Free Republic

Michelle Obama wasn’t always an admirer of Hillary Clinton, but last Wednesday the soon-to-be first lady dialed up the former first lady for pointers on protecting her two young daughters from the media maelstrom of the White House. “Michelle may not have loved the senator, but she always respected how the Clintons raised Chelsea,” said a person familiar with Clinton’s end of the call. “They need to talk. There just aren’t too many people who have shared that kind of experience.”

WASHINGTON – An emotional Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reveled Wednesday in Barack Obama's election, calling it an "extraordinary step forward" for the nation. A child of the segregated deep South who became the highest-ranking African-American woman ever in American government and was once considered a potential Republican presidential nominee, Rice called the Democratic president-elect "inspirational" and said his victory was proof of America's promise.

I was listening to WDOV AM via the Internet this morning. The lead story on one of the top-of-the-hour news segments was that the big 0 is going to get his daughters a brand new puppy! And then, the news went into a long list of former first pets. My heart simply melted. That last statement was ultimate sarcasm if you didn't guess. The media fawning has already started.

You can choose to believe me or not...I can only pass on what I'm hearing But I have a VERY close source working inside the PA Republican Party and just talked to this person a few minutes ago... McCain is winning BIG in Western and Central PA. It seems coal country is pissed at 0's comments over the weekend... No data on the East Of course, it's only 1:30 and things can change... So keep voting Freepers and PUMAs. Keep encouraging your neighbors and family to GOTV!!!!

Pennsylvania Voters: State your thoughts and experiences...

McCain campaign’s last minute distortion of Obama’s coal record an act of desperation November 3, 2008 For immediate release: United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today: “Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have once again demonstrated that they are willing to say anything and do anything to win this election. Their latest twisting of the truth is about coal and some comments Sen. Obama made last January about the future use of coal in America. “Here what the McCain campaign left out of Sen. Obama’s actual words:...

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, officials said Thursday as the marathon presidential race entered its final, frenzied stretch with a Democratic tilt. The disclosure came as Republican John McCain, in need of a comeback, focused on pocketbook issues amid fresh signs of a recession. "Ohio is hurting now, people in Ohio are having trouble staying in their homes, keeping their jobs," he said as he set out on a two-day bus tour of the state.

Michelle Obama was on "The Tonight Show" last night and let the world in on a little secret. Her 10-year-old daughter Malia is skeptical about dad's upcoming ad buy. Hearing that Barack Obama had bought time on primetime to air an Obama TV special, Malia's only question was: "Are you going to interrupt my TV?"

I'm not a fan of vanities, so I apologize in advance. In fact, I don't recall ever posting one until now. I have been thinking about Biden's "crisis" gaffe the other day but I don't recall anybody equating it with Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and wanted to get some Freeper opinion. Hayek warns that war will create a central planning government and the citizens would be so desperate for leadership they will go along with whatever is presented to "fix" the "crisis." In order to get popular opinion on their side, the planners will infiltrate the workplace with propoganda...

In a video posted Thursday on Funnyordie.com, the actor-turned-director reprises his role on "The Andy Griffith Show" as a way to rally support for Barack Obama. While speaking into the camera, Howard has his beard shaved, dons a youthful red wig and puts on the kind of outfit he would have only worn as Opie Taylor in the `60s.

The Republican National Committee’s $150,000 investment in Sarah Palin’s wardrobe has prompted some teeth gnashing among the party’s big donors about its political sensibility and a feisty debate among campaign finance specialists about its legality. “As a Republican Eagle and a maxed-out contributor to McCain’s general campaign, I’d like my money back – he can still have my vote,” complained one irate donor on Tuesday.

Pelosi to protesters: "Can we drill your brains?" House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!” Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?” Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?” She went on to refer to the protestors, who continued to chant sporadically, as “handmaidens of Big Oil.” Arguing that increased offshore drilling would only reduce gas prices two cents...

Could Barack Obama's NCAA championship pick have something to do with an upcoming primary? No, he was leaning toward North Carolina because of its 6-foot-9 star. The Democratic presidential candidate and avid basketball player selected North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh and UCLA in his Final Four bracket, and is counting on North Carolina to beat UCLA in the championship game. North Carolina, with 115 delegates at stake, holds its primary May 6. During his short flight Wednesday from Fayetteville to Charlotte, N.C., Obama began working on his NCAA basketball tournament bracket. The campaign staff is competing in a $10 per person...

"His visage described discountenance." Eliot Spitzer wrote those words about a character in a short story for his high school literary magazine. The sentence was florid in an adolescent way - Spitzer was always something of an intellectual show-off. Jason Brown, a friend from those days, later told Spitzer biographer Brooke Masters that Spitzer might simply have written, "He was unhappy." But Spitzer's rather poetic sentence seemed apt on March 12, as he resigned as governor of New York in a brief press conference, the culmination of a 48-hour melodrama sparked by revelations that he had been a client of...

Spend as they may, candidates find public opinion hard to change By ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — For all the millions the presidential campaigns have spent, it still comes down to this: Ask people what they think of Hillary Rodham Clinton and they say female and feminist. For Barack Obama, it's inexperience. Mitt Romney is known as a Mormon, John McCain for his military service. And oh, yes, he's old. Still, no one has seen their image improve more than McCain, the Arizona senator who has won the past two Republican primaries and become...

I will be moving to the Orange County, VA area this summer. I was wondering if anybody has any first hand knowledge about the area.

Some mail rolled in, responding to my Sept. 11 column on the aggrieved residents of inner-city New Orleans. These were residents who, admittedly, had been ordered to the Superdome by city authorities despite the woeful lack of supplies or facilities there. I wrote on the dispiriting spectacle of these members of the mendicant underclass squawking that the government hadn't arrived soon enough with their post-disaster handouts. I'll get to the more traditional missives next week. First, however, someone named Cherry called and left an early morning phone message expressing the opinion that the column in question was "heartless," "tasteless" and...

Being a libertarian, I'm pro-choice -- and against government intervention -- in just about everything. Given the levels of privacy and intimacy involved, that certainly applies to people's reproductive decisions. Unfortunately, many who claim to be in favor of "abortion rights" -- and reproductive freedom -- can't honestly say the same. In a commentary published in the Aug. 26 Review-Journal, Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (cute) contended that -- 85 years after women gained the vote -- other rights of women are "in grave peril." Ms. Gaylor reports, "Identified abortion providers are found in only...