295 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
Governor Mitt Romney won an impressive come back victory in Michigan last night. Coming out of New Hampshire, Michigan turned into a close battleground between Governor Romney and Senator McCain.
As the week progressed, Governor Romney hit his stride and won the state outright and won at least 12 of the 15 congressional districts throughout the state.
Mitt Romney came in first, John McCain second and Mike Huckabee broke the 15% thresh-hold coming in third and qualifying for delegates. No other candidates qualified for any delegates from Michigan.
Michigan sets the stage for upcoming GOP contests. We are the first state where the candidates had to compete for Michigan's diverse and more unpredictable voters.
Michigan's issues and economy took center stage. We are the first large industrial state in which these candidates had to compete. They have to come in with a very local and specific message and address Michigan's unique situation.
Michigan looks more like the rest of America. Michigan is socially, economically and culturally diverse, the most so of any of the early states. That's why Michigan is an important test for the Republican field. Doing well in Michigan is a pretty good indicator of doing well across the nation.
Winners to date are:
Iowa: Huckabee
Wyoming: Romney
New Hampshire: McCain
Michigan: Romney
Now on to South Carolina and Nevada…followed by Florida and on to Super Tuesday.
Below is the press release we issued after the results came out.
Senator Hillary Clinton barely pulled out a victory of “uncommitted”. Exit polls showed that an overwhelming majority of African American voters voted “uncommitted” against Senator Clinton. This could be a devastating trend for Senator Clinton.
The Democrats “missed” the debate on the economy and jobs in Michigan and elsewhere. The Democrats ignored our state…ignored the debate…ignored the economic challenges ahead and still don’t get what it takes to create jobs.
I think the results in Michigan are a great sign of how competitive Michigan will be. Michigan’s independent voters make the difference and we have set the groundwork to take our Republican message through November!
THE REST OF THE STORY:
MICHIGAN SETS TONE FOR GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Economy, Manufacturing Take Center Stage As Candidates Crisscross State
Michigan Will Allocate 60 Delegates to the National Convention
LANSING, MI – Michigan took center stage tonight in the 2008 race for the White House and has set the tone for the upcoming GOP Presidential contests across the nation as the leading Republican contenders made state’s faltering economy and fate of its domestic automotive manufacturers central campaign issues.
In a close-fought victory, native-son Governor Mitt Romney won an important contest here tonight. Governor Romney was able to build on his success as state governor, business turnaround expert, and rescuer of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to finish first in Michigan.
“I congratulate Governor Romney on an impressive victory in his boyhood state,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius “Saul” Anuzis. “Michigan has set the stage for the rest of the GOP contests across the country. Governor Romney leads the delegate count and has won here in Michigan, an important swing state in the general election.”
Michigan is the first industrial state to hold a Presidential Primary in the 2008 election cycle. The state’s economy and socially diverse voters are key tests on how a Republican will fair across the nation in the general election.
Signaling the importance Michigan’s automotive industry has on the economy as a whole, all of the leading Republican candidates toured the coveted North American International Auto Show in Detroit Monday, capping off a whirlwind week of campaigning in the Great Lakes state. In a departure from the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, candidates focused in on Michigan’s lagging economy and the future of the state’s homegrown auto manufacturers.
Anuzis added that moving Michigan’s Presidential Primary up to Jan. 15 has been successful in challenging candidates to more succinctly hone their message in this political bellwether state known for its independent-minded voters – and home of the Reagan Democrats.
“Michigan is bellwether for the rest of the country, and today’s ensure that Michigan will be a key battleground state in the general election,” Anuzis said.
The Michigan Republican Party will allocate 60 national delegates to the Republican National convention in Minnesota-St. Paul: 45 regular; 12 at-large; and, three RNC member delegates.
Regular delegates are allocated “winner take all” by congressional district. Meaning, the winner of each of Michigan’s 15 Congressional Districts will receive the three delegates from that district. The proportion of the statewide vote that was cast for each candidate allocates the 12 at-large delegates. Candidates need at least 15-percent of the total votes cast to qualify for a portion of the at-large delegates. Finally, the RNC-member delegates – Chairman Anuzis, National Committeewoman Holly Hughes, and National Committeeman Chuck Yob – are uncommitted delegates to the national convention.
Due to many of the congressional districts overlapping different counties and cities official delegate results will not be announced immediately after the polls close. Based on a unanimous vote of the Michigan Republican State Committee, the Michigan Republican Party will allocate and send its entire delegation of 60 delegates to the national convention.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/OPINION01/801160398/1022/POLITICS
Editorial: Romney's economic optimism prevails in Michigan primary
Detroit News
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
It's the economy, again -- a sign of the times and perhaps the times to come. Michigan voters, who in 2006 went to the polls disillusioned by the war in Iraq, angry about runaway federal spending and disgusted by the performance of the Bush administration, Tuesday cast their ballots mostly with their pocketbooks in mind. The optimistic economic message former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney brought to his native state was a big reason he finished on top of Tuesday's Republican primary here. A solid majority of both Republican and Democratic primary voters said their motivating issue was the economy, according to the National Election Pool exit poll.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS15/80115110/1215/NEWS15
MITT ROMNEY TAKES MICHIGAN
Clinton has easy win in Democratic primary over 'uncommitted'
January 15, 2008
By TODD SPANGLER
UPDATED AT 9:20 p.m.: Winning his first major contest of the political season, Mitt Romney took Michigan's Republican presidential nod tonight, beating out Arizona Sen. John McCain and breathing a bit of life back into his campaign to be the GOP nominee. "Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism," Romney told cheering supporters in Southfield shortly after his victory was called. Then he asked the crowd, "Is Washington, D.C., broken? Can it be fixed? Are we the team that's going to get the job done?" They responded with an enthusiastic roar. Although only a small percentage of votes were officially counted, the Free Press called the race for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who grew up in Bloomfield Hills, based on exit polls.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8U6OGC80&show_article=1
Romney: Michigan a 'Victory of Optimism'
Jan 15 11:27 PM US/Eastern
By GLEN JOHNSON
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney cast his win in the Michigan primary as "a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism," setting the stage for a nomination battle with John McCain and others now likely to extend through the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5. "The people of Michigan said they believe in someone who is going to fight for them," the Michigan native told The Associated Press Tuesday in a telephone interview. "I'm obviously very, very pleased. Now, on to South Carolina, Nevada, Florida. This campaign is going to go to all 50 states." Romney and his staff were most pleased with exit polls showing his big advantage among Republicans in Michigan, whose votes far outnumbered the independents and Democrats who could participate in either of Michigan's primaries.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160397/1022/POLITICS
Romney blasts GOP race wide open
Michigan native's victory re-energizes campaign
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Mitt Romney's victory Tuesday in the Michigan Republican presidential primary has put the economy on the nation's political map and Romney back into a turbulent fight for the GOP nomination. Romney becomes the third different winner in three major early-state contests, and his victory brings dramatic confusion to a GOP race that gives new meaning to the word "unsettled." "Republican voters just have not locked in," said Craig Ruff of Public Sector Consultants, a Lansing-based government think tank. "I don't think it's purposeful, that people in Michigan decided tonight to defy New Hampshire. But that's the consequence."
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS15/801160338
Romney makes it anybody's race
GOP winner: Breakthrough is 'victory of optimism' in native state
January 16, 2008
By TODD SPANGLER, KATHLEEN GRAY and CHRIS CHRISTOFF
Mitt Romney breathed new life into his faltering campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, winning Michigan with strong support from conservative Republicans, those who favor deporting illegal immigrants and voters who consider the economy the most important issue facing the country. It is the first significant victory of the political season for the former Massachusetts governor who grew up in Bloomfield Hills, and it gives him a glimmer of hope at a time when a defeat could have doomed his chances following losses in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160415/1022
Romney, crowd bask in glow of home win
'I will never accept defeat for any industry in America'
BY Deb Price / The Detroit News
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
SOUTHFIELD -- Michigan's native son had won, and Mitt Romney, his jet black hair damp and his eyes red and teary, was greeted Tuesday night after his Republican primary victory like a rock star. "Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!" the crowd of 300 well-wishers packed into a sweltering hotel room chanted. People waved "Mitt for President" foam mittens and snapped photographs from cell phones to capture a moment of history that some said they had doubted would come to pass only days ago. Romney's shirt sleeves were rolled up and he wore a tie decorated with tiny elephants and American flags. His wife Ann, beaming beside him, wore a small teal blue button on her collar from her father-in-law George Romney's 1968 unsuccessful presidential campaign.
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/294484
Romney rebounds in Michigan
Republican's message of hope for state's economy helps pave way for much-needed win over McCain
Jan 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Tim Harper
WASHINGTON – Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney rescued his sputtering presidential bid last night, winning the Michigan Republican primary and further confusing a race that defies all prediction. Romney returned to the state of his birth for a crucial victory, beating Arizona Senator John McCain, who had won the state eight years earlier in his previous presidential run. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, picking up evangelical support in the western part of the state, finished third. A loss in his native state would have all but killed Romney's hopes of winning the nomination, after he massively outspent his rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire but finished second both times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/politics/15cnd-campaign.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Romney Beats McCain in Michigan Vote
By JOHN M. BRODER and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
January 15, 2008
LANSING, Mich. — Mitt Romney, seizing on his personal ties to a state where his father made his family’s political fortune, captured a must-win victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday, claiming the first major trophy for his ailing campaign and throwing the wide-open Republican field into further disarray. Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, led Senator John McCain by 10 percentage points. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucus, conceded after polling at 17 percent of the vote. In the Democratic race with 47 percent of precincts reporting, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won by a commanding margin in a field that did not include her closest competitors, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards.
Romney benefits from economic worries in vote-rich suburbs
1/16/2008, 3:02 a.m. EST
By JOHN FLESHER
DETROIT (AP) — Mitt Romney aimed his message directly at the hearts and pocketbooks of Detroit's vote-rich suburbs, saying he was a native son who felt their economic pain. The strategy paid off, an exit poll showed. Michigan's economic misery was on the minds of voters across the state during the Republican primary election Tuesday. But nowhere was it a bigger issue than in Macomb and Oakland counties, next-door neighbors that have become Michigan's central battleground during recent presidential elections. Although considerably more affluent than nearby Detroit, they are staggering from the auto industry's decline and desperate for help from the next president.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/15/581541.aspx
WHY ROMNEY WON
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:35 PM
by Domenico Montanaro
This is a big win for Romney, and it keeps his presidential hopes alive. A loss here would have been devastating, if not fatal. A look inside the numbers tells us why he won. First, Republicans turned out in big numbers: 68% of the electorate in the Republican primary identified themselves as Republican, while only 25% identified themselves as Independents and 7% were crossover Democrats. Bottom line: Democrats and Independents were just not the factor they had been for John McCain in New Hamphire, or for that matter, eight years ago in Michigan when McCain beat George W. Bush. In New Hampshire, 60% were Republicans, compared with 37% who identified as Independents.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/POLITICS/801150463/1022
Romney did well in most GOP demographic categories
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Fears of a large crossover vote deciding the contentious Republican primary didn't materialize. The electorate in the GOP contest was predominantly Republican, about one-quarter independent and less than 10 percent Democratic, according to National Election Pool exit polling. Arizona Sen. John McCain captured about half of the Democratic vote and one-third of the independents, but there weren't enough of them to overcome Mitt Romney's dominance among Republican voters. Similarly, McCain had a decisive edge over voters who consider themselves moderates; Romney won among conservatives. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee attracted about 1 in 5 conservative voters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011504482.html
Romney Took McCain's Words for a Spin
Michigan's Republicans Apparently Heard Ariz. Senator's 'Straight Talk' as 'Gloom'
By Jonathan Weisman
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; A07
Coming off of a campaign-saving victory in New Hampshire, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) went to Michigan last week to dispense a bit of what he called his "straight talk": Some of those manufacturing jobs that built the state into an economic power, then left it mired in recession, would not magically reappear. There was more to McCain's point, of course -- an extended proposal to bolster job training, even a plan for the federal government to pick up the difference between workers' old, high-wage jobs and the new, lower-wage jobs they are falling into. But McCain had given former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney an opening, and Romney pounced.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/1920
McCain’s Failure in Michigan
John Podhoretz
01.15.2008
Mitt Romney’s victory in Michigan is a testament to his remarkable elasticity. Having spent two years running as a social conservative, which he is not, he decided a week ago to run as a businessman reformer. It didn’t carry him over the threshold there, but it evidently has in Michigan — where, among other things, the Republican candidate seems to have made wildly un-Republican promises to use the powers of the federal government to restore, through some mystical spell, automotive-industry jobs to the suffering state. Romney may not have won in Michigan so much as McCain lost it. And he lost it because of a characteristic tendency that makes him Romney’s opposite — political rigidity based on a sense of his own personal rectitude.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS15/801160341
How Michigan voters cast ballots for top Republicans
January 16, 2008
The following tallies regarding the top two Republican candidates are based on exit polling of 1,362 voters by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International of New Jersey. The margin of error varies upward from plus or minus four percentage points, depending on the size of the sample.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160417/1022/POLITICS
Clinton coasts to Democratic victory
The New York senator captures majority of votes, but 'uncommitted' gets 39 percent of tally.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
As expected, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Michigan Democratic primary Tuesday, easily outpolling the "uncommitted" vote, but partisans are quarreling over whether she drew enough support to spare embarrassment. With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton took 55 percent of the vote to 40 percent for uncommitted, which is essentially a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who pulled their names off the ballot in deference to party rules and urged their supporters to vote uncommitted. Clinton was the only major Democrat to remain on the ballot after party leaders punished Michigan for moving up its primary from February and stripping the state of its convention delegates.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/16/michigan-results-reveal-s_n_81713.html
Michigan Results Reveal Some Dangerous Trends For Clinton
Thomas B. Edsall
January 16, 2008 12:04 AM
The Michigan Democratic primary was on the surface a non-event. The national party has ruled the state's delegation will not be seated. Of the major candidates, only Hillary Clinton was on the ballot, pitted against "uncommitted" in a seemingly meaningless race (she won by 15 percent). Yet the exit poll results from this strange contest reveal some troubling trends for the New York Senator. Among men, for example, the battle was neck and neck. Clinton got 47 percent and the anonymous/non-existent opposition got 43 percent. (Clinton did substantially better among women, winning 58-37.) The opposition was not, however, altogether ethereal. For the most part, voting "uncommitted" was a substitute for casting a ballot for Barack Obama, or for some voters, John Edwards.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS15/801160342
Angry voters could mean trouble for Dems
January 16, 2008
By CHRIS CHRISTOFF
Now that Michigan's primary is history, Kimberly Emmert is the kind of voter who could give nightmares to Democrats aching to win the White House. Emmert, 51, of Linden said she always has voted Democratic but planned to vote for Mitt Romney in the Republican primary. She's miffed that there was little choice on the Democratic primary ballot. And she said she won't vote Democratic in November, either. "I believe we should have representation, and I believe my vote should count. And I don't think it will with the Democrats," said Emmert, a glassblower artist. "I can't imagine any Democratic voter would allow the party to exclude them from the electoral process."
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/COL33/801160439/1215/NEWS15
Work is cut out for Michigan winners
January 16, 2008
By STEPHEN HENDERSON
Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton tasted sweet victory in the Michigan presidential primary Tuesday, but underpinning both wins were some political bitters. Romney posted some of his strongest numbers among Republican voters who remain "enthusiastic about" or "satisfied with" President George W. Bush and "strongly approve" of the war in Iraq, according to exit poll data from the National Election Pool. Neither group would be in a majority of Americans. In the Democratic primary, Clinton got clobbered among African Americans (by nearly a 70-26 margin) and lost handily among independent voters. The message for both candidates is clear:
Michigan forced candidates to focus on the economy
1/16/2008, 2:15 a.m. EST
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
DETROIT (AP) — Concerns about a possible recession may be growing nationally, but it was the faces of Michigan residents struggling with lost jobs, lost homes and lost opportunities that made the economy the focus of the presidential race. More than half of Michigan voters named the economy in exit polling as their top concern, and scores of voters voiced that concern as they attended political rallies or left polling places Tuesday. Brenda Mitchell of Southfield, who voted in the Democratic primary, said she sees reflections of the state's economic problems firsthand in her family.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-16-mich-economy_N.htm
For Mich. voters, it's all about the economy
By David Jackson and Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
January 16, 2008
CANTON, Mich. — In a state where the population is shrinking and residents are being hit hard by job cuts in the auto industry, Michigan voters focused on their struggling economy Tuesday in backing Mitt Romney during the state's Republican primary. Michigan was one of two states in the country to decline in population last year, according to the Census Bureau, and its unemployment rate of 7.4% is the nation's highest. Those troubles were reflected in exit polls done for the Associated Press and TV networks as voters left polling places.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160409/1022
Early primary put Mich. issues in spotlight
Party leaders say Jan. election date worth grief, but some Dems say move disenfranchised them.
Deb Price / The Detroit News
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
DETROIT -- Ask Democratic National Committeewoman Debbie Dingell whether moving Michigan's primary date was worth the grief and she'll recall a chaotic -- but wonderful -- moment at the North American International Auto Show. All three leading Republican presidential candidates were at the event at the same time Monday, peeking inside shiny concept cars and fielding shouted questions from the swarm of journalists about their positions on auto-related issues. The scene was played out on national network and cable news shows and was reported in major newspapers across the country.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160421/1022
Economy, jobs concern voters
Exit polling reflects state's anxieties
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
With an unemployment rate that leads the nation and the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent years, Michigan's sluggish economy was uppermost in the minds of voters in Tuesday's balloting. Fully 60 percent of those taking part in the Democratic presidential primary cited the economy as the most important issue, as did 55 percent of those who cast ballots on the Republican side of the ledger, according to a National Election Pool exit poll conducted at key precincts across the state Tuesday by Edison/Mitofsky. Linda MacKensen, a 54-year-old Plymouth resident, summed up the anxieties felt by so many of her fellow Michiganians as she went to the polls to vote.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160413/1022
Little ballot fuss evident at polls
Voting goes smoothly, but some are upset with photo identification rule, limited ballot choices.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
DETROIT -- Voters grumbled that Michigan's new photo ID requirement was unconstitutional, or needlessly snoopy, and some stayed home rather than face the need to choose one party's ballot or negotiate the nuances of a truncated Democratic race. That was a consensus of clerks in what otherwise appeared to be a largely glitch-free election with a turnout that might not meet expectations that 1.5 million of the state's registered voters -- 20 percent --would show up at the polls. Leigh Van Handel's candidate -- Dennis Kucinich -- was on the ballot in Tuesday's Democratic primary, but she still found it objectionable that the Democratic ballot didn't also list Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160408/1022
Short Dem ballot, snow mean 20% turnout
'Some voters are apathetic and upset with the ballot,' says Detroit elections director.
David Josar, Christine Macdonald and Christine Ferretti / The Detroit News
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
DETROIT -- Dorothy Tate admitted quickly that for many people, especially Democrats, there was "no good reason" to even leave the house on a snowy, cold Tuesday to vote in Michigan's earlier-than-usual presidential primary. "I'm here because it's my duty as a citizen," said Tate, a retired bus driver who lives outside Boston-Edison in Detroit and cast her ballot around 4 p.m. "I hope other people feel the same way." The reality, according to state and local election officials, is that Tate was the exception. With about 75 percent of Michigan's voting precincts reporting last night, 1.1 million votes had been counted in the Republican and Democratic primaries.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS15/801160348
Turnout low; more go for GOP contest
January 16, 2008
By JENNIFER DIXON, GINA DAMRON and DAN CORTEZ
Turnout for Tuesday's primary was so light across metro Detroit that one city clerk called it a wasteful election. Across the region, several communities reported that only a fifth or a fourth of all registered voters had cast ballots, either absentee or at the polls. In many cases, more voters cast ballots in the Republican primary than for a Democratic candidate. Two of the major Democratic candidates withheld their names from the ballot, a turnoff for some voters who also had to contend with getting to the polls on a snowy, slushy day, local officials said, while the Republican primary allowed voters, including Democrats, to cast ballots for Michigan native Mitt Romney. Statewide, 1 million people voted in the Republican primary, compared with 600,000 in the Democratic primary.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160422/1022
Poll: Crossover vote limited
Results show Romney decisive pick of GOP voters, who cast over 60% of ballots
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Michigan Republican primary winner Mitt Romney's victory here was pervasive -- he had an advantage over his competition in virtually every demographic category except Democrats and independents, according to National Election Pool exit polling. He won among Republicans, males and females and all age and income groups. He won among voters who made their decisions today and those who made them three days ago or last week. Arizona Sen. John McCain was runner-up and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee finished a distant third among most of these groups. Exit polling also shows fears of a large crossover vote deciding the contentious Republican primary were not realized.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160420/1022/POLITICS
Getting the lowdown on Michigan vote
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Some lessons learned in Tuesday's Michigan presidential primary:
• Democrats as spoilers . Fears that they and independents would cross over in sufficient numbers to affect the GOP outcome didn't materialize. Sure, a quarter of the GOP vote came from independents and 10 percent from Democrats and Sen. John McCain won a big chunk -- half of the Democrats and a third of independents. But it wasn't enough to stop Michigan native Mitt Romney from claiming the prize.
• "Uncommitted" places second. Despite pleas from the Michigan Democratic Party's hierarchy to its faithful to vote "uncommitted" to save face for Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Hillary Clinton still got more than 50 percent of the vote. But in what could prove a problem later, Clinton got shellacked in Detroit by a better than 2-to-1 margin.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/OPINION01/801150330/1068/OPINION
State surplus can help build a better budget
Detroit Free Press
January 15, 2008
The consensus among state economic forecasters on revenues to come shows how foolish and shortsighted it would be to use a surplus from the last fiscal year for a onetime taxpayer refund. Even with the surplus, Michigan's budget for the remainder of this fiscal year will be lucky to squeak through in balance. Getting by in the following fiscal year will be even more difficult. The surprise extra money -- $353 million -- showed up when the books were closed in December on the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30. House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, last week suggested returning it to taxpayers. Nice idea, politically speaking, to send out checks in a year when the House is up for election.
http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/OPINION01/801150322/1014/OPINION
Our legislators should make attendance for votes a top priority
Livingston Daily
January 15, 2008
There is a great deal more to being a state legislator than just showing up in session and casting votes. There are other jobs lawmakers are expected to do. There are endless committee meetings in Lansing to prepare bills to go to session and be ready for a vote. Truly, some of the most important work done in Lansing is accomplished in those committee rooms long before the bill ever sees light of day on the House or Senate floor. There's a lot of bill- and resolution-writing work that has to be done back in the office. And, of course, policy research is needed..
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/OPINION03/801160373/1031
Changes may save Big 3 from '08 woes
Daniel Howes
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
In case you haven't heard -- because you're living under a rock or are numb from inane reality shows -- this year is shaping up to be the worst for auto sales in a decade or more. Gas prices are still high. Consumer spending is off, and shares in General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. tanked again Tuesday. Ford slipped below another psychological threshold to close at $5.97 as spooked investors headed for the exits on massive losses by Citigroup, bad inflation news and lackluster retail sales. So why not another riff on the "It's-Armageddon-again-for-Detroit" theme? Because it's not 2005, thank you.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/14/business/14webethanol.php
GM buys stake in ethanol made from waste
By Matthew L. Wald
Published: January 14, 2008
General Motors, eager to ensure a supply of fuel for the big fleet of flex-fuel ethanol-capable vehicles it is building, has joined the rush into alternative energy and invested in a company that intends to produce ethanol from crop wastes, wood chips, scrap plastic, rubber and even municipal garbage. Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive, announced the investment on Sunday in a speech at the opening of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The company purchased an equity stake in Coskata, a start-up company in Warrenville, Illinois, that plans to make ethanol without using corn. GM would not say how much it paid or how big a stake it took in the company.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/ENT11/801150316
Casinos have best year yet: $1.34 billion
MGM leads in take, taxpaying
January 15, 2008
BY HEATHER NEWMAN
Detroit's casinos have a billion reasons to say thanks to their customers: $1.34 billion, to be exact. For the seventh year in a row, MGM Grand, MotorCity and Greektown casinos have pulled in more than a billion dollars in revenue. Last year's numbers were the strongest yet, despite a slumping economy and lots of construction, relocations and renovations that closed part or all of two casinos for days at a time. MGM Grand and MotorCity led the income race last year, as they did in 2006. MGM Grand brought in $513.5 million, about $24 million more than in 2006, despite the growing pains associated with building a new facility.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/BUSINESS04/801150321
Granholm to support Ficano's smaller Cobo expansion plan
Proposal would add 120,000 square feet to center
January 15, 2008
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans to hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce her support for a scaled-down plan to expand Detroit's Cobo Center, along with what her spokeswoman promised would be a creative way for the state to support the project. "People need to know that anything and everything that we're doing has to be about jobs, and this is all about jobs," spokeswoman Liz Boyd said of the Cobo expansion. "We want to be creative in our support for this project, but certainly we are not going to spend money that we do not have."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/AUTO04/801160367/1022/POLITICS
Dingell: State tailpipe plans harmful
Touring auto show, he criticizes proposal to impose separate emissions standards.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Proposed tailpipe emissions standards by California and 16 other states could doom the auto industry, U.S. Rep John Dingell warned Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. The Environmental Protection Agency in December rejected a request by California for a waiver under the Clean Air Act to impose its own set of emissions standards, which would require automakers to reduce tailpipe emissions by 30 percent and make passenger cars that average 43.7 mpg by 2016. Dingell, D-Dearborn, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said such a waiver would lead to conflicting federal and state standards, and would make automobile production "so expensive that people won't be able to buy, and the companies won't be able to produce anyhow."
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.thestate.com/presidential-politics/story/285241.html
Choosing a President | Values voters a major force within GOP
Religious conservatives likely to play key role in S.C. primary
By JOHN O’CONNOR
January 15, 2008
Wearing motorcycle leather and carrying an anti-abortion sign declaring “the first right, (is) the right to life,” Piedmont resident Benny Queen is among the many South Carolinians who will weigh his religious beliefs when voting for a presidential candidate. Queen, attending a Columbia right-to-life rally Saturday, said he has yet to decide who gets his vote in the state’s upcoming presidential primaries. But, he added, a candidate’s values matter. “I would want to know what kind of background they have, what they’re for in terms of spiritual well-being of the people.”
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1703884,00.html
Has Romney Found His Voice?
Ana Marie Cox
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008
The Mitt Romney who gave his acceptance speech at the Embassy Suites in Southfield, MI—an upscale Detroit suburb—had a hair out of place. Maybe more than one. He was in his shirtsleeves. He was, as a spokesman said, "the stripped down, acoustic Romney—Romney unplugged." The clunky chimera candidate who tried so hard to prove his conservative credentials had become a model of simplicity with one major theme: He was a successful "can-do CEO," in the words of state GOP chairman Saul Anuzis, "who knows how to get jobs back."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1640188020080116
McCain takes early lead in South Carolina: poll
Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:16am EST
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican John McCain holds a 6-point lead over rival Mike Huckabee in South Carolina three days before the state's crucial presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. McCain, an Arizona senator, leads the former Arkansas governor by 29 percent to 23 percent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was in third place with 13 percent. South Carolina's Republican primary on Saturday is the next battleground as both parties choose candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush. Nevada also holds Republican and Democratic nominating contests on that day.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080116/D8U6NBJ80.html
McCain Vows He'll Win in South Carolina
Jan 15, 10:08 PM (ET)
By LIZ SIDOTI
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a second-place finisher in Michigan, told The Associated Press Tuesday he'll prevail in the next GOP contest. "We will win in South Carolina," McCain said of the state where he lost in 2000. South Carolina Republicans vote on Saturday. "I congratulate the governor. I just talked to him on the phone and congratulate him on his victory. Starting tomorrow, we're going to win South Carolina, and we're going to go on and win the nomination," said the Arizona senator after his loss to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8U6LIPO0&show_article=1
McCain Camp Challenges Mailer's Claims
Jan 15 08:07 PM US/Eastern
By JEFFREY COLLINS
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Supporters of Republican John McCain on Tuesday assailed a mailer sent to state newspaper editors claiming he sold out fellow POWs to get better treatment while held prisoner in Vietnam. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I know because I was there," Orson Swindle, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former prisoner of war, said in a statement about the mailing from Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. The group's organizer, Jerry Kiley, who said he also is a Vietnam veteran, said in a telephone phone interview that he has been trying for years to spread what he said is the truth about McCain's record. "John McCain has created this myth that he is a hero and he is not," Kiley said from his home in Garnerville, N.Y.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/CampaignStandard/2008/01/hayes_santorum_vs_mccain_1.asp
Hayes: Santorum vs. McCain
January 15, 2008
By Stephen F. Hayes
As John McCain looks more and more like the frontrunner (for now) in the Republican presidential race, criticism of his views has intensified. And no one has been more critical of the Arizona senator than his former colleague Rick Santorum. Santorum has taken to talk radio shows in recent days to trash McCain as too liberal. It's not a new argument. Santorum made it back in April, too, when McCain first announced. I agree with many (probably most) of Santorum's policy critiques of McCain, but Santorum is an odd guy to be lecturing others about conservative purity.
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=9245347
Political Play of the Day: Huckabee says crying toddler must be for Romney
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
WARREN, Mich.: Confronted by crying toddler on Tuesday, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee quipped the child must be for his rival Mitt Romney. "He's not the happiest boy today," Huckabee said, smiling for a picture with the boy and his brother and sister. "I think he must be a Romney voter. Look at him. He's so sad." Huckabee greeted their mother and other supporters outside a polling place Tuesday in Michigan, where he was hoping for a decent showing but where GOP rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain were vying for first place.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS15/801160346
Huckabee must broaden his base, analysts say
January 16, 2008
By ANTHONY MAN
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Dawn Pettit is inspired and ready to get involved in politics for the first time. She's already working on delivering family and friends to the cause. Shari Sopourn, also a newcomer to politics, is geared up to do whatever she can -- delivering leaflets, waving signs on street corners and making telephone calls. The two women have been drawn to political activity by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has become a contender nationally and in Florida. Analysts question whether he can capitalize on that surge and move beyond his conservative Christian base.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/01/is_rudy_right.html
Giuliani -- Still Very Much In It
Chris Cillizza
January 15, 2008
Remember Rudy Giuliani? You know, the one-time frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination? America's mayor, the man who seemed to glide through the first nine months of the 2008 campaign without a scratch? If he's slipped your mind, you're not alone. Giuliani dropped from the national political conversation for much of the last month, a direct result of his decision to forego waging an aggressive campaign in any of the early voting states. As Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report, put it: "It's as if all the candidates but Giuliani are playing baseball in one stadium and Giuliani is waiting around by himself in another stadium. Which game would you watch?"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-15-bill-clinton-nevada_N.htm
Bill Clinton paints Obama as 'establishment' candidate
USA Today
January 16, 2008
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Bill Clinton, who carried Nevada in two general elections, urged voters Tuesday to buck labor endorsements for Sen. Barack Obama and support his wife in Saturday's hotly contested presidential caucuses as the only Democratic candidate with the experience necessary to change the country. The former president trumpeted New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's accomplishments while painting Obama as the "establishment" candidate who would bring only the "feeling of change.""One candidate says you should vote for me because I've not been involved at all in the struggles of the past and therefore we need to turn over a new leaf and (try) something absolutely new.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/in_contrast_to_obama_hillary_p.html
In Contrast to Obama, Hillary Plays the Race Card
By Dick Morris
January 16, 2008
On the evening of Jan. 3, it became clear that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was going to be a serious candidate for president with a viable chance of winning. The Clintons decided that he was going, inevitably, to win a virtually unanimous vote from the black community. Their own reputation for support for civil rights would make no difference. With a black candidate within striking distance of the White House, a coalescing of black voters behind his candidacy became inevitable. Frustratingly for the Clintons, Obama had achieved this likely solidarity among black voters without, himself, summoning racial emotions.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160418/1022
Clinton, Obama bury hatchet
Presidential candidates blame aides, others as they vow at debate to end controversy on race.
Nedra Pickler and David Espo / Associated Press
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
LAS VEGAS -- Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama blamed aides and campaign surrogates Tuesday night for fueling a campaign controversy over race, jointly pledging on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. to put the matter behind them. At a debate in which the two sparred almost cordially, Obama suggested Clinton had taken a page from President Bush's political playbook with an earlier statement that the next president could expect to be tested quickly by terrorists. "When Senator Clinton uses the specter of a terrorist attack with a new prime minister during a campaign, I think that is part and parcel with what we've seen, the use of the fear of terrorism in scoring political points, and I think that's a mistake," he said.
A Bidding War Between Obama and Clinton
January 14, 2008 02:34 PM ET
Pethokoukis, James
So Barack Obama saw Hillary Clinton's $70 billion fiscal stimulus plan (a $30 billion housing fund, $25 billion for home heating, $10 billion for broadening unemployment insurance, and $5 billion for energy investment) and raised her $5 billion. Obama's plan:
• Provide an immediate $250 tax cut for workers and their families.
• Provide an immediate, temporary $250 bonus to seniors in their Social Security checks.
• Provide an additional $250 tax cut to workers and an additional $250 to seniors if the economy continues to worsen.
The Identity Trap
By DAVID BROOKS
January 15, 2008
When Hillary Clinton is good on the Sunday talk shows, she is really, really good. But when she is bad, she’s atrocious. When she talks about policy, she will dazzle you. When her own ambitions are on the line, it’s time to reach for the sick bag. On “Meet the Press” Sunday, it was the latter. Clinton refused to admit any real errors. She implied that Barack Obama is unfit to be president, without ever honestly taking responsibility for what she actually believes. She broadcast her own humility: “You know, I’m very other-directed. I don’t like talking about myself.” She also described the central role she plays in the lives of all living creatures in the universe: “The Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7892.html
Red-state Dems sour on Clinton
By: Josh Kraushaar and John F. Harris
Jan 15, 2008 07:04 AM EST
Barack Obama in recent days has sprinted ahead in the endorsement derby against Hillary Rodham Clinton when it comes to a certain breed of Democrat—politicians who have won statewide in places where Republicans dominate presidential politics. Among a barrage of prominent statewide elected officials to back Obama publicly this month is Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Tim Johnson of South Dakota.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7894.html
Clinton, Obama seek truce on race row
By: Mike Allen
Jan 14, 2008 08:32 PM EST
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y. ) tried Monday night to defuse a conflagration over race sparked by remarks she made about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King last week. The comment prompted an angry back and forth between people in her camp and those aligned with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), her leading opponent for their party’s presidential nomination. Clinton issued an unusual statement calling for “common ground” after the dispute simmered for days.“We differ on a lot of things. And it is critical to have the right kind of discussion on where we stand.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402398.html
Race in the Race
Stop the distortions and the innuendo.
Washington Post
Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A12
WITH THE first viable African American and the first viable female candidates for president, the campaign for the Democratic Party nomination puts the nation on the road to a historic first. But the debate over race that boiled over last weekend and continued yesterday, marked by mischaracterizations and veiled aspersions, threatens to mar this extraordinary moment. Supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have taken remarks of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former president Bill Clinton out of context and then unfairly criticized them for what they did not say. Mr. Clinton was accused of belittling Mr. Obama's career or campaign as a "fairy tale."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/politics/15hispanic.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
In Obama’s Pursuit of Latinos, Race Plays Role
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
January 15, 2008
LAS VEGAS — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has eaten beef tacos in East Los Angeles and sat on the living room couch of a working-class family in a largely Hispanic neighborhood here for 30 televised minutes. At a rally of the culinary workers’ union in the shadows of the Strip here one night, Senator Barack Obama pumped his fist and chanted with the crowd, “¡Sí, se puede; sí, se puede; sí, se puede!” or, “Yes, we can!” As the Democratic candidates have moved from courting the overwhelmingly white voters of Iowa and New Hampshire to an expanse of 25 contests facing them in the next few weeks, they confront an electorate that is increasingly Hispanic, in Nevada, California and New York.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402083.html
Obama's Farrakhan Test
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A13
Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Maybe for Wright and some others, Farrakhan "epitomized greatness." For most Americans, though, Farrakhan epitomizes racism, particularly in the form of anti-Semitism.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/dem_race_becomes_war_of_invect.html
War of Invective Could Hurt Obama
By Thomas Edsall
January 15, 2008
The dramatic escalation of hostilities Sunday in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination suggests that Senator Hillary Clinton and her strategists are convinced they can win a war of invective and that in such a conflict they will prevail because her liabilities are already well known, while rival Barack Obama's are not yet public and have not been subjected to close examination. The Democratic contest entered a dangerous new stage as Clinton initiated an all-out assault Sunday, directly accusing Barack Obama of failing to be consistent in his opposition to the Iraq war.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/POLITICS01/801160337/1022/POLITICS
Petitions back Bloomberg for president
Drive under way in 50 states to 'draft' billionaire New York City mayor as third-party candidate.
Devlin Barrett / Associated Press
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Supporters of a third-party presidential bid by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a 50-state petition drive Tuesday seeking to "draft" the billionaire, who is edging closer to entering the race while continuing to deny he is a candidate. The petition effort was announced by two veteran political hands who say the current system in Washington is broken and needs a nonpartisan, pragmatic leader like Bloomberg. Gerald Rafshoon, a former spokesman for President Jimmy Carter, and Doug Bailey, a longtime Republican consultant, are not the first to launch an online petition drive for the mayor, but their move comes at the height of primary campaign season. The two filed papers with the Federal Election Commission and the IRS to start the draft-Bloomberg effort.
How best to push America forward
January 15, 2008
By Newt Gingrich
The stakes, I believe, have never been higher. America today is at an extraordinary crossroads. We're standing on the edge of a potential golden age for America. Advances in technology, science, engineering, and medicine hold the promise of benefits our parents couldn't even dream of. If we make the right choices now, America will enjoy a level of prosperity, safety, and freedom unknown to previous generations. But if we make the wrong choices, we will suffer very serious consequences from a set of challenges we choose to ignore.
http://thehill.com/editorials/not-as-clear-this-year-2008-01-15.html
Not as clear this year
By The Hill Editors
January 15, 2008
After Democrats won control of Congress in 2006, their agenda for 2007 was unmistakable. It would start with taking steps to try to end the war in Iraq as well as tackling the items on their “Six in ’06” campaign pledge. But the plan for the second session of the 110th Congress is unclear. The economy is expected to play a leading role on Capitol Hill this year, while Iraq will take more of a back seat. Democrats are well aware that they do not have the votes to make significant changes to Iraq policy and believe they can attract enough support to enact some sort of an economic stimulus package.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7888.html
Pelosi pushes gourmet menu
By: Josephine Hearn
Jan 15, 2008 05:59 AM EST
The processed cheese has been replaced with brie. The Jell-O has made way for raspberry kiwi tarts and mini-lemon blueberry trifles. Meatloaf has moved over for mahi mahi and buns have been shunted aside in favor of baguettes. A revolution is afoot at the deli counters, grills and salad bars of the U.S. House of Representatives. Newly ascendant Democrats may have hit roadblocks on Iraq and fiscal issues, but they have revamped congressional menus, replacing fatty, pre-made foods with healthier, gourmet alternatives. The once dreary congressional cafeterias now abound with haute cuisine. The menu transformation is part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Greening the Capitol” plan to make the House campus more environmentally friendly and socially progressive.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/green_disparate_impact.html
Green "Disparate Impact"
By Thomas Sowell
January 15, 2008
It was front-page news on the January 14th issue of the San Francisco Chronicle that blacks by the tens of thousands have left the San Francisco Bay area since the 1990 census. Since my book Applied Economics analyzed this situation a few years ago, it was nice to see that the information has finally reached the San Francisco Chronicle, though they have yet to explain the politics and the economics behind the exodus.Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not peculiar to the San Francisco Bay Area and blacks are not the only group being forced out of upscale liberal communities in California. It is much the same story in Monterey and Los Angeles, for example.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120035796472889887.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
Rubinomics R.I.P.
Wall Street Journal
January 15, 2008
If our Washington, D.C., readers noticed a cortege of blue suits carrying a casket in front of the Brookings Institution last week, be not mournful. You were merely watching the leading economists of the Democratic Party burying the faith once known as Rubinomics. May it rest in peace. Rubinomics is the concept of "deficit reduction" as growth policy: Lower the federal budget deficit and, as dawn follows night, interest rates will fall and prosperity will break upon the land. Named for former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and much celebrated in the 1990s, the concept was embraced as gospel by nearly all Democrats as recently as a few weeks ago.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/subprime_nation.html
Subprime Nation
By Patrick Buchanan
January 15, 2008
Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril. Last week, Moody's warned that if the United States fails to rein in the soaring cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation's credit rating will be down-graded within a decade. Our political parties seem oblivious. Republicans, save Ron Paul, are all promising to expand the U.S. military and maintain all of our worldwide commitments to defend and subsidize scores of nations.
http://www.slate.com/id/2182075/
The Nano Challenge
What happens when the green movement crashes into the anti-poverty crusade?
By Anne Applebaum
Posted Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, at 8:09 PM ET
If you haven't done so already, meet the Nano, possibly the most significant new car of the decade. Small, cute, and snub-nosed, it fits four people and a duffel bag, has a single windshield wiper, travels at 60 mph, and it's all yours for the princely sum of $2,500, roughly the same price as the DVD system in your neighbor's Lexus and about half the price of the cheapest cars on the market today. Even better, at least for the philosophically minded, the Nano comes with its own moral conundrum: What happens when the laudable, currently fashionable movement to improve the environment comes directly into conflict with the equally laudable, equally fashionable movement to improve the lives of the poor?
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080115/D8U6725G2.html
Transit Panel Urges Gas Tax Increase
Jan 15, 3:36 AM (ET)
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON (AP) - A special commission is urging the government to raise federal gasoline taxes by as much as 40 cents per gallon over five years as part of a sweeping overhaul designed to ease traffic congestion and repair the nation's decaying bridges and roads. The two-year study being released Tuesday by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, the first to recommend broad changes after the devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August, warns that urgent action is needed to avoid future disasters. Under the recommendation, the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for unleaded gasoline would be increased annually for five years - by anywhere from 5 cents to 8 cents each year - and then indexed to inflation afterward to help fix the infrastructure, expand public transit and highways as well as broaden railway and rural access, according to persons with direct knowledge of the report, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the report is not yet public.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080115/D8U6A83G0.html
Bush Wants OPEC Nations to Up Oil Output
Jan 15, 7:13 AM (ET)
By TERENCE HUNT
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - President Bush urged OPEC nations on Tuesday to put more oil on the world market and warned that soaring prices could cause an economic slowdown in the United States."High energy prices can damage consuming economies," the president told a small group of reporters traveling with him in the Mideast. In a stern warning to Iran days after a Jan. 6 confrontation with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, Bush put Tehran on notice that it needs to be careful. The president said it would not matter to him whether an attack against an American vessel resulted from an order by the government in Iran or a rash decision by an Iranian boat captain.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/smearing_soldiers_265875.htm
SMEARING SOLDIERS
THE GRAY LADY'S KILLER-GI LIE
Ralph Peters
January 15, 2008
THE New York Times is trashing our troops again. With no new "atrocities" to report from Iraq for many a month, the limping Gray Lady turned to the home front. Front and center, above the fold, on the front page of Sunday's Times, the week's feature story sought to convince Americans that combat experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan are turning troops into murderers when they come home. Heart-wringing tales of madness and murder not only made the front page, but filled two entire centerfold pages and spilled onto a fourth. The Times did get one basic fact right: Returning vets committed or are charged with 121 murders in the United States since our current wars began.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-01-14-Rangers_N.htm
Raid shows risks in new tactic to hunt al-Qaeda
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
January 15, 2008
WASHINGTON — When the two Army Rangers slipped inside the house of suspected assassins in the dark on Christmas morning in Mosul, they expected a fight. They got one. Two gunmen, using an 11-year-old boy as a shield, confronted the soldiers. One, a Ranger staff sergeant, shot them dead with his rifle. The boy was unharmed, according to an Army document that outlined the assault. That clash — recounted to USA TODAY by four of the Rangers involved and confirmed by the military command in Baghdad — kicked off what U.S. military officials say was a 17-hour firefight that resulted in the deaths of 10 al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents, including the head of an assassination cell, a financier and a military leader.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080115140302.3hrgwefs&show_article=1
French claim Europe fertility crown -- but shun marriage
AFP
January 15, 2008
France overtook Ireland as the fertility champion of Europe in 2007 but a majority of babies are now being born out of wedlock, according to new census figures released on Tuesday. With 1.98 children per woman, France's fertility rate is now ahead of Ireland on 1.90, according to the latest government figures, and well above the European Union average of 1.52. Babies born to unmarried couples represented 50.5 of all French births in 2007, compared to 48.4 percent the previous year and merely 5.9 percent in 1965, according to the French national statistics institute INSEE. Sociologist Irene Thery told Le Parisien newspaper this was the "logical outcome of a major revolution... Gradually, it's the child who has come to make the family, not the marriage."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080115/twl-world-economic-freedom-1be00ca.html
Survey: Asia Has World's Freest Economy
By CASSIE BIGGS,Associated Press Writer AP –
Wednesday, January 16
HONG KONG - Asia is home to the world's freest _ and most repressed _ economies, but Europe ranked highest as a region in terms of economic freedom, an annual report released Tuesday by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal said. While the world as a whole made little progress toward greater economic freedom, there were some surprising improvements by countries such as Mauritius and Mongolia, the survey found. Hong Kong and Singapore retained their No. 1 and No. 2 rankings respectively on the annual Index of Economic Freedom for the 14th successive year. Both port cities benefit from low taxes and liberalized trade. Hong Kong, however, saw its score dip slightly due to higher inflation and greater tax revenues.
Israel 'back of the bus' rule sparks religious row
Reuters
January 15, 2008
Every time Israeli student Iris Yoffe takes the bus to Jerusalem, she has to be ready for abuse from ultra-Orthodox Jews who say she should be kept off because she's wearing trousers. Assuming she makes it onto the bus at all -- on several occasions groups of Orthodox men have tried to block the door -- Yoffe, 24, heads for the "women's section" at the back of the bus, keeps her head down and tries to ignore the insults. "I end up feeling helpless and humiliated, like an outsider," said Yoffe, whose public bus from her home in northern Israel to Jerusalem has separate male and female seating because it runs through an ultra-Orthodox community.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/bronwen_maddox/article3186983.ece
Squandered oil bonanza may bring down Iranian President
Bronwen Maddox, World Briefing
January 15, 2008
Oil at nearly $100 a barrel cannot keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad safe in the presidency of Iran for ever. Finally, it seems as if his breathtaking economic mismanagement, squandering an unprecedented bonanza, may prise him from office. His critics have been predicting from his election in June 2005 that his wilful ignorance of economics would lead to his downfall. They have been wrong so far because of oil prices even higher than expected; a still-deep hunger among the very poor for Ahmadinejad's message; and his fortuitously successful handling of the nuclear dispute with the West.
