Free Republic

The man being prayed over in the picture is Rick Santorum, stunning winner of three primaries or caucuses last Tuesday in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. It's been instructive watching the media, even the Wall Street Journal, grapple with the possibility that this clean, morally-upright, scandal-free, principled, self-sacrificial, family-basked, God-loving, humanitarian, intelligent, well educated, experienced, thoughtful, conservative, Republican man might emerge as the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012. He may not be glib enough, or slick enough, or sexy enough to lead the nation. And, some things are simply beyond the pale, like believing in the efficacy of prayer, or...

PLANO, Texas — Standing in front of a massive crowd at a rally in Plano, Texas, Rick Santorum unleashed criticism of Barack Obama and threw out some campaign red meat to supporters hungry for it, telling them the president has an “overt hostility to faith.”“(He’s) trying to weaken them, churches, trying to say that anybody who believes in the values of the Judeo Christian policies,” Santorum said to about 2,000 people in a converted barn, one of his largest audiences of the campaign. He told the audience at the raucous rally that Obama is restricting religious freedoms in this country,...

Rick Santorum may have swept all three states Tuesday in the latest Republican presidential contests, but the big winner might have been Democratic President Barack Obama...

I don't know about you, but so far this election year is just not anywhere near the fun as I thought it was going to be... getting screwed-over and treated like a pestering child has a way of ruining things every time. And sure never expected Team Romney and the GOP old-guard to be adopting the tactics of the Left to destroy all in Mittens' path, not to the degree we've seen: I long-ago had my fill of the heinous character assassinations after the MSM/RNC team job on Sarah Palin, but what they've done to Newt Gingrich -a man who's done...

As God is my witness, I will not let the media, the Republican establishment, David Axelrod various billionaires or any other vested interest, choose the nominee of my party, the GOP. If we loose in Florida, we'll fight in every primary and caucus all the way to Tampa though multiple ballots, until we have a nominee that will bring the fight to Barack Obama. We will nominate a man or woman who can clearly and artfully defend the concepts of individual sovereignty, natural rights and the objective morality of economic freedom. Because to the Left (and the Republican establishment: McCain...

In the end, the facts won't matter. The discussion of who is more vulnerable, who has the most or least baggage in the general election, whose history will hurt him more or less, whether Bain or the Fannie Mae situation will provide more fodder to the Democrats' political machine won't matter, even though we like to pretend they will. The Democrats are already engaged in a scorched-earth slaughter-fest, and the media acts as their advocate and champion; nuances of this or that that we Republicans spend time debating will have no place in the lead-up to the November election. In...

Realizing that most Americans certainly won’t care what I think, nevertheless, I am hereby endorsing Newt Gingrich for President. Of the remaining candidates for the Republican nomination, Gingrich is the only one who will fight to restore our country with the same degree of passion he gives to winning the presidency. This past week, I have been appalled at the Republican Establishment’s coordinated attacks on former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Their “schlock and awe” campaign has been unkind, unfair, untrue, and unprincipled.

Dear Mitt: In this year's contest for the Republican nomination, you have demonstrated your ruthlessness. Your attacks on fellow Republicans have show that you are willing to be as brutal, vile, and remorseless as is necessary to defeat your opponent. Presumably, this is how you made $200 million in about 12 years at Bain. In 2008 and now in 2012 you have left a field of wounded warriors in your wake: Huckabee, Giulianni and now Newt. We can see you are willing to be as dirty and nasty as you need to be to win. But the question remains, will...

"He is simply the guy the news media likes to talk about."  "Only a Reagan conservative can unite Republicans  to beat President Barack Obama in November." Former House Speaker Gingrich on MSNBC yesterday: (highlights mine) 'I think what's really striking about last night is three out of four Republicans once again repudiated Mitt Romney. Here is a guy that's spent millions of dollars campaigning in Iowa for five years and he has a ceiling of 25% .So when people talk about electability, how can you take seriously somebody after that kind of a campaign with that amount of money just flattens...

As per Drudge - no link to story

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Even before votes are cast here, movement conservatives across the country are beginning to fear that 2012 will be a replay of the last GOP presidential primary: conservatives divided between candidates, enabling a center-right contender to march up the middle and claim the nomination. Time is running short on activist Republicans who have long yearned for a unifying Mitt Romney alternative in the race – leading some to worry that if they don’t stop him in Iowa on Tuesday, they may not be able to stop him at all. Rick Santorum’s late surge in Iowa, coupled with...

"A good portion of the right-wing punditocracy, Beltway sorts especially, appears to harbor a deep dislike of Newt Gingrich. They can’t believe he is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and are doing everything in their power to enlighten the great unwashed about the multiple inadequacies of this man and knock some sense into them (us) before it is too late."

I remember all the contention going on here when Harriet Miers was selected by Pres. George W. Bush to become Supreme Court Justice. I pretty much stayed out of the heated arguments going on BUT in the end it all worked out when Bush withdrew Miers' name and nominated Samuel Alito.Will something similar happen next year in the selection of the next GOP Presidential candidate? Perhaps IF the convention is deadlocked. For the past few months we've had new heros who have faded to be replaced by even newer heros who have also faded. EVERY candidate proposed seems to have...

by Sheri UrbanReal FeministRepublican presidential candidate Herman Cain is planning a "major announcement" for tomorrow in Atlanta. After the latest "accuser" - yet another walking car wreck - alleged a 13-year affair with Cain (which he has denied), the "embattled" candidate said he would be conferring with his wife "face-to-face" in Georgia, before deciding whether or not to continue his campaign. It has been widely speculated by the media that Cain's announcement will be to end his run. I have one thing to say to this: "NUTS!" Why the hell should he drop out? There hasn't been anything proven against...

Study Says Gingrich Amnesty Bigger Than '86 Blanket Amnesty -- Gingrich Seems to Reject 'Attrition Through Enforcement'

Special to South Florida Times MIAMI — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain swept through South Florida last week with an early morning stop in Sweetwater. At the Claude and Mildred Pepper Center there, Cain was serenaded to strands of the enduring Cuban patriotic song Guantanamera and was applauded by senior citizens who said they admired el negro – the black man. Soon after, Cain’s red campaign bus took him to Versailles Cuban Restaurant in Little Havana, where throngs of supporters from Cuba’s exile community had waited nearly two hours for his arrival. “Hola, hola, hola, hola,” Cain greeted the cheering...

EL UNIVERSAL, (CARACAS, VENEZUELA) Original in Spanish "ESTADOS UNIDOS: Gingrich favorece políticas migratorias más humanas" ... Candidato republicano se pronuncia a favor de la inmigración" Wednesday November 23, 2011 24:08 ("FREEPRANSLATION" TO ENGLISH): "Washington, D.C. - Newt Gingrich, the newest candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has run the risk of scaring the conservatives saying that favors the establishment of legal channels for illegal immigrants who have behaved peacefully, within the law paid their taxes and lived in the U.S. for many years. During a televised debate on Tuesday night, former House of Representatives Speaker said...

On Friday night, Herman Cain was a fly and David Letterman was the spider cordially inviting Cain to "step into my parlor." Didn't Cain or any of his advisors see the potential for disaster in Cain appearing on Letterman's show? Didn't anybody say, "Herman, don't go in there! It's a trap!"? I desperately don't want to be seen as one of those just itching for clear proof that Herman Cain's candidacy is over. But it's hard to have watched Cain on Letterman and not come to the conclusion that neither Cain nor his advisors have sufficiently good judgment for him...

The real cause of the housing bubble and collapse is very simple: An Executive Order by Bill Clinton and enthusiastically championed by George Bush, 13166, forced banks to make bad loans or no loans at all. And Newt Gingrich was championing putting an end to EO 13166 years before the collapse of the banking industry. In the late 1990s, a grand compromise was reached between President Clinton and Senate Banking Chairman Phil Gramm. Long ago, government types decided that home ownership was the key to fiscal stability, but too many blacks didn't qualify for loans. The banking industry argued that...

TRENTON, N.J.—The first woman known to have filed a sexual harassment claim against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain while he ran a trade group shows no interest in revealing her identity or publicly discussing her accusations against the Georgia businessman. The woman, who works for one of New Jersey's largest lobbying firms, has deliberately made herself scarce. ----break--- The firm's founder, who didn't return calls from the AP seeking comment, has close ties to Gov. Chris Christie, who threw his support to Mitt Romney after deciding against entering the GOP presidential campaign himself. Another partner helped Romney in his 2008...

I have to admit that when I saw the headline “The Ugliness Started with Bork� over an op-ed column by Joe Nocera in The New York Times, I reckoned it would be yet another chapter in the long-running left-liberal campaign to demonize the great jurist Robert H. Bork. I was wrong. Today — October 23 — is the 24th anniversary of the Senate’s shameful vote against Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Nocera wrote, if not to apologize, exactly, then at least to acknowledge that the poisonous campaign to discredit Bork — unprecedented in its nastiness — was “the beginning...

In a stinging comparison that is sure to leave a mark, on Sunday’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour, George Will said the rise of Herman Cain had a lot to do with Republicans coming to the realization that Mitt Romney is their Michael Dukakis. “A technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology,” Will observed.

Right about the date of Republican debate last week it started to rain pretty heavily here in Napa County. Rains like this are rare for early October. A rainfall right before the grapes are picked can form a fungus on the grapes called Botrytis, which can distort the fermentation of the grapes when the winemakers try to ferment the grape juice into wine. Within a few hours, grapes in Napa and Sonoma Counties, at least the most vulnerable chardonnay and sauvignon blanc grapes, were being picked before the fungus could set in. Traffic here was pretty bad, with those flat-bed...

Okay, the creepiness is overwhelming. Mitt Romney strikes me as the guy who wants to be president so bad that his ambition overrides his intellect. During last night's debate it was the cheap shot fired at Perry "well you've had a couple of bad debates" and Romney's hand resting atop Perry's shoulder. But if you've followed all the debates as I have you will notice a repeat offender. There is simply no graciousness to the man. And I'm an avowed Palinista.

[No love for Perry among Hispanics, despite in-state tuition flap] Gov. Rick Perry would like folks to believe that he’s the only candidate with a heart when it comes to Latino issues in his home state. But Latino voters don’t seem to be buying it. The first poll of Latino registered voters nationwide in this election cycle shows that all three frontrunners–Perry, Mitt Romney and Herman Cain–will have an uphill battle when it comes to the Latino vote. Although Perry’s the best-known of the three among Latino voters, he’s also the least liked. Only 21 percent of respondents said they...

Rick Perry has the most cash-on-hand entering the fourth quarter of 2011 in the GOP race to nomination. Perry's start-up campaign costs were fairly modest, coming in at only $2,121,816.85, and a daily burn rate of $43,302.38. He raised $17,200,232.07. Mitt Romney reveals the expensive operation that he is running, spending 3.15 times the rate of Perry at $136,456.67 per day. And the expensive media campaigns haven't even started yet. Romney raised $14,222,570.66, $3 million less than Perry. Herman Cain burned $21,857.24 per day, and had a healthy net fundraising quarter, leaving $1,333,778.56 to start the final quarter of the...

A new Economist/YouGov poll finds Herman Cain leading the Republican presidential field with 33%, followed by Mitt Romney at 18%

Starting with the "top of the fold" Japanese Version of the daily "Wall Street Journal", the Japanese vernacular press is brimming full of articles mentioning Herman Cain is the new front runner in the GOP race for the party's nomination for 2012. This news seems to have exploded overnight.It will be quite a task to translate all these in full. Here are some representative samples from today I saw, using "Google Japan (News)". I shall endeavor to provide a URL link and title translation for just a segment of them, which have all appeared in the last 48 hours, particularly...

Alternate headline: “Republicans really, really, really don’t want to nominate Mitt Romney.” Strong Tea Party support has Cain in the driver’s seat nationally, just as he has been on our last four individual state polls. With non-Tea Party Republicans Romney actually leads Cain 29-27. But with the Tea Party crowd Cain is getting 39% with Gingrich at 16%, Perry at 14%, and Romney in 4th place at 13%. Romney doesn’t need to win the Tea Partiers to be the Republican nominee. But he does need to finish better than 4th with them. There are indications within the poll that Cain’s...

Niccolò Machiavelli once said that "the man who adapts his course of action to the nature of the times will succeed, and likewise, the man who sets his course of action out of tune with the times will come to grief." What I'd like to argue in this essay is that based on the current "nature of the times" in America, Herman Cain must be the GOP nominee for president. In fact, Cain's nomination represents what could be the last and best opportunity Americans have to pry our battered country out from the clutches of the increasingly strident, divisive, and...

Cain: Move ‘Occupy Wall Street’ to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue By Elizabeth Harrington October 7, 2011 (CNSNews.com) - Republican presidential nominee candidate Herman Cain called for the Occupy Wall Street protestors to relocate to the White House, in remarks he made Friday at the Family Research Council’s annual Values Voter Summit, in Washington, D.C. “When a reporter asked me the other day, well, what do you think about those demonstrations up on Wall Street, I said, first of all, Wall Street didn’t write these failed economic policies -- the White House did,” said Cain. He then added, “Why don’t you move...

The Japanese people are being introduced to Conservative GOP front-runner, candidate Herman Cain for the first time in PRIME TIME NATIONAL TV NEWS REPORTS. Great footage! (at URL stream) (hot link below).FNN (Fuji News Network) is one of the major, widely-viewed national Japanese TV networks. They sent a Japanese male reporter to the Values Voters event in D.C. and filmed Herman Cain's delivery from the perspective of audience reaction.Here is a short video clip (following the Japanese announcerette's brief lead introduction as to just who this Herman Cain is). Mentioned was that Cain requisitioned an Obama campaign slogan and...

Last night, Sarah Palin's statement -- and her breaking news interview with Mark Levin -- stressed some extremely important ideas. As such, her not running might well be among the least important topics she touched on. Yes, I know that's the news that everybody was waiting for -- but what interested me most was what Palin said about her vision for America and how she said it. It was crafted very intentionally --and it was simply pitch-perfect. Palin spoke of ideas and priorities. These were above and beyond what particular position she -- or anyone else -- might play in...

Japanese NHK TV, the top national network (government run broadcast) ran a top news story with two dimensions, and the text has appeared (in Japanese) on its website. Go to link to see. Both Obama and Cain are mentioned in this news report, updating the Japanese people on the falling fortunes of the former and the rising phenomenon of the latter at this time.

“Only a candidate with the courage to polarize the electorate on the issues and present a stark contrast with the Democratic incumbent will win. We need someone to unapologetically pursue a new policy course focused on economic growth and individual liberty in order to win.”

Is it possible that Palin is in a kind of standoff with Evita? I mean... has the abysmal performance of "O", the likelihold of his being ommitted from the next national election and Evita possibly running for the DNC nomination herself, something that has kept Palin from announcing her intentions by now?

The rule limits the ability of candidates to win large numbers of delegates in early primaries and caucuses -- those held before April -- because delegates must be awarded in proportion to the votes a candidate receives. Many Republican state parties like to hold winner-take-all primaries because they create buzz and put a premium on candidates finishing first. Those states, however, will have to wait until April, at the earliest, to hold their nominating contests.

Oh, this guy is funny. And he pretty much nails it. "Taken to a logical extreme, this sort of political pageantry ratchets up the degree of difficulty for a quality candidate with strong ideas and sound principles, especially if the candidate in question looks like an aging college professor (Representative Ron Paul) or a guy who cuts his own hair (former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson). As 2012 approaches like the T-Rex chasing the Jeep in “Jurassic Park,” we are welcomed to the aforementioned logical extreme. For those who think I’m overstating the case, say hello to the current field...

Doing a quick count up of electoral votes, states won by Obama that he would lose today combined with the GOP ticket holding everything McCain/Palin won in 2008 to see what the outcome would be today. What I have found is that if a Palin, Bachmann, Cain or Perry were to win the nomination to face Obama, and they do as usual and pick a VP to "even out the ticket" the following scenario is the most likely outcome; GOP ticket - 333 electoral votes - 35 states won to Obama/Bidens' 15 - 13 states O won in '08 going...

Yes, say Republicans, as they assess Carter's weaknesses For several decades, it has been an article of faith among politicians and political analysts that no candidate can win a U.S. presidential election unless he can dominate the broad center of the spectrum, that all candidates on the edges of the left or right are doomed. Barry Goldwater's "extremism . . . is no vice" campaign of 1964 provides the classic evidence, reinforced by George McGovern's 1972 defeat in 49 out of 50 states. And since G.O.P. Front Runner Ronald Reagan relies upon a base of support that is on the...

It appears that that the 2012 US Presidential Election is destined to be about the economy. It's certainly the pressing need, and with the killing of Osama bin Laden, the war on terror will be much less of a concern for many voters. It also appears there will be no standard-bearer for the social conservatives with the ability to make front page news. The most obvious social conservative candidate was the former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee. When Huckabee announced that he would not run, following Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour's similar announcement, it left a void in the Republican field of...

Pro-Life Governor Tim Pawlenty Seeks GOP Nomination for 2012 Tim Pawlenty, the former Republican governor of Minnesota and a pro-life advocate, made his presidential campaign official today with an announcement speech an rally in Iowa, the site of the first votes in the GOP campaign. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/23/pro-life-governor-tim-pawlenty-seeks-gop-nomination-for-2012/

Jimmy Carter never said “malaise,” Humphrey Bogart never said, “play it again Sam,” and Sarah Palin never said, “I can see Russia from my front porch.” But most people are convinced they did. As Yogi Berra quipped, “I never said most of the things I said.” The caricaturing of Palin has led many political observers to cavalierly dismiss her chances of entering the 2012 GOP field — and winning. My question is…why? At least one pundit sees the opportunity. Appearing on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell” show Monday, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin noted that Mike Huckabee’s decision to skip the 2012 GOP...

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has gained considerable momentum over the past few weeks. She raised more money than any of her presidential rivals in 2011’s first quarter, her presence at political events regularly swells crowds, and she’s running surprisingly strongly in early 2012 polling, despite relatively low name recognition. Yet, for all that, leading pundits still dismiss her chances to become the eventual nominee. Their argument is that her appeal is restricted to a limited constituency — the Tea Party faithful and social conservatives — and that while those groups might boost her to a strong showing in Iowa and...

The weakest part of our political system is the presidential-nomination process. And it’s not coincidental that it’s the part of the federal system that finds least guidance in the Constitution. There is no provision in the Constitution that says that Iowa and New Hampshire vote first. The idea of giving any two states a preferred position in the process of choosing a president would surely have struck the Framers as unfair. But we are stuck with Iowa and New Hampshire voting first because no politician who contemplates ever running for president — i.e., most politicians — wants to arouse the...

Upon hearing the comments made by Donald Trump over the last few weeks... In my personal opinion, I conclude that this man should be "The Boss" and run for high office. Trump actually has the 'cohones' to deal with the real issues facing our nation. In a recent interview on the Michael Savage show, he conveyed that good-ole' Ameerican, can-do, exceptionalist, old time, roll-up your sleeves attitude in plain english that makes sense. Trump's ideas on foreigh policy, the country's economic woes and fiscal responsibility solutions are the best I've heard from anyone so far. The recent comments Trump made...

According to Politico , President Obama will be forced to abandon his controversial nomination of Donald Berwick as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Politico reports that “Senate Democrats have given up on confirming Don Berwick as CMS administrator in the wake of a letter from 42 Republican senators opposing the nomination,” as “there's no way for Berwick to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate.” As with his various “czars,” President Obama had previously circumvented the Senate confirmation process (despite having a Democratically controlled Senate) to install Berwick in his post....

Let's not read too much into the long-term political significance of President Obama's speech last night, since we know that State of the Union addresses -- no matter how much pundit praise they receive and no matter how encouraging the insta-polls look -- basically never lead to a significant uptick in a president's popularity. But I'd also agree with NBC's First Read that the contrast between Obama's address and the official Republican response from Rep. Paul Ryan was striking. Obama's message was inherently upbeat, optimistic, and future-oriented, while Ryan was left warning that our best days may be behind us...

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ere is only one leader available who can unite the Republican Party, best Obama in debate, and carry a true conservative message forward: Newt Gingrich. We hope he will run. And, if he does, we predict that he will win. There is a time to move toward the center and to embody a consensus that forms in our political life after vigorous debate. But this is not the time for that. Confronted with new problems — an intractable recession, an incompetent administration that can’t clean up an oil spill, international appeasement of terrorists, and a budget deficit that threatens to...