Free Republic

Next week's Republican gubernatorial primaries in Michigan and Tennessee will likely determine the next governors of those two vote-rich states, but also could provide a playbook for Mitt Romney in the '12 presidential primary. That's because the current GOP frontrunners in both races, Rick Snyder and Bill Haslam, have run to the political center, an uncommon tack in a primary but one that's paying off given the multi-candidate fields. Neither state has a runoff, allowing the winner to win a plurality w/ moderates and even some crossover voters. *** After all, that's how John McCain won the GOP nomination in...

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story. But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone...