Month: January 2012

Categories
Elections Politics

The Republican Misery – A Gingrich Win… And Democrats Rejoice

A very interesting observation in a New York Times article titled, Five Consequences of Gingrich’s South Carolina Win asked this question;

“If Gingrich wins Florida, the Republican Establishment is going to have a meltdown that makes Three Mile Island look like a marshmallow roast.”

“Why? Because the Establishment will be staring down the barrel of two utterly unpalatable choices. On the one hand, Gingrich’s national favorable-unfavorable ratings of 26.5 and 58.6 percent, respectively make him not just unelectable against Obama but also mean that he would likely be a ten-ton millstone around the necks of down-ballot Republican candidates across the country. And on the other, Romney has shown in two successive contests — one in a bellwether Republican state, the other in a key swing state — an inability to beat his deeply unpopular rival. If this scenario unfolds, the sound of GOP grandees whispering calls for a white knight… will be deafening.”

LOL.

Oh, the utter calamity that these Republicans have somehow found themselves in, and I’m loving every moment of it!

Categories
Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics

The Gingrich That Stole South Carolina Is Now Leading In Florida

Mitt Romney has to be questioning himself and his position in this Republican party, as new polls show a sudden love for the once disgraced and despised Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich, a man with a political record comparable to that of the common criminal (really… the average person would be sitting in jail if they did the same things Gingrich did), won the Republican vote in South Carolina, and now has the lead in Florida.

The InsiderAdvantage poll of of 557 registered Republican voters is one of the first polls taken in Florida in the aftermath of Gingrich’s double-digit win in the South Carolina primary Saturday.

The poll results follow:

Gingrich: 34%

Romney: 26%

Paul: 13%

Santorum: 11%

Other: 2%

No opinion: 14%

The InsiderAdvantage poll was the first major poll last week to show the significant surge for Gingrich in South Carolina.

Categories
Politics

Gabrielle Giffords Announces Her Retirement.

A year after Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in an apparent assassination attempt, Mrs. Giffords announced today that she will end her political career to concentrate on her rehabilitation.

Giffords was shot by Jared Lee Loughner a crazed gunman at one of her political events in Tucson Arizona in January 2010. The shooting also amounted to six people losing their lives, including that of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green.

Below is her announcement.

Categories
Newt Gingrich Politics South Carolina

South Carolina Saturday Night After-Party: What Happened?

Newt pulled the upset, and the exit polling shows him with strength among conservatives, those concerned with electability, and women. Of course, that last demographic will get the most talk in light of Newt’s affection for more than one partner at a time, but I guess the desire to defeat President Obama outweighs all other desires combined. It was a solid win, and by an even larger margin than I thought. The results:

Prediction          Actual

Gingrich        36%               40%

Romney        34%               28%

Paul              15%               13%

Santorum      14%               17%

Obviously I missed out on Santorum and the margin, but Gingrich did what he needed to do. The debate performances and his robust conservatism won in a very conservative state. Now he can go on to Florida and see if he can win over the conservatives there. My guess is that he can. And if he wins Florida, then Romney’s stock will have taken a Great Recession-type hit.

Santorum says he won’t quit the race at this point. He gave it his all, but is clearly not the conservative voter’s choice and he would only make it easier for Romney in the Sunshine State. Paul has his reliable 15%, but is now more marginalized than ever.

At this point, all of the candidates have been vetted. What’s left will be an expensive, potentially nasty fight, although Mitt has to be careful because he was seen as running the most unfair race in South Carolina. I’m not sure what unfair means, but maybe Newt’s charge against negative ads has something to do with it.

On to Florida, where voters have already been casting ballots. I imagine that after yesterday, Newt will see a surge of support.

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Newt Gingrich Politics Republican South Carolina

Gingrich Celebrates The 15 Year Anniversary Of His Ethics Violations, By Winning South Carolina Primary

Tonight, as the polls closed in South Carolina, Rachel Maddow announced that NBC was projecting a win for Newt Gingrich. It is a historic achievement for the former Republican House Speaker, and Newt and his supporters can only hope that this momentum carries on to Florida.

Here are couple of interesting historical facts – Today is the anniversary of the Citizens United case, where the Supreme Court got rid of all the common sense rules on campaign donations allowing Corporations to donate an unlimited amount of funds to campaigns under the guise of “corporations are people.”

And this other piece of history – On this day some fifteen years ago, Newt Gingrich received  some embarrassing news while he was the Speaker of the house.

On Jan. 21, 1997, one of the most memorable days in congressional history, Newt Gingrich became the first House speaker to be reprimanded by his colleagues for ethical misconduct. The 395-28 vote, to reprimand him for bringing discredit on the House for failing to ensure his use of tax-exempt groups was legal, was historic by itself. But Gingrich’s peers didn’t stop there. They fined him $300,000 for misleading the House ethics committee and causing it to extend a costly investigation.

Categories
Elections Newt Gingrich Politics South Carolina

Polling Report: Special South Carolina Edition

What a week this has been for the GOP Pack o’ Presidential Potentials. We started out with Mitt Romney strolling leisurely toward the nomination with a big lead, and today finds the contenders in an absolute dogfight (but will the dog hunt?).

Newt Gingrich’s well-received performance in this week’s debates has given him a new life. Rick Santorum can now claim to have won the Iowa caucuses. Rick Perry is now free to take Texas out of the union if he so desires. And Romney? He’s hit a bit of a rough patch on the way to the nomination, which I still think he’ll win. It just might take a bit longer for him to claim it.

The latest RealClearPolitics polling average, including the latest PPP tracking poll, has Newt surging to the top of the pile, which spells real trouble for Romney. Paul will win his 15%, and despite an endorsement from many conservatives, Rick Santorum will be lucky to approach 15%, as some of his voters move to Newt. With Rick Perry out of the race, the real question is where do his supporters go. Again, I’m thinking Newt.

South Carolina is now critical for Romney. I said after New Hampshire that he could end the whole race with a showing above 40% and could claim inevitability with more than 30% in SC. Now, that’s not necessarily the case. Mitt could get 30% and lose to Gingrich, or only win by 1 or 2 points. That would be a win, but he needs to improve, not regress. If he loses, or loses steam, Florida would be in play. Santorum could drop out, with his voters moving in larger numbers to Newt. Conservatives would be emboldened. Democrats would jump for joy.

My predictions: An Upset Special

Gingrich        36%

Romney        34%

Paul              15%

Santorum      14%

Santorum drops out. The race in Florida tightens. Gingrich and Romney duke it out through Super Tuesday in March. More GOP moderates publicly endorse Romney in order to save the party. Chris Christie gets even more bombastic in his support for Mitt (is that possible? healthy?). You join in here at ezkool, at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and follow me on Twitter @rigrundfest.

Isn’t this fun?

Categories
New York Politics

President Obama Sings – “I’m So In Love With You”

Yes, the country is not where it should be as unemployment is still relatively high at 8.5% and the country is very divided along political lines. Yet, is that any reason why President Obama should not indulge the country in a little moment of relief by singing a few bars of a song? Well, if you listened to the talking heads on the right, you would think Mr. Obama just quit the office of the Presidency and is now auditioning full-time for American Idol.

Calm it down folks. The 5 seconds the President used to sing “I’m so in love with you,” did not add to the unemployment, nor did it further divide the country. But if the crowd in the auditorium was any indication, we can safely assume the nation – or at least the Democrats and some Independents – cheered… even if it was just for 5 seconds.

Categories
George Bush Politics

And Rightly So – Americans Blame Bush For Bad Economy

Note to all future Presidents: If you begin your team as president with a surplus, don’t push dumb policies, like a trillion dollars in tax cuts for very rich people while fighting two wars costing another 2 trillion dollars.

Don’t start programs like Medicaid part D, designed to put hundreds of billions of tax payers dollars into the pockets of insurance companies, while those companies provide mediocre services to their policy holders. And it would help if you don’t have an IQ of 2, while having the name George W. Bush.

And if you insist on doing the things mentioned above, someone in the middle east might try to introduce a pair of Reebok to your face. But most importantly, the American people will notice and rightly put the blame where it belongs – squarely on your shoulders.

A majority of Americans believe that former President George W. Bush is more responsible than President Obama for the current economic problems in the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said that Bush was more to blame while 29 percent put the blame on Obama; 9 percent said both men deserved blame while 6 percent said neither did. Among registered voters, the numbers are almost identical; 54 percent blame Bush, while 30 percent blame Obama.

Independents, widely considered the most critical voting bloc this fall, continue to blame Bush far more than Obama for the economic troubles. Fifty-seven percent of unaffiliated voters put the blame on the former Republican president, while 25 percent believe the blame rests more with Obama.

Heck, even one in five Republicans say Bush is more responsible than Obama for the state of the economy!

Categories
Politics

Conservative Leader Bryan Fischer – Mormonism Is A Counterfeit Religion

The Christian Conservative leader Bryan Fischer called Mitt Romney’s religion “false”and “counterfeit.”

“This is not a Christian faith,” Fischer said on his television program, “it is a false religion.” Fischer went on an asked a question that he said, “concerns a number of spiritual leaders,”  himself included. Bryan asked;

What would it mean for the spiritual health of the united states if the worshipper of a false god occupied the Whitehouse.

Categories
Politics presidential

Another One Bites The Dust – Rick Perry Suspends His Campaign

You may choose to call what Rick Perry had a “campaign.” I like to think of the whole episode as his oops moment. Whatever it was, as of today, it’s no more

Rick Perry ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsed Newt Gingrich this morning, saying he saw “no viable path forward” after his dwindling support took him from front-runner status to dead last.

Perry entered the GOP race as a breath of fresh air to many conservatives who hoped for a suitable candidate to oppose Mitt Romney, but after a few bad debate performances and bad finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he sank in the polls, and his supporters began to give up.

In South Carolina, Perry was polling in last place, in single digits, before the primary on Saturday.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Mr.Romney, The Cayman Islands Is Calling…

Oh Mitty. The sad thing is, you really thought you could have kept this a secret. You apparently thought the American people were so slow, that they would just mosey on along, accepting your explanations that you are “one of us,” and that you’re often “worried about getting a pink slip.” You obviously thought Mr. Romney, that we really believed you when you said you were unemployed too.

Well the Cayman Islands called and we are now wiser to your game.

As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.

Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.

Romney campaign officials and those at Bain Capital tell ABC News that the purpose of setting up those accounts in the Cayman Islands is to help attract money from foreign investors, and that the accounts provide no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments.

Categories
Fox News

Jerry Springer To Fox News – “Every Single Morning, You’re Slamming Obama!”

Television host Jerry Springer went on the fake news station today and did something you’ll never expect anyone on Fox News to do –  speake the truth. Yes, this is one time you can put “Fox News” and “truth” in the same sentence.

But Gretchen Carlson, the host of the show Springer was on would have none of it. She tried to defend herself, saying  “we present both sides of the story…we have a fair and balanced panel.” Of course that was a lie, as the rest of the video below shows other instances where Carlson and her panel  only presented one side – the side they made up.

This is one time I can join in the chant JER-RY! JER-RY! JER-RY!

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