Free Republic

Taking Aim at Santorum: The Romney Campaign Misfires. FEB 20, 2012, VOL. 17, NO. 22 • BY JONATHAN V. LAST On Saturday, February 4, a national poll from Rasmussen Reports showed Rick Santorum as the only Republican to lead President Obama in a head-to-head matchup. The next morning, a PPP poll showed Santorum suddenly leading Mitt Romney in Minnesota. So the Romney campaign responded with what are becoming its trademark tactics. Having completely ignored Santorum since New Hampshire, on Sunday afternoon the Romney team sent out a press release calling him “a proud defender of earmarks and pork-barrel spending.” The...

Scarborough, Maine -- [...] In recent years, many top-selling brands - including the 195-year-old Remington Arms, as well as Bushmaster Firearms and DPMS, leading makers of military-style semiautomatics - have quietly passed into the hands of a single private company. It is called the Freedom Group - and it is the most powerful and mysterious force in the U.S. commercial gun industry today. Never heard of it? You're not alone. Even within gun circles, the Freedom Group is something of an enigma. Its rise has been so swift that it has become the subject of wild speculation and grassy-knoll conspiracy...

The Mitt Romney campaign was hinting to reporters yesterday about a forthcoming “high profile” endorsement. Instead, they got Dan Quayle. The former Vice-President explains his reasoning in an Arizona Republic Op-Ed:

Mitt Romney may be dropping behind Newt Gingrich in the latest polls in Iowa (and seeing his lead narrow in New Hampshire), but he’s bagging a few endorsements from California Congresmen. Republican Reps Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, Ken Calvert, R-Corona and Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, announced their Mitt-devotion Tuesday, as Romney makes a West Coast fundraising swing that stops in Burlingame Wednesday. Although Mitt has promised media avails “almost” every day, as we noted, “almost” is apparently the eighth day of the week in California. That continues Mitt’s Whitmanian avoidance of media whose employer’s name doesn’t rhyme with “cox.” The trio of...

It seems not a day goes by without Florida Senator Marco Rubio being mentioned as the favorite choice for vice president among Republicans in Washington. Even talk radio’s Rush Limbaugh weighed in when he said Senator Rubio should run for president in 2012. It is true that Senator Rubio has certain political assets, including his ability to “attract” Latino voters due to his Cuban heritage. He also is conservative, smart, and a good speaker. And he hails from a state that is considered the mother of all battleground states for 2012. What’s not to like if you are a Republican...

Republicans should leave President Obama alone about his golfing habit, former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle said Wednesday evening. Quayle, who served as vice president from 1989-1993, said it was unreasonable for Republicans to expect Obama to be constantly monitoring every issue in the world. "I'm glad he's out playing golf. I happen to be a golfer," Quayle said on the Fox Business Network. "I think presidents deserve down time. And believe me, he is in constant communication with what's going on."

A Swiss bank that used its Cayman Islands’ branch to engage in what a US federal judge has branded “predatory lending practices” is being investigated by the US authorities. Senior officials of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, are facing claims that they pocketed millions of dollars by dishing out loans that were impossible to repay. On Tuesday, 15 September, 31 of the bank’s officials received subpoenas demanding that they hand over internal documents that explain why they loaned $375 million to the now bankrupt Yellowstone Club in 2005. The Yellowstone Club, founded by American tycoon Tim Blixseth, was once...

Just announced, stay tuned for Quayle's statement.

Like many influential causes before it, the "tea party" movement appeared on the scene uninvited by the political establishment. Democrats in the White House and in Congress recognize it for what it is -- a spontaneous and pointed response to the Obama agenda -- but some Republican leaders still aren't sure what to make of it, as tea partiers have risen on their own and stirred up trouble in GOP primaries. Sometimes in politics it's easier to recognize foes than friends, and this may be why Democrats have been quicker to figure out the movement's potential. They know that in...

Neil Cavuto of Fox News had a visit with former Vice President Dan Qualyle on Jan 13. Ostensibly the interview was about the earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that Quayle was saying needed to be made for the victims there, but Cavuto also asked the former veep about his feelings about the Tea Party movement. Quayle's reply was revealing in that he proved that he really didn't know how to think about the Tea Partiers. I think that Quayle is in exactly the same confused state that most of the old guard GOP is. They just don't get it....

Quayle on Foxnews Neil Cavuto asked about the tea party movement and 3rd parties, he reminds everyone of Ross Perot splitting the vote in 1992, handing the Presidency to Bill Clinton

Cerberus, the investment group, is barring investors in two new hedge funds from withdrawing money for three years in an effort to avoid a repeat of the large outflows that followed its lossmaking purchases of Chrysler and GMAC, the group’s executives said. The move to introduce a three-year “lock-up” is rare among hedge funds and could pave the way for other managers to follow suit. Hedge funds typically offer investors the chance to withdraw money every few months – a feature that contrasts with alternative asset classes such as private equity that require multi-year lock-ups. But after suffering more than...

In a column for Townhall.com, The Quayling of Sarah, David R. Stokes lays out the strategy being used by the Democrats and their Vichy Republican fellow travelers to shoot down former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's national political possibilities: Any nine-year-old child or MSNBC show host (pardon the redundancy) understands that the idea is to vex and therefore hex Sarah Palin. The goal is to click repeatedly on her image and drag her into a folder marked either "too dumb to lead," or "demonize by caricature."The strategy is nothing new. It has been tried in the past, without success against Ronald...

Sarah Palin and Joe Biden may have made a few mistakes during Thursday night's vice presidential debate, but it remains to be seen whether their mistakes will stick in voters' minds like one infamous vice presidential gaffe from the 1992 election. Few political gaffes are as memorable as Vice President Dan Quayle's misspelling. Quayle told a grade-school boy in New Jersey that he had misspelled the word "potato" during a photo-op spelling bee. With the cameras rolling, Quayle directed the boy to add an "e" to the end of the word. "Potatoe" became a defining moment in the election, and...

The early days of the air war, Americans rejoiced at film footage of Patriot missiles knocking Iraqi Scud missiles out of the sky. Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney commented, "A decade of gloom-and-gloom reporting made a lot of people forget that we do, in fact, lead the world in advanced technology." The Patriots, made by Raytheon, hit 45 of the 47 Scuds launched by Iraq. It is a complex weapon utilizing sophisticated radar and electronics and requiring quick thinking by soldiers who operate it. While our media couldn't ignore the Patriot's success, the Gannett news service was one of the...

THE NEW YORK TIMES VS. HELMS, PART 529,876July 9, 2008 Last Friday, on the Fourth of July, the great American patriot Jesse Helms passed away. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also went to their great reward on Independence Day, so this is further proof of God. Helms is now the second great American patriot I've always wanted to meet and never will, at least in this lifetime. The only other one is the magnificent Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger. (Wikipedia quote: "I sometimes lie awake at night trying to think of something funny that Richard Nixon said.") After a week of...

Can Obama Carry All 57 States? We noted here that Barack Obama seems weirdly unable to remember how many states there are. Most recently, he claimed to have campaigned in 57 states. Hence the Obama version of the American flag: If you're on Facebook there is a new group you can join: These 57 United States Against Barack Obama. I don't think he'll lose 57 states in November, but, one hopes, he'll lose enough.

"'La force motrice' of Reusable Launcher Development: The Rise and Fall of the SDIO's SSTO Program, From the X-Rocket to the Delta Clipper" Introduction. NASA commissioned me to document the development of the X-33 in March of 1997. The X-33 is an advanced technology demonstrator vehicle intended to flight test technologies deemed critical for eventually building a reusable single-stage-to-orbit rocket transport. Those technologies include a metallic thermal protection system, an aerospike engine, and composite cryogenic hydrogen tanks. As part of the history project, I chose to write about the SDIO's SSTO Program as a predecessor to the X-33, even though...

Dan Quayle's moment of embarrassment. William Figueroa, 12, was the boy who knew how to spell "potato" even though the veep insisted on adding an "e" to the end. Just the other night on television, Jay Leno was poking fun at some gaffe by George W. Bush, whose picture morphed into a photograph of Dan Quayle on the screen behind the comic. Six years out of office with two failed presidential bids now behind him, ex Vice President Quayle still ranks as America’s favorite dumb politician because of what happened in Trenton on June 15, 1992. That’s the day, you...

Here's the text of the e-mail my friend sent sending the linked to video: Many analysts have discussed a 'conservative void' in the 2008 race. A new established conservative is emerging in this race and has just launched the begining of his campaign effort. We're not talking about Fred Thompson. We're talking about former Vice President Dan Quayle. Will he jumped into the 2008? It looks like he's moving towards it. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5IYsWibyw4