Free Republic

Mitt Romney may be the best candidate in the 2012 GOP primary, but that's not saying much. It's like being the best mayor of Oakland. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota may not be ready for the Oval Office, but she's been a feisty challenger not afraid to take on Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry. She will emerge from the primary with more authority than she had when she entered the race. Radio talk-show host Herman Cain won points with his unique personal success story in the corporate world, no small feat for a black man who grew up in...

One of the conspiracy theories floating around the comment section here and elsewhere was that Michele Bachmann served as the attack dog against everyone but Romney in the hope of gaining a VP nod. The speculation was fueled by Bachmann’s relentless and often inaccurate attacks on everyone who rose to be the lead challenger to Romney, first Pawlenty, then Perry, then Cain, and most recently Newt. Yet Romney was spared the wrath of Bachmann, other than the “Newt Romney” line. According to Ed Rollins, who Bachmann used to go after Sarah Palin, Bachmann deliberately stayed away from attacking Romney, via...

Full Primary/Caucus Calendar Jan 3 Iowa (caucus) 28 Delegates Jan 10 New Hampshire (primary) 12 Delegates Jan 21 South Carolina (primary) 25 Delegates Jan 31 Florida (primary) 50 Delegates Feb 4 Nevada (caucus) 28 Delegates Feb 4-11 Maine (caucus) 24 Delegates Feb 7 Colorado (caucus) 36 Delegates Minnesota (caucus) 40 Delegates Missouri (primary) 52 Delegates Feb 28 Arizona (primary) 29 Delegates Michigan (primary) 30 Delegates Mar 3 Washington (caucus) 43 Delegates Mar 6 Alaska (caucus) 27 Delegates (Super Georgia (primary) 76 Delegates Tuesday) Idaho (caucus) 32 Delegates Massachusetts (primary) 41 Delegates North Dakota (caucus) 28 Delegates Ohio (primary) 66 Delegates...

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, could face a primary challenge. According to the Birmingham News, Scott Beason, a conservative firebrand in the state Senate, is seriously considering a run. Bachus has bucked his party on a variety of issues, working early on with Democrats on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which bailed out Wall Street, and admitting publicly that he thought Wall Street executives should be limited in their executive compensation. Beason is best known for his controversial bill targeting illegal immigration in the state, and could prove a tough challenger for Bachus...

Many have truly lost interest in the Republican primary and its "candidates." None appear fully acceptable, all have major faults and excess baggage that could easily cause them to lose to an absolutely unre-electable sitting president. While polls are often flawed and many are absolutely biased, I have seen a consistent trend that any particular GOP candidate VS Obama consistently loses, given a choice between "Any Republican" and Obama, the Republican wins handily. What this means is that the majority of voters, about 75% in the GOP in fact, are totally unhappy with the choices offered. It is my considered...

The Gallup trendlines don’t lie. That’s Newt in brown and Romney in black:Those are national numbers, not the numbers in all-important Iowa, but sneak a peek at the latest polls there in Pollster.com’s table. From the end of November through the first week of this month, Newt was above 30 percent in three separate surveys; in the three latest polls, he’s stuck between 20 and 22 percent, making the race a toss-up between him, Romney, and Ron Paul. If Perry gets a second look over the next two weeks, which seems increasingly likely, and some Iowans come home to the...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that we do not know who the GOP presidential nominee will be: It could be Mitt Romney—though our warnings in this space a couple of weeks ago that his victory is by no means inevitable seem increasingly justified by the dynamics of the race. The nominee could be Newt Gingrich—whose rise in the polls has been spectacular, and whose skills and appeal are still widely underestimated by many elites, including conservative elites [....] It could be someone not yet in the race. If the Gingrich surge turns into a Newt bubble, and if...

Romney is losing it. His coordinated assault on Newt does not make the case for Romney. And it’s embarrassing. Romney brought out former Congressman and former Senator Jim Talent to bash Newt’s leadership as Speaker. Talent forgets that the internet has a long memory, and that Talent supported Newt for Speaker of the House even after the issues Talent now complains about were raised: Old Quote from Talent: Allegiance comes from Rep. Jim Talent, R-Mo., who says, “I intend to support the speaker” As I mentioned last night, bringing John Sununu to the rescue just reminds us of the appointment...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Inviting contrasts with thrice-married religious convert Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney cast himself as a man of consistency in religion and matrimony Wednesday as he and other GOP candidates went after the latest front-runner in a strikingly aggressive new phase of the Republican campaign. "I'm a man of steadiness and constancy. I don't think you're going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than I do," the former Massachusetts governor said in a new TV ad that included grainy home videos of his wife and five sons. There was no mention of equivocations and...

Late Sunday night, I received an email indicating Donald Trump just may be getting back in the race to unseat Obama and take back our beloved land! “We firmly believe that Donald Trump is the best choice for President and have been encouraging him to run,” says the action alert from a group of grassroots Patriots out of Costa Mesa, CA. This is one strong businessman that the media won’t destroy like the outsider we saw bite the dust last week! Trump’s theme of TIME TO GET TOUGH, the theme of his blockbuster book, is starting up this second Trump...

Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Embattled GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain took a break from the campaign trail Thursday night to deliver a lecture at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. The university emphasized that there would be no discussion of politics or Cain’s candidacy. But Cain’s lecture on business and entrepreneurship soon became very political when Occupy protesters interrupted the event. Approximately 20 minutes into the event, Occupy protesters conducted a “mic check” as Cain discussed his rise through Pillsbury and the Burger King Corporation. A young woman stood up in the middle of the lecture hall shouting “Mic check! Mic...

(VIDEO AT LINK) When asked if she has a candidate she would like to endorse in the 2012 GOP field, Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) said she hasn't made up her mind as of now, and that it wouldn't matter. Palin said her endorsement would amount to a "hill of a beans." "I think today, my personal endorsement, probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans today, at this point in the race," Palin said on FOX News' "Hannity" program. Palin said later in the race perhaps her endorsement may have more weight, but admitted at this moment it doesn't...

Palin: We will not solve our economic problems in this country until we confront the crony capitalism of our permanent political class. This is socialism for the very rich and the very poor but it is a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It’s the collusion of big government, big business. It’s at the heart of President Obama’s economic vision. We need sudden and relentless reform. That will return power to we the people. We need people with a proven record of reform. I served in public office in a state that had a corruption problem. I...

If turn out to be right on this, remember you probably read it here first. I’m beginning to suspect that the GOP nominee for the 2012 general election may well be, “None of the above“. I.e., some dark horse candidate who’s either at the margins (like a Huntsman or a Roemer), or someone totally out of left field. It involves two words which we haven’t used in about 70 years: “Brokered Convention“. There are Republican candidates with support an inch wide and a mile deep, and candidates with support a mile wide and an inch deep. None of the current...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/25/tv-ad-asking-sarah-palin-to-reconsider-on-tap-in-sioux-city/

Conservative activists believe Gingrich's views on illegal immigrants has opened up the field for another GOP candidate...

EL UNIVERSAL, (CARACAS, VENEZUELA) Original in Spanish "ESTADOS UNIDOS: Gingrich favorece políticas migratorias más humanas" ... Candidato republicano se pronuncia a favor de la inmigración" Wednesday November 23, 2011 24:08 ("FREEPRANSLATION" TO ENGLISH): "Washington, D.C. - Newt Gingrich, the newest candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has run the risk of scaring the conservatives saying that favors the establishment of legal channels for illegal immigrants who have behaved peacefully, within the law paid their taxes and lived in the U.S. for many years. During a televised debate on Tuesday night, former House of Representatives Speaker said...

"How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C., as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us?" - Sarah Palin, Wall Street Journal, November 18 Sarah Palin complaining about politics, modest means and millionaires? Hasn't she hauled in about $10 million - selling a couple of best sellers at upwards of $25 a piece interspersed with some speech-giving at $100,000 a pop - since John McCain plucked her from the rural obscurity of Wasilla? But let's be fair, she made her money the old-fashioned...

Now That We've Crucified Every Candidate, who are we gonna support? Take a step back and think about it for a moment: Romney? No, for reasons stated on this site and encoded on our DNA. Paul? No, unless you're an isolationist. Perry? Apparently not, since my fellow FReepers appear ready to kill each other at the thought of a Perry nomination. Santorum or Huntsman? No, because they apparently aren't pure enough either. Cain? Maybe, but many consider 999 to be 666. Newt? After last night's debate, FR will lynch the man and serve him on their tables tomorrow...so, no. That...

This is a difficult age in which to be a conservative. While the national executive branch remains in the clutches of a radical administration that daily flaunts the Constitution, producing an equal and opposite reaction in an electorate that practically salivates at the opportunity to throw them out, the Republican Party’s primary process seems bound and determined to produce a challenger far less aggressive then the people desire. Conservatives have therefore spent months agonizing, as they search for – pray for – some way to nominate a candidate who is up to the needs of the time, and worthy of...