Free Republic

The assumption for months was that everything would fall into place. That there was no need to really dig in, that the outcome was obvious. And then, too late, it became clear that this optimism was unfounded. Or maybe not too late, but late enough in the process to mean that folks would have to scramble. And now everything is up in the air. The paragraph above describes the Republican establishment’s attitude about Donald Trump’s candidacy, obviously. But it also describes Trump’s push for the nomination itself. From the moment he stepped onto that escalator on Trump Tower until about...

Even Trump’s most trusted advisors didn’t expect him to fare this well ” the goal was to get The Donald to poll in double digits and come in second in delegate count. That was it. The Trump camp would have been satisfied to see him polling at 12% and taking second place to a candidate who might hold 50%. His candidacy was a protest candidacy. I don’t think even Trump thought he would get this far. And I don’t even know that he wanted to, which is perhaps the scariest prospect of all. He certainly was never prepared or equipped...

Over the past few months, the Republican race has morphed from a seventeen-headed gorgon into a more manageable monster with four faces. The first face belongs to front runner Donald Trump, who has run an idiosyncratic campaign, focused almost entirely on his own personality. He has no discernible platform, represents no clear faction of the GOP, and is running as Trump rather than as a Republican. The next two faces are recognizably Republican. Ted Cruz, a respectable second, is running as the strong constitutional conservative. He favors a smaller government; decentralization of authority; a foreign policy grounded in the national...

Duh… I’m sick and tired of pretend conservatives defending John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, when they’re selling this country down the river! (SNIP) In 2009, Ben Sasse heralded Medicare Part D as “the answer to Health Reform”. In 2010, Sasse was a “senior advisor” to Leavitt Partners– a consulting firm that worked to implement Obamacare. In a March, Sasse would not rule out apocalyptic, thermonuclear war with Russia over the annexation of Crimea. Sasse’s benefactor is none other than Mike Simmonds– the fast food pioneer who has declared that he would only support candidates that endorsed “complete amnesty”.

I know a televangelist candidate when I see one. To hear the pundits and experts in Washington tell it, the problem with Ted Cruz is that he doesn't play well with others in the Senate, he's too hardheaded and doesn't compromise. In other words, he's exactly what the Republican primary voters want. On this score, I side with the Republican primary voters. If Cruz's problem is that he is a conservative who has no regard for senatorial decorum and fights too hard for the right things, I'm all in. But there is a far bigger problem with Cruz: Donald Trump...

Russia denied Friday it had placed its advanced S-400 missile defense system in Syria, the Russian news agency Tass reported. While Moscow has deployed a lot of military equipment to Syria since it began airstrikes at the start of October, the S-400 being deployed would demonstrate a change in Russia’s defense plans in the country. The S-400 is designed to intercept advanced missiles and aircraft. Russia claims its targets in Syria are the Islamic State group and Syrian rebels, neither of which are in possession of aircraft or missiles. The only threat to Russian dominance in the region is the...

With reports that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence officials are trying to unleash a large-scale war between ISIS and Russia.Six U.S. intelligence and military officials told The Daily Beast on Monday they hope that what appears to be an ISIS attack on a Russian airplane, brought down on October 31 in Egypt, will force Russian President Vladimir Putin to finally take serious military action against ISIS.The newspaper noted that U.S. intelligence and security officials are not panicking over ISIS unleashing a new round of bomb attacks on civilian airlines. What U.S. officials are concerned about is...

"We have a problem in this country — it's called Muslims. We know our current president is one. We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question. When can we get rid of them?" We've all heard the question by now and we all know how Trump is being lambasted for not defending Obama. But if this comment is so bad and so awful then why hasn't the media found this guy and reported on him? Where's his connection to the TEA Party? Isn't that the usual thing these days is they try to connect...

Timothy Dolan, Cardinal of New York, has taken to the Washington Post to assassinate the character of the leading Republican presidential candidate just because he holds a position with which most of the country agrees.

Jon Stewart slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight, summoned to an Oval Office coffee with President Barack Obama.... In February 2014, Obama again requested Stewart make the trip from Manhattan to the White House, this time for a midmorning visit hours before the president would go before television cameras to warn Russia that “there will be costs” if it made any further military intervention in Ukraine.... Top Obama aides David Axelrod and Austan Goolsbee knew Stewart’s voice mattered and made sure to field calls and emails from the host and “Daily...

Truth Revolt asks why the new Archbishop of Chicago has the nerve to speak of illegal immigration as if it were ‘God’s agenda.’ Where are truth-loving Catholics supposed to look for a Church that isn’t in the pocket of anti-Catholic hate today? Either it is evil to be conservative or these bishops are pretenders. Is it ‘love’ to hand political power to the true enemies of God and man? True to his claim that immigration reform is “God’s agenda,” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has been cozying up to pro-abortion Democrats to get his social justice initiatives underway. On Sunday, the...

With Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) beginning his run for the Presidency today, I should make public the question I've suggested to reporters in private. Senator Cruz is for certain going to be joined by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who will announce in a few weeks. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who I think is underrated in his bid for the Presidency even though Jeb Bush is intent on locking up Florida, will also most likely declare his candidacy. All three of these men would make excellent Presidents. I know them personally. I backed them when they were at single digits in...

If you read conservative outlets like RedState or Breitbart — or even if you just get Chris McDaniel’s email alerts — you’re aware of allegations of vote buying in Mississippi. If the allegations are true, it’s reprehensible. But the problem is that they’re coming from a less than reputable source. The African-American pastor alleging that he was offered money to buy votes for Thad Cochran was also paid by the reporter for the story. This is both ironic and problematic: If you’re the kind of person who is willing to participate in a vote-buying scheme, isn’t it possible you’d also...

I have wondered about Beck for a while, but loved his exposure of the communist network in the US. Since he left FOX...he seems to have changed...and the immediate disregard to the Bundy situation really made me sick. Beck didn't even give the guy the benefit of the doubt and touted the NYT version. I know he has risen to fame since 2001, ghost written several books, had rallies, etc....but to have a network, now? A base in NY....a major website (so buggy and full of cookies it puts me off). Does anyone else find this strange? And claims to...

In February, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) was asked during a panel what he thought about Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin saying negative things about him. Amash dismissed it and suggested people should go look at how often Rubin criticizes Rand Paul instead. So I did. Jennifer Rubin mentioned Senator Rand Paul’s name 143 times in the first three weeks of March (March 1-21) on her Right Turn blog. The only other political figure mentioned more often than Paul was President Obama at 206 times (not including “Obamacare,” but just President Obama specifically). The most frequently mentioned named after Sen....

Ukraine imperils Obama’s foreign-policy legacy How far the blunt and threatening posture US secretary of state John Kerry took in his interview with the CBS News toward Moscow — and President Vladimir Putin in person — over the Ukraine situation was genuine and how far it was intended to meet the domestic criticism of the Barack Obama administration being ‘weak’ in its foreign policies doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Kerry demanded virtual capitulation by Russia under the shadow of US retribution and that’s being plain dishonest and unrealistic. The history of the current Ukraine crisis didn’t begin with...

It has taken the best part of three years, but the realisation is dawning on our leaders that there is likely to be only one outcome in Syria’s brutal civil war, and that is the Assad regime declaring victory. Ever since the Syrian rebels were overrun by al-Qaeda and other Islamist movements of a similar uncompromising hue, I have been warning that, rather than backing the rebels, the West’s interests would be far better served by doing everything in its power to halt the violence, even if it means the detestable regime of President Bashar al-Assad surviving. In the pragmatic...

When organizers placed Ju Hong in a prominent position flanking President Barack Obama on Monday, they probably did not realize they were handing a high-profile lectern to one of the Bay Area's gutsiest immigration reform activists. Invited to the Chinatown speech as a member of the "Dreamer" movement of young people brought to the country illegally as children, Hong said he "was there just to listen" but ended up being asked by a friend to stand in a group behind Obama. He grew annoyed as he heard the president blaming Congress for stalling immigration reform. "Usually we're supposed to be...

Via Mediaite and the Right Scoop, he hasn’t reached the point of insisting that the mere act of challenging Obama in an election is racist, but he’s right on the doorstep now. We’re maybe two weeks away from that argument. Less, I figure, if Rasmussen’s tracker is right about Romney inching back into the lead nationally. Granted, he doesn’t utter the R-word here, but it’s clear enough from his “I don’t like the look of it” sneer plus the fact that this is, after all, Chris Matthews, and therefore all critiques of Republican antagonism towards Obama must ultimately devolve into...

I warned you. In order to promote the election of Mitt Romney we would have to go through all sorts of philosophical and policy contortions. And here we have ended up, with Romney’s most bombastic media supporter, who has not spared a foul word for Newt, issuing a full-throttled defense of and support for Romneycare, Ann Coulter, Three Cheers for Romneycare! (h/t INC in Tip Line) The argument really is a masterpiece of deflection, blaming everyone but the author (Romney) for the failure Romneycare has become, and running red herrings across the path such as a jumbled discussion of federal...