Free Republic

New polling brings good news and bad news for beleaguered Republicans yearning for a comeback in the Age of Obama. The encouraging message suggests that Americans strongly prefer conservative policies and values to the liberal approaches preached by the president. On the other hand, the same polls indicate that the two revival strategies most commonly discussed by the GOP will both lead to political dead ends. Neither a shift to more moderate positions nor an emphasis on rousing, uncompromising, us-vs.-them right wing rhetoric will bring Republicans back to power in Washington D.C. The only workable strategy for long-term GOP gains...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is taking the opposite route of most defeated presidential candidates: rather than quickly bow out of national politics, McCain is working to become a transformative force in the Republican Party, Politico reported Friday. Concerned about the GOP's direction, McCain has been recruiting and raising money for candidates who share his pragmatic center-right style. McCain has been a particularly generous advisor to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who he encouraged to run for Senate and threw a $500,000 fundraiser to support.

A decisive shift in the political battleground has taken place, and few analysts have noticed. Sun Tzu, the Chinese warlord who assembled the psychological philosophy widely known today as The Art of War, knew what he was talking about, and would have been a formidable political strategist. With the exception of the queen, the game of chess assigns each piece very specific tactics, and very specific limitations. The queen can project its power in any direction and distance, thus rendering it a formidable piece. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the pawn. With the exception of its opening...

Remember Peter Wehner? You know, the guy who recently stated that there shouldn't be a place in the GOP for Gov. Palin because "she strikes me as being terribly out of sync with the needs of this moment." Well, he's now joined forces with another anti-Palin pundit, Michael Gerson, who described the Governor as 'fundamentally unserious'. This formidable intellectual tag team has produced an essay for Commentary Magazine in which they sketch a path to Republican revival. Or rather: Republican demise. Because having read it, I can't escape the conclusion that it is, how shall I put this, terribly out...

Republicans are once again ascendant—and for this they can thank Rahm Emanuel. John Batchelor gets the scoop from gleeful conservatives on the trail of Democratic destruction left by Obama’s bullying enforcer. Suddenly the disgraced and demoralized Republican Congress has an unearned future, thanks to the superhuman clumsiness of a man who has made himself indispensable to the Obama administration and insufferable to the Democratic Congress, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The GOP always knew that Emanuel was a problem that could not be solved and could only be endured while he served three tempestuous terms in the House. But now...

~snip On that last point, he states emphatically, "I love Sarah Palin, I love her positions, I think she was a good governor. . . . I want her to be engaged in this rebuilding of the Republican Party. . . . She is substantially more the face of this country than some other people who might want to be the face of the Republican Party. To me she's the face of America. I mean she's a hard worker, she didn't come from money, she didn't come from privilege, she just worked hard. . . . I have not seen...

Let's face it, the Democrats have been running circles around the Republicans for the last few years. If the GOP plans on regaining control of Washington, they need these 4 things... NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the cartoon within this thread. Thanks!

Recent polls show that conservatives outnumber liberals by around a 2-1 margin, close to a 40% to 20% spread. They also show however that democrats outnumber republicans by a similar, though smaller margin(1.5-1 or more in some polls). A recent Gallup poll showed that conservatives out number liberals in all 50 states. It's interesting in that there are way more democrats than liberals, but by the same token there are way fewer republicans than conservatives. It seems to me the way back for conservatives is pretty simple math. They need to either a)have te Republican Party do a better job...

What is the opponent's next move on health care? What does the public need to know to prepare for it? __________________________________________________ THAT is what the GOP does so badly. They never anticipate, predict, AND BROADCAST the opponent's next move. On health care, anyone could predict the left's progression of tactics: extremists, racist nazis, violent extremists, dis-informed. Now we've entered another stage: re-write history (like portraying Florida as flooded with thuggish protesters stealing an election). The left's next step will be to write "town hall" history on both sides. Never mind what you saw with your own eyes and never mind...

There’s a slight spring in the step of Republicans these days. President Obama is stumbling on health reform and his job approval rating is sinking. Suddenly, life in the wilderness doesn’t look so bleak to a GOP that got trounced in the last two elections and was, to some, staring possible extinction in the face. The party could well take two key governorships – New Jersey and Virginia – away from the Democrats in November. Recruiting for next year’s House, Senate, and gubernatorial races has gotten easier, in anticipation of midterm elections that historically favor the out-of-power party. Already, top...

CHICAGO – Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty took an aggressive line against President Barack Obama’s proposed health care overhaul Friday and insisted that a rejection of the Democratic plan could usher in a Republican resurgence. “It appears that President Obama is making great progress on climate change, he is changing the political climate in the country back to Republican,” Pawlenty said during a speech to the second annual GOPAC conference in Chicago. “He went around the country last fall promising ‘change we can believe in,’ but now we see it’s about changing what we believe in,” said Pawlenty, an anticipated...

At some point about five years ago, America became a “One-Party Country”—and the party in question was the GOP. Such, at least, was the conclusion of Los Angeles Times reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten in the book they wrote under that title following the 2004 presidential election. Bizarre as their claim may sound today, it stood on solid ground. In November 2004, George W. Bush had won re-election with the largest number of votes up to that point in American history while racking up the seventh Republican win in the previous 10 races for the White House. Republicans, moreover,...

The Republican Party became Humpty Dumpy in August 2006 and, by the 2008 election, all the king’s horses and men couldn’t put the cracked party together again. The question now is whether it’s time for the GOP to try getting back up on the wall. What if I told you that, while the party’s base is anxious for Republicans to begin crafting a positive message and start building support for 2010, to do so at this moment would be premature? Might even hinder its long-term efforts? Instead, the GOP should retain a crisp message of being champions of limited government,...

Despite California's sorry status as an economic basket case, some GOP voices are suggesting, ever so hopefully, that the Golden State could be poised for a new profile - as the birthplace of a potential renaissance for the Republican Party. And it could start at the top, some argue, with the 2010 campaign for governor. National conservative columnist George Will penned a gushing piece to that effect after he got a rare, close-up look at billionaire former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and her well-funded campaign to become the next Republican governor. "Although California is a blue state, it has had...

Two weeks after President Obama said that Cambridge, Mass., police had “acted stupidly” by arresting Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis Gates for arguing with them inside his home, Republicans are still taking stock of their unexpected political gift. A Pew Research poll released on July 30 found the president’s approval rating among white voters slipping seven points, from 53 percent to 46 percent, explicitly because of their disappointment in the Gates remarks. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released on August 4 found that six out of 10 white voters disagreed with the president’s remarks. A Quinnipiac poll released on August 6...

While hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in battles over President Barack Obama’s ambitious legislative agenda in Washington, underneath the radar some of the Republican Party’s next best hopes are laying the groundwork for the bid to replace him — or at least secure their place in the GOP hierarchy. Consider this: In the first half of 2009, Mitt Romney’s political committee paid $188,000 to a small army of consultants, Newt Gingrich’s dropped $628,000 on charter flights, Mike Huckabee’s wrote staff paychecks totaling $131,000 and Sarah Palin’s spent $107,000 raising more money. All four are considered potential presidential candidates,...

Consider this: In the first half of 2009, Mitt Romney’s political committee paid $188,000 to a small army of consultants, Newt Gingrich’s dropped $628,000 on charter flights, Mike Huckabee’s wrote staff paychecks totaling $131,000 and Sarah Palin’s spent $107,000 raising more money. All four are considered potential presidential candidates, and the flurry of campaign finance activity, outlined in reports filed late last month with the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, may hold clues about their prospects — and intentions. Each insist they’re using their efforts to help rebuild the party — and the conservative movement — after the...

More than two dozen Republican gubernatorial candidates converged Friday at an Idaho resort for a three-day session organized by the Republican Governors Association to lay out a strategy to rebuild the GOP for the 2010 election cycle. The Sun Valley event will feature sessions led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Michigan Gov. John Engler and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. It was the latest sign that the governors association and its chairman, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, were emerging as influential players in shaping a Republican comeback bid from disastrous losses in the past two election cycles. Mr. Barbour...

Sen. John McCain said he is saddened Sarah Palin has been the subject of "vicious attacks" but said his former GOP running mate has a promising future in the Republican Party. In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," McCain said he believes Palin made the right decision by stepping down from her post as Alaska's governor 18 months before her first term was up and said he was upset that the ex-veep candidate continues to be the victim of searing criticism. "I respect Sarah Palin," McCain said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I appreciate her and her...

July 20, 2009 | Republicans can engage in complicated studies to determine the standing of our brand. We (after all, I most certainly am a Republican) can search for policy positions that better connect us to the concerns of voters. We can do any number of things to try to change our fortunes. Until we come to grips with some fundamental math, however, the numbers simply do not add up to the GOP prevailing in a national election any time soon. In 1976, 90 percent of the votes cast in the presidential election came from non-Hispanic whites. In 2008, John...