Free Republic

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina may or may not be on Arizona Sen. John McCain's short list for vice president, but she already is taking a crucial role in the Republican presidential hopeful's campaign. In March, Fiorina was picked by the Republican National Committee to chair a group directed to raise money and get out the vote for this year's elections. Shortly after that move was announced, Fiorina was interviewed by Business Week about her role. "My role is to be the primary advocate for John McCain and for the Republican Party," she said. "Certainly there are a lot of...

An independent arm of the Republican National Committee plans to spend $3 million on an ad campaign contrasting GOP presidential candidate John McCain to Democrat Barack Obama on energy security. The ad will run in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin beginning Sunday. The ad represents the first of the RNC's independent expenditure operation. The effort will be run by Republican media consultant Brad Todd of On Message Inc., a media and polling firm that worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Todd said the ad will focus on energy, "which is emerging as a defining difference in the race for president."...

WASHINGTON — Democrats and the media have used the term so much that it's almost an article of faith. But the so-called "Republican attack machine" waiting with piles of unregulated cash to chew up Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is anything but. Obama cited the threat of unregulated attack groups — called "527s" because they're authorized to raise unlimited cash under that section of the Internal Revenue Service code — to justify dropping his pledge to take public financing — along with its spending limits — for the general election campaign. Yet there's no 2008 equivalent to the 2004 Swift...

The Obama freaks, antiwar moonbats, and antiwar traitors are going to march on the RNC on September 1st. We can't let the Moonbats get all of the media coverage, so we know what needs to be done. From the Leftists: We can't let this go unopposed. Support the RNC and take away the moonbat's media coverage. Be there September 1st.

Elaborate plans are underway to encircle and "shut down" the Republican National Convention at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center in September. The strategies and tactics involved could come straight from a guerrilla warfare manual. Anarchist groups with ominous names -- the RNC Welcoming Committee, Unconventional Action -- have announced a "three-tier strategy" to cut off the Xcel Center. The steps include "blockading" streets and freeways, "immobilizing" delegates' transportation and "blocking" bridges to impede delegates' access to the center. The plan also features a "swarm, seize, stay" strategy. After dividing the city into "sectors," protesters propose to "seize space" through both...

The Lack of Outreach from John McCain and the Republican Party in 2008, a Conservative Blackman’s View Point The other day I was listening to the national syndicated Sean Hannity Radio Program and his guest was Former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts. Hannity questioned Watts on the pasted failed outreach efforts of the Republican Party to Black America and for the lack of outreach from the McCain Campaign to Black America now. Watts stated, “That the Republican Party takes advantage of the Blacks and Evangelic within the party to which he is both.” Now come on J.C., you know this is...

Abraham Lincoln would be amazed by this race but not for the reason you might think. In an under-remarked historic irony, the political party that long defended slavery and racial segregation has become the first to nominate an African-American for president. And the GOP, the Party of Lincoln, which fought for union and advanced civil rights from Reconstruction to Little Rock, has been left with a troubling lack of diversity on its political bench. The legacy of Lincoln and the Civil War formed the basic fault lines of American politics. From 1860 to 1960, the current "red" and "blue" states...

Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee. "I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible." Just as...

  100 Republican Firsts (for Leftwing Dummies)  by Ben-Peter Terpstra   Part 1 (1-50): For Mr. Clooney! 1. 1854: Pro-life Americans establish the first major anti-slavery party. The Republican Party is born. 2. 1862: Pro-life politicians are the first to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. They are Republicans. 3. 1863: Pro-life politicians issue the Emancipation Proclamation, in order to set all slaves free. They are Republicans.   4. 1865: Attorney John Rock (a registered doctor), becomes the first black member of the Supreme Court bar. He is a Republican. 5. 1870: Pastor Rhodes Revels becomes America’s first black Senator. He is...

The R.N.C. just responded to the resignation of James Johnson from Obama's vice presidential search committee, and they are not satisfied. The Republicans obviously feel they have a mini-victory here, but also that they can get more mileage out of the Johnson flap. From R.N.C. spokesperson Alex Conant: “If Barack Obama is concerned his campaign’s ties to special interests are distracting from his VP search and message, why is Eric Holder still on his search committee? Why is registered federal lobbyist Steve Farber leading the convention for Obama’s supposedly ‘lobbyist-free’ campaign? Obama’s hypocritical attacks show he can’t stand up to...

According to the video below, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has said that “many Republicans will vote for Libertarian candidates in House races.” The Washington Times is reporting that former House Whip Tom DeLay’s wife plans to pull the Bob Barr lever on Election Day: Tom DeLay will vote for John McCain but the former House Republican leader said his wife, Christine, is planning to vote for Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr. “I’m trying to convince my wife not to do that,” the Texas Republican told editors and reporters at The Washington Times on Friday. “She said it publicly...

TO: John McCain and the RNC, Your latest solicitation for our money has a lot of “I want…” statements in it. Merely saying “I want…” does NOT impress me and won’t get the job done! I would like to hear some “I WILL…” AND MEAN IT ! If you want our money, and our vote, then “WE WANT” some ACTION from the RNC and John McCain! GET YOU HEAD OUT AND PAY ATTENTION…. WE ARE SERIOUS AMERICAN CITIZENS THAT VOTE! We WANT an absolute, unequivocal, commitment that we WILL DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, AND PAY LESS! The stupidity of sitting...

Meet Barack Obama, The new web site created by the RNC to introduce Obama to voters.

The RNC has already produced a video highlighting Obama's connections to Tony Rezko. Rezko was convicted yesterday on 16 felony counts involving corruption. (See video)

Will Sen. Barack Obama declare that, if elected president, he would not pardon his fundraiser and personal real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, who was convicted Wednesday of multiple corruption charges in a Chicago federal court? Obama is Mr. Reform, isn't he? And that's a legitimate question, isn't it? The National Republican Party is making a big deal out of Rezko, with a snazzy new Barack-Rezko video, questioning Obama's judgment for buying that $1.6 million dream house, with the Rezkos purchasing the lot next door on the very same day in what looked like an old-fashioned back-scratching. "On the day Barack...

Well, the RNC didn't waste any time getting this ad out!http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=107173

Republican National Committee: Obama's Bad Week in ReviewFri May 30, 11:50 AM ET To: POLITICAL EDITORS Contact: Republican National Committee, +1-202-863-8614 Another Week of Gaffes, Knowledge Gaps, Political Posturing, Backpedaling, and Contradictions on Major Issues Shows Obama's Not Ready to Lead WASHINGTON, May 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was issued today by the Republican National Committee: (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/RNCLOGO ) This Week, Obama Continued Changing His Position On Unconditional Summit Meetings With Rogue Leaders, Raising Questions About His Judgment, "Inexperience And A Certain Worrisome Naivete": In An Interview With The New York Times, Obama Claimed "I Didn't Say That I Would...

RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan released the following statement today: “Barack Obama has only visited Iraq once – and that was 871 days ago. Despite lacking the experience and leadership to be Commander-in-Chief, Obama has done shockingly little to educate himself firsthand about the war in Iraq. Instead, he displays an arrogant certainty gained on the campaign trail. How would Obama make informed judgments in the future when he has not seen the situation in Iraq since the surge began? Why does Obama readily agree to one-on-one negotiations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but decline one-on-one briefings in Baghdad with our...

Lawmakers who favor gun control are not optimistic about next year even though Democrats may be running Congress and the White House. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), the sponsor of legislation that would reinstate the expired federal assault weapons ban, dismissed the idea that her bill might pass in the 111th Congress. “It’s a pro-gun House, a pro-gun Senate and [Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)] won’t want to deal with it,” McCarthy said. McCarthy stressed that she is not giving up on reauthorizing the weapons ban that sunsetted in 2004, but also made clear she is...

Barack Obama: "I think its time for us to end the embargo of Cuba..." Barack Obama, speaking at the University of Southern Illinois, 1/20/2004 "I am no fan of the Cuban embargo, but removing it now - or announcing a presidential trip to meet with Raul Castro - would indicate that America views this familial transfer of power as real change, rather than what it is: a maneuver meant to leave the brutal Castro legacy intact." Benny Avni, Op-Ed, "Obama Vs. Bad Guys: To Talk Or Not To Talk?" The New York Sun, 2/25/08 "I believe that normalization of relations...

In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated. Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks...

   Are You Kidding Me? May 22, 2008  Talk about pots and kettles! Can you imagine receiving a solicitation letter from RNC (Republican National Committee) treasurer Tim Morgan asking if you’ve “deserted our Party”? Who should be asking whom about desertion? The very first sentence of the letter says it all, “I don’t want to believe you’ve abandoned the Republican Party, but I have to ask...Have you given up?”.Well...yes and no. Have I given up on the current Republican leadership and its goals (euphemism)?  Yes. Have I given up on my Conservative values (what the Republican Party was supposed to stand for)?  Never. The answer to...

Long-time Minneapolis peace activist Ed Felien will be in court this afternoon pushing for President Bush to be arrested and investigated for war crimes when he comes here in August for the GOP convention. Felien filed a motion in Hennepin County District Court asking Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to begin investigating Bush and charge him with war crimes. The president "has fraudulently represented a war against Iraq as essential for our national interests when in reality the war only benefits his private interests. With his Saudi friends he has cornered the supply of oil and raised prices. And through...

Pivoting toward the general election, Senator Barack Obama is turning again to his history-making fund-raising machine, which helped to anoint him as a contender against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and then became a potent weapon in their battle for the Democratic nomination. To confront the Obama juggernaut, Senator John McCain, whose fund-raising has badly trailed that of his Democratic counterparts — and whose efforts suffered a blow this weekend when a key fund-raiser, Tom Loeffler, resigned because of a new campaign policy on conflicts of interest — is leaning on the Republican National Committee. Mr. McCain is likely to depend...

McCain to lean heavily on powerhouse fundraising of Republican National Committee... Developing...

...This week, as the Democratic contest winds down, CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talked with Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli about his party’s prospects for November’s elections. (snip) CBSNews.com: Getting back to the environment, the highest wrong track number ever recorded in opinion polls, the highest disapproval rating ever recorded for a sitting president. How big is the magnitude of the problem? Frank Donatelli: Well, the political environment represents the starting point is what I would say. And it's fair to say that, in 2008, we start off, just on a generic basis, behind by five or ten points....

All week long, you and I have been blasting the bereft Beltway GOP leadership for their empty sloganeering and Obama-esque change obsession. Now, the NRCC is hearing it directly on its website. Reader Fritz e-mails that the comments section in the NRCC blog post by chairman Tom Cole is sizzling hot with aggravated grass-roots conservative feedback. Go check it out. A sample: This is not the message I am looking to support. The message of the Replican Part should be fundumentally different than the Democrats. We don’t need to “fix” the government. We need the Federal Government to do wnat...

As promised, this is it. We delivered. The future of the Republican Party is now available for your inspection, by clicking on http://www.GOPonDemand.com. This is the public "beta" version of GOP onDemand,™ the gateway to your constitutional right to guide and instruct your Republican Party. You, the loyal readers of Townhall.com are the very first to see, to critique, to interact with GOP onDemand.™ Please note, various pages are still under construction, and features still must be added. But that's because we want, and need, your input as to what you think Republicans want to see on GOP onDemand.™ If...

All Republican leaders must resign Written by Viguerie on Wed May 14 11:48:26 -0400 2008 Republican leaders in the White House, the Congress, and the Republican National Committee and its affiliates, along with most Republican leaders at the state level, have failed – or outright betrayed – the conservative voters who put them in their positions.The result is that the party’s “brand� has become a negative, to an extent greater than in the Watergate era, perhaps worse than in the days of Herbert Hoover. The number of new Republican voters is flat while Democratic voter registration is skyrocketing.Contributions to GOP...

A group of demonstrators protesting the war in Iraq will be allowed to parade as close as 300 feet from the Xcel Energy Center on the first day of the Republican National Convention, police said Wednesday. But protesters - who plan to march from the state Capitol to the site of the convention and back again - say that's not good enough. The authorized route released Wednesday will allow marchers near the Xcel Energy Center at the corner of West 7th Street and West 5th Street - an intersection kitty-corner and across the street from the auditorium. The route is...

Here's the RNC's new. I had not seen it linked here before.

It goes without saying that the GOP is taking a dreadful thrashing right now. Conservatives are unmotivated, Democrats are obliterating Republicans in the fundraising arena, and the GOP's poll numbers have dropped off a cliff. George Bush, the face of the Republican Party, has an approval rating of 30% and according to Rasmussen Reports, one of the best polling agencies in the business, 41.4% of Americans consider themselves to be Democrats while only 31.4% say they are Republicans. Worse yet, voters trust the Democrats more than Republicans on the economy, government ethics, the war in Iraq, health care, Social Security,...

Wednesday, May 07, 2008 What's Wrong with Republicans? [Victor Davis Hanson] On this great debate, I tend to agree with Mark Levin and others that conservatives should reach out with conservative principles better framed and presented, rather than change the message for the perceived advantage of the hour. What the Republicans need is not an abandonment of conservative principles, but a smarter, more articulate defense of even more conservativism, not less. E.g., Gas Prices? More nuclear power, hydro-, refineries, clean coal, drilling off coasts and in ANWR. And why? As a necessary bridge to next-generation cleaner and non-petroleum energy so...

The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November. The facts are clear and compelling. Saturday's loss was in a district that President Bush carried by 19 percentage points in 2004 and that the Republicans have held since 1975. This defeat follows on the loss of Speaker Hastert's seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with...

The coverage has been brutal. First, you have Newt Gingrich’s "My Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster" on HumanEvents.com. The former Speaker correctly points out that the "Republican brand has been so badly damaged" that merely attacking Obama or Clinton won’t cut it. Gingrich cites the latest New York Times/CBS Poll of Bush’s staggering 63% disapproval rating, noting that his job approval, now at 28%, has been below 40% job approval since December 2006, the longest such period for any U.S. President in the history of polling. A separate New York Times/CBS Poll shows...

Yesterday, I received a letter from Tim Morgan, the RNC Treasurer, asking for a donation. I was disgusted by the tone of the letter and decided to respond to him. ************************************************* Dear Mr. Morgan, I am insulted and offended by your letter. How dare you try to insinuate that I abandoned the Republican Party. Please understand the facts, it was not me who abandoned the Republican Party, it was the leadership that abandoned the core principles of the Republican Party. Your letter asks for a donation because you want to stop the Democrats. That’s not a convincing argument. First let...

I just got a call from a Republican pollster asking if the election were held today would I vote for McCain or a Democrat. I said there really isn't much difference between the two and he laughed and said " I've been hearing that all day". I said 'pass it on to McCain'.

Discussions of the current political situation and comparisons between the 2008 election and earlier contests frequently overlook a crucial fact. As a result of changes in American society, today's electorate is very different from the electorate of twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. Three long-term trends have been especially significant in this regard: increasing racial diversity, declining rates of marriage, and changes in religious beliefs. As a result of these trends, today's voters are less likely to be white, less likely to be married, and less likely to consider themselves Christians than voters of just a few decades ago. The...

Robert “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), continued to slam his Democratic counterparts for an ad they are running against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Duncan on Tuesday accused Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean of running an ad that features footage from director Michael Moore’s controversial movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The ad, which slams McCain for his now-famous New Hampshire town hall line that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 100 years, features footage of an improvised explosive device (IED) going off near U.S. soldiers. ABCNews confirmed it was the same footage that...

If someone told me in the 1990's that I, an outspoken and vehement opponent of the Clintons would now be endorsing Hillary Clinton for President of the United States, I would have laughed in their face at the absolute absurdity of the notion. But here I am now, a staunch conservative, joining conservatives Ann Coulter and Bill Cunningham among others in endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton for President. How could this be? As absurd as the notion that I would someday endorse Hillary Clinton for President over the Republican nominee is the equally absurd notion that barely a decade after one...

For reasons of financial necessity, personal preference and plain politics, John McCain is gearing up to run one of the least traditional presidential campaigns in recent history. The problem is that even prominent strategists within McCain’s own party wonder if his unorthodox strategy will work. Facing the prospect of competing against a Democrat who is on track to shatter every fundraising record — and confronted by his own inability to rake in large bundles of cash — McCain and his key advisers have largely been forced into devising a three-pronged strategy that they hope can turn their general election weaknesses...

Today, the nation's capital celebrates “Emancipation Day” –- commemorating the Republican Party's abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, on April 16, 1862. That’s right, the Republican Party freed the slaves in DC, despite fierce opposition from the Democrats. Of course, none of the Democrats running the DC Government dares mention that fact. During the Civil War, one of the nation’s leading abolitionists was U.S. Senator Henry Wilson (R-MA), who would later serve as Vice President during President Grant’s second term. In December 1861, Senator Wilson introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District. The measure met with...

Private RNC polling shows McCain lead By: Jonathan Martin April 9, 2008 06:45 PM EST Internal polling data, presented privately last week at the Republican National Committee’s state chair meeting and provided to Politico, shows John McCain with a solid lead over both his potential general election rivals. Powered by the same appeal to Democrats and independents that fueled his primary election success, McCain is leading Barack Obama 48 percent to 42 percent and Hillary Clinton 51 percent to 40 percent according to RNC polling done late last month. He’s moved ahead of the two Democrats by consolidating support among...

The RNC is not the GOP. It’s only a collective national action committee for the state Republican parties, a fund raising and steering committee. Yet for far too long, the RNC has assumed increasing power over the political process to the detriment of the party. Voter complacency and apathy towards the political process has left control of the party in the hands of a few centrist party elites and conservative voters have lost faith in their own party as a result. (snip) The Message in the Money? Is McCain Listening? Is the RNC Listening? So Who has Whom in Check...

As Congress prepares to hear testimony this week from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the Republican National Committee is using the general's appearance as an opportunity to take aim at Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.The RNC's new online video, "Politics vs. Petraeus," weaves together the general's September congressional testimony with comments by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

In Case You Missed It Media And Non-Partisan Groups Comment On Democrats' Distorted "100 Years" The New York Times Reports That Democrats "Mischaracterize And Distort" Sen. McCain's "100 Years" Comment. "But the timetables, flippantly tossed out, have been condensed into sound bites by his Democratic opponents, turned into fund-raising appeals and mashed into YouTube parodies. Many of the sound bites mischaracterize and distort what was said in Mr. McCain's six-minute exchange on Jan. 3..." (Kate Phillips, "McCain Said '100'; Opponents Latch On," The New York Times, 3/27/08) The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder: "[D]emocrats imply that McCain wants to keep US troops...

HE EXCLUSIVE: RNC Last Chance to Fix 2012 Primaries by Jed Babbin Posted: 03/26/2008  Reorganization of the 2012 presidential primaries will be at the top of the agenda at next week’s meetings of the Republican National Committee. First the Rules Committee, beginning on April 1, and later the “committee of the whole” will vote on plans offered by Ohio, Texas, Michigan (and others) to change the system that many party leaders concede has failed this year. Those party leaders are rightly concerned about the undue influence the small states that lead the primary schedule -- Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina...

Local antiwar groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis today seeking an injunction to order the city of St. Paul to grant a march route for a demonstration on Sept. 1, the first day of the Republican National Convention. Accusing city authorities of violating the protesters' free speech, the lawsuit alleges that city officials have frustrated their efforts to obtain a march route between the State Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center and back to the Capitol. Named in the suit are Mayor Chris Coleman, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington and his assistant chief, Matt Bostrom, who...