Free Republic

The election is two weeks away, but the campaign trail reviews of Sarah Palin already are in, and they aren’t pretty. According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign logistics and planning. She offers little notice about her availability, refuses to do certain events, is obsessive about press coverage and sometimes backs out with as little lead time as she gave in the first place. In short, her seat-of-the-pants operation can be a nightmare to deal with, which, in part, explains why Palin doesn’t often do individual events for GOP hopefuls. It’s not that...

The election is two weeks away, but the campaign trail reviews of Sarah Palin already are in, and they aren’t pretty. According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign logistics and planning. She offers little notice about her availability, refuses to do certain events, is obsessive about press coverage and sometimes backs out with as little lead time as she gave in the first place. In short, her seat-of-the-pants operation can be a nightmare to deal with, which, in part, explains why Palin doesn’t often do individual events for GOP hopefuls.

It's two weeks before the 2010 elections. Which means now's a fine time to start obsessing about the 2012 campaign. The next presidential race will unofficially begin on No. 3 -- the day after the midterm elections. It's possible we may not know the outcome of all the critical House and Senate races by then, and these races could determine which party controls the House and Senate. But once most of the 2010 votes are counted, the politerati will quickly pivot toward the next big thing. So let me get an early jump and tell you this: watch out for...

Mitt Romney’s political operation raised $1.7 million from July through September, again pacing the field of prospective 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls. The former Massachusetts governor, who lost a bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and is widely believed to be preparing another run, has built a robust political operation including political action committees at the federal level and in five states with strategic significance in the pending battle for the Republican nomination: Iowa, New Hampshire, Alabama, South Carolina and Michigan.

From Tea Party activists to “mama grizzlies,” the number of female conservative candidates in this year’s election is unprecedented. This surge in the number of right-leaning ladies has not only caught the Democratic Party’s attention. Several media outlets have jumped on board to lend support to the female democratic candidates who are in danger of losing their seats.  Politico dedicated roughly 1300 words to the subject of female candidates in this year’s election in an Oct. 12 article, but it could only spare about 174 words on the conservative candidates. The article could easily double as a campaign literature touting...

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del.— Soon after Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost her August primary and became the latest casualty of the tea party’s assault on the GOP establishment, she placed a call to Rep. Mike Castle, another Republican Party favorite facing an insurgent challenger. Her message? “They'll come at you hard, so just be prepared," Castle told POLITICO. Murkowski’s warning proved prescient and her experience instructive. While her defeat at the hands of tea party-backed challenger Joe Miller reverberated across the country, nowhere did it have more impact than in tiny Delaware, where Castle once looked to be a runaway winner...

Calif. Senate Boxer (D) 48% Fiorina (R)44% CNN/Time Tuesday, September 7, 2010 Matchup Results Source Dates Sample Boxer vs. Fiorina Fiorina (R) 48% Boxer (D) 47% Rasmussen Reports 9/6 750 LV Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Matchup Results Source Dates Sample Boxer vs. Fiorina Boxer (D) 44% Fiorina (R) 43% Rasmussen Reports 8/24 750 Calif. Governor Whitman (R)48% Brown (D)46% CNN/Time Fla. Governor Sink (D)49% Scott (R) 42% CNN/Time Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Matchup Results Source Dates Sample Sink vs. Scott Scott (R) 45% Sink (D) 44% Rasmussen Reports 9/1 750 LV Friday, August 27, 2010 Matchup Results Source Dates Sample...

One of the delights about the Internet is watching new people use a new technology to make the same old mistakes. Consider the admissions by Politico and Greg Sargent that they regularly run items on Sarah Palin simply to drive traffic. From Politico: “More traffic comes from an item on Sarah Palin’s ‘refudiation’ faux pas than from our hundreds of stories on the complexities of health care reform or Wall Street regulation.” Perhaps if Politico were as vigilant in its coverage of health care reform and Wall Street regulation as it is every slip by Sarah Palin readers would be...