Free Republic

As the November 2nd election draws closer, it appears evident that the GOP will score a major victory. The Cooke Report, a non-partisan group known for its polling accuracy, conservatively predicts that Republicans will pick up between 35 and 45 seats. Assuming this outcome, what are the implications for President Obama? Will he be able to win reelection in 2012? The midterm elections of 1982 and 1994 offer important insights into the 2010 election. After an economy that saw the unemployment rate rise from 7.5% in January of 1981 to an average of 9.7% in 1982, the Republicans lost 26...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama acknowledges that the fall elections could amount to a referendum on his stewardship of the nation's affairs. [SNIP] But he also says the midterm congressional elections could come down to "a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and my policies that got us out of this mess."

THE shocking images of oil-covered wildlife and ruined beaches across the Gulf of Mexico have horrified millions. But passionate green campaigner Sir Paul McCartney believes the environmental disaster may have a silver lining, with the search for clean, renewable energy now being pushed forward. The Beatles legend said: "Sadly we need disasters like this to show people. Some people don't believe in climate warming - like those who don't believe there was a Holocaust."

Controversial comments made by the dean of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, were "offensive," but at the same time she had a remarkable career, President Barack Obama said Tuesday

<p>WASHINGTON -- Say it isn’t so, Mr. President. You surely are not going to make a deal with Republicans to cut Social Security benefits, are you?</p> <p>Here’s word from The Nation Magazine: “The President intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.”</p>

It should come as no surprise. During the campaign, he told us he was a "citizen of the world." Last week, he told the cadets at West Point, and the rest of the world, just what his vision of a new world order is. Obama wants a new international order that can "resolve the challenges of our times." That's what Woodrow Wilson wanted when he and his cronies created the League of Nations. That's what Franklin Roosevelt wanted when he and his cronies created the United Nations. Fortunately, conservative Senators prevented the United States from surrendering its sovereignty to Wilson's...

WASHINGTON -- At last! President Barack Obama held a full-scale White House news conference Thursday, his first since July 22. His record on presidential news conferences has been abysmal. True, he held a forgettable news conference on Feb. 9, the day the government was shut down because of blizzards. Very clever. He is considered a great communicator. So what’s the deal? He is surely well-primed on the issues and headlines of the day. Speeches and well-placed interviews won’t cut it. He should be quizzed, as he was Thursday by reporters trying to get to the bottom of the Obama administration’s...

WASHINGTON -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai got a close look at the cost of war and American sacrifices last week in a rare travel schedule for a visiting head of state. The administration of President Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet as a peace offering to gloss over the public friction that caused the proud Karzai earlier this year to threaten to join the Taliban -- the enemy. Or is the enemy al-Qaida? Or both? Between meetings with administration officials, the Afghan leader’s orientation visit included a trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where wounded U.S. soldiers from...

An Eloquent Defense Of American Democracy Obama Also Notes Harshness Of Public Discourse Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is so divided that it seems to me that the nation has lost its compass. Even in times of national crisis, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and a string of scandals such as Watergate, the political center has held together. But now I’m not quite so sure. President Barack Obama has been most conciliatory as he seeks the middle ground on a host of issues, even to the point of caving to...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama needs to wake up to the fact that the nation’s school systems are going down the drain. Thousands of teachers are facing a payless summer. Millions of school children are looking at a drop in educational standards and bigger classes. We are depriving students of their right to a decent education. Granted that school systems are under state control, the federal government needs to step up and help them overcome their financial woes. Aren’t the schools too important to fail? U.S. priorities are to spend billions every week for the unjustified and unexplained wars in...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with two dozen top Wall Street executives recently and got his marching orders: Just say “no” to any new regulations designed to prevent another Great Recession, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression in the 1930s. But something happened soon afterward. Faced with the politically tough strategy of defending Wall Street amid widespread public anger, McConnell stepped back and has begun talking about how a bipartisan bill to regulate Wall Street is likely to emerge from the Senate. I bet he got some strong advice from fellow Republicans, especially those facing...

WASHINGTON -- The forthcoming departure of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is a great loss to the country, especially to progressives. Stevens, a Republican, was appointed to the high court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. Over the next 35 years, he grew in office and eventually adopted liberal views about the death penalty, abortion rights, protection of gay rights and curbing executive power. Stevens is brilliant, eloquent, outspoken and unafraid to change his mind, as evidenced by some of his votes on the court. He voted in favor of affirmative action, after first questioning it. He declared that...

Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. Ask the Political Class, though, and it’s a blowout. While 58% of Mainstream voters favor Paul, 95% of the Political Class vote for Obama. But Republican voters also have decidedly mixed feelings about Paul, who has been an outspoken critic of the...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is learning to be a strong president. Yes, he can. When Obama took office, it wasn’t clear whether he had any firm principles. This perspective grew when he seemed oblivious to the harsh reality that Republicans weren’t going to sign on to his health care plan, no matter what. Obama became the Great Compromiser when he watered down his original concepts in a vain effort to appease his opponents, even though they had zero interest in working with him. The president had a light-bulb moment, at least publicly, earlier this week when he was interviewed...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a muted victory lap today after the historic House vote on health care reform, but didn't dispute a description of her clout in helping win passage of the bill. Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."Most powerful woman in American history?" "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer asked Pelosi today, citing an article in The Economist.

WASHINGTON -- Billions are being spent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we have stingy budgets for the stubborn needs on the home front. Thousands of teachers have been laid of, schools closed and homes foreclosed all over the country. Banks are holding back on loans to small businesses and the jobless rate remains stubbornly high. Call it a "recession" or a "depression," we know there is great deprivation in the lives of millions, especially those who have lost their jobs. In many ways, President Barack Obama has run up against a Republican iron curtain in his attempts...

WASHINGTON -- Finally! President Barack Obama has at last zeroed in on the greedy health insurance companies and their opposition to health reform. It’s about time. The president also seems to have awakened the public to the fact that congressional Republicans have mounted a solid wall of resistance to serious efforts at improving the American health care system. Obama is now in the final chapter of his year-long effort to win legislation that would make health insurance affordable and accessible to more Americans, 46 million of whom lack coverage. The Republicans have been admirable for their party discipline: They have...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is finding her voice in the world of foreign affairs -- and it’s the sound of hawk-speak, filled with threats and warnings. She has warned that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship. She is trying -- with some success -- to persuade U.S. allies to support stronger sanctions against Teheran. There’s no sign that the U.S. is about to invade Iran but there’s tons of speculation that the Pentagon has been tasked to figure out what bunker-buster bombs would do to Iran’s underground nuclear industry and whether such an attack would help or...

WASHINGTON -- Enough already. President Barack Obama’s admirable quest for bipartisanship is a voice crying in the wilderness. Oh yes, he has another chance at bat when he hosts a summit meeting Feb. 25 at Blair House, the president’s guest house across the street from the White House. He has invited the leaders of both parties to the televised meeting designed to "jump start" the discussion about health care reform. Obama said he does not want the talks to devolve into political theater. "I want a substantive discussion," he said. The summit follows Obama's televised sparring with House Republicans at...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama does have a foreign policy. It’s called war. Unfortunately, the president has not defined any real difference between his hawkish approach to international issues and that of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. Where’s the change we can believe in? Bush left a legacy of two wars, neither of which was ever fully explained or justified. Obama has merely picked up the sword that Bush left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both wars lack a formal congressional declaration of war. In the struggle against terrorism one might say, "Who cares?" Well, one group that...