It's looking even weirder. Apparently, Gingrich's SuperPAC sugar daddy is planning to dump another 10 million into Newt's campaign.
Wheeeeee!
The most interesting part of the story is that Seldon Adelson is not really doing this because he thinks Newt can win. He is doing it because he wants Newt to continue to divide the conservative vote which is good for Romney. Essentially, he is keeping Newt alive so Newt can work against Santorum.
Simply crazy!
--Jason "I was not aware that Newt liked Romney more than Santorum. It may be that Newt's SuperPAC and Newt himself are not as closely aligned as we might think" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I think this is true -- we have a discussion somewhere upstream about the attempts by Newt to forge a nonaggression treaty with Santrorum of sorts. Newt had plenty of nice things to say about Rick, and has trashed Mitt ever since the Iowa onslaught of negative adds.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Hey, someone aughta register that saying.
Maine did not count Washington County in its caucus because of a snowstorm closure. The county has decided to go ahead and do it today, even though the state says it won't count them. Nate Silver reports heavy turn-out. With about a 200 vote deficit between Paul and Romney, my guess is the "anyone but Mitts" will be Paul-ites today and come on out.
What a fiasco the caucus counting has been this cycle.
Ron Paul won the presidential nominee preference poll in Hancock with 41 votes. Romney 16; Santorum 17; Gingrich 9 per recent tweet. Interesting to see if Paul can steal more thunder from Mitt.
Well that was rather anticlimactic: "Paul received 163 votes in Saturday's Washington County caucus, where Republicans from more than two dozen towns gathered to cast their votes. Romney received 80 votes. Rick Santorum got 57 votes and Newt Gingrich received four votes. "
http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...n-maine-caucus
Two votes went to "others." So 306 votes total...out of 7000 registered Republicans and 8200 registered Independents in the county.
Last edited by El_Diablo; 02-18-2012 at 09:15 PM.
Rick Santorum had some interesting quotes today.
He said, in a negative fashion, that Obama based his politics on political science. He expressed disappointment that Obama didn't base his politics on the Bible, although he did say it is possible Obama based his politics on some other theology. I took this as a veiled reference (no pun intended) to President Obama possibly being Muslim.
I do wonder if Santorum truly believes he can win the nomination? Because quotes like this may be "red meat" to a segment of the Republican base, but they seem to give the opposition an awful lot of ammunition to use with independents. How does one balance having to win a nomination within ones own party with having to win a general? Or do voters have a "short" enough memory that this sort of quote won't be remembered if he wins the nomination?
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine
Who was it? Was it Chicken Little that hollered that the sky was falling? Maybe so, but there is evidence that politicians are more prone to shout such things as falling skies and soaring gas prices whenever they can put the blame on whoever they oppose in politics.
Recognizing the incredible flux of the race, Nate Silver has Santorum winning Michigan, Ohio and Oklanhoma (with Mitt winning Arizona and Newt winning Georgia). That would cause a massive and collective freak-out amongst the Republican establishment.
Virginia will essentially be a referendum on Mitt (no offense to Ron Paul).
If Mitt can't win in the Midwest or South, he would be an odd Republican candidate indeed.
It will be interesting, to me at least, to watch whether the GOP can be successful on the gas price issue. When there are complaints that gas prices were less than $2 a gallon when President Obama was inaugurated, it is rarely noted that the world economy had fallen off the earth. Pick your poison. On the other hand, I think the Chief Executive has some influence on perceptions in the oil markets and the trend of domestic supply. To that extent the President has some impact on price trends for crude and refined products. There are things that the administration could have done, but chose not to, to increase domestic supply and create a favorable perception in world oil markets that would have driven down the speculative premium in the price of a barrel of oil.
While I have my opinion, I'm not making a value judgement either way. In the realm of the political process though, I suspect that the issues above are too nuanced for the average voter. It will simply be voting one's pocket book. Thus, the GOP effort's to attach the issue to the President will depend of whether there is $4 gas heading into the election, fair or not.
I think you linked the wrong article for what you're commenting on, but even so, I see Santorum's remark as a way to note a distinction between the more liberal and conservative elements of Christianity (not synonymous with politics), rather than anything having to do with Islam. And thus Obama would be in the former category.
10 point national lead for Santorum. This has been a most bizarre race.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ds-nationwide/Santorum had the backing of 36% of registered Republicans nationwide, while 26% supported Romney. Numbers from Sunday showed a slightly smaller lead for Santorum over Romney, 36% to 28%
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
I think I can say in a nonpartisan way that Newt is basically lying here. Unless he's toying with price controls.
http://www.kmov.com/news/politics/Gi...139745173.html
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine
That's all well and good, but I don't think we can learn much in comparing now to times pre- domestic peak oil (1970-71). Indeed, I don't think 1980 is particularly instructive now that we're either just past or just coming up on global peak oil, depending who you believe. Silver seems to neglect to factor in that the situation now is different from 1980, or 1948. Heck, in 1948, the expansive suburban buildout was only beginning. The average person was massively less dependent on the automobile then.
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine