Gingrich is not materially different from Trump, Bachmann, Perry or Herman Cain. He is another clown with a slightly different brand. The only meaningful question is whether the thing that trips Newt up will be his past, his faulty brain-mouth filter or the crickets and spiders that live in empty storefronts where his campaign organization ought to be.
And no, there will be no Huntsmanmania when Newt! throws an axle some time in late Hannukah (Or Fred Kargermentum, in case you were wondering). Huntsman already played enough contrarian cards to enjoy the Amish treatment for the rest of his short political career. If I were Rick Santorum, though, I might start to wonder whether my turn on the hotseat might not line up in a convenient way with Iowa or South Carolina.
The Ron Paul-mentum admittedly took me by surprise. In my defense though, the guy has so much crazy going on that he stands out even in a crowd of demented haters, liars and losers. His will not be the Perry or Cain chardonnay hangover that builds over time and leaves you sore and queasy while trying to stay lucid at church group. The Paul hangover will be a grain alcohol skullbreaker that hits like a train and passes in a blacked-out blur, the kind that leaves people wondering whether it was real and, much later, lets them deny that it happened at all.
If I had to guess about Iowa, I would stick to my bet that Santorum will win the lottery and peak just in time to beat Romney in Iowa and then sink quietly beneath the santorum radar before any other significant primary comes along. Romney will sheepishly claim the mantle like everyone knew he would, and the party will piss and moan and line up behind their guy just like Democrats did behind Walter Mondale in ’84.
gaz
Precisely.
Benjamin Franklin
I like your line “the circus has to keep moving” and that’s the real point.
The GOPs Big Top has three rings, but the center ring doesn’t always have the best show. The primary goal is to keep the attention inside the Tent, and for the Grand Old Party, negative attention is better than none at all.
choulaojiu66
Wanna bet money on it?
danimal
I mostly agree, but I think you underestimate Paul’s popularity, especially in Iowa. He has a pretty high floor, and with all the notRomneys splitting the vote, his 20% may get him first or second. And if Romney is third or below, he will be bloodied up quite a while longer before the GOP falls in line behind their inevitable um, non-Evangelical leader. (God bless the evangelicals trying to mobilize their flocks on behalf of LDS Bishop Mitt Romney, it will be a sight to behold–pass the popcorn!)
rlrr
I’ve had my fill of MBA Presidents. We don’t need another…
Mike Goetz
Once Paul goes down in flames and is clearly no longer in the running, how long until Greenwald endorses Gary Johnson?
JGabriel
Tim F. @ Top:
I’m hoping for a Santorum win in IA, a Huntsman win in NH, and a Romney (or anyone else) win in SC.
Republican strategists like to point out that the nominee always wins two of those three races, so if there are three separate winners for each of those three primaries, we can expect Chris Matthews to have a field day with it and “Republicans In Disarray” headlines to increase. Plus, it’ll demoralize the GOP that none of their candidates can pull the party together.
.
The Moar You Know
Huntsman is the Lieberman of his party. He might as well switch allegiances at this point, he’s gone as far as he’s going to go with the GOP.
catclub
The real contest is who has the least organization outside of Iowa. Bachmann, Gingrich, Santorum, Cain all in a dead heat in _that_ primary. Perry and Romney only ones with anything of significance outside Iowa.
Not sure that Gingrich even has anything inside Iowa.
TheMightyTrowel
@The Moar You Know: Dude’s anti-abortion as all get out. I don’t want him in my tent!
Yevgraf
This looks suspiciously like some of the fine work they have over at bumwine.com.
http://www.bumwine.com/
The Moar You Know
I’m hoping that Santorum will release pics of his kids playing with their stillborn sibling.
Because that’s normal.
catclub
@TheMightyTrowel: um… that applies to every single one of them, nowadays.
catclub
@Yevgraf: “the fine work they have over at bumwines.com”
yet another thing inspired by the Pythons. “Australian Table wines”
This wine has a message and the message is … beware.
Brian S
@Mike Goetz: Hasn’t he already? It won’t be long if he hasn’t.
Jay C
@Benjamin Franklin:
Not quite sure about this: yes, of course the “MSM” will be in the tank for Republicans in 2012, just as they habitually are; and the Beltway Villagers will be doing their usual sniffing and sneering about President Obama’s “failings”; but in this year’s case, I think the negative attention is going to have more-negative consequences than usual.
Even assuming Mitt Romney will eventually walk off with the nomination (and, if he’s smart, pick some inoffensive wheelhorse as a running mate), it’s long odds, IMO, that the GOP will quite be able to shed the extremist, clown-car image the primary circus has implanted in the public mind. And if they haven’t, I’m sure the Obama campaign will do its best to remind us all…
And btw, I think the real linchpin of the 2012 campaign on a national level isn’t going to be on the primary trail; but the Recall Walker campaign in Wisconsin. So far it’s been strictly a local affair (and an obsession mainly on Daily Kos), but IMO, a successful ouster of the Koch Brothers’ favorite governor will shift the ground of the whole political narrative: and not in the GOP’s favor….
Schlemizel
Ol frothy has no money & no organization outside IA – he is done win or lose in IA. Paul is the only serious organization other than Willard and its pretty clear he won’t win anywhere unless he takes IA, then all bets are off (how much do they really hate Willard?). I have not seen any polls indicating that Huntsman is in the top 5 anywhere or that his numbers are improving.
The only thing I can see that is not Nominee Willard is a brokered convention. That might be entertaining.
Veritas
Once Romney claims the nomination, the election is his to lose.
Obambi’s economic policies have failed, and we need a change in direction.
JGabriel
Jay C:
I don’t think so.
By the time the general election rolls around, even the MSM will (probably) realize they can’t be in the tank for the GOP candidate and still maintain any credibility — especially if that candidate is not Romney or Huntsman. While R & H have the blandness to come across as less crazy than their peers on TV, any of the other potential nominees are crazy as a loon in one way or another that shines through the television cameras like Sarah Palin winking at Rich Lowry and sending starbursts through the screen.
.
catclub
@Veritas: “Obambi’s economic policies have failed, and we need a change in direction.”
The aspirin didn’t work. Let’s try strichnine!
Zifnab
@danimal:
Unless he really screws up, Romney will win New Hampshire solidly. Iowa will be a bad dream, and he’ll go on to sweep South Carolina and Florida, where the GOP establishment has much stronger control of the nomination process.
Nikki Haley endorsed Mitt Romney. Jeb Bush will fall in line when it is politically convenient. That’ll seal the deal and it’ll be a straight gallup on to the general.
It’s Mitt’s turn.
The Moar You Know
@Jay C: Shit. Markos needs a “come to Jesus” moment. He is not a kingmaker, nor even a player. You’d think the utter fiasco of his attempt to unseat Lieberman would have taught him something. I guess not. Hope he doesn’t fuck this up for everyone else – again.
Villago Delenda Est
Paul is the only notMitt with anything resembling a campaign organization outside of Iowa. For the rest of the clown car crowd, it’s make or break in Iowa, and the courts will look at the conniptions of Noot and TexasFailBoy about Virginia and give them the backhand bitchslap the two pathetic wretches deserve.
gnomedad
@catclub:
Tempting, but we’ll just have to hope he gets himself banned again.
wilfred
I can’t see the republicans not nominating Romney as he is the only one even remotely electable.
But Paul’s not going away. Despite the screeching, he’s still standing. And the longer he stands the more appeal some of his positions will have. I refer specifically to his positions against the ridiculous war on drugs, the equally maniac-fueled war against Iran and his questioning (gasp!) of blind US support of Israel and its consequences for Americans who are neither Christian zionists or Israel Firsters.
I’m hoping he gets to debate Romney one on one.
Brian S
@Schlemizel:
Wouldn’t a broked convention be financially disastrous for either party? I’m a little hazy on how the fundraising works, but any candidate to come out of a brokered convention would be horribly behind their competitor, right?
wrb
@Veritas:
morning comedy
Cris (without an H)
I’d like Santorum to win Iowa, so we can draw a line between this year and 2008 (Huckabee) and start officially writing off the Iowa caucus as a fundamentalist outlier.
Bulworth
After giving the lead, however briefly, to Mr. 9-9-9, nothing the teabag party does will surprise me.
Cris (without an H)
Hopefully with the same electoral college results.
Villago Delenda Est
@wilfred:
The MSM will carefully moderate any such debate so as to paint Paul in the worst possible light, by talking about his Streicher-authored newsletters as much as possible. If they touch on foreign policy, they’ll play up his “screw the jooos” position and that will be that.
OvenMitt will get a free ride. Paul’s position on the MIC is absolute poison to the establishment, and all they have to do to torpedo Paul is to use Paul’s own words against him.
Chyron HR
@Veritas:
Even the right-wing RealityCheck doesn’t think Romney can seal the deal. VICTORY!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Schlemizel:
Some of the old timers at Redstate have said that they will vote for Obama rather than Paul. They didn’t get BLAMMED! by the management.
In fact, the management there didn’t say a thing in response.
Schlemizel
@Brian S:
Only if it is not someone currently running. I assume the negotiations would center on people already in the race. If they did pull a wild card for the top spot the second spot would almost have to go to Willard & then his money & org will naturally go into the effort.
Frankensteinbeck
@efgoldman:
Voter enthusiasm is an enormously powerful force in elections. The people the GOP depends upon most to vote loathe Romney. If 95% of them hold their nose and vote, that lost 5% crashes and burns whatever chance they had of winning the election.
Jay C
@The Moar You Know:
You’ve got a point about the good Mr. Moulitsas and his merry crew, but that doesn’t change the fact that Gov. Scott Walker is facing an actual real-life challenge to his Administration, after little more than a year in office. If the Recall folks get their petition through (and, barring any sadly-typical GOP shenanigans, their signature campaign seems to be on track), the recall election will, I think, move from “local” to “national” news. And fairly quickly, if only as a sort of shiny-object distraction from the ongoing GOP
buffoon circusprimary slog.And if Walker gets the axe, it’ll be front-page… news
4tehlulz
@Mike Goetz: lol, funny you should mention that…
Obama may lose gay voters to Gary Johnson in 2012
Schlemizel
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
OMG! That is a huge tell – not unlike the time Mush Lambrain did his entire show blasting Pat Buchanan as unacceptable (’96). It was fun to hear the ditto heads asspload! If he has lost Redstate Paul might be a good choice of the safety of the country.
smintheus
@Schlemizel: There are about as many Fred Karger signs as Santorum signs up in NH. The real enthusiasm there seems to be split between Romney and Paul.
rb
@The Moar You Know: Huntsman is the Lieberman of his party
Plus smarts and minus the endless preening and droopy dawg concern trolling.
Huntsman is “only” very, very annoying and condescending. In this, he has not yet attained Holy Joek’s olympic caliber.
gaz
@Mike Goetz: If GG went straight for the Gary Johnson endorsement (bypassing RP entirely) it would at least demonstrate a modicum of integrity on his part. GG is allergic to that though.
gaz
@Frankensteinbeck:
If you are a Democratic that is.
The GOP doesn’t like voter enthusiasm. Since at least Nixon, they’ve adopted a strategy that is 100% about vote suppression. The lower the turnout, the better the chance they have.
Voter apathy is the gear-oil of the GOP political machine.
And the idiot liberals that want to throw a tantrum and stay home – or ignore off year elections would do well to remember that.
If you don’t vote – you *are* voting. For the republican sociopath.
carpeduum
Ha….I see on that orange site Cenk is throwing stink bombs at Obama again. What a predicable clown.
srv
@The Moar You Know:
Romney/Lieberman 2012
rb
@wilfred: I’m hoping [Ron Paul] gets to debate Romney one on one.
I hate women more!
No, I hate women more!
I totally told my constituents to shoot black people and throw the gun away.
Whatevs, in a single day I fired more of “those people” then you’ll ever shoot, and I’m still getting paid for it!
Fuck that. I want to roll back the CRA.
Please, bitch. I’m already killing Big Bird.
I’m a physician anti govt type who says the all ur uterus are belong to the govt.
Weakness! I wrote Obamacare and I’ll save the country from it, too. Suck on that contrarianism, old man.
Zifnab
@Villago Delenda Est:
This is the modern GOP. The one that boo’d Iraqi servicemen for being gay and screamed “Let’m die!” during a discussion of health care. I question whether Paul’s newsletter is really a net negative.
Besides, I don’t see Romney feeling the need to give Paul any more free media. The two dozen debates we’ve already had really haven’t favored Romney. Why on earth would he continue to agree to them when he can just buy up a few million dollars more in ad revenue and bury Paul in negativity?
Cacti
In other good news for John McCain…
Polling finds that his potential 2012 replacement loser fares even worse among hispanic voters
With Mitt Romney clocking in at 23 percent support.
shortstop
@JGabriel: I think a three-way split is highly likely, but I suspect it will be Paul in Iowa, Romney in NH, and I haven’t made my mind up yet about SC. A couple of weeks ago it looked like Gingrich would take SC. Now — well, there’s just too much time and too much disarray between now and then.
The Moar You Know
@carpeduum: Cenk is no more a Democrat than Ronald Reagan.
Why are people still visiting DKos? They became utterly irrelevant after 2006. The site redesign should have put it squarely in a grave once and for all. Is it just habit?
TruthOfAngels
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Yeah, I saw that too, from Anne Laurie’s link. They weren’t really that enthusiastic about anybody except Perry, and even then it was ‘LOOK HERE IZ PHOTO IT IZ STANDING ROOM ONLY PERRYLANCHE!’ when the photo has about 20 bored-looking people in it and three of them happen to be standing up, one of which is Rick Perry.
Good times.
Cris (without an H)
comics, bishes
eemom
@The Moar You Know:
To be fair, Lady Jane deserves more of the credit for that than Markos. Rarely has the phrase “kiss of death” been more perfectly illustrated than it was in 2006 with the fastening of her attention-sucking lips to the hapless ass of Ned Lamont.
wrb
With Paul surging on all this good recent publicity, which of the others will be the first to call for the death penalty for doing nasty gay things?
shortstop
@TruthOfAngels: That made me blow soup at my monitor. Good thing it was a light vegetable brothy thing rather than, say, New England clam chowdah.
Veritas
Everyone on this thread is ignoring the elephant in the room–Citizens United.
Cris (without an H)
Ha ha, speaking of dKos, the photo on what is currently the top story is great. Santorum vs Paul, with frothy Rick doing the Margo finger quotes.
wrb
@Veritas:
The marvel is that anyone could think it a good thing.
Can you explain?
Cacti
@Veritas:
Fix’d.
Satanicpanic
@The Moar You Know: Uh, habit mostly. There are a few good diarists there. Cenk should have been driven out years ago. That guy is just a low-rent Arianna Huffington.
carpeduum
@The Moar You Know: I go there for the entertainment value. I don’t call it by it’s name because I don’t want to help their search engine positioning.
It’s my current go to sit to see what the latest firebagger outrage trainwreck is.
Palli
The Moar You [email protected]
But Blue Dogs may not be the fashion this round
Chyron HR
@Veritas:
Yeah, that’s why only 25% of Repulicans want Mitt to be President. Because he just isn’t spending enough money on his campaign.
Hill Dweller
@Satanicpanic: Cenk was on a non-political show advocating Paul as his anti-Obama choice last week. Has he had a change of heart now that all the crazy racist newsletter stuff has come out?
FlipYrWhig
@Satanicpanic: He’s a very, very low rent Keith Olbermann. A guy with a bulbous head and a deep voice who’s very, very angry about something, and proud of it.
Scott P.
He does have a point. If there’s one thing Romney knows how to do, it’s change direction.
Kyle
I have to say this clown car of candidates for the GOP nominations is an endless source of humor, if you’re a democrat. Are the Democratic Senate and Congressional campaign committees using this to paint GOP congressional candidates? One presumes that a party runs its best folks, so if these are the best the GOP has, then imagine the idiots they have in Congress. I say the whole 2012 campaign should just be endless mocking of the GOP.
Veritas
@Chyron HR:
Obambi could barely convince slightly more than half of Democrats to support him, so I’m not sure what your point.
Veritas
Besides if you look at who everyone’s second choice is, it’s overhwelmingly Romney.
The fact he is on the verge of winning Iowa is just amazing, given how hostile that state is to him.
Cacti
@Chyron HR:
Even assuming Mittens quickly sews up the GOP nomination (which he might), what credible scenario exists for him winning the general with 25 percent of the Hispanic vote?
Dubya needed 40 percent to win in 2004, McCain took 31 percent in 2008 and got creamed.
Paul in KY
@The Moar You Know: He could come over to us & we would give him a cool nickname, like ‘Daysheep’ or something like that.
Veritas
@Cacti:
Play up the abortion and gay marriage issues, just like Bush did. Hispanics are socially conservative. McCain was less effective at that.
BTW, it will be hilarious to see what happens in 30 years when Hispanics control the Democrat Party and start arguing with the aging white feminists to change the party’s position on
prenatal human sacrificei mean, abortion.Veritas
@Cacti:
And please explain the 2010 midterms, and why Romney is tied or even slightly ahead of Obama despite your obsession over the hispanic vote.
Chyron HR
@Veritas:
I’m not sure what your grammar, but you don’t hear me whining about it.
But don’t let that distract you, tell us more about the Mighty Mitt’s “too-close-to-call” election that he’ll win by “one or two states”. Man, that sounds like a real popular candidate right there.
Satanicpanic
@Hill Dweller: I’m pretty sure Cenk knew about those and ignored them. These internet outrage peddlers are all pretty good at not seeing things their salary depends on them not seeing.
Cacti
@Veritas:
Haha
Yes, surely that will make them forget the past 6 years of “electric fences and machine guns for the border”.
rb
As schadenfreudey as it is to watch a desperate republican try to get comfortable with the Romney thing – and it is funny to behold – please don’t feed.
spongeworthy
Without question the GOP primary is a freak show of epic proportions. But I’m not sure the party that nearly foisted John Edwards off on us is in any position to point fingers.
Benjamin Franklin
Apparently, Marcy is a DINO. Can anyone from her State confirm?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/david-catanese/2011/12/its-kucinich-vs-kaptur-108913.html
“The drama surrounding Dennis Kucinich’s 2012 reelection bid is finally over.
After months of agonizing that included with a flirtation with a bid in Washington, Kucinich announced Wednesday he had filed to run for reelection in Ohio’s new 9th District — a decision that sets him up for a primary with his longtime Democratic colleague, Rep. Marcy Kaptur.”
Cacti
@Veritas:
So now, your position has morphed from “Social issues will win them over” to “the hispanic vote doesn’t actually matter”.
That’s a good one, run with that.
Satanicpanic
@FlipYrWhig: There’s a joke in there about phrenology maybe being applicable when it comes to pundits’ head sizes but I just can’t put it together this morning.
Paul in KY
@Satanicpanic: TV does like you to have a giant head. Makes your body look small, I guess.
Chyron HR
@spongeworthy:
Edwards came in second in Iowa (well behind Obama), and then third in the subsequent four primaries before dropping out of the race.
At which point was he “nearly” the nominee?
Southern Beale
If I had to guess about Iowa, I would stick to my bet that Santorum will win the lottery and peak just in time to beat Romney in Iowa …
You’re kidding, right?
It’s going to be Romney. The Masters Of The Universe who control the GOP will make sure it’s Romney. Romney needs a big win in Iowa. He needs the Miit-mentum.
Zifnab
@The Moar You Know:
Wait, DKos became irrelevant because they revamped their website?
Emma
@Veritas: SOME hispanics are socially conservative. SOME are not. And SOME have noticed that voting for Republicans usually gets them the short end of the stick.
Ian
@Veritas:
Some kind of proof is usually necessary when making ambiguous claims about a large diverse group of people.
Link
Are you in the Rubio will make Hispanics come out for Romney crowd?
Cacti
@Emma:
That’s because for the past 40 years, the socially conservative politics have taken a backseat to the white resentment politics.
The GOP has painted themselves into a corner with the Southern Strategy. The demographics have reached a tipping point and 55% of the white vote no longer wins the White House on its own.
Over the next decade or so, the Repukes will have to reinvent their electoral coalition. And they’ll have to start from the position of having made themselves radioactive to people of color.
Veritas
@Emma:
Yeah, I’m sure for example they’d love everyone’s views of the RCC on this blog, right? You know, when y’all called it a “international pedophile ring”? I’m sure that goes over well with Mexicans and Guatemalans.
Veritas
Once the aging white liberal feminists die out from lack of children, the Democrat Party will be run by socially conservative black evangelicals and Hispanic Roman Catholics. That should be fun to watch as the few remaining white liberal feminists heads explode.
Mike in NC
(1) Maybe in the New Year you can all resolve to stop feeding DougJ’s trolls.
(2) No amount of money is going to buy the White House for Mitt Romney in 2012. Nada. Not from the Koch Brothers. Not Citizens United. Not Rupert Murdoch. He can go right ahead and burn up his own vast personal fortune in this vanity candidacy.
If Mitt walks around state fairs in Iowa or drops in at coffee shops in New Hampshire handing out crisp $50 bills, it doesn’t matter. It makes no difference what gimmick he tries to get people to like him, because the guy held one elective office in his whole life and refused to run for reelection because he knew he’d lose. He’s the phoniest, most insincere, most tone-deaf would-be politician in the country. Mitt is the very definition of “empty suit”. He’s unpopular for a very good reason.
After the primaries finally end, Romney will stagger across the finish line to the GOP nomination as severely damaged goods, and then at the convention they’ll hang a running mate even more odious than he is around his neck. Every TV ad and campaign appearance will just remind people of what an insufferable liar and asshole Mitt is.
Lately Willard has been sounding like Glenn Beck, something even the media can’t ignore. In 2012, hopefully B-J will retire the “Good news for John McCain” joke and replace it with “Good news for Mitt Romney”. It’ll be fun hearing Mark Halperin repeat that over and over again, even after people learn that Mitt pays a measly 15% in federal income tax on unearned income, or how many homes, cars, airplanes and yachts he owns. The only people who really like Mitt Romney are the late night comedians.
Veritas
@Mike in NC:
Then why is Obambi essentially tied, or slightly behind Romney in every poll? And remember, this is before the big, fat piles of corporate cash start flowing into the Super PACs.
FlipYrWhig
@Veritas: Good thing no Republicans have ever said anything disparaging about people of Hispanic origins!
Mnemosyne
@Veritas:
I guess you missed the child sexual abuse scandal in Mexico, huh? Not to mention the other Latin American countries it’s happened in.
I have a feeling that people in Mexico aren’t any more thrilled at the idea of having their kids sexually abused by pedophile priests than people in the US are. They seem pretty pissed about it, actually.
gelfling545
@Cris (without an H): and pootie & woozle pics.
rb
@Veritas: You know, when y’all called it a “international pedophile ring”?
That’s international child rape cartel to you, bucko.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
I’m guessing it must think that Latin-American catholics are all like Bill Donohue.
Satanicpanic
I never knew that Balloon Juice memes could move elections.
rb
No amount of money is going to buy the White House for Mitt Romney in 2012
Preach.
The way to look at this election is the following: despite the President being saddled with this economy and this Congress, having to shepherd multiple failed wars, and being legitimately open to all manner of attack on civil liberties/jobs/war on terror/environment, all while Presidentin’ While Black and Not Totally Hostile to the Ghey, the Republican rank and file so are out to lunch (and the President so formidable a foe) that any R of consequence is rightly staying out of sight.
Hence the R powerbrokers are about to hand the nomination to a pampered, hyper-pandering hyper-rich socially awkward french-speaking Mormon (not that there’s anything wrong with the latter two). This guy makes Al Gore look like James Bond and the Marlboro Man rolled into on.
Mitt is going to get a severe shellacking and take a bunch of downticket victims with him. Being a fan of representative govt, I sincerely wish that the prospect of one of our two major parties nominating such a hapless candidate was detrimental to our democracy, but with the Rs so out there these days and Congress teetering on the edge of total breakdown, this may be the best result.
So: thanks Mitt! Go place a $10,000 bet in my honor, whouldja?
pseudonymous in nc
Romney in SC? Na ga happen. He came fourth there in 2008, behind Fred Thompson, who promptly dropped out afterwards. I’d say that gNooT is going to win SC, with Romney perhaps in third if Paul doesn’t implode and there’s a realignment of the Bachmann-Santorum theocratic wing.
Svensker
@wilfred:
Will never be allowed to happen. Daylight cannot be shed on certain issues and it won’t be.
grandpa john
@pseudonymous in nc: yep. most of the pundits seem to forget that Mitt is (gasp) Mormon, and in SC which is in the heart of the bible belt, that amounts to a big anchor around the neck. I live in SC, I go to church with SC residents, most of them rep. , I know what their attitude is toward mormons, Most of them consider them as members of a cult, hell I am a dem and I probably agree with them. So I would suggest that people don’t start putting SC in the Mitt column just yet. Matter of fact a recent state poll put Obama as leading Mitt, head to head. wonders never cease