Free Republic

Last Thursday evening at the Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to score a political touchdown on the 50 yard line of Denver's Invesco Field stadium. Instead, he won the all-time governmental convention award for the best over-the-top political spectacle of sight, sound, speech and pyrotechnics – complete with superstar performances, Braveheart-like epic music endings and an Olympic-sized fireworks show. For a week prior to the event, newscasters, commentators and pundits were trying to guess what exactly that Greco-Roman, column-structure was that served as a stage backdrop, and what it was supposed to be representing and stating on...

Image from Gawker.There are very few sure things in politics. One is that Barack Obama will change his opinion on the issues. The other is that the Clintons are nearly impossible to destroy. And so, since Barack Obama will not be the nominee until the Democrat Convention is over, and it ain't over yet, Hillary cannot be counted out. There are reasons to think something is cooking over in Camp Clinton.

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial divisions within the party. The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was...

Hillary in 2002 "Bush was Selected, Not Elected." Black Leaders in 2001, "Bush is an Illegitimate President." Gore in 2000, "Bush lost the popular vote." This will dog Obama right through election Day. Pass the popcorn.

John McCain's Navy Flight Instructor Weighs In International Politics [This is a DumpMcCain.com/SiaNews.com EXCLUSIVE] May 19, 2008 Greetings! I was John McCain's Navy Flight Instructor --- in formation tactics and air-to-air-gunnery. I could write a book about this man. Suffice to state, I shudder (and I'm fearless) at the nightmare thought of this man becoming our next President and Commander in Chief. I am not alone as to this man's former shipmates, instructors and senior officers --- as to who and what this man is really all about. Although politics is really theater and the best performing actor gets to...

Obama inching ever closer to nominationUpdated Wed. May. 21 2008 3:06 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Barack Obama, having now secured a majority of pledged delegates, is inching ever closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama, including Tuesday's primary victory in Oregon, has won 1,642 pledged delegates in primary and caucuses held so far -- enough for a majority. Overall, including superdelegates, Obama has a total of 1,956 delegates. Clinton, including superdelegates, has 1,776, reports The Associated Press. Obama is expected to climb within 60 delegates of the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the nomination after results from the...

AUSTIN — Deirdre Delisi once aspired to be a diplomat, and Gov. Rick Perry may have finally granted her wish. As head of the Texas Transportation Commission, Perry's former chief of staff will test her diplomatic skills in an emotion-filled arena in which a state senator has already called her a "political hack." In an early sign of her peacemaking potential, the 35-year-old Delisi scheduled one of her first meetings as chair with that senator, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas. "I was left with the impression that she genuinely wants a new and fresh start for...

Washington, DC -- One of the leading pro-abortion groups issued its endorsement on Wednesday for Barack Obama, apparently believing he will represent the Democratic Party against John McCain. NARAL has supported Hillary Clinton throughout her career but Obama appears more likely to win the nomination.

'ODE TO OBAMA'Written by: Publius IIRecitation: MineThere once was a man named Obama His life began with drama An African Muslim father An eccentric white mama Obama's white grandparents They gave him a charmed life Raised on the beaches of Hawaii Far from ghetto strife He went to private schools Fourteen thousand dollars a year Working-class white folks They were nowhere near He attended Columbia Then Harvard Law A very soft and liberal upbringing Something Americans eventually saw He then went to Chicago Nation of Islam, Farrakhan, Black Panthers and Jackson The only friends he made All from the extreme...

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session. Ask almost any Texan, especially those who have the need to travel frequently on Interstate 35, about our Texas transportation system and they will tell you that many of our roads have extreme congestion, while other construction projects have experienced significant cost overruns. Last year, TxDOT notified the public that it had experienced a...

REGARDLESS of what happens Tuesday in the Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton will not quit. Call it Divine Right or chutzpah, the Clintons believe she is entitled to the presidency. They've been planning it since their days at Yale. more stories like this They are also convinced Barack Obama will be clobbered in a general election, on a par with George McGovern and Michael Dukakis. Ties that bind. Clinton campaign leaders regard quitting as an admission that they couldn't elect a once-sure thing. Think of it: No interviews on the Sunday talk shows. No best table at the...

Senior Democrats mull Al Gore's nomination By Tim Shipman in Washington Last Updated: 2:23am BST 30/03/2008 Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president. The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November's election to the Republican nominee, John McCain. Former aides to Al Gore now believe he could...

I caught a bit of a panel discussion last night on MSNBC's new show "Race to the White House." The commentators were conversing about Hillary's prospects for capturing the nomination, and all but one of the panelists gave Hillary insurmountable odds. The discussion followed a familiar refrain: Hillary can't win because she will always trail in pledged delegates and the super-delegates are obligated to follow the "will of the people." Only the intervention by fellow panelist Joe Scarborough prevented the discussion from morphing into an unpaid campaign commercial for Obama. What Scarborough did was point out the obvious. The unvarnished...

I have been troubled by Former President Bill and Senator Hillary Clinton's "presumptuous" offer to Senator Barack Obama to serve as vice-president during her presidency. Her assumption is that she would be more electable by the public at large and become the nation's first female president. While we would be ecstatic to have Barack as vice president, all of this is totally ignoring the fact that he is clearly the Democratic frontrunner in the race. After listening to the Clintons, I had a chance to talk to my dear friend Rev. Art Forbes when he came by the office to...

My post Obama will win the nomination but lose the election got a lot of attention and caused quite a stir. It informed about his views on Israel, his church and its connection to SABEEL and Farrakhan, his pastor, his statements in his book and his association with the Palestinian cause and much more. I got many emails accusing me of conducting a smear campaign, making arguments that were "nonsense" or "bullshit" and so on. Some attempted to convince me he was no different on Israel than the other candidates and was really a good guy. Today, a new video...

Were it not for the 12th Amendment, ratified on June 15, 1804, presidential nominees could, and probably would prefer to, run alone, without being saddled with pesky vice presidential running mates, who can be embarrassments. Unfortunately, the presidential election of 1800 happened. It was “a magnificent catastrophe” (that is the title of a splendid new book on it, by Edward J. Larson of Pepperdine University). As the two-party system, unanticipated by the Constitution’s otherwise farsighted Framers, was crystallizing, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each received the same number of electoral votes. This made a hash of the Framers’ plan for...

Last night, Bill O’Reilly asked Al Sharpton the $64,000 question — what happens if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination even if Barack Obama comes into Denver leading in pledged delegates? After the losses in Texas and Ohio, the new meme has the superdelegates wondering whether Obama can win a general election. If Hillary can make it closer by the time the convention rolls around, say to within 70 or so pledged delegates, the superdelegates will throw their support to the most competitive candidate.After hesitating a bit, Sharpton makes it clear that he and his supporters won’t accept a brokered outcome:...

John McCain getting endorsed by President Bush outside the White House.

I have put this question out in many of the Mccain threads and either no one sees it or they do not care to respond. Does Mccain automattically get the '12 nomination? Has there been a sitting president that didn't get his party's nomination for his next term?

WASHINGTON - Arizona Sen. John McCain, a political maverick and unflinching supporter of the war in Iraq, clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night. Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary in Vermont, and the two rivals dueled in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island in a riveting race for their party's presidential nomination. McCain, 71, gained the 1,191 delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination with a series of primary victories, completing a remarkable comeback that began in the snows of New Hampshire six weeks ago. President Bush invited him to the White House for a show...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama cruised past a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary and Hawaii caucuses Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in a Democratic presidential race for the ages. The twin triumphs made 10 straight for Obama, and left the former first lady in desperate need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front-runner. "The change we seek is still months and miles away," Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston in a speech in which he also pledged to end the war in Iraq in his first year in office. "I opposed...

In a Valentine's Day surprise, Mitt Romney commanded media attention today as he endorsed Senator McCain and urged his previously pledged delegates to vote for the Senator from Arizona during a press conference in Boston. In an immediate response to the endorsement, rival candidate Mike Huckabee vowed to fight on while claiming that this is not, "game over" for his campaign. However, despite Huckabee's insistence that it's far from over, the facts appear to contradict this ever optimistic outlook on his bid for the nomination. The electoral math spells out what is likely to be a very short road ahead...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will endorse former rival John McCain, officials have said. Mr Romney will release his 288 delegates and urge them to back Mr McCain. The former Massachusetts governor dropped out of the race last week. It became apparent that toppling McCain would be near impossible.

In the end, the Mike Huckabee surge in Virginia fell far short of victory. John McCain swept the Potomac Primaries last night, winning by nine in Virginia and winning among conservatives in Maryland. The delegate count now makes his nomination inevitable: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) swept Republican primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District last night, defeating former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and adding to his vast delegate lead in the race to become his party's presidential nominee. But even as he dominated the Potomac Primary, McCain lost conservatives in Virginia, as he has across the South and parts of...

Are we ready for a new nominating process? America has been an open barn door for far too long, in many areas. This has been apparent as all manner of kooks from ex-klansmen to you-name-it have run as Republicans in the past years and decades. It was apparent when the drive-by media gave up all pretense of journalism, and gave in to openly mocking and mucking around with the American Electoral Process, and when the States began pushing up all of the Primary/Caucus dates to ensure a premature decision and massive boredom in a long long wait until November. (Might...

Carl Cameron just said on Fox News that McCain "assumes he is going to win the nomination." That is why he is aggressively campaigning in Massachusetts: to try to force Romney out of the race, so that he can proceed to the coronation.

I'm not saying Fred ran the greatest campaign. In fact, as Byron explained, he blew some huge opportunities. Also, I've argued that his candidacy might have been doomed from the start anyway. It's hard to run as the consistent candidate when everyone around you is an "agent of change." That said, the last two Republican debates without him have been boring, disastrous affairs. Fred was always good for confounding moderators who asked stupid questions (remember "no hand shows?"), and he rarely wavered from fundamental, limited-government conservative principles (the only exception I can think of was his lamentable ethanol pander... but...

Dear Sen. Thompson: I don't know if this letter will find its way to you, swamped as your headquarters and website are with the thousands of calls, letters and e-mails urging you to stay in the race. Sir, I know you got into this race in the first place because of your concern for the condition of this nation and the world in which your children and grandchildren will grow up. I also know that you were concerned that none of the candidates at the time you made your decision to join the fray were talking about the issues which...

Fred Thompson was drafted by the conservative base of the Republican Party for two very simple reasons. • The Republican National Committee offered no other viable conservative choice • Only a true traditional conservative can challenge today’s Democratic Socialists Thompson was not planning on running for an office he never aspired to hold. He was asked to put his personal life on hold, and answer the call to serve his fellow conservatives in desperate need of real conservative leadership. Thompson didn’t enter the race late. The other eight eager beavers entered the race a year early, throwing the nomination process...

Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter will drop out of the race for the White House Saturday, FOX News confirms. Hunter, a California congressman, Vietnam veteran and evangelical Christian, tried to appeal largely on his anti illegal immigration platform but never gained traction in the primary race.

"Fred Thompson is perhaps the most substantative candidate to run for President in many years. He has taken the time to think about what should be the relationship between the government and the governed. He has framed his thoughts within the context of a set of bedrock conservative principles that animates his thinking and generates sound ideas about where America should be headed." - Rick Moran, Real Clear Politics "Fred is right on the issues, and there's little doubt his positions are firm. Research his stances; read his position papers. You'll find he's very strong in all areas important to...

CLEMSON, S.C.–Imagine a wiry little man with a flop of gray hair. He’s wearing a brown leather bomber jacket. Medium build. Every word he says, he shouts. Like he’s half deaf. Sounds like an irate hillbilly, even if he’s not. (He could be.) After each sentence, he pauses, lifts his chin, then plunges back in. Theatrical. Now imagine him saying the following to Fred Thompson at the Stable Steakhouse in Prosperity, South Carolina, with one hand resting on the back of his booth and a portrait of a horse hanging over his head: Thompson: Yes, sir. Man: Fred, I drove...

Romney's win in Michigan keeps his candidacy alive - but what are the odds that he will win the nomination? I'm not sure, but they are much reduced from what they were six months ago. Early last year, the Romney campaign put together a plan that - if it panned out - would probably have won him the nomination. The idea was for Romney to build a huge war chest that would enable him to compete everywhere. He would then win Iowa and New Hampshire, emerge as the consensus Republican candidate, and overwhelm the rest of the field. But the...

The conventional wisdom, encapsulated here by Jason Zengerle and here by the gang at Fox News, is that if Mitt Romney loses New Hampshire to McCain he'll lose Michigan as well, and then his campaign will be finished. I suppose that’s the most likely scenario, but this is a weird enough year that it's worth at least considering the possibility that Romney could lose New Hampshire and Michigan and South Carolina and still have a chance at winning the nomination. Consider this scenario: McCain wins tonight by a narrow margin – say, 3 points – and then goes to Michigan,...

Each of the leading Republican candidates has an "impossibility" factor to being nominated. Mike Huckabee will run into the problem of carrying big states and less conservative parts of the nation both in the nomination and, importantly in the eyes of the delegates in Minnesota, in the general election. Rudy Giuliani has much personal baggage and a socially liberal record which will make it hard for him to win over social conservatives in significant numbers. Mitt Romney, despite all the money and packaging, simply has failed to capture the hearts of many Republicans. John McCain, the most electable Republican, is...

"I received the endorsement of the NRA." - Source "I have a gun of my own." - Source "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit." - Source "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country; I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate." - Source "My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses." - Source "In my view, it...

For all the Republicans... Mike Huckabee: Congratulations, this ranks as one of the all time stratospheric rises in American politics. Now the aim is to not be a Roman Candle, burning brightly and rising rapidly but fizzling out quickly. Enjoy victory tonight, because you've been given a gold medal with a bulls-eye on it. Everybody's going to be gunning for you now. You think the press was intrusive and hostile before? That was nothing. And you've got to build a national organization, on the fly, while trying to do something in Michigan and South Carolina. How much of a turnout...

Just when it appears the chips are down for Fred Thompson, Team Fred has sent the Tennessee Volunteer Army into Iowa. Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey has been there, along with an armada of the very best of Tennessee’s conservative movement. I got a firsthand report of the situation on the ground in Iowa yesterday afternoon during a phone call with two of the participants in the fight for Iowa-my State Representative Frank Niceley is running all over the Hawkeye State, along with the dean of East Tennessee conservative columnists Frank Cagle. Frank Niceley sounded cautiously optimistic, saying that he believed...

GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said in an in-studio interview with KCCI-TV in Des Moines that there is no truth to rumors that his campaign will fold before New Hampshire if he doesn't have a strong showing in Iowa. "That is absolutely made up out of whole cloth," said the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee. Thompson said a rival campaign was likely the source of that rumor. "Can you imagine such a thing in politics?" he asked. Thompson said his campaign is seeing a "surge" in interest right now, and said he has visited 50 communities in the Hawkeye State...

2008 Republican Presidential Nominee 2008.GOP.NOM.MCCAIN John McCain to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 26.4 2008.GOP.NOM.GIULIANI Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 24.5 2008.GOP.NOM.ROMNEY Mitt Romney to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 22.1 2008.GOP.NOM.HUCKABEE Mike Huckabee to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 11.2

When Tom Tancredo dropped out of the race and endorsed Mitt Romney, two of the key members of his Iowa team didn't follow suit. Bill Salier, who had been Tancredo's Iowa State Chairman, and Angie Anderson, who had served Tancredo as Iowa State Executive Director, both signed on with Team Fred and immediately began campaigning for Sen. Thompson. Salier and Anderson may have the highest profiles of the former Tancredo supporters who are now working for Fred Thompson, but they aren't the only ones. Many others have followed the pair over to Fred's campaign from the Tancredo effort, from campaign...

Fred, in his own words to Iowa voters, makes the case for why he’s the best man to be America’s next Commander in Chief: Video: Fred’s Message to Iowa Voters

Some of Team Thompson are claiming they've been "Simonized" again - after Roger Simon of the Politico, who wrote an account of his visit to a firehouse that made it sound disastrously awkward, when later video depicted the candidate, his wife, and the firefighters all smiles and good cheer. This time their grumbling is directed at this account in USA Today: BURLINGTON, Iowa — Fred Thompson said Saturday he does not much like the modern form of presidential campaigning and that he "will not be devastated" if he doesn't win the election. "I'm not particularly interested in running for president,"...

THE BHUTTO EFFECT. It is a stark reminder that world events can dramatically alter the best laid political plans. As Republican and Democrat presidential candidates started what they expected to be another day of glad-handing in Iowa they suddenly had to scramble to issue statements on the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Those with a bit more international savvy, like John McCain and Fred Thompson, delayed rushing to the microphones until they could get more facts and details about the assassination and the current situation in Pakistan. Others, like Mike Huckabee, made his inexperience in international affairs...

I know a media smear tactic when I see one, but sometimes you don’t need to look very hard to see just how transparent the media’s intentions are when it comes to screwing somebody over who’s doesn’t fit their predetermined agenda. Fred Thompson is quoted as saying: “there is no woman on the horizon that ought to be president next year.” Makes perfect sense to me. He was taking a shot at Senator Clinton, since she is obviously then only major female candidate in the Presidential race and the only one who has a shot at being president next year....

Fred Thompson's refusal to raise his hand is being hailed by many as what could be the turning point of his campaign for president. But Fred's takedown of the debate's moderator was just the most memorable moment in an overall debate performance which was outstanding, as Phillip Klein observed in the American Spectator: Fred Thompson was the only candidate who stood out. He was funny, charming, and peppy. Here was a guy who wasn't afraid to speak hard truths, and who displayed knowledge of the policy issues--especially on entitlements. But the moment of the debate, the moment that will be...

Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, who is editing the King papers from that era, told the Globe yesterday: "I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with [Dr.] King." She said that when he was governor of Michigan, George Romney issued a proclamation in June 1963 in support of King's march in Detroit, but declined to attend, saying he did not participate in political events on Sundays. A New York Times story from the time confirms Englander's account. A few days after that march, George...

Can't link directly to USA Today

In my case, it was between Fred and Romney. But today's news about Romney backpedaling on his contention that Governor George Romney marched with Martin Luther King during the civil rights era is the straw that broke the camel's back. It never happened, and his campaign disingenuously came out with a statement saying that Mitt was "speaking figuratively" not "literally." Well, figuratively speaking, I'm a fine figure of a man, devilishly handsome, and have women three at a time when I'm not battling terrorists and making liberals' heads explode. On the other hand, if you want to be "literal" about...

John Edwards has leapfrogged over his rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and leads the Democratic field in Iowa, according to the latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll. The race among the three top Democrats is extremely close, with the potential for any of them to finish first – or third. Edwards leads with 30 percent in a poll of Democratic voters who said they intend to participate in the Jan. 3 presidential caucuses, followed by Clinton with 26 percent and Obama with 24 percent. When the sample was narrowed to the most likely caucus-goers, based on several questions, Obama leads Edwards...