(The Blaze/AP) — President Barack Obama has spent time with around 25 wealthy donors who paid $35,800 each to talk with him behind closed doors at a Washington hotel. The hourlong fundraiser Friday afternoon at the upscale Jefferson Hotel near the White House was closed to press coverage. Obama has been courting donors large and small as he revs up his re-election campaign in anticipation of a tough general-election campaign once Republicans settle on their nominee. The president raised more than $220 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2011. The campaign additionally released a list of their 450 major “bundlers” last week, revealing the most substantial individual donors to the Obama campaign in the last year.
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Campaigner in Chief: President Obama meets with wealthy donors Friday
For a short period of time early last year Donald Trump seemed to be nearly on the brink of tossing his hat into the ring of candidates running to represent the Republican Party against President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election. He appeared to connect with a portion of the population not regularly involved in politics, but fed up enough with the direction of the American economy and President to stand up and call for a change in Washington. One birth certificate unveiling, one debate and several cross Youtube videos later, Donald Trump’s political star seems to be shining only dimly in 2o12. That decline was made more evident in a Facebook/POLITICO pol l released Saturday, asking Nevada Facebook users if Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney Thursday was a positive. Survey says: net negative. The poll surveyed 1,150 adult Facebook users, not specifically registered voters or likely GOP caucus voters, in Nevada on Friday. Following Trump’s endorsement Thursday, The Blaze’s Eddie Scarry reminded readers and fans of Romney that the real estate executive’s support may not be a cause for celebration just yet.
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Facebook/POLITICO poll shows that few in Nevada ‘liked’ Trump endorsement of Romney
AP – A second term for President Barack Obama would allow him to expand his replacement of Republican-appointed majorities with Democratic ones on the nation’s appeals courts, the final stop for almost all challenged federal court rulings.
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Obama could alter stance of federal appeals courts
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Romney’s no tea partier, and he’s learning conservatism on the stump, with difficulty. But he’s winning and he’s looking more inevitable. And tea partiers won’t have anywhere else to go — and it’d be a disaster if they stayed home on election day. At Boston Globe , ” Tea Party voters more open to Romney “: RENO, Nev. – Tea Party activists, long dismissive of Mitt Romney, insist that most of the movement’s legions will back him if he continues to surge toward nomination, with a few already urging Republicans of all kinds to unite now to defeat President Obama. The slowly building shift in outlook on Romney is by no means universal or set in stone. Some activists still express hope that Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, or Ron Paul will regain traction. Yet, groups previously opposed to Romney are beginning to prepare their members to embrace the former Massachusetts governor as their best shot at defeating an incumbent president they distrust even more. Continue reading .
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Tea Party Activists Will Back Romney
At Telegraph UK , ” Syria releases the 7/7 ‘mastermind’ “: The alleged terrorist mastermind behind the July 7 London bombings is reported to have been freed from a Syrian jail by President Bashar Assad’s regime . Abu Musab al-Suri had been held in Syria for six years after being captured by the CIA in 2005 and transported to the country of his birth under its controversial extraordinary rendition programme. But he is now said to have been released as a warning to the US and Britain about the consequences of turning their backs on President al-Assad’s regime as it tries to contain the uprising in the country. Al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, was al-Qaeda’s operations chief in Europe and has been accused of planning the London bombings, in which four British-born terrorists detonated three bombs on the Underground and another on a bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700 others in 2005. More at the link .
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Syria Releases Abu Musab al-Suri, Mastermind of London’s 7/7 Terrorist Attacks
At New York Times , ” Romney Scores Nevada Victory With Broad G.O.P. Support “: LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney handily won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, solidifying his status as the front-runner and increasing his momentum as he seeks to use the month of February to ease doubts within the Republican Party about his candidacy and begin confronting President Obama. Mr. Romney ran well ahead of his three opponents on a night that delivered his second decisive first-place finish in four days, following his victory in the Florida primary on Tuesday. He appeared elated as he took the stage at his election headquarters at the Red Rock Casino hotel here, kissing his wife, Ann, who reminded the crowd that Nevada would be important in the general election, and hugging his sons before delivering a speech geared toward the fall. “This is not the first time you’ve given me your vote of confidence, and this time I’m going to take it to the White House,” he said as the crowd chanted his name. And he delivered a harsh critique of Mr. Obama: “This week he’s been trying to take a bow for 8.3 percent unemployment. Not so fast, Mr. President.” Nevada offers only a sliver of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination, making it more of a symbolic triumph than a practical one. But it gave Mr. Romney an important opportunity to make a more assertive case that the party is finally coming together behind him. It also gave him an advantage in his attempt to dispatch his chief Republican rival, Newt Gingrich, through the contests this week in Colorado, Minnesota and Maine. The Romney victory further deflated the once-vital challenge posed by Mr. Gingrich, girding for a rough few weeks of political weather during which Mr. Romney is expected to do well. But Mr. Gingrich, who remained defiant on Saturday, hopes to revive his chances with stronger showings in the 11 states that vote on March 6, “Super Tuesday.” Far from competing with Mr. Romney here in Nevada on Saturday, results showed that Mr. Gingrich was vying to place a distant second to Mr. Romney against Representative Ron Paul of Texas. Also, at Washington Post , ” Mitt Romney’s Nevada caucus win: What it means .”
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Romney Wins With Wide GOP Support, Consolidates Momentum
