At 8PM, The Florida Polls will Close, and Romney will be Declared the Winner in the Florida Primary

      The Florida primary had more eligible registered voters than Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina combined. The biggest primary yet in the 2012 Presidential race, the polls in the Florida panhandle will close at 8:00pm EST, and Romney will be declared the victor of this round.

      Presently, 46% of the precincts have reported, and Romney leads the pack with 49% to Gingrich’s 30%. Rick Santorum comes in at 13% and Ron Paul at 7%.

       None of the candidates are hinting at dropping from the race, with Santorum and Paul already campaigning in Nevada.

GOP Leaders Need to Pay Attention to Ron Paul and Rick Santorum’s Concession Speeches

     While it is still too early to count Rick Santorum out, or Ron Paul for that matter, the GOP nomination process will focus, albeit by the media coverage, on Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

      But the GOP establishment, as it prepares for the Tampa convention in August, needs to be paying close attention to both Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. In the primaries this year, the delegates are being awarded not as a “winner take all”, but on the percentage basis of the candidate’s performance in the primary. If I understand it correctly, Newt Gingrich won 40% of the votes in the South Carolina primary last night, and will this have 40% of the state’s delegates.

         This is important, because it means that as Ron Paul or Rick Santorum continue to add more delegates to their column, despite the heavy odds of not having enough for the  nomination, they are “banking”  them for their “voice” on the GOP platform. Ron Paul knows that he can use his delegate count to force the “audit the Fed” issue into the GOP platform. Likewise, Rick Santorum can parlay his delegate count into his voice for the social issues and the manufacturing jobs platform he has been running on.

         So the GOP establishment needs to pay close attention as the primaries continue, and heed the words of the “non-winning” candidates, for they are not going “quietly into the night”!

Within Minutes of the Closing of the NH Polls, Mitt Romney is Declared the Winner

     Mitt Romney has taken both Iowa and now New Hampshire.

      Ron Paul has garnered the second spot, and Jon Hunstman will draw the third spot.

      Romney’s troops are already acknowledging that the January 21st primary in South Carolina will be a battleground. Candidates such as Rick Perry and Rick Santorum believe they have a great appeal to the voters in the Palmetto State.

 

Out of Iowa, the 2012 Race Takes On a New Shape: Santorum Is the Winner Regardless of the “Numbers”

     At this moment, underdog Rick Santorum is ahead of frontrunner Mitt Romney by a handful of votes in the Iowa caucus results.

     With the dawn’s light, the media attention will shift from the “2-man” race between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, to the record and ideology of Pennsylvania’s former 2-term Senator. It will also show a possible wittled field, with Gov. Rick Perry and his sfamily and staff weighing their  future options, along with Michele Bachmann.

        Santorum took to the stage tonight to address his supporters with “Game On!!”

        The glove are off, and the race has begun. The key question is who can beat Obama, and within the GOP battle, does Obama actually gain from that battle?

As Santorum Rises in the Polls, The Attacks Grow, and Get Manufactured

       I am not onboard for Rick Santorum, though I like many of his views and ideas. I cannot yet get past his vote for the Bridge to NoWhere! But his increase in the polls leading into the Iowa Caucus tomorrow, he is now in the media’s targets:

CBS News quotes Santorum:
“make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money”

Acutal quote from Santorum:
“make lives-people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money”

He never utters the word “black” a single time but it’s in the quote at CBS News.

See the videos, and decide on this yourself:

http://www.hapblog.com/2012/01/cbs-news-adds-word-black-when-quoting.html

Lib Pundit Alan Colmes Stoops to All-time Low, Attacking Santorum’s Handling of His Son That Died @ Birth

       Talk show host Alan Colmes cites a tragic event in the Santorum’s life as a reason why voters will turn away from him……………………….

“Once they get a hold of the crazy things he’s said and done like taking his two-hour old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real,” Democratic commentator Alan Colmes said on FOX News today.

“That’s a cheap shot, Alan. To say it’s crazy, something that’s that personal and hurtful as losing a child and to mock it like that is beyond the pale and beneath you,” Colmes’ conservative opponent Rich Lowry said after the personal attack.

“I even think some of the dastardly characters we have in the main stream media are not going to go as low as you just have Alan,” National Review editor Rick Lowry said later in the conversation.

for the video: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/02/alan_colmes_mocks_santorum_for_bringing_dead_son_home.html

On a side note:

    Who are any of us to question or judge the personal reasons behind the decision that Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, made at a very trying time in their life, in the lives of their other children, on how they would handle the loss of a child at childbirth. Additionally, the Santorum’s have faced additional challenges in the birth of their last child, who was born with a genetic disorder.

UPDATE: On FOXNews’ Hannity,  Rick Santorum said that Alan Colmes had called him after the broadcast to apologize to him and his wife for his insensitive remarks.

     For those interested, Karen Santorum wrote a book about their son Gabriel, and their experience.

First Votes of the 2012 POTUS Campaign to be Cast in 48 Hours

     As the people of Iowa go to their caucus meetings in about 48 hours, the first votes of the 2012 Presidential Campaign primary season will be cast. According to the polls reported by the Des Moines Register, Gov. Mitt Romeny leads the GOP field, with Rep. Dr. Ron Paul in second (within the margin of error), and Rick Santorum surging ahead of Newt Gingrich into the third slot.

      The talking heads today have said that the storylines on Wednesday will be “who is Santirum”, not becuase of a win, but because of where he will actually place in the caucus’. And he will become the newest target.

        So how do you see the Iowa Caucus, NH Primary, SC Primary, and Florida Primary playing out?

Newcomer GOP Governors Outshining White House Hopefuls

What’s wrong with this picture? While half a dozen current and former Republican governors weigh bids to challenge President Barack Obama, the party’s lightning and thunder are coming from a different handful of governors, who threaten to overshadow those potential candidates.

Republicans drawing the most national attention in recent weeks are first-term Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Chris Christie of New Jersey. Many conservatives love them for battling public-sector unions in the name of cutting government spending.

Not far behind is another tier of hard-charging, tough-talking GOP governors who say they are showing the country how to shrink budgets, and vowing to hold Obama accountable in ways traditionally left to Congress. They include Rick Perry of Texas, John Kasich of Ohio and Bob McDonnell of Virginia.

None of these governors shows any interest in running for president next year. Christie and Perry, in particular, routinely knock down the notion. Even if they resist temptation, however, these governors may play important roles in shaping a Republican presidential primary that is slow to take form.

for full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_el_ge/us_republican_governors

FOX News Takes Initial Steps with “Paid Contributors” Considering a White House Bid

Just 24 hours before Newt Gingrich’s expected announcement of the formation of an “exploratory” committee for a possible White House bid, FOX News has taken initial steps with regard to two of its paid contributors:

Fox News’ Bret Baier just announced that the network has put a 60-day suspension on the paid contributor deals with both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — who are both considering a run for president in 2012.

“The suspension is effective for 60 days, then on May 1st, their contracts will be terminated unless they notify FOX they are not running for president,” said Baier, reporting from Washington, DC during “Happening Now.”

Fox News host Mike Huckabee and contributor Sarah Palin, whose names are also being considered as 2012 GOP candidates, are not included in this 60-day suspension.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-news-announces-temporary-suspension-of-newt-gingrich-and-rick-santorum-as-cobtributors_b55454