Will be live-blogging and tweeting the Florida GOP primary returns as they come in. Watch this space…
Archive for the ‘GOP Primaries’ Category
Florida! Florida! Florida!
Posted: January 31, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, Florida, GOP Primaries, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politics, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul
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Newt Gingrich South Carolina Victory Speech
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Newt Gingrich, Politics
Two-minute warning for Gingrich victory speech has been given…
Given Romney’s comments criticizing/attacking Gingrich in his speech, it wouldn’t be surprising if Gingrich decided to return the favor during his victory speech tonight and during his TV interviews tomorrow morning.
9:25 – Crowd chanting “Newt can win! Newt can win!” Gingrich’s opening line: “Let me first of all thank everyone in South Carolina who decided to be with us in changing Washington.”
“The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half century to force us to quit being American and try some other system. It is not that I am a good debater, it is that I articulate the deepest held values of the American people.”
Gingrich praises Santorum: “Rick Santorum showed enormous courage in Iowa when he had no money, nobody covered him, and he just kept campaigning.” Crowd starts chanting “VP! VP!”
“If Barack Obama can get reelected after this disaster, think how radical he would be with four more years.”
Gingrich says if he is the GOP nominee, he will challenge President Obama to seven three-hour debates.
Gingrich says he will challenge president and “elite media” on “growing anti-religious bigotry of our elites.”
“I want America to be so energy-independent, no American president will ever bow to a Saudi king.”
Gingrich hitting Obama for nixing the Keystone XL pipeline deal.
Gingrich invoking his own version of John Edwards’ “Two Americas” stump speech
9:50 – Gingrich finishes his speech, walks off to Toby Keith’s “Only in America.”
[Correction: The song is by Brooks and Dunn, not Toby Keith.]
Ron Paul South Carolina Concession Speech
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, Politics, Ron Paul, South Carolina
8:15 – CNN misses the top of Paul’s comments, coming out of commercial break.
“This is the beginning of a long hard slog!” Ron Paul invokes former SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld.
“If you win elections and you win delegates, that’s how you promote a cause!”
Paul goes into standard stump speech about liberty and cutting spending.
Ron Paul crowd chanting “End the Fed! End the Fed!”
“We need to restore the Constitution and restore liberty.”
Calls for getting rid of the PATRIOT Act.
8:30 – Ron Paul wraps up his speech… Still waiting to hear from Santorum and Gingrich.
Mitt Romney South Carolina Concession Speech
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Mitt Romney, South Carolina
7:57 – Romney and his family stepping up to the microphones…
Opening line: “You should hear them when we win.”
Thanks Gov. Nikki Haley and other state lawmakers right off the top.
“We are now three contests into a long primary season.” Note Romney’s emphasis on the word long.
8:00 – Romney goes into standard anti-Obama stump speech.
“President Obama has no experience running a business and never run a state. Our party can’t be led to victory by someone who has never run a business and never run a state.”
“We cannot defeat that president with a candidate who has joined in that very assault on free enterprise.
When my opponents attack success free enterprise, they’re not only attacking me, they’re attacking every person that dreams of a better future. They’re attacking you.”
Romney never mentions Gingrich by name except the brief congratulations at the beginning. But make no mistake, the speech was about as much of an attack against Gingrich as much as it was against President Obama.
Romney finishes at about 8:10.
Looking Good for Gingrich Early On
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Media, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, South Carolina
NBC and Fox News project Gingrich as the winner. CNN has not made a projection yet.
Update: The Associated Press calls the race for Gingrich at 7:25. Still no projection from CNN.
Update II: At 7:35, CNN projects Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina primary.
It Could Be A Short Night
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, South Carolina
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper have floated the possibility the network might project a winner as soon as the polls close at 7 p.m. local time in South Carolina.
South Carolina GOP Primary Night
Posted: January 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politics, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, South Carolina
T-minus 20 minutes and counting for polls to close in South Carolina… Will be live-blogging and tweeting the action all night. Watch this space.
The Dirt on Mitt Romney
Posted: January 17, 2012 in 2008 Elections, 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2008 Elections, 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Politics
The file has been circulating online recently, but Buzzfeed has posted the McCain 2008 campaign’s entire 200-page opposition research file on Mitt Romney. Enjoy the light bedside reading.
And Then There Were Six
Posted: January 4, 2012 in 2012 Elections, GOP PrimariesTags: 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum
National Journal’s Ron Fournier is reporting that Michele Bachmann will suspend her presidential campaign today, effectively dropping out of the race. He also writes that Rick Perry could drop out of the race as well after his disappointing performance in the Iowa caucuses.
If you had told me a month ago that Rick Santorum would come in second in Iowa in a photo finish with Mitt Romney and that there was a chance he would stay in the race longer than Rick Perry, I wouldn’t have believed it.
If You Want to Know Why Nothing Gets Done in Washington…
Posted: December 11, 2011 in 2012 Elections, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Election Day, GOP Primaries, Obama Administration, Politics, SenateTags: 2012 Elections, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Congress, Democrats, Filibuster, Obama Administration, Obstructionism, Politics, Republicans, Senate
Read this blog post by James Fallows over at The Atlantic. Fascinating and sobering in terms of what it means for the present state of governance in the country and what it could mean for the future.
Icepicks and Nukes 