Republicans in Iowa

Obama campaign warns of 'extremist' Republicans   "US President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign early Wednesday sought to portray the nation's first Republican nomination battle as a victory for "extremist" candidates."
Carter gives Obama advice  "Son, this is what you need to do to be a good candidate"


Neal Boortz on the Iowa Caucuses  "Nearly 60% of those who voted for Santorum said that their number ONE issue .. now we’re talking NUMBER ONE here … was abortion.  That’s right:  With Iran threatening our U.S. Navy; with the economy still in the toilet … an economy that can’t produce enough jobs to keep up with population growth; with all the problems we’re facing as a nation the NUMBER ONE issue for these voters is whether or not a woman somewhere might be making the decision to terminate a preganancy?(sp)"

donkeyhotey

Kimberly Strassel: Mr. Good Enough  "Voters aren't convinced by Mitt Romney. They're not certain of his convictions; they wonder if he is the leader for these times; they're not sold on his policies or his personality. Yet voters may be about to make the former Massachusetts governor the Republican nominee for the presidency. Mark this down as the triumph of strategy over inspiration."


Latest Republican ad using Democrat's words:



NRO Symposium:  What Iowa Means  "But the big story ought to be Romney. He has all the king’s horses and all the king’s men supporting him, the print MSM and most segments on Fox News Channel in his favor, yet for the second time in four years, 75 percent of Iowa caucus-goers rejected him. Frontrunner? Sure. Electable? Maybe. Inevitable? Not so fast."

Why Romney and Santorum Fought to a Draw in Iowa  "The big story in Iowa appears to be that Romney’s camp is getting the result it wanted despite a merely workmanlike showing for their own candidate. That’s because the Iowa results will elevate Paul and Santorum, who face the greatest hurdles in building a national campaign, while depressing Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry -- either of whom might have had more chance to emerge as a threat to Romney if they had received a boost from Iowa."

donkeyhotey

Roger L Simon:  Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Dies in Iowa  "So Paul has had his value, though like so many “true believers” he has trouble integrating the orthodoxies of his ideology with the realities of the world. This is particularly odd since he is old enough to have grown up in the shadow of World War II and Hitler and then of the evils of Stalin and Mao. Such things do not just “go away” if you are a “good libertarian.” Paul is in a sense the anti-Reagan – peace not through strength but through ideological purity."


Is it Jon Huntsman's turn to be the 'not Romney' candidate?

Obama’s National Security ‘Not Top 10′ of 2011

PJ Media  Substantive reasons why this current president is in the same league with the Ron Paul foreign policy from the indications visible at this moment. In the article linked, each item below is discussed in more detail.
1) President Obama claims Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood lacks major support (February 6)
2) Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tells Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is a “largely secular” group (February 10)

3) Osama bin Laden buried by U.S. military in accordance with Islamic traditions (May 2)
4) Pentagon overrules field commanders, grants Private Naser Jason Abdo conscientious objector status just weeks before his arrest for planning terror attack on fellow soldiers (May)
5) Prominent Muslim-American lobbyist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai arrested as Pakistani intelligence agent (July 20)
6) Obama backs overthrow of Gaddafi, installs al-Qaeda-friendly, Shariah-compliant regime in Libya (March-present)
7) Hillary Clinton backs plan by Islamic countries to criminalize “defamation of Islam” (July-present)
8) White House blocks appointment of moderate Muslim leader Zuhdi Jasser to State Department post (October)
9) DOD official refuses to acknowledge the threat of radical Islam during hearing on terror threats to the U.S. military (December 10)


10) Vice President Joe Biden says Taliban is not our enemy just days before Taliban take credit for killing four U.S. soldiers (December 18)

Obama's Keystone pipeline blunder

Michael Barone  "How misguided was Barack Obama’s decision to refuse to approve the Keystone XL pipeline?

"How misguided was Custer’s decision to ride into Little Big Horn?"

....

"Perhaps only someone who has chosen to live in university neighborhoods all his adult life could have so overestimated the appeal of environmental restriction groups' arguments and failed to understand the common sense of the great majority of ordinary Americans."

An Indignant George Stephanopoulos Huffs to Santorum: 'How Can You Say' Obama Is Weak?

Newsbusters  "Santorum responded by insisting that, in the example of killing Osama bin Laden, Obama simply followed a course set by George W. Bush. Stephanopoulos sputtered, "How can you say he sided with our enemies on almost every foreign conflict?" "

The Graduate: Why Should Everyone Else Pay for Other People’s Dumb (and Hedonistic) Career Choices

Barry Rubin  "Here’s the secret: He cannot make a living because the market for people with degrees in linguistics and in Oriental philosophy is limited. He should have known that. Someone should have told him that. The calculation of practicality should have been made. It wasn’t.

"As I said, this individual does not want handouts and he has not taken student loans. Many others have. A large proportion of the Occupy Wall Street-and-other-places movement seems to consist of those who have made similar “career” (or non-career) decisions but want others to pay for their pastimes and mistakes.

"There are at least three important lessons here of the greatest importance."...More...

What is it that they want? OWS protestors disrupt Romney rally

American Thinker  "What is it that they want? Do they want Romney impoverished - taking away his wealth and punishing him for his success? Why violate his free speech rights? What does that prove?

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2011/12/30/95081

"It is becoming clear that as the OWS movement goes along, they don't have a clue about how to achieve any of their goals except to take from those who have more and give to those who have less. The concept of creating more for everyone escapes them as does a basic sense of propriety and good manners."

Ten most ridiculous lawsuits of 2011

marx-brothers.org

Hot Air  "While these lawsuits vary from the outrageous to the humorous, abusive litigation is hardly a laughing matter. ILR’s annual poll of ridiculous lawsuits helps to remind us that abusive lawsuits affect real people and real businesses, and can have harmful results to lives, jobs, and even our economic growth."
Source.

Brian Walsh on One Nation Under Arrest on Stossel  "Brian Walsh discusses overcriminalization and the Heritage book, One Nation Under Arrest; and John Stossel interviews some of the victims of overcriminalization from the book."

Hat tip to Overcriminalized.com

Dick Morris: Obama is running from his record, but he can’t hide it

The Hill  "In his “60 Minutes” interview, President Obama offered a keen insight into his 2012 reelection strategy. It takes some decoding, but his underlying strategic goals emerge. He said:

“The question next year is going to be — and then this is how a democracy is supposed to work — do they see a more compelling vision coming out from the other side? Do they think that cutting taxes further, including on the wealthy, cutting taxes on corporations, of gutting regulations — do we think that that is going to be somehow more successful? And if the American people think that that’s a recipe for success and a majority are persuaded by that, then I’m going to lose.”

"Three relevant points emerge from an analysis of his comment:"....

Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Clinton, is the author of Outrage, Fleeced, 
Catastrophe and 2010: Take Back America — A Battle Plan.

http://conservativedailynews.com/2012/01/excessive-self-regard/

George Will: Obama needn’t lose for GOP to win  "Imagine what a horror 2011 was for progressives as Americans began to comprehend their stunning abundance of fossil fuels — beyond their two centuries’ supply of coal. Progressives responded with attempts to impede development of the vast proven reserves of natural gas and oil here and in Canada. They bent the willowy Obama to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry oil from Canadian tar sands; they raised environmental objections to new techniques for extracting gas and “tight” oil from shale formations."

Looking ahead to Iowa

Jennifer Rubin says: Romney to win, Gingrich to the discard pile  "In the last week, Iowa Republicans  have gotten serious about their presidential choices, separating the wheat from the chaff. Unfortunately for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Newt Gingrich, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Iowa voters on Tuesday night will relegate them to the discard pile. Expect Bachmann to finish last, Gingrich to take fifth and Perry to end in fourth, well behind the trio of frontrunners."
Rick Moran: Romney takes slim lead into final day of Iowa campaigning  "It's a slim lead, and if things shake out the way the most of the polls are saying, Romney will eke out a narrow win with Paul and Santorum very close behind."
Beltway Confidential: Santorum's record won't withstand post-IA scrutiny "However, too many times, especially during the Bush era, he wholeheartedly embraced big government conservatism. Among other things, he sponsored an amendment to raise the minimum wage; backed steel tariffs; sponsored a bill for milk subsidies; took earmarks; voted for the Medicare prescription drug legislation and the pork-laden 2005 highway bill; and infamously endorsed liberal Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in the hotly contested 2004 Senate primary. He has defenses of his positions, but they won't hold up to the scrutiny he'll receive if he wins Iowa."
NRO: Mitt Momentum; His electability appeals to Iowans.  "Romney in the lead at 24 percent. Even though both Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are close in the same poll, it’s conceivable that Romney could win Iowa, despite the fact that he has virtually ignored the state for the bulk of the campaign and has done little retail campaigning there, although he has quietly created a state-wide organization."

This video is from  WAKE UP BLACK AMERICA

Updated: Stay classy, Mr. Colmes.

Alan Colmes Mocks Santorum For Bringing Dead Son Home   "Once they get a hold of the crazy things he's said and done like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real," Democratic commentator Alan Colmes said on FOX News today.
"That's a cheap shot, Alan. To say it's crazy, something that's that personal and hurtful as losing a child and to mock it like that is beyond the pale and beneath you," Colmes' conservative opponent Rich Lowry said after the personal attack.
“I even think some of the dastardly characters we have in the main stream media are not going to go as low as you just have Alan,” National Review editor Rick Lowry said later in the conversation.


Rick Santorum reflects on his son's death

Via Lucianne

UPDATE by Rick Moran:  Alan Colmes is a heartless monster  "Colmes apparently called the Santorums and apologized for his comment - an apology that was graciously accepted (although I don't think too many of us would have been so forgiving). But what kind of person makes a statement like that in the first place?"

Iran and the Straits of Hormuz

Iranian Regime Announces Team of Experts Set to Examine Captured US Drone

"Despite repeated warnings from the Pentagon, Barack Obama rejected three plans to recover or destroy the US drone that was intercepted over Iranian territory.Con Underground was the first to report on this latest national security disaster."

FARS News Agency: Iranian Science, Defense Ministries to Analyze US Stealth Drone Technology

"Iran first announced on December 4 that its defense forces had downed the aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack. 
"The drone is the first such loss by the US. US officials have described the loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth drone program." 

The US Just Stands and Watches

Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany  "The United States supported none of the revolutionaries in the Arab Spring uprisings and today is being fearlessly challenged by them. America has lost its influence in the region because of Obama's policy of wanting both change and the status quo."
....
"A key feature of the Arab Spring is that it is playing out without assistance from the United States and that the defining, decades-old conflict between Israel and its neighbors only plays a subordinate role. This again indicates a massive loss of American influence and importance in the region — both as a classic military and economic power and as a role model for those who love freedom."  Via Watching America