Free Republic

As the sun set in Wyoming, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney described her blowout loss as the beginning of a more consequential step in her political career. She summoned Abraham Lincoln, who lost elections for the House and Senate and still went on to become one of the nation's most accomplished presidents. But in the days since, would-be supporters in key states have openly expressed skepticism about a Cheney presidential run, even one solely designed to block Donald Trump's return to the White House. In fact, Republican voters and local officials in three of the states that matter most in presidential...

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — In 2008, this overwhelmingly white state was Barack Obama’s unlikely launching pad to become the nation’s first Black president. Fourteen years later, Iowans aren’t showing a similar embrace for the woman running to become its first Black governor. Democrat Deidre DeJear is finding Iowa a much changed place, trending staunchly conservative, endorsing many aspects of Trumpism, with an electorate that is so far displaying little interest in her history-making candidacy. Educated younger adults who were once reliable Democratic voters have fled rural Iowa seeking opportunities elsewhere. The strength of organized labor has eroded. Obama’s general election...

... As rising murder rates gain attention in American cities, Republicans have ramped up a misleading campaign to cast Democrats as anti-police and lax on public safety. It’s a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains in last year’s elections and one with renewed potency as cities consider cuts to department budgets as part of an effort to revamp policing. It’s not at all clear that the GOP strategy, which stretches back to President Richard Nixon and was used by President Donald Trump, is a winning one. But it may be prominent as Republicans search for ways...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Democratic campaign that has cost more than $1 billion, dashed the ambitions of veteran politicians, forced conversations about race, gender and identity and prompted fierce debate over health care and taxes crests Monday in the Iowa caucuses. By day’s end, tens of thousands of Democrats will have participated in the famed Iowa caucuses, the premiere of more than 50 contests that will unfold over the next five months. The caucuses will render the first verdict on who among dozens of candidates is best positioned to take on President Donald Trump, whom Democratic voters are desperate...

“It seems like Republicans and Democrats are intractable,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and chairman of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. “They are both adhering to their own versions of reality, whether they’re based in truth or not.” [snip] The biggest known unknown for both parties may be how the ongoing impeachment proceedings will be viewed by Americans one year from now. [snip] Updegrove, the presidential historian, said the question a year from now will be whether that matters. “If not, what will matter to the American people as a whole?” he asked. “Is there anything?”

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting. Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people. Biden told reporters before a Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids that inaction from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans...

The question was about climate change. The answer soon turned to the Bible. And Pete Buttigieg knew the verses. “There’s a lot about the stewardship of creation that is in Scripture that I don’t see being honored by the administration right now, not to mention the stuff about loving your neighbor and taking care of the least among us and feeding the poor,” the South Bend, Indiana, mayor said. The crowd of about 250 at a Mississippi River park in southeastern Iowa this month erupted with cheers. Republicans for a half century have built a loyal following among white evangelical...

In countless conversations over the past year, former Vice President Joe Biden, his advisers and his broad network of friends and family have openly discussed the vulnerabilities he would face if he ran for president. A voting record that is sometimes at odds with the Democratic Party’s leftward shift. His age. And the affectionate brand of politics that has made him beloved by many Democrats and a target of Republicans for years. What Biden likely didn’t expect was to be confronting those issues so fully before even launching a campaign. On Friday, Biden will make his first public appearance since...

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s tendency to talk about his good relationships with Republicans landed him in trouble Thursday when he called his successor, Mike Pence, a “decent guy.” The comment was quickly criticized by fellow Democrats, including actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, who tweeted that Biden had complimented “America’s most anti-LGBT elected leader,” forcing Biden to walk back his comment. “You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage,” Biden tweeted. “But there is nothing decent about being...

On Sunday morning, Thomas Beaumont and Nicholas Riccardi at the Associated Press did all they could to convince readers that the tax bill just passed by Congress and signed by Donald Trump isn't seen as a big deal and has no genuine enthusiastic support (even though they found some) among those who voted for him in 2016. They predictably claimed that the law bestows "its richest benefits on companies and wealthy individuals,' and employed a classic statistical deception to support that false contention.Here are the opening paragraphs of the pair's downbeat report, with the final excerpted paragraph presenting the misleading statistics (bolds...

DENVER – Once a swing state in presidential elections, Colorado has teetered on becoming solidly Democratic. Donald Trump may have pushed it over the edge. Trump’s disparaging words about Mexicans, negative comments about women and weak campaign organization have punctuated the state’s shift from a nip-and-tuck battleground to one that’s Democrat-friendly. ... And it’s not just Colorado. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and weak campaign structure could ensure that perennially competitive Nevada and New Mexico are out of reach as well.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Months before the first primaries of the presidential campaign, Jeb Bush and his allies are deep into building a data-driven operation to turn out voters in the general election much later — spending heavily on the assumption he will overcome his sluggish start and win the Republican nomination. (snip) Yet it's already hit an early roadblock. Bush and his advisers have abandoned plans to link some of the technology efforts of his formal campaign and an allied super political action committee by contracting with a single company. That firm could have provided both groups with the same...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Casting himself as a tax-cutting, passionate government reformer, Jeb Bush drew merely polite applause Friday from thousands of the nation's most-active tea party conservatives gathered at the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers' summit. Only when the Republican presidential candidate wrapped up his 20-minute speech by calling for a military buildup did the more than 3,000 conservatives from around the nation join in a sustained cheer for Bush, a familiar face in American politics but a newcomer in front of the tea party crowd. "I promise you, if I'm elected president of the United States, I will restore the...