In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, is fending off a charismatic and wealthy conservative challenger. In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, one of the Senate’s most reliably conservative voices on foreign policy, is being painted by primary opponents as a veritable clone of President Obama.
In Tennessee, Tea Party activists have vowed to take out Lamar Alexander, the veteran senator, former cabinet officer and two-time presidential candidate. “Senator Alexander has never been a true conservative,” said Ben Cunningham, president of the Nashville Tea Party. “His support for the amnesty bill has caused great problems for us,” he said, referring to the Senate immigration bill. “He is at best a moderate.”
Tea Party candidates have also emerged in races against Democratic incumbents in Alaska — Joe Miller, who beat Senator Lisa Murkowski in her last primary, has resurfaced — Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota, and for open seats in Georgia, Iowa and South Dakota. Democrats hope they can benefit from a divided Republican electorate.
The Republican incumbents and party officials say they have learned from the hard lessons of the past when Tea Party candidates from the right were ignored or dismissed, only to prevail in primaries and lose in general elections. They have plans to avoid becoming the next Richard G. Lugar or Robert Bennett, two senior senators who were stunned by losses before the general election.
Tag: Primary
With Santorum officially out-of-the-way, the focus now turns to the general election between Mitt Romney, the last man/robot carrying the Republican banner and President Obama – America’s only legitimate choice for 2012.
But with Santorum gone and the Republican establishment trying to clean up the mess he left behind, there is one remnant of the Santorum that will stay with us forever – his priceless quotes about his fellow Republican, Mittens.
Here are just a some of his best.
”They are not going to nominate a moderate Massachusetts governor who’s been outspending his opponent 10-1 and can’t win the election outright. What chance do we have in a general election if he can’t, with an overwhelming money advantage, be able to deliver any kind of knockout blow to other candidates?” — NBC’s “Today,” March 12, 2012.
”Do you really believe this country wants to elect a Wall Street financier as the president of the United States? Do you think that’s the kind of experience that we need?” — Rockford, Ill., March 19, 2012.
”Conservatives will not trust (Romney), will not rally around him.” — Conference call with reporters, March 5, 2012.
”Are you going to vote for someone that says one thing one day, anything else the next day that’s necessary to win? Or are you going to vote for someone you trust?” — Feb. 25, 2012, Troy, Mich.
”He’s got a lot of money, but he doesn’t have the convictions, the authenticity nor the record that is necessary to win this election.” — Jan. 17, 2012, South Carolina.
”Pick any other Republican in the country. (Romney) is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.” — March 25, 2012, Franksville, Wis.
Despite our own professional opinion that Mitt Romney will win in today’s Michigan primary election, a final poll conducted last night is showing something different.
A final Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan conducted over the last two nights shows Rick Santorum just edging Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary, 38% to 37%, with Ron Paul at 14% and Newt Gingrich at 9%.
However, the results for the last night show a decided shift in momentum toward Santorum, leading Romney by five points, 39% to 34%, with Paul at 15% and Gingrich at 10%.
The clear winner on stage last night was Willard Romney. It was obvious that he came to the debate with one goal in mind, and that was to get Newt Gingrich.
Mission Accomplished.
Newt on the other hand, wasn’t Newt. He was either mentally missing in action or wasn’t prepared for the unusual aggression he faced from the Mormon, Mitt Romney. Yes, Gingrich tried his customary one line attacks against the media and his other opponents, but when they fired back, Newt hung his head in defeat. In a race where most polls say could be won by either Newt or Romney, history will call this debate the turning point at which Gingrich, The Historian, lost Florida and ultimately, the nomination… although we all know the GOP elites were never going to nominate Gingrich in the first place.
The post game wrap-up by the talking heads at CNN suggested that Rick Santorum had “a great night.” I’ll call his performance consistent, not great. Santorum has stuck to the same message since the beginning of this process. One thing you cannot accuse him of, is doing a Romney… that is, flip-flopping.
And Ron Paul was, well… Ron Paul. I’m not sure if anyone in the audience understood anything Paul said, but he has some of the most dedicated followers and as far as I can tell and his followers are the only reason Paul is still in the race. That, and the fact that he keeps the crowd entertained.
Yes, onstage Romney won. Offstage however, President Obama won another GOP debate.
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.
Another Oops Moment For Rick Perry
One man cannot be this incompetent. I think Rick Perry is now dumber than even Michele Bachmann, and she took dumb to a level we hadn’t seen, even in the era of Sarah Palin.
So Perry is trying to win the Republican nomination to go against President Obama in the 2012 presidential election. In order to get the nomination, Perry must compete. His campaign tried to beat Thursday’s deadline in Virginia by claiming to have successfully submitted 11,911 signatures to get Perry’s name on Virginia’s ballot, but this is where Perry had the second “oops” moment of his campaign.
This doesn’t bode well for Rick Perry: the GOP presidential candidate will not appear in the Virginia primary ballot after failing to submit enough valid signatures, Republican officials announced Friday evening. Perry’s campaign told state election officials that it had submitted 11,911 signatures, but the Republican Party of Virginia confirmed on Twitter that Perry didn’t submit the 10,000 signatures required to qualify.
“Hopefully, he will do better in other states,” a chairman of Perry’s campaign in Virginia told the Washington Post on Friday night. Perry was one of four GOP candidates who submitted ballot petitions on Thursday, along with Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich. Romney and Paul have both been confirmed, and the Virginia GOP is expected to announce whether Gingrich will qualify later tonight.