Thursday 18 August 2011

Can Mitt's sanity strategy actually work?

Romney met with a group of about 25 steelworkers at a campaign stop in the northern New Hampshire town of Berlin.


The former corporate raider, who has a net worth of about $250 million, got a less rapt reception than at some of his meetings with fellow business professionals.


The workers peppered Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, with questions about why cutting government spending would stimulate the economy, how he would adequately protect Social Security and whether he considered himself a member of the Tea Party.


Romney hedged on the latter question.


"I don't know that you sign a membership," he said. "What I consider myself is someone who is in sync with the Tea Party."


Many Tea Party members don't see themselves as "in sync" with Romney, however. In Massachusetts he helped author the statewide healthcare mandate that was an inspiration for President Barack Obama's 2010 national health reforms


Obamacare and Romneycare, as they are derisively referred too, are disliked by the Tea Party as an example of government overreach. Romney has defended the state law while promising to repeal the federal version, should he be elected.


Romney reiterated his view that military spending should be exempt from any attempt to balance the federal budget. Defense spending accounts for about half of discretionary U.S. federal spending.


This time around, as you may have noticed, things are a bit different. The Iowa Straw Poll, an event dominated by far-right activists, came and went last weekend without Romney lifting a finger, a far cry from four years ago when he invested heavily to win the event. And when a top social conservative leader in that state, Bob Vander Plaats, demanded that the GOP field sign on to his "marriage vow," Romney didn't just refuse -- he branded the document "undignified and inappropriate." He also declined to sign a pledge from a different conservative group on abortion, and stayed as far away from the recent debt ceiling debate as possible, letting one of his rivals, Michele Bachmann, use the issue to strengthen her bond with the base. While Bachmann swore at a recent debate that allowing a default would have been preferable to the deal President Obama and GOP leaders struck, Romney simply ducked the question.


The change in Romney's posture can be subtle -- he remains, on paper, a very conservative candidate -- but it's impossible to miss.


There are some obvious reasons for it. For one, Romney was brand new to the national Republican world the last time out and felt the need to compensate for the culturally moderate paper trail he left in Massachusetts, where he'd waged two statewide campaign as a pro-choice, pro-gay rights Republican. Today, he doesn't need to strain quite so hard to fit in.

Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann 'Likely' on Florida Straw Ballot

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney called a Chicago radio station Wednesday to criticize Pres. Barack Obama's plans for a 10-day vacation on Martha's Vineyard slated to begin Thursday.


"If I were president today, I wouldn't be looking to go spend 10 days on Martha's Vineyard," ABC News reports Romney saying on the Don Wade & Roma Show. "Now, Martha's Vineyard is in my home state of Massachusetts so I don't want to say anything negative about people vacationing there. But if you're the president of the United States, and the nation is in crisis, and we're in a jobs crisis right now, then you shouldn't be out vacationing.


Republican Party of Florida, all candidates participating in the scheduled Sept. 22 Fox News debate at the Presidency 5 summit will probably be listed on the straw ballot occurring two days later.


"We've told all the candidates that regardless of what they self-identify as participation, they're likely going to be on the ballot," RPOF spokesman Brian Hughes told Sunshine State News. He said a final decision on the policy will be made by the P5 committee.


Currently, only Ron Paul, Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman have confirmed their participation at the Saturday straw poll. That entitles them to podium time before the vote at the Orange County Convention Center -- and a firsthand opportunity to pick up support among some 3,500 GOP delegates.


Romney, Bachmann and any other Fox News debaters who opt to skip the Saturday poll will not have podium access that day, but, as things stand now, their names would appear on the official straw ballot nonetheless.


It is widely expected that Romney and Bachmann will be on the Fox stage during the opening night of P5.


Fox News' senior director of politics, Cherie Grzech, said the network had not yet finalized its criteria for inclusion in the Florida debate.


To qualify for last week's Fox debate in Iowa, candidates must have garnered an average of at least 1 percent in five national polls and have registered a presidential exploratory committee or presidential campaign with the Federal Elections Commission.


If those rules are replicated for Florida, time constraints could make it difficult, if not impossible, for newcomers to qualify for a microphone at the Fox debate in Orlando.


The rumor mill continues to churn with impending entries by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and, despite repeated denials, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.


Hughes said the Florida straw poll will have much more significance and validity than the Iowa poll, where candidates purchased delegate seats.


"We have prepaid delegates who are paying their own way. They represent the most important activists of our party -- key grass-roots, Republican Executive Committee members, elected officials and donors of all levels," Hughes said.


As for the presidential candidates, Hughes said, "There is no requirement to pay big bucks to stack a big vote. The only financial requirement is whatever they need to do to get to Orlando and be there for three days. It's completely different than Iowa.


"If someone wants to portay themselves as a credible candidate, they must woo the most important activists in the state," he added. "These people will be the ground game and the driving force behind a successful primary campaign. They're up for grabs."


Turning up the heat, Hughes reminded, "The news cycle will show the results of the straw poll with each candidate's name."


Neither the Romney nor Bachmann campaigns immediately responded to Sunshine State News' request for comment.


Mark Miner, a spokesman for Rick Perry, another top-tier candidate, said the campaign had not yet decided whether to participate in the Florida poll.


Meantime, the RPOF's Presidency 5 Facebook page is urging followers to call on Romney and Bachmann to reconsider their decision to sit out Saturday's event. In dual postings, the site directs readers to click on a link to warn each candidate "not to snub us because you cannot win the nomination without winning Florida.

Who Exactly Will President Obama Beat in 2012?

With another high profile candidate in the GOP presidential primary field and the Ames Straw Poll in the books, attention is turning back to the votes that will really matter: key among them, New Hampshire. A new poll out on Wednesday shows that despite the recent shakeup in the race with the addition of Tex. Gov. Rick Perry, Granite State GOP voters are still behind former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney at the moment.


Romney is the first choice of 36 percent of GOP voters in the new survey sponsored by the New Hampshire Journal. Romney's score is twice that of the next closest candidate, Perry, who polls at 18 percent. Following Romney and Perry is Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) with 14 percent, then Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) with 10. Businessman Herman Cain and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. both register 3 percent, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 2 percent and former PA Senator Rick Santorum rounding out the field with 1.


Romney and Perry are also the only candidates who registered a majority in favorability ratings. Romney is view favorably by 66 percent of New Hampshire Republicans against 24 percent unfavorable, and Perry is viewed in a positive light by 51 percent against 27 percent. Bachmann comes close at 49 percent favorability, but is hampered by 39 unfavorability, and other candidates have much higher unfavorables. Gingrich registers the highest with 60 percent viewing him unfavorably, and only 29 viewing him favorably.


Michelle Bachmann: She’s Sarah Palin, only smarter, more articulate, far more credible, even more radical, maybe 20% cuter, maybe 20% more crazy-eyed and for all of the above reasons, waaaaaay more scary. Way too prone to saying, um, kind of lunatic stuff, though, and almost certainly not an acceptable candidate to the moneyed interests who (thank God) still at least nominally rule and guide the Republican Party, so you have to figure her for a very likely Veep choice for someone. So, instead of talking a lot about the most interesting person in the GOP race here in the #1 slot, let’s discuss the other candidates and assign them each a Bachmann Factor.


Ron Paul: Shhhh. See link above. Ron Paul doesn’t really exist. He isn’t here. Pass it on.


Bachmann Factor: None. Because Ron Paul doesn’t exist.


Tim Pawlenty: Now, here we have (had) a sane, reasonable political candidate who just happens to be a Republican. Enough said. Go after Franken in 2014, T-Paw. That’d be fun.


Bachmann Factor: She’s too macho for him. Wouldn’t work.


Rick Santorum: His positions are now squarely in the GOP mainstream, which is pretty depressing. Mitigating factor: nobody ever votes for the guy. He remains #1 on my list of politicians who I hope someday get caught doing something immoral in a fleabag motel.


Bachmann Factor: Santorum, were he to win the nomination in some alternate reality, would need someone sane to balance him out. She isn’t his other half.


Herman Cain: Seems like a nice enough savagely right-wing pizza magnate. Still can’t figure out what he’s doing running for president. It’s a very non-traditional acting-out of a midlife crisis, dude; I mean, buy a Tesla or fund a private spaceflight startup or whatever. You’re too good for politics.


Bachmann Factor: I like these two together. On a incendiary Fox talk show.


Rick Perry: Oh yeah, a strutting Texas Cowboy-Governor is exactly what America is pining for as we stumble from the smoking wreckage of the Dubya Bush era, right? Perry certainly looks like a President. He can do the glad-handing retail politics thing. He’s having fun out there. On the other hand, there’s his paper trail. He kind of, um, thinks everything the federal government does is illegal? So of course he wants to run the, um, federal government? Okay, fine, look, we have to take him seriously. He’ll raise money. He passes the have-a-beer test. He connects with crowds. But every day since he announced has brought a new negative Perry story — threatening the Fed chairman, impugning the President’s love for America, pretending the Texas Miracle wasn’t mostly government jobs — so deep down I think he’s a flameout waiting to happen. Maybe.


Bachmann Factor: There’s a little too much loco here, but if the economy keeps on tanking, by next year the masses could very well be in the mood for some kind of psychologically violent crypto-fascist uprising, and these two together would fit the bill, wouldn’t they? I’d be writing about this ticket from an undisclosed location in rural Alaska if it actually ever did come to pass, but you can bet that they wouldn’t be boring.


Mitt Romney: (we have to skip him for now. I’ll explain why later).


Newt Gingrich: This guy actually winning the nomination would constitute among the best evidence I’ve witnessed in my life that God does indeed exist.


Bachmann Factor: Irrelevant.


Jon Huntsman: Whatever.


Bachmann Factor: Irrelevant.


Thad McCotter: I genuinely didn’t know he was running. Actually, I don’t know who he is.

Exploring Mormonism and the U.S. presidency

For better or for worse, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain likes to say out loud what others only whisper. A few weeks ago, for example, Cain mentioned what his rivals for the nomination dare not mention: Mitt Romney has a religion problem.


“Romney would be a good choice,” Cain told the editors of The Washington Times, “but I don’t believe he can win.”


Why? Because to win the nomination (and the presidency), a Republican needs to do well in the South — and Cain sees Romney’s Mormon faith as a major barrier there.


“It doesn’t bother me,” said Cain, “but I know it is an issue with a lot of Southerners.”


However impolitic it might be for Cain to raise the “religion issue,” polls suggest that Romney will indeed face significant resistance among voters reluctant to vote for a Mormon.


Christing, the film’s director, says opposition to the candidacies of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman is rooted in the historical battles among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Americans. He thinks his film will shed light on that rift.


The documentary covers the charismatic Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's run for the U.S. presidency and the events that led up to his murder by an angry mob. The DVD contains a “bonus feature” that examines Mitt Romney and other Mormon candidates in the modern age. (Mitt Romney refused to be interviewed for this film.)


Christing, the film’s director, says opposition to the candidacies of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman is rooted in the historical battles among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Americans. He thinks his film will shed light on that rift.


The documentary covers the charismatic Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's run for the U.S. presidency and the events that led up to his murder by an angry mob. The DVD contains a “bonus feature” that examines Mitt Romney and other Mormon candidates in the modern age. (Mitt Romney refused to be interviewed for this film.)


Christing, who is not a member of LDS, adds, “You can’t really understand the gigantic challenge facing presidential candidates Romney and Huntsman until you understand the secret world of Joseph Smith, polygamy and Smith’s political ambition to build a theocracy in the United States.”


- Aug. 17, 1809, in Pennsylvania, Thomas Campbell, 46, and his son Alexander, 20, formed the American Movement for Christian Unity, which later became the Disciples of Christ Church.


- Aug. 18, 1927, Christian radio pioneer Theodore Epp was converted to a living faith at age 20. In 1939, he founded Back to the Bible Broadcast, an evangelistic radio program with outlets today on over 600 stations around the world.


Aug. 19, 1953, Israel's parliament conferred Israeli citizenship posthumously on all Jews killed by the Nazis during the years of the Holocaust (1933-1945) in Europe.


A study found 63 percent of people in Pakistan, 64 percent in Egypt and 77 percent in Israel are worried about Islamic extremism in their country. Similarly in the West, 68 percent of the people in France, 69 percent in the U.S. and 76 percent in Russia are worried about Islamic extremism in their country.


Not only can the man rant, he can write. From the larger and louder half of the world-famous magic duo Penn & Teller comes a scathingly funny reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments. They are The Penn Commandments, and they reveal one outrageous and opinionated atheist's experience in the world. In this rollicking yet honest account of a godless existence, Penn takes readers on a roller coaster of exploration and flips conventional religious wisdom on its ear to reveal that doubt, skepticism and wonder -- all signs of a general feeling of disbelief -- are to be celebrated and cherished rather than suppressed. And he tells some pretty funny stories along the way.

Illinois GOP plans bigger straw poll

Can you make any kind of observation about the politician's style or connection with voters?


Tim Pawlenty was expected to be a frontrunner in the competition for the 2012 Republican nomination.


He's likable, had appropriately conservative positions and accomplishments to cite from his two terms governing a blue state.


But he dropped out Sunday after a distant third place straw poll finish behind Michele Bachmann.


He'll be ancient history by Friday and released a farewell message late Monday. But analysts have been attempting to discern why the former Minnesota governor got no traction with the media or voters.


Why Pawlenty didn't make that invisible emotional connection with in dividuals that some politicians like Barack Obama once did and Sarah Palin so obviously still does.


They each have their own campaign styles. Some are as phony as a campaigning congressman, pretending to chat while looking over the voter's shoulder at who's next to greet.


Others are intensely present for each person they talk with, an impression that voter shares with many others over time. At least that's the hope.


Four years ago, the Straw Poll was held in August when Republicans gather at the Illinois State Fair. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the last straw poll with 373 votes from the 922 Republicans who case ballots.


This year’s straw poll aims to sample a broader cross-section of Republican opinion throughout all 102 of Illinois’ counties.


Most Republicans write off Illinois and its 20 electoral votes to President Obama.


But Romney said during his last swing through Illinois May 26 that he considered Obama’s home state to be still “in play ... there’s no state that is safe for President Obama given the performance of our economy.”


Even if odds are against Republicans winning Illinois next year, candidates who hope to still be in the running for the state’s March 20 primary election have a reason to court Illinois Republican voters.


State Treasurer Dan Rutherford is heading up Romney’s campaign in Illinois.


The straw poll will offer an incentive to Republican candidates flying through O’Hare on their way to Iowa to schedule stops in DuPage County or other Illinois locales, Sen. Mark Kirk and Illinois Republican Party Chairman Patrick Brady said.


“New Hampshire and Iowa should not have all the fun,” Kirk said.


“We want to generate some enthusiasm among our voters,” Brady said. Candidates can hold joint events with Republican congressional candidates in Illinois, they said.

Waters to Obama, Pay attention to us

Black caucus members on Tuesday told a mostly Black audience to “unleash” them to confront President Barack Obama on the issue of jobs during the Congressional Black Caucus “For the People Jobs Tour” town hall in Detroit, MI.


California Rep. Maxine Waters expressed her and other Black Caucus members’ dilemma of having to walk a line, TheGrio.com reports:


“We don’t put pressure on the president,” said Waters. “Let me tell you why. We don’t put pressure on the president because ya’ll love the president. You love the president. You’re very proud…to have a black man [in the White House] …First time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you’re going after us.”


At a town hall in Detroit on Tuesday, Waters said that members of the CBC are “getting tired” of continuing to support the president even as the economy continues to flounder, with the effects of a long-term recession magnified in many African-American communities.


The president visited predominantly white communities in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois on his bus tour this week, Waters also noted at the town hall, saying: “We don’t know why on this trip that he’s in the United States now, he’s not in any black community…we don’t know that.”


On Thursday, mentioning the tour on MSNBC, Waters picked up a newspaper. “Take a look at this headline in the Wall Street Journal: ‘Obama aims to keep white voters on board.’ Well we want to be on board, too.”


Waters also tried to explain her Tuesday remarks, which had cable news and the blogosphere alight on Wednesday. “The economy, the loss of jobs, the pain is real. We’re talking about indisputable facts,” she said. “We’ve got to be in the discussion. We want to be part of the solution. We cannot continue to go on watching everybody talk about what the solutions are without us being included in it.”


Supporters ask her and other members of the CBC if they’re meeting with Obama to discuss unemployment, but Waters said that they “have not been privy to which way the president is going and why he’s doing it” on jobs and the economy.


“It’s time for us to step up and note that our communities are not being dealt with and to make sure that this administration understands that we cannot continue to go on this way,” she said. “Whatever the plan is that’s going to be unveiled in September, we intend to be a part of that. We have ideas. We want to include those in the plan that the president unveils. Here we are.

Tampa Bomb Plot Teen's Friend Says He Was 'Just Venting'

Peter Fulham of Slate is reporting that Florida police said on Tuesday that they had foiled a potentially "catastrophic" mass murder plot by an expelled student in a Tampa school district.


Police arrested the suspect, Jared Cano, 17, after receiving a tip from a Florida resident about a possible plan by Cano to set off explosives at Freedom High School on the first day of school, CNN reports.


A search found that Cano had outlined a plan to kill two students and two principals. Authorities also found materials including timing devices that could be used to build a bomb with "catastrophic" results.


Jared Cano wrote a manifesto that detailed his plans for an attack starting at 5 a.m. next Tuesday, the first day of classes at Freedom High School in Tampa, Fla., the school Cano was expelled from in March 2010. The unnamed friend was at the home of Cano when he was arrested on Tuesday.


"He wouldn't go and do something like that. He'd say he's going to in the heat of the moment but that's his way of venting, I guess," Cano's friend told ABC Action News in Tampa. "I think he was just venting anger on a piece of paper."


The two friends would often play video games at the home where Cano lives with his mother, and were planning to do just that on Tuesday when police arrived at the home to arrest t he teenager. The friend said that he initially thought the arrest may have to do with marijuana charges, a drug Cano publicly admits to admire on his Facebook page; he has also been arrested for possession of marijuana in the past.


Police said on Wednesday they recovered bomb making material from the home including fuses, timers, shrapnel, accelerant and plastic tubing -- though no firearms were found.


Cano's friend says that he does believe that his friend could have written a manifesto detailing such a plan to kill dozens at his former school, but it would only be a way for Cano to vent his frustration and anger.


"He doesn't know how to vent," the friend told ABC Action News. "I told him, 'Dude, go in your room, scream in your pillow or something.'"


According to Christopher Farkas, Freedom High School principal for the past three years, Cano was suspended from that school in March 2010 for an off-campus incident. Police confirmed that he was expelled from school for his previous burglary.


Police said they have no reason to believe that anyone else was involved in the bomb plot. They reported that the family had been cooperative. Castor said that Cano's mother, who he lives with, didn't know that her son had materials to build a bomb in his room.


Cano has been charged with threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. He also faces charges for possession of bomb-making materials, cultivation of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.


"The number of casualties they could have caused, the bomb team described it as serious injury including death," Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said. "He had the ability to do some serious harm at Freedom High School on the first day of school … He had a fuel source, fuel sources; he had shrapnel; he had tubing to make the pipe bombs and he also had fusing and timing devices."


Police said that Cano specified in his manifesto his goal of surpassing the number of students who were killed and injured during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.


The arrest on Tuesday came just hours after an anonymous tipster alerted police about Cano's alleged plot. After the tip came into Tampa Police Department's call center that Cano was plotting to bomb the school, detectives immediately called a bomb squad to his apartment.




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Principal Farkas said in a press conference that he did know Cano, and that "there are threats that happen" involving the school, but that "95 percent of time, they're not real." He admitted to not realizing that Cano posed any real threat.


"Being in this business long enough, it's hard to say that you don't … you can almost expect anything," he said. "It's hard to have surprises nowadays. But the reality is ... No I didn't pick that kid up.

Local reaction to the president's vacation

Fresh off three days of barnstorming in the Midwest, President Obama will spend the morning at the White House in two closed-door meetings, first with his senior economic advisors in the Oval Office then with his national security team in the Situation Room.


In the afternoon, Obama heads to the island oasis of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, where he’s expected to spend the next 10 days vacationing with his family.


The trip, the Obamas’ third consecutive to the Vineyard, comes in spite of some criticism from Republicans and members of his own party that he remain in Washington to focus on the economy.


"We've got to be doing every single thing we can, every minute of every day" to help the American people,” Obama told a crowd Wednesday in Alpha, Ill., the last stop on his bus tour.


White House press secretary Jay Carney has said Obama will continue to work on the economy even while he is away.


"I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the president would spend some time with his family,” Carney told reporters last week.


He added, "There's no such thing as a presidential vacation. The presidency travels with you. He will be in constant communication and get regular briefings from his national security team as well as his economic team. And he will, of course, be fully capable if necessary of traveling back if that were required. It's not very far.


If I were president today, I wouldn't be looking to spend 10 days on Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard is in my home state of Massachusetts, so I don't want to say anything negative about people vacationing there, but if you're the President of the United States and the nation is in crisis - and we're in a jobs crisis right now - then you shouldn't be out vacationing."


But outside North Station in Boston, some commuters who were on their way to work today had a different opinion.


"He deserves a vacation, come on -he works hard!" said one commuter.


"We all need vacations. He works hard and there's lots of pressure on him. But I'm sure he'll be working there anyway." said another.


President Obama has taken less vacation time than his Republican predecessors. A CBS News study found, at this point in his term, President Obama has taken 61 vacation days. George W Bush had taken 180 days off at this point of his presidency, and Ronald Reagan had taken 112 days off.


Still, when it comes to presidential vacations… timing is everything.


"I think everyone's entitled to a vacation, but given the circumstances right now, his focus should be elsewhere." said one Boston commuter, "Given the economy and the fact that we have wars going on right now. It's a double edge sword.

Christine O'Donnell Is Pretty Sorry About That Whole "I'm Not A Witch" Ad Thing

Christine O’Donnell shot to national infamy last year when a TV spot leaked that featured her informing voters that she was “not a witch.” Decades before, during one of her frequent appearances on Bill Maher’s show Politically Incorrect, she had confessed that she once “dabbled in” the occult while dating a boy who was into witchcraft. The witch ad was an instant viral sensation, parodied on Saturday Night Live and endlessly on YouTube.


O’Donnell lost her insurgent Delaware Senate race to Chris Coons by a large margin. And as her new memoir, Troublemaker: Let’s Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, proves, she thinks the witch video had a lot to do with it, even as she reveals layer upon layer of evidence that shows she was never likely to win in the first place.


Troublemaker is a shorter book than its large print has manipulated it to appear. But even with its modest running time, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to sit through the sometimes excruciatingly dull childhood anecdotes and endless political shoptalk. We’ve picked out the tastiest quotes, revelations, and themes so you don’t won’t have to.
She never wanted to tell you she’s not a witch.


O’Donnell loses no time in recounting the backstory of the “not a witch” ad, telling it in little snippets spliced between the opening chapters. Maybe a concerned editor suggested this gimmick as an intervention for the crawling pace and superficial narrative of the chapters about O’Donnell’s early life.


As O’Donnell tells it, she never wanted to record the witch ad. When her campaign manager pitched it to her, he said, “You’re going to hate this, Christine, but hear me out.” She did hate it, and kept hating it even as he all but tricked her into recording a few takes. They had written another ad she preferred, that featured her supporters’ stories of economic hardship. But even as she intoned, “I’m not a witch,” ostensibly to see how it sounded on camera, she says she was violating her better judgment. She “cringed” when the line showed up on the teleprompter, but she actually “wanted to scream.” She felt in her bones that something would go wrong, and later that night, she met with a group of pastors and asked them to pray. “I think I just made a terrible mistake,” she told them.


A conservative activist best known for advocating abstinence, O'Donnell stunned the Republican establishment by beating former Delaware governor Michael Castle in the GOP primary.


O'Donnell wrote she was blindsided when comedian Bill Maher aired an old clip of her admitting "I dabbled into witchcraft."


She claims media consultant Fred Davis pushed her to film the "I am not a witch" commercial. She said the ad was leaked and posted on the Internet before she could put her foot down.


As a result, O'Donnell was skewered by "Saturday Night Live" and subjected to so much ridicule that it sank her already troubled campaign.


Reached by the AP, Davis said only: "I wish her well with her book, and her future. That was a very unusual campaign."


Also, the AP obtained emails that suggest the O'Donnell campaign actually approved the witch commercial and planned to post it on YouTube the same day it hit TV.


O'Donnell, 41, also rips some of her fellow Republicans in the book. She accused Castle of pressuring people to not donate to her campaign - a charge he denies. And she claimed Karl Rove, who was President Bush's political guru, undermined her.


Rove was one of the leaders of the "liberal influences" that "severely tarnished Bush's legacy among true Constitutionalists," she wrote. "It was Karl Rove's style of Machiavellian, unprincipled realpolitik that destroyed the Republican brand."


During the campaign, Rove called her a kooky candidate who had a track record of saying "nutty things.

Christine O'Donnell walks off Piers Morgan for being 'rude'

Former Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell stormed off the set of "Piers Morgan Tonight" Wednesday, apparently objection to the CNN host's questions about gay marriage.


"I’m not being weird, you’re being a little rude," said to the host, right before storming off the program's set.


“Ms. O'Donnell wasn't happy about me quizzing her re views on witchcraft and sex. But really flipped at gay marriage Qs. Ripped mike and fled,” Morgan tweeted shortly after the taping.


"My first ever walk-out in 25 years of interviews," Morgan continued. "I guess viewers can decide if I was 'rude' or not tonight at 9pm ET. #CNN"


The former Tea Party candidate became a late-night punchline after her "I'm You" campaign ad, where she denied accusions of witchcraft. During a "Good Morning America" appearance Tuesday morning to promote promote her book, "Troublemaker," O'Donnell admitted she regrets the now-famous ad.


"Trust your gut," O'Donnell said. "Trust your instincts."


O'Donnell's book was released Tuesday, and covers the goings-on of her 2010 campaign.


The trouble started when Morgan asked O'Donnell about a part of her book that discussed gay marriage. That's when O'Donnell accused him of "borderline being a little bit rude."


O'Donnell repeatedly urged Morgan to drop the topic of gay rights, but Morgan would not back down, asking another question about the Pentagon's repeal of its "don't ask, don't tell" policy.


Morgan at one point looked as though he was trying to hold back a smile, and insisted, "I think I'm being rather charming and respectful."


O'Donnell said the gay marriage issue is not relevant or what she is championing, saying the book is meant to inspire the tea party movement to "bring America back to the second American revolution."


O'Donnell began looking off camera while asserting that Morgan should only ask her what she told him she wanted to talk about. At that point O'Donnell claimed she was being pulled away, as a handler tried to block the camera.


Morgan, for his part, didn't look particularly invested or bothered when he asked, "Where are you going? You're leaving?"


As O'Donnell removed her microphone she asked Morgan if he'd read the book, to which he said, "Yes, but these issues are in your book. That's my point. You do talk about them."


Then O'Donnell ended the interview.


Was Morgan being rude, as O'Donnell claimed? Or was O'Donnell being weird, as Morgan claimed? Watch the video and see for yourself.

Truth About Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle'

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been on a Bernanke-bashing binge this week, demanding on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve "open their books up."
That comment comes after Perry said earlier this week that it would be "treasonous" if Chairman Ben Bernanke used Fed policy to stimulate the economy before the election.


But what books exactly does Perry want opened?
The Federal Reserve already publishes its balance sheet online every Thursday for the entire world to see.
Not only that, it is audited regularly. Every year, an external accounting firm audits the financial statements of the Federal Reserve and all 12 of its regional banks. Last year, that firm was Deloitte and Touche, but PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG have also done it over the years.
Those financial statements are also posted online.
"Every aspect of the Fed's financial dealings are wide open -- wide open," Bernanke remarked at the National Press Club in February. "There is no sense in which the Fed has secret financial dealings."
Despite that public information, anti-Fed criticism seems to be the latest craze on the Republican campaign trail. On Tuesday, Rep. Michelle Bachmann criticized the Federal Reserve for not being "subject to transparency."
Those comments echo similar sentiments from Rep. Ron Paul, a renowned Fed critic in his own right, who over the years has repeatedly called for audits of the central bank and even a review of all the gold in Fort Knox. Paul introduced a bill in the House earlier this year, called the "Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011.


The Lone Star State is rich in natural resources such as oil and natural gas, so when the rest of the country was struggling with high energy prices at the onset of the recession, Texas companies were turning big profits and, therefore, pumping tax revenue into the state coffers.


These high energy profits helped Texas stave off the brunt of the recession for about six months.


And while the state's economy is growing at twice the national rate, so is its population. Texas grew 20.6 percent from 2000 to 2011, while the country's population only increased by 9.7 percent. With more people comes more purchasing power, which leads to job growth.


Regardless of whether Perry can personally take credit for the jobs created, critics claim the numbers are just smoke and mirrors because the new jobs are primarily low-wage.


"What Texas shows is that a state offering cheap labor and, less important, weak regulation can attract jobs from other states," New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote Sunday. "What you need to know is that the Texas miracle is a myth, and more broadly that Texan experience offers no useful lessons on how to restore national full employment."


Texas is tied with Mississippi for having the highest proportion of hourly workers earning minimum wage or less, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Overall, Texans earned about $2,300 less than the national average, according to 2009 Census Bureau data.


These low-paying jobs usually do not come with health insurance, which is part of the reason why Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country. One of every four Texans lives without health insurance.


Depending on which measure is used, the jobs picture in Texas can be painted in radically different ways. On one hand, more Texans are getting a paycheck, on average, than in any other state. But on the other hand, those paychecks are more often from low-wage jobs without insurance in a state that has fewer social benefits than most others.


"People focus on the wage and, yeah, that's important, people need to support their families," said Lisa Givens, a spokeswoman for the Texas Workforce Commission. "But sometimes it's about looking down the road, looking at an area where there are going to be opportunities for me and for my family and for growth.

Why Rick Perry Won't Unite the Republican Party

As Texas Gov. Rick Perry introduced himself to voters in this early primary state, a sharp divide emerged between the newest Republican presidential contender and front-runner Mitt Romney on the issue of climate change. While Romney believes that the world is getting warmer and that humans are contributing to that pattern, Perry called global warming "a scientific theory that has not been proven."

Taking questions Wednesday morning at the storied Politics and Eggs breakfast, Perry was asked about a passage in his book "Fed Up!" in which he writes that there have been "doctored data" behind the science on global warming and accuses former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his call to action on climate change, of being a "false prophet of a secular carbon cult."

"They know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists, and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time," Perry writes.

Perry responded: "I do think global warming has been politicized. ... We are seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing our climate to change. Yes, our climate has changed. It has been changing ever since the Earth was formed. But I do not buy into a group of scientists who have, in some cases, been found to be manipulating data."

Until Gov. Perry started running for president, he portrayed himself as a principled believer in the need for local decisionmaking, argued that the power to vote with one's feet on values issues was a cornerstone of a free republic, and avowed that he had a powerful aversion to getting the federal government involved in anything new. He wrote at length about all these issues in his book, Fed Up.

But his behavior when he started to pursue higher office contradicts the positions and values he asserted so starkly that there is no reason for anyone to trust his states' rights bonifides, as I argue at great length in a piece on his sudden insistence that we should amend the constitution so that the federal government can impose on the states a national marriage policy.

Tim Carney is a conservative journalist who covers the cozy relationship between big government and big business, and how the corporatist policies that result come at the expense of consumers, small businesses, and upstart entrepreneurs. He dedicated a recent column to the Texas Enterprise Fund, a pool of taxpayer money that Perry used to subsidize select businesses.

As it turned out, beneficiaries of the largess would often return the favor by lavishing Perry with political donations. "His policies -- from backroom drug company giveaways to green energy subsidies -- eerily mirror the unseemly big business-big government collusion that has characterized President Obama's presidency," Carney writes. "After four years of bailouts, drug-lobby-crafted health care 'reform,' corporate handouts in the name of 'stimulus' and 'green jobs,' and cash-for-clunkers boondoggles, does Perry really think what we need is more corporatism?

Mark Krikorian, the resident anti-illegal immigration writer at National Review, reports that Numbers USA, an anti-immigration advocacy group, "has added Texas Gov. Rick Perry to its grid of presidential candidates, giving him an initial grade of D minus. He can bring this grade up significantly, because there are a number of areas about which he's never taken a position, but his stated positions are mediocre -- he's opposed to sanctuary cities, which is good, and talks a good game in support of border security, but is apparently opposed to E-Verify and has supported (before the recession) increased importation of foreign workers." Perry also supported a Texas version of The Dream Act, which allowed some illegal immigrants to pay in state tuition at state universities.

Perry can satisfy Second Amendment advocates. He'd likely consider the same sorts of judges as George W. Bush, which is to say, anti-abortion Federalist Society types like John Roberts and Sam Alito (and perhaps political cronies like Alberto Gonzalez and Harriet Miers). And on foreign policy, Perry has an opportunity to define where he stands, having said very little on the subject, and nothing out of which he couldn't wriggle, save his decision to do business with Venezuela's state run oil company, despite tension between Hugo Chavez and the U.S. government.

Conventional wisdom holds that Perry will be a hawk whose views are acceptable to neo-cons and the Inside-the-Beltway defense establishment. He is surely the dream candidate of defense contractors. On the other hand, he has shown the capacity to reverse himself on a subject even after claiming to be deeply convicted about it. If Ron Paul does better than expected, and throwing some red meat to anti-war voters seems like it would help Perry to beat Mitt Romney, does anyone doubt he'd do it? Finally, corporations that intend on making political contributions can count on Perry -- if his record in Texas tells us anything, it tells us that.

On substance, it makes no sense that Perry would be a tea party champion, if their small government, anti-corporate handout, federalist rhetoric is to be taken seriously. But as Will Wilkinson illustrates wonderfully, Perry is a talented retail politician, and the cultural cues he exudes are pitched perfectly to the tea party demographic. Look for Perry to leverage being attacked by the media to gain Tea Party support, even as Ron Paul and Gary Johnson, GOP candidates with small government credentials far better than Perry, are mostly ignored. Admittedly, Paul and Johnson may be unelectable. They also show that the tea party will trade consistency and principle for electability.

Jon Stewart Defends Rick Perry From Ed Schultz’s Race-Baiting Charges

Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke earlier this week of a "big black cloud that hangs over America." He was clearly referring to the nation's mammoth debt. But the ever-vigilant MSNBC host Ed Schultz scented racism in the remark, saying that that "big black cloud Perry is talking about is President Barack Obama." Schultz later apologized for his bungled interpretation, admitting that he did not present the "full context" of Perry's comment.
The blunder illustrates the extent to which Rick Perry's entrance into the presidential race has addled the liberal media. To Schultz, Perry is a racist who "comes from the radical country club that loves to remind white America that President Obama is other: not like you." To other members of the liberal chattering class, he is a "Manchurian candidate," "secessionist," and dangerous theocrat for having prayed in public recently.


After a roundup of the media’s incredibly short attention span that had them running from Rep. Michele Bachmann to Perry to Rep. Paul Ryan– a game he surmised to a child demanding his mother buy him all the latest toys (“and before I get you anything, where is your Ron Paul?!”), Stewart played the abridged clip of Perry referring to the cloud over America, followed by accusations that he was talking about the President. “What? Pretty sure Rick Perry was saying the black cloud was the debt,” Stewart noted– indeed, “debt” was only two words after “cloud” in Perry’s comments. “That’s the thing about clouds,” Stewart joked, “some people see a racist dog whistle, while some people see George Washington wrestling a leprechaun.”


To help him figure out whether the comment was racist or not, Stewart employed the help of correspondent Cenac, but got John Oliver anyway, who seemed to think anything except actual racism was offensive (he also really liked The Help). After some banter on whether Perry was racist, Cenac turned the tables on the origin of this meme (who has since apologized), noting that Schultz had used all sorts of “slurs,” like “red herring” (what’s he trying to say about Native American people?”) and “yellow monster” (he was talking about a lobster, but Cenac and Oliver assumed it was a veiled reference to China, despite the obvious lack of evidence).


Between standing up for Rep. Ron Paul against a stream of media apathy, Stewart seems to be making a lot more friends in the Republican Party that he has for himself in a while.

Pamela Geller: Rick Perry Needs To Address His Ties To Stealth Jihadists

The anti-Muslim segment of the conservative media has identified yet another Republican as a traitor to America because he is supposedly too close to Muslims. The current target is Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), labeled as the "5th column candidate" by Pamela Geller because of his ties to Muslim leader Aga Khan IV and others.

Perry has been sucked into the propaganda vortex, and is now wielding his enormous power to influence changes in the schoolrooms and in the curricula to reflect a sharia compliant version of Islam. He is a friend of the Aga Khan, the multimillionaire head of the Ismailis, a Shi'ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins. Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace. Another agreement stipulates that Texas officials will work with the Ismailis in the "fields of education, health sciences, natural disaster preparedness and recovery, culture and the environment." Perry let on that this was all about whitewashing Islam's bloody historical and modern-day record: "traditional Western education speaks little of the influence of Muslim scientists, scholars, throughout history, and for that matter the cultural treasures that stand today in testament to their wisdom."

It gets worse. Last March, Perry gave a speech in Dallas in the company of Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist was close to George W. Bush, and Perry's anti-tax, anti-Big Government rhetoric sounds like it's right out of Norquist's playbook. But there is a dark side to Norquist as well: Norquist's ties to Islamic supremacists and jihadists have been known for years. He and his Palestinian wife, Samah Alrayyes -- who was director of communications for his Islamic Free Market Institute until they married in 2005 -- are very active in "Muslim outreach." Six weeks after 9/11, The New Republic ran an exposé explaining how Norquist arranged for George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 -- to show how Muslims rejected terrorism.

Sprouting from that friendship are at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and Ismaili institutions, including a far-reaching program to educate Texas schoolchildren about Islam.

Geller, of course, was concerned. She wrote an August 15 piece in the American Thinker describing Ismailism as "a Shi'ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins." About the education initiative, she wrote: "Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace."

But, as Geller wrote, there's another smoking gun: Perry gave a speech in March alongside Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.

The anti-Islam right-wing has long attacked Norquist for being part of a "Fifth Column" within the GOP, a covert group of pro-sharia, pro-jihadist Republicans who infiltrated the Bush Administration and continue to advance a nefarious pro-Muslim Brotherhood agenda. The attacks on Norquist seem to stem primarily from the fact that his wife is Arab.

In a World Net Daily column Tuesday called "Yes, Rick Perry is the 5th column candidate," Geller doubled down on her attacks on Perry. "Why shouldn't there be questions about a candidate's friendship with the owner of a bank accused of funding al-Qaida (and never exonerated), a man who also does business with the terror-supporting government of Syria?"

"All this speaks to a pattern," Geller writes. "And the pattern is not good. It speaks to a pattern of going along with our civilization path to suicide. No matter who wins the nomination, I will support him or her with every breath of my body. But I am going to fight like a cat to get the right cat there."

"It is not my intention to damn all Muslims," she said. "But we need a president who will call out the Islamic supremacist groups on stealth jihad. That is real political courage, not calling for tax cuts.