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The race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination has started, though the election itself is 32 months away. Even in a place so brash and up-front as the United States there is some subtlety, at least at this stage, about the process. Sarah Palin, beloved of much of middle America despite her limitations, is doing the equivalent of turning up at weddings and bar mitzvahs and, as we say in Britain, putting herself about. However Mitt Romney, the man deemed by America's media to be the front runner, is (as his greater experience would seem to dictate) more sophisticated in...

<p>Sarah Palin's family used to "hustle" across the Canadian border to get healthcare, the former Alaska Governor said this weekend.</p> <p>In a speech in Calgary, Palin called it "ironic" that while growing up in a small Alaskan town near the Canadian border, her family used to sneak across to take advantage of the Canadian healthcare system.</p>

Watch more in our web exclusive with Sarah Palin to find out why she's supporting her former presidential running mate Senator John McCain, who faces a serious primary challenge this year by former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Many of you wanted to know why, since Hayworth is seen as more conservative -- so we asked her. Palin says "we need John McCain fighting for us" because he is "fighting harder for Americans today up against Obama's misguided policies" and she wants to see him re-elected. "I do support John McCain, and I would come out again in a heartbeat and...

As The Wall Street Journal points out in an opinion this morning, this is a good day not only for Scott Brown, the new senator from Massachusetts, but for Mitt Romney as well. Glenn Beck doesn’t trust Brown, he says. But with Brown toting friends like the popular former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld, John McCain and Romney around on his bus, it might not be such a good day for Glenn Beck. The WSJ’s Kim Strassel pointed out that Romney’s closest aides flooded to Mr. Brown, bringing with them the savvy of his national operation. “From a perch atop...

An adviser to John McCain who was preparing Sarah Palin for the vice presidential debate became so worried at Palin's weak performance in mock debates that he placed a panicked phone call to Steve Schmidt, the McCain campaign manager. "He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions...she was not focused...not engaged," Schmidt says in an interview. Specifically, "Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as "O'Biden," says Schmidt, a tick that he said had to be corrected before the internationally televised debate in October 2008. The fix: "It was multiple...

Given the conventional wisdom that “elitist” derision towards her only makes her supporters support her more adamantly, you’d think savvy Beltway consultants who don’t like her would keep that fact to themselves. And yet. Here’s their answer to the question, “Which voice in your party would you most like to mute?” That’s among “political” insiders, i.e. consultants. Among senators and congressmen polled, she finished second behind “no one,” tied with Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, among others. These insiders are the same people, mind you, who earlier this year voted her seventh among Republican governors with the brightest political future...

A new Rasmussen survey shows that President Barack Obama is tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. The poll of 800 likely voters also suggests that a third-party presidential candidate - in this case former CNN broadcaster Lou Dobbs - would help Obama.

Apparently there are still some posters on FR who are fast asleep. Wake up! Dammit! We are in the middle of a conservative rebellion! While you were sleeping we, along with millions of other freedom loving grassroots Americans have participated in hundreds of tea parties all across this great land and fully intend to keep it up until all of America is awake. We are fed up and mad as hell! We grassroots Americans are delivering a message to the ruling class: NO MORE!! No more big government! No more high taxes! No more government bailouts! No more government takeovers!...

(snip) During the 2008 campaign, some conservatives said they were hesitant to vote for Romney because he was perceived as being liberal on some social issues. On Friday, he seemed determined to overcome that impression. In his speech, given in a room filled with more than two dozen pictures of President Ronald Reagan, Romney gave a shout-out to the tea party protesters and spoke about his new book, "No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness." (It is slated to be released by St. Martin's Press in March.) He also said the Republican Party needed to build support among young people,...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

Federal District Judge Clay D. Land has slapped top birther Orly Taitz with a $20,000 fine for wasting the court's time, among other issues, with her constant filings after he, last month, dismissed her lawsuit against President Obama's right as commander-in-chief to deploy the military because he allegedly isn't legally president. Because he didn't get rid of her the first time, he's hoping she gets the message this time from the barbed language in the 43-page order he issued Tuesday. Right off the bat, on page 1 he writes: For justice to be administered efficiently and justly, lawyers must understand...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has planned a flurry of appearances in the Washington area this weekend, an indicator of the kind of hectic schedule he's been keeping as he looks ahead to a possible presidential bid in 2012. His D.C. itinerary will be dominated by fundraisers, but Romney has planned a pair of high-profile speeches to conservative groups that are sure to draw attention: On Saturday he is slated to address the Values Voters Summit, and on Monday he'll deliver remarks to a luncheon at the Foreign Policy Initiative, a neoconservative think tank founded by William...

Mitt Romney has not announced whether or not he’ll make a second run for the White House, but his former aides are staying in campaign shape by managing key races across the nation that could benefit their old boss in future elections. In at least six crucial races around the country, veterans of the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential campaign are working to guide new candidates to victory. It may appear a simple case of political professionals moving to new clients, but Romney’s team has kept in close contact should a second presidential campaign come to fruition. That could pay off,...

GOV. SARAH PALIN: We've got to secure the borders, and we can't be considering this broad range of amnesty that some would want. We've got to secure the borders and prove to the American people that the federal government is serious about this, and it's got to be a comprehensive approach to dealing with the immigration challenge that we have -- securing the borders, working with our border governors and mayors. They're there on the front lines, understanding what some of the solutions can be, if only they have an administration who will work with them

This was posted by someone on Free Dominion, it is too good not to share. http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=105542 Obama wins -- Heartland Republic secedes ____________________________________________________ What could happen following November 4th November 5th, 2008. Democrats are still partying across America after their decisive electoral college win. John McCain, disoriented and trying to fight back tears, tells Wolf Blitzer in an interview, "I hope for calm in our great country, but the future is very unpredictable now." Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin returns to Alaska saying "the American way of life depends on freedom and not on big government." During late November and December,...

As the readers of FR know there is a decided gap between Sarah Palin's favorability numbers among her own party and/or Republicans and Republican Independents and who they would actually cast their vote for as POTUS as multiple polls have shown recently. Here is my take on why this is so: 1)There is a certain segment of Republicans or conservatives who firmly believe that Sarah will be too politically damaged by the MSM to be a viable candidate in 2012 even though many of them like Sarah personally or her policies. This is a legitimate concern that I hope does...

We all loved Sarah. She rescued the sinking McCain campaign, said all the right things and holds pretty much the same positions of most FReepers. They all love Obama. He rescued the sinking DNC, said all the right things and holds pretty much the same positions of most liberals. Dems, liberals and the MSM are condemned for their all consuming adoration, virtual blindness to any mistakes or faults and slobbering worship of the man. Yet when the same thing happens to Palin it turns into a virtue. Sarah was a real coup for conservatives. But when she announced her resignation...

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other prominent party members who aspire to that role -- Govs. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, and Sen. John Ensign -- have stumbled or, in the case of Gov. Sanford, flamed out in spectacular fashion. Mitt Romney now looks by comparison...

In his novel "The Plot Against America," Philip Roth imagined that Charles Lindbergh, an isolationist and an anti-Semite (but a hell of a flier), ran for president in 1940 and beat Franklin Roosevelt. In his novel "Fatherland," Robert Harris imagined a Britain that had succumbed to the Nazis. These works are categorized as "alternate history." Here is my contribution to the genre: Sarah Palin becomes president of the United States. Far-fetched? Not really. After all, Palin really was on the Republican ticket, and the Democratic candidate was both untested nationally and the first African-American to claim the nomination. A significant...

A number of Palin defenders have argued that Mitt Romney similarly cut and run from Massachusetts. While there is an important distinction between resigning office and declining to run for reelection -- Romney served out the entire term to which he was elected -- I basically agree with this criticism. Romney's abandonment of Massachusetts during a critical juncture in fights over health care, the budget, and the definition of marriage was the single greatest factor that shifted me from a Romney-sympathetic commentator to a critic. (The spin of Romney's flip-flops by some of his overzealous supporters played a role too,...