Vote for Ted Cruz for US Senate in Texas

Ted Cruz has been someone who I have known personally and someone who will be an awesome US Senator.  If you live in Texas, I strongly hope that you will consider voting for him.  I know that my relatives in Texas will be voting for him.

Daily Kos is trying to get Left wing Democrats to vote in Republican Primary for Santorum

Would this get attention if Republicans were doing this to Democrats? From the Daily Kos:

It's time for us to take an active role in the GOP nomination process. That's right, it's time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee in the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.
Why would we do such a crazy thing? Lots of great reasons! . . .

Several of the contests have produced razor-thin margins of victory. Rick Santorum won Iowa by 34 votes, Mitt Romney "won" Maine by 194 votes. It won't take many of us to swing contests the way we want them to swing. . . . .

It's a no-brainer! The following states have completely open contests coming up:
2/28: Michigan (Primary)
3/6: North Dakota (caucus)
3/6: Tennessee (primary)
3/6: Vermont (primary)
If you live in one of those states, pledge to participate in Operation Hilarity by voting or caucusing for Rick Santorum. . . .

Apparently, the media is doing its best also.

Chris Matthews: "Steve Schmidt, my friend, you talk to a lot of Republicans out there. Are they aware that the media is basically rooting for Santorum out of sheer fear of the ennui, the boredom that will set in if it looks like Romney locks this thing up? At the moment he locks this thing up we face a long, dull summer of Mitt Romney."

Newt would be just as strong against Obama as Romney, takes national lead in Republican race

Gallup has this poll.

The big questions about Republican Presidential Debates

Newt's campaign depends a lot on presidential debates. Romney is reportedly ready to spend $10 million in advertising during the upcoming Republican Florida primary. The constant debates are very important in Newt getting his message out and also showing how well he debates. Here is the question: given how much the debates are changing the race, will the media keep up with having two debates a week? Will they expand or cut back on the number? The change may tell us a lot about what the media really think about Newt and Romney. From Politico:

Gingrich's campaign was saved in South Carolina "partly because of his commanding debate performances," Jim Rutenberg writes in today's New York Times. "[Gingrich's] candidacy has flourished in debate after debate," his colleague Jeff Zeleny notes. "And with two more debates in the next five days in Florida, the amount of media attention awaiting Mr. Gingrich is sure to be immense."

If you're in the Romney camp right now, you're not only fearing the fact that there are two debates next week, you're probably ruing the fact that there have already been so many. . . .

Newt's answer on the marriage issue

I had problems with Newt's ex-wife's claims because her statement seemed to clearly contain other embellishments. For example, she claimed that Newt called her when he was in bed with Callista. How would she have known that he was in bed with Callista? Would any one call up and discuss such an issue as the ex-wife claimed when they were in bed with someone else?

"Frank Luntz Analyzes GOP South Carolina Debate"

A transcript of the South Carolina Republican Debate, January 16, 2012, sponsored by Fox News

A transcript of the debate is available here. I don't think that Romney's answers help him very much here. It is my understanding that Romney didn't try to work to make the gun law that he discusses here any better.

WILLIAMS: Gov Romney, Speaker Gingrich says your record of support for gun owners is weak. You signed the nation’s first ban on assault weapons in Massachusetts and steeply increased fees on gun owners in that state, in fact by 400 percent. How can you convince gun owners that you will be an advocate for them as president?

ROMNEY: Well, Juan, in my state we had a piece of legislation that was crafted both by the pro gun lobby and the anti-gun lobby. Massachusetts has some very restrictive rules and the pro gun lobby said, you know what, this legislation is good for us, it includes provisions that we want that allows us, for instance, to crossroads with weapons when we’re hunting that had not been previously allowed.
And so the pro gun folks in our state, the the Gun Owners Action League and others said, look, we would like you to sign this legislation. And the day when we announced our signing, we had both the pro gun owners and anti-bun folks all together on the stage because it worked. We worked together. We found common ground.
My view is that we have the second amendment right to bear arms and in this country my view is also that we should not add new legislation. I know that there are people that think we need new laws, we need to find new ways to restrict gun ownership. And there is in Washington a non-stop effort on the part of some legislators, and I believe the president, to restrict the right of law-abiding American citizens from owning a gun.
I disagree with that. I believe we have in place all the laws we need. We should enforce those laws. I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use. . . .

The Palins on the Republican Presidential Primary

I think that Sarah Palin is right about Romney.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said the mainstream media and President Barack Obama “want to face Mitt Romney in the general election.” She made those comments on “Justice With Judge Jeanine” on FOX News on Saturday during the same time the Republican presidential candidates were debating in New Hampshire on ABC.

Palin said the mainstream media would take a hands-off approach to Romney “in order to bolster Romney’s chances” to “finally face Obama.”

According to Palin, the mainstream media and Obama would then portray Romney as someone who is out of touch with regular Americans in the general election.

“They are already gearing up to portray him, accurately or inaccurately … as being out of touch with the working class,” Palin said, noting that Romney’s wealth and perfect family may make it easy to paint him as someone “being a bit out of touch from working and middle class Americans and from the challenges we all face.”

Palin continued: “My opinion is that I can see what’s coming ... the media will try to bolster Romney so they can tear him down, and that is quite unfortunate.” . . .

Now this from ABC News:

Sarah Palin’s husband is endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Todd Palin told ABC News today.
But Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 Republican running mate, has yet to decide “who is best able to go up against Barack Obama,” Todd Palin said.
Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker’s campaign. But he said he respects Gingrich for what he went through in the 1990s and compared that scrutiny in public life to what Sarah Palin went through during her run for the vice presidency.
Todd Palin said he believes that being in the political trenches and experiencing the highs and lows help prepare a candidate for the future and the job of president.
He did not criticize any of the other candidates and said his “hat is off to everyone” in the Republican race.
But Todd Palin did point to last summer, when a large portion of Gingrich’s staff resigned and the candidate was left, largely by himself, to run the campaign. . . .

New results for Economist magazine poll, December 17-20, 2011

The new Economist magazine poll finds that the most important issue for voters is the economy (39% for the economy versus 13% for the second most important issue Social Security). But only 33% think that Obama is doing well on the economy and just 35% think that he is doing well on Social Security. Only 56% of Democrats approve of Obama's job on the economy. There are only two issues where Obama's approval is over 40% and only one is great than 45%.

Newt is 27% to Romney's 21% with Paul at only 13%.

Rasmussen poll shows that on December 23, 2011 only 9% Rate Economy As Good or Excellent.

Newt does a very good job of explaining his positions on yesterday's Face the Nation

On George Will claiming that Newt isn't a conservative

George Will consistently supported Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan during the 1976 Republican Presidential primaries. Here are some examples of his writing and the discussions it engendered.

From the St. Petersburg Times January 21, 1976

Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Feb 1, 1976
Here is another piece by Will available here (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Jan 23, 1976).

In 1979, Will was still critical of Reagan and happily taking Ford's statements about Reagan as accurate (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sep 4, 1979). Here is a piece where Will was relatively positive about Howard Baker as the 1980 Republican presidential candidate (Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Mar 10, 1979).

Will likes Romney, and (correctly) attacked Newt for going after Romney's business decisions to lay off workers. But I might also add that Mitt Romney attacking Newt over his wealth hardly seems like a conservative line of attack. From CBS News:

In the wake of his attempt to make a $10,000 bet with Rick Perry during Saturday's Republican presidential debate - a move that put a spotlight on Romney's $190 million-plus net worth and prompted critics to cast him as out of touch - the former Massachusetts governor told CBS News on Wednesday that his chief rival for the nomination is a "very wealthy man."

"Newt Gingrich has wealth from having worked in government," Romney told CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford in an interview in New York. "He's a wealthy man, a very wealthy man. If you have a half a million dollar purchase from Tiffany's, you're not a middle class American." . . .

Newt at 40 percent in newest WSJ/NBC poll

From the WSJ:

Republican voters now heavily favor Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney as the party's nominee, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, but the poll also found deep unease with Mr. Gingrich among independents and swing voters who normally decide presidential elections.

With less than three weeks before the first votes are cast in Iowa, Republicans give the former House speaker the most commanding lead of any candidate this year: He has 40% support among likely GOP voters, compared with 23% for Mr. Romney. All of the other Republican candidates fell short of 10% support in the poll. . . .

Bret Baier has an excellent interview with Romney

"Mitt Romney's Top 5 Contradicting Comments"?

I don't know how ABC News determines what the top 5 contradicting comments are, but they have picked: The Flat Tax, Massachusetts Health Care, Abortion, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and Constitutional Amendment Defining Life. Their discussion is available here.

Perry ad on Romney Care

Hugh Hewitt Corrects the Record on the Washington Post Sliming Rick Perry on Race

Hugh Hewitt's piece is available here.

There is no hint of prejudice or race-baiting in Rick Perry's long career in the public eye. But the Washington Post puts the story of a fallen rock with a deeply offensive name at an obscure hunting camp on its front page in a stunning attempt to injure Perry by association with a name no one is quoted saying he ever used or did anything other than cause to have painted over.

The Post article has to be read in its entirety to grasp just how thin is the connection between Perry and the rock with the offensive place name, but here is the key line in the article: "Of those interviewed, the seven who said they saw the rock said the block-lettered name was clearly visible at different points in the 1980s and 1990s. One, a former worker on the ranch, believes he saw it as recently as 2008."

Many, many people were interviewed for the story. Only seven recall seeing the rock, and not one of them connect Rick Perry to it, nor do any of the people --either from among these seven or who knows how many more were contacted for the piece-- tie Rick Perry to offensive comments, language or actions. Though a lot of space is devoted to this story, no detailed reporting on what the seven saw and when they saw it is included, which allows for incredible supposition about the ambiguity to take root. Thus a story that could have major implications for the presidential campaign in 2012 is built on anonymous sources whose stories aren't even detailed. . . .

Democrat Mischief in NH and some other states

Without a Democratic primary, many states allow Democrats or Independents to vote in Republican primaries. McCain benefitted a lot from this in 2000 in NH. Note that McCain didn't win NH in the general election in 2008. But this year with no Democrat presidential primaries could be really bad and it appears that Romney will be the beneficiary.

Romney makes up claims about Texas in debate with Perry

Romney is simply wrong when he makes this claim about Perry and Bush.

ROMNEY: Look, the reality is, there are differences. There are differences between states.

I came into a state that was in real trouble -- a huge budget gap, losing jobs every month. We turned it around. Three out of four years, we had unemployment rate below the national average, we ended up with 4.7 percent unemployment rate. I'm proud of what we were able to do in a tough situation.

WILLIAMS: Time.

Governor Perry?

PERRY: I know back and forth -- Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt.

ROMNEY: Well, as a matter of fact, George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.

(LAUGHTER)

PERRY: That's not correct.

ROMNEY: Yes, that is correct.

During Bush's administration, Texas employment grew by 963,243. That is less than during Perry's tenure when it grew by 1,774,799. But Perry was governor for 10.58 years and Bush for only 6 years. At an annual rate, it grew by 160,541 under Bush and 167,748 under Perry.

Newt Gives Liberal Politico Debate Moderator Heck

Ron Paul runs a pretty dishonest campaign ad against Rick Perry

This ad uses some subterfuge that is disheartening. First, on the theatrics, note that a young Ron Paul is shown with Reagan, but when Perry is linked with Al Gore, current pictures of Rick Perry are used. The obvious implication is that Rick Perry recently endorsed Al Gore for president, not long ago as it actually occurred in 1988, 23 years ago. The other thing that was left out was that when Gore ran for the presidency in 1988, he was considered the conservative Democrat in the race. Al Gore's views on gun control, abortion, and spending were much more conservative than they were later. It was basically after that run that Gore realized that the had to move well to the left if he was going to have a place in the national Democratic party, and it was before Gore went nutty on the environment. Rick Perry was still a Democrat at that time in 1988 and it was just before he switched parties to run as a Republican.