Newslinks for Tuesday Jan 31: Florida voters decide today
Posted on 01/31/2012Final Romney-Gingrich attacks before Floridians vote today
- ""He has been flailing around a bit trying to go after me for one thing or the other," Romney told supporters in a last-day stop in Dunedin, outside St. Petersburg. "You just watch it and shake your head. It has been kind of painfully revealing to watch."" - CNN
- "A defiant Newt Gingrich closed a rally Monday night by predicting “a decisive victory tomorrow” and slamming his favorite targets: the news media, GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama and Goldman Sachs." - WSJ
- Nate Silver predicts Romney will have 44% of the vote to Gingrich's 29%. Santorum should marginally beat Ron Paul into third.
Nearly 600,000 cast early votes in Florida - WSJ
Romney and Gingrich describe the first month of their administrations
"[B]oth men said one of their first acts would be to repeal President Obama's health care law. Gingrich said he also would ask Congress to remain in session before his swearing-in to repeal the Dodd-Frank overhaul of the financial services industry and the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law... In addition to Obama's health care law, Romney said he would give licenses to companies that have been approved for drilling for gas and oil on federal lands as well as issue an executive order saying that unions are not required to work on government projects." - National Journal
- Gingrich: I won’t debate Obama if the moderators are reporters - Hot Air
Romney appears to abandon entitlement reform
"At a campaign rally in Florida Monday evening, Mitt Romney told the crowd: "We will never go after Medicare and Social Security." Romney's remark is already causing some conservatives to despair that he is throwing entitlement reform under the bus in order to pander to seniors." - Weekly Standard
- Arthur Laffer: Newt's flat tax would do a lot more to attract capital, spur growth and reduce compliance costs - WSJ
Thomas Sowell accuses Romney of incorrectly attacking Gingrich
"Among the claims going out through the mass media in Florida, on the eve of that state's primary election, is that Newt Gingrich "resigned in disgrace"... His resignation was not due to those charges and occurred much later. Do the Romney camp and the Republican establishment not know this, a dozen years later? Or are they far less concerned with whether the charges will stand up than they are about smearing Gingrich on the eve of the Florida primaries?" - Thomas Sowell for TownHall
- "Mitt Romney has again mangled the facts about the ethics investigation of former House speaker Newt Gingrich and the circumstances surrounding his resignation." - Washington Post
- However, Gingrich got his facts wrong on Romney's record regarding Kosher nursing home food in Massachusetts - Commentary
Sen. Jon Kyl urges an end to negative attacks and warns against a long, drawn-out race
"“I’m concerned that if we don’t have a nominee earlier rather than later it could” hurt the GOP, said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who is unaligned in the race. “But maybe part of it depends on how they conduct themselves, and if they continue doing what they’ve been doing the past week, it probably wouldn’t be the best thing for the Republican nominee who eventually wins.”" - Politico
As candidates battle in Florida, Rick Santorum to watch from Las Vegas
"A Nevada Tea Party-cum-conservatives group run by Sharron Angle’s old boosters, T.R.U.N.C., is hosting Santorum for a Florida Primary results-watching party Tuesday night at the Santorum campaign’s Nevada headquarters... The event is doubling as a way to find and build an army of canvassers and callers to promote Santorum in the few days that remain before Nevada’s GOP caucuses on Saturday." - Las Vegas Sun
- Michelle Malkin endorses Rick Santorum
Ron Paul is trying to attract the Mormon vote- American Spectator
Fred Barnes says Jeb Bush is staying out of the 2012 race - for now - for three reasons
- "[H]aving not endorsed a candidate, Bush could emerge as an acceptable compromise nominee in the unlikely event there’s a deadlock between Romney and Gingrich at the GOP convention"
- "Second, he could play a unifying role as a vice presidential choice of either Romney or Gingrich. It’s significant he’s from Florida, a state that President Obama won in 2008... With Bush on the ticket, winning Florida would be all but assured. "
- "Third, Bush could play a kingmaker role in the Republican presidential race." - Fred Barnes for Weekly Standard
It is now technically impossible for a new challenger to win the GOP primary - Salon
George Soros: There’s not much difference between Obama and Romney - Hot Air
Ouch. Rick Perry’s campaign burned through MILLIONS in the final quarter of 2011
"Texas Gov. Rick Perry burned through the bulk of a once-sizable campaign war chest late last year in what became an increasingly desperate attempt to right his listing — and ultimately doomed — presidential campaign, federal financial disclosures released late Monday show... Perry’s campaign had more than $15 million cash on hand in early October. By the year’s end, that dwindled to less than $3.77 million." - Politico
House GOP closer to vote on making English the official language
"Spurred by Republicans running for the White House, GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill are moving closer to a vote that would make English the official language of the United States. Republicans believe a vote on the bipartisan measure would put the Obama administration on the defensive. President Obama voted against the effort when he served in the Senate." - The Hill
Jonah Goldberg: Liberals are using a confrontation between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Obama to make cheap racial points - LA Times
David Brooks: Over the last 50 years, America's rich and poor have become segregated from each other - with terrible consequences
"Roughly 7 percent of the white kids in the upper tribe are born out of wedlock, compared with roughly 45 percent of the kids in the lower tribe. In the upper tribe, nearly every man aged 30 to 49 is in the labor force. In the lower tribe, men in their prime working ages have been steadily dropping out of the labor force, in good times and bad. People in the lower tribe are much less likely to get married, less likely to go to church, less likely to be active in their communities, more likely to watch TV excessively, more likely to be obese." - David Brooks for the New York Times
And finally... A sing-off between Romney and Obama - BuzzFeed
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