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Once again, Barack Obama has proven to be the luckiest politician alive. Just when the race was tightening to a dead heat in the election’s closing days, one spectacular betrayal and one rank miscalculation on the Republican side have turned the contest back in Obama’s favor. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who will tour his storm-ravaged state today with President Obama, was all over the networks Tuesday telling what a wonderful leader his president was. “I spoke to the president three times yesterday,” Christie boasted, calling Obama “outstanding.” When Fox co-host Steve Doocy meekly asked Christie if he planned any...

Rep. Allen West is leading by more than 300 votes in Palm Beach County, Fla., a hopeful sign for the Tea Party favorite fighting for his political life after Tuesday’s election, a source told TheBlaze. No winner has been declared in the congressional race between the Republican West and his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy, though Murphy had a 2,456-vote lead in the unofficial vote total. But a Republican observer who has been monitoring the counting process said West pulled ahead in Palm Beach County on Thursday as the initial count continues. Ballot printing errors led to ballots that could not...

Sneed has learned U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who handily won re-election Tuesday despite a lengthy stay at Mayo Clinic for depression and bipolar disorder, is in the midst of plea discussions with the feds probing his alleged misuse of campaign funds. “No one has pled guilty, but plea discussions are ongoing,” said a top Sneed source, who said Jackson is still undergoing treatment at Mayo Clinic Sneed is also told Jackson, who returned to Mayo Clinic after undergoing outpatient treatment in the seclusion of his home in Washington, D.C., is not only being investigated for allegedly using campaign funds...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that he had called President Obama to congratulate him on his win in the 2012 presidential election — but has only sent an email to Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for whom he campaigned heavily earlier this year. “We didn’t have a political strategy discussion,” Christie said of his call to Obama, according to Bloomberg. “I said congratulations on your win last night Mr. President, he said thank you governor.”

Hillary Clinton will step down as U.S. Secretary of State within 'days' of President Barack Obama's second inauguration in January, her spokesman said today. Her long-respected departure is expected by most Democrats to be a prelude for a White House run in 2016, when she will be 69. The top candidate to replace her is believed to be Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the losing 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. He is viewed as a more likely pick than Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, because of her widely-criticised appearance

Essential reading from Sean Trende about the new demographic reality at the polls. Based on his back-of-the-envelope math, there are actually two reasons why there were more minority voters as a share of the electorate this time. One, the reason everyone knows: There were more minority voters, period. Two, the reason no one guessed: If current projections hold, there were many, many fewer white voters at the polls this year than in 2008. Had the same number of white voters cast ballots in 2012 as did in 2008, the 2012 electorate would have been about 74 percent white, 12 percent...

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is heading to the first caucus state of Iowa on Nov. 17 to headline an annual campaign fundraising birthday party for Iowa governor Terry Branstad. Last year all the presidential hopefuls, except for Mitt Romney, came to the party to court the governor and Iowa political dignitaries who attended the bash. The governor’s spokesperson, Tim Albrecht, a caucus expert himself, told ABC News that Branstad invited Rubio and is “excited he accepted.” “Sen. Rubio is a star within our party,” Albrecht said. “We were excited Sen. Rubio accepted, and regardless of what happened on Tuesday he...

From the mayor who made owning an 18oz+ container of coke a summary offense, comes this: Effective 6 am 11/9: drivers in NYC whose license plates end in an even number or zero will be able to buy gas only on even-numbered days— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 8, 2012 Drivers in NYC whose license plates end with a letter will be classified as “odd” and may only buy gas on odd-numbered days— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 8, 2012  In case anyone gets any ideas, the NYPD will be there to enforce counting skills: NYPD officers will be deployed at...

Link only, per FR policy: http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121108/DEFREG02/311080005/Consensus-Forming-Lame-Duck-Deal-Delay-Sequester-Cuts?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Just enrolled in my company healthcare plan for next year.

MARK LEVIN: We conservatives, we do not accept bipartisanship in the pursuit of tyranny. Period. We will not negotiate the terms of our economic and political servitude. Period. We will not abandon our children to a dark and bleak future. We will not accept a fate that is alien to the legacy we inherited from every single future generation in this country. We will not accept social engineering by politicians and bureaucrats who treat us like lab rats, rather than self-sufficient human beings. There are those in this country who choose tyranny over liberty. They do not speak for us,...

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says he won’t support Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger’s grant application to create a state-federal partnership health insurance exchange. The exchange is an online marketplace where individuals can by health insurance policies. A partnership is one of three choices for states under the federal health reform law. States could also choose to establish their own exchanges or let the federal government do it for them.

Some Philadelphia neighborhoods outdid themselves in Tuesday's presidential election. In a city where President Obama received more than 85 percent of the votes, in some places he received almost every one. In 13 Philadelphia wards, Obama received 99 percent of the vote or more. Those wards, many with large African American populations, also swung heavily for Obama over John McCain in 2008. But the difficult economy seemed destined to dampen that enthusiasm four years later. House Speaker Sam Smith, musing over "staggering" turnout in some city precincts and reacting to wrong information that "90 percent of the precincts in Philadelphia...

Bloomberg News is reporting that UN Ambassador Susan Rice is the favorite to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she steps down as expected sometime in January. Six current or former White House officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Rice remains close to President Barack Obama and shares many of his views on foreign policy. They emphasized that the president hasn't made a final decision, and Clinton may remain in her post for some months into Obama's second term.Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and other officials said Obama's...

How about we all register as Democrats and vote in conservative candidates in their primary? The electorate is so illiterate about what goes on the world that even if it made the news they wouldn't know and would vote for the candidate with the D.

These things were all mentioned before the election, we knew that ACORN was simply renamed and probably multiplied in every city in America. There were obvious big money giveaways to the various unions and democrat activists, including the UAW and SEIU, who take taxpayer money and help any democrat campaign they can. Who is investigating this wholesale voter fraud funded by the stimulus?...Holder? And the experts and candidates don't understand what happened!!! Gimme a break

Ed touched on this earlier, but I wanted to tease it out a little.One reason to look forward to a Republican president would have been that people might start finding stuff like this outrageous again: The California man behind an anti-Muslim film that roiled the Islamic world was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for violating his probation stemming from a 2010 bank fraud conviction by lying about his identity.U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder immediately sentenced Mark Basseley Youssef after he admitted to four of the eight alleged violations, including obtaining a fraudulent California driver's license. Prosecutors agreed...

Supporters of Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West — from motorcycle club members to retirees — turned out in force at the Supervisor of Elections warehouse in Riviera Beach Thursday to observe the extended counting and copying of problematic ballots in a nationally watched race in which Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy held a narrow lead. West, whose status as an outspoken conservative and frequent cable TV guest has drawn him legions of admirers and critics nationwide, wants ballots and voting machines impounded for a possible recount even though Murphy’s lead of about 0.66 percent is larger than the 0.5 percent margin...

(Reuters) - Allowing income tax rates to rise for wealthy Americans, and maintaining rates for the less affluent, would not hurt U.S. economic growth much in 2013, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday, stepping into a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over how to resolve the so-called "fiscal cliff." The report by the authoritative non-partisan arm of Congress is expected to fuel President Barack Obama's demand for higher taxes on the rich, part of his proposal to avoid the full impact of the expiring tax cuts and across-the-board spending reductions set to begin in early 2013 unless Congress acts.Republicans...

You can file this one, along with the Iranian strike on a U.S. drone, the layoffs at Boeing, and PolitiFact’s wrap-up of President Obama’s broken first-term campaign promises, in your binder labeled “Handy things you learn right after the election.” It’s not a surprising statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but that doesn’t help it to sound any better as the country elects to move forward with the Obama administration’s vision, full speed ahead. Asked Wednesday if he would support raising the debt ceiling another $2.4 trillion dollars, perhaps even before the end of the year, Reid replied, “If...

Second Amendment: Within hours of re-election, the administration fast-tracked a treaty in the United Nations that transcends borders and tramples our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. It was no coincidence. Less than 24 hours after President Obama's re-election, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations helped move the U.N.'s Arms Control Treaty a step closer to enactment. America joined 157 other nations in voting Wednesday to finalize the treaty in March. None was opposed and there were 18 abstentions. U.N. delegates and gun-control activists had complained that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from Republican...

Gun sales set to rise, Smith & Wesson stock jumps after Obama win Gun sales are poised to boom, based on the increased number of firearms background checks being performed. By Tiffany Hsu November 7, 2012, 10:45 a.m. While investors moping over President Barack Obama’s reelection sent the Dow spiraling down more than 300 points Wednesday morning, one sector is seeing a surge: gun manufacturing. Firearms maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. surged 10.8% to $10.48 a share in morning trading, more than double its price at the beginning of the year. Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. got a 6.4%...

WASHINGTON – In a wide-ranging interview, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said raising tax rates is “unacceptable,” vice presidential nominee Paul D. Ryan is not the new leader of the GOP and the reelection of President Obama means the nation’s new healthcare law is “the law of the land.” Boehner spoke to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer on Thursday, his first post-election interview as the divided Congress prepares to negotiate with the White House over the scheduled year-end tax hikes and spending cuts that economists fear will put the economy back in a recession. “I’m the most reasonable, responsible person...

I know you're polled out, but with all the navel-gazing today about demographics and the future of the GOP, I figured people might want a link to the numbers behind last night's disaster. Here's CNN's version, Fox News's version, and WaPo's version, which breaks the trend lines down by arrows. (Mouse over for the numbers.) Noteworthy: The sample does apparently include respondents from all 50 states. There was some question about that after news broke last month that the exit pollster would exclude voters in 19 states, but WaPo reported at the time that that was only true of individual...

Post-election snark from comedian Jon Lovitz? Unlike the Nobel Prize, President Obama did earn that. The disgruntled Dem and frequent Obama critic isn’t looking “Forward!” to dangerously long waits for medical care. And like many Americans, Lovitz is concerned about the devastating impact of Obamacare on business owners and their employees.

The hard-fought race in the 23rd district may have ended with Democratic candidate Pete Gallego winning by 9,222 votes, but incumbent Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco has still not conceded. The race, which has been called by various news organizations, is the closest congressional race this year in Texas. Canseco’s campaign cites voting irregularities, particularly in Maverick County, where they allege election officials double- and triple-counted some ballots, and in Zavala County, where the campaign said it had witnesses that saw Gallego ballots being photocopied. Scott Yeldell, Canseco’s campaign manager, had previously said the large number of military and absentee votes...

Thank you to all our wonderful veterans and troops. Here are some freebies just for you to say THANK YOU from restaurants, stores etc. Have a very happy and blessed Veterans Day.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck on Thursday warned that police officers will be in danger of layoffs unless the city proceeds with a half-cent sales tax hike planned for the March 5 ballot.Speaking to The Times’ editorial board, Beck complained that he is already unable to hire 911 operators, custody officers and mechanics to repair squad cars. And he warned that the LAPD would probably lose 500 officers without the more than $200 million expected from a sales tax increase.

San Francisco police were asking for the public’s help in finding out what happened to a man who died after being injured during a celebration of the Giants’ World Series win in the city’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. The victim, identified by the medical examiner’s office as 37-year-old San Francisco resident Sean Moffitt, went home after the Oct. 28 celebration and told his roommate he was attacked at about 9:30 p.m. that night in the 1500 block of Haight Street, police spokesman Officer Gordon Shyy said. …

1. PPP 2. DAILYKOS/SEIU/PPP 3. REUTERS This alone should raise a red flag.

It has been brought up by me and many others, both recently and over time, that American conservatives may simply be too meek and nice to prevail against a determined, vicious, devious and underhanded enemy like the Marxist Left. I don't know that a dedicated thread to discuss this has yet been opened since the election, so I thought I would do so. I've never been large or overly strong, nor inherently unfriendly, but I grew up as a scrappy little kid, and people still occasionally say that I merely need to walk into a room for people to know...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Folks, I have to ask for your forgiveness in advance here because I can't stop laughing, and I know there's nothing to laugh about. I mean, this is not funny. But I can't stop it. Maybe it's the post-stress release where you just get uncontrollably giggly or whatever, but I'm going through my sound bite roster today, I'm watching stuff on television, and I'm hearing what people say. I'm reading stuff here in the show prep and I just can't stop laughing at the futility of it all! Anyway, I'll walk you all through it. Great to...

Under pressure from senators, the State Department is allowing some lawmakers to look at cables and other documents related to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, but only today and tomorrow, when most senators are not in Washington. Congress is gearing up for a full week of Benghazi-related hearings next week, including a Nov. 13 hearing behind closed doors of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led by Chairman John Kerry (D-MA). Kerry has written two letters to the State Department requesting congressional access to information and documents related to the circumstances leading up to and during...

TAMPA, Fla. — This is the hometown of U.S. Special Operations Command — at nearby MacDill Air Force Base. This headquarters dispatches our military's special operators — Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — on missions in the most difficult and dangerous places on earth. It's also the place where "action officers" are burning the midnight oil — but not necessarily planning new targets for our Navy SEALs. Apparently, a "good number" of SOCOM's staff members are busy preparing responses to the batches of inquiries about what really happened in Benghazi, Libya — before, during and after the terror attack...

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Stocks dropped in New York Thursday, as investors remained skittish after President Obama's re-election victory. The Dow Jones industrial average gave up more than 300 points Wednesday to fall below 13,000 as investors were bearish on election results that left Washington split with a Democratic president and Senate, and a Republican-controlled House.On Thursday, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank in September, dropping from a revised August trade gap of $43.8 billion to $41.5 billion.Stocks still fell. By close of trading, the DJIA was off 121.41 points or 0.94 percent to 12,811.32.The...

Hillary Clinton will step down as U.S. Secretary of State within 'days' of President Barack Obama's second inauguration in January, her spokesman said today. Her long-respected(?) departure is expected by most Democrats to be a prelude for a White House run in 2016, when she will be 69. The top candidate to replace her is believed to be Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the losing 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. …

Newsweek editor Tina Brown announced earlier this year that the magazine would transition from print to all-digital by early 2013, meaning that, excluding the following, the publication has one more issue to go. And you didn’t expect Newsweek, a magazine well-known for iconic, controversial, and bold covers, to go out without a bang, did you?

It’s final. We lost. Over the last eighteen months, we have fought the good fight and we have done our best to spread the message of smaller government and fiscal sanity. We did not lose this election to President Tee Time. We lost this election to a class of politically ignorant Americans.This is the group of people that pays little, if any, attention to politics until the first debate or even later. These are the people that get their news from the likes of Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, and Jon Stewart. The people that waste their time watching E! and...

Stock Market Falls Over Fiscal Cliff Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012Nov 08, 2012 - 01:37 PM By: PhilStockWorld Down 312 points yesterday. (121 again today) That's a hefty sell-off and we'll see if we get some follow-through but we pretty much hit our downside targets on the head in a single day as I said to Members in yesterday's Morning Alert: About 13,000 on the Dow. 1,400 on S&P, 2,980 on the Nas, 7,950 on NYSE and 800 on the RUT are about the lows we have to hold – all seem like good spots to go long to me...

NJ Gov. Chris Christie responds to Republican critics of his last-minute praise of President Obama's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy one week before the presidential election.

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh says that the real reason the GOP lost the presidential election is that “the Republican Party didn’t turn out its base" — not demographic issues involving black or Hispanic growth. “The Democrats think Republicans have a demography problem” and “all they want to do is win votes with old white guys,” Limbaugh said. But “the Republican Party has . . . far more elected Hispanics than the Democrats have.” Limbaugh noted that all of the prominent Hispanic speakers at the Republican National Convention shared a similar “up-from-nothing story” with convention attendees and the country. Limbaugh...

Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade. Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president. But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President. After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it...

The fiscal cliff would drive the U.S. economy back into recession next year and result in a jump in the jobless rate to 9.1% by the end of 2013, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office said. The CBO said economic output would drop by 0.5 percentage point in 2013 if Congress fails to act to avert the tax increases and spending cuts put in motion by an earlier deficit agreement. But the CBO added the U.S. economy would in the longer run return to better growth rates and lower employment. The CBO, the independent budget arm of Congress,...

Just as utility companies in the Northeast fixed power lines and some residents regained heat and electricity, another powerful storm rocked the New York area on Wednesday, sparking fears that the region could again plunge into darkness and freezing temperatures. Yahoo! News invited residents to share their short anecdotes and photos from the nor'easter. Here are some excerpts.

The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Smith, told the Arabic news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat that American foreign policy will now change after President Barack Obama's reelection. Smith made the comments at an election night party at his residence. Ambassador Smith "stressed the desire of President Obama to resolve a number of foreign issues, most notably restoring negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides, responding more strongly to Iran, and working with allies to end the Syrian crisis, (Snip) The ambassador appears not to have elaborated further.

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Hundreds of workers in our region are losing their jobs as wind turbine manufacturers cut production. The federal tax credit that subsidizes wind energy is set to expire at the end of the year, and political uncertainty is putting the brakes on the wind industry. More than 500 workers are losing their jobs in the Red River Valley. By the end of November, 345 workers who make wind turbine blades at a Grand Forks, N.D. factory will be out of work. Bill Burga, who heads manufacturing in North and South America for LM Wind Power, the Denmark-based...

Raising tax rates is "unacceptable" to House Speaker John Boehner as he prepares to open negotiations on the looming "fiscal cliff" with the president and congressional Democrats, he told "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer today in an exclusive interview. "Raising tax rates is unacceptable," Boehner, R-Ohio, said in his first broadcast interview since the election Tuesday. "Frankly, it couldn't even pass the House. I'm not sure it could pass the Senate." That stance could set up a real showdown with the White House given that the president has said he would veto any deal that does not allow tax cuts...

FEMA has already dispensed close to $200 million in emergency housing assistance and put 34,000 people in New York and New Jersey in hotels and motels. Still, city and state officials have not laid out an official plan with specifics to move the homeless into long-term housing in an already congested area.

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Rumor Has It We're Sending Humans Beyond The Moon Dina SpectorNov. 8, 2012, 3:55 PMNASA. The Orion capsule will carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before President Barack Obama is still in power, which is good news for NASA, whose budget, strategy and missions may have been revised under defeated Republication presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Space policy expert John Logsdon told Space.com's Mike Wall that plans to send humans to the far side of the moon have already been approved by the Obama administration, but were kept hush-hush in case Romney won Tuesday night's election. The plan...