Free Republic

On the eve of the Wisconsin primaries, top Republicans are becoming increasingly vocal about their long-held belief that Speaker Paul Ryan will wind up as the nominee, perhaps on the fourth ballot at a chaotic Cleveland convention. One of the nation’s best-wired Republicans, with an enviable prediction record for this cycle, sees a 60 percent chance of a convention deadlock and a 90 percent chance that delegates turn to Ryan — ergo, a 54 percent chance that Ryan, who’ll start the third week of July as chairman of the Republican National Convention, will end it as the nominee.

Politico is about to lose three of its most powerful and longtime leaders. Jim VandeHei, the co-founder and CEO of Politico; Mike Allen, author of the influential Politico Playbook; and Kim Kingsley, the company's chief operating officer will all leave the company later this year, sources with knowledge of the situation told CNNMoney on Thursday. Both VandeHei and Allen are expected to stay through the 2016 election. The exact date of Kingsley's departure is unknown. Politico is expected to release a memo regarding the news tonight, the sources said. VandeHei, Allen and Kingsley are three of Politico's most influential and...

A Republican Playbooker who lives in D.C. is back home in New Hampshire for the week: "Driving around the state's capital [Concord] (which is more heavily Democrat than Republican) ... you notice ... lots of visible support for Bernie: lawn signs and bumper stickers. There are signs of support for Hillary too, but Bernie appears to be winning the passion race, if nothing else. A smattering of Ben Carson signs placed only at busy intersections. More paid media from Right to Rise than anyone. "I asked my folks, all longtime supporters of establishment Republicans, who they're backing: Trump. When you...

Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook will report: “Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney joins Amazon on Monday as senior vice president for Worldwide Corporate Affairs.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke Saturday at the Maine Republican Convention, was the big winner in the party’s straw poll. Paul took 26 percent of the vote, to 14 percent for the second-place finisher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). With 690 ballots cast at the convention in Bangor, the order of finish was: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): 176 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 98 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 70 Dr. Ben Carson: 62 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 60 Jeb Bush: 57 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): 37 Mike Huckabee: 28 Condoleezza Rice: 26

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Tea Party favorite seen as a potential 2016 presidential contender, on Thursday put Democrat Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the White House at 40 percent. "The media thinks she is unstoppable, but they also thought she was unstoppable in the 2008 Democratic primary," which Barack Obama won en route to the White House, Cruz said of the former secretary of state and wife of two-term U.S. President Bill Clinton. ~snip~ Cruz, who spoke at a Politico Playbook Breakfast, was pressed by moderator Mike Allen on whether he planned to...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after a low-key initial response to Friday’s explosive allegations about his involvement in a bridge-closing scandal, mounted an aggressive defense late Saturday afternoon, attacking The New York Times and a former political ally in an email to friends and allies obtained by POLITICO. “Bottom line — David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein,” the email from the governor’s office says, referring to the former appointee who reignited the controversy.

It has been over two-months since Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple dropped a bombshell on Politico with a meticulously researched report that alleges Politico's influential Playbook editor, Mike Allen, rewards advertisers with glowing coverage. The response from Politico thus far has been to dismiss, downplay, and ignore Wemple's reporting as "nonsense."

New York Times magazine correspondent and author of the explosive book “This Town” Mark Leibovich detailed intricate internal workings of Washington and compared two of the most powerful men in news and politics, Mike Allen and Matt Drudge, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller. Mike Allen’s morning ‘Playbook’ email has the power to shape the political discussion, he explained, because hundreds of decision makers in the political circuit read it every morning. “These hundreds of people are TV bookers, and reporters, and hill staffers of both parties, and White House staffers, and lobbyists and a lot of people...

Joe Scarborough is frequently panned in these parts for his propensity to pummel his presumably fellow Republicans. So it's noteworthy when the Morning Joe host goes after the left for a change. It happened on today's show, when Scarborough defended voter ID laws, saying most Americans don't think it's racist to require a photo ID when you show up to vote. and scalding the left for trying fit to politicians in North Carolina and Texas with symbolic KKK hoods. Scarborough even forced a clearly reluctant Mike Allen of Politico to ultimately acknowledge his point. View the video here.

Barack Obama, to hear his advisers tell it, has finally found The One he has been looking for: John McCain. “We have been looking literally for years for someone we can cut deals with, and finally someone has stepped up,” a White House official said. West Wing aides say they now talk with McCain roughly every other day. McCain, to hear fellow Republicans tell it, has finally found The Two he has needed to make such conversations worth the bother: Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who can actually get things done in the Senate, and Denis McDonough, a White House...

News organizations gotta pay the bills. Nothing's more normal than a newspaper, magazine or website—NewsBusters included—selling advertising, including ads by political or issue-advocacy groups. But somehow it felt different to have opened my morning email from Mike Allen's "Politico Playbook" and find this message [screencap after jump] at the very top: "POLITICO Playbook, presented by the Rights and Responsibilities Tour by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly." Allen's column often features ads from issue-advocacy groups, ranging across the issue spectrum. But to so identify the column with sponsorship by one side of a controversial political issue would seem to raise serious...

Politico’s Mike Allen reported this morning that MSNBC has hired the Democratic National Committee’s director of video production to become a producer for one of the cable network’s weekend political talk shows. DNC video production director Anne Thompson was reportedly given a farewell party at the DNC, replete with ice cream and refreshments, as she sets out to become segment producer on Up with Steve Kornacki, MSNBC’s new weekend show. As Politico reported, Thompson was behind dozens of the DNC’s 2012 election videos and ads, notably including the parodic song, “Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan:

The Obama administration is flatly denying a blaring British newspaper report that the U.S. diplomats in Libya were killed as a result of a “continuing security breach,” and that “credible information” about possible attacks had been ignored. A U.S. official told POLITICO: “There's no intelligence indicating that the attack in Benghazi was premeditated.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81198.html#ixzz26P9XMG6i

If between now and Election Day unemployment numbers improve, particularly if they dip below the 8% barrier, you know President Obama, with an MSM assist, will be out there pounding his chest about the number of jobs "he created." But when the unemployment numbers remain weak? Well, that's not Obama's fault. Just ask Mike Allen of Politico. On today's Morning Joe, trying to explain Obama's early campaign stumbles, Allen declared that certain factors, including the bleak job numbers, were "beyond the control" of Obama. View the video here.

The Romney campaign, renowned for its oppo-heavy strategy, didn’t even have an oppo book on Rick Santorum a few days before the Iowa caucuses, so surprised were they by his surge. Jon Huntsman nearly decided in November to leave the GOP and run as an independent. And before one of the debates, Rick Perry sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in a restroom. These details are from Mike Allen and Evan Thomas’ new e-book, Inside the Circus, as are these additional factoids below. Mitt Romney raised millions in March by warning would-be donors a brokered convention could mean a...

Newt Gingrich is cutting back his campaign schedule, will lay off about a third of his cash-strapped campaign’s full-time staff, and has replaced his manager as part of what aides are calling a “big-choice convention” strategy, communications director Joe DeSantis told POLITICO. Michael Krull, a former advance man and a college friend of Callista Gingrich’s who took over the campaign after a staff exodus in June, was replaced last weekend by Vince Haley, who has worked for Gingrich for nine years and currently is deputy campaign manager and policy director. “We’re focusing exclusively on what it’ll take to win what...

The surging Newt Gingrich has mastered debates — and disguise. The debate part is clear: The former Speaker of the House comes to play and owns the stage with an uncanny capacity to connect with the grievances of conservative voters. The disguise part is clear, too. Gingrich has used his debate skills — and his instinct to hit the raw nerves of conservatives — to camouflage considerable weaknesses as a candidate. The three wives, and cheating on and leaving the first two while they were ill; inconsistency on the most consequential conservative causes of the past decade; episodic bouts of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go to the audio sound bites, because Nancy Pelosi has opened her cavity. Two things. Pelosi's out there saying, (paraphrasing) "We don't really have that much to do with Occupy Wall Street. No, no, no. We're not tied to that group." So that's not gonna make them happy and it's a clear indication that the Democrat calculation is that the Occupy crowd is a drag on 'em. Then Pelosi, at a Politico Playbook Breakfast yesterday, was interviewed by White House correspondent Mike Allen, who said, "You think the Republican right is intentionally digging in, assuming a...

With not one Republican primary vote cast yet, we're getting way ahead of ourselves by speculating about whom Mitt Romney might pick as his vice-presidential running mate. But Willie Geist did invite Politico's Mike Allen to make his "bold predictions" for 2012. And Allen delivered, prognosticating that Romney would pick Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman as his ticket-mate. Mark Halperin strongly seconded Allen's assertion. View the video here.