“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.”
"At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."
The plug-in Volt, which debuted in late 2010, has become a political target for Republicans, who associate it with the 2009 General Motors bailout and with President Obama’s fondness for controversial green-energy programs. Conservative pundit Glenn Beck called it “crappy.” Rush Limbaugh huffed about GM “trying to kill its customers.” Obama’s likely opponent, Mitt Romney, says the Volt is “an idea whose time has not come.”
GM CEO Dan Akerson, not surprisingly, complains that the Volt has become a “political punching bag,” with sales hurt by partisan bickering that has nothing to do with the car itself.
"I feel like the inspector in ‘Casablanca,’ who is shocked to find out that there’s gambling in this establishment. National security is always a political football in presidential elections, and when the facts are against you, and when it’s playing against your party, you complain that the other side is politicizing national security."
— Jeremy Mayer, professor of public policy at George Mason University — Obama Doubles Down on Touting Osama Bin Laden Death
"Mrs. Obama’s favorability rating has been consistent. Last October, 63 percent thought positively about her. Last May, it was 66 percent and in September 2010, it was 65 percent. However, there is a partisan split. Ninety-one percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents have a favorable impression of Mrs. Obama, but only 43 percent of Republicans see her favorably."
— Michelle Obama Remains Consistently Popular — Ken Walsh’s Washington
In Fehrnstrom’s defense, he was right. This is what candidates in both parties do—whether it’s softening a position on an issue or professing sudden love for someone you slammed as a primary foe, but who now is offering you his or her endorsement. It’s not that Fehrnstrom was wrong. He just shouldn’t have said it out loud. All candidates shake the proverbial Etch A Sketch, but Romney has a particular problem explaining why he has changed his views on such fundamental issues as abortion and gay rights.
They can’t stop talking about social issues, even as contraception is a fact of life for 99 percent of American women and a majority of Americans support gay rights, including a plurality in the NBC News poll who back gay marriage. The Republicans are too driven by the talk radio universe of Rush Limbaugh and a primary in which only the base of the base is turning out because their candidates aren’t generating any excitement.
A recent poll released by the Pew Research Center, shows Obama improving his standing with independent voters in a head-to-head match-up against top GOP contender Mitt Romney. Just a month ago, only 40 percent of registered independent voters nationwide preferred Obama to the former Massachusetts governor, but now that number sits at 51 percent.
The ad features a young Asian woman on a bike, peddling past rice paddies toward the camera as stereotypical Chinese music plays in the background. In broken English, the woman thanks “Debbie SpendItNow” for spending so much American money and “borrowing more and more…from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs,” she continues with a smirk.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them."
— President Barack Obama — State of the Union Speech Focuses on Middle Class Success: In election year speech, Obama outlines White House vision for creating jobs and to ‘reclaim American values’ — by Kenneth T. Walsh
"He wanted an open marriage and I refused."
— In excerpts the network released before the broadcast, Marianne Gingrich said that when she learned of Gingrich’s affair with Callista Bisek, a congressional staffer, he asked his wife to share him.
Two days before the South Carolina Primary, Perry drops out of the race.
Clinton associates have long whispered that the politically-trained daughter would be perfect for politics, but now an Obama expert who advises Fortune 500 firms on communications has bluntly predicted a continuation of the Clinton dynasty.
“It doesn’t matter if she keeps her new television job, or if she quits—Chelsea can do it,” says Gil Peretz, author of Obama’s Secrets, a book on how to communicate like the president. “She started to gain substantive political experience when she campaigned for her mother in 2008.
