Free Republic

At least two senior Donald Trump aides were fired by the campaign Monday in what three sources described as a shakeup. Both aides — Ed Brookover and Jimmy Stracner — had worked for the presidential campaign of former Trump rival Ben Carson, who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race. Brookover, a longtime GOP strategist, had been working as a political adviser. He played a role in helping to organize this month's GOP convention. Stracner, had been working as the Trump campaign’s western regional political director.

The furor over the cyberattacks injecting turmoil into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign obscures a more pervasive danger to the U.S. political process: Much of it has only lax security against hackers, with few if any federal cops on the beat. No one regulator is responsible for requiring campaigns, political operations and state and local agencies to protect the sanctity of the voter rolls, voters’ personal data, donors’ financial information or even the election outcomes themselves. And as the Democrats saw in Philadelphia this past week, the result can be chaos.

That cheery, DIY effort masks a different campaign, one that is slowly expiring in all the usual ways of terminal campaigns at the end-stage: cash is running low, supporters are griping about not getting paid and aides are valiantly trying to convince themselves as much as the press that, really, there is a path forward.......To a degree rarely seen in presidential politics, Gingrich is his own strategist, scheduler and press secretary.“He makes the decisions about 99.9 percent of the campaign,”.........“They never build any structure to live past the next state,” complained one GOP strategist who advised Gingrich in one key...

Last night on Politico's live-stream election show, Politico editor-in-chief John Harris highlighted a provocative Politico story about "stupid voters." The Politico article by reporter Alexander Burns examines poll numbers from voters who still think Obama might be a Muslim, believe that the president can change gas prices, and appear to have conflicting opinions about the war in Afghanistan. The article quotes Tom Jensen of the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling who admits, “The first lesson you learn as a pollster is that people are stupid. . . I tell a client trying to make sense of numbers on a...

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Even before votes are cast here, movement conservatives across the country are beginning to fear that 2012 will be a replay of the last GOP presidential primary: conservatives divided between candidates, enabling a center-right contender to march up the middle and claim the nomination. Time is running short on activist Republicans who have long yearned for a unifying Mitt Romney alternative in the race – leading some to worry that if they don’t stop him in Iowa on Tuesday, they may not be able to stop him at all. Rick Santorum’s late surge in Iowa, coupled with...

A drastic departure from his usual image as a stoic, policy-drive candidate, Gingrich cried more than once in recalling how even today he still cries when he sings Christmas carols. GOP pollster Frank Luntz asked the tear-evoking question. "I get teary-eyed everytime we sing Christmas carols," he said, starting to choke up. "My mother sang in the choir and loved singing in the choir. And I don't know if I should admit this, but when I was very young she made me sing in the choir and we had pictures of me at a very young age singing in the...

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney says allegations that rival Herman Cain groped a former employee are "particularly disturbing" and must be addressed. Romney told ABC News/ Yahoo! on Tuesday that he will not judge whether Sharon Bialek's claims against Cain are true. He declined to say whether they are disqualifying. ... Romney .. "These are serious allegations and they're going to have to be addressed."

Was it wise for Mitt Romney to offer any opinion on Herman Cain’s campaign crisis? Romney tells George Stephanopoulos in an interview today that he finds the allegations “serious” and particularly disturbing,” although Romney declines to answer whether they are disqualifying if true. All he says in that regard is that Cain has to address the allegations directly: Mitt Romney today for the first time characterized sexual harassment allegations facing fellow GOP candidate Herman Cain as “particularly disturbing.”“These are serious allegations, George,” said Romney in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on ABC News and Yahoo. ”And they’re...

MSNBC's Al Sharpton hosted Dana Milbank of the Washington Post and Democratic strategist Bob Frum on his show last night to talk about the Herman Cain story. Sharpton reminded viewers that he was not one to "rush to judgment," on personal matters, but suggested there was more to the story. Milbank noted that Cain's supporters were very passionate, and a large number would excuse him on the issue. "We could find out that he was some kind of psycho-killer and a large number of his supporters would say, 'That's great, at least he wasn't in government.'" Milbank said sardonically. "He's...

<p>Presidential candidate Herman Cain isn't lacking in confidence about his 2012 prospects.</p> <p>He says he expects to finish first or second in each Iowa and New Hampshire.</p>

Evangelicals are more aware of Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion than they were at the beginning of the summer, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. The PRRI poll showed that a majority of white evangelicals — 53 percent — now know that Romney is a member of the LDS Church. That’s a 9-point increase since July. White evangelicals were the only religious subgroup in the poll to show a growing awareness of Romney’s faith. They’re also the only respondents among whom a majority knew Romney was a Mormon. The 9-point increase is not a dramatic leap,...

Tim Pawlenty manager Nick Ayers sent a blast email today to supporters making the case why Iowans will rally to the former Minnesota governor and Michele Bachmann will fade. After reiterating Pawlenty's accomplishments in St. Paul, Ayers wrote: "This doesn't make great fodder for cable news but as more Republican primary voters start to tune in to the race, they are finding out that the Governor’s record and message will stand the test a brutal campaign. Other candidates’ records (or lack thereof), and plans for the future (or lack thereof) won't." The manager also claimed they "had a record week...

Sarah Palin may have been making the case for herself with a Facebook post last night arguing that a president must be "a strong chief executive [who] has been entrusted with real authority in the past and has achieved a proven track record of positive measurable accomplishments." But she also sounds an awful lot like Tim Pawlenty, whose indictment against Michele Bachmann is that three-term member of Congress gives a good speech but hasn't actually accomplished anything. Wrote Palin: "Leaders are expected to give good speeches, but leadership is so much more than oratory. Real leadership requires deeds even more...

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The anybody-but-Mitt Romney faction developing within the tea party may pose a problem for the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential ambitions, but some tea party organizers worry it could also backfire against the movement itself. Romney, the current Republican front runner, is viewed skeptically – at best – by many tea partiers. And disagreement over whether to actively oppose him threatens to undo the uneasy truces forged in the run-up to the 2010 midterms and undermine the fledgling movement’s influence in the GOP. The possibility of Romney winning the nomination is even reviving debate about whether activists should embrace, or even...

People know that the MSM despises Sarah Palin. Still, it was shocking to hear the dirty little secret so openly stated . . . Jim Vandehei of Politico, on Morning Joe today: "If you talk to any single reporter at any media organization that we're aware of, I don't think that anyone thinks she can be president or should be president." View video here.

News site Politico.com admitted Friday that it made an "error" in attributing a nasty quote about Rep. Michele Bachmann to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The article said: "Palin's bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: 'I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else,' she said. Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point." However, Palin never said that. Her political action committee promptly issued a statement urging the media to "quit making stuff up." "An absurd opinion piece in Politico includes a quote attributed to Governor Palin that is a total fabrication...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - As it played out on TV this week, Sarah Palin’s “One Nation” road trip of U.S. historical sites was a masterpiece of political mischief-making – a wild dash up the East Coast that delighted her fans and cornered the market on 2012 coverage for days on end. That’s not how the bus tour looked to Republicans on the ground, many of whom are more convinced than ever that the former Alaska governor is simply not serious about running for president. While Palin has reveled in giving an extended one-fingered salute to the national press, refusing to give...

It's a fool's errand to use traditional indicators as definitive evidence that Sarah Palin is or is not running for president. If nothing else, she's made clear since her national debut two-and-a-half years ago that she plays by her own set of rules. But her pugnacious speech over the weekend in Wisconsin, promotion thereof and re-launch of her PAC's website today, suggests that she very much wants to stay in the political conversation. As has been well-documented, Palin reads most everything written about her. So she surely didn't miss recent stories about her declining poll numbers and relative quiet. For...

And so it finally happened. Obviously troubled by the fact that Donald Trump’s questions surrounding Barack Obama’s birth certificate are starting to gain some real traction, Ben Smith at the left-wing Politico finally panicked and fired off the Race Card. Hilariously, Smith did so using my favorite brand of agendized journOlism, what I call the “Some Say” tactic. How it works is very simple. In order for Smith to hide behind his dishonest and arrogant veil of objectivity, he simply finds others saying what he wants to say and abuses his position to amplify the charges directly