Newt takes off the gloves

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I was hoping for a food fight. One serving of mashed potatoes and gravy, coming at ya.

Maybe the lesson here is the one about those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. If Newt can’t run for President then his political career is over. During the past month the GOP establishment made clear that they’ll let him run but won’t let him win.

They must have forgot that Newt practically invented the politics of personal destruction and if his career is over he’s got nothing to lose.

Technicality: This 28 minute video wasn’t made by Newt, it was made by his Super Pac. (Plausible deniability, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)

Watch the whole thing here.

(Via Hot Air)

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Hillary Clinton Took 10% of the NH Vote Yesterday

D'oh!

Cross-posted from P&L.

You won’t see this reported in the mainstream media, but Hillary Clinton likely took an astounding 10% of the vote in New Hampshire’s 2012 Democratic Primary last night. Here are the election results from AP (via CSPAN). We know the “Write In” candidate was Hillary Clinton because there was a concerted effort to write her in, and because New Hampshire has never produced a write in candidate with a double digit percentage for either party’s primary with the exception of LBJ in ’68. This suggests New Hampshire Democrats, and Hillary Clinton supporters specifically a) aren’t over 2008, and b) wanted to send a powerful message to President Obama. Personally, I would love to see the exit polling on this one.

For your gloating pleasure, here are the results from the five New Hampshire Dem primaries prior to 2012:

1992

1996

2000 (Scroll down to New Hampshire on this one)

2004

2008

Wiki on Write-in Campaigns in presidential primaries.

Nowhere will you find write in numbers of this percentage or even close. Ralph Nader’s 2002 campaign comes closest with 1.82% of the vote. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1968 and the write in votes that Lyndon B. Johnson received after he declared he would not run for the presidency to beat Hillary Clinton’s numbers here–he received 50% of the vote. I think everyone with an awareness of history can understand how odd that election was. Could 2012 be shaping up to deliver an equally odd election this year?

As I said on P&L’s Facebook Fan Page:

This does not bode well for Obama.

If we can extrapolate even half that to the general public across the nation, he losses the margin he had in 2008 and has to turn out his entire base and a significant portion of Independents to win. That’s not likely with the political climate as it is. Of course a third party candidate could throw a wrench in it (Looking at you AmericansElect Chairman, Wall-Street-junk-bond baron, and “former” Obama supporter Peter Ackerman).

What do you think? Bellwether for 2012, or just a meaningless outlier?

Faux Grecian Temple II

Faux Grecian Temple I

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Obama’s DNC speech could move to Bank of America stadium

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is considering moving the final day of the Democratic National Convention to Bank of America Stadium to sell more skyboxes to wealthy donors, three Democrats involved in the fundraising told Bloomberg News.

The 74,000-seat home of the Carolina Panthers also would have room for the convention to sell more floor passes close to the stage. Planners are struggling to meet a $36.6 million fundraising goal, according to the Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

[...]

An outdoor finale for the convention would echo the atmosphere of four years ago in Denver, when Obama accepted his party’s nomination at night at Invesco Field.

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Hubris. The man embodies it.

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First Dude went Rogue!

Via c4p, Sarah Palin discusses New Hampshire results with Eric Bolling:

My takeaway – Palin thinks Mitt is still evitable, and sends a strong signal that, yes, now is the time to talk about Bain Capital and anything else that might come up in the General Election. She is also reminding the candidates that if they want to win, they have to become the anti-Obama.
She also basically called Mitt tone-deaf. He he he.

Really?

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Romney secures front-runner status with New Hampshire win, looks to take momentum into South Carolina

Mitt Romney stormed out of New Hampshire Wednesday with a historic achievement under his belt, having scored back-to-back wins in the first two nominating contests, and vowing to take that momentum into South Carolina.

The former Massachusetts governor was able to pull off a commanding victory in the New Hampshire primary, winning with 39 percent of the vote with 95 percent of precincts reporting.

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To hear the pundits talk Mitt Romney is the inevitable winner with an insurmountable lead in delegates. In reality he has won only 20 delegates, less than 2% of the 1144 needed to secure the GOP nomination. Unlike the Democrats, the GOP does not use “superdelegates,” but the party establishment is doing everything they can to rig the outcome in Romney’s favor.

The Republican leadership should be panicking right now, but they’re doubling down instead. Mitt has been running for POTUS for six years and yet his numbers haven’t budged since four years ago. I could go on and on for days about Mitt’s weaknesses, but I’ll stick to two – Bain Capital and Romneycare.

Obama plans to run against Wall Street (see: OWS) despite being the biggest recipient of Wall Street donations. What’s worse than a Wall Street puppet? A Wall Street investment banker like Mitt Romney! Thanks to Romneycare, Mitt is the only GOP candidate who lacks credibility in attacking Obamacare.

2012 looks to be a golden opportunity for the GOP to retake the White House. The economy stinks and so does the incumbent. Do they honestly believe that Mitt Romney is their best possible candidate? Seriously?

It seems to me that the Republicans don’t really want to win. With Obama in office they get everything they want and the Democrats line-up to help them. Don’t forget, Obamacare is a Republican idea.

The Republicans pretended to oppose it, it’s unpopular, but the Democrats are getting the blame for it. As long as Obama is in office it will stay in place and the GOP can keep complaining about it.

Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.

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