The Week in 2012
Former Pennslvania Senator Rick Santorum won a straw poll in South Carolina… Yes we Republicans hold a lot of straw polls.
Meanwhile Donald Trump is making surprise headway gaining in New Hampshire polling. He also received unkind words from Vice President Joe Biden’s daughter, Bill Cosby and got himself into a squabble with New York Times writer Gail Collins. Will social conservatives warm to the New Yorker? Trump did open up about his pro-life conversion this week.
Governor Mitch Daniels may have gained the most from the budget showdown this week. He was scheduled to greet President Obama on the tarmac during a planned visit to the swing-state of Indiana. That trip was cancelled and Daniels ducked the likely flood smiling photos that would have come back to link the two in the 2012 campaign.
A new WSJ/NBC poll has bad news for Sarah Palin. The poll shows support for Palin crumbling with only 25% of the population giving her a positive rating.
Mark McKinnon sees Michele Bachmann as a force to be reckoned with in 2012.
Finally a staffer for Tim Pawlenty’s Presidential Exploratory Committee was arrested for public intoxication and trespassing this week.
The Budget Showdown
This week a budget deal calling for $38.5 billion in cuts was reached between Speaker Boehner, Harry Reid and President Obama. Now it faces Congressional approval. Some of the 2012 candidates weighed in:
- Newt Gingrich praised Speaker Boehner’s performance and called the cuts, which he said total $70 billion in the long-run, “progress”
- Both Rick Santorum and Haley Barbour also praised Boehner and the deal
- Mike Huckabee had been critical over Republican focus on de-funding Planned Parenthood and urged them to cut a deal early
- In contrast Sarah Palin used Twitter to twice call for Republicans not to make a deal and to stand by principal
- Michele Bachmann called the budget deal a “disappointment”
So far I haven’t seen anything from the only announced candidate Tim Pawlenty or other highly likely candidates like Mitt Romney.
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