Free Republic

SARAH PALIN'S endorsement of Kelly Ayotte for U.S. Senate should neither surprise nor upset the other campaigns. The race will be won by the candidate who impresses New Hampshire voters, and New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say.

Bill Binnie was getting a free ride in the Senate primary until Sarah Palin slapped him in her Facebook post backing Ayotte (more on that endorsement below). Now comes a bigger hit from the pro-traditional family, fiscally conservative Cornerstone Action PAC, the political arm of Cornerstone Policy Research. Director Kevin Smith says that today, Cornerstone will begin a "substantial" statewide radio ad buy calling Binnie "shockingly liberal." In the ad, a woman tells her husband that Binnie's "flashy ads are actually hiding his shockingly liberal positions on almost every issue." She says Binnie has said he "might have voted for"...

SEN. BOB SMITH has accumulated some odd allies since being challenged in the GOP primary by U.S. Rep. John Sununu. While this page endorsed Sununu, the Telegraph of Nashua and the Concord Monitor endorsed Smith. If Smith is indeed solidly conservative, then one has to wonder why the state’s conservative newspaper would endorse Sununu while the two largest liberal papers would back Smith. The Monitor said of Smith, “Throughout Smith’s long career, we have struggled to find points on which to agree with him and rarely, save on environmental matters, found them.” Yet the paper endorsed him over Sununu, primarily...