Free Republic

Clinton's positioning on TPP is way too cute. When it passes with Dems' implicit support, grass roots will explode. Hillary Clinton went to New York’s Roosevelt Island earlier this month to relaunch her campaign for president. Her first kickoff fell flat, perhaps because she herself didn’t attend, opting instead to send a video greeting card in which people she still insists on calling ‘everyday Americans’ shared their life plans. (To go to school! Plant a garden! Get married!) She came on at the end to say she had plans of her own that include being president, and that she does...

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump didn't take kindly to Republican operative Karl Rove saying on "Fox News Sunday" that people should ignore Trump as a serious candidate. As he often does with his critics, Trump took to Twitter Sunday to denounce Rove: Donald J. Trump ✔ ‎@realDonaldTrump .@KarlRove still thinks Romney won! He doesn't have a clue! @FoxNews 7:54 PM - 21 Jun 2015 Trump specifically addressed Rove's criticism that even though he announced his run on Tuesday, he still had not filed a one-page declaration of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission. Rove said Trump will put that off...

Donald Trump, the bombastic builder of Trump towers and Trump gambling casinos, is moving from his reality TV show to the theater of presidential elections. If he survives the first three months of mass media drubbing him and his notorious affliction of ‘leaving no impulsive opinion behind,’ he’s going to be trouble for the other fifteen or so Republican presidential candidates. Already the commentators have derided his massive egotitis – he said “I” 195 times in his announcement speech, not counting the 28 times he said “my” or “mine” or the 22 mentions of “me.” But Trump revels in self-promotion...

Ted Cruz said Saturday that the Confederate flag flying in front of their statehouse is “a question for South Carolina” to decide. He is not alone. Marco Rubio said the same: “This is an issue that they should debate and work through and not have a bunch of outsiders going in and telling them what to do.” Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina also feel it is an issue for South Carolina alone to decide. Funny. I seem to recall South Carolina trying to decide that issue in 1861, when on April 12 they opened fire on Fort Sumter, inaugurating the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Scott in Philadelphia. Great to have you on Open Line Friday, sir. Hello. CALLER: It's an honor, Rush. I got a problem with all the... McConnell, Boehner, and Karl Rove. They've hijacked the party. RUSH: Yeah. (sigh) CALLER: I want to know why nobody says nothing about it. I mean, we elect these conservatives, they get in there, and then they're browbeaten into submission. RUSH: Well, it's not that nobody says anything about it. I myself have been referencing this. Others I know have. I mean, I know people who are making this the focal point of...

Were it left to me, I’d probably retire the “clown car” analogy for the crowded 2016 Republican presidential contest. Like the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” line employed by those who sought to dismiss Hillary Clinton and the other contenders for the 2008 Democratic nomination, I think it diminishes the real competition that is going on—and the real distinctions between the candidates. But the “clown car” line is going to be amplified as Donald Trump grabs for the wheel. Trump’s candidacy begins as a punchline, and it’s hard to imagine how it will end as anything other than that....

Poor Jeb. He's Donald Trump's first Republican victim, but he won't be his last. On Monday, Bush officially declared he was a Republican candidate for president, something everyone knew was coming. Jeb gave a serious, by-the-book announcement speech, explaining his many qualifications, making his claim that he's a true conservative and promising to make America great again. It was boringly Bush, and maybe a little too moderate for hardline conservatives. But it was mature and dignified. Presidential, even. The mainstream media gave Jeb token coverage for about a day. Some were especially impressed by his fluency in Spanish. But then...

As the fight to remove the Confederate flag from the state House grounds in South Carolina heats up, politicians are weighing in on the debate.rWhat do you think? Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham defended displaying the flag, while former presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for its removal. Carly Fiorina called it a “symbol of racial hatred,” but stopped short of saying it should be removed. Sen. Ted Cruz said South Carolinians should decide what their state does. President Barack Obama’s spokesman said the flag belongs in a museum.rWhat do you think? But while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has weighed...

From immigration and the “Latino registration machine” to the GOP’s apparent inability to recognize the racial aspects of the Charleston church shooting, Real Time host Bill Maher had a field day with his panelists on Friday night’s show. Yet it’s the “Overtime” segment’s extra nuggets that made for some of the most WTF-worthy viewing, especially for this reaction from MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Of all the possible conversation topics, what could have triggered such a reaction from Reid? Oh nothing, really — just guest Ann Coulter‘s funny-but-serious answer to Maher’s question about “which Republican candidate has the best chance of winning...

The fatal shootings this week at a historic black church in South Carolina has sparked a feud between the presidential campaigns of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Clinton suggested Thursday that Trump’s comments about Mexicans, during his campaign announcement speech three days earlier, could incite racial hatred like that which led to white male Dylann Roof on Wednesday evening allegedly killing nine black people attending a bible study inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, S.C. “The people who do this kind of dastardly, horrible act are a very small percentage,” Clinton said in Nevada on...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) When it comes to dealing with the Confederate flag, Jeb Bush isn't leaving much room for interpretation in his stance on the issue. The former governor recalled Saturday how he ordered the removal of the flag from Florida state grounds in 2001, adding that he believes South Carolina will do "the right thing" as the state decides what to do about the controversial symbol that flies at the capitol in Columbia. His comments come as 2016 presidential candidates face questions over how to handle the racially sensitive debate that follows the massacre of nine African-American parishioners by a white...

JOHNSTON, Iowa – Sen. Ted Cruz says whether or not South Carolina removes the Confederate flag from a state house memorial is an issue for the state to decide and that he sees “both sides” of the debate. In an interview with The Washington Post on Saturday, Cruz (R-Tex.) said that he understands why people equate the flag with both racial oppression and historical traditions. “I understand the passions that this debate evokes on both sides,” the GOP presidential hopeful said. “Both those who see a history of racial oppression and a history of slavery, which is the original sin...

There is an Urban Legend afloat among liberals who refuse to own the racist history of the Democratic Party. They always repeat the lie that the racists Democrats somehow - at sometime - transferred their imperialist racism onto the modern Republican party. This video offers succinct historical information to debunk this Urban Legend and lie.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz says it will take "the full Grassley" to win Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses in January, 2016. Red Oak was a southwest Iowa stop in his campaign Friday afternoon. More than 70 people attended Cruz's appearance at the Red Coach Inn. And, the Republican presidential candidate began his presentation by praising a "favorite daughter"--Iowa Senator Joni Ernst of Red Oak. "Let me tell you something, to the men and women of Red Oak, and the men and women of Iowa," said Cruz, "thank you for sending Joni to the U.S. Senate. Joni is a rock star, and I've...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) will deliver the keynote address at an upcoming event hosted by the Tuscaloosa Republican Party, according to Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. “I am very excited to announce that Ted Cruz will be the keynote speaker at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner at The Zone in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Tuesday, August 25,” Merrill told Yellowhammer. The Tuscaloosa GOP’s Lincoln-Reagan Dinner has become one of Alabama’s most widely-attended political events in recent years, attracting nationally-known speakers including top George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove and former Mississippi Gov. Haley...

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the funding arm of the political network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, wants a lot more hard information from the crowded field of presidential contenders before deciding what to do with its considerable resources. The group is pressing every 2016 candidate to detail on the record their plans for economic growth, deficit reduction, entitlement reform, criminal justice and even foreign policy. The tax-exempt entity, a key node in a constellation of conservative entities that aims to spend $889 million before the next White House election, distributed a detailed survey Thursday to...

Two Republican candidates would be Hillary Clinton's "worst nightmare" in the 2016 general election, says Hugh Hewitt, a nationally syndicated radio host and author of the new book, "The Queen: The Epic Ambition of Hillary and the Coming Of a Second Clinton Era." Hewitt told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV that Clinton should "be afraid" of a run against either Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, two of ten declared GOP candidates. "Her worst nightmare, in my view? Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz, if he's the nominee. She should not debate [Cruz], he'll kill...

One America News Network, a credible source for 24/7 national and international news, announced today the results from its 90 day online One America News Network 2016 GOP Presidential Candidate Straw Poll. The results show strong numbers for Senator Ted Cruz, the first GOP candidate to announce, leading the pack just breaking the 30% mark at 30.4%. Senator Rand Paul comes in second with a strong 24.2% showing. Governor Scott Walker rounds out the top three with 9.6%. Rounding out the top five are Dr. Ben Carson at 6.6% and Senator Marco Rubio at 6.1% running neck and neck. Governor...

Mitt Romney invited Obama political strategist David Axelrod to address a political gathering in Utah last week. The event was officially hosted by Romney and Solamere Capital, the investment firm whose executive committee he chairs, and was designed to introduce a host of GOP presidential contenders to wealthy donors. However, some notable names were apparently left off the guest list. They include announced candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee. Jeb Bush, who was invited, did not attend because he was in Europe. But three announced candidates—Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Carly Fiorina and Lindsay Graham—and...

Hello, party leaders, potential candidates, lifelong donors, and long-suffering base voters. It’s me, the guy who constantly asks about Pennsylvania. The guy who drives people to muting me on Twitter because I won’t stop talking about Pennsylvania. Who is already showing flashcards of Collar Counties to his seven-week-old son. Recently, I received an email from a follower of the Decision Desk, the gist of which was asking me, yes or no, do I really believe the Keystone State is winnable. Well, here’s my answer: Yes. Yes, this state, which hasn’t gone for a Republican president since H.W. Bush in 1988,...