Free Republic

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I'm bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among...

By now you’ve all heard the Fox News report last week that “unnamed” former McCain advisers leaked that Sarah Palin was confused about whether Africa was a continent, and which countries were in NAFTA. I was perfectly happy staying under the radar as an anonymous source for Fox News‘ Carl Cameron, but now that Palin has accused her accusers of being “unprofessional…jerks…cowards… taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news” and begun to cast doubt on the Fox News report, maybe she’s right to a certain extent. For those of us on the McCain...

I just heard it on the Radio. I know he said he would back when but now he has confirmed that he actually voted Obama. Can't listen to him every again, sorry. May not continue to listen to Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly radio is off the air soon anyways, right? In my book I may give you a pass if you voted Barr, 3rd party or write-in. But Obama, not acceptable.

Sacramento, Nov 6, 2008 / 07:47 am (CNA).- St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California has invited Pepperdine University law professor and Obama backer Doug Kmiec to give an election “post-mortem” lecture.According to the California Catholic Daily, Kmiec will give the Thirteenth Annual Newman C. Eberhardt Lecture next Tuesday. The seminary’s web site says his lecture will examine “the prominent role played by the American Catholic community in the 2008 election, from Bishops educating candidates on ensoulment to alternative ways to be pro-life to the selection of running mates.”Kmiec, former legal counsel for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, has...

Message to Scott McClellan: when your guy's gaffe merits a screaming headline at Drudge [see after the jump] about how he's had to apologize for what he said, he's messed up. Big time. But that didn't stop Pres. Bush's former press secretary—turned Soros-paid scrivener—from going on TV and proclaiming that Obama had turned in a flawless performance in his debut presser today as president-elect. McClellan appeared on MSNBC's "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," David Gregory's post-election vehicle taking the place of "Race for the White House." In an odd bit of balance, McClellan, who endorsed Obama, was on with former Clinton press...

WASHINGTON -- By midnight Tuesday, millions of conservatives probably will believe that the nation, foundering on the reefs of sin, is ruined. And millions of "progressives," emboldened to embrace truth in labeling by again calling themselves liberals, probably will have decided that Heaven is at hand, the nation revived like a flower in an April shower. In any case, political numeracy can illuminate the hours before midnight. So as Tuesday's numbers accumulate, here are some benchmarks to bear in mind: The House of Representatives currently has 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans; the Senate has 51 Democrats (including two independents who...

Professor Charles Fried, an advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, has announced that he can no longer support the McCain/Palin ticket. In a letter to the general counsel to the McCain/Palin campaign, he cited McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate as too dangerous "at a time of deep national crisis", and has asked for his name to be removed from several campaign committees on which he has served. Fried also publicly stated that he had voted for Obama via absentee ballot. Fried later clarified to The New Republic that he had voted for Obama because he no...

The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes: He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. Obama and the Runaway Train The race, the case, a hope for grace. He rose...

Ms. Palin has emerged as a flash point for a split dividing talk-radio populists and conservative traditionalists from some of their former intellectual allies at National Review and the Heritage Foundation. “These are the people who are embarrassed by Sarah Palin,” Rush Limbaugh recently declared on his radio program, pointedly criticizing several columnists by name, “ ’cause she’s not an intellectual and she didn’t go to Harvard or have a college degree from approved universities and she drops her g’s from words like ‘morning’ and says ‘mornin’.” One of the columnists, David Frum, fired back on National Review’s Web site....

It looks like there might be some truth to those rumors former Mitt Romney supporters are already trying to clear Sarah Palin from the GOP presidential deck to make room for their man Mitt in 2012. Former Romney Spokesman Kevin Madden was particularly harsh on Palin in an interview on CNN. His criticism of Palin is especially noteworthy because we're only days from the election. In a spot with Campbell Brown Madden said Palin's wardrobe flap showed how "unseasoned" Palin is. BROWN: And, Kevin, even defending this whole controversy over the clothes, the RNC buying all the clothing, it keeps...

My husband called it first. Then, a brilliant, 75-year-old scholar confessed to me over wine: “I’m sexually attracted to her. I don’t care that she knows nothing.” There can be no denying that McCain’s selection of her over others far more qualified —— suggests other factors at work. His judgment may have been clouded by ... what? Science provides clues. A study in Canada, published in New Scientist in 2003, found that pretty women foil men’s ability to assess the future. “Discounting the future,” as the condition is called, means preferring immediate, lesser rewards to greater rewards in the future....

... Sarah Palin is in revolt, it’s reported, angry that John McCain’s handlers forced her to wear haute couture; that she’s not been able to be herself before the media; and that Republican campaign strategy -- like the decision to give up on Michigan -- is askew. .... It's all about the political makeover of the Republican Party’s new great hope. For many senior Republicans, Obama appears sure to prevail Nov. 4 ... Advice is already incoming: She should at all costs avoid running for Congress, writes Ron Bonjean, former communications director for Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate majority leader...

Some aides to Sen. John McCain say they weren't happy that running mate Sarah Palin went off script Sunday...Palin deviated from her prepared remarks to talk about her wardrobe controversy Sunday. ... A senior McCain adviser told CNN those comments "were not the remarks we sent to her plane." ...A Palin aide said that the governor clearly felt like she had to say something to defend herself, because "that's really not who she is." ... sources told CNN that long-brewing tensions between Palin and key aides to McCain were on the rise. McCain advisers suggested that they have become increasingly...

Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy". He told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?" Mr Frum thinks that Mrs Palin's brand of cultural conservatism appeals only to a dwindling number of voters. He said: "She emerges from this election as the...

I've had enough, after watching Gerry Rivers of all people, an inveterate Obama fan, throw dirt on McCain/Palin, I think the list of traiterous Republicans otherwise known as Vichy Republicans should be assembled before the election.

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president yesterday, citing Obama’s “deep sense of calm” and “first-class political temperament.” Weld, a Republican, said he has never endorsed a Democrat for president before, but in the last six weeks or so, it became “close to a no-brainer.” Obama has a history of bringing Democrats, Republicans and independents together and is the best choice at a time when America’s standing in the world is at a low point, he said. “It’s not often you get a guy with his combination of qualities, chief among which I would say is...

Contrarian that I am, I'm voting for John McCain. I'm not talking about bucking the polls or the media consensus that it's over before it's over. I'm talking about bucking the rush of wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama before they're left out in the cold without a single state dinner for the next four years. I stand athwart the rush of conservative ship-jumpers of every stripe — neo (Ken Adelman), moderate (Colin Powell), genetic/ironic (Christopher Buckley) and socialist/atheist (Christopher Hitchens) — yelling "Stop!" I shall have no part of this motley crew. I will go down with the McCain...

NEW YORK -- Scott McClellan, President Bush's former press secretary, says he is backing Barack Obama for president. McClellan made the endorsement during a taping of Comedian D.L. Hughley's new show that is premiering on CNN this weekend.

The former governor said Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis.Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama today, saying Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis and criticizing Republicans for waging a mean-spirited campaign that has "been going down all these side roads." Introduced to a standing ovation at the State Capitol by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, Carlson said his party had strayed from the moderate philosophies of past Republican leaders such as Ohio Sen. Robert Taft and President Dwight Eisenhower. "I consider...