Alec Hamilton

Is he going to jump off and get into this fray, or is he simply just going to be a bystander… Does he have the courage to jump in? — Mike Kelly, columnist at The Record of New Jersey...

He has trouble having people think ill of him because he’s being decisive. He is an essential actor of this era in American history, and for better or for worse, his evolution as an i...

The Republican candidates have been busy this last week, though political coverage has been dominated by the president’s jobs plan and speech before the U.N. But don’t worry - It’s A Free Country is here to catch you up on the 2012ers again, pre-debate.

What you’d like to do is win the next election with a large consensus of Americans ready to make big change. — Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Everyone has their own style and things that they bring to the General Assembly, but for them it’s a moment if theater in which they’re trying to communicate to the rest of the world ...

[W]ho would have thought this would be the big issue in the Republican primaries? — Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine Ryan Lizza on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Remember before 9/11? When you could go through airport security without taking off your shoes and take a day trip into Mexico or Canada with only your driver's license?

Ten years and two wars later, It's A Free Country takes a look at some of the legal changes that have outlived Osama bin Laden.

We wrote this book because neither of us want to be on duty when the American dream goes dark. — Reihan Salam, columnist at The Daily and blogger for National Review Online's "The ...

We wrote this book because neither of us want to be on duty when the American dream goes dark. — Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Frie...

Honestly in politics it’s hard to overestimate how incompetent people are… you can't totally write off the possibility in politics that people were just bumbling, because often, peopl...

It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale continues her monthly series with us. This week: how independent groups are going after minority voters.

Florida Congressman Connie Mack has a plan to save the country from its growing deficit, using nothing but pennies.

Mack, a Republican, is promoting a "one-cent solution" to balance the budget in eight years by cutting spending every year by one percent. The proposal, called the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011, aims to eliminate one penny from every dollar spent by the federal government, reducing the GDP from 25 percent to 18 percent and then capping it there.

The ideas seems popular among GOP lawmakers. The Act lists thirteen co-sponsors, and at least one more, Louisiana Senator David Vitter, has announced intention to sign on once the recess is over. Several key conservative organizations have endorsed the plan, including FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union and the One Cent Solution.

We’re talking about a pretty large number of people across the country, as many as three-quarters of a million, 750,000 people, across the country, who might immediately be eligible i...

I am willing to consider the proposals of the president… my personal view is what we need is certainty in the economy. — New Jersey Congressman Leonard Lance (R-7) discusses what he...

A short term band-aid is not the worst thing in the world. — Peter Coy, economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

The LDS membership, notably in Utah, is the most faithful to the Republican party than any other group, even more than people who identify as evangelicals. — Richard N. Ostling, fo...

Charlie Rangel's birthday bash fundraiser was a bit like an encyclopedia of Democratic New York politics.

Present at the Plaza Hotel ballroom were Assemblyman (and CD-9 hopeful) David Weprin, Queens Party boss Congressman Joe Crowley, and former NYC mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins.

Onstage, Dinkins referred to the small group of protesters standing in front of the Plaza, calling for the resignation of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (also present). Dinkins said it reminded him of last year's party, when people protested Rangel.

Congress has named the first few picks for the deficit reduction “super committee.” It’s A Free Country takes a look at some of the people charged with determining where to cut $1.5 trillion out of the nations budget over the next ten years.