Before you automatically discount the source of this allegation, just remember: This was the same sleazy tabloid paper which broke similar news on Jesse Jackson and John Edwards before the rest of the "respected" media did.

Just saying.

National Enquirer: Todd Palin has a Love Child

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2011/04/todd-palins-love-child-does-national.html

A blogger (and author of upcoming "real book" about Mrs. Palin, just saying):

Romney in _ almost _ announcing exploratory effort

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the closest to a front-runner in a wide-open Republican field, took a major step toward a second White House candidacy Monday, formally announcing a campaign exploratory committee.

Romney declared that "with able leadership, America's best days are still ahead," vigorously asserting that President Barack Obama had failed to provide it.

The Republican, who has been plotting a comeback since losing the GOP presidential nomination to John McCain three years ago, offered himself as the person best able to lead a country struggling to recover from economic crisis.

"It is time that we put America back on a course of greatness with a growing economy, good jobs and fiscal discipline in Washington," Romney, a former venture capitalist with a record of turning around failing companies, said in a video posted on his website and on Facebook. He also announced the formation of the committee, which will allow him to raise money, in a Twitter message.

Romney's move had been expected and a full-fledged campaign is a near certainty. He has traveled across the country to meet in private with donors and sound out their support. His political committee's headquarters near Boston has been bulking up. And in his few public appearances, he has honed his criticism of Obama.

Romney's strengths are substantial: He's well known and he's an experienced campaigner. He has a personal fortune and an existing network of donors. He has a successful businessman's record.

But his challenges are big, too. They include a record of changing positions on social issues including abortion and gay rights, shifts that have left conservatives questioning his sincerity. He also has struggled to allay some skeptics of his Mormon faith.

Romney oversaw a health care law enacted in Massachusetts that's similar to Obama's national health overhaul, which conservatives despise. His announcement video didn't mention either law.

He invested more than $40 million of his own money in the 2008 race and counted on early wins in Iowa and New Hampshire that never materialized. He tried to run to the right of the pack but couldn't persuade enough GOP primary voters.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has also taken the initial steps toward a White House run in 2012, setting up an exploratory committee. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is laying the groundwork for an early May announcement.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann are also putting together political machines for potential presidential runs.

All are auditioning for the chance to take on Obama, who is seeking a second term asking voters to let him finish the job he won in 2008. An ailing economy and an anxious electorate both dog the president, who won election on the promise of change but now has a record that defines him.

Romney hammered Obama's stewardship of the economy and offered a preview of his expected campaign theme: He is a proven business executive while Obama remains unqualified to repair a fractured economy.

"President Obama's policies have failed. He and virtually all the people around him have never worked in the real economy. They just don't know how jobs are created in the private sector."

Then Romney makes the case for himself.

"From my vantage point in business and in government, I have become convinced that America has been put on a dangerous course by Washington politicians, and it has become even worse during the last two years," he said. "But I am also convinced that with able leadership, America's best days are still ahead."

Romney, the son of a former governor of Michigan, met his future wife when he was 18 and she was 15, just before he departed for college and then more than two years of Mormon missionary work in France. The couple had five sons, while Mitt Romney went on to earn millions as a business consultant and venture capitalist.

While heading Bain Capital, he helped launch the Staples office supply chain, as well as buy Domino's Pizza.

His public career began in 1999, when he was recruited to take over the 2002 Winter Olympics after scandal and financial deficits threatened the Salt Lake City games.

In 2003, he took over as governor of Massachusetts after a campaign in which he cast himself as a moderate on abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. He had sounded many of the same themes during an unsuccessful 1994 U.S. Senate race against Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

He chose not to seek a second term and instead turned his sights to the White House.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

train wreck! train wreck! train wreck!

Trump: I'll run as Independent if I don't win GOP Nomination



http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/04/11...J_Election_Blog

I don't know!!! Do you really believe it??

I also read he met with Huckabee recently and there was a suggestion of a Huckabee/Trump ticket. Would he possibly consider VP?


TIS

Next.

This motley crew shows you just what the Grand Old Party has been reduced to. They just don't have anyone who can win in 2012, so they keep trotting out has beens and (I can't believe I'm posting this) reality tv stars. But to be fair, I realize that politics are cyclical. Back in 2004 the Dems were practically in the same boat, and in 2016 it'll probably shift again.

If the GOP leadership is getting hammered tonight at the local watering hole, I can't blame them.



Ouch.

Spelling out the obvious, which Pizza already pointed out:



http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/04/bad-news-for-congressional-republicans.html

Trump?? #2 on the ticket? Not a chance.

5 challenges for front-runner Mitt Romney

Good article, with an early line that says it best about George Romney's seed:



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52981.html#ixzz1JLf93O40

I am amazed (and amused) at the lack of good candidates on the GOP side this election (thus far). I can imagine how the party must feel. BTW, I remember Mitt's father, George Romney, who was the Governor of my home state in Michigan way back when.

Yet, IF I absolutely had to pick out of the GOP field, I would reluctantly go with Romney, because....well, I guess he seems the most "normal" of the bunch. Thing is, at this point, I don't think he's odds are that good.

TIS

I know its absolutely mean and tasteless, but I would ROTFL if one of the candidates during a primary debate make a "brainwashing" joke regarding Mittens' flip-flop on HCR. It would certainly run in the family.



Honestly, he's (right now at least) the only one that tries to act "Presidential," or comes off as such in public.

Or in other words doesn't pick fights with Natalie Portman or send Birther investigator to Hawaii or try to sport a new southern twang tongue or fight for the spotlight on Fox News.

It's a start.

Terrific piece by Salon on Trump '12.

Donald Trump is losing it: God help us, the man might be serious

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/12/donald_trump_serious

Here's a peak, a snippet from his recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network:

Now, what's this about Pawlenty? Yesterday I hear he says he's running for President and now today he said it was taken out of context???? Laurel and Hardy theme is going thru my mind.



TIS

Yeah, he said pawlenty but none of it made any sense.

The whole Bill Cosby/Donald Trump thing is quite interesting. I liked Cosby's, "The only thing that's running is his mouth."

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42549445/ns/today-today_people/

I liked the observation on Good Day NY this morning re: Trump's position in the polls. Anchor Greg Kelly noted that Giuliani had placed this high in the polls prior to the last election's primary, and look how that ended. Ouch!

Michael Daly of the New York Daily News wrote what I think is the definitive article about Trump in yesterday's paper.

Donald Trump's birther nonsense is a deplorable distraction from the issues - time to trash him

Michael Daly, NY Daily News

Tuesday, April 12th 2011

Let's just fire him.

Let's banish him from our thoughts and forget him.

Let's not even mention his name.

I don't even want to type it.

Here we are in the midst of our longest war and ongoing financial calamity and this guy tries to get attention for himself with this birther nonsense about our President and commander in chief.

This birther-in-chief is not even a clown.

Clowns know they are being absurd.

In case you don't know who I'm talking about, I'll give you some hints.

Most bizarre hairdo in New York.

Most overinflated ego in New York.

Ugliest buildings in New York.

Tacky, tacky, tacky.

Still don't know? I'll give you some more hints.

Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar.

Pout of a trout, preen of a peacock.

Casinos that lose money.

Foreign banks bamboozled by the myth into giving him excessive loans.

Millions of business wanna-bes bamboozled by the myth into believing he is some kind of role model.

Billionaire who often seems to owe more than he owns.

Germophobe known to open doors with his elbow.

Truthophobe known to put his foot in his mouth.

Rented land in Westchester to Moammar Khadafy in 2009 so the dictator could pitch his Bedouin tent.

When caught doing it, claimed via a spokesman the land was "leased on a short term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship with Mr. Khadafy."

"We are looking into the matter ..." and said he had "no idea" Khadafy was the tenant.

Seemed to completely forget that statement when he subsequently bragged on CNN, "With Khadafy... I got in one night more money than I would have gotten all year for this piece of land up in Westchester and then didn't let him use it. That's called being intelligent."

When CNN asked if he had retained the Khadafy money said, "Do I still have it? What does that mean?"

Reported that he had given the money to charity. Then declared it had all been part of a brilliant plan.

Told CNN, "In fact, I said, when I did it, I'm gonna take Khadafy's money, I'm not gonna make it easy on him, and I'm going to give the money to charity."

Now says this is how foreign policy should be conducted.

"I don't want to use the word 'screwed,' but I screwed him. That's what we should be doing."

And this is a guy who is talking about running for President.

Somehow, he ran second in a presidential poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire.

Maybe the Republicans up there are as bamboozled as the foreign banks and the business wanna-bes.

Only, with this birther nonsense, there is no longer any excuse for being fooled.

He showed that to promote himself he is willing to play on the paranoid imaginings of folks whose real problem with Barack Obama has nothing to do with the place of his birth.

What they cannot stand is that Obama was born black and proved we really are a country where anybody can grow up to become President.

They are obsessed with finding some way to cast Obama as an Other, ineligible to be President.

"Hey, he can't be President," they say. "He's bla... I mean foreign-born."

Anybody who seeks to capitalize on that deserves to be fired - and forgotten.

mdaly@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics...l#ixzz1JQU1RyNs

When is the election? November of 2012? 18 months from now?
What's the relevance of a presidential poll at the distance of 18 months from the election? Trump is new and he's loud; such candidates always draw early attention.

By the way,it really doesn't matter. The world ends on December 21, 2012 anyway.

There are alot of good reasons to vote against an Obama re-election.

The "Birther" garbage? Not one of them.

I've said it before, but I rank that nonsense on the level of the 9/11 Conspiracy people. You have the American right to express that belief (no matter how much logic, reality, and evidence are against you) but please please stay away and don't talk to me again.

After you do that, I'll wonder why parents let their kids eat paint chips.

Fun Fact: Notable 9/11 Conspiracy believer? Charlie Sheen. Way to go Donald, you're on Chuck's level.

Well, not to exclude myself from yours or anyone elses company, rrA, but is there not even an ounce of validity to Trump's birther nonsense?

Did the President not spend time and money in an attempt to get the citizenship provision thrown out? As I've heard it, the version of the Hawaiian birth certificate he produced was an older version that didn't specify birth particulars (or something like this), and he's spent perhaps millions in an effort to reserve his right to keep that birth certificate secret.

I'm not passing judgement either way, but I just don't think we know all the facts yet.

And I find it ironic that many articles such as the one posted above claim Mr. Trump is not focusing on the issues, only to then begin discussing his hair and other non essentials.

My issue with these type of retorts (I do not possess enough knowledge to dispute it factually either way) is that it seems to come prepackaged with an agenda. As an article that seeks to discredit Mr. Trump's statements as slander, I feel that it is inappropriate to insert their own slanderous agenda into the facts.

Having an opinion is one thing, but statements like 'Most bizarre hairdo in New York' undermines the validity of the facts by presenting them in a manner that can be perceived as bias; the very thing the article and others accuse Mr. Trump of regarding the President's citizenship.

No. There is no ounce of validity to the birther nonsense. None. The fact that so many people believe there is because they desperately want to believe it.

This is discussed both exhaustively and in a humorous manner here and here and here and here.

You're right Lilo. I was hesitant to chime in because like you say people who want to believe it simply won't be swayed. I know it was debunked by the then Republican governor of Hawaii during the election and again by the current Democrat governor.

Here's one more recent article AGAIN debunking it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42519951/ns/politics-more_politics/



TIS

What I don't understand is why they won't release a copy of the original certificate and put an end to all of this damn nonsense.

Don't we all have atleast a copy of our original birth certificate? I know I do. It's printed on decades-old aged paper and has a doctor's hand written signature on it. I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't keep such an article in their possession excepting this President.

So who's grasping for straws and "wanting to believe" something??? I dont know.


(Sorry if I'm being divisive or repetitive, I appreciate your responses...but I get so tired of the supposed tolerant Left constantly labeling those who disagree with them as 'morons' and 'crazies.' It's no wonder these people get smacked in the mouth when they actually step out in public and talk like that.)

Former Senator Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum has formed an exploratory committee:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/...tee.php?ref=fpi

Do you honestly think releasing it would make a difference? You don't think the Trumps of the world would cry out "forgery" and still continue with this monumental waste of time? The normally respected Annenberg Foundation is being labeled as a tool of the President's because he was on the board of one of the branches of theirs, yet they saw and acknowledged that the certificate was fine. As did the officials of Hawaii, who noted that they were GOP supporters of McCain said it was OK. This is the issue Trump centers on?

Thanks to a recent Hawaii legislature bill, you can secure a copy of the birth certificate: For a $100 charge. (Give them credit for ingenious capitalizing on stupid people.)

Speaking of Birth conspiracies, since she's dancing the Birther nonsense with her delicate dance (I don't think its true but its worth exploring!), what about the Sarah Palin-isn't-Trig's-Mama-but-Really-It-Was-Britol's-Baby Theory that's been floating around since '08?

http://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-palin-baby-hoax-2011-4?op=1#ixzz1JVXWJAqJ

I don't believe it (for too many reasons to list here), but in bi-partisan fashion let's try to spread the nutty Net partisan conspiracy around.

Some backbone is nice.

Get real, Trump: Romney wades into Obama citizenship row to dismiss 'birther' conspiracy

They added that charge because so many people were asking for copies of Obama's. Two governors (one Rep. and one Dem) have confirmed and both have said that is what their B.C. look like.

Btw, I don't expect to change anyone's mind who doesn't want to believe it, but my son-in-law was born in Hawaii. It was only because my daughter and SIL had to replace lost SS cards that I saw his birth certificate. Guess what???? It looks just like the one Obama has that the birthers are bitching about. He was able to obtain a SS and passport and other necessary paperwork with it without any questions. I don't know that he has aspirations to be President, but I'm guessing it would be sufficient. I say some people simply have to get over it, but doubt they will.

TIS