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If you thought it would be impossible for Jon Huntsman and the Establishment media to stoop any lower than they already have in their attempts to marginalize and discredit Ron Paul, you thought wrong. Just last week, Huntsman’s campaign released a “tacky, glib ‘Twilight Zone’ attack ad in a desperate bid to steal Ron Paul voters“, in the words of Infowars.com’s Paul Joseph Watson. Now, just days later, a ridiculous, pathetic joke of a video has been posted to YouTube entitled “John Huntsman’s Values”. The one minute video, which was posted two days ago (Jan 4), features clips Huntsman speaking...

Dude, it's time. No more delays, no more excuses.UNLEASH HUNTSMANIA. Among the candidates, only two stand out as truly presidential, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Both have track records of success, and both, through their policies and demeanors, have shown the breadth of spirit to lead the nation. But while Romney proceeds cautiously, strategically, trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination, Huntsman has been bold. Rather than merely sketch out policies, he articulates goals and ideals. The priorities he would set for the country, from leading the world in renewable energy to retooling education and immigration policies...

Several news reports have it that Romney did not win the Iowa Caucuses. Mr. True supposedly has a photo showing 2 votes for Romney, not 22, on a piece of paper. Barring any objective, verifiable proof that shows more than 12 votes mistakenly being credited to Santorum, Romney lost. On the flip side, if Romney did win, the Weekly Standard, in a news piece entitled "Answers from Iowa," says that Romney's 24.6% in the Iowa Caucuses was the worst ever (for either party) for a candidate winning the Iowa Caucuses. Romney spent millions in Iowa, had the worst percentage ever,...

Would conservatives support a presidential bid by David Petraeus? The Iraq surge architect isn't a candidate. But for years prominent conservatives from Rep. Peter King to Andrew Breitbart have touted the soldier-scholar as a dream conservative candidate to take on Barack Obama. The question is, if Petraeus had run, would his service in the Obama administration -- first as head of U.S. Central Command, then as Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan and now as CIA Director -- have counted against him? It's safe to say conservatives wouldn't have re-purposed the old "General Betray-Us" moniker for the man who has...

. . . Among the candidates, only two stand out as truly presidential, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Both have track records of success, and both, through their policies and demeanors, have shown the breadth of spirit to lead the nation. But while Romney proceeds cautiously, strategically, trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination, Huntsman has been bold. Rather than merely sketch out policies, he articulates goals and ideals. The priorities he would set for the country, from leading the world in renewable energy to retooling education and immigration policies to help American high-tech industries, are far-sighted....

If Republicans didn't like Mitt Romney's position on the so-called union-busting proposal in Ohio, all they had to do is wait one day before he changed it... ... ...

PAUL RAISES $13 MILLION IN Q4: Ron Paul’s campaign raised $13 million in the last three months of the year. The impressive figure comes after he took in $8 million during the third quarter. The cash flow will allow the Texas congressman to compete through later primaries and caucuses. Because he has the most loyal donor base – the cause of liberty primarily motivates them, not access or perks – he should be able to continue raising substantial sums in the wake of his third-place finish in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. Only Mitt Romney will be able to post a higher...

During the Iowa caucuses tonight it wasn’t just the wind sending a chill into the hearts of presidential candidates.At 8:30 p.m., just after entrance polls started pouring in, Ron Paul tweeted a snarky shot at fellow Republican candidate Jon Huntsman.“@jonhuntsman we found your one Iowa voter, he’s in Linn precinct 5 you might want to call him and say thanks,” read the tweet that came from Paul’s verified Twitter account.The tweet from Paul’s account was deleted within half an hour of its being sent, but ABC News captured a screenshot.Screenshot from Twitter

I have grown cynical of party politics in mature democracies, including the most exciting democracy of all, the United States. In the middle of a spectrum exclusively defined by Republicans and Democrats, personality and style must be favored over platforms that few candidates are ever able to implement. So many people are bored by politics in the U.S. that half of the voters don’t bother to vote. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If politics does not affect the daily life of citizens, to the extent that most can choose to ignore it, then some wisdom has been found...

Palin: It's Not Bachmann's Time

Sacred underwear, baptizing holocaust victims, gods of their own planets. When some of America’s most celebrated pundits and public intellectuals talk about Mormons, these are the images that are summoned. Ironically in this “Mormon Moment”—signaled by a hit Broadway musical, polygamous housewives on TLC, and of course two Mormon presidential candidates—Mormons, long considered quintessential “outsiders” to mainstream American culture, today find themselves at the center of the American zeitgeist. Yet it is the Mormons’ supposed theological weirdness that is the centripetal attraction. As Joanna Brooks has noted in these pages, the New York Times recently featured Harold Bloom’s musings on...

The Huntsman campaign is going on-air in New Hampshire with this video, which scores a pretty solid hit on Paul with the newsletter issue, ending with his embarrassing flight from the Gloria Borger interview: As we count down the final few days before Iowa, I also wanted to point out and hopefully tie together some of the remaining questions about the Ron Paul newsletters. This somewhat lengthy piece is definitely worth a read even if it is somewhat obviously written by someone with an axe to grind in an intra-libertarian movement fight. I find the conclusion of the piece to...

December 25th, 2011, Edited by Richard Winger There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify. But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were NOT checked.Any candidate who submitted at...

Who do you like in the Republican primary for president? Michele Bachmann Newt Gingrich Jon Huntsman Ron Paul Rick Perry Mitt Romney Rick Santorum None of the above

Gingrich 25% Romney 23% Paul 12% Perry 8% Bachmann 7% Santorum 4% Huntsman 2%

Four Republican presidential candidates – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Ron Paul -- submitted paper work in time to qualify for Virginia's March 6 primary ballot. No other GOP contender will be on the Virginia ballot. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman did not submit signatures with Virginia's State Board of Elections by today's 5 p.m. deadline. Those who submitted the required signatures must clear another hurdle. The Republican Party of Virginia has until Tuesday to certify which candidates qualify. Romney was the first Republican presidential candidate to file his petitions....

Many readers are scratching their heads over my endorsement of Ron Paul last week. One writes: Let me add a few more reasons to vote for Ron Paul: If you want all federal student aid eliminated, vote Paul. If you want the Department of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education and Housing & Urban Development eliminated, vote Paul. If you want the department of Transportation Security Administration eliminated (meaning security is the sole responsibility of private property owners), vote Paul. You can't just ignore Paul's "nuttier policy proposals". These proposals are Paul. If you endorse Ron Paul, you're endorsing his proposals. There...

It's been a bad week for Newt Gingrich in our early state Republican polling, but we still find him with a good sized lead nationally. He's at 35% to 22% for Mitt Romney, 11% for Ron Paul, 7% for Michele Bachmann, 6% for Rick Perry, 4% for Rick Santorum, 3% for Jon Huntsman, and 1% for Gary Johnson. On the surface that's good news for Gingrich but looking under the hood it's more bad news to some extent. We haven't done a national poll in 5 weeks, too long ago to make a good comparison, but on 6 state polls...

(Reuters) - Republican Jon Huntsman, who has based his 2012 campaign for the White House almost exclusively on a strong showing in New Hampshire, has been rewarded with endorsements from two newspapers in the state with an early primary election. The Keene Sentinel and the Valley News both praised the former U.S. ambassador to China in editorials on Sunday. The endorsements were another snub to Mitt Romney, a former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who has dominated most opinion polls in New Hampshire this year but whose lead has recently narrowed in the race for the Republican nomination to run for...