From Stark
Remember when Herman Cain, and then Rick Perry, seemed to be gathering momentum for a stunning victory march to the GOP Presidential nomination?
But those brief moments in political time sped past, and then — we were told — the Republicans began their inevitable shift back to their tradition of safe and sensible Presidential politics: Mitt Romney won a squeaker in the Iowa caucuses, added a comfortable win in the New Hampshire primary, and rolled into South Carolina with a big lead in the preliminary polls, ready for a Deep South win that would pretty much lock up the nomination.
Oh wait. Rick Santorum actually got more votes in Iowa. Oops. Then Romney’s seemingly safe lead in South Carolina melted away, became a “neck-and-neck” race on the eve of the election, and turned into a full-scale disaster for Romney by the time the actual votes are counted.
Now the man of the hour is Newt Gingrich, and the new consensus is that his red-meat conservative rhetoric earned him his victory.
Writing in Atlantic Monthly, Molly Ball takes a different view. She reports that Gingrich had a robust campaign organization that got his people to the polls.
Ball also observes that in Florida–the next big primary battleground on Jan. 31 — Romney’s organization and campaign war chest would seem to give him an edge. Florida is bigger and more diverse, and winning there is widely believed to require a lot more spending on television and other advertising.
Bloomberg News, via Business Week, has a good overview. Among other things, the article notes that John McCain and Barack Obama were the primary winners in Florida four years ago.
From across the pond:
“Just three days ago, many pundits were writing the obituary of the Tea Party…
The movement was over and its supporters were an irrelevance. The Tea Party was dead – long live the Beltway Cocktail Hour!
…Far from Romney’s rise representing the death of the Tea Party, it has actually galvanised it and brought it back out into the open. In truth, it never went away. The mainstream media often makes the mistake of presuming that the Tea Party is a classic vanguard-type organisation, with elected leaders, membership lists and headed notepaper. On the contrary: it is an intangible spirit of revolt that ebbs and flows with the political season. Given the Palmetto State’s reputation for rebellion, it is highly appropriate that it resurfaced in South Carolina. We’ll see a lot more of it in the weeks to come.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100131708/south-carolina-proves-that-the-tea-party-is-alive-and-well-and-calling-the-shots/#
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration or an overstatement to call the presidential election race all but over for 2012. President Obama is virtually assured a second term due to the GOP’s inability to produce a viable candidate.
Even though, after Bush, I was one of the first to predict that it would be a long, long time before the voters of this country ever let a republican back in the White house, I thought they would at least put up a fight.
“Newt Gingrich is the least electable of all the republican candidates”- Ann Coulter (yesterday)
“I agree with Ann Coulter”- Me
Forecast for Hades: Continued freezing through Tuesday.
There is a reason the O will find re-election less than a cakewalk:
“The unemployment rate when Mr. Obama was elected was 6.8 percent; today it is 8.5 percent — at least that’s the official number. In reality, the Financial Times writes, “if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”
In addition, there are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 — 12 years ago — and now, 40 percent of those jobs are considered “low paying,” up 10 percent from when President Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.
Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39….
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/22/curl-the-truly-dismal-state-of-the-union/?page=all#pagebreak
And it goes on and on!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Yep – Newt Gingrich was Obama’s Christmas wish.
AFY: Here’s what I don’t get. How can Newt Gingrich–a consummate Washington DC insider–become the leader of this anti-establishment rebellion? Why is Romney–a former governor and business executive–perceived as a consummate insider?
John the way that Limey Brit put it, they have matured!
I’s mainly posted that post to rouse feathers more than anything else, don’t ya know!
Anyway, everything is still going according to plan: DEADLOCK!!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
AFY????
“…Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39…”
What? I haven’t seen $1.68 a gallon since 2002.
Ever heard of consumer reports RM?
“Average gas prices–January 5, 2009…Regular gasoline/gallon $1.68
http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/01/gas-prices.html
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!