Free Republic

Charles Krauthammer and George Will continue to showcase their insane alignment with the DC Machine writ large. You might think of them as pundits, until you realize their punditry is expressed alignment with the policy positions of: John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore. Laura Ingraham scratches the surface on the “anchor baby” issue, but more directly frames the discussion around the larger picture of failed immigration enforcement which has led to the crisis. We are...

While thousands streamed into a football stadium Friday evening in Mobile, Alabama to see Donald Trump, a much smaller crowd of committed conservatives unwound at a bar and mused over the good, the bad and the unknown of the unlikely Republican presidential front-runner. They were volunteers and staff for Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit group funded by industrialist billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, two of the most effective conservative activists in U.S. politics. According to AFP, 3,600 people came to this year's annual Defending the American Dream Summit from around the country Friday and Saturday, taking in appearances by...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-22/trumpus-maximus-goes-to-mobile

The Daily Mail writes: Leading Republican candidate for the White House Donald Trump hasn’t officially begun scouting running mates – the first primary is still six months away. Two of his 2016 competitors come to mind for the position, however: Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Trump’s campaign said he has ‘cordial’ relationships with both men based on ‘mutual respect.’ An ex-aide to Trump, Roger Stone, was also seen meeting with Carson’s campaign chief Jake Menges yesterday in New York. Stone says he did not set up the meeting at the behest of Trump, however. Stone told DailyMail.com that...

Everyone thought that Donald Trump was way in over his head when he decided to throw his hat in the ring for 2016 presidential election. Now, there are not nearly as many people who think the same way, and that was evident when 30,000 people turned out for a Republican pep rally in Alabama on Friday. Now, he’s beginning to pull away from the rest of the field and very well could widen his lead in the 2016 presidential polls. Topped off in a red hat, Donald Trump stepped out before 30,000 supporters in Alabama on Friday night, and it...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Casting himself as a tax-cutting, passionate government reformer, Jeb Bush drew merely polite applause Friday from thousands of the nation's most-active tea party conservatives gathered at the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers' summit. Only when the Republican presidential candidate wrapped up his 20-minute speech by calling for a military buildup did the more than 3,000 conservatives from around the nation join in a sustained cheer for Bush, a familiar face in American politics but a newcomer in front of the tea party crowd. "I promise you, if I'm elected president of the United States, I will restore the...

Jeb Bush is sticking with the plan. Despite Donald Trump shooting ahead in the polls and Bush’s debate performance getting bad reviews — and amid signs of frustration on the campaign trail from the former Florida governor himself — his supporters aren’t panicking, multiple sources close to the candidate insist. The Bush camp is projecting confidence that the Summer of Trump will fade to winter, and that Jeb will prevail when it matters. Here are five reasons Jebworld isn’t freaking out: 1. ‘TRUMP V. SOMEBODY’ Trump is the man to beat, the undisputed leader in national and early-state polls. Even...

Next year will be the most consequential presidential election in two generations. Given how difficult it is to hold the White House for three straight terms, and given President Obama's shaky approval numbers, Republicans will have a good chance to win. On the other hand, Democrats had a good chance to win in 1988, taking on an uninspiring successor to a twice-victorious incumbent. Indeed, the Democratic nominee was ahead in the polls into the summer of 1988. But that nominee was Michael Dukakis. Are we sure the GOP isn't on course to nominating their very own Dukakis? Are we confident...

As the Republican-primary race moves into the fall, Donald Trump is exhibiting signs of becoming, if not a conventional candidate, at least a better-organized one. “I have a much more traditional campaign than people think,” he told me on August 18, two days after his campaign released the first in a series of position papers he’s set to unveil. The bar is low — anything beyond winging it would pass for a signal of a more traditional campaign. Trump knows this. His position paper, which calls for Mexico to pay for a border wall and America to eliminate birthright citizenship,...

Given the "failures" of the Obama election, Republicans can only lose in 2016 if "they out-extreme the far-left" On “The O’Reilly Factor” Thursday night, host and new favorite Coulter punching bag Bill O’Reilly expounded on the difference between “Trumpians” and Democrats, and warned Republicans that the real estate mogul’s brand of undisciplined extremism could hurt the party whose nomination he currently seeks. After rattling off the predictable litany of Republican complaints about Obama’s economic and foreign policies — the suggestion being that Democratic party is weak on both fronts because of the president’s reckless, ignorant actions — O’Reilly claimed that...

Who is he? Ted Cruz, 44, junior US Senator from Texas Do you know him? If you're a resident of the Lone Star State, or you pay attention to politics, or you've had any interest in the white-shirted [expletive] that is the Republican primary, then yes. Cruz, with his cartoon-villain face and general air of someone who has just smelled something very bad, has been loud and proud in opposing everything President Barack Obama and the Democrats have tried to do since he took office, highlighted by that time he shut down the entire government just so he could talk...

Trump is a deeply ridiculous individual and his presidency would be the stuff of nightmares. But it’s important to understand that he’s offering more than just violations of political correctness.The punditry’s reaction to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has come in three phases. The first was annoyed indifference, accompanied by invocations of the Manny Ramirez Defense that this was “just Trump being Trump.” Most assumed the mouthy magnate was looking for a boutique issue to exploit so he could make a brief publicity splash and get out of the race, like he did with President Obama’s birth certificate in 2011. Responses...

Scott Walker just can’t make up his mind on birthright citizenship. “I’m not taking a position one way or the other,” Walker said in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood. “I’m saying that until you secure the border and enforce the laws, any discussion about anything else is really looking past the very things we have to do.” Harwood then observed that Walker seemed threatened by Donald Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration, and was adjusting his rhetoric accordingly. On Sunday, Trump announced a $166 billion immigration plan that includes a nearly 2,000-mile wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, the deportation of...

Vivianna Rodriguez cannot wait for Donald Trump's speech Friday night in Mobile, Alabama. "I was shocked when I heard that he was coming to Mobile. But I was very excited [as well]. Not because he was speaking, but because we're going to do something about it," she said. Vivianna is a 24 year-old senior at the University of South Alabama —whose football stadium will host Trump on Friday— and she is an American-born daughter of a single-parent undocumented Mexican immigrant. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has referred to those with her background as "anchor babies." It's those types of comments...

A year ago, political insiders expected Rand Paul to dominate in Nevada and Iowa, the first two states to hold presidential nominating caucuses. Now, as campaign season ramps up in earnest and he continues to slide in national polls, Paul’s propensity to skip important GOP events has left Republican voters wondering whether he is willing to put in the work to seize his natural advantages in these two early states. In 2012, supporters of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign took over the state Republican parties in both Iowa and Nevada. The elder Paul finished third in the 2012 Nevada caucuses with...

Help Wanted: Desperate U.S. political party looking for benevolent dictator. Need outsider who can break some China (so to speak.) Dedication to conservative principles or loyalty to party is unimportant. Opposition to unaffordable spending, unsustainable entitlements or expansions of federal muscle are no longer required. We will give you all the power you need to make America great again. Donald Trump does not make mistakes, as he is unafraid to tell you: "Every time they say I make a mistake, my poll numbers go up," he told reporters in Iowa. Trump informs us he does not ask God for forgiveness....

As we’ve seen in all of the post-debate polls, Donald Trump is safely in the lead -- though there is still some question as to how big Trump’s margin really is. Neil Stevens of RedState looks at the polls and says they present a lot of questions. “We have three polls since the debate and the Gathering. Two are registered voter polls by Fox and CNN. The third is a likely voter poll by Rasmussen Reports. They don’t agree with each other, except that name recognition is very important: The candidates who are far ahead in name recognition are doing...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul says it's only a matter of time until the country wakes up to Donald Trump's insincere message, but he's worried that some Americans are blinded by his "celebrity." In a series of interviews between performing pro-bono eye surgeries in Haiti with the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, the Kentucky senator was relaxed in scrubs, dismissive of Trump and critical of the media's role in Trump's rise. "How do you out-Trump the irrational?" he asked. It's a question he and the other Republican candidates are puzzling over. Paul said the reason "people...

Some people want to vote for Hillary; others want to vote Jeb. Still, there are others who prefer Carly, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson or The Donald. But when it comes to the 2016 Presidential Election, this much we can all agree on: We want more Jon Stewart. Now, there’s a new petition making the rounds that might just make that American dream come true. And if this Change.org movement has its way, the recently-retired “Daily Show” host will moderate an upcoming Presidential debate. “Jon Stewart is more than qualified to tackle the moderating job,” says the petition. “Mr. Stewart has...

It seems that Texas Republicans, like Republicans everywhere else, have caught Trump fever. Insert your favorite pathology joke here. Donald Trump is the favored presidential candidate among Texas Republican voters, according to a poll released today by the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee. The Houston Chronicle reported the results. Trump leads the poll with 24 percent support. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who had led most Texas polls up to this point, came in second with 16 percent. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson is the only other candidate to garner more than 10 percent. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina...