Free Republic

I’m going to an interesting Tea Party event here in Chicagoland that’s going to keep me busy all morning, where I’ll have the chance to meet some people with the true pulse of what’s going on. I’ve had this visual in my mind for quite a while, of the Tea Party and the Cocktail Party entering Thunderdome in this election — where one shall stand and one shall fall when the dust settles. Either Willard “Mittens” Romney becomes the Republican nominee (in which case the Cocktail Party GOP establishment wins), or he’s defeated and someone other than the permanent political...

The prospect of a brokered Republican convention has reared its head — with the re-emergence of conservative lightning rod Sarah Palin as a GOP savior — as the controversial Alaskan said she’d be willing to “help” if her party can’t choose a nominee ahead of the August rubber- stamp event. But even with the rollicking Republican primary roller coaster looking more like a trainwreck, political experts and players are split over the likelihood of a late-summer nailbiter. Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics.com said that if the current trend of stark regional divides continues — with Mitt Romney taking more moderate states,...

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...

When Romney's neo-con supporters make Romney win through voting fraud his neo-con supporters poison the well and make everyone lose.  The only way I can seen to wash the taint of criminal ambition out of the Republican Party in time to save the 2012 election is for a truly open transparent convention beginning with a proper invocation, followed by the the US Pledge of Allegiance, the Republican Creed and an every member oath/affirmation of there duty as it currently obligated by law.  The National Republican Party must formally man-up to their duty or lose. Many Republicans now look for a hero/ine to arise from the convention...

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...

Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his conservative bona fides following doubts expressed by Sarah Palin. The former Alaskan governor and vice presidential candidate told Fox News Sunday that she is "not convinced" by Romney's conservative instincts, indicating he may not be conservative "enough" for her. "And I don't think that the majority of GOP and Independent voters are convinced, and that is why you don't see Romney get over that hump," she said. (VIDEO AT LINK) "I'm not quite sure what she'd be referring to," Romney responded Wednesday, also on Fox News. "I'm pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, I believe in the...

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,...

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...

If one doubted Sarah Palin wields great power by virtue of her charisma and persona, that notion was laid to rest during her speech at the CPAC convention when she had the overflow audience on their feet numerous times. None of the presidential candidates, least of all front-runner Mitt Romney, got anywhere near that warm of reception. Newt Gingrich, who delivered a classic speech filled with ideas, came closest. But Gingrich has faltered somewhat in his presidential run. Romney still won the CPAC straw poll, likely because he filled the venue with enough of his supporters to pull off a...

Mitt Romney may have won the straw poll but Sarah Palin won CPAC’s heart--electrifying the Conservative Political Action Conference with one of the most rousing and effective political speeches of recent years. Both winners managed to advance the cause of conservative unity and raised the prospects for a competitive and formidable Republican challenge to Barack Obama’s re-election. Romney’s win among conservative activists, especially combined with his simultaneous victory in the Maine caucuses completed on Saturday, will help to change the over-stated and misleading media narrative about Mitt’s supposed inability to connect with his party’s conservative base. After spending three days...

Mitt Romney’s twin wins over the weekend in the Maine caucuses and the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual straw poll leave the GOP presidential-nomination race right where it’s been all along — in trouble and waiting for a Prince Charming. In Maine, Romney won with 39.2 percent of the vote, less than four points ahead of Ron Paul. The principal “not-Romneys” — Paul and Rick Santorum — took 53 percent of the roughly 5,600 nonbinding votes cast, about 2 percent of the state’s Republican electorate. Romney’s numbers were similar in the CPAC poll, in which he grabbed 38 percent of...

Sarah Palin strode out on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington carrying a red leather briefcase — and off to work she went, firing off a year’s worth of sarcastic one-liners at “Professor Obama.” “He promised to transform America, and that’s one promise he’s kept; he transformed a shining city on a hill into a sinking ship.” “This government isn’t too big to fail; it’s too big to succeed.” “Hope and change? Yeah, you gotta hope things change.” “After a year or two [in ‘Obama’s Washington,’ lawmakers] decide it’s not really a cesspool. More like a hot...

Despite a hard-charging speech over the weekend that suggested dissatisfaction with the Republican presidential primary frontrunner, Sarah Palin said Sunday that Mitt Romney "is a great candidate." But the 2008 vice presidential candidate and Tea Party darling isn't yet convinced Romney is "instinctively" a constitutional conservative. "I am not convinced and I don't think that the majority of GOP and independent voters are convinced," Palin told "Fox News Sunday." "And that is why you don't see Romney get over the hump. He's still in the 30-percentile mark when it comes to approval and primary wins and caucus wins. He still...

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...

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."...

Point of Order No. 4,321,458: A recent study released by the Heritage Foundation states that the depedency index under President Obama has grown an astounding 23% during his reign er I mean presidency. In just a mere two years 67 million (yes that's MILLION) people are now relying on federal aid in one form or another. Investors.com explains "In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income." The Left would have you believe that the reason behind this spike is mainly the crap economy, but WE'RE NOT BUYING IT....

Conservatives are incessantly browbeaten into "softening their message", "moderating their stances", or "moving to the middle" (i.e., to the left) in order to win over the so-called moderates and independents of the electorate. President Ronald Reagan, the greatest conservative of our generation, didn't believe in soft-pedaling conservative principles and values.

Folks, we're not even being contrary when we point this out. For the 9th Circuit to rule Prop 8 unconstitutional, just as Gingrich is looking again for his footing -- just as Rick Santorum is about to steal his headlines -- is a Gingrichian dream. Look! He agrees: (TWEET FROM NEWT AT LINK) The link goes to the 9th (coincidentally) of Gingrich's solutions for fixing the judiciary, to prevent it from doing things that conservatives don't like -- abolishing courts that make "un-American decisions." He's been on the record wanting this treatment for the 9th circuit for a long, long...

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

"He could have stopped it, and should have stopped it," Huckabee said. CNSNews.com: Governor Romney should have stood up to the Court and said, "No"? Huckabee: He should've. (August 2008) Old news? Yes — and Mitt Romney hopes it will be ignored or forgotten. How does Romney manage to bury his past political sins? With a lot of help from his former critics — including Governor Huckabee — who seem to suffer from amnesia. But what of the media's duty to vet the candidates? Shouldn't every significant action in a candidate's record be under review? Why is the media —...

The New York Times reports that President Obama's reelection campaign has always been singularly focused on Mitt Romney — and are hoping for a campaign filled with flubs and gaffes by the former Massachusetts governor: “When you guys were all out there writing your Herman Cain stories, we were not following you into that sideshow,” one Obama aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We are keeping our eyes on the prize.” Recently, that prize has been giving the Obama camp plenty to work with as a series of missteps have played into the Obama re-election machine, with its...

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 —...

MONTROSE, CO - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took a new jab at Newt Gingrich, saying he wants to "endanger" the former Speaker. The dig came during a campaign rally in Montrose, CO., as Santorum railed against the federal government's environmental regulations. "These are your lands! Oh but they always say we're doing it for your benefit," Santorum decried. "We'll make sure that you don't do something to scar the land or you don't do something to endanger a newt. No not that Newt, different newt. I want to endanger that Newt - that's a different story." The line drew...

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...

Dear Chairman Preibus, I am writing an open letter to you in hopes that you will do the right thing and make the Florida Republican Party abide by the rules of the Republican National Committee. The state of Florida deliberately snubbed its' nose at the party and the rules several months ago when it voted to hold the Florida primary early, which has already cost if 49 delegates out of the original 99 delegates allocated by the RNC. Now they further give the party the middle finger by allocating the remaining delegates as "winner-take-all", instead of the proportional allotment that...

Sure, Mitt Romney just had a huge win in Florida—but his favorability ratings have been sinking miserably since the New Year. Andrew Romano on why the GOP’s long primary race in 2012 won’t mirror the Dems’ in 2008. Plus read more Daily Beast contributors on what Romney’s Florida victory means. On stage last night in Ballroom C of the Tampa Convention Center, Mitt Romney, the winner of the 2012 Florida Republican primary, tried his darndest to simulate the emotional state that Homo sapiens refer to as “happiness.” “Our opponents in the other party ... like to comfort themselves with the...

For all the 2012 GOP candidates, it is the math that makes securing the nomination so complicated. There will be 2,165 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa, Florida. In order to win the Republican Nomination, a Presidential candidate must have 1,144 delegates. To put this in perspective, only 112 delegates (less than 10%) have been won. In fact, the candidate with the most delegates (former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney) has only 71 delegates. This seems rather amazing given all of the media attention so far. From the Iowa caucuses to the Florida primary seems like an...

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...

Following the outcome of the Republican primary in Florida, the contest moves on to Nevada this weekend as pundits speculate whether the campaign for the Republican nomination for President is all but over and that Mitt Romney is the eventual nominee. In reality they could be correct if money begins to dry up significantly for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Certainly, Gingrich and Santorum and Ron Paul, for that matter, would love to be in Romney’s shoes today. Despite Romney’s dominance in the race, Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul are expected to be around for a good while to come, but...

After erroneous reports Wednesday night that Donald Trump was preparing to endorse Newt Gingrich for the 2012 presidential election in Las Vegas Thursday, the reality TV star and real estate mogul came out for Mitt Romney instead. With such a media-grabbing endorsement two days before the Nevada caucus on Saturday, some analysts say Newt Gingrich has missed out on a great opportunity to keep in the race. In reality, however, the reality TV star and real estate mogul is the last person Gingrich wants on his side. Trump Planning 'Major Announcement' Trump, who once considered running for the Republican nomination...

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...

Raleigh, N.C. – Newt Gingrich holds a commanding 18-point lead over Mitt Romney in the Minnesota caucuses. Gingrich has more support than any two candidates combined – he garners 36% of the vote, with 18% going to Romney, 17% to Rick Santorum, 13% to Ron Paul, and 15% not sure. Gingrich also receives the highest net favorability rating at +34 (59/25) followed by Santorum at +32 (56/24), then Romney at just +14 (50/36) and Ron Paul holds a negative favorability rating with -9 (36/45). Both Gingrich (50-29) and Santorum (46-34) beat Romney in one on one matchups. Gingrich has a...

The Florida primary may have delivered a decisive victory for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but the exit polls also revealed a bright spot for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — the tea party. Gingrich racked up a decisive victory of his own among voters who said they “strongly support” the tea party movement, according to exit poll data compiled by Fox News. Overall, 45 percent of those voters chose Gingrich over Romney, who finished with just 33 percent of support from strong supporters of the tea party movement. The tea party is also thought to have played a key...

Since just before the last California presidential primary, the proportion of voters registered as Republicans has fallen from 33.5 percent to 30.4 percent, according to new figures from the California Secretary of State.

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....

Ok....gang....Mitt is the front-runner....again....for now...Why the heck would he say something stupid like the dumb quote he made today about the poor? In his latest goof, Romney was quoted as saying that he is not concerned about "the poor...they have a safety net...if it needs repair, I'll fix it." Apparently Mitt has started channelling the ghosts of Ebenezer Scrooge and Thurston Howell III when he talks. Doesn't this sound eerily close to "A Christmas Carol"? First Collector: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the...