Free Republic

Gallup uses a timely hook for its report today, noting that Mitt Romney has an enormous lead over the current Commander in Chief among veterans, but that’s not the most interesting takeaway from the poll. The six-week survey of registered voters shows Barack Obama stuck in a tie at 46/46 with Romney, even before likely-voter models get applied. That outcome encompasses the initial period of flux in the Republican primary as Rick Santorum withdrew and while Newt Gingrich delayed his withdrawal, and while the GOP was just beginning to unite behind its frontrunner. Let’s also not forget the I-got-Osama campaign...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that the United States is not about to “get gouged” by Pakistan — which despite having received billions in U.S. aid is demanding $5,000 for every truck that carries supplies into Afghanistan across its border. The dispute over the border crossing is once again in the spotlight after Pakistan sentenced to 33 years in prison the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Usama bin Laden. Panetta on Sunday called that decision “disturbing,” though he said the U.S. government will continue to “work at” its troubled relationship with Pakistan. Yet with Islamabad continuing...

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge. These data, from an analysis of Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted April 11-May 24, show that 24% of all adult men are veterans, compared with 2% of adult women. Obama and Romney are tied overall at 46% apiece among all registered voters in this sample. Men give Romney an eight-point edge, while women opt for Obama over Romney by seven points. It turns out...

The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent because another 522,000 adults quit looking for work and are no longer counted. In the weakest recovery since the Great Depression more than four-fifths of the reduction in unemployment has been accomplished by a dropping adult labor force participation rate—essentially, persuading adults they don’t need a job, or the job they could find is not worth having. In the first quarter, growth slowed to 2.2 percent and was largely sustained by consumers taking on more debt, and additions to business inventory. Gains in manufacturing production have not instigated stronger improvements in employment largely...

THINK OF OUR TROOPS THIS MEMORIAL DAY Enjoying your three-day weekend? We hope so. We wish all of our supporters a happy Memorial Day, but we also want to remind everyone who we have to thank for the privilege of observing this holiday, our troops. While back home we have the privilege of getting everyone together for a family cook out or bbq, our troops are still fighting a war in Afghanistan. Our troops don't get to have a barbecue, unless they get really inventive, like this Marine who improvised a very crude grill over some rocks. And the...

Author's note: This tribute was written by my good friend Steve Sheldon.This Memorial Day, while you are enjoying your class reunion, family get-together, outdoor barbeque, or an extra day off work, please remember all the Bernie Deghands who died serving this great country so that you can enjoy the freedoms that have been bought and paid for with real lives of real people. When the Stars and Stripes bows at half staff and flutters proudly in the breeze, think about their pain, their broken bodies, their final moments, see their faces, reflect on their sacrifice, pray for their families,...

Conservative super-PACs are attempting to gin up disillusionment among President Obama's supporters and keep their turnout low in November's election, in part by highlighting his ties to Wall Street.Within the past month, three separate ads — two from the American Future Fund and one from Crossroads GPS — have assailed Obama from broadly comparable perspectives. Especially striking are the American Future Fund ads which make the kind of anti-Wall Street argument heard largely on the left. The outside groups' message contrasts with the one being pushed by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, who has called the Obama's "the most anti-business...

Bruce Willis calls Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney an "embarrassment" in a new interview with Esquire magazine and says he doesn't care which side wins in November. "Yeah, Romney. He's just such a disappointment, an embarrassment," Willis told the magazine. "Chin up, hair up. He's just one of those guys, one of those guys who says he's going to change everything and he'll get in there, and they'll smile at him and introduce themselves: 'We're Congress, we make sure nothing changes,'" Willis went on. "He won't do it. He can't. Everybody wants to be Barack Obama. And what did he...

As the lone Democrat seeking to challenge Elizabeth Warren in the Senate primary in Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco has been ridiculed, admonished and, worst of all, ignored. But for the moment, Ms. DeFranco, an immigration lawyer with high energy and a scrappy band of volunteers, is enjoying a burst of momentum. She surprised party insiders by collecting enough valid signatures by the May 1 deadline — more than 10,000, gathered everywhere from town meetings to town dumps — to qualify for the Democratic primary on Sept. 6. If Ms. DeFranco clears one more hurdle — winning 15 percent of the delegate...

Camp David has been an historic presidential retreat since World War II, but according to New York Times White House correspondent Helene Cooper, Barack Obama "hates it" because there isn't any golf. Such was revealed on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show this weekend (video follows with transcript and commentary): NYT White House Correspondent: Obama 'Hates' Camp David Because There's No GolfHELENE COOPER, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alright, for something totally superficial, I have figured out why President Obama does not like Camp David. CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: He doesn’t like it? COOPER: He hates it. We were up there...

Full title: Americans James Blackston, Unnamed Teen, Arrested in Connection with Death of Nicola Furlong After Nicki Minaj Tokyo Concert TOP STORY: Two black Americans, one identified as dancer James Blackstone (James “King Tight” Blackstone or James Blackston), and another unnamed teen, (reported as Larry Perry) have been arrested in connection with the death of an Irish exchange student, Nicola Furlong, in Tokyo, Japan.

As we reported last week, every gun owner concerned about the future of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms should be aware that the United Nations and the global gun eradication movement are attempting to eliminate our Second Amendment freedoms by drafting a U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. This treaty would cover tanks, helicopters, and other heavy weapons but could also include civilian rifles, shotguns and handguns. The treaty's language will be finalized by the U.N. this July during a four week conference. In an attempt to thwart this serious threat to our sovereign rights and freedoms, earlier this year,...

When Mitt Romney came to an inner-city charter school here Thursday to promote his new education agenda, he received something of a history lecture about the persecution of blacks in America and the struggles of African American children to meet the academic achievements of their white counterparts. Seeking to broaden his appeal heading into the general election, Romney was venturing for his first time in this campaign into an impoverished black neighborhood to hear the concerns of local educators and community leaders. But here in the streets of West Philadelphia, the emotion surrounding his contest with the nation’s first black...

I am asking all GOP voters in the Texas GOP primary on May 29, 2012, in state house district 64(Denton) to vote for Mike Brucia against six term incumbent Myra Crownover. Myra Crownover is a statist. She is another John McCain in the making(i.e. getting ready for a US House or Senate run). She is very anti-tobacco, and has made it her crusade to dictate to private business owners how they run their businesses over a legal product, tobacco. I know that alot on FR are anti-tobacco, but this is a core issue, what's next? Food and guns? Those who...

On Thursday, MSNBC's Al Sharpton took the race card to a whole new level by falsely claiming Republicans are like Hitler, and are prepared to kill African-Americans en masse. "It seems like they [Republicans] act as though, some wiping out of people, some of the right-wing, is all right, it’s not all right to do to any innocent people. If you had war and people that’s one thing, but to wipe out innocent people just because of who they are like what was done in Hitler’s Germany or what was done to Native Americans is not justifiable," he said....

Sandy Dahl, widow to United Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl, whose plane went down in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11, passed away from natural causes at the age of 52 The Denver Post reports that Dahl passed away in her sleep on Friday night, according to family friend David Dosch. She was best known for channeling the tragedy of her husband’s death on September 11, 2001 into a campaign, which honored his memory and also instigated the Captain Jason M. Dahl Scholarship Fund for new pilots.

An al Qaeda video calling for "electronic jihad" illustrates the urgent need for cybersecurity standards for the most critical networks in the United States, a group of senators said. The video calls for cyberattacks against networks such as the electric grid and compares vulnerabilities in the United States' critical cyber networks to the vulnerabilities in the country's aviation system before 9/11, according to a statement Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "This is the clearest evidence we've seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure,"...

Running well ahead of schedule,the International Space Station's crew opened hatches between the Harmony module and the newly arrived SpaceX Dragon cargo ship early Saturday to kick off a busy few days of work to unload about a half ton of supplies and equipment. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57442083-76/station-astronauts-enjoy-new-car-smell-of-spacex-cargo-craft/?tag=mncol;topStories

Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush and is now a lawyer in private practice, is the favorite of many conservatives. Clement argued last month for the Supreme Court to strike down Obama's 2010 healthcare law, and he is defending laws that ban same-sex marriage and that target illegal immigrants. Clement, 45, would be "at the top of any short list right now," said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for conservative nominees. Asked about Clement, Mary Ann Glendon, a co-chairwoman of Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, voiced...

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Federal prosecutors on Friday urged a judge to lift her order barring enforcement of part of a new law that permits indefinite military detention, a measure critics including a prize-winning journalist say is too vague and threatens free speech. Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest this month ruled in favor of activists and reporters who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December. The government says indefinite military detention without trial is justified in some cases involving militants and their supporters. But critics worry that the law...

In late 2008—long after the election—the media revealed a long-forgotten article written by Barack Obama while at Columbia. Obama wrote the March 1983 article, “Breaking the War Mentality,” about two campus groups, Arms Race Alternatives (ARA) and Student Against Militarism (SAM). Ben Smith of Politico (now at Buzzfeed) told readers that Obama’s views reflected the “very conventional campus liberalism of the time.” Wrong. Smith and the media failed to investigate what the activists at SAM were actually doing: encouraging students to break the law by not registering for the Selective Service and harassing military recruiters. Obama wrote that SAM “was...

A horde of masked figures stormed the restaurant in a single-file line, wielding bats, claw hammers and metal batons — their presence announced when one shouted, “‘Hey, bitches, the ARA is going to f--- up this place.’ ” With that, the shrouded thugs went on a rampage, clubbing diners at The Ashford House restaurant on May 19 in Tinley Park. They did not discriminate as to the targets of their violence, even pushing an 80-year-old woman to the ground, according to an eyewitness who’s a former Chicago police officer.“Although the terrorist assault lasted only about a minute, it was the...

Jeb Bush’s name keeps floating up in discussions about candidates to run on the ticket with Mitt Romney, despite Bush’s efforts to douse the talk. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says Bush would most help Romney. “He’d be an outstanding pick. It’s up to Gov. Romney but if I had to recommend a single person it would be Jeb,” Graham told The Hill.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law aimed at keeping the state's courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group's spokesman said Friday that a court challenge is likely. The new law, taking effect July 1, doesn't specifically mention Shariah law, which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. Instead, it says courts, administrative agencies or state tribunals can't base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the parties the same rights guaranteed by state and U.S. constitutions. "This bill should...

In many ways, I’ve never been a big fan of Donald Trump. I saw him as an arrogant snobbish extremely wealthy individual who had no concept what most Americans face in today’s society. However, my opinion of him has been changing over the past year. When he was contemplating a run for the White House, I was skeptical until I started to listen to some of the things he said and as much as I hated to admit it, he made sense. Trump also jumped up a notch in my opinion when he came out in support of Maricopa County...

Americans choose to take to the roads for va- cations and to visit friends and family on Memorial Day. Often, they’ll bring their firearms with them for sport or personal protection, and it’s perfectly legal under federal law. This gets under the skin of a handful of anti-gun jurisdictions that have grown so out of control that they’ll jail an active-duty Afghanistan veteran who’s following the letter of the law. A growing, bipartisan movement in Congress is looking to stop the harassment. Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, Virginia Republican, has sponsored legislation that would amend current law to make it clear...

The Army has ordered that soldiers may use only government-issued magazines with their M4 carbines, a move that effectively bans one of the most dependable and widely used commercial-made magazines on today’s battlefield. The past decade of war has spawned a wave of innovation in the commercial soldier weapons and equipment market. As a result, trigger-pullers in the Army, Marines and various service special operations communities now go to war armed with commercially designed kit that’s been tested under the most extreme combat conditions. Near the top of such advancements is the PMAG polymer M4 magazine, introduced by Magpul Industries...

Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday that every member of the state legislature in Wisconsin received an email that said “we’re going to put a bullet in your head. We know where you and your family live.” Johnson, speaking in Washington, D.C. at America’s Future Foundation’s annual gala, said that at the height of Gov. Scott Walker’s fight against the unions, every member of the state legislature was threatened. “The story really wasn’t told properly — we had every member of the state legislature get an email that said, ‘We’re going to put a bullet in your head. We know where...

The Republican U.S. Senate race on Friday devolved into dueling recriminations and accusations of race-baiting in a last-ditch effort to sway voters before they tuned out for the holiday weekend. With Tuesday's GOP primary fast approaching, Ted Cruz pushed back against a radio ad released Thursday by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that portrayed Cruz as a supporter of amnesty for illegal immigrants. Cruz, a tea party favorite, denied that he had backed amnesty when he served in two Hispanic leadership groups that were open to immigration reform. In turn, he said Dewhurst, who presides over the Texas Senate, had failed...

000 WTNT32 KNHC 261137 TCPAT2 BULLETIN SUBTROPICAL STORM BERYL INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 2A NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL022012 800 AM EDT SAT MAY 26 2012 ...BERYL MOVING WEST-SOUTHWESTWARD TOWARD THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES COASTLINE... SUMMARY OF 800 AM EDT...1200 UTC...INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------- LOCATION...32.0N 76.0W ABOUT 175 MI...280 KM SE OF CAPE FEAR NORTH CAROLINA ABOUT 240 MI...385 KM ESE OF CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...45 MPH...75 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...WSW OR 255 DEGREES AT 5 MPH...7 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1001 MB...29.56 INCHES WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY... NONE. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT... A...

Launched in Britain, apologetics-training program seeks to give Catholics the skills to spread the faith while disarming opponents.   WASHINGTON — Media coverage of the Health and Human Services “contraception mandate� debate has intensified demand for appealing arguments that win minds and hearts, yet effective spokesmen and women for Catholic teaching are in short supply, giving an edge to those who spin the bishops’ position as a “war on women.� Enter Austen Ivereigh, a British Catholic journalist, community organizer and onetime spokesman for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the now-retired archbishop of Westminster. Troubled by the British bishops’ struggle to counter partisan...

When presidents were military men Article by: John Nagl , Special to the Washington Post | Updated: May 25, 2012 - 11:52 AMIn every presidential election since 1992, the candidate with the less distinguished military resume has triumphed. Bill Clinton defeated war heroes George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole; National Guard pilot George W. Bush beat Vietnam veterans Al Gore and John Kerry; and Barack Obama was decisively elected over John McCain, who had displayed extraordinary valor during years of captivity as a Navy pilot in North Vietnam. In 2012, we won't have the chance to test this trend:...

2012/05/26 09:30 KST N. Korea's west coast affected by severe drought SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's western coast region is experiencing severe drought that could seriously affect food production this year, a report by the communist country's state-run media said Saturday. The (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), picked up in Seoul, said that if there is no rainfall by the end of the month, the drought will be recorded as the worst since 1962. It said from April 26 onwards, the capital city of Pyongyang received 2 millimeters of rain, while 5 millimeters fell in Haeju of...

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. "Federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any president in almost 60 years," Obama said at a campaign rally Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. A fairer calculation would give Obama much of the responsibility for an almost 10 percent budget boost in 2009, then a 13 percent increase over 2010-2013, or average annual growth of spending of just more than 3 percent over that period.

The Walker vs. Barrett Recall Debate starts in less than an hour! Tonight there is a critically important televised debate in the Wisconsin RECALL campaign - and our friends at the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama (CDBO) are providing you the means to watch it LIVE online, from anywhere in the nation.  The debate takes place 8PM Central Time (which is 9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific). You can watch the debate LIVE on CDBO's secure website here: .Watch the debate here You can also interact with others watching the debate if you chose via Facebook and Twitter.  They will have LIVE...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- A privately bankrolled spacecraft is getting ever closer to the International Space Station for a historic docking today. The SpaceX Dragon capsule contains a half-ton of supplies. The station's crew will use a robot arm to snare the Dragon. On Thursday, the unmanned capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. Early Friday, it returned to the neighborhood...

In any discussion about war being "hell" it is common — and proper — to focus on the difficult conditions of our deployed war fighters. Long days grind on relentlessly in foreign lands, often with inadequate resources. They face attacks from determined enemies and long for home while months blur into years. As a retired Navy SEAL, I know well the sacrifices made by our military men and women. In fact, during the decade and a half following elopement with the love of my life, I would find myself away from home on assignments for a total of eight years...

Dictionaries apparently do have the power to offend. More than 65,000 people have signed a Change.org petition challenging Dictionary.com to “correct” its definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. Dictionary.com currently defines marriage as “the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.” and, alternatively, as “a similar institution involving partners of the same gender: gay marriage.” The petition asks that the definition instead describe marriage as “the social institution under which a man and woman, woman and woman, or man and man establish their...

(Bay City News) A federal judge ruled in Oakland that the state's public-employee pension system must make long-term care insurance equally available to same-sex spouses and partners. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is unconstitutional to the extent that it limits same-sex spouses of state workers in obtaining the insurance. . . Wilken said the DOMA ban violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal treatment. She wrote that there was no proof the DOMA provision was "rationally related to a legitimate government interest." . . In today's ruling, Wilken...

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it has lowered its ratings on five Spain-based financial institutions, affirmed the ratings on nine, and maintained the ratings on five on CreditWatch with negative implications (see Ratings List). We have also revised down our assessments of the stand-alone credit profiles (SACPs) of six financial institutions, with revisions ranging from one to

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) seems to have it out for our military. The department is using the city’s pointless firearm registration mandate to harass, arrest and jail servicemen. Army 1st Sergeant Matt Corrigan was woken in the middle of the night, forced out of his home, arrested, had his home ransacked, had his guns seized and was thrown in jail -- where he was lost in the prison system for two weeks -- all because the District refuses to recognize the meaning of the Second Amendment. This week, the city dropped all charges against Sgt. Corrigan, but the damage...

The UN atomic agency has found evidence at an underground bunker in Iran that could mean the country has moved closer to producing the uranium threshold needed to arm nuclear missiles, diplomats said Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 percent at Iran's Fordo enrichment plant, the diplomats told The Associated Press.

A doctor who assisted the US in finding Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan has been convicted of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison. In retaliation, a rare bi-partisan show of unity ensued in the senate as angry members of the Appropriations Committee unanimously voted to slash $33 million from US aid to Pakistan - a million dollars for each year of the doctor's sentence. Reuters: U.S. senators scandalized by Pakistan's jailing of a doctor for helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden voted on Thursday to cut aid to Islamabad by $33 million -- one million for...

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Marine Corps soon will offer early retirement with benefits to some troops as part of force-shaping efforts aimed at cutting 20,000 jobs from the rolls over the next four years, Corps officials said this week. Under the plan, expected to start this fall, Marines and officers with 15-20 years of service will be offered early retirement with benefits. It’s part of a larger Marine initiative that includes voluntary early discharges and the convening of a selective early retirement board for lieutenant colonels and colonels already eligible for 20-year retirement benefits, who have stagnated in...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - House Republican Bob Dold is attempting to legislatively enshrine Planned Parenthood’s federal funding with an amendment introduced this month that would prohibit the government from denying Title X funds to an organization on the basis that it provides abortions. The Illinois congressman was flanked by representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Republican Majority for Choice at a recent press conference announcing the introduction of HR 5650, the “Protecting Women’s Access to Health Care Act.” Illinois Republican Congressman Bob Dold wants to protect Planned Parenthood funding. The proposed bill claims that it merely “clarifies...

Poll Date Sample Obama (D) Romney (R) Spread RCP Average 5/9 - 5/23 -- 45.5 43.6 Obama +1.9 Rasmussen Tracking 5/21 - 5/23 1500 LV 45 44 Obama +1 Gallup Tracking 5/17 - 5/23 3050 RV 47 46 Obama +1 ABC News/Wash Post 5/17 - 5/20 874 RV 49 46 Obama +3 NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 5/16 - 5/20 RV 47 43 Obama +4 FOX News 5/13 - 5/15 913 RV 46 39 Obama +7 Mason-Dixon 5/10 - 5/14 1000 LV 44 47 Romney +3 Wash Times/JZ Analytics 5/11 - 5/12 800 LV 43 44 Romney +1 IBD/CSM/TIPP 5/9 -...

Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from three Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back. “No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization,” said Mr. LaBolt. ”The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink...

Pressure is mounting to normalize the use of drones in the United States. "Don't drone, me, bro!"—that's one way to sum up Charles Krauthammer's heated reaction to last week's news that the Federal Aviation Administration had loosened restrictions on local police departments' use of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. "Stop it here, stop it now," Krauthammer exclaimed on Fox News's "Special Report" Monday, "I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. ... I'm not encouraging, but I am predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his...

The stunning expansion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington, D.C., area is profiled in a long, interesting and meticulously accurate CNN story that suggests "the nation's capital has become a Mormon stronghold, with Latter-day Saints playing a big and growing role in the Washington establishment."-SNIP-"It's hard to point to federal legislation or a White House initiative that bears distinctly Mormon fingerprints," Gilgoff writes, "while it's easy to do the same for other faiths." He cites as an example a recent White House "compromise" on contraception funding, which he says was "mostly a reaction to...

First results after polls closed at 9pm last night showed Mohammed Morsi, the leader of the Brotherhood's political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, taking an early lead, seemingly confirming the group's own earlier exit polls. Analysts stressed that the count would be long and difficult, with a formal result only due on Tuesday. But other campaigns, including that of Amr Moussa, the former Arab League secretary-general long considered the front-runner, also said Mr Morsi was ahead and at least likely to gain one of the two spots in next month's run-off. Whether he will go on to win that...