Mountains out of Molehills: The False Attack on Ryan’s Mountain Climbing

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrats and their progressive cohorts are now trying to claim that Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan is lying about the number of times he’s hiked Colorado’s mountainsides. Naturally they are garbling the truth. Is there anything these left-wingers won’t try to make into an end-of-the-world outrage?

This faux outrage is, indeed, a “mountains out of molehills” moment, because the facts show this purported controversy is reaching to the heights of pure demagoguery.

These Obama surrogates are claiming that Paul Ryan lied when he said he climbed 40 of Colorado’s 54 mountain peaks that rise to over 14,0000 feet in height — peaks called “fourteeners.” This, they say, is nearly impossible because the amount of time and training that would be necessary to have tackled 40 of Colorado’s “fourteeners” would have left Rep. Ryan little time for Congress.
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Mountains out of Molehills: The False Attack on Ryan’s Mountain Climbing”


Paul Ryan: Most Talked About Pol on Facebook

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN reported this week that Rep. Paul Ryan has become the king of Facebook by knocking President Obama off “the most talked about” list of US politicians.

CNN recently entered into a partnership with Facebook to track things political on the social sharing network and according to the new “Facebook-CNN Election Talk Meter,” in the 54 hours after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney introduced Rep. Paul Ryan as his choice for the vice presidency, Paul Ryan became the star of social media.

Facebook-CNN talk meter scores

  1. Rep. Paul Ryan 5.21
  2. President Barack Obama 4.84
  3. Vice President Joe Biden 4.01
  4. Gov. Mitt Romney 3.74

In fact, Ryan became such a hot topic on social media that he almost matched Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps on the Talk Meter and that is pretty impressive considering how badly politics typically shows up on Internet “top” lists compared to pop culture and sports. As CNN measured it, in the days after he won all his most recent Olympic medals Phelps rated a 6.51 to Ryan’s 5.21 on the 1-10 scale.
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Paul Ryan: Most Talked About Pol on Facebook”


Lefty Attack: Paul Ryan is a Follower of Ayn Rand

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was only minutes after news broke that Paul Ryan was Romney’s likely pick for Vice President that leftwingers on Twitter began to needle Ryan as a follower of that mean ol’ Ayn Rand, the famed objectivist philosopher of the middle of last century most famous for writing Atlas Shrugged and for being a proponent of what the left says is a less than compassionate philosophy on humanity.

There is a mistaken belief on the left that Paul Ryan was somehow programmed by Ayn Rand and that his entire budget plan, his Roadmap For America’s Future, is somehow one great Randian, or worse Darwinian, exercise in the survival of the strongest. The left also chides him for later turning his back on Rand and pretending his ideas really aren’t driven by what they consider to be Ayn Rand’s mean-spirited philosophy.

Neither claim is true.
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Lefty Attack: Paul Ryan is a Follower of Ayn Rand”


Paul Ryan Has Already Been an Effective Obama Critic

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the things that a vice presidential candidate has to be able to do and do well is be an attack dog for the ticket. The best VP candidates have both the credibility and the capability to severely criticize the other team. Even before being picked as his running mate by Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan had proven that he is that man.

Ryan has been the President’s sore spot since the budget and Obamacare debates began early in Obama’s stint in the White House and making him a veep pick for the Republicans is sure to cause no end of heartburn to a president that clearly doesn’t grasp the economic destruction that his own policies have wrought.

Months ago Rep. Ryan had already gotten under Obama’s skin. If you’ll recall in April of 2011 President Obama went out of his way to invite the Republican to a special speech on the budget and then, quite ungraciously slammed him in the speech — without having the decency to either address him or look him in the eye.

Imagine the ignorance of this and how it lowered the office of the President. To have arranged a speech, invited an political opponent, and then dissed him in public like that is the sort of low action of a petty man, not the high actions of a President. And for a President to attack a mere House member at that!

It is patently obvious that President Obama is unnerved by Paul Ryan. And it’s no wonder. You might also recall how Ryan wholly eviscerated Obama’s poor attempt at a budget back in Fed. of 2010.
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Paul Ryan Has Already Been an Effective Obama Critic”


Top Five Reasons For and Against Chris Christie for Vice President

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over the last week or so the buzz surrounding the idea that Mitt Romney is seriously considering New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as his pick for vice president has been building steadily. Christie has become a rock star of sorts among Republicans, conservative and country-clubber alike. But does he make a good candidate for VP? To answer that, here are five pros and five cons on Chris Christie as Romney’s VP.

The conventional wisdom of picking a vice presidential candidate is predicated first on the principle of “do no harm.” The chosen candidate should not hurt the top of the ticket but still be a credible stand-in if the unthinkable happens. This has been violated many times. Does anyone remember Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay?

The VP candidate should also compliment the ticket bringing things the big guy doesn’t have. He should be able to hit the road as the main candidate’s chief advocate, and even be an attack dog able to smash the other side over the head at every appearance.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has some great attributes in this vein, for sure.

Christ Christie for VP? Heck, Yeah!

1). Executive Experience: Christie was a national favorite right away when he became New Jersey’s governor in the GOP tidal wave of 2010 and as soon as he took office he hit the ground running. Some may say that he’s not been governor long enough to be able to claim experience, but he’s done more as governor in these two short years than any half dozen other governors have done in whole terms worth of time. Plus he was a prosecutor before that so he has a lot of hard experience to rely on.
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Top Five Reasons For and Against Chris Christie for Vice President”


This Jewish Democrat Won’t Vote for Obama Again and There are More Just Like Him!

In a preview of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s upcoming multi-million dollar effort to reach out to Jewish voters, entitled “My Buyer’s Remorse”, the organization today released “Michael,” the first ad in the series.

The ads highlight the real stories of real people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but, because of his failed economic policies and their concern about his handling of the U.S.-Israel relationship, will not be voting for Obama in 2012.

“These folks, in telling their own stories, give voice to the nagging doubts that many in the Jewish community feel about Obama,” said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

The first in a series of ads by the Republican Jewish Coalition, highlighting the real stories of real people who give voice to the nagging doubts that many in the Jewish community feel about President Obama.

See more at www.MyBuyersRemorse.com


Dear GOP, Let’s Not Waste Romney’s VP Pick on One of Our Best Guys, OK?

-By Warner Todd Huston


Who should be Romney’s VP pick? I know who it shouldn’t be!

I don’t want Paul Ryan to be Romney’s Vice Presidential pick. I also don’t want Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, or Marco Rubio to be picked. It’s not because I don’t like these guys, but because I do like them. It is precisely because they are good politicians, necessary politicians, effective politicians that I don’t want them wasted as a measly VP pick.

Does that seem counter intuitive? Well, as the founders always used to say, let’s let history be our guide. History tells us that the vice presidency is a career killer, a position to which we should try to avoid nominating our best guys.

Looking over the list of politicians that have run for vice president shows us a long, long list of fellows whose career essentially ended after the conclusion of the election. Even those candidates who won his quest for the second chair often found their political lives at a dead end once their term(s) were over.

Remember all the great stuff that Charles Fairbanks did after he left the Vice President’s chair? How about the heights of success that Vice President Alben Barkley went on to achieve? Does anyone recall the great works that losing VP candidate William Miller was famous for? Neither does anyone else. (Amusingly, Miller was one of the first people to appear on the “do you know me?” commercials for American Express credit cards. That shows how quickly he disappeared from the national scene.)
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Dear GOP, Let’s Not Waste Romney’s VP Pick on One of Our Best Guys, OK?”


Congressman Joe Walsh Has a Message for the Illinois GOP and America

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is Congressman Walsh Making a Populist Run for Illinois Governor?

Joe Walsh is not a rock star like Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh (the Congressman) is not Joe Walsh (The rock singer from the 1970s band The Eagles) yet both were in town this weekend working political ends. Singer Joe Walsh was stumping for Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a practically vacant, establishment Democrat who is good for little else but spewing talking points it doesn’t seem she fully grasps, while Congressman Joe Walsh was across town warning voters at a well attended townhall that thanks to Obamacare, the 2012 election may be our last chance to save America. (http://walsh.house.gov/)


Walsh was in the Elk Grove area to talk chiefly about the historic and historically bad Supreme Court decision that gave Obama a win on his nationalization of America’s healthcare industry. So, Obamacare was the big topic this day.

“I was overwhelmed by the close to 400 people who turned out for today’s forum,” Congressman Walsh stated. “It was clear from the crowd that this decision was not only historic, but also tragic. It’s even more clear that the only way to repeal this unpopular law is to do so legislatively. This health care plan is a job killing bureaucratic mess that is now recognized by the Supreme Court as a massive tax on the struggling middle class. I have made it clear that getting Americans back to work and repealing the President’s health care plan are my top priorities.”


More on healthcare in a moment, but first, after the townhall I had the chance to ask the Congressman some questions about his ideas and his campaign for reelection to his 8th District Congressional seat.

At the outset of our interview, Congressman Walsh had some very stern words for the Illinois Republican Party. In fact, he said the Illinois GOP is currently part of the problem, not the solution.

Here is a transcript of Walsh’s warning to the Illinois GOP.
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Congressman Joe Walsh Has a Message for the Illinois GOP and America”


What, Mr. President? The Private Sector is ‘Doing Fine’??

On Friday, President Obama inexplicably said ‘The private sector is doing fine.'” Since the president is completely out of touch, these middle class workers talked about their experiences to remind him of the realities of the Obama economy.

Transcript
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What, Mr. President? The Private Sector is ‘Doing Fine’??”


What Happened at the Illinois GOP Convention? Mostly Status Quo, But…

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Illinois Republican Party held its 2012 Party Convention this weekend. On the docket was addressing some asked for rules changes and picking a slate of delegates to the GOP national convention to nominate Mitt Romney to carry the Party’s banner in the upcoming presidential election. My ultimate analysis is that this was a status quo convention, but signs show that the status quo might not be too long for this world.

Two things first, here. One, I have to state up front that I intended to be a delegate from my district at the Illinois GOP convention. I registered as such and was accepted by my man Tim Schneider of the Hanover Republicans, but forces outside of politics (in other words, real life) prevented me from participating to the fullest extent. Regardless, I wanted to let you know of my intentions upfront so that you can see that I am not just a disinterested bystander in this deal.

Two, if you want a blow-by-blow account of the many great speeches, see Cal Skinner’s report at McHenry County Blog. I will mention a few things, but won’t do the speech-by-speech analysis. Skinner covered that very well so I don’t feel the need to cover that ground again.


Rep. Aaron Schock plies the crowd after his address

Now, The single most controversial issue that was on the docket was the decision to initiate direct elections. For instance, there are many Republicans who want to change how the members of the State Central Committee are selected. Currently they are appointed by the committeemen but many voices in the party want to change that. They want these party leaders to stand for election (like the Democrats do, incidentally) instead of being appointed by the votes of the committeemen. This issue has been in debate throughout the state for several years already and I’ve covered that debate many times. (Check my out old coverage of SB600 using the search feature)

I am told that several attempts were made by various committeemen to get this issue its due during Friday’s Committee meetings. The issue failed in committee on Friday, but a spirited debate continued that afternoon, anyway. Ultimately, John Parrot of Congressional District 15 attempted to get the direct elections issue brought to the convention floor on Saturday for discussion and a vote as a separate issue. Instead party leaders decided to allow a “yea” or “nay” vote on Saturday.
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What Happened at the Illinois GOP Convention? Mostly Status Quo, But…”


CPAC Chicago, Part 4: Joe Walsh, Randy Hultgren, Straw Poll Results

-By Warner Todd Huston

Finally, in part four we’ll hear from two solid Illinois Congressmen, the 8th District’s Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren of the 14th. We’ll also hear the, perhaps not startling results of the straw poll, the most important question from which was who Romney should pick for his vice presidential candidate (hint, the top picks weren’t any of his one-time rivals for the nomination).

Congressman Joe Walsh


Rep. Joe Walsh gins up the crowd

Joe Walsh of the Illinois 8th District is the one Congressman that the left wants to eliminate more than any other Republican Congressman. This is because Joe has carved out from among his fellows an outsized voice for conservatism. He appears regularly on TV and radio to tout the conservative message. But he’s become a major target of Democrat redistricting and now faces a tough challenge to be reelected in his newly reconfigured 8th District. Me, I think he can easily beat the know-nothing candidate the Democrats have put up against him, but Joe is taking nothing for granted.

One thing is sure, though, Joe Walsh knows how to get a conservative audience in motion.
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CPAC Chicago, Part 4: Joe Walsh, Randy Hultgren, Straw Poll Results”


CPAC Chicago, Part 3: Bobby Jindal, Peter Roskam, Michele Bachman

-By Warner Todd Huston

In part three of our series we’ll take a look at the speeches of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam, and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Bachmann’s speech was quite interesting for its singular focus on a particular jihad-supporting Muslim group that is operating in America today. Bachmann was vehement that Obama ban this group.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal


Gov. Bobby Jindal on the main stage

Jindal is another favorite of the greater conservative movement. He has a very compelling story of immigrant parents that came to America to become part of this great nation to finally see their little son become the most powerful man in their adopted state. It’s the perfect American story, for sure.

Speaking of stories, Jindal has a lot of them especially where it concerns his involvement in the BP Oil spill from 2010. I’ve seen Jindal relate this tale several times and it is always a good one. His description of how the federal government was more interested in observing its silly OSHA than deal quickly with the emergency before them was telling and hilarious — though ultimately sad and infuriating. Since this is standard stump speech stuff of Jindal’s, though, I did not Tweet that segment.

Like the others Jindal started praising the Walker win in Wisconsin. One of his funniest lines was that all the news people were proclaiming that the vote would be so close that it would be a long night for Wisconsin as they tallied the votes. But reality proved that the whole thing was over in a matter of hours with Walker’s landslide. Instead of it being a long night for Wisconsin, Jindal joked that it was instead a “long night at Obama headquarters in Chicago!”
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CPAC Chicago, Part 3: Bobby Jindal, Peter Roskam, Michele Bachman”


CPAC Chicago, Part 2: Richard Mourdock, Chris Christie, Herman Cain

-By Warner Todd Huston

In part two of my coverage of CPACs first Midwestern conference event, we will see some of the high spots of the floor speeches of Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – always a crowd favorite – and the redoubtable Herman Cain. Cain also visited the media room and I have video of that below the fold.

Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock

Richard Mourdock is the current Indiana State treasurer but he also just defeated long-time incumbent Senator Richard Lugar for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate from Indiana. He’ll face the Democrat come November. Mourdock has been widely touted as the insurgent Tea Party candidate that beat Lugar, the old line, establishment man.

“No one expected a lowly state treasurer could take out a 36-year Senator! But we DID,” Mourdock said triumphantly.

Mourdock also noted that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has called him the “Hoosier headache.” Mourdock was rather proud of that appellation.
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CPAC Chicago, Part 2: Richard Mourdock, Chris Christie, Herman Cain”


CPAC Chicago, Wisconsin Praised, Obama Razed — Part One: Rick Santorum, Ron Johnson

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, Friday evening, June 8, 2012, we marked the end of the first CPAC event held in Chicago and what a great event it was. The triumph in Wisconsin was on everyone’s mind but so was Obama’s dismal record. Not just dismal, but according to several speakers, even dangerous. The economy and the election of Romney were focal points but so was foreign policy this day. One theme, though, was constant: Obama has to go.

Because of other things going on and the several press availability sessions, I didn’t catch every speaker in the main hall, but I did hear the speeches of (in this order) former Senator Rick Santorum, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Illinois Representative Peter Roskam, Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann, and Illinois Representatives Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren. I also heard and recorded the press availability sessions of Herman Caine, Peter Roskam, and Michelle Bachmann and I caught most of Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp’s.

Other notables whose speeches I missed were Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner, and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

The event was a great success with well over 2,000 participants, all seats filled for the most part during the speeches and some great groups like the United Republican Fund, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Heartland Institute, Champion News, and others hosting and participating.

I’ll say a few words about the speakers I did see in the order I saw them and I’ll do this in a few installments so that this won’t be one long, overly taxing post. Now, as each of these speakers appeared before us I live Tweeted their comments, so the following quotes are pulled from my Twitter feed.

But before I do that, each speaker was quite enthusiastic over the win of Governor Scott Walker who defeated an effort by the far left and their union overlords to recall him in Wisconsin. Each speaker praised Walker and crowed about the left’s loss in there. I won’t regurgitate the Wisconsin hunk of each speaker as they were pretty much all the same; exuberant. The essential point was that we are all cheeseheads now.

Rick Santorum


Rick Santorum on the main stage

Former Pennsylvania Senator and recent GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave one of his well-crafted, typically workman-like speeches. One of Santorum’s early points was that America is at a “tipping point” and we’d better be there to tip it in the right direction.
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CPAC Chicago, Wisconsin Praised, Obama Razed — Part One: Rick Santorum, Ron Johnson”


Thank You Veterans

Mitt Romney’s message for the day…

“It’s time for us to come together and to carry our message across this country, we’re restoring those principles that made America the great nation that it is …. We’re going to keep America strong, and worthy of the great sacrifice of America’s veterans and those young men and women who put their lives on the line for us even today.”


Mitt Still Hasn’t Convinced

-By Warner Todd Huston

On his nationally syndicated radio show on Wednesday, April 25, Republican talk show host Michael Medved gloated over the fact that Mitt Romney won a wave of primaries with no effort, hands down, with no competition. But has Romney convinced his base? Are voters enthusiastic for him? The facts don’t convince.

When you look at the delegate count and the number of primaries he’s won, it almost does seem that Romney is GOP voter’s favorite. But looking closer at the margins of his wins tells a different story. So, establishment flacks like Medved are indulging bombast instead of serious commentary.

Granted Medved allows his desire to be right in his advocacy overwhelm his common sense and he has always been a sellout to the GOP establishment, but while he is right that Romney has been the winner he’s only been a nominal favorite, not one that has run away with the field.

Last week, Delaware and Pennsylvania, for instance, were indicative of this lack of enthusiasm Romney is suffering because in neither primary did Romney win 60 percent of the vote.
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Mitt Still Hasn’t Convinced”


Countering Left’s Lie: Reagan was NOT an Abortion Supporter

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama supporters and leftists this week launched another great lie on the American people. This time they are attempting to claim that Reagan is somehow not as “extreme” as Romney because Reagan was an abortion supporter. But this claim is simply not true. It amounts to a misconstruction of both Reagan’s and Romney’s history most especially Reagan’s considered opinion on the subject.

As to Romney, while leftists are saying that Reagan’s early support of abortion is not as “extreme” as Romney’s current stance against abortion, Romney’s supporters are saying that he’s actually just like Reagan because both once supported abortion but ended up changing their minds coming to stand firmly against the practice.

So, which is it? Are the leftists right that Romney is more extreme than Reagan or are the Romney supporters right that he’s just like Ronald Reagan?

Actually, neither is true, at least on the abortion issue.

Certainly Romney is not anywhere near a true conservative, so calling him some sort of extremist in the first place is absurd. At best he’s a moderate with a gubernatorial record that leans a tad left in many areas. But he certainly is far, far more conservative than Obama, the most Marx-inspired president in American history. On that basis alone Romney is the best candidate for 2012.

Getting back to Reagan’s history with abortion, it is misleading in the extreme to cite his early support of abortion as if it is at all defining.
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Countering Left’s Lie: Reagan was NOT an Abortion Supporter”


Dear Conservatives: Romney Isn’t One of Us But We Still Hold The Power If…

-By Warner Todd Huston

Romney is not conservative. Anyone that says he’s conservative is only trying to convince themselves and is willfully ignoring not only Romney’s entire executive record when he was governor of Massachusetts, but ignoring all the tell-tale signs that his current conservative-tinged campaign rhetoric is just a show to get the nomination. Romney doesn’t mean a word of what he says. But we still hold the power to force him to stay on a more or less conservative path if he wins the White House.

How can I say Romney is basically lying to us?

Well, his executive record aside — which is clearly center left, not conservative — let’s not take my word for it all. Let’s take the word of his advisers.

On CNN on March 21, for instance, senior Romney campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom was asked about Romney’s strategy in the general should he get that far. Fehrnstrom was asked if there is a concern that the other GOP candidates have made made Romney “tack so far to the right that it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election.”

“Well, I think you hit a reset button for the Fall campaign everything changes,” Fehrnstrom replied. “It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch, you can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

That’s right. Fehrnstrom is directly saying that all Romney’s conservative rhetoric today will be quickly jettisoned and he’ll be back to his moderate, center left ideals when he’s comfortably set up as the GOP nominee. This should surprise no one. There have been a lot of other things that shows Romney isn’t a conservative. His staunch support for Romenycare and his constant lies about how he never advocated it for a national model is another example.
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Dear Conservatives: Romney Isn’t One of Us But We Still Hold The Power If…”


Chicago’s and Suburbs GOP Primary Results, And More….

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here are a few of the results of last night’s primary race in Chicago and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, for a city of millions, less than 30,000 dragged themselves to the polls to vote. Even more to Chicago’s shame, there are only just over a million people even registered to vote in a city of just under three million citizens!

Anyway, results can be found at the Chicago Board of Elections for the city and for the suburbs at Cook County Clerk’s Office.

First Congressional District
Donald E. Peloquin will face Democrat Bobby Rush (incumbent)

Second Congressional District
Brian Woodworth will face Democrat Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (incumbent)

Third Congressional District
Richard Grabowski will face Daniel William Lipinski (incumbent)

Republicans did not put up a candidate in the Fourth District, Luis Gutierrez will continue in the Fourth

Fifth Congressional District
Dan Schmitt will face Democrat Mike Quigley (incumbent)

Republicans did not put up a candidate in the Seventh District, Danny Davis will continue in the Seventh

Eighth Congressional District
Joe Walsh (incumbent) will face Democrat Tammy Duckworth

Ninth Congressional District
Timothy C Wolfe will face Democrat Janice D. Schakowsky (incumbent)

Tenth Congressional District
Bob Dold (incumbent) will face Democrat Brad Schneider

Eleventh Congressional District
Judy Biggert (incumbent) will face Democrat Bill Foster

Other Congressional Seats

As to the other Congressional races, the big fight was between Don Manzullo and Adam Kinzinger for the reconfigured 16th District. Kinzinger beat long-time incumbent Manzullo and will be taking the nomination (and likely the Nov. election) for the 16th District.
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Chicago’s and Suburbs GOP Primary Results, And More….”


Illinois Family Institute’s 2012 Illinois Voter Guide: 2012 Primaries

**NOTICE**
This is the 2012 primary guide. For the 2012 general election CLICK HERE.

Congressional District Breakouts of IFI’s 2012 Primary Election Voter Guide are now available for download!!

With Primary Election Day here — March 20, it is imperative that voters have information available to help them make educated decisions as they cast their votes for the different candidates.

IFI has 18 different two-page local Voter Guides — one for each of Illinois’ Congressional Districts. By printing the two-page local Guide front to back on legal size paper (8.5″ x 14″), you can easily make this a one-page handout, which you can then distribute in your neighborhood and local church. These are non-partisan and completely legal under IRS guidelines for distribution in churches.

Download them today. http://illinoisfamily.org/actions/voter-guide/

Also available is the IFI Presidential Primary Voter Guide. http://illinoisfamily.org/documents/presidential-vg.pdf

To download these guides, you will need Adobe Acrobat and will need to know in which of the 18 Congressional Districts you live. (Look up your Congressional District HERE or call IFI at 708-781-9328.) Your Congressman will be listed under “Your Federal Elected Officials” as Representative. The Congressional District number will be found after his/her name. Then simply come back to this page and click on your Congressional District below to access your customized one-page Voter Guide.

Or go to the IFI website to download your district’s guide.


Fox Business Network Covering Illinois Primary Tonight at 7PM

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you’re looking for some expert commentary on the Illinois primaries, Fox Business Network will be providing up-to-the-minute coverage tonight anchored by the inimitable Neil Cavuto. The coverage will kick off at 7PM and will feature Jeff Flock here on the ground in Chicago.

FBN’s Neil Cavuto has been covering the primaries quite extensively. Cavuto has even chided his rival cablers for practically ignoring the primaries, saying that he has been surprised at how “competitors drop the ball” on their coverage. He feels viewers deserve more.

I see rival networks giving a perfunctory, ‘So and so won this primary,’ and then they’re back to a Teflon commercial, or they’re running a seven-year-old special, and I think I owe my viewers more. I think that they deserve more. People are into this. And we as a financial network owe it to (our viewers to) be into this ourselves.

For his part, reporter Jeff Flock provided some of his analysis on the GOP filed from which Illinois will choose this primary election day.

“If you are a deficit hawk there is not much difference between the three front runners. Romney, Santorum and Gingrich all push lower taxes, spending cuts and changes to the Social Security and Medicare programs,” Flock said. “All would, by most economist’s measures, add trillions to the deficit over the next decade. Only Ron Paul’s plan would cut the deficit over time.”

Flock says that Romney will appeal quite a lot to the business class.
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Fox Business Network Covering Illinois Primary Tonight at 7PM”


Ill. Non-Romneys Your Choice on Tues is Rick AND Newt–That’s Right, You’ll Vote for BOTH of Them!

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you are an Illinois voter that considers himself an ABR (anybody but Romney) you have a bit of a dilemma. Rick Santorum has been surging across the country as the final non-Romney but he has a major problem in Illinois. He can win the popular vote and still not get all the delegates he’d like. In fact, because of the way the system works in Illinois, he can’t get the delegates.

So, what do non-Romney voters in Illinois do? If you want to stop Romney from winning (or at least running away with it easily) the only answer is to vote for both Newt and Rick. Oddly enough it can be done even without the famous Chicago corruption aiding you.

How can this be done? Read on, dear readers.

For those unaware, in Illinois we don’t just have a say in the beauty contest that is the popular vote. We also directly elect our delegates to the GOP convention. When you go to the voting booth you’ll vote for Rick, Newt, or Romney, of course, but you also have to continue down the ballot and vote for their delegates. Just voting for the top of the ticket won’t suffice to send your candidate to the big game, you must vote for his delegates too.
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Ill. Non-Romneys Your Choice on Tues is Rick AND Newt–That’s Right, You’ll Vote for BOTH of Them!”


Rick Santorum’s Illinois Rally

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rick Santorum visited Illinois last night stopping at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, for a 7PM rally that drew over 2,000 people who came to hear the presidential primary candidate speak.

The place was packed with all the gym bleachers filled and most of the balcony seating also filled, not to mention standing room only on the gym floor. The capacity seating of the place was 2,500, but one is tempted to think that they allowed a bit more than capacity to rally for Rick.

An array of elected officials and long-time activists appeared to support the candidate. The crowd was energetic and Santorum signs were waved enthusiastically at many moments during Rick’s address.

On the dais before Sen. Santorum took the podium were such notables as Al Salvi and his wife Kathy, former Illinois politician Penny Pullen, State Rep. Tom Morrison, and New York Times writer Brad Thor.

Senator Santorum took the stage to raucous applause and gave a speech laden with allusions to the founding fathers, the economy, and religious freedom. He also bashed President Obama over Obamacare and his abject failure to fix this economy.
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Rick Santorum’s Illinois Rally”


EXCLUSIVE VIDEO — Newt Responds to President: Let Obama Be the Saudi Oil and Algae Guy, I’ll be the American Jobs Guy

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Newt Responds to President: Let Obama Be the Saudi Oil and Algae Guy, I’ll be the American Jobs Guy
-By Warner Todd Huston

Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich appeared at Otto Engineering in Carpentersville, Illinois this afternoon and had a few choice words for Barack Obama. Newt told the president than he can be the fantasy algae guy and he, Newt, will be the science candidate.


Newt Slams the President as a member of the “Flat Earth, Sierra Club Society.”

Earlier today Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, President Obama claimed that anyone attacking his absurd reliance on wind power and algae to solve our massive energy problems are members of the “Flat Earth Society.”

Obama even went so far as to attack “one of my predecessors,” Rutherford B. Hayes who Obama quotes as saying that telephones are great but “who would want to use them”? “This is why he isn’t on Mount Rushmore,” Obama quipped. But Hayes was hardly a Luddite in the White House. For instance, on May 10th 1877 Hayes was the first president to install a telephone in the White House, so who knows what Obama is rambling about?

For his part, Newt is ridiculing Obama’s failures on energy.
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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO — Newt Responds to President: Let Obama Be the Saudi Oil and Algae Guy, I’ll be the American Jobs Guy”


Annual NW Suburban GOP Lincoln Day Dinner — Newt, Roskam, Walsh, Dold, Schock

-By Warner Todd Huston

I attended the annual Northwest Suburban Republican Lincoln Day Dinner March 14 and took a handful of photos for your interest. This year’s special guest speaker was Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, in town making the rounds for his run for the White House.

The program was emceed by WLS Radio personality and political gadfly Dan Proft. Also speaking were Congressmen Joe Walsh (8th District), Robert Dold (10th District), Peter Roskam (6th District), and the keynote speaker was Rep. Aaron Schock (18th District).

I got a bit rushed by the Secret Service, sadly. I had taken a chair just to the right of the stage (audience right, not stage right) and had all my computer gear and whatnot out and in use and the Secret Service decided I wasn’t allowed to be there for what ever absurd reason. I was 5 tables away from the stage and in a corner, not in an aisle. Anyway, they grabbed all my gear and rushed me to the back of the room. Sheese.

Still I settled in and was at least allowed to take my photos. So, as the program began Radio talker Proft began the night with a joke. Not that this is uncommon, for an emcee to start with a joke, but it was an amusing one, so I’ll recount it here.


Dan Proft, WLS Radio

Callista Gingrich

“What is the difference between a Democrat politician in Illinois and a mobster,” Proft asked. The answer: “A pension.”

Proft next introduced Newt’s wife Callista who then introduced the Speaker.


Newt Takes the Stage

Seeing as how this was the Lincoln Day Dinner, Newt began with some words about the 16th President, noting that he was the president of technology for his day. Lincoln held a patent as an inventor, was a railroad booster (and corporate lawyer) and was always keenly interested in new war tech as he led the union to victory.
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Annual NW Suburban GOP Lincoln Day Dinner — Newt, Roskam, Walsh, Dold, Schock”