Free Republic

Politics has its style and its substance. Style requires the 2020 candidates to stump in New Hampshire diners and eat corn dogs at Iowa fairs. These stylistic rites of passage in American politics are on the verge of irrelevance as the kingmakers in California push up their primary and as the effort to eliminate the electoral college gains traction among the 2020 Democrats and, more importantly, their donors. Forget the New Hampshire diners and Iowa corn dogs, the truth can be found if you follow the money. The 2020 race is all about touting the democracy of small donors with...

Ted Cruz will deal Donald Trump an emphatic defeat in Wisconsin next week. That’s according to The POLITICO Caucus – a panel of activists, strategists and operatives in 10 key battleground states. Nearly nine-in-10 Republicans in those states chose Cruz as the likely winner of next Tuesday’s Wisconsin presidential primary. Among Democrats, Caucus members by a nearly two-to-one margin predicted Bernie Sanders would defeat Hillary Clinton. In the Republican race, insiders said Cruz has surged ahead of Trump in Wisconsin thanks to GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s endorsement and an electorate that isn’t as favorable to Trump as those in other...

A group of conservative activists huddled behind closed doors Thursday at a Washington hotel to plot strategy to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump , including calling for a unity ticket to oppose him and a floor fight at the GOP convention to deny him the nomination. The meeting was led by conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson, a longtime outspoken critic of Mr. Trump . “We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party. It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement,...

Rush Limbaugh went on FOX News Sunday to discuss the contentious Republican primary and recent developments including Mitt Romney’s scurrilous attacks on Donald Trump this week.Rush Limbaugh told Chris Wallace – while Mitt Romney was listening – that Mitt did the same thing to Trump as his father did to Barry Goldwater in 1964. Chris Wallace: Let’s start with Mitt Romney’s speech this week in which he basically joined the anybody but Trump movement. You say that that is going to backfire with Trump supporters and other voters are going to see it as the establishment trying to tell them...

The 150 evangelical leaders who met behind closed doors on January 14 to anoint a Republican candidate for President were wise not to have invited me. I believe that Christians have an urgent duty to engage the social, economic, and moral threats to a healthy society. That requires a wide variety of political action. However, one thing it doesn't call for is playing kingmaker and powerbroker. By conspiring to throw their weight behind a single evangelical-friendly candidate, they fed the widespread perception that evangelicalism's main identifying feature is right-wing political activism focused on abortion and homosexuality. In truth, it is...

The Newt Surge is official. Over the last week, Gingrich’s Intrade odds of winning the nomination rose from 16% to 39%. Romney has faded a little but still leads with 47% odds. No one else is above 5% odds. The polls are even more stunning. Rasmussen shows Gingrich leading 38%-17% in a national poll. Real Clear Politics lists polls with Gingrich leading Romney by 15-30 points in Florida, South Carolina and Iowa, and trailing Romney by only 10 points in New Hampshire. In the general election match-up, Rasmussen has Gingrich leading Obama by 2% and Romney trailing Obama by 6%....

WASHINGTON — The Tea Party movement is energizing elements of the Republican Party and fanning an anti-Washington fervor, but the biggest beneficiaries in the midterm elections, pollsters and political analysts say, could be the main target of their anger: Democrats. From North Carolina and Kentucky to Colorado and Nevada, candidates backed by Tea Party activists are making strong showings in primaries and opinion polls. Some of their campaigns, however, threaten to undercut GOP efforts to attract independents and moderates, prized voting factions in the general election. “Republicans are definitely doing Democrats a favor if they nominate these Tea Party candidates,’’...

The Washington Post article that Dan posted about last night is a head fake. President Obama is not caving on military commissions. He has already caved on them: He failed (thankfully) to abolish them, Congress enacted legislation endorsing them again in 2009, and the administration has already directed a commission trial for the Cole bombers. The real agenda here is to close Gitmo. That’s the ball to keep your eye on. The Post is trying to soften the opposition to shuttering the detention camp by portraying beleaguered, reasonable Obama as making a great compromise that will exasperate the Left. The...

The importance of Kingmakers for a wide American audience emerges slowly. At first, the book appears to be a quaint reminiscence of eccentric and often familiar British colonials of the early 20th century, strutting across Middle Eastern deserts in pith helmets, instructing the benighted native tribesmen about the fundamentals of governing. But as this beautifully written and researched book proceeds, it becomes abundantly clear that these skilled English soldier-diplomats are the progenitors of (and in some cases, role models for) the current crop of American diplomats and soldiers on the same turf. The issues that this country is now debating...