Red Alerts Politics Takes on 2012 “Fight to the Finish”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor floated Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell as picks he would like to see get the nod to be Mitt Romney’s running mate Thursday at Politico’s Playbook breakfast.

But Cantor seemed particularly excited about what McDonnell could bring to the table by delivering states like Virginia and North Carolina, as well as key suburban swing areas around the country.

Cantor has a long personal connection with McDonnell dating back to when they served together in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Ohio Governor John Kasich reversed his decision not to endorse in the Republican Presidential primary today and endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

Kasich, who rarely makes endorsements, said just last Sunday on Meet the Press that he would not endorse in the primary.

After host David Gregory hinted that Kasich was running out of excuses not to endorse one of the remaining candidates in the primary, Kasich said he didn’t want to “handicap the horse race” by endorsing before the nomination process was over.

It looks as though Ron Paul will be winning more delegates from early primary states after all. The campaign’s strategy to target delegates and encourage supporters to attend party conventions may be finally paying off.

On Saturday April 14, Colorado held the state’s Republican convention, while Minnesota held three district conventions. In both cases, Ron Paul won more delegates than expected.

A new era of advertising is upon us and offers capabilities Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men could only have dreamed of.

While online advertisers have been using tracking pixels – commonly known as cookies – for years, the advent of social and mobile data has unlocked a whole new world for marketers. For political campaigns, this means targeting the right voter with the right message at the right time in the right place.

Digital strategists have been touting Big Data for campaigns since 2010, but the 2012 election represents the first time this new technology is being used aggressively by campaigns to win votes. As the Atlantic reports, both the Obama and Romney campaigns are using this data to line up votes before Election Day.

Leading House conservatives, including several Tea Party freshmen, threw their support behind Mitt Romney Tuesday, saying they were happy that the primary process was over and nothing is more important to them than beating Barack Obama.

Tea Party freshman Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, summed up his colleagues’ feelings saying he was “glad the process is over,” during a Capitol Hill meeting of a new congressional organization calling itself “Conversations With Conservatives.”

“I’m excited that we are going to be able to contrast the visions between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party,” Labrador said. “If you are looking at anything that Republican [candidates] are saying, they are in direct contrast to everything that Obama’s saying.

Following fmr. Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s exit from the race for Republican nomination for president, the big question is:  Are conservatives going to finally unite around fmr. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the presumptive nominee?

Some may be doubtful that conservatives will come around, but recent Twitter activity confirms that are starting to do so: when the options are down to Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, conservatives realize the fundamental choice is between a free, democratic society based on conservative values and the big government, regulated, stagnant, socialist policies of our current administration.

While they’re at it tweeting, people are quick to defend the core values which make our country great.

President Obama promised to crackdown on lobbying on when he came into office in 2009 and said they wouldn’t control his administration, according to Politico.

The meetings are similar to the Americans for Tax Reform’s weekly meetings chaired by Grover Norquist and the Weyrich Lunches held by groups on the right, which have pulled together issue lobbyists for the past three decades to lobby members of Congress and Republican administrations on the issues.

President Obama’s landmark piece of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – the policy his entire presidency has centered on for the past three years – is currently under review by the Supreme Court.  Oral arguments were held at the end of March, and the Supreme Court will make a ruling sometime before the end of June on whether all or parts of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, are Constitutional.

It remains to be seen how the Justices will rule or why, but three strong signs exist that Democrats think Obamacare will be overturned.

Almost everyone by now is aware of Hilary Rosen’s comments on CNN smearing Ann Romney and the controversy that followed.  Many pundits on both sides of aisle weighed in with their thoughts about the situation, but no column was as factually inaccurate and offensive as that of Salon’s Joan Walsh.  Walsh suggested that Ann Romney should be the one who apologizes because of the possible future First Lady’s contention that she knows “what it’s like to struggle.”

According to Joan Walsh, it was wrong for Ann Romney – a cancer survivor who has multiple sclerosis –  to equate her struggle with that of women who are not as financially well-off. Dealing with cancer and multiple sclerosis would seem like a justified reason to claim knowledge of struggle, rich or poor, but Joan Walsh appears to disagree.

It is important to note that Walsh chose to leave out a large part of the Ann Romney quote she was criticizing: critically, she left out the part that completely undermines her argument.

In an effort to capitalize on Hilary Rosen’s smear against Republican primary candidate Mitt Romney’s wife Ann Romney, the Romney campaign is offering ”MOMS Drive The Economy” bumper stickers for a minimum $6 donation.

Romney campaign manager Beth Myers sent out an e-mail shortly after the incident advertising the bumper stickers by saying, “If you’re a stay-at-home mom, the Democrats have a message for you: you’ve never worked a day in your life.”

Just as it’s becoming clear Mitt Romney will be the first major party Mormon presidential nominee, we’re seeing a predictable uptick in the frequency of stories about his zany religion.

In “7 Questions for Mitt About Mormonism,” RealClearReligion columnist Jeffrey Weiss intones, “[I]t is past time for Mitt Romney to address relevant questions about his religion.”  Weiss casts a suspicious eye on such un-American Latter-Day Saint doctrines as “If we have been frugal and saved for a rainy day, then we can more easily weather the financial storm.  If we have lived beyond our means, then we pay the consequences of our own actions when the bills come.”  Social Darwinism alert!

Start waving the flags, Chris Christie just announced that he would be willing to “listen” to Mitt Romney if he ever came calling about a potential Vice President nomination.

There is only one person in my party who gets to make that decision and that’s Governor Romney” he said at a town hall meeting this afternoon. “If Governor Romney comes to me and wants to talk about it, I’ll always listen.”

There have been a number of names thrown around as possibilities for Mitt Romney’s running mate. So here at Red Alert Politicswe decided to pick who we think are the top four in the running to get the VP nod.

(In alphabetical order:)

Governor Louis Fortuño (P.R.) – Fortuño has almost a full term of executive experience under his belt as well as four years as Puerto Rico’s non-voting Member of Congress.

He is a battle-tested fighter for limited government and free markets. His decision to keep Puerto Rico solvent by making deep cuts in government spending came amidst much protest.

Although Puerto Rico offers no electoral votes, Florida does have the second highest Puerto Rican population in the United States proper. I would consider a Fortuño Romney’s curve ball option.

Ann Romney struck back at Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s slam that she has never worked “a day in her life” because she chose to be a stay-at-home mother.

Rosen dissed the likely GOP nominee’s wife suggesting she doesn’t know what she’s talking about when it comes to advising her husband, Mitt Romney, about what women think about economics during an appearance on CNN last night.

Records show that  Rosen has been a frequent White House visitor who has participated in high-level meetings with Valerie Jarrett and other close Obama aides.

Actually, it’s more than just the battle for the throne angle. This presidential election bears rather unexpected similarities to the participants in the second season’s battle for the Iron Throne. And I, for one, think it’s time we set them out – so here is a breakdown of who in our contemporary political culture matches up with whom in Westeros.

Ron Paul is coughing up some of the oodles of cash he’s raised in this campaign for a new ad touting himself as the “True Texan” in the run-up for the Lone Star State primary.

Of course, it’s Paul’s swaggering, Big Government-slashing agenda that the ad equates with authentic Texan bona fides.  But by birth, the good Dr. shares a pedigree with two of his three targets.

Like Rick Santorum, Paul was raised near Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania.  And like Newt Gingrich, he fled the Rust Belt Keystone State for brighter horizons in the Sun Belt in the Seventies.

Rick Santorum’s White House came to a screeching halt Tuesday afternoon as he announced his decision to suspend his campaign at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pa.

“We were very concerned about our roles as being the very best parents has we can be to our children,” Santorum said. “We made a decision over the weekend while this presidential race is over to for me and will suspend our campaign effective today – we are not done fighting.”

The candidate’s decision comes a day after the release of his daughter, Bella, 3, who suffers from Trisomy 18, a rare and usually fatal genetic disorder, from a Virginia hospital.

“Let’s begin tonight with the trail of victories for one Wilhelm Mittens Romsfelt,” Stewart quipped. “The man won huge. He beat Rick Santorum in Wisconsin 44 to 37 percent. He beat Rick Santorum 49 to 29 percent. He beat Rick Santorum in Washington, D.C. 70 percent and he wasn’t even on the ballot.”

And it’s now “The Last Bland Standing” to use the graphic from Stewart’s “Daily Show”, with just about anyone of any importance in the media telling the former Pennsylvania Senator to take a hike.

If he keeps going until the convention, Ron Paul will possibly have the opportunity to disrupt the convention by egging on his delegates to make a scene. The GOP will have every appearance of a party in disarray, which will weaken the eventual nominee, possibly even condemning that candidate to a loss in November. Ron Paul will become the Ralph Nader of the GOP, and both the good and bad things he represents will be summarily tossed to the wilderness for decades.

Quit, Ron Paul. For the party, for the country, for yourself. Pick your favorite reason, but quit.

Paul’s spending per delegate has even outstripped the likely GOP nominee Gov. Mitt Romney who has spent $101,974 for each of his 655 delegates and wins in the 17 states that he has won.

In the private sector, such spending would be regarded as a terrible investment in light of the fact the Texas congressman has yet to win a single primary or caucus in the 2012 election cycle.

At the local party’s annual Lincoln Douglass Dinner the straw poll was a blowout for Romney, who won the poll with 72 percent of the vote. Paul and Santorum tied for third with only one vote separating them from second place winner, Newt Gingrich, who received 8.2 percent of the vote.

Romney’s DC co-chair, who is also a Vice Chair of the DCGOP, Teri Galvez said the straw poll was encouraging but she thought her candidate would win today based on the number of people throughout DC who told her they were voting for Romney.

Gingrich delegate Crystal Wright, communications consultant the blog Conservative Black Chick told Red Alert Politics she thought her candidate had “zero” chance of winning today.

Monday evening news broke that the Republican National Committee would begin jointly fundraising with Mitt Romney this week for the General Election. The RNC’s decision to team up with Romney is a clear sign the that national party has grown tired of Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum’s claims they can still win the GOP nomination, despite the fact that Romney now has more than half the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Although the three other remaining candidates were also given the opportunity to raise money alongside the RNC, they declined, which GOP consultants told the Wall Street Journal was to be expected. Low on funds, the other GOP candidates are more focused on raising enough money to beat Mitt Romney in the primary than raising money for long shot General Election campaigns.

With powerful Wisconsin natives Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Tea Party Sen. Ron Johnson behind him, the Badger State likely will be the jewel in the crown for Mitt Romney tomorrow night.

The Wisconsin GOP is focused on defending Gov. Scott Walker from the Democrats’ recall effort, which observers say has united the state party from getting involved in a Romney-Santorum civil war.

Even though Mitt Romney has yet to close the deal with Republicans on getting the GOP presidential nomination, Priorities USA, an Obama-aligned Super-PAC has decided for the Republicans that he is their man.

The Super-PAC charges that Romney’s campaign stands to profit from higher gas prices while ignoring the impact of the Obama administration’s policies on driving up the price of oil.

“Big Oil executives have pledged $200 million to Romney’s campaign to help him,” the narrator says. “And Romney’s pledged to help their record profits and their billions in special tax breaks too.”

Maryland likely will be part of a three-state sweep by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney tomorrow as he marches toward the GOP nomination.

The Maryland primary hasn’t mattered in the GOP presidential contest since Ronald Reagan challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford for the nomination in 1976, but this year could be different.

The horserace to reach the magic number of 1,444 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination means every contest matters, especially for Romney’s rivals.

As the Republican presidential primary race grinds on, Wisconsin is the next important stop. A recent NBC News/Marist poll found that that Badger State voters are more focused on the sure-to-be-fiercely fought recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker, than on Tuesday’s presidential primary. The recall primary is in May and the general election will be held in June.

But there’s yet another Wisconsin contest this year that is quietly heating up behind the scenes that could also garner national attention come November.

Last spring, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl announced that he would not be seeking reelection in 2012, leaving his Senate seat vulnerable to a Republican pick up in a swing state. U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Madison – a liberal stronghold – has emerged as the likely Democratic nominee.

Since then, six candidates have joined the Wisconsin Republican Senate primary race in hopes of winning their party’s nomination on August 14th and defeating Baldwin in the general election on November 6th.

Why did Obama choose to join Pinterest now? From a marketing and campaign standpoint, the answer is simple.

Obama’s content on Pinterest has nothing to do with policy, stances or his record in office. (Surprising, right?)

Instead, it has only to do with his name recognition, and the hope that Pinterest users will say, come election time, “Oh hey, Obama makes cupcakes with his face on them! What a great reason to vote for him!”

Here’s a fun activity, perform a Google search on “Obama focused like a laser on jobs.”

You’ll quickly find that he (or his surrogates) has used the line just as much as his go-to compliment toward other countries. But has he really delivered? There’s a reason the talking point “we’re in a jobless recovery,” continues to make the rounds.

But fear not, the Obama re-election campaign has put forth the most transparent jobs plan coming from the organized Left in three years. On Thursday, Obama camp blogger Mary Hough promoted the Build This Campaign initiative that is sure to help tackle unemployment and diversify the occupational skills that Generation Y very much needs.

A group of Occupy DC’ers calling themselves the “Progressive Black Caucus of Occupy DC” have shifted their focus from protesting lobbyists and big money donors in Washington, DC to protesting the Obama administration’s handling of the Trayvon Martin killing.

“If Obama really wants to prove that he’s for justice for all citizens, he better tell Attorney General Eric Holder, to have George Zimmerman arrested and charged with first degree murder,” said Bro Hassan, a leader of the group.

Bro Hassan said that if Obama does not change his course on the Trayvon Martin case, it will damage his relationship with the black community.

“Obama has coveniently avoided the whole issue during his term – the whole issue of his loyalties to the black community, his issues in race – and he has conveniently sidestepped this issue, and I don’t think he can no longer do that,” Bro Hassan said. “If he doesn’t take action right now, the black community . . . he’s going to lose a lot of black support.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) endorsed for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination on Fox News’ “Hannity” show this week. Endorsements usually say more about the endorser than the endorsee, but this was clearly a big one.

Until Monday night, Rubio was likely the most unifying figure among Republicans. He is widely admired for his ability to convey conservative principles and defend notion of American exceptionalism in foreign affairs in a clear and passionate way that is almost unrivaled among current politicians.

After Rubio’s endorsement of Romney, Rubio was attacked by countless individuals on social media for being a “RINO” (Republican-in-name-only) and “sell-out.” Rubio explained that his endorsement of Romney was taking into consideration that the other main contenders could not win the primary before the convention (something the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns have essentially admitted) and his belief that a fight at the convention would be a “recipe for disaster” in November. This is hardly an extreme position.

You know things are bad when one of your key demographics think you’re performing poorly. That’s the problem the Obama’s reelection campaign is facing right now, as a new Resurgent Republic focus group memo shows.

In four different focus groups held with swing state voters (two in Raleigh, N.C. and two others in Columbus, Ohio), one thing was obvious: young American voters are not satisfied with the president. They are disheartened with the direction of the country and disappointed with how reality clashed with expectations when Obama took the Oval Office.

Even though his message hasn’t exactly resonated with the GOP mainstream, Paul’s hands-off, do whatever you want message has resonated with college students across the country. Wednesday night’s rally wasn’t any exception. Chants of “End the Fed” and “Ron Paul” filled the basketball arena.

Paul’s advocacy of allowing Americans to legally use marijuana drew loud cheers.

“We don’t have much privacy left, if any at all,” Paul said. “If we are going to live in a free society then you are going to have to accept tolerance of how other people spend their money.

With 11 million unique users logging on each month to pin photos to virtual pinboards, Pinterest has broken through as one of the ten most popular social networking sites on the Internet. The site’s rapid rise to popularity has opened up a new front in the online political battle.

The key with any digital platform is to know what content works and what doesn’t. We’ve all seen Tweets and Facebook posts and thought to ourselves, “you’re doing it wrong,” and the same goes for Pinterest.

Here’s a look at how campaigns and other political organizations can use Pinterest effectively.

Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Rick Santorum’s potty mouth Monday night on Fox News.

Palin said she agreed with Santorum’s response, but she didn’t seem to feel sorry for him, noting that this is how she’s treated by the liberal media on a regular basis.

“So, when I heard Rick Santorum’s response, I was like ‘Well, welcome to my world Rick and good on you. Don’t retreat. You are saying enough is enough,’ ” Palin said. “And I was glad that he called out this reporter. And he and the other candidates – all of them – they need to do more of this, because believe me, the American people are tired of what that leftist media continues to do to conservatives.”

“Romney’s not here, he’s not making the argument,” according to Rick Santorum who campaigned this morning on the steps of the Supreme Court.

He spoke to dozens of protesters, both pro and against Obamacare, who gathered to recognize the first day of Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of the individual mandate in Obamacare.

Santorum used the opportunity to make his case against Romney. “Romney argues against Obamacare and in the same breath defends it at the state level,” he said. “If you really want Obamacare repealed, there is only one person who can make that happen.”

Questions from a New York Times reporter hadtemper flaring at a Wisconsin campaign event Sunday.

The reporter asked the former Senator why he thought Mitt Romney was the worst Republican in the country in response to comments he made saying that Obama was the “worst Republican in the country to go up against Barack Obama.”

“What speech did you listen to?” Santorum asked the reporter in an agitated tone of voice and pointing his finger in the reporter’s face. “Stop lying! I said he was the worst Republican in the country to run against Obama on the issue of Obamacare.

Conservative outrage over the Pennsylvania GOP’s endorsement of Steve Welch, a businessman who supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and liberal former Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak’s 2006 campaign, as the party’s nominee against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. boiled over at Saturday’s Pennsylvania Leadership Conference.

Welch’s conservative opponents charged that Gov. Tom Corbett, R-Pa., used heavy-handed tactics to get the state GOP to push them aside in favor of Welch, a candidate they consider as liberal as party switcher former Sen. Arlen Specter.

According to Human Events, some of the state GOP committee members were threatened with their jobs if they did not back Welch.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trails badly in the polls and calls for him to drop out the race continue to mount, but he found a burst of energy Saturday afternoon addressing the hometown crowd at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference held at a Radisson Hotel near Harrisburg not far from where he was raised.

Gingrich latched on hard to his Pennsylvania ties and to the legacy he built during his nearly four tumultuous years as Speaker of the House.

“I am proud to be here. I am a conservative. I did have an Etch-a-Sketch, but I thought that they were children’s toys, not presidential campaign devices,” Gingrich told the audience, hitting at comments by an aide to Gov. Mitt Romney that he would reset and shake clean like an Etch-a-Sketch once he wins the nomination. “Great parties are not built on sand but on great ideas.”

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum warned participants at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference this morning that nominating Gov. Mitt Romney would cede health care as an issue to Obama come November.

“It is our biggest issue energizing the conservative and Tea Party base,” Santorum said. “Folks, why should we give that away in the election?”

Santorum slammed Romney for saying that he would repeal the “bad parts of Obamacare” rather than pulling it out by the roots after having lent his support to the president’s plan in 2009.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum may be putting a hold on the cheers of inevitability coming from Mitt Romney’s campaign after Saturday’s primary in Louisiana. One of the last deep south states left to vote this cycle, Louisiana is prime stomping grounds for a guy like Santorum and the polls are showing it.

The most recent PPP poll of the Pelican State has Santorum with a commanding lead of 14 points, while the Real Clear Politics average sits in the former Pennsylvania Senator’s favor at almost 11 percent. The best recent poll for Romney in Louisiana still had Santorum up by 4 and took place at the beginning of March.

Ron Paul unarguably has the most vocal online supporters of any of the Presidential candidates. The more, shall we say, ‘passionate’ of those supporters are sometimes called Paulbots or Paultards by social media users who don’t appreciate their aggressive, and often over the top, approach to promoting their candidate.

But if Ron Paul has so much virtual support nationwide, why isn’t he winning the Republican primary in reality?

A quick look at Ron Paul’s facebook and twitter pages shows that there’s one Ron Paul supporter who’s not using social media well – and his name is Ron Paul.

On Tuesday, Illinois voters went to the polls to vote for their choice for a Republican presidential nominee. Mitt Romney comfortably won the primary with 46.7 percent of the vote, followed by Rick Santorum garnering 35 percent. Even before the final numbers were in, pundits went to work explaining what the results meant for the primary race. One of the most common themes of the pundit analysis was a discussion about voter turnout. Almost everywhere one looked there was a report about the low turnout, and an accompanying discussion about how it was due to the poor quality of candidates.

Fresh off his victory in the Illinois Primary and with an endorsement from Jeb Bush in his pocket, Mitt Romney took his campaign to Arbutus, Maryland, a small town outside of Baltimore. Romney kicked off his Maryland campaign in a town hall at the local American Legion Post 109. The Maryland primary is scheduled for April 3, sharing a day with the District of Columbia and Wisconsin.

Romney appeared with former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich, who endorsed Romney last October. Ehrlich is the Maryland campaign chairman for Romney and Arbutus is his hometown – its working class homes have served as the backdrop for Ehrlich’s political announcements throughout this career. Ehrlich did the honors of introducing him and got rousing applause when he referred to Romney as “the next President of the United States.”

At the beginning of last month – Black History Month – President Obama released a campaign video announcing the launch of African-Americans for Obama.

In the two minute call to action, President Obama launched the campaign initiative seeking the support of African American voters based solely on one characteristic: the fact they are African American.

Not only is this video a transparent attempt hold onto the roughly 95% of African-American voters who pulled the lever for him in the 2008 presidential election, it also shows a fundamental lack of respect for the very demographic he’s trying to target.

As if Mitt Romney wasn’t already having enough problems getting the conservative base of the Republican Party to trust him, including recent allegations that he mistreated his dog, this morning Romney Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom implied on CNN that primary voters couldn’t trust Romney to stand by the promises he made during the primary campaign.

By this afternoon Democratic Political Action Committee American Bridge had already responded to Romney’s statements with a spot-on Etch A sketch video highlighting other issues Romney had changed his position on over the years.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with the video, you have to acknowledge the quality of the video and the lightning speed pace with which the American Bridge was able to produce and disseminate it.

Since the Civil War, the American two-party political system has been dominated by Democrats and the Republicans. But in 2012, Americans Elect, a nonpartisan organization whose goal is to directly elect a candidate for President outside the party systems, may be changing the game – unfortunately, not for the better.

Americans Elect demonizes both the Republican and Democratic party as being caught up in “special interests” (which may be true to some extent) and claims that the leaders within the party are doing the real choosing, leaving the people with little to no choice for President.

While our system does have its downfalls, there are two problems with Americans Elect’s statement and purpose. First, it ignores the benefits to having a party, and second, American’s Elect’s solution to the party system is completely hypocritical.

Typically, attacking an opponent’s conduct towards household pets is considered a sign of desperation. That is, unless you’re LBJ running for Senate and the only way to win is accusing your opponent of intimate relations with a pig. But that was over 50 years ago. It won’t work now, right? Right?

Wrong. In recent days, Mitt Romney’s treatment of his dog has somehow become a major topic. Even The Washington Post blogged about the whole thing, dismissing it as hogwash. Heck, for once, the person denouncing attacks on Romney wasn’t even the Post’s token conservative political writer Jennifer Rubin! So why is the attack still going?

A hilarious video of Mitt Romney ‘rapping’ to the tune of Eminem’s “Real Slim Shady” is making the rounds on twitter today . The video, posted yesterday on YouTube by Hugh Atkin (@hmatkin), is a compilation of Romney soundbites, with special appearances from President Obama, Donald Trump and fellow Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Toward the end the video does get a little PG-13, so you might not want to play it out loud at work or in class, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

While Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were campaigning heavily in Illinois and Louisiana on Sunday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was VERY busy strolling along the Tidal Basin in Washington DC to look at the Cherry Blossoms.

Gingrich claimed Louisiana would be “halftime” for his campaign. I guess I didn’t realize this halftime strategy included a halftime show.

And unfortunately in order for it to be halftime, you still need to be playing the game. And by looks of things, Gingrich doesn’t appear to be interested in finishing the half.

Santorum does have an argument to make for why he is a better person to get Illinois’ delegates – namely, that the people who are voting for Romney in Illinois come from areas that almost certainly will go for Obama in November.

In other words, if Republicans want a shot at getting any voters in this state, they’re going to have to be the people currently pulling the lever for Santorum. Those people are less likely to show up if the guy they pulled the lever for isn’t the one leading the ticket. This is the argument that Santorum could make to propel him for a real sustained push for Illinois. It would be an unusually gutsy move for him, but it’s one that could pay off on primary day.

For a presidential candidate, winning on their home turf is a big deal. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) admitted back in February that any candidate that lost his home state would be “very badly weakened.” Luckily for Gingrich, he and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney have both been successful in winning their respective home states.

The odds are not looking as good for the other major contender in the year’s presidential race. Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania holds its primary is on April 24, and the former Keystone State senator has his work cut out for him if he wants to have any chance of winning the delegate-laden state next month.

Contrary to what Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich want you to believe, there will NOT be a brokered convention in Tampa this year.

Gingrich’s advisers can keep releasing “memos to victory” and Santorum can keep praying for – as the AP put it – “continued chaos in the field and a fractured GOP arriving at its nominating convention in late summer.” But at this point, all that the two former legislators are really fighting for is a prime time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.

Mitt Romney will have won the 1,144 delegates required to move on to the general election far before then. The question is not “if,” but “when.”

According to a recent Washington Post report, Obama is having some trouble getting large donations for his reelection campaign, and is even lagging behind his 2008 pace – not exactly what one expects from an incumbent President. This turn of events is putting Obama’s high expectations of raising $1 billion for reelection in jeopardy.

One of the reasons listed for Obama’s disappointing numbers is that the Democrats believe the “ailing” economy has put a wet blanket on everyone’s fundraising expectations. This is rich coming from the party that wants us to reelect President Obama for allegedly saving the economy and supposedly leading America into recovery. How the economy can be both “ailing” and “recovering” at the same might be something the DNC spin room should start working on

This year’s presidential election may not be decided by which candidate makes better use of social media, but it will play an important role in organizing supporters and speaking directly to voters .

“New Media” come quite far since 2008, which many have dubbed “the first social media election.” Technology is more advanced and more people frequent social networks now than ever before, making an active online community an asset to campaigns.

Were Newt Gingrich to leave the race despite numerous resolutions to stay the course, his supporters would split roughly in half for Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum, according to a new Gallup poll.

But the Santorum camp isn’t buying the Gallup survey.

After Newt Gingrich’s unfortunate losses in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, it became obvious to everyone – including Newt Gingrich’s campaign – that there was no longer a clear path to the Republican presidential nomination for former Speaker of the House.

Rather than gracefully exit the presidential primary with his dignity and respect of his supporters, Gingrich has decided that if he can’t be President, no one can.

But has Gingrich considered that his own supporters would rather him bow out courteously than continue this charade?

Puerto Rico is perhaps one of the easiest predictions to make this month.

Mitt Romney will almost certainly win Puerto Rico GOP presidential primary tomorrow. He has the backing of the state’s Republican Governor, Luis G. Fortuno (a good Vice Presidential pick if he came from any other state), and only Newt Gingrich has the slightest chance of upsetting him, given that he is the only other candidate to drop hints he’d favor statehood for Puerto Rico, a measure supported by Republications in the territory. And with Rick Santorum’s blunder earlier in the week in Puerto Rico when he told Puerto Ricans they needed to make English their official language if they wanted to become a state, it is unlikely he will prevail there.

As the GOP presidential primary winds down and the focus shifts to making Barack Obama a one-term president, all eyes will be on the Republican National Committee, the only body able to work directly with the presidential nominee.

In 2010 the Republican National Committee’s political department, headed up by Gentry Collins, helped the GOP win a record number of House seats. The RNC was able to nearly triple the number of people volunteering at the committee’s headquarters from 2008, the majority of which were young professionals. Now, under the direction of chair Reince Priebus and political director Rick Wiley, the RNC is looking to build on it’s past success and generate a national strategy for engaging young voters.

Ron Paul may have warned in 2008 of the coming big government Trojan Horse, but his claim to the conservative mantle is just as hollow.

Rather than focus on spending or debt, Paul supporters stake their claim to true conservatism on a dogmatic opposition not only to war, but to the entirety of modern statecraft in the realm of international affairs, from intelligence gathering to diplomacy. They want to bamboozle young people into thinking this is somehow conservative, and they’ve made a point of trying to namedrop every conservative giant to make their point, including Russell Kirk, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley and even Ronald Reagan.

Nearly every single one of these men would have been horrified, or at least skeptical, of Paul’s ideas.

The Republican establishment is sometimes seen as the stodgy old guard of the center-right movement, but the Republican National Committee’s communications team is doing a great job at changing that stereotype.

In their latest viral salvo against the Obama administration, the research and communications division has rolled out a brilliant play on the popular Groupon website, the BarackOn.

How can you get in on the amazing deals at BarackOn? Well, pony up some cash!

This week’s WTF Wednesday is brought to you by Rick Santorum (although Newt Gingrich’s internal memo was a close second).

Santorum, after big wins in Mississippi and Alabama, celebrated his victory by offending the entire island of Puerto Rico.

While campaigning in San Juan on Wednesday, Santorum threw any chance he had at winning the Puerto Rican primary down the toilet by basically telling Puerto Rican newspaper El Vocero that Puerto Ricans need to learn English if they want to become a state.

The biggest story of Tuesday night is Rick Santorum winning both Alabama and Mississippi. Polls leading up to the Alabama primary showed it would be a tight race between Santorum, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, although Gingrich was a slight favorite. Santorum’s wins were not necessarily a huge shock, but an upset all the same.

Santorum took 34.5 percent of the Alabama vote, leading Newt Gingrich at 29.3 percent and Mitt Romney at 29 percent.

The surprise came when Santorum garnered 32.9 percent of the vote in Mississippi, beating heavy favorite Gingrich by 1.6 percent. This effectively dealt the deathblow to the already miniscule chance Newt Gingrich had to make a run at being the conservative alternate to Mitt Romney…again.

Pundits increasingly suggest the low turnout in recent Republican primaries may be a bad omen for the GOP’s general election campaign. However, elections expert Larry Sabato told Red Alert that “problems with Republican enthusiasm are probably being overstated.” With a polarizing figure like President Obama on the ballot, Republicans are unlikely to stay home in November.

For starters, it’s worth noting that the developing low-turnout narrative is only partially true. Despite reports from liberal outlets about “disappointing” numbers in Iowa, caucus goers actually broke 2008’s record turnout by 3 percent. New Hampshire turnout was up 4 percent. South Carolina turnout was up a staggering 35 percent.

I think we can all agree that the odds six months ago of Rick Santorum being one of the Final Four in the race to become the Republican Presidential nominee were pretty unlikely. His polling numbers hovered around 3 percent and his fundraising was sorely lagging behind his competitors.

Then came Iowa and Santorum enjoyed a boost in polling and became a household name almost overnight.

Others claim his popularity can be attributed to an intense work ethic, a dedication to core conservative values and a general likeability factor.

But I know the truth.

It’s the vest.

I wasn’t going write a Newt Gingrich #facepalm post until after the votes were tallied tonight, but this press release from the Newt Gingrich campaign so totally blew my mind that I had to post it here now.

I’m going to refrain from commenting on the “internal memo,” but I just want to say this: It’s not an internal memo if your campaign sends it to the press. That totally defeats the purpose of the word internal.

OK, without further ado: Gingrich Advisers Highlight Half Time Strategy, Path to the Nomination

In honor of Raz Shafer’s profile of Ben Domenech, the brains behind Newt Judges You, I’ve put together what I consider to be the best and funniest of the tumblr blog.

By the end of February, the GOP nomination could take a decisive turn. Michigan and Arizona voters will cast their ballots on Feb. 28, which could be the Gettysburg of the long battle for the Republican nomination. Here’s why:

1) Michigan could swing for Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum. The state’s Republican electorate is currently trending toward the former Pennsylvania senator, according to recent polling data, but Romney has the natural advantages of name recognition and roots in the state (his father was the governor). Because the state is volatile, it could show a bellwether indication of whether or not the GOP has decided to pick a new frontrunner in Santorum, or if Romney will continue to steady climb toward facing President Obama.

One of the things that every politician learns at some point is words matter. Everything you say, especially in the midst of campaigning, can eventually be used against you. This becomes a huge issue when your rhetoric rarely matches your actions.

With that in mind, Barack Obama recently sat down for a fairly friendly interview with a Fox affiliate in Atlanta. At one point in the interview, the reporter gave the President a chance to explain a statement he made soon after coming into office. The statement was his infamous promise to “cut the deficit in half” by the end of his first term. That has clearly not happened.

UPDATE: As per Sarah Boxer from CBS New Jersey, neither Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum will be participating in the March 1 debate.

UPDATE II: We just got word from Chris Kelleher that it is CONFIRMED Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will not be attending the debate. The Romney campaign told the GA GOP there was a scheduling conflict and Governor Romney cannot attend. No word on why Congressman Paul is not attending. Kelleher explained they have not received word from the Santorum campaign, and as far as the GA GOP is concerned, the debate will go on as scheduled for March 1.

UPDATE III: CNN is cancelling the Super Tuesday debate. In a statement CNN said, “Without full participation of all four candidates, CNN will not move forward with the Super Tuesday debate.”

When Rick Santorum speaks at Hillsdale College Monday night, it will not be about foreign policy, trade wars, or even abortion. He will speak about the Constitution of the United States of America.

Students at Hillsdale College invited GOP hopefuls Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to speak at the college about the Constitution in a nationally broadcasted symposium.

Breathe a sigh of relief now – this is not another debate. Each candidate will have 15 minutes to speak about the Constitution, have a few minutes for questions, and leave the stage to the next candidate.

Rick Santorum’s latest ad has Mitt Romney (well, a very good look-a-like of Mitt Romney) literally throwing mud at the former US Senator.

It’s no secret Romney has been going more and more negative in recent weeks, especially with his numbers slipping in the must-win state of Michigan.

Santorum has apparently had enough of the mudslinging and began airing a new ad in Michigan, hoping to capitalize on Romney’s falling favor.

Former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has just made the shocking announcement that she would rather focus on being a congresswoman than compete on Dancing with the Stars.

After rumors circulated about her possible appearance on the popular ABC show, her office felt the need to quell any doubts.

“In full disclosure, I did win a polka dancing competition when I was in the tenth grade at my alma mater, Anoka High School in Anoka, Minn.,” Bachmann said in a statement. “But, despite my tenth grade polka success and my lifelong love of ballroom dancing, the recent rumors are false. I will not be joining ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ ”

But keep trying DWTS, there is always next year!

An e-mail from Newtgingrich360.com, a grassroots website unaffiliated with the Gingrich campaign “for Newt Gingrich Supporters and Volunteers,” reveals a push for Gingrich supporters in Virginia to support Ron Paul in the state’s primary on March 6.

Rick Santorum and Gingrich were unable to make it on the Virginia ballot in December. Because Virginia will be allocating its delegates proportionally, Gingrich supporters plan to give Congressman Paul as many votes as possible in order to stop Mitt Romney from running away with the 46 bound delegates.By Daniel Webb /// February 14, 2012

Early Thursday morning at CPAC, GOP hopeful Rick Santorum encouraged a crowd of young pro-lifers to continue to take a stand against abortion.

The event – hosted by Students for Life – was to be held in a tiny conference room, but became packed and steamy fifteen minutes before it began, forcing organizers to move attendees to the hallway where the crowd grew to more than 200 people. Several well-know pro-lifers spoke before Santorum arrived, including Mike Huckabee and Andrew Breitbart. And though they were well received by the crowd, Santorum’s arrival brought enthusiasm that eclipsed the rest.

On Friday Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell addressed attendees of CPAC in what could have been a major debut for him to be a Vice Presidential pick.

He focused on explaining the basic conservative free-market principles without use of notes or a teleprompter. He spoke well, but did not come off as inspiring or passionate. It was a good speech and delivered well, however, it was relatively unoriginal.

Conservative Republicans may have been out in full force over the past three days at the eighth annual Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) presidential straw poll, yet at the end of the day the most moderate of the bunch won.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll with 38 percent of the vote, compared with former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s 31 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed behind with 15 percent of the vote, while last year’s winner, Texas Representative Ron Paul, came in last place with only 12 percent of the vote.

After winning Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado last Tuesday, former Senator and GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum has revitalized his campaign. Instead of scrounging for votes, the candidate is now looking to build his war chest for what could be a long race between him, Newt Gingrich, and frontrunner Mitt Romney.

Governor Perry may be out of the Presidential race, but he’s certainly not out of politics or the conservative movement. His speech to CPAC attendees was full of optimism while still managing to acknowledge the challenges we face as a nation. The whole spectacle left many wondering, Where was this Rick Perry when he was… Read Article ›

The term “electability” is repeatedly tossed around during election season in reference to potential presidential candidates. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has experienced the implications of this through her decreased popularity in comparison to other GOP candidates.

Following the results of the Iowa Caucus, Bachmann announced her withdrawal from the presidential race, stating, “Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to stand aside.”

Anti-war liberal Eugene McCarthy stunned the nation when his impressive showing in the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic primary spurred President Lyndon Johnson to drop his re-election bid. At the root of McCarthy’s upset: massive financial support from like-minded millionaires. At least five millionaires, most notably philanthropist Stewart Mott, propelled McCarthy’s campaign with contributions of $100,000… Read Article ›

Newt Gingrich thinks “”grandiose thoughts”. Just ask him. But is being president one of them?

His campaign website is a strange assortment of photographs of himself, of Callista and Ronald Reagan — AKA all the people running on the Gingrich ticket — several of his writings — or as he calls them, “solutions”, including a “21st Century Contract With America” — and the requisite “online store,” where you can purchase all of Newt’s books and movies.