Free Republic

In his Washington Post column last week, E.J. Dionne once again tried to kill off the Tea Party movement, asserting that "Tea party thinking is dead," as if the claim would somehow make it true. I could be wrong, but I'm beginning to think Mr. Dionne doesn't like the Tea Party and would prefer to see it vanish from the face of the Earth. Two and half years ago, in the pages of the Washington Post, Mr. Dionne declared: "The Tea Party is nothing new. It represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics, and...

"Romney is his own worst enemy. This guy is tone-deaf."

In the roundtable discussion on This Week, Peggy Noonan’s analysis of last week’s debate lead to a heated exchange between Paul Krugman and Mary Matalin. “We will look back on it as a historic moment in this election,” Noonan said of the debate. “It upended things. This is what it it upended: Barack Obama was supposed to be the sort of moderate, centrist fellow who looked at Mitt Romney, this extreme strange fellow. By the time that debate was over, Mitt Romney seemed a completely moderate, centrist figure who showed up as mitt Romney the governor, not as Mitt Romney...

<p>Denver -- It's been going on for years. After a big campaign event, like this week's presidential debate, the candidates' representatives gather in a human corral called Spin Alley to feed their interpretations - always positive - to the gathered media. But Spin Alley is going the way of the Roman Forum, a victim of social media.</p>

Dick Morris is right.Here's his column on "Why the Polls Understate the Romney Vote."Here's something Dick Morris doesn't mention. And he's charitable.Remember when Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980?That's right. Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980.In a series of nine stories in 1980 on "Crucial States" -- battleground states as they are known today -- the New York Times repeatedly told readers then-President Carter was in a close and decidedly winnable race with the former California governor. And used polling data from the New York Times/CBS polls to back up its stories.Four years later, it was the Washington...

The other day I received my weekly missive from WallStreetJournal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan,in which she informed me and the world that "the Romney campaign has to get turned around." She added helpfully,"This week I called it incompetent,but only because I was being polite. I really meant 'rolling calamity.'" The media loved this column and repeated it widely. Their goal is to depress the Republican vote. Noonan's goal,apparently,is to get attention. Noonan got a lot of it in October 2008, when she wrote the following giddy nonsense about Barack Obama: He has within him the possibility to...

I don't know Ann Romney. I don't know Lee Cary, from the American Thinker, either, but I should like to buy them both dinner to thank them for making an important point yesterday, and it needs to be emphasized. Asked about some of the more counterproductive criticisms made by Republicans, Mrs. Romney replied, "Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring." My thoughts exactly. Constructive criticism is one thing, but handing ammunition to the opposition is uncalled for. Part of the problem is that I really like some of the people making these remarks,...

<p>Give that writer a prize.</p> <p>How many ways are there to say that Palestinians and Israelis are talking past each other because they have profoundly different needs and goals? Israel seeks recognition as a legitimate, permanent part of the region with the "secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force" that are the promise of U.N. Resolution 242. Palestinians seek to reverse the establishment of Israel, which they believe was created on their land and at the expense of their patrimony. Whose writing will make Abu Mazen say Jews are the indigenous people of the region and State of Israel is their rightful home? Dennis Ross's latest "six point plan" for a "two state solution" won't do it.</p>

H.L. Mencken called his colleagues of the fourth estate “a gang of peck sniffs.” Some conservative commentators have become pundit sniffs, turning up their elitist noses at whoever the frontrunner for the Republican nomination happens to be. You’d think we didn’t have other pressing business – like saving the Republic from the mega-Marxist in the White House. Now, it’s former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s turn for an colonoscopy. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan, a CINO (conservative in name only), frets that Gingrich is “a trouble magnet, a starter of fights that need not be fought.” (It’s called...

CNN has posted an article by S.E. Cupp and I must say I disagree with Ms. Cupp completely. She argues that the Christie and Palin question is a detriment to the GOP. Add Ms. Cupp to the long list of people trying to tell us when it’s too late for this one or that one. Lately, it’s become an absurdity to watch. I can’t imagine that it’s possible that she believes her own impatience ought to drive the party’s choices, but there she is demanding: “Time’s up, Christie and Palin. In or out?” Excuse me if I fail to take...

[BIG Snip] Jared Woodfill, chairman of the Harris County Republican Party and a Perry supporter, thinks an Austin-Boston connection represents a potentially powerful ticket for his party, but he maintains the roles should be reversed. "Perry's going to be strong in the primaries," he said last week. "Romney may fall short, and he could be number two. Gov. Perry has a very strong record as governor of Texas that will play strong across the country. I think he'll beat Romney in the primaries." Romney falling short is a possibility, political scientist Jillson says, noting that Republicans usually nominate the person...

"Sucking the air out of the room". Sorry for the vanity... Havent made a thread in a long time. Have heard that over and over and I'm struggling to figure out what that means. Anything I come up with comes around to only being a positive answer regarding Sarah Palin. Some of these answers are that people want to hear from her. The media trips over themselves to interview her. The media looks for every way possible to trip her up only allowing her to get her message out. Am I missing something here? What else is "sucking the air...

Top American conservative blogger Ryan Streeter, quoting Peter Wehner and Kimberley Strassel, demands that Sarah Palin immediately announce that she will not be entering the primary race for the GOP nomination. She must do this, he says, so that an electable conservative can take on and beat Obama in 2012.

Thanks to Instapundit for pointing out this great piece of video from Reason TV. Grab the popcorn my little “mobstas” and settle around the computer screen for a permanent record of the non stop stupidity of the lefty pundits. Of course now the lefty pundits act as if they never went after the Tea Party, or Sarah Palin. The narrative now is Sarah Palin may not have caused this … but she should apologize anyway … and then shut up … “jackass”.

Immediately following last week's tragic events in Tucson, television pundits fell over each another to assign blame. According to the professional talking heads--and despite any actual evidence--the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could be pinned on the Tea Party, Ayn Rand, gold enthusiasts, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, heavy metal, marijuana, and/or the "heated rhetoric" of cable news. Reason.tv trawls the archives and compiles the dumbest responses from America's dumbest pundits.

Last Jan. 28 there was a column in this newspaper about why Gov. Charlie Crist could still win the U.S. Senate race. Crist had survived many tough fights in the past, the column said. He still enjoyed "mainstream goodwill" and a 50 percent approval rating. "As for (Marco) Rubio," the writer continued dismissively, "today's media darling is tomorrow's target." And who was the idiot saying all this? That would be me. Rubio beat Crist by 19 points. Wait, I got more. March 23, I speculated that by the time the November elections rolled around, health-care reform ("Obamacare") would have faded...

Posted at 12:11 PM ET, 12/27/2010 Things the chattering class got wrong By Jennifer Rubin As 2010 draws to a close, the list of items going down the memory hole -- the place reserved for mistakes by liberal elites -- is long. Before they are gone for good, let's recount a few. "The public will learn to love ObamaCare." The voters never have, and it remains more than a policy nightmare, with soaring costs and unintended consequences strewn about, a rallying cry for fiscal conservatives. It was a unifying force, but unfortunately for Democrats, it was the independents and conservatives...

In the oversaturated, hypercommodified media culture of 2010, the most influential political figures are generally the ones who make the most money peddling their perspectives. To figure who's tops in this new world, NEWSWEEK asked Wealth-X, an intelligence and research firm, to compile a list of the 50 highest-earning political figures of 2010. Included in the rankings are politicians, ex-politicians, media personalities, and political consultants who hawk their personal brands in the public marketplace—and influence American political discourse in the process. To see a profile of any member of the Power 50, just click on their name in the list...

First, Leftie commentators ignored the Tea Party: throughout the summer of 2009, its rallies were barely covered except by Fox. Then, as it grew, they sneered at it: what a lamentable gaggle of rednecks, birthers, truthers, stump-toothed Appalachian mountain men and assorted survivalists. When these laughable Frondistes began to win primaries, pundits assured each other that they had made Republican Party unelectable. Now, with a week to go before polling day, and the GOP comfortably ahead in the polls, columnists have had to come up with a new line. Predictably, they have hit on the argument that Tea Partiers are...