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So here we were in 2007 worrying about who would take the Reagan "mantle of conservatism" forward. John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and others were already in the race to become the next GOP nominee for president. And you know what? Conservatives were freaking out! Was this really the crop we had to choose from? None of these guys, with the exception of maybe Duncan Hunter or to an extent Ron Paul, really understood what conservatism was. Then a grassroots draft campaign was initiated to bring someone into the race that really understood...

Many of us Europeans wish to see McCain as the next president of the United States of America, even though we who do may not constitute a majority. While electing the next president itself, naturally, is a solely American business, I think it's worth pointing out that many aware and well educated Europeans DO NOT support Obama even though he, undeniably, is the the favourite candidate of most PC European politicians and journalists - and most of our politicians and journalists are appallingly PC. The article by Swedish politician Mathias Sundin: "As Americans everywhere prepare to go to the polls,...

Our expert pollsters have determined, with all of the accuracy and impartiality that modern statistical science and polling techniques can muster, that (1) the Presidential race is tightening while (2) Obama is pulling away and (3) the Presidential race remains remarkably stable. Say what??? Well, keep in mind that American novelist Samuel Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain) wrote, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Presidential preference polls are, for better or worse, a form of statistics.

Former Reagan diplomat Alan Keyes commented Sept. 23 on the federal government's bailout of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The former Assistant Secretary of State, currently running for president as an independent, said the bailout plan as proposed by the Bush administration would effectively transform our nation into "a socialist society." The following is the text of Keyes' statement: What I have to say about the bailout is that, with a concrete proposal on the table, it becomes much more obvious what is actually going on right now, and I think that we have to confront it. And...

Russian voters pressed to vote By Neil Buckley in Moscow Published: February 28 2008 18:43 | Last updated: February 28 2008 18:43 Russians are coming under intense pressure to vote in Sunday’s presidential election amid apparent official concerns that the result is such a foregone conclusion that turnout could be embarrassingly low. Blog: Gideon RachmanCommunist and extreme nationalist candidates have been allowed onto the ballot – perhaps to make the Kremlin’s man look like a mainstream moderate Dmitry Medvedev is set to coast to victory in spite of enjoying limited popularity when Vladimir Putin, the president, made him his...

Che Guevara Flags in Obama's Houston Office Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 4:25:17 pm PST Barack Obama won’t wear an American flag on his lapel, but on the wall of his Houston campaign office: a Cuban flag with a picture of Communist mass murderer Che Guevara.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 4, 2008 CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA – Dr. Ron Paul, ten-term congressman presidential candidate will be the first presidential candidate to give a speech on Super Tuesday at the West Virginia GOP Convention at the Charleston Civic Center at 9:30 am EST. Who: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul What: Ron Paul to deliver a speech to West Virginia GOP Delegates When: Monday, February 5th, 9:30 – 9:50AM, EST Where: Charleston Civic Center, 200 Civic Center Dr, Charleston, WV The first 200 visitors will receive guest passes. Present at the convention will be the elected Ron Paul delegates,...

I know many Paul Bearers, and they are Christian - as most everyone, except Democrats, are now confessing to be. To say they are overly enamored with Ron Paul is an understatement as they think he is just an apocalypse shy of being the Second Coming. Ron Paul is the only "Constitutional" candidate, they claim, and he wants to High Tail It out of Iraq, eliminate the IRS, withdraw from the world, and kill welfare payments including Social Security and Medicaid. Who could ask for anything more? Ron Paul does have more reasonable ideas such as "really doing something" about...

Giuliani, Huckabee Tied; Clinton Up THE RACE: The presidential race for Republicans, Democrats nationally. ^--- THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS Hillary Rodham Clinton, 40 percent Barack Obama, 30 percent John Edwards, 14 percent ^--- THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS Rudy Giuliani, 24 percent Mike Huckabee, 22 percent Mitt Romney, 16 percent John McCain, 13 percent Fred Thompson, 10 percent Ron Paul, 6 percent ^---

SKorean challenger launches presidential campaign Thu Nov 8, 2:24 AM ET A rightwing former opposition leader Thursday launched his campaign for South Korea's presidency as the main opposition party bitterly denounced him as a traitor. Lee Hoi-Chang, a harsh critic of North Korea, on Wednesday announced his third presidential bid -- throwing the race into confusion by splitting the conservative vote just six weeks before polling day. Lee, a former supreme court judge and graduate of the top high school and university, visited homes of teenagers living alone and disabled elderly people. Aides said the 72-year-old is trying to soften...

So if this initiative were to get on the ballot and pass, it would mean that even if the state continued to vote for a Democrat for president, as it has for the past four elections, a Republican would still get some electoral votes. Under this method, Bush would have gotten 19 in 2000 and Gore 35. In 2004, Bush would have gotten 22 electoral votes and Kerry 33. Democrats are furious over the prospect of a district by district scheme. They say that unless such a change was made in every state in the union, it would be unfair...

It has not been an easy few months for Judith Giuliani. Her rollout to the public received rocky reviews from the political class, Republicans included. A series of negative articles about her shopping habits, marital past and supposedly testy relations with campaign staff followed. Her appearances alongside her husband, Rudolph W. Giuliani, grew suddenly scarce — and some analysts suggested that she keep it that way. So it was perhaps no surprise that at a recent lunch in downtown Manhattan, Mrs. Giuliani offered this self-assessment: “When it comes to politics, I’m new to this.” Over the course of a two-hour...

Voting begins on Tuesday, July 31 and will continue until Thursday, August 2nd. Vote in the Republican Straw Poll this week and in the Democratic Straw Poll next week! Tell your friends!

NOT very long ago, the Democratic Leadership Council was a maker of presidents — or, at least, the maker of a president. In 1991, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, then the council’s chairman, elucidated the “New Democrat” ethos and previewed the themes of his presidential candidacy (“opportunity, responsibility, community”) with a speech at the centrist group’s annual conference. “It became the blueprint for my campaign message,” Mr. Clinton later wrote in his autobiography. He added, “By embracing ideas and values that were both liberal and conservative, it made voters who had not supported Democratic presidential candidates in years listen to...

REFORMING retirement security in America is the greatest political opportunity -- and responsibility -- of our generation. Yet the topic of Social Security and Medicare is shockingly absent from Presidential hustings. Simply ignoring the problem does not mean it is going away. Thomas Saving, a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare programs, estimates a breathtaking $83.6 trillion unfunded liability in the two entitlements, which is a tremendous gap between promised obligations and what the government will actually collect in payroll taxes. Serious reforms of these broken government programs based on personal ownership have fallen victim to Republicans who don't...

The July 15th FEC reports for presidential candidates are avilable. Below are the results for all declared candidates. Fred Thompson is not included, since he has not yet filed as a candidate with FEC. McCain is not quite as dead as many have made him out to be; some reports said he was down to about a quarter million dollars. But he IS dead... Romney is running on his own money, it seems... Kucinich is absolutely bankrupt... Romney has bought his standing in New Hampshire and Iowa by spending $34 million;... Nader doesn't look like he's preparing for another run...

In his blog Hillary Clinton’s Backward “Progressive Vision,”John Tamny of National Review discusses Hillary’s domestic policy, and how, while it seems cursorily justifiable, it fails upon closer examination.

Al Sharpton really enjoys making candidates beg for his endorsement. And yet they come. And next week, Mr. Sharpton will take over the swanky Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers and spend four days granting an audience to every Democrat who wants to be President. He's not saying anything definitive yet about which candidates he likes best, of course. He just offers clues. "On the war, Kucinich is probably the closest, because I feel we should defund the war," he said. "On some issues of poverty, Edwards is closer. Health care - Hillary. In terms of racial profiling, probably Obama....

Former first lady to attend fund-raiser McALLEN - Security should be tight for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fund-raising visit today, but if the U.S. Secret Service has its way you won't even notice the former first lady's motorcade or security detail. Clinton is currently the frontrunner in a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls in the 2008 presidential election. Because of her status as the former first lady, she is the only candidate to have Secret Service protection. "We are working in cooperation with the McAllen Police Department to provide a safe environment for the former first lady," said Mark Lacey,...

Royal faces another attack in French campaign Reuters Published: March 7, 2007 PARIS: Ségolène Royal, the French Socialist Party presidential candidate, has disputed allegations that her tax returns underestimated the value of her properties, saying the tax authorities would have intervened if there had been grounds for concern. Le Canard Enchaîné, a satirical weekly in Paris, said Royal and her companion, the Socialist party leader François Hollande, had declared their properties to be worth €933,000, about $1.2 million, compared with market values of a bit more than €1.8 million, thereby sharply reducing their tax exposure. "I have confidence in the...

Feb 20, 2007 9:12 AM 58 Comments » | 12 Trackbacks | Permalink Watch this episode on YouTube

Duncan Hunter is on today.

Take note, presidential prognosticators: Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) may have earned a rousing reception at the California GOP convention last weekend, but Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) has more public supporters in Congress.And while Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to refrain from an endorsement until her party chooses a nominee, one Democratic candidate quietly has lined up not one but two backers in the House leadership - Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.). The most wide-open presidential rivalry in modern times is sparking fierce competition for congressional backing, with nearly 100 lawmakers declaring their 2008 allegiances before the first...

Rosales will lead "Caracas Avalanche" Saturday Pedro Pablo Peñaloza El Universal (Caracas) The director of the First Justice Party, Liliana Hernandez, member of the campaign command of Manuel Rosales, summoned the followers of the opposition candidate to concentrate themselves next Saturday in Libertador Avenue [in Caracas]. Hernandez specified that the act of support for the Governor of the State of Zulia1 will be named the "Caracas Avalanche" and it is scheduled to begin at 10:00 in the morning. "The idea is that, besides demonstrating in favor of the victory of the National Unity candidate [i.e. Rosales], we are calling...

Rosales Promises to Exchange Arms for Vouchers of 5 Million Bolivares1 Caracas -- The unitary opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales, formulated today the security plans which form an integral part of his governing strategy and promised to create and preside over a National Council of Justice and Security. He explained that this body "would render an accounting of the security of the country and will incorporate within itself the President of the TSJ [Supreme Tribunal of Justice], the General Prosecutor of the Republic, the Public Defender,2 and the Ministers of Defense, Interior, and Justice." Furthermore he announced a "true disarmament...

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is the "best" candidate in the 2008 race for Israel, a panel of eight Israeli experts assembled by Haaretz has determined. Giuliani is followed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Arizona Senator John McCain and New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Ranking bottom of the list is Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Mexico's leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a small lead in the final vote count being conducted by the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, based on results from 35.2% of polling stations, The Associated Press reported Wednesday afternoon. Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, is ahead with 37.1%, while conservative Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, has 34.3% of the vote, according to IFE. A quick tally the night of Sunday's vote proved too close for IFE to call a winner, so election officials Wednesday started a...

Brother Jeb would make 'great' US president: Bush May 10 12:05 PM US/Eastern President George W. Bush praised his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, as an "excellent" leader who would make a "great president" of the United States, according to news accounts. "I think Jeb would be a great president. But it's up to Jeb to make a decision to run," Bush told reporters at a roundtable interview here with several Florida newspapers. "I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," said the president, in...

WASHINGTON, March 7 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is locking up some of the Democratic Party's top fund-raisers, in a move that party officials and strategists say seems intended to complicate the efforts of any potential rivals in the 2008 presidential contest. While Mrs. Clinton and her advisers insist that her only focus is winning re-election to a second term in the United States Senate in November, Democrats say that her finance team has undertaken a vigorous push to round up leading fund-raisers around the country, an effort that was underscored by a recent dinner in Washington at which former...

Sometimes, I think this new 24-hour news cycle creates more problems than it solves. Case in point: last week’s FOX News poll on the 2008 presidential elections. Not content to inquire about any of the 504 elections we will have in 9 months, FOX preferred to ask about the one in 33 months. They even saw fit to ask what people thought about Oprah or Arnold as president. I was prepared to let this inane poll slide – to silently wonder how FOX could waste so much airtime pondering the electoral chances of a man constitutionally barred from the...

Bolivians have begun casting ballots in an election that could pick the country's first indigenous president and give South America another leftist, anti-US leader. About 3.6 million voters will also renew the 130 deputies and 27 senators of the legislature and choose, for the first time, nine provincial governors. Sale of alcohol has been banned in Bolivia since Friday and 50,000 police and soldiers have been deployed around the landlocked Andean country, roughly twice the size of France, to promote calm on polling day Sunday. Outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez said that "after the campaigning, the polls and the speeches in...

The most recent poll by Scott Rasmussen shows Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice moving up from 19 percent of the vote in the 2008 Republican primary to 24 percent. That moves her into second place, right behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who continues to lead the pack at 26 percent. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who had previously been running second, slipped to 21 percent. Lagging behind were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) at 7 percent and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) at 5 percent. None of the others was above 5 percent. It has been a...

With hysterical glee, Democrats believe they smell blood around the Bush Administration and Republicans in general. Admittedly, at first glance, the situation does appear bleak for the Republicans: dwindling support for the Iraq war, Tom Delay's indictment and arrest, Bill Frist's insider trading investigation, the Harriet Miers rupture, and polls that show a generic vote would favor Democrats over Republicans in 2006 by 11%. Oh, to be a Democrat, bolstered by such news after years of humiliating defeat at the polls! Unfortunately for Democrats, none of this seems to be rubbing off in their favor. According to a recent national...

The Democratic Leadership council is launching the ''American Dream Initiative''. The Chairman is none other than Hillary Clinton. The American Dream Initiative is a year-long project of the DLC that will engage political, business, labor, civic and intellectual leaders in a ''national conversation'' to help shape a positive agenda for our country and the Democratic party. The Initiative will focus on challenges facing America including: keeping our country safe, building an opportunity society, standing up for families and making sure our political and electoral systems work for all Americans. (from the DLC Website)It looks like the Democrats have decided...

"Election determines fate of nation" "In that this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high. This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands....

"Q. Senator Kerry, we have been fortunate that there have been no further terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11. Why do you think this is? And if elected, what will you do to assure our safety? Mr. Kerry Thank you very much, Ann. I've asked in my security briefings why that is" "But according to the Republican National Committee, Kerry missed most of the public hearings when he sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence between 1993 and 2000...Kerry missed 38 of 49 public hearings during the eight years he served on the intelligence panel."

The Democrats are already using the Deulfer Report to attack the Bush administration on WMD/Iraq. In 2001, America was attacked with a WMD, anthrax. After several years, law enforcement has not found the source or point of production of the anthrax, even though it was probably domestic in origin. Yet the Bush adminstration is catigated for not finding Sadaam's WMD's, despite all the resources and time he had to dispose of them.

Here are the specific frames from the debate video shoqing most clearly what Kerry had in his hand as he took it out of his pocket and placed it on the podium. I have taken two of the frames, lightened them, zoomed in, and sharpened the pics. No other enhancements have been made: Cropped, lightened original of Kerry pulling item from pocket. Enlarged and sharpened. Cropped, lightened original, of Kerry putting article down. Enlarged and sharpened.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Think of a game. Any game. Now try to put a bet on it. There's a fair chance that in Las Vegas someone will give you odds and take your money. On everything, that is, except the U.S. presidential election. It is against the law in Las Vegas (and thereby everywhere else) to bet on the outcome of the race for the White House. Why? No-one seems entirely certain, but it probably has something to do with it being unseemly to bet on something as important as the White House. Some members of Congress believe...

Has Cuba's septuagenarian dictator finally gone senile? Fidel Castro is doing everything possible to secure the re-election of his archenemy, President Bush. The crucial Cuban-American voting bloc in crucial Florida has lost some of its enthusiasm for Bush, but Castro seems determined to repair the damage by directing one rant after another at the president. Today the dictator accused Bush yet again of planning to invade his tropical gulag. 'Crazy' "Do not try crazy adventures such as surgical strikes or wars of attrition using sophisticated techniques because you could lose control of the situation," Castro said this morning in a...

At Catholics Against Kerry, we encourage Catholics to consider several questions when they vote: 1) Are Senator Kerry’s political positions, campaign themes, and voting records Catholic positions, themes, and records? 2) Should Catholic charities and hospitals be forced to provide contraceptives and abortions? California and New York both require Catholic Charities to provide contraceptive insurance coverage. Now the people behind these bills want to force Catholic hospitals to provide abortions. Kerry states that he “supports requiring insurance plans to cover contraception” and he cosponsored a bill requiring all Catholic employers to provide all forms of birth control, including the abortifacient...

Democrats are anxious. They're worried that the Kerry campaign lacks a unifying theme. On TV he comes across like a cold, wintry day in Dubuque. He has barely presented himself to general election voters. They should relax. John Kerry is doing exactly what he should be doing right now. He is in a post-primary molting season. He's emerging from the shadow of Howard Dean and becoming more like the policy twin of Joe Lieberman: a pro-trade, fiscally conservative centrist Democrat who is willing to pour more troops into Iraq to win the war. If Kerry had charged ahead with a...

I do not know precisely why President Bush's popularity continues high despite a month of the most relentless pounding from partisans, the press, the 9/11 commission and history itself (Fallujah, etc.) No one else knows either. Professionals will read the polls through the prism of their own expertise. Media people will say it's the cumulative effect of Mr. Bush's stirring ads. Those who agree with the president's stand on Iraq will say it's Iraq. Others may argue it's because he put tax cuts at the heart of his economic policy and the economy has begun to rebound. There is probably...

Adapting his electoral pendulum to the US, psephologist Malcolm Mackerras predicts the Democratic challenger will win the White House GEORGE Walker Bush is the 43rd president of the US. He was sworn in on Saturday, January 20, 2001. The big question now is: who will be the 44th president and when will he be sworn in? My prediction is that John Forbes Kerry will be the 44th president and he will be sworn in on Thursday, January 20, 2005. In December 2000, Bush won the presidential election by receiving 271 votes to 267 recorded for then vice-president Al Gore. It...

WASHINGTON The persistence of a quotation he insists is an "urban legend" is evidently infuriating Howard Dean. At lunch last week in the Washington bureau of The Times, the reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg identified herself and started to ask a question. Dr. Dean immediately interrupted: "I want to quickly jump on you for a sec here," he said sharply, and referred to an article she had written based on an interview with Senator John McCain in which yesteryear's maverick took issue with a reported remark of Dr. Dean's. "I never said that. I never said that," the man from Vermont...

(CNSNews.com) - Ignored by the Democratic political establishment, perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, Jr. has raised nearly $5 million for a 2004 White House bid, more money than four major candidates whom the Democratic National Committee acknowledges and invites to its events. The DNC isn't the only organization excluding Larouche. The party's allies, like the AFL-CIO, make no mention of LaRouche on their websites or at their candidate forums. The Republican Party ignores LaRouche as well, even when disparaging the field of Democratic candidates seeking to replace George W. Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Then there are the pollsters -...

<p>September 8, 2003 -- Democratic presidential contender Joe Lieberman last night took sharp issue with front-runner Howard Dean's statement that America shouldn't "take sides" in the Middle East. "If it was thought out, it's a mistake. If it wasn't, it's very important for Howard Dean, as a candidate for president, to think before he takes positions," Lieberman told The Post.</p>

<p>The rhetoric of Democratic presidential hopefuls has sunk to a "new low" of "political hate speech" that will be rejected by voters, the chairman of the Republican Party said yesterday.</p> <p>"I think history will show that this field has taken presidential discourse to a new low," Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."</p>

Beyond making some amiably assorted stabs at speaking Spanish, the Democratic presidential candidates were united in their first major debate on at least one thing, resolutely targeting President Bush for his foundering postwar policy in Iraq. The clownish intramural sideshows that usually haunt the Democratic Party on the early primary circuit were missing in Albuquerque. But those Americans bothering to tune in on Thursday night were also offered an early look at how the Democrats disagree. While they competed to come up with the most dismissive description of Mr. Bush's foreign policy (Richard Gephardt may have won with "miserable failure"),...

Flood the Zone Fridays, brought to you by Karl Rove Posted by Ezra Klein George W. Bush has a new website up, and upon seeing it, you have to admit -- this is a campaign that "gets" the web. Their website consolidates many of the tools that the Democratic challengers and their supporters have been experimenting with, and they are well implemented. Particularly impressive is their Action Center, which has one the the coolest, most useful tools I've ever seen: If you scroll about halfway down the page, you'll see a field where you can input your zip code...