Category: Politics

Author Brad Thor Endorses Santorum: ‘The Right Man, at the Right Time’

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Press release from the Santorum campaign:

BEST SELLING AUTHOR BRAD THOR
ENDORSES SANTORUM FOR PRESIDENT
Urbandale, IA — New York Times Best Selling Author Brad Thor announced his support for Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum.
Brad Thor said: “There is one presidential candidate who understands and can swiftly address the threats facing our nation — and that candidate is Rick Santorum. Rick Santorum has stood strong against radical dictators in Syria and Iran, the gravest threat to our national security. Rick knows that the world would be forever changed by Iran getting a nuclear weapon, and he has sworn to keep this from happening. I am excited to add my endorsement to the growing list of prominent supporters who understand thatRick Santorum is the right man, at the right time to lead our nation.”
Rick Santorum said: “I am thrilled to receive Brad’s support today. Brad has stood out as an author who didn’t just sit in his office and write about the threats facing America, but dove into the issue and learned first-hand that the threats are real and need to be addressed. We need a president who understands these issues, and I am committed to standing tall for America, our values, and our security.”
Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Full Black, Foreign Influence (one of Suspense Magazine’s best political thrillers of 2010), The Apostle, The Last Patriot (nominated best thriller of the year by the International Thriller Writers Association and banned in Saudi Arabia), The First Commandment, Takedown, Blowback (recognized as one of the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time” by NPR), State of the Union, Path of the Assassin, The Lions of Lucerne, and his New York Times bestselling spin-off series The Athena Project.
Brad is a member of GBTV, and has appeared on FOX News Channel, CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS programs to discuss terrorism, as well as how closely his novels of international intrigue parallel the real threats facing the world today.
Brad has served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Unit, and is a fellow of the Alexandrian Defense Group. He has lectured to law enforcement organizations on over-the-horizon/future threats and has been a keynote speaker for the National Tactical Officers Association annual conference, and the Ronald Reagan 100 celebration. A strong supporter of The Heritage Foundation, Brad has spoken at their national headquarters on the need for robust missile defense. He alsosits on The International Free Press Society’s Board of Advisors, and has served as a judge for the Sam Adams Alliance Annual Awards.

Alexander Burns of Politico confirms that Brad Thor is planning to travel to Iowa to campaign for Santorum.

 

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Gingrich Campaign ‘Imploding’ in Iowa; Ron Paul Leads; Rick Santorum Gains

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Newt Gingrich’s campaign in Iowa is “rapidly imploding,” according to the latest poll, as the former House Speaker has tumbled to third place and Ron Paul has moved into the lead in the Hawkeye State, with Mitt Romney in second place just two weeks before the crucial Jan. 3 caucuses.

Meanwhile, Rick Santorum moved into a three-way tie for fourth place with Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry in the latest Iowa survey by Public Policy Polling. It was the second consecutive gain in the PPP Iowa poll by the Pennsylvania senator, who has seen his support in the state nearly double since Dec. 3.

CANDIDATE ……… Dec. 3-5 … Dec. 11-13 … Dec. 16-18
Ron Paul ……………………… 18% ………… 21% ……….. 23%
Mitt Romney ……………….. 16% ………… 16% ……….. 20%
Newt Gingrich ………………. 27% ………… 22% ………. 14%
Michele Bachmann ……….. 13% ………… 11% ……….. 10%
Rick Santorum …………….. 6% …………… 8% ………… 10%
Rick Perry …………………… 9% …………… 9% ………… 10%
Jon Huntsman …………….. 4% …………… 5% …………. 4%
Gary Johnson ……………… 1% …………… 1% ………….. 2%

“Newt Gingrich’s Iowa support was extremely soft and has collapsed in only two weeks,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Ron Paul has taken the lead, but it will be interesting to see if he can turn out his unique base of voters for the caucus.”

(Via Memeorandum.)


Rick Santorum Will Campaign Today in Creston, Osceola and Indianola, Iowa

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will travel about 60 miles through south-central Iowa today and hold three public events:

7:30am CT: Senator Santorum will host a breakfast meet-and-greet in Creston, IA.
Location: Windrow Restaurant
102 West Taylor Street, Creston, IA

12:00pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Osceola, IA.
Location: Redman’s Pizza & Steak
123 South Main Street, Osceola, IA

6:00pm CT: Senator Santorum will keynote the Warren County GOP Dinner in Indianola, IA.
Location: Indianola Christian Union Church
707 East Euclid Avenue, Indianola, IA

A reporter for the Omaha World-Herald caught up with Santorum’s campaign Sunday:

The Republican hopeful said he’s held 350 town hall meetings in Iowa, such as the ones he held in Council Bluffs, Red Oak and Atlantic on Sunday.
“I feel very good about our strategy,” he told about 50 people who crammed into a small TS Bank branch attached to a Council Bluffs Hy-Vee Supermarket.
Santorum is staking his campaign on how well he does on caucus night. . . .
Those who gathered inside the bank Sunday enthusiastically hung on to his words. Most were dressed in their Sunday best, and mentioned they had just finished church.
“I wish I had a million dollars to give you,” one woman told Santorum. “You’re David, and you have to fight Goliath.”

Santorum was also featured Sunday in a Daily Caller interview with conservative activist Ginni Thomas.

My Entry For Dumbest Political Statement Of The Year

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by Smitty

David Cameron’s decision to veto an EU-wide treaty change over eurozone rules was “largely political”, Business Secretary Vince Cable has said.

Perhaps we can come at it this way: just what portion of Cameron’s decision on the veto was not political? Cameron holds political office: aren’t the decisions of that office, by definition, political? How would Cameron make a non-political decision as Prime Minister? Would it be a decision that was made on wholly economic grounds? What would that mean, if possible?

George Bernard Shaw famously remarked “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.”  Where does one acquire such hilarity? By listening to people and taking what they say at face value.

Santorum Campaign Sends 60,000 Mailers to Iowa Voters: ‘No Surrender’

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What’s interesting in this news is the relatively small number — which may be a sign that Santorum’s campaign has really done its homework. No more than 140,000 people are expected to vote Jan. 3 in the Iowa caucuses, and the press release says these mailers are only being sent to 60,000 “likely caucus-goers.”

Rick Santorum has campaigned in all 99 Iowa counties, and his campaign volunteers have relentlessly canvassed the Hawkeye State by phone. So we can assume that they have compiled a database of addresses for their supporters and “leaning” undecided voters. Such a “targeted” mailing could be expected to yield the maximum effect. Here are three images from the mailer:



And here is the text of the mailer:

A number of Republican leaders have suggested that the best way to win back the White House is to call a truce on talking about social issues. Issues like abortion, marriage, school prayer, and immigration. In my book that’s not a truce… it’s a surrender!
The day we stop fighting for the unborn child, or fighting to protect the sanctity of marriage, expel God from public, or decide we will no longer enforce the laws of land, is the day we surrender all our founding father’s created.
I believe what makes America exceptional is not just our economic potential or our remarkable innovation, but the fact that we are a moral enterprise. As President, I will protect American’s moral foundation, empower American families and build America’s economic freedom. And I won’t compromise on my values to do it.
Rick Santorum: A history of fighting for our values.

  • Author of the bill that ended partial birth abortions in America;
  • Named by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America
  • Washington Post called Rick Santorum a “Tea Party guy before the Tea Party even existed,” for his efforts fighting corruption in Congress, and returning to Constitutional government;
  • Founded the bipartisan House/Senate working group on religious liberty;
  • Co-authored and fought for the only vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment in the U.S. Senate;
  • Rick was an author and floor manager of the landmark Welfare Reform Act that moved millions from welfare to work;
  • Rick was a leader on U.S.-Israel relations, authored legislation to stop the growing nuclear threat from Iran, and has led the fight to protect America from Islamic radicals;
  • Rick is the best-selling author of It Takes A Family, Rick and his wife Karen have home-schooled each of their children;
  • Has passionately fought for a balanced budget amendment, and to take the immoral debt off the backs of our children.

The Associated Press has an article about Santorum’s “old-fashioned” Iowa campaign:

URBANDALE, Iowa — In a presidential campaign marked by sharp rises and falls, Republican Rick Santorum has experienced neither.
“I’m counting on the people of Iowa to catch fire for me,” the former Pennsylvania senator, who described himself as a “strong conviction conservative,” said Thursday during a debate with his rivals. “Iowans are beginning to respond.”
His dogged courting of Iowans the old-fashioned way — campaigning in living rooms, coffee shops and town squares — may be starting to pay off and at just the right time, as Iowa’s Jan. 3 presidential caucuses approach.
“Rick Santorum is the best-kept secret in the campaign,” said Tom Clark, a West Des Moines Republican and one of about 150 people who came to hear the candidate at a suburban Des Moines restaurant this past week.


Rick Santorum Will Campaign Today in Council Bluffs, Red Oak and Atlantic, Iowa

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will travel about 90 miles through Western Iowa today and hold three public events:

11:00am CT: Senator Santorum will have brunch with supporters at the HyVee Instore in Council Bluffs, IA.
Location: Treynor State Bank
HyVee Instore, 1745 Madison Avenue, Suite 1002, Council Bluffs, IA

2:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Red Oak, IA.
Location: Pizza Ranch
1511 North Broadway Street, Red Oak, IA

5:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Atlantic, IA.
Location: Farmers Kitchen Restaurant
319 Walnut Street, Atlantic, IA

Santorum’s “No Surrender” Money Bomb has raised nearly $200,000 since Dec. 14, and continues with the goal of reaching $250,000.

Rick Santorum has picked up another big endorsement:

An influential retired Iowa pastor is asking Michele Bachmann to fold her presidential campaign into Rick Santorum’s before the Jan. 3 caucuses — and offered Iowans a scathing critique of the rest of the GOP field.
The Rev. Albert Calaway, a retired Assemblies of God minister who lives in Indianola, [Saturday] endorsed Santorum — but said he’d like to see Bachmann as the vice presidential nominee.
“There’s absolutely, positively no divine power vested in me for this, but if I had it, I’d personally love to pronounce Rick and Michele as lawfully wedded running mates,” Calaway told The Des Moines Register in a written statement.
Calaway . . . is president of the Truth, Values and Leadership, an organization that serves about 200 Iowa churches and pastors . . .
“Santorum has never embarrassed us in debate or on the campaign trail. He has a plan to bring back U.S. manufacturing and cut five trillion dollars over his first five years. He is very pro-Israel and sober minded about the Islamist threat, and I’m convinced he has the maturity and experience to run the government,” Calaway said.

Meanwhile, Santorum’s Iowa campaign is “in grief” today:

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s Iowa campaign is mourning the sudden death of its hardest-working volunteer, Wendy Jensen of Ames.
Jensen, 55, who had been an active member of the Story County Republican Party, had made thousands of calls to Iowans, imploring them to support Santorum’s presidential candidacy in the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses.
“Our campaign is in grief,” said Jamie Johnson of Stratford, a top aide to the Santorum campaign in Iowa, on Saturday.
Jensen was found dead at her apartment in Ames on Thursday, apparently of natural causes, said Cody Brown, Santorum’s state campaign director. She had attended a Christmas party on Wednesday night at Santorum’s Iowa headquarters in Urbandale and was tickled when the candidate thanked her for her hard work, gave her a hug and autographed a coffee mug for her. . . .
Jensen was a remarkable volunteer who routinely made 400 to 500 calls, working a volunteer shift from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Johnson said.

Santorum supporters who want to travel to Iowa to volunteer during the final two weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses are urged to contact Kristin Beaulieu ([email protected]). Santorum supporters who can’t make it to Iowa can still sign up as volunteers, to participate in the campaign’s call-from-home Iowa phone-bank operation.

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 
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Shorter Ace: ‘Bitches Lie’

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A grossly unfair oversimplification of Ace’s argument? Sure.

But in a multi-candidate Republican primary campaign where everybody’s cutting each other to ribbons, who can complain — if anyone even notices — when I gratuitously play the sexism card?

And isn’t Ace calling the lady a liar?

Michele Bachmann lives in a strange world. People talk about “moral relativism.” Presumably they would claim she’s not a moral relativist.
But truth is an objective fact, is it not?
Ms. Bachmann seems to confuse premises which are politically helpful to her for premises which are actually true.
That seems like moral relativism to me — the world is not as it is, but as I perceive it to be.

Ace is talking about the assertion by Bachmann “that we’ve been hearing all across the country, that money is changing hands” — candidates paying for Tea Party support. Professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection says:

You know I have a big problem with Michele Bachmann making statements which are not supported by facts and then repeating them endlessly.
Her campaign is up to much worse in South Carolina, where her local campaign manager has suggested that the Gingrich campaign has paid off Tea Party leaders for support.

Professor Jacobson has hopped aboard the Gingrich bandwagon and is savagely lashing Newt’s critics, as is his right. But notice that this pay-for-play accusation comes from South Carolina, which is to the GOP what Chicago is to the Democratic Party: The dirtiest place on the planet.

A South Carolina Republican primary is always fought according to the Al Davis rule — Just win, baby — and they never heard of a “fair fight.” So either:

  1. Bachmann’s S.C. guy Wesley Donohue is just slinging mud against Gingrich; or
  2. Gingrich and perhaps unnamed others are indeed bribing Tea Party activists for their support.

Are the pay-for-play accusations unproven? Yes, but so were the sexual harassment accusations against Herman Cain, yet the accusations were enough to drive Cain out of the race. And furthermore, just because Bachmann can’t prove that the Gingrich campaign is paying for endorsements doesn’t mean that Bachmann is lying when she says she has “been hearing all across the country” that such shenanigans are afoot.

Maybe the people telling Bachmann this stuff are paranoid, and certainly it is irresponsible for a candidate to repeat such stuff without proof. But you can accuse Bachmann of being a loose cannon without saying she’s engaged in “moral relativism.”

Grossly unfair oversimplification, you see.

Being aboard the Santorum Express myself, I should be happy to sit quietly while Michele Bachmann is accused of lying. Bachmann and Santorum appeal to the same pool of social conservative voters who are crucial in Iowa, so if Ace and Professor Jacobson are calling her a liar, the “smart” thing to do would be to say, “They’re right! You can’t trust that lying hussy!”

Ah, but why do what’s merely “smart,” when genius is an option? Because Professor Jacobson is a Gingrich supporter, and the two-bank carom shot is this headline: 

Gingrich Supporter Calls Bachmann a Liar

But did I say genius? Here’s Ace proclaiming his own allegiance after Thursday’s debate:

I thought Perry did well. He’s still my pick.

Ah, so here we have a three-bank carom:

Gingrich, Perry Supporters: ‘Bachmann Lies’

As I’ve said before, Ace is ax-grinding against Bachmann because he’s still butt-hurt about the way she carved up Perry in the Tampa debate three months ago.

Dude: Let it go. It’s not worth it.

But I’m “Not Good Enough for BlogCon,” so nobody ever listens to me.

UPDATE: Ron Paul is a uniter, not a divider:

Ron Paul Takes Swipes at GOP Rivals,
Says Michele Bachmann ‘Hates Muslims’

That should boost Bachmann’s InTrade rating. Damn it.
 

Sean Hannity Flummoxed By Michelle Malkin

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by Smitty

At American Power:

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Endorses Mitt Romney
Well, what’s amazing is Nikki Haley is touted as a “tea party favorite.”

But Michelle Malkin calls Romney a progressive at the video. She calls Gingrich a progressive as well. It’s an excellent discussion, and badly needed. Sean Hannity’s a little flummoxed with Michelle. Should the grassroots be lining up behind Gov. Haley for a Romney endorsement? It’s all about beating Obama, right?


My take on all of the suddenly tight undergarments in the press is that they don’t get the subtle wisdom of the Tea Party. Sure, conservatives learned the lesson of Perot in ’92: excessive purity buys eight years of Bubba in the White House. However, there are a variety of reasons to refuse to coalesce around any candidate until the GOP convention:

  • All of the candidates need a friendly napalm shower to vulcanize them for the campaign proper, when Obama shows just what a transformational, healing unifier he is. The GOP nominee will stand accused of everything short of being a terrorist insurgent from Bulungi. Prep responses now.
  • When the Tea Party lends its support, the nominee had better know that the Progressive Era isn’t restin’, ain’t pinin’ for the fjords, it is effing DEAD. Actual reform had better ensue, or the nominee can expect backlash. Tea Partiers are getting their realpolitik in early.
  • Also dead: the whole cult of personality thing. Personal regard is where you find it, and it’s great if you can be friendly toward your candidate, and they toward you. But they Are Not Your Friend. Whoever gets to come in and tidy up after #OccupyResoluteDesk is going to have to make tough calls. Step on toes that might be connected to your feet. Club your illusions about rapid policy improvements like a baby seal.

Romney is being quite savvy in lining up the Christine O’Donnell and Nikki Haley support. These are the fresh faces that can hopefully give him a personality transplant, at least temporarily.