REPUBLICAN DEBATE

REPUBLICAN DEBATE
REPUBLICAN DEBATE

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REPUBLICAN DEBATE TONIGHT

Republican debate tonight
republican debate tonight

More about → REPUBLICAN DEBATE TONIGHT

Ralph Reed: Obama Campaign 'Coming With A Knife In An Alley'

President Barack Obama's campaign will do anything to get him elected, GOP political operative Ralph Reed told Florida Republicans Feb. 16.

"So if you can't run on your economic record, you can't run on your foreign policy record, there's only one kind of campaign to run," Reed said. "And that is a scorched earth, negative, 'tear down the Republican nominee' campaign. And that's all this is going to be. And they're coming, and they're coming with a knife in an alley. That's what this fight is going to be like."

Reed told his audience not to underestimate Obama or his campaign team.

"There is nothing they will not do to win an election," Reed said. "This guy is as tough and as mean and as cynical as any politician you'll ever see. There is nothing he's not willing to do."

Reed is the founder of the Faith and Freedom Foundation and former head of the Christian Coalition. In 2006, he ran for lieutenant governor of Georgia but lost in the primary, partially due to the disclosure of business ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The remarks were originally taped by Conservative New Media and picked up by Right Wing Watch.

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Arizona Debate: Republican Candidates Facing Off

        

      Republican Candidates Facing Off Struggling for an edge, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum campaigned Wednesday into the 20th and possibly final debate of the roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul rounded out the debate roster six days before primaries in Arizona and Michigan.

In the hours leading to the event, Romney called for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in personal income taxes as part of a program he said would revitalize the economy and help create jobs. The top tax rate would drop from 35 percent to 28 percent, and some popular breaks would be scaled back for upper-income taxpayers. However, aides provided scant details.

"We've got to have more jobs, less debt and smaller government, they go together," Romney said in an appearance in nearby Chandler. "By lowering those marginal rates, we help businesses that pay at the individual tax rate to have more money so they can hire more people."

Romney's proposal sharpened his differences with President Barack Obama, who favors allowing tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush to expire on higher incomes.

Santorum, who has emerged as Romney's leading challenger in the Republican race, campaigned at a tea party gathering in Tucson, where he said his rival's new tax proposal largely mirrored one he had had already made

"Welcome to the party, governor, it's great to have you along," he said.

The debate came as yet another pivot point approached in a campaign that already has had more than its share of them. With a decision by Romney, Santorum and Paul to pull out of another joint event that had been set for Atlanta, there were indications this debate could be the last.

While some public polls show a close race in Arizona, Romney's campaign seems confident of winning the state's primary next week, so much so that it hasn't aired any television commercials to date.

But the former Massachusetts governor faces an unexpectedly strong challenge in his home state of Michigan, where Santorum is hoping to spring an upset. Santorum's candidacy has rebounded in the two weeks since he won caucuses in Minnesota, Colorado and a non-binding primary in Missouri on the same day.

The result is a multi-million-dollar barrage of television commercials in Michigan in which the candidates and their allies swap accusations in hopes of tipping the race.

A victory in Michigan – no matter who claims it – would also provide momentum for the 10 primaries and caucuses a week later on Super Tuesday. In all, 518 Republican National Convention delegates are at stake between Feb. 28 and March 6, three times the number awarded in the states that have voted since the beginning of the year. It takes 1,144 to win the nomination.

Romney's decision to unveil elements of a new economic program during the day coincided with a fresh call for a corporate tax cut from the Obama administration.

In a statement, Obama said he was presenting "a framework that lowers the corporate tax rate and broadens the tax base in order to increase competitiveness for companies across the nation" in the name of fairness.

Corporations would have to give up dozens of breaks and corporations with overseas operations would also face an unspecified minimum tax on their foreign earnings.

Romney, like other Republicans, said that was a tax hike in reality.

"We have a very different course set out," he said. "The president will take us in one direction. He wants to raise taxes. That will kill jobs in this country."

But in fact, according to Romney's aides, the Republican's proposal for personal income tax cuts would include reductions in existing tax breaks to avoid raising federal deficits, the same claim that the administration made for its corporate tax recommendations.

Santorum's rise in the race has left Gingrich and Paul on the outside looking for a way in.

The former House speaker has yet to recover from a campaign nosedive that began after he won the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21, and he is pinning his hopes on his home state of Georgia to begin a comeback on March 6.

His campaign announced plans Wednesday to buy 30-minute blocks of television time in upcoming primary and caucus states for an infomercial on reducing energy prices.

Gingrich's decision not to campaign in Michigan so far has allowed Santorum to compete against Romney without also having to fend off a rival for the votes of conservatives.

Paul has yet to win any primaries or caucuses.

He has weighed in against Santorum, though, airing an ad in Michigan that challenges the former senator's claim of taking a conservative line against federal spending. The ad says Santorum voted to raise the debt limit five times, and also supported legislation that created a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

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Video: Watch the full CNN Florida Republican debate

The four remaining GOP candidates battled for the last time before the Florida primary in a debate sponsored by CNN, the Republican Party of Florida and the Hispanic Leadership Network. This debate took place at the University of North Florida located in Jacksonville.

Here is the entire debate video via YouTube:

Alternate full debate video link: ElectAd.com

Front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich got the most attention and Romney appeared to get the better of his opponent on a couple of occasions during the final debate before Tuesday's critical Florida primary.

While his attacks Thursday night on his rival weren't sharp, Romney was forceful and had Gingrich on his heels when he brushed accusations aside and turned them back on Gingrich at the CNN/Republican Party of Florida debate in Jacksonville.

"Romney won two ways tonight," said CNN contributor and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. "One, by having a good debate and two by having [Rick] Santorum have his best debate yet."

Romney appeals to the more moderate wing of the Republican Party while Santorum and Gingrich are competing for the conservative vote.

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Live Chat: Florida Republican Primary, January 31 at 7:30pm

January 31, 2011–As Florida's primary votes come in, the writers and political pundits of the Communities @WashingtonTimes.com will be watching and commenting while monitoring the returns of the 2012 Florida Republican primary.

Tonight's primary is a winner-take-all contest with fifty Electoral College delegates at stake. Florida lost 50 of their delegates when they moved the primary date prior to Tuesday, March 6th. Moving the the primary to an earlier date is seen as Florida attempting to gain influence on the Presidential nomination, ergo the penalty. 

Delegates for a state are determined by a number of factors, the top three being (thank you to Green Paper for this information): 

For Jurisdictions with Constitutionally Elected Members of Congress:

10 At-Large delegates from each state, that is, 5 at-large delegates for each U.S. Senator. 

3 District delegates for each U.S. Representative as established by the 2010 census [Rule 13(a)(3)].

For all Jurisdictions - 3 party leaders: the national committeeman, the national committeewoman, and the chairman of the state Republican Party.

Visit Green Paper to see a delegate number breakdown chart by state and that shows how the entire 2,429 at-large, district, party leader, president, governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Chamber delegates break down.

To be the Republican nominee, be it Mitt Romney, Newt Gringrich, Ron Paul, or Rick Santorum, the candidate must be the first to accumulate 1141 delegates. CNN estimates that Romney has earned 34 delegates; Gingrich 27; ten, and Santorum eight.  Florida’s 50 delegates equal about four percent of the total needed to win the nomination.

The Florida primary is a closed primary meaning that only registered Republican Party members may vote.

Florida represents about four percent of the votes needed to win the nomination – the most of any single state so far. Its winner-take-all status will give the victor a temporary lead over the other candidates, however states like Texas with 155 delegates and California with 172 are states where a candidate has the most to lose. Both California and Texas are proportional states; so one Candidate will not win all delegates, therefore it is even more important to win “big” in these states.

The Communities will open the chat around 7:30 EST so choose your favorite broadcast pundits, from CNN, Fox or MSNBC and fire up your computer and join us to discuss the results and candidate speeches as they come in.

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