Free Republic

With New Hampshire in the dust and the 2016 presidential campaign moving southward to the Palmetto State, MSNBC's Chris Matthews tonight sought to paint conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz as a latter-day Richard Nixon ginning up a bag full of "dirty tricks" for the February 20 South Carolina contest. Dipping out of live coverage of a Donald Trump campaign rally in Pendelton, S.C., Matthews wondered if the GOP frontrunner was "sort of priming the pump now for some dirty action by the Cruz people?" "I think he should be, if he's not already," Trump campaign correspondent Katy Tur answered. "The...

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump said that he will strengthen the rights of the LGBT community and bring people together. His new stance comes just days after he said that as president, he would “strongly consider” overturning Obergefell vs Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that found that same-sex couples have a legal and constitutional right to marry. “I’m a lesbian, we’ve had some great progress for the gay and lesbian community,” NECN reporter Sue O’Connell told Trump. When President Trump is in office, can we look for more forward motion on equality for gays and lesbians?” Here is Trump’s...

It was an exciting race, but the results are in: Ted Cruz has won the Iowa caucuses. The senator from Texas was my favorite going in, but the talking heads in the media and the pollsters didn't agree. According to them, Iowa was Donald Trump's for the taking. Well, not quite so. He lost big tonight. Early in the evening people thought it could be too close to call, but that was absolutely not the case. Cruz led from the get-go and stayed on top all throughout the night. What this means is simple: Cruz has rallied Iowa conservatives behind...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 15 minutes ago The media has not covered my long-shot great finish in Iowa fairly. Brought in record voters and got second highest vote total in history! Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 11 minutes ago I will be talking about my wonderful experience in Iowa and the simultaneous unfair treatment by the media-later in New Hampshire. Big crowd Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 6 minutes ago I don't believe I have been given any credit by the voters for self-funding my campaign, the only one. I will keep doing, but not worth it!

'Unless I win, I would consider this a big, fat, beautiful--and, by the way, a very expensive--waste of time' Heading into the final days before Iowa's caucuses, Republican front-runner Donald Trump warned supporters that his months of headline-grabbing antics could be for naught if they do not show up Monday night. "You have to get out there and caucus, or we've all wasted our time," Trump said on a tarmac, speaking to supporters who stood in a cold airplane hangar for hours to see the former Apprentice star. It was a rare suggestion from the billionaire that he might not...

Evangelical Christians, at the moment, are totally enamored with a candidate who has profited off strip clubs, cheated on his wife, and appeared on the cover of the nation's pre-eminent porn magazine. And to top it off, Jerry Falwell Jr.-the heir of the Moral Majority mantle-just endorsed him. (snip) So far, Trump's top foes have largely steered clear of attacking him based on his sexcapades and scandals. Even while he and Rubio lob birther-esque attacks at Ted Cruz for being born in Canada, Trump has evaded any hard-hitting criticism for his multiple marriages, casino ownership, and appearance on the cover...

That headline is technically accurate: Last night's Trump-free Fox News forum pulled in roughly 12-13 million viewers, better than the 11 million or so who watched the Fox Business debate earlier this month, at which The Donald stood center stage.  Trump out, ratings up!  Well, sort of.  The Des Moines debate was still the second-least watched GOP debate of the cycle (maybe third-least, including online live streams), and many Trump fans -- suddenly highly interested in nuance in context -- are pointing out that the lowest-rated one aired on FBN, which has a smaller footprint than Fox News or CNN nationwide.  True enough, although FBN's November debate...

The final Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses was missing the field's loudest mouth, Donald Trump. But not to worry: Stephen Colbert on Thursday hosted an all-Trump debate — in which Trump debated himself. What followed was a "debate" in which Colbert cut back and forth between some of Trump's many contradicting past comments.

In the middle of her rambling, barely coherent speech endorsing Donald Trump last night, Palin addressed the (obviously true) contention that Trump is not a conservative. She didn’t really address the contention with any evidence at all, other than to basically say, “What does the establishment know about conservatism?”

The first thing a great many people, politicos, and non-politicos alike, said in private conversations when they heard the news that Sarah Palin would endorse Donald Trump is, "What did he pay her?" That may be an unfair question, but it's perfectly fair to put it this way: "What has Donald Trump done for Sarah Palin?" Meaning, what has Trump done to promote the values that Palin's supporters have been advocating for the past eight years? For starters, look at the three major issues that gave rise to and have animated the Tea Party since 2008 when then-Governor Palin burst...

Short clip (17 seconds) at link above. Fox was discussing potential Presidential candidates. Discusses Rubio then brings up Cruz, but then dismisses due to not being a natural born citizen.

One of the most important responsibilities the next president will be charged with is the appointment of a substantial number of federal judges – including as many as four Supreme Court Justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Stephen Breyer, who will all be into their eighties before the Trump and sisterend of the next president's first term. Donald Trump’s approach to this weighty responsibility? Appoint someone like his partial-birth abortion advocate sister, a federal district court judge in New York, to the Supreme Court. Back in August, Trump told National Review’s Mark Halperin and John Heilemann that...

I've been amazed how many so-called conservatives are appealing to Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe as an authority on what a natural born citizen is. He's a very weak reed too lean on for lots of reasons. Pick almost any subject, and Tribe is most likely on the other side. Tribe has described Ted Cruz as one of his brightest students when he was a student at Harvard Law School. This should tell conservatives something. If Cruz is that intelligent and a formidable debater, and he is on the other side ideologically from Tribe, liberals like himself must make sure...

IF your very candidacy and identity rest on your supposed talent for victory, can you survive a defeat? Can you continue to call yourself a winner if you’ve been a loser — and if “loser” is your favorite way of closing the book on someone, your final word, the workhorse in your brimming lexicon of slurs, exiting your mouth so reflexively that it’s essentially your exhalation, your carbon dioxide: “loser,” “loser,” “loser.” Donald Trump has a problem that the other candidates for the Republican nomination don’t. He’s put an obstacle in his path that they haven’t. He doesn’t merely assert...

Donald Trump sent Nancy Pelosi warm wishes when she was sworn in as House Speaker in January 2007, praising her as "the best" in a personal note. Trump, who’s now mulling a Republican run for president, penned the note on a copy of a New York Times article that chronicled Pelosi's swearing-in, and wrote, "Nancy — you're the best. Congrats. Donald," according to sources familiar with the missive. ... Trump, now a registered Republican, is a former independent and former registered Democrat. And the Pelosi note is a reminder that he has a past political history of supporting both sides...

Ever since Donald Trump entered the Republican presidential race, I've been a Trump-skeptic. I understood his appeal. I got why angry and alienated Republican rank-and-file voters have glommed onto his campaign. And I could even sketch out a scenario in which Trump could win. Yet, even as his poll numbers rose and he seemed immune from the political pitfalls that usually fell first-time candidates, I couldn't quite buy the notion that Trump, former reality star and full-time blowhard, could be the Republican nominee for president. It all just seemed too far-fetched. Surely, at some point Trump would implode. Those doubts...

I’m at a total loss to understand why serious pro-lifers take him at his word. He’s been all over the place on Planned Parenthood, and when asked who he’d like to put on the Supreme Court, he named his pro-choice-extremist sister. [I]n the last month, Trump has contemplated a flat tax, the fair tax, maintaining the current progressive tax system, a carried-interest tax, a wealth tax, and doing nothing. His fans respond, “That shows he’s a pragmatist!” No. It shows that he has absolutely no ideological guardrails whatsoever. Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal...

<p>So Mark Levin, as predicted, went Beck on us imho (Glen Beck).</p> <p>As fully expected, since he was already building up to it the day before, he is egging on this line of attack on Trump as reflecting "New York Values" - Cruz was told not to go there prior to the debate, but foolishly he went there, and there couldn't have been a more moronic move and insulting to all the 911 first responders, New York's finest, the NYC consruction workers, et all, and ... all just to try and take out Trump?</p>

Ted Cruz might say he has a problem with "New York values," but he seems happy to take New York money. The Texas senator's swipe at Donald Trump in Thursday's debate didn't just earn the ire of the New York Daily News (whose front page today showed the Statue of Liberty giving him the finger) and New York Mayor de Blasio (who took to CNN demanding an apology) - it also might alienate the city's donors he has been carefully courting. Cruz's campaign raised $223,750 from New Yorkers, according to finance reports available through September. Robert Mercer, the hedge fund...

Byron York had an interesting piece on Donald Trump that is worth reading. At least anyone who might be interested in the real Donald Trump. Trump appeared in front of the “non-partisan” No Labels group who desperately wants candidates that will “compromise” even though it is never clear what compromises will result in. Donald Trump told this group, "Let me just tell you, the word compromise is not a bad word to me. I like the word compromise. We need compromise, there is nothing wrong with compromise, but it's always good to compromise and win. Meaning, let's compromise and win."...