Republican presidential primary candidate Mitt Romney has been focusing strongly on New Hampshire voters and it appears to be paying off. The granite state’s key Republican primary is set for January 10, one week after the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, and the former governor of Massachusetts has taken a commanding 22-point lead ahead of the competition. A Boston Globe poll released Sunday finds that Romney has the support of 39 percent of likely New Hampshire primary voters, with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul tied for a distant second at 17 percent each. Romney’s polling in New Hampshire is still three points lower than his standing in the Globe’s survey last month, but his still strong lead indicates that Gingrich’s national surge has not overthrown the former Massachusetts governor in the state that he now lives in and is critical to his primary campaign. Rep. Paul has seen the most gain in New Hampshire over the past month, rising five points since November. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has picked up three percentage points and polled just six points behind Gingrich and Paul. The latest results for Rep. Paul in New Hampshire, coupled with his steady rise to the top in Iowa , makes the case that the outspoken libertarian congressman, rather than Newt Gingrich, will likely be the greatest challenge to Romney’s hopes of securing the Republican nomination.
Ron Paul
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Romney Maintains Commanding Lead in New Hampshire Polls
President Obama has been detecting an American energy crisis lately—but this one isn’t OPEC’s fault. For the third time in as many months, Obama chided the United States for lack of effort in the competition for business. At the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Honolulu Saturday, the president said the U.S. has been “lazy” about attracting new investments to its shores: “But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.” In October, the president told donors in San Francisco that Americans “have lost our ambition , our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam and unleashed all the potential in this country.” Obama noted in September that the U.S. had “gotten a little soft’ ’ when it comes to competing in international markets. Following Obama’s “lazy” characterization at APEC, Jake Tapper of ABC News asked CEOs in attendance if they would use similar terminology to describe American business efforts internationally. “I would not,” said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.
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‘We’ve Been a Little Bit Lazy’: Obama Sees a Different Kind of American Energy Crisis
I’ve said it a couple of times, but this is a strange year for GOP nomination politics. Candidates are still considering entering the race with a little over a year until November 2012. That goes against the normal imperatives of presidential nominating politics, at least in recent years, and I’m a little surprised. In any case, at LAT, ” In GOP contest, anything could happen “: Barely three months before the first votes are cast, the Republican race for president is up for grabs, complicated by the absence of a clear front-runner and the rules that have guided the GOP’s selection process for the past several decades. The rise of the “tea party” movement, with its contempt for convention, has undermined the tradition of bestowing the nomination on the candidate presumed next in line, who usually paid their dues through long service or a previous White House try. At the same time, a new way of awarding delegates has largely eliminated the winner-take-all system that hastened selection of a nominee and forced the party to quickly close ranks. The rise of so-called super PACs, independent political financing organizations unfettered by spending limits, also means that a candidate can stay competitive long after their campaign’s donor base taps out, potentially extending the race beyond the first few contests. The upshot is a GOP nominating race that is at least as unsettled as the competition four years ago, when Sen. John McCain of Arizona rose from the political graveyard and rallied to claim the nomination. “We knew from the beginning this was going to be one of the most competitive nominating fights we’ve had,” said Dick Wadhams, a Republican strategist who is neutral in the race. “We thought we had one back in 2008, but this one has already taken on more twists and turns than anything that happened in ’08.” Continue reading . VIDEO CREDIT : The Other McCain, ” Is #PerryFail the Hot New #tcot Hashtag? ”
X Games 17 tickets on sale today, at Ticketmaster locations and the Staples Center box office. I think my son would like to go, but not sure which event. There’s so many! The schedule: “X Games 17 Competition Schedule .” And video from last year:
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X Games 2011 Los Angeles Tickets on Sale Today
Fresh from throwing his hat into the 2012 primary, the GOP hopeful says his competition is none other than President Obama.
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Newt Gingrich on Fox News: I’m a Proven Debt Buster
**Written by Doug Powers I’m going to side with Seton Motley on Reid wanting to outlaw Nevada prostitution — ol’ Harry just doesn’t want the competition, even if it is merely metaphorical (politics differs greatly in that its practitioners pay for favors with somebody else’s money and full consent of all involved parties isn’t required). In any case, Reid’s clarion call to make prostitution illegal in the entire state of Nevada wasn’t warmly received (click “play” at the end of Harry’s quote for full effect): There’s been quite a buzz about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s call to get rid of legalized prostitution in Nevada as a way to attract more businesses to his home state. The story is a talker on cable networks and the blogosphere. But as the Las Vegas Sun reports today, there was dead silence on Tuesday in the Nevada Legislature at the moment one of Washington’s most powerful Democrats said: “The time has come for us to outlaw prostitution.” [click "play"] I thought Reid might have a higher opinion of the industry since most of the brothel workers in the state are light skinned with no hooker dialect . Don’t worry, Harry, they’re not working your corner — they can’t afford to. Here’s a KSNV story about local reaction to Reid urging the legislature to end Nevada prostitution. One thing is clear: some of the people in the brothel industry have a better grip on economics than Reid and his cronies in DC: **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Harry Reid to Nevada Legislature: ‘Hey, Let’s Outlaw Prostitution’ ::crickets::
It turns out that George Soros’ Media Matters may not be totally useless. Without them, after all, I might never have found out that Fox News’ Special Report host Bret Baier spent the weekend participating in the 52nd annual Bob Hope Classic , a charity golf tournament held in La Quinta, Calif. On Friday, Baier took to the stage to perform the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” for what I can only assume was the talent portion of the competition. “Don’t tell anybody I did that. Don’t tell anybody,” Baier concluded. Sorry, Bret. You’re going viral.
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Fair & Funky: See Fox News Anchor Bret Baier Perform ‘Rapper’s Delight’
