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Category Archives: Inside Politics
Inside Politics | 04.08.12 – Santorum Surge Halted. RomneyBot 3000 Will be Nominee.
Following the sweep of contests including a win in Wisconsin, one of the last must-win states for Santorum, it looks like people are finally beginning to realize what everyone’s basically known for two years: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. FEC records from Friday, April 6 show that Romney’s main fundraising committee, the very creatively named Romney Victory, Inc., and the RNC have filed to form a joint fundraising committee.
The fact is, despite the media attempting to make this race close, and despite joke attempts by Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michelle Bachmann which caused much hilarity, everyone’s basically known Romney would be the nominee for a long time. This is how the GOP does things. They give politicians slightly more and more power until they finally reach the big show. See: George H.W. Bush, 1988/92, Bob Dole, 1996, John McCain, 2008. George W. Bush, of course, being the anomaly, but I think we can all agree being the son of a former president has a perk or two. Bush certainly did not win the nomination/presidency on his wit.
It was simply Mitt Romney’s turn. After rising in the heirarchy to second place in the 2008 GOP primaries, and despite some attempt by the Tea Party and other attempts to stop this rise, party elders once again ruled that Romney was ready for the big show. For the Republicans, money, power, and influence rule over anything else. Hence their abandonment of actually trying to run the country at all and shutting down essential government services to give more kickbacks to the rich.
Thus, the general election stage is set: Obama vs. Romney, and as College Democrats we cannot accept a Romney White House. The progress gained over the last four years would be reversed. More Scalia and Alito-type conservative justices would be chosen, and civil rights in this country could go back decades. We’ve also seen the beginnings of what Republicans will do in control in the state level. With Rick Snyder and his cronies in power in Lansing, women, the LGBT community, and unions have been attacked. The rich and business interests, on the other hand, have been given tax breaks and bailouts. We absolutely can’t afford this atrocity anymore. These are the stakes. Let’s join together and get Barack Obama back into the White House and Democrats down the ticket for a bright, hopeful American future.
Posted in Blog, Inside Politics
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Inside Politics | 02.08.12 – Mitt Romney Suffers Embarrassing Triple Defeat
No matter how you look at it, the guy who’s been running for President for the last five years, “saver” of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and possible closet robot, Mitt Romney, lost spectacularly in the Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota contests last night. Unfortunately, the guy who won has to be my former senator, the collossal waste of space named Rick Santorum. Still, though, what this denotes is a few things:
+ The GOP base is not at all happy about the prospect of holding their noses and supporting Mitt Romney.
+ Santorum is viewed as a much more conservative alternative. And not enough people have googled him yet.
+ The race isn’t as tightly sewn up as Mitt would like.
+ Last night = Good for Democrats.
Posted in Blog, Inside Politics
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Inside Politics | 01.31.12 – Florida Primary!
All right folks, it’s… game time I guess? Follow my twitter for the scoop on everything from the exit polls to when the results come in. We so excited. I’ll also report on any crazy happenings that may deviate from what pretty much everyone thinks will be the result: Mitt “Running for President since 2006″ Romney beating Gingrich and the other people who don’t matter anymore, (although some have taken an interest in Santorum’s sweater vests).
Posted in Blog, Inside Politics, Political Forecast
Tagged 2012 Florida primary, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, ron paul
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Colbert’s Super PAC Raises $1 Million
Colbert’s Super PAC American’s for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow has raised $1.02 million. Upon disclosing the amount of money earned, Colbert was quoted as saying “How you like me now, FEC?” in a letter written to the commission. To celebrate this monumental achievement, let’s have a countdown of Colbert’s top 5 moments.
5. Colbert’s Interview with Aaron Schock, the only Republican who is even mildly attractive.
4. Stephen Colbert on O’Reilly, no not literally…
3. There’s a storm gathering, a giant gay storm.
ENJOY! 
Keystone Pipeline Update
John Boehner continues to lobby for the Keystone XL Pipeline and now claims that he plans on attaching the issue to the jobs bill expected to be introduced next week. Boehner claims that the pipeline will create “over 100,000 indirect jobs”. Other estimates from credible sources, such as Robert Jones, the VP for TransCanada, indicate that this figure is wildly exaggerated. Jones claims that the pipeline would only create 20,000 temporary jobs and likely only a few hundred permanent jobs. Perhaps John Boehner should do a little fact-checking before he opens that hole in his unusually tan face.
Inside Politics | 01.29.12 – Things are Happening in Florida
January 31, 2012 marks the Florida GOP primary, where the boring, safe pick of Mitt Romney goes up against blustering philanderer Newt Gingrich in a battle royale of mediocrity. There is also Santorum and Paul, and the less to be said about them, the better.
For the nerdiest of politicos, you can check out the raw poll numbers at Real Clear Politics. The short of it is that polls originally showed Romney ahead in the state by anywhere from 2-40 points, but Gingrich began pulling ahead in a few last week. At this point however Romney has regained the lead by Gingrich’s ineptitude and the fact that most right wing establishment people really really really don’t like Newt Gingrich. Therefore Romney will most likely take Florida, with what I believe will be a rather thin margin around 5-7%. Florida has been seen as Romney territory for a long time due to the demographics of the GOPers in the state, and despite the brief Gingrich surge, Romney has regained the momentum in both the race and the debates.
On the other side of things, Current Commander in Chief and Denard Robinson fan Barack Obama has pulled ahead of Romney in Florida by 8 points, and is now leading national polls with an RCP average of 2.2%. While this is a thin margin compared to the other candidates, this is definitely a promising turn of events. As College Dems, we truly need to do everything in our power to maintain this advantage because we cannot let Mitt Romney or any other GOP candidate have the White House. What Republican governors have pulled against unions, women, and basically everyone except the 1% of richest Americans, is enough to give any rational person pause. It’s definitely time to put all of our energy as an organization into ringing every phone, knocking every door, registering tons of voters, and talking to everyone we can about the need to re-elect Barack Obama and all the democrats down the ticket this November.
Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, Democratic Party, Inside Politics, Republican Party
Tagged Barack Obama
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Inside Politics | Jan. 25 – No Drama Obama. SOTU Analysis.
The 2012 State of the Union was yet another eloquently delivered speech by our president, Barack Obama. While talking to a buddy of mine who isn’t entirely on the progressive side of things, he admitted that “it’s good to have a President that doesn’t make up words and sayings.” My sentiments entirely. Far gone are the Bush days of “misunderestimating,” “Axes of Evil,” and being the laughingstock of the world. Our President also showed his bipartisan nature by highlighting many things the two sides agree on, including merging six government agencies into one, cutting out needless bureaucracy, rewarding teachers for doing a good job and inspiring their students, strengthening the border, and cutting taxes for companies that keep jobs here in America. He then essentially threw the ball in the Congressional court, telling them that if they pass bills with the above ideas that both sides agree on, he will “sign them right away.”
He additionally gave progressives a lot to be happy about, with his statements on asking the Top 2% of Americans to pay their fair share, citing Mitt Romney’s insanely low tax percentage as evidence that the richest Americans are getting away with paying the same percentage of taxes as the bus driver or coal miner barely making ends meet. He highlighted the need for environmental change, citing what he’s already done and what he plans to do with increasing funding for natural gas, wind, solar, and biofuel research. He also showed the three million job increase that has occured in the last 22 months, a revolutionary increase in jobs. Finally, he said that enough was enough with Congresspeople engaging in insider trading, and requesting a fair playing field for all people living in this country.
Whether or not you support progressivism (although if you’re reading this you probably do), it’s hard to deny Barack Obama’s still got game. It’s time for Washington embrace the no-drama attitude Obama has embodied for years, and get things done in this country. I’m proud Obama is the leader of my party, and am beyond honored that he’s coming to U of M to speak at the Al Glick Field House on Friday (get your tickets at the Michigan Union Ticket Office tomorrow morning at 9 am!). Seeing the man in person will certainly be an honor.