Well, that’s the way looks from my front porch anyway.

She’s been taking lots of lumps lately and word has it that her bosses are tired of being embarrassed by her vacuous behavior. Look for election night to be her final fling.

Replacement??? Hey, thanks for asking.

If Obama wins, they’ll be looking for a conservative so they can claim “balance”. First choice David Brooks is under contract to the NYT and is unavailable. Second choice Dick Lugar wouldn’t take the job because he’s got a bigger contract from K-Street.Word on the street is that if Obama loses – not likely considering his strong polling – he’s got the job. And he’ll be a newsman NOT a commentator.

Looks like the “New Soledad” could be the guy featured in the MSNBC-esque Yahoo News today as a conservative spokesman:

Some conservatives agree reluctantly that, overall, the polls are not going in Romney’s favor.

“I’ve been in politics long enough to know that the louder one side gets complaining about the polls, the more likely it is that this is the side that, in reality, actually is losing,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who runs the RedState blog, wrote on Thursday.

I think this blog audition falls into the “any press is good press” category. Or something.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing EE headlining at CNN. Assuming the polling is right of course.

Today, Gravis Marketing released a poll showing Obama over Romney 45.2% to 44.3%.  Brown is up over Mandel 43.9% to 43.0%.

Democrats up less than a point in both races and Romney is boots on the ground in Ohio.

So, what to make of this?  Well gosh, thanks for asking.

If you’ll recall, I went on a rant yesterday about the polling numbers being designed to suppress Republican turnout.  [Drum roll please]

In 2000 and 2004 GWB got 50% and 51% of the vote in Ohio, winning by 3% and 2% respectively.  In 2008 Obama won Ohio by 5% with 52% of the vote.

In 2010 Republicans won EVERY statewide election.

The Gravis Poll INTERNALS look like this:

• Sample size:  594 likely voters.
• Margin of error:  4.3%
• Affiliation of sample voters:  D / R / I — 41.4% / 31.1% / 27.5%

In other words, they’ve got Dems up by 10.3% when Obama won in 08 by 4%.  Maybe Democrats are fired up?  Well here’s from Battleground Watch on voter registration:

• In Ohio, voters are not required to give a party affiliation when they register to vote.
• In 2008 according to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s website, Democrats out numbered Republicans by 174,000, 1.48 million to 1.30 million. The unaffiliated voters totaled 5.1 million.
• In 2012, Democrats went from 1.48 million down to 827,000. That is a loss of 653,000. Republicans went from 1.3 million down to 894,000. That is a loss of 412,000.
• The most dramatic change however was in unaffiliated voters. This segment of voters rose from 5.1 million to 6.3 million. That is an increase of 1.2 million more unaffiliated voters in the Buckeye state.
• This was a cataclysmic shift away from the two major parties, although a larger shift away from the Democrats.
• This gives Republicans the advantage in two distinct ways. First, their are now 67,000 more registered Republicans than their are Democrats. Second, more voters decided to leave the Democrat Party in favor of being unaffiliated/undeclared or Independent.

Now then, let’s talk about polling skew.

Da Tech Guy nails CBS/Quinnipiac for exactly the same crap in both Ohio and Florida.

And hell, let’s talk about what a crappy campaign Romney’s running.  Or not.

The simpering whiners who are wailing about the polling and how Romney’s campaign is just soooooooooooooooooooooo screwed up should be reading the internals on the polling and making a huge issue out of this.  As Da Tech Guy notes, Hugh Hewitt nailed Peter Brown, the assistant director of QP:

HH: Do you expect Democrats, this is a different question, do you, Peter Brown, expect Democrats to have a nine point registration advantage when the polls close on November 6th in Florida?

PB: Well, first, you don’t mean registration.

HH: I mean, yeah, turnout.

PB: Do I think…I think it is probably unlikely.

Brown thinks a 9 point margin for Democrats is “unlikely”.  Remember, he’s the guy who did the damn poll.  Read DTG’s whole article, he’s got lots more on this.

There are exactly three issues in this campaign:

• The economy and the failure of Obama’s policies to move out of the recession.
• Foreign policy and the failure of Obama’s policies to protect American interests.
• The press’ manipulation of the polling numbers to make it appear that Romney has no traction.

It sure would be nice if there was a conservative who had access to the media-that-was-once-mainstream who would be willing to drive points one and two and pound their employer on the polling skews that are clearly designed to suppress Republican turnout. Why aren’t they being held to account?

Romney’s campaign isn’t as awful as some would have you believe.  Hell, it’s better than the support he’s getting from conservatives who claim to support him.  He’s got new ads up in the battleground states, you can see them here, and he’s taking on Obama’s record head on.  Do I wish he even more aggressive?  Of course I do, but I’m not the one who has to “approve this ad”.

Here’s my bottom line.  I think Romney will be behind marginally in the polling until election eve.  Then “exit polling” – released early, of course – will show him losing by 3.  He wins by 5%+ outside of California and New York, in fact I won’t be surprised if he gets 55% outside of those two states.  The actual total may be closer only because California and New York will probably split 55%+ for Obama.  Both states deserve a bankruptcy.

EVERY group polling number being reported shows Romney with leads way outside of the MoE or shows Obama’s winning margins shrinking dramatically from 2008.  Example, with “middle class voters” Romney is 14 points.  He’s walking away with the “military vote”.  Obama won Catholics by 7 in 2008, I don’t expect him to win them this time.  He got 78% of the Jewish vote, last poll showed showed him with 64%.  And on and on.

We’re down to “no-whiners” time folks.  It’s time to stop being the Stupid Party.  We have a nominee who can beat the incumbent, and I think he can win decisively, but we need to stop the circular firing squad and start going after the people who are doing their damnest to steal this election for Obama.  The pollsters and the press.  Romney will take care of Obama.

Just a tad of background.  The Colorado shooter was a graduate student at the University of Colorado.  He dropped out of school, acquired some guns and explosives and booby trapped his apartment and shot up the theater, killing and wounding a bunch of folks.  The immediate reaction from the left was there are too many guns available, they’re too easy to get and we need to ban “assault weapons” and tax ammunition and all sorts of stuff.  For the children.

Nobody bothers to note that the cities with highest murder rates happen to have the most restrictive gun laws.  See Detroit.  See Chicago.  Oh well.

As it turns out, maybe the real problem WASN’T the evil gun.  Maybe it was incompetency run rampant at the University of Colorado.  This, from the BBC because you won’t read it in any paper in the U.S.:

The psychiatrist who treated the Colorado shootings suspect notified his university’s threat-assessment team about him, US media reports.

Dr Lynne Fenton identified James Holmes, 24, to the group in June, more than a month before the shooting, Denver broadcaster KMGH reported.

But no further action was taken as the accused, a neuroscience doctorate, dropped out on 10 June. [...]

The school’s website says the group, known as the Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team, is made up of high-ranking staff members from various departments who assess potential threats on campus.

The Denver Post also reported that Dr Fenton took her concerns about Mr Holmes to members of the threat-assessment team.

So the perp’s shrink thinks he’s a dangerous nutcase, notifies the university’s established “threat-assessment team”, he quits school and they don’t bother to tell anybody.  Hell of job by the university gnomes.

It’s my fondest hope that the families of the victims sue the University of Colorado and everybody involved in either forgetting to tell anybody or suppressing the information personally.

We don’t need gun control.  We need administrative gnome control.

Now I’m sure some would expect me to back up this claim with some of those “fact” thingys or maybe a link or two.  Well, given that I’ve promise anonymity for my source, not happening.  Just Google “Harry Reid pedophile” there are 1.79 million hits.

I’ve known this for some time but I was reluctant to go public with the information because I always back up my writing with facts and links.  Since I’m sworn to secrecy this time I was uncomfortable putting this story out until some seminal events occurred this week, and I figured “what’s good for the goose…”

As I’m sure you know, Harry Reid (the pedophile), told a reporter that “somebody” at the evil Bain Capital told him that Mitt Romney won’t release his taxes because he didn’t pay any taxes for ten years.  And today Harry Reid (the pedophile) doubled down on this statement in the Las Vegas Review Journal:

On Wednesday, Reid stuck to his story, and broadened it.

“I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination,” Reid said in a telephone call with Nevada reporters. “I have had a number of people tell me that.”

Asked to elaborate on his sources, Reid declined. “No, that’s the best you’re going to get from me.”

“I don’t think the burden should be on me,” Reid said. “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?”

So, goose, meet gander.

I’ve had what I consider to be very credible sources (multiple) tell me Harry Reid is a pedophile.  One even said he’d seen child porn on Harry’s umm office computer.  That’s a pretty specific charge and I think the Capitol Police should get a warrant.

I’m expecting this story to be P1 above the fold in the NYT and WaPo in the next few days and Redstate traffic should get a real bump – you’re welcome Erick.

Feel free to tell your friends, post on your blogs and drop a letter to the editor of your local paper.  Harry Reid is a pedophile and one hell of a lot worse, and a bigger story, than Mitt’s taxes.

Here’s the latest example of his humanity and please hang in there until the end, it’s not long.

As you will recall, after getting the hay bashed out of their heads last week by Scott Walker, two memes came out of the election. The first, “we was outspent”, I deconstructed here. The second, “yeah but Obama is beating the pants off Walker” crumbled today.

Let me be clear, I don’t put a whole lot of credence in polling this far out. Honestly we don’t even have a really good handle on what the biggest issues will be, other than I doubt the economy will be replaced as #1, the only question is how big a hole we’re going to be in come September/October. I’m not writing this to predict a Romney win in Wisconsin, although I think that’s a very probable outcome. I’m writing to rub in for last weeks story lines.

Let’s get a sample of the swill that was being tossed around just a few days ago. First, from The Daily Beast and Michael Tomasky:

Forget this media silliness: Wisconsin will be blue in November. […]

Folks, if ever there was a day in the history of Wisconsin polling that should have shown Romney within spitting distance of Obama–or even ahead, given the obviously massive pro-Walker turnout–it should have been yesterday, which was the biggest and most enthusiastic day for Republican politics in recent state history. Yes, Romney should have been ahead, or at the very least tied. Instead, the same electorate that gave Walker this huge win said it would reelect the president handily. On the presidential level, Wisconsin is a blue state.

Then there’s the LA Times:

Voters on Tuesday said by 51% to 45% that they would vote for Obama if the presidential election were being held today. They also said they thought Obama would do better than Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, at handling the economy.

The Times did note one important thing that reinforces my position that all the money spent in Wisconsin by both sides would have been better spent buying Mrs908 a new house and another Hawaiian vacation. Heck, there’d have even been a few bucks left over.

The exit poll results also indicate that much of the spending in the recall campaign – more than $60 million disclosed to date – was probably wasted. About 90% of voters said their minds were made up before the campaign began.

Then there’s the Christian Science Monitor weighing in:

Wisconsin voters also preferred Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney to deal with the economy, 43 percent to 37 percent, according to the ABC News exit poll. On “helping the middle class,” Obama beat Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, 47 percent to 36 percent.

Obama’s lead over Romney is smaller than his 14-point victory over John McCain four years ago in Wisconsin, a battleground state that political observers still tend to see as leaning Democratic.

OK, got that? Nothing to see here, move right along.

Except today, there is something to see, at least for those who were willing to invest so much in ink and pixels proclaiming that Obama was going to be just fine in Wisconsin based on the exit polling, which by-the-way missed Walker’s margin of victory by about five points.

Today, along comes Scott Rasmussen with a bucket of cold water.

Mitt Romney now leads President Obama for the first time in Wisconsin where the president’s support has fallen to its lowest level to date.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Romney with 47% of the vote to Obama’s 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Prior to this survey, Obama’s support in the state has ranged from 45% to 52%, while Romney has earned 41% to 45%. […]

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters in Wisconsin approve of the job Obama is doing, while 52% disapprove. These findings include 27% who Strongly Approve of the president’s job performance and 44% who Strongly Disapprove. These ratings are comparable to those measured nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

I really don’t have a whole lot to say about this, certainly with respect to a prediction, but with reference to the soothsayers, I would pass this along… HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Heh. Hmmm.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Gonna be an interesting summer.

It’s interesting that Erick has an article up on immigration reform and the Stupid Party today because this article in the Times lays out just who is on the Stupid side of the table.

Some of the nation’s most influential evangelical groups urged a solution to illegal immigration on Tuesday that defies the harsh rhetoric of the Republican primary race, which continues to undermine Mitt Romney’s appeal to Hispanic voters.

The call by the groups represents a recognition that in one bedrock element of the conservative movement — evangelical Christians — the demography of their followers is changing, becoming more Hispanic, and that Republican leaders risk being out of step with their hawkish talk of border fences and immigration crackdowns like those in Arizona.

Let’s be clear, illegal immigration costs at the state level are roughly equal to the deficits that the states are incurring and are either raising taxes on legal Americans or cutting services.  Illegal immigration is destroying K-12 schools because the children – even those who are “anchor baby citizens” – don’t have a working command of the English language.  I could go on, but unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the issues.

There is one subject that I do want to touch on, and that’s illegals who “pay taxes” to offset the cost of their being here.  That is a false argument.  Yes, some do pay income tax, but in order to believe that tax revenue would completely go away, you have to believe those jobs would never be filled by someone with a legal right to be here.  Even if the job isn’t filled, that money will be in circulation, perhaps as taxable income to the business owner or generating revenue as sales tax through goods purchased by the business.  Taxation is not a zero sum game where taking one worker out of the mix reduces tax revenue.  There’s also the consideration that we’ve got something on the order of 12 to 20 million illegals in the US and right now we’ve got about 12 million long term unemployed US citizens.  Not to mention youth unemployment that is running as high as 70% in some areas.

Frankly the only “moral” case Evangelicals have for their push for amnesty is that Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of their congregations.  Given that logic, it’s a good thing they haven’t expanded their prison ministries, they’d be pleading for pardons for violent felons.

Tom Minnery, the senior vice president of policy for one evangelical group, Focus on the Family, said many of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants should be free to “come out of the shadows” and “begin the process of restitution” leading to attaining legal residency.

Mr. Minnery spoke at a Capitol Hill news conference called to announce that more than 150 Christian evangelical leaders, including from the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Evangelicals, were endorsing an overhaul of immigration policy.

The evangelical leaders expressed opposition to such notions as “self-deportation,” which Mr. Romney favored in a Republican debate and which urges strict enforcement of laws to encourage illegal immigrant workers to leave the country.

I am heartened somewhat by Mitt Romney’s campaign’s response:

“Governor Romney believes that legal immigration is a source of strength for America and that to protect legal immigration we must address illegal immigration in a civil but resolute manner,” said Alberto Martinez, an adviser to Mr. Romney in Florida.

“As president, Governor Romney would work with any groups on a reform that strengthens legal immigration, secures our borders, respects those who are waiting patiently to enter legally and ensures that we do not encourage further illegal immigration.”

Illegal aliens are here illegally.  Despite the whining to the contrary they are a huge net drain on the U.S.  The cost to educate them combined with the damage they do to our schools, the cost of social services to support families – primarily families of anchor babies – is bankrupting the states.  Mitt Romney is right about self deportation.

In conclusion, please refrain from telling me how conservative social conservatives are.  They’re not.  You may be able to make the case that “you personally” are a “three legged conservative”, and if that’s the case I challenge you to take your case to your church leadership because they’re not.  The groups leading in this immigration debacle include Focus on the Family, the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Evangelicals.  You can throw the U.S. Catholic Bishops on that pile as well.

Expect to be reminded of this the next time these pretenders and poseurs come looking for a seat at the table to discuss who should be the Republican nominee for anything and threatening to stay home if their “issues” aren’t addressed.

The “money” meme in this particular race is stupid to the point of insanity.  The Democrats and unions and the muddled media have been pounding this single issue for well over a year.

Cowardly elected Democrats ran across state lines to block the vote on Walker’s reforms.  It was front page headlines all over the state and the top story on every nightly news cast for months.  Then there was the “occupation” of the state capitol by union goons that captured not only local news but the national news as well.  Followed by the unions and Democrats losing a protracted election battle over a state Supreme Court Justice.  Followed immediately by the very high profile recall elections of several Republican state senators.  And then there was the several months long very highly publicized campaign to gather signatures for the recall election.

Bottom line, this subject has been front and center in Wisconsin – and the nation – for well over a year.  A Wisconsin resident – heck, an Arizona resident – would have to have been in suspended animation for a couple of years not to be fully informed about Walker and the issues in this recall.

Bottom line for unions and Democrats, they lost the “run-and-hide” trick.  The “occupation” was a total failure.  The Supreme Court election?  An overwhelming loss at the polls.  The senators?  Overwhelming loss at the polls.  The signature gathering?  Everybody in the U.S. knows that process was a total farce.  Signatures on multiple petitions, obviously faked signatures, signatures of judges.  Democrats and unions came away looking exactly like the two-bit thugs they are.

Then there was the injunction against the voter ID act.  More proof to anybody with at least a double digit IQ that Democrats and unions are purveyors of voter fraud.

Oh, and the Democratic primary.  Nothing like some blue-on-blue fun.  The union supported candidate, a woman with a long history of losing elections in Wisconsin, gets clobbered by the Mayor of Milwaukee who supported many of Walker’s reforms two years ago and who benefited from them in his city’s budget process.

So, after almost two years of very publicly making war on the Governor you have the insipid audacity to whine about “Koch money”.  Heh.  Truly pathetic.

A new poll shows Treasurer Richard Mourdock building a commanding lead over Sen. Richard Lugar.

The Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll, conducted by two prominent Republican and Democratic pollsters, shows Mourdock with a 48 percent to 38 percent lead over Lugar.

[...]

The poll was conducted April 30 to May 1 of 700 likely voters by Republican Christine Matthews of Bellwether Research and Democrat Fred Yang of Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group. It has margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

[...]

Only about a month ago, a Howey/DePauw Battleground poll showed Lugar leading Mourdock 42 percent to 35 percent.

In a few days we could see the banishment of a Washington icon.  He’s certainly not an Indiana icon, he hasn’t lived there for for 36 years.  Hopefully Mr. Lugar this will be good riddance.

You can help retire Dick Lugar by donating to Richard Mourdock Right Here!

Rick Santorum.  Big government pro-lifer.  And maybe even not so much on the pro-life thingy.

We’ve been deluged by hundreds of pathetic posts defending Rick Santorum’s “conservatism.  Thankfully his campaign has been suspended and don’t have to read that stupid crap anymore.  There is talk of “Santorum ’16″ but after today that claptrap will hopefully die a metaphorically violent death.  From DC Caller today…

Just 12 days before a bitter primary pitting Washington power players against each other, former Sen. Rick Santorum endorsed Republican Nebraska Senate candidate Jon Bruning on Thursday.

Bruning Supported Universal Healthcare:

Bruning Praised Obama’s Stimulus Funding:

Bruning Funded His Office With Obama Stimulus Money:

Bruning Supported Higher Gas Taxes and Social Security Taxes:

Bruning Supported Higher Sales Taxes and Property Taxes:

Bruning Lobbied the Senate to Confirm Eric Holder:

Bruning Lobbied the Senate to Confirm Thomas Perez:

Bruning Requested an Earmark from Senator Ben Nelson:

Bruning Backed Gun Control:

Bruning Wanted to Force the Boy Scouts to Accept Homosexuals:

Bruning Opposed Reagan’s Economic Policy and Personally Attacked Him:

Bruning Supported Affirmative Action:

Bruning Supported Massive Increases in Education Spending:

Bruning Supported Race-based Admissions at Colleges and Universities:

Bruning Supported a Two Dollar Increase in Car Taxes:

Bruning Waived a Company’s Settlement, Accepted Their Campaign Contributions, and Then Bought a Vacation Home With the Company’s President:

and last but certainly not least, Bruning Supported Abortion: “I think a woman should have a right to choose. I’m not saying I personally believe in abortion, but I think a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body. Personally, I think life begins in the tenth week of gestation upon the inception of brain waves in the fetus. Regardless, I don’t want the government making this decision for women.”

LANSDOWNE, Va., April 21, 2012— Evangelical Christianity lost one of its most eloquent and influential voices today with the death of Charles W. “Chuck” Colson. The Prison Fellowship and Colson Center for Christian Worldview founder died at 3:12 p.m. on Saturday from complications resulting from a brain hemorrhage. Colson was 80.
A Watergate figure who emerged from the country’s worst political scandal, a vocal Christian leader and a champion for prison ministry, Colson spent the last years of his life in the dual role of leading Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, and the Colson Center, a teaching and training center focused on Christian worldview thought and application.

I’ve been privileged to serve as a volunteer with the organization that God led Chuck Colson to fond shortly after he got out of prison for his Watergate Related crimes.  I’ve been involved in many organizations and businesses in my life, never one that had the singular focus or high standards that I found in Prison Fellowship Ministries.  I never met Mr. Colson, but I saw the vision that God had given him reflected in the leadership and in the volunteers and in the work that God did through all of those involved with the ministry.  Only eternity will recognize the lives impacted and changed because of the humility and faithfulness of Chuck Colson.

The following video, posted on the Prison Fellowship website, tells his story better than I ever could.

I know that tonight every person who’s ever volunteered with Prison Fellowship, every inmate, ex-inmate or their famililies whose lives have been touched and forever changed because Chuck Colson heeded God’s call for his life is feeling the same loss my wife and I feel now. Chuck Colson was just family and while we celebrate his home going, we are overwhelmed with a sense of loss.

Well done good and faithful servant. I certainly can’t say it better than that.

Last night he got blown out in Wisconsin based on the Republicans who voted – he did manage to get close when you include the crossover Democrats who voted for him. A week ago he was down to two ahead in Pennsylvania.  And that’s the good news for the Sweater Boy.

According to Public Policy Polling (PPP) things aren’t just “worse”, they’re looking like a disaster.

Mitt Romney’s taken the lead in PPP’s newest poll of Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. Romney has 42% to 37% for Santorum with Ron Paul at 9% and Newt Gingrich at 6%. The numbers represent a dramatic turnaround from when PPP polled the state a month ago. Romney’s gained 17 points, going from 25% to 42%. Meanwhile Santorum’s dropped 6 points from 43% to 37%, for an overall swing of 23 points in the last four weeks.

Twenty three points in four weeks.  And Romney hasn’t even turned the advertising guns on Santorum yet.  It’s likely to get worse for Mr. Santorum unless he can mobilize the Democrats in Pennsylvania as he was able to in Wisconsin.  And, for the record, I have no idea if Democrats can cross over in Pennsylvania, the idea is just a lifeline for Santorum.  ***UPDATE:  a friend just emailed me and PA is a closed primary.  Really not good for Rick.***

I’m not in the least surprised by this.  Santorum is a well known entity in Pennsylvania and he’s not particularly well liked.  In 2006 when he got blown out after pandering to union voters by stopping national Right-to-Work legislation, the real killer was moving from Pennsylvania to the Washington suburbs and then taking money from his old Pennsylvania school district because his kids were being home-schooled.  That didn’t go down well and if you look around at comments in places other than Redstate you’ll find that the folks in Pennsylvania haven’t forgotten that little episode.

If you look at the internals, and they are available from a link at the summary linked to above, you’ll see what’s summarized below.

Romney’s made huge in roads with the groups that have tended to fuel Santorum’s success. What was a 37 point lead for Santorum with Evangelicals is now only 10 points at 44-34. What was a 32 point advantage for him with Tea Party voters is now only 6 at 41-35. And in the greatest sign that conservatives are starting to really around Romney a little bit, what was a 51 point deficit for him with ‘very conservative’ voters is now only 11 points at 44-33.

The sun is setting on Mr. Santorum.  If he lets his ego run things and gets blown out his political career is most likely over.  He’s been dogged throughout this campaign by his thrashing in the 2006 Senatorial race.  He’ll never live another beating down and rise to run again.  He likely won’t rise above dropping out now with the polls heading south, but a clean loss on his home turf would be a stake through the heart.

The primary is days from being, thankfully, over.  Time to turn the guns – and that would be a metaphor thank you – on Barack Obama and his wrecking crew.

Oh, and don’t bother whining about PPP being a Democratic Pollster.  As it happens, they are consistently very accurate and it’s the trend line that matters not their perceived leaning.

UPDATE:  Rasmussen has Santorum up 4.  I haven’t had time to look at anything but the email heading and won’t for several hours.  Frankly, it doesn’t change much.  Yes, there’s an outside possibility Rick can pull out a narrow win.  That’s no consolation for the reasons noted.  And also Yes!, the numbers are still headed in Romney’s way big time.

THIS has the potential for absolute greatness.

Remember Katie Couric? Yeah, the one who got fired because she couldn’t turn around CBS News. You’ll remember that she was the “star” of the “Today” show, well, according to the Washington Post..

Katie Couric, the former sweetheart of NBC News’s “Today” show, is going to co-anchor ABC News’s “Good Morning America” next week, which will most likely nuke “Today’s” more than 16-year run as the most-watched morning infotainment-show.

Well, obviously the folks at GMA aren’t taking this one lying down. In comes Sarah. Could this be a death match? Personally, I hope so, because I’d love to feast on the footage of The Twit, Ms. Couric, being carried out in a metaphorical body bag because I think Sarah may very well stomp Twitsie’s hoped for ratings into the ground. I hope.

It’s no secret I’m not on Sarah Palin’s political bandwagon, but I’ve long maintained she’s one heck of an entertainer and a good draw. I really hope she makes this a full time gig and does so well that people forget who Katie is. Or was. Or whatever. Go Sarah! Turn Katie in just another also-ran.

Heh.
____________________________________________________________________________
UPDATED WITH COMMENTS FROM JOHN MCCAIN

Santorum is trying to sell the idea that he’s some sort of “conservative” and lots of fools are buying it.  He does have a strong record on issues  that are near and dear to the hearts of the so-called Social Conservatives, but if you look at what the people who front that movement espouse, they are anything but “conservative”.  They basically want the government to provide the community support that the church used to when they still had a clue what their mission was.  The Catholic Church and the Evangelical Movement, for the most part, supports the social welfare side of government expansion.  There is nothing conservative about that.

With respect to Santorum’s zero tax for manufacturing as a way to revitalize the nations employment base, he’s simply wrong.  He has no clue what motivates the private sector because he hasn’t been in it forever.  All he’s doing is tinkering with the tax code in a slightly different way than Obama does.  And, it won’t make a difference.  Federal taxes, by and large, don’t impact manufacturing in a way that will accomplish an expansion of the manufacturing base and create jobs.  While the tax code is an enormous problem, zeroing out taxes for one segment – and wait until the lawyers work on defining “manufacturing” – will do nothing but make lawyers rich and give the Congress the opportunity to decide whose taxes go up to “pay for” the “manufacturing tax cuts”.  Nightmare on Pennsylvania Ave.

The problem is not taxes, it’s over-regulation.  In other words, too much government.  Santorum is talking about adding more government to “fix” what he thinks is the problem and is ignoring the real issue, regulation.

Breitbart has a piece on California’s problem with revenues, the legislature keeps raising tax rates and putting measures on the ballot for additional “temporary” tax increases and revenues keep going down.  Doh.  The article also notes that businesses are fleeing California in increasing numbers and outlines the reasons they’re leaving.  Let me note upfront that state taxes have a significantly greater impact on business operations than a federal tax because a business can do something about a state tax.  They can move.  Here’s the money quote from Breitbart and I’ve reformatted their paragraph to bullet points for ease of reading.

Spectrum Locations Consultants recorded 254 California companies moved some or all of their work and jobs out of state in 2011, 26% more than in 2010 and five times as many as in 2009. According SLC President, Joe Vranich: the “top ten reasons companies are leaving California:

1. Poor rankings in surveys
2. More adversarial toward business
3. Uncontrollable public spending
4. Unfriendly business climate
5. Provable savings elsewhere
6. Most expensive business locations
7. Unfriendly legal environment for business
8. Worst regulatory burden
9. Severe tax treatment
10. Unprecedented energy costs.

Vranich considers California the worst state in the nation to locate a business and Los Angeles is considered the worst city to start a business. Leaving Los Angeles for another surrounding county can save businesses 20% of costs. Leaving the state for Texas can save up to 40% of costs. This probably explains why California lost 120,000 jobs last year and Texas gained 130,000 jobs.

Nine out of ten reasons businesses relocate are directly related to state regulation and the business environment that the state maintains, one out of ten is taxes and it’s number nine on the list.  In addition, if you look at the savings that is available by relocating, the 20% to 40% are well outside the tax range of the state of California.  The article doesn’t break down the savings, but you can bet that things like workers comp insurance is probably higher on the list than taxes.

Bottom line, Mr. Santorum your policy centerpiece is total BS.  The tax code should be scrapped and rewritten, but your policy idea won’t accomplish a thing, except to give lawyers a nice payday when they’re making the case that everything under the sun is “manufacturing” and Congress will have a field day deciding who gets to “pay” for your lousy policy.

This crap is what happens when we let people who’ve never had a real job – much like the current resident of the White House – run for President.

Go get a real job and contribute to the economy Mr. Santorum.

I wasn’t real happy with the idea of Newt being President when he announced, for a whole variety of reasons, though his personal relationship issues were pretty far down on the list.  But we’re where we are today, and the reality of the situation is that we don’t have a solid conservative left in the pack.  At some point last year, I was really hopeful that Mitch Daniels would run.  He’s got the best record of any sitting governor (Perry included, IMO) in terms of conservative accomplishment.  He was panned as a “trucer” on these pages and declared, on the basis of this “affront” to SoCons, to be personna non grata in the contest.  He chose to not to run for reasons more likely related to his wife, and he’s out.  I defaulted to Perry and would have been tickled to see him inaugurated.  He’s gone.

So, we’re down to Newt, Romney and Santorum.  I don’t count Paul because he’s not a Republican and is in the contest only because the Republican Leadership in the House didn’t have the balls to toss him out of the Caucus years ago.  So, what do we do?  It looks right now that it’s coming down to Newt and Romney, Santorum will finish a distant third or perhaps fourth in South Carolina and I doubt he’ll have momentum, money or ground troops to contest Florida.  Personally, I say good riddance, we don’t need another big-government former Senator.  Newt seems to have the big Mo right now, and while that certainly could change, he’s got a decent shot at what was unthinkable, he could be our nominee.  There will not be a brokered convention.

So, my question for SoCon’s is simple.  What are you going to do if Newt is the nominee??  And to add some flavor to the broth, note this from Associated Press today:

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees, the Obama administration announced Friday in an election-year move that outraged religious groups, fueling a national debate about the reach of government.

In a concession, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Got that?  Free birth control.  Take my word for it, abortion coverage is only eleven months away.

Now then, if Newt is the nominee, are his personal relationship problems more important than what we all know the Obama Administration will do for their friends at Planned Parenthood.  What will you do?  Vote in protest for Obama?  Stand on your principles and stay home or vote for a third party or write in?  Or vote for Newt?

Some personal background. I’m ardently pro-life and have been involved in the movement for well over 30 years. I also am a firm believer that there is next to nothing that a President can do to stop abortion, beyond a minimal impact with Executive Orders reinstating Mexico City, etc. A Constitutional Amendment would be DoA. Not only is 2/3 of the Congress not doable, 2/3 of the States is impossible. Add to that, there are seven versions of the Human Life Amendment (HLA) that have been introduced in Congress and five of them do not “stop” abortion, they simply get the feds out of the debate. I could expand on this, but I hope you get the idea. The Federal government won’t (and realistically can’t) outlaw abortion, the best they’re going to do is return the issue to the states IF we have a more conservative SCOTUS (+2 Justices) who overturn Roe.

So, why would I say that abortion is – or at least may be – on the way to being a bad memory? From the Associated Press today…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities say two out-of-state doctors who traveled to Maryland to perform late-term abortions have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder, an unusual use of a law that allows for murder charges in the death of a viable fetus.
[...]
The investigation began in August 2010 after what authorities say was a botched procedure at Brigham’s clinic in Elkton, located near the border of Maryland and Delaware. An 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and Riley drove her to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name, according to documents filed in a previous investigation by medical regulators.

A search of the clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, the documents show.

Brigham, 55, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Riley, 46, faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and one conspiracy count.

Read the whole article, there’s a whole lot more there that will turn your stomach, but it’s an important read.

The bottom line here is that two very blue states – Connecticut and New Jersey – are cooperating in investigating and charging two doctors with first degree murder in the deaths of second and third trimester babies. They took the case to a Grand Jury and got an indictment. They will most likely go to trial, and you can bet they’ll be using photographs that no newspaper will run to make their case to the jury.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for sure, nothing worthwhile comes easily, but a win here gives us the opportunity to get courts to affirm that unborn children – at least those beyond the first trimester – are, in fact, “people” with a right to due process.

This is important because it gives the pro-life movement a real “camels-nose-under-the-tent” to begin to roll back the availability of abortion by law.

This action by Connecticut could be a landmark case that does what no President, no Congressional action and no Supreme Court decision involving current law can do.

2012 is going to be a landmark year in more ways than just TheOne. And, given that a conviction of the doctors involved here will most certainly be appealed, and likely all the way to SCOTUS, should give us all the reason we need to support a Presidential candidate who will nominate solidly conservative SCOTUS Justices.

Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further.

Bottom line, Smith is a sleaze, call your Rep and demand a stop to this farce. Oh, and hey Texas, got anybody to primary this schmuck?

]]> http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/12/17/lamar-smith-is-a-pathetic-weasel/feed/ 143 http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/09/02/hmmm-interesting-results-over-there/ http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/09/02/hmmm-interesting-results-over-there/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:02:13 +0000 mbecker908 (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/?p=670 Read More »]]> At HotAir…

A little background first. I think it’s common knowledge that I don’t like “candidate specific” polling this far out and I absolutely hate internet polls. So, I will be making no claims about the efficacy of this one. But it’s interesting nonetheless.

HotAir tends to be home for lots of fans of Sarah Palin. I’m not accusing HotAir of being biased or being in the Palin Camp, only that lots of her fans (not necessarily Shriners, just fans) seem to hang out there. And it’s reflected in their monthly GOP Presidential polling results. Palin has come in first in their poll every month for a very long time, I think it’s safe to say every poll, but I’m not sure about that. I am sure that she’s been way ahead of the crowd in every poll I’ve seen at HotAir. Until today.

Palin’s numbers dropped for the second consecutive month, but the news is that Perry’s numbers have not only overtaken Palin but are higher than she’s ever been at 48% of respondents favoring the three term Governor from Texas. Palin is still holding onto second place in the HotAir poll by a wide margin at 32%.

Equally interesting is the second round where the pollsters ask for your choice if your first choice isn’t running. Perry comes in first there too and Palin drops to number four.

I’ll be interested to see the commentary after the next couple of debates, we’ll likely find out if Perry is a flash in the pan or if he really has “the mo”.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/09/02/hmmm-interesting-results-over-there/feed/ 124 http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/07/19/so-heres-a-new-standard-for-stupidity/ http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/07/19/so-heres-a-new-standard-for-stupidity/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:57:44 +0000 mbecker908 (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/?p=661 Read More »]]> From WBALTV.com, we bring you [drum roll please]…

This would be Otis Rolley

Otis Rolley is a candidate for Mayor of Baltimore. You guess which party. Otis Rolley is dumber than a box of small rock. That’s rock singular. Small rock singular. Multiple rocks would overwhelm his intellect. If elected, he could give Shiela Jackson Lee a run for the dumbest elected official in the US.

So Becker, why are you making such a racist statement? Well, thank you for asking.

A mayoral candidate’s plan to reduce violence in Baltimore includes a “bullet tax” that he said will increase the cost of committing a crime.

Otis Rolley said he would, if elected, propose a $1 per bullet tax on all bullet purchases in the city. The idea was part of an overall crime plan he unveiled Tuesday.

Got that?

This jackass has an “overall crime plan”. I’ll admit I haven’t read it. Don’t think I have to, given that this piece of stupidity is included in it.

Rolley said the bullet tax would cause a decrease in “random firings that too often happen around holidays” and put a high price tag on the cost of committing a crime.

“While the courts have consistently ruled against significant gun control legislation, there is still a way to decrease crime: substantially increase the cost of its commission,” Rolley’s plan states.

Hmmm. Let’s say I was a resident of Baltimore. Let’s say I own a gun. Let’s say I’m low on ammo. How might I possibly avoid a $1,000 surcharge for 1,000 rounds of 223 ammo that I can purchase from a retailer in Phoenix for $250? Hmmm. Gosh. Hmmm. Oh yeah…

• Wilmington, DE – 71 miles – 1 hour 25 minutes.
• New Freedom, PA – 38 miles – 50 minutes.

And that’s just for starters.

Hopeful office holders, and current office holders, in addition to “office”, hold the record for abject stupidity.

Now then, for the real point of this diary, pay attention to that $1 tax. SCOTUS repeatedly beats down these fools who have a hearty dislike for the Second Amendment and they’re looking for a way around it. Well, here it is. And it will turn your incredibly effective $2,900 integrally suppressed AK47 into a not very effective stick.

Here’s your choice:

 

 

OR

 

Pick one.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/07/19/so-heres-a-new-standard-for-stupidity/feed/ 111 http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/07/19/time-to-elect-a-rino/ http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2011/07/19/time-to-elect-a-rino/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:49:48 +0000 mbecker908 (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/?p=654 Read More »]]> But he’s not running, a victim of his ability to put both feet in his mouth on the national stage and the self-righteous stupidity of one segment of the Party. I recall the frequent epithets hurled at Mitch Daniels when he was considering getting into the fray, and often as not “RINO” was the least of the accusations.

From the Washington Times yesterday…

As Washington stares at rising national debt and projected deficits for years to come, many states are faced with the opposite problem: whether to spend their budget surpluses and, if so, on what.

At least a dozen states ended fiscal 2011 with surpluses. Indiana reported one of the largest, with an extra $1.2 billion in its accounts. Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, on Friday authorized bonus payments of up to $1,000 for state employees. An employee who “meets expectations” will get $500, those who “exceed expectations” will receive $750 and “outstanding workers” will see an extra $1,000 in their August paychecks.

“No state anywhere comes close to Indiana’s record of spending tax dollars carefully, with total savings over the last six years in the billions. Your spending efficiency has enabled us to stay in the black even as revenues plummeted,” said Mr. Daniels, who recently flirted with a run for the White House but ultimately stayed out of the race.

I’m the first to point the finger at Daniels ability to make ill-conceived statements. But there is no better record of accomplishment out there than his. On fiscal matters AND on social concerns like abortion. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have room for highly credible and extraordinarily competent and conservative Governors like Daniels.
We seem to be looking for someone with marginal accomplishments who can whip up the base.

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