RICK SANTORUM: We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like – the anti-war government nig… America was a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong.
A signal has apparently gone out among the Bush family and faithful: Line up behind Romney!
Recently, former Gov. Jeb Bush, former Pres. George H.W. Bush, and his wife, Barbara, publicly endorsed the Mormon. The admiration is mutual, according to Reuters, since Romney is relying on members of Pres. George W. Bush’s administration to advise him on national security and foreign policy.
If the rest of the Republican party hoped for more in the way of a candidate this year, the Bush folks couldn’t be happier.
Romney has named 24 “special advisers” in national security and foreign policy, 16 of whom served in diplomatic or political roles under Bush. They include Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security chief, and Dan Senor, who was an administration spokesman in Iraq.
On judicial issues, Romney is advised by at least three top veterans of Bush’s Justice Department.
Romney’s education advisers include Margaret Spellings, who was secretary of education under Bush and a chief advocate for No Child Left Behind….
Privately, they believe that…a Romney presidency could have a look much like Bush’s presidency.
Romney’s campaign is “a restoration of the Bush establishment,” said former Bush speechwriter Matt Lattimer, who is not supporting Romney. Bush loyalists “all want to be back in power again, and Romney’s the best bet.”
Bill Press and Stephanie Miller, now on Current TV in the morning
If you’re up early and want political news and discussion on the teevee, but you can’t stomach MSNBC’s Fox News-lite Joe Scarborough show and you find C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” to be just too dry, there is a new alternative.
Current TV has begun running televised simulcasts of long-running radio chat shows hosted by Bill Press, weekday mornings at 6 a.m. Eastern/3 a.m. Pacific, and Stephanie Miller, from 9 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Pacific.
Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis at Huffington Post blame Rick Santorum’s failures in the 2012 Republican primaries on the fact that he learned nothing from the 18-point loss he suffered in his campaign for reelection to the Senate in 2006:
Interviews with more than a dozen former aides, adversaries, and close observers of the ‘06 contest, however, show that important lessons — about the need to stay on message, convey warmth to voters and appear less patronizing — haven’t been learned at all. The senator who stumbled so badly six years ago, many say, is the same candidate now locked in a hotly-contested race for the Republican presidential nomination: pugnacious and unscripted, talented at retail politics, but often his own worst enemy.
But this leaves out the fact that Rick Santorum never had a chance at becoming president because he is a narrow-minded jerk and a bully who is not intellectually or temperamentally suited for high office. It took Pennsylvania voters 12 years — the two terms he served in the Senate — to figure that out. A new Qunnipiac poll out yesterday finds that while Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney are virtually tied in Pennsylvania, 45 to 42 percent, the president beats native son Santorum, 48 to 41 percent.
Lynn Mulder, center, standing between her sons, Damien Skipper, left, and Ryan SkipperAs details have come to light about the murder of Trayvon Martin last month in Sanford, Fla., the questions being raised about police conduct in the case bring to mind the way police in Polk County, Fla., which is about 75 miles southeast of Sanford, handled the case of Ryan Skipper who was murdered there five years ago this month.
Except for the fact that both murders were senseless and tragic, and both crimes took down young men who should have had long and promising lives ahead of them, the circumstances around the murders diverge. Ryan was robbed, stabbed 20 times by a pair of crazed meth heads who left him to die on a dirt road near Wahneta. Trayvon was allegedly stalked inside the grounds of a gated community by an over-zealous and seemingly paranoiac community watch volunteer who shot him apparently during a struggle.
There are striking parallels, however. Both cases involved some sketchy police conduct, the murders both occurred in Central Florida and both victims were young and members of minority groups. Trayvon Martin was 17 and African-American, and Ryan Skipper was 25 and gay.
It took a month or so for the Martin case to gain attention, and now it has become a firestorm. In the Skipper case, the shock was immediate, but because of the way Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd characterized the case in his first news conference, interest in it in the national media fizzled over night.
Number of official “Romney Super Fan” T-shirts for $30 apiece Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has sold, according to The Washington Post. By contrast, Rick Santorum has sold 3,000 of his $100 souvenir sweater vests.
Amount President Obama’s re-election campaign has spent so far, the AP reports. That’s about $3 million more than all his Republican challengers combined.
Today Nicolas Maduro was arraigned in New York on charges of narco-terrorism,
He pleaded “not guilty” and claimed to be a “decent man,” not a villain.
But Maduro got bad legal advice:
His lawyer forgot Trump Inherent Vice™ —
He should have pleaded guilty and then bought a Trump Pardon™ for two million.
“A tyrannical theocracy has shut down the internet for an entire country so the world can’t see the brutal tactics it plans to use to crush a free Iran. In my view, this is the biggest free-speech story in the world right now.”
— Greg Lukianoff, head of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, on X.
A new AtlasIntel poll finds a majority of Venezuelans want María Corina Machado to lead their country, contradicting Donald Trump’s claim that the opposition leader doesn’t have the support to rule. More than half of Venezuelans living in their homeland — 51.6% — say Machado should take over, compared with 14% who endorse Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed the presidency this month following Trump’s military intervention.
There have been at least 15 million flu cases this season, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports ABC News. This year, outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms reached the highest recorded level since the agency began tracking cases more than 30 years ago.
New data reveals that a staggering 335,000 federal workers left government work last year, with the vast majority quitting or retiring — only 11,000 were a result of layoffs from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Washington Post reports.
“President Donald Trump has called on credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10 percent for a year, effective from Jan. 20, without specifying how the proposal could be implemented or enforced,” the Washington Post reports. Associated Press: Americans would save $100B if credit card rates were capped as Trump proposed.
“President Trump proposed on Wednesday increasing military spending next year by more than half, raising the defense budget in 2027 to $1.5 trillion as he pushes for American imperialism in Venezuela and beyond,” the New York Times reports. “The president’s request for a $600 billion increase in military spending comes as his administration flexes military strength around the world.”