Tag: Campaign 2012

Quitter Quits Publicity Tour After Media Starts Ignoring Her

Jon Ponder

If you ignore people who are desperate for attention, they will go away. Here’s proof:

Amid diminishing media interest, [the GOP’s most recent losing vice presidential nominee and former governor of Alaska who quit mid-term] has quit her high-profile bus tour halfway through and returned to Alaska with her family, according to RealClearPolitics.

The move puts a damper on widespread speculations that [the former governor’s] “One Nation” bus tour, which launched on Memorial Day, was a potential precursor to a potential White House bid for 2012. [She] never made it to her scheduled stops in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire…

The “One Nation” tour launched with intense media interest, as reporters initially followed [her] and her family on the road, diligently trying to decipher the former half-term Alaska governor and ex-GOP vice presidential nominee’s 2012 intentions. But after being ignored and mislead [sic] and denied interviews or access, reporters’ attention fizzled.

Reagan Economic Adviser: TPaw Is Lying – Reagan Tax Cuts Did Not Raise Revenue ‘By Almost 100%’

Jon Ponder

Last week, former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the Republican presidential candidate, claimed that:

“When Ronald Reagan cut taxes in a significant way, revenues actually increased by almost 100 percent during his eight years as president. So this idea that significant, big tax cuts necessarily result in lower revenues – history does not [bear] that out.”

Former Reagan and Bush I economics official Bruce Bartlett says Pawlenty’s assertion is false:

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Rush Limbaugh’s Show Is Underwritten by the Right-Wing Think Tank Responsible for the Individual Mandate and Romneycare

Jon Ponder

logo-heritageProduct placement has become such a subtle art form these days that it’s hard to tell the difference between advertising and the editorial or entertainment content. Case in point, right-leaning Politico.com a reports that the tea party astroturfers, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, and the Heritage Foundation, a Reaganite intellectual boneyard, are quietly underwriting the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck radio shows, at a cost of several millions dollars:

POLITICO: In search of donations and influence, the three prominent conservative groups are paying hefty sponsorship fees to the popular talk show hosts. Those fees buy them a variety of promotional tie-ins, as well as regular on-air plugs – praising or sometimes defending the groups, while urging listeners to donate – often woven seamlessly into programming in ways that do not seem like paid advertising.

Those fees buy them a variety of promotional tie-ins, as well as regular on-air plugs — praising or sometimes defending the groups, while urging listeners to donate — often woven seamlessly into programming in ways that do not seem like paid advertising…

The Heritage Foundation pays about $2 million to sponsor Limbaugh’s show and about $1.3 million to do the same with Hannity’s…

Those millions also buy lies. […]

Redistricting Puts California Republican Party At Risk – Dems Could Add Five New Seats in U.S. House

Jon Ponder

House Rules Chair David Dreier, at risk
House Rules Chair David Dreier, at risk
In the 2010 elections, Californians stood fast against the GOP-tea bagger tide that swamped other states. California voters elected Democrats to every statewide office and retained Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat Democrats won all these seats but one by double digits. They also added a seat or two in the Legislature.

In years past, these gains would have put California Democrats in charge of the state’s decennial, post-Census redistricting of congressional and legislative districts. It’s also more than likely that the Democrats would have continued the bipartisan practice of carving up the state to, first, protect its majority *and, second, protect incumbents in both parties — insofar as the second objective did not interfere with the prime.

Under the backroom scratch-backing system, it is true that the California GOP would have paid for its losses and for the related fact that GOP registration is down to a historic low of 31 percent in the state. The party would likely have lost a few more seats in the Legislature, but its 19 seats in the U.S. House delegation would likely have remained intact.

But the maps are being redrawn under a radically different redistricting system this year, because in 2008 California voters, in their infinite wisdom, decided via a ballot initiative to hand the responsibility for redistricting to a new 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission — five Democrats, five Republicans and four unaffiliated.

That’s right. Redistricting for the largest state in the union has been handled by a committee of amateurs.

It’s fair to say that political insiders assumed that the CCDC would redraw the map to the advantage of Republicans. But that assumption turned out to be wrong. The redrawn maps, which were released on Friday, revealed a reconfiguration that, while not as radical as it could have been, spells trouble for the GOP. It is, as a GOP political analyst described it, “cause for full-out panic … This is musical chairs with switchblades.”

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Gov. Deval Patrick “Resurrected” in Massachusetts

Trish

54%

Of Massachusetts voters approve of the job Deval Patrick is doing as governor, according to Public Policy Polling (PPP). The research group said Patrick’s turnaround from a 22% approval rating 17 months ago is the largest “resurrection” of a candidate since they’ve been polling nationally. It also said Democrats should try harder to convince Patrick to run for Senate against Scott Brown, whose numbers are not as high.

Republican Path to Victory in 2012: Take Down the Economy

Trish

Boehner-ObamaWe get that Republicans don’t care about folks like us. We know they are willing to stop Social Security payments, and payroll for the members of America’s armed services rather than raise the debt ceiling. We get it, we really do.

But to tank the American, and likely the global, economy just to give their lame candidate (whoever it might be) a chance at taking down Obama in 2012? Exactly that is starting to look to like their best strategy.

The Economist: ‘America is undermining its economy for no good reason’

It’s not just Americans drawing a line between a House vote not to extend the debt ceiling and economic setbacks. Our friends across the pond are making the same observation.

Blogger “R.A.” at Britain’s The Economist predicted with exact accuracy on June 1 that such moves would mire economic growth, and decried these self-inflicted wounds. Our stock markets dropped that same day.

R.A. begins with the big picture, the one tea partiers and FOX News miss.

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You Will Know She Is Running When Fox Fires Her

Jon Ponder

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Months ago, Lawrence O’Donnell correctly predicted the day on which Donald Trump would admit he was not running for president — that day, May 16, being the deadline for NBC’s announcement that they had picked up Trump’s reality show for another year. The fact that the show is the network’s top rated primetime show (or at least it was before the Donald aligned himself with the racist birther movement) should have been made it cinch that Trump never had any intention of running — that it was all a big publicity ploy.

And, if stories that NBC upped his salary to $60 million are true, as publicity ploys go, Trump’s fake presidential aspirations were stunningly effective.

Now O’Donnell has turned his sights on Sarah Palin. He reminds us that on March 2, Fox president Roger Ailes fired all the pols on his network who were seriously considering running for president. Palin and Mike Huckabee were not among them.

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