Impeach Obama Banner Flies Over the Rose Parade, Next Stop: Super Bowl

As promised,two patriotic groups flew an “Impeach Obama”banner over the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. The Impeach Obama Tea Party and Stop Obama Now – San Diego flew a banner,with 12-feet-tall letters,over the parade and surrounding highways during the well-attended annual event. Roger Ogden,the primary organizer behind the flights,e-mailed this author that FAA regulations limited visibility over the parade itself but the banner was heavily visible outside the immediate parade route.

The groups raised more than $2,500 in contributions from all around the country to fly the banner.

Because of this author’s coverage,the groups listed the ImpeachObamaCampaign.com,with WND.com and the “America Betrayed”radio program,in its acknowledgements.

The Big Surprise From Iowa: 75% Of Republicans Don’t Want Mitt Romney

Here’s a surprise I bet you didn’t hear on MSM…….

Mitt Romney won 25.19 percent of the vote in Iowa in 2008 – and lost that contest by 9 points.

Since then, Mitt Romney spent millions of dollars. He got better at debating. He annihilated Rick Perry. The SuperPAC aligned to Romney took out a surging Newt Gingrich with negative ads. And Romney focused his energy on attacking Barack Obama.

All that got him was 25 percent of the vote again last night. Almost exactly the 2008 result he had in Iowa.

He lost the nomination then. This isn’t exactly the start to 2012 Team Romney was expecting.

75 percent of Republican Caucus-goers want someone that isn’t Mitt Romney – a result that reflects polls nationwide..

And now Mitt Romney has four problems.

1) The media is going to hound Mitt Romney for underperforming – because they hate a frontrunner, because they appreciate an underdog, and because they are desperate for a real, hard-fought contest.

2) Newt Gingrich basically turned his concession speech into an announcement that his campaign would no longer be about winning. He will now focus on stopping Mitt Romney from winning and stopping Ron Paul from influencing Republican foreign policy. Mike Huckabee became determined to perform a kamikaze attack on Romney four years ago and it worked.

3) Rick Santorum is going to soak up a lot of oxygen this week. If he had risen weeks ago, he would have been given intense scrutiny. Now all that scrutiny will be leavened by flattering accounts of “how he did it” and how “he might just do it again” in New Hampshire.

4) Jon Huntsman was the only other candidate besides Rick Santorum that wasn’t damaged by last night’s results. He didn’t compete, so he didn’t underperform. He is going to get fresh attention and he is going to be focused on tearing Romney down.

Romney can take care of all four of these problems if he simply translates his 40 percent poll numbers into 40 percent of the vote next Tuesday in New Hampshire.

As for Ron Paul, it just didn’t pan out for him and his fans. Ron Paul came in second in the Ames Straw Pollin August. But he finished third in the contest that really mattered.

Despite that, Paul’s campaign is a major success. He brought in a gigantic number of independent voters and first-time caucus-goers. Without Ron Paul, the turnout in the Iowa Caucus would have been abysmally low this year.

Yahoo Finance

Newt in 2008 on the Individual Mandate

Poll: Gingrich Collapses in Iowa as Ron Paul Surges to the Front

A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows that Ron Paul has taken the lead in the Iowa caucus race, while Newt Gingrich’s support is fading fast. A different Gallup poll shows Gringrich still holding the lead, but slipping, while The New York Times has Paul in the lead as well.

Gingrich has seen his numbers in the PPP poll drop from 27 percent to 14 percent in just three weeks, while his favorability rating is now split at 46 percent for to 47 percent against, the worst of any candidate not named Jon Huntsman. That’s quite a fall for someone who looked to be running away with the state and taking charge on the national level.

Mitt Romney has also seen his numbers tick up slightly (to 20%), putting him just behind Paul (23%) for second place. The poll measured voters who are planning to vote in the Republican caucus.

Perhaps the most telling secondary question was, “Do you think Newt Gingrich has strong principles?” Only 36 percent say that he does, but for Paul that number was 73 percent.

The bad news for Paul, however, is that when asked for their second choice for President, only 9% said they would vote for him after their preferred candidate. That means if supporters of any of the second-tier candidates sense defeat and decided to abandon their choice at the last minute, those votes are more likely to go to Romney. Even if Romney doesn’t win, the stronger than expected showing could be the snowball that starts a primary avalanche for him.

One other tidbit from the PPP poll, the first question about Barack Obama asked if the respondents think he was born in the United States. Fifty-two percent either said he was not or they’re not sure.

Update: Here’s an alternate take on the PPP poll.

Atlantic Wire

‘60 Minutes’ Edits Out Obama‘s Statement That He’s the Fourth Best President

Arrogance at it’s best….a legend in his own mind…..

CBS’s “60 Minutes” last week, though it appears the portion of the interview actually broadcast on TV left out a statement where Obama essentially declared himself the fourth best president in terms of his accomplishments.

The statement was only made available online as part of the full interview on “60 Minutes Overtime.”

According to a transcript posted on the “60 Minutes” website, Obama said he would hold his accomplishments so far as president against those of Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

“I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history,” Obama told CBS’s Steve Kroft.

Yahoo News

Newt Gingrich Says He’d Defy Supreme Court Rulings He Opposed

How arrogant can he be….Defy Supreme Court rulings you disagree with?

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decision.

According to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.

The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.

“They just ignored it,” he said. “A commander-in-chief could simply issue instructions to ignore it, and say it’s null and void and I do not accept it because it infringes on my duties as commander-in-chief to protect the country.”

Raw Story

Ron Paul & Joe Rogan on the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno

Ron Paul Slams Newt Gingrich for Hypocrisy

From Forbes magazine:

Whether you disagree with Ron Paul or not, one thing is certain: it’s impossible to lay the mantle of hypocrite at his feet. The congressman from Texas has changed his mind about things over the course of his career – for instance, he once believed in the death penalty but no longer does – but they’ve changed out of a change in belief, not political expediency.

The same cannot be said for many of his GOP rivals. People often accuse Mitt Romney of flip-flopping for political gain, a true enough charge. But then why has the Republican Party turned to Newt Gingrich, a man whose own flip-flops are manifold and glaring?

(Indeed, why did the GOP turn its back on Herman Cain for his extramarital activities when Newt’s own are now famous?)

Ron Paul’s new ad:

Ron Paul Highlights in 11/22/2011 Debate

Ron Paul hour long panel interview with the Nashua Telegraph Editorial Board