dnf137.com

NASHUA, N.H. ? Republican front-runner Mitt Romney stumbled down the homestretch of the New Hampshire primary on Monday, declaring, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me” as his rivals intensified already fierce criticism.

“Gov. Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs,” said former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in Tuesday’s primary and has shown signs of gaining ground in recent polls.

Adding insult to any injury, Texas Gov. Rick Perry posted a ringtone to his campaign website that consisted of Romney saying, “I like being able to fire people,” over and over.

Romney is the odds-on favorite in New Hampshire, and Huntsman as well as other Republicans who are contesting the state have generally been content to vie for second place in hopes of emerging as his main rival in the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21.

“Second place would be a dream come true,” said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, as he raced through a final full New Hampshire campaign day that began before sunrise and stretched for more than 14 hours. The former Pennsylvania senator finished a surprising second in last week’s Iowa caucuses, but without money for television ads he has appeared to struggle as he seeks to convert that into momentum.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, won in Iowa by eight votes. A victory in New Hampshire would make him the first Republican in a contested presidential nomination battle to capture the first two races of the campaign since Iowa began leading off for the GOP in 1976.

The battle has grown increasingly rancorous in recent days ? both in New Hampshire and next-up South Carolina ? with Santorum, Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich escalating their attacks on Romney’s claim that a background in business uniquely qualifies him to help create American jobs.

At the same time, an organization that backs Gingrich has spread the word that it intends to spend $3.4 million on television ads in South Carolina that are expected to attack Romney with gusto.

“Now we’ll see if he has the broad shoulders and can stand the heat,” said Gingrich, relishing the battle ahead as the nominating campaign wheels South.

Romney’s remark about firing people was the second jarring moment for the front-runner in the span of less than 24 hours.

On Sunday afternoon, the millionaire businessman told an audience that he understood the fear of being laid off, adding, “there were a couple of times when I was worried I was going to get pink-slipped.” His aides refused to provide details.

On Monday morning, addressing the Nashua Chamber of Commerce, he said he wants individuals to be able to choose among different health insurance policies as they seek coverage.

“That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don’t like what they do, you can fire them,” he said.

“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. If someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I’m going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me,” he added.

A few hours later, in a previously unscheduled appearance before reporters, Romney emphasized he had been talking about insurance companies.

“Things can always be taken out of context, and I understand that’s what the Obama people will do. But as you know I was speaking about insurance companies and we need to be able to make a choice and my comments entirely reflected that discussion.”

As for once fearing he would be fired, he said, “I came out of school, and I got an entry level position like the other people that were freshly minted MBAs, and like anybody that starts at the bottom of an enterprise you wonder, when you don’t do so well, whether you’re going to be able to hang onto your job.”

Romney has made his career in business the core credential of his candidacy, saying that his firm, Bain Capital, created 100,000 jobs on balance as it started some firms while taking over, remaking and then spinning off others.

Gingrich told one interviewer during the day that Bain Capital “apparently looted the companies, left people totally unemployed and walked off with millions of dollars.”

He wasn’t asked to provide details.

But Perry, campaigning in Anderson, South Carolina, was ? and did.

“If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina to tell you he feels your pain. Because he caused it,” he said.

`I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips ? whether he’d have enough of them to hand out.”

He cited Holson Burns Group Inc. of Gaffney, S.C., where he said 150 workers who made photo albums lost their jobs. “They looted that company,” Perry said, referring to Bain Capital.

Santorum’s message in New Hampshire was the same as it had been in Iowa. “Give us an opportunity to be the conservative alternative,” he said.

He sidestepped questions about his proposal to reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for wealthier beneficiaries, saying efforts by reporters to obtain specifics were “gotcha games.”

Even though he runs second in some of the New Hampshire polls, Texas Rep. Ron Paul campaigned lightly in the state. He unveiled a new television ad in South Carolina that took aim at Santorum.

It notes the former senator’s votes against right-to-work legislation and in favor of increases in the federal debt ceiling. “Rick Santorum, a record of betrayal, another serial hypocrite who can’t be trusted,” it says.

President Barack Obama appeared to cast the New Hampshire primary as a proving ground for a presidential nominee no different from the GOP lawmakers who oppose his policies.

“Republicans in Congress and these candidates, they think that the best way for America to compete for new jobs and businesses is to follow other countries in a race to the bottom,” Obama said at a fundraiser in Washington. “We can’t go back to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics.”

In Manchester, N.H., protesters with Occupy and Paul signs swarmed events hosted by Gingrich and Santorum.

Outside a sports bar, they pushed toward Santorum as he made his way to his car, surrounded him and at times jostled his children. Police stepped in to get the Santorums to their cars.

Gingrich canceled an appearance at his state campaign headquarters after about 40 protesters gathered at its entrance. His spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the former House speaker’s private security detail had security concerns.

________

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Thomas Beaumont and Jim Davenport in South Carolina and Holly Ramer, Shannon McCaffrey, Philip Elliott and Beth Fouhy in New Hampshire and Stacy A. Anderson in Washington contributed to this report. Espo reported from Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120110/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

thunder vicente fernandez house md chicago code forgetting sarah marshall asterisk joplin missouri

It’s been a challenging week for Mitt Romney and it’s only Wednesday.

The Republican presidential candidate had a tough exchange with a gay Vietnam veteran in New Hampshire on Monday. On Tuesday, he was lampooned for knowing how to speak French. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is ahead of him in the national polls, after a strong showing in Saturday’s Yahoo/ABC News debate in Iowa.

And now, political researchers have reported that a phrase Romney recently used — “Keep America American”– was used by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. It was also used in the 1800s by the Know Nothing Party, an anti-Catholic group.

Of course, it’s fair to assume that Romney’s campaign didn’t know that the white supremacist group had used the expression? as a kind of motto against African Americans, gays and Jews. Nevertheless, the unfortunate coincidence has led to a slew of blog and search activity on Yahoo!.

We first spotted the news at the Huffington Post. Americablog, a liberal news blog, first pointed out the identical statements. Americablog has embedded a video of Romney using the phrase and also points to an article from the Los Angeles Times in which Romney is quoted using the slogan.

The campaign ad is embedded below–though it’s hard to tell if Romney is saying “Keep America America” or “Keep America American.”

In the LA Times piece, Romney compared himself to President Obama and said, “We have on one side a president who wants to transform America into a European-style nation, and you have on other hand someone like myself that wants to turn around America and keep America American”–or perhaps, “Keep America America”–with the principles that made us the greatest nation on earth.”

In all likelihood, this kerfuffle will all blow over soon. But it does serve as a reminder to all politicians: Choose your sound bites carefully.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20111214/pl_yblog_upshot/mitt-romneys-unfortunate-slogan

smallville season 10 kotaku tom welling pizzahut redbox heart attack grill tango

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gestures as he participates in a one-on-one debate with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gestures as he participates in a one-on-one debate with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Jackie Gingrich Cushman, daugther of Newt’s Gringrich, speaks at a news conference at the State capitol on Tuesday Dec. 13, 2011 in Atlanta. Several Georgia lawmakers, including the state’s most powerful senator, are supporting Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Phil Skinner) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT

ATLANTA (AP) ? Newt Gingrich is pledging to stay relentlessly positive in his quest for the White House. Except when he’s not.

Trying to make over his image as the angry, bomb-throwing leader of the Republican revolution of the 1990s, the former House speaker has adopted a sunnier persona these days and is playing up his credentials as a grandfather, husband and historian.

On Tuesday, he urged supporters to refrain from attacking his opponents and eschewed negative ads.

But old habits die hard.

When chief rival Mitt Romney cast Gingrich as a lifelong Washington insider at a weekend debate in Iowa, Gingrich had this snarky comeback: “The only reason you didn’t become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994.”

In New Hampshire on Monday, Gingrich lashed out at the former Massachusetts governor, calling on him to “give back all the money he’s earned bankrupting companies and laying off employees” when he ran the private equity firm Bain Capital.

In Gingrich’s camp there is simple explanation: Romney started it.

But the former Georgia congressman said that while he won’t go negative he won’t unilaterally disarm either.

“I have reserved the right to respond when my record has been distorted,” he said Tuesday in a letter to supporters and staff that urged them not to attack his opponents. He referred to Monday’s back-and-forth as “what in diplomatic circles is called ‘a frank exchange’ over our respective records in the private sector.”

But for some, the episode brings back memories of the scorched-earth tactics Gingrich was known for as he engineered the first Republican majority in the U.S. House in decades during the 1994 congressional elections on the strength of his fiery rhetoric.

“Newt creates political success by drawing the starkest possible contrast between your position and your opponent’s position, even if turns out to be hyperbolic, that is acceptable under Newt’s rules of engagement,” said Rich Galen, a former Gingrich aide.

Galen said it was “classic Newt” to attack Romney one day and the next day pretend it didn’t happen.

Bob Barr, a Gingrich supporter and former congressman from Georgia, said negative campaigning gets bashed. “But a lot of times it does work. That’s why people do it.”

Gingrich’s popularity plummeted in the waning days of his speakership as he feuded incessantly with the Clinton White House. He seems to have taken a lesson from that into his presidential bid.

Gingrich has catapulted to the top of the Republican field thanks in large part to strong debate performances. And at many of those, he played the role of elder statesman, chastising one moderator for trying to get Republicans to fight among themselves.

But that role was far easier to adopt when most polls had him as an also-ran.

Now that he’s at the front of the pack, it will be far harder for Gingrich to stay above the fray as his rivals try to tear him down.

With the GOP race still volatile, political fortunes also could shift rapidly. Gingrich could have a tough time staying on the high road if left in a long, scrappy nomination fight.

Gingrich ? who has two so-called super political action committees backing him ? is also urging supporters not to contribute to outside groups that attack his GOP rivals.

A new Atlanta-based PAC that was announced Tuesday said it would spread “the message of why America needs Newt Gingrich in order to win our future” and counter the well-financed efforts of the opposition.

Gingrich’s daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, acknowledged Tuesday that her father has a challenge in getting past the image of him from his days as speaker.

“People are remembering the media coverage and what they see and what they think about is the person who was the ‘Grinch who stole Christmas,’” she said.

She said Gingrich, now 68, has matured and reached peace since leaving office more than a decade ago.

“He is the happy warrior,” Cushman said, adding that her 12-year-old daughter, Maggie, has had some campaign advice for her grandfather: Smile more.

“Now she counts his smiles,” Cushman said.

Gingrich himself recognizes that the success of his candidacy may hinge on whether voters are ready to buy his conversion.

Voters, he has said, will decide whether he has “the temperament and discipline to be president.”

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-13-US-Gingrich/id-28934021700c474eacb5cb399bffa3b6

worlds fair rick ross beltane randy couture vs lyoto machida pope john paul misery divine mercy sunday

WASHINGTON ? In making the case for his re-election, President Barack Obama is arguing that it doesn’t matter who the Republicans nominate to run against him because the core philosophy of the GOP candidates is the same and will stand in sharp relief with his own.

The president laid out an argument for a second term in a wide ranging interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, bluntly saying that if voters believe in the Republican agenda of lower taxes, including for the wealthy, and weaker regulations then he will lose.

“I don’t think that’s where the American people are going to go,” he added, “because I don’t think the American people believe that based on what they’ve seen before, that’s going to work.”

For some time, Democrats and Obama allies have been anticipating that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will ultimately win the Republican nomination. But with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich atop many polls now, Democrats have begun to train their fire on him.

Obama argued that the two Republicans represent the same fundamental set of beliefs.

“The contrast in visions between where I want to take the country and what … where they say they want to take the country is going to be stark,” he said. “And the American people are going to have a good choice and it’s going to be a good debate.”

He rejected questioner Steve Kroft’s suggestion that the public was judging him on his performance as president. “I’m being judged against the ideal,” he said. “Joe Biden has a good expression. He says, `Don’t judge me against the Almighty, judge me against the alternative.’”

Obama predicted the fight to the Republican nomination won’t be resolved quickly. “I think that they will be going at it for a while,” he said.

He described both of the top GOP candidates, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, as political fixtures.

Of Gingrich he said: “He’s somebody who’s been around a long time, and is good on TV, is good in debates.”

“But Mitt Romney has shown himself to be somebody who’s … who’s good at politics, as well,” he said. “He’s had a lot of practice at it.”

Obama is counting on voters giving him credit for avoiding a second Great Depression, bailing out the auto industry and passing a signature health care law even while acknowledging that the public is hardly satisfied with the direction of the country.

He also listed such achievements as ending the Pentagon’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for gay service members and the elimination of Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaida leaders.

“But when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do,” he conceded.

He rejected Republican criticism that his economic policies amount to class warfare, saying he is simply trying to restore an “American deal” that focuses on building a strong middle class.

In a major speech in Osawatomie, Kan., this week, Obama argued that even before the recent recession hit, Americans at the top of the income scale grew wealthier while others struggled and racked up debt. He also has called for spending on jobs initiatives and for an extension of a payroll tax cut that would be paid for by increasing taxes on taxpayers who make $1 million or more.

“There are going to be people who say, `This is the socialist Obama and he’s come out of the closet,’” Obama said.

But he added: “The problem is that our politics has gotten to the point, where we can’t have an honest conversation about the greatest income inequality since the 1920s. And we can’t have an honest conversation about the irresponsibility that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, without somebody saying that somehow we’re being divisive.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_interview

kentucky derby teacher appreciation week mothers day gift lvs abu musab al zarqawi teacher appreciation day the wire