Free Republic

Sarah Palin continues to withhold resounding support for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2016, saying Republicans don’t have to “settle” for candidates. “We certainly though don’t have to settle for any candidate, any politician that would go along to get along with an agenda that stifles our economy and would strip any of our freedoms that are constitutionally protected,” Palin said Monday on Fox News’s “Hannity,” when asked about the GOP establishment saying Christie is the only Republican candidate who could win the presidency in 2016. Palin said “those establishment people have been quite wrong, it seems, especially in...

Democrats insist they can thwart Chris Christie (R) if he seeks the White House in 2016, despite the broad appeal he showed in winning reelection last week. Even though the New Jersey governor secured more than 60 percent of the votes against state Sen. Barbara Buono (D), Democratic strategists in the Garden State and beyond believe he has vulnerabilities they could exploit in a national election. Above all, they assert that Christie’s famously combative style could result in a loss of self-control during the heat of a presidential campaign. Steve Elmendorf, who served as deputy campaign manager for then-Sen. John...

Governor Rick Perry was in Iowa this weekend and during an interview on ABC’s This Week, he raised the $64,000 question about a potential Chris Christie presidential candidacy: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas credited Chris Christie for his re-election in New Jersey, but he pointedly questioned whether the 22-point victory by Christie held any greater meaning for the Republican Party. “Is a conservative in New Jersey a conservative in the rest of the country?” Perry said in an interview with “This Week.” “We’ll have that discussion at the appropriate time.” As he made his first visit back to Iowa since...

It is no wonder that with Christie’s 22.5 point reelection victory in the New Jersey governor’s race on Tuesday the national press has christened him a star. Other than Christie, there is not one political adult being mentioned as a serious candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Rand Paul values property rights over civil rights, which should be reversed. Ted Cruz wants to close the federal government and seal the boarder from immigrants, which is odd for a Canadian. And Rick Santorum. Enough said. Truth be told, the GOP has not fielded many attractive candidates of late. ---snip--- Here...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There's a fight brewing and it could get ugly. In one corner is the Republican Party. And in the other ... the Republican Party. The stakes could not be higher. The GOP has failed to get a majority of Americans to vote for its presidential candidates in five of the last six elections. And Tuesday night's gubernatorial races -- a win in New Jersey and loss in Virginia -- sent confusing signals, at best, about where the party is headed. The fight spilled out into the open in a race for Alabama's 1st Congressional District, with two Republicans the face...

A lot of people are pronouncing the tea party movement dead after Tuesday’s election results. Goodbye and good riddance. The tea party movement was fun for a while. But before long it was taken over by know-it-alls and knuckleheads. If you doubt that, consider all of those partiers who like to say that the "tea" in "tea party" stands for "Taxed Enough Already." This is what is known as a "backronym." A backronym is formed when someone takes a perfectly good English word and tries to treat it as if it were an acronym. Every time I mention the slang...

A big win in a big blue state — there are few things that make sweeter music for the fractured Republican Party these days. But many political observers say there is even more to what happened tonight than that. Last year, Chris Christie was elected chairman of the Republican Governors Association and he officially takes over that post in Arizona in 15 days. It’s a position with a high national profile, money to spread around and a bully pulpit. So, in way, Christie’s power just doubled. Friends of Christie and people who have watched him in action the past year...

Move to the right or try to pull the GOP away from the tea party and toward the center? That is the question Gov. Chris Christie will face if he trounces his way to victory Tuesday in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race and turns his attention to the prospect of a 2016 presidential bid. Some Republicans watching the final stages of the governor’s race say a decisive Christie win will send a message to the national party that the GOP can triumph without catering to the far right. Polls show Mr. Christie, who opposed the partial federal government shutdown last month,...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

According to excerpts from the book Double Down, Mitt Romney seriously considered choosing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his 2012 running mate. But he didn't, in part because Christie is overweight. Cool leadership, Mitt. The Washington Post got an early copy of the book, and notes several not-very-subtle ways in which the Romney camp made an issue of Christie's weight. For example, according to the Post, Romney's VP vetters engaged in the age-old tradition of blowing their work way out of proportion by pretending it was a high-level intelligence operation. But, man, did they do a lame job of...

If a Democrat wins in Virginia, Chris Christie wins in New Jersey........ The polls indicate so called "moderate democrat" will get redstate Virginia, and so called "moderate republican" will survive in a bluestate.

NEWARK — It was a “kumbaya” moment for Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Gov. Chris Christie, but one that will have a lasting impression in Newark. Despite being on opposing sides during Booker’s victorious U.S. Senate run against Republican Steve Lonegan, the two men once again touted their bipartisan alliance Thursday with the groundbreaking of the Springfield Avenue Marketplace, a $94 million retail and housing complex that includes a 66,000 square-foot ShopRite supermarket along one of Newark’s most troubled corridors. “This is not because of a mayor. It really is because of great leadership on many different fronts,” Booker said,...

1) We can contribute to the Lonegan campaign HERE. ( https://loneganforsenate.com/secure-contribution.php ) 2) Anyone living in or close to New Jersey can GET INVOLVED HERE. ( http://www.loneganforsenate.com/volunteer-sign-up/ ) 3) Anyone with a telephone can volunteer to make calls from home HERE. ( https://www.loneganforsenate.com/phonefromhome/ ) Sarah wrote on Facebook today: The momentum is on Steve Lonegan’s side coming into next Wednesday’s election in New Jersey! Please visit Steve’s website to find ways to help out. It was such an honor to rally for Steve yesterday in NJ. Thank you again to everyone who came to join us – including “The Great...

Sarah Palin, former Republican vice presidential candidate and a prominent voice of the right, has endorsed New Jersey U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, his campaign announced Wednesday night. Palin's endorsement took aim at Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the Democratic candidate, who leads in polls. She said unemployment, taxes, and violent crime all have grown during Booker's term in office. "In fairness, [he] may not have noticed these facts between his constant tweeting and trips to Hollywood," Palin said in a statement released by the Lonegan campaign. She praised Lonegan for cutting taxes as mayor of Bogota and his work as...

The Council on the American Islamic Relations (CAIR) excoriated many of its critics in their "Islamophobia" report, but the group also had a "Best List Inductees" which included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. CAIR says the list was compiled as a way to recognize those who "deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions to pushing back against Islamophobic trends in 2011 and 2012." The report says Christie is receiving the accolade primarily for his nomination of a Muslim judge and statements in the ensuing controversy: Following Islamophobic criticism of his nomination of Sohail Mohammed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge,...

Dear Patriots. Though apprehensive upon hearing Obama tell Joe the Plumber that he wanted to spread the wealth around, I understand America’s extremely emotional response to electing its first black president. White America naively thought, finally, we can never be called a racist nation again. My 100 year old black grandmother wept. Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine a colored man sitting in the president’s chair in the Oval Office. But little did America realize that the beautiful articulate shiny golden black man that they opened the gates of our country and housed in the White House was...

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Republican Party will explode. When the smoke clears, there’ll be four (4!) new parties. First, there will still be the Republican Party, sort of, but it will change its name to the GOPPPP (Grand Old Party of Perennial Pathetic Putzes). The new name, though, won’t change the fact that the party has failed to win a majority of America’s voters in five of the past six elections or that it keep running candidates even its own members don’t like! It’s top contenders? Sen. Marco Rubio; Rep. Paul Ryan; Gov. Rick Perry;...

Fresh off of his endorsement from former KKK Grand Wizard and former Congressman from Louisiana David Duke, we find this photo of Congressman Ron Paul with former Klansman, former Nazi and current radio show host and moderator of Stormfront.org Don Black. Pictured next to Black in the cool hat appears to be his radio sidekick and son Derek. (Here's an interesting note....Derek's mother is David Duke's ex-wife. Que the banjos.)

Chris Christie is ditching the Jersey Shore for the Hamptons this weekend to woo big GOP donors for his re-election campaign, far away from South Carolina where other star Republican governors will gather Monday to support Nikki Haley. Bill Palatucci, a longtime Bush family donor, and the New Jersey governor’s brother, Todd Christie, are hosting a Southampton soiree Saturday at the home of Clifford Sobel, an ambassador during former President George W. Bush’s administration. Tickets start at $3,800 a person. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sofia Vergara’s fiance, Nick Loeb, will also be attending....

LET Rand Paul have his epic filibuster and Ted Cruz his scowling threats to shut down the government. Let Chris Christie thunder to a second term as the governor of New Jersey, his hubris flowering as his ultimate designs on the White House take shape. Jeb Bush, lying low in the subtropics of Florida, has something they don’t: the unalloyed affection of many of the Republican Party’s most influential moneymen, who are waiting for word on what he’ll do, hoping that he’ll seek the 2016 presidential nomination and noting with amusement how far he has drifted off fickle pundits’ radar,...