Gingrich wins South Carolina primary by a landslide!

Click here to watch this episode of Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer (1/22/12)
Source: CBS


The episode starts out with the host, Bob, congratulating Newt Gingrich on his big win in SC. He then asks Gingrich how he did it despite Romney leading the polls just a few days before. Gingrich answered that residents of South Carolina must have seen that he is "tough enough and bold enough to take on Obama." Gingrich added that the voters probably saw that Romney is very liberal underneath his conservative facade (pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-tax increases, etc.) Bob also talked to Gingrich about his ex-wive's "open marriage" allegations. Gingrich said that it was almost as though ABC partnered up with Romney, but it backfired and the people saw that bringing such a topic into a presidential debate is very inappropriate. Bob played a clip of Romney comparing Gingrich to Obama, saying that the both of them can't run businesses or a state. Gingrich defends himself saying that he has a lot of experience in government, he balanced the federal budget four times, wrote 24 books, wrote many speeches, and has seven documentary films under his belt. Gingrich said the it seems as if Romney is running for the CEO of the United States, but Gingrich wants to be the President of the United States and he is authentic about it.

I got to see a different side of Gingrich in this episode. He is an extremely talented public speaker. If everything he is saying is true, then I can see why conservative voters wouldn't want to vote for Romney. It seemed as if Bob Schieffer was on Gingrich's side in this episode. Bob kept giving Gingrich topics that Gingrich could easily elaborate on. The republican voters need to recognize who they want as their nominee because ultimately it'll be one of these candidates. They should pick someone who shares their views. Even though Gingrich came off as a nice guy in this video, he hasn't won me over yet...

Mistake in Iowa caucus may change the entire GOP race!

Click here for the article, "Santorum supporters upset that title has asterisk" by Jennifer Jacobs
Source: The Des Moines Register

So it's official! Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus by 34 votes, Mitt Romney came in second. But in official papers and textbooks it'll say that Romney won on January 3rd (night of the caucus), and that Santorum won the certified ballot recount. There was a recount because some precincts and counties of Iowa didn't submit their voting papers soon enough. Before the recount, Romney was in first place by eight votes. Both Romney and Santorum felt like it was a "virtual tie" because of how close the results were. For the past 2.5 weeks GOP officials have been counting and collecting forms from various regions of Iowa in order to have the most accurate results. The officials thought that a recount would be fair to not only the candidates, but also to the voters. Now that the new results are out Santorum is really happy and kind of bragging about it.

The author was very neutral. She just stated all of the facts, and the very complicated recount process in an informative way. I think that this article is very important. It might change the entire GOP race. Up until now Romney was the frontrunner, but right now it's really uncertain. Santorum won Iowa, Romney won New Hampshire, and Newt Gingrich won South Carolina (January 21st), so it's not really clear who will become the Republican nominee. This might influence voters' choices. I really thought Romney had the nomination in the bag, but now I'm not so sure anymore...

Juiciest bits from the SC debate

Click here for the article, "Highlights, lowlights from Monday's debate" by Adam Beam
Source: The State

Many topics were discussed at the recent debate in South Carolina, moderated by John King. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich fought over foreign policy. Paul said, "...maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. Don't do to other nations what we don't want them to do to us." But the audience booed Paul and instead sided with Gingrich's idea to kill all of America's enemies. Another candidate whose answer wasn't sufficient was Mitt Romney. He hasn't released his income tax returns yet. Romney said he'll do it in April like everyone else. After that, Gingrich shined once again by calling Obama "the food-stamp president." Later, Rick Santorum defended himself referring to Romney's negative ad about him. Santorum said that he voted on the Martin Luther King Voting Rights Bill because he wanted anyone who served their sentence to still be able to vote. Romney ignored this and said that criminals shouldn't be able to vote. Rick Perry perfectly interrupted by saying that these matters should be handled by state governments. -- That might be the smartest thing Perry ever said.

The author explained the debate in a very vivid way. I felt like I was part of the audience. Adam Beam wrote a great article without any bias, which can be hard. The article is important because it lets voters see what the candidates acted like during the debate. These debates let us judge the GOP candidates most accurately because they're in a tense setting. Voters can pick whoever they agree with most, the voters of SC apparently agreed most with Gingrich.

Mitt Romney: not the best choice?

Click here to watch this episode of Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer (1/15/12)
Source: CBS 


This week Bob Schieffer talks to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum about Mitt Romney and whether or not he is the best candidate. They both say that Romney doesn't have a conservative record. Santorum says that he, himself ran five times, and all of those times he ran as conservative. Romney ran three times and he ran liberal once, moderate once, and conservative once. Santorum also adds that no matter how many times Romney denies it, Romney Care is very similar to Obama Care. Gingrich feels that he has a better chance at standing up to Barack Obama during the 2012 election because he has a clear record of conservatism. Romney supports Planned Parenthood (huge provider of abortions), he raised taxes by 400% on guns, and he appointed liberal judges while being governor of Massachusetts. Gingrich thinks that he can win South Carolina in the upcoming primary because he is from the neighboring state of Georgia. Overall, Gingrich thinks that Romney would collapse under the heat of Obama's $1 billion campaign.

I think that Schieffer asked Gingrich some difficult questions because he wanted to get some juicy details, but these candidates are too smart to say anything stupid. Gingrich and Santorum basically just said the same thing over and over again -- Romney doesn't have a conservative record. I agree, the Republican voters should have a nominee that stands for what they believe in. This video showed once again why Romney shouldn't win. It included many facts from Romney's record that could help voters make up their minds about who they want to vote for.

Huntsman drops out and endorses Romney!

Click here to read the article, "Huntsman will leave Republican presidential race, endorse Mitt Romney, officials say" by Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza
Source: The Washington Post 

Jon Huntsman is dropping out of the GOP race! He is giving all of his support to Mitt Romney. The former ambassador to China must have realized that he wasn't going to win the nomination after getting less than 17% in New Hampshire, the state that he was setting his sights on the most. Huntsman never really had a chance because he entered the race rather late and he didn't get much support from the Republicans to begin with. Huntsman didn't  appear in the media much, either. Now he decided to endorse Mitt Romney which should really help him win South Carolina. Huntsman is the second (Michele Bachmann was the first) to drop out since voting began in Iowa. Jon Huntsman will officially announce his decision tomorrow, January 16.

I think that the authors are neutral, they just want to inform their audience of the breaking news. This is a huge change and will definitely influence voters' decisions. Now that Huntsman dropped out, all of his voters will have to vote for someone new. Huntsman's endorsement of Romney will greatly influence voters as well. Huntsman wasn't very popular and didn't get many votes or publicity, so him dropping out didn't come as a big surprise to me.

Make it or break it in South Carolina

Click here for the article, "South Carolina GOP voters think Mitt is it: 'I'm here because I'd like to shake hands with the new president'" by Liz Goodwin
Source: Yahoo

Now that the New Hampshire primary is over, where Romney took first and Paul came in second, all the attention is moving to South Carolina. This state could either make it or break it for some candidates. Since 1980, the winner of SC went on to become the eventual Republican nominee. Rick Perry needs to win or else there isn't really a point for him to run anymore, especially after only receiving 1% of the votes in New Hampshire. He's planning on getting many votes because South Carolina is such a conservative state. The thing that's turning some voters away is the fact that Perry allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition for public universities in Texas. Ron Paul is a crowd favorite throughout the younger folks, but he isn't exactly president material in some people's eyes. Paul's foreign policy (which I am a fan of) seems too outrageous for many people. Santorum is very conservative and many SC residents are attracted to him, but his high spending puts some voters off. Mitt Romney is very popular simply because of the fact that he's won the past two states. Jonathan Lizotte even said, "I'm here because I'd like to shake hands with the new president" at one of Romney's speeches.

I think the author is very neutral, she presents each candidate in the same way. Goodwin writes about the positives and negatives of the top candidates. I think reading this article could help some voters decide who they want to vote for. I agree with some of the people that were interviewed, Mitt Romney is a very strong candidate and even though I don't like him very much, he will probably go on to be nominated. I guess we have to wait until November...

David Gregory grills Rick Santorum

Click here to watch David Gregory's Meet the Press interview with Rick Santorum (1/1/12)
Source: MSNBC 

After Santorum immensely jumped in the polls in Iowa, David Gregory wanted to interview him. Santorum has spent more time in Iowa than any other candidate, visiting all 99 counties in a pick up truck due to limited money and staff. Not too long ago Santorum was at 5% and people were wondering when he would drop out. Gregory asks Santorum why no one has endorsed him yet, even though he's been serving Washington D.C. for 20 years. Santorum answers this question by saying that he didn't ask anyone to endorse him because he had really low percentages up until recently. He isn't doing this to get endorsements, he wants to change what's going on in D.C. Gregory started talking about Santorum's new ad saying that he's "rock solid on values issues," which lately Santorum has been accusing Romney of not doing. Santorum has been saying that Romney is a liberal Massachusetts moderate, when only four years ago he was saying something completely different. Santorum supported Romney in the Republican primaries in 2008, he even said that "Romney would always stand up for conservative issues and principles." Gregory asked Santorum what has changed, and Santorum said that he only said this when comparing Romney to McCain.

I'm not a huge fan of Santorum, but he's an alright guy. He stands up for what he believes in, and he must be doing something right since he won 2nd place in the Iowa caucuses! Gregory was definitely trying to find some negative things about Santorum by throwing these difficult questions at him (ex. endorsements and Mitt Romney). I think that Santorum handled the questions well, but could've been a little more diplomatic with the Romney topic. I think this interview informed voters about Santorum, and I think he really struck a chord when he said that he's not looking for endorsements. I find endorsements to be unnecessary because if you want to vote for someone, you'll end up voting for them regardless of who supports them.