On the Couch with Newt and Nancy

Nancy Pelosi keeps hinting that she knows something that will derail Newt Gingrich’s Presidential run. I doubt she knows anything of any substance, but if she does, I’d expect it to become known in October. That would be the worst possible timing if Gingrich were to become the nominee.

As for Newt, a picture says a thousand words. This one speaks volumes.

The Republican rollercoaster continues

Once the field of Republican Presidential candidates began to settle, Mitt Romney was anointed as the front-runner and favorite. While he has consistently led the field with support of 20% to 25% in most polls, that means there are 75% to 80% who are supporting someone else. There’s a desire to find the anti-Romney, but so far, none has been able to pull away.

This past summer, Michele Bachmann seemed to quickly gain headlines and support. Of course, this ended when Rick Perry entered the fray and instantly rocketed to the top of the field. Since then, Perry has shown that he’s ill-prepared for the national spotlight. After some strong debate performances, Herman Cain vaulted into the top-tier, but he’s seen his support erode a bit since sexual harassment accusations have come to light. » read more

Tim Pawlenty’s criticism misses the mark

Tim Pawlenty finally showed some signs of life, when he criticized Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s record as “non-existent.” It’s nice that he’s showing some signs of life, but I have a feeling that his criticism might not resonate with voters.

Think about this: Voters elected Barack Obama as President after only a few years in the U.S. Senate. Although, he was also a state senator (wow!). On the other end of the ideological spectrum, Sarah Palin has a massive number of supporters, even though she had less than two years experience as Governor of Alaska. Of course, in Palin’s defense, she was the mayor of Wasilla, which is a Metropolitan powerhouse.

Michele Bachmann has support of labor unions?

Does anyone know if Michele Bachmann is being supported by the major labor unions? I wouldn’t have thought so, but according to actor Alec Baldwin, it appears that way. Here are some quotes from his Twitter feed:

“Fear Bachman bc she is raising so much money,” Baldwin tweeted. “Anyone that inarticulate and full of shit who is raising money that fast…is beholden to some mighty thuggish interests.”

Thuggish interests? Unions were the first ones who came to my mind. Although, it could be another group of formerly liberal constituents. What about the New Black Panther Party? They’re pretty Thuggish.

At any rate, if Bachmann begins appealing to the natural thug base of the Democrats and Barack Obama, she could end up walking away with the Presidency. » read more

Michele Bachmann supports limited government…sometimes

If Michele Bachman were to win the Republican nomination, I would definitely vote for her rather than Barack Obama. With that said, I hope Bachmann doesn’t win the nomination. There are certainly worse choices, such as Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, but ideally you would get to vote for someone you like rather than the lesser of all evils.

Here’s one of my problems with Michele Bachmann: She criticized Mitt Romney for not signing the Susan B. Anthony List’s anti-abortion pledge. Here’s her rationale for the criticism:

“It is distressing that Governor Romney refuses to sign the SBA Pledge, even while claiming to be pro-life. The excuses for not signing clearly continue the doubts about his leadership and commitment to ending the practice of abortion – particularly for a candidate who ran as pro-choice for the Senate and Governorship of Massachusetts. Any Presidential candidate seeking our party’s nomination should sign the SBA Pledge and vow to protect life from conception to natural death. Governor Romney should reconsider his decision not to sign the Pledge just as he reconsidered his position on the life issue during the last campaign.”

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Ron Paul wins Republican Leadership Council’s straw poll

Ron Paul had a decisive victory in the Republican Leadership Council’s presidential straw poll. Paul, who finished with 612 votes, was followed by Jon Huntsman with 382, and Michelle Bachman with 193. I’m not surprised he won, since he tends to do well in these types of environments, but I was (happily) surprised by the margin of victory, along with the strong showing by Hunstman. Of course, there’s more to the story.

It appears that Jon Hunstman paid for his votes. Check this out:

Rumors circulated here that Huntsman campaign had paid for supporters to attend the conference and a spokesman for the candidate, Tim Miller, didn’t deny that they had.

“Not commenting on internal strategy,” said Miller, adding: “The result demonstrates that young conservatives are responding to his record of success in Utah, willingness to take the debt problem seriously, and foreign policy message,”

Now, were these Huntsman supporters impressed with him, or were they just pleased with the free ride they were receiving? This looks like a rather desperate attempt to buy votes, which shows that these straw polls are a valuable source of media coverage. Remember this when Paul’s opponents try to down-play the results.

Mitt Romney is throwing stones from his glass house

I find former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to be an insincere, disingenuous person who will say anything to get elected. Basically, I don’t trust a word he says. With that said, I was surprised to see this quote from Romney:

While other possible candidates talked about repealing healthcare in their CPAC speeches, Romney barely mentioned it.

It came up when he accused Obama and “liberals” of looking to “European solutions” to the economic crisis by increasing government spending and moving for a “takeover” of healthcare.

“It does not work there and it will never work here,” Romney said. “We are an exceptional land.”

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