Tag: Campaign 2012

Newt Bites Fox, Fox Snarks Back

Jon Ponder

art-nydailynews-cry-baby-newtNewt Gingrich lashed out at his former employer, Fox News, in a private meeting with a handful of Delaware tea baggers this week:

“I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” Gingrich said during the private meeting — to which RealClearPolitics was granted access — at Wesley College. “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.

…“I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point [who] said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich said. “And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches FOX.”

Translation: “It was okay with me that Fox was a Republican Party propaganda channel — until they turned their propagandizing against me.”

A little later, Newt’s Cry Baby personality — the one that shut down the U.S. government in 1996 because mean ol’ Bill Clinton made him ride in the back of Air Force One — had something to say:

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Santorum Does Full Etch-a-Sketch on Website, Scrubs Attacks on Romney

Jon Ponder

Shake, shake, shake:

The Santorum campaign’s website has been wiped clean of all content directly critical of the now de-facto Republican nominee.

A page that declared Romney to be the “proud defender and author of “Obamneycare” has been replaced by an “Access denied” message. The same is true for a post with a video of Romney declaring that his only connection to the Republican Party was his registration.

Ditto for a page outlining an attack Santorum made against Romney for supporting the Wall Street bailout, another criticizing the former Massachusetts governor for his various flip-flops, yet another attacking Romney for his support of mandates, and a press release that accused Romney of being a Democrat.

Remember that time when Santorum accused Romney of “Taxachusetts economic policies”? The press release marking that moment is gone from the Santorum campaign website.

Rick Warren: Evangelicals’ ‘Sticking Point’ – Mormons ‘Don’t Believe in the Historic Doctrine of the Trinity’

Jon Ponder

RICK WARREN: Well, the key sticking point for evangelicals and actually for many is the issue of the Trinity,” the evangelical pastor explained. “Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, Protestant Christians, evangelical Christians and Pentecostal Christians all believe in the Trinity; that’s the historic doctrine of the church, that God is three-in-one. Not three gods; one God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Mormonism denies that. That’s a sticking point for a lot of Catholic Christians, evangelical Christians, Pentecostal Christians, because they don’t — they don’t believe that. Now they’ll use the same terminology, but they don’t believe in the historic doctrine of the Trinity,” Warren added. “And people have tried to make it other issues. But that’s really one of the fundamental differences.

Birther Queen Orly Taitz Leads in Early Polling in California’s GOP U.S. Senate Primary

Jon Ponder

Taitz
Taitz
Talk about the silly season! Last month, right-wing clown Joe the Plumber won the Republican primary in Ohio’s heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District. Joe — whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — will run against veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has represented the district for 30 years.

Now it appears that another Republican joke, birther queen Orly Taitz, could well win the Republican primary in the California U.S. Senate race in June. She is, by far, the best best known candidate in a field of 23, including 14 Republicans, who are vying to take on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has served in the Senate since 1992.

Calbuzz got a quote on the matter from the poor sap saddled with the job of being chairman of the California Republican Party:

“We’re aware (Taitz) has name ID,” state GOP chair Tom Del Becarro, who’s doing all he can to boost the candidacy of little-known but party-endorsed Elizabeth Emken, told us bravely. “We think the party’s endorsement will carry the day.”

Ha! As if:

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Romney Hires Bush White House Political Czar

Jon Ponder

George W. Bush with Ed Gillespie
George W. Bush with Ed Gillespie
Politico:

Moving to broaden his campaign organization beyond his close-knit cadre of advisers, Mitt Romney is bringing on former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie as a senior adviser, POLITICO has learned.

Gillespie will be a sort of strategist without portfolio to the likely GOP presidential nominee, offering counsel on planning for the Tampa convention, the candidate’s message and a general election strategy for a campaign that is already moving beyond the primary.

Gillespie joined the Bush White House as a top political operative — officially “counselor to the president” — in June 2007. Later that year, after Karl Rove jumped ship, Gillespie took over political operations at the White House, a job that, as had also been the case with Rove, he unofficially shared with Roger Ailes, president of Fox News. Here’s how the New York Times described Gillespie back then:

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Mainstream Republicans Support Romney Because They Assume He’s Faking Right-Wing Views

Jon Ponder

Stu Rothenberg:

Nobody — not his critics and not his allies — really believes Mitt Romney.

Romney’s great problem in the GOP race, as pretty much everyone has already observed, is that conservatives don’t really believe that he is one of them.

Despite all his conservative rhetoric — on taxes, government spending, traditional marriage, immigration, abortion and health care — conservatives aren’t buying it. They believe that Romney is simply pandering to them because he knows that is what he needs to do to lock up the Republican nomination.

Whether it is his multiple positions over the years on abortion, his support for an individual mandate in Massachusetts, his Mormon faith or simply his profile as a wealthy, impeccably dressed businessman, the most conservative Republican voters (many of whom are evangelicals) don’t believe that he is a passionate conservative who is ready to take on the political establishment.

What’s interesting about Romney and his supporters is that, despite his conservative rhetoric, moderates and country club conservatives continue to support his candidacy.

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Santorum Lies about Higher Education – Again

Jon Ponder

SANTORUM: I was just reading something last night from the state of California. And that the California universities – I think it’s seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course. It’s not even available to be taught.

Meanwhile in Realityville:

Berkeley, Irvine, Davis, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz all offer numerous American history courses. All require students to take U.S. history before they can graduate.

In the past few months Santorum has “called colleges ‘indoctrination mills’ that make students liberal and Godless, and labeled President Obama a ‘snob’ for wanting kids to get educated. ‘Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image,’ Santorum said.”

Asked If Mitt Is ‘Stiff,’ Ann Romney Says, ‘I guess We Better Unzip Him and Let the Real Mitt Romney Out Because He Is Not!’

Jon Ponder

Mitt Romney has proved to be such an awful, gaffe-prone candidate that his campaign has increasingly come to rely on Ann, who seems more genuine and, you know, human. But now it’s Mrs. Romney who has made a cringe-worthy slip-up:

Ann Romney’s remarks came during an interview with Baltimore radio station WBAL, during which the host asked her, “And one of the things, Ann Romney, that folks talk about with your husband, Mitt Romney, and I’ve seen him in casual conversation-He comes off very smooth and okay. But sometimes he comes off stiff. Do you have to fight back some criticism, like ‘My husband isn’t stiff, OK?’”

Laughing, Ann Romney responded, “Well, you know, I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out because he is not!”

On the other hand, let’s don’t.