Free Republic

Money line: “This is what I do for a living.” Didn’t he predict a Bush/Clinton race in 2016 just nine months ago? If he believes what he says here about the parties swinging like “pendulums” from moderate nominees to ideologues and then back again, why would he have named Jeb as a strong contender last November? In fact, the roots of the counterargument are in Matthews’s own shpiel here: Most of the time, they head to the center. This is what Republicans did most successfully in 1952 – when, after twenty years of Roosevelt and Harry Truman – they wanted...

Chris Moody @Chris_Moody South Carolina Dem Party Chairman says he hopes candidate Vince Sheheen will send "Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from." 6:43 PM - 3 May 2013 35 Retweets 3 favorites The last time we heard from South Carolina Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian, he was drawing comparisons between Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and Adolf Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun. That was last September, and something tells us Harpootlian hasn’t spent the past several months in charm school. At a Democrat party dinner tonight attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Harpootlian rallied his troops to send Haley...

The Boston Marathon tragedy is a reason for Congress to move faster – not slower – to overhaul the nation's immigration system, according to two co-authors of a Senate reform package. Some conservatives on Capitol Hill have suggested Monday's deadly bombings – allegedly orchestrated by a pair of young immigrants from Russia's volatile Caucasus region – should cause lawmakers to move more deliberately in their approach to immigration reform this year. But Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – chief architects of a sweeping bipartisan immigration proposal unveiled last week – argued Sunday that their bill will help...

As some Newtown families, props being used by the very gun grabbers who have set up the kinds of gun-free shooting galleries in which their children were slain, held hands and prayed for more than 60 votes (having been flown in at taxpayer expense to lobby our representatives to take away our natural rights), it occurred to me that, with 16 Republicans voting that a debate on amending an unalienable right is perfectly in keeping with the Constitution, the Republican party then and there died. Went t*ts up. Ceased to be. If John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander...

<p>CHARLESTON, S.C. (TheBlaze/AP) — There’s a House of Representatives electoral battle in South Carolina that’s everyone’s talking about — and for more than one reason.</p> <p>To begin, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, always dreamed of a career in politics — and now she has a chance to realize that dream.</p>

At a time when there appears to be a burgeoning rift in Republican ranks over the government's use of drones, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Friday argued that he, not Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), represents former President Ronald Reagan's true legacy in the party. In a tense interview on Fox News, anchor Shepard Smith brought up the emerging schism between hawks such as McCain and non-interventionists like Paul.McCain and his longtime ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) each blasted Paul earlier this week for the Kentucky libertarian's epic 13-hour filibuster over the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA. Smith...

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley made history Monday when she announced that first-term Congressman Tim Scott is her choice to replace conservative firebrand Jim DeMint in the Senate. He will be just the second African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction, the only current black senator and the only black Republican in all of Congress. Scott, 47, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in national politics, but he has big shoes to fill in succeeding DeMint. Elected to Congress in 2010 and re-elected to a second term last month, he was chosen to serve on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. A...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday linked outgoing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to one of the “saddest” Senate votes in years and suggested DeMint’s values won't be missed on Capitol Hill. Pelosi criticized the resigning South Carolina lawmaker and other GOP senators for voting Tuesday against Senate ratification of a United Nations treaty on rights for the disabled. “For them [DeMint and other treaty opponents] to slap the face of our veterans, of people with disabilities, of families with children with disabilities, that was one of the saddest days,” Pelosi said in the Capitol, taking care to avoid...

America has never had a female major party candidate nominated to be president, but the odds are growing that it will happen in 2016. The current favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination is a woman, and there are at least four other potential candidates in both parties. It isn’t that female candidates haven’t tried. Hillary Clinton came the closest when she lost the Democratic nomination in 2008 to Barack Obama. Here’s a look at the top prospects for 2016, starting with the Democratic frontrunner. Hillary Clinton The current Secretary of State is a huge favorite for the 2016 nomination for...

Charlotte: Unimpressed by US President Barack Obama's fiery speech seeking re-election, the two Indian-American Governors, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal, today said that Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, is the best person to lead the country. Both Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, and Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, are rising stars of the Republican party and were quick to issue statements after Obama concluded his Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech. "The last time Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention, he told us of hope and change that we could believe in. What a difference four years...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - College students from across North Carolina will arrive in Charlotte by the busload. Same with members of predominantly black churches in neighbouring South Carolina. Their goal: help fill a 74,000-seat outdoor stadium to capacity when President Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination Thursday night. Anything short of a full house on the final night of the Democratic Party's national convention will be instant fodder for Republicans eager to use empty seats as symbols of waning voter enthusiasm for Obama. Democrats have been fretting for months over whether the president can draw a capacity crowd at Bank of...

Preston Brittain has called Gloria Tinubu to concede the Democratic runoff for the 7th Congressional District. Meanwhile, in the Republican runoff, Tom Rice has won over Andre Bauer, who held the highest percentage 2 weeks ago in the primary, WBTW has projected. With 90 percent of the precincts reporting, Rice was ahead by a generous margin and WBTW called the race for Rice just before 9 pm. Rice held 15,121 votes or 56 percent while Bauer had 11,758 votes or 44 percent This sets up a Tinubu-Rice match-up in the November election.

On Monday, Katherine Jenerette, a US Army Paratrooper and Afghanistan War Veteran and a former candidate for the new 7th District Congressional Seat, announced that she has endorsed former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer for the run-off election to be held next week, Tuesday, June 26. Jenerette said: “I would like to congratulate both Tom Rice and Andre Bauer for their close finish in last week’s primary election. After much thought, prayer and discussion I have decided to fully endorse the candidacy of Andre Bauer to be the next United States Congressman for the Seventh Congressional District of South Carolina.

Former Lt. Governor Andre Bauer and Horry County Council Chair Tom Rice hold a substantial lead in the race for the Republican nomination for the new 7th Congressional District seat according to a new poll commissioned by Francis Marion University and SCNOW.com. But the overall temerity of the campaign has left many voters still scratching their heads less than a month before the June 12 primary. Bauer leads the nine-person field of Republican candidates with 22 percent of the 641 likely GOP primary voters polled, followed closely by Rice with 21 percent. Chad Prosser is third with 8 percent. A...

Jim DeMint came to Rock Hill today to answer questions and lay it on the line.

MJ Lee gets an early look at Nikki Haley's memoir, in which the South Carolina governor relates the difference in the way Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney handled allegations of infidelity that surfaced against Haley: She describes Palin in her memoir as someone with whom she enjoyed an “instant rapport” and an immediate “kinship,” as they talked about everything from their children and shoes to the hardships of being on the campaign trail. “She was very friendly and gregarious. She signed books and took pictures with people. There was not one thing about her that was high maintenance,” Haley says....

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) kept the speculation about a possible brokered GOP convention alive this week when he was asked whether Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels could still become a last-minute presidential candidate. DeMint spoke highly of Daniels when asked at a meeting of the Aiken Republican Club in Aiken, S.C., on Tuesday night. “He’s the only one who could make it happen,” DeMint said, according to a report published by the Augusta Chronicle, a local paper. “But I don’t think his wife will let it happen.” In a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was chosen as...

If you were a campaign strategist for Newt Gingrich, you could not have wished for a better outcome than what occurred in the recent South Carolina primary. Weeks before the election, Mitt Romney seemed like he had a virtual lock on the GOP nomination, consistently leading Gingrich and others in preliminary polling. In addition to having sizeable advantages in funding and organization, the Romney team also captured the early endorsement of Gov. Nikki Haley. But somehow, in the days before the election, Gingrich vaulted past Romney and actually bested his opponent by 12 percentage points on Primary Day. One might...

When all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern tonight in Florida, the winner of the state’s Republican primary may not initially be apparent. After all, the winner takes all, which means the candidate who gets the most votes gets all of the delegates. But the state, with 10 different media markets and a cultural mélange that ranges from Alabama South to Cuba North, is by no means homogeneous. Here are five crucial indicators to keep track of as the returns come in: Absentee VotersThe first key factor is, about a third of Florida voters have already cast their ballots, and...

Two new Florida primary polls, the first since Newt Gingrich's deeply, profoundly impressive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, have now been released, and it appears that the bounce everyone thought he would receive has materialized as expected. An Insider Advantage poll has Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 34 percent to 26 percent, while a Rasmussen poll has Gingrich up 41 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile, PPP has also tweeted out much tighter (preliminary) numbers from its polling efforts in the Sunshine and Meth and Old People State: Gingrich and Romney are separated by just two voters after polling 600 people....

One ballot for the Republican candidate for US Presidential nominee has favoured Newt Gingrich while a recount elsewhere gave Rick Santorum support so where does that put Mitt Romney's campaign as well as the candidate race as a whole? Transcript HEATHER EWART, PRESENTER: Just days ago Mitt Romney looked like he was on track to be the Republican presidential nominee. But his political fortunes have changed with a decisive win by the controversial former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary at the weekend. The contest will now drag on for a lot longer than Mitt Romney and...

When Newt Gingrich got humiliated three weeks ago in Iowa, he responded the way any self-respecting political scrapper would after being beaten down and bloodied. He got up and started swinging wildly. Not just at the guy who knocked him out, but at any foe (hello media elite!) who dared come within reach. Contrast that with Mitt Romney, a candidate so scripted and disciplined even his one-liners in TV debates sound poll-tested and focus grouped. “I will show passion and, from time to time, perhaps a little energy — as I feel it in my heart,” Romney said on the...

Courtesy of one friend, an old pro, three perhaps overlooked points in the sea of analysis of South Carolina and beyond: “I notice that everyone’s citing all kinds of reasons for S.C.: Romney overconfident, Perry's endorsement, Romney doesn't connect, Barnes’s argument that Romney needs a ‘big idea.’ Lost in all this it seems is one name: Sarah Palin. First time she has expressed herself in the race and her candidate wins by 12. If she really comes out for Newt, look out. “Second thought: Paul has potential to give Romney lots of trouble in caucus states. “Final point: Some argue...

Of all the qualities people look for in their leaders, here’s one you don’t hear very often: Mean. Filled with integrity? Yes. Visionary? Certainly. Magnanimous? Sure. But mean? Not one that comes up that frequently. This, of course, was the response one voter gave to Post reporters for why he voted for Newt Gingrich in Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, which the former speaker won by 12 points, thereby upending the Republican race. “I think we’ve reached a point where we need someone who’s mean,” an 85-year-old Harold Wade said in Sullivan’s Island, S.C. Others weren’t so candid, but said...

Newt Gingrich on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this morning turned analyst about why top opponent Mitt Romney stumbled in South Carolina. Authenticity is the issue, Gingrich told Bob Schieffer. Gingrich described former Massachusetts Gov. Romney as “a very good salesman, very much wants to sell, but he has a really weak product. And so I think he’s been dancing on eggs trying to find a version of Romney that will work. And I think the more he dances the more people go — you know, give me the real … I have flaws, I have weaknesses, I’ve had a long...

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary, 40 percent to 28 percent, over Mitt Romney. He also won every Congressional district and, in doing so, won all of South Carolina’s 25 delegates. Now the battle heads to Florida, which holds its primary on Jan. 31. Here are five things to look for as the race heads to Florida. 1. Momentum versus organization Newt Gingrich will come into Florida with momentum, gained from winning South Carolina’s primary, which every Republican presidential nominee has won since 1980. But Romney has a head start in Florida. He has hundreds of thousands of absentee...

Newt Gingrich now has that intangible that unfortunately our Republicans have been missing, except for Sarah Palin. It is called swagger. I am talking about the Contract with America creating, welfare reforming, budget balancing, race card killing, CNN bashing, Obama debate challenging swagger. More than confidence, it's pure belief and trust in his own ability to carry out the conservative cause while winning hearts and minds. Public arena winning, back room brawling, media manhandling, Newt is a seasoned, battle tested statesman who has finally found his rhythm. It is very contagious to witness a confident conservative who can articulate our...

Special Guests: S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: As we noted, we are only about 8 hours and 50 minutes away from the polls opening in South Carolina. And there is only a tiny, tiny, tiny gap between the two front-runners, and the other two candidates could pull off a big surprise tomorrow. That's why this race is so gripping. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Governor Romney and has been hitting the campaign trail for him. Right now, in the latest poll, though, Governor Romney is number two. And she joins us. Governor Haley, welcome....

With Rick Santorum’s performance tonight there will likely be pressure from the GOP establishment on the former Senator from Pennsylvania to drop out of the GOP presidential primary race. So far Santorum mirrors the 2008 Huckabee campaign, obviously because of the win over Romney in Iowa, but also the bare-bones structure of his campaign and lack of fundraising ability.

A lot of things have transpired over the last 48 hours to completely change the dynamics of the race for the Republican nomination: 1. Rick Santorum was declared the winner in the Iowa Caucuses showing that Mitt Romney is in fact beatable. 2. Rick Perry has bailed out of the Presidential race, endorsing Newt Gingrich, and saying that he will actively campaign for the Speaker. 3. The most current polls in South Carolina show that Romney's support is starting to erode, while the same polls are showing that Gingrich's is growing daily. Four polls, Clemson/Palmetto, Public Policy Polling, Rasmussen and...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- With a just-completed Clemson Palmetto (S.C.) poll showing 20 percent of likely voters in today’s Republican presidential primary undecided, many political pundits are convinced that the race could go to either Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney. One of Gingrich’s top supporters in the Palmetto State argued otherwise, stating that those who are undecided are more likely to fall into the camp of the former House speaker than that of the former Massachusetts governor. (VIDEO AT LINK) “These [undecided] voters are conservative, and Mitt Romney has always had the problem of proving he is genuinely conservative,” Mike Campbell,...

CLEMSON, S.C. — With polls opening in less than 24 hours for the important South Carolina presidential primary election, the final Palmetto Poll shows Newt Gingrich leading over Mitt Romney in a gritty battle fraught with personal attacks and breaking news about the candidates’ personal lives. That’s the finding of the third Clemson University 2012 Palmetto Poll, a sample of 429 South Carolina GOP voters who indicated they plan to vote Saturday. The telephone poll was initiated Jan. 13 and recalibrated Jan. 18-19 to measure changing dynamics. Twenty percent of the likely voters remain undecided. “We expect a reaction by...

I mean, really. How dare you peasants tell the government what to do? How dare you tell them to stay out of your lives? Santorum 2012! (VIDEO AT LINK) "One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a Libertarianish right. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. That is not how traditional conservatives view the...

Sarah Palin understands that only one candidate has the opportunity to stop Mitt Romney's momentum and give the Republican party a nominee who is truly conservative. The unusual voting process this year has allowed Mitt Romney to win Iowa and New Hampshire even without the support of a majority of Republicans. The choice is clear: if conservatives fail to unite behind a single principled candidate in South Carolina, they will be stuck with a Massachusetts moderate opposing Barack Obama. Governor Palin understands that if the conservative vote remains split between non-Romney candidates, then the only beneficiary is Mitt Romney. Mitt...

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- On June 3, 2010, a phone rang at the campaign headquarters of Iowa gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad. Leo Hough, a receptionist, picked up and was greeted by a familiar voice. It was Sarah Palin, calling to let the campaign know that she was about to endorse Branstad on Facebook and Twitter. There had been no previous discussions between the former Alaska governor and the candidate, who was as pleasantly surprised as everyone else when told the news. That episode is typical of how Palin has made endorsements: suddenly, independently and without fanfare. After leaving an indelible mark...

You’ve got to admire Sarah Palin’s cunning — even if your eardrums can’t take her squeal. If Newt Gingrich wins Saturday in South Carolina, she can claim total credit. She just endorsed him — sort of. If he even gets close — and he’s closer to Mitt Romney in two new polls — she can point to her last-minute vote of confidence. “If I had to vote in South Carolina,” she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, “in order to keep things going, I would vote for Newt.” If things don’t go well, hey, she’s got lots of wiggle...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Have the tea partiers found their man to challenge President Obama? The leader of South Carolina’s chapter of the Tea Party Patriots says they have — and it’s Newt Gingrich. In an interview on Wednesday with The Daily Caller, Joe Dugan, who is also the chairman of the local Myrtle Beach Tea Party, said he sees increasing signs that conservative activists in the Palmetto State are beginning to coalesce around the former Speaker of the House. “My sense is there is a growing coalition behind Newt Gingrich,” said Dugan, who organized a state tea party convention last...

In a recent article published by The Daily Beast, its Washington bureau chief, Howard Kurtz, reasoned that if “moderate” Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for President, he’ll need to choose a running mate with the conservative bona fides to balance the ticket. While the notion that Mitt Romney is "on the verge of sewing up the Republican nomination" is still just a neo-con fantasy (especially in light of Ron Paul’s surging poll numbers and his respectable showing in Iowa and New Hampshire), pundits and soi disant opinion makers have suggested that the former Governor of Massachusetts choose a VP...

Mitt Romney waged a new onslaught against Newt Gingrich on Wednesday amid signs that the former House speaker was gaining traction in his drive to emerge as the sole viable alternative for the Republican presidential nomination. In a rare departure from his usual practice of ignoring GOP rivals and engaging President Obama instead, Romney ridiculed Gingrich for taking credit for millions of jobs created when he served in Congress. "Congressmen taking responsibility or taking credit for helping create jobs is like [former Vice President] Al Gore taking credit for the Internet," Romney told supporters at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C....

Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, but she may be trying to influence how people vote. According to ABC News, Palin said that if she lived in South Carolina, she would vote for Newt Gingrich. “Just one week after her husband Todd Palin “went rogue” and endorsed Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said tonight she would vote for Gingrich “if I were a South Carolinian” — the closest she has come to an endorsement in this race. Palin said tonight on “Sean Hannity” that she wants to see the race continue because “iron sharpens...

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich​’s outstanding debate performance on Monday and key endorsements could set the stage for a strong showing by Gingrich in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, which would position him for a possible win in the Florida primary on Jan. 31 and a chance at the Republican nomination for President this summer. That’s what the two former Republican U.S. Representatives who are chairing Gingrich’s campaign in those two key states told HUMAN EVENTS yesterday. Following what even Gingrich’s enemies say was a virtuoso performance in the debate at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Monday evening, former Reps. John Napier (S.C.) and...

Almost two-thirds of adult Facebook users in South Carolina say they aren't fans of the tea party, according to a Facebook poll conducted today with POLITICO. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they are "not at all supportive" of the tea party, compared with 20 percent who were "somewhat supportive" and 18 percent who were "very supportive." Of those surveyed, women were slightly less supportive of the tea party. Just 35 percent were either "somewhat" or "very" supportive of the movement, compared with 42 percent among men. The results only represent the sentiment of South Carolina users on Facebook, not...

Sarah Palin's not quite endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, but if she were a South Carolina voter, he's the one she'd cast her ballot for this weekend. The idea, Palin explained on Fox News, would be to keep the primary season going. Via Juana Summers, here's the case Palin made: "I can tell you what I would do if I were a South Carolinian…If I were a South Carolinian though, and each one of these primaries and caucuses are different, Sean, I want to see this thing continue because iron sharpens iron. Steel sharpens steel. These guys are getting better...

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Tuesday went after Newt Gingrich’s labeling of the Barack Obama as the “food stamp president,” charging the former speaker “denigrates” Americans trying to make ends meet during difficult economic times. “To say those kinds of things about the President of the United States, I think, not only tries to lower the office itself, but also denigrates those people who find themselves in need of food stamps,” the South Carolina Democrat said on Fox News, the morning after a GOP debate was held in his home state. Pressed on why the label was denigrating if Gingrich...

I just recieved a personal message from State Senator Kevin Bryant of South Carolina who has confirmed that he will indeed be supporting Congressman Ron Paul for President. Quite honestly, I wrote to the Senator asking him to reconsider his support for Paul. He sent me the following gracious email: "Great to hear from you Bill, I have chosen to support Dr. Paul as I believe his message energizes our base. Interestingly, even though he's the oldest candidate, the young voters seem to be attracted to him. Thanks for your input." I responded back that I sincerely hopes that he...

If former House Speaker Newt Gingrich does the impossible and somehow defeats Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination, analysts will look back and say the upset was sparked Monday night at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The knowledgeable, rhetorically gifted Newt Gingrich conservatives love showed up at the Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate and shook the house. Instead of shining by attacking Romney, he thrived by battling his old antagonists: the “elite” media and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Asked by debate co-moderator Juan Williams whether he could understand why his comments that “black Americans should demand jobs not food stamps”...

I have been hounded in media interviews to give them the scoop on which Republican presidential candidate I ‘m going to endorse. When I respond that it will be “unconventional,” they go nuts because they cannot conceive of what that means. That’s not the way they think. So they try to guess what it means based on conventional political practice. You will be endorsing yourself getting back into the presidential race, they guess. Nope. You will be endorsing someone that’s not in the race, they suggest. Nope. You will be endorsing two of the remaining candidates instead of one. No...

Big government conservatives will never truly overhaul Washington because they need the status quo in place to accomplish their objectives. They don’t want to rebuild the machine; they simply want to change the people pulling the levers. But that is not what the American people want. There is such deep and widespread discontent that nothing short of a complete overhaul will satisfy their justifiable demands. The American people expect changes equal to their concern, which is the highest it’s been in at least a generation, and I am the only candidate with a vision that is as strong and sweeping...

FOX's Neil Cavuto interviews Club for Growth's Andy Roth who rates the GOP presidential candidates economic plans.

Three new polls show former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gaining on Mitt Romney in South Carolina and emerging as the clear conservative choice of voters who are not backing the former Massachusetts governor for the Republican presidential nomination. An Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research survey completed on Thursday shows that Gingrich is actually in a statistical tie with Romney in South Carolina, with 21.3 percent of the vote to Romney’s 23.1. Gingrich leads Romney in several demographic groups, including voters 18 to 29 years old, black voters, male voters, and Independents. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum each received 13 percent of...