Free Republic

Has Sarah Palin just announced her candidacy for president? On Wednesday night she told Fox Business host Eric Bolling that she still has the fire in her belly and is still game to run for office. More telling, however, is what she said about the current GOP nomination battle and the possibility of a brokered convention. Palin’s comments leading into the South Carolina primary, encouraging people to vote for Newt Gingrich because the party is strengthened by a long primary battle, were bewildering at the time. “I want to see this thing continue, because iron sharpens iron, steel sharpens steel....

"All bets are off" as to who might lead the Republican ticket if a brokered convention becomes a reality, Sarah Palin told Eric Bolling, host of Follow the Money, on Wednesday. That's the closest Palin would come to stating her own intentions. Here's what some of the analysts and pundits say about the prospects for Sarah Palin emerging from a brokered convention as the Republican nominee: * "Notice that part of her message was that a brokered convention wouldn't be so bad and guess who could emerge out of a brokered convention, with all of this enthusiasm and energy and...

Atlantic Wire is reporting that the entity known as Occupy Wall Street is forming a Super PAC to accept unlimited donations and run political advocacy ads. The image above is the actual Federal Election Commission filing for Occupy Wall Street Political Action Committee (sans mask). "We're utterly serious," OWS Treasurer John Paul Thornton told Atlantic. Kudos to Atlantic reporter John Hudson for presumably asking the question, "are you guys serious?" The filing originates from Decatur, Alabama, where, according to the OWS offshoot’s Facebook page, this organization intends to raise money for progressive political candidates including Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren...

Allow me to preface this deeply conspiratorial post by saying that, across the board, I do not believe in conspiracy theories. There are no conspiracy theories, only conspiracy facts. By definition, any plot to affect some outcome executed by a cabal of plotters must come to light by one of two ways – either the plot is successful and the theory become fact, or the plot fails and the theory becomes fact. Either way, there are no conspiracy theories. With all that having been said, allow me to irresponsibly advance one: Actually, I’m merely adding onto a dog pile started...

I’m skeptical, especially if you count his Super PAC as part of his campaign. (And who doesn’t?) But the basic logic makes sense. If you depend heavily on a small-ish base of wealthy donors who are capped by law on how much they can give, then you’d better win early to grow that base before they’re all tapped out. If Santorum bumps him off in Michigan and Romney underperforms on Super Tuesday, it suddenly gets much harder for Mitt to lure big money with the promise of access to the eventual nominee. Romney has proved unable to tap into the...

Kevin McGrath, who currently sits on the Troy City Council, testified yesterday at the upstate New York voter fraud trial, that he was concerned about running for public office because of his history of substance abuse, and 'the fact that he is a convicted felon'. These days it seems, McGrath is far less concerned about public perception, at one point cracking a joke about his lack of drug-peddling business savvy - a comment that forced him to apologize to the judge. During his testimony, McGrath stated that he was not convicted of distributing 220 lbs. of pot, but rather, he...

Kevin McGrath, who currently sits on the Troy City Council, testified yesterday at the upstate New York voter fraud trial, that he was concerned about running for public office because of his history of substance abuse, and 'the fact that he is a convicted felon'. These days it seems, McGrath is far less concerned about public perception, at one point cracking a joke about his lack of drug-peddling business savvy - a comment that forced him to apologize to the judge. During his testimony, McGrath stated that he was not convicted of distributing 220 lbs. of pot, but rather, he...

If Sarah is flirting, I was seduced a long time ago! For everyone who doesn't want Romney, this is huge! It's only in the modern era that Presidential nominations have been locked up before most American voters even tuned in. So this year, for the nation, the Republican Primary is kind of a return to older times, when all Americans counted, not just the few power brokers. The race has been a very rich blue blood from New England ( where he would not carry one state in the general election ) and a group of three, Newt, Rick and...

It was a Sarah Palin crowd. At a conference of conservative activists last week, there were stacks of Sarah Palin books and Sarah Palin posters. A special screening of a film about Palin was planned. And after skipping the gathering for four years, Palin herself had agreed at last to give the keynote address. Having traveled from Buffalo, Jason Benner was there to see the one who made his heart soar. “Wayne LaPierre,” he said with gusto, referring to the head of the National Rifle Association. He named the rest of his top five speakers — Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney,...

Continuing an early trend in Washington's 2012 governor's race, a new Elway poll finds Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna with a 9-point lead over Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee. The poll, conducted last week, found 45 percent of respondents would "definitely" or "probably" vote for McKenna, compared with 36 percent for Inslee. Pollster Stuart Elway notes one "ominous" sign for Inslee in the poll data: the proportion of voters with a negative impression of him (22 percent) is nearly equal to those with a positive impression (28 percent). By contrast, McKenna has a 3 to 1 ratio of positive to negative...

In November, Accuracy in Media released my report regarding a company known as CH2M Hill, an engineering firm that claimed nearly $2 billion in stimulus awards. Most of their work concentrated on one division - the CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) - which operated one of the world’s largest environmental cleanup projects—the Central Plateau on the Hanford Nuclear Site in Richland, Washington. New information shows that despite their claims, the Energy Department says the company actually received $1.38 billion from the stimulus, but had an additional $3.1 billion in annual budget appropriations. Furthermore, they are receiving $2 million in...

Sarah Palin is weighing in on the GOP nomination race. She appears to have something to say about everyone and has little positive to say. It's almost embarrassing for the Republican Party to have her voice an opinion. Palin comes across less like an expert on campaigning and more like a washed-up booth babe trying to show she does have something useful to say. Of particular note are her recent jabs at Mitt Romney. She's calling him out for not being far enough to the political right. The former vice-presidential candidate might be suggesting Romney adopt a stance more like...

Occupy hecklers tried to disrupt Sarah Palin's CPAC speech, in which she regularly turned President Obama's rhetoric against him, but the crowd shouted them down and Palin turned the moment into a example of how grassroots conservatives can beat Obama. "We aren't red Americans, we aren't blue Americans, we're red, white, and blue and President Obama we are through with you," Palin said in an appropriation of Obama's 2008 campaign lines. She called for "Change that we can believe in, change we need," she said, continuing that meme, explaining that "we can't wait -- our country hangs in the balance."...

The Donald has spoken. He knows a done deal when he sees one. After Florida, Mitt is the Republican nominee. And the morning after, to the relief of Democrats and the distress of the conservative commentariat, he proved again that he is the gaffe machine that keeps on giving. First, the state of the race: Romney is ahead of Barack Obama's pace in 2008. It was Super Tuesday then, still a month from now, when I argued that the Democratic contest was all over except for the noise, the ritual combat, and the counting, given that party rules made it...

Former Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich was the last one of the three GOP presidential candidates to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, February 10, 2012. The former Speaker of the House spent most of his 30 minute-speech attacking the “Washington establishment.” Incidentally, not many Congressional Republicans have been supportive of Gingrich’s candidacy, instead endorsing his main rival former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The Speaker made it clear on Friday that there’s nothing surprising about Washington’s resistance to a possible Gingrich presidency. “For the Republican establishment managing the decay is preferable to changing the trajectory, because...

Since she was plucked from relative obscurity by John McCain to be his vice presidential candidate, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been at the top of the American political scene. Recently, however, the ebb and flow of the primary season has called into question whether her political star has faded. During the heat of the primary battles, all of the air in the Republican-conservative-Tea Party balloon has been sucked up -- appropriately, by the candidates. Since 2008 that air was the oxygen that fueled the Palin super nova. The prospect of going from Momma Grizzly to political also-ran has...

At last year's CPAC gathering, the mere sight of a Sarah Palin impersonator was enough to throw some attendees into a star-struck frenzy. Such was Palin's clout among conservative activists in February 2011, just a few months after she played a critical role in the 2010 midterms and when she was stoking speculation about her own presidential ambitions. This year, CPAC attendees won’t have to settle on a doppelganger, as the former Alaska governor is slated to deliver the event’s keynote address on Saturday. But, with the Michigan and Arizona primaries looming at the end of the month and Super...

ATLANTA -- A day after his defeats in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, Mitt Romney pounded Republican presidential rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich on Wednesday as big-spending Washington insiders whose careers show scant evidence of fiscal restraint. The Republican Party, he said, "lost its way" by borrowing and spending too much, particularly on the pet projects "earmarked" by members of Congress, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum and former House Speaker Gingrich deserve some of the blame. "Under Newt Gingrich, earmarks doubled," Romney told reporters here on an airport tarmac. "Rick Santorum was a major earmarker and continues to defend earmarks."...

Can anyone find Presidential Qualifications listed by the Missouri SOS website ?

Why would you assume that people with the ability to constantly interrupt government workers mid-day, and with the ability to camp out in a park for months at a time, wouldn't have jobs? Occupy Albany got their much needed dose of media attention (video below) this morning when they interrupted budget talks in the capital. The attention-whoring featured the usual slapstick, including mic checks and the repetition of short phrases (because saying it twice makes it seem more intelligent), but the interview after the incident was where the real entertainment came through. When asked about the interruption and the tactics...

Nevada state GOP chair Amy Tarkanian boasted this week that her state will turn Republican in the next presidential election. Not likely if her state GOP runs that show like it ran the Nevada caucuses, which were an embarrassing display of bad planning and execution on multiple levels. Aside from the scheduling, the choice of caucus locations, and the decision to shut out thousands of workers on the Las Vegas strip which we’ve detailed here, let’s now clue you all in on the litany of other problems: 1. The GOP couldn’t deliver results in a timely manner.An all-night count —...

Mitt Romney won last night’s Nevada caucus. It’s no shocker: he took the state by 51 percent in 2008 and it’s packed full of Mormons. But the media is predicting a sunny spring for Mr Romney, with likely victories across February. By Super Tuesday in March, he could have enough momentum to knock out Gingrich and claim the nomination. Newt was not happy with the result. During his concession speech, he lashed out at his opponent's "shameless untruths" and the media's willingness to promote them. He left the podium with a smile. Gingrich lost the Nevada caucus but won his...

Mitt’s money. Newt’s lunar landing. Rick’s abortion advice. Ron’s rip-it-all-up rhetoric. Followers of America’s Republican primary contest could easily conclude that the adults have left the political playground. And with unrefereed mud wrestling matches set to roll across the country until summer, it’s a sure bet that no candidate will be coming out as Mr. Clean. It’s a far cry from the pundits’ prediction for a short sharp contest, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (“Senor Smooth”) felling former House speaker Newt Gingrich (“Mr. Mean”) in a round or two, and Pennsylvania hopeful Rick Santorum (“The Saint”) flat on the...

In October, Sarah Palin announced that she would not run for president in 2012, ending the media frenzy around her potential candidacy even as she vowed to remain politically active and influential. “I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets,” she wrote in an e-mail to her supporters. Just over three months later, her attempts to wield influence in the presidential campaign the way she did during the 2010 midterm elections have largely fizzled. And the Tea Party movement that she helped to turn into a powerful political force in 2010 has so far displayed little impact...

Las Vegas -- Today's Republican caucuses in Nevada differ from primary elections by requiring voters to devote a block of time to make their preferences known in a process that takes more time than just filling out a ballot. There are also some unusual rules set this year by the GOP officials in the state, including:Timing: Republican Party officials in each county decide when to hold caucus meetings. In Clark County, home to Las Vegas and 70 percent of state residents, the meetings are at 9 a.m. today - a time that is inconvenient for the city's taxi drivers, waitresses...

Newt Gingrich's presidential ambitions could hinge on the outcome of Tuesday's Minnesota caucuses, along with Colorado's caucus on the same day, says a story in the Huffington Post. Gingrich was leading in recent polls in Minnesota, but he's the only one of the four remaining Republican contenders not to visit the state in the week before the caucuses. The story says Mitt Romney is expected to fare quite well in upcoming contests in Nevada, Michigan and Arizona: But Colorado and especially Minnesota, both non-binding contests to be held on February 7, are different kettles of fish. And they are likely...

Sam Fulwood III explains why Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's disrespectful gesture last week will motivate black voters to support the president in the November election. With a waggle of her right index finger last Wednesday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer erased the question of whether black voters will be enthusiastic about going to the polls in support of President Barack Obama. Now, you can count on it. Gov. Brewer almost guaranteed that large numbers of black voters will turn out on Election Day because they will march to the polls, still angry about Brewer's one-finger salute of the commander-in-chief. Nothing motivates...

The short answer is that Mitt Romney isn’t a small-government conservative. The slightly longer answer is that Barack Obama has been – as he promised to be – a game-changer, and the 2012 election is the one in which libertarian anti-statism will either have a voice in the Republican Party, or will have to do something else. This primary season is a fight for the character of the GOP. The fight is not the perennial standoff between “social cons” and “fiscal cons”; it is a long-postponed dispute over the size and charter of government, and how the GOP will approach...

Newt Gingrich says he's staying in the Republican presidential race all the way to the GOP convention in August, and that he's willing — even eager — to fight for the nomination on the convention floor. But does he have a chance? Gingrich and his aides seem to think so, and they have a theory of how they can wrest the nomination from Mitt Romney. It begins with pushing Rick Santorum to the sideline and uniting the party's conservative majority behind Gingrich. That's why Gingrich claimed a victory in having turned the campaign into a two-man race in Florida on...

For Newt Gingrich, the next comeback bid may be his hardest yet. The former House speaker didn’t just lose to Mitt Romney in Florida this week; he got beaten within an inch of his life. Now, Gingrich – along with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul – heads into a weeks-long lull in the campaign, with a lapse of 20 days before the next debate and nearly a month before the next major primaries in Arizona and Michigan. If Gingrich is going to stop Romney’s candidacy from becoming a runaway train, he needs to change the terms of the race much...

Let's see... Paying for votes? Check. Tricking the mentally disabled? Check. And now, preying on those who struggle with the English language? Check. Democrats in upstate New York seemingly left no stone unturned, no voter they would not swindle, in an attempt to steal past elections. Via the Times Union: Testimony from voters in the city ballot-fraud case revealed the tactics politicians and political operatives used and the promises they made to allegedly convince residents to sign over their voting privileges. By 'politicians and political operatives' they mean 'Democrats and Democrat operatives'. There is after all, no other party on...

Standing Athwart History Yelling "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another." It is days like today that make me thankful I think they all suck. At least I’m thankful I’m in the firmly not Romney camp. Having told us only Romney was viable (with half-nods to Huntsman and Santorum) and having trotted out Elliot Abrams to smear Newt Gingrich with out of context quotes, even National Review is having trouble defending their candidate today. This morning Mitt Romney said he wasn’t concerned about the poor. The poor, after all, have food stamps and Medicaid. But don’t worry. If the safety...

I will start this out by saying that I am usually wrong when I make political predictions (how did that Hillary Clinton-Rudy Giuliani face-off turn out in 2008?). But I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and in the off chance that I happen to be right, I just want it on the record. So here goes… Mitt Romney will not be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Neither will Newt Gingrich. And certainly not Ron Paul or Rick Santorum. No, the Republican candidate for president will be someone who isn’t even a candidate for president right now....

Romney is being portrayed as having locked up the Republican nomination with his Florida victory, but he’s a long way from the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch, and voters in other states deserve to be heard. Yes, Mitt Romney had a big win in Florida last night. He’s won two of the first four primary states, totaling 84 delegates to date. But he needs 1,144 to clinch the Republican nomination—he’s just 7 percent of the way there. So call off the coronation—give people in the other 46 states a chance to vote. “We’re in the first quarter,” says John Brabender,...

At some country-club golf course recently, Speaker Boehner, Haley Barbour and the Bain Capital and banking wings of the GOP probably devised the plan that is now under way: Ron Paul, get on the program behind Mitt and stop talking down wars. Sarah Palin, stop referring to the GOP establishment as Stalinesque. Tea Party members: shut up and get behind the former liberal governor of Massachusetts. Conservative movement, cool it. So what if our nominee was the godfather of ObamaCare? The French say, apres moi, le deluge. The white-shoe, country-club, establishment Republican leaders will be pressuring in unison after Florida,...

Last week, Mollie raised an interesting point about what a Mitt Romney nomination means for the Republican Party. In the comments, I shared my concern concerning the lean-Republican independents who make up much of the Tea Party, and who prior to 2009 were mostly inactive in politics beyond regularly voting. The Tea Party is a collection of people who felt compelled to transition from citizens to activists in favor of limited government and fiscal restraint. Many sacrifice time away from family, work, and life in a desperate attempt to save the nation they love, from their perspective. My concern is...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stirred the pot again in the GOP presidential campaign, using her Facebook account Friday to blast "the Republican establishment" for using "Alinsky tactics" against her favored candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. I'll leave it to Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic to critique the historical inaccuracies in Palin's rant; he also provides an intriguing but non-scientific sampling of the blowback from Palin's followers in the tea party. I'm more interested in two of Palin's bigger points, one of which is disingenuous, the other right on the money. Taking the latter first, Palin rightly calls out...

PLANTATION, Fla. -- With polls showing Mitt Romney on track for a convincing victory in Tuesday's Republican primary in this state, the one silver lining for Newt Gingrich may be the acceleration of a sorting-out process that is driving more prominent conservatives toward the former House speaker as a parade of establishment GOP leaders rally around Romney. The most powerful dynamic in Florida over the past week has been the Romney campaign's success at blunting the momentum from Gingrich's South Carolina win by seeding a gardenful of personal and political doubts about him. But the sheer ferocity (and success) of...

FORT MYERS, FL--Thousands of Floridians will hear the voice of Todd Palin in their homes tomorrow as they head out to the polls on primary day. The former GOP vice presidential candidate's husband is recording a get-out-the-vote robo-call in support of Newt Gingrich that will go out across the state, campaign spokesman RC Hammond told NBC News. Gingrich also revealed that Todd Palin will campaign on his behalf on the trail, though he did not specific exactly how. "I'm also delighted Todd Palin has agreed to do calls for us and campaign for us," Gingrich told a crowd at Page...

When the political history of this era is written, two of the most colorful figures are likely to be Sarah Palin and Herman Cain. The once-obscure former governor of Alaska, picked as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, went on to create a Palin-centric industry as public speaker, author, reality TV star, Fox News commentator, and potential presidential candidate who made tons of money while tantalizing millions of tea party supporters around the country with suggestions that she might run this year. She was (still is) catnip to the media. Herman Cain, the businessman who’d never held elective office, similarly...

The California Republican Party keeps making matters worse as it struggles against what seems inevitable. On Friday, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided to leave in place state Senate district maps drawn by the voter-created California Redistricting Commission. This was the second time the GOP turned to the court for help, and the second time it was slapped down. The Republicans spent – and probably wasted – $2 million on its drive to qualify a referendum challenging the maps. It's not certain that the measure will qualify for the November ballot.

Newt Gingrich may have pulled out a shock victory in South Carolina, but he has yet to win the heart of one political analyst. "Newt Gingrich is dangerous on many levels," Meghan McCain told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Mac & Gaydos. The Republican daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain said that Gingrich uses techniques that make the younger McCain dislike politics, including race-baiting. McCain even went so far as to say that, if the election came down to Obama versus Gingrich, she would likely turn to a third-party candidate. "I can't vote for Newt Gingrich," she said. With McCain crossing her...

Link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-26/-stop-newt-republicans-confront-base-unwilling-to-take-orders.html

Different crowds, different tones at events for the 2 top GOP candidates. The two leading Republican presidential candidates came to Central Florida on Wednesday, and their events — and reception by voters — couldn't have been more different. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney showed up at factory in Orlando on Wednesday morning, telling a politely enthusiastic crowd of about 400 that President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night showed that the president is out of touch with America. "We have a president who is detached from reality. He's detached from the people. He's detached from his own...

One of former GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry's most vocal California backers has thrown his support behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign. "I think the people of America want to go back to work more than anything," Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Penn Valley, said today. "Mr Gingrich has the courage and the intelligence to turn the economy around." Logue, who founded the Committee to Draft Rick Perry for President last year, had campaigned for the Texas governor in Iowa earlier this month. He said he decided to endorse Gingrich late last week, after Perry dropped his own campaign and announced...

Opening statements were made by both the prosecution and the defense in a massive upstate New York voter fraud case. Special prosecutor, Trey Smith, promises to expose the seedy underbelly of Democratic politics in the city of Troy, something other Democrats already charged in the case have referred to as 'normal political tactics.' The trial involves Democrat Board of Elections Commissioner Ed McDonough, and former Councilman Michael LoPorto, who combined, face over 100 total charges that include second-degree forgery, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and second-degree criminal possession. Smith has claimed that Democrats 'went for a power grab...

Jesse Kelly, who narrowly lost to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) in 2010, is running again in the upcoming 8th district special election, according to two sources. “I would say an announcement is imminent,” said an insider close to the Iraq War veteran. Giffords beat Kelly by only 2 points in 2010, in what was an overall terrible political climate for Democrats. Another source close to Kelly described Giffords as the strongest possible Democratic candidate and indicated Democrats would have difficulty finding a nominee with her charm, name identification and fundraising prowess.

A victorious Newt Gingrich declared his improbable victory in South Carolina a “very humbling and very sobering” experience while challenging President Barack Obama to a series of seven, three-hour debates if he becomes the GOP nominee. “The biggest thing I take from the campaign in South Carolina is that it is very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on the right track,” acknowledged Gingrich with his wife, Callista, by his side. Gingrich, who is often criticized for being overly bombastic, was nothing if not humble in his victory...

John Roco argues that a pattern of increasing power enabling access to a female 'of more desire to him' has defined Newt Gingrich for the election, debates, presidential race of 2012, as well as leaving a wife when she was 'baggage' of being ill, and seemingly not to serve his purposes. John Roco also argues of Newt Gingrich's attack ability at debates, whether South Carolina, Florida or future, actually becomes an extreme deficit of one who would want to be leader of our nation, needing to 'contain' outbursts and expressions of ego empowerment. Admiral Patrick Walsh is mentioned as one...

As the city of Troy, NY, awaits jury selection in the first trial involving two Democrats and their alleged roles in a "massive"voter fraud scheme, new details have emerged from the investigation. Details involving two other veteran political operatives that have already pleaded guilty. According to a recent Fox News report, Anthony Renna, a Democrat guilty of second-degree forgery, and Anthony DeFiglio, a Democrat guilty of first-degree falsifying business records, are trying to drag all local politicians, regardless of party affiliation, down with the ship. Thus far, eight people have been charged in connection with the ballot fraud investigation, four...