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Dear RNC: I am very concerned about the direction toward which it appears that the Republican Party is headed. In the words of Presidential hopeful John McCain, “they voted us in to change government, and the government changed us.” John McCain’s own admission of how he failed in his duty as Senator, along with the rest of our fellow Republicans who were voted out of office in 2006, to make the changes that he promised is very telling. More specifically, his admission raises suspicion as to whether he will fulfill his current promises, which not only mirror the past promises...

John McCain heads into Tuesday's Florida primary facing resistance from not only his fellow candidates, but also from the leaders of conservative talk radio, who some suggest have put their reputations on the line, as well. Talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh said that if McCain or Mike Huckabee are nominated, "it's going to destroy the Republican Party." Mark Levin calls the senator "John McLame." On Monday, Laura Ingraham said she was "concerned about the mental stability of the McCain campaign" and had cuckoo-clock sound effects accompany his words. "Sen. McCain is a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible...

It is often said that the best way to find out how a candidate would act in office if elected, is to see who he/she surrounds himself with. Money is another factor, what people and industries are backing the candidate. These answers should be an indicator of what to expect. Who is behind the man should gauge what kind of man he is. The great Richard Viguerie tells the story of how he and other conservatives had a “seat at the table” of the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan for. His thinking was if Conservatives aren’t at...

Lindsey Graham is a supporter of John McCain. He went on Hannity and Colmes to support John McCain’s criticism of Mitt Romney and “setting time tables.” You will see that Sean Hannity catches Lindsey Graham in an outright lie.

Less then a week after saying he has heard the American people regarding illegal immigration and their opposition to the McCain-Kennedy Pro-Amnesty bill, John McCain would still SIGN THE BILL into law if he was President and it came across his desk: (VIDEO) This explains his receiving the endorsement of fellow Pro-Amnestians, Senator Mel Martinez, (who almost single-handedly bankrupted the RNC with his support of the bill), the NY Times, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and of the Mexico-first pro-amnesty open borders advocate Dr. Juan Hernandez. “My friends", let me give you some “straight talk", a vote for John McCain is...

If any recent day typifies life in this crazy modern world, it was probably this past Tuesday. World financial markets were in a meltdown and the Federal Reserve held an emergency meeting to cut the interest rate a massive three quarters of a point in an attempt to stave off a precipitous stock market drop. President Bush was working with congressional leaders on an economic stimulus package to reduce the likelihood of a recession. Meanwhile the U.S. presidential campaign was in full swing with Hillary and Obama having just ripped each other to shreds at a debate, and Fred Thompson...

MIAMI -- The Latin Builders Association basked in the attention of four Republican candidates today, all of whom pledged to pay attention to issues prized by Latino voters. While Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came at the end of the day, as association members were sipping cocktails, he came with a key guest: Sen. Mel Martinez, who formally announced he is endorsing his colleague for president. "The man that we should trust with the leadership of our nation as commander in chief ought to be John McCain," Martinez said, breaking into a mix of Spanish and English. "This is a man...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Senator John McCain said that, if elected, he would do what other presidents had tried but failed to do: cut government spending sharply enough to reduce the budget deficit while lowering taxes at the same time. In an interview outlining his economic approach, Mr. McCain emphasized his experience working on economic matters in Congress and laid out an unorthodox version of conservatism. After initially opposing President Bush’s tax cuts, he has become a supporter of making them permanent and of pursuing additional tax reductions, saying they are the best way to encourage economic growth.

Many conservatives have said Sen. John McCain is not conservative enough to suit them. Some of McCain's defenders have not only disagreed but have impugned his critics, hypocritically blaming them for divisiveness. But intramural bickering isn't the issue. What's important is that conservatives have an intellectually honest and open discussion about GOP presidential contenders. It's disappointing to watch good conservatives demean themselves by trying to present McCain as something he's not. No matter how much they spin, they can't fool conservatives familiar with McCain's record. McCain's detractors are not the ones having to stretch and massage the facts in order...

Steve Scully: This is a political question in terms of how he gets the nomination, but just from what you have seen, how much support do you think he has among the base of the Republican Party? Roberta McCain: I don’t think he has any. I don’t know what the base of the Repub–maybe I don’t know enough about it, but I’ve not seen any help whatsoever. Scully: So can he then go on and become the nominee of this party? McCain: Yes, I think holding their nose they’re going to have to take him. Scully: Can you explain? McCain:...

ABBEVILLE, South Carolina (CNN) -– Fred Thompson continued his attacks on all three of his main Republican rivals in South Carolina Wednesday. The former Tennessee senator, running behind John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney in recent surveys in the state, has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in the GOP primary there this Saturday. Asked by a voter Wednesday how his record on "conservative Christian values" stacked up against those of Huckabee and John McCain, he immediately criticized the former Arkansas governor. "Just to cut through the baloney, it was me and not him who received the National...

Update: (Audio) Rick Santorum makes his own case against McCain I'm swiping the bullet points of this from Mark Levin: All I can say is that McCain is basically a Democrat on every issue except foreign policy and the war. I'll also add that he should have went through with his attempt to change parties. It is no secret that John McCain has alienated true Conservatives in this country. As Mark Levin reminds us... McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo. McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history. McCain-Lieberman —...

It looks like the Politico website has another fascinating scoop full of un-substantiated and un-named sources. That is that John McCain's campaign is literally hanging by a thread. He is low on money and fallen to a fourth place tie with Ron Paul in Iowa. Sources (unnamed) say that a McCain shellacking in Iowa will likely drop him out of the running in New Hampshire where is organization is running on fumes. In Iowa McCain has gone from 13% and high hopes of pulling a surprise to falling to 10% and a tie with a surging Ron Paul. UPDATE: ARG...

As truly horrific as it would be for the liberal and unethical Mike Huckabee to win the Republican presidential nomination, many Republicans still believe it would be almost as difficult to stomach the nomination of John McCain. Huckabee, of course, would utterly destroy the old Reagan coalition, as even his campaign chief Ed Rollins has acknowledged. Huckabee's bizarre propensity for letting criminals return early to freedom, combined with his utter cluelessness about foreign policy, also means that he would get absolutely crushed by the Democrats in a general election contest. But McCain's problems are almost as great, which is why...

In his latest attack on the free market and what appears to be a calculated political move to appeal to Michigan voters, John McCain wants to create a new welfare program for manufacturing workers. According to the Detroit Free Press, Senator McCain announced yesterday a plan to use federal dollars to make up the salary difference for workers who lose manufacturing jobs and are forced to accept lower-paying jobs until they find new careers. This is exactly the kind of plan you expect to hear from the Democratic candidates, not an alleged economic conservative, The government should not be in...

If the Republican Party really wanted to hold on to the White House in 2009, it's pretty clear what it would do. It would grit its teeth, swallow its doubts and nominate a ticket of John McCain for president and Mike Huckabee for vice president — and president-in-waiting. Those two are far from front-runners. They trail Mitt Romney in Iowa and New Hampshire and lag behind Rudy Giuliani in national surveys of Republican voters. But, in a series of debates, including last week's CNN/YouTube extravaganza. McCain and Huckabee have been notable for their clarity, character and, yes, simple humanity. From...

In politics, the surest path to irrelevance and powerlessness is to be taken for granted by one party and written off by another. That's the road Latinos are on, thanks to major blunders by the Republicans campaigning for president. In June, all but California's Duncan Hunter blew off an invitation to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. In September, a debate on Spanish-language television had to be postponed after all but Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to commit. After taking criticism for the snub, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney have committed to taking part...

MEXICO CITY President Felipe Calderon decried Wednesday what he called "the growing harassment" of Mexicans in the United States and said his government will work to counter it by funding a media campaign to show migrant success stories. Mexican officials have expressed concern over a recent wave of immigration raids and a U.S. political climate perceived as anti-migrant. Calderon said U.S. presidential candidates were using migrants as "symbolic hostages" on the immigration issue. "I am especially worried about the growing harassment and frank persecution of Mexicans in the United States in recent days," Calderon said at a meeting of the...

When the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Fred Thompson for president this week, their news conference was less announcement than cri de coeur — not just from this group but from the whole social conservative movement. No one could miss the irony in the choice of Thompson or in the justifications offered for that choice by NRLC executive director David O'Steen. Here was the nation's largest and best known anti-abortion organization embracing a candidate who had just told NBC's Tim Russert that he did not support the Human Life Amendment — the centerpiece of the NRLC legislative agenda for...

There is an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby, sung at generations of camp meetings, which exclaims: "Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!" Since the emergence of evangelicalism as a cultural force in the 1950s, three approaches to politics, represented by three personalities, have emerged. They are the prophet, the priest and the kingmaker. The prophet has been psychologist James Dobson, who dispenses child-rearing advice on the radio from his Colorado ministry, Focus on the Family. On family issues, Dobson's counsel is moderate and broadly appealing. On politics, his tone sharpens. He rails against compromise on social-conservative...

In September, I posted another vanity (linked below) in which I observed that the historical trends in this election favored Fred Thompson. Since then, his RCP average has dropped from about 22% to 16-17%. In the more volatile Rasmussen daily tracking poll, he has also dropped to 16%, about a 10 point drop from his post announcement high. In light of the above poll numbers, is it time for me to issue a mea culpa? No. This is not at all inconsistent with the hypothesis of my previous post. Neither of the successful insurgent candidates in modern times, Reagan or...

<p>The rapid escalation of the U.S. anti-immigration hysteria fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Hispanic intifada that may rock this nation in the not-so-distant future.</p>

Hillary Clinton -- and the other Democrats running for president -- couldn't possibly have assumed that they would forever skate around the issue of illegal immigration. That notion came to an end in the most recent debate, when the New York senator badly slipped over a question about her state's controversial plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Did she think no one would ask? Democrats had better start dealing with this. Polls show a large majority of Americans, including Democrats, opposed to illegal immigration. They also find that most Americans favor some sort of amnesty for many illegals....

October 2007 may turn out to be the month that immigration became a key issue in presidential politics. It hasn't been, at least in my lifetime. The Immigration Act of 1965, which turned out to open up America to mass immigration after four decades of restrictive laws, wasn't one of the Great Society issues Lyndon Johnson emphasized in 1964. The Immigration Act of 1986, which legalized millions of illegal immigrants but whose border and workplace provisions have never been effectively enforced, was a bipartisan measure unmentioned in the debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. There was no perceptible difference...

Shortly before a Republican presidential primary debate in Columbia, South Carolina, this last May, several conservative activists in the state received mysterious envelopes in the mail. The letters arrived anonymously, each one containing an eight-page document, a typewritten manifesto with a pseudo-academic title: "Mormons in Contemporary American Society: A Politically Dangerous Religion?" The letters depicted Mormonism as based on "hoaxes" and ridiculed the church's founder, Joseph Smith, as a "gold digger turned prophet." The mailing also provocatively dubbed Smith "the Mohammed of the West." "Like the prophet of Islam," it said, "Smith founded his religion upon prophecies and revelations which...

The big news on Fred Thompson's site is the endorsement of Tom McClintock, a popular and conservative state senator. Nothing on Hillary's comment in the debates last night, although his immigration and border security plan is still high on the front page. I think this is another example of Thompson's strategy of choosing to not do the things the media think he should be doing. Romney and Giuliani were quick out of the box to jump on Hillary's statement and denounce driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Today, that'll show up in every story; the dominant story of the day is...

The Senate rejected Wednesday an attempt to move ahead with a bill to allow illegal immigrants under age 30 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military. The vote to move ahead on the Dream Act (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), got 52 votes, eight short of the 60 needed. Among those voting against moving ahead with the bill were eight Democrats, even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appealed to his majority to back him. But this was yet another case when the Democratic majority...

And, the Paulies wept. Duncan Hunter doubled the totals of the next-closest candidate, garnering 534 of approximately 1,400 votes cast. Fred Thompson came in second with 266 votes, and Paul rounded out the top three with 217 votes. Here are all the results: Duncan Hunter: 534 Fred Thompson: 266 Ron Paul: 217 Mike Huckabee: 83 Rudy Giuliani: 78 Mitt Romney: 61 Ray McKinney: 28 John Cox: 10 John McCain: 8 Sam Brownback: 6 Tom Tancredo: 6 Hugh Cort: 3 Thompson had a very good showing, especially considering the Fred Head presence was fairly modest, and there were no campaign surrogates...

In five days most Americans will begin enjoying their long Labor Day weekend - the traditional end of summer - in the usual way: barbecuing, a final trip to the beach and watching sport. A strange group of nearly 20, however, will fan out across Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states in the presidential nominating process. They will trudge through cornfields and scamper from diners to town halls and school gymnasiums. They will lavish praise on their audiences and tell voters in each state - two of the whitest and least populated in America - why they are...

Will the execution-style murder of three young students in Newark, N.J., finally turn the tide in the immigration enforcement debate? Will we at last abandon the deadly, chaotic, lawless sanctuary nation experiment and restore America's lost status as a sovereign nation under the rule of law? The death of six innocent men and women and the injury of more than 1,000 at the hands of several illegal alien 1993 World Trade Center bombers wasn't enough to convince politicians in New York and across this country to end illegal alien sanctuary policies. The death of nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Fred Thompson let another silk drift gently to the straw-covered ground of the Iowa State Fair on Friday as he continued his Dance of the Seven Veils toward declaring his candidacy for president. “If things play out the way I’ve got in mind, we’ll be seeing a bit more of each other” in the next couple of months, Thompson said at the end of a low-key, 20-minute speech to a crowd of supporters, the media and the curious. It wasn’t anywhere near the outright declaration of candidacy the Fredheads in the throng were hoping for, but...

Last week's Iowa straw poll got a lot of national attention -- historically it's known to be something that could make or break a presidential candidate. On Thursday, Illinois got in on the action, with its first-ever straw poll. The polls were open at the state fair, and voters chose a candidate for president. But it's not Election Day -- its the first straw poll in Illinois. "You felt the enthusiasm in that room -- here it is, it was pouring rain at the time, and people were literally standing in the rain waiting to vote,” said Illinois State Republican...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Wednesday that the issue of illegal immigration angered people unlike no other, including the unpopular war in Iraq, and sparked unprecedented death threats against him. "It is unbelievable how this has inflamed the passions of the American people," the Arizona senator said in remarks at The Aspen Institute, a public policy forum. In an interview, he declined to elaborate on the threats he had received. Still, McCain said, he continued to support a temporary worker program for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Derided by critics as amnesty, the program was...

Among male Republican voters, Mitt Romney is in a dead heat for 1st place in the national GOP race. Rudy Giuliani gets his advantage with women but Romney can likely close that gap if McCain continues to slip. McCain polls 19% among female voters (just 8% among males). Romney is the only candidate that will be able to parlay his success from the Ames Straw Poll to the national scene immediately. Huckabee may have exceeded expectations that will catapult him into relevance in Iowa but he is still unknown nationally outside of Iowa (and Arkansas). Romney has made himself the...

Greenville, S.C. For nearly three decades, South Carolina has been a make-or-break state for Republican presidential candidates. None has become the national nominee without a victory – often a decisive one – in this first-in-the-South primary. But six months before the primary here, the state is giving up few secrets about the direction of the race, reflecting a level of disarray in the Republican ranks rarely seen in years past. GOP leaders and conservative activists here say that the war in Iraq and immigration policy are splintering upstate evangelical voters, a large voting bloc that has typically united around litmus-test...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship. The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year. "We can still show the American people that we are serious about securing our nation's border," McCain said in a statement,...

Many Republican faithful, from the grass roots to the Capitol, have concluded that Fred Thompson, the preternaturally avuncular actor and former Senator from Tennessee, is the cure-all for their party's ills. Thompson has yet to enter the presidential race, and yet Thompson already shares front-runner status with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in some national polls of gop voters. Thompson will spend the rest of the summer raising money, which he was scheduled to do conspicuously at a donor event in Washington on July 28. Another advantage to waiting: the longer he remains an unofficial candidate, the longer...

Republican governors say it's too soon to worry about the absence of a clear favorite for the GOP presidential nomination. The muddled picture could even be a blessing, some said in interviews during the weekend meeting of the National Governors Association. The candidates' scramble to break from the pack and speculation about possible new entries such as former Sen. Fred Thompson are keeping the race in the headlines. "I don't subscribe to the notion that we have to have an identified front-runner candidate early on," said Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "The longer you stay...

<p>He's hiring staff, raising money, making public appearances, and doing nicely in the polls – all without announcing even an exploratory committee for his presidential campaign. In fact, Fred Thompson might consider never formally entering the 2008 presidential sweepstakes, he's doing so well – or at least wait "until after he's wrapped up the [Republican] nomination," quips pundit Stu Rothenberg. But in the end, the former senator from Tennessee, lawyer/lobbyist, and TV actor does, by many press accounts, plan to announce in early September that he is running for president; he may formalize an "exploratory" phase before then. One point is already clear: GOP nomination race 2.0 has begun. "It's down to three [candidates]. Some would say 2-1/2. I would say three," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The half-candidate would be former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who still leads in national polls, but whose numbers have been falling steadily for several months – in direct proportion to the steady, upward trajectory of Mr. Thompson's, according to Pollster.com. The campaign of Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, once seen as the GOP heir apparent, is nearly bankrupt, and with Thompson entering the race, that makes his money chase all the more difficult. Mr. Giuliani could remain strong if there's continued national focus on terrorism – and especially if the US is attacked again before the primaries. But failing that, the race may well boil down to Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, analysts say. Despite Giuliani's longstanding position at the top of the GOP heap in national 2008 presidential polls, political experts have attributed that lead to name recognition. As conservative base voters have learned about Giuliani's liberal positions on abortion and gay rights, the former mayor's overall support has declined.</p>

The candidate who seems to have been running forever and the one who has yet to enter the race are leading their respective nomination contests in a national preference poll by Zogby International. The latest Zogby survey shows New York Sen. Hillary Clinton with a 37 percent to 25 percent lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is a distant third at 12 percent, while New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson leads the also-rans with 4 percent. Clinton’s edge over Obama has shrunk slightly since late May - she has lost two points and Obama has...

Even as John McCain's presidential campaign struggled to streamline after disappointing fundraising in the first quarter, it continued to add payroll, rent and other expenses to what became a bloated operation that couldn't support itself. During the past three months, McCain added $229,900 in rent payments, about 20 aides and $434,100 in salaries, according to a finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission just before Sunday's midnight deadline.

The alliance of talk radio, blogs and grassroots efforts was a winner when it came to defeating the "shamnesty" bill. Conservatives were enraged and showed just how much power we possess: A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 15,000 adults in June found that just 32.0% now say they're Republicans. That's up more than a full percentage point from a month ago and is within a tenth-of-a-point of the GOP's best showing in ten months. This is purely because of the efforts put forth to defeat a bill that would've rewarded those who broke our laws. The Bush administration suffered...

Every serious candidate for President has his share of difficult days. But few are as horrendous, especially this many months before primary season begins, as the one John McCain suffered through Tuesday. Just an hour before he had to go to the floor of the Senate to defend President Bush's Iraq policy against a growing Republican rebellion, the onetime frontrunner for the GOP nomination accepted the resignation of his top two campaign staffers, manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver. And almost as soon as he wrapped up his Iraq speech, he was besieged with rumors that another top...

Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, a champion of traditional conservatives, and Rudy Giuliani, a favorite of political independents, may be the biggest beneficiaries if John McCain's bid for the Republican presidential nomination collapses, political experts say. McCain's campaign is teetering after the loss yesterday of his chief political aides, a blow that comes the week after a disappointing fund-raising report. McCain, 70, once the Republican frontrunner, is vowing to fight on amid growing speculation about his viability. If McCain is forced to abandon the race or loses more ground, Thompson and Giuliani will try to scoop up his political and...

I guess the Straight Talk Express is finally melting down. After returning from a trip to Iraq — something hardly likely to have lifted his spirits — John McCain apparently blew up at campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver over their out-of-control spending. In the end, he fired Nelson and Weaver then resigned: Weaver's resignation was the most surprising. He has been McCain's chief strategist and confidant for many years, playing a role as central to the Arizonan's political operations as White House senior adviser Karl Rove has played in President Bush's. The only other person in...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson has begun his unannounced quest for the Republican presidential nomination by telling audiences in New Hampshire that Washington is badly out of touch with the country. As a senior campaign adviser put it to The Washington Post's Michael Shear, Thompson believes that "the politicians have lost their connection with what people really want and what they really expect." Few if any of the other 17 men and one woman vying for the presidency would be bold enough to challenge Thompson's claim. The belief that official Washington is deaf to the people's wishes is a staple of...

A funny thing happened to a pro-illegal immigrant activist this week in Dallas, Texas. The activist, a League of United Latin American Citizens representative named Jesse Diaz, was carjacked. Obviously there’s nothing funny about someone sticking a gun in another person’s face and stealing his car. This isn’t funny as in hardy-har-har. And everyone is relieved that Mr. Diaz wasn’t hurt by the punk who threatened his life and stole his vehicle in broad daylight. But the amusing part of this crime is what happened afterward. It seems that Mr. Diaz is plenty steamed that it took the Dallas Police...

Fred Thompson's easygoing, no-nonsense style is clearly his strength and undoubtedly has helped him soar in presidential polls. It may only get him so far. Sooner or later, the all-but-declared candidate will have to answer the question: What else do you offer? ''Smooth is good, but sometimes nitty gritty is essential,'' says Tucker Eskew, a Republican strategist unaligned in the race. ''He'll be tested (but) he has a little time.'' Indeed, the actor and former Tennessee senator has bought himself a grace period; he hasn't yet officially joined the 10-man GOP field. He's raised at least several million dollars, assembled...

If it was up to Peach State Republicans, former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson would lead the country beginning in 2008. Thompson would beat out former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination 25 to 20 percent, according to the latest Strategic Vision, LLC poll of 800 likely Georgia voters. When Republicans were polled on who they’d stand behind in the crucial 2008 presidential election, Thompson and Giuliani edged out U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (11 percent), former House speaker Newt Gingrich, (7 percent); Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (6 percent) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee...

June 28th was a very fine day, indeed. For one thing, under pressure from my fellow Americans, the boobs in the Beltway caved in, and stopped trying to shove the amnesty bill down our collective throats. It was also the day that the Supreme Court finally got around to deciding that in a society that keeps insisting that it’s colorblind, race can no longer be used as a means to determine the makeup of student bodies. I’d like to think that Martin Luther King, Jr., would have approved, just as I take comfort in knowing that Jesse Jackson doesn’t. My...