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By Richard Reeves — It would seem that the United States has a five-party system right now. What was done in Iowa last Tuesday could unravel in New Hampshire, but whatever happens next, the United States is more politically fractured than it has been in decades.
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RJ Matson, Cagle Cartoons, The St. Louis Post Dispatch —
Posted on Jan 5, 2012
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Bob Englehart, Cagle Cartoons, The Hartford Courant —
Posted on Jan 5, 2012
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 AP / Charles Dharapak
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Fresh off his historically narrow victory in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential pageant favorite Mitt Romney beefed up his attack rhetoric against his would-be opponent, Barack Obama, on Thursday by lashing out against the president’s latest big appointments.
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 AP photos by Chis Carlson and Charlie Riedel
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By Bill Boyarsky — Of the two top finishers in the Iowa Republican caucuses, it’s hard to tell who is worse: Mitt Romney, the eight-vote winner, or Rick Santorum.
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By Eugene Robinson — Mitt Romney and his backers decided that to win in Iowa they had to destroy Newt Gingrich’s campaign. Now Gingrich looks eager—and able—to return the favor.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By Amy Goodman — The Republican caucuses in Iowa, with their cliffhanger ending, confirmed two key political points and left a third virtually ignored.
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 White House / Pete Souza
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It’s expected that the people who brought you President Barack Obama, including the commander in chief himself, would be shifting into attack mode in preparation for the height of campaign season, and their main target is looking a lot like Mitt Romney.
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 AP / Jim Cole
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The contest for the Republican presidential nomination just got a little less kooky with the subtraction of Michele Bachmann from the mix. On Wednesday, after the previous night’s Iowa caucus results found Mitt Romney in the top spot, the Minnesota congresswoman and staunch anti-socialist announced she was bowing out of the race.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although there’s already been some infighting among the ranks of this election cycle’s Republican presidential hopefuls, it’s going to get only crazier from here on out. And with candidates’ fates shifting as quickly as they have this time around (Herman who?), you can bet that rival GOP camps are going to do their darndest to stir up the drama.
Posted on Jan 3, 2012
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It’s Iowa Caucus Day, everyone—can you feel the excitement? Now, you’ve probably heard a lot of white noise coming from certain other outlets that shall remain nameless about the GOP’s big campaign 2012 kickoff extravaganza, so here’s some welcome commentary to cut through all that from some smart people who do have a clue.
Posted on Jan 3, 2012
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Joe Klein points out that the newfound anonymity of attack ads, made possible by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows faceless money conglomerates to run ads on a candidate’s behalf without the usual “I approved this message,” makes for much “more effective and brutal” adverts.
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 Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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As of Monday morning, just a tad over 24 hours before Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, the balance of power among the top GOP presidential candidates had once again shifted. Most surprising was the reemergence of Rick Santorum—remember him?—as an actual contender.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY)
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Observers credit a spate of attack ads for Newt Gingrich’s recent tumble—and Mitt Romney’s rise—in Iowa polls ahead of the state’s Republican caucus. But where did they come from? Not Romney’s campaign, but rather a PAC staffed by former Romney insiders and empowered by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling to spend as much as it likes to destroy his opponents.
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Does America need a third political party? The backlash against Obama on the left and the tepid support for Romney (the “anyone but Romney” vote has gone from Bachmann to Perry to Cain to Gingrich) would seem to make this a fine time for an independent party to emerge.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although Ron Paul leads in some polls and Rick Santorum of all people has started to gain steam, CNN has Mitt Romney winning the Iowa caucuses. A win in Iowa could make Romney’s nomination appear inevitable, as he holds a 27 point lead over his nearest competitor in the New Hampshire primary.
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 White House / Pete Souza
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The GOP is engaged in a wholesale effort to redefine the government help that Americans take for granted as an effort to create a radically new, statist society.
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 bbeanan (CC-BY)
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To refashion an old phrase: “There are lies, damned lies, then yarns spun by Mitt Romney.” This is the gist of a recent post by Paul Krugman, who points to falsehoods recently uttered by the Republican presidential hopeful to predict new lows in a new era of fact distortion wrought by those seeking the helm of the highest level of federal government.
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 AP / Jim Cole
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By Bill Boyarsky — While the Iowa Republican caucuses might not tell us much about who will win the party’s presidential nomination, they already reveal plenty about how the new world of unlimited campaign contributions is corrupting politics.
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Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Dec 22, 2011
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Sure, he’s tall and suave (for a Republican), and fine, his politics resonate on at least an acceptable level in GOP circles, except for that whole health care thing, but Monday, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney faced one of the biggest litmus tests for today’s politician: cracking wise on late-night TV.
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 Eric Kilby (CC-BY-SA)
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By Eugene Robinson — It’s late at night when the phone rings at the White House: Kim Jong Il, the ruthless, oddball dictator of nuclear-armed North Korea, is dead.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Stat whiz Nate Silver is currently projecting Ron Paul to win the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney trails by 24 points in Silver’s projection as of this posting.
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Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Dec 18, 2011
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By Eugene Robinson — Can we please bury the notion that Newt Gingrich is some kind of deep thinker? His intellect may be as broad as the sea, but it’s about as deep as a birdbath.
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In this lively snippet from Wednesday’s “Daily Show,” Jon Stewart takes stock of the ballsiness—at times to the point of complete delusion—on display this week from the likes of Herman Cain (remember him?), who made Barbara Walters lose her cool, Mitt Romney and President Obama. Well, maybe not that last one.
Posted on Dec 15, 2011
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The GOP’s remaining presidential candidates had yet another debate on Saturday night, just in case there was anything any of them still needed to comment about at length that might tip the balance in their quest for the Republican nomination.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Although it’s still early in the presidential campaign season, this go-round has already brought some surprises, especially from the GOP. We’ve seen Rick Perry’s debate debacle and the end of the Cain Train, but Newt Gingrich’s unlikely rise also befuddles many politicos.
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By Eugene Robinson — I guess I was wrong. I thought Republicans surely would have come to their senses by now. Instead, they seem to be rushing deeper into madness.
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Um, how did we miss this? Maybe you meme-savvy readers out there already caught this hilarious “Bad Lip Reading” spoof video of Ron Paul doing his best to win voters over by declaring, “I helped a fuzzy dude cut a piece of fruit,” among other absurdities, but it’s a must-see for sure.
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RJ Matson, Cagle Cartoons, The St. Louis Post Dispatch —
Posted on Dec 6, 2011
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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This person would have populist appeal, would have bought and be willing to sell the notion that Obama is a socialist and would probably not have a clue, according to The New York Times’ clued-in columnist Paul Krugman. Yes, we’re talking about the prototype for the GOP presidential hopeful of tomorrow—as in 2012.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The contest for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has been described as a reality show and a circus. But what’s happening inside the GOP is quite rational and easily explained.
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Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons —
Posted on Dec 4, 2011
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 Jonathan Kos-Read (CC-BY-ND)
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By Eugene Robinson — Even the briefest acquaintance with this smoggy, sprawling capital is basis enough to conclude that much of the campaign rhetoric we’re hearing about China is unrealistic, dishonest or just dumb.
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 DonkeyHotey (CC-BY-SA)
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By Eugene Robinson — Maybe Jon Huntsman will be the next candidate to see a meteoric rise and fall in his poll numbers. Pretty soon, though, we’re going to run out of meteors.
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 Wikimedia Commons, Richard L. Holzhausen
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A progressive, sensitive and highly rational Romney? Yes, but you have to skip Mitt and go all the way back to the words of his father George to make the connection.
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 Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By Joe Conason — Tasteless and questionable as it was for CNN to “co-sponsor” a Republican presidential debate with a pair of right-wing Washington think-tanks, at least the branding was accurate.
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 writRHET (CC-BY)
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Pew researchers discovered that the number of religious groups lobbying politicians in Washington, D.C., has increased 500 percent in the past four decades, from fewer than 40 in 1970 to more than 200 today. With more than 1,000 lobbyists vying for the ears of Congress members, the groups together spend more than $390 million a year ... (more)
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 YouTube
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For its first official foray into the Campaign 2012 TV ad space, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s publicity team decided to take a phrase Barack Obama once used as a quotation clearly sourced to someone else and attribute it to Obama himself. But relax everyone, it was on purpose!
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Paresh Nath, Cagle Cartoons, The Khaleej Times, UAE —
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 Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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Here’s a Republican-backed method to cure all that ails the country: Close your eyes, get to your happy place, and invoke the time-honored mantra America is special until you forget you don’t have a job and various segments of the world’s population think the U.S. has acted a little sketchy lately.
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 Wikimedia Commons / Brian Stansberry (CC-BY)
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We’re not interested in horse-race politics, but it is worth noting that all those pesky sexual harassment allegations haven’t stopped the Cain Train yet. In a CBS News poll, Herman Cain still held on to the lead in the GOP lineup, but Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich nipped at his heels.
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