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04 Mar 2012 10:08

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Politics: Super PACs aggressively spend ahead of Super Tuesday. Super.

  • $10 million in Super Tuesday ads bought by Super PACs source
  • » Four states getting strongest focus: Ten states are holding primaries and caucuses in a couple of days, but the ones that the GOP candidates are really focused on? Ohio, Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Much of the advertising seems to be focused on trashing other candidates, with both Mitt-and-Newt-affiliated Super PACs attacking Rick Santorum — who is currently leading in Ohio. In other news, Mitt won a caucus in Washington on Saturday with Ron Paul scoring second place, though the caucus is non-binding.

02 Mar 2012 00:07

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Politics: Jeb Bush: Not running for president, but not for lack of fanbois

  • Maybe more supporters than Santorum? Andrew Card, the former chief of staff for George W. Bush, said this earlier this week: “I have the perfect candidate — Jeb Bush. But he’s not running.” Even Democrats believe that Bush could be a threat if he uses his sway with middle-class and Latino voters. Could the former Florida governor with an impressively presidential bloodline be the Republican Party’s ace in the hole? Or will he wait until 2016? source

28 Feb 2012 14:36

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Politics: Newt Gingrich explains what he means by “San Francisco values”

  • I’m here in 1983, and I’m part of a truth squad… for the convention. And we’re having a great time. It’s a great city, as you know, there’s a reason it’s one of the great tourist cities in the country. We’re down at Union Square, and CBS is interviewing me… literally, at that moment, a six-foot-two transvestite comes up to me and hands me an invitation to an exorcism of Jerry Falwell.
  • Newt Gingrich • Explaining, when pressed by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Joe Garofoli and Carla Marinucci, what precisely he means when he decries “San Francisco values.” His response, as you can see, is not one that will go over well with LGBT advocates, or people who believe a personal anecdote is shaky grounds for a broad-based political narrative. It does bear mentioning that Gingrich had some compliments for the city as, well, a city, and he also had some unexpected praise on California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. source

26 Feb 2012 11:25

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Politics: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer endorses Mitt Romney for president

Brewer, whose profile grew significantly as a result of her stances on immigration, says that she likes Mitt’s business background and says that the race will effectively be over after Super Tuesday. Arizona’s primary is Tuesday. (photo by Gage Skidmore) source

23 Feb 2012 22:54

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Politics: Buddy Roemer: More entertaining than the last GOP debate

  • A long shot who’s quick with a tweet: Buddy Roemer is out of the running for the Republican presidential nomination, but even though he didn’t get a chance to take part in any of the debates, he’s used Twitter as a way to stay in the conversation. Roemer, now running as an independent, is still hoping to one-line your way to a vote in the 2012 election. A couple samples from last night:
  • one On Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a former GOP candidate: “Perry is in the audience. (The clown car needed a driver.)”
  • two On Rick Santorum, the current frontrunner in the race: “Don’t anger the sweater vest. It doesn’t like to be challenged.”
  • three Overall: “BREAKING: The CNN debate has been replaced with a 4-way earmark cage match.” Boom. source

21 Feb 2012 16:03

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Politics: Polling suggests Romney, Santorum running tight race in Michigan

  • 32% Mitt Romney’s support in Michigan, according to new polling by Mitchell Research/Rosetta Stone
  • 30% Rick Santorum’s support in Michigan, according to the same poll — he had been broadly leading recently source
  • » But the margin of error washes the slate clean. With a possible discrepancy of 4.7%, Romney’s 2-point lead could be a practical tie with his arch-rival of the moment, Rick Santorum. Or Santorum could, in fact, be ahead of Romney. Nonetheless, recent polling provides at least a bit of relief for the Romney camp; Santorum had opened up more impressive polling leads over Romney, but the recent trend seems to show a tightening, at bare minimum. Expect an exciting primary come February 28th; a loss by Romney would be devastating to his chances.

21 Feb 2012 10:47

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Politics: Mitt Romney’s campaign plowing through cash, not getting much back

  • 287% the “burn rate” of Mitt’s campaign in January
  • $18M the amount Mitt spent on the campaign trail in January
  • $6.5M the amount Mitt got in donations last month — far less than he took in
  • $7.7M the amount Mitt had in the bank at the end of January source
  • » Spending a lot, not getting much back? With pricey losses and close contests, including in Iowa and South Carolina, the Mitt train seems to be losing some steam. And his toughest week is ahead of him: With contests in Arizona and Michigan in just a week, and Super Tuesday on the horizon, there’s a good chance he may not be able to pull it off, leading to the possibility of a “brokered” or “contested” convention in August.
 

16 Feb 2012 19:05

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Politics: Is Sarah Palin a master of girl-who-cried-wolfing presidential elections?

  • I cannot predict what will happen in the future, but I know that I have got the fire in my belly to try to help, to try to make a difference and if that involves running for public office at some point in the future, I’m game for that.
  • Fox News analyst Sarah Palin • Continuing her long-running game of chicken with the idea of a future run for public office. Palin did not fully deny that she would jump into the presidential race if necessary. Sarah Palin may not be running for president, but she’s not entirely opposed to the idea either. In an interview Wednesday, she noted that she would “do whatever I could to help” in case the Republican party does not have a clear frontrunner by this summer.  source

15 Feb 2012 10:36

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Politics: Could Romney run out of big-money Republican donors?

  • I don’t know that he’s completely tapped out, but they are trying to look under every stone. You run out of people you can hit up for $2,500.
  • A top New York Republican fundraiser • Discussing the plight of Mitt Romney, whose campaign thus far has largely been funded by big donors. Seems that the well is starting to run dry, though, and unlike Obama’s strong contingent of small donors (which Santorum is starting to build up), Romney has never been able to rely on those. In fact, just by the numbers, most of Romney’s donors have been big ones — in 2011, for example, 82 percent of Romney’s individual donations were $1,000 or higher. Is this a long-term problem? Possibly. source

09 Feb 2012 11:19

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Politics: After three-state Tuesday sweep, checkbooks open up for Santorum

  • $1million raised in just 24 hours after Santorum’s super Tuesday  source
  • » That’s quite a haul in 24 hours. The Santorum campaign confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that, after the candidate’s sweep of Tuesday’s primary battles, over $1 million in new donations have poured into the campaign’s coffers — roughly $800,000 of which came from online donors alone. Not bad, sweater vest.