Live Blogging/Discussion: Exit Polls And Results For GOP Florida Primary 1/31/12

By Susan Duclos

(Starting the morning of 1/31/12, this post will be bumped to the top for the full day)Updates throughout the day will be added to the bottom of the post.

[Update- RACE CALLED] Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul, respectively. More on the exact totals tomorrow.

Once again we will be joining with Right Pundits, with live blogging and discussion as we watch entrance and exit polls and keep track of the results of the Tuesday, January 31, 2012 GOP Florida primaries. The polls in Florida open at 7am ET and close at 7pm EST.

Join us!



Eligibility: Only registered Republicans may participate in the Florida primary. Florida has 99 delegates but the Republican party has previous announced only half will count, as was the case in South Carolina, due to the states moving up their primary schedule and holding them before February 2012.

[Update- 1/31/12] Heading into the morning of the Florida primary, between submitted absentee ballots and early voting, over 600,000 votes have already been cast and Mitt Romney holds the lead over Newt Gingrich by 51% to 33%, according to CNN.

[Update- 1/31/12] While polling, except outliers, has Romney ahead of Gingrich, the Florida Tea Party Patriots conducted a straw poll which put Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum way ahead of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Question: If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

Newt Gingrich 35%

Rick Santorum 31%

Mitt Romney 18%

Ron Paul 11%

Undecided/None of the Above 5%

(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point.)

When asked about enthusiasm, both Gingrich and Santorum received 35% saying they would be extremely enthusiastic about a Gingrich or Santorum nomination. Romney came in at 21% and Paul at 11%. (H/T DC)

[Update- 1/31/12] Via ABC News, Jonathan Karl asked Newt Gingrich how much longer he thought the battle for the Republican nomination would go on and Gingrich said six to eight more months "unless Romney drops out earlier."

More:

When I asked what he says to those who say the race will effectively be over if he loses big in Florida, Gingrich said, “You mean those who said I was dead in June? Those who said I was dead in December? They are about as accurate as they were the last two times they were wrong.”

[Update- 1/13/12] Analysis from Campaign Media Analysis Group shows that the Florida primary has seen "the most negative campaign ever," with 92% of the ads airing in Florida over the past week listed as negative.

Newt Gingrich's campaign ran 1,012 spots, 95% were negative. Mitt Romney's campaign ran 3,276 ads and 99% were negative.

[Update- 1/31/12] CBS News reports on early exit poll data show 2/3 said the debates mattered and 37 percent said Mitt Romney said Mitt Romney ran the most unfair campaign with 34 percent pointing to Newt Gingrich.

27 percent said they decided on which candidate to vote for in the last few days and 42 percent said they decided before that.

Half the early voters backed Romeny. The economy was cited by 62 percent as the most important issue. Federal budget deficit was cited by 24 percent.

57 percent were happy with the candidates on the ballot and 39 percent were not.

NEXT state the candidates will be heading to will be February 4, 2012, the Nevada caucuses.

Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE.

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Catholic Churches And Bishop of Marquette Punch Back At Obama's War On Religion

By Susan Duclos

Just another reason why Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012.

Below is an example of a letter that Catholics across the country were read in Church, written by the Bishop of Marquette, via Business Insider:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be "of, by, and for the people," has just been dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people -- the Catholic population -- and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees' health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those "services" in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Obama Administration's sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America's cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration's decision.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

+Alexander K. Sample
Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Bishop of Marquette

Professor Bainbridge gets right to the heart of the issue:

The Catholic Church believes--as an article of faith--that both the Church as an institution and its members as individuals have a religious duty to tend to everyone, not just fellow Catholics. Indeed, the whole point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that there is a moral obligation to help those in need without regard to who they are. In response to this teaching, Catholics have run social services like hospitals since the earliest days of the Church's history:

Another characteristic of Christian charity was the obligation and practice of hospitality (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9; 3 John). The bishop in particular must be "given to hospitality" (1 Timothy 3:2). The Christian, therefore, in going from place to place, was welcomed in the houses of the brethren; but like hospitality was extended to the pagan visitoras well. Clement of Rome praises the Corinthians for their hospitality (Ep. ad. Cor., c. i) and Dionysius of Corinth for the same reason gives credit to the Romans (Eusebius, Church History IV.23). The bishop's house above all others was open to the traveller who not only found food and shelter there but was provided in case of need with the means to continue his journey. In some cases the bishop was also a physician so that medical attention was provided for those of his guests who needed it (Harnack, "Medicinisches aus d. ältestenKirchengesch." in "Texte u. Untersuchungen" VIII, Leipzig, 1892). The sick were also cared for in the valetudinaria of the wealthier Christians who in the spirit of charity extended hospitality to those who could not be accommodated in the bishop's house. There was thus from the earliest times a well organized system of providing for the various forms of suffering; but it was necessarily limited and dependent on private endeavour so long as the Christians were under the ban of a hostile State. Until persecution ceased, an institution of a public character such as our modern hospital was out of the question. it is certain that after the conversion of Constantine, the Christians profited by their larger liberty to provide for the sick by means of hospitals. But various motives and causes have been assigned to explain the development from private care of the sick to the institutional work of the hospital (Uhlhorn, I, 317 sq.). It was not, at any rate, due to a slackening of charity as has been asserted (Moreau-Christophe, "Du problème de la misère", II, 236; III, 527), but rather to the rapid increase in the number of Christians and to the spread of poverty under new economic conditions. To meet these demands, a different kind of organization was required, and this, in conformity with the prevalent tendency to give all work for the common weal an institutional character, led to the organization and founding of hospitals.

To force Catholics to differentiate between "a hospital or a school or an adoption agency" and "a church" is thus to deny us the right to practice our religion as we see fit.

Liberals complain they want religion out of politics but politicians like Barack Obama and his administration continue this war on religion and it is time the Church fought back.

LifeNews reports that at least three Catholic bishops have refused to comply with the Obama administration's mandate and 86 bishops who have spoken out against the Obama/HHS mandate publicly.

More on that:

.......According to Thomas Peters of CatholicVote.org here are some of the bishops have are opposed to the mandate and have urged their parishoners to contact Congress and the Obama administration to oppose it.

• 1. Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, CA (Emeritus)
• 2. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York City, NY
• 3. Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, TX
• 4. Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, MO
• 5. Bishop Thomas Omsted of Phoenix, AZ
• 6. Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, MI
• 7. Archbishop John Nienstedt of Saint Paul & Minneapolis, MN
• 8. Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, WI
• 9. Bishop Paul Etienne of Cheyenne, WY
• 10. Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, CT

Also, an expected lawsuit against the mandate could find itself moving all the way up to the Supreme Court which, as the Los Angeles Times notes, “recently affirmed — in a 9-0 ruling — that the 1st Amendment gives special leeway to religious employers.”

This is a direct, full frontal assault on religion and I repeat... Barack Obama must be defeated in November 2012.

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Nevada Caucus Alert For Newt Supporters

By Susan Duclos

While Florida primary voters are going to the polls today and will over 600,000 early votes and absentee votes already submitted, the Gingrich campaign is keeping in mind that the Nevada caucuses are this coming Saturday, February 4, 2012 and have sent out a Caucus Action Alert.

(Join us for live blogging/discussion on exit polls and results from the Florida primary with all day updates, HERE.)

They are offering a link for anyone interested in attending the caucus in support of Newt Gingrich at http://www.newt.org/nevada-caucus and additional information:

•Arrive half an hour before the Caucus begins.

•Bring Photo ID with you to register.

•If in Clark County, you may pre-register here: https://2012nvgopcaucus.com and take your pre-registration form with you to the Caucus. (You will still need photo ID at the Caucus site)

•Mingle and talk with people beforehand and talk about your support for Newt and ask them to vote for him.

•Identify the Caucus Site Manager and introduce yourself as a designated speaker on Newt Gingrich’s behalf.

•Use the speech provided at the caucus

•Anyone who would like to is allowed to monitor the vote count. Please do so to make sure that all votes are correctly counted and reported.

More HERE.

Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE.

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Gingrich Takes The Tea Party Patriots Florida Straw Poll

By Susan Duclos

Following a tele-conference call with 6,000 nearly Tea Party activists participating, 600 of them also participated in the Florida Tea Party Patriots straw poll.

Question: If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

Newt Gingrich 35%

Rick Santorum 31%

Mitt Romney 18%

Ron Paul 11%

Undecided/None of the Above 5%

(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point.)

When asked about enthusiasm, both Gingrich and Santorum received 35% saying they would be extremely enthusiastic about a Gingrich or Santorum nomination. Romney came in at 21% and Paul at 11%. (H/T DC)

Note- This and other Florida primary day news is also being added to the live blogging/discussion of the Florida primary exit polls and results, as updates.

With Romney having outspent Gingrich and the other candidates by over 5 to 1 in Florida, mostly on negative television ads, and over 600,000 early votes and absentee votes submitted where Romney holds a large lead, this straw poll is simply another factor added in to the Florida primary day news.

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Video- Winning Our Future | Blood Money - Mitt Romney's 1990's Medicare Scandal

By Susan Duclos

Pro-Gingrich SuperPAC, Winning Our Future, has launched MittsBloodMoney.com, showing the 7:42 minute mini-documentary called Blood Money.

Under "The Document's heading, the site explains:

Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate Crime Reporter thusly: “As manager and board member of Damon Corp, Mitt Romney sits at the center of one of the top 15 corporate crimes of the 1990’s.” Watch the substantiated mini-documentary, BLOOD MONEY: MITT ROMNEY’S MEDICARE SCANDAL, to learn the truth about Mitt Romney.

Video below:




PolitiFact takes the statement of the BloodMoney video above "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions," and rates it "mostly true".

The ad claims that, "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions." That's true, but Romney was never implicated personally with the fraudulent activity at the company, and it was one of many companies with which Bain was involved. It’s also difficult to assess whether Romney knew about the fraud or should have known, and what he did to stop it. So the statement is correct but leaves out context. We rate this statement Mostly True.

Wapo Fact Checker takes a look at the mini film and concludes:

The Damon case is certainly a valid subject for scrutiny of Romney’s business record. He was on the company’s board at the time criminal fraud was taking place, and his statements about his knowledge of the federal investigation have been inconsistent. But the film goes too far in suggesting that Romney was responsible for running the company — or that he sold it to avoid a federal probe.

Fact Check gives it two Pinocchios after that conclusion.

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The Billionaires Behind The Pro-Gingrich/Pro-Romney SuperPACS

By Susan Duclos

This post highlights two billionaires, one the largest donor to the pro-Romney, "Restore Our Future" SuperPAC and the other the largest donor to the pro-Gingrich "Winning Our Future" SuperPAC.

As of August 2011 the largest individual contributor Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney SuperPAC, was New York resident, 55 year old John Paulson who according to his Forbes profile is a self made billionaire who made his fortune from hedge funds.

Via Paulson's Forbes profile:

Call it the Paulson paradox. While his flagship fund has tanked 30% so far this year, as bets on Bank of America, Citi­group and China's Sino Forest went south, his personal fortune is up 25%, year over year. Reason? The gold-denominated versions of his firm's funds, where he is said to have most of his personal stash, have gained steadily. Last year his take-home pay was $4.9 billion, a record for the hedge fund industry. He is donating $15 million to a new maternity hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where his father was born. Paulson became a billionaire in 2007 shorting subprime securities and earning a $3.5 billion payout. He got his start at Odyssey Partners, a private equity and hedge fund and later became managing director of M&A at Bear Stearns. He founded Paulson & Co in 1994.

Forbes lists three key connections to Paulson, George Soros, James Simons and Steve Cohen. Listed under companies is JP Morgan Chase & Co. , Citi and AIG Group.

In July of 2011, The Politico reported that Paulson became "famous for enriching himself by betting on the collapse of the housing industry." According to Wall Street Journal, Paulson personally made between $3 and $4 billion, “the largest one-year payday in Wall Street history.”
More on the Paulson, Soros connection in the WSJ link above.

The largest individual contributors to Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC, was Las Vegas, NV. resident, 78 year old Sheldon Adelson who according to his Forbes profile is a self made billionaire who made his fortune from casinos. His wife Miriam also donated $5 million to the Winning Our Future SuperPAC.

Via Adelson's Forbes profile:

Casino king Sheldon Adelson continues to enjoy a hot hand. His fortune is up $7 billion since last year, as his strong position in the casino-crazy Asian markets has pushed stock of Las Vegas Sands up roughly 50% to a recent $48. (Shares once traded as low as $1.50 in 2009.) Nearly 90% of its operating profit comes from Asia; the thriving Marina Bay Sands casino opened in Singapore last year. Through his majority-owned subsidiary Sands China, Adelson has 3 resorts in Macau. His goal is to push company shares back over $100, near their 2007 peak. Not that he'll spend the money on himself: "The richer I get, the more money goes to cancer research." The cabdriver's son created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million 1995 and later built the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He opened the $1.9 billion Palazzo resort in 2008.

Forbes lists three key connections to Paulson, Kunio Busujima & Family, Phillip Ruffin and James Packer. Listed under companies is Las Vegas Sands , MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts.

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Video- Newt 2012 Releases New Website: TalesofMitt.com

By Susan Duclos

The Newt Gingrich campaign has launched a new website named the "Tales of Mitt", tracking Romney's falsehoods. The site covers the "Recent tales of Mitt," highlighting what they call five occasions during the CNN debate on January 26 where "Mitt Romney spun five mighty yarns to hide his record as a Massachusetts Moderate."

Those five are listed as "Voting Democrat", "Blind Trust", "Haven't Seen The Ad (Which I Approved)", "Half of Uninsured Got Insurance On Own", and "Romneycare Only Affects Uninsured".

The top video listed on the site at the moment is titled "Which Mitt is it? " (Shown below)



Via email announcement of the launch of Tales of Mitt"

As a public service to voters unable to follow and understand Mitt Romney’s changing positions and stories on just about every issue and element of his past, Newt 2012 launched a new website www.TalesofMitt.com.

The website will update as the primary campaign continues to document all of Mitt Romney’s flip flops and new stories trying to explain his liberal record.

“Trying to keep the site updated as rapidly as Governor Romney changes his positions and obscures about his past will be a daunting undertaking,” said Gingrich Spokesperson RC Hammond. “But we pledge to keep up with the deluge of material the Governor is sure to provide.”

TalesofMitt.com features text and video documenting Mitt Romney’s flip flops, prevarications and attempts to hide his history as a liberal Massachusetts Republican. The three videos up now include the previously released “What Kind of Man” and two new releases, “Which Mitt Is It?” and “Mitt’s Blind Trust Bluff.”

“On issues ranging from the facts about Romneycare to voting for Democrats, we can find Mitt Romney talking out of both sides of his mouth, with the only constant being his own political interest at a given moment in time,” said Hammond.

“Of course, the issue really isn’t the correct understanding of blind trusts, despite Romney’s convenient interpretations. It’s whether voters can trust Mitt Romney. And as we’ve seen in 1994, 2002, 2008, and 2012, Mitt Romney will say anything and change any position just to get elected,” Hammond continued.

With the Romney campaign and pro-Romney groups outspending the Gingrich campaign and pro-Gingrich groups by 4-to-1, the Gingrich campaign is utilizing social media, and counting on grassroots support to take him all the way to the GOP convention.

Others discussing the Tales of Mitt website are NRO, PJMedia and Newsmax.

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Gingrich Campaign Internal Memo: 'this race is just getting started'

By Susan Duclos

Matt K. Lewis at The Daily Caller provides a little context, via a Gingrich campaign internal memo, to Gingrich's prediction of a "straight-out contest for the next 4 or 5 months."

The memo reiterates that the GOP race is "just getting started."

Additionally, the memo stresses that the proportional nature of the upcoming contests “essentially guarantees that no candidate will secure the nomination anytime soon and the map quickly becomes more favorable for Gingrich.”

More than 20 percent of the available delegates (467) will be awarded on Super Tuesday, and the memo notes that, one of the Super Tuesday states is Georgia, with 76 delegates at stake. To put that in perspective, “even if Romney wins Florida on Tuesday, he will only have 83 total delegates; Newt’s home state could effectively cancel out his entire delegate count to date.”

The memo also describes Tennessee (58) and Oklahoma (43) as “favorable” Super Tuesday states, and notes that just one week after Super Tuesday (March 13), 90 delegates will be in play in Alabama and Mississippi. And if the point that a Florida loss is survivable wasn’t already hammered home, the memo notes, “these 90 [delegates] alone are more than the 83 Romney will have in hand on Wednesday morning if he wins Florida.”

While the campaign memo downplays the importance of Florida, it hasn't stopped Gingrich from a last minute push and narrowing the Romney lead to single digits from double digits just a day before primary day. Neither has the fact that Romney and pro-Romney forces have outspent the Gingrich campaign and pro-Gingrich forces by over quadruple the amount.

Through Friday, the Romney campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future had spent a combined $15,340,000, the source said. Gingrich’s campaign and the super PAC Winning Our Future spent a comparatively paltry $3,390,000.

Side Note- Spoke to my father who lives in Miami, Florida, this morning and he tells me the campaigns ads in Florida are inundating the airwaves.

Quote "Florida votes tomorrow, maybe then they will all go away!"

Poor Dad, he hates politics.

The Florida GOP Primary Pendulum Starts Swinging Back Towards Gingrich

By Susan Duclos

Polling in Florida over the last two weeks has been like a pendulum swinging back and forth between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney and today, one of the first pollsters to originally see Romney surging to take the lead, Insider Advantage, is now seeing Gingrich surging yet again.

Lets go back a couple weeks and work our way forward.

Florida Polls:

January 17, 2012: Sunshine State News/VSS had Mitt Romney up in Florida by 26 percentage points. Public Policy Polling had Romney up by 15 percentage points.

January 18, 2012, CNN/Time had Romney up in Florida by 24 points.

After Gingrich's South Carolina win, where just days before Romney was up in the polls by a double digit lead, Gingrich came back from behind and beat Romney by 12 percentage points.

January 23, 2012: Both Insider Advantage and Rasmussen showed Newt Gingrich in the lead in Florida by 8 and 9 percentage points, respectively.

January 24, 2012: Public Policy Polling had Gingrich up by 5 points.

January 26, 2012: Insider Advantage along with Rasmussen and Monmouth/Survey USA, all were the first to list Romney ahead in the polls again by 8, 8 and 7 points respectively.

January 29, 2012: Romney's lead expanded to double digits, with Survey USA, NBC News/Marist, Miami Herald/Mason-Dixon and Rasmussen, showing Romney up by double digits ranging from 11 points to 16 points ahead of Gingrich.

We reach January 30, 2012, the day before the Florida primaries and Insider Advantage shows a late swing of that pendulum heading back in Gingrich's direction with Romney ahead only by 5 now.

• Romney 36 percent
• Gingrich 31 percent
• Santorum 12 percent
• Paul 12 percent
• Other/Undecided 9 percent

Matt Towery, chief pollster of InsiderAdvantage told Newsmax, "The race will be tighter than expected."

Towery noted that his poll showed a surge for Romney on Wednesday, with him leading Gingrich by 8 points. The InsiderAdvantage poll was among the first to show Romney's resurgence after his dismal showing in the S. Carolina primary.

The InsiderAdvantage poll was also the first to show Gingrich's rise in S. Carolina and accurately forecast his win there.

"The trend is favoring Gingrich," Towery said, noting that while Romney's lead was still outside the margin of error of 3.8 percent, "It's not by much."

Towery said Gingrich is doing "substantially better" with men than Romney, 38 to 28, but the former House Speaker still faces a "gender gap," as women are still favoring Romney.

"Men are moving in droves to Gingrich and away from Romney," Towery said.

As for Florida's important Latino vote, InsiderAdvantage has Gingrich beating Romney by a large margin, leading 42 percent to 29 percent.

Is this surge for Gingrich to little, too late?

South Carolina taught us that a candidate can be ahead by double digits the week of the primary as Romney was and still end up losing by double digits as Romney lost to Gingrich.

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Newt Reiterates, He Is In It 'All The Way To The Convention': As It Should Be

By Susan Duclos

In a previous post I published a video of Sarah Palin explaining how only 3 out of 50 states have weighed in on the GOP candidates via primaries and caucuses and how the process strengthens the eventual nominee, no matter who that candidates ends up being.

As of right now, Rick Santorum has won one state's caucuses (Iowa), Mitt Romney has won one primary state (New Hampshire) and Newt Gingrich has won one primary state (South Carolina).

Florida's primary is on Tuesday, January 30, 2012.

For those reading the mainstream media and think Florida is it.... remember that there is a Total Delegates 2286 and 1144 Delegates are needed for a GOP candidate to win the Republican nomination for President. (Numbers from NYT and CBS News)

Right now the count is:

Gingrich- 23
Romney- 19
Rick Santorum- 13
Ron Paul- 3
Jon Huntsman- 2 (Huntsman is no longer in the running)

Florida would have had 99 delegates but they are being penalized and half the delegates were taken away for conducting their primary before February 2012 which means 50 delegates will be awarded. (Correction made to number of delegates)

Note- South Carolina was also penalized and only half the delegates were awarded.

Taking all that into account, Palin is right in saying the process is just at it's beginning stages.

Which is why it makes perfect sense for Newt Gingrich, via Washington wire, predicting a "straight-out contest for next 4 or 5 months," stating that it is his intent to stay in the Republican presidential primary “all the way to the convention.

“This is a campaign about the future of America and the future of the Republican party. Do you want an insider who’s part of the city which has been accepting huge amounts of taxpayer money to prop up giant institutions or do you want somebody who’s prepared to challenge our system head on and insist on very dramatic change in Washington? I think that’s worth a serious debate and I think that debate will go all the way to the convention.”

He continued: “We have no evidence yet that Romney anywhere is coming close to getting the majority and I think when you take all of the non-Romney votes, it’s very likely that the convention will be a non-Romney majority and maybe a very substantial one. My job is to convert that into a pro-Gingrich majority.”

The full 2012 primary/caucus schedule can be found HERE.

(Correction made to this post)

Michael Reagan Will Be Appearing At January 30, 2012 Events With Newt Gingrich: Gingrich, Romney Event Details

By Susan Duclos

Michael Reagan will joining Newt Gingrich for a number of events to be held in Florida, in Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa, Fort Meyers and Orlando on Monday, January 30, 2012, just one day before Florida's primary day.

Event details below:

Jacksonville Grassroots Rally
7:30 am EST-9:30am EST
Location: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront
225 East Coastline Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32202
*Press Bus Stop


Pensacola Grassroots Rally
10:00am ET/9:00 am CT-12:00 pm ET/11:00 am CT
Location: Pensacola Aviation Center
4145 Jerry L Maygarden Road
Pensacola, FL 32504


Tampa Grassroots Rally
1:00pm EST-3:00pm EST
Location: Tampa Jet Center
4751 Jim Walter Boulevard
Tampa, FL 33607
*Media Avail
*Press Bus Stop


Ft. Meyers Grassroots Rally
3:00pm EST-5:00pm EST
Location: Page Field
4700 Terminal Drive
Fort Meyers, FL 33907


Orlando Crossing the Finish Line Rally
6:00pm EST -8:00pm EST
Location: Renaissance Airport Hotel
5445 Forbes Place
Orlando, FL 32812
*Press Bus Stop

*Overnight in Orlando, FL


Michael Reagan has endorsed Gingrich for the GOP nominee for President in 2012.

"I am endorsing Newt Gingrich for President and here's why:

Newt understands that we must reject and fundamentally change the course that Barack Obama has set for America.

Newt is our only chance in 2012 to contrast a Reagan conservative with Obama's European' styled socialism.

Newt exemplifies the conservative principles my father championed.

Strong national defense, lower taxes and smaller government.

In the 90’s Newt's leadership brought us the Contract with America which changed Washington.

I’m confident Newt can do it again.

We cannot afford a candidate backed by the same Washington insiders who repeatedly tried to undermine my father and the Reagan revolution.

It's time to choose.

Do we go forward with bold ideas or continue with failed policies?

So I ask my fellow Republicans and conservatives to join me in supporting Newt Gingrich for president."

Two days until primary day and the battle continues to heat up in Florida.

No doubt Florida will be relieved to see the media, the candidates, the campaigns and the pollsters move to Nevada, which is the next state in the primary/caucus schedule.

For Mitt Romney supporters, event details below: (via Romney's website)

When: January 30, 2012 - 8:00am - 9:30am
Host: Team Florida
Where: Ring Power Lift Trucks 8040 Philips Highway, Jacksonville, FL 32217

When: January 30, 2012 - 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Host: Team Florida
Where: Pioneer Park 420 Main Street, Dunedin, FL 34698

(Post updated with Romney's January 30, 2012 event details)

Video- Sarah Palin On The Politics Of Personal Destruction

By Susan Duclos

Video below is from January 28, 2012, where she discusses what she has seen happening in Florida, who drew first blood with negative attack ads and the politics of personal destruction.

Palin also points out that only three states have gone through the primary or caucus process, leaving 47 states left to weigh in.



The whole video above is well worth watching.

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300 Occupiers Arrested In Oakland California

By Susan Duclos

Occupiers are tired of being ignored has beens so decided to get rowdy, burning flags, destroying equipment, vandalizing and generally breaking as many laws as they could to get arrested and drum up some attention.

Via Wapo:

Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.

[...SNIP...]

Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.

She blamed the destruction on a small “very radical, violent” splinter group within Occupy Oakland.

“This is not a situation where we had a 1,000 peaceful people and a few violent people. If you look at what’s happening today in terms of destructing property, throwing at and charging the police, it’s almost like they are begging for attention and hoping that the police will make an error.”

Since Barack Obama incited the original Occupy movement and Democratic politicians embraced, encouraged and supported them and San Fran Nan Pelosi herself "blessed" them... I say give them all the attention they want to remind voters of the divisive class open warfare Barack Obama has pushed for in this country.

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Rick Santorum Cancels Campaign Events As Daughter Is Admitted To Hospital

By Susan Duclos

Republican Presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, has cancelled his Sunday events to be at his three year old daughter, Bella Santorum's bedside after she was admitted to the hospital yesterday.

Via Philly.com:

Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Saturday night that the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife, Karen, were with Bella at CHOP. Gidley said Santorum planned to return to campaigning as soon as possible in Florida, where the Republican primary is Tuesday.

Bella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Bella was not expected to survive until her first birthday and concerns over her health have canceled previous Santorum campaign events.

Keep baby Bella and the whole Santorum family in your thoughts and prayers.

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Herman Cain and Latino Leaders Endorse Newt Gingrich

By Susan Duclos

Another local Florida poll comes out, this one countering the Dixie Strategies/First Coast News poll that had Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in a dead heat in Florida, the Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll has Mitt Romney ahead of Gingrich by 11 percentage points.

Other polls show the swinging pendulum of polling results is definitely favoring Romney in Florida, while nationwide Gingrich is maintaining his lead over Romney according to NBCNews/Wall Street Journal and Gallup.

Normally, with this type of lead in Florida just days from primary day, one would assume Romney had Florida locked down, but as South Carolina showed the country, it only takes a couple of days for the whole race to turn on in the opposite direction. On the Tuesday before the South Carolina Primary, Romney was up in the polls by 15 points and by the weekend Gingrich was ahead and was declared the winner within minutes of the polls closing.

A reminder of what was written here yesterday:

Pollsters be damned, the only pattern seen over the last two weeks has been a pendulum swinging back and forth and depending on which candidate's side that pendulum is favoring on the day of the primaries, that will be the candidate that takes Florida.

What this tells us is that each state is going to count.

With Santorum having won the Iowa Caucuses, Romney having taken the New Hampshire primary and Gingrich beating Romney by 12 points in the South Carolina primary, every state, every delegate is going to be hard fought.

Just days before January 31, 2012, Primary day, it seems like everyone is throwing themselves into the fray that has become Florida.

The Tampa Tribune endorsed Gingrich in this mornings edition.

Herman Cain jumped into the mix yesterday to "officially and enthusiastically" endorse Newt Gingrich.

Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page to call the Republican establishment "cannibals" for their attacks against Newt Gingrich.

Rudy Giuliani praised Newt Gingrich and criticized Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper.

Actor John Voight, joined Mitt Romney at a rally held at the Fish House in Pensacola, Florida and gave his endorsement.

Chair National Republican Hispanic Alliance Florida, Nancy C. Acevedo joined in with other Hispanic leaders across the country to send an open letter to Mitt Romney on why they cannot support him but are supporting Newt.

Rosario Marin and a group of other Latino leaders endorsed the former House Speaker’s bid for the GOP nomination.

Former Fort Lauderdale mayor and U.S. Congressman E. Clay Shaw and his wife, Emille, endorsed Mitt Romney two days ago.

The TEA Party of Florida, the only political tea party registered with the state Division of Elections, has endorsed Newt Gingrich as has The Florida Tea Party Coalition With Newt, just days after an ABC News report showed that Florida Tea Party supporters find Gingrich's "beating the pavement" more appealing than Romney's paid ads.

The battle for Florida continues............

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Video Flashbacks: John McCain 2008 Attack Ads Against Mitt Romney

By Susan Duclos

With John McCain's recent endorsement of Mitt Romney, it is worth a minute to remember why John McCain thought back in 2008 that Mitt Romney would not be good for America as president.

First the John McCain ad titled "A Tale Of Two Mitts"



Second video below titled "Health Care Alert."



As I said in response to Mike Huckabee complaining about his 2008 attack ads against Romney being used in the 2012 campaign season, "politicians should remember before they publish ads that those ads or portions of them can and will be used in the future."

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Video- Mike Huckabee’s Original Attack Ad Against Romney In 2008

By Susan Duclos

Mike Huckabee is complaining that the Newt Gingrich campaign used part of an ad that Huckabee himself used against Mitt Romney in 2008.

Fact is the Mike Huckabee attack ad against Mitt Romney is part of the public record, was shown in 2008 despite Huckabee's claim that publishing the ad was a "mistake" it ran in Iowa at least 10 times on four different stations in Davenport and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I call: FAIR use.

[ UPDATE] Huckabee claims the ad was "taken out of context" and were also " deceptive" because he was not referring to Romney. (Source)

Watch it, he specifically names Romney!!

Original 2008 Huckabee attack ad shown below:



Beginning text of Huckabee attack ad:

"I'm Mike Huckabee and I approved this message because Iowans have a right to know the truth about Mitt Romney's dishonest attacks on me and even an American hero John McCain..."

"Then the narrator before Huckabee himself continues with "If a man's dishonest to obtain a job, he'll be dishonest on the job. Iowans deserve better"

[End Update]

Nowhere in the Gingrich ad does it claim that Huckabee is endorsing him and politicians should remember before they publish ads that those ads or portions of them can and will be used in the future.

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Videos- 1999 CNN Report On Newt Gingrich's Exoneration By The IRS Over Ethics Charges

By Susan Duclos

Video below via Townhall, who writes "Of the 84 ethics charges filed (exclusively by Democrats) against Newt Gingrich, 83 were subsequently dropped due to a complete lack of merit or foundation in fact. The remaining charge is the subject of the below video. It too proved to be utterly baseless.

It's always good to keep the record straight."



This puts a bright light on Mitt Romney's latest television ad called "History Lesson," using a 1997 clip of NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw from Jan. 21, 1997, where Brokaw said "Good evening. Newt Gingrich, who came to power, after all, preaching a higher standard in American politics, a man who brought down another Speaker on ethics accusations, tonight he has on his own record the judgment of his peers, Democrat and Republican alike," to inherently and deliberately mislead Florida voters.

Ad below:



NBC has requested that Mitt Romney stop airing the ad using NBC News materials.

The NBC legal department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads. Similar requests have gone out to other campaigns that NBC says have inappropriately used clips from “Nightly News,” “Meet the Press,” “Today” and MSNBC material.

Is it any wonder that Newt Gingrich's new ad specifically says Mitt Romney is willing to "mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election."

Ad below:



This type of dishonesty may be one reason that Mitt Romney's negativity rating has surged 20 points with Independents since November.

Seems ironic that Mitt Romney is going after Newt Gingrich using ethics charges that he was exonerated from by using questionable ethics of his own.

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Florida Tea Party Leaders Jump Into The Fray, Endorses Newt Gingrich

By Susan Duclos

TEA Party of Florida, the only political tea party registered with the state Division of Elections, has endorsed Newt Gingrich as has The Florida Tea Party Coalition With Newt, just days after an ABC News report showed that Florida Tea Party supporters find Gingrich's "beating the pavement" more appealing than Romney's paid ads.

Unlike Romney, thousands of Floridians have flocked to Gingrich’s events, hoping to shake hands with the presidential candidate and voice their concerns. That kind of enthusiasm, experts say, could well overcome Romney’s considerable financial advantage.

“Newt is everywhere here,” Ingram, a Tampa resident, said. “Where is Romney? He’s on television with the paid stuff. But the enthusiasm that’s being shown by the folks at the Gingrich rally, that translates into real votes. Anybody who shows up at a rally, they are darn well going to vote for them on Election Day.”

Tea Party darling Sarah Palin, while not endorsing Newt Gingrich, has stepped in to the battle for Florida as well by tearing into the Republican establishment that has thrown all but the kitchen sink at Gingrich in an attempt to influence Florida primary voters after Gingrich easily beat Romney in South Carolina and rose in the nation polls.

National pollsters show Romney ahead of Gingrich in Florida, yet local pollsters have the race at a dead heat between the two candidates with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul in third and fourth place, respectively.

Florida Primary day, Tuesday, January 31, 2012, promises to be very interesting.

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Local Polling Has Gingrich, Romney In Dead Heat. ... A Secret About Floridians

By Susan Duclos


"And with another day we get another fresh round of polling showing one of two things: either the good citizens of Florida are prone to fits of multiple personality disorder or the pollsters are just having some fun with us."--- Jazz Shaw, Hot Air

It has been one week since Newt Gingrich came from being double digits in polling behind Mitt Romney and handily won the South Carolina primary with a 12 percentage point lead.

Then the candidates all went to Florida. Poor Florida has been subject to media hell, polling hell and campaign ad hell. Polling in Florida, has swung from one direction to another on the turn of a dime.

For example, heading to Florida from South Carolina, Mitt Romney was way ahead in the polls. Just days later, Newt Gingrich was in the lead, then the polls swung back to Romney and yesterday the local pollster Dixie Strategies/First Coast News released their findings, and has the GOP presidential race in Florida at a dead heat between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul coming in third and fourth, respectively.

When asked, "If the Republican Presidential Primary were held today, for whom would you vote?," 35.46 percent of the 2,567 likely voters polled selected former House speaker Gingrich, and 35.08 percent selected Romney.

The same question showed former senator Rick Santorum in a distant third place with 9.38 percent, followed by Ron Paul's 7.42 percent.

The full Dixie Strategies/First Coast News opinion survey can be found HERE.

Let's take a look at what is happening in Florida, via campaign ads: (Source ABC News)

Pro-Romney forces are using the vast majority of the $13.9 million they’ve spent to buy up television airtime on broadcast stations in the Miami, Tampa and Orlando areas – population centers that will be critical to the former Massachusetts governor’s hopes of winning the state.

Gingrich is following a similar pattern, and Winning Our Future is also spending more than $1 million on radio ads. Cumulatively his campaign and the super PAC supporting him has purchased roughly $3.8 million of television and radio time.

Winning Our Future pledged $6 million would be spent in Florida leading up to Primary day Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

With quadruple the amount of money spent to date, on primarily negative ads in Florida against Gingrich, one would think that Romney's lead would be steady, not the back and forth we have seen and Romney's ads started in Florida before the candidates even left South Carolina.

Yet the candidates, according the local polling, are statistically tied.

That is because something else has been in play. With Gingrich ahead nationally, according to Gallup, by eight points and Gallup stating "with no sign in Gallup Daily tracking from Jan. 22-26 that Gingrich is giving back any of his recent gains," the Republican establishment and the conservative media elite, who thought the "Romney is inevitable" meme was a foregone conclusion, decided to jump in and attempt to influence voters by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Gingrich.

"What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque rewriting of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst."---- Sarah Palin, via Facebook

Having been born in Florida and living in Miami for the majority of 30 plus years before leaving the state, let me tell you a secret about Floridians.

Floridians like a good fight, they don't even mind if candidates roll around in the mud battling it out, but they don't like to be pushed, shoved or have anything rammed down their throat.

You can nudge them to attempt to alter their trajectory, but you push them, they are as likely to push you back as they are to bitch-slap you into the next county.

Pollsters be damned, the only pattern seen over the last two weeks has been a pendulum swinging back and forth and depending on which candidate's side that pendulum is favoring on the day of the primaries, that will be the candidate that takes Florida.

If Mitt Romney wins Florida, it will not be because of the Republican establishment or the conservative side of the elite media's interference, it will be despite it.

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Sarah Palin: Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left

By Susan Duclos

"What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque rewriting of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst."--- Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, via her Facebook page, takes a strip out of the Republican establishment's hide.

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.

Read the entire thing, well worth the couple minutes it will take.

The Republican establishment is doing everything in their power to force their choice of Mitt Romney down our, the voters, throats. Palin notices it and points to the tactics they are using against Newt Gingrich to do it.

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27% Of State of the Union Viewers Tuned Out On Obama In First Five Minutes

By Susan Duclos

Kantar Media, who monitors the media for global clients, analyzed the data from eight networks showing Barack Obama give the SOTU address and found that 27 percent of those watching tuned out in the first five minutes.

Via TVNewser:

Kantar used second-by-second audience data gleaned from set-top boxes connected to TV sets from 9pm – 10:30pm. It found:

• In the first five minutes, 27% of the audience tuned away.

• The networks that benefited the most from the initial tune-away were TBS, USA, and ESPN

• CBS and FOX showed sharp losses in viewers at the top of the program, while ABC and NBC showed noticeable gains.

• Tune-away was gradual as the speech progressed. No individual topics drove significant audience loss.

• After the speech, Fox News Channel quickly gained viewers, becoming the second-most watched network after NBC. This gain presumably was in anticipation of the Republican response (seen in the second graph after the jump).

State of the Union Audience Analysis 2012

As can be seen in the 2nd graph in the embed above, by the end of the hour-and-a-half time frame Kantar analyzed, when Obama had finished and Mitch Daniels was making his 11 minute rebuttal, there were nearly as many on fox and tuning into Fox to see Daniels as those that ended up watching until the end of the SOTU from Obama.

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Pro-Romney Ads Outspending Pro-Gingrich Ads In Florida By Quadruple

By Susan Duclos

A report from ABC News shows that negative advertising whether we like it or not, works.

Romney ads and pro-Romney SuperPAC ads are outspending Gingrich and pro-Gingrich SuperPAC ads by quadruple the dollar amount.

So far, Romney has bought $5.6 million worth of airtime and the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, has shelled out a whopping $8.2 million, according to a Republican media buyer who is tracking ad spending in the state.

Compare that to $837,000 spent by the Gingrich campaign and the nearly $3 million of airtime bought by Winning Our Future, a super PAC supporting the former House speaker, and it’s easy to understand one reason why Gingrich has slipped in the most recent polls in the Sunshine State.

Pro-Romney forces are using the vast majority of the $13.9 million they’ve spent to buy up television airtime on broadcast stations in the Miami, Tampa and Orlando areas – population centers that will be critical to the former Massachusetts governor’s hopes of winning the state.

Gingrich is following a similar pattern, and Winning Our Future is also spending more than $1 million on radio ads. Cumulatively his campaign and the super PAC supporting him has purchased roughly $3.8 million of television and radio time.

Florida polling has shown, in the last week alone, Romney ahead of Gingrich, then Gingrich ahead of Romney and now back to Romney ahead.

According to the ABC News report, the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC Winning Our Future is pledging to buy up $6 million in airtime before next Tuesday's primaries. With seesawing of polls within the last week, it is possible that the Winning Our Future SuperPAC is waiting for weekend to have the biggest impact closer to Florida primary day.

Today the Gingrich campaign has released a new ad, called "What Kind of Man?, video shown and discussed HERE. While ABC News did reference this new ad, it is unclear if the ad is included in the totals they quoted.

Video- Newt 2012 Releases New Florida TV Ad: "What Kind of Man?"

By Susan Duclos

Via email we knew it was coming, but waited until the actual ad was released before reporting on it. The ad is called "What Kind of Man?", and it references the misleading ads, distortion and lies that were covered here at Wake up America last night and this morning in detail, here, here, and here. (Links in order from most recent to oldest.)

Video below:



Using the text I received from the Gingrich campaign because it provides the source links of the criticisms made in the ad itself.

Governor Huckabee: "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job." (Source)

Narrator: What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?

This man would. Mitt Romney. Romney said he has always voted Republican when he had the opportunity.

But in the 1992 Massachusetts Primary, Romney had the chance to vote for George H.W. Bush or Pat Buchanan, but he voted for a liberal Democrat instead. (Source)

Romney said his investments in Fannie and Freddie were in a blind trust.

But as reported in the National Journal, Romney earned tens of thousands of dollars from investments NOT in a blind trust. (Source)

Romney denied seeing a false ad his campaign used to attack Newt Gingrich. But Romney's own campaign paid for the ad...and Romney's own voice is on the ad approving the content. (Source)

If we can't trust what Mitt Romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything?

Florida has seen a massive seesawing of support that favored Romney heavily, then swung to heavily favoring Gingrich, then back again toward Romney, all in less than a week, showing that four days before the Florida primaries next Tuesday, it is not out of the realm of possibility to see another two or three swings before next Tuesday's primaries.

Hispanics make up over 13 percent of Florida's registered voters and both campaigns have released open letters aimed at the opposing candidate by Hispanic leaders over recent days.

Romney released an open letter to Gingrich from Hispanic leaders criticizing an ad the Gingrich campaign had running in Florida, calling Romney anti-immigrant, urging Gingrich to take the ad down, which he then had removed from the airwaves.

Gingrich released an open letter to Romney from Hispanic leaders explaining why they could not support Romney and listing the reasons they have decided to support Gingrich.

(Both letters in full with signers, found at an earlier WuA post, HERE.)

The Florida primaries are to be held on Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

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America Before President Obama Took Office and Now: One Chart Tells The Story

By Susan Duclos

Sometimes a clear side by side visual says more than a million written words ever could. Such a visual has been made available from Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, who publishes a comparison chart which shows the numbers before Obama and after Obama. These are things Barack Obama "conveniently omitted from his SOTU speech."

America Before President Obama Took Office and Now

	Before	Now	Change
Number of Unemployed1	12.0 Million	13.1 Million	+9%
Long-Term Unemployed2	2.7 Million	5.6 Million	+107%
Unemployment Rate3	7.8%	8.5%	+9%
“High Unemployment” States4	22	43	+95%
Misery Index5	7.83	11.46	+46%
Price of Gas6	$1.85	$3.39	+83%
“Typical” Monthly Family Food Cost7	$974	$1,013	+4%
Median Value of Single-Family Home8	$196,600	$169,100	-14%
Rate of Mortgage Delinquencies9	6.62%	10.23%	+55%
U.S. National Debt10	$10.6 Trillion	$15.2 Trillion	+43%

¹ Number of unemployed in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
² “Long-term unemployed” means for over 26 weeks; data for January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
³ Unemployment rates in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
⁴ “High unemployment” means having a 3-month average unemployment rate of 6% or higher. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Extended Benefits Trigger Notice” for January 18, 2009 and January 22, 2012. http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/trigger/2009/trig_011809.html and http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/euc_trigger/2012/euc_012212.html.
⁵ The “Misery Index” equals unemployment plus inflation. For January 2009 and December 2012. http://www.miseryindex.us/indexbymonth.asp.
⁶ Average retail price per gallon, January 2009 week 3 and January 2012 week 4. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W.
⁷ U.S. Department of Agriculture, values represent monthly “moderate” cost per family of four for January 2009 and November 2011. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm.
⁸ U.S. median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas for 2008 and 2011 Q3. http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice.
⁹ Residential mortgage delinquencies (real estate loans) for 2008 Q4 and 2011 Q3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/default.htm.
¹⁰ Values for January 21, 2009 and January 23, 2012. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.

H/T Joel B. Pollak, via BG.

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