Romney looks tired here in this CNN interview this morning. Too much post-primary partying, I guess. But it's exactly the time he needs to be on guard and on his A-game. Instead, he fumbles the post-Florida football and gives ammunition to all of his opponents on both sides of the aisle by reinforcing the perception...
Read MorePhotoshop source: SaveJersey.com You can peruse my Twitter page for highlights and lowlights of the CNN GOP debate in Florida, but this basically sums it up: Wolf Blitzer went all Oprah/TMZ with his fishing into the candidates' wives' lives. Newt doubled down on open-borders stupid and gave an indignant defense of illegal alien grandmothers that...
Read MoreJim Pethokoukis spotlights a new Health Affairs study on how Romneycare laid the foundation for Obamacare, and what it portends for the federal health insurance scene. In short: Expanded government coverage, higher taxpayer costs. Read here for details and analysis. His conclusion: No surprises, of course. We already heard from Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber in...
Read MorePhotoshop: Reader Jimmy D. Yesterday, the SEIU and left-wing USA Action launched Spanish-language radio attacks on Mitt Romney for his support of immigration enforcement measures. One of Romney's advisers is Kris Kobach -- a constitutional law professor, Kansas Secretary of State, and staunch leader in the fight against illegal alien amnesty and ACORN-style voter fraud....
Read MorePhotoshop: Reader Jimmy D. Phew. So, it turns out: Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus. Newt Gingrich's ex-wife, Marianne, is getting her revenge. Live by scorched-earth. Die by scorched-earth, eh, Newt? And Rick Perry is reportedly set to drop out today -- removing another body from another GOP debate tonight in South Carolina and freeing...
Read MoreAnother Republican debate showdown. Fox News Channel hosts the final five GOP in Myrtle Beach, S.C. starting at 9pm Eastern. The hosts: Bret Baier of Fox News' 'Special Report' and Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal. You can watch live online here. Twitter users can play "#dodge" or "#answer" . Seven more GOP debates...
Read MoreThe 'Stache chooses.
...not Newt Gingrich, who said he'd name the former U.N. ambassador as his Secretary of State. Bolton is going with...Team Romney. Via the WSJ: Former U.N Ambassador John Bolton is set to endorse Mitt Romney and will join his top team of foreign-policy advisers, according to people close to the campaign. Video of his announcement...
Read MoreRomney and McCain: The GOP Frenemies’ Club by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 Michael Corleone said to “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” But what, pray tell, do we do with our frenemies? This is the awful, election-year quandary of movement conservatives. And everything you need to know about our heartache can...
Read MorePlace your bets, cross your fingers, hold your breath, clip your noses. Whatever it takes. Most polls will close shortly at 8pm Eastern. According to this tweet from the NYT's Brian Stelter, "Network execs privately say they expect to be able to call NH for Romney at 8pm sharp. The race for 2nd will take...
Read MoreSigh. Let me say that again: Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. If you were unfortunate enough to watch Saturday night's GOP debate in New Hampshire, you saw a pageant of feckless non-Romneys fail to step up to the plate and forcefully challenge Mitt Romney's presumptive claim to the GOP presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich, who has spent the last week...
Read MoreThese guys deserve each other. Shaking my head... Watch how Romney and Nikki Haley rush to correct the bumbling McCain as the crowd begins to murmur and boo after his flub. Romney's thinking: Mother fudge biscuits, someone get a cane and yank this saboteur off the stage. You want to parade Big Government/Tea Party-trashing Tea...
Read MoreOut: 9-9-9. In: 23-23-23. That's where Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum currently stand as the results come in tonight from Iowa. Via @politicalmath, a graphic that says volumes about grass-roots discontent: If you're an Iowa reader, tell us how you voted. The politicos on tee-vee are all predicting that Huntsman, Bachmann, Gingrich, and...
Read MorePhew. Are you ready? There are an estimated 614,000 active registered Republicans in Iowa. A small fraction of them will turn out tonight to vote in the first-in-the-nation GOP presidential caucus. The anticipated top three placers are a toss-up. Sunday's PPP poll had it 20/19/18 for Paul, Romney and Santorum. Election Projection's Scott Elliott posts...
Read MoreHere's my Fox and Friends appearance this morning on the political news of the day. Longtime readers know I have always identified as a CONSERVATIVE first, not a Republican. I have never identified myself as a GOP strategist or GOP operative or GOP anything throughout my writing career, which is what I was trying to...
Read MorePhotoshop: Reader Jimmy D. Yes, I'm still struggling. Like many of you, I am still carefully weighing all the costs and benefits of each declared GOP candidate. As the candidates continue highlighting each other's unsavory left-wing alliances, I thought it might be helpful to compile a Hold Your Nose Tracker of the current top four...
Read MoreTo be fair, if you and I had to be up on stage with Charlie Rose and Karen Tumulty, we'd be soporifically stupefied after a few minutes, too. But then again, we're not running for the highest office in the land and raising millions of dollars from people across the country who are counting on...
Read MoreI've already made clear: John McCain is the problem with the GOP. And he's trying to install his mini-mes as congressional candidates across the country. Yesterday, Mitt Romney lined up with He That Ails the GOP: What we have here is a failure of GOP imagination. Imagine a United States Senate without an illegal alien...
Read MoreCanada's Globe and Mail reports that Mitt Romney was the target of an unhinged air rager on a flight out of Vancouver tonight. The good news: He kept his cool and is doing fine. The plane turned around and rid itself of the unruly passenger. No such thing as friendly skies anymore. Geez:
Comedy Central.
Doing some multi-tasking tonight, I half-listened to coverage of the annual media lovefest-the Washington Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner. Comedy Central's Mo Rocca gave a cringe-worthy performance. No, not cringe-worthy for any notable left-wing diatribes. Just cringe-worthy for its awfulness. He seemed to have just given up by the end and fizzled out. Mumbled a...
Read MoreEmulsion.
Waiting for the Romney endorsement of McCain. Shep Smith on Fox quips: "That's like oil endorsing vinegar." Romney - oil. McCain - vinegar. What does that make Huckabee? Stand by for the liveblog... Romney: I am honored to give my support to John McCain...I'm officially endorsing his candidacy...asking his delegates to vote for him...In the...
Read MoreFalling in line. Nose plugs, Mitt?
So CNN is reporting: "CNN's Dana Bash reports that former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will endorse senator John McCain. The endorsement is expected to happen at a Boston event at 3:30 p.m. ET today. Now, that's a Valentine's Day gift. Wonder if Mitt will need the People's Cube John McCain nose plugs...
"Bad judgment."
Fox News embed Fin Gomez is reporting that Mike Huckabee wants a "full investigation" of the Wash. state primary results: McCain led with 26 percent of the delegates to Huck's 24 percent. If something fishy happened, it should be exposed. I will add this, though: Imagine if it were Romney challenging the Wash. results and...
Read MoreSuspension and belief.
Video here. And N.Z. Bear has pics/vid from the foot of the podium. Talked to a couple of Romney staffers. Plans are still up in the air over whether to attend the Lincoln Day Dinner event in Baltimore tonight, which McCain is scheduled to attend. *** 12:43pm Eastern. I'm starting a new thread for Romney's...
Read MoreBryan Preston and I arrived at CPAC at 5:30am this morning--yes, bad time to give up caffeine for Lent--to set up the Hot Air camera and get through security. There's a shortage of metal detectors and an abundance of attendees. We're already parked in the main ballroom at the Omni Shoreham. A lot of people...
Read MoreThe way forward.
I filed an extra, post-Super Tuesday syndicated column this week. Felt like we needed a pep talk. Ignore John McCain. Don't "calm down." Get fired up! *** "Quo vadis," conservatives? It's the ancient, apocryphal question the apostle Peter asked Jesus while fleeing persecution in Rome. Where are you going? Where do we go from here?...
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