http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/ ... tates.html
January 14, 2011
Palin Lacks Support in Early States
Tom Jensen: "Sarah Palin's biggest obstacle to the White House may not be her remarkable level of unpopularity with Democrats and independents. Her more immediate problem is that she simply doesn't have much support in the vital early Republican states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Florida."
Elections 2009-2012, Part 3
Moderator: Super Moderators
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http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/01/13/19 ... m-win.html
Rest of Article at:
Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011
Gingrich lays out plan for 2012 Republican win at event in Myrtle Beach
By Jake Spring -
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke about his plan to improve the country in Myrtle Beach tonight but is still mum on whether he will run for president.
Gingrich said that he'll decide whether to run by the end of February and it will likely be March before he makes a public announcement. The Georgia native said there were many considerations to weigh in a run for president but did not give further specifics.
Gingrich did lay out a plan for Republicans to win more Congressional seats and possibly the presidency, while taking questions after the speech. GOP candidates need to spend at least 30 percent of their time campaigning with Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities to increase the percentage of those communities which vote for Republicans, he said.
Republicans should aim for winning 40 more House seats and 12 or 13 more Senate seats in the next election, Gingrich said.
"If you're going to govern in 2013, you're going to need a really large margin," he said. . . .
http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/01/13/19 ... m-win.html
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Snip:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... on_LEADTop
Rest of Article at:
* THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW
* JANUARY 15, 2011
Jeb to GOP: How to Appeal to Hispanics
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
Coral Gables, Fla.
If Republicans were to run a classified ad for their 2012 presidential candidate, it might read something like this: GOP seeks popular former two-term governor of a large state for executive post. Qualified applicants will have a demonstrated understanding of the relationship between taxes and growth, a proven record on choice in education, and an ability to draw Hispanic voters. A commitment to states' rights and the U.S. constitution is a must.
Their candidate is out there. But Jeb Bush, Florida's governor from 1999 to 2007, insists that he's not applying for the job. Still, his ideas and style have gained national attention, so I braved the TSA gropers at New York's LaGuardia airport and hopped a flight to South Florida to talk to him.
As we sit down in his office, the tall Texas transplant raises the still-unratified Colombia free trade agreement, which has been in the news recently. Sitting on the FTA has created uncertainty that is emblematic of President Obama's broader economic policy, he says. Plus, Colombia is a U.S. ally. "We get all the benefits [that come] with a friend and this is how we treat them. It's just amazing," he says, shaking his head.
Mr. Bush's wife was born in Mexico, he is fluent in Spanish, and he lives in a heavily Hispanic state, so he has great interest in our hemisphere. He's also had unusual success earning the political support of Spanish-speaking Americans, so I ask him what tips he has for his immigrant-challenged party.
His answer comes effortlessly. Hispanics aren't monolithic, he says, but all immigrants—"the newly arrived and the second generation"—share one trait: "They're aspirational." Conservative candidates, therefore, should promote "policies that reward people who are aspirational." That's what he did, and 60% of Democratic Hispanic voters supported his re-election in 2002, he says. Hispanic voters are growing in number, Mr. Bush points out, and "they are increasingly the swing voters in the swing states."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... on_LEADTop
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 71_pf.html
After the shootings, Obama reminds the nation of the golden rule
By John McCain
Sunday, January 16, 2011;
President Obama gave a terrific speech Wednesday night. He movingly mourned and honored the victims of Saturday's senseless atrocity outside Tucson, comforted and inspired the country, and encouraged those of us who have the privilege of serving America. He encouraged every American who participates in our political debates - whether we are on the left or right or in the media - to aspire to a more generous appreciation of one another and a more modest one of ourselves.
The president appropriately disputed the injurious suggestion that some participants in our political debates were responsible for a depraved man's inhumanity. He asked us all to conduct ourselves in those debates in a manner that would not disillusion an innocent child's hopeful patriotism. I agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments. We should respect the sincerity of the convictions that enliven our debates but also the mutual purpose that we and all preceding generations of Americans serve: a better country; stronger, more prosperous and just than the one we inherited.
We Americans have different opinions on how best to serve that noble purpose. We need not pretend otherwise or be timid in our advocacy of the means we believe will achieve it. But we should be mindful as we argue about our differences that so much more unites than divides us. We should also note that our differences, when compared with those in many, if not most, other countries, are smaller than we sometimes imagine them to be.
I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause. I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals. And I reject accusations that Americans who vigorously oppose his policies are less intelligent, compassionate or just than those who support them.
Our political discourse should be more civil than it currently is, and we all, myself included, bear some responsibility for it not being so. It probably asks too much of human nature to expect any of us to be restrained at all times by persistent modesty and empathy from committing rhetorical excesses that exaggerate our differences and ignore our similarities. But I do not think it is beyond our ability and virtue to refrain from substituting character assassination for spirited and respectful debate.
Public life has many more privileges than hardships. First among them is the satisfying purpose it gives our lives to make a contribution to the progress of a nation that was conceived to defend the rights and dignity of human beings. It can be a bruising business at times, but in the end its rewards are greater than the injuries sustained to earn them.
That doesn't mean, however, that those injuries are always easy to slough off and bear with perfect equanimity. Political leaders are not and cannot reasonably be expected to be indifferent to the cruelest calumnies aimed at their character. Imagine how it must feel to have watched one week ago the incomprehensible massacre of innocents committed by someone who had lost some essential part of his humanity, to have shared in the heartache for its victims and in the admiration for those who acted heroically to save the lives of others - and to have heard in the coverage of that tragedy voices accusing you of complicity in it.
It does not ask too much of human nature to have the empathy to understand how wrong an injury that is or appreciate how strong a need someone would feel to defend him or herself against such a slur. Even to perceive it in the context of its supposed political effect and not as the claim of the human heart to the dignity we are enjoined by God and our founding ideals to respect in one another is unworthy of us, and our understanding of America's meaning.
There are too many occasions when we lack that empathy and mutual respect on all sides of our politics, and in the media. But it is not beyond us to do better; to behave more modestly and courteously and respectfully toward one another; to make progress toward the ideal that beckons all humanity: to treat one another as we would wish to be treated.
We are Americans and fellow human beings, and that shared distinction is so much more important than the disputes that invigorate our noisy, rough-and-tumble political culture. That is what I heard the president say on Wednesday evening. I commend and thank him for it.
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The writer, a senator from Arizona, was the 2008 Republican nominee for president.
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For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/ ... etire.html
January 18, 2011
Senators Most Likely to Retire
With retirement announcements from Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), Jon Karl looks at the other senators most likely to retire rather than face re-election in 2012.
1. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
2. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)
3. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
4. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
5. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
6. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
7. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)
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http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/ ... obama.html
January 20, 2011
Lieberman Says It's "Too Early" to Endorse Obama
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told Newsmax it was "conceivable" he might endorse a Republican again for president in 2012.
Said Lieberman: "It's too early to say. The reason I say it's too early to make a decision is because it's only halfway through the Obama administration, and we don't know who the Republicans will put up. So I'll watch it with real interest."
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http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/ ... e_day.html
January 20, 2011
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
"What can I say? The American people are extremely smart. I've always said it. That proves it. What else can I say?"
-- Mike Huckabee, in an interview on Fox News, responding to the latest polls showing him leading the pack of Republican presidential contenders.
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http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/appellat ... ff-ballot/
Appellate Court: Emanuel Off Ballot
By HUNTER CLAUSS
January 24, 2011
Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the mayoral ballot after an Appellate Court overturned a ruling in his residency case.
The court ruled that Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement for eligible candidates.
“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement.”
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