NewsTrust - Republican Nomination - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Palin won't be GOP nominee in 2012

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Week - By Robert Shrum - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - Sarah Palin is the bright red thread in the dull grey fabric of the Republican Party. She is charismatic, quirky, melodramatic, and fervently anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-Obama. But there's one thing she'll never be—the GOP nominee for President in 2012.

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She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - As the Republicans’ lone charismatic performer, Sarah Palin has come to represent a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances. Sarah Palin and Al Sharpton don’t ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer’s children it was their daddy’s adversaries, not their daddy, who were “strange,” he was channeling the pugnacious argument the Alaska governor had made the week before. There was nothing strange about her decision to quit in midterm, Palin told America. What’s strange — or “insane,” in her lingo — are the critics who dare question her erratic behavior on the national stage.

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Newt in 2012?

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Robert Novak - Nov. 08 (Opinion) - In serious conversations among Republicans since their election debacle Tuesday, what name is mentioned most often as the Moses, or Reagan, who could lead them out of the wilderness before 40 years? To the consternation of many Republicans, it is none other than Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House. Gingrich is far from a unanimous or even a consensus choice to run for president in 2012, but there is a strong feeling in Republican ranks that he is the only leader of their party who has shown the skill and energy to attempt a comeback quickly. Even one of his strongest supporters for president in 2012 admits it is a "very risky choice." But Republicans are in a desperate mood after the fiasco of John McCain's seemingly safe candidacy. Republicans seem chastened by the failure of seeking moderate, independent and even Democratic votes. They are ready to try going back to the "old-time religion."

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McCain waging dishonorable campaign

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Ruth Marcus - Sep. 18 (Opinion) - McCain's transgressions, though, are of a different magnitude. His whoppers are bigger; there are more of them. He -- the easy out would be to say "his campaign" -- has been misleading, and at times has outright lied, about his opponent. He has misrepresented -- that's the charitable verb -- his vice presidential nominee's record. Called on these fouls, he has denied and repeated them.

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Palin: wrong woman, wrong message

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Gloria Steinem - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

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Palin hubbub leads Republican delegates to target 'liberal media'

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By James Rainey - Sep. 03 (Opinion) - But the scene could have come from the convention floor Tuesday in St. Paul, where the Republican faithful began working out once again on a favorite punching bag. Their goal: to lessen the burden on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, five election cycles after the media were lambasted because it dared to question the credentials of another would-be vice president, Dan Quayle.

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Dissent doesn't belong in a cage

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 15 (Opinion) - The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.

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'Straight Talk Express' takes the low road

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Joel Connelly - Jul. 31 (Opinion) - McCain's presidential campaign is evolving into nonstop attacks on Sen. Barack Obama, salted with distortion and innuendo. After years as a media darling, the candidate has taken to complaining about his opponent's press coverage. What's happened?

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Why the right reluctantly defended McCain

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei - Feb. 24 (Opinion) - Conservative leaders often portray their political mission in moralistic terms: right vs. wrong. But their reaction to a news report that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might have had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist shows the activist right is often animated by a different impulse: us against them

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Bush Signals Support for McCain

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Peter Baker - Feb. 07 (Opinion) - President Bush plans to give an implicit endorsement of onetime rival John McCain's conservative bona fides tomorrow as the Arizona senator seeks to consolidate the party behind his candidacy. In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in the morning, Bush plans to say that the nominee of the party will be a strong conservative, according to excerpts released by the White House tonight.

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Dyspepsia on the Right

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:40:00 -0800

New York Times - By William Kristol - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - When the primaries are over, if McCain has won the day, don't sulk and don't sit it out. Don't pretend there's no difference between a candidate who's committed to winning in Iraq and a Democratic nominee who embraces defeat. Don't tell us that it doesn't matter if the next president voted to confirm John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, or opposed them. Don't close your eyes to the difference between pro-life and pro-choice, or between resistance to big government and the embrace of it.

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The Party Animal Either Plays Well or Fights Well

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Michael Oreskes - Feb. 03 (Review) - Sometimes the simplest of arguments can reveal the deepest of divisions. Take the dispute between Senator Barack Obama and the Clintons over the legacy of Ronald Reagan. The episode began in Reno, Nev., you will recall, when Mr. Obama told an editorial board that Mr. Reagan was a president of ideas who had moved the country's politics. His ideas weren't necessarily good ideas, as Mr. Obama framed it, but they were transformative.

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The McCain Calculus

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - By Kimberley A. Strassel - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - You don't have to spend much time on the trail to pick up the deep disregard certain Republicans have for Mr. McCain. It isn't just his heresies on climate change or campaign finance; it's his attitude. His righteousness gets under the skin. Some could never bring themselves to vote for him, even with a gas mask.

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Primary Choices: John McCain - New York Times

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president. The leading candidates have no plan for getting American troops out of Iraq. They are too wedded to discredited economic theories and unwilling even now to break with the legacy of President Bush. We disagree with them strongly on what makes a good Supreme Court justice.

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We're not falling for likable-guy trap again

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Gail Collins - Jan. 18 (Opinion) - Likability has become another one of those qualities that used to be desirable in a candidate until it started reminding us of how we got George W. Bush. We're not falling for that likable-guy trap again. No, siree. From now on we want the kind of person you would try to avoid standing next to in a long line at the supermarket.

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Transcript: Republican Debate

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

ABC News - Jan. 06 (Review) - The following is a full transcript of the Republican presidential debate sponsored by ABC News, Facebook, and ABC affiliate WMUR. The debate took place on January 5, 2008, at St. Anslem College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

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Candidates straddle the great divide

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Paul Krugman - Jan. 01 (Editorial) - There's a fantasy, widely held inside the Beltway, that men and women of good will from both parties can be brought together to hammer out bipartisan solutions to the nation's problems. If such a thing were possible, McCain, Romney and Giuliani -- a self-proclaimed maverick, the former governor of a liberal state and the former mayor of an equally liberal city -- would seem like the kind of men Democrats could deal with. (OK, maybe not Giuliani.) In fact, however, it's not possible, not given the nature of today's Republican Party, which has turned men like McCain and Romney into hard-line ideologues. On economics, and on much else, there is no common ground between the parties.

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Sorting Truth From Campaign Fiction

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Michael Dobbs - Dec. 30 (Review) - Mitt Romney says he "saw" his father "march" with Martin Luther King Jr. Rudolph W. Giuliani claims that he is one of the "five best-known Americans in the world." According to John McCain, the Constitution established the United States as a "Christian nation." Ron Paul believes that a "NAFTA superhighway" is being planned to link Mexico with Canada and undermine U.S. sovereignty. On the other side of the political divide, Sen. Barack Obama says there are more young black males in prison than in college. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claims she has a "definitive timetable" for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. John Edwards insists that NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- has cost Americans "millions of jobs." Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. boasts about his experience negotiating an arms-control treaty with Leonid Brezhnev.

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Huckabee calls Romney 'desperate'

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Mike Allen - Dec. 30 (Opinion) - Four days before the Iowa caucuses, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday lashed out at Mitt Romney as desperate, dishonorable and dishonest -- a notable change in tone that reflects signs Huckabee's amazing insurgency has peaked. "Mitt Romney is running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonorable campaign," Huckabee said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in Des Moines. "If you aren't being honest in obtaining the job, can we trust you if you get the job?"

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Now we know why Rudy pulled back some dollars from NH

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:00:09 -0800

The Politico - By Jonathan Martin - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - McCain's team has to be buoyed a bit by the numbers. Though they've finally begun to sell the "McCain Surge" story of late (thanks to a flurry of endorsements) they hadn't had real numbers to back it up. This is no huge step, but to finally crack the pyschological barrier of 20% is important. Moreover, the numbers, as well as Rudy's tactics, increasingly point to a head-to-head race between McCain and his nemesis.

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Ron Paul Beats Own Fundraising Record

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 04:40:05 -0800

Washington Post - By Jose Antonio Vargas - Dec. 17 (Opinion) - Polls aside, he's amassed arguably the most creative group of supporters, one of whom has orchestrated the launch of the Ron Paul blimp. It's traveling around the country -- it was on South Carolina today -- and on its way to New Hamsphire for the Jan. 8 primary.

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Alive and Kicking

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Jeffrey Bell - Dec. 17 (Opinion) - ...the rise of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and a simultaneous sharp decline of the Giuliani candidacy in Iowa and other states with large numbers of socially conservative voters make at least one thing clear: Social conservatism continues to exist as a mass movement that cares very much about its core beliefs.

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The Perils of Huckaplomacy

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Stephen F. Hayes - Dec. 16 (Review) - Just moments into the third Republican presidential debate, last June 5, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about Iraq. "Governor Huckabee, do you have confidence in the government of Iraq, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that he's going to do what needs to be done?"

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The Man From Target

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:25:04 -0800

New York Times - By Gail Collins - Dec. 13 (Opinion) - The Huckabee strong suit is morality and the Republican voters are clearly yearning for someone without a record of spectacularly public adultery who also does not remind them of a snake-oil salesman. The party base, we know, tends to be pro-life. Does that really mean they want a president who tried to stop an abortion for a 15-year-old mentally retarded girl who was raped by her stepfather? The primary voters are obviously not keen on gay marriage, but do they really want to be governed by somebody who suggested quarantining all the people with AIDS?

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Mormon in America

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:12:06 -0800

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - By Peggy Noonan - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - Did Mitt Romney have to give a speech on religion? Yes. When you're in a race so close you could lose due to one issue, your Mormonism, you must address the issue of your Mormonism. The only question was timing: now, in the primaries, or later, as the nominee? But could he get to the general without The Speech? Apparently he judged not. (Mr. Romney's campaign must have some interesting internal polling about Republicans on the ground in Iowa and elsewhere.) But Mr. Romney had other needs, too. His candidacy needed a high-minded kick start. It needed an Act II. He's been around for a year, he's made his first impression, he needed to make it new again. He seized the opportunity to connect his candidacy to something larger and transcendent: the history of religious freedom in America. He made a virtue of necessity. He had nothing to prove to me regarding his faith or his church, which apparently makes me your basic Catholic. Catholics are not his problem. His problem, a Romney aide told me, had more to do with a particular fundamentalist strain within evangelical Protestantism. Bill Buckley once said he'd rather be governed by the first thousand names in the Boston phone book than the Harvard faculty. I'd rather be governed by Donny and Marie than the Washington establishment. Mormons have been, in American history, hardworking, family-loving citizens whose civic impulses have tended toward the constructive. Good enough for me. He's running for president, not pastor. In any case his faith is one thing about Mr. Romney I haven't questioned.

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