Huckabee Republican Presidential Forum

◼ Jon Huntsman declined to attend the forum tonight as did Herman Cain. - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Huckabee has three conservative Attorneys General to ask the questions. Pam Bondi from Florida, Ken Cuccinelli from Virginia and Scott Pruitt from Oklahoma. There is no crowd to cheer the candidates. It is just the candidate, Mike Huckabee as moderator and the three attorneys general.

◼ Huckabee Candidates Forum - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
◼ Open thread: Are you ready for the Huckabee presidential forum? Update: Gingrich leads new Iowa poll, Paul second - HotAir

Obama Fundraiser and Ambassador Blames Israel for Anti-Semitism

◼ The U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, recently told a conference hosted by the European Jewish Union that Israel is to blame for growing anti-Semitism harbored by people of Muslim faith. - Daniel Halper/the Weekly Standard

According to the account in the Israeli paper, “The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman’s words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy’s remarks.”

Gutman was a major fundraiser for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign. He bundled $500,000 for Obama, according to OpenSecrets.org, personally giving at least $2,300 to the campaign.

In 2009, Obama nominated Gutman, a Washington, D.C. attorney, to be ambassador to Belgium.

Chilling Chart From Yesterday's Reported Drop in Unemployment: "6,278,000 people are unaccounted for"

◼ link - Doug Ross

Herman Cain drops out of presidential race

◼ Herman Cain, the insurgent populist whose candidacy has been ensnared by allegations of sexual impropriety, said Saturday that he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying that the allegations have cast a "cloud of doubt over me and this campaign." - James Oliphant/LA Times

◼ Cain Iowa Staffers and Volunteers React: ‘There’s Sadness in the Family’ - ABC
◼ Bachmann and Gingrich praise Cain as he exits race - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner
◼ Did Gloria sink Herman Cain's presidential campaign? Pizza tycoon drops out of race... as Newt Gingrich tops latest Iowa poll - Daily Mail
◼ Once You Go Conservative Black, You Better Watch Your Back - Ann Coulter

Mitt Romney: Herman Cain's campaign was one of ideas. His announcement today was based on what was best for him and his family. We wish Herman and Gloria the very best.

Newt Gingrich released the following statement regarding Herman Cain's announcement to suspend his presidential campaign: Herman Cain’s 999 plan got our country talking about the critical issue of how to reform our tax code and he elevated the dialogue of the Republican presidential primary in the process. I am proud to know Herman Cain and consider him a friend. I know from having worked with him for more than a decade he will continue to be a powerful voice in the conservative movement for years to come.

Michele Bachmann: Herman Cain provided an important voice to this process. His ideas and energy generated tremendous enthusiasm for the conservative movement at a time it was so desperately needed to restore confidence in our country. I wish Herman, his wife Gloria, and his family all the best.

A $230,000 Taxpayer-Funded ‘Green Jobs’ Website, but No Jobs Listed

◼ How’s this for a waste of taxpayer money? - Mike Brownfield/Heritage.Org

Even The New York Times wrote, ”federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed” and Obama’s goal of creating 5 million new green jobs within 10 years is a “pipe dream.”

Rick Perry: Faith

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Rick Perry

"Who wants to be a Republican?"

h/t: ◼ Silicon Valley Young Republicans (SVYR)

Gloria Cain launches 'Women for Herman Cain'

◼ As Herman Cain heads home for his first face-to-face meeting with wife Gloria since he was accused earlier this week of a 13-year extramarital affair, his campaign has launched “Women for Herman Cain,” an “online national fellowship of women dedicated to helping elect Herman Cain.” - Kim Geiger, Washington Bureau/LA Times

The new Web page, which appears to have been added to Cain’s campaign website late last night, offers a forum for people to voice their support for the Republican presidential hopeful. Gloria, Cain’s wife of 43 years, is listed as the national chairwoman.

◼ Cain to make major announcement about campaign tomorrow - HotAir

John Boehner: "The American People Want Action on Jobs, and They Want It Now"

HANNAFORD TAKES NEW REAGAN BOOK ON THE ROAD

“Reagan’s Roots” by Peter Hannaford of Eureka, California, will be published December 1 by Images From the Past, Inc. followed by a two-week book tour by the author.

The book examines the sources of Reagan’s character which the author concludes was formed during the first 21 years of the late president’s life, all of them spent in rural settings in northwestern Illinois. Born in the small town of Tampico, Reagan lived in five other locations during his childhood and youth, culminating in four years at Eureka College, a small liberal arts school 25 miles east of Peoria. Three months after graduating, he got his first job, as a radio sportscaster at a station just across the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa.

During the week of December 5-9, Hannaford will give a series of talks about the book’s topic in Illinois in the following cities and towns: Chicago, Dixon, Tampico, Fulton, Decatur, Morton, Washington, Eureka, Peoria.

On December 12 he will speak at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara; on the 13th at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley; on the 15th at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. On Friday, December 16, he will be the featured speaker at the Marin County, California, Republican Christmas Gala.

This is Hannaford’s 10th published book and his sixth about the 40th president, with whom he was closely associated for several years. His 11th book, “Presidential Retreats” is scheduled for publication in Summer 2012 by Simon & Schuster.

After 22 years in public affairs and public relations in Washington, he and his wife, Irene, moved back to their native California in 2006.

◼ Available at Amazon

Mitt Romney Declines Lincoln-Douglas Debate With Newt Gingrich - UPDATE: Jon Huntsman accepts

◼ As Joe Guerriero, publisher of Human Events and Red State, put it to RCP: “Newt was all over it, and the Romney camp basically said no. It wasn’t a harsh no, but it was a no.” - Erin McPike/Real Clear Politics

◼ Romney one step closer to Pawlentyville - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

◼ Update: This Is A Genius Move By Gingrich - Business Insider

Newt Gingrich has invited Jon Huntsman to engage in another long Lincoln-Douglas style debate on December 12, in Windham New Hampshire. Newt did a similar debate with Herman Cain earlier this year. Huntsman accepted.

It’s a genius move for Gingrich, and a good one by Huntsman. Romney has declined an invitation to engage Gingrich in this kind of debate.

Newt Gingrich gets to elevate Huntsman in New Hampshire, which could hurt Mitt Romney. ◼ h/t: Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Analysis: Best and Worst Run States in America — California ranks # 50

◼ Best and Worst Run States in America — An Analysis Of All 50 - 24/7 Wall St.
# 50. California

> State debt per capita: $3,660 (21st highest)
> Pct. without health insurance: 18.5% (8th highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 14.5% (tied for 21st highest)
> Unemployment: 11.9% (2nd highest)

California has moved down one slot on from last year to earn the title of the worst-run state in the country. In the fiscal year 2009, the state spent $430 billion, roughly 14% of all the money spent by states in that year. Compared to its revenue, the state spent too much — California had the 10th lowest revenue per person, and spent the 15th most per person. California is the only state in the country to be rated A-, the lowest rating ever given to a state by S&P. Despite the huge amount the state spends each year, conditions remain poor. California has the second-lowest percentage of adults with a high school diploma in the country, the second-highest foreclosure rate and is tied for the second highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

◼ American Migration [Interactive Map] - Forbes

Close to 40 million Americans move from one home to another every year. Click anywhere on the map below: blue counties send more migrants to the selected county than they take; red counties take more than they send. See how many people are leaving California. Red is outgoing migration, blue is incoming:

Seattle Reverses Ban on “Buy American”

On Thursday evening Seattle’s Metro Transit reversed its ban and decided to allow the “Buy American” ads to be posted on city buses. “Upon further evaluation, the text of the ad does not express an opinion about a public issue,” said General Manager Kevin Desmond in a statement released to the Seattle Fox television affiliate.

◼ ORIGINAL STORY: Seattle’s public transit system is under fire for rejecting an advertising campaign urging people to buy American and shop locally because it was too political. - FOX

The rejected ads read: “December is Buy American Month, Shop Locally, Join Seattle’s TAPamerica.org.”

Tso said his organization was prepared to pay as much as $9,000 for the ads to be posted on 45 Metro buses running through major shopping districts in downtown Seattle and Bellevue, WA.

“The ads were rejected by King County as being too political,” Tso told Fox News & Commentary, wondering if the county was simply being politically correct.

“Buy American should never be a bad word,” he said. “Those are words we should have pride in as citizens of the United States.”

...“The concept of ‘Buy American’ is an issue of both political and economic debate,” spokeswoman Linda Thielkein wrote in an email to the newspaper.

Newt's In-depth Interview with Sean Hannity

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Newt Gingrich

New Rick Perry ad

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Rick Perry

Claims for unemployment insurance UNEXPECTEDLY rose last week, climbing past the psychologically important 400,000 mark as the jobs market showed signs of more weakness.

◼ Weekly Jobless Claims Jump Back Over 400,000 Mark - CNBC

BAILOUT: Gov't Motors offers to buy back Chevy Volts

◼ CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government. - AP

A 2011 White House Christmas: Michelle unveils holiday decorations to military families as Obamas celebrate the season

◼ A White House Christmas: The Blue Room Christmas Tree, seen from the Cross Hall of the White House (left), features photographs, medals and cards created and written by children of U.S. military members and medals, badges and patches from all branches of the U.S. military - Daily Mail

◼ Flashback: 2010 Decorations

Jerry Brown wants to raise taxes

◼ Under the measure, California would impose a half-cent sales tax increase starting in 2013 and an income tax hike on high-income earners starting retroactively with the 2012 tax year. - Sacramento Bee/Capitol Alert

The upper-income tax hike starts with a 1 percent increase at $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for joint filers. A separate increase would charge 1.5 percent more on income between $300,000 and $500,000, followed by a third step of 2 percent on income above $500,000 for individuals (with amounts doubled for joint filers). That would increase the tax on millionaires from 10.3 percent to 12.3 percent.

Fun Fact of The Day: Obama Averaging One Fundraiser Every Five Days In 2011…

◼ Pretty much the only thing he’s good at. - Weaselzippers

◼ Barack Obama Has, on Average, Attended a Fundraiser Every Five Days in 2011 - Andy Kroll/Mother Jones

Gingrich: "Right After I'm Sworn In I Will Fire Every Czar In The White House"

◼ California With Newt on Facebook

"Two hours after I'm sworn in as President and by the time the Obama's land in Chicago, I will have 40% of Obama's Government Dismantled by signing close to 200 executive orders."

◼ Don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook!

Obama Loses Egypt

◼ Obama’s Egypt failure is becoming all the more plain, and the cultural and political Islamization of our most important Arab ally may well become a campaign issue before long - Keith Koffler/White House Dossier

◼ Islamists Claim Egypt’s Mandate in Early Voting - David D. Kirkpatrick/NYT

The party formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group, appeared to have taken about 40 percent of the vote, as expected. But a big surprise was the strong showing of ultraconservative Islamists, called Salafis, many of whom see most popular entertainment as sinful and reject women’s participation in voting or public life.

Analysts in the state-run news media said early returns indicated that Salafi groups could take as much as a quarter of the vote, giving the two groups of Islamists combined control of nearly 65 percent of the parliamentary seats.

That victory came at the expense of the liberal parties and youth activists who set off the revolution, affirming their fears that they would be unable to compete with Islamists who emerged from the Mubarak years organized and with an established following. Poorly organized and internally divided, the liberal parties could not compete with Islamists disciplined by decades as the sole opposition to Mr. Mubarak. “We were washed out,” said Shady el-Ghazaly Harb, one of the most politically active of the group.

Candidate Obama says: "The very core of what this country stands for is on the line."

◼ A strangely desperate new Obama campaign speech: Urgent, dramatic, about him - Investors Business Daily

After talking up his payroll tax cut in Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon, Obama flew Air Force One to New York City for not one, not two, but three money gatherings from Gotham liberals.

As he does on regular collection runs to Los Angeles, Obama and his motorcade paralyzed Manhattan's pre-holiday traffic, already struggling with the evening's scheduled lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

Here are several other points made by Obama to a possibly puzzled crowd assembled at the Gotham Bar and Grille:

"I've got to win in 2012."
"In order to finish the job, I'm going to have to have a second term."
"I need a couple more years to finish the job."
"I'm going to need another term to finish the job."

And in case anyone had missed the point, the ex-partial-term senator said, "I'm going to need a few more years to finish the job."
This was in one speech.

◼ Discussion at Lucianne

Sign up for The December FairTax Webinar

With Special Topic: The FairTax Effect on Education

When: Thursday, December 22, 2011
Time: 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific
Where: At your personal computer anywhere!

Why: To provide an interactive forum for people who cannot get to local meetings to learn about the FairTax and to present special topics that are frequently misunderstood or not generally discussed.

Who: Join Marc Manieri, Americans for Fair Taxation Community Coordinator in the Greater Orlando, Florida area. In their third year now, Marc’s webinars draw national participation from seasoned FairTax supporters as well as those just getting introduced to the FairTax.

Join: To participate, ◼ register here.
For more information contact Larry Walters at repeal_16@earthlink.net

“President Obama is coming to town solely to raise money from the richest of the rich”

◼ #Occupy Protests Obama - NYT via Althouse

New Ron Paul ad

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Ron Paul

New Cain Campaign Video: ‘Put an Executive in the Executive Office’

◼ The Herman Cain campaign today released a new online video focusing on job creation and economic issues - The Other McCain
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Herman Cain

Problems Surrounding Duplicate Signatures Loom Over Big Labor’s Attempted Recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

◼ As the unions strike back against the governor who forced them to ask permission to collect dues from public employees, controversy over the ongoing recall process is emerging. - Brett Healy/Big Government

One liberal organization is saying people have a right to sign more than one recall petition. The state regulators admit it’s true, they have that right and although only one signature per eligible voter is supposed to be counted as vaild, their temporary workers won’t be accountable for finding duplicates.

◼ This MacIver News’ report provides the details.

Magney told MNS said that the pro-union groups obtaining recall signatures will be expected to self-police the collection of duplicate signatures.

However, neither the state Democratic Party nor the pro-labor organizations steering the recall drive have disclosed any process by which they will identify and discard the duplicate signatures they obtain.

Recall organizers announced Monday that they have collected 300,000 of the 540,000 signatures necessary to trigger a recall election of Walker. Until those signatures are actually submitted to the GAB, however, there is no way to verify that claim or determine whether that figure includes duplicate signatures. Even then, it will be up to outside groups like the Walker campaign or the state Republican Party to sort through the signatures to find any invalid and/or duplicate signatures.

Until the signatures are submitted and independently checked, there is no way to know how many people are heeding One Wisconsin Now’s advice.

◼ "Who cares about duplicate signatures in Wisconsin Recall?" - Althouse

◼ Who cares about duplicate signatures in Wisconsin Recall? - - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

"Anti-recall forces will have to establish their own database and run checks for duplicates, in other words, do the government’s work for it."

Defense bill will allow President to indefinitely detain American citizens

◼ H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, has already passed the House, and is currently before the Senate. One section of the bill gives the President the authority to detain indefinitely American citizens, picked up on American soil, because they are allegedly supporting the enemy - The Volokh Conspiracy

Yesterday the Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that would have stricken the detention provisions, and required the Executive branch to submit a report (within 90 days) on the the legal and practical issues involving detention, and required Congress to hold hearings on the detention within the next 45 days after receipt of the report.

Stocks Surge As Bernanke, ECB Throw More Dollars At Europe's Crisis

◼ Wall Street enjoyed a big jump Wednesday morning, after a coordinated action by central banks around the world to provide more liquidity to the global financial system. - Forbes
◼ FED TO THE RESCUE - Bloomberg
◼ Europe delays major debt decisions for 10 days - apnews
◼ The world's major central banks acted jointly on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar funding to European banks facing a credit crunch as the euro zone's debt crisis drove EU ministers to urge more IMF help to avert financial disaster. - Reuters
◼ Businesses plan for possible end of euro - ft.com (image source)

Newt’s rallying cry: ‘Food stamps with Obama versus paychecks with Gingrich’

◼ presuming he is eventually debating President Obama instead of other Republicans, Gingrich said he would emulate former President Ronald Reagan — whose catch-phrase “there you go again” was the standard response to attacks from President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign... - Daily Caller

Gingrich said he had other tactics, including challenging Obama to seven three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debates with a time-keeper and a moderator to combat negative attacks. But he said Obama would be forced to go “negative” if the electoral options were “positive.”

“I want him to have to stand on a platform and defend a billion dollars’ worth of lies and smears,” Gingrich said. “This is a president who cannot get reelected with a positive campaign. If it’s two positive choices ending up in food stamps with Obama versus paychecks with Gingrich, everybody knows we will beat him very badly. So we have to expect they’re going to run a miserable, negative, vicious attack campaign. They’ll be proud of it. They’ll sit around on the evening telling each other how clever they are.”
◼ 2012 Presidential Matchups: National Poll: Gingrich 45% Obama 43% - Rasmussen
◼ Poll: Newt Gingrich soars in Florida - Florida Times Union via Lucianne
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Newt Gingrich

There does seem to be an emerging theme, even in the liberal media, that this is a failed president with a personality and skills unsuited to the task before him.

◼ Tina Brown: Obama 'Doesn't Like His Job' - Mark Finkelstein/Newsbusters

The words cut like a knife. “What the hell are we paying you for?” Governor Chris Christie asked of President Obama.

◼ The questions are rhetorical in that we know what the president has been doing and why. He plays golf and campaigns. Governing is beneath him. - Michael Goodwin/NY Post

He doesn’t talk much to members of Congress or his own Cabinet. They’re beneath him.

His connection to the public consists of speeches before large crowds, and he ducks behind the curtain and into the security bubble as soon as he finishes. The people are beneath him.

Warped by a sense of entitlement and self-aggrandizement, Obama refuses to take responsibility for finding practical solutions to problems. He prefers the glory of transformation rather than the roll-the-sleeves-up work of reform.

When he can’t get his way, he appoints a czar and ignores Congress. Democracy is beneath him.

He could have brokered a deficit deal, but doing so would have demolished his campaign slogan that Republicans are to blame for everything. Any deal would give him ownership of the results, and end the fiction that politics are beneath him....

Panicked AP Attempts to Memory-Hole Democrats’ #Occupy Endorsements

◼ Occupy Wall Street’s imploding, Obama and the Democrats own the chaos, and now the AP is panicking. - John Nolte/Big Journalism Image Source: Ramirez/Townhall

Something happened this month that the mainstream media and the Left (but I repeat myself) never expected. Two months ago, the White House, Democrats, and the MSM were all sure that the #OccupyWallStreet movement would save them in 2012. With thousands of astro-turfed morons in the streets raging against Wall Street, Obama’s allies hoped to use said morons to create a silver lining in the economic cloud he himself created.

...Fortunately for America, this plan has not only failed miserably it has backfired completely. Thanks to the rise of New Media and our unwillingness to let the MSM’s lies, bias, and cover ups stand for even one more day, Occupy is in its death throes and might take the President and Democratic party down with it....

When the AP matter-of-factly (the most effective way to propagandize) states that this natural alliance “hasn’t happened” … they are lying. The alliance between Occupy and prominent Democrats occurred weeks ago and as one honest Democrat, Doug Schoen, put it:

Thursday’s coordinated Occupy Wall Street “National Day of Action” is bad news for the Democratic party, and bad news for President Obama.

Obama Administration Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious

◼ The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico. - Judicial Watch

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

◼ The murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is related to a Justice Department willingly turning over thousands of guns to Mexican criminal gangs, and Obama administration is hiding information about his death from the public. Amazing. - The Weekly Standard

A very important question from David Codrea: "How did Sen. Feinstein get ATF gun trace data in violation of Tiahrt Amendment?"

◼ How did Sen. Feinstein get ATF gun trace data in violation of Tiahrt Amendment?

Persons within the Department of Justice whose identities are not yet publicly known apparently broke the law by leaking firearms trace data to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which she introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee record in the hearing on Department of Justice oversight earlier this month.

“If I may,” Senator Feinstein requested at the beginning of her questioning of Attorney General Eric Holder (see webcast, at the 69:45 mark), I'd like to put in the record the official firearms trace data from the Department of Justice from 12/1/2006 to 2000...excuse me, 9/30/2011...this is guns [unintelligible] Mexico.”

Left unchallenged and unsaid is how Feinstein obtained the data, which is prohibited by the Tiahrt Amendment from being shared with anyone but law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, and only then in the course of a criminal investigation. That prohibition extends even to Senator Feinstein, as evidenced by the failed attempt earlier this year by Rep. Adam Schiff “to allow Congressional committees to be included on the list of entities to which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can disclose part or all of the contents of the Firearms Trace System database.”

Chef Tiptur's Moroccan Swordfish Sliders with chermoula marinade, fennel salad, aged pecorino and hazelnut coffee dressing, and an edible chocolate sculpture

◼ Michelle Obama dines at Co Co. Sala - Washington Examiner

Obama's America. Malazy.

◼ Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. Same problems. Same excuses. - National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)

Bill Ayers Says One Thing, The Obama Campaign Says Another, and The Usual MSM Suspects Don’t Care

◼ Includes multiple links - John Nolte at Big Journalism

But who cares? That was three whole freaking years ago. History. Water under the bridge. Bygones. After all, Weigel and Smith can’t be bothered with old stuff involving a sitting president possibly lying about his relationship with a domestic terrorist. They have 24 year-old rocks to write about, 15 year-old allegations of sexual harassment, and 42 year-old papers…

◼ Ayers Speaks up Again, Challenges O's Story - Backyard Conservative

Huntsmentum: Rasmussen now has Huntsman in double digits in New Hampshire

◼ Huntsman’s in fourth with 11 percent, three points behind Ron Paul. That’s his best poll of the campaign, and doubly noteworthy since it’s a poll of likely voters. - HotAir

His strategy’s always been straightforward: Turn New Hampshire into a two-man race with Romney and then count on the silent “Not Romney” supermajority to sweep him to victory. Two problems with that, though. First, according to Rasmussen’s crosstabs, voters overwhelmingly see Romney as more qualified to be president than Huntsman. Mitt’s split is 79/13 on that question, Huntsman’s is 46/36. I have no idea why — Huntsman served as governor as long as Romney did and has ambassadorial experience to boot — but it is what it is. If it did come to the two of them, Romney would have a huge electability advantage on that point. Second, unlike with Perry, Bachmann, and Cain, there’s no reason to think Gingrich is going away.

Time running out for anti-Romney Republicans

◼ With just 35 days to go before the Iowa caucuses, the Anybody-But-Romney coalition within the Republican party is switching into overdrive. The only problem is, it isn't a coalition, and it hasn't yet decided who the Anybody-But-Romney will actually be. Other than that, things are going well. - Byron York/Washington Examiner

Meanwhile, in Boston, the Romney campaign can't help wondering why Republicans are going to such lengths to avoid supporting Romney. Their latest problem is Monday's decision by the New Hampshire Union Leader to endorse Gingrich. The worry, apart from the paper's influence in Romney's strongest state, is that the endorsement might affect the discussions in far-away Iowa, pushing some of those reluctant social conservatives toward Gingrich.

But the biggest problem for Romney is that the talks in Iowa, and the paper's endorsement in New Hampshire, are just the latest evidence that a lot of Republican energy is being expended in trying to avoid supporting Mitt Romney. That's not good, no matter how they spin it.

New Ad Airing in Iowa: Run, Sarah, Run

◼ The ‘Sarah Palin Reconsider’ Clip

◼ Conservatives4Palin raised enough money to buy ad time in Iowa in order to run a spot asking Sarah Palin to reconsider her decision not to run for president. - Michelle Malkin

◼ A new draft-Palin ad to run in Iowa next week - HotAir

However, Palin faces a bigger problem outside of Iowa. Most of the early contests are not caucuses, but primaries — and those states do have filing deadlines, which have all passed. Palin wouldn’t have contended in New Hampshire anyway, but can any candidate fail to win South Carolina, Florida, and Michigan and still expect to seriously contend for the nomination? Filing deadlines for all of these states have already passed.

◼ conservatives4palin.com

Gallup: Obama tanking among independents

◼ (B)uried down in the report is this nugget on trends since January 2011 when Obama had a much higher 49% approval rating: - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner

Obama's approval rating has decreased among all six partisan/ideology groups Gallup tracks on a regular basis since January, but it has dropped the most -- 10 percentage points, from 40% to 30% -- among pure independents. These are the roughly 14% of national adults who neither identify with one of the two major parties nor indicate a leaning. Obama's approval rating has declined by nearly as much -- eight points -- among moderate/liberal Republicans, from 29% to 21%.

Is the Chevy Volt the New Corvair?

◼ The Chevy Volt has earned some criticism because of resentment against the General Motors bailout. But there's plenty of deserved criticism, too. - Yahoo

The Obama administration has poured millions into auto battery technology that gets no better mileage than the 1896 Roberts electric car. There's a chance, therefore, the Chevy Volt will join other failed cars of the past in the rust bin of auto history.

Aside from the $31,600 plus cost barrier, the lithium-ion batteries of the Chevy Volt have a tendency to blow up after impact, according to recent NHTSA crash tests.

◼ Gov't Motors offering loaner cars to worried Chevy Volt owners - USA Today

◼ 2nd electric car battery fire involving CHEVY VOLT... ^ - San Diego Union Tribune

◼ CHEVY VOLT CATCHES FIRE -- 3 WEEKS AFTER CRASH! ^ - Detroit Free Press

◼ 114-year-old electric car gets same mileage as Chevy Volt - The Daily Caller

◼ Chevy Volt Sparks Garage Fire 4/14/11 - WFSB

Labor board broke federal law on Boeing suit

◼ It is bad enough that Congress has eviscerated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine by ceding away its governing powers to administrative agencies like the NLRB. Congress should not now allow those agencies to ignore what few protections have been left in place. - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner

Cause of Action, a government accountability nonprofit, has obtained emails through a Freedom of Information Act request showing then-NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman, NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon and NLRB Public Affairs Director Nancy Cleeland coordinating the board's response to its own decision to sue Boeing for opening a factory in the right to work state of South Carolina.

Has the Dependency Endgame Arrived?

◼ The Democrat campaign for 2012 orbits a grim singularity. - John Hayward at Human Events

The racial stuff is just a sledgehammer Democrats use to break apart the middle class, which they properly hate and fear. The middle class combines the voting power to dismantle collectivism with a dangerous appetite for economic liberty. They can’t be bought off as easily as key members of the upper class, and the government can’t afford to cocoon all of them in public-sector jobs. The middle class, in short, is likely to agree with Ronald Reagan’s analysis that “government is not the solution to our problems – government is the problem,” and they have the numbers to make something of that insight at the ballot box.

This is why Democrats are so keen to make the growing middle-class segment of minority populations forget about their middle classness, and focus on whatever comes before the hyphen in their qualified American designation. It’s also why they’re so desperate to shrink the middle class by telling its lower echelons how hopeless their situation is. The “income inequality” canard is useful for this purpose, as it convinces Americans to forget about the astonishing level of income mobility they enjoy. Hopelessness is vital nourishment for socialists, who love to posture as the sole purveyors of “hope.”

...Have we reached the point of no return, where Democrats can cobble together a political perpetual-motion machine from those who work for the State, those who depend upon the largesse of the State, and those who worship the State? I have the sense we’re a few elections away from the optimal launch date. Obama’s excesses have jump-started this new political strategy out of desperation. The middle class is still too large, and too keenly aware that the Democrat future is a death trap. The methods necessary to cloud their senses in 2012 will be… what’s the word? Divisive.

References this article: ◼ The Future of the Obama Coalition - Thomas Edsall in the New York Times

RED ALERT: Deputy A.G. behind ‘Fast and Furious’ met with President Obama four times during the height of the operation

◼ Item 1: In March of 2011, President Obama denied knowledge of 'Operation Fast and Furious' -- the Justice Department program that sent thousands of murder weapons to Mexican drug cartels. - Doug Ross

Item 2: According to documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler was keenly aware of all aspects of Operation Fast and Furious as early as March 2010....

Item 3: Newly released White House Visitor Logs* list Grindler as having visited the White House 40 times, but only four times with the President himself. All four meetings with the President occurred over a two-week period, between 7 May 2010 and 19 May 2010....

According to The Los Angeles Times, these dates just so happened to represent the run-up to "the height of [Operation] Fast and Furious..."

Summary: In early 2010, Gary Grindler was intimately involved in all aspects of Operation Fast and Furious. During the height of the operation, Grindler visited the President on four separate occasions in only two weeks -- his only documented meetings with the president at the White House.

◼ * The Thanksgiving White House visitor log document dump - Michelle Malkin

President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

◼ Obama's Job Approval Drops Below Carter's - US News

Since March, Obama's job approval rating has hovered above Carter's, considered among the 20th century's worst presidents, but today Obama's punctured Carter's dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama's job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter's 51 percent.

◼ Gallup's Presidential Job Approval Center

Obama administration rejects Republican states' health law waiver requests

◼ The Obama administration on Monday rejected two states’ requests for waivers from the healthcare reform law. - The Hill

The decision could rekindle the controversy over the waiver process, as the two states that were turned down, Indiana and Louisiana, have Republican governors. GOP leaders at the state level have been extremely critical of the healthcare law and the requirements that it imposes on states....

To date, HHS has granted waivers to seven states: Maine, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Nevada, Iowa, Georgia and Wisconsin. The department has denied them to Delaware and North Dakota.

◼ RELATED: Nancy Pelosi on 1,800 Obamacare Waiver Recipients: Mostly Very Small Companies such as McDonalds and Darden Restaurants. Heck, entire states have gotten waivers (but only very small ones).

Also being allowed on the waiver train have been other not-so-small entities, such as AARP and countless labor unions. The United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund, with 351,000 people, was also a waiver recipient.

Pelosi also should have said the waivers went to “mostly unionized companies” instead of “mostly small companies.”

Quite a few of those businesses are also in Pelosi’s district. In May, 20 percent of a single round of waivers went to businesses located in the area Pelosi represents — but to very small businesses, so “nothing to see here.” - Michelle Malkin (10/29/11)

◼ Waiver-mania! The ever-expanding Obamacare escapee list - Michelle Malkin (11/14/10)

Christie rips Obama over deficit talks: 'What the hell are we paying you for?'

◼ “I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved. Well, then what the hell are we paying you for?” Christie said in Camden, N.J. " 'It’s doomed for failure, so I’m not getting involved'? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?” - The Hill

Candidates should certainly reach out to a broad electorate. But the question is whether they reach out by promoting their own principles to others or by trying to be all things to all people.

◼ Lessons of History? - Thomas Sowell/Real Clear Politics

Talk show host Michael Medved, for example, apparently thinks the Republicans need a centrist presidential candidate in 2012. He said, "Most political battles are won by seizing the center." Moreover, he added: "Anyone who believes otherwise ignores the electoral experience of the last 50 years."

...Medved uses the 2008 defeat of tea party candidates for the Senate, in three states where Democrats were vulnerable, as another argument against those who do not court the center. But these were candidates whose political ineptness was the problem, not conservatism.

Georgia Woman Claims 13-Year Affair with Herman Cain

Georgia Woman Claims 13-Year Affair with Herman Cain: MyFoxATLANTA.com

◼ Cain denies accusation - CNN

◼ Woman's biz partner sought 'stalking' protective order... - NYT

◼ Cain ‘Reassessing’ Candidacy - National Review

In a conference call this morning, Herman Cain told his senior staff that he is “reassessing” whether to remain in the race. He will make his final decision “over the next several days.”

“Obviously, you’re all aware of this recent firestorm that hit the news yesterday,” Cain began, his voice somber. “First thing I want to do is say to you what I have said publicly: I deny those charges, unequivocally. Secondly, I have known this lady for a number of years. And thirdly, I have been attempting to help her financially because she was out of work and destitute, desperate. So, thinking that she was a friend — and I have helped many friends — I now know that she wasn’t the friend that I thought she was. But it was a just a friendship relationship.”

“That being said, obviously, this is cause for reassessment,” he continued....

Barney Frank Cashes Out - America loses its poster boy for term limits.

◼ Barney Frank Cashes Out - America loses its poster boy for term limits. - John Hayward/Human Events

Frank is also 71 years old, and his congressional career has allowed him to, shall we say, “amass” a sizable fortune. This was a good time to call it quits, especially as Democrat hopes of retaking the House in 2012 have grown dimmer.

It’s a predictable, if unfortunate, end to a career that included setting up the subprime bomb that nearly destroyed the U.S. economy. If you’re upset about the big bonuses paid to executives of the bailout-sucking Fannie Mae, remember that Frank was literally sleeping with a top Fannie Mae executive while he sat on the House Banking Committee. Frank lied repeatedly to protect the Fannie Mae racket from oversight, and the resulting cost to the American people was nearly incalculable.

And yet, it remains the official Democrat Party storyline that absolutely no one in government had anything to do with the subprime crisis. They don’t just finger the evil banks as 70% or 80% responsible. It’s essential to preserving their mythology that the corruption of characters like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd be completely obscured.

Why the GOP is dying in California

◼ When your political enemies give you a gift, you ought to take it. - Steven Greenhut/OC Register

We all know that California's Democratic Party is running the state into the ground fiscally, given how beholden its legislators and elected officials are to public sector unions and how devoted they are to expanding government and raising taxes. The state needs some political competition, but a major court case reminds us why the state Republican Party is a useless vessel that's incapable of broadening its base and changing the state's political trajectory.

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a lawsuit brought by defenders of the state's redevelopment agencies (RDAs) who are seeking to overturn recent laws that essentially shut down those agencies. Gov. Jerry Brown isn't often right, but he was on target when he proposed shutting down these central planning agencies that primarily dispense corporate welfare to big businesses and drive small property owners off their land so that big-box stores can prosper.

Brown's plan wasn't perfect. It allowed the agencies to buy their way back into existence as many of them have since done. The law wasn't passed entirely for the right reasons. Brown and legislative Democrats had typically supported RDAs, but were looking for quick ways to close the state's gaping budget hole. As Bloomberg reported, "The governor and supporters of the law said the redevelopment agencies have become little more than slush funds for private developers, and they want the tax money generated by new developments to be diverted from the agencies to local schools, law enforcement agencies and other services."

When your political enemies give you a gift, you ought to take it.

Instead of taking it, California Republicans actively opposed the governor's plan and shamelessly sided with the people who run roughshod over everything the GOP is supposed to stand for. Forget all the talk about property rights, limited government, free markets and family values....

Republicans should be standing with the small property owners and business people – often working-class people and minorities – who want to pursue their dreams and not be bullied by these urban-renewal agencies. They should be standing up for fiscal responsibility and against debt and subsidies. Instead, they have stood up for the Armani-suit-wearing developers and bean-counting bureaucrats who treat private property like pieces on a monopoly board. It's shameful and a reminder of why the GOP is dying in California.

Poll: Gingrich opens up nine-point lead after Union-Leader's ringing endorsement

◼ Newt Gingrich has opened a sizable lead over Mitt Romney in the first national poll in the GOP presidential race taken since the former Speaker of the House earned the key endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader, showing Gingrich with a nine-percentage point lead over the former Massachusetts governor. - The Hill

The poll, conducted by Majority Opinion Research Sunday night, showed Gingrich leading the Republican field with 32 percent of support from those surveyed. Romney earned 23 percent, while Herman Cain rounded out the top three with 14 percent of the vote. Ron Paul led the remainder of the field with 6 percent.

Gingrich's lead has opened up as the former Speaker has rallied both older voters and independents.
__________________
Newt Gingrich

California: Cash-strapped cities want workers to contribute more to pensions

◼ As Gov. Jerry Brown calls for sweeping reforms in public-employee pensions, cities such as Santa Ana demand concessions from their employee unions. - LA Times

Getting a handle on pension costs in the county's largest city is a must, officials here say. Santa Ana is facing a $30-million deficit, has only $300,000 in reserves and is jettisoning jobs by the dozens to keep its head above water. Last year, the city paid out about $11.3 million for employee pension costs.

Now the city and scores of others around the state are getting a potential assist from Gov. Jerry Brown, who is calling for sweeping reforms in public-employee pensions. Santa Ana is among the cities that would see the most significant cost reductions if workers were required to pick up more of their retirement costs.

A Times analysis based on 2009 payrolls shows that cities and counties in California would save an estimated $1.3 billion if local government workers statewide paid what the governor's office determines to be the normal employee share of pension contributions. Brown says workers should be contributing about 8% of their paychecks to their own retirement. Police and firefighters, who have more generous pensions, should pay about 9%, Brown says.

Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility...

◼ Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004. - Haaretz/Reuters

It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events.

The Revolutionary Guard said the accidental explosion occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.

◼ BREAKING: Huge Explosion In IRAN's Nuke City - Yid With Lid

◼ Related: Image shows (another) Iranian missile site was destroyed (two weeks ago)

(Paul Brannan, a senior analyst for the Institute for Science and International Security,) said ISIS had recently learned from “knowledgable officials” that the blast had occurred just as Iran had achieved a milestone in the development of a new missile and may have been performing a “volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site.”

The Future of the Obama Coalition: “...the Republican Party has become the party of the white working class”

◼ (P)reparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class. - Thomas B. Edsall/NYT

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic...

The 2012 approach treats white voters without college degrees as an unattainable cohort. The Democratic goal with these voters is to keep Republican winning margins to manageable levels, in the 12 to 15 percent range, as opposed to the 30-point margin of 2010 — a level at which even solid wins among minorities and other constituencies are not enough to produce Democratic victories....

In the United States, (Ruy) Teixeira noted, “the Republican Party has become the party of the white working class,” while in Europe, many working-class voters who had been the core of Social Democratic parties have moved over to far right parties, especially those with anti-immigration platforms.

Teixeira, writing with John Halpin, argues in “The Path to 270: Demographics versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election,” that in order to be re-elected, President Obama must keep his losses among white college graduates to the 4-point margin of 2008 (47-51). Why? Otherwise he will not be able to survive a repetition of 2010, when white working-class voters supported Republican House candidates by a record-setting margin of 63-33.

Obama’s alternative path to victory, according to Teixeira and Halpin, would be to keep his losses among all white voters at the same level John Kerry did in 2004, when he lost them by 17 points, 58-41. This would be a step backwards for Obama, who lost among all whites in 2008 by only 12 points (55-43). Obama can afford to drop to Kerry’s white margins because, between 2008 and 2012, the pro-Democratic minority share of the electorate is expected to grow by two percentage points and the white share to decline by the same amount, reflecting the changing composition of the national electorate.

Barney Bails - 17th House Dem to Bolt

◼ Barney Frank not seeking re-election in 2012 - CNN

◼ Barney Frank – Politician Behind Financial Crisis – Will Not Seek Re-election - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
Frank’s fingerprints were all over the 2008 financial crisis.
Last month Newt Gingrich suggested that prison would be a good place for Barney. (and Chris Dodd)
◼ Breaking: Barney Frank will not seek re-election
◼ BARNEY FRANK WILL RETIRE UPDATES: ‘Corrupt Creature of Washington Who Helped Usher in the Great Recession’; Maxine Waters to Become Top Dem on Banking Committee - The Other McCain
◼ Frank was among the Democrats who prevented scrutiny and reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it could have prevented the economic collapse. Republicans at the time wanted more oversight and regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Frank and many of his fellow Democrats stood in the way. - Bryan Preston/PJTatler

Washington and the nation will be far better off without Barney Frank anywhere near political power.

◼ Why I Am Not Celebrating Barney Frank’s Resignation - Joel B. Pollak/Breitbart's Big Government

...his most damaging legacies–the housing crisis, the financial “reform” that bears his name, and the hyper-partisanship to which he eagerly contributed–outweigh Frank’s positive contributions. How unfortunate that his constituents did not eject him much sooner.

PAKISTAN ENRAGED

◼ Hundreds of enraged Pakistanis took to the streets across the country Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and setting fire to US flags after 24 soldiers died in NATO air strikes. - Yahoo News
◼ Burn effigy of Obama... - Sky News
◼ ULTIMATUM: GET OUT...
◼ NATO braces for reprisals... - Guardian
◼ AFGHANS: They fired at us... - MSNBC

“We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear”

◼ (Remarkable quotes), when New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, the Union Leader, endorsed the former House speaker over the former Massachusetts governor. - Washington Times

“We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear,” the newspaper wrote in a front-page editorial that was as much an indirect rebuke of Mr. Romney as it was an endorsement of Mr. Gingrich.

“We don’t have to agree with them on every issue … . We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing,” the paper said.

◼ An Editorial: For President, Newt Gingrich - NH Union Leader

Truth be known, many in the liberal media are belittling the Republican candidates because they don't want any of them to be taken as a serious challenger to their man, Obama.

Readers of the Union Leader and Sunday News know that we don't back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job.

◼ Quotes of the day - HotAir

◼ Whether his recent rise in the polls is lasting or not, Newt Gingrich has already shifted Campaign 2012 for the better. The feisty former speaker of the House has reminded us through his debate performances that knowledge is an important part of a president’s work. - Amity Shlaes/Bloomberg

Gingrich doesn’t project electability or character in the sense we usually mean. “Character” is what you want your daughter to marry. You don’t want your daughter to marry Newt. Nor does he have the purity of inexperience -- Gingrich isn’t like Palin or Herman Cain. He’s an insider’s insider, with all the dirt and baggage that connotes.

But Gingrich does project a terrifying authority of policy knowledge. Voters have been warming to Gingrich because he’s right -- about the budget, about Social Security reform, about plenty of other substantive themes he’s elaborated on since the debates began.

Gingrich’s responses are filled with fresh ideas and concrete examples....
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Newt Gingrich

Canada to pull out of Kyoto Protocol next month

◼ Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned. - CTV

"Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us," Kent said.

ATF gun probe: Behind the fall of Operation Fast and Furious

◼ When the National Rifle Association launched a TV ad campaign this month to have Attorney General Eric Holder fired, it culminated a political frenzy over a once-obscure Arizona gun-smuggling case. - Arizona Republic

When the National Rifle Association launched a TV ad campaign this month to have Attorney General Eric Holder fired, it culminated a political frenzy over a once-obscure Arizona gun-smuggling case....

(After Border Patrol Agent Terry was killed) A growing number of ATF employees wanted to expose Fast and Furious. The question: How?

Dobyns and Cefalu began networking with two of the most prominent and prolific Second Amendment bloggers in America.

David Codrea, an Ohio-based writer, is field editor for GUNS Magazine and an author on a website known as "The War on Guns: Notes From the Resistance."

Mike Vanderboegh runs a website, Sipsey Street Irregulars, which he identifies as a gathering place for the 3 percent of Americans willing to fight for the right to bear arms.

Vanderboegh and Codrea, longtime friends, this year received Soldier of Fortune Magazine's Second Amendment Freedom Award and the David and Goliath Award from Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Dobyns says he turned to the bloggers because of a shared animus toward ATF administrators. "Do they have an agenda? Of course they do," he said. "But it's my experience that they're not anti-ATF; they're anti-bad ATF."

Codrea and Vanderboegh began churning out essays on Fast and Furious, even giving the operation its sardonic nickname, "Project Gunwalker." They joined forces with other bloggers, government employees and gun dealers in what Vanderboegh calls "a coalition of willing Lilliputians."

Their reports, frequently quoting anonymous sources, exposed the dubious investigative strategy but went much further, speculating that the White House was involved. A typical posting by Vanderboegh carried the headline, "... Obama's Gunwalker Was a Deliberate Conspiracy Vs. the 2nd Amendment."

That hypothesis has gone viral in the gun-rights blogosphere. Proponents, noting that Obama was endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence during the 2008 campaign, claim that high-placed officials in Washington, D.C., devised a plan to flood Mexico with firearms as justification for a crackdown on gun ownership.

◼ Gun Rights Examiner earns Sunday headlines in Arizona Republic and WorldNetDaily - examiner.com

◼ David's take on Arizona Republic article posted earlier today. - Sipsey Street Irregulars

See also: ◼ Project Gunwalker Scandal Resources:

David Codrea's Journalist Guides:

Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Sharyl Attkisson's stories on CBS
Official Correspondence on the Project Gunwalker Scandal.

Does Obama really want to win?

◼ There are only two ways to look at the Obama re-election campaign right now: Either the upstart candidate who stunned the world when he defeated the Clinton machine to capture the Democratic nomination three years ago has lost every bit of that massive mojo, or the bruised and battered president, after three years in office, just doesn’t want another spin in the Oval Office. - Joseph Curl/The Washington Times

How else to explain the nonstop missteps, the stammering and stuttering campaign, not to mention the brazen attacks on American voters, who, he has said, have “fallen behind,” lost their “ambition and imagination,” gotten “lazy” and “a bit soft” - this is a guy seeking the support of America?!

...“Once having won the office,” the MSNBC cheerleader (Chris Matthews) said, “he seemed to think that that was the end of it in terms of his connection to the American people. … I think everybody feels an absence of communication from the time he’s been elected. And it’s not about not being left-wing enough or too left. That’s not his problem. It’s connection. And Mrs. Obama, she’s an amazing asset. And what has she done? Obesity? How about connecting with the American people about being Americans? I don’t think she’s happy. I don’t think they like being in the White House. The American people can tell that. They don’t seem thrilled at the fact the American people have selected them as our first family. I don’t sense the gratitude, the happiness level, the thrill of being president.”

Thanksgiving’s over. We’re now just 37 days from the Jan. 3 caucuses:

◼ Iowa Heats Up - The Other McCain

Gingrich wins NH Union Leader endorsement

◼ Newt Gingrich received the endorsement of the influential editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader on Sunday - The Hill

The endorsement gives the former House Speaker additional momentum after a month which has seen him vault to the top of national GOP polls.

"We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing," said the editorial by publisher Joseph W. McQuaid.

"A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again," he added.

◼ Bill Clinton Praises Newt: "He's Articulate" And Attracts Independents - Real Clear Politics
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Newt Gingrich