Ralph on Hannity Part II

March 9, 2010 at 11:36 am

Ralph on Hannity Part I

March 9, 2010 at 11:34 am

Crist Down Big

March 9, 2010 at 10:45 am

Support for Charlie Crist from conservative voters has pretty much evaporated, and that’s allowed Marco Rubio to build a 32 point lead in the Republican primary for Senate.

Rubio now leads Crist 60-28, including a staggering 71-17 lead with conservatives. Crist has a 49-36 advantage with party moderates, but they account for just 31% of likely primary voters compared to 65% who describe themselves as conservative.

To read the full report click here.

Ralph in the Fox Green Room

March 9, 2010 at 10:23 am

Ralph backstage at Fox News with Fox News contributor Bob Beckel and country music singer and Air National Guard and the National Guard Youth Foundation celebrity spokesperson Laura Bryna.

Ralph on Hannity

Democratic pollsters warn: Obama losing ground on national security

March 9, 2010 at 10:22 am

President Obama
Despite his decisions to surge troops to Afghanistan, delay the closure of the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, and perhaps reverse himself by endorsing military commissions for terror suspects, President Obama is still losing ground in polls related to national security.

Such is the finding of a new major survey released Monday by leading Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, top party operative James Carville, and the folks at the progressive national security think tank Third Way, which they are framing as “a wake-up call for President Obama, his party, and progressives on national security.”

To read the full article click here.

Democrats Losing Ground

March 8, 2010 at 9:36 pm

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency.

“This is surprising, given the global acclaim and Nobel peace prize that flowed to the new president after he took office,” said pollsters for the liberal-leaning organizations.

On the national security front, a massive gap has emerged, with 50 percent of likely voters saying Republicans would likely do a better job than Democrats, a 14-point swing since May. Thirty-three percent favored Democrats.

To read the full article click here.

Election 2010: Ohio Governor

March 8, 2010 at 5:23 pm

John Kasich 2005
Republican challenger John Kasich has extended his lead over incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland to 11 points in Ohio’s gubernatorial race.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Ohio voters finds Kasich leading Strickland 49% to 38%. Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

Last month, Kasich held a six-point lead – 47% to 41% – over Strickland, mirroring the 47% to 40% lead he had in early January. These results also show little change from the first survey of the contest conducted in December.

To read the full report click here.

The Model Candidate

March 8, 2010 at 5:15 pm

When Joe Scarborough and I talk each week on the radio, we frequently mention that former Congressman Pat Toomey is the model candidate for the Republican Party.

Though Pat Toomey is pro-life, his campaign focuses on jobs, business, regulation, and the free market. Back at the RedState Gathering in August (the next one will be announced very shortly), Pat Toomey gave me a copy of his book, The Road to Prosperity.

I read it then and, frankly, got sidetracked. But in thinking about a way forward for the GOP, I think Pat Toomey really presents a credible platform in his book. It is actually a very readable book.

To read the full article click here.

Low-tax Texas beats big-government California

March 8, 2010 at 9:23 am

Perry
“Stop messing with Texas!” That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas’ anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.

His point was that the big-government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are resented and fiercely opposed not just because of their dire fiscal effects but also as an intrusion on voters’ independence and ability to make decisions for themselves.

To read the full article click here.

Voters Reject Funding of Abortion in Obama Health Care Plan

March 7, 2010 at 4:50 pm

Washington, DC – Today the Susan B. Anthony List announced the results of a series of polls conducted in congressional districts by the polling company,inc/WomanTrend. The surveys asked registered voters about abortion funding and healthcare reform in the following members’ districts: Jason Altmire (PA-04), Paul Kanjorski (PA-11), Brad Ellsworth (IN-08), Baron Hill (IN-09), Steve Dreihaus (OH-01), Charlie Wilson (OH-06), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), and John Boccieri (OH-16).

“These pro-life Democratic representatives face a stark choice: either they are heroes in the face of tremendous pressure, or they are the ultimate betrayers,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “In these districts, voters reflect national pro-life trends, and they expect their values to be translated into public policy. This intensity will translate on Election Day. That means pro-life members must vote no on the senate bill, or any bill that allows abortion funding under the guise of ‘healthcare.’ The Susan B. Anthony List will be there to back up pro-life members who maintain their principled stand. If they don’t, we will make sure the voters know before Election Day.”

Survey results and analysis are available online at www.sba-list.org/poll.

Health Care Head Fake

February 25, 2010 posted by Ralph Reed at 11:42 am

I have watched some of the grandiosely titled “Health Care Summit” at Blair House this morning, and I have to say that while there is plenty more time to go, my initial concerns about Republican participation have largely been allayed. Obama treats the presidency as performance art. I was worried that the Republicans would allow him to out-maneuver them, as he did at the House GOP retreat a few weeks ago. But Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and House GOP leader John Boehner, along with Senator Lamar Alexander and Senator Tom Coburn have done an excellent job tangling with President Obama and setting the record straight on his misstatements of fact, exaggerations, and obfuscations.

In truth, the summit is a sideshow. As the Democrats have already made it abundantly clear, this is a head fake. Their real plan is to have the House pass the Senate bill without changes, then do a “tweak” with a second bill using the budget reconciliation process in a clear and blatant violation of U.S. Senate rules.

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Another One Bites the Dust

February 16, 2010 posted by Ralph Reed at 9:14 am

Evan Bayh
Evan Bayh’s announcement yesterday that he will not seek re-election to the Indiana Senate seat he has held for two terms sent another wave of panic through Democratic ranks. Even the MSM now has to admit the obvious: control of the U.S. Senate is legitimately in play in 2010. Democrats face uphill battles to hold seats vacated by Byron Dorgan in North Dakota, Joe Biden in Delaware (whose son took a pass on running to replace his father), Ken Salazar in Colorado (whose replacement Michael Bennett faces a tough primary and general election), Barack Obama (and later Roland Burris) in Illinois, and now Bayh in Indiana. In addition, Democrat incumbents trail or are on the ropes in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Nevada. Combined with Scott Brown’s victory last month in Massachusetts, Democratic control of the Senate is now on the bubble, an amazingly swift reversal of fortune for Democrats who only months ago enjoyed a filibuster-proof majority and the afterglow of Obama’s 2008 presidential victory. Depending upon how races in Washington, New York, and Wisconsin come together, a Republican U.S. Senate in 2011 is possible.

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The Palinator

February 8, 2010 posted by Ralph Reed at 5:07 pm

sarahpalin
Sarah Palin dominated the news this weekend with a flurry of appearances, from her keynote speech to the Tea Party national convention in Nashville, campaigning for Governor Rick Perry in Texas, and an appearance on Fox News Sunday, her first Sunday morning interview. With Obama’s job approval in the mid-to-upper 40s and Democrats nervous about the mid-terms, the political cognoscenti want to know: will Palin run in 2012?

My sense is that Palin has not made a decision about running for president, but as she told Chris Wallace on Fox she has not foreclosed that option. In the meantime, she is raising funds for GOP candidates (many of them in primaries), giving speeches, maintaining ongoing exposure as a Fox News contributor, and making contributions through her political action committee. All these activities will redound to the benefit of conservatives in the short term, regardless of her long-term plans.

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Scott Brown’s Victory is the Canary in the Coalmine for Democrats

January 20, 2010 posted by Ralph Reed at 11:12 am

Barack Obama was inaugurated as president one year ago today to the hosannas of the mainstream media. He strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue hand-in-hand with his wife Michelle, exuding the confidence of a man basking in sky-high poll numbers that approached 70 percent. What a difference a year makes.

Massachusetts—in a huge turnout of over 2 million voters in a special election—has sent a clear and undeniable message to Washington: defeat the Obama-backed health care reform bill, stop the spending spree, and put the brakes on the Obama agenda, from terrorism to spending to taxes. The defeat of Martha Coakley and the election of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate is the canary in the coal mine for Democrats. This is a state that, while it has elected Republicans as governor in recent years (William Weld, Mitt Romney), had not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 37 years. The seat won by Brown had been held by Edward M. Kennedy for 47 years, and is currently occupied by Paul Kirk, a placeholder and longtime Kennedy family retainer. Brown will be the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation, representing a state with only 13 percent of the voters registered Republicans. Read More…

Obama’s 3 a.m. Phone Call

January 7, 2010 posted by Ralph Reed at 2:08 pm

In 2008, after splitting the Super Tuesday primaries with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton revived her flagging presidential campaign with a hard-hitting television ad in which she questioned whether Barack Obama was ready to be president. The ad’s dramatic hook was a hypothetical 3 a.m. phone call to the White House during a national security emergency. The ad dramatized existing doubts about Obama’s preparedness. At the time Obama was only four years removed from the Illinois State Senate seat representing the south side of Chicago and had been in the U.S. Senate for a little over three years. The “3 a.m. phone call ad” helped Clinton win the Texas and Ohio primaries, but it was too little, too late.

Now Obama’s real-life 3 a.m. phone call has come, and he has flunked the test. When a Nigerian national trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen boarded a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day and tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines aircraft carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members, it was one of the most significant attempted terrorist attacks against the homeland since the war on terror began. After first claiming the foiled terrorist plot was the work of an “isolated extremist,” falsely implying that he was not part of al-Qaeda or another terrorist network, it took Obama days (while he played golf in Hawaii) to step before the cameras and acknowledge the obvious: a massive, systemic, and nearly disastrous failure of intelligence.

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