|  |  |  | | | | | Elections - Google News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The senator suggests he's not feeling that special attraction to any of the candidates, whether it be front-runner Mitt Romney or one of his rivals, or feeling peer pressure to pair up for the big dance. Instead, he has his eye on another class of candidate entirely — those aiming to win enough Senate seats to flip the chamber from Democratic to Republican control. "My priority is the Senate," DeMint said this week in an interview, adding that it doesn't matter who is elected president if Republicans don't get a Senate majority. He's again turning to his political action committee, Senate Conservatives Fund, to help candidates he wants to see elected to the Senate. "I have the ability to raise $10 (million) or $15 million to elect some senators and that's how I think I can help the next president. So that's what I want to do," he said. "As soon as I get involved with one (presidential) candidate, I've got 80 percent of my supporters mad at me." Still, for all of DeMint's efforts not to get dragged into the GOP presidential race, he waded into it on Tuesday with a prediction. "I think Romney's going to win here," DeMint, 60, told South Carolina conservative radio host Mark Levin. There are other signs that DeMint is warm to Romney. The senator's political adviser, Warren Tompkins, and former top aide, Luke Byars, are working on the candidate's behalf. And some close to DeMint, who endorsed Romney in 2008, say he's quietly telling people that he's backing Romney and they should, too. In public, he'll only go so far. "I don't have anything against Mitt Romney or any of the candidates," he says. "I think we've got a good slate. I don't see any of them as unacceptable." He says he worries that endorsing one candidate might alienate supporters of the others. Whether coy or genuine, DeMint's demurral hasn't discouraged his pursuers as the Republican political machinery rumbles south from New Hampshire. South Carolina's famously nasty nomination contest has proved decisive in the past; the winner has become the GOP's presidential nominee every time since 1980. Romney faces challenges from Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Nearly every one of them has wooed DeMint. A nod from the former ad executive could mean millions of campaign dollars in campaign donations. And it could help send an underdog to Washington, as DeMint's endorsement did in 2010 for Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. That explains why DeMint's name keeps popping up — in glowing terms — on the presidential campaign trail. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Article VI of the U.S. Constitution specifies "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." That's the official line. it's a different story with voters. For many Americans, a candidate's religious faith is a serious consideration in determining their vote. And because of this, candidates often make professions of their faith while campaigning for office. It can work both positively and negatively. George W. Bush was a favorite with Christian conservatives because of his public pronouncements of his faith. President Barack Obama, however, had to fight off criticism during the 2008 election because he attended the Chicago church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Although Wright's church was a Christian denomination, he gained notoriety because of his politically-charged sermons, including one in which he blamed the U.S. for the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. It forced Obama into damage control, and he eventually denounced Wright's sermons and resigned his membership. John F. Kennedy is the nation's only Roman Catholic president, a fact that concerned many protestants and that Kennedy had to address before being elected in 1960. Will Mitt Romney find himself in the same situation? The former Massachusetts governor seems to be gaining control of the race for the GOP nomination to challenge President Obama in November. That means he soon could become the sole focus of the media and voters, and that also means plenty of attention on his religion, Mormonism. According to the New York Times, it's a spotlight that's making many members of the faith uneasy, even though a Pew Research Center poll shows their image is improving: "On the one hand, Mormons do feel they are discriminated against, and that their coverage in the news and, even more so, in popular culture isn't helping," said David Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and a Mormon who served as a consultant on the poll. "But you also find this strain of optimism that things are going to get better and this is an important moment for Mormonism." The poll says most Mormons believe that America is ready to elect its first Mormon president. And Michael Purdy, spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, says church officials are eager for the nation to get a better understanding of the faith (Fox News): "As the Church and its members are increasingly the focus of media attention, we're eager to participate in conversations that help the public get to know us better. Even though the recent Pew study did not survey any of the Church's 8 million members who live outside the U.S., it highlights some important aspects regarding who we are and what we believe," Purdy said in a statement responding to the survey. It might still be an uphill battle to change perceptions, though. Dr. Randall Balmer, professor of American Religious History at Columbia University, says most Americans are "woefully uninformed" about Mormonism, and part of it is because of the faith's secretive nature (Fox News): A nearly unanimous number (97 percent) of Mormons surveyed describe themselves as Christian. But a Pew survey in November showed one-third of non-Mormon U.S. adults said Mormonism is not Christian, and 17 percent were unsure. "Mormons think they're more fully mainstream than other Americans think they are," Balmer said. "I don't question their status in American society but there are vestigial prejudices against Mormons, particularly from Conservative Evangelicals."
National polls taken in recent months show how far anti-black prejudice has subsided compared to anti-Mormon prejudice. In a Gallup survey, 5 percent of adults said they wouldn't vote for their party's presidential nominee if he were black. Six percent said they wouldn't vote for a woman, 7 percent said they wouldn't vote for a Catholic, 9 percent said they wouldn't vote for a Jew, and 10 percent said they wouldn't vote for a Hispanic. But 22 percent said they wouldn't vote for a Mormon. Can Romney sway the 22 percent who say they won't vote for a Mormon? The authors of a the book "The Disappearing God Gap: Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election" believe it's a difficult task for Romney, according to David Briggs of the Association of Religion Data Archives:Americans have been always suspicious of presidential candidates perceived to hold weak or unorthodox religious values, according to authors Corwin Smidt, Kevin den Dulk, Bryan Froehle, James Penning, Steven Monsma and Douglas Koopman in their new book, "The Disappearing God Gap? Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election. "In fact," the researchers write, "the average voter's insistence that presidential candidates must be religious -- and religious in a mainstream way -- is something akin to what political scientists call a 'standing decision,' a nonnegotiable starting point for many voters in considering candidates for office." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Tim Davis for The New York Times A home in Greenville, the hub of conservative politics in South Carolina. I met Karen Martin, a few days before New Year's, at a cafe in Greenville, the hub of conservative politics in South Carolina. A 54-year-old refugee from the North Shore of Massachusetts, Martin is the lead organizer of the nearby Spartanburg Tea Party. Another Tea Party leader described her to me as a grown-up, and in fact, Martin turned out to be the kind of activist — ideology notwithstanding — who makes you feel hopeful about the new age of political uprising. She recounted how she burst into tears at the moment she realized, watching the news in 2008, that children growing up today wouldn't have the economic opportunities that she did. She talked about how the Tea Party would need to mature and become more politically sophisticated in the years ahead. "I think the movement is just too young and too emotional," she said. Then our conversation turned to Mitt Romney, and Martin's sunny countenance darkened. "I don't know a single Tea Party person," she said, slowly drawing out her words, "who does not despise Mitt Romney to the very core of their being." I searched her face for levity or compassion, but found neither. Discussions about the Tea Party often miss the extent to which the movement is loose and leaderless, a disjointed collection of local chapters and agendas. But if the phenomenon has an epicenter, that place is South Carolina. The state's junior senator, Jim DeMint, is generally seen as the ideological forefather of the Tea Party, at least among elected officials. Tea Party activism propelled South Carolina's 39-year-old governor, Nikki Haley, into office in 2010, along with four new Republican congressmen. There are, by some estimates, more than 50 autonomous Tea Party groups operating throughout the state, and according to a recent Winthrop University poll, 61 percent of South Carolinians say they approve of the movement — more than double the national figure, according to data from the Pew Research Center. When you talk to activists around the state, as I did recently during a weeklong visit, you hear a lot about Romney's record on health care, specifically, and about his ideological squishiness in general. But you also come to understand that the antipathy in Tea Party circles is more visceral. It's a reaction to what they perceive as Romney's synthetic and calculating persona, the sense that he somehow embodies everything that's false and impenetrable about the parties in Washington. And so South Carolina, which will hold its presidential primary Jan. 21, is the place where two powerful political vehicles — Mitt Romney's establishment-backed campaign and the three-year-old Tea Party insurgency — will collide full force. It's here where Tea Party activists have expected to assert their influence over the party's nominating process. For most of them, that means, above all, stopping Mitt. The problem is that they've had a hard time settling on any obvious alternative to Romney, in a way that might transform the primary into a clear, binary choice. After a startling finish in Iowa, Rick Santorum seemed likely to steal significant votes from rivals like Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and to fill the smallish void left by Michele Bachmann. But even as Santorum moved to consolidate conservative support, Tea Party organizers remained largely splintered among the rival campaigns. Their most influential leader, DeMint, declined to throw his support one way or the other. Haley, meanwhile, decided to endorse Romney in mid-December, a tactical decision that mostly drew derision from her Tea Party followers. After months of confusion and bickering over whom to support, a kind of unraveling has occurred at the upper reaches of the movement, in some cases causing friendships to fray and giving rise to charges and countercharges on Facebook. Officers have resigned. Angry statements have been issued. Reputations have been damaged. Martin herself remained neutral when we met, though she said she was giving Newt Gingrich a longer look. "I've been forced to recognize that he might be the best weapon we have," she said, though she was far more enthusiastic about the tomato soup on her tray. Martin was confident that her fellow Tea Partiers would, in the months after the primary, repair whatever wounds have opened, but she had all but given up hope that they might agree on a candidate before the voting starts. "I've talked to so many Tea Party members who said, 'I will never again hold my nose and vote for someone,' " she told me. "They will vote for the pure candidate who doesn't have accomplishments and who's just going to get chewed up." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican presidential candidates and outside groups which support them have spent $38.7 million on political advertising since last fall, according to data acquired by TIME. In the political mud pit of South Carolina, whose Jan. 21 primary is next on the calendar, candidates and their Super PACs have already dropped more than $9 million so far this cycle. The top three spenders in South Carolina have all been super PACs, led by Restore Our Future, a Mitt Romney-allied group, at $2.1 million. Texas Governor Rick Perry's super PAC, Make Us Great Again, has pumped $1.77 million into the Palmetto State so far, and Winning our Future PAC, which backs Newt Gingrich, trails close behind at $1.6 million. Those sums are poised to swell quickly, with both Perry and Gingrich planning to savage Romney in South Carolina in an effort to stymie the front-runner's momentum. The new figures provide a stark picture of the impact superior financing can have on a candidate's fortunes. Romney's campaign and super PAC have dwarfed his rivals in media buys, pouring nearly $15 million since November into radio and television time. Perry, the second-highest spender, has funneled some $9.7 million into ads promoting his campaign. Buoyed by small-dollar donors, Ron Paul checks in third with nearly $5 million in ad spending. Newt Gingrich and his allies have forked over $3.1 million for ads, a million more than Jon Huntsman. At $1.18 million, Rick Santorum, who battled Romney to a virtual draw in Iowa on a shoestring budget, has shelled out the least for paid media among the GOP field. The new data confirms that Super PACS — independent-expenditure committees that can take large, million-dollar donations to promote candidates — have in several cases spent more on ads than the campaigns themselves. Restore Our Future PAC has been the largest single ad buyer so far this cycle, shelling out just under $9 million since the beginning of December. Perry's Make Us Great Again has spent $3.4 million, more than the total tabs rung up by Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum. Super PAC spending has accounted for nearly half of all paid media on broadcast networks, cable TV and radio since the fall. Their ability to boost allied candidates or blanket opponents with negative ads has played a crucial in shaping the contours of the race, even though they are prohibited from coordinating with or funneling money directly to campaigns. The busiest theater in the war so far has been Iowa, home to the nation's first caucus contest and the state where some candidates spent a year. Candidates, allied organizations and opposing groups lavished $16.5 million in ad buys on the Hawkeye State, led by the Perry campaign, which doled out $4.32 million, plus $1.64 million from his super PAC, in exchange for just 12,604 votes—a rate of $495 apiece. Romney, who won the caucuses by a razor-thin margin, was the second-highest spender, shelling out nearly $4.2 million between his campaign and Super PAC. Much of that sum went toward burying Gingrich under an avalanche of blistering ads. Paul, who finished third, spent $2.76 million. Santorum fought to a hard-earned tie on the cheap; his Super PAC–the Red, White and Blue Fund—footed almost his entire $552,000 ad bill. In addition to the top three Super PACs dominating ad spending in South Carolina, Rick Santorum has made his first sizable ad buys for broadcast time in Myrtle Beach, Columbia and Charleston. Perry, Gingrich and Romney have all spent heavily to buy 1,500 to 4,400 gross rating points in Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. The $9 million lavished on the state is likely to grow fast, as Santorum books time with the $3 million in donations that flowed in during the week after his Iowa surge, and Gingrich and Perry double down on their attacks casting Romney's tenure at Bain Capital as responsible for scores of lost jobs. Gingrich's Super PAC, backed by the largesse of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has signaled its intention to buy $3.4 million in ad time. Romney is the only Republican so far to purchase ads in Florida, whose critical Jan. 31 primary requires competing in several major media markets, making it prohibitively expensive for underfunded candidates. Romney's campaign and super PAC have spent $6.1 million so far in the Sunshine State. By contrast, Ron Paul has opted to skip Florida altogether to pursue a strategy of cornering smaller, cheaper states like Nevada, where he recently became the first candidate to purchase air time. This data was compiled for TIME as of Jan. 6 by Smart Media Group. It tracks ad purchases made on broadcast networks, cable and radio. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By Anthony Man Sun Sentinel 4:05 a.m. EST, January 12, 2012 The candidates are coveting Floridians' votes — and their money. Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, and Newt Gingrich, who's hoping to surge from the back of the pack, are coming to South Florida on Thursday. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who narrowly won last week's Iowa caucuses and decisively won Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, is holding his first Florida event since those victories. The noon rally at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach, is open to the public, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said. Later, Romney holds a major fundraiser in Palm Beach at the home of Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins. Gingrich plans on raising money Thursday at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. On Friday, he holds a roundtable on Cuba and Venezuela, then stops in in Little Havana Orlando. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign emailed invitations Wednesday for a Jan. 26 fundraiser at the Palm Beach home of Michele and Howard Kessler. The headliner is First Lady Michelle Obama. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | LEXINGTON, S.C.—At first glance, South Carolina seems like a place where attacks on Mitt Romney's experience at the helm of a venture capital firm that cut jobs would resonate in the GOP primary. The state's unemployment rate hasn't been below 9 percent in three years and a third of its manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the last decade. But from South Carolina's urban centers to its old mill villages, many workers still view their employers paternalistically, even when their bosses' decisions hurt them. And that may blunt the criticism that Romney is a greedy fat cat who squashes employees while lining his own pockets. In South Carolina, people have little sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Low wages and lack of unions are the norm, so much so that economic developers refused to even recruit companies to the state in the 1960s and 1970s if they allowed unions. Less than 5 percent of the state's workers belong to a labor union, one of the lowest rates in the nation, and income per person is just over $33,000, about $7,000 below the national average. "Once you get hired, the employer has done his part," Kenneth Dock, 59, said outside the unemployment office in Lexington County, a heavily Republican area on the outskirts of Columbia. He was filing for unemployment a few weeks after losing his job in the produce department at a nearby Walmart. Dock plans to vote in the Jan. 21 GOP primary in South Carolina, but he hasn't decided which candidate to support. Romney is still a possibility. "People get laid off. People lose their jobs," he said. "It's just a part of business." Romney, fresh off back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, hopes that mindset will have South Carolina Republicans dismissing attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital as he campaigns ahead of the state's primary. Over the past few days, Romney has faced intense criticism by rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry as they worked to undercut the central rationale of his candidacy -- that his experience in private business makes him the strongest Republican to challenge President Barack Obama on the economy. Perry likened the private equity firm to "vultures" that ruin workers' lives. And Gingrich has demanded answers about how many jobs were lost under Romney. The criticism is certain to make its way into hard-hitting TV advertisements in the coming days, with outside groups aligned with the candidates -- called super PACs -- doing most of the dirty work. One supporting Gingrich plans to spend $3.4 million to run ads on this subject as well as air part of a documentary about Bain called "When Mitt Romney Came to Town." In the film, former employees of four companies bought by Romney's firm talk about how they lost their homes, their livelihoods and their dreams as jobs were cut. Romney's opponents also have the story of a South Carolina company to use against him. A photo frame factory in Gaffney in what used to be the manufacturing center of the state was owned by a company Bain controlled. It closed in 1992 just four years after it opened. A hundred workers lost their jobs, while the move helped the Bain subsidiary go from a $12.4 million loss to a $3 million after-tax profit the year after the closing. Rivals also are seizing on a couple of missteps Romney made in the closing days of the New Hampshire campaign. At one point, Romney said, "There were a couple of times when I was worried I was going to get pink-slipped." Neither he nor his aides provided specifics. And at another, he said, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." The former Massachusetts governor later emphasized he was talking about health insurance and how people should have choices with their health care. For all the criticism, there's been a collective shrug in South Carolina so far, perhaps because of the way many workers view employers in the state. It's only about a generation removed from a time when companies essentially created villages by building the houses, schools, ball fields, dance halls and churches their employees used. Wages were low and these companies provided almost everything, creating a society where even surviving outside of an employer's benevolence may have seemed impossible. Malissa Burnette has seen such bonds between employers and workers in her 35 years as a labor attorney who has represented workers suing their employers in the state. "When employees come to me, I see a lot of shock and disillusionment and disappointment in their employers because they did have the belief that employers were there to treat them well, look after them, to have their best interest at heart," Burnette says. Further evidence of how the people in South Carolina view businesses can be found on the Facebook page of Gov. Nikki Haley, who endorsed Romney last month. She spent her first year in office fighting unions and encouraging businesses find to come to the state. "South Carolina continues to be one of the lowest union participation states in the country," Haley wrote on Facebook in November. "The reason is that our companies understand that they have to take care of those that take care of them. Our employees appreciate the direct honest relationship that they have with their employers. It will continue to be a winning combination." To be sure, there are voters in South Carolina who are angry with the way businesses operate these days. Just ask Wayne Ott, 64, who was applying for unemployment for the first time in his life after being laid off after 40 years as a truck driver. "I believe in capitalism. I just don't think we've been doing it right," Ott said. He is deciding between Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum because he thinks Romney is part of a greater problem of people who get rich without earning it. Others are taking a more pragmatic approach. Angela Frost, 41, lost her job as an insurance underwriter in September. She blames Obama for the stagnant economy and has decided to support Romney because she thinks he has the best chance of winning back the White House. "Cutting jobs and closing businesses are a part of the system," Frost said. "The system has failed a lot of people. You can't blame one person for the system." © Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WASHINGTON — To hear the White House tell it, President Barack Obama has scant interest in politics as Republicans battle each other for the right to challenge him. But in reality, Obama is increasingly involved in his re-election, staying in regular contact with his campaign staff, raising money and evaluating Republican debate performances.
Throughout the White House, Obama's aides are knee-deep in the re-election business. There are daily conference calls between top aides in the White House and campaign staff at the Chicago re-election headquarters and close consultation on message and travel. His pose of indifference allows Obama to try to position himself above the sometimes-ugly fray of the campaign, leaving the political back-and-forth to others as he focuses instead on the loftier work of governing. But as with any incumbent president seeking re-election, political concerns weigh heavily as the election approaches. It's just smarter politics, for now, to pretend otherwise. "Presidents like to act like they're not paying attention to every little detail of every little thing, when I suspect they all do," said Ari Fleischer, press secretary under President George W. Bush. "The job requires you to act like you're above all the less important stuff of the world — especially if the less important stuff is the guy who wants to take your job." White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president spends only about 5 percent of his time on the campaign, and there will be plenty of opportunity to get more involved once the election is closer. "Because he does not need to now, he is not engaging particularly aggressively in his re-election campaign. It's only January," Carney said this week. But the president's schedule and sometimes even his own words paint another picture: a White House increasingly driven by politics. On Wednesday, a day after GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney solidified his front-runner status with a win in the New Hampshire primary, Obama hosted a White House event on job creation — a way of countering Republicans' attacks on the president's economic stewardship. Similar White House counter-programming was on display last week, a day after the Iowa caucuses, when Obama announced he was going around congressional Republicans to appoint a new consumer protection chief. And take travel, a good barometer of priorities because it requires that most precious commodity: the president's time. Of a half-dozen domestic day trips Obama made in November, December and so far in January, five were to politically important states both parties will be contesting this fall — North Carolina, Ohio, New Hampshire and, twice, Pennsylvania. Obama also visited his hometown of Chicago Wednesday, but in reliably Democratic Illinois the president didn't bother with any official presidential events; he just dropped by his campaign headquarters and hit a few fundraisers before coming back to Washington. Carney downplays politics as the motivation behind Obama's travel. "Every president ought to be able to travel everywhere in the country. It's part of his responsibility," the presidential spokesman said ahead of one Pennsylvania trip. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | COLUMBIA, S.C.In the 2012 Republican nominating contest, Sen. Jim DeMint is like the pretty girl all the boys want to take to the prom. Nearly every GOP presidential candidate has come a-courting the South Carolina Republican ahead of his state's Jan. 21 primary. A dean of the influential and well-funded tea party movement, DeMint has made it clear he's sitting this one out. The senator suggests he's not feeling that special attraction to any of the candidates, whether it be front-runner Mitt Romney or one of his rivals, or feeling peer pressure to pair up for the big dance. Instead, he has his eye on another class of candidate entirely - those aiming to win enough Senate seats to flip the chamber from Democratic to Republican control. "My priority is the Senate," DeMint said this week in an interview, adding that it doesn't matter who is elected president if Republicans don't get a Senate majority. He's again turning to his political action committee, Senate Conservatives Fund, to help candidates he wants to see elected to the Senate. "I have the ability to raise $10 (million) or $15 million to elect some senators and that's how I think I can help the next president. So that's what I want to do," he said. "As soon as I get involved with one (presidential) candidate, I've got 80 percent of my supporters mad at me." Still, for all of DeMint's efforts not to get dragged into the GOP presidential race, he waded into it on Tuesday with a prediction. "I think Romney's going to win here," DeMint, 60, told South Carolina conservative radio host Mark Levin. There are other signs that DeMint is warm to Romney. The senator's political adviser, Warren Tompkins, and former top aide, Luke Byars, are working on the candidate's behalf. And some close to DeMint, who endorsed Romney in 2008, say he's quietly telling people that he's backing Romney and they should, too. In public, he'll only go so far. "I don't have anything against Mitt Romney or any of the candidates," he says. "I think we've got a good slate. I don't see any of them as unacceptable." He says he worries that endorsing one candidate might alienate supporters of the others. Whether coy or genuine, DeMint's demurral hasn't discouraged his pursuers as the Republican political machinery rumbles south from New Hampshire. South Carolina's famously nasty nomination contest has proved decisive in the past; the winner has become the GOP's presidential nominee every time since 1980. Romney faces challenges from Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Nearly every one of them has wooed DeMint. A nod from the former ad executive could mean millions of campaign dollars in campaign donations. And it could help send an underdog to Washington, as DeMint's endorsement did in 2010 for Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. That explains why DeMint's name keeps popping up - in glowing terms - on the presidential campaign trail. Perry told an audience Tuesday that he wants DeMint on his team. "Jim DeMint is a conservative icon and he's well respected and his opinion matters here," said Katon Dawson, the former state GOP chairman running Perry's South Carolina campaign. On that, Romney's camp agrees. "If there's a kingmaker, it's Jim DeMint," said State Treasurer Curtis Loftis, Romney's chairman. It wasn't long ago that DeMint was ignored and even shunned by prominent Republicans. Elected to the Senate in 2004, he made no friends in the collegial chamber when he scolded fellow Republicans for the party's dismal performance in the 2008 elections. Two years later, he marshaled enough money to step past more senior Republicans and support his preferred candidates in home-state battles for Senate. Paul and Rubio were DeMint's success stories. Other DeMint candidates, such as Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, defeated the establishment's choice in the Republican primary but lost the general election. Some in the GOP complained that while DeMint's activities may have won like-minded conservatives several seats in Congress, they also enabled Democrats to keep some vulnerable seats and maintain their majority. This year, DeMint says he has no interest in playing kingmaker in the presidential race. "Why he would sit this out and not get involved surprises me," said Tim Brett, a former state legislator and longtime GOP strategist. Others say this is typical DeMint. "He's never really believed that just endorsing someone really helps that much," said Barry Wynn, a former state GOP chairman who backs Perry. DeMint has been down the presidential endorsement road before. In 2008, he charged into the race by endorsing Romney, a notable move for someone already known as one of the Senate's staunchest conservatives. Romney lost the nomination to Sen. John McCain. DeMint says he expects his network of wealthy and influential South Carolina donors to be more vocal during the next week. "A lot of them want to get involved," he said. "I think you'll see some support Mitt and some Newt and some Perry. I'm certainly not giving them directions." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
The Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida presidential primary is on. Election 2012: Across the nation Voting is already well under way even though Florida doesn't hold its GOP nominating contest until Jan. 31. And both Mitt Romney, coming off of back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Ron Paul are aggressively reaching out to voters who have requested ballots. None of their competitors has been nearly as active even though the victor in Florida would get a huge boost of momentum and all of the state's 50 delegates to the national nominating convention. As of Tuesday, 424,000 Republican absentee ballots had been mailed — to military personnel, overseas residents and other Floridians — and about 84,000 had been returned in a state that has 4 million registered Republican voters. Early voting in Hillsborough, Hardy, Hendry, Monroe and Collier counties begins Monday and runs through Jan. 29. Florida's other 62 counties will hold early voting Jan. 21-28. Republican insiders expect as many as a third of the GOP ballots to be cast early in the effort to choose a nominee to oppose President Barack Obama. "It's pointing towards record turnout," said state GOP spokesman Brian Hughes, adding that the number of Republican absentee ballots requested is more than 200,000 ahead of the 2008 pace at the same point before the election. "We're seeing an enthusiasm not only around being involved in picking our nominee, but beyond that, making sure we beat Obama." Of all the candidates, Romney had the biggest jump on early voters, who started receiving ballots before he notched his first win at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The former Massachusetts governor's campaign is better organized in Florida than any other. And it immediately sent out literature to court voters as soon as ballots were sent in December. That meant some people opened their mailboxes to find both a ballot and an appeal from Romney. At the same time, an outside group supportive of Romney — the Restore Our Future super PAC — went on the air with TV ads backing him in mid-December, the ads timed to coincide with the delivery of ballots. It has spent more than $750,000 on TV ads. Romney himself went on the air just after the first of the year. He's spent roughly $800,000 on TV ads so far. No other campaign or candidate-aligned super PAC is on the air. "Even as Iowa was beginning to heat up, we were already messaging absentee voters in Florida," said Brett Doster, a Tallahassee-based Romney aide. "There were already votes being cast and I can assure you that they got Romney messaging and it looks like they weren't getting any messaging from anyone else." That was true until Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign recently got in the game and sent out its own literature. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign planned to start doing the same this week, adding to efforts by its volunteers — and automated calls — to encourage early voting. Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign also has asked volunteers to make calls and has paid for automated calls. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum have done little to woo early voters. Elizabeth Pike, a 71-year-old retiree from Pompano Beach, is among those who already have voted. She cast her absentee ballot for Gingrich — but not because she was courted by the campaign. "He was speaker of the House. When he wanted to get something through, he was very successful," said Pike. "He can speak well and he could represent us well." In 2008, about 554,000 absentee ballots were cast overall among nearly 1.2 million early votes cast, but the number of Democratic ballots requested this year is far lower, since Obama doesn't have a primary challenger. This year, the ballots aren't being returned nearly as quickly as they're going out. Orange County elections supervisor Bill Cowles said he thinks many voters have been waiting to see what happens in other early states before making up their minds. Part of that may be to make sure their preferred candidate doesn't drop out before Florida votes. Seminole County elections supervisor Michael Ertel said he remembers receiving a lot of calls when Republican Fred Thompson dropped out of the 2008 race a week before Florida voted. They wanted to know if they could have their ballot back and vote again. They were out of luck. "Once you've cast your absentee ballot," Ertel said, "you've cast your ballot." ___ January 12, 2012 02:46 AM EST Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Romney and Paul get jump on Fla. absentee voters By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press – 37 minutes ago TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida presidential primary is on. Voting is already well under way even though Florida doesn't hold its GOP nominating contest until Jan. 31. And both Mitt Romney, coming off of back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Ron Paul are aggressively reaching out to voters who have requested ballots. None of their competitors has been nearly as active even though the victor in Florida would get a huge boost of momentum and all of the state's 50 delegates to the national nominating convention. As of Tuesday, 424,000 Republican absentee ballots had been mailed — to military personnel, overseas residents and other Floridians — and about 84,000 had been returned in a state that has 4 million registered Republican voters. Early voting in Hillsborough, Hardy, Hendry, Monroe and Collier counties begins Monday and runs through Jan. 29. Florida's other 62 counties will hold early voting Jan. 21-28. Republican insiders expect as many as a third of the GOP ballots to be cast early in the effort to choose a nominee to oppose President Barack Obama. "It's pointing towards record turnout," said state GOP spokesman Brian Hughes, adding that the number of Republican absentee ballots requested is more than 200,000 ahead of the 2008 pace at the same point before the election. "We're seeing an enthusiasm not only around being involved in picking our nominee, but beyond that, making sure we beat Obama." Of all the candidates, Romney had the biggest jump on early voters, who started receiving ballots before he notched his first win at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The former Massachusetts governor's campaign is better organized in Florida than any other. And it immediately sent out literature to court voters as soon as ballots were sent in December. That meant some people opened their mailboxes to find both a ballot and an appeal from Romney. At the same time, an outside group supportive of Romney — the Restore Our Future super PAC — went on the air with TV ads backing him in mid-December, the ads timed to coincide with the delivery of ballots. It has spent more than $750,000 on TV ads. Romney himself went on the air just after the first of the year. He's spent roughly $800,000 on TV ads so far. No other campaign or candidate-aligned super PAC is on the air. "Even as Iowa was beginning to heat up, we were already messaging absentee voters in Florida," said Brett Doster, a Tallahassee-based Romney aide. "There were already votes being cast and I can assure you that they got Romney messaging and it looks like they weren't getting any messaging from anyone else." That was true until Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign recently got in the game and sent out its own literature. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign planned to start doing the same this week, adding to efforts by its volunteers — and automated calls — to encourage early voting. Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign also has asked volunteers to make calls and has paid for automated calls. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum have done little to woo early voters. Elizabeth Pike, a 71-year-old retiree from Pompano Beach, is among those who already have voted. She cast her absentee ballot for Gingrich — but not because she was courted by the campaign. "He was speaker of the House. When he wanted to get something through, he was very successful," said Pike. "He can speak well and he could represent us well." In 2008, about 554,000 absentee ballots were cast overall among nearly 1.2 million early votes cast, but the number of Democratic ballots requested this year is far lower, since Obama doesn't have a primary challenger. This year, the ballots aren't being returned nearly as quickly as they're going out. Orange County elections supervisor Bill Cowles said he thinks many voters have been waiting to see what happens in other early states before making up their minds. Part of that may be to make sure their preferred candidate doesn't drop out before Florida votes. Seminole County elections supervisor Michael Ertel said he remembers receiving a lot of calls when Republican Fred Thompson dropped out of the 2008 race a week before Florida voted. They wanted to know if they could have their ballot back and vote again. They were out of luck. "Once you've cast your absentee ballot," Ertel said, "you've cast your ballot." Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Browse > Home / Politics / Republicans to expand Latino outreach  LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
AP Hispanic Affairs Writer MIAMI (AP) — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is stepping up party efforts to mobilize Latino voters. Priebus on Wednesday announced the appointment of Bettina Inclan to oversee the efforts. She previously led the party's National Hispanic Assembly. Inclan says the party will focus traditional voter identification efforts and on social media. It's launching a bilingual twitter and blog site targeting Latinos. Wednesday's announcement comes ahead of the Jan. 31 primary in Florida, where Hispanicsmake up nearly a quarter of the population. It also comes as the latest Quinnipiac University poll shows Mitt Romney with a slight lead over Obama in Florida. Romney has faced criticism from some Latinos over his promise to veto the so-called Dream Act. Also on Wednesday, Romney unveiled his first Spanish-language TV ad in Florida. Posted by Marcus Atkinson · Filed Under Politics
Tagged: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Most Mormons believe their religion is not well understood by Americans and many sense hostility but a survey done as Mormonism gains political and cultural prominence shows they are also optimistic that tolerance of their faith is rising. The New York Times and other media have dubbed this the "Mormon moment" with two Mormons - Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman - vying for the Republican nomination to run for U.S. president, a hit play ("The Book of Mormon"), a popular cable television series (HBO's "Big Love") and the best-selling "Twilight" vampire books written by a Mormon. "We wanted to find out how Mormons themselves are responding to the Mormon moment," said Greg Smith, chief researcher at the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, which surveyed 1,019 adult Mormons in October and November 2011. "We find a mixed picture," he said in an interview. "On the one hand, Mormons in many ways see themselves as misunderstood. They think they are discriminated against, that they are not fully accepted by other Americans." Mormons make up nearly 2 percent of the U.S. population of about 313 million people. Six in 10 Mormons in the survey said they believe Americans know little or nothing about Mormonism. Half said Mormons face a lot of discrimination and two-thirds said people do not think of Mormonism as part of mainstream American society. "On the other hand, the survey also shows Mormons in many ways are optimistic. They are happy with their lives and with their communities and (63 percent of those asked) think acceptance of Mormonism is on the rise," Smith said. So far during the Republican campaign, the focus has been less on Romney's participation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name for Mormonism, and more on the millionaire's past as a Bain Capital executive buying and restructuring companies and on his time as governor of Massachusetts. That could change in the January 21 South Carolina Republican primary election in which evangelical Protestants are expected to form a large voting bloc. Some evangelicals harbor mistrust for fast-growing Mormonism and its more exotic beliefs. The Pew report said while a substantial majority of the world's 14 million Mormons view themselves as Christians, some non-Mormons view them as a cult based on the belief in living apostles and prophets, two additional books of scripture besides the Bible and other tenets. Last year, a Pew survey concluded Romney's candidacy could face resistance in the Republican primaries from evangelical voters, although they would support him over President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in this November's general election. Fifteen percent of evangelical Republicans have said they are less likely to vote for Romney because of his religion. In contrast, 56 percent of Mormons in the survey said they believe the United States is ready to elect a Mormon president. Eighty-six percent of Mormon voters, including some Democrats, had a favorable view of Romney, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. Despite their differences, Mormons and evangelicals do have things in common, Smith said: They are ideologically conservative, a majority are Republican or lean Republican, they tend to attend church and pray regularly, and religion is often important in their lives. "There's clearly a recognition on the part of the Mormon population that they face challenges related to acceptance, discrimination and the like. There are no illusions about that," Smith said. "At the same time, they're an optimistic group that thinks that acceptance of Mormonism is on the rise and the country is ready to elect a Mormon as president." (Reporting By Andrew Stern; Editing by John O'Callaghan) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney's sweeping victory in New Hampshire was convincing enough among conservatives and even Tea Party Republicans that it could bring him once unthinkable success down in Dixie. Romney prevailed over a divided field among "very conservative" voters, topping Rick Santorum by 33-26 percent. Although Romney has said he switched his view to pro-life, he defeated Santorum by 34-20 percent among those who consider themselves conservative on the abortion issue. Among Tea Party backers, 40 percent supported Romney compared to 22 percent for Ron Paul and 14 percent for Santorum. And 61 percent of New Hampshire GOP voters said they would be satisfied if Romney were the nominee, according to exit-poll data. The exit polling bodes well for Romney as he heads to South Carolina, where he'll face a larger share of evangelical and conservative voters. "If Mitt wins in South Carolina, this is enough to make all those guys who fired on Fort Sumter turn over in their grave," said David Woodard, a top GOP pollster who teaches political science at Clemson University. "It's over. Game, set, match," said Democratic consultant Dave "Mudcat" Saunders of a potential Romney victory in Dixie."They might as well pack up and go home before they kill off their candidate." But Romney's Republican opponents still see South Carolina as their best chance to stop the man they've called the "Massachusetts moderate." Newt Gingrich, hoping for his first primary win in South Carolina, lobbed more personal charges at Romney on the heels of Mitt's New Hampshire victory. Gingrich released a new ad ripping Romney as incapable of taking on President Obama and even mocking him for an old story about Romney strapping the family dog in a cage to the roof of a car, as Rick Perry continued attacks on Romney's "vulture capitalism" at Bain Capital. The latest Gingrich Web ad features infamous clips of Romney saying "I like being able to fire people," bragging out of type that he hunts "small varmints," and even comically chanting, "Who let the dogs out?" "Imagine what Obama would do with a candidate like that," says the ad. But Gingrich appeared to back off his blistering Bain bomb — having accused Romney of "looting" companies while running Bain — after Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives intoned against the attacks. When a Santorum supporter urged Gingrich at a book signing to redirect his attacks, Gingrich responded: "I agree with you. It's an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background." After a report on the exchange, the Gingrich camp put out a statement calling criticism of Bain "entirely legitimate." geoff.earle@nypost.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Goldman / Associated Press Rick Perry, campaigning Monday in Pickens, S.C., says he has "a head start" in the conservative state. For Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the Iowa caucuses were "a pretty loosey-goosey process" and the New Hampshire primary was too Yankee for a Southern, social-conservative governor. But South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary will be just right, he said, and now is not the time to quit. "I have a head start here, and it's friendly territory for a Texas governor and veteran with solid outsider credentials," Perry said in a statement this week. In addition to Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offer a similar rationale for why they can win South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary. Like Perry, they are appealing to the state's evangelical conservatives, military retirees and Tea Party backers. Two other candidates, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have their own reasons for staying in the race despite long odds. Romney, whose campaign is beginning to resemble a juggernaut, is the first non-incumbent Republican since 1976 to win Iowa and New Hampshire. A victory in South Carolina, where he is leading in the polls, would make it difficult for any of his rivals to head him off. While Perry rocketed to the top of the polls when he announced his candidacy in Charleston in August, he now is polling in single digits in South Carolina, Clemson University political scientist David Woodard said. "I think he is going to have to quit after this," Woodard said. "He's at 5 percent in my poll. What does that do but usher him into retirement?" Like Perry, Gingrich also enjoyed his day in the South Carolina sun and expected to capitalize on his next-door-neighbor Georgia connection. The former House speaker is struggling in the polls and is counting, like Perry, on increasingly contentious attacks against Romney to keep alive any faint hope he may have. Huntsman, who went all out in New Hampshire, proclaimed Tuesday that his third-place finish gave him "a ticket to ride" into South Carolina. But the Palmetto State probably will be his final stop, pundits say. Paul, propelled by a youthful cadre of enthusiastic volunteers, a capable campaign organization and adequate funding, will stay in the race regardless of what happens in South Carolina. He is building a movement as much as he is running for president. This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WASHINGTON — For months David Axelrod, President Obama's senior strategist, has argued with evident anticipation that Mitt Romney offers a glass jaw when he boasts that his business record sets him apart as a presidential candidate. Now Mr. Romney's Republican rivals have beaten the Obama team to the punch, and Democrats could hardly be more pleased. "It's a total win-win," said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster who works with a group supporting Mr. Obama. "Either Romney will be the nominee or one of those other, even more unelectable candidates will be." The Republican sniping this week — with rivals lumping Mr. Romney, a former private equity executive, with corporate raiders and even "vultures" — highlights the tension within a party that has historically backed business and eschewed class-based political attacks. The economy has delivered scant gains for many middle-class and blue-collar workers over the past decade, and the Republican base now includes large numbers of these workers. Even before the Tea Party movement arose three years ago after the big bank bailouts, the Republican base had grown more populist, heightening old tensions between Main Street and Wall Street Republicans. The Romney rivals are playing to the ascendant anti-Wall Street grass roots. Mr. Romney counters that the attackers are assailing capitalism itself. Appearing on Fox News Wednesday, he said his victory in New Hampshire's Republican primary proved "this kind of attack on free enterprise is not gaining traction for them." But his competitors persisted as the nomination fight moved to South Carolina for its Jan. 21 primary. The danger for Mr. Romney is that Republicans have given their imprimatur to criticisms that undercut his chief argument for his election — his business experience — and by extension another, that he is the most electable against Mr. Obama. While a few Democrats fret that the Republicans' clash could inoculate Mr. Romney against the very attacks they planned if he becomes the nominee, most are enjoying the show. Since Sunday his rivals have pummeled Mr. Romney as a cutthroat capitalist who profited with his private-equity partners at Bain Capital from snatching, stripping and selling companies, costing rather than creating jobs. Democratic operatives say Republicans' words are certain to be heard again in advertisements this fall if, as many expect, Mr. Romney is the nominee. "We'll be able to show what his rivals said about him and what workers have said about him," said Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee. "The fact that his own Republican rivals — from a party that talks about itself as being for the free market — are offended about his practices in the private sector makes our case a lot easier." Mr. Romney's own words have stoked the rivals' fires, giving Democrats more grist. Republicans mocked him for telling New Hampshire voters that he, too, has feared "pink slips," calling the claim implausible for the Harvard-educated son of a multimillionaire governor. And they pounced on his statement, captured on videotape, that "I like being able to fire people," though they took it out of context since he was complaining about companies that do not provide good service, specifically insurance companies. The sudden intraparty assault has helped Mr. Romney in one way, prompting even conservative skeptics like Rush Limbaugh to come to his defense. The conservative Club for Growth singled out Newt Gingrich for "economically ignorant class warfare rhetoric" that is "downright Obamaesque." Mr. Gingrich persisted in South Carolina on Wednesday. "I am for entrepreneurship," he said, "but I am also for the American people's right to understand how the games are being played: Are they fair to the American people, or are the deals being cut on behalf of Wall Street institutions and very rich people?" A "super PAC" supporting Mr. Gingrich plans ads depicting Mr. Romney as a corporate raider "more ruthless than Wall Street." Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, making his last stand in South Carolina, again on Wednesday cited job losses at a local plant that Bain shut down. "I understand the difference between venture capital and vulture capitalism," he said. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former governor of Utah, and Representative Ron Paul have also piled on. Only former Senator Rick Santorum has not. "I just don't think as a conservative and someone who believes in business that we should be out there playing the games that the Democrats play, saying somehow capitalism is bad," he said on Fox Tuesday. The controversy is encouraging to Democrats as they weigh Mr. Obama's re-election prospects in a year when the weak economy is the main issue. It can only help, their thinking goes, if the most likely Republican nominee emerges from the race as a representative of — in Mr. Axelrod's words — "everything that people hate about this economy." "I guess the only downside is that Mitt Romney might not be the nominee," Mr. Axelrod said. One Democratic dissenter, who would not speak for the record, agreed with Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former congressman, who said, "The only downside for the Democrats is that it brings Romney's greatest vulnerability into the open and gives him time to prepare a defense before facing Obama." Mr. Axelrod called that reasoning "the immunization theory," and said: "I don't buy it. Rather than immunizing him, this will likely just open the floodgates." Mr. Romney has already felt the potency of the attack. In 1994, he led in polls in his bid to unseat Senator Edward M. Kennedy when Tad Devine, a Kennedy strategist, traveled to Indiana to make advertisements featuring workers at a company that had been taken over by a Bain subsidiary, which slashed the work force and benefits. "We put this stuff on television and it began to resonate," Mr. Devine recalled. Then some Indianans went to Massachusetts to campaign against Mr. Romney, generating more media attention. Mr. Kennedy won by 17 points. Obama strategists have copies of the Kennedy-Romney race materials on the shelf. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | (For more campaign news, see ELECT <GO>.)
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Jon Huntsman Jr.'s third-place finish in New Hampshire gives the former Utah governor at least a little more time to pitch voters on his plan to shrink the biggest U.S. banks.
Huntsman is campaigning for the Jan. 21 Republican primary in South Carolina, a state with a conservative base that President Barack Obama lost by almost nine points in 2008 to Republican Senator John McCain. Huntsman's Wall Street plan would crack down harder on the banks than some parts of the Dodd-Frank Act Obama pushed through Congress in 2010.
"We need a president who is willing to stand up to those six banks who combined have assets that are equal to two-thirds of our nation's GDP," Huntsman said yesterday at an event at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, referring to institutions including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.
The Republicans vying to challenge Obama in the general election have all advocated repealing Dodd-Frank, an idea that along with eliminating Obama's health care plan often elicits applause from Republican audiences. The law among other things created a regulatory structure for over-the-counter derivatives, set new restrictions for Wall Street trading desks and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Huntsman, 51, differs from his opponents in his pledge to establish new regulations -- which include capping bank size and imposing a fee on firms deemed too large -- before pushing for Congress to repeal the law.
'Populist Idea'
His proposal goes further to limit bank size than the Obama administration was willing to go, said former Senator Edward Kaufman, a Delaware Democrat who led a failed push for a similar plan during the congressional debate over Dodd-Frank.
Huntsman would impose a cap on size and leverage, impose added fees and higher deposit insurance premiums on large banks and set capital requirements "far beyond what is envisioned" in the current international Basel agreement, according to the proposal posted on his campaign website.
"This obviously is a populist idea that one normally wouldn't associate with a Republican," said Robert Litan, a vice president of research and policy at the Kansas City, Missouri-based Kauffman Foundation. Litan said the idea "would have a lot of unintended and unfavorable consequences" for U.S. banks trying to compete globally.
Other policymakers and academics have called for the breakup of the largest financial institutions, including Simon Johnson, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher.
'Systemic Risk'
"To the extent that banks create a systemic risk, I think it makes sense that they be taxed for creating it," Thomas Cooley, an economics professor at New York University who isn't advising the campaign, said of Huntsman's proposal in a phone interview.
Huntsman, who polled nationally in the single digits for months before his 17 percent showing in New Hampshire Jan. 10, said he's relying on that momentum to help raise money for the next stage of his campaign.
The banking industry, which has weighed in heavily for front-runner Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, hasn't been a major source of funds for Huntsman. The campaign, which was $3 million in debt in September, according to the most recent data available, received only $33,750 from employees or political action committees of commercial banks, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Romney received $542,250 from commercial banks and their employees over that same period.
'That's Okay'
"I'm not going to get a whole lot in contributions from Wall Street or the bankers," Huntsman said with a laugh at yesterday's town hall. "But that's okay."
New Hampshire exit polls showed Huntsman's base of support was largely outside the Republican Party. Among voters unaffiliated with political parties who took part in the primary, 47 percent of all who voted, 23 percent backed Huntsman, compared with 11 percent of Republicans, according to data compiled by CNN.
Huntsman was in the low single-digits in a poll taken Jan. 5-7 of South Carolina Republicans by Public Policy Polling. That same poll showed Huntsman trailing Stephen Colbert, a comedian who isn't actually in the race.
'Politically Salient'
While he may take a hit in campaign fundraising, cracking down on Wall Street may play well with voters in southern states who have "always been suspicious of Wall Street banks," Kaufman, the former Delaware senator, said.
"I have thought for a long time that it is not just a very important idea, but I also think it's politically salient to Republicans and Democrats," he said.
Huntsman's plan wouldn't force a breakup of the banks or represent an overreach of regulatory power, said C. Boyden Gray, a policy adviser to Huntsman and the former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush. Instead it would give the institutions incentives to shrink themselves, while at the same time eliminating any subsidy the largest banks receive in the form of lower cost-of-capital due to any implied guarantee that the government would bail them out in a crisis.
"I don't think dealing with too-big-to-fail, with all of the dangers it poses and all of the subsidies it encompasses, is an anti-conservative, anti-free market idea," Gray said in a phone interview.
Obama Opposition
Huntsman's plan resurrects, at least in part, the Democratic proposal pushed in 2010 by Kaufman and Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, which would have put a cap on banks' non-deposit liabilities as a percentage of gross domestic product, as well as a cap on insured deposits held by individual banks. The Obama administration opposed the idea and the Senate rejected it.
The Clearing House Association, an industry group, in November circulated a 45-page study outlining the economic benefits large banks provide to the economy.
"Because of their scope across multiple businesses, their geographic penetration and reach and their balance-sheet size, large banks play a particularly important role in helping companies and asset managers to operate internationally and to access the capital markets," Paul Saltzman, the president of the group, wrote in a Nov. 7 letter sent with a copy of the study to Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo.
Winding Down Firms
Dodd-Frank includes new tools for regulators to seize, wind-down and resolve firms whose failure may pose a threat to the entire economy. House and Senate Republicans opposed the resolution authority, saying it gave regulators the authority to arbitrarily seize firms and use taxpayer money during the resolution process.
Supporters of the law contend that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was given the authority to wind-down failing firms, has established a system and is developing the expertise to handle the failure of a systemically risky firm after years of resolving hundreds of smaller bank failures.
The law also requires any taxpayer dollars used in the process to be repaid by the largest financial firms after the failure.
The new system doesn't do enough, Huntsman told the crowd in South Carolina yesterday. He said he preferred the large banks of the 1990s, which were a fraction of the asset size of the current six largest firms.
"If they got sick, they could fail and they would not take us down," Huntsman said.
--Editors: Lawrence Roberts, Jeanne Cummings
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TAMPA --
The national Republican Party has approved sanctions aimed at housing, convention floor seating and other perks for the Florida delegation to the 2012 convention. The penalties are in response to the state's schedule-busting Jan. 31 presidential primary date. The exact effect of the sanctions won't be clear until hotel assignments and other details of the Tampa convention are worked out this summer. But Paul Senft, one of Florida's representatives on the Republican National Committee, said the sanctions aren't severe. "It could have been much worse than this," he said. "I think it will have minimal effect." Possibly more significant, the party also received a recommendation for another sanction: that Florida's convention delegates be divided proportionally among the top finishers in the state's primary, rather than all going to the first-place winner. That could mean the Florida winner would receive only about 15 delegates instead of all 50, and the second- and third-place finishers could get 10 or more instead of none. Senft said there's no indication the party will act on that recommendation until near the time of the convention. If there's a clear nominee at that time, "It may be moot," he said. "But if the nomination becomes a contested issue at the convention, it would become a brass ring for someone to grab," possibly leading to a contentious legal fight, he said. Even if the nomination is settled, a small cache of delegates could prove desirable to a losing candidate. Losing candidates sometimes use the delegates they win as bargaining chips for convention speaking slots, appointments, platform language and other political deals. The sanctions result from rules agreed to by both national parties forbidding any state except the traditional four early ones — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — from holding a primary or caucus before March 1. Seeking more influence on the nomination process, Gov. Rick Scott, state Senate President Mike Haridopolos and state House Speaker Dean Cannon appointed a committee that chose to set Florida's primary for Jan. 31. That caused other states, including the four early states, to move up as well. Florida has lost half its delegation, which would have been 99 delegates, because of the date. RNC rules also allow the delegation from a state that commits a violation to be penalized in the selection of their hotel accommodations, the prominence of their floor seating location, and the guest and VIP passes distributed to delegates by the party. A resolution passed by the RNC's Rules Committee on Wednesday says Florida will get "reduced priority" for its hotel accommodations and floor seats, and that the guest passes and VIP passes that would have gone to the delegates will instead go to the RNC, whose chairman, Reince Priebus, can dispense them at his discretion. As the host state and possibly the nation's most important swing state, Florida normally would get the first priority for hotel and floor seating. Reduced priority means not the best, but not necessarily bad, Senft said. He said he thinks the Florida delegation will still be able to stay in a single hotel in Tampa, rather than being split up or pushed out of town. "I think we'll be able to move around Tampa comfortably," Senft said. "We've all been to the (Tampa Bay Times) Forum, and we know where the escalators are. It will have a minimal effect." State Republican Party officials say they think Priebus will allow Floridians to use their guest and VIP passes, rather than take a hard line against party activists from such a politically important state. In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Priebus didn't directly address that question, but promised, "We're going to work great with Florida … Those folks from Florida that would like to attend the convention, they're going to have plenty of opportunity to have a great time." At the RNC meeting in New Orleans, where the decision took place, state GOP Chairman Lenny Curry argued that the RNC shouldn't severely punish the state party, which didn't choose the primary date, said party spokesman Brian Hughes. "The legal authority for that rested with others," Hughes said. "The idea that you would punish the party activists in a state that's so important on the road to the White House doesn't make sense."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a Greenville Republican and Tea Party icon, thinks Mitt Romney will win South Carolina. DeMint, who endorsed the former Massachusetts governor four years ago but is staying on the sidelines this year, said Romney's victory speech Tuesday after the New Hampshire primary touched on "a lot of hot buttons," such as balancing the budget. DeMint also suggested he was turned off by other Republican candidates' criticism of Romney's past work as a venture capitalist at Bain Capital. "Frankly, I'm a little concerned about the few Republicans who have criticized some of what I consider free market principles here," DeMint said. DeMint said he was concerned that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, whom he didn't name, were trashing Romney for his success at Bain. "I certainly don't like Republicans criticizing one of our own and sounding like Democrats," DeMint said, repeating later: "It really worries me when some Republicans start sounding like Democrats." New Gingrich ad highlights Romney flip-flop Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich promised to take the fight to Mitt Romney in South Carolina and he's keeping his word. Gingrich went on the air with a tough, new ad highlighting the fact that Romney supported abortion rights before opposing them. The ad is meant to appeal to S.C. voters, who generally are more conservative than those in New Hampshire and more engaged on social issues, such as abortion. The abortion issue turned out to be a vulnerability for Romney in South Carolina when he campaigned for the GOP nomination in 2008. Santorum opens five new S.C. offices After a virtual tie in Iowa's caucuses with Mitt Romney followed by a poor showing in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Rick Santorum is looking to win big in South Carolina. Wednesday, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said he has opened five new S.C. campaign offices to supplement his previously existing office in Mount Pleasant. The new offices are in Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill, Spartanburg and West Columbia at 443 Meeting St., No. D. Romney picks up endorsements GOP front-runner Mitt Romney picked up endorsements from S.C. elected officials Wednesday, including Greenville Mayor Knox White, S.C. House Speaker Pro Tempore Jay Lucas and former U.S. Rep. Henry Brown of Hanahan. "Mitt Romney has demonstrated throughout his life that he has the values South Carolinians are looking for in our next commander in chief," said state Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, who also endorsed the Massachusetts governor. Also endorsing Romney were: former U.S. prosecutor Robert Bolchoz; Republican National Committee member Cindy Costa and Kershaw County Council Chairman Gene Wise. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican A is for free markets, the rights of companies to do as they please and providing tax incentives for investment. Republican B is for job creation, a strong middle class and everyone paying their fair share. On the surface, the two candidates wouldn't seem to be at odds. But A and B aren't adding up on the campaign trail. That, in a nutshell, is the Mitt Romney problem. Associated Press Mitt Romney campaigning Wednesday with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in Columbia, S.C. Mr. Romney's time at Bain Capital has emerged as a divisive issue on the campaign trail. Mr. Romney, as you know, co-founded and made his fortune at private-equity firm Bain Capital. He is the quintessential Republican A. He believes all Republicans are or should be type A. On CBS's "This Morning" on Wednesday, Mr. Romney credited his victory in the New Hampshire primary to his A status. "People in the state here said, look, we want a guy who spent some time in the private sector." Type B Republicans are like Mr. Romney in one way: They think all Republicans are like them, or should be. They see private equity and Mr. Romney as enemies. "Vulture capitalism," said GOP rival Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. "Rich people figuring out clever, legal ways to loot a company," added Newt Gingrich, another challenger for the nomination. Jon Huntsman Jr. said, "Gov. Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs." As you have probably gathered by now, the difference between a type A and type B Republican isn't really about politics. It's about the economics of buyouts. The debate about private equity is an old Wall Street quarrel, but until now, there really hasn't been a national discussion about whether the industry is a kind of healthy parasite serving the national economic good (the type A view) or simply sucks wealth from our economy to a privileged few (type B). Both sides have a strong case. It's true that private-equity firms have bought companies, loaded them with debt, restructured or repackaged them with other companies, and ultimately sold them. In the process, jobs were created, debt was paid off, and companies emerged stronger than they were before. Burger King, Seagate Technology Inc. and AutoZone Inc. have all benefited in some way from private-equity involvement. It also is true that private equity has an abysmal track record. Many companies are loaded with debt and downsized as the buyout shops collect management fees. Harry & David, Mervyn's, Chrysler, Reader's Digest and MGM are just a few companies that filed for bankruptcy protection and cut jobs under private-equity stewardship. Voters will soon have to make a choice about which argument they buy. The controversial nature of buyouts is one that has long been absent from the political debate. Private equity is a $2.4 trillion industry, with another $1 trillion in unspent funds lurking on the sidelines. Buyouts are churning through companies faster: an average of 16 months last year, down from 20 months in 2010. And much of the financing from the 2005-2008 private-equity boom is coming due. Moreover, private equity is betting the baby boom in a big way. Buyout shops are buying hospital and nursing-home chains, and HCA Holdings Inc. and HCR ManorCare have been accused of offering cut-rate care under their buyout ownership. For Republicans, deciding where they stand on the issue of private equity is even more complicated. The party has fought to keep the tax rate for "carried interest," or compensation derived from the fees charged by buyout shops, at the capital-gains rate of 15%. Critics, mostly Democrats led by President Barack Obama, want carried interest taxed at standard income-tax rates. Republican leadership in Congress also fought, and is still fighting, the Volcker rule, a part of the Dodd-Frank Act that limits bank participation in private equity. Their argument has been that the benefits of private equity trickle down to everyone by making a more efficient economy. So far, Republican type A's have carried the party. But if the attacks of Messrs. Gingrich, Huntsman and Perry are any indication, Republican type B's aren't buying in. Whether that means they would support eliminating private equity's tax exemptions or restricting banks from participating in private equity isn't clear. Type B Republicans find something distasteful about private equity, about buyouts that short American workers and either eliminate jobs or move them overseas. In the short term, this is decision time for the GOP. Does it stand behind Mr. Romney and his questionable business background? Or will it embrace him as a standard-bearer of cold capitalism? If he survives into the fall, Mr. Romney and the debate about private equity will become dinner-table discussion. American voters will have a choice between a president who doesn't want to favor the industry and Mr. Romney himself, one of the industry's biggest names. It won't be a pure referendum on which view of private equity is the majority, but it may tell us whether Americans can accept the notion that if corporations are people, could they be vultures, too? Write to David Weidner at david.weidner@dowjones.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
The Republican National Committee on Wednesday announced that its expanded Hispanic outreach effort will focus on jobs, certain battleground states and what party officials say is dissatisfaction among Hispanics with President Barack Obama.
Intentionally absent from the announcement was a message about immigration.
Reince Priebus, the committee chairman, and Bettina Inclan, the new Hispanic outreach director, said the GOP presidential candidates would talk about immigration during the primaries. Meanwhile, they said, the RNC will promote a conservative approach to job growth and will register Hispanic voters in battleground states such as Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico.
"Immigration is important, but poll after poll says it's the economy," Priebus said.
The GOP strategy — focusing on jobs and the economy rather than immigration — falls in line with a Pew Hispanic Center survey released Dec. 28 showing that among registered Hispanic voters, jobs, the economy and education ranked highest on a list of six issues.
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Call it the Mitt Moment, the Mormon Moment -- by whatever name, this would seem to be a pretty good time to be a Mormon in America. And it is, according to a survey of American Mormons being released Thursday, even though many church members say they still face discrimination and hostility. Mormons are generally more satisfied with their lives and communities than most Americans, and a majority believe that America is ready to elect a Mormon president, says the survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The survey provides a snapshot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the formal name — at a time when one of its members, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, could become the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party. Most of the survey's findings are unsurprising. Mormons are far more conservative than the public at large (66% vs. 37%), and far more likely to be Republican or Republican-leaning (74% vs. 45%). They are staunch social conservatives, with strong majorities opposed to homosexuality and abortion. And they like Romney, who has an 86% favorable rating among his co-religionists. (President Obama, by contrast, is viewed favorably by 25% of Mormons, exactly half his rating among the public at large.) Even before Romney won Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, there was talk of this being a Mormon Moment, in part based on the popularity of "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway and "Big Love" on TV. Given that "Big Love" was about a breakaway polygamist sect, this wasn't all good news — and the survey found that Mormons believe they are portrayed badly by the entertainment industry. "One of the key questions we really had going into the survey was, 'How are Mormons themselves responding to and experiencing this Mormon Moment that we seem to be in?' " said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew. "It paints kind of a mixed picture." "On the one hand, we find lots of Mormons telling us they feel like their religion is misunderstood, lots of Mormons who think they're discriminated against, lots of Mormons who say they don't think Mormonism is part of mainstream American society," Smith said. "At the same time, there's a flip side to this -- we see a high level of optimism or satisfaction in their own lives." Smith said Pew found a similar dichotomy among American Muslims in a recent survey. He also said he was struck by the paradoxical relationship between Mormons and white evangelical Christians. The two groups have a great deal in common: political conservatism, social conservatism, very high rates of religious commitment. "Despite those commonalities, there's clearly tension between these groups," Smith said. Half of those surveyed said evangelicals were unfriendly to Mormons –- a finding that may be fairly accurate, given that an earlier Pew survey found that 47% of evangelicals said Mormons were not Christians. For all that, the survey reflected an overall sense of optimism, with 63% of Mormons saying the American public is becoming more accepting of their church, and 56% saying they believe the country is ready for a Mormon president. The survey was the most extensive ever conducted of American Mormons, according to Allison Pond, deputy editor of the editorial page at the church-owned Deseret News in Salt Lake City and an advisor to Pew on the poll. She said the results largely confirmed what was already known about Mormon beliefs. Pond said she found it particularly gratifying to see that 86% of respondents said they found polygamy to be morally offensive. "I'm hopeful that that statistic will start to get some play," she said. "I think that can tone down a lot of the conversation" about polygamy. Multiple marriage was condoned in the early days of the Latter-day Saints, but has been prohibited by church doctrine since the late 19th century. Despite that, it still is widely associated in the public mind with the Mormon Church. Pew surveyed 1,019 self-identified Mormons between Oct. 25 and Nov. 16. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. ALSO: Doomsday Clock edges toward midnight John 3:16 message delivered by Tim Tebow's arm What's in a name? Maybe Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop -- Mitchell Landsberg Photo: Mitt Romney addresses supporters in Columbia, S.C., on Wednesday. Credit: C. Aluka Berry / The State/MCT | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By Steve Holland COLUMBIA, South Carolina | Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:44pm EST COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republican presidential contenders brought buckets of cash and sharp rhetoric to South Carolina on Wednesday for an intense 10-day battle that may determine whether anyone can stop front-runner Mitt Romney's march to the party's nomination. A Romney victory in the January 21 South Carolina primary, the next in a series of state-by-state contests among the Republican candidates, could extinguish his rivals' hopes of keeping him from becoming the nominee to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 general election. Despite fierce attacks from his rivals, the former Massachusetts governor captured New Hampshire's primary 16 percentage points ahead of the rest of the field on Tuesday to go two-for-two at the start of the Republican nomination race after his narrow victory in Iowa's caucuses a week earlier. The New Hampshire victory felt "like Christmas Day," Romney told reporters as his plane left the state for South Carolina. Romney's campaign added to the other contenders' worries by announcing he had raised $24 million in the last three months of 2011, just hours after his victory in New Hampshire. That haul will almost certainly far outstrip the war chests of any of the party's other presidential contenders. Romney has led in polls in the southern state, but could face a tougher time convincing its many Christian conservatives and those hit hard by the economic downturn that he is their best bet to defeat Obama. He finished toward the back of the pack in the state's primary in 2008, when Arizona Senator John McCain became the Republican nominee. "With regards to South Carolina, last time I came in fourth. Our team recognizes this is going to be a challenge," Romney said. In his narrow win in Iowa, Romney's Mormon faith was a stumbling block for some evangelical Christians, who also make up a large percentage of the South Carolina electorate. FIGHTING WITHIN THE PARTY Trying desperately to stop Romney, his rivals have blasted him as a heartless corporate raider who enjoyed cutting jobs while amassing a fortune as a private equity executive, and have assailed him as not being a true conservative. "The issue is ultimately going to be between a Reagan conservative and a Massachusetts moderate, and I think as his record is better known, he will grow weaker and weaker very fast," Republican contender Newt Gingrich, who is pinning his campaign hopes on South Carolina, told reporters in Rock Hill. In New Hampshire, Romney won 39 percent of the vote, outpacing Ron Paul, a U.S. congressman from Texas known for libertarian views who came in second with 23 percent. He was followed by Jon Huntsman, a moderate former U.S. ambassador to China and former governor of Utah who had focused his campaign on New Hampshire. Huntsman won 17 percent. Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry have lashed out at Romney for his record at Bain Capital - an unusual debate in the business-friendly Republican Party. Both men are from southern states, which they hope will help win over South Carolinians. Influential conservatives have warned that the attacks could undermine the party's free-market ideals. Romney got some help from South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in pushing back against those charges. Haley introduced Romney at the first rally of the 10-day sprint to the primary. "I'm proud of all of our Republican candidates," she said. "But we have a real problem when we have Republicans talking like dang Democrats against the free market," she said. "We believe in the free market," she said to cheers from several hundred people gathered for the event. "I certainly don't like Republicans criticizing one of our own and sounding like Democrats," Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, an outspoken conservative, said on Mark Levin's radio show. A favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, DeMint said he would not endorse a candidate in the nomination race. The Republican infighting has cheered Obama's campaign, although it has left some voters cold. South Carolina furniture store owner Dede Ruff, 43, said the attacks on Romney had turned her off Gingrich and Perry. "They're attacking capitalism. It's not conservative at all," she said. John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a well-known conservative figure from George W. Bush's administration, endorsed Romney on Wednesday. The endorsement could help shore up Romney's foreign policy credentials among conservatives. Bolton is known for his confrontational manner and hawkish views on foreign policy. "Romney's conservative enough for me and I think he's the one most likely to get elected, and I think that's critical," Bolton told Fox News Channel. It could be a blow to Gingrich, who had said that he would ask Bolton to be his secretary of state were he elected president. Gingrich allies plan to spend $3.4 million on ads in South Carolina criticizing Romney's business record and a group backing his campaign has produced a dramatic 27-minute video bashing Romney on the issue. With South Carolina's 9.9 percent jobless rate above the national average, Perry has pointed to businesses in the state that were shuttered by Romney's company, which he accused of "vulture capitalism". "The issue is venture capitalism is about creating jobs. And this vulture capitalism is about, you know, making money regardless of whether people lose their jobs or not," Perry said on Fox News. 'GUNS BLAZING' Flush with victory, Romney said he was proud of his business record. He dismissed the attacks as good practice for what is expected to be a bruising general election fight against Obama. "Look, it's - it's going to be, you know, all guns blazing in my direction and I've got broad shoulders. I can handle that. I'm not worried about it," he said on CBS' "This Morning." The winner of the South Carolina primary has become the nominee in every presidential election since 1980. South Carolina is also the only one of the early-voting states that is reliably Republican in presidential elections. The weak U.S. economy has been the central issue of the 2012 campaign. Romney argues that his experience as head of Bain, where he made a personal fortune estimated at some $250 million, helps make him the best candidate. (Additional reporting by John Whitesides in Rock Hill, S.C., Colleen Jenkins in Columbia, S.C., and Patricia Zengerle and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Will Dunham) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President Barack Obama returned to the comfort of a supportive hometown Wednesday to raise campaign cash but also faced up to the discomfort of trying to re-energize a political base once built upon hope and change. Speaking at the first of three fundraising events -- expected to raise about $2 million for his re-election fund and the Democratic National Committee -- Obama urged supporters at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum to stand with him and step up their efforts to win him a second term. "Change is hard but it is possible. I've seen it. You've seen it. You have lived it. And If you want to end the cynicism and stop the game playing that passes for politics these days and you want to send a message about what is possible, then you can't back down, not now. We won't give up. Not now," Obama said. "If you're willing to work even harder in this election than you did in that last election, I promise you change will come," he said. The 25-minute speech to about 500 people, who paid from $44 to $100, was aimed at rejuvenating those who voted for president for the first time in 2008 as well as attracting new young voters. It was hosted by "CSI:NY" actor Hill Harper, a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama's, and featured singer Janelle Monae. But talk of an enthusiasm gap among the Obama forces has been an ongoing concern amid questions from some liberals over whether the president had failed to fulfill his promises and from younger voters seeing national policy lurching in spasms of partisan-driven gridlock. "I don't think he'll get that same euphoria this year that he got back in 2008," said Wendell Mosby of Chicago Heights, a church executive director who volunteered and did fundraising for Obama in the first campaign. "But we'll still work, raise funds, talk to people," said Mosby. "It's not about euphoria this time around. It's about hard work, about working for what you believe in." Soon after landing in Chicago, Obama made his first trip to the re-election headquarters his campaign opened in May, delivering a rally-the-troops message to staff and volunteers who fill one full floor of the Prudential Building. The headquarters looks out over the lakefront Grant Park setting where Chicagoans gathered on a warm November evening to cheer his 2008 election. The campaign aimed to strengthen ties to real people outside Washington by taking the unusual step of basing a presidential re-election effort outside the Beltway. The move also strengthens the president's home state as an anchor for holding on to other blue-leaning Midwestern states -- like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan -- while nearby Iowa and Ohio are general election tossups. Obama acknowledged to the UIC audience that in his desire for change, "I'm not a perfect man. I'm not a perfect president." The president preached patience again at a $35,800 per couple dinner at the North Side home of campaign bundler, prominent Democratic donor and media mogul Fred Eychaner, the head of Newsweb Corp. Obama explained to an audience that included Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Attorney General Lisa Madigan that he wasn't elected because he was a "flawless candidate," but that he has consistently "kept with that vision" he and supporters see for the nation. A later reception scheduled for the Hyde Park home of Stuart Taylor, who heads the investment firm The Taylor Group, cost $7,500 per ticket. Obama stood in the Taylors' dining room and said he recognized many neighbors. "Is somebody mowing the grass in front of my house? I'm going to go over there and check," he quipped. Stuart Taylor told him, "Our message to you on behalf of everyone gathered here is very simple and that is: We¹ve got your back." After the fundraiser, Obama did stop for about 20 minutes at his own home on his way back toward O'Hare via a helicopter ride from Soldier Field. At about 10:36 p.m., he was back aboard Air Force One headed back to Washington. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jack Boyer's father died when Mr. Boyer was 8. Raised by a single mother, he "lived a wicked life," married at 19 and, two years later, after "she and the Lord straightened me out," accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Almost four decades later, he is pastor of a Baptist church in the northwest part of this state. On Monday evening, Mr. Boyer and his wife drove to Stax's Original Restaurant here to hear Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, whom he is supporting in the presidential race. "I prayed about my decision about him," he said. "I already knew what I wanted, and I found it in him." He cannot think of a single issue, he said, where he disagrees with Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry is still in the doldrums here in the latest polls, and it is not yet clear whether his recent decision to stay in the presidential race and compete here will prove smart. With poor showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and recent polls, he barely met the hurdle for qualification for the Jan. 19 CNN debate in Charleston, two days before the South Carolina primary. Despite those setbacks, Mr. Perry seems to have found in South Carolina a place where he can connect with some crowds, with stump speeches, sometimes before a hundred people, that preach reverence for Jesus Christ and for the military. He appears looser and more confident than he has been for some time, perhaps since the days when he was considered a front-runner, which ended with his string of poor debate performances. Now, though, he has more humor and humility as he courts the votes of South Carolinians. He recounts a journey from "walking down the aisle of my church and giving my heart to Jesus Christ when I was 14 years old" to "standing up for the Ten Commandments on the grounds of our Capitol in Texas." "The fight never ends," he says. It is a contrast to his experience in New Hampshire. There, despite an investment of time and effort, he often got skeptical questions, charmed some but won over few, limped out of the state weeks before Tuesday's primary and received fewer than 2,000 votes. In Iowa, where social conservatives are more powerful, he drew crowds in rural areas, but even after hearing him speak, many folks would still tick off all their options — Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — unsure of their choice. Here, though, the crowds who have come to see him the past few days in the more socially conservative parts of the state have seemed to like more of what he believes in. That often has had more to do with how he and his wife, Anita, come across personally than with any particular piece of policy. "What you see is what you get, and he stands on the same foundation that I stand on," said Patty Whetsell, a Republican activist in Greenville who was at Stax's. "He acknowledges God in his life, and without God, where would we be? He's not like some pastors who think they own their church. He acknowledges those around him. And his wife is a great asset. She's submissive to him, as she should be." While the warmer reception may be lifting his spirits, the question is whether it will boost his electoral prospects, still spiraling downward as of the latest poll: last week a survey by CNN, Time and ORC International found that he had just 5 percent of support from likely South Carolina primary voters, compared with 8 percent a month earlier. That drop is all the more surprising because Mrs. Bachmann, who had also invested a lot of time here and was thought to have similar appeal to social conservatives, left the race before the survey was conducted. Part of the explanation is plain: many of Mrs. Bachmann's supporters — and, it would seem, some of Mr. Perry's, too — have migrated to Rick Santorum. In response, Mr. Perry has been attacking Mr. Santorum as the "King of Earmarks." He has also outdone another rival, Newt Gingrich, in delivering the most caustic attack on Mitt Romney's leveraged-buyout career, calling him a "vulture" who picked the bones of companies clean. Mr. Perry still has influential Republican backers here working for him, including Representative Mick Mulvaney and the former state party chairman Katon Dawson, and a small-government, hawkish platform that should play well with a lot of voters here. But even so, others in the party say, the debates will most likely prove too much to live down. "A lot of South Carolinians were eager to like him, but then they got a good look in those early debates and decided that he wasn't presidential timber," said Chad Walldorf, a business owner who helped lead the transition team of Gov. Nikki R. Haley, who has endorsed Mr. Romney. "You get one chance to make a first impression." Mr. Perry will not say whether he will pull out of the race, as is widely expected, if he has another poor showing at the Jan. 21 primary. "That's trying to call the game in the first quarter," he said, adding, "I'm not here to come in second." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | "This is one seat that's flipped dramatically from the safe Republican column to the Democrats being favored," said Nathan L. Gonzales, deputy editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. With the primary looming April 3, Bartlett faces a challenge for the Republican nomination from two sitting legislators — state Sen. David Brinkley (Frederick) and state Del. Kathy Afzali (Frederick) — while the Democratic ballot will include state Sen. Rob Garagiola (Montgomery) and financier John Delaney. But an anticipated Democratic primary battle fell by the wayside Wednesday, as former Prince George's County prosecutor Glenn F. Ivey decided against challenging Rep. Donna F. Edwards. Ivey struggled for weeks to attract donors and hire key staff for his race against a popular, labor-backed incumbent, "I just could not raise enough money to win," Ivey said in an interview. "We could not figure out how to make the numbers work." Ivey's move should mean clear sailing for Edwards, who ruffled some feathers in her own party earlier this year by protesting against the redistricting map authored by a commission back by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). She now faces two little-known primary opponents in a seat that heavily favors Democrats. U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin is also viewed as a favorite for reelection, although he did draw a notable primary opponent in state Sen. C. Anthony Muse. President Obama and most Maryland Democratic leaders have already endorsed Cardin, prompting Muse to complain that the state party needed to do a better job staying neutral in the contest. On the Republican side, former Secret Service agent Daniel Bongino has been the most active and vocal Senate candidate, drawing news media attention for his unusual background. Former Pentagon and Justice Department lawyer Richard Douglas has won the endorsements of a handful of Bush administration national security officials. A total of 19 candidates filed for the Senate contest, as Maryland law makes it relatively easy to get on the ballot compared with some other states. In the Washington region, congressmen Chris Van Hollen (D) and Steny H. Hoyer (D) each drew one Democrat and three Republican opponents, but both incumbents are expected to win reelection with ease, as are Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings, C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes. Freshman Rep. Andy Harris (R) saw his previously competitive Eastern Shore-based district redrawn to favor the GOP, giving him the clear edge over three Democratic hopefuls. The real focus will be on Bartlett's 6th district, which was altered to include a slice of Democratic-leaning Montgomery County along with the more conservative and rural territory of Western Maryland. The new map has sparked drama, as Bartlett's chief of staff, Bud Otis, resigned his post after word leaked to the news media that he was soliciting support for his own campaign should Bartlett choose to retire. Otis eventually decided not to run. Maryland Republican Party head Alex X. Mooney, a former Bartlett aide, also decided against a bid after raising money and recruiting supporters for the race. That leaves Brinkley, who has the backing of several local Republican officials, as well as Afzali and five other Republicans challenging the incumbent. Garagiola, meanwhile, has significant establishment support on the Democratic side, as the district was drawn by party leaders with him in mind. Ben.Pershing@wpost.com Staff writer Miranda S. Spivack contributed to this report. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gergen: Romney's N.H. speech memorable STORY HIGHLIGHTS - NEW: South Carolina's governor says don't attack Romney's business record
- Mitt Romney shrugs off criticism of his days as a venture capitalist
- Ron Paul, Rick Santorum plan big spending in South Carolina
- The Republican presidential campaign shifts to South Carolina, site of the next primary
(CNN) -- Mitt Romney arrived Wednesday in South Carolina as the clear front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, while his rivals campaigned across the state to try to halt the former Massachusetts governor's momentum after his victory the day before in New Hampshire. CNN projected that Romney's second straight triumph in the first two contests of the nomination process gained him seven of the state's 12 delegates, based on his first-place support from just over 39% of primary voters. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who finished second with about 23%, picked up three delegates, and former Utah Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman gained two delegates based on his third-place finish with roughly 17% of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum got no delegates for their support of just under 10% each, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry also was shut out by trailing with less than 1% of the vote. With 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, the New Hampshire haul was more symbolic than substantive, but it further bolstered Romney's campaign after his razor-thin victory in last week's Iowa caucuses. Next on the primary calendar is the January 21 primary in South Carolina, where Romney's five opponents are counting on the state's social conservatism and reputation for brass-knuckle political brawls to help their cause. The Palmetto State has picked the winner of every GOP nomination fight since 1980. Gingrich told a town hall in Rock Hill, South Carolina, that the result of the upcoming primary will be historic. "I believe the next 10 days are as important as any 10 days we have seen in modern American politics," Gingrich said. "I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative or by default they are going to send a moderate on to the nomination." Santorum, who lost to Romney by eight votes in Iowa, said Wednesday that it was "silly" for anyone to suggest Romney has the nomination wrapped up. "This is a long process," Santorum said while campaigning in Ridgeway, South Carolina. "Half the people (who) voted yesterday weren't even Republicans." Romney is hoping a combination of momentum, campaign cash, growing establishment support and a fractured opposition will lead to a victory not only in South Carolina but also in Florida at the end of the month. That would be four straight victories for Romney after Iowa and New Hampshire, and could bring the Republican contest to an early conclusion. In a sign of Romney's support, his campaign said Wednesday it would report fourth-quarter earnings of $24 million for a total of $56 million in 2011. "I have a long way to go before I get the nomination," Romney told CNN on Wednesday morning. The other candidates will "find new attacks. (But) I think in the final analysis people want someone who can lead the country back to strength with good jobs and rising incomes, and all these attacks I think will fall entirely flat." In his victory speech Tuesday night, Romney sounded like the presumptive Republican nominee, calling Barack Obama "a failed president" who puts his faith in government while "we put our faith in the American people." Romney is the first non-incumbent Republican in modern history to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney leaves N.H. with wind at back For their part, the other candidates quickly tried to minimize New Hampshire's importance and appeal to South Carolina's more conservative electorate. In Rock Hill, Gingrich said that if elected, "we will not tolerate a speech dictatorship in this country against Christianity." He also questioned Democratic challenges to Republican efforts to require more stringent voter identification efforts in some areas. "What does it tell you about the Obama administration that they are afraid -- afraid -- to have an honest elections?" Gingrich said. "They are afraid if we only allow legal voters." Perry noted the fact that he had all but abandoned New Hampshire, focusing his time and energy on South Carolina. "South Carolina is a winner-take-all state," Perry said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." "Winning here, I can promise you, wipes out the caucus victory and New Hampshire. So if Mitt's thinking he's got it in the bag, I think he'll be in for a great surprise in South Carolina when he shows up here." Santorum, meanwhile, took aim at both Romney and Perry. Without naming Romney, Santorum said electing a moderate would be little better than having a Democratic president. "That's not a victory at all," Santorum said, adding: "We want a leader that believes in us and is not an establishment candidate who's going to do more of the same." Responding to Perry's claim of being the only true political outsider in the race, Santorum noted that Perry "requested 1,200 earmarks as governor of Texas, and Rick Perry's been in politics in Texas for 25 years, so he's been in public life more than anyone else running for president." Santorum's campaign said it has raised $3 million since the second-place finish in Iowa, with at least half of that planned for spending on ads in South Carolina. Paul told CNN after his second-place finish Tuesday that he expects to raise more money, and his campaign chairman said Wednesday that Paul plans to spend $1 million in South Carolina, a significant amount in a state where television advertising isn't all that expensive. Even if Romney is unstoppable as the GOP nominee, Paul and his aides made clear he intends to keep his campaign going, perhaps all the way to the Republican convention. The more delegates he can rack up, the more leverage he would have to integrate key messages of his libertarian, anti-interventionist movement into the Republican Party platform. "We're on the move," Paul said Wednesday in West Columbia, South Carolina. "It isn't only because you have a candidate. We have an issue, and we have a set of principles that we're going to defend, and this is what motivates people." Paul: Only I can stop Romney In an interview with CNN before Tuesday's results came in, Gingrich acknowledged South Carolina will be vital to his presidential hopes. "We're going to go all out to win South Carolina. We think that's a key state for us," the former speaker said, describing the race there as a contest between himself -- a "Georgia Reagan conservative" -- and Romney, "a Massachusetts moderate." Gingrich has been pounding at Romney since Iowa, complaining about a massive negative ad campaign against him by allies of the former Massachusetts governor. A Gingrich-allied super PAC has already launched its own anti-Romney barrage in South Carolina, and Gingrich and others have honed in on Romney's years as a financier with Bain Capital, accusing him of getting rich by gutting companies and laying off workers. "The last thing you want is to nominate somebody who collapses in September because they can't answer the questions," Gingrich said Wednesday in an interview to broadcast on CNN. " ... You know, people want to attack me for my past, that's fine. I either will answer it and be ready to be the nominee or I won't. Romney ought to have to meet the same test." Gingrich wasn't alone in attacking Romney's business record. In South Carolina, Perry told supporters Romney's firm "looted" a photo company in Gaffney and a steel company in Georgetown. "I would suggest they are just vultures," Perry said. "They are vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick, then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that and they leave the skeleton." Democrats have joined the Republican criticism, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, saying Wednesday that Romney emerged from New Hampshire a "wounded candidate." "Yesterday's primary couldn't have happened soon enough for him because his support in the state was rapidly eroding," Wasserman Schultz said "As I watched it erode, it seemed to me the more people got to know Mitt Romney the less they liked him." Romney seemed unconcerned in an interview Wednesday on CNN. "It's been brought up every time I've run," Romney said, adding that Democrats are trying to put "free enterprise on trial." "But, you know, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are going to be the witnesses for the prosecution," he added. "I'm not worried about that. ... You saw last night that approach didn't work very well for (them). And so we'll take it to the next level." At a Romney event Wednesday night, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley chided fellow Republicans for making an issue of Romney's business past. "We have a real problem when we have Republicans talking like Democrats against the free market," she said as the audience cheered. "We believe in the free market." A former businesswoman, Haley appealed to the audience as fellow executives. "We want companies to be able to do what is best for companies, and during tough times you downsize and you make hard decisions and during good times you expand and you help those businesses grow more," she said in her introduction of Romney. "That's what he's done. He's done what every one of us has tried to do." CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Alan Silverleib, Jim Acosta, Peter Hamby, Dana Bash, Kevin Bohn, Tom Cohen, Jessica Yellin and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The explosive issue of immigration is poised to creep back into the Republican primary battle as the candidates prepare to barnstorm South Carolina, one of a handful of states being sued by the federal government for their illegal immigration crackdowns.
While the issue played second fiddle to concerns like jobs and foreign policy in the prior two contests, voters in South Carolina are likely more attuned, given the high-profile lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department.
"That's very much an important issue in South Carolina," said Van Hipp Jr., former chairman of the South Carolina GOP and current chairman of the advocacy group Americans for Securing the Border.
Mitt Romney is charging into the state with arguably the most aggressive message, praising the state's immigration law while trumpeting his own bona fides on the issue.
In a well-timed announcement, the Romney campaign on Wednesday rolled out an endorsement from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach -- the co-author of illegal immigration laws in Arizona and elsewhere. Romney said he wants to work with Kobach to "support states like South Carolina and Arizona that are stepping forward to address this problem."
The campaign also released a statement from Kobach saying Romney would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with states like South Carolina in the illegal immigration fight. Kobach called Romney "the candidate who will finally secure the borders and put a stop to the magnets, like in-state tuition, that encourage illegal aliens to remain in our country unlawfully."
But the candidates -- particularly Romney -- will have to tread carefully as they try to convince South Carolinians that they feel their pain. Next up on the primary calendar is immigrant-heavy Florida. Newt Gingrich offered a blunt warning to Romney -- who has challenged the former House speaker's plan to let some illegal immigrants stay in the country -- during a campaign stop in New Hampshire last weekend.
"I can't wait for them to campaign in Florida," Gingrich said. "Try to go into Miami with the battle cry, 'everybody must go.' ... That is clearly going to come across in the immigrant community as a sign you have no sense of humanity for people."
Romney appears to be taking a dual-track approach. His campaign just released a new Spanish-language TV ad in Florida -- the ad features Cuban-America lawmakers praising Romney in Spanish. Meanwhile, his campaign has tried to exploit perceived weaknesses in his opponents' immigration records.
Kobach's reference to in-state tuition was an apparent shot at Rick Perry's support for offering some young illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates while governor of Texas.
That's not a popular position in South Carolina, according to a poll taken last month by NBC News/Marist. Eighty percent of those polled said it would be "not acceptable" for a GOP presidential nominee to favor in-state rates for illegal immigrants.
The same poll showed greater flexibility on the question of whether it's OK for a nominee to support "limited amnesty." Fifty-three percent said that would be "acceptable," while 41 percent said it would not.
Romney has tried to stake out a distinctly anti-amnesty position. He said last month that he would veto the so-called DREAM Act, a proposal to give some young illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status if they attend college of join the military. Romney also said he'd make illegal immigrants return to their home country in order to get a green card.
That was after Gingrich proposed letting some illegal immigrants with longstanding ties to their communities attain legal status -- though not a pathway to citizenship. Under Gingrich's proposal, a "local citizen panel" would decide whether illegal immigrants who have been in the country 25 years or more should be allowed to stay.
Gingrich has stood by the plan, while rolling out one of the most comprehensive platforms on immigration of any candidate. Under the former House speaker's plan, Homeland Security resources would be shifted to the border, visa rules would be overhauled to make it easier for highly skilled immigrants to work in the country, and the U.S. would set up a legal guest worker program.
Perry, though he doesn't support a border fence across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, stressed at a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday that he's been dealing with illegal immigration in Texas for the past decade. He said laws like the one passed by South Carolina stem from the failure of the federal government to deal with the problem. Perry also has the endorsement of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to help strengthen his immigration message.
Hipp said that while Romney was keen to criticize Perry's immigration positions back when Perry was running strong, Romney might have a harder time spelling out those differences when it comes to Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
Though Gingrich took heat for his "citizen panel" proposal, Hipp gave him credit for signing his group's pledge to support a double fence across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Hipp said Romney and Santorum are also strong on the fence issue, though they haven't signed the pledge.
Ron Paul, meanwhile, has taken a tough stance by saying he wants to end so-called "birthright citizenship," which allows children born of illegal immigrants on U.S. soil to be automatic citizens.
The immigration issue in South Carolina is not going away any time soon. A federal judge has decided to wait until the Supreme Court weighs in on a separate Arizona challenge before proceeding in the case. The court so far has blocked key provisions of South Carolina's law from going into effect, including a requirement that local officers check immigration status if they suspect someone they pull over is an illegal immigrant. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BY GREGORY ZUCKERMAN AND MICHAEL CORKERY Private-equity firms sometimes attract controversy. They also attract something else: interest from a wide variety of institutions. Investors ranging from pension plans and charities to global insurance companies and university endowments have placed money with private-equity firms. Public and private pension funds represent 43% of all the money invested with leveraged buyout firms in 2010, the most-recent year tracked by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. Foundations represented 12% of the money invested. What is the appeal? For one, the returns. ... BY GREGORY ZUCKERMAN AND MICHAEL CORKERY Private-equity firms sometimes attract controversy. They also attract something else: interest from a wide variety of institutions. Investors ranging from pension plans and charities to global insurance companies and university endowments have placed money with private-equity firms. Public and private pension funds represent 43% of all the money invested with leveraged buyout firms in 2010, the most-recent year tracked by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. Foundations represented 12% of the money invested. What is the appeal? For one, the returns. ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich brought his message to the Palmetto State on Wednesday in hopes of revitalizing his campaign after it faltered in Iowa and New Hampshire. Gingrich, who had used frontrunner Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital against him prior to Wednesday, backed off his portrayal of the former Massachusetts governor as a corporatist during campaign stop at the Marriott Conference Center in Spartanburg. Even one member of the audience at the Marriott questioned Gingrich about his using Bain to draw contrasts between he and Romney. Dean Glossop, a U.S. Army reservist, implored Gingrich to go after Romney on his centrist history, rather than his record at Bain, telling him Gingrich he believed he had "missed the target" on Romney. Gingrich quickly agreed with Glossop, acknowledging that making light of his rival's business record in such a way was a poor strategy, especially given President Barack Obama's reputation among conservatives for evoking anger through conflict theory rhetoric. "I agree with you," Gingrich said. "It's an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background. Obama just makes it impossible to talk rationally in that area because he is so deeply into class warfare that automatically you get an echo effect." Afterward, Glossop, who said if he had to vote today he'd vote for social conservative Rick Santorum, clarified why he challenged the former Speaker about Bain and Romney. "It's minutia compared the real problems he should be focusing on that Romney has," Glossop said. "Romney is putting himself out as a true conservative, and there's all sorts of evidence that he isn't." Glossop admitted he was pleasantly surprised by Gingrich's reversal, but said the only way Gingrich would get his vote is if he were to pull away from Santorum by 10 points or more, signaling a growing sentiment among political pundits and potential voters alike — that if Romney is going to be stopped, it can only happen with a coalescence of the social conservative voters. On Wednesday, Gingrich submitted to listeners a practical and strategic reason to vote for him. Simply put, Gingrich said, it will take a conservative with glaring contrasts to Obama to defeat the president, despite the prevailing conventional wisdom that Romney, with his moderate conservative message, represented a more realistic shot at unseating the incumbent. "We have to consolidate behind a conservative or we're going to end up nominating a moderate," Gingrich said. "I think it is very hard for a moderate to defeat Barack Obama, and impossible for a moderate to change Washington D.C." Gingrich took his message of consolidation down the road to The Beacon restaurant just moments later, this time mentioning Romney by name. "The fact is, we have to consolidate conservatives to beat Gov. Romney," Gingrich said. "The contrast won't be clear enough, the issues won't be clear enough, and it'll just be a jumble." Sean Maher, a Charlotte resident who trekked down to the Upstate with his 13-year-old son to see Gingrich, said the former Speaker, not Santorum, represented conservatives' most realistic shot at consolidation. "I think Santorum dropped severely when he went to New Hampshire," Maher said. "People started to realize that we're splitting the conservative vote. Here is where we have to beat Romney. If you don't beat Romney in South Carolina, he'll turn into a train you just can't stop." Gingrich himself didn't shy away from assigning a weighty significance to South Carolina's primary. "South Carolina, the 21st is going to be, I think, the most important single primary of the year," he said. "This is the decisive moment for the Republican party to decide who it is, and to decide what we've learned from the past." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President Barack Obama returned tonight to the comfort of his hometown, where he made his first trip to his re-election headquarters that opened in May and used a supportive political base to raise millions in campaign cash at a series of fundraisers. Obama delivered a rally-the-troops message to campaign staff and volunteers who fill one full floor of the Prudential Building, with its vista of the lakefront Grant Park setting where Chicagoans gathered on a warm November evening to cheer his 2008 election. The campaign aimed to strengthen ties to real people outside Washington by taking the unusual step of basing a presidential re-election effort outside the Beltway. The move also strengthens the president's home state as an anchor for holding onto other blue-leaning Midwestern states – like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan – and perhaps adding Iowa and Ohio to the campaign's political map. Chicago has been a reliable fundraising destination for the president, as made clear by three events expected to raise about $2 million for his fund and the Democratic National Committee. At a UIC event, up to 500 donors who paid from $44 to $100 were treated to music from recording artist Janelle Monae and a guest appearance by actor Hill Harper from CSI: NY before Obama hit the stage to loud applause. The president took a broad swipe at Republicans but did not mention any potential opponents by name. "America is not going to win if we give in to those who think we can only respond to our challenges with the same tired tune, just hand out more tax cuts to folks who don't need them or weren't even asking for them, let companies do whatever they want, hope that prosperity somehow trickles down on everybody else's head," Obama said. "It doesn't work." He also returned to the popular themes of togetherness and change he first honed in the 2008 campaign. "Our political parties may be divided but most Americans, they understand now that we're in this together," he said. "We rise and fall together as one nation, as one people. That's what's at stake right now. That's what this election is about." The crowd at UIC cheered Obama's remarks, but afterward some supporters said the atmosphere was less electrically charged than they remember from four years ago. "I don't think he'll get that same euphoria this year that he got back in 2008," said Wendell Mosby of Chicago Heights, a church executive director who volunteered and did fundraising for Obama in the first campaign. "But we'll still work, raise funds, talk to people," said Mosby. "It's not about euphoria this time around. It's about hard work, about working for what you believe in." The price was much higher for two smaller fundraisers scheduled at private homes later in the evening. Couples paid $35,800 each for dinner with Obama at the home of presidential campaign bundler and prominent Democratic donor Fred Eychaner, who heads Newsweb Corp. A later reception scheduled for the Hyde Park home of Stuart Taylor, who heads investment firm The Taylor Group, cost $7,500 per ticket. Untallied in the night's count, however, is the strength of enthusiasm for the president after three years of governing. Advisers to the president consider it crucial to energize the first-time and independent voters who flocked to his side when he ran as a fresh-faced newcomer angry about the war in Iraq and intent on changing business in Washington. Despite the flurry of political activity on Obama's home turf, Josh Earnest, the White House deputy press secretary, said, "The president remains focused on his No 1. job, which is serving the American public as the president of the United States." "There will be a time and a place for the re-election campaign to be fully engaged, but we're not there yet," Earnest said. Earlier in the day, without mentioning Mitt Romney by name, Obama introduced a theme he's certain to use often against the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination – that Romney helped send American jobs overseas during his corporate career. chicagobreaking@tribune.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gergen: Romney's N.H. speech memorable STORY HIGHLIGHTS - NEW: CNN projects Mitt Romney wins seven of New Hampshire's 12 delegates
- NEW: Romney shrugs off criticism of his days as a venture capitalist
- NEW: Ron Paul, Rick Santorum plan big spending in South Carolina
- The Republican presidential campaign shifts to South Carolina, site of the next primary
(CNN) -- The race for the Republican presidential nomination headed south Wednesday, one day after a resounding New Hampshire primary win for Mitt Romney that left the rest of the GOP field scrambling to catch the former Massachusetts governor. CNN projected that Romney's victory Tuesday -- his second straight in the first two contests of the nomination process so far -- gained the former Massachusetts governor seven of the state's 12 delegates, based on his first-place support from just over 39% of primary voters. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who finished second with about 23%, picked up three delegates and former Utah Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman gained two delegates based on his third-place finish with roughly 17% of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum got no delegates for their support of just under 10% each, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry also was shut out by trailing with less than 1% of the vote. According to the nearly complete results from the New Hampshire secretary of state website, the overall tally of more than 247,000 votes was the highest number for a GOP presidential primary in state history. With 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, the New Hampshire haul was more symbolic than substantive, bolstering Romney's status as the clear front-runner after his razor-thin victory in last week's Iowa caucuses. Next on the primary calendar is South Carolina's January 21 primary. Romney's rivals are counting on the state's social conservatism and reputation for brass-knuckle political brawls to slow the former governor's momentum. The Palmetto State has picked the winner of every GOP nomination fight since 1980. Gingrich told a town hall in Rock Hill, South Carolina, that the result of the upcoming primary will be historic. "I believe the next 10 days are as important as any 10 days we have seen in modern American politics," Gingrich said. "I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative or by default they are going to send a moderate on to the nomination." Santorum, who lost to Romney by eight votes in Iowa, said Wednesday that it was "silly" for anyone to suggest the former Massachusetts governor has the nomination wrapped up. "This is a long process," Santorum said while campaigning in Ridgeway, South Carolina. "Half the people (who) voted yesterday weren't even Republicans." Romney is hoping a combination of momentum, campaign cash, growing establishment support and a fractured opposition will lead to a victory not only in South Carolina but also in Florida at the end of the month. That would be four straight victories for Romney after Iowa and New Hampshire, and could bring the Republican contest to an early conclusion. In a sign of Romney's support, his campaign said Wednesday it would report fourth-quarter earnings of $24 million for a total of $56 million in 2011. "I have a long way to go before I get the nomination," Romney told CNN on Wednesday morning. The other candidates will "find new attacks. (But) I think in the final analysis people want someone who can lead the country back to strength with good jobs and rising incomes, and all these attacks I think will fall entirely flat." In his victory speech Tuesday night, Romney sounded like the presumptive Republican nominee. "Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we go back to work," he told exuberant supporters in New Hampshire. He called Barack Obama "a failed president" who puts his faith in government while "we put our faith in the American people." Romney is the first non-incumbent Republican in modern history to finish first in both Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests. Romney leaves N.H. with wind at back For their part, the other candidates quickly tried to minimize New Hampshire's importance and appeal to South Carolina's more conservative electorate. In Rock Hill, Gingrich said that if elected, "we will not tolerate a speech dictatorship in this country against Christianity." He also questioned Democratic challenges to Republican efforts to require more stringent voter identification efforts in some areas. "What does it tell you about the Obama administration that they are afraid -- afraid -- to have an honest elections?" Gingrich said. "They are afraid if we only allow legal voters." Perry noted the fact that he had all but abandoned New Hampshire, focusing his time and energy on South Carolina. "South Carolina is a winner-take-all state," Perry said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." "Winning here, I can promise you, wipes out the caucus victory and New Hampshire. So if Mitt's thinking he's got it in the bag, I think he'll be in for a great surprise in South Carolina when he shows up here." Santorum, meanwhile, took aim at both Romney and Perry. Without naming Romney, Santorum said electing a moderate would be little better than having a Democratic president. "That's not a victory at all," Santorum said, adding: "We want a leader that believes in us and is not an establishment candidate who's going to do more of the same." Responding to Perry's claim of being the only true political outsider in the race, Santorum noted that Perry "requested 1,200 earmarks as governor of Texas, and Rick Perry's been in politics in Texas for 25 years, so he's been in public life more than anyone else running for president." Santorum's campaign said it has raised $3 million since the second-place finish in Iowa, with at least half of that planned for spending on ads in South Carolina. Paul told CNN after his second-place finish Tuesday that he expects to raise more money, and his campaign chairman said Wednesday that Paul plans to spend $1 million in South Carolina, a significant amount in a state where television advertising isn't all that expensive. Even if Romney is unstoppable as the GOP nominee, Paul and his aides made clear he intends to keep his campaign going, perhaps all the way to the Republican convention. The more delegates he can rack up, the more leverage he would have to integrate key messages of his libertarian, anti-interventionist movement into the Republican Party platform. "We're on the move," Paul said Wednesday in West Columbia, South Carolina. "It isn't only because you have a candidate. We have an issue, and we have a set of principles that we're going to defend, and this is what motivates people." Paul: Only I can stop Romney In an interview with CNN before Tuesday's results came in, Gingrich acknowledged South Carolina will be vital to his presidential hopes. "We're going to go all out to win South Carolina. We think that's a key state for us," the former speaker said, describing the race there as a contest between himself -- a "Georgia Reagan conservative" -- and Romney, "a Massachusetts moderate." Gingrich has been pounding at Romney since Iowa, complaining about a massive negative ad campaign against him by allies of the former Massachusetts governor. A Gingrich-allied super PAC has already launched its own anti-Romney barrage in South Carolina, and Gingrich and others have honed in on Romney's years as a financier with Bain Capital, accusing him of getting rich by gutting companies and laying off workers. "The last thing you want is to nominate somebody who collapses in September because they can't answer the questions," Gingrich said Wednesday in an interview to broadcast on CNN. " ... You know, people want to attack me for my past, that's fine. I either will answer it and be ready to be the nominee or I won't. Romney ought to have to meet the same test." Gingrich wasn't alone in attacking Romney's business record. In South Carolina, Perry told supporters Romney's firm "looted" a photo company in Gaffney and a steel company in Georgetown. "I would suggest they are just vultures," Perry said. "They are vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick, then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that and they leave the skeleton." Democrats have joined the Republican criticism, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, saying Wednesday that Romney emerged from New Hampshire a "wounded candidate." "Yesterday's primary couldn't have happened soon enough for him because his support in the state was rapidly eroding," Wasserman Schultz said "As I watched it erode, it seemed to me the more people got to know Mitt Romney the less they liked him." Romney seemed unconcerned in an interview Wednesday on CNN. "It's been brought up every time I've run," Romney said, adding that Democrats are trying to put "free enterprise on trial." "But, you know, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are going to be the witnesses for the prosecution," he added. "I'm not worried about that. ... You saw last night that approach didn't work very well for (them). And so we'll take it to the next level." CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Alan Silverleib, Jim Acosta, Peter Hamby, Dana Bash, Kevin Bohn, Tom Cohen, Jessica Yellin and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jon Huntsman's campaign, for example, wants you to know that "we are getting screwed as Americans" and that the former Utah governor is "the person who's going to lead the charge . . . and fix the trust deficit." Words on the screen tout his accomplishments, including that he "created a flat tax." The so-called "super PAC" backing Huntsman has run ads with a voter saying "the world's literally collapsing" and asking "where's the conservative we can trust?" The spot answers "Jon Huntsman" with a list of his accomplishments, including that he "slashed and flattened taxes." A super PAC backing Rick Santorum known as the Red, White and Blue Fund ran an ad saying that the former senator is a "dedicated defender of the unborn," "courageous reformer with results" and a "resolute leader in the fight against radical Islam." A new ad from Santorum's campaign says "he wrote the law that banned partial-birth abortions, overhauled America's welfare system, and no one has done more to protect America from Iran's growing threat." Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the PAC backing Santorum, said his group looks to polling and the candidate himself for direction. "More or less everyone is looking at the same numbers," he said. "A corollary to that is that you can obviously see what the candidate is doing, whether it's on the stump or on the TV." A 30-second ad that the group launched Saturday in South Carolina includes 17 seconds of Santorum delivering a victory speech after the Iowa caucuses. Super PACs have become a powerful new force in this campaign, funneling large contributions, sometimes of $1 million or more, into advertisements helping the top candidates. They were created as a result of legal changes in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. The court found that First Amendment protections for free speech extend to corporations and labor unions that want to spend money on campaign advertisements, as long as the money is spent independent of the campaigns. A lower court found that the decision allowed for unlimited contributions to political groups that are spending money independently. Advocates of restricting money in politics say the parallel messages of campaigns and PACs provide a way for people to gain favor with potential presidents by writing a large check to their super PACs. "This is one more indicator of the fact that the presidential candidate super PACs are simply arms of the presidential campaigns," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21. "The idea that they are independent from the campaigns is nonsense." Others say that free-speech protections should take precedence and that the contributions are no different than the favor-granting that's endemic to any political system. "Gratitude is not enough of a justification to abridge First Amendment rights," said Brad Smith, founder of the Center for Competitive Politics. "It really has to be bribery." Unless new rules are created, the millions spent by super PACS will probably be indirectly influenced by the candidates, even if the two can't directly coordinate. Rick Tyler, a consultant with the Winning Our Future group helping Newt Gingrich, said that he often uses public statements to figure out how to best help his candidate. "I dance with the campaign through the media," Tyler said. "Those are the rules and we've followed them." Winning Our Future is planning a $3.4 million ad campaign in South Carolina focused on Mitt Romney's record as head of the private equity firm Bain Capital, Tyler said. Gingrich has led the criticism of Romney in the past week. The two sparred in a debate Sunday when Gingrich challenged Romney to denounce an ad by the Restore Our Future super PAC run by Romney's former aides. "I can't direct their ads," Romney said. "If there's anything in them that's wrong, I hope they take it out." While the PAC backing Romney has been running ads attacking Gingrich, Romney's campaign has stayed largely positive on the air, allowing him to duck criticism for negativity while still benefiting from it. Sometimes groups can do more damage than help, forcing campaigns off message. A group backing Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) recently put out a video attacking Huntsman as a "Manchurian candidate," questioning his values, showing clips of him speaking Chinese and holding his adopted children. The Paul campaign was forced to denounce the ad, calling it "utterly distasteful." farnamt@washpost.com For more The Influence
Industry columns, visit washingtonpost.com/fedpage | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney targeted the nation's largest minority Wednesday with a new Spanish language television advertisement in Florida. Stressing the theme of the American Dream, Romney's advertisement, titled "Nosotros" ("Us"), says the United States is a nation "donde todo es posible" ("where everything is possible"). It is narrated by the former Massachusetts governor's son Craig Romney, who speaks flawless Spanish in the advertisement. The advertisement describes Romney as a conservative businessman who believes in the values that, as the press release for it says, "have made our country the greatest nation on earth." Recent poll results from Florida show Romney with a double-digit lead among likely GOP voters in the key southern swing state. Thirty-six percent of the 560 likely GOP voters questioned by Quinnipiac (Conn.) University said they preferred Romney, though more than half (54 percent) said they could still change their minds before Florida's Jan. 31 presidential primary. Romney emerged the winner in Iowa and New Hampshire, but said he expects a tougher battle in the South Carolina primary, which will be on Jan. 21. Romney has the challenge of walking a fine line between appealing to Latino voters, and portraying himself as the most "true conservative" of the GOP presidential contenders -- an effort that has included calls by him for a tough, enforcement-only approach to illegal immigration. Indeed, on Wednesday, the Romney campaign walked that fine line -- launching the Florida Latino-targeted campaign, while touting on his website the endorsement of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of the toughest state immigration laws in the country. Despite the Quinnipiac poll results, a South Carolina upset for Romney "could shake things up in the Sunshine State," said Peter Brown, the polling institute's assistant director. "Romney could be vulnerable if those voters settle on one candidate." Also on Wednesday, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus announced a new major effort to engage Latino voters. "The expanded multifaceted approach to connect with the Hispanic community will include both digital outreach, traditional voter identification, and get out the vote efforts," Priebus said. "Aimed at connecting with the fastest growing demographic, the RNC will place staff on the ground across the country to coordinate the GOP's Hispanic effort as part of a program to make sure Barack Obama is a one-term president." "Latinos play an integral role in our communities," he said, "and the Republican Party believes it is essential to involve Latinos at every level of our Party's efforts in 2012." Both parties actually began their 2012 election Latino outreach campaigns last year in an effort to swing the ever expanding Latino voter base. The Latino population grew to 50.5 million in 2010 from 35.3 million in 2000. About 21 million are eligible to vote. The RNC released television and radio ads geared toward Hispanics in Florida. The ads, dubbed "Change Direction," were part of a series of ads geared toward Latinos. In addition, the RNC blitzed radio stations in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, criticizing President Barack Obama on the economy, taxes and unemployment. The ads said that Obama was destructive to the economy, and to Latinos' financial wellbeing in particular. The ads blamed Obama's handling of the economy for why Latino unemployment stands at 11.6 percent, higher than the national average. The Democrats quickly pushed back. In their first ads for the presidential election, the Democratic National Committee targeted Latinos in virtually all the same geographical areas as the RNC's campaign, with the message that Republicans have pushed to cut programs that are critical to Latinos. In Florida, the Latino voters – from the South Florida Cubans to the Puerto Ricans along the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Orlando – vary in their political affiliations and loyalties. Some Hispanic voters who helped get President Obama into office also catapulted Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio to win the Republican primary and subsequent senatorial election in 2010. In South Florida, Cuban exiles have long been loyal to the Republican Party and have built their influence over decades. The exiles long have seen Republicans as tougher on Cuba's Communist regime. The list of high-level Republican GOP Hispanics in Florida include Rubio, South Florida's three members of Congress and state House Majority Leader Carlos Lápez-Cantera. Joe García, a past head of Miami-Dade Democrats and former Obama appointee who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year, told reporters last year that Republicans have been more aggressive in going after Florida's Latino voters. "The Republican Party views Hispanics in terms of market share: Who are they? How do we reach them? Democrats still view us in terms of quotas," García said. Florida Hispanics, like Latinos nationwide, provided overwhelming support in 2008 for Obama thanks to a national get-out-the-vote effort. Since December of that year, 73,000 have registered in the state as Democrats and another 76,000 have registered while declaring no party. There have been 31,000 new Hispanic Republicans. GOP presidential contender and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hired Jose Mallea, campaign chief for Rubio's 2010 Senate race, to be his Florida director. Romney, meanwhile, has picked up the endorsement of the state's senior Latino Republicans, who all appear in his new Spanish-language advertisement, singing his praises. Says Rep. Diaz-Balart in the ad: "Romney believes in us." This story contains material from The Associated Press. Follow Elizabeth Llorente on Twitter: @Liz_Llorente Elizabeth Llorente can be reached elizabeth.llorente@foxnewslatino.com Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino
Like us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With populist pitch, Gingrich takes aim at Romney By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press – 29 minutes ago ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) — Newt Gingrich's South Carolina strategy is pretty simple: Tear down Republican front-runner Mitt Romney with a populist pitch or go down trying. The party establishment, Gingrich said Wednesday, doesn't want to confront the hard questions. "Don't talk about who got all the money. ... Can't we can't just move forward letting the rich keep all the money?" Gingrich said, arguing that "crony capitalism" undermines free enterprise. "I want you to know that I am running precisely because, as an Army brat from a middle-class family who taught in college, I think middle-class, taxpaying, working families deserve a government that is honest," he said. As the GOP presidential race swept South, Gingrich had little to lose after humbling fourth-place finishes in both New Hampshire and Iowa. And the former House speaker made clear on Wednesday that he's not giving up without a fight, despite mounting pressure from some GOP power brokers to coalesce behind Romney and avoid a nasty primary fight that could bolster Democrat Barack Obama. That's putting Gingrich on what could be a kamikaze mission designed, he says, to rescue the GOP from selling out to the moderate, establishment wing. As a pro-Gingrich political action committee took the wraps off a 28-minute Web video eviscerating Romney's leadership of Bain Capital, Gingrich launched a full-throated assault on "crony capitalism" and establishment politics. It's a strategy that is already drawing critics. Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich sounded like Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren in Massachussetts. And by midday, he appeared to be having second thoughts when he was confronted by a Republican voter. "I think you've missed the target on the way you're addressing Romney's weaknesses," said a man at a town hall in Spartanburg. "I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuousness about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market." "I agree with you," Gingrich replied. "It's an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background. Obama just makes it impossible to talk rationally in that area because he is so deeply into class warfare that automatically you get an echo effect." The "crony capitalism" remark was not repeated at his final campaign stop at the Beacon Restaurant in Spartanburg. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond insisted there had been no shift in strategy and that Romney's tenure at Bain is still "fair game." Gingrich hammered his point home at his first event of the day packed event in Rock Hill. "We have a right to know what happened at Goldman Sachs, what happened with trillions of dollars in New York," he said. "We have a right to know what happened when companies go bankrupt." It's a line of attack meant to keep the heat on Romney and his tenure at the venture capital firm where lucrative corporate takeovers were sometimes accompanied by deep layoffs. "This is not anti-capitalism," Gingrich said. "That is the smoke-screen of those who are afraid to be accountable." The sharp new populist tone comes with risks for Gingrich, who has a net worth in the millions of dollars and who has made a career navigating the corridors of power in Washington. It opens him up to charges of hypocrisy. Additionally, a segment of the Republican electorate will see his remarks as contrary to the very free market principles that the Republican Party espouses, thus engaging in the very class warfare he condemns The everyman economic message could resonate in South Carolina, which has been hit hard by the recession. The former Georgia congressman was met by large and enthusiastic crowds chanting "Newt" as he campaigned in the conservative western reaches of the state. "I think he's got spunk and nerve," said Dottie Myers of Gastonia, S.C. "I like that." Gingrich said he thinks South Carolina will winnow down the choices to Romney and a conservative alternative. "I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative or, by default, you're going to send a moderate on to the nomination," he said. Follow Shannon McCaffrey: www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13 Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | HONOLULU — U.S. farmers overwhelmingly support a Republican to be the next president, despite a strong farm economy during President Barack Obama's Administration, according to a Reuters survey released on Wednesday. The farmers give a slight edge to Mitt Romney over Rick Santorum as the best person to take on Obama and the Democrats in the November elections. Almost 75 percent of farmers and ranchers intend to vote for a Republican as president, according to a random survey of 462 farmers and ranchers at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting this week in Honolulu. While traditionally socially and fiscally conservative, only 3.5 percent of the group said they would back Obama. Some 20 percent said they were still undecided, however. "Barack Obama is leading the country to possible destruction," Danny Mills of Accomack County, Va., said, explaining that he believes government borrowing and spending got out of control under President George W. Bush but that Obama has not done enough to reign it in. "This is totally unsustainable," he said. In 2008 when Reuters conducted a similar poll at the convention, both parties were still going through the nomination process. But Obama and Hillary Clinton garnered support of only 5 percent each. Republicans Mike Huckabee got 30 percent and John McCain, the eventual nominee, came in at 29 percent. Obama faces a tough re-election in a weak economy and would-be Republican challengers have decried his job-creating capability. The farm economy, however, has been booming thanks to high crop prices and strong demand globally. The government said on Friday the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, but Republicans say huge spending efforts such as the 2009 stimulus package have not turned the economy around fast enough. In the race to challenge Obama, 30.5 percent of the 367 farmers who said they voted or will vote in a Republican primary this year backed Romney. Santorum, who lost last week's Iowa primary to Romney by just eight votes, came in second in the farm survey with 25.9 percent. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, swept Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, solidifying his front-runner status. Farmers at the conference expressed admiration for Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich but said they viewed Romney as the inevitable winner. "He's probably the last guy standing," said Gale Koelling of Illinois, who said he planned to vote for Romney. He said he likes Santorum but doubts the former Pennsylvania senator will last long past New Hampshire. Santorum, Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and others hope a strong showing in the upcoming South Carolina primary will keep their candidacies alive. Gingrich finished third in the farm survey, with 18.8 percent, followed by Perry with 9.3 percent and Representative Ron Paul with 6 percent. Farmers in the survey also said they thought Republicans should control the U.S. Congress, although participants did not echo the anti-incumbent sentiment that has been talked about in the lead up to November. About 77 percent of farmers said they think Republicans should control Congress. Fourteen percent said they did not know who should have power and 5 percent said they would prefer Democrats in Congress. Republicans won power in the House in a 2010 mid-term election strongly influenced by tea party activity and anger at Obama over the economy and health reform. The party now has set its sights on the U.S. Senate, which Democrats control by a narrow margin, in 2012. "Republicans did a horrible job when they had control, but I think they're the lesser of two evils," said Mills, the Virginia farmer. "I think the entire spending structure of the government is going to have to be addressed." The tea party and Occupy Wall Street movements, coupled with abysmally low approval ratings for Congress in 2011, have led experts to predict voters could throw incumbents out of office. The failure of the deficit-reducing "supercommittee" and a stalemate on a payroll tax cut hurt voters' opinion of Congress. Farmers in the survey did not support this prediction, with 56.1 percent of survey participants saying they plan to vote for their current representatives to return to Congress. Twenty-five percent said they would not vote for incumbents, and 19 percent did not know or did not respond to the question. "I don't think, as a whole, politicians are doing that bad a job," said Shawn Harding of Chocowinity, N.C., even though he said he has never voted for his congressman, Democrat G.K. Butterfield, and will not vote for him in November. "The American people think they can just go up there and snap their fingers and create jobs, and it just doesn't work like that," Harding said.
© 2012 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
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A lot of conservatives think Mitt Romney's record will offer a clear contrast with President Obama's, but what they don't dwell on is that the two men's personality flaws are almost exactly the same. In The Real Romney, a book out next week and excerpted by Vanity Fair, Michael Kranish and Scott Helman write:
"If Romney is exceedingly comfortable around family and close friends, he's much less so around those he doesn't know well, drawing a boundary that's difficult to traverse. It's a strict social order -- us and them -- that has put co-workers, political aides, casual acquaintances, and others in his professional circles, even people who have worked with or known him for years, outside the bubble. As a result, he has numerous admirers but, by several accounts, not a long list of close pals... He has little patience for idle chatter or small talk, little interest in mingling at cocktail parties, at social functions, or even in the crowded hallway. He is not fed by, and does not crave, casual social interaction, often displaying little desire to know who people are and what makes them tick."
Teagan Goddard notes that Romney "sounds almost exactly as President Obama has been described." Obama has had the aloof loner image for a long time, and it hasn't changed. -
In the final 2008 presidential debate, Time's Mark Halperin wrote that at times, Obama looked "petty, aloof, imperious" and like he thought "he had someplace better to be."
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In the summer of 2010, The New York Times' Maureen Dowd said Obama's relationship with reporters was not "lovey-dovey." Instead, "on the campaign plane, I would watch Obama venture back to make small talk with the press, discussing food at an event or something light. Then I would see him literally back away a few moments later as a blast of questions and flipcams hit him."
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Last October, The Washington Post's Scott Wilson hadn't tried to make friends in Washington. "Obama's circle of close advisers is as small as the cluster of personal friends that predates his presidency. There is no entourage, no Friends of Barack to explain or defend a politician who has confounded many supporters with his cool personality and penchant for compromise."
 When Rick Perry entered the race -- before he said "oops" -- conservatives fantasized about contrasting his persona with Obama's. It was so obvious you could show it with a pair of pictures: a square-shouldered young Perry by a military aircraft, next to a cool young Obama slouching against a wall and smoking a cigarette. Liberals feared it would be a version of the 2004 election -- manly George W. Bush vs. effete John Kerry -- but worse. In this "Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?" primary, like Kerry, Obama would be toast. But that version of the 2012 election now looks very unlikely.
And a nice contrasting image doesn't exist for Romney. Young Romney was thin and rich and did not do manual labor. As for the current Romney, Obama's weaknesses are his weaknesses: cold, aloof, technocratic, not very good at chit-chat. So if Romney's the nominee -- and it looks like the Republican primary is heading in the at direction -- the campaigns would have an awkward fight over the small differences in personality. In reaching out to regular Americans, which is worse, the snob or the poseur? Obama infamously said that people who've been adversely affected by economic policy cling to their guns and religion. But Romney infamously claimed to be an avid hunter, of "small varmints, if you will." In reality he'd only been hunting twice, and, obviously, who says "varmints" but Yosemite Sam? Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ereeve at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | RIDGEWAY, S.C. -- Rick Santorum drew a standing-room only crowd today with supporters and undecided voters flowing out the door at YesterYears Restaurant in Ridgeway, a small town outside the state capital of Columbia, "We got 50 people here when he came in November and now we can't move," said Jeff Betsch, vice chairman of the Fairfield County GOP and a Santorum supporter. "The flavor of the month thing is over. He is going to come in second if not better." Trading in his trademark sweater vests for a blue blazer and a gingham button-down, Santorum compared his recent rise in the political sweepstakes to the movie "Forrest Gump." Continue reading below "It's like a box of chocolates every week," he told the crowd. "You don't know what you're going to get." "South Carolina is open for anyone," he said, adding that he's spent more time in the state than any other candidate. "We're going to work hard and do what we did in Iowa." He pumped up the audience with two themes, focusing on his strong faith and his plan to revive the ailing economy, which has hit the Palmetto State particularly hard. "People here in South Carolina know that for life in America to be great, we have to have a strong moral base," he said, saying that family and faith are the principles of the country's founding. He blamed the country's economic problems on policies created by the federal government – especially around taxation, regulation, energy and the availability of capital -- and vowed to bring manufacturing back to revive the small towns of South Carolina were he to be elected president. Business, he said, has been "running against the headwind of government," which should play a role in making sure American industries remain competitive instead of making that more difficult. "Making things in America is what built small towns and what allowed rural America to be prosperous," Santorum said. Santorum said his economic plan would eliminate the corporate taxes for manufacturers in America, repeal all regulations including Dodd-Frank, and make it easier for coal plants to operate. He called Obama's green energy policies part of a "ridiculous radical environmental agenda" that comes at the expense of the "hard working people in coal country." Santorum said his economic policies would help small-town America prosper again, and promised to "make South Carolina the manufacturing mecca of the country." He urged voters to pick up lapel pins and stickers supporting his candidacy, asking them to wear the signs at church because they serve as good conversation starters. "I believe South Carolina is going to stand up and say to America, 'Here's a candidate who can not only beat Barack Obama, but has a track record of winning tough elections . . . and has what it takes to fix America,' " Santorum said. "I'm asking you over the next 10 days to commit yourself." Many of the voters who entered the restaurant undecided yesterday but curious about Santorum left vowing to vote for him. Darlene Clawson, a 55-year-old accountant, said she voted for Romney four years ago but plans to vote for Santorum next Saturday. "I just was never able to get comfortable with Romney and I can't quite put my finger on it, and when you can't put your finger on something, that just makes you more leery," Clawson said. Kathy Carrison, a 63-year-old office manager of a law firm, said she settled on Santorum because "he's a family man, and I agree with him on just about everything." "When he talks to you one on one, he looks you right in the eye, and he has a terribly strong handshake," Carrison said. Clifton Anderson, a 79-year-old retired psychologist who also considered Romney and Perry, said he decided yesterday to vote for Santorum because "he listens, he thinks, and he's thorough in his answers to questions." Anderson especially liked Santorum's tax relief policies for business, his commitment to closing the border with Mexico and ending illegal immigration, and his desire to trim government, in particular putting elementary and secondary education back in the hands of parents and local communities. "Today pretty much cemented it for me," Anderson said. Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE.Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Andy McMillan for The New York Times Rhoetta and Pete Bradley at work in Edisto Grocery, a gas station and store in rural South Carolina. NORTH, S.C. — The grim just gets grimmer here at the Edisto Grocery, where all day long people with not enough work come to eat $2.25 fried bologna sandwiches, pick up some horse feed and complain about the price of diesel. "Jobs are all I hear about every day. Where are the jobs?" said Pete Bradley, who owns the small store and gas station here in Orangeburg County, where unemployment is 15.6 percent and the median income is $32,699. After stops in Iowa and New Hampshire, states that are doing relatively well economically, the Republican presidential race is coming for the first time to a state that is struggling mightily through the downturn and, like much of the country, has distinct pockets of poverty and prosperity. Just a 45-minute drive from the Edisto Grocery toward the capital city of Columbia, South Carolina looks quite different. Here, in Lexington County where Gov. Nikki Haley lives, unemployment is 7 percent and the median income is $51,523. New companies, lured to South Carolina by generous tax incentives and the state's right-to-work policies, are hailed as heroes. Amazon's sprawling new distribution center could net as many as 2,000 jobs. The Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a maker of respiratory medicine, will break ground in the same industrial park this month and bring about 700 jobs. Continental Tire plans to invest $500 million to build a plant in nearby Sumter County. Building on those potential new jobs, Ms. Haley delivered a message of promised prosperity last week as she traveled to the wealthy coastal communities of Charleston and Myrtle Beach with the presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, trying to give him an edge in the Jan. 21 Republican primary. Mr. Romney hopes that message will secure South Carolina and, with it, the nomination. For the last 32 years, whoever has won in South Carolina has become the Republican candidate for president. As it does in much of the rest of the country, the economic gap looms large in this state. Since 2007, South Carolina has lost 78,000 jobs, many of them in construction. The question is whether economics will overshadow the reliable platform of smaller government and deep social conservatism important especially to poor and middle-class white Republican voters in South Carolina. Although it is a relatively small state — it ranks 24th in population and 40th in size — South Carolina is a place of stark contrasts between the haves and the have nots, and one in which the political landscape can be brutal and difficult to anticipate. Three bands of wealth run across the state. Fiscally conservative but less socially conservative retirees populate the coast. To the northwest, along the Interstate 85 corridor toward Charlotte, N.C., Spartanburg's BMW plant and other manufacturers offer solid jobs for a region with deeply felt conservative views on social issues and Christian institutions like Bob Jones University. In the center of the state sits the capital, Columbia, where a recent burst of new business and a state government dominated by a Republican majority and a governor who rode to office on a wave of Tea Party support help define the political playing field. The Republican primary will probably be a study in the balance between social conservatism and the economy, many here believe. And although issues of black-white relations remain an undercurrent in the state where the Civil War began, courting black voters is not much of a factor for Republicans. "Blacks, whether they are rich or poor or middle class, largely vote Democrat," said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics. "Poor whites tend to vote Republican." Pamela Barksdale, an African-American and an unemployed former BMW worker who lives in a part of northeast South Carolina that was devastated by the collapse of the textile industry, said neither she nor any other black person she knew would ever vote for a Republican. "Do you think I want to choke myself to death?" she said. In South Carolina, Mr. Buchanan said, the Republicans are the party of conservative social issues and limited taxes. As a result, many Republican candidates here are trying to position themselves as the true social conservative while being mindful of the importance of promising economic recovery. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty: With Iowa and New Hampshire in his rear view mirror and South Carolina and Florida looking like two more potential victories, Mitt Romney is looking like he's going to be tough to beat. If Romney goes on to win the Republican nomination, the next question becomes: Who is the best pick for vice president to round out the ticket? For starters, nominees usually take a look at their former competitors, although it's hard to imagine Romney picking Newt Gingrich to be his No. 2. A recent column on TheStreet.com suggests the Republican winner should look for a VP with a strong business background, experience, and someone who can avoid the so-called Palin syndrome. Translation: They should be able to name some newspapers they read and a couple of Supreme Court cases. This could include politicians like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Christie has been campaigning for Romney to sell-out crowds in New Hampshire. Sort of a political odd couple. Christie brings healthy doses of his signature straight talk. When protesters at a New Hampshire rally recently yelled: "Mitt kills jobs. Christie kills jobs," Christie shot back with this: "Really? You know something may go down tonight, but it ain't gonna be jobs sweetheart." Christie would certainly spice up the ticket and might be more willing to go on the attack so Romney wouldn't have to. As a side note, here is my political fantasy: President Obama convinces Hillary Clinton to replace Joe Biden on the Democratic side. Then a series of debates is scheduled between Clinton and Christie: It would be much more entertaining than debates between Romney and Obama. It would be huge. Hey, we can dream, right? Here's my question to you: If Mitt Romney goes on to win the nomination, who should be his VP? Tune in to the Situation Room at 4pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air. And, we love to know where you're writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, finished last in the New Hampshire Primary. According to data from The Associated Press, Mr. Perry pulled in 0.7 percent or 1,766 votes. Although Mr. Perry was once considered one of the GOP's front-runners (just like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and pizza baron Herman Cain), he is now at the back of the pack in most national level polls. Mr. Perry's last stand is South Carolina. Although Mr. Perry seems confident that he can finish strongly in the South Carolina Primary, the Texas governor has not been placing well in recent polls of the Palmetto State. In a Public Policy Polling poll of likely voters in the South Carolina Primary, Mr. Perry finished in fifth place. The PPP poll, released last Sunday, found House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum with double-digit leads over Mr. Perry. In order to court the military vote in South Carolina, Mr. Perry released a 60-second ad in South Carolina, called "President of Honor." The 60-second ad features a number of veterans talking about Mr. Perry's qualifications for the office of president of the United States. "The decorated military veterans in this TV ad speak strongly for Gov. Perry's character, faith and leadership," said Perry campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan, in a campaign press release. "These vets know Rick Perry's pro-American, pro-job and pro-veteran record. Additionally, Gov. Perry is the one true Washington outsider left in this race and has an unparalleled record of job creation, having created more than one million net new jobs while in office." Mr. Perry served in the military as an Air Force officer and pilot between 1972 and 1977. According to The Los Angeles Times, Mr. Perry posited during a campaign stop in Lexington, South Carolina Wednesday that "South Carolina is who picks presidents." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Some 125 evangelical leaders and their spouses will gather this weekend at a Texas ranch to discuss the latest iteration of Operation What To Do About Mitt Romney. While organizers say it is not a meeting to stop the GOP front runner, the invitation is urgent: "This coming election could prove to be the most critical of our lifetime," it reads. The real kicker: Event sponsor and former American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon has asked invitees if they would be "be willing to compromise and change your choice to one that the body as a whole supports in order to not divide our strength," according to someone who has received the invitation. The implication? Time's running out to anoint a consensus candidate for social conservatives. Getting all the members of this group, let alone the voters of South Carolina, behind this proposition in the middle of January will likely require an act of God. Evangelical votes and donations are already splintered between Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum. (Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, despite their second and third place finishes in New Hampshire, will not be under consideration at the ranch outside Houston this weekend.) There is a rumor among several invitees that the leaders may ask a candidate to withdraw, but entrenched loyalties will make it difficult to settle on one or possibly two contenders to take to the fall. Wildmon financed Perry's "Response" prayer rally this summer, and event organizer Gary Bauer, a former Family Research Council president and a U.S.-presidential hopeful in 2000, endorsed Santorum at a South Carolina campaign event this past Sunday. Despite the fact that Romney is benefiting from social conservative splintering, organizers insist the event will not be an anti-Romney fest. "If this were a stop-Romney meeting, I would not attend," says Bauer, who notes that the meeting was planned two weeks before Iowa. But as the clock runs down, the distinction thins. They are looking to end the divisions that are poised to save Romney from a serious challenge in South Carolina. Reported-attendee Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, describes their choices this way: "Newt's a brilliant guy. But Newt doesn't have baggage—Newt's got freight. Perry, at least this go-around, is not a credible presidential candidate because of his gaffes and his goofs. And Santorum, is he a recognizable national figure? Can he raise the money? Can he become competitive?" Signs indicate that if the group can settle on one candidate, Santorum is the most likely. Although he is Catholic, his social positions mirror evangelicals' on gay marriage and abortion. "He has less apparent downside than the other two and more apparent upside," Land says. "It would be nice to try to unite around one of the three remaining candidates and have a go at being competitive with Romney in the primaries." Even if evangelical leaders unite, it's not clear how competitive Santorum will be with voters. Romney claimed 35% of South Carolina born-again Christians while Santorum notched 22% in a TIME/CNN/ORC poll conducted last week. And at this point, even Land admits that "Romney may be the most conservative candidate who could get elected" and that his fellow social conservatives may have to "settle." In the end, winning against Barack Obama takes highest priority for the group gathering again in Texas. "There's a growing trend that evangelicals want to win, and there's a dose of pragmatism settling in," says Mark DeMoss, a Romney supporter and president of the DeMoss Group, the nation's largest PR firm catering to Christian clients. That doesn't mean they can't wish. "We can always marry the boy next door," says Land. "But maybe we ought to go out on a hot date with the tall dark stranger first." | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Against business? GOP split on Romney's practices By TOM RAUM, Associated Press – 33 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — What gives? Some of Mitt Romney's rivals are waging a fierce attack that you'd never think would come from the mouths of Republicans who claim Ronald Reagan as their hero. They're blasting the GOP front-runner for aggressive, wealth-creating business tactics. The criticism, from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, didn't seem to matter much in New Hampshire, where Romney claimed a comfortable primary victory. Huntsman came in a distant third, Gingrich was fourth and Perry was sixth. But the sniping may have more resonance in next-in-line South Carolina, which is far more economically depressed, and in Florida. Both states are struggling with high joblessness and weak housing markets. South Carolina's primary is Jan. 21, Florida's is Jan. 31. Trying to tap into populist sentiment, Gingrich and the others are accusing Romney of being a fat-cat venture capitalist during his days running the private equity firm Bain Capital, laying off workers as he restructured companies and filled his own pockets. The attacks are nearly identical to criticism once leveled at Romney by one of the nation's best-known Democrats, Ted Kennedy, when Romney tried to claim Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat in 1994. Whether that tactic helped or not, Kennedy, who died in 2009, did hold on to his seat. To hear such accusations now from Republicans — historically the party of business and free enterprise — is particularly notable. "It's like watching dogs walk on their hind feet. It's not impossible, but it certainly looks odd when you see it," said economist Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Republican administrations of Reagan and George H.W. Bush. "I don't think they seriously believe there is anything wrong with what Romney did. I just think that they're trying to use any card that they can find in the deck that might give them an edge. It's simple expediency." Romney so far has shrugged off the Bain attacks. "They tried it in New Hampshire in a big way. It fell flat," he said Wednesday in an interview with CBNC, a business-oriented cable network. "I'm not running for president to help rich people." Romney has repeatedly touted his business career as giving him the right credentials for dealing with a tough economy and the know-how to produce jobs. However, in the process of restructuring companies to make them more profitable, many workers indeed were laid off. The criticism from fellow Republicans now threatens to undercut Romney's central argument that his private-sector experience best positions him to defeat Democratic President Barack Obama in the fall. Gingrich, mounting the fiercest attacks, denies he's arguing against capitalism. "I am totally for capitalism. ... I do draw a distinction between (it) and looting a company," says the former House speaker. "I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips," Perry said as he campaigned in South Carolina. "I'm sure he was worried that he would run out of pink slips." And Huntsman asserts, "Governor. Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs." Romney expressed surprise at the fusillade, saying he expected such attacks from Obama and the left — not from Gingrich and other Republicans. Says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato: "Perry and Gingrich have already provided the video clips for Obama's TV ads in the fall." The next two weeks are what Romney's foes are interested in. Sabato said that Gingrich and the others have a better chance of making their criticism of Romney as a corporate predator stick in South Carolina because of the state's high unemployment rate — most recently 9.9 percent — but that "it still will be tough." The Bain Capital attacks have opened a rift among Republicans, with many conservative groups and personalities urging Gingrich and the others to tone it down. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich's language was "out of bounds for those who value the free market." Club for Growth President Chris Chocola called the attacks "disgusting." Steve Judge, CEO of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, cited "a lot of misinformation" on the benefits to the economy of private equity firms such as Bain. The harsh attacks on Romney reflect the tea party influence on GOP politics, residual anger against financial practices that led to the 2008 economic crisis and government bailouts and a widespread desire among conservative Republicans to find an alternative to Romney. They also come as the Republican Party becomes increasingly blue collar. But one rising tea party star who has endorsed Romney, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, said she doesn't like the criticism of his business practices. "It's a sad day in South Carolina and across this country if Republicans are talking against the free market. Let me tell you that," she said. Ron Paul, who finished second in New Hampshire, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who finished fifth, have avoided slamming Romney for his Bain record. Santorum told reporters he has no intention of depicting Romney's business practices as "a liability. ... I believe in the private sector." Paul told The Washington Times that "it astounds me" that Gingrich and the others would rip Romney's work as a venture capitalist. "Either they are totally ignorant of economics, or if they know economics it's just demagoguing for narrow political points." "It's strange for Republicans to go after a colleague who's successful in business. The arguments by Newt Gingrich could be made by the far left of the Democratic Party," said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. Romney has said that, on balance, he took steps that led to the creation of 100,000 jobs. However, that claim comes from activities concerning only three companies, all of them successes: Staples, Domino's and Sports Authority. And it counts many jobs that were created after Romney left Bain in 1999. And it ignores job losses at many other firms that Bain invested in or took over. Associated Press writer Jim Davenport in South Carolina contributed to this report. Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jon Huntsman, who initially staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire, now heads to South Carolina, where a recent poll shows him trailing even satirical television host Stephen Colbert. Colbert, who attempted unsuccessfully to buy naming rights for the first-in-the-South primary, is not a candidate in the race. But a new survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Colbert beating Huntsman if his name were to appear on the primary ballot on Jan. 21. It's not entirely surprising that Colbert would poll better than Hunstman. Colbert grew up in South Carolina. And he is probably better known than Huntsman, who was generally ignored for much of the run-up to the primary season because of his low poll numbers and a strategy that focused almost entirely on New Hampshire, a state that was viewed as Mitt Romney's territory from the beginning. Still, the poll is further embarrassment for the candidate who placed a distant third in New Hampshire Tuesday night. The survey found Romney leading in South Carolina with 27% support among likely primary voters, followed by Newt Gingrich with 23%, Rick Santorum with 18%, Ron Paul with 8% and Rick Perry with 7%. Colbert had 5%, beating out Huntsman's 4% and Buddy Roemer's 1%. Huntsman made light of the situation Tuesday afternoon before the polls closed in New Hampshire. "Well when I was on his show recently he promised me the 'Colbert bump,' " Huntsman said in an interview with Fox News. "I think we are getting that here in New Hampshire, now I am going to be looking for the Colbert bump in South Carolina." For Colbert, the poll was a consolation prize after his failed attempt to pay, via his so-called super PAC, for the cost of conducting the Republican primary. Under that deal -- which fell through under objections from the state Supreme Court -- Colbert would have been granted the right to name the primary and have the ballots include a referendum about whether "corporations are people," or "only people are people." "Our team at PPP decided if he couldn't get all that stuff on the actual ballot, we could at least poll it for him," PPP's Tom Jensen wrote in an analysis of the poll results. The survey found that 67% of likely voters believe "only people are people," while 33% believe "corporations are people. kim.geiger@latimes.com | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rep. Ron Paul speaks to supporters after his strong showing in New Hampshire Tuesday night. STORY HIGHLIGHTS - Ron Paul expects 2nd-place finish in New Hampshire to spur funding boost
- His campaign is spending heavily on advertising in South Carolina
- Continued strong run could give voice to his causes at GOP convention
- Paul is not bothering with Florida, whose primary is winner-take-all
Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Fresh off his strong second-place showing in New Hampshire, Ron Paul's campaign charted a path Wednesday to try to keep his momentum going, perhaps all the way to the Republican National Convention this summer. The first step is spending big money in South Carolina, where the campaign turns next. Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign chairman, told CNN the campaign plans to spend about $1 million in South Carolina, which is a significant amount in a state where television advertising isn't all that expensive. Benton said in addition to television and radio ads, they have also started their direct-mail operation in the state. Paul expects his strong showing in New Hampshire to fuel more fundraising for his campaign, he told CNN in an exclusive interview as he was learning of his second-place finish. "I bet you will see a lot of enthusiasm which will give me encouragement. And when the supporters get enthusiastic they usually go ahead and start another money bomb," Paul said, referring to a short online burst of fundraising. Paul's aides admitted his organization in Iowa and New Hampshire far exceeded the campaign organization in South Carolina and beyond. But they also hope his impressive finish in both of the first two contests will spur grassroots growth. Paul finished a solid third in last week's Iowa caucuses. Earlier this week, Paul told CNN he would not focus on Florida, which follows 10 days after South Carolina, because of the high cost of competing there. "It tells you we are realistic," Paul said. "I think at this stage we shouldn't be acting like the government and spend money we don't have." Another reason: The winner of Florida's primary takes all 50 of the state's delegates, unlike other states this time around, which dole out delegates proportional to the candidates' votes. But Benton said after Paul's strong finish in New Hampshire, the campaign might reconsider that decision. He suggested the Florida GOP may change its winner-take-all rules. But Florida Republican Party spokesman Brian Hughes said the party has no plans to reconsider the state's delegate allocation. "We are committed to our rules -- winner-take-all for our 50 delegates," Hughes said. Paul's campaign said it plans on competing hard in smaller, upcoming caucus states like Nevada, Louisiana and Maine. Even if Mitt Romney is unstoppable as the GOP nominee after back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, Paul and his aides made clear he intends to keep his campaign going, perhaps all the way to the convention. The more delegates he can rack up, the more leverage he would have to integrate key messages of his libertarian, anti-interventionist movement into the Republican Party platform. "That sounds like a lot of fun," Paul told CNN's John King USA recently, calling it a potential "way for me to promote the things I believe in, and that is a political action." "So yes, if we have something to say, who knows, they might even have something in the platform that says, maybe we ought to look at the Federal Reserve and maybe we ought to reconsider and not (go) to war unless we have a declaration of war, which is very, very popular with the American people," Paul said. As for running as a third-party candidate, as some of his supporters are pushing, Paul maintains he's solidly in the Republican race and has no plans for a third-party run. "We're running a tight race and we'll see what happens," he told CNN Tuesday night. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Florida's delegates to the Republican National Convention are getting snubbed in their own house, after the national GOP decided Wednesday to ramp up penalties on the state for holding an early primary in violation of party rules.
Though Florida is hosting the party's national convention in Tampa later this year, a Republican National Committee panel voted unanimously to give the state's representatives second-class access to the whole affair.
Under the resolution, the national party will make sure Florida's delegates have poor seating and poor hotel options -- as in, hotels that are not close to the Tampa Bay Times Forum, the convention venue. According to an RNC official, the delegates will also be limited in the number of guest passes they can hand out.
The Rules Committee voted for the sanctions Wednesday, and the RNC official said no further action is needed to carry out the punishment.
"They will be penalized with reduced guest passes, reduced priority seating on the floor and hotels further away," the official told Fox News.
A Florida Republican official claimed the national party still has to take one more step to finalize the penalties, but suggested there would be no hard feelings going into November. The official said the state party will "do nothing but (commit) ourselves to making sure that a Republican wins the state of Florida."
The latest penalties would come on top of the hit the Sunshine State already took to its delegate count.
The state is expected to lose half its 99 delegates as a result of its decision to hold the Republican presidential primary on Jan. 31.
Under RNC rules, Florida was not supposed to hold what's known as a "winner-take-all" primary before April. That's a primary in which all the state's delegates are awarded to the winner, as opposed to one in which the delegates are awarded proportionally.
The very beginning of the 2012 primary calendar is also supposed to be reserved for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Florida's decision to get in on the early primary action follows a similar move in 2008, and a similar punishment by the RNC.
Leonard Curry, chairman of the Florida GOP, said in a statement that he's hoping to move forward despite the new penalties.
"I understand why today's vote took place and we will continue to work to protect Florida Republicans' interest at the national convention," Curry said. "With today's action, I hope that all Republicans can move together, unified and committed to the most important goal we have -- the election of a Republican president in 2012."
When the state party first announced the date in September, Curry said the early vote "properly reflects the importance Florida will play on the national stage."
A true swing state, Florida, with its 29 delegates to the Electoral College, is considered essential to win the general election. Barack Obama won the state in 2008.
Fox News' Jake Gibson and FoxNews.com's Judson Berger contributed to this report. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney's private equity record is suddenly the talk of the GOP presidential contest. What do we know about the industry he helped to create?  Reuters With Mitt Romney on the march towards the Republican presidential nomination, chances are we're all going to be hearing a lot about the world of private equity for the next 11 months. The GOP frontrunner is already getting tarred by his primary rivals for his time running Bain Capital, where he helped write the playbook on how to buy up companies, rebuild them for maximum value, and flip them for a tidy profit. Was Romney just running a corporate chop-shop? Or was he pioneering a new way to unlock the value in American business? Whatever the answer, the blueprint he helped design has been massively influential. In 2007, investors had plunked more than $200 billion into funds like Bain. Academics have scrutinized the broader economic effects of private equity and what it does to companies, industries, workers, and investors. Here's a brief guide to help you answer the question: Is private equity good or bad for the economy? Do private equity buyouts hurt workers? Yes, then no. More workers get fired in the aftermath. Then more get hired. In the nightmares of unions and Occupiers, a private equity buyout works something like this: A firm run by men wearing Brioni suits snaps up a helpless corporation, fires as many workers as it can, lards their new asset up with debt, and then sells it off for as much profit as possible. The employees suffer. The fat cats make bank. The reality, as illustrated in a 2011 study from researchers at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the U.S. Census Bureau, is more complicated. The paper examined what happened to workers at 3,200 companies targeted in private equity acquisitions between 1980 and 2005. Companies did tend to fire more workers in the years after a buyout compared to competitors in their industry. But they also tended to hire more new workers. They also were more likely to sell off divisions or buy up new ones. As a result, companies involved in a private equity deal saw much, much more turnover -- or "job reallocation" as the academics put it -- but only a net decrease in employment of about 1% compared to other businesses. In other words, it's creative destruction, but chronologically, it works out more like destructive creation. Employees are fired. Then new ones are hired. The chaos and change is undoubtedly brutal for those who get caught up in it, but the stereotype of massive net job losses isn't necessarily accurate. Do private equity firms drive companies into bankruptcy? The data isn't complete, but some indicators say no. Some criticize private equity firms for leaving companies in worse financial shape than when they were purchased. In its recent look at Romney's record with in 77 companies he worked with at Bain, the Wall Street Journal said that 22% of them filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed up shop within eight years of the fund's initial investment. However, it's unclear whether those numbers are normal for private equity on the whole. Steven Kaplan of the University Chicago and Per Stromberg of the Stockholm School of Economics reviewed a sample of more than 17,000 private equity transactions to see how funds exited the deals. Only about 6% ended in either bankruptcy or reorganization, giving them a yearly default rate that was lower overall than the average corporate bond issuer. That feat was especially impressive, considering that many private equity firms, including Bain, specialize in turning around troubled or risky businesses. The analysis did not include bankruptcies that occurred after a private equity firm sold off its stake. Does that matter? Depends. You might say a private equity firm can't be held responsible for what happens to a business after they cede control. But these businesses matter to private equity's record if you suspect firms are more likely to offload companies that aren't working out.
Does private equity benefit industry? Possibly. Industries with lots of private equity activity actually see faster growth. Whether or not private equity helps most businesses, it seems to have a positive effect on the wider business climate. Looking at 20 industries in more than two dozen countries between 1991 and 2007, a research team from the Stockholm School, Harvard, and Columbia University found that industries with private equity activity grew 20% faster than other sectors. After running several mathematical checks, the paper concluded it was unlikely that private equity funds were simply investing in industries that were already primed for faster growth. Rather, they concluded that the lessons from private equity firms taught entire industries to be more efficient. Do investors make money? Not as much as you might think. They might be better off putting their money in stocks. In 2005, The University of Chicago's Kaplan and Antoinette Schoar of MIT looked at whether investors who pour their billions into private equity got their money's worth. The answer: Not so much. Looking at data from 1980 through 2001, the researchers found that, after the managers took out their fees, investors actually made slightly less on private equity deals than they could have by investing in an S&P 500 index fund. Some funds were much more profitable than others. In the big picture, though, stocks won out. But the fees make all the difference. Private equity firms are known to regularly take a 20% cut of profits. Lo and behold, once the researchers accounted for fees, private equity thoroughly outperformed stocks. Apparently, quite a lot of value winds up with the private equity guys, themselves. Guys like, well, Mitt Romney. _ *There was a big gap in the data, however. The research sample marked the outcome of 11% of the private equity deals as "unknown." As Kaplan and Stromberg noted, there might have been more bankruptcies lurking within that group of unknowns. A previous study found that 23% of the large private equity transactions that took public companies private during the 1980s ended in bankruptcy.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., (Credit: AP/Kin Cheung) With a $5 million donation to a group backing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson has just given the largest single donation that could directly aid a candidate in American history. But he does not want to talk about it. Adelson has declined interview requests from CBS News and other major media outlets who want to ask him about his donation to a super PAC called "Winning Our Future," which has already spent more than half of the money to run ads slamming front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina, which holds its primary January 21. The 78-year-old casino magnate is not concerned about a possible backlash he might get for the donation and is only interested in using the money to help Gingrich. "It doesn't register to him what other people think about it...or what people write about it," a source close to Adelson told CBS News. While Adelson is the largest donor this cycle to date, more large donors are expected to be revealed this month as Super PAC filings are released before a January 31 Federal Election Commission deadline. In South Carolina alone, more than $7 million has already been spent on television ads supporting the various candidates, including the $3.4 million ad buy made possible by Adelson. South Carolina Republican party chair Chad Connelly expects an additional $15-$20 million worth of advertising to be purchased in the coming days as the candidates duke it out on the Palmetto state airwaves. Campaign finance watchdog Fred Wertheimer objected to the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. FEC, that has allowed for donations like Adelson's $5 million check. "Money doesn't guarantee anything but it certainly can make a huge difference," said Wertheimer, the founder and President of Democracy 21, a Washington-based nonprofit which works to eliminate the undue influence of big money in American politics. Wertheimer fears donations today can turn into favors in a future administration. "Think about what influence the donor gains in the future," he said. When asked what Adelson might want in return for the contribution, the source close to the casino owner said "Adelson doesn't want anything in return," noting that he gave generously to former President George W. Bush and never called in any favors. Other sources close to Adelson confirm that if Gingrich is not the nominee, Adelson will continue to contribute to whoever gets the GOP nomination. Adelson is close personal friends with Gingrich and he attended a Gingrich fundraiser in mid-October sitting at the same table as the former speaker according to George Harris, the host and owner of the Las Vegas restaurant where the fundraiser was held. According to Adelson's staff, the casino owner met Gingrich in the US Capitol in October,1995 through former Georgia Republican Congressman John Linder. Adelson was in the Capitol with his wife as the House was debating the Jerusalem Embassy Act which required the U.S. embassy to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich and his second wife Marianne Gingrich and Adelson and his wife were heavily involved in Israeli issues. Adelson is a strong supporter of Israel.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday he wants to reward companies that invest in America and eliminate tax breaks for companies that don't, and he's planning new tax proposals to do it.
A day after his Republican foes competed in the New Hampshire primary, Obama sought to grab back the spotlight and underscore his focus on the economy by convening a White House forum on how to increase employment and bring back jobs that have fled overseas. Speaking alongside a group of business executives in the East Room, Obama said that rising American productivity and increasingly competitive costs add up to "a unique moment, an inflection point" for businesses to invest in the U.S. and bring jobs back home. And he argued there's a moral case for it, too, and that business leaders have a responsibility to their country. "So my message to business leaders today is simple: ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to the country that made our success possible — and I'm going to do everything in my power to help you do it. We're going to have to seize this moment," Obama said. "This moment is perfectly suited for our advantages, it's perfectly suited for who we are," he said. "The global marketplace is becoming more innovative, more creative, more transparent, faster, more adaptable — that's who we are, that's our strength. We've got to take advantage of it." The White House gave the session a high profile in the wake of Mitt Romney's victory in New Hampshire, which solidified his lead over the GOP presidential field. Romney has targeted Obama as a foe of free enterprise. Obama's forum aimed in part to counter that message. Obama highlighted big and small firms ranging from Ford to a North Carolina specialty furniture company as examples of enterprises that have invested in the U.S. rather than abroad. He called on other companies to do the same with the help of government incentives. The White House says the president will propose $12 million in his 2013 budget to promote business investment from overseas in the United States. Obama said he'd propose tax changes in the next few weeks but he didn't provide details. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | This is a rush transcript from "Your World," January 10, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is taking a lot of heat today, but not from the left -- from the right for sounding too much like the left. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to have walk the country through the things that they did at Bain, because in three or four cases, they don't look like capitalism. They look like rich guys looting. Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? It's Romney who's spent a lot of time talking about his role as a businessman, that that was one of his credentials. So I think he owes us a press conference to explain it. (END VIDEO CLIP) CAVUTO: All right, Speaker Gingrich standing by those comments on our air today. Why Herman Cain says it's really not Newt Gingrich to blame; it's the negative campaign against Newt Gingrich from one Mitt Romney that might have triggered all this. Herman, good to see you. HERMAN CAIN, CEO, THE NEW VOICE: How are you, Neil? Happy to be here. CAVUTO: So bad for bad, is that what's happening? CAIN: Look, this is like being in the middle of a food fight. And one of the reasons that I have elected not to endorse anybody, I don't want to get in the middle of a food fight, because the most important thing is the mission that I'm on. And that is to make 999 the law of the land and to help defeat Barack Obama. So, I don't want to fragment... (CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: All right, so it's positive agenda you have. This is a negative-for-negative agenda. CAIN: Exactly. CAVUTO: You say Newt Gingrich was, what, pushed into this? CAIN: I believe he was pushed into it. If you look at the amount of money that was spent in Iowa against Newt, he had no choice, other than try and retaliate with something like this. I know it's ugly. I know it's dirty. It shouldn't be that way, but really he had no choice in order to be able to put together something to attack Romney on at this point. CAVUTO: But it does sound weird, a Republican criticizing someone who did what he did through private enterprise, and not spending a dime of taxpayer cash. CAIN: Look, these candidates have broken the Reagan rule from the beginning. Reagan's 13th commandment, you know, don't go negative against another Republican. But they did it anyway. And Romney wasn't the first one to start it. Now Newt has been backed into a corner. CAVUTO: Yes, but when I had Ron Paul here, Herman, he said -- he was criticized for a lot of negative campaigns targeting everybody. CAIN: Yes. CAVUTO: And he said, well, sometimes, I just go back and use their own words against them. And so the attack you heard from Mitt Romney and all when he had to describe some of these ads, most of which he disavowed, was that, well, were they untruthful, were they lies? No. CAIN: Well, see, I happen to believe, with all due respect by Representative Paul that was a cop-out, using their own words against them. Neil, 13 million people are out of work. Another million people have given up. And eight million people are underemployed. That means that the real unemployment rate is 18 percent. That's what people want to hear about. My criticism of all of the candidate's who's talking about a specific positive solution to fix our most pressing domestic problem, which is the economy? You don't hear enough about that. And the voters are getting sick of it. CAVUTO: But they do work, these ads, right? CAIN: Yes. CAVUTO: Whether you call them negative or not, they do plant seeds of doubt. CAIN: Yes. CAVUTO: And in this case, with Newt Gingrich in Iowa, from his 37 percent approval numbers, it planted seeds about, maybe he's not all he says he is. CAIN: Right. CAVUTO: Which is real, the nice Newt or now the in-your-face Newt? CAIN: I think the in-your-face Newt brings out a side of Newt that was always there, but to his credit he was trying to hold back on doing that. But he had no choice. CAVUTO: OK. So, now I know you've left the race. CAIN: Yes. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hoping to revive his floundering campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is out Wednesday with a new ad to air in South Carolina that touts his military service and support from some prominent military leaders. The 60-second spot, which will air on South Carolina broadcast and cable, features five accomplished service members - three are recipients of the Medal of Honor, one the Purple Heart, and one the Navy Cross - espousing their support for the Texas governor. South Carolina has the largest percentage of military voters of any of the early primary states. "Any veteran that I knew needed help, Governor Perry always told me whatever he could do to care of them he would do it," said Cpl.Dakota Meyer, to whom President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor last year. "Governor Rick Perry - he is one of the most honorable men I've ever met," added Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, who was awarded the Navy Cross. Perry, who voluntarily served in the United States Air Force for five years in the 1970s, is advertising those credentials in a state with a significant military influence: South Carolina is home to the country's largest initial entry training center, Fort Jackson, as well as several other military bases. "The decorated military veterans in this TV ad speak strongly for Gov. Perry's character, faith and leadership," said Perry campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan in a statement accompanying the ad's release. "These vets know Rick Perry's pro-American, pro-job and pro-veteran record. Additionally, Gov. Perry is the one true Washington outsider left in this race and has an unparalleled record of job creation, having created more than one million net new jobs while in office." As South Carolina's January 21 primary nears, the Republican presidential contenders are already flooding the Palmetto state airwaves with ads. Perry, who skipped Tuesday's New Hampshire primary in lieu of South Carolina, is making what may be a final push to establish himself as the anti-Romney consensus conservative. And while his credentials as a southern conservative hew more closely to voters in South Carolina than to the independent-leaning New Hampshire, he still has a significant popularity deficit to make up. A recent CNN/Time/ORC poll showed the Texan with just five percent support in the state. "I'm the outsider who's willing to step on some toes," he says in the ad. "We can surely recapture what is great about America. And we can restore this nation to its preeminence in the world as a beacon of individual liberty and economic prosperity. And there is no greater cause in our time."
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