hard in Indiana and try to spoil Cruz’s last chance there even though Kasich needs a brokered convention as much as Cruz does. It’d be a perfect microcosm of the wider party’s impotence and strategic idiocy all year long in failing to stop Trump. Burn it all down, John. Cleanse it with fire. “I recognize that the media is all eager to talk about an alliance. There is no alliance,” Mr. Cruz said. “Kasich and...

Here is the ad Trump is running against Cruz in Indiana Indiana AD

Gov. Mike Pence to make a "significant" announcement on @GarrisonRadio at 12:06 p.m. Cruz endorsement?— Niki Kelly (@nkellyatJG) April 29, 2016

NEW YORK – After negative reporting of his religious views, the Christian evangelist father of Ted Cruz has returned to the campaign trail in an effort to win evangelical voters in Indiana, whose primary Tuesday is regarded by many as the Texas senator’s last hope to keep his bid for the Republican presidential nomination alive. While the national media largely has been silent about Rafael Cruz’s re-emergence, local reporters in Indiana have covered his various appearances. WSBT-TV in Mishawaka, Indiana, reported Rafael Cruz created “a lot of excitement” by showing up as a guest of Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence...

div class="the-content">Andrea Tantaros, popular Fox News co-host of Outnumbered, will not be on the show for a little while.Here’s why…From BPR: There’s going to be a glaring absence on Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered” — at least for the time being. After TVNewser received a tip that Tantaros would be absent for a while, the publication reached out to the network, which replied that there were some contract issues that needed working out.“Issues have arisen regarding Andrea’s contract, and Fox News Channel has determined it best that she take some time off,” FNC wrote. “She is still under contract with the network.”...

Throughout the Republican Party, from New Hampshire to Florida to California, many leaders, operatives, donors and activists arrived this week at the conclusion they had been hoping to thwart or at least delay: Donald Trump will be their presidential nominee. An aura of inevitability is now forming around the controversial mogul. Trump smothered his opponents in six straight primaries in the Northeast and vacuumed up more delegates than even the most generous predictions foresaw. He is gaining high-profile ­endorsements by the day — a legendary Indiana basketball coach Wednesday, two House committee chairmen Thursday. And his ­rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz...

A new poll of Republican voters in Oregon finds that Donald Trump has a double-digit lead in the state’s May 17 primary, while Ted Cruz is second despite pulling out of the state. The poll by the Portland-based Hoffman Research Group shows 43 percent support Trump. Twenty-six percent favor Cruz and 17 percent back John Kasich. It is the first public poll of the Republican presidential race in Oregon this year. Cruz has agreed not to campaign in Oregon and New Mexico in exchange for Kasich pulling out of Indiana. The two are trying to prevent Trump from getting a...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump holds a double-digit lead over his competitors in Oregon, according to a new poll by Portland-based Hoffman Research Group. Trump has 43 percent support in the poll, followed by Ted Cruz with 26 percent and John Kasich with just 17 percent support. Cruz and Kasich announced last weekend a joint effort to deny Trump the nomination. As part of the strategy, Kasich would clear a path for Cruz in the Indiana primary and Cruz would back down in Oregon and New Mexico. But both candidates have walked away from the arrangement since their campaigns' announcement....

EXCERPT “That’s not really important,” Rove said of Cruz’s mathematical elimination. “Trump dismisses the multiple candidate, uses it for as an excuse, saying, ‘Well, I didn’t get 50 percent of the vote until the 39th contest until there were so many candidates’ and yet he turns around and says, ‘Well, you can’t — Cruz can’t get there because there are multiple candidates.’ Well, you know, it is what it is. The question is can Trump get there and can the ‘not Trump’ forces keep him from getting there? Because I think everyone agrees, on the second ballot he’ll bleed. There...

A new Hillary Clinton fundraising email wants donations to help handle the “wild ride” that awaits if her Republican opponent winds up being businessman Donald Trump. Deputy Communications Director Christina Reynolds assailed Trump’s remarks Tuesday evening after his sweep of five primary states where he said Clinton’s only asset was “the woman’s card.” Trump suggested Clinton would not even reach five percent of the vote if she were a man, and Reynolds said Trump’s “dangerous rhetoric” meant Clinton needed to be as prepared as possible: After Donald Trump won all five primaries last night, he launched into an absurd diatribe...

Donald Trump’s extraordinary Tuesday evening in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware got me thinking: if this GOP presidential process were a prizefight, the referee would have stopped it last night. The announcer would have exclaimed, “ Donald Trump, winner by knockout.” The impressiveness of Donald Trump’s clean sweep of the “Acela Primary States” on Tuesday isn’t in the victories themselves. Everyone knew that Trump would do well on Tuesday in the more moderate northeast. It’s the margin that’s notable. This was a shellacking. The knock on Trump was that he had a ceiling or that when other candidates...

The Donald Trump effect: Ford will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories. Ford Motor Co will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories to start making a new automatic transmission and expand output of certain commercial trucks, the company said on Tuesday. Ford said the moves would support a total of 650 jobs but would not say how many new ones would be created. The announcement comes three weeks after Ford said it would spend $1.6 billion to build a new vehicle assembly plant in Mexico, drawing fire from Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ford has countered that...

To The Editor, Two weeks ago the “Stand Against Racism” program presented a panel of black activists at the Honors College to talk about their experiences with prejudice. During the Q & A period an audience member asked the panelists what they wanted from whites who wanted to be allies to people of color. They didn’t have to think for more than a moment before the answers came pouring forth. This is what I managed to jot down (paraphrased): Come to our events. Share our social media postings and flyers. Link your organizations with ours. Don’t come to us looking...

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” political correspondent Kasie Hunt said the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is describing Indiana is the candidate’s “Alamo.”

What has happened to him? I used to listen to him religiously everyday on my way home from work. However, over the last 3 weeks or so, I rarely tune him in as I'm tired of his continuous Trump bashing. So today, I figured if I tuned him in, he'd finally admit that Cruz was done after the Trump rout last night. But what does he do on his opening monologue today? Yep, he continues his bashing and whining about Trump meeting up with Bobby Knight today. After 4-5 minutes of his crap, I finally tuned him out and listened...

"Ted Cruz is just like any other politician. He says one thing in Manhattan, he says another thing in Iowa, he says whatever he needs to say to get elected and then he's gonna do as he pleases. I think the American people are tired of the political class." - Carly Fiorina

Monday the big news was the Hunger Games-style alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich. If return for Kasich giving Indiana a pass, Cruz would give Kasich a free hand in Oregon and New Mexico. Leon pointed out that Kasich’s monumental ego would probably prevent the agreement from actually working. There is actually a better reason. Kasich is an idiot and his campaign manager, John Weaver, is a cretin. John Kasich, one of only three still-standing GOP presidential candidates, isn’t featured in Oregon’s voters’ pamphlet for the May primary election — an embarrassing blunder for any major campaign.