Free Republic

Anumber of popular stories chronicling Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s ongoing invasion – including those promoted by U.S. Congressmen, media outlets, and even conservatives online – have turned out to be false, despite garnering millions of shares and likes. The viral, fake stories come amidst social media platforms rolling out robust “fact-checking” operations, often used to swiftly censor stories counter to establishment narratives or critical of the Democratic Party. These programs, however, have routinely failed to flag the following stories as false with the same tenacity. 1. The Snake Island “Martyrs.” Thirteen Ukrainian border guards stationed on the country’s Snake Island,...

Rick Santorum fought hard, he fought well, and he gave voice to a large contingent of grass-roots conservative activists across the country who wanted a candidate who lived the values he preached. He held Mitt Romney’s feet to the fire on health care, challenged Newt Gingrich’s green flirtations and past support for the individual mandate, and took on Ron Paul’s foreign policy extremism. His presence improved everyone else’s game — and that will serve the GOP ticket well this fall, whoever ends up on it.

Two days after losing three more primaries, Rick Santorum appears to be in trouble in his home state: Mitt Romney’s taken the lead in PPP’s newest poll of Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. Romney has 42% to 37% for Santorum with Ron Paul at 9% and Newt Gingrich at 6%. The numbers represent a dramatic turnaround from when PPP polled the state a month ago. Romney’s gained 17 points, going from 25% to 42%. Meanwhile Santorum’s dropped 6 points from 43% to 37%, for an overall swing of 23 points in the last four weeks.

Claws came out this week during nearly back-to-back speeches from President Barack Obama and Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney. The two spoke on Tuesday and Wednesday during a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and from the sound of it, you’d think they were the only two candidates left in the race. Obama and Romney gave the news media a taste of the talking points that could fill ads, news coverage, op-eds and talk-show airtime during the fall election season. The president criticized Romney’s support of Wisconsin Republican Rep Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, saying the GOP is too...

On the tail of Game Change‘s premiere on HBO, former McCain/Palin adviser Nicolle Wallace, prominently featured in the film, visited Rachel Maddow tonight to expand upon the lessons of the 2008 campaign, and made clear that she felt fairly guilty about working to make someone “fundamentally unprepared and unsuited for the job” the Vice President of the United States. Wallace noted that she was still in shock as to “how close we came to having somebody a heartbeat away from the presidency so fundamentally unprepared and unsuited for the job,” adding that, while she thought tossing around the term “PTSD”...

Can Rick Santorum win the Republican nomination? Sure. He’s leading in the polls nationally and in important states — and he’s doing so without so much as a campaign headquarters. Imagine what might happen if Santorum pulls off a few more stunning upsets. -SNIP- There seems to be a notion in political circles that Mitt Romney can just stay the course and go all the way to the convention in Tampa, but staying the course likely won’t be good enough. -SNIP- Republican voters would be eminently mistaken to believe that. As things stand right now, Rick Santorum can’t win the...

Rick Santorum backed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004. It was a tough race with Toomey mounting a credible, well-financed challenge. Toomey’s candidacy, by his own estimation, was one of the precursors to the Tea Party movement: The “battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party” between big spending moderates and committed conservatives that was evident in 2004 may have inspired subsequent Tea Party efforts, Toomey suggested. Despite losing out on key endorsements from leading Republican figures in 2004, Toomey believes his primary campaign created a strong foundation for conservative activism that translated into victory in 2010....

Things haven't gotten much better for Newt Gingrich ..... The former House speaker abruptly canceled a meeting with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval ... Not even Gingrich's campaign advisers know why the campaign scheduler called it off, irking them and those in Sandoval's office who had helped set up the event. ..... Other signs of disarray appeared Wednesday. Gingrich's schedule called for a 1 p.m. rally in Reno, but volunteers put out word that the event would be at noon — and that supporters should show up at 11:30. .....

Gov. Bob McDonnell said this morning that he's endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney today before heading to South Carolina to campaign for the Republican presidential candidate ahead of the Palmetto State's primary Saturday. Virginia's governor discussed his endorsement of Romney on CNBC's show, "Squawk Box," and planned additional interviews with CNN and FOX News. Those interviews coincide with McDonnell's travel to New York City for a economic development meeting this morning. The governor will head to South Carolina this afternoon for a rally in Charleston and remain in the state into Saturday for other Romney campaign events tonight and...

Another audience member questioned the candidate about Santorum awarding former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky with the Angels in Adoption Award. Santorum explained that he lacked knowledge of the situation at the time and noted that the award has since been withdrawn. In response to his explanation, the audience member asked, "So we shouldn't trust Obama with our kids, but we can trust you?"

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he strongly supports a federal mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance – a position that has been rejected by many Republicans, including several who likely will be running against him for the Republican presidential nomination. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gingrich told host David Gregory that he continues to advocate for a plan he first called for in the early 1990s as a Congressman, which requires every uninsured citizen to purchase or acquire health insurance.

On Fox News Sunday today, Bill Kristol threw cold water on Herman Cain‘s presidential candidacy, arguing that regardless of his popularity among conservative voters and whether or not his sexual harassment scandal will end up helping or hurting him, there was very little chance in the first place he was ever going to be the Republican nominee. Chris Wallace brought up Cain’s contentious exchange with a reporter last night over the allegations over his sexual harassment controversy, and asked the panel if there was a connection between what Cain is currently going through and what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas...

Herman Cain said this on PBS NewsHour last night, regarding his assertion of a growing military threat from China (VIDEO):And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they’re a military threat. They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat. Immediately,...

To say Ann Coulter had a political crush on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be putting it mildly. So when Christie announced he wasn’t running for president, and then endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the natural thing for her to do would have been to push for a Romney-Christie ticket. Not so fast. On Thursday night’s “Hannity,” the author of “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America” elaborated on her endorsement of Romney last week, but also endorsed Cain for his signature “9-9-9” tax plan. “I am so glad you asked about Herman Cain,” Coulter said. “I...

The Rick Perry campaign recently came out with a campaign ad highlighting the fact that Mitt Romney enacted a state run health care system in Massachusetts. I found the ad particularly powerful, because I feel that nationalized health care should be a litmus test for Republicans. No candidate that has supported a state run single payer health care system is, in my humble opinion, fit to the be the GOP nominee in 2012. Then I found this in Rick Perry’s Wikipedia entry: In 1993, Perry, while serving as Texas agriculture commissioner, expressed support for the Clinton health care reform proposal,...

Las Vegas, Nevada— One day before a CNN Western Republican presidential debate, a new national survey indicates that Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are essentially tied for the lead in the race for the GOP nomination, with Rick Perry dropping to a distant third. .....According to the poll [CNN/ORC International Poll], only one third of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they will definitely support the candidate they are currently backing, with two thirds saying they may change their minds. "With only 33% of all Republicans saying that their minds are made up, it's far too early...

The second poll in a few days shows Herman Cain jumping into second place in New Hampshire. A survey from the Harvard Institute of Politics and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics shows Cain with 20 percent of the vote, trailing Mitt Romney, who remains in first place with 38 percent. Ron Paul is in third place with 13 percent. The poll comes on the heels of a WMUR/UNH poll that put Romney at 37 percent, Cain at 12 percent and Paul at 9 percent. Both polls had Rick Perry languishing with just 4 percent of the vote. The Harvard/NHIOP...

In 2008, John McCain's campaign team discussed whether they should let Sarah Palin be sworn in as vice-president if they were to win the election, according to campaign staffer Nicolle Wallace. "There certainly were discussions -- not for long because of the arc the campaign took -- but certainly there were discussions about whether, if they were to win, it would be appropriate for her to be sworn in," Wallace tells Time's Claire Suddath. In her new novel, It's Classified, Wallace has a character -- a mentally ill female vice-president -- which she says is based on her experience working...

With Governor Chris Christie confirming today that he won't seek the presidency, some big-name donors are finally ready to commit themselves to Mitt Romney. "A lot of us who normally would have been in this presidential race a long time ago, have been waiting for Christie to make a decision," said Georgette Mosbacher, a Republican uber-fund-raiser and finance co-chair of the Republican National Committee who was among a group of Republican bundlers hoping to convince Christie to enter the race. "I think tomorrow, we’ll be contacting one another and probably put something together with Romney." [...] At a meeting with...