Romney's Regal Residence

In recent months, Governor Mitt Romney has come under fire for not being able to connect to the middle class. The multimillionaire notorious for saying things like "Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs," and "Ten thousand dollars," has come received a lot of grief over his latest housing project. Romney is renovating his 3,000+ sq. foot house, by adding a 3,600 foot basement, an outdoor shower system, and a car elevator. Yes, a car elevator. In the Romney campaigns defense, car elevator just means a place to store cars where there isn't much space (according to them). The project had been put off until after the election (for obvious reasons), but was resumed, and is scheduled to be completed. Though it is uncertain whether Romney will plummet in the polls after this, or if it will affect his performance at all, it is almost certain that his opponents will go after him.



Credit to MSN for the image

The Legality of the Law

Fiery debates have ensued over the constitutionality of President Obama's healthcare bill (dubbed "Obamacare"). Protestors swarmed the streets of D. C., some in favor of Obamacare, and some opposed to it. The issue will be taken in up in the Supreme Court, but a final decision won't be reached until June. The health care bill, which mandates health care to each and every citizen of the U.S., has created a chasm between political parties. Supporters of Obamacare say that since everyone is admitted to the hospital, no matter what, it just equalizes the burden of paying for other people's health. Opponents say that this means the government is forcing everyone to buy something from private firms, which is unconstitutional. Though the current debate suggests the Supreme Court leaning towards striking down the bill, just a few days ago many people were certain it would uphold the law. A lot could happen between now and June.

Santorum Swears at NY Times Reporter

Today Rick Santorum lost his political innocence. The "family values" candidate lashed out at New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny. The candidate got mad at Zeleny for "distorting his words" (when in fact he used a quote from Santorum's speech). Santorum then proceeded to lash out with these harsh (and inappropriate) words: "Quit distorting my words. It's bulls***". After cursing a reporter who was just doing his job, and asking questions about Santorum's speech, you'd think it would be hard for him to continue to run as the family values candidate. You'd assume this would be a serious blow for the Santorum Campaign. Wrong! Santorum responded to this incident on fox news saying "Only real Republicans curse out New York Times Reporters". In fact he's turned this event into a fundraiser! Santorum has found a way to turn it around, and pretend that cursing someone who was just doing their job is a good thing. Santorum has turned this into "Help fight the New York Times" who has "attacked" Santorum. See what really happened in the video below.

Road to 1144: Louisiana

The Bayou State has chosen it's victor. With 100% of precincts in, as predicted, former senator Rick Santorum has won the Louisiana primary. Though Santorum won a majority of the eighteen delegates at stake, (the rest will be awarded the GOP Convention) it wasn't a complete victory. Louisiana State Constitution states that any candidate who gets 25% or more of the popular vote will be awarded delegates. Gov. Mitt Romney also did--barely--get 25% of the vote, meaning that he will also take home a share of the delegates at stake. So while these results are good for the Santorum campaign, it shows that even in a deep south "bible belt" state with a "blowout" victory,  far from winning all the delegates, he could not even win the 75% of the delegates that he needed to average for the nomination. He only got 13 delegates (65%). So while this is a big victory for Santorum, he's getting farther and farther away from a chance at 1,144 needed for nomination.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Candidate                                 delegates      # of votes       % of vote

Sen. Rick Santorum*	13 delegates   91,305	49%
Gov. Mitt Romney*	7 delgates      49,749	26.7%
Con. Newt Gingrich	0 delegates    29,655	15.9%
Con. Ron Paul	0 delegates     11,460	6.1%
Other	0 delegates      4,208	2.3%

*Will receive a share of delegates at stake

Original official results image source: Google (modified to current form)

Cover Image Source: Yahoo! News 

Louisiana… Fast!

The campaign trail has headed back to the deep south for the Louisiana Primary. After victories in Mississippi, and Alabama, Santorum is considered a favorite in the Louisiana Primary. He'll need it to prove that Romney is not the inevitable nominee, but right now the math shows that Romney is the inevitable nominee.  Since Romney has almost 2.3x as many delegates as Santorum does, Santorum will need to win almost 75% of the remaining delegates if he has any chance of becoming the nominee. It would take a miracle for something different to happen (which Santorum will be praying for). The latest Public Policy Polling poll in Louisiana shows Santorum with a fourteen point lead over Romney. Like most other states, Romney is likely to win the urban centers of populace, like New Orleans, and maybe Baton Rouge. It will be interesting do see how Romney does in another state in which the majority of republican voters identifiy themselves as very conservative.




Credit to Wikipedia for this image

Romney Advisor Etch-a-sketch's a Lopsided Picture

It's happened. The Romney Campaign has admitted it flip flops. Senior advisor to the Romney Campaign Eric Fehrnstrom had this to say when asked if Romney's views were too conservative: “everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again." Fehrnstrom, of course, is indicating that once Romney gains the Republican electorate, he will immediately flip his views to a more moderate stance. These comments enraged a increasingly discontented republican electorate, who are not particularly happy with the choice for republican candidate for president. The current choice is between an extremely social conservative, who criticizes Obama for not running a christian theology, a twice divorced adulterer , Ron Paul who's just… well Ron Paul, and finally Gov. Romney, who's now a self proclaimed serial flip flopper.


Credit to Gawker.com for the image