Here’s Ron Paul’s take on Newt Gingrich. Of course, Paul considers showing Newt with Nancy Pelosi incendiary, and quotes Rush Limbaugh as if he were someone with a right to be outraged over someone else’s hypocrisy and moral infidelity. The ad does point out just a few of the many reasons we should all hate Newt but it doesn’t answer the question of why Ron Paul is going after him. I mean, of all Paul’s fellow primary contender whack jobs, why Newt? Did Paul produce negative ads about Bachmann or Cain? Maybe some Ron-ulans can enlighten me here.
I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death.
— GOP strategist Frank Luntz, quoted by Yahoo News, noting the Occupy Wall Street protests are “having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
A new Harvard research paper concludes that “racial animus” cost President Obama three to five percentage points of the popular vote in the 2008 presidential election. Racial bias was found in two ways: Some Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Obama and a similar number who wouldn’t have voted turned out for Sen. John McCain. However, that was partially offset by an increase in turnout among black voters. “The cost of racial animus was not decisive in the 2008 election. But a four percentage point loss by the winning candidate would have changed the result in the majority of post-war presidential elections.”
The unemployment rate for November, as the U.S. labor market strengthened, adding 120,000 new jobs. The jobless rate is now lower than at any point since March 2009, when it was 8.6% as well.
Still say Mitt Romney has the better shot at beating President Obama in 2012, despite Newt Gingrich’s recent surge to the front of the GOP presidential race, according to the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll.
Before the debate this week on extending the payroll tax holiday, Republicans used to insist that tax cuts paid for themselves:
CARLY FIORINA (R-CA), FORMER U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Let me just propose something that may seem crazy to you. You don`t need to pay for tax cuts. They pay for themselves.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: You need policies like an extension and making permanent the `01 and `03 tax cuts. They will be paid for because they create economic growth.
SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA, second ranking Republican in the Senate: You should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
MADDOW: You should never have to pay for tax cuts. Tax cuts pay for themselves. That was Jon Kyl then.
Here`s Jon Kyl now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYL: I`ve never said that all tax cuts always pay for themselves.
From the first moment he burst onto the public stage with his jazzy hands, high-pitched feminine voice and sibilant s’es, Marcus Bachmann has registered at about an 11 on a scale of one to 10 on gaydars across the nation.
Marcus BachmannAdding fuel to rumors that he is closeted is the fact that he has made his living, in part, from one of the saddest rackets around: convincing gay Christians that they can be, or need to be, “cured.”
Here’s the rule, and you can take this to the bank: Heterosexuals who are secure about their own sexuality are not obsessed with homosexuality. People who are happily straight are apathetic about the mechanics of gay sex. They do not make it their life mission to suppress gay rights. They don’t spend every waking hour figuring out new ways to oppress gay people, and they never send their families out to picket funerals with signs that say, for example, “God Hates Fags.” And, especially, they don’t try to “cure” homosexuality with “pray away the gay” schemes like Bachmann’s.
Now, in the latest gaffe in her presidential campaign, Marcus’ wife, Michele, appears to have spilled the beans about their marriage. At a town hall in Waverly, Iowa, Rep. Bachmann was questioned about marriage equality by Jane Schmidt, a high school student:
JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?
BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.
In the diplomatic ranks, trained professionals toil,
To keep the peace and tamp down foreign turmoil.
But for Greek ambassador,
Trump picked an artful dodger —
The grifting, drunken blackmailer Kimberly Guilfoyle.
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats, reports Florida Phoenix. Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Women make up 35.5% of all state legislative candidates this cycle. Currently, women hold about one-third of state legislative seats across the country — a record level of representation but nowhere near parity.
“Prediction markets about the 2026 midterm elections have surpassed $1.4 billion in trading volume as Election Day fast approaches,” CNN reports. “This year has seen massive growth in the prediction industry, where people can bet on real-world events like sports, entertainment and the weather. While small-scale election markets have been around for a while, they gained traction before the 2024 presidential election and have seen huge numbers for the 2026 midterms.”
G. Elliot Morris: “Low-knowledge 2024 voters say they backed Trump by 8 points, according to our poll. Today they give him a net job approval of ?27, a 35-point shift. Compare that to Trump’s approval rating among voters who got both questions right: These voters backed Harris by 1 point and now give Trump a net ?24 approval, a 23-point shift. … Low-information voters have moved against Trump at a higher rate than high-information voters, by 12 points.”
President Donald ?Trump’s approval rating fell to a record low as Americans worried about high gasoline prices and appeared ready to punish his Republican Party in the November 3 congressional elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. Some 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s ?performance in office, down a percentage point from two weeks earlier and the lowest level in ?either of his presidential terms, the four-day poll showed.
KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”
