Free Republic

You have to admit it takes guts. Audacity, even. Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee of the Democrats, has in essence just defeated the heiress of the Clinton era by campaigning as the heir-apparent of the Carter era. The question for the rest of the year is this: Are there enough voting Americans who survived the disastrous odyssey through the late 1970s that was led by blessedly now ex-president Jimmy Carter? While Ronald Reagan is rated in poll after poll by Americans as a great president, (most recently he rated second only to Lincoln), are there enough people who recall...

Every working family could face paying an "ageing tax" to provide care for the elderly, Gordon Brown proposed yesterday. It would take the form of a compulsory levy to force them to cover the cost of care home places in the last stages of their lives. The ageing tax is a central plank of a consultation launched by the Prime Minister in the face of a growing crisis over who should meet the bills for the care of the elderly. But the proposals raise the prospect of the modestly well-off having to pay twice. They include no guarantee of ending...

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." So said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own. A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views. Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs,...

Do you know who I am? I'm the big rubber clown doll you had as a kid, and every time you hit it, it bounces back. That's me--the harder you hit me, the faster I come back up. Bill Clinton to Newt Gingrich, Winter 1995 The Clintons find themselves victimized and under siege. The presidency is being stolen from them. The press is out to get them. They deride elites and champion the masses. They live in a constant state of emergency. But they will endure any humiliation, ride out any crisis, fight on even when fighting seems hopeless. That...

Ever since California voters became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, the state has faced unyielding opposition from the federal government, which insists it has the power to prohibit a drug it considers useless and dangerous. That could all change with the next presidential election. As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana. His Democratic rival,...

This is an amazing story. The Democratic Party has a winner. It has a nominee. You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him. Even after the worst two weeks of his campaign, he blew past her by 14 in North Carolina and came within two in Indiana. Martin Kozlowski He's got this thing. And the Democratic Party, after this long and brutal slog, should be dancing in the streets. Party elders should be coming out on the balcony in full array, in full...

No, we don't mean Bill and Hillary. We mean the separation now under way between the Clintons and the Democratic Party. Like all divorces after lengthy unions, this one is painful and has had its moments of reconciliation, but after Tuesday a split looks inevitable. The long co-dependency is over. Truth be told, this was always a marriage more of convenience than love. The party's progressives never did like Bill Clinton's New Democrat ways, but after Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis they needed his epic political gifts to win back the White House. They hated him for their loss of...

The solution to gridlock on our overcrowded roads is to take to the air in a plane-car hybrid that will revolutionise the way society works. This vision of the future twenty years hence was revealed at the 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium held a stone's throw from San Francisco airport in California. Plotting the next frontier in green technology was Richard Jones, a technical fellow at Boeing Phantom Works. He said "Today I am talking about making aviation available to everyone as a daily means of transportation. Transportation changes society." "When they dumped the horse and cart people took over two...

For the first time, the Obama campaign is giving credence – or seeking excuses – in Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos. Since Texas, the Hillary-hating talk show host has encouraged Republicans among his listeners (likely to be a majority) to register for open Democratic primaries and vote for Mrs Clinton, believing she will be an easier candidate for John McCain to defeat. Whether that premise is still true is debatable, but having claimed a successful insurgent effort in Texas, Limbaugh continued the practice in Indiana and North Carolina. It is easy to dismiss all this as hot air, but in Texas...

Tuesday's Democrat primary election results from Indiana and North Carolina have given a boost to Sen. Barack Obama's chances of becoming the next President of the United States, according to the latest betting in political predictive markets. Intrade has President Obama at 53.5, bid, up 2.7. The odds of a Hillary Clinton presidency are down 2.3 at 7.2, bid. Sen. John McCain trails Obama in the betting at 37.2, bid, down 0.8. See https://www.intrade.com/aav2/trading/tradingHTML.jsp?evID=45788&eventSelect=45788&updateList=true&showExpired=false Generically, the 2008 Presidential Election Winner-Take-All Market maintained by Iowa Electronic Markets has a 2008 Democrat President trading at 0.550, bid, versus 0.450 for a GOP...

But Barack Obama's support has narrowed dangerously--and he'll need to make critical changes to beat John McCain. The Democratic primary is over. Hillary Clinton might still run in West Virginia and Kentucky, which she'll win handily, but by failing to win Indiana decisively and by losing North Carolina decisively, she lost the argument for her own candidacy. She can't surpass Barack Obama's delegate or popular vote count. The question is no longer who will be the Democratic nominee, but whether Obama can defeat Republican John McCain in November. And the answer to that is still unclear. During the last two...

Here are two things we learned tonight. First, Barack Obama is going to almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. He’s withstood seven weeks of bad news and he still exceeded expectations. The second thing we learned is that this general election is going to look nothing like the last two. Those elections were base mobilization elections. The candidates did little to upset party orthodoxy or move dramatically toward the center. That won’t work this time. The extended primary season has changed the profile of Obama supporters. Back in Iowa, he seemed to gather post-partisan and bipartisan support. He was strong...

(snip) The term “democratic recession” was coined by Larry Diamond, a Stanford University political scientist, in his new book “The Spirit of Democracy.” And the numbers tell the story. At the end of last year, Freedom House, which tracks democratic trends and elections around the globe, noted that 2007 was by far the worst year for freedom in the world since the end of the cold war. Almost four times as many states — 38 — declined in their freedom scores as improved — 10. What explains this? A big part of this reversal is being driven by the rise...

Obama takes North Carolina and only barely loses Indiana, narrowing Hillary's hopes to the 366 phantom delegates from Michigan and Florida. May 7, 2008 | INDIANAPOLIS -- Hillary Clinton is one day and two important primaries closer to oblivion. Her hairbreadth victory here in Indiana coupled with her double-digit defeat in North Carolina on the last big night of the 2008 primary season provided a dreams-deferred, delegate-deficit downturn in her already dispiriting fortunes. Not only is Hillary clinging to the hands of a clock in an old-time Harold Lloyd silent movie, but the clock face has begun to wobble. Barack...

This Barack-Hillary Show has jumped the shark. Week after week, the same old same old. It’s gotten more tired than a Paula Abdul meltdown on “American Idol.” He wins one, she wins one. Barack’s people say, “They’re raising the bar!” Hillary’s minions say, “They’re moving the goalposts.” And America is changing the channel. Don’t the Democrats understand? This is May, a ratings sweeps months. You put your best new episodes on. Instead, we’re getting reruns from February. “Yes we can!” Obama said last night. Hey, isn’t this is where we came in? Actually, these next few days are going to...

RALEIGH, NC -- Hillary Clinton may not have reached the end of her presidential campaign last night, but the end is now surely within staggering distance. (snip) CLINTON IS UNLIKELY to drop out eminently, because she is a Clinton. But last night's Hillary showed a lot less fight than the one who came out swinging after the victory in Pennsylvania. Bill, who did a marathon of nine events on Monday in North Carolina to no avail, could be seen behind Hillary, wearing defeat all over his face. She'll still fight for Florida and Michigan to be seated, and make the...

With his victory in North Carolina on Tuesday, Barack Obama took a giant step toward the Democratic presidential nomination. The irony is that he is doing this just when Hillary Clinton has finally exposed his potential weaknesses as a general election candidate. The Illinois Senator can certainly breathe easier having dodged a loss in North Carolina, where he once held a big lead. As usual, he swept the under-30 crowd as well as the educated, upscale liberals in the central part of the Tar Heel State. He also seems to have fought the economic issue to a draw, suggesting that...

As I write up the Obama victory event here in Raleigh tonight, I notice there's a new proponent of "the Limbaugh effect." It's not coming from Operation Chaos headquarters but from the Obama campaign. Tonight I've gotten two emails from the campaign suggesting that the Limbaugh effect was in play in Indiana. The most recent email, a few minutes ago, was headlined "The Limbaugh Effect in Indiana = 7%" noting: According to the latest exit polling data, 17% of voters in the Indiana primary today said they would vote for John McCain in a Clinton/McCain matchup. 41% of that number...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is bracing for one of the most difficult days of her presidential race on Wednesday, anticipating new pressure to quit the race and facing a set of financial and logistical decisions that will determine just how robust a campaign she can continue to wage against Sen. Barack Obama, according to several advisers and political allies. And that is only for starters, these people say: After her narrow win in the Indiana primary and steep loss in North Carolina, working off a few hours of sleep, Mrs. Clinton is also bound to think over a question in...

In this case, a split was not a draw. Despite narrowly winning Indiana, while losing North Carolina, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not fundamentally improve her chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. If anything, Mrs. Clinton’s hopes for overtaking Senator Barack Obama dwindled further on Tuesday night. For Mr. Obama, the outcome came after a brutal period in which he was on the defensive over the inflammatory comments of his former pastor. That he was able to hold his own under those circumstances should allow him to make a case that he has proved his resilience in the face...