The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

How Many GOP Delegates in Oz?

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 43 Comments

An important question, because Newt is not in Kansas anymore:

The Gingrich campaign is cancelling all Kansas events to focus on Mississippi and Alabama. KS caucuses Sat. Miss, Ala primaries Tues.

That’s via Twitchy, a new social-media site that I learned about via Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints, who got it from Michelle Malkin, who has hired many excellent people to run it. But never mind the celebration — back to the news, via the Washington Post:

Newt Gingrich is canceling campaign events scheduled for Kansas at the end of the week to shore up support in the Deep South. The former House speaker plans to pour his time and resources into Alabama and Mississippi.
“Everything between Spartanburg all the way to Texas, those all need to go for Gingrich,” said campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond.

Also more at The Hill. There’s trouble in Newtland, boys and girls. There are 40 delegates at stake Saturday in Kansas, but Newt is forced to forfeit that fight in order to defend his “home turf” in the Deep South. Why? Because Rick Santorum’s wins Tuesday in Oklahoma and Tennessee showed that Gingrich might be more vulnerable in the South than he had previously suspected.

Gingrich’s string of third- and fourth-place finishes Tuesday have not only marked him as the weakest candidate in the field, but have prompted questions about his motives for continuing his campaign. In an excellent post at Commentary, Bethany Mandel asks:

What price tag does Gingrich put on the free publicity he’s garnering while he remains in the race? Is it high enough to forfeit what he’s claimed is the Republicans’ only chance at victory in November?

Once people start talking smack like that about your campaign, the fundraising tends to dry up and — no matter how determined you may be to carry on — the financial issues become problematic. Meanwhile, Santorum’s starting to close the money gap with Mitt Romney:

So far in 2012, for every $1 that Santorum has raised, Romney has raised $1.31 ($13.5 million for Santorum, $17.7 million for Romney). For every $1 that Santorum raised in February alone, Romney raised $1.28 ($9 million for Santorum, $11.5 million for Romney). Moreover, February was not Romney’s biggest fundraising month, while Santorum raised more in February than he had in all previous months of his campaign combined.

Team Mitt says it would take “an act of God” for Romney to lose the nomination. I’ll keep an eye out for plagues of locusts, rivers of blood and, quite possibly, another earthquake in Vanuatu.

UPDATE: Holy Freaking Crap! No sooner had I posted this than I was informed on Twitter by Steve Eggleston that there has just been a 5.1 earthquake in Vanuatu. Watch out, Mitt!

Category: Alabama, Election 2012, Kansas, Mississippi, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum

Joe The Plumber, Coming To A Congress Near You?

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, an earlier recipient of a Fatwah Of Love (FOL), from the Left, will go against Marcy Kaptur in a new Ohio district this fall.

Wurzelbacher hasn’t exactly been embraced by the Republican establishment, largely because GOP officials regard the northeastern Ohio-based 9th District as tilting heavily Democratic and an unlikely November pickup. The National Republican Congressional Committee hasn’t bothered to add Wurzelbacher to its “Young Guns” program for top recruits. After Kaptur beat Kucinich, “Joe the Plumber” will now face the veteran Democrat in the fall.

Yeah, Joe can be relied upon to be even less disciplined than Alan West in his approach to dealing with our Ruling Class Overlords. Go, Joe!

Help Joe check DC’s plumbing!

via Althouse

Category: Blogging, Tea Party

In Support Of DNI Clapper

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Kerry Patton, over at Breitbart.com, ought to know better: chess is not poker.

On February 16th, Director Clapper released yet another intelligence gap-laden threat assessment for the Senate Committee on Armed Services. In the thirty-one page threat assessment, not once does it mention the terrorist group Hezbollah or any of Iran’s asymmetric militant entities within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) or Al Quds.
This comes during a time when Hezbollah operatives were recently arrested in Thailand. Last month, Hezbollah and IRGC operatives were arrested in Azerbaijan for plotting attacks against foreign targets. Inside the United States, one Iranian-controlled asset was recently arrested for plotting an assassination attempt against the Saudi Ambassador.

Read the whole thing if you like, but the gist is that Patton can’t grasp why the U.S. government would issue a “gap-laden threat assessment” to the public. As though our intelligence assets, like chess pieces, should be on the board, publicly visible.

Real world situations are more like five card stud. The cards are held close to the chest. Diplomatic calls for clarity are exceeded only by the clandestine instances of cheating; the integrity of international discourse, like resistance in parallel, is just a little lower than the lowest bastard on the scene.

Which, in a wildly tangential way, is related to this post over at The Cigarette Smoking Blog (for all my tobacco use is limited to the very occasional cigar), emphasis mine: Read more

Category: Intellectuals

Memo From the National Affairs Desk: ‘Committing Acts of Journalism’

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 23 Comments

Recording a press gaggle with Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley,
Steubenville, Ohio, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 (Photo by Chris Moody)

WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania
We got to our hotel here about 1:30 a.m., after a 35-mile drive from Steubenville, Ohio, scene of last night’s victory celebration for The Next President of the United States, Rick Santorum.

My 13-year-old son Jefferson accompanied me on this trip, wearing a T-shirt — “Bloggers Save the World Tonight,” which I brought home from the CPAC Blog Bash — underneath his Alabama Crimson Tide hooded sweatshirt. On the way from Steubenville, we went through the drive-thru at a McDonald’s which for some reason was out of their regular hamburger patties, and so we ordered the Angus Mushroom & Swiss burgers with two large orders of fries and two large sweet teas.

Jefferson pronounced his Angus Mushroom & Swiss “the best burger ever.” He has a habit of speaking emphatically.

I don’t know where he got that.

He’s pretty handy as an editorial assistant, the main duties of which are to pack and unpack my laptop, set it up and log in online wherever we are. I use a separate full-size keyboard and mouse with my laptop, mainly because I can’t stand the cramped feeling of typing on the laptop keyboard, where accidentally touching the thumbpad causes the cursor to skip around in annoying ways. Also, I type so hard — having learned on a manual typewriter — that I have a tendency to wear out keyboards pretty quickly. A replacement keyboard can be had for about $10 at Wal-Mart, and so I use that, but the hassle of packing and unpacking the extra gear is a task I’m happy to foist off on my 13-year-old son, who doesn’t mind being paid in cheeseburgers.

Jefferson can also be tasked to other duties. Last night, after my interview with Santorum strategist John Brabender, I downloaded the audio and assigned Jefferson to transcribe it while I made a run for supplies. (There weren’t enough electrical outlets at the media table, so I drove to Family Dollar and spent $9 on an 8-outlet power strip, and also bought a $1 pack of gum as “bonus pay” for my editorial assistant.)

He got about 250 words of the audio transcribed while I was gone, and I finished it up. When it was time for The Next President of the United States to give his Super Tuesday victory speech, I handed Jefferson the pink camera and told him to go get video clips. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Mitt Romney, Neutral Objective Journalism, Newt Gingrich, Ohio, Rick Santorum, Shoe Leather Fund

A Little Help For Bill Quick

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 25 Comments

by Smitty

A jig is a Celtic dance tune, typically in a 6/8 time signature.
When the piece is finished, the jig is up.
If everything is raaaaacist, nothing is raaaaacist.
Here is one I like to play, when not consumed with work, blogging, newborn son, etc:

Update: no, Bill, even within a conditional “if Geithner were black. . .”, you still haven’t got a case. “The jig is up” has zero racial content. Even if Rachel Maddow were to bloviate for a thousand days straight trying to connect the dots between racism and that phrase, she would only have the historical fact that her daily beclownment strove foolishly for a thousand days. As with “gay marriage”, no amount of juxtaposition of two contradictory ideas can effect their harmonization.

Category: Bill Quick

Palin Helps Romney Win Alaska

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 125 Comments

WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania
Mitt Romney has a powerful ally in his effort to win the Republican nomination: Sarah Palin, who told a Fox News reporter last night that she voted for Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich got 1,834 votes in the Alaska caucuses, giving the former House Speaker 14.2% of the vote, good for a fourth-place finish behind third-place finisher Ron Paul (3,105 votes, 24%), runner-up Rick Santorum (3,762 votes, 29%) and winner Romney (4,225, 32.6%).

Gingrich also placed fourth Tuesday in caucuses in North Dakota (962 votes, 8.5%) and Idaho (940 votes, 2.1%), and the primaries in Vermont (4,608 votes, 8.1%) and Massachusetts (16,756 votes, 4.6%). Gingrich placed third in Ohio (14.6%), Tennessee (24%), and Oklahoma (27.5%).

Gingrich’s vote total in Alaska was more than four times as large as Romney’s 463-vote margin over Santorum. In Ohio, Gingrich’s third-place total (175,375) was 16.7 times larger than Romney’s 10,508-vote margin over Santorum.

In related news, Texas Gov. Rick Perry — who quit the presidential race Jan. 19 and endorsed Gingrich — was still on the ballot in Ohio, as was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who dropped out Jan. 16 and endorsed Romney. Between them, Perry and Huntsman got 13,843 votes in Tuesday’s Ohio primary.

UPDATE: This post seems to have stirred some anger from people who think that my summary of Neutral Objective Facts was intended as a personal disparagement of Sarah Palin.

Of course, I would have enthusiastically supported Governor Palin, had she seen fit to run for president — see my coverage of her Labor Day speech in New Hampshire — but she decided against it. Another source of anger about this post was expressed by my young friend Jamie:

How come you hate Newt so much?

I replied in the comments, but given the rage reaction this post seems to have provoked, I’ll quote my reply here:

I don’t “hate” him, Jamie. But as a presidential candidate, Newt is utterly implausible. There is simply no way in hell a twice-divorced Republican, married to his former mistress — with whom he had an extramarital affair in the midst of the Clinton impeachment scandal — is going to be elected president of the United States.
Not going to happen. Period.
Gingrich’s rhetorical skills are admirable, but his biography makes him unelectable. This is just the reality of politics, and people who would like to ignore Newt’s biography are simply deluded.
It’s not a matter of policy or ideology. I don’t accuse Newt or his supporters of being insufficiently conservative. They are, however, insufficiently realistic about what it takes to succeed in presidential politics, and their admiration for Newt the Great Debater is blinding them to the unavoidable obstacle to Gingrich’s candidacy. Newt is wasting time and money (and his supporters are wasting their votes) on a campaign that was doomed from the outset.
These are, I assert, Neutral Objective Facts. You may dispute the facts, but I guarantee you that Newt Gingrich will not win the GOP nomination.
Not this year. Not ever.

This is my summary of what is, rather than my personal opinion of what ought to be, and I understand that many people wish that Gingrich’s debate skills were sufficient to offset the liabilities of his biography, but they’re not.

It seems that the online world has become a place where we are so accustomed to people expressing opinions that we have become prone to regard simple statements of fact —e.g., “Newt Gingrich will never be elected president, nor nominated by the Republican Party for that office” — as if they were merely opinions, which might be argued out of existence.

Having supported a lot of long-shot underdogs over the years, I recognize why people might vote for a completely hopeless candidate like Newt. But when the hopelessness was so obvious before his campaign ever began, it ill behooves Newt’s supporters to disparage the motives of those who are guilty of no sin more grievous than stating Neutral Objective Facts.

Category: Alaska, Election 2012, Idaho, Jon Huntsman, Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Tennessee, Vermont

LIVE AT FIVE – 03.07.12

Posted on | March 7, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Romney Wins Ohio On Points, No Knockout

Ann & Mitt Romney greet supporters at a Super Tuesday rally in Boston

Front-runner takes Ohio, five other states; Santorum wins in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee

Kucinich Concedes Defeat To Kaptur
Fails to hold seat in redrawn Ninth District


Obama Scolds GOP On Iran
Calls Gingrich, Romney, Santorum warmongers



POLITICS
Eight Women Allege Rape, Retaliation In Marines, Navy

Former Marine officer Ariana Klay

Suit names SecDef Panetta, other bureaucrats, Marine Commandants as defendants

LulzSec Leader Turns FBI Informant; Six Hackers Arrested

Judge Grants Temporary Injunction Against Wisconsin Voter ID Law

Obama Tells Business Leaders Tax Reform Needed To Help Economy

Palin Keeps Presidential Door Open

Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) Dies At 77



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Crude Over $122 On PRC Demand; NYMEX Remains Under $107 After U.S., Israel Consult On Iran
Gold Falls Below $1700 On Strengthening Dollar
Dow Drops 203 Points As Greek Worries Continue
PRC Stocks Fall For Third Day On Concern Over Global Economic Slowdown
Obama Offers Mortgage Relief For Homeowners
Groupon Expands VIP Program Test To New Markets
Obama’s Energy Policy: Death Of A Thousand Cuts
Faster, Sharper iPad Expected Today
Android Market Checks Out, Google Play Checks In
SimCity 5 Confirmed For 2013
Netflix In Talks For Cable Partnership



SPORTS
Colts To Release Peyton Manning

Soon to be former Colts QB Peyton Manning

Colts to draft Stanford QB Luck as replacement?

Saints GM, Coach Take Bounty Blame

Lady Huskies Surprise Irish, Win Fifth Straight Big East Title

Nowitzki Scores 28 In Mavs Rout Of Knicks

Lakers Fall Back To Reality, Lose To Pistons 88-85 In OT

Blues Cruise To 5-1 Win Over Hawks

Gio Gonzalez Sharp And Serious, Shines In Debut Against Braves



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Still Smokin’ At 66

Name that blonde!


Blondie’s Debbie Harry mistaken for Lindsay Lohan by papparazzi

Kirk Cameron Strikes Back

Rumer Willis Grabs The Spotlight In Sexy Skintight Dress

Prince Harry “Races” With Usain Bolt On Jamaica Visit

New Line Moving Forward With “Journey 3”

Whitaker May Call For “The Butler”

Designer Alexander Wang Sued For “Exploits”

Tila Tequila 911: Suicide Watch

“Terra Nova” Cancelled By Fox



FOREIGNERS
U.N. Humanitarian Chief Heads For Syria
Six British Soldiers Missing, Feared Dead In Afghanistan
Sonia Gandhi Blames Congress Defeat In Uttar Pradesh On Poor Organization, Candidates
Norks Stage Live-Fire Drills Amid Tensions
Tribal Leaders, Militia Commanders Declare Benghazi Region Autonomous
Sarkozy Wooing NF Voters With Immigrant Stance?
Unknown Gunman Kills Saudi Diplomat In Bangladesh
Indian Journalist Arrested In Connection With Attack On Israeli Envoy



BLOGS & STUFF
Hit & Run: Super-Duper Tuesday Fatigue
Jammie Wearing Fools: Remarkably, Super Tuesday Exit Polls Show Economy, Gas Prices Top Issues
Daily Caller: Investors Flee Carbonite After Withdrawal From Limbaugh Show
Michelle Malkin: Capital One “Drops” Rush, But Serial Misogynist Alec Baldwin Is Okay
Sarah Palin: If Rush Is Offensive, Why Doesn’t Obama’s PAC Return The $1 Million From Bill Maher?
Israel Matzav: HaLevy Criticizes Romney For Iran Deadline
The Lonely Conservative: Change – Wages Down For Young Workers
Pat Dollard: Israel Disappointed With Obama/Netanyahu Meeting
Weasel Zippers: Administration Moves To Provide Direct Aid To Syrian Rebels
Gateway Pundit: Border Town Election Ends With Extortion, Voter Fraud Arrests
Protein Wisdom: When Your Only Principle Is Winning The Next Election

Category: Live at Five

SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS HQ

Posted on | March 6, 2012 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

 

State Delegates Closing EST Pri./Cauc. Called
Georgia 76 7:00 pm P Newt
Vermont 17 7:00 pm P Mitt
Virginia 46 7:00 pm P Mitt
Ohio 63 7:30 pm P Rick?
Massachusetts 38 8:00 pm P Mitt
Tennessee 55 8:00 pm P Rick
Oklahoma 40 8:00 pm P Rick
North Dakota 25 9:00 pm C Rick?
Idaho 32 9:00 pm C Mitt?
Alaska 24 Midnight C

An additional 21 RNC superdelegates from the states are not bound by the voting result.

10:55 EST  As I’m about to get some rest, Santorum clings to a ~2,500 vote margin. However, the message here is this: Americans love an underdog. Rick Santorum’s clear, genuine communication hearkens back to George W. Bush’s unfeigned character. Just about everything Romney has said thus far this campaign has seemed feigned. Maybe fellow Mormon Glenn Beck could give Mitt some authenticity lessons.

 10:10 EST Karl Rove won’t let Fox call Ohio for Santorum, due to large counties that are not fully in. Santorum has a 12K buffer. Anticipate Romney to close, but not clear he’ll close enough.

10:07 EST Gov. Palin on Fox. She points out that Romney’s just not generating voter enthusiasm. However, conservatives are going to fall in behind the nominee. Gingrich is welcome, according to Palin. Competition is good. “Boo hoo” on those arguing for less competition, she says. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to drop out, she thinks.

9:45 EST Mrs. Romney speaking on Fox. She has three dimensions, compared to Mitt’s two.

9:42 EST Stacy called. Santorum saw campaign manager Mike Biundo right after Santorum’s speech ended. Told Mike that Stacy was watching totals. Lead grew from 5k to 15k over the course of the speech. Stacy says “I think you’ve got this locked. Did you see my column today?” Biundo: “Yes, I did.”

9:32 EST Santorum on Fox. Santorum just said that Romney is not truthful with the American public on the Romney health care record. Ouch.

9:29 EST Santorum on Fox. Talking the bottom-up version of economy favored by conservatives, vs. the top-down model of Obama. Sounding nearly libertarian, he is.

9:25 EST Santorum on Fox. On about Federal dependency. Liberty. Santorum speaks it.

9:22 EST Santorum on Fox. Allows that Ohio is still too close to call. But at least he’s chipper at the moment.

9:21 EST Santorum on Fox.Touting his wife’s vast acumen.

9:19 EST Santorum on Fox. Introducing clan. “This campaign is about the towns that have been left behind and the families who made those towns great.”

9:17 EST Santorum on Fox. Fresh from war-room/high school weight room. Sounding populist note on being among his roots.

9:16 EST Rove sounds a note of caution, as the biggest counties in Ohio have only reported the absentee ballots, not their final counts.

9:12 EST Fox has Santorum by 3% in Ohio. Keep going.

9:03 EST Google has Santorum up in Ohio by an eyelash. I predict at least three more flips of leader.

8:53 EST Newt Gingrich makes the cogent point on Fox that you can’t expect to outspend an incumbent President by 5-to-1 on negative ads.

8:42 EST Don Surber calls it ‘Super Snoozeday‘. Come on, man: pretend like this is interesting.

8:38 EST Laura Ingram on Fox just made the astute point that Santorum and Gingrich are canceling each other out. Tennessee called for Santorum.

8:25 EST Rove on Fox floats the point that second place is significant in states where the delegates are proportional. What of Newt Gingrich?
VT 4th, 7.9%
VA no run, 0%
MA 4th, 4%
OK 3rd, 22.8%

8:21 EST Exit polling in Ohio, per Fox News, shows Santorum picking up Tea Partiers, Independents and Evangelicals. Romney has double digits with single women.

8:05 EST Romney got nearly 60% in VA, mocking my sad little protest vote.

8:00 EST Fox calls OK for Rick Santorum.

7:51 EST Stacy reports from Steubenville, Ohio, the hometown of Dean Martin, at the Santorum event, where he just interviewed Santorum aide John Brabender. Brabender said that the Romney campaign’s “worst nightmare” is for the campaign to come down to a Santorum-Romney match. He spoke of an “enthusiasm gap” with Romney, who has outspent Santorum 6-to-1 in advertising in Ohio, and yet Romney will count himself lucky to win narrowly in Ohio. Brabender said it is important not only to look at who wins, but who places second. He suggested that outside of Georgia, Gingrich is unlikely to win anywhere else tonight, and will place third in many states. They are playing Dean Martin’s music in the gym.

7:41 EST Fox News has Ron Paul in North Dakota leading an End the Fed cheer from an hour ago.

7:36 EST FiverThirtyEight is confident on GA, VA, And MA. Fox corroborates. Ohio too close to call. Memorandum links The Hill with BHO telling Mitt ‘Good luck tonight‘ during his campaign speechpress conference today.

Category: Election 2012, Republicans
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