Republican candidate Rick Santorum announced today that he has suspended his campaign, clearing the way for Mitt Romney to take the nomination.
Santorum did not say exactly why he made such a decision, but the announcement came after his youngest daughter Bella was released from the hospital after battling pneumonia. Three-year-old Bella has a rare genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18.
Santorum said recent events have caused him and his wife, Karen, to really think about their role as parents.
Although specific reasons for this move may not be completely clear, one thing is: Romney pretty much has it in the bag. Nevertheless… Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich refuse to give up.
Rick Santorum
Photo (cc) by Gage Skidmore republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida a month ago by George Zimmerman, 26, who claims he was acting in self-defense. But the fact that Martin, 17, was unarmed has led some to believe this was a case of racial profiling.
President Obama spoke about the issue, one which has started a movement across America. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” the president said.
Republican primary candidate Newt Gingrich took those words to mean that Obama would not have cared as much if the victim had been of a different ethnicity.
“We should all be horrified, no matter what the ethnic background. Is the president suggesting that, if it had been a white who’d been shot, that would be OK, because it wouldn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense,” Gingrich said.
Rick Santorum said Obama should ”not use these types of horrible and tragic individual cases to try to drive a wedge in America.”
I don’t believe Obama was attempting to “drive a wedge” or suggesting the color of a person’s skin dictates how whether or not it is okay for them to be killed. It is a sad day when even the tragic death of a young teenager has politicians arguing, and when the wording of public statements is debated more than the issue of violence.
Republican voters simply cannot make up their minds. It seems as though they decide to hate whoever is in the lead and vote for the underdog. Santorum surprised many Americans when he won the primaries in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri last week, but he is still a long way from becoming the Republican national candidate. Yesterday Romney won the Maine straw poll with 39 percent of the vote, while Ron Paul received 36 percent. This was a difference of less than 200 votes, and only 6,000 were cast, which accounts for 2 percent of Maine’s registered Republicans.
Republican candidate Rick Santorum
Romney also won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll with 38 percent of the vote. The fact that Romney took the CPAC poll does speak to his efforts to convince conservative voters that he is the best candidate to take on President Obama, but still, he didn’t win by that much. Santorum received 31 percent of the vote.
I don’t think Paul or Newt Gingrich have a shot at this point, but then again, no one believed Santorum had a real chance either. The beginning of the race for Republican primary saw a different candidate in the lead every week. Even Herman Cain was at the top. And yet, this far into the race the same trend continues. There doesn’t seem to be one candidate who all Republicans can agree is the best, so I’m sure there will be plenty more flips and flops in the months to come.
Photo(cc) republished here under a Creative Commons license. Taken by Gage Skidmore. Some rights reserved.
Is Romney’s Republican primary victory guaranteed? What, if anything, can the other candidates do to stop him at this point? Why are some Republican voters hesitant to give him their blessing? And does Romney even stand a chance against President Obama?
Theresults of Florida’s Republican primary election are in, and Romney emerged victorious with 46.4 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 31.9 percent.
Romney spent over $15 million bombarding Floridians with negative ads about Gingrich, which some say influenced the vote. In fact, only one of Romney’s ads was positive (and it was also in Spanish). Poor Newt could only afford to spend about $3 million.
But in his victory speech Romney focused more on trashing Obama than trashing Gingrich and said, ”My leadership will end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity.” I think Romney is starting to realize what conservative voters want to hear. Gingrich makes no-nonsense statements vowing to take down Obama and do his very best for the American people, which often get a roar of cheers and thunderous applause. And although Romney is trying to assure right-wing voters that he is the best guy for the job, it is difficult for them to trust him, especially when terms like “RomneyCare” get thrown around.
Romney has also been criticized for a lack of ability to personally connect with voters. Gingrich fans get easily fired up and are passionately supportive, while Romney fans tend to lean more toward a quiet golf clap during his addresses.
Clearly, the race is not over. While this was a big victory for Romney, anything can happen from now to June.
CNN hosted the Republican national debate in Florida on Thursday, and Mitt Romney clearly came out on top. Why? Because he was aggressive. Romney sauntered in like a honey badger, did his thing and left looking like a champ.
When asked about his tax returns once again, Romney defended himself well, and Gingrich was forced to admit that he was satisfied with Romney’s financial honesty. When Gingrich called him “anti-immigrant,” Romney shot back saying his own father was born in Mexico.
Romney was also good on the attack. He exposed the stupidity of Gingrich’s moon colony idea and also read off the long list of promises Gingrich has made from state to state to state, tailored to be exactly what each group of people wanted to hear.
And Rick Santorum wasn’t too bad either. He was calm and confident and really shined. One of his best moments was when he begged the bickering Romney and Gingrich to put aside personal politics and focus on the issues. The crowd loved it.
And then there is poor old Ron Paul. The 76 year old was asked to release his medical records to ensure he is healthy enough to be president. Paul said, ““I’m willing to challenge any of these gentlemen up here to a 25-mile bike ride any time of the day in the heat of Texas.”
Paul also thought the idea of colonizing the moon is ridiculous, and said he would like to send politicians up there instead. I can’t say I disagree with him.
One part of the debate that I found interesting was when the candidates were asked about their wives. It was nice to hear them talk about something unrelated to politics, and it definitely provided a break from the hostility. Now I’m not saying to turn the debates into the Miss American Pageant, but questions like this are interesting to the average viewer. Of course it might provide an opportunity for a politician to make up a perfect, not-so-genuine response, and I’m sure people want to hear mostly about issues, I’m just saying it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few basic questions. For example, viewers were tweeting questions at CNN during the debate, one being “Who has been most influential on your life and why?” I think it would be cool to hear the answer to this, especially because that might not be something the candidates rehearsed the night before.
Photo(cc) republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
After Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, I decided to do some homework. By that I mean I logged on to Facebook to get my daily dose of stalkage. I was shocked to see that most of the statuses weren’t about ex-boyfriends or cupcake recipes, but rather about President Obama’s third State of the Union address. I felt so proud of my friends for actually taking an interest in the speech. The feeling was probably similar to how Chris Brown will feel when his future son records his first single. Or when his future son beats up his first girlfriend. Who knows.
Anyway, I was impressed. Most people tend to believe that our generation has more of an interest in Snooki’s new perfume (a lovely blend of meat sauce and glitter) than we do in modern American politics. But I must say, I saw a LOT of posts about the State of the Union, a majority of which centered around Obama saying, “Higher education can’t be a luxury -– it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.” I couldn’t agree more with the guy. At the rate we’re going, I shudder to think of what education will cost when my kids start going to college…
Obama had some other thoughts about education, including the role of teachers in America. His idea is to reward teachers for good work, and get them the heck out of schools if they can’t do their job right. It sounds like a good plan to me.
Don’t worry, I watched it for you. Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul threw the last few punches before the South Carolina primary, which will be held tomorrow. For those of you unfamiliar with where the candidates stand on hot issues, The Huffington Post did a good job summarizing the facts.
Now that you know the basics, let’s talk about the debate. Newt Gingrich was pretty pissed off when the first question CNN’s John King asked him was about Marianne Gingrich, his ex-wife. Marianne Gingrich told ABC News and The Washington Post that when Newt revealed he was having an affair in 1999, he gave her an ultimatum: an open marriage or a divorce. Marianne said Newt Gingrich then spoke to a group of Republican women about family values a few days later. But this wasn’t Newt’s first divorce. He married his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, in 1962. He then had an affair with Marianne and asked Battley to sign divorce papers while she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery.
Come on Newt? I get that maybe a vital primary debate isn’t the perfect forum for this particular type of question, but Marianne Gingrich was interviewed merely hours before the candidates took their podiums. The timing was impeccable. You can’t blame John King for trying. While none of the other candidates brought up the ex-wife, I still think Gingrich could have handled it better. He seemed to just rephrase the same sentence three times in between standing ovations. That’s another thing, this crowd was way too eager to stand up. I mean, were they sitting for days? It seemed like the second anyone completed a sentence with proper subject-verb agreement, they were on their feet. Take it easy, Americans. Sometimes you need to play hard to get.
Another interesting moment was when Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney argued about health care. Has anyone else noticed how Romney smiles and chuckles the whole time he is being insulted? What is he really thinking about? President Obama on Disney’s Tower of Terror? The possibility of Sharon Bialek and Callista Bisek starting a reality show together?
The best line of the clip: “If you want to go be governor of Massachusetts, fine. But I want to be president…” You need some ointment for that burn, Rick?
But Romney wasn’t the only one who picked on Santorum. Ron Paul called him “overly sensitive,” when discussing national right to life voting records and whether abortion laws are a state or federal issue.
The candidates then played “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” with tax returns. Ron Paul said he has no intention of releasing his tax records at the moment, claiming he would be embarrassed to put his meager income against those of the other candidates. Santorum, who does his own taxes, said he would release them as soon as he got home, while Gingrich released his that very evening. Romney said he would show his records when his taxes are complete for the year in April, if he is the nominee. Gingrich pushed the issue a little further, saying that if there is anything in Romney’s records that could keep the Republicans from winning the election, it would be better to know about it sooner rather than later.
I agree. If Romney wants to stay in the lead, he doesn’t have much room to let the other candidates gain votes. Not showing his tax records is too risky and makes him look like he has something to hide, especially when Gingrich and Santorum have agreed to release theirs immediately. While I’m sure many viewers of last night’s debate are still wondering if the allegations against Gingrich about his past are true, at least he went on the offensive. He was forceful, and exerted a sense of control that the audience responded to well. Romney, on the other hand, seems to get flustered easily when confronted with a personal issue, such as his taxes. He needs to toughen up.
At this point, Republican voters need to strongly consider which candidate could put up the best fight against President Obama, and it seems like Romney might still be that guy. Tomorrow’s votes should be interesting.
For a while it seemed like there was a different Republican candidate in the lead every few days. But Mitt Romney, recent winner of the New Hampshire primary, is currently holding the top spot, followed by Newt Gingrich. And as the week drudges on, the Republican national candidates are dropping out like the stars of MTV’s “16 and Pregnant.” Former governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman, announced yesterday that he would no longer be running and gave his support to Romney.
The Republican party has been so divided that these are the first small steps we have seen that even hint at unity. Still on the battlefield are Romney, Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. And Buddy Roemer, if you count him.
Walt Disney World, Florida
Over on the Democratic side, President Obama spoke to Americans today not from Washington, but from the most magical place on Earth. No, not New Jersey, but Disney World. While some Republicans are poking fun at Obama claiming he lives in a “fantasyland” of sorts, I kind of enjoyed it. It’s not every day you get to see the president address the public from Cinderella’s castle. And his message was pretty good too. President Obama has dreams of tourism to the U.S. soaring higher than Dumbo can fly, creating a million jobs over the next 10 years. And while I’m sure many of us are skeptical, if there is one thing Walt Disney taught me, it’s that dreams can come true. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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And Rick Santorum wasn’t too bad either. He was calm and confident and really shined. One of his best moments was when he begged the bickering Romney and Gingrich to put aside personal politics and focus on the issues. The crowd loved it.
