Free Republic

Here are two big questions hovering over this year's congressional elections: How radical is the mood out there, and do Republicans have a real chance of taking back control of the U.S. Senate? And here's a simple way to track the answer to both: Simply keep an eye on four tea-party amigos chasing Senate seats in the key states of Nevada, Kentucky, Florida and Colorado.

The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat. The budget plan released Monday by the Obama administration illustrates why this escalation is warranted. The numbers are mind-numbing: a $1.6 trillion deficit this year, $1.3 trillion next year, $8.5 trillion for the next 10 years combined—and that assumes Congress enacts Obama's proposals to start bringing it down, and that the proposals work. ...it's time to start thinking of...

When American political discourse has reached the point where a congressman shouts "You lie!" at the president during a nationally televised address, it must be a sign that the stakes are running pretty high. And so they are in the great health debate. Most analysis, though, has focused on only one side of the political poker game now under way: Will lawmakers pay a political price if they vote for a health bill that proves unpopular?

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. But not Mitt Romney. For this unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential contender, it is hard to imagine how events could be moving more decisively in his favor in 2009. One can almost hear him wondering: Why didn't things break this way last year? 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...

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the flames of protest are being slowly smothered in the streets of Iran. Still, even that will leave behind embers of opposition, and the key question in weeks ahead is whether there are any forces within Iran able to keep those embers smoldering. Anyone who has followed recent Iranian history knows there are two places to look for the answer to that question: the military and the clerical establishment. If cracks in the support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad start appearing in those institutions, the Tehran Spring set off by protests over Iran's presidential...

Independent voters are the canaries in the coal mine of American politics, telling a leader whether the air is safe or starting to fill up with some toxic gases. Bearing that in mind, President Barack Obama and his team ought to start worrying about the health of those canaries. While the president remains broadly popular, his standing has eroded noticeably among political independents in recent weeks. That slide, among a set of citizens central to Mr. Obama's sizable victory in last year's election, means he has reached a politically hazardous juncture at the midpoint of his first, exceptionally hectic year....

Obama Aspires to a 'Light Touch,' Not a Heavy Hand By GERALD F. SEIB As he prepares to release the most extensive proposals to change financial regulations since the 1930s, President Barack Obama is a bit anxious. Anxious, that is, for people -- and specifically for his conservative critics -- to know he isn't the heavy-handed meddler some suspect. "I think the irony is that I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government," he said Tuesday in a White House interview. It is a counterintuitive argument to make when his government is...

In a week when Washington is obsessed with the arrival of the 100-day milestone in President Barack Obama's presidency, it's easy to forget that, for the opposition Republicans, the crucial political testing ground likely doesn't lie in the nation's capital at all. Instead, it's found in cities such as this one, Louisiana's state capital, and in the hands of new leaders such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He speaks with the rapid-fire cadence of a man brimming with youthful confidence that he can craft a conservative alternative to the path Washington is taking to escape today's economic hurricane. Whether Mr....

Maybe it's time for another speech on race relations in America -- this time by Sen. Hillary Clinton.As fears of a racial divide move from the wings to center stage for Democrats, it has largely been Sen. Barack Obama who has been called upon to address the subject. And he has -- first in a high-profile speech a few weeks ago, and recently this past weekend in an extended conversation on race and the campaign on "Fox News Sunday."Undoubtedly, he'll have to do so again, in the wake of an appearance at the National Press Club Monday by his former...