Free Republic

En route to fight one of his many duels, French politician Georges Clemenceau bought a one-way train ticket. Was he pessimistic? "Not at all. I always use my opponent's return ticket for the trip back." Some Hillary Clinton advisors, although not that serene, think her victory is probable and can be assured. Her challenge is analogous to Ronald Reagan's in 1980, when voters were even more intensely dissatisfied than they now are. There were hostages in Iran and stagflation's "misery index" (the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates) was 21.98. By August 1979, 84% of Americans said the country...

Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a snarling face on conservatism, any Republican nominee will face a dauntingly steep climb to reach even the paltry numbers that doomed Mitt Romney. It is perhaps quixotic to try to distract Trump’s supporters with facts, which their leader, who is no stickler for dignity, considers beneath him. Still, consider these: The white percentage of the electorate has been shrinking for decades and will be about two points smaller in 2016 than in 2012. In 2008,...

Who made George Will the spokesman for the GOP? HeÂ’s defining himself in this article as the consummate judge of who and who isnÂ’t a conservative or a Republican. This is one of the most dishonest political hits I have ever read. Never mind that WillÂ’s wife works for Scott Walker, who I already had issues with because of the people he has surrounding himÂ… IÂ’m sure that has nothing to do with this at all (thatÂ’s sarcasm by the way). I support and want Ted Cruz elected, but I take great umbrage at the way Trump is being treated....

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was born in 1970, six years after events refuted a theory on which he is wagering his candidacy. The 1964 theory was that many millions of conservatives abstained from voting because the GOP did not nominate sufficiently deep-dyed conservatives. So if in 1964 the party would choose someone like Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, hitherto dormant conservatives would join the electorate in numbers sufficient for victory. This theory was slain by a fact — actually, 15,951,378 facts. That was the difference between the 43,129,566 votes President Lyndon Johnson received and the 27,178,188 that Goldwater got in winning...