Free Republic

I hadn't heard gushing like this since the Flood of '92 was lapping at my second-story windows. Only this time the gusher was not the Mighty Mississippi, but someone nearly as wide, i.e., the film director Rob Reiner (Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men) in an interview with the Politico. Asked how things might be different when Obama wins the presidency, Reiner gushed: There'd be love and respect, but I think you'd have it even bigger than Clinton. With someone like Obama, I think the whole country, the whole world will coalesce. Every election is about change,...

Liberal Greed by: Melinda Zosh, July 24, 2008 Liberals accept cheating on taxes, cheating on their spouses and lying for their own self interests, Peter Schweizer, author of Makers and Takers, said. Schweizer spoke at the Heritage Foundation about his book focusing on “why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic and envious, whine less…and even hug their children more than liberals.” He decided to write his book after liberals published articles about conservatives. His book is based on research conducted by non-partisan researchers at the University...

July 14, 2008 ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery to the 2008 National Council of La Raza Convention in San Diego, CA, today at 12:45 p.m. PT (3:45 p.m. ET): Thank you, Jane, for that kind introduction. Thank you, also to the leadership of the National Council of La Raza, and its board of directors. I'm very pleased to be with you again to discuss some of the issues in this campaign that most concern you. As you know, this isn't my first address to La Raza. I'm proud to...

John McCain today is poised to make the biggest mistake of his 2008 presidential run. The presumptive Republican nominee will address the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza in San Diego. La Raza is billed by too many as simply "the nation's largest Hispanic rights group." But this is perhaps the most radical apologist group for illegal immigration and the "rights" of illegal aliens -- and worse.

John McCain's short list for VP assumedly still includes one name that should be scrubbed immediately. Florida Governor Charlie Crist is not worthy of the honor and McCain would be wise to drop him hard and fast. Crist knowingly and deliberately violated the rules and bylaws of both the RNC and the DNC by holding Florida's presidential primary prior to February 5th, 2008. He is guilty of stealing votes from the citizens of Florida and needs to be held accountable, not rewarded. It should not matter if you are a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent. Americans cannot allow our state...

John McCain is clearly the preferable option for conservative voters come November. Although liberal in his views toward immigration, government intrusion in free speech, environmental issues, campaign finance reform, health care, education mandates, and a host of other issues that run contrary to conservative orthodoxy, McCain is solid on two (alas, two) vital issues that make the difference; spending and judges. From the frustration of eight years of a Republican Administration that began with so much hope and promise it pains one to say it, but there it is. Against the prospects of a President Obama, McCain wins. A victim...

The price of everything, not just driving, is going up in the era of $130-a-barrel oil, but our presidential candidates have a hopelessly thumbless grasp of pocketbook politics. Their mutual slogan could be "Let them eat abstractions." Barack Obama famously couldn't connect with working-class voters in the primaries, offering them an airy diet of hope and change. John McCain rose on his personal honor, which is why on energy he's fumbling away the GOP's best domestic political opening in years. For a politician whose forte has never been domestic policy, McCain has a peculiar taste for complex, verging on unworkable,...

CINCINNATI -- As the architect of Ohio's ballot measure against gay marriage, Phil Burress helped draw thousands of conservative voters to the polls in 2004, most of whom also cast ballots to reelect President Bush. So Burress was not surprised when two high-level staffers from John McCain's campaign dropped by his office, asking for his help this fall. What surprised Burress was how badly the meeting went. He says he tried but failed to make the McCain team understand how much work remained to overcome the skepticism of social conservatives. Burress ended up cutting off the campaign officials as they...

Fellow Republicans in the Senate on Friday issued a stern message — a rebuke, really — to the man who will lead the party in November, by blocking a bill that sought to establish a noxious cap-and-trade system to combat “global warming.” Sen. John McCain went on record last month in support of such a program that would, in the long run, force Americans to pay for the simple act of emitting carbon dioxide. To their credit, foes of this measure, the handiwork of Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California and outgoing Republican John Warner...

John McCain is great in town hall meetings. He is not so good at giving major speeches. As I like to say, he can hit a curveball, but he can’t hit one off the tee. Barack Obama, on the other hand, hits a 350-yard drive every time he steps to the microphone, but has shown some vulnerability in debates. It follows, then, that if McCain is to be successful this fall against Obama, he must play baseball and not golf. McCain's latest proposal, challenging Obama to a series of town hall forums, is smart strategy. That Obama didn’t immediately agree...

It has been a refrain during the exhausting battle for the Democratic presidential nomination that once Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama emerged as the party's choice, we could finally dispense with the personality battles and get down to nitty-gritty policy differences. Indeed, now that Obama seems to have the position locked up, he and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain will have plenty to argue about. But some might be surprised at the breadth of issues on which they largely agree. On McCain's side, this is understandable. With a Republican president experiencing some of the worst approval ratings ever, it's...

Sacha Millstone is nobody's sweetie. The Democratic insider will stand up at August's national convention and cast her vote for the candidate who suspended her bid on Saturday. And then Millstone will quit the party with which she is falling bitterly out of line. "This isn't sour grapes. This is about the best candidate losing the nomination because she's a woman. It's the most blatant example of sexism in our society. This is about the party breaking my trust, women's trust. And that can't be fixed," she says. Millstone hails the day in 2007 when Hillary Clinton announced she was...

Why McCain Would Make a Better President by Aaron Goldstein McCain knows what government can and cannot do. More importantly, he knows what government should and should not do. Should Barack Obama be elected President of the United States this November his chances for a successful term in office are slim to none. As the candidate who extols the virtue of hope and change and whose audience chants in unison, "Yes we can!," Obama has set expectations so high that he is bound to fall short of lofty expectations. After all, Obama has said this election is not so much...

Even some of Sen. Hillary Clinton's most devoted supporters now privately concede the inevitability of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's winning the Democratic presidential nomination. One hint to understanding the mind-set of candidate Clinton and her devoted loyalists (the ones who refuse to acknowledge the nonexistence of any semi-plausible path to the nomination) may be found in a story popular in Spain as that country's then-aging dictator lingered in critical condition. The year was 1975, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the ruthless strongman who with an iron hand had ruled Spain for four decades, lay on his deathbed. The joke then popular...

First, my friends, a reminder of what was printed right here on January 23, 2008: After spearheading a disastrous, security-undermining illegal alien amnesty bill last year with Teddy Kennedy, “straight-talking” GOP Sen. John McCain claims he has seen the light. In TV appearances, he vows to put immigration enforcement first. On the campaign trail, he offers a perfunctory promise to strengthen border security and emphasizes the need to restore Americans’ trust in their government’s ability to defend the homeland. “I got the message,” he told voters in South Carolina. “We will secure the borders first.” But how can McCain cure...

John McCain just repudiated the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, after reports of more controversial remarks.. The Huffington Post and others are reporting that during a late 1990s sermon, Hagee said that “the Nazis had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine.” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, distanced himself from Hagee over anti-Catholic remarks that Hagee apologized for earlier this month.

I must admit that I had just about given up on the notion that a Republican could win the White House this year. With an unpopular war in its sixth year and an economy heading into a recession, the political landscape had all the earmarks (excuse the expression) of a country that was ready to put another party in power. Additionally, with the history-making candidacies of the first woman and the first African-American with a serious chance to become the nation’s Chief Executive, it looked like curtains for the GOP. Add to that scenario the fact that conservative groups were...

Recently on a talk radio show, the guest, a Democrat, said there was little difference in policy between John McCain and the two Democrats running for President. Many of those calling in agreed. Considering McCain’s recent comments on global climate change and his position on some other issues I can understand why some might have that impression. If voters are convinced there would not be much difference in policy between a McCain and an Obama presidency, it is likely the majority will go for the young, charismatic candidate who would make history as the first black President. If they vote...

“I am a part of all that I have met.” Ulysses by Tennyson The Obama-lovin’ media wants you to believe that the Reverend Wright earthquake has passed. Some would have you believe that Obama turned a negative into a positive with his embarrassing public contortionism defending Wright and giving us a history lesson on American racism from Plymouth Rock to the Freedom Riders, as if Reverend Wright’s inexcusable hate needs a context. Nothing is further from the truth. There is much to be told about Reverend Wright, Obama’s mentorship with this hate-monger, and the larger implication this relationship has for...

NORTH BEND, Wash. - John McCain on Tuesday cast Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton as latecomers to the environmental battle, saying he would be willing to debate the issue with either of them in the general election to underscore his experience with the issue. "People will trust my stewardship not only because of my background and knowledge, but also my vision for the future," he told reporters during a news conference at a nature center in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. "They have never, to my knowledge, been involved in legislation nor hearings nor engagement on...

Janesville Congressman Paul Ryan continues to attract serious attention as a prospective Republican nominee for vice president. And rightly so. One need not agree with Ryan's sincere-if-frequently-myopic conservatism to recognize the strengths he would bring to John McCain's ticket. Where McCain is ancient -- older than Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower when they attained the presidency -- and looks it, Ryan is so fresh-faced, upbeat and energetic that he sometimes seems a good deal younger than his 38 years. At that age, the Wisconsin Republican is almost young enough to be not McCain's son but the Arizona senator's grandson. Yet...

The city of San Francisco has started an advertising push with a very specific target market: illegal immigrants. And while the advertisements will come in a bundle of languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese — they all carry the same message: you are safe here. In what may be the first such campaign of its kind, the city plans to publish multilanguage brochures and fill the airwaves with advertisements relaying assurance that San Francisco will not report them to federal immigration authorities. Mayor Gavin Newsom said the campaign was simply an amplification of a longstanding position of not cooperating...

Attn McCain Apologists: Talk all you want! But he's still a constitution trampling RINO and unless he repeals McCain-Feingold, repudiates amnesty and global warming, drops all support for embryonic stem cell research and stops talking about partnering up with the Democrats and instead swears to fight the evil bastards he won't be getting my support. You kicked the conservatives to the curb and nominated your RINO, now all you gotta do is get him elected. However, that shouldn't be all that tough to do. Look what he'll be running against. A corrupt, power hungry Marxist radical feminist control freak or...

By now, most McCain haters will have already skipped down to the comments section to post their expletives and tell me how it’s a free country and they have a 1st Amendment right, etc. to yammer on and on about how bad McCain sucks, totally missing the point of my post, again. But I’m here to tell you, in this free country, that in my opinion, you should SHUT YOUR STINKIN TRAP! To all you ingrates, rageaholics, and self-absorbed punks, WE KNOW YOU HATE MCCAIN. You can give yourself a rest now and stop posting on every single thread the...

John McCain's unconservativism was on display this past Wednesday in Los Angeles.  Perhaps not in all ways, but in one telling way.  Before a gathering of the World Affairs Council, the Arizona senator outlined his thinking on national security and foreign policy.  The speech's larger elements have received plenty of coverage.  One element did not.   McCain made a stalwart's argument for finishing the job in Iraq.  That's a good thing, and expected.  He made a case for greater collaboration with America's allies.  That's a nod to the prevailing sentiment that Cowboy America needs to become Settler America-you know, an America...

McCain is right on Free Trade.Conservatives rightly have many fears over John McCain. However, it is noteworthy that on certain issues — health care, earmarks, agricultural subsidies, and the subprime situation ("no bailouts!") to name a few — he is notably superior to our current president.The Club for Growth today released this statement on his free trade policy, which is also meritorious:  Washington – The Club for Growth commends Senator John McCain for calling for a new free trade agreement with the European Union. Currently, the United States and the European Union have low tariffs on most manufactured goods traded between...

If the media are on the lookout for gaffes by the presidential campaigns, they missed a big one on Wednesday, when Cindy McCain met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Kosovo’s capital Pristina, while her husband was giving a major foreign policy speech calling for “new foundations for a stable and enduring peace.” Kosovo’s declaration of independence, which McCain accepts and was implicitly recognized by Cindy McCain’s visit to Pristina, is a major threat to global peace and security. It could spark a U.S. war with Russia. It may be asking too much, however, for the media to cover...

Raleigh, N.C. — If the presidential election were held this week, Sen. John McCain would easily carry North Carolina, according to a poll released Monday. Rasmussen Reports surveyed 500 likely North Carolina voters last Thursday and found McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, holds commanding leads over the two Democratic candidates. The poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. McCain leads Sen. Hillary Clinton 50 to 34 percent, and he leads Sen. Barack Obama 51 to 42 percent, according to the poll. In both match-ups, McCain is essentially even with either Clinton or Obama among women, but holds...

At a time when the GOP presidential nominee will need more assistance than ever, a number of state Republican parties are struggling through troubled times, suffering from internal strife, poor fundraising, onerous debt, scandal or voting trends that are conspiring to relegate the local branches of the party to near-irrelevance. In some of the largest, smallest, reddest and bluest states in the nation, many state Republican organizations are still reeling in the aftermath of the devastating 2006 election cycle, raising questions about how much grassroots help the state parties will be able to deliver to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain....

In a recent WND column, Janet Folger begs social conservatives to vote for John McCain. She believes McCain will rescue "most everyone" from our political "burning building" – when in fact McCain has already locked arms with the Kennedys, Feingolds and liberal Democrats to keep social conservatives "out" of politics while they burn our constitutional republic to the ground. Like our mutual friend Alan Keyes, I've been a lifelong Republican and never voted third party, but this time I've had enough

Robert Novak: "John McCain's team that is taking over the Republican Party has decided on Bobbie Greene Kilberg, a liberal Republican from Virginia long detested by conservatives, to run the party's national convention in St. Paul, Minn., in August." - UPDATE: "Politico.com" - "A McCain aide says that Kilberg has not been tapped to run the convention and is only serving as a liasion with the RNC. McCain has not decided yet on who will run the convention, said this source." http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0308/This_will_get_GOP_insiders_a_buzzin.html

Making the Case for McCain By Burt Prelutsky Friday, March 21, 2008 A while back, I admitted that John McCain was not among my three favorite candidates for the Republican nomination. But I went on to say that if he emerged as the standard bearer for the GOP, he would get my vote. And to tell you the truth, I don’t feel I’ll have to bite the bullet in November so much as maybe gum it a little bit. Needless to say, I have been hearing from a great many conservative hardliners. Among the things they’ve called me are sell-out,...

John McCain’s campaign got its first opportunity to show how seriously it wants to avoid getting into the identity-politics meltdown in the Democratic primary. The campaign suspended Soren Dayton, a former blogger now working for McCain, for sending the link to a YouTube regarding Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright over a Twitter message: An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video that raises questions about Barack Obama’s patriotism.Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, sent out the YouTube link of “Is Obama Wright?” on twitter at 12:31 today with the...

Over the weekend, Paul did a post that talked about demands that some conservatives are making on John McCain as the soon-to-be Republican nominee. I added some comments of my own; it's fair to say that both Paul and I are skeptical of the reasonableness of such demands. That prompted an email from talk radio host Mark Levin, the subject heading of which was "John, Did You Actually Mean to Write This?" This initiated an exchange between Mark and me, which, with Mark's permission, I'm reproducing below: John, did you actually mean to write this? If there are conservatives who...

Here is video of John McCain talking on Trinity Broadcasting Network about his faith and some of his experiences while a POW in Vietnam. The video was added to YouTube in March 2007, but I'm not sure when the interview actually took place. Very moving and inspirational. . .

NEW ORLEANS — Sen. John McCain, in his post-victory debut before the conservative movement's top donors and leaders, will address the Council for National Policy's annual winter meeting here today. *snip* "Many conservative leaders did not support him, but he is a proud conservative Republican who thinks he can earn their support in the general election," Mr. [Charlie] Black added.

Now that it is pretty much official that John McCain is going to be the nominee, what does everyone plan to do for the November election? Do you plan to vote for McCain to keep Shrillary out or are you going to vote third party or not vote at all? I haven't been on this board much since Duncan Hunter dropped out and am really done with the GOP, but considering now is not the time where another party is in place to challenge I will vote for the 'lesser of the evils' in McCain just to keep the old...

DALLAS — Now that Senator John McCain is headed to the nomination, he can begin thinking seriously about perhaps the most important decision he will have to make as the Republican presidential nominee: the selection of a running mate. Mr. McCain and several senior campaign advisers insist that there is no short list of names, and no process to help him make his choice — merely a process to find a process. He directed his campaign to study past selection methods. “If I win tonight, we will sit down tomorrow or the next day, whatever it is, and say, O.K.,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain has a big decision ahead of him -- picking a vice presidential running mate whose presence on the ticket would reassure Americans concerned about McCain's age. McCain is 71 years old and would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term. He has survived a bout with melanoma that left a long scar on his face and suffered harsh treatment as a Vietnam prisoner of war. Voters do not typically base their vote on the vice presidential choice but they do want to be assured that the running mate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain has a big decision ahead of him -- picking a vice presidential running mate whose presence on the ticket would reassure Americans concerned about McCain's age. ADVERTISEMENT McCain is 71 years old and would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term. He has survived a bout with melanoma that left a long scar on his face and suffered harsh treatment as a Vietnam prisoner of war. Voters do not typically base their vote on the vice presidential choice but they do want to be assured that the running...

The halo above Barack Obama's head is dangerous. It is causing a lot of trouble for a lot of people, forcing them into silence. But that halo will tarnish if the young senator is elected president. There are those who suggest, only half-jokingly, that Obamamania has become something of a cult. Of course it is a cult, manifesting what writer James Wolcott refers to as "salvational fervor" and "pure euphoria." Listen to what the Anointed One said in South Carolina, which he alludes to as tent revivals: "At some point in the evening, a light is going to shine down...

Ever since Super Tuesday a super debate has been raging on FR concerning John McCain. I was never a McCain supporter, in fact I penned the post Super Tuesday post "Official FR Drinking Thread" so we could together drown our common disappointments into oblivion. FReepers seem to be moving into three distinct groups. The first are those that have always supported McCain, a lot or partially. There are those that don't like McCain but are willing to support him because they believe they will get some of what they want or to defeat what the see as the more critical...

I don't understand why people who purport to be conservatives are getting so worked up about that New York Times article on John McCain.As a conservative, I took that article as proof that everything we conservatives were saying about McCain was correct. My main objection to his candidacy concerns the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill. That bill would offer amnesty to 10 million or so people who entered the country illegally. McCain not only sponsored the bill, but he continually argues that the approach that he termed "amnesty" in 2003 is not amnesty in 2008.So McCain is a liar. No big...

Imagine if Mike Huckabee waits two months after John McCain clinches the nomination to endorse him, and waits to release his delegates to McCain until the day before the convention. In addition, he runs around the convention promoting himself and his message rather than focusing on supporting McCain's. It would be the type of display that would lead many of the GOP's pundits to declare it would be the end of Huckabee's career and that it would forever alienate the party from supporting a 2012 or 2016 run. Yet, if Huckabee did this, he'd be following the lead of John...

Obama changed my mind about McCain renewamerica.us, DC - On Tuesday night, Feb. 19, 2008, Barack Obama let the cat out of the bag for the first time, when he gave a 45 minute, off the cuff speech after his victory in Wisconsin. For the first time in his campaign, he talked to some extent on substance, rather than in just empty platitudes and feel good rhetoric. For the first time he talked of more than just "hope for change" and "change for hope" and leave the rest to the fantasies of his supporters' imaginations. What he was proposing was...

BILL KELLER, the executive editor of The Times, said the article about John McCain that appeared in Thursday’s paper was about a man nearly felled by scandal who rebuilt himself as a fighter against corruption but is still “careless about appearances, careless about his reputation, and that’s a pretty important thing to know about somebody who wants to be president of the United States.” But judging by the explosive reaction to the 3,000-word article, most readers saw it as something else altogether. They saw it as a story about illicit sex. And most were furious at The Times... I think...

Allow me a dose of hardened market realism concerning Barack Obama’s landslide victory in Wisconsin. The race is over. Hillary Clinton is over. Her electability is over. Bill Clinton’s political invincibility is over. The Clinton Restoration is over. It’s over. Obama got to the far left faster than Hillary did. He out-organized her, out-fundraised her, out-speechified her, out-hustled her, out-dressed her, and out-presidentialed her. He outbid Hillary for votes, one promised government check at a time. His 17-point margin of victory in Wisconsin was incredible. It says he can’t be stopped. Outside of the whacko ultra-left Madison college population, which...

While the Iraq War has fallen away as a major issue for most Americans, the liberal left in the country have for more than 40 years fought a mostly invisible war against the United States Military. Our Men and Women in uniform are finding themselves under attack daily by aging hippies, so-called peace activists, embittered college students and anger trust fund babies. Military bases, recruiting stations and even military hospitals have come under attack by these homegrown insurgents, who take pleasure in the fact that military members have remain professional at all times and face the double edged sword of...

Why are Republicans in Congress trying to help Barack Obama?Republicans allowed a bill that carries his name, among nine others, to pass the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by voice vote last week – without any hearings. That means there was no roll-call vote so no member can be held accountable. The same bill passed the House by voice vote last year.The Obama bill passed out of committee with the cooperation of the co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. A Rhodes scholar like former President Bill Clinton, Lugar has never seen a United Nations enhancement he didn't like.Obama's costly, dangerous and altogether...

No Time for No Spine Remember the little college dimwit who wrongly thought he had a right to speak freely at a John Kerry event last year, screaming “don’t taze me bro!—don’t taze me bro!” as police officers proceeded to taze him to the ground and remove him from the Kerry event? Apparently, Democrats are more offended by a voice of opposition at their campaign stops than by known Islamic terrorists whom they would never allow to be “tazed” or even “waterboarded.” The Democrat controlled congress left and went home for an extended holiday weekend after allowing the Protect America...