Mitt Romney just promised to veto the Dream Act if he is president. He just delivered Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and possibly even Florida and Arizona to Barack Obama on a silver platter. Game over. We win.

In which states do we have the best shots at taking back state legislative bodies?

St. Paul, Minn. — The Republican Party of Minnesota is heading into the 2012 elections with massive debt that could be as high as $2 million, party officials disclosed Friday.

A day before Republican delegates were to elect a new chairman, party officials conceded that the obligations include some debts the GOP had not disclosed. That could prompt additional fines from state and federal regulators.

It isn't a surprise that that the Republican Party's finances are bad, but no one expected the numbers to be this bad. Since Tony Sutton abruptly resigned as GOP chairman earlier this month, party officials have suggested that the debt could be as high as $1 million. They disclosed that it could be double that amount at a press conference.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/12/30/mn-gop-debt-load/

The answer: Skin color. As long as you are white in this country, you can tell everyone how hard working you are, no matter how many advantages you were born with. On the flip side, if you are black, Asian or Latino, everything you worked for can always be explained away with "affirmative action". Matt said as much today by asking Obama to release his grades and dear old dad when he talked about the president's "entitlement society".

Barring a cash infusion from willing donors, a few prominent anti-gay groups are poised to end the year with budget shortfalls, according to several last-ditch fundraising appeals sent out during December.

The National Organization for Marriage, which Thursday launched an ad against Ron Paul in Iowa calling him “wrong on marriage,” sent out an e-mail Wednesday telling supporters that there are only 96 hours to go until 2012: “NOM has never been able to financially match the tens of millions of dollars raised by interest groups who want to tear apart traditional values and attack people like you and me who defend the sanctity of marriage.”

The e-mail says a “generous donor” has offered to match donations dollar-for-dollar, and says NOM has already raised $831,718.

But in one December 13 email, NOM asked supporters to help the group “overcome a looming shortfall!”

“Increasingly virulent and frequent attacks from the same-sex marriage lobby have depleted our emergency funds, and we need your help!” the email says, adding: “NOM does not have the resources to accomplish everything we need to do…and with the many new and critical marriage battles upcoming in 2012, this is the exact wrong time for us to have to scale back.”

The email came shortly after the American Independent released NOM’s 2010 tax returns, and reported that the group raised $9.6 million but spent over a million dollars more than that during the year, at $10.7 million.


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/anti-gay_groups_make_year-end_pleas_for_financial.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Note: Why would she say if it is not true? What is she doing on Breibart's show? Nancy IS 71 and the odds of taking the house in 2012 are slim. No one here in San Francisco would blame her if she did decide to retire.

Nancy Pelosi’s office says her daughter is wrong when she says the California Democrat wants to leave politics.

Alexandra Pelosi, a filmmaker, said in an interview with Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, that her mother is staying in Washington only for her donors.

“She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly,” Alexandra Pelosi told Big Government. “They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying.”

Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for the House minority leader, said it’s simply not true.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70945.html#ixzz1hyfsIZmr

WASHINGTON, Iowa--If Rick Perry drops out of the Republican presidential race after the Iowa caucuses, blame it on God.

“That’s God’s will,” Perry told a reporter when asked if there was any outcome on Tuesday that would cause him to end his presidential bid. “There might be an outcome that he decides that I wouldn’t go on.” But he’s hoping that the big man will be there for him on Jan. 3. When asked by the same reporter if God was caucusing, Perry responded, “Pretty sure He will be.”


http://nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/perry-future-of-my-candidacy-is-up-to-god-20111229

In a video to supporters Thursday, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina made public the many paths to 270 electoral votes he sketched out for reporters last month.

The major highlights: Messina says the campaign is working with more than 40 pathways to victory next year, including strategies that run through Florida and the Midwest (where team Obama has pointed to Democratic organizing in Ohio during the SB5 fight as a key to holding the Buckeye State.)

Perhaps most interesting is the campaign’s continued confidence in the South and the confirmation that the Obama campaign thinks Arizona is in play.

Messina describes a “New South map,” which retains Obama’s electoral victories in North Carolina and Virginia. Despite hardening opposition to Obama among Republicans in recent years, polls have shown Obama running fairly strong in North Carolina against his potential Republican opposition and still performing well in Virginia.

Messina says the campaign is confident those trends will continue, and has put a lot of stock in hanging onto the two southern states.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/team-obama-az-va-nc-could-go-democrat-in-2012-video.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Ahhh, another day, another jaw-dropping hire / appointment by Walker.

In the midst of a national scourge of child sexual predators coming to light, Walker has appointed attorney Jennifer Dorow, who specializes in defending such child predators, as the new Waukesha County judge.

Jennifer Dorow doesn't just rely on word-of-mouth, she explicitly advertises on her firm's website, under the heading "Areas of Practice," that defending child sexual predators is her specialty:

Child Sex Crimes
Waukesha Child Sex Crimes Defense Attorneys When You or Your Child Are Accused of a Child Sex Crime
Years in prison. A criminal record. A social stigma that will be with you for the rest of your life. These are only a few reasons to fight your child sex offense charges with an experienced, aggressive criminal defense attorney.

The Waukesha child sex crimes defense lawyers at Huppertz & Dorow, S.C., have more than 35 combined years of experience defending clients against serious child sex crime charges. Send us an e-mail or call us at 262-549-5979 as soon as possible. The first meeting is on us and you can pay any future fees with a credit card. We will clearly explain the pricing for our services, which is normally a flat fee.

Not sure? How about this hard sell:

Our Waukesha / Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Internet Crimes and Child Pornography Lawyers
Our lawyers have an impressive track record: attorney Matthew Huppertz has argued hundreds of cases in front of Wisconsin's judges and juries, including five cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Attorney Jennifer Dorow is a former Waukesha County Prosecutor who has firsthand knowledge about how prosecutors handle child sex abuse cases. Both lawyers have been AV Rated* under Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Rating Process. Attorney Mark Powers is also a former prosecutor for Waukesha County with extensive criminal defense experience.
We defend against child sex crime accusations involving:
Child pornography
Child solicitation, including Internet solicitation of a minor
Child enticement
Statutory rape
Sexual assault of a minor
Sexual exploitation of a minor
Prostitution and Internet stings

Of course, everyone deserves to be represented in court by a qualified attorney, but I have never seen a defense attorney advertise their wanting to do this putrid task!

The kicker? This all comes at the same time that Walker is announcing nearly a million in cuts to the state's management of the same sex offenders that Dorow specializes in defending.



http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/walker-appoints-judge-self-identifies-child-sex-crimes-defense-l

I was very much involved in the Obama side 2008 primary wars, but I never lost my respect for the intellect and hard work of the former New York senator and First Lady. What's more, she is an outstanding Secretary of State. I've followed Joe Biden's career as long as I followed politics, from his first run for president to his tenure as Vice President. I will also be forever grateful that he kept Robert Bork off the Supreme Court. Nothing but respect for the kid from Scranton. But we are heading into a potentially tough presidential campaign and an increasingly perilous time on the world stage. A shuffling of seats might be needed to Joe and Hillary's strengths. Here are the pluses and minuses of a trade in positions for Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

Pluses.
1. Hillary on the ticket could bring in a lot of white, working class voters who voted for her in the 2008 primaries, voted for Obama and might either sit home or vote Republican in 2012.
2. Obama can send her to parts of the country where he might not be as welcome (parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states).
3. Hillary's place guarantees that the Big Dog will go out to campaign for the ticket, raise money for the DNC and mobilize local Democratic organizers in key states.
4. Clinton fundraisers will be more inclined to raise cash for the party.
5. Joe Biden will have an opportunity to leave a lasting, tangible legacy as Secretary of State.
6. Biden's tenure on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will make him well-suited to handle issues facing the Middle East and South Asia.

Minuses:
1. Requires total buy-in from Biden. He is not the kind of guy to hide any unhappiness.
2. Could be seen as a desperate move by the MSM.