++The recent polls still have Ron Paul on top with Romney running a close second. Newt has been pulverized by the negative campaigning. The only candidate with more favorables than unfavorables is Frothy Mix himself, Rick Santorum. But Rick doesn't appear to be picking up any steam.
++I really don't understand the whole hubbub about Ron Paul's racist newsletters. It's not secret and his racist views have been known for years. In this particular GOP race,it hardly counts as a negative since minorities, African-Americans, gays and Muslims have regaularly been bashed throughout the debates.
++In another who cares note--Arthur Laffer of the infamous Laffer Curve and Supply Side Economics will endorse Newt today. The whole parade is looking like a bad version of "Where Have They Gone--Political Has-Beens."
++Mitt has been spending in Iowa like a drunken Mormon. The last minute ad campaign in Iowa has cost all candidates and their Super-Pacs over $10 million. Mitt is hoping to land a knock-out blow and to re-establish his mantle of inevitability. Beltway pundits are marvelling at his stealth campaign and his discipline.
++Mitt's tax returns are becoming a little issue. The Boston Globe writers believe the reason for his refusal to release is because he benefits from the "Interest carry" loophole for equity fund managers. Romney still receives a seven-figure check from Bain Capital all these years after leaving it. His base tax rate is a stunningly low 15%, a fact that would provoke backlash since almost every American pays a higher rate. But another factor has emerged also to explain Romney's reticience about releasing his tax returns. Apparently, shortly before Romney started attacking China in the debates, he began to receive the payments for his investments in China. During his days at Bain Capital, he closed American businesses and got them to move their facilities to China, where the Chinese authorities bought part ownership. This little wrinkle to the story might explain why Jon Hunstman has quietly circulated rumors about Romney's business deals with China.
++If Romney doesn't release his tax returns, he will be the first major candidate since Watergate to refuse.
++Meanwhile Rick Perry has run an ad blitz in Iowa and has been emphasizing social conservative issues. Perry also has filed suit to get on the Virginia primary ticket. Perry is floating around the double-digits in Iowa and needs a third-place finish to rationalize continuing.
++National polls still have Newt in a slight lead over Mitt and Paul is third. Basically, this is turning into a two man race. The Mormon vulture capitalist versus the disgraced Speaker of the House and ethically challenged lobbyist. It's no wonder that the National Review and William Kristol are still crying out for a new candidate.
++The polls in New Hampshire show Romney with a sizeable lead. But the thing to look at there is whether Romney hits the level of support he had in 2008.
++Remember the nominee will be who wins South Carolina. So far Newt has the lead.
++While the Republican race makes one's skin crawl, I'll leave you with the political rumor of the day documented in a new book. Richard Nixon had a gay affair with Bebe Rebozo. You can't get seamier than that.
Showing posts with label GOP in Iowa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GOP in Iowa. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Mitt Romney Is Still Weird
++Note on Wisconsin,GOP held on to have a 17-16 seat margin in the Senate. Both sides declared victory. Howard Dean wrote an op-ed piece that this was what a 50-state strategy looked like--two victories in heavily Republican districts.
++The Queen of the Rodeo Elizabeth Warren says she's going home and the buzz is that she will run for the Senate in Maschusetts against Scott Brown.
++Mariano Rivera actually lost a game, giving up a 9th inning homer to the Angels. This is a sign of the apocalypse.
++Now for Mitt. Today in Iowa he was heckled and got into a fuss over entitlement programs. When a voter demanded taxes on corporations, Mitt responded,"Corporations are people." Jon Huntsman's spokesperson immediately tweeted a Romney aide,"Was American Pad and Pencil Corporation a person or a friend?" Chiding the campaign on a Bain Capital-inspired bankruptcy. A Democratic immediately posted, "At least Romney treats corporations better than his family dog", bringing up that story again.
++Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly a day earlier wrote about how the Washington pundits spun the Team Obama story of portraying Mitt as "weird" as an attack on Romney's religion. Team Obama has said absolutely nothing about his religion. What Benen showed was that Team Obama intends to portray Romney as a political Gordon Geikko, a chronic flip-flopper who has no core values. They plan to exploit the fact that Romney is not comfortable in his own skin, can't be trusted, lacks authenticity and got rich by laying off thousands.
++As if starting the 2012 campaign, Team Obama released statements that Romney, who had blamed Obama for the S&P downgrade,himself lobbied S&P not to downgrade Massachusetts' rating by citing his raising taxes. He had been successful in this effort but didn't mention the need to raise taxes in his attack on Obama.
++The little Iowa episode revealed how maladroit Romney is at retail politicking after running constantly for the Presidency for the past 5 years. Romney is very well-scripted and is known to blow hostile questioning and can not hold up under attack. Tonight's debate in Iowa will be interesting to see if any candidate actually attacks Romney. Jon Huntsman obviously has a real issue with Romney and I expect him to shoot first.
++If you really want to read about Michelle Bachmann, then please indulge yourselves with Ryan Lizza's "Leap of Faith: The Making of Michelle Bachmann" in the new issue of the New Yorker. I can only take it in short doses. Michelle is known for telling whoppers. A few days ago she told Iowans that President Obama told her that Obamacare meant the end of Medicare. Of course, he did no such thing and the Affordable Care Act only trimmed some Medicare expenses at the fringe.
++If you love Glenn Beck, he has endorsed Michelle Bachmann and abandoned his fellow co-religionists Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Talk about gratitude--the Romney circle helped him get off his feet when he had been fired as a radio announcer and Beck has made use of the medical facilities in Utah funded by Jon Huntsman's father, whom Beck honored at his Washington event.
++Rachel Maddow is the only one in the MSM who is documenting Rick Parry's alliance with the New Apostalic Reformation pastors, who make Michelle Bachmann seem quaintly old school in her fundamentalism. The NAR pastors and the Christian Zionists have launched an aggressive strategy to take over the government so as to provoke the end times. This story has escaped everyone in Washington. Even the Post covered the prayer-a-thon as if it was just another normal religious right event. The best account of these characters was on Mike Malloy, who went on an inspired rant about the belief system of these pastors and prophets. You can bath yourself in their words and wisdom at www.rightwingwatch.com . You will get a feel of the fascist threat emerging in the country.
++You have to like Herman Cain. He promises he will not send any American forces to anywhere dangerous.
++So 2012 officially starts tonight with the debate in Iowa. Some wag said that the next three days are the most important for the GOP. We have the Ames Straw Poll and then Rick Parry's three state blitz--South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa. The Ames Poll produces such great Presidents as Ron Paul and Phil Gramm. But it will affect Washington's favorite GOP candidate, Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty can't fall beneath Herman Cain and still believe he has a viable candidacy. Also, watch the Newt. The Newt recently blamed his fund-raising woes on the liberal media.
++By the time we reach the Iowa caucus you will have a three person race, in my opinion. Michelle Bachmann, the Queen of the Teaparty, Mitt Romney and Rick Parry. And don't count Sister Sarah out. Her tour bus is arriving in Iowa this weekend. In a year of the Weird, Sister Sarah is actually more accomplished than Michelle Bachmann. Michelle Bachmann in her two terms in the House has yet to pass any bill. Rick Parry is going to run as the job creator,trying to get you to forget that he is backed by people more extreme than the Religious Right.
++The interesting story is what John Weaver believes is the strategy going forward for Jon Huntsman. Huntsman has a long-standing grudge against Mitt Romney and is perhaps the only attractive candidate to the larger electorate. He is the sleeper in this race.
++As of today, the only person that polls indicate can beat Barack Obama is none other than Rudy Guiliani. Go Figure.
++Even though polls have Obama in the lead against all announced--also Parry--candidates, it looks like an amazingly close election for President. Democrats look great in terms of the House since they have a large lead in the generic poll. But the Senate looks tough. And can you imagine as Senate Majority leader Jim DeMint, who said today that the Obama Administration " was the most anti-American in living memory?"
++The Queen of the Rodeo Elizabeth Warren says she's going home and the buzz is that she will run for the Senate in Maschusetts against Scott Brown.
++Mariano Rivera actually lost a game, giving up a 9th inning homer to the Angels. This is a sign of the apocalypse.
++Now for Mitt. Today in Iowa he was heckled and got into a fuss over entitlement programs. When a voter demanded taxes on corporations, Mitt responded,"Corporations are people." Jon Huntsman's spokesperson immediately tweeted a Romney aide,"Was American Pad and Pencil Corporation a person or a friend?" Chiding the campaign on a Bain Capital-inspired bankruptcy. A Democratic immediately posted, "At least Romney treats corporations better than his family dog", bringing up that story again.
++Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly a day earlier wrote about how the Washington pundits spun the Team Obama story of portraying Mitt as "weird" as an attack on Romney's religion. Team Obama has said absolutely nothing about his religion. What Benen showed was that Team Obama intends to portray Romney as a political Gordon Geikko, a chronic flip-flopper who has no core values. They plan to exploit the fact that Romney is not comfortable in his own skin, can't be trusted, lacks authenticity and got rich by laying off thousands.
++As if starting the 2012 campaign, Team Obama released statements that Romney, who had blamed Obama for the S&P downgrade,himself lobbied S&P not to downgrade Massachusetts' rating by citing his raising taxes. He had been successful in this effort but didn't mention the need to raise taxes in his attack on Obama.
++The little Iowa episode revealed how maladroit Romney is at retail politicking after running constantly for the Presidency for the past 5 years. Romney is very well-scripted and is known to blow hostile questioning and can not hold up under attack. Tonight's debate in Iowa will be interesting to see if any candidate actually attacks Romney. Jon Huntsman obviously has a real issue with Romney and I expect him to shoot first.
++If you really want to read about Michelle Bachmann, then please indulge yourselves with Ryan Lizza's "Leap of Faith: The Making of Michelle Bachmann" in the new issue of the New Yorker. I can only take it in short doses. Michelle is known for telling whoppers. A few days ago she told Iowans that President Obama told her that Obamacare meant the end of Medicare. Of course, he did no such thing and the Affordable Care Act only trimmed some Medicare expenses at the fringe.
++If you love Glenn Beck, he has endorsed Michelle Bachmann and abandoned his fellow co-religionists Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Talk about gratitude--the Romney circle helped him get off his feet when he had been fired as a radio announcer and Beck has made use of the medical facilities in Utah funded by Jon Huntsman's father, whom Beck honored at his Washington event.
++Rachel Maddow is the only one in the MSM who is documenting Rick Parry's alliance with the New Apostalic Reformation pastors, who make Michelle Bachmann seem quaintly old school in her fundamentalism. The NAR pastors and the Christian Zionists have launched an aggressive strategy to take over the government so as to provoke the end times. This story has escaped everyone in Washington. Even the Post covered the prayer-a-thon as if it was just another normal religious right event. The best account of these characters was on Mike Malloy, who went on an inspired rant about the belief system of these pastors and prophets. You can bath yourself in their words and wisdom at www.rightwingwatch.com . You will get a feel of the fascist threat emerging in the country.
++You have to like Herman Cain. He promises he will not send any American forces to anywhere dangerous.
++So 2012 officially starts tonight with the debate in Iowa. Some wag said that the next three days are the most important for the GOP. We have the Ames Straw Poll and then Rick Parry's three state blitz--South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa. The Ames Poll produces such great Presidents as Ron Paul and Phil Gramm. But it will affect Washington's favorite GOP candidate, Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty can't fall beneath Herman Cain and still believe he has a viable candidacy. Also, watch the Newt. The Newt recently blamed his fund-raising woes on the liberal media.
++By the time we reach the Iowa caucus you will have a three person race, in my opinion. Michelle Bachmann, the Queen of the Teaparty, Mitt Romney and Rick Parry. And don't count Sister Sarah out. Her tour bus is arriving in Iowa this weekend. In a year of the Weird, Sister Sarah is actually more accomplished than Michelle Bachmann. Michelle Bachmann in her two terms in the House has yet to pass any bill. Rick Parry is going to run as the job creator,trying to get you to forget that he is backed by people more extreme than the Religious Right.
++The interesting story is what John Weaver believes is the strategy going forward for Jon Huntsman. Huntsman has a long-standing grudge against Mitt Romney and is perhaps the only attractive candidate to the larger electorate. He is the sleeper in this race.
++As of today, the only person that polls indicate can beat Barack Obama is none other than Rudy Guiliani. Go Figure.
++Even though polls have Obama in the lead against all announced--also Parry--candidates, it looks like an amazingly close election for President. Democrats look great in terms of the House since they have a large lead in the generic poll. But the Senate looks tough. And can you imagine as Senate Majority leader Jim DeMint, who said today that the Obama Administration " was the most anti-American in living memory?"
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