Free Republic

Tenth farking place. Three months ago, I would have told you that a midwestern evangelical governor with Scott Walker’s record could stay home in Wisconsin and never campaign and still do no worse than, say, third in Iowa. Remember, this is supposed to be Walker’s must-win early state. Donald Trump has the support of 27 percent of Iowa likely Republican Caucus participants, with 21 percent for Ben Carson and 9 percent for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to the results of a July 1 survey by the independent Quinnipiac...

Republican Donald Trump isn’t going away anytime soon, I now believe. That assessment doesn’t mean I think Trump is the favorite for the Iowa caucuses or the GOP nomination, but it does reflect a fundamental shift in my thinking. I can no longer say that with any certainty, though it remains the single most likely outcome. Trump’s favorable rating jumped from 27 percent in the May Selzer & Company’s Iowa Poll for the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics to 61 percent in the August 23-25 Selzer survey. At the same time, his unfavorable rating dropped from 63 percent to...

Joining Lou Dobbs earlier this week, Former Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked to explain his stance on illegal immigration and border security. “I think we need to flesh everyone out from the stand point of of just the rhetoric. When somebody says, ‘let’s build a wall,’ then I think it’s appropriate to say, it’s good to have this conversation, it’s good that we are having this conversation that now for thirty years, this border has not been secured. We’ve known it’s been a problem,” said Perry. Dobbs interjected that he doesn’t believe a single candidate talking about immigration issues...

Two Labor Day Polls Portend ‘Splodey Heads For The Anti-Trump Advocates…. Earlier today Gallup released a poll showing that Trump is the most heavily favored candidate (63% Approval Rating) amid Republicans. A devastating defeat for the establishment GOP (GOPe) who are seeking to push their preferred candidate Jeb Bush. Such substantive favorable opinion of candidate Trump puts the RNC/GOPe in a difficult position as they plot to begin their collective assault against the unpalatable frontrunner. But tonight the news for the Vichy Republican crowd is infinite degrees worse. As they plot the best course of Trump’s annihilation – national polls...

Donald Trump will hold a major rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on September 14th. aa center The center holds 21,000 for concerts. The Dallas Morning News reported: “ Real estate tycoon Donald Trump is staging what could be an enormous campaign rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. “He’s excited about coming to Dallas,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. “He’s looking forward to it.” The September 14 event is free to the public, and will mark Trump’s first major event in North Texas since he announced his bid for president. Trump, the front-runner for the...

Former governor gets little attention AUSTIN — Former Gov. Rick Perry started out with flair. Not even a felony indictment could keep down his campaign spirit as he went after the presidency. He can boast being the longest-serving governor of one of the largest, most prosperous states in the union, one who called down border guards to address a national crisis, and one with the message that his state’s economic prosperity could be modeled and put into practice for the nation at large. Yet several months after his June 4 presidential campaign launch, he is floundering. A recent Public Policy...

Streets filled with parked cars, rally attendeesTed Cruz, Rick Perry, Tim Scott address crowd COLUMBIA, SC - Thousands of people are on hand at South Carolina’s State House for the We Stand with God, Pro-Family Rally. Former Texas governor Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott have addressed the crowd. Ted Cruz also spoke at Saturday’s event, which began at 11 a.m. Cruz said he would push for a constitutional amendment to protect states’ same-sex marriage bans. He also railed against the Planned Parenthood videos that allegedly show staffers talking about selling fetal tissue. He said on his first day...

In a challenging field of competitors, Fox News Channel’s Andrew Napolitano has a strong entry for the most laughable legal analysis of the Indiana religious-freedom law. In an April Fool’s Day op-ed that he evidently means to be taken seriously, Napolitano argues that state Religious Freedom Restoration Act laws are unconstitutional. Napolitano’s core claim is that the Supreme Court, in its 1997 ruling in Boerne v. Flores, ruled that the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act is unconstitutional. In Boerne the Court ruled that Congress lacked the constitutional power to apply the federal RFRA against the states. Napolitano accurately summarizes...

The Quinnipiac University poll, released Thursday, also shows Donald Trump smashing the GOP presidential competition garnering 28% support from registered Republican voters in the 17-member field. The real estate mogul's closest competitor is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who tallies 12%. Just 7% said they would vote for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a record low since November 2013. Those results show just how far both Trump -- now the Republican front-runner -- and Bush -- the old one -- have come. Bush led national polls for much of the first half of 2015, but was quickly dislodged by Trump, after...

Republican legislators have gotten their messaging instructions from their top leaders: Tout unpopular free-trade measures during the August recess, ignore popular curbs on the migration that saps Americans’ wages. Breitbart News has exclusively obtained an internal August recess messaging instruction set for Republican legislators produced by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) 52% , who orchestrates the GOP Senators’ PR pitch. This 20-page messaging instruction manual seems to confirm prior reports by Breitbart News that Republican Congressional leadership has no plans to enact popular immigration reforms to curb large-scale migration. Each August, Senators and Congressmen return home to listen to constituents’ concerns...

No one ever assumed the Republican presidential nomination was going to be smooth sailing, with 17 announced candidates ranging from all walks of public and private life vying for the prize. But the candidacy, and we use that term loosely, of Donald Trump has changed the landscape in a way few could have imagined. Trump’s presence thus far has muted the inevitability of establishment star Jeb Bush — a good thing, in our estimation, despite the insistence of some Trump supporters that our criticism of The Donald automatically means we favor the heir to the Bush Dynasty. Unfortunately, it has...

Ben Turner: Yes In the Republican Party’s "autopsy" of why they lost the 2012 presidential election, they noted a need for the party to reach out to minorities and younger voters, two groups they had limited support from. Little did they know, they would have not one but two young Hispanic candidates competing for their party’s nomination in 2016. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are not only the same age and Hispanic — their entire biographies are remarkably similar. Both Cruz and Rubio claim Cuban ancestry, both have law degrees and both served in state politics before running for and...

GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee is doing quite well according to two national polls conducted after the first GOP presidential primary debate. One poll has Huckabee in second place behind GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and another poll has Huckabee listed with the highest favorability rating among 15 GOP presidential candidates; however, former neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson takes the highest net favorability rating when comparing the results in totality. A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted August 21-25 has Huckabee in second behind Trump – the only two candidates with double digits in that poll: Donald Trump – 30.1 percent Mike Huckabee –...

A new national poll out today by OANN and Gravis Marketing has Trump up to 40%, his YUGEST lead ever over his Republican contenders. Here’s how each candidate rated: oann_trump_forty While Carson’s lead more than doubled, he’s still a distant second place with the rest of the GOP field behind him. Not that Jeb lost a bit as both Cruz and Fiorina gained. Here’s the info on the poll: Gravis Marketing, a nonpartisan research firm, conducted a random survey of 3,567 registered voters across the U.S. regarding the presidential election. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2%....

Republican Presidential Candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told a group at a Florida rally about his Texas border trip and explained why a border wall wouldn’t be practical or conservative. Bush returned to the friendly turf of the Sunshine State on Wednesday, with a town hall style meeting in Pensacola. Pensacola is a solidly conservative town in the Florida panhandle. He spoke of his experience as the state’s former governor, but only answered a single question about the Border Crisis. “I went to McAllen, Texas, in Hildago County, last week and met with the Mayors, the County Judge,...

Texas Governor Rick Perry's former chairman Sam Clovis has joined forces with Donald Trump as the race to become the Republican Party's presidential nominee got its first defection last night. Clovis, an influential Conservative activist, college professor and talk-show host is now a member of Trump's team. In a sign that the GOP front-runner is being taken seriously on the campaign trail, Clovis, has become national co-chair and senior policy adviser for the Property tycoon turned politician. Earlier this week, Clovis quit the Perry campaign, after hinting that it was facing a host of difficulties. The Trump campaign relished announcing...

PPP's new New Hampshire poll finds Donald Trump in the strongest position of any poll we've done anywhere since he entered the race. Trump laps the Republican field with 35% to 11% for John Kasich, 10% for Carly Fiorina, 7% each for Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, 6% for Ben Carson, 4% each for Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, and 3% for Rand Paul. Candidates falling outside the top ten in the state are Rick Perry at 2%, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Rick Santorum at 1%, and Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal all at less...

Ron Paul revels in the fact that he is the presidential candidate of America's small donors, receiving more contributions under $200 than any other Republican seeking the White House in 2012. But, like every other GOP presidential contender, he also has a mega-millionaire "sugar daddy" helping to fund a super PAC that is promoting Paul's candidacy. Yet while Newt Gingrich underwriter Sheldon Adelson and Rick Santorum super-supporter Foster Friess have shared the campaign stage - and the national political spotlight - with their candidates, Paul's benefactor, San Francisco entrepreneur Peter Thiel, has never met the Texas congressman he's aiding.

Ron Paul revels in the fact that he is the presidential candidate of America's small donors, receiving more contributions under $200 than any other Republican seeking the White House in 2012.But, like every other GOP presidential contender, he also has a mega-millionaire "sugar daddy" helping to fund a super PAC that is promoting Paul's candidacy.Yet while Newt Gingrich underwriter Sheldon Adelson and Rick Santorum super-supporter Foster Friess have shared the campaign stage - and the national political spotlight - with their candidates, Paul's benefactor, San Francisco entrepreneur Peter Thiel, has never met the Texas congressman he's aiding.Who is this mystery...

Weekly calls between the Paul and Romney campaigns This entire stream, uploaded this Thursday from Mark Levin, is very important, but be sure to catch what he plays at the 7:04 mark. It is from a recent "Morning Joe," telecast. at YouTube, "Mark Levin Helps the American People more than Ron Paul could ever hope for" "There is a de facto alliance between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney; there's no question about it. At this point, it's an open partnership, I mean Jesse Benton, Ron Paul's campaign manager, has talked about the extent to which they're cooperating with the Romney...