Showing posts with label Mitt Romney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mitt Romney. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Huck pulls out::::Ron Paul leaps in with a sure-fire way to energize the rights and tea-party--legalize heroin:::::Trump stumps::::::Newt Leaps in:::::And now, all the contenders will draw a bead on Mitt

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
Illustration by Jack Brummet



Ex-Governor Mike Huckabee today pulled out of the Presidential contest.  I was surprised, although he has clearly been waffling, and his consultant Ed Rollins hinted this week that Huck was a no-go.  This is a definite game-changer.

“All the factors say go, but my heart says no and that’s the decision I have made,” he said.  Huckabee stressed the decision was not financial (many pundits have noted the vast amount of money he has made in the last couple of years on books and Fox--and he is building a very expensive home in Florida), or political.  He said his family urged him to run.  The polls showed he was a serious contender and that he could draw voters from outside the south and wingnut arm of the GOP.  He is known to really dislike fundraising, but was convinced recently that he could raise the cash for a serious run.  I'll admit, I don't agree with much--if anything--he says, but he has always seemed by far the most likable of that entire crowd. 


In the meantime, of the serious candidates, Pawlenty is in, Mitt is in, and Newt Gingrich is in.  Interestingly, Jon Ward, on the Huffington Post wrote today that "Perhaps no one will benefit more than Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) if she decides to run. She has the capability -- probably more than any other potential GOP candidate -- to unite social conservatives in Iowa in the manner Huckabee did last election."  God forbid!

It's always fun to watch the Republicans when they are out in the cold.  They start acting like Democrats.  I suspect everyone's gunsights (to use Sarah Palin's metaphor) will be focused squarely on Mitt Romney, who sometimes at least, seems to be the only possibly electable one of the entire pathetic bunch.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Ex-Governor Palin riding low in the water & high in the polls

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
& Jack Brummet, Social Mores & Ethics Editor




Holy S***t!    People laughed when Jack wrote a year and a half ago that Sarah Palin had a serious shot at succeeding President Barack Obama--after one term.  Pablo laughed, and didn't take his jabbering as half-serious...it was just Jack being contrarian Jack.   But then, a few months later, the Teabag movement began gathering momentum, Sarah Palin had sold millions of books, and piled away millions of dollars. She was making highly paid speeches.  She's been racing around the country and beating the drum for teabagger-approved candidates. 

This recent Gallup Poll raised the collective hairs on our necks. 



We haven't seen any recent Palin-Obama head to head polls, but this is feeling more than a little spooky.  The juggernaut we all thought would blow itself out by now is still picking up steam.  Even Levi is back on the bus.
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Friday, July 16, 2010

Opening 2012 dustup: Romney v. Palin

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
on assignment in New Orleans















Yesterday, a Romney insider told Time Magazine that they "do not believe Sarah Palin is a ’serious human being,'."  Politico called someone in the Ex-Alaska Governor's camp, where they were told that comment was “frankly immature."  Romney more or less Tweeted an apology.

I suspect there will be lots of great back and forth between the Palin camp and all the (so far) many other candidates.  Ex-Governor Palin is definitely on steadier ground when she can have the ghost-writers cook up her press releases.  But, I for one, mainly look forward to her debate performances.  Read more at one of my favorite political snark sites:  Wonkette
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Friday, June 12, 2009

Clown Wars: Pablo Fanque reports on the factionalism, disarray, depression, hopelessness, and continuing losing prospects of The Republican Party


Click the Governor to enlarge

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor


[Pablo Fanque's work appears in numerous journals, blogs, books, and at times, on the sides of buses and even scrawled in bathroom stalls and phone booths. After working as a community organizer for two years in southeast King County, near Seattle, he began his college education. After his expulsion from Harvard University in 1977, Fanque continued (and even completed) college while working in the publishing business, in San Francisco, New York City, and in the Pacific Northwest. Pablo's artistic output includes hundreds of paintings and drawings, including his monumental "Heads," consisting of 150 canvases, each with 16 or 96 portraits. He has completed, and is now revising his next book, "The King Begins To Falter." Fanque met Jack Brummet in 2004 at a rock show in Austin, Texas, and they have been friends, and collaborators, ever since.]

How can we analyze or understand the dissension, disarray, division, and decimation visited upon the Republican Party in the last year or two? When Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich emerge as the charming and likable voices of moderation and reason, you know the party has come off the rails. A simple enumeration of the [unelected] voices of the party tells the sad story:

Sean Hannity
Michael Steele (who surely will be shuffled out the door sooner rather than later)
Jon Voight
Rush "Oxy" Limbaugh

Liz Cheney

There are even a few elected Republican voices:

Sarah Palin
Haley Barbour (he's been visiting New Hampshire and Iowa already)
John Boehner
Tim Pawlenty
Mitch McConnell
Bobby Jindal (but let's face it, his pathetic performance in his state of the union rebuttal pushed him back into the wings)
John McCain

And then there are one-time elected Republicans, some of who hope to leap back into the fray, or even make the leap into The Oval Office:

Mitt Romney
Newt Gingrich
Dick Cheney
Mike Huckabee (who feels like the front runner, along with Gingrich, and Governor Palin).
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared at a Republican congressional fundraiser Monday night, ending a long and drawn out will-she-or-won't-she mystery that, in the end, probably overshadowed the event and left the GOP even more frustrated and in greater disarray than before.

Palin -- the party's disastrous 2008 VP nominee--was originally scheduled to headline the annual Senate-House dinner. She was shunted aside in favor of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. After that, Governor Palin left the organizers hanging in the wind...even as late as Monday afternoon. [This is not the first time Palin has thrown a public tantrum over not being allowed to speak. Remember Election Night? Palin expected to give a speech, but soon learned that no losing VP candidate gives a speech on election night, particularly when they violated the VP Hippocratic oath--Do No Harm.] Let's face it. . .the GOP slapped a muzzle on the pitbull with lipstick. Last week, when it started to look like a real event, Palin's advisers told the RNCC she would be near Washington and would like to come. Uh-oh.

Republican officials involved in the discussions (who spoke on condition of anonymity--natch, because of the sensitivity of the matter), said Palin was invited to sit at a head table but would not be given the chance to speak. The GOP was worried that she might swamp, or out-maverick, Newt Gingrich. Granted, Newt isn't exactly a dynamo on the rostrum, but if you're sweating Governor Palin overshadowing you at a Republican dinner, well, friendo, your Presidential dreams are ashes.

Palin didn't like this turn of affairs one bit, and did not make clear whether she would refuse to attend, officials say. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, made a personal appeal over the weekend for her to attend and invited her and her husband, Todd Palin, to sit at the big boys' table.

Late Monday afternoon, Palin's aides informed the organizers that she and her husband would attend, although a spokeswoman for the governor's political committee would not confirm that.

Palin has her eyes on the White House in 2012. In March, the National Republican Congressional Committee, put out a news release saying that Palin would be the keynote speaker at the dinner--one of the party's largest fundraisers. Palin's representatives then weaseled, saying the governor wanted to make sure the event did not interfere with state business. Right.

It can't have helped Palin's cause that she is being accused of plagiarizing Dick Cheney's speeches (or that she is embroiled in a very public pissing match with David Letterman.) I don't know about that one. I've just always kind of assumed, when there is any content in her speeches and edicts, it was lifted from elsewhere. She is accused of snagging a substantial portion of a speech from Newt Gingrich--the man she will eventually run against in the primaries.
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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Mitt Romney has exited the Presidential race to avoid surrender in the war on terror


Click to enlarge - stunned Romney supporters react to news
of his withdrawal at a rally this morning

Mitt Romney today suspended his campaign for President. He said he quit because to continue increases the chances one of the Democratic candidates will surrender to "our enemies." His entire speech follows, below.

"I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Governor Romney’s Address to the Conservative Political Action Committee – February 7, 2008

I want to begin by saying thank you. It’s great to be with you again. And I look forward to joining with you many more times in the future.

Last year, CPAC gave me the sendoff I needed. I was in single digits in the polls and I was facing household Republican names. As of today, more than 4 million people have given me their vote for president, less than Senator McCain’s 4.7 million, but quite a statement nonetheless. 11 states have given me their nod, compared to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he’s doing quite a bit better with his number of delegates.

To all of you, thank you for caring enough about the future of America to show up, stand up and speak up for conservative principles.

As I said to you last year, conservative principles are needed now more than ever. We face a new generation of challenges, challenges which threaten our prosperity, our security and our future. I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st century—still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world, no longer the superpower. And to me, that is unthinkable. Simon Peres, in a visit to Boston, was asked what he thought about the war in Iraq. “First,” he said, “I must put something in context. America is unique in the history of the world. In the history of the world, whenever there has been conflict, the nation that wins takes land from the nation that loses. One nation in history, and this during the last century, laid down hundreds of thousands of lives and took no land. No land from Germany, no land from Japan, no land from Korea. America is unique in the sacrifice it has made for liberty, for itself and for freedom loving people around the world.” The best ally peace has ever known, and will ever know, is a strong America!

And that is why we must rise to the occasion, as we have always done before, to confront the challenges ahead. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is the attack on the American culture.

Over the years, my business has taken me to many countries. I have been struck by the enormous differences in the wealth and well-being of people of different nations. I have read a number of scholarly explanations for the disparities. I found the most convincing was that written by David Landes, a professor emeritus from Harvard University. I presume he’s a liberal–I guess that’s redundant. His work traces the coming and going of great civilizations throughout history. After hundreds of pages of analysis, he concludes with this:
If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference.

What is it about American culture that has led us to become the most powerful nation in the history of the world? We believe in hard work and education. We love opportunity: almost all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came here for opportunity—opportunity is in our DNA. Americans love God, and those who don’t have faith, typically believe in something greater than themselves—a “Purpose Driven Life.” And we sacrifice everything we have, even our lives, for our families, our freedoms and our country. The values and beliefs of the free American people are the source of our nation’s strength and they always will be!

The threat to our culture comes from within. The 1960’s welfare programs created a culture of poverty. Some think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven’t given up. At every turn, they try to substitute government largesse for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and to remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug—we have got to fight it like the poison it is!

The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography—even celebration of it—and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today’s grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school—and in life. A nation built on the principles of the founding fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home.

The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it!

Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That is the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life and eroded morality. Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America’s vitality; we know that it is the source of our strength. And we are not dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values, and morality, and culture. We will always be honored to stand on principle and to stand for principle.

The attack on our culture is not our sole challenge. We face economic competition unlike anything we have ever known before. China and Asia are emerging from centuries of poverty. Their people are plentiful, innovative, and ambitious. If we do not change course, Asia or China will pass us by as the economic superpower, just as we passed England and France during the last century. The prosperity and security of our children and grandchildren depend on us.

Our prosperity and security also depend on finally acting to become energy secure. Oil producing states like Russia and Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran are siphoning over $400 billion per year from our economy—that’s almost what we spend annually for defense. It is past time for us to invest in energy technology, nuclear power, clean coal, liquid coal, renewable sources and energy efficiency. America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez, and Ahmendinejad.

And our economy is also burdened by the inexorable ramping of government spending. Don’t focus on the pork alone—even though it is indeed irritating and shameful. Look at the entitlements. `They make up 60% of federal spending today. By the end of the next President’s second term, they will total 70%. Any conservative plan for the future has to include entitlement reform that solves the problem, not just acknowledges it.

Most politicians don’t seem to understand the connection between our ability to compete and our national wealth, and the wealth of our families. They act as if money just happens–that it’s just there. But every dollar represents a good or service produced in the private sector. Depress the private sector and you depress the well-being of Americans.

That’s exactly what happens with high taxes, over-regulation, tort windfalls, mandates, and overfed, over-spending government. Did you see that today, government workers make more money than people who work in the private sector. Can you imagine what happens to an economy where the best opportunities are for bureaucrats?

It’s high time to lower taxes, including corporate taxes, to take a weed-whacker to government regulations, to reform entitlements, and to stand up to the increasingly voracious appetite of the unions in our government!

And finally, let’s consider the greatest challenge facing America—and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the world of Islam, there is a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These Jihadists will battle any form of democracy—to them, democracy is blasphemous for it says that citizens, not God shape the law. They find the idea of human equality to be offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical Jihad.

To battle this threat, we have sent the most courageous and brave soldiers in the world. But their numbers have been depleted by the Clinton years when troops were reduced by 500,000, when 80 ships were retired from the Navy, and when our human intelligence was slashed by 25%. We were told that we were getting a peace dividend. We got the dividend, but we didn’t get the peace. In the face of evil in radical Jihad and given the inevitable military ambitions of China, we must act to rebuild our military might. Raise military spending to 4% of our GDP, purchase the most modern armament, re-shape our fighting forces for the asymmetric demands we now face, and give the veterans the care they deserve!

Soon, the face of liberalism in America will have a new name. Whether it is Barack or Hillary, the result would be the same if they were to win the Presidency. The opponents of American culture would push the throttle, devising new justifications for judges to depart from the constitution. Economic neophytes would layer heavier and heavier burdens on employers and families, slowing our economy and opening the way for foreign competition to further erode our lead.

Even though we face an uphill fight, I know that many in this room are fully behind my campaign.” You are with me all the way to the convention. Fight on, just like Ronald Reagan did in 1976. But there is an important difference from 1976: today… we are a nation at war.

And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child’s play. About this, I have no doubt.

I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters… many of you right here in this room… have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.

I will continue to stand for conservative principles; I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next President of the United States to retreat in the face evil extremism!!

It is the common task of each generation—and the burden of liberty—to preserve this country, expand its freedoms and renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future.

To this task… accepting this burden… we are all dedicated, and I firmly believe, by the providence of the Almighty, that we will succeed beyond our fondest hope. America must remain, as it has always been, the hope of the earth.

Thank you, and God bless America.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Day We've Been Anticipating & Dreading::::::43 Presidential Contests In 24 States


click to enlarge

Maybe this will all be settled by Wednesday morning. The polls seen to say no, but they've been very wrong before in this race. With the Republican winner-take-all system, it may well be decided on their end. We Dems, however, like the fractiousness of proportional primaries, and as a result our contect will likely NOT be settled tomorrow. Maybe it will be settled enough that I can return to the happier days of made-up stories, alien lore, poetry, and parody, instead of obsessing over a bunch of rich people seeking glory who could care less if we woke up tomorrow.
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Friday, January 04, 2008

Huckabee & Obama take the Iowa contest


click the winners to enlarge

Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama took the Republican and Democratic caucus votes in Iowa on Wednesday, and in the Democratic race, left Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd on the sidelines, as they dropped out of the race. Mitt Romney is sweating. Hillary Clinton "the electable one" is really sweating. John Edwards feels OK. He survived another day. Rudy? McCain? Richardson? The rest of the pack? Hanging on by their fingernails, or mired in the back where they've always been...
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Monday, August 13, 2007

The Iowa Straw Poll - Romney wins; Huckabee snags second


The ex-Governor


Mitt Romney won the Ames straw poll this weekend because a) he was dogged; and b) he has money.


The Governor

With a somewhat convincing victory in the Republican straw poll in Ames, Iowa Saturday, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney launched himself into the next phase of a presidential nomination battle pitting his traditional early-state strategy against a more unorthodox (a/k/a wacky) approach by national front-runner Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Romney's win in the nonbinding Ames contest, sealed by his appeals to the party's conservative base and throwing money all around the state, highlighted his attempt to focus time and people on the opening states of Iowa and New Hampshire, in hopes early victories there will give him The Big Mo. It's worked plenty of times before, but this one is looking to be a strange race indeed.

Giuliani, who is in the doghouse with the traditional GOP folks, and the Neocons, ducked Iowa and is placing his bets on the big states that hold their contests in late January and on the first Tuesday in February.

Romney said the margin of victory represented a major validation of his strategy (saturation coverage of the states + big money infusions. Since three of his major rivals skipped the poll, Romney visited the state 17 times, spent big, and emerged the victor.

In a press conference, Romney taunted the missing. “It’s too bad the other guys weren’t competing here… but they ‘d have played if they thought they could have won,” he said.

Second place went to Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. “We had two fish and five loaves and it fed 5,000,” Huckabee said of his victory. Whether this enables Huckabee to raise huis national profile and raise the all important $$$ remains to be seen. Huck doesn't seem to like fund raising much, and he has virtually no internet visibility.

Several of the second and third tier candidates came close to betting the farm on Iowa and came up with bupkus. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, had earlier said he would drop out of the race if he did not place at least second. See you around, Tommy.
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

None of the above: the top Republican Presidential candidate


Lanky Link is turning triple axels in his grave, considering the
shambles into which his beloved party has fallen

A recent A.P./Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of all Republicans are unwilling to back any of the top four hopefuls—Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain or Mitt Romney—and that nary a candidate is a clear front-runner among Christian evangelicals. The top vote-getter in the G.O.P., so far, is "none of the above."


The moribund G.O.P. not only can't make up their minds about a candidate, but they seem to he hanging onto their shekels, piastres, and pesos. The Democrats have thus far raised far more cash--$80 million against a meager $50 million in the most recent quarter, as they also did in the previous period (Jan.-March 2007).

"Democrats are reasonably comfortable with the range of choices. The Democratic attitude is that three or four of these guys would be fine," David Redlawsk, a University of Iowa political scientist. "The Republicans don't have that; particularly among the conservatives there's a real split."


More Republicans have become apathetic about their options over the past month. 23 percent can't or won't say which candidate they would back, a jump from the 14 percent who took a pass in June.

Interestingly for the party of "the family," the three-times married Giuliani was still at the top of the polls, followed by Fred Thompson and John McCain, who have each been married twice. Mrs. Giuliani was even recently forced to admit thatRudy was actually her own third marriage. The candidate--Mitt Romney--who actually remained married for 30 years was at the bottom of the polls, in the single digits.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Republicans And Democrats Are Running Scared Re: Mitt Romney



1. WASHINGTON (AP) By LIZ SIDOTI - Republican John McCain accused presidential rival Mitt Romney of flip-flopping on immigration Monday and said with sarcasm: "Maybe his solution will be to get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn." [All This Is That Editor's note: Sen. McCain is really referring here to two separate roadbumps the Romney campaign has encountered on the road to the White House

2. WASHINGTON (AP) By LIZ SIDOTI - McCain said: "Maybe I should wait a couple of weeks and see if it changes because it's changed in less than a year from his position before."



3. Reverend Al Sharpton on Paula Zahn's TV program on CNN - "If prior to `65, `78, whenever it was, they did not see blacks as equal, I do not believe that as real worshipers of God, because I do not believe God distinguishes between people. That`s not bigotry. That`s responding to their bigotry."




4. Rev. Sharpton in his debate with Christopher Hitchens: "As for the one running -- the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway. So don`t worry about that."

5
. Christopher Hitchens in his new book, "God Is Not Great": "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—hereafter known as the Mormons—was founded by a gifted opportunist who, despite couching his text in openly plagiarized Christian terms, announced that "I shall be to this generation a new Muhammad" and adopted as his fighting slogan the words, which he thought he had learned from Islam, "Either the Al-Koran or the sword."
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Thursday, April 05, 2007

As We Predicted, The Romney Campaign Surges

Yeah, the early polls showed him seriously lagging behind Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. And you had to wonder. . .if he couldn't make inroads on those two knuckleheads, maybe he really didn't have the mojo after all. But on Monday, Mitt Romney burst into full bloom with his announcement that his campaign had netted a stunning $23 million that rivaled the $26 million previously announced by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, and now, today, the $25 million raised by Barack Hussein Obama. And he did it with name recognition far below his two Republican rivals. It's getting interesting on both sides!
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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Front-runners Clinton and McCain losing ground fast/All This Is That's dark horses are mired in the back of the pack


click to enlarge the front runners, climbers,
fallers, & dark horses.

A Newsweek magazine poll released on Saturday shows Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani (more or less tied with John McCain in a January poll) with a 25-point lead over Arizona Senator McCain. Republicans--59 percent--said they backed the former NYC mayor and 34 percent chose McCain. That doesn't leave much for Mitt Romney, who I still feel is a viable dark horse, and who has yet to really emerge from the pack. The magazine notes that ""Most registered Republicans are not familiar with Giuliani's positions on key social issues," mentioning specifically his support for abortion rights and gun control.

Another (Newsweek) poll of registered Democrats shows Sen. Barack Obama chiseling away at fellow Senator Hillary Clinton's lead. In the latest poll, it's 52% Clinton vs. 38% Obama. Again, not much room in there for the dark horse, John Edwards. Or the rest of the vast pack, including Bill Richardson, et al.




Click to enlarge - The real dark horse? Al, if
you do run, bring back the beard. It makes you
look more avuncular, and it's been 91 years
since the last bearded man (Charles Evan
Hughes) ran for President.

Perhaps the real dark horse on the Dem side is the 800 pound gorilla and Oscar winner, Al Gore. He's being coy about a run, but he keeps showing up in all the right places. Is he just laying low, waiting for Obama and Clinton to cut each other to ribbons and/or self-destruct? We may not know for a few months.
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