Santorum calls Romney “desperate,” downplays wins
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum on Sunday called recent attacks by his rival Mitt Romney “desperate,” as the two face off in an increasingly contentious battle to become the party’s White House nominee.
Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania and social conservative known for his staunch positions on abortion and gay marriage, is competing to be the conservative alternative to Romney, who faces resistance from Republicans skeptical of moderate stances he took when he was governor of the liberal state of Massachusetts.
Asked about Romney’s recent efforts to highlight times when Santorum sided with Democrats while in Congress, including votes to raise the federal debt ceiling, Santorum appeared amused.
“For him to suggest that I’m not the conservative in this race, you know, you reach a point where desperate people do desperate things,” Santorum said on ABC’s “This Week.” He also downplayed recent victories for Romney, who won the nonbinding Maine caucuses as well as a straw poll at a major conservative conference in Washington over the weekend.
Santorum also suggested Romney won Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll by busing in supporters and giving them tickets.
“I don’t try to rig straw polls,” he told CNN. When asked if he thought Romney rigged the CPAC vote, Santorum said, “Well, you have to talk to the Romney campaign and how many tickets they bought. We’ve heard all sorts of things.”
The straw poll was conducted among CPAC attendees, a group of party activists from across the country. It is strictly symbolic but does show Romney’s organizational strength and demonstrate he is capable of appealing to conservatives who have lacked enthusiasm for him.
Bad Lip Reading’s Rick Santorum: “I’m crazy and I’m right…”
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who already has something of a Google problem, is the latest honoree of Bad Lip Reading, an anonymous music and video producer from Texas that has taken to spoofing this year’s presidential candidates by dubbing over their television appearances.
Watch the video here from their YouTube channel:
Why did Romney quote Thomas Paine?
When White House seeker Mitt Romney told Obama to get out the way in his Florida primary victory speech on Tuesday, he evoked the words of Thomas Paine, an early American revolutionary who is in many ways a far cry from the archetypal role model for modern-day conservatives.
After beating his Republican rivals by a wide margin, an exuberant Romney told a crowd of cheering supporters: “In another era of American crisis, Thomas Paine is reported to have said, ‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way.’ Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it’s time for you to get out of the way!”
There is debate over whether the quote can accurately be attributed to Paine, but Romney’s intention is clear. Since the beginning of his campaign, Romney has been courting adherents of the grassroots conservative Tea Party movement, many of them constitutional purists who glorify the founding fathers. But Paine doesn’t fit in neatly with some of the other 18th century political leaders who pushed for American independence from England.
Paine, famous for his pamphlet Common Sense, repudiated Christianity, denounced concentrations of wealth and proposed an early form of social security. He left America after the American revolution and eventually became a French citizen. He returned to America after years of imprisonment in France and later died alone and poor in New York City after years of poverty, ailing health, and alcoholism.
Paine wrote the Age of Reason, a deist doctrine in which he argues against institutionalized religion and the idea that the Bible is the word of God. In another pamphlet, Agrarian Justice, he called for “a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling” and provisions for the poor.
Moreover, Paine could be interpreted as an early adherent to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal or Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society economic programs. In his Rights of Man, Paine writes, “No one man is capable, without the aid of society, of supplying his own wants, and those wants, acting upon every individual, impel the whole of them into society.”
Romney isn’t the only Republican to call on the spirit of Paine. In 1980, Ronald Reagan, quoting Common Sense, told the Republican National Convention, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
Analysis of the above broad strokes: Not a Romney fan at all. Ron Paul 2012. However, in looking at the above article, it seeks to do what many seek to do with such similar apathy to fine argument. In assailing a Single sentence that was quoted, the author brings up the Entire history of Thomas Paine, and obviously many of the darker points. I would put forth that the willingness to do so shows, quite starkly, the obtuseness of the author, and, indeed, the obtuseness of many inner mental responses that are a mere drop in the bucket of good argumentation. Not that this opinion argued anything but instead lightly suggested that…
My point being: Please put more effort into your opinion articles. It is bad enough that most folks barely gloss the media they use to form their shallow opinions they call facts, don’t encourage it with softer opinions. What did you really want to imply? That Romney quoted someone who opposes the audience he is courting? That it thereby implicates him in Thomas Payne dying a drunk? That you know they darker points of one man? I would state that it is wise to use the genius of other men, regardless of their moral or political character. Now that’s arguing something.
Oops again? Rick Perry revises his list of three departments to cut
Lagging Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry can’t seem to catch a break. The Texas governor is facing criticism across the blogosphere for again flubbing the federal departments he would eliminate if elected.
On a radio show on WTKS in Savannah, Georgia, a listener asked Perry how many and which federal departments he would cut.
“Three right off the bat. You know, commerce, interior, and energy are three that you think of right off…” Perry said, making a point not to miss a beat.
During a Republican debate in November, Perry couldn’t name the third of three departments he had repeatedly said he would disband. Political observers said the blunder, captured on video with Perry uttering “I can’t, sorry…Oops,” effectively ended all presidential ambitions for the candidate, who was once the frontrunner in the Republican race. It dawned on him later in the debate: the department of energy.
The problem with Perry’s answer today is that though he remembered the DOE, he forgot one of the original departments, the Department of Education, which he has consistently criticized throughout his campaign.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said that the governor’s answer was no mistake. “It shouldn’t be surprising the governor is talking about another federal agency that needs to be looked at and cut,” he told reporters.
Listen to the exchange below, via WTKS. The question and answer is around 03:48 min.
If a Republican presidential candidate falls in the forest and no one hears him, does he still make a sound?
Stephen Colbert: Exploring run for president of USA of South Carolina
Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert announced on his show Thursday night that he is forming an exploratory committee for a “possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina.”
“This is a difficult decision. I’ve talked it over with my money. I’ve talked it over with my spiritual adviser,” said the comedian who puts on the persona of an ultra-conservative news anchor on his late-night show “The Colbert Report.”
Colbert said he would try to compete in the Republican primary in South Carolina, his home state, on Jan. 21. The filing deadline is long past but Colbert may be able to participate as a write-in candidate.
During the show Colbert transferred his Super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, to fellow Comedy Central host Jon Stewart of the “Daily Show.” The move exempts Colbert from election law barring candidates from also managing political action committees.
Colbert formed his Super PAC, which was approved last summer, largely to ridicule the contradictions in laws that allow corporations to spend an unlimited amount of money on elections.
On the show the Colbert announced that the PAC would now be called The Definitely Not Coordinated with Stephen Colbert Super PAC. In a back and forth with his legal adviser Trevor Potter, a real-life former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, the two established that Colbert could still volunteer for the PAC.
A recent poll from Public Policy Polling showed Colbert ahead of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who has spent most of the campaign at the bottom of the polls and just finished third in New Hampshire.
Requiring voter registrations in the South is returning to pre-Civil War days. Lincoln’s big mistake which cost around one million lives was fighting to keep the South in the union. After more than a century and one half the issues remain. The South remains dedicated to slavery mentality.
The great mistake was preventing the South from secession.
Shaq throws in support for Obama in 2012
NBA star Shaquille O’Neal said on Monday he believes President Barack Obama is doing a ”fabulous job” and will win the 2012 presidential election.
O’Neal, who retired from pro basketball this year, joined a handful of celebrities endorsing the Democratic president, ranging from singer Lady Gaga and actor Tom Hanks to Basketball hall-of-famer Magic Johnson.
“It’s a hard job … You can’t please everybody but I think he’s doing a fabulous job,” O’Neal told CNN host Piers Morgan. ”The world is in a little bit of turmoil right now — the economy’s down — but … he’s going to pick it back up and I think he’s going to win this next election.”
A group of current and former NBA stars are due to play in a fundraising game in Washington on Dec. 12, the Obama campaign website says. Confirmed players include Johnson, Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter, Alonzo Mourning and Jerry Stackhouse.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Scott Audette (Shaq waves to fans at an exhibition game), REUTERS/Larry Downing (Obama compares his shoe with a basketball sneaker belonging to O’Neal)
Im black and I can confirm that there are many local black politicians that play and win on race. Especially with urban poor in gerrymandered districts.
However in statewide and national races, this is not true. There are many famous black personalities that supported Clinton over Jesse in prior primaries. Shaq was one of them.
As to why do 90% of African Americans support Obama – well its because many are poor and poor peoples interests are represented by Democrats (well at least from a superficial level). Cain would have not got majority of the black vote if he would have won the Republican nomination against a white democrat. Its not racial voting when there are underlying ideological reasons.
Perry freezes – normal guy or doomed presidential candidate?
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry drew a blank at the Michigan debate while trying to make a point about cutting government waste.
Afterwards, his campaign spokesman said it was an error of style not substance. Tony Fratto, former President George W. Bush’s spokesman, tweeted: “Perry can end his campaign right now.”
The affable Texas governor said he would eliminate three government agencies if elected president — but he could only name two.
“It is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and the, what is the third one there, let’s see,” Perry said during the debate.
Prompted by a moderator, Perry tried again. “The third agency of government I would do away with — the Education, the Commerce and let’s see. … I can’t, the third one, I can’t, sorry. Oops,” Perry said.
After the debate Perry told reporters: “It was embarrassing, of course it was, but people understand our conservative principles are what matter.”
“people understand our conservative principles are what matter.”
It doesn’t matter that I’m an idiot. Just remember I hate gays and abortions.
I wonder if conservatives would support abortions of gay babies?
from Photographers Blog:
President Obama takes the White House to the Midwest
By Jason Reed
600 miles of ice cream stops, cornfields and cow judging contests – a glimpse inside the traveling white house circus.
The scene in Washington DC, 2011 - U.S. debt ceiling negotiations, unemployment figures that wont improve, congressional deadlock – it’s enough to make you want to get out of town. President Barack Obama did just that this week, jumping on a shiny new bus and heading out to the Midwest to spend time with pretty much anyone who wasn’t wearing a business suit.
It was surely a nice change of scenery for Obama and definitely for photographers assigned to the White House who have been fed a steady diet of presidential remarks in front of all the familiar Washington backgrounds for weeks on end. The message was however, the same. Getting the nine per cent of unemployed Americans back to work.
Thanks for your comment Yevgen but White House photographer Jason Reed is the author of the piece.
GOP presidential field – looking Perry promising?
With polls showing President Barack Obama beating any current 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, some party leaders are casting around for additional contenders, especially those who are well-known and might appeal more to the party’s most conservative wing.
One name that has come up repeatedly is Texas Governor Rick Perry, a conservative Republican and rising star in the Tea Party movement who fueled speculation last year that he might run for the White House by going on a national tour to publicize his book “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington,” which takes aim at what he sees an intrusive and expansive federal government.
Perry has in the past emphatically said he will not run, but he more recently has seemed to be leaving the door slightly open by saying for now he is focused on Texas’ legislative session, which ends on May 30.
“I have said multiple times I’m not going to get distracted from my work at hand and I’m not going to get distracted today,” he said on Tuesday when he was asked if he would run.
He also is known for saying in 2009 that Texas might secede from the United States, a remark that Democrats criticized as unpatriotic, but which has endeared him to many conservatives, particularly in southern states where many Republicans are particularly hostile to Washington.
With former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour saying they will not join the 2012 Republican field, there is also appetite for a fiscal and social conservative from a southern state. The two current Republican front-runners, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, are former governors of Massachusetts and Minnesota.
Remember where Bush came from. The Ivy league, like the imposter Obama.
Will Obama be a $1 billion man? Democrats say not so fast
A persistent theme of President Barack Obama’s nascent re-election bid has been an expectation that the Democratic incumbent – who amassed a $750 million war chest when he won the White House in 2008 — will break his record this time and become the first candidate to raise $1 billion in campaign funds for 2012.
The logic behind that figure? One bit of reasoning is that Obama and his then-rival Hillary Clinton together raised far more than $1 billion in 2008, showing there are plenty of Democratic wallets out there waiting to be opened this time.
Democratic Party officials have issued repeated dire warnings about Republicans’ fund-raising prowess, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision that allowed unlimited spending by corporations, labor unions and other groups. Democrats say secret donations allowed under Citizens United helped fuel the Republicans’ huge success in the 2010 mid-terms.
Jim Messina, Obama’s Chicago-based re-election campaign manager, told top donors in the weeks before the president formally launched his re-election bid that Obama would have to raise “north of $750 million” this time around, according to a variety of sources including the Chicago Sun-Times.
But more recently, party aides have said, “Not so fast” about the $1 billion figure, insisting that no one in Obama’s circle — at the White House, Democratic National Committee or the campaign team in Chicago — has used that number. Different aides have stressed that the campaign does not expect to need that much money for 2012. Their reasons? Last time, they said, Obama was a relatively unknown junior senator from Illinois who needed to raise his profile high enough to win the Democratic nomination. He also faced a protracted primary fight against well-known opponents — Clinton, a former first lady, and John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004.
Nonetheless, Obama is off to a strong fund-raising start, no matter what his goal. In just the first weeks since formally launching his bid for a second term, he has helped raise millions of dollars at appearances in Illinois, California and Texas. He is set to attend two fund-raisers in Washington, D.C., Monday — a dinner at the Saint Regis Hotel and a reception at the Capitol Hilton, to be attended by about 650 people.
“The events are designed to include the broad range of the president’s supporters with tickets starting at $44 and ranging to the legal maximum limit of $35,800,” a Democratic source said.
looks like we have to put alot of effort into beating the 1 billion dollar man dont we?
Thank you republican party for making it easy for our President to win, AGAIN! you guys are i_iots!