Headline du jour

Poll: Romney, Gingrich in statistical dead heat in N.H.

In a related story, Bill Clinton and John Edwards are just in heat...

Newt and Mitt Top Fox News Poll

Fox News took a poll of Republican presidential candidates:

Newt Gingrich 23%
Mitt Romney 22%
Herman Cain 15%
Ron Paul 8%
Rick Perry 7%
Michele Bachmann 6%
Jon Huntsman 3%
Rick Santorum 2%

I mention this, in part, because I hear that certain individuals are claiming that Ron Paul somehow is polling in first place. The phrase "in your dreams" comes to mind!

Newt Gingrich has catapulted to the front of the race for the 2012 Republican nomination while Herman Cain has lost ground with GOP primary voters. Mitt Romney, once again, is holding steady.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday shows Gingrich’s support doubling in the last three weeks. He stood at 12 percent in late October -- before the Cain harassment allegations and Rick Perry’s “oops” debate. Now the former House speaker is at 23 percent, essentially tied for the lead with Romney, with 22 percent.

H/T Memorandum

"The Gingrich Surge Has Come"

On a related note*, Nate Silver has a piece, "The Gingrich Surge Has Come", where he examines the recent polling numbers of the leading Republican candidates. Nearly all of them make a frowny face, where their numbers have risen and now are trending down, or are relatively flat.

All except for one: Newt Gingrich




Newt's chart, much like his campaign, shows a bit of a smiley face, as his numbers continue to turn up at the corner. This is not predictive of final results, but it has caught the attention of liberals, such as Bill Maher, who are dusting off attacks on Gingrich they haven't used for years.

Check out all the graphs and more at "The Gingrich Surge Has Come"

*Maher: Gingrich is a "fat womanizing blowhard"

H/T Memeorandum

Newt Gingrich 'Is a Fat Womanizing Blowhard'

Pot, meet kettle:



You know what this means, don't you? It means that Newt is rising in the polls, and as such, the politics of personal destruction must be brought to bear on him.

First, "Fat, Womanizing Blowhard" could describe Teddy Kennedy to a "T". Ever hear Bill Maher refer to Teddy as a "Fat, Womanizing Blowhard"? Remove the comma, and "Fat Womanizing Blowhard" applies to Bill Clinton. Anyone ever hear Bill Maher refer to Bill Clinton as a womanizer? Or to Michael Moore as a "Fat blowhard"? (Trick questions. Almost no one hears Bill Maher any more!)

The level of hypocrisy is stunning, even for liberals. The next time a liberal sheds crocodile tears over Newt's wife being cheated on while she was hospitalized for cancer, just ask of they are talking about Newt or John Edwards? See if their faux outrage was the same for each.

Newt is by no means the perfect conservative, but I think the liberal left is envisioning Newt standing toe to toe in debate against the teleprompter dependent Obama and seeing their side irreparably bloodied. And they're wetting themselves over it, hence, the display above.

H/T Newsbusters

Cross posted at LCR.

Rick Perry Crashes and Burns in Last Night's Debate

This moment would be painful to watch if it were just, say, your grandfather struggling to tell a story. For the man who would be president, it is devastating.



Guess we can add Mr. Perry's name to the "Turn out the light, the party's over" list?

H/T Memeorandum

This Last Week's Polls: Who's an Acceptable Candidate for President?

This Last Week's Poll was actually two polls this week. The first, Which of these candidates would you consider pulling the lever for for president? In order of their finish:

Herman Cain 51%

Newt Gingrich 40%

Ron Paul 26%

Michelle Bachmann 20%

Rick Santorum 20%

Rick Perry 18%

Mitt Romney 11%

Jon Huntsman 5%

On the other side of the coin, we had "Which of these candidates would you NOT consider pulling the lever for for president?"

Jon Huntsman 55%

Ron Paul 48%

Mitt Romney 46%

Rick Perry 26%

Rick Santorum 25%

Herman Cain 23%

Michelle Bachmann 16%

Newt Gingrich 15%

The clear loser is Jon Huntsman. Jon came in last in the positive column and first in the negative column. Turn out the lights, the party's over!

No hands down winner, but Herman Cain was first in positives and third lowest in the negatives, while Newt Gingrich was second in positives, but had the fewest people reluctant to vote for him.

Ron Paul was third in the positive vote, but scored second in the number of people who won't pull the lever next to his name.

Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann were tied for fourth in the positives, but Michelle beats Rick by nine points in those who wouldn't vote for them.

Rick Perry comes in sixth in the popularity poll, but still beats Mitt Romney by more than Mitt beat last place Huntsman! Rick also beats Mitt by 20 points in the "Ain't no way I'm voting for him" category.

Mitt Romney came in next to last in the popularity poll and number three in the "snowflake's chance in Hades" poll.

Long story short: Cain/Gingrich or Gingrich/Cain looks like the strongest ticket, but it's still early in the primary process and plenty of time for missteps, miscues and October surprises.

Hang on, it still could be a bumpy ride!

MItt Romney for President? Say it Ain't So!

Go ahead: Ask Mitt anything because he'll tell you just what you want to hear
Graphic c/o ExposeMittRomney.com

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

The truth hurts. Mitt Romney stinks and is no conservative. And it's not that I am still debating whether he is a liberal or a Country-Club republican; it's that he simply stands for nothing and says whatever needs to be said to whatever group wants to hear.

And you know where standing for nothing gets us during these perilous times: more, more, more socialism like we see today. It is the path that Washington has thrust upon the nation and someone with no convictions or core will simply continue that trajectory.

This is something that us Tea Partiers (and indies, libertarians and conservatives) fear the most about the man: unlike Reagan and the tea party candidates elected last year, he has no core.

On this note, RedState's head cheese Eric Erickson lists most of the reasons that have brought us to this conclusion, writing:

Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeatedly. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he’ll part his hair in their direction.

Scathing.

More:

Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.

That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It’s not his fault though, it is the 75%’s fault.

The worst of it. Meet Mitt running for president, aka Mitt Inc.:

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.

I’ve been reading the 200 pages of single spaced opposition research from the John McCain campaign on Mitt Romney. There is no issue I can find on which Mitt Romney has not taken both sides. He is neither liberal nor conservative. He is simply unprincipled. The man has no core beliefs other than in himself. You want him to be tough? He’ll be tough. You want him to be sensitive? He’ll be sensitive. You want him to be for killing the unborn? He’ll go all in on abortion rights until he wants to run for an office where it is not in his advantage.

But, something that I disagree with:

Conservatism is already dying. Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to raise taxes on the American people with this Super Committee, but they’ll say they are just “raising revenue,” not taxes. Conservatives will give them a pass as they have on virtually every other major issue. Conservatives keep giving passes to people who shouldn’t be given passes because conservative in Washington have been there so long, they’d much rather get invited to the cocktail parties and avoid awkward encounters.

I don't think that conservatism is dying. In fact, the ethos of self reliance, responsibility, the abundance of free markets and the founding concepts of this nation (like the banner at the top of this site) have never been more desired by the public. It's the republican party that is dying (and has been since the end of Reagan's presidency). There's is a big difference: The republican party is not conservatism. If anything (as you see with leadership such as statist John Boehner and the other clowns in leadership positions), the party has done almost irreversible damage to the conservative political cause. For they tell conservative America what they want to hear (to get elected) then do the precise opposite and offer the nation no true alternative to the socialist democrats.

In other words, the legacy of "conservative" George W. Bush.

Erickson sees this too:

Washington, D.C. conservatives will also rally around Mitt Romney, just as they kept doing over and over and over with George W. Bush even after steel tariffs in Pennsylvania, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the GM Bailout, and TARP. At some point the public will cease taking conservatives seriously when the most prominent conservatives — those in Washington who pose as the faces, voices, and writers of the conservative movement at large, keep throwing their lot in with a guy who keeps selling out the very principles conservatives claim to hold dear.

Unfortunately, Erickson's conclusion is laughable at best:

I’m starting to think I need to walk it back on my rejection of Jon Huntsman. Because I’m starting to think even he would be more faithful in his conservative convictions than Mitt Romney.

Then again, he may have a point: perhaps even John Huntsman would be more faithful in his convictions than Mitt Romney. And that is truly pathetic.

Check out NotMittRomney.com and spread the word. Head over to RightKlik for more on the pretzel candidate.

Via Memeorandum.

The Poetry Corner - Jon Huntsman Edition

Jon Huntsman was a candidate,
His campaign was quite brisk.
Four million dollars later and
he's just an "asterisk".

-Proof, Inspired by R.S. McCain

This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll: Who "Won" tonight's Republican Debate?

Mitt Romney (10%)

Michele Bachmann (0%)

Herman Cain (16%)

Newt Gingrich (6%)

Rick Perry (33%)

Jon Huntsman (0%)

Ron Paul (30%)

Rick Santorum (3%)

I suspect that some of the votes were for candidates you liked and not necessarily whom you thought actually won the debate. (And you know who you are!) That's okay. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion!

Multiple choices and Obama's crack budget office accountants may account for totals greater than 100%

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.