President Obama was in Disney World yesterday...He was joined by Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse but not Goofy. He had to stay behind to tend to his vice presidential duties.---Leno
- I purposely waited to write anything about Newt's smackdown of CNN's John King in the debate last night for a reason. I wanted to listen to what many of the pundits had to say today (I normally don't listen to most because I prefer my opinions to be my own). I was surprised that all of them fell for this calculated smackdown by Gingrich. Let me say this first. Anytime anyone can take the bias media to task, I find it refreshing. Newt does it better than most (certainly better than Romney). But folks, Newt knew the question was coming (perhaps not as the first question, but he knew). He was ready for it. He had been asked the same question on the Today Show and PBS earlier in the day and didn't react the way he did at the debate. The fact is John King did Newt a favor. If you don't believe me just look at the current polling. In many polls, Newt is now a point or two AHEAD of Romney. He was as much as 13-15 points behind just a week ago. Gallup reported today that Romney's lead is "collapsing." The fact is Newt's response to that question benefited him and CNN and completely overshadowed ABC's interview with Newt's ex-wife. Whats-her-name?
- Breaking News: Walker, Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris, endorsed Newt. In 2008, he supported Huckabee.
- In terms of the conspicuous bias in the media toward Republicans and conservatives, does anyone really believe that John King would have asked Bill Clinton about the state of his marriage at a debate? I think honest observers know what the answer is to that question. In fact, if you recall, Bubba's team slammed all of the women as nuts and sluts. And not even feminist organizations came to the defense of Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and several others. There was that 60 Minutes interview of Bubba and Hillary with 60 Minutes tossing both softballs. (In fact, the reason Drudge came into prominence was his breaking of the Monica story. The lame-stream media at the time did not want to touch it including Elenore Glift of Newsweek even though she found nothing distateful about ABC airing Newt's ex-wife's story this week.). A timely political cartoon that appeared in the NY Post today shows Bill Clinton in bed with a woman whose face is blocked by a book she's reading. He has the TV on and the bubble over his head reads: "How can anyone trust Gingrich to be president if his own wife can't even trust him." And the woman responds, "What does Hillary think about him?"
- News Break for the Occupy Crowd: Newt's taxes were released. He paid almost $1 million in taxes on $3.1 million in income. He gave gave charity about $80 grand and some change. As reported earlier this week on this blog, Romney's given over $5 million to his church in the last 5 years.
- I have a question that's been pestering me for weeks now. If Republicans are looking for the "true" conservative, why is Santorum not doing better? Of all the candidates running now, only Santorum has real conservative credentials.
- I've written on several occasions that the Iowa Caucus was way overrated. I also wrote that the battle will begin in South Carolina. It now appears I was right on both counts. But I didn't realize how right I was about Iowa. Not only was the caucus overrated, but now it was reported they can't even count. It now appears Santorum took that caucus not Romney.
- It's been no secret that Pres. Obama's poll numbers have not been good (and the positive numbers he's receiving comes largely from Democrats). But something changed in recent weeks. We've always heard that his job performance numbers were low, but, hey, most Americans still like him. Well, if the current NY Times/CBS Polls are accurate, even that has changed and not for the better. His favorability among all voters is at a pathetic 38%. But among swing voters and independents it's 31%. And regarding his job performance, this poll shows only 37% of swing voters think he's doing a good job. The poll also found that more than five in ten independent voters do not have a clear idea of what the president wants to accomplish during a second term of presidency. Why should that be surprise? He hasn't known what to do for the last 3 years. Why would anyone expect him to know what he plans on doing if he's re-elected. The fact is most presidents who had second terms had horrible second terms. Nixon had Watergate. Reagan had the issue with the Contras. Clinton had Monicagate. Bush 2 had to deal with the economy tanking at the end of his second term. Second terms have not been good for many presidents.
- More facts for the misfits in the Occupy movement. The IRS reported that the 1.4 million households that make up the 1% (those making about $350 grand a year) payed 37% of the country's income tax. And the top 1% contributed about 30% of all charitable donations.
- Romney is being pressured to release his taxes. Did you know that Hillary did not release her taxes until April of 2008? Obama did not release his returns until late March of that year. And those returns (covering years 2000-2006) showed the Obama gave very little to charity. In fact, they gave less than 1% of their income (for that period their combined income ranges from about $240 grand to $1.7 million). For the same period, the Clintons gave over $10 million to charity on a joint income of $109 million. They paid almost $34 million in taxes. (Sources: CNN and TaxProf).
- Remember Haditha? The late Rep. John Murtha called the Haditha Marines cold-blooded killers (disappointing considering Murtha was a Marine in his former life). Obama, at the time, supported that claim. Did you know---with the exception of one remaining Marine---6 or the 7 Marines were either acquitted or the charges were dropped (amazing how the media suddenly lost interest in the case as the Marines were winning their cases. You can be sure if they were found guilty; it would have made headlines. And MSNBC and the Huffington Post would have had a field day). The one remaining Marine, SSgt. Frank Wuterich, is currently in negotiations for a possible plea bargain. It appears the prosecution's case is not as strong as first thought. In fact, the judge abruptly recessed and instructed attorneys to look at "other options." Stay tuned.(Malkin)
- Simple question: If public schools are so good, how come nearly eight of 10 NY City public high school graduates who enrolled at CUNY required remedial work in math, reading and writing or all three? (NY Times)
- "Red Tails," a new movie about the heroic Tuskeegee Airmen, was released this week. Reviews look good. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard star.
- Did you know the GOP Debate this week won the social media race this week? They even beat out Jersey Shore. Only the Golden Globes did better.
- Speaking of movies, Andrea Peyser really hammered the film, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." It's the movie with Tom Hanks who plays a father who lost his life on 9/11 at WTC. She points out the film is exploitive. It also never once mentions the word "terrorist" or "Muslim extremists." In fact, even many 9/11 families have come out openly criticizing the film. And just this week, the FDNY hammered the ads for the film because they were being played just "yards" from Ground Zero. Representatives of the FDNY and families feel those ads are "incredibly insensitive."
