A little about Newt Gingrich and what he stands for

Education He supports public school prayer. He feels that schools should compete for students just like businesses compete for customers. He feels teachers should have to compete with each other too. Gingrich feels education is one of the keys to getting the country back on solid ground.

Taxes Gingrich feels we should have low taxes. He is opposed to increasing taxes on the rich, and he feels the corporate tax rate in the US is too high. He wants to do away with the corporate tax rate, and he also wants to eliminate the inheritance tax. For conservatives and Republicans that favor lower taxes, they like what Gingrich stands for on these issues. 

Government Gingrich is all about limited government. He feels that the government intrudes in our lives too much, and he feels that we should get the government out of our lives as much as possible.

Environment On the environment, Newt Gingrich is in tune with the issues of the day more than most of the GOP candidates. He used to teach an environmental studies class at West Georgia College. He also co-authored a book with Terry Maple called A Contract With the Earth. He is a strong proponent of green technology and energy conservation. He also feels the government should incentivize people with monetary prizes and tax incentives to come up with new innovative ways to generate alternative energy sources. He does not believe man is responsible for climate change, but he would support carbon emissions regulations.

Health Care What does Newt Gingrich stand for on healthcare? He is against Obamacare, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He feels Americans should have the right to make their own decisions on their healthcare needs. He believes ObamaCare is unconstitutional and should be repealed by the US house of Representatives. He feels everyone should have to contribute to the healthcare system in some form.

Jobs To help stimulate job growth, Gingrich supports major tax cuts including a 50 percent reduction in payroll taxes, a 12.5% jobless rate, and several other taxes too.  He also wants to stimulate job growth by providing other market incentives to businesses to encourage growth in the United States economy.  If you want to know what does Newt Gingrich stand for, just look at his long history in the United States government. His views have not changed, as he still supports many of the same positions he held in the 1980s working with President Ronald Reagan. He would be a good candidate for the GOP, but he has a lot of personal baggage from his failed marriages that could hold him back against President Obama.

Cain leaves the campaign trail.

Herman Cain suspends his campaign for 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

Why am I not surprised..? I had a feeling this was coming.  


The brief but dramatic campaign of Herman Cain ended on Saturday in Atlanta when he said the relentless attention on accusations of his sexual misconduct had become too much to bear.
Cain again denied allegations of sexual harassment and an extramarital affair, while declaring, “I’m not going away.” But, he said, after “a lot of prayer and soul searching I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family.” Cain also cited difficulty in raising enough money to remain competitive.


Cain gave no indication on Saturday who was his second choice for president, but he said he will endorse one of his former rivals “in the near future.”

In a Republican nominating contest that has see-sawed from one frontrunner to another, Cain, 65, was perhaps the unlikeliest to rise to the top of the pack. A former pizza executive with no political experience, little campaign organization to speak of and a schedule tailored more to selling books than winning votes, Cain nevertheless captured the hearts of Republican voters with a clear message, confidently delivered.

“I’m upset. I feel like the other side won, their dirty tricks,” said Marelli Gardner, a health-care coordinator and tea party activist from Cummings, Ga., who drove 45 minutes and waited two hours to hear Cain speak on Saturday. She left before his remarks were over. “A lot of people had a lot of hope in Herman Cain.”

The question now is where the rest of Cain’s backing goes. Asked in an interview in Iowa last week if he would pick up Cain’s supporters, Gingrich responded: “Oh, sure.”

The Gingrich campaign moved quickly to appeal to Cain supporters on Saturday, praising his ideas immediately after he announced the suspension of his campaign. Gingrich himself lauded Cain a short while later at a Staten Island event, saying that he “deserves credit for having the courage to talk about big ideas and focus on the economy.”

But there is also evidence that Romney could benefit from Cain’s departure. A Pew poll conducted before Thanksgiving showed that Cain supporters split evenly between the former Massachusetts governor and Gingrich when asked for their second choice.

Ron Paul and Israel...

Setting himself far apart from his Republican colleagues, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul on Tuesday night suggested that the U.S. should have less involvement in Israel's affairs.

"I think they're quite capable of taking care of themselves," he said.

The statement came in response to a question in a Tuesday night debate about whether the GOP candidates would, as president, support Israel in an attack against Iran.

Paul responded that he wouldn't expect such an attack to take place -- but if it were to, "Why does Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way."

The United States sends roughly $3 billion to Israel in military assistance every year.


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If they were to conduct such an attack, "that's their business, but they should suffer the consequences," Paul continued. He added that Israel has hundreds of nuclear missiles, so "they can take care of themselves."


One of the necessary reasons for the U.S.-Israeli diplomatic and economic relations to continue is because Israel is not part of the non-proliferation treaty and have always kept their nuclear program somewhat of a secret from U.N. officials and American intelligence sources. Intelligence that is publicly known suggests that at one time Israel was involved with testing nuclear bombs in 1979, around the time it is believed that South Africa was.


Our economy is hurting enough, but just because you cut off foreign aid to a place as critical as Israel, a nation that is a nuclear country with a policy for opacity that demands strong control over providing the marketplaces that give to industry and commerce that U.S. companies allow. Industry and commerce that helps other nations struggling in the region to keep peace as they try to form a more stable government. Israeli secrets over weapons technology gives them a strategic advantage in a supposedly de-proliferational global network, a posture that has the capacity to likely puncture vital trade agreements in occpied and unoccupied territories that allow U.S. companies to prosper- and our service epeople in the military to have job. Even sanctioning Iran with tighter restrictions gives Israel more control and influence on the regions' overall political shifts. And also, the ability to manipulate the levels of peace adjoining societies can achieve within themselves, especially in locations that are constantly seeing bombings and social unrest (while they build their nations up using trade relationships with the U.S., 240 billion flows through Israel, per year by some estimates).


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Presidential Campaign Advertising

Mr. Farnsworth and Mr. Parry-Giles spoke about presidential campaign advertising. They focused on Senator Obama's 30-minute television message aired the previous night as well as other political advertisements by Senators McCain and Obama. They responded to telephone calls and electronic mail.

In one of McCain's campaign ads, it questions the lack of experience and judgement Obama has. The McCain campaign does an effective job with an ad of presenting their strongest points and pointing out Obama's vulnerabilities.

Lets take a look at one of the ads:

Obama's political ad

Talks about how President Obamas political Ad was produced. For example: is style, talking into the camera. Obama makes sure he is connecting with Americans and is "less exotic", he tries to make us comfortable through his ads and ensures that he understands us.

CNN Republican debate

Newt Gingrich: His rise to the top of the polls afforded him lots more time to speak. And that’s good for Gingrich, who is a skilled debater. If you went into the debate undecided on Gingrich, you likely came out leaning toward him. One potential trouble spot: Gingrich’s refusal to back away from his belief that we shouldn’t throw out all 11 million people here illegally could come back to bite him in a party that is vehemently opposed to anything that looks or sounds like amnesty.


Jon Huntsman: Given the national security/foreign policy focus of this debate, it was one where the former Utah governor had to do well. And, by and large, he did. Huntsman is still learning the game of presidential politics — he veers off message occasionally — but he gave off an overall image of competency and reasonableness. Combine tonight’s performance with the $1.5 million the pro-Huntsman super PAC is currently spending in New Hampshire and now must be the time the governor makes his move in the state. If his numbers don’t start ticking up soon, it’s time to start looking at 2016.


Mitt Romney: It was far from Romney’s most commanding performance, but the former Massachusetts governor — yet again — avoided any sort of gang tackle from his rivals. Romney seemed content to not force the issue but when he got his questions he was solid (as usual) in answering them. Romney also made a point to ding Gingrich on his immigration answer; if Newt stays in the top tier there will be lots more where that came from.


Herman Cain: The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO seemed lost for much of tonight’s debate. Obviously domestic policy — “9-9-9”! — is his strong suit but Cain also needed to demonstrate a firmer grasp on the foreign policy front in order to be taken seriously as a contender for the Republican nomination. The Cain slide appears to be well under way — if new polling is to be trusted — and he did nothing to arrest it tonight.


Ron Paul: We wondered aloud earlier today if the Texas Congressman might temper some of his national security/foreign policy views in an attempt to court the more mainstream part of the GOP. Nope! Paul’s views on domestic policy are largely in line with the rest of the candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination but on foreign policy he is an outlier. It showed tonight as Paul said we should leave Israel to fend for itself, called for disentangling ourselves from Afghanistan and even for an end to the war on drugs. Paul’s base undoubtedly ate up every word. But, tonight’s debate was a case study in just how hard it will be for Paul to be a genuine contender for the nomination


-Washington Post

Obama and McCain's economic plans

Senator McCain and Senator Obama participated in the third of three presidential debates, which focused on the economy and domestic policy. The candidates were seated at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer. Each candidate is given two minutes to respond to questions and there is a five minute period for rebuttal discussion. The debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., was presented in a full-screen format provided by the network pool showing candidates as they spoke with occassional shots as they reacted to their opponents' remarks.

I am using one example to show how a debate usually goes.
The question is "Why is your economic plan better than your opponents?"