Free Republic

The news that Fox News’s Neil Cavuto will be one of the moderators for this week’s Republican presidential debate should reassure anyone fearing a replay of last month’s CNBC debacle. Mr. Cavuto was known in New York Sun newsroom as “The Great Cavuto.” The other moderators who will be participating — the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Baker and Fox Business News’s Maria Bartiromo — are no slouches, either. But in case any of the three need any last-minute inspiration, here are some questions that are from by my own reporting in New Hampshire and that might be illuminating to see...

Donald Trump and Ben Carson remain the leaders in the Republican presidential field, both in California and nationally, but two freshman senators, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, have moved into a solid second tier, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows. Complete results of the poll, looking at voter attitudes one year ahead of the 2016 election, as well as the race on the Democratic side, will be released on Sunday. The poll, conducted online by SurveyMonkey, surveyed 2,009 voters in California and 3,035 nationwide. It has an error estimate of plus or minus 3...

As J. Christian Adams reported yesterday, Politico published an article on Friday claiming that Ben Carson’s campaign “admitted” he lied about being offered a “full government scholarship” to West Point. My colleague pointed out that Politico’s reporting was sloppy, but the same goes – he argued – for the campaign’s response. The point seems to be: Politico’s article isn’t entirely fair, but Carson’s response and exaggerations mean he’s not ready for the spotlight. Although Carson’s campaign certainly made a mistake by responding to Politico’s inquiries the way they did – they kept it too vague – the fact of the...

One of the benefits of being 91 is you don’t have to hold back anymore—you can say what you want. And in a new biography, former President George H.W. Bush tells Jon Meacham just what he thinks about Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld’s work in his son’s administration, as reported by Fox News and The New York Times. “He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with,” the elder Bush said of the man who served as his secretary of defense. “Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys...

The race for endorsements among Republican presidential candidates has been a slow one since we began keeping track of the endorsement primary earlier this year. Jeb Bush has sat atop our leaderboard, but many of his endorsements came before he officially announced his candidacy, and he's received only three since Labor Day -- all from House members. But this week, Marco Rubio has shown signs of momentum, picking up endorsements from three fellow senators, including one today from Sen. James E. Risch of Idaho. In contrast to Bush's 3 endorsement points since Labor Day, Rubio has received 22 -- by...

Comedian and longtime conservative Jackie Mason sounded off on the Republican presidential field in a radio interview Sunday, jesting Ben Carson “looks like he’s falling asleep” and “brilliant” Carly Fiorina may just be too cerebral. On Carson, Mason quipped: “Every time you see him, he looks like he either fell asleep or he’s trying to fall asleep. Everybody else is looking for a job. He looks like he’s looking for a place to lie down for an hour.”

On Tuesday, at the voting booth, America took a hard turn in the Republican direction. In race after race and state after state, the big winners at the ballot box were Republican candidates and Republican principles. I know why. It’s because the Democrat brand sucks. It’s because Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and any number of their hangers on have turned their party into something hostile to the beliefs and lives of an increasing number of Americans. Let me give you some examples. The Democrat Party is the party of people who hate the cops. If you think cops are...

Hillary Clinton lies to the country for 11 hours, and the Democratic Party rallies around her while she declares victory. None of the Americans murdered because of her incompetence were brought back to life and none of the families lied to about a YouTube video were comforted, but still she turned that into the best week ever. Republicans, on the other hand, had a golden opportunity and they blew it. After the CNBC debate and the bias it laid bare, the field was united. The party was united. There was an opportunity to change, maybe even revolutionize the debate process....

Although Kentucky had elected only one Republican governor in the last four decades, Tea Party favorite Matt Bevin handily defeated Democrat Jack Conway yesterday. The off-year election, one of many state and local contests held Tuesday ‎across the country, was seen by some as a test for outsider candidates at a time when several such candidates are seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Bevin, who has run as an outsider ever since he unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell last year, was declared the winner over state Attorney General Conway in the gubernatorial race shortly after polls closed Tuesday evening. The victory...

The Republican race for president appears headed to be a battle between four men: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. Although Rubio is known as a potential favorite of the establishment, he’s also seen as someone who can bridge the gap with the conservative base, thereby uniting the party as a whole. That sure sounds great, but now there’s a problem for conservatives even larger than Rubio’s history with promoting policies that allow amnesty: His commitment to the rule of law, no matter the issue. n a little-noticed interview earlier this year with Univision’s Jorge “Borders Are...

During the recent No Labels-hosted Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire, things got a little uncomfortable. When Joseph Choe, an Asian-American college student, stood up to ask a question about South Korea, Donald Trump cut him off and wondered aloud: “Are you from South Korea?” Choe responded, “I’m not. I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado.” His answer prompted laughter from the audience, and nothing more than a shrug from the GOP presidential candidate.

The Republican presidential candidates talked a lot about their tax plans at last week’s debate, but most of the conversation was not very illuminating. Here are some details you may have missed about the candidates who did mention plans. TED CRUZ He noted his just-announced tax plan involved “the lowest personal rate any candidate up here has.” That’s true: His plan calls for a 10 percent flat personal income tax rate. But that’s not where his plan gets most of its tax revenue. The biggest tax in his plan is a 16 percent value added tax. Mr. Cruz describes this...

Danny Diaz did not have much to say to his fellow campaign managers. The man behind Jeb Bush's presidential campaign was a surprise arrival at Sunday night's emergency meeting; after all, it was a brainchild of former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the latest outsider candidate to surge past the once-dominant Bush campaign in the polls. Diaz even managed to avoid the reporters staking out the Hilton Alexandria Old Town, chasing anybody who showed up for what had been code-named "family meeting."

Question: when do you know that a campaign is in trouble? Answer: when it stops emphasizing its own message, and starts attacking its rivals. Case in point: Team Jeb! Bush wants to open a full frontal attack on Marco Rubio, the young senator from Florida. At least, that’s what the U.S. News & World Report says. This website got its hands on a presentation that Jeb and his cohorts used to convince Jeb’s donors to stick by their guy, even though he’s trailing in the polls. "Additionally, while the slides released to the media outlined Bush’s overarching argument against Florida...

Just in time for Halloween, CNBC and the Republican Party treated us to the latest, and perhaps final, episode of The Walking Jeb. After Wednesday’s debate, many are wondering if Jeb can continue or if Marco Rubio delivered the headshot that would put a zombie out of his misery. In popular lore, there are many names for these creatures, such as walkers, biters, the infected, etc., but never zombies; even though we all know that is what they are. The reason for this is that in the shows and movies, George Romero never made Night of the Living Dead. These...

In a rare late-night session, the Senate gave final approval to an ambitious budget and debt deal early Friday, sending it to President Barack Obama to sign. The final vote on passage was 64-35, as Democrats joined forces with Republican defense hawks over the objections of GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, all of whom voted against the deal. The bill is aimed at averting a debt default, avoiding a partial government shutdown and setting spending priorities for the next two years. Earlier in Friday's session, the Senate voted 63-35 to end debate on the measure....

Yesterday’s debate was probably the most important debate thus far — and not only because the moderators did such a bad job that even liberal journalists are criticizing them. No, the main thing I take away from it is the rise of two young senators: Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida. As my colleague Walter Hudson writes, Cruz’s big moment came when he blasted the moderators — and the mainstream media in general — for being biased against Republicans. [VIDEO] Frank Luntz’s focus group showed a 98/98 positive response to this exchange: a score Luntz had never...

And by “other candidates,” I think we know which particular candidate they have in mind.Here’s the key bit from yesterday’s presser in Boulder, held just a mile away from tonight’s debate. Step one: Pronounce Trump persona non grata among Hispanic Republicans. That may or may not actually be true among rank-and-file voters, but the threat here doesn’t bite without that assumption, does it? “We want candidates to know: We’re monitoring your language. We are monitoring what you propose. And we’re going to hold you accountable,” said Alfonso Aguilar, head of the American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership…Although she did not...

Tonight’s debate will feature a number of real presidential contenders, and a greater number of people who should drop out already. There are six candidates in the Republican primary who deserve to be there for various reasons. Donald Trump, because he’s a giant political kaiju, tearing through Tokyo with abandon. While ultimately vulnerable, until he’s brought down, he’s tremendously powerful. Jeb Bush, because love him or hate him, he’s still got fat stacks and a big network. Marco Rubio, because he’s the greatest natural politician in the field, and if you think calling him “the Republican Obama” is an effective...

With every new betrayal by the Washington GOPe, there are more and more who echo George Wallace's phrase in his 1968 third party run, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties." Wallace was mostly right, and profoundly wrong in one sense. As a historian, it's only natural I turn to history to review the founding of the two major parties, because it is important. The modern day Democrat Party had its origins in the election of 1824. At the time, there was only one political party---I kid you not---the "Democratic Republicans," a progeny of Thomas Jefferson's...