Free Republic

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he opposes a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. Speaking to hundreds of New Hampshire voters at a private reception Saturday afternoon, the Texas governor says a fence would be ineffective and take too long to build. The comments, which produced one angry shout, expose a rift with some conservative voters over Perry's immigration record. Tea party activists in Texas have been particularly upset by his steady opposition to the fence. He also signed a law giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition for Texas universities.

Gov. Rick Perry now leads Mitt Romney in an ongoing 2012 presidential poll run by iRepublican.com a social network for influential Republicans. Sarah Palin is currently third. Rick Perry has not announced his candidacy for President yet and he's well liked by the Tea Party. Yet he seems to appeal to moderate Republicans as well, especially considering that http://www.irepublican.com started in liberal Manhattan. "Coincidentally, Romney went from first to second the same day he commented on the Debt Ceiling Deal", said Marcello De Luca, founder of iRepublican.com. iRepublicans, as this network's members are referred to, continue to vote and results...

Mr. McCain mocked Tea Party-allied Republicans in the House for believing — wrongly, he said — that President Obama and Democrats will get the blame for a default if Republicans refuse to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. By that flawed logic, “Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the Tea Party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth,” he said, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial. “This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” he jeered, referring to two losing Tea Party...

"Sarah Palin was presiding over a legislature in open warfare in 2007 over what would become her singular lawmaking legacy - a substantial boost in the petroleum profits tax that would force oil companies to share billions of dollars more of their profits with the state. Palin had initially proposed a modest hike, coupled with a crucial new "progressivity" component that jacked up the rate when oil prices rose above normal market levels. But her Democratic allies in the Legislature saw the chance to do more and raised it to 25%, with Palin's enthusiastic support."

The last thing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann should want as she considers launching a campaign for President is that she get dragged down into the gutter at the outset by a political consultant – Ed Rollins – who makes her look petty because he works for her. President Ronald Reagan, who Republican candidates often quote, frowned upon Republican candidates trashing Republican candidates. What Rollins said that reflects upon Congresswoman Bachmann certainly is not the worst…but it was gratuitous and not responding to an insult. This early tactic (before the candidate even makes it official) is a strong indicator of what is...

[snip beginning of article] ... Ed Rollins, dismissed Palin as “not serious” in a radio interview. He suggested in an interview with POLITICO that Bachmann would profit from the contrast. Bachmann will “be so much more substantive,” Rollins said. “People are going to say, ‘I gotta make a choice and go with the intelligent woman who’s every bit as attractive.’” “I’m not afraid of Palin,” he said, adding the strategy would have been the same for Mike Huckabee. Bachmann has been laying the groundwork for this argument for months, stepping away from some of the more dramatic rhetoric that brought...

Sarah and Jerry Groff, aka Bones SARAH PALIN wrote on FaceBook: Quads, Bogs, and Bones Life is so unpredictable, and like my dad always says, it’s “too short to be stuck in a rut!” One way to get out of a rut is to find inspiration in the great outdoors. Activity and fresh air are energizing! Sunday at 9pm ET/8c on “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” we show you a few things that we find more fulfilling than staying indoors and sitting on the couch. Plato said, “You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a...

At a reception and dinner attended by fifty conservative movers and shakers, Sarah Palin implicitly compared herself to President Ronald Reagan. At the same time she suggested that she is mulling a Presidential run in 2012. According to Politico: "Speaking to a group of well-connected Republicans at a private dinner in Florida this week, Sarah Palin implicitly addressed questions about her own electability by noting that critics also said Ronald Reagan couldn't win in 1980, three attendees told POLITICO. "Palin, at an event organized by the conservative magazine Newsmax, told the right-wing crowd that those who don't have the same...

<p>Washington (CNN) – Sarah Palin will join forces with Michael Steele and the Republican National Committee next month to hold a pair of fundraising rallies, according to multiple Republican sources.</p> <p>The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee will team up with the RNC chairman at an event in Anaheim, California, on October 16 and in Orlando, Florida, on October 23.</p>

<p>JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Sarah Palin the political pragmatist? Go figure. With a few surprising endorsements in recent Republican primaries, the self-styled rogue of GOP politics has reaped an angry response from some of her own supporters and a fresh round of speculation about her own presidential ambitions in 2012.</p>

After a stretch in which an endorsement from Sarah Palin was considered a rarity, the former Alaska governor has become something of an endorsement machine as of late. In the past week alone, she has endorsed four candidates, ranging from a tea party contender for Senate in her home state of Alaska to the GOP establishment favorite for Iowa governor. Palin has backed both clear winners and decided long-shots; she's weighed in on behalf of "mama grizzlies," but an extra X chromosome doesn't necessarily mean an automatic endorsement (see Hutchison, Kay Bailey). Some candidates (such as former Redskins tight end...

Fiorina said abortion rights would not be her litmus test for approving a Supreme Court nominee. In November, while speaking at an event sponsored by the conservative magazine the American Spectator, Fiorina said she “probably would have voted for” Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the court. Sotomayor has said she considers abortion rights to be an issue settled by the court. On Friday, Fiorina said, “I do not believe where a potential judicial nominee stands on that issue is a qualifier or an unqualifier [sic].” She added that while “many, many voters are going to conclude while that is...

Sarah Palin started off her keynote speech at at this morning's Susan B. Anthony List "Celebration of Life" breakfast in downtown Washington D.C. with a defense of her endorsement of Republican California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. Palin justified picking Fiorina over the other Republicans in the primary race by remarking that "anyone bold enough to proclaim their pro-life stance -- or pro-NRA stance in a deep blue state" like California is "the real deal" when it comes to pro-life credentials.

Sarah Palin and John McCain appearing on Greta NOW on the FNC!

VAN SUSTEREN: One of your colleagues in the Senate, your co-Arizonan, Senator Kyle, and you have asked for an apology from your opponent, J.D. Hayworth, for an ad that he has put out. What's the ad and what's your objection? MCCAIN: Well, it's really childish and tasteless. It has a picture of me. Later, they darkened in my face, but the original one was my face with blue paint on it, with, like, war paint. And I don't know what the attempt at humor was. But that is not the way Senate races should be conducted. And it was also...

During her speech to the first ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Saturday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin discouraged the very idea of a national organization, urging the movement to stay leaderless and decentralized. This was the most important and valuable part of Palin’s speech. As for the rest of it–Sarah sounded pretty much like the same old Republican Party. Despite the many independents that make up the movement, the tea parties in large part represent a long overdue reexamination of conservative principles. A big-spending Democratic president seems to have awakened grassroots conservatives enough to finally lament the...

When John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he did the not-yet-launched Tea Party movement a hefty favor by elevating to national prominence a woman who could lead this disparate band of grassroots conservative activists and give a powerful voice to their protests and passions. ("Death panels!") And how do the Tea Partiers pay back McCain? By trying to send him to the old folk's home. Tea Party types have rushed to support the campaign of former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging McCain in Arizona's Republican senatorial primary. Hayworth, who years ago left the House to...

I now believe Sarah Palin's Facebook announcement that she would stump for McCain in the Arizona primary was an attempt to scare off JD Hayworth from entering the race against McCain.

Washington (CNN) – As Sen. John McCain readies for a potential primary challenge from the right this fall, the Arizona Republican is playing his trump card. Sarah Palin, McCain's former running mate and perhaps the most powerful brand in Republican politics, will stump for McCain in Arizona on March 26 and 27, a Palin adviser told CNN. The presence of Palin - and the considerable crowds and media attention she will draw - might give pause to J.D. Hayworth, the former Republican congressman and radio host who opposes McCain's position on illegal immigration and is mulling a Senate run of...

As Sen. John McCain readies for a potential primary challenge from the right this fall, the Arizona Republican is playing his trump card. Sarah Palin, McCain's former running mate and perhaps the most powerful brand in Republican politics, will stump for McCain in Arizona on March 26 and 27, a Palin adviser told CNN. The presence of Palin - and the considerable crowds and media attention she will draw - might give pause to J.D. Hayworth, the former Republican congressman and radio host who opposes McCain's position on illegal immigration and is mulling a Senate run of his own.