Free Republic

Pelosi endorses Rep. Jackson for reelectionBy Jordy Yager - 02/18/12 12:24 PM ET Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has endorsed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), whose reelection bid has been plagued by an ethics investigation. Pelosi joins President Obama and several other top Democrats in their endorsement of the Chicago lawmaker as he goes up against former Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) in a fierce primary battle next month. Though Halvorson has raised only one-fifth the amount of money that Jackson has, she has waged a relentless campaign against the incumbent lawmaker, frequently pointing to the House Ethics Committee’s ongoing...

Attention Seattle area Freepers and America lovers: Obama will land in Marine One on the Northwest University athletic fields in Kirkland, WA at 11 AM Friday Feb. 17. He will have lunch with Bill Gates and buddies at 12 PM at the Westin Hotel in Bellevue to extort money for his re-election. I think that he will fly way about 2:15 PM from Northwest U. campus, which means he will be returning before 2 PM. The university is getting no payment for the huge inconvenience of jamming our wireless, moving classes and parking. 55th street runs east west bordering the...

First lady Michelle Obama was in Dallas Friday to judge a Top Chef cooking competition as part of her three-day Let's Move national tour. Obama joined White House chef Sam Kass and "Top Chef" host Tom Colicchio as judges in a televised competition that paired child sous-chefs with professional chef — all former contestants on the Bravo television show. Fabio Viviani, Jennifer Carroll and Spike Mendelsohn were the celebrity chef contestants. "Are you guys fired up?" Obama asked the kids before the event started. "The whole point of this is making sure you're healthy." At the end of the 30...

Let’s stipulate that this is purely conjecture. OK. But can you remember or find an instance in the history of the United States when voters changed presidents during a war? Go ahead and look it up. No, LBJ and Vietnam didn’t meet that test. He quit. He wasn’t voted out...

The January jobs report is out and it seems pretty strong, at least superficially. The unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent, the lowest rate since February 2009. And the economy added 243,000 jobs, the most since April 2011.But does anyone believe an "official" unemployment rate of 8.3 percent really gives an accurate picture of the U.S. labor market? Even though the unemployment rate fell, so did the labor force participation rate (as more Americans became discouraged and gave up looking for work). Here’s what that means:1. If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share...

The open-borders crowd just can’t believe it. After all the trumped-up “investigations”, the race-baiting by Obama officials and La Raza activists, the politically-driven charges by the Department of Justice… Sheriff Joe is running for another term. That’s right. “America’s Toughest Sheriff” refuses to quit, refuses to knuckle under or stop doing his job protecting the people of Maricopa County – the 4th most populous county in America – from illegal invaders and criminal aliens. And Sheriff Joe is also staying on the job for ALL Americans. Because Arpaio's office - a single sheriff's office - apprehends a staggering 25% of...

It's finger-shakin' timeWe normally don’t comment on blogs in the neighborhood, but this one was too sweet to ignore. Some fella named Prevatt over at some blog called TheLiberalOC.com took exception to our characterization of the angry fellow in the White House as being, well, angry. Our post was titled “Obama the Angry,” for reasons pretty much apparent to anyone with ears to hear. But Mr. Prevatt said that we went on, “to promote the stereotype of the ‘angry black man’ to describe the president’s” State of the Union speech. Stereotype of an angry black man? . . .

When President Barack Obama promised this week to open 75 percent of potential offshore gas and oil resources to drilling and praised the controversial fracking method for extracting untapped oil reserves on land, a collective shudder went through his green constituency. Welcome to election-year rhetoric. The green lobby is learning what other loyal Democratic Party constituencies have learned about being taken for granted. Like blacks and union members before them, the green lobby is discovering that, despite promises to champion their cause, reelection campaign rhetoric commands higher priority. It's safe for the president to offend loyalists. To whom would they...

President Obama: I’m going to win reelectionBy Amie Parnes - 01/26/12 07:07 PM ET President Obama said in no-uncertain terms on Thursday that he will win his re-election campaign in November. Asked by ABC News’s Diane Sawyer if he was going to win, Obama replied: “Yes.” He also told Sawyer he would "fight with every fiber of my being" for a second term. "How much do you want it?" Sawyer asked Obama in the interview. "Badly," Obama said. "Because I think the country needs it." Just a few months ago Obama described himself as an underdog in the 2012 election....

UPDATED: Gov. Bev Perdue is expected to announce today that she will not seek a second term as governor, two sources close to the Democrat's campaign tell The News & Observer. Perdue is expected to make an announcement this afternoon, a N.C. Democratic Party spokesman said. Her campaign aides began telling top Democrats in the past 24 hours. Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella could not be reached for comment.

During the State of the Union speech last night we had the TV turned up very loud so I could hear the speech while following along in the released transcript on my computer screen and taking notes at the keyboard while simultaneously roughing a draft of our editorial today. Let him make this perfectly clear... During the 65 minutes he spoke, I developed something of a headache. It seemed to me the president virtually shouted his entire speech. . .

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

Poll: Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama's ReelectionJanuary 9, 2012 When it comes to how Americans view President Obama going into the new year, there appears to be very little spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Instead, according to the new Washington Whispers poll, many voters aren't forgetting what they dislike about Obama and want him out office. In our New Year's poll, when asked what news event they fear most about 2012, Americans by a margin of two-to-one said Obama's reelection. Only 16 percent said they fear the Democrat won't win a second term, while 33 percent said they fear four more...

HONOLULU (AP) — With an eye on the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama is wrapping up a low-key Hawaiian vacation and planning to quickly get back in front of voters as he ratchets up his bid for re-election. The president and his family are scheduled to leave the island of Oahu Monday evening after a 10-day vacation. Air Force One will touch down in Washington Tuesday morning, just hours before Republican presidential candidates square off in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2012 campaign. After more than a week out of the spotlight, Obama plans to make...

If President Obama reaches a 50 percent approval rating by March, he’ll be in good shape for re-election, a panel of pollsters and election observers said today. Since the middle of July, the weekly average of Obama’s approval rating has been between 40 and 43 percent, according to Gallup, which organized the panel for the media. The pollsters pointed to two recent presidents who didn’t earn a second term to make the case for the importance of a 50-percent threshold: Just before Election Day, George H.W. Bush had a 34 percent rating, and Jimmy Carter was at 37 percent. Victors,...

Despite being heckled and shot at by members of the Occupy protests that have sprung up in various locations around the country, President Obama says they “are the reason I ran for office.” “I can’t dispute the view that corporate greed is what is dragging this country down,” the President said. “And I can’t really blame these protesters for their opposition to the current economic system. But I’m asking them to take a broader perspective.” The president acknowledged that “my taking money from Wall Street for my campaign looks bad. Surely, though, this has got to be the lesser of...

How the tables have turned. One year out from the election the Obama team is apparently worried enough about their chances at reelection that the President's top advisors secretly met with former President Bill Clinton in Harlem last week to seek out his advice.

Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA, On Delay of Keystone XL Pipeline Construction Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2011) – Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – made the following statement today in response to the U.S. State Department delay of the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline: Environmentalists formed a circle around the White House and within days the Obama Administration chose to inflict a potentially fatal delay to a project that is not just a pipeline, but is a lifeline for thousands of desperate working men and women. The...

Obama delays Keystone decision until after 2012 reelection bidBy Ben Geman - 11/10/11 05:54 PM ET The Obama administration announced Thursday it would delay a politically explosive decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline until after the 2012 elections. The pipeline is especially treacherous waters for President Obama because it splits key elements of his base. While green groups oppose it, several major unions are pushing for approval. Keystone had become a serious thorn in Obama’a side, with environmental groups warning they’d feel betrayed if the pipeline moved forward. Business groups and unions had heralded the thousands of...

President Obama and his team are quite optimistic they will win reelection in 2012, notwithstanding the bad poll numbers he is facing and the absolute collapse of confidence with Washington and indeed the American economy. There are a number of reasons why the president and his advisers are so optimistic. First, it is his judgment that with the horse race now tied for president, he has managed to weather the storm of a declining economy and declining confidence much better than he, or frankly most observers, would have expected. (SNIP) But what heartens the president's advisers is they believe they...

Obama’s collective team faces a daunting task to get their man elected for four more years. Some have discounted Obama’s chances in 2012 since he is such an ineffectual leader. But they forget one thing; Obama is a master campaigner. They forget he won the presidency in 2008 when the only record was a short one in the senate of primarily voting present. So how did he do it and how can he repeat it in 2012?

President Barack Obama’s new senior campaign adviser is a longtime Wall Street lobbyist, and has the potential to damage the president’s aspirations to appeal to the protesters currently “occupying” New York City’s Zuccotti Park. Obama’s new adviser, Broderick Johnson, has an extensive history of lobbying for big banks and corporations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2007, he lobbied for JP Morgan Chase and in 2008 Johnson lobbied for Bank of America and Fannie Mae. From 2008 through 2010, he lobbied for Comcast and in 2011 he lobbied for Microsoft. Johnson is currently a partner at D.C.-based communications...

Barack Obama is campaigning for both his jobs bill and his re-election on a three-day bus tour beginning Monday through North Carolina and Virginia, two southern states crucial for his chances in next November's election. ... on a $1.1 million bus purchased by the Secret Service... The effect is a campaign-style trip that allows the president to engage in a little retail politics, while also garnering the national media coverage typically afforded only to a sitting president.

I was part of a panel a few days ago on politics, culture and the media. And the first question put to us was right to the point: “Can Barack Obama win re-election?” Political guru Dick Morris, Tea Party unofficial leader Dick Armey, a scholar from the Heritage Foundation all said no. It’s tough to argue with that. President Obama’s approval ratings are not good and most Americans think we’re on the wrong track. He’s lost support from his key constituents, including Jewish voters and African-Americans. Worst of all for the president, independents who supported him in 2008 have jumped...

The disease that is the unmistakable sign of a president on the cusp of losing his re-election to the Land of Oz that is a second term in the White House. A looming loss always signaled by the telltale barking dogs of American politics. What is Barking Dog Syndrome? What sets the dogs off? For that matter -- just who are these barking dogs in the first place?

It’s April 20, 2010, and let me call it now – President Barack Obama will easily win re-election in 2012. Any discussion you hear about the 2012 presidential election is just a way to wile away the hours between the next Lindsay Lohan and/or Kim Kardashian news. There’s three indisputable reasons to call this race so early: 1) The economy will be better in 2011 than it is now. It’s almost impossible not to improve the economy after eight years of George W. Bush’s mad and often confusing slay-the-beast onslaught. It was as if the kids from “Jersey Shore” were...

One of President Barack Obama's harshest Hispanic critics on immigration policy Tuesday signalled that the president and the Latino leaders finally are getting back on the same page. In a Chicago press conference, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, strongly backed a recent White House move to focus deportations on those convicted of felonies, ending action against illegal immigrants who have otherwise lived here without crossing the law. In a written statement, Mr. Gutierrez said the action will "move us in the right direction." But Mr. Gutierrez went much further at the press conference when asked about the policy shift. "This...

Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012: 49.6%

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama turns his attention to campaign politics Monday night, as he headlines two events for the Democratic National Committee and his re-election campaign. According to the White House schedule, the president first attends a gathering of approximately 140 guests at a private residence in the nation's capital. A DNC official says proceeds from the $15,000 per family gathering ...

As I mentioned in the OOTD today, Barack Obama promised a new focus on jobs for about the 15th time in less than three years, shortly after the conclusion of the debt-ceiling deal. As part of that new focus, Obama plans a bus tour — an unusual mode of travel for an American President, but SOP for a presidential candidate working the crowds to bolster support. But when White House reporters quizzed press secretary Jay Carney about whether Obama or taxpayers would foot the bill for this whirlwind tour, Carney responded that “the air of cynicism is quite thick,” as...

It might be “the economy, stupid,” but radicalism on the right will doom Republicans’ chances at the presidency. It’s not hard to find signs that President Barack Obama is destined for a single term. Unemployment continues to hover at 9 percent, and a June poll from American Research Group says 39 percent of Americans disapprove of how he has handled the economy, which 71 percent of registered voters say will be “extremely or very important.” When asked whom they’d vote for in the 2012 presidential election, 47 percent said the “Republican Party’s candidate for president,” as opposed to the 39...

President Obama's vast campaign operation raked in $86 million for his reelection and for the Democratic Party during the last three months, breaking previous records with a total far greater than those posted by his potential Republican opponents in the 2012 election. Initially, the Obama campaign had set a goal of raising $60 million. Republican candidates combined are expected to raise less than $35 million this quarter. The Obama amount points to the advantages of incumbency in fundraising, and to the staggering cost of the coming election, which this year will feature a new, powerful role for independent groups that...

A recent New York Times story ricocheted around the political community after opening with this revelatory sentence: “No American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent.�There is the magic number! If unemployment is higher than 7.2% as we head into the general election in 2012, we know President Obama is a goner. If it is lower, Obama gets an encore term. Can it really be this simple?First, note the necessary qualifier, “since FDR.� That is because Roosevelt was reelected to the White House in 1936...

Americans won't cast their votes in the next presidential election based on the unemployment rate, President Obama's top political adviser said. Some political observers have voiced skepticism of President Obama's reelection prospects given the 9.1 percent unemployment rate. That's a higher unemployment rate than any president who has won reelection since World War.

U.S. wants Seoul to try harder for talks Source: ‘No attempt’ to involve the North June 27, 2011 Despite reaffirming that inter-Korean talks should precede the resumption of six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization - a call directed at the North - the U.S. is exerting pressure on South Korea to do its part to improve inter-Korean relations, a diplomatic source in Washington told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. The reaffirmation of Seoul-Washington coordination came during a meeting in Washington on Friday between South Korea’s foreign minister and high-ranking officials in the U.S. Department of State, including Secretary of State Hillary...

 Sums-it-right-up in 3 mins:everybody who votes needs to see this... well done: [YouTube] or video/more at Reaganite Republican If we can just get this guy to do one on Romney now we'll be all set lolh/t Speedunque

[...] Obama's campaign said in a posting on its website that he will tweet regularly from the popular social media service and his personal tweets will be signed "-BO."

Any notion that President Obama’s reelection campaign was gaining momentum was shaken this week by a string of worrisome economic reports showing weakness in the job market and new lows for housing prices. The bad news for Obama stood in contrast to a run of positive developments that had given many Democrats reason for confidence. The economy had been adding jobs at a steady clip. A president once accused of being weak on national security ordered the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. And several potentially strong Republican presidential candidates took a pass on the race....

It's almost comical. Eighteen months away from an election, which will ultimately determine America's course for the next decade, and both the Elites and the Democrats have already hedged the entire outcome on the premise of One Very evil Man's violent death. It gets even better, however, because Bin Laden's demise, at the ostensible command of the Liberal Elite in Chief, being President Barack Obama, may have marked the first time that the Progressive Democrats actually agreed and even heartily approved of Capital Punishment, even though it was delivered summarily by a heinous bullet manufactured by the Right within the...

An insider with President Obama's re-election campaign says it is not digging into Chris Christie's past to find dirt on the New Jersey governor but did not deny that somebody loyal to the president may be. An Obama 2012 campaign source told Fox News that the campaign is not involved in efforts described in a New York Post story published Monday that says Obama operatives are "compiling a dossier" of material that could be used to damage Christie if he does a 180-degree shift and decides to run for president. (snip) An Obama 2008 insider told Fox News that such...

On InTrade -- the prediction market site where people bet on various outcomes -- the odds Obama is re-elected exploded higher last night after the news of Osama Bin Laden's capture and death. Check it out. And this is the point where serious political analysts say things like: Well, it's a long way until the election and that it's ultimately the economy that will decide things. And there's probably some validity to that. But obviously this was a huge moment for the President, and the contrast he can draw -- working on this plan for months -- compared to the...

"Congressional reapportionment after the 2010 census has already taken six electoral votes from states Mr. Obama carried. But the breadth of his 2008 victory gives Democrats some encouragement. Even if the president cannot repeat his breakthroughs in Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, he could win a 273-vote electoral majority by holding all of the other states he carried. The White House counts on Republican overreaching to help do that, despite the struggling economy. By highlighting partisan differences on immigration, Democratic strategists see the possibility of expanding Mr. Obama’s 67 percent showing among Hispanics, which helped deliver Colorado, Nevada...

The most important thing is justice is served and gratitude to our military for the hard work they achieved in getting Osama. But libs on the networks are talking about political victory for Obama and game changers for his reelections anybody remember Bush and his 90% approval because of the Gulf War swift victory? It fell apart because of the falling economy In a few weeks if gas prices go up higher...any bump in Obama approval or U.S. euphoria which we ALL should be glad about will fall apart.

Passover recalls the bondage and suffering of Jews in Egypt and the miracle of the Exodus, the unique redemption whose goal was a G-d given way of life to be led in the Holy Land, but U.S. President Barack Obama says its message is reflected in MUSLEN uprisings. In his annual message, prior to his third straight participation in the Passover Seder, President Obama stated, “The story of Passover…instructs each generation to remember its past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails. This year that ancient instruction is reflected in the daily headlines as we see...

You remember Bill Maher’s July 27, 2009 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer where Maher call the American people stupid? We’ve found them, we’ve found Maher’s stupid Americans. They are the stupid U.S. citizens and illegal aliens who will be voting in support of Barry Hussein Soetoro for president in 2012. Soetoro has launch his 2012 campaign directly appealing to them. These Bill Maher identified stupid people will be voting for a president who himself thinks that they are stupid. Of course he thinks these Americans are stupid, if he didn't think that he wouldn't run in 2012. He has nothing...

Pro-Abortion President Obama Launches Bid for Re-Election Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama today announced he will seek-another term as president, where he has advance the promotion and funding of abortion and pro-abortion groups at am alarming rate. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/04/pro-abortion-president-obama-launches-bid-for-re-election/

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is getting ready to make one of Washington's worst kept secrets official: He wants a second term. Democratic officials familiar with the plan say Obama will file 2012 campaign papers with the Federal Election Commission as early as this coming week. It's a long-anticipated but formal step that will allow him to start raising money for the campaign, which will be based in Chicago. The fundraising effort has begun. Obama raised $1.5 million at a Democratic fundraiser in New York City this past week and he'll headline events in the coming weeks in Chicago,...

It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for President Obama to win reelection, one of his top Republican critics said Thursday. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the tenacious chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his top goal is to work with the administration to revive the economy. And if Obama were to win another term as a byproduct, so be it. "I hope we can do that together," Issa said of job-creation efforts. "I probably still won't vote for him, but I certainly wouldn't feel bad if Americans were working again, and he did get...

As President Barack Obama prepares for Tuesday's State of the Union address -- considered by many to be the real kickoff of his 2012 presidential campaign -- a group of vocal progressive activists have launched what they promise is an aggressive campaign to fight his re-election. The group of 150 liberal activists, authors, and academics -- including Code Pink's co-founder Medea Benjamin and author Daniel Ellsberg -- Tuesday released a petition announcing early opposition to Obama's re-nomination by Democrats. Many of the names included are Greens and indies, not necessarily Democrats themselves, but they said they intend to "actively seek...

Is anyone really surprised that Hawaii's new governor, Neil Abercrombie, was unable to produce the promised Obama long-form birth certificate? No matter how Abercrombie's words are parsed or interpreted or spun, the fact is, there is no new evidence -- just a story about a supposedly well-intentioned but bungling Hawaiian governor, prohibited from access to the certificate because of Hawaii's privacy laws, who must cease the search before he finds himself labeled another "vexatious requester." The only thing I've found surprising lately was Chris Matthews' tacit admission that a real long-form is indeed an additional document that Obama should present....