Free Republic

His business acumen, his conservative credentials and his plainspokenness drove his popularity up quickly. But as with many politicians on both sides of the aisle, the more the public sees of him, the less appetizing he becomes. He has repeatedly revealed his lack of understanding of key issues. CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Cain if he could imagine as president giving in to an al-Qaida demand to free all of the hundreds of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for freeing one American soldier. "I could see myself authorizing that kind of transfer, but what I would do is, I...

Whatever questions come flying at Herman Cain at Tuesday’s night Republican debate in Las Vegas, there is one big one he has to answer: Are you serious? It is a measure of Cain’s success that anyone would care to ask. For much of this year Cain seemed to be enjoying his role as political novelty act — an entertaining sideshow at debates, and even an occasional presence on the early-state campaign trail — when he wasn’t otherwise occupied with speeches, television appearances and book-tour publicity. But now that Cain, buoyed by bulging poll numbers, is demanding to be viewed as...

Presidential hopeful Herman Cain isn't just a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and head of the National Restaurant Association. He was also once a prolific writer, who up until January 2011 produced a weekly opinion column published by the conservative website WorldNetDaily. In at least one column, Cain seemed to condemn a proposal that is now a pillar of his highly touted 9-9-9 tax plan. On November 12, 2010, Cain wrote a column about rumors that Democrats would propose a consumption tax called a VAT. "The worst idea is a proposed national sales tax," Cain wrote. A 9% national sales...

Despite businessman Herman Cain's stunning rise in the polls, conservative columnist George Will said Sunday that Cain does not merit serious attention from President Obama's reelection campaign. Will said on ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour" that Cain has not shown that he has staying power and that without a traditional campaign infrastructure, it's not clear that he is a serious candidate. "We're having a kind of Andy Warhol primary where everybody is leader for 15 minutes and Cain's turn today but it's not clear that Cain has staying power," Will said. "He's not running for president, sort of strolling...

Bartlett, Tenn. - Herman Cain lashed out at his critics Friday, accusing detractors of his 9-9-9 tax reform plan of trying to slow his newfound momentum with baseless attacks. During his first campaign swing since surging in the polls, Cain told a tea party crowd near his birthplace of Memphis that the plan would grow the economy by five percent at minimum, and pledged to pass it in his first 90 days in office. “Can y’all see the bull’s eye on my back?” he joked to the crowd of several hundred supporters who had gathered in a city park here...

Via Breitbart TV, the soundbite of the day from tonight’s debate. Is she right? According to Josh Barro (via our pal Karl), maybe so: Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan includes a personal income tax, a business tax, and a sales tax, all at flat rates of nine percent. Bruce Bartlett critiques the plan in the New York Times today, and he flags a fact about the business tax that I hadn’t been aware of:“The business tax in the Cain plan bears no resemblance to the present corporate income tax. The tax would apply to gross sales less dividends paid and all...

TLC and why Palin will never be president -- part 2 Last week I wrote a piece pegged to tonight's TLC pairing of Kate Gosselin and Sarah Palin on Palin's "Alaska" reality TV series. The core of my commentary was that Palin will never be president because she has sold herself too cheap to low-rent reality-TV venues like TLC, and now she is being perceived as another one of the channel's freak moms like Kate Gosselin or the women on the series "I Didn't Know I was Pregant." As the title so coyly suggests, that shows features women who gave...

When I see the fervor of Sarah Palin’s fans — and by no means just those who swell the adoring crowds who go to her public appearances — I am convinced that the question is not, “How can she win the GOP nomination?” but “How can she not win it?” When you have anywhere between five and fifteen GOP candidates, all expressing basically the same conservative views, how can anyone other than the only one with the passionate fan base possibly win? And yet: Reading between the lines of what conservative-movement people are saying and writing, there is a great deal...

Delaware’s Republican Party both violated its own Bylaws and caused the Delaware Republican Party’s losses in the November 2, 2010, general election, a new analysis reveals. The Bylaws of Delaware’s Republican Party require in Article X, Section 1 that: “These rules of the Republican Party of the State of Delaware shall be in compliance and consistent with the Rules of the National Republican Party….” However, Rule No. 11 of the Rules of the National Republican Party states: “(a) The Republican National Committee shall not, without the prior written and filed approval of all members of the Republican National Committee from...

Sarah Palin seems to be the favorite of the majority of Free Republic members. I still have not made up my mind about her. But if she is the consevative movement's choice to take on the disaster of Obama who has gone from The Messiah to the Mess then there are things that she will need to overcome to get 50% plus one of the American people's vote in 2012. I've listed the ones I hope her supporters can address here because failure to take these issues on will result in certain defeat.

Palin-Haters of the Theocratic Right * Those on the secular humanist left who are convinced that Sarah Palin is a "theocrat" must have never heard of John Lofton. The former Washington Times columnist has been involved in two presidential campaigns, as an advisor to Pat Buchanan's efforts in the 1990s and as Communications Director for the 2004 run by Michael Peroutka as the nominee of the Constitution Party. In Lofton's view from the extreme religious right, Gov. Palin just isn't Christian enough: "Sarah Palin's assertion that the issue of whether moms with small children should or should not work outside...

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story. But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone...

When Sarah Palin burst (is there any other verb that describes it?) onto the political scene, as John McCain's running mate in 2008, she was the little-known governor of Alaska. After a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention followed by an unfortunate litany of gaffes, it became obvious that many thought she was not ready to be a heartbeat away from a 72-year-old president. But that was then, when her family, or at least one pregnant teen-age daughter, overshadowed anything she had to say, which in itself may have been a blessing. Most talking heads and many Americans, it...

Wow... There's crazy, there's baying at the moon crazy, and then there's this to Cheif Justice Roberts... "Relief requested 1.Taitz is requesting an appointment to visit the Supreme Court with a forensic document expert (to be identified at a later date) and view the orders pertaining to her cases and verify and clarify, that there is a valid signature of Justice Thomas and his clerk on the denial of application 10A56, entered on the Docket on Saturday 17, 2010. 2.Taitz is requesting an appointment to visit the Supreme Court with a forensic document expert and verify that there genuine signatures...

Mr. Constitution, Glen Beck? 5PM after 5PM, day after day, Beck loves to talk about our Founders and the US Constitution as if he were the brains behind it. He talks about how the resident Alien Usurper in the white house is a communist and how all his minions are avowed communists. And with the last point of all the communists around him, Beck is correct but with the first point, regarding the US Constitution, Beck loves to think that he knows what our founders were thinking when they wrote all the founding documents of this great Republic. He conveniently...

Mara Gay Contributor AOL News (March 16) -- This time, it's partisan. About a month after a billboard of former President George W. Bush with the question "Miss Me Yet?" was spotted beside a Minnesota highway, a similarly mysterious billboard has appeared in the state. This one features Ronald Reagan, and, unlike the original billboard, the message is unmistakably conservative: "Remember Real Hope and Change?" the sign asks, openly mocking President Barack Obama's campaign slogan.

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

The real reason Palin quit as Alaska Governor?

He's more fiscal, less social. And he's got millions. But will GOP voters give a Mitt? Scott Brown's unexpected victory in last month's special US Senate election captured the attention of the country — and particularly of core Republican voters, who huddled eagerly before their TV screens to watch their hero du jour give his acceptance speech. But even in the midst of his moment in the sun, Brown made sure to thank the other handsome, well-coifed man on the stage, Mitt Romney — who, as it happens, would very much like the votes of that national Republican audience in...

To clarify, so you support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants? I do because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here. It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country.