President Obama’s campaign team for 2012 is beginning to look very familiar. Today, the Obama campaign named 35 national co-chairs.

And no, Obama’s voice is not Grammy-worth there.

Many of the names will ring a bell:

• Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley headed back to Chicago, but not to slip into an early retirement – he’ll co-chair the election campaign.

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Newt Gingrich won tonight’s debate, which he needed to do, but not because he out-maneuvered his opponents. Santorum and Romney were simply too focused on each other, with Paul tag-teaming alongside Romney (ambition makes strange bedfellows). All of this gave Gingrich cover and also gave him the opportunity to be the only candidate that directly and repeatedly went after Barack Obama. He looked like a statesman. His answer on infanticide and shifting the focus from GOP and birth control to Obama and his campaign against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was the rhetorical feat of the night.

Santorum needed to be the Florida Debate Rick Santorum, the Santorum that showed true grit and a willingness to push back against the narrative that somehow, socialized state health care (socialism is socialism at any level and just because states can vote themselves into it doesn’t mean it jives with the principles of the Constitution) is worse than the earmarks and NCLB for which he has spent the better part of his campaign disavowing. I didn’t agree with all of his reasoning for some of his past transgressions (i.e. Specter support) but I also don’t operate under the illusion that any of these cats have a perfect record. I do think that some have worse records than others which is why I don’t get why the Non Roms don’t unite to point out that taxpayer-funded abortion or a $700m increases in taxes/”fees” is worse than earmarks and disavowed support for NCLB or Medicare Part D. Romney failed to actually address that question and deflected brilliantly.

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The Republican debate that just ended moments ago should not inspire confidence for Republicans. With Barack Obama suddenly rising in the polls, and a shocking number of Americans convinced of the nonsensical proposition that the economy is dramatically improving, the Republican candidate must inspire, skewer, and defend. The candidates onstage showed flashes of brilliance at times, but overall, they disappointed on all three categories.

Rick Santorum: The current Republican frontrunner did not have a good night. He was at his best when he was on the attack against Mitt Romney – he smacked Romney particularly hard on Romneycare – but he fell short when it came to his votes on No Child Left Behind and Title X, and his support for Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania (inexplicably, he didn’t cite Romney’s support for Paul Tsongas in 1992). His offense was better than his defense. And as we learned from the New England Patriots, that isn’t a recipe for success. (more…)

Newt Gingrich wiped the floor with the rest of the field at the final Republican debate, partly by attacking the moderator (more on that below). But even the twice-resurrected Gingrich will struggle to revive his fading campaign. So the main effect of his stellar performance–focused on attacking Obama and CNN–will be to boost Mitt Romney. Romney had a few good answers, but was both long-winded and, at times, mean-spirited. He lacks the instinct–except on religious freedom–to provide a full-throated conservative argument. He is failing to lead his party.

Thus the winner is the brokered convention, which looks (slightly) less unlikely after tonight’s debate. Romney cannot lead on fundamental conservative principles; Santorum cannot seem to make the most of the social issues without burdening himself with them; Gingrich cannot overcome skepticism about his past; and Ron Paul remains an embarrassment on foreign policy. The one point of unity between the Republican establishment and the conservative base is that we wish another candidate were in the running. That’s the inescapable truth of this primary.

Finally, the moderator, CNN’s John King. During an exchange on foreign policy, King exposed the full extent of his contempt for his audience: “The American people often don’t pay much attention to what’s going on in the world until they have to.”

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The Final Four GOP candidates meet up tonight in Arizona. This will be the last debate before Super Tuesday on March 6th. Check BigGovernment throughout the night for reactions and analysis. Debate starts at 8pm EST on CNN.

In 2008, while Republican crowds were chanting “USA, USA, USA,” during Sarah Palin’s speeches, Democrats were chanting “hope and change” as Barack Obama talked about “fundamentally transforming America.” And to their shame, many of the people chanting “hope and change” actually believed Obama could deliver. Of course, by the end of 2009 the only significant change, economically speaking, was that Obama had already eclipsed George W. Bush’s $700 billion federal deficit. (The difference there was that it took Bush 8 years to reach $700 billion, but it only took Obama a few months to surpass $1.5 trillion.)

Then came 2010, and “Recovery Summer.” June, July, and August of that year were going to be the months where all of Obama’s deficit spending started to pay off. By spending money we didn’t have for projects we didn’t need—like the 10,000 plus road repair projects around the country that were funded by untold millions in Obama’s stimulus package—we were going to dominate the world economically once more. Of course, it didn’t happen. And instead of putting the millions of Americans to work that David Axelrod claimed it would, the stimulus package coincided with the loss of 3 million more jobs.

(For those of you keeping score, Obama has since pushed a new stimulus act and, I suppose, probably has a “recovery summer 2.0” banner he’ll break out for speeches should the new act pass.)

Throughout these things, unemployment in America has risen from the high 7% range in early 2009 to the 10% range, and currently rests at 8.5% (soon to be 9% according to Gallup).

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Idaho’s Republican contest is closed to non-Republlicans and will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

There are 32 delegates available in Idaho, a caucus state. The Idaho Secretary of State’s website is here. Newt Gingrich has a visit planned.

Gingrich and his wife, Callista, will be at rallies in Kennewick and Spokane on Thursday, and will cross the border into Idaho for a Coeur d’Alene rally Thursday night. On Friday, they’ll be in western Washington, visiting with Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol in the morning before heading to rallies in south King County and Everett.

In previous cycles, the event wasn’t scheduled until May.

Power at the polls will be a new phenomenon in Idaho, thanks to a much earlier vote. The state GOP is switching to a Super Tuesday caucus in March instead of a May primary. The late spring date, behind dozens of other states, has traditionally left Gem-Staters without a say.

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Georgia’s Republican primary will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

The latest polling via the Atlanta Journal Constitution has things tied at the top among three candidates.

Newt Gingrich, 26 percent; Mitt Romney, 24 percent; Rick Santorum, 23 percent.

A Southern state, Georgia is viewed as a test of a candidate’s appeal with the core of the GOP base. It’s also Newt Gingrich’s home state and he has a great deal riding on the contest. If he doesn’t win it, it could mean his bid for the nomination is over. Gingrich himself has played up the significance of winning one’s home state by pointing out Mitt Romney’s need to win Michigan.

It would be all but impossible for Gingrich to justifying remaining in contention if he loses GA, given his comments on Romney and Michigan.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hinted Sunday that if rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney loses the primary election in his home state of Michigan, he should drop out of the race.

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Moderators and guest questioners have been excruciating, mind-numbing and downright frustrating the Republican base by their prattling questions that have little to do with jobs, the economy, the environment, President Obama’s record or anything that average day Americans actually have on their minds. Previous debates have included Terri Schiavo, sugar subsidies, the Everglades Project, and an oddly foreshadowing exchange over contraception. With every candidate having been given the opportunity to respond to the inane and inaccurate narrative (contrasted with President Obama begging for reporters’ mercy not to question him) that the number one priority of the GOP is to ban all women, everywhere, from getting access to birth control, it’s a pretty good bet that the topic will come up tonight. CNN, however, may choose to avoid the almost assured boos from the audience if the question is asked.

Santorum claiming that the USA is under direct attack from Satan has been making the media rounds for the last 24 hours. Pundits are clamoring and MSNBC talking heads are exploding, it wouldn’t be surprising if Satan found his way into the debate topics. (By the way, millions of Americans also believe that Satan is an active being that attempts to disrupt events.)

As a side note, it’s Ash Wednesday. Most Catholics recognize this day with ash on their foreheads. We’ll see if the Catholic presidential candidates choose to follow this ritual.

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In Michigan, Santorum supporters planted hundreds of campaign signs in Shelby Township prior to Mitt Romney’s appearance today.  Some of these signs were planted alongside sidewalks and roadways across from and surrounding the Romney campaign stop.  Approximately two hours before the scheduled event, Romney campaign staffers, including Dennis Lennox of Topinabee, MI, began planting Romney signs in front of the location.  Around the same time, several other people, who refused to identify themselves, began uprooting hundreds of Santorum signs along the roadway leading to the event.  Signs placed at a commercial intersection were also removed.

When asked to explain his actions, Santorum supporters were confronted with obscenities from one person removing signs.  He claimed to be unaffiliated with the Romney campaign.

One officer on the scene, Lou Francis, refused to assist in retrieving stolen campaign signs valued at over $1500.

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He’s been there, done that.

Slugging it out with Mitt Romney, having millions of dollars of negative ads thrown at him.

Now, with Rick Santorum going toe to toe with Mitt, and social issues taking center stage, Newt Gingrich is focusing on kitchen table topics, like the price of gasoline, and making sure young people understand the danger this country will be in if President Obama is re-elected.

Though some have left Newt for dead, Rush Limbaugh said on Monday, “I think there’s a possibility of something happening nobody’s talking about — and that’s the reemergence of Newt. Keep a sharp eye. Anything’s still possible.”

In Tulsa on Sunday, the former House Speaker accused the White House of allowing political correctness to trump national security by refusing to acknowledge the threat of Islamic extremism. Mr. Gingrich told a crowd of 4,000 students and supporters at Oral Roberts University:

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This Wednesday, in what has practically become a weekly ritual this election season, the four remaining Republican Presidential contenders will gather in Arizona for their 26^th debate together. While political junkies like myself will probably tune in anyway to comment on any slight differences we can detect in the candidates’ strategies or performance, the vast majority of Americans are beginning to view all these debates as too standard, too similar, and too unproductive.

Therefore, if these debates are to have any lasting relevance during this primary season, the networks must strive to use new techniques to reach a new audience. There is one particular demographic which is impacted most directly by many of the issues discussed by the candidates but whose participation in previous debates has been minimal if not nonexistent: the American youth. Despite this trend, it makes perfect sense that those young citizens who have the most at stake in this next election be able to help vet the candidates that will determine their future prosperity. In order to accomplish this, we hope to build support for a “Youth Debate” that will give all Republican Presidential hopefuls the platform necessary to address young voters directly.

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Mitt Romney’s next line of attack against insurgent frontrunner Rick Santorum will likely be that Santorum is, like Newt Gingrich, a former quasi-lobbyist. While Santorum was not legally registered as a lobbyist, he pulled down hundreds of thousands of dollars doing what was, essentially, lobbying. In fact, Santorum’s lobbying background goes far deeper than Gingrich’s.

In 2006, Democrat Bob Casey boxed Santorum about the ears over his association with the controversial K Street Project – an effort initiated by Grover Norquist, and for which Santorum was Senate liaison. The goal of the project was to get Republicans hired in key lobbying positions throughout Washington, D.C., as a response to Democratic dominance of the lobbying trade over several decades. Santorum, according to The New Republic, “conducted weekly breakfasts with lobbyists, and occasionally Congressmen and White House staff, during which he attempted to match Republican Hill staffers with K Street job openings.” Santorum apparently tried to smack the Motion Picture Association of America by reneging on a tax deal worth $1.5 billion after they named a Democrat to head up their lobbying effort rather than a Republican.

Controversy quickly surrounded the project when rumors circulated that Republican legislators were giving access to lobbying firms based on the level of their political donations. Santorum distanced himself, and in 2007, the Pelosi House forced through the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which banned Congressional members from influencing employment of private entities based on political donations.

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When the prospect of a Santorum nomination gives me night-tremors, I console myself that his current poll dominance isn’t so much a surge in support for the failed Senator as it is a continued rejection of the presumptive frontrunner, Mitt Romney. It is simply inconceivable to me that the GOP would decide that what it really needs to defeat Obama is a Big Government, Pro-Labor social conservative whose legislative career was ended by a nearly 20 point loss in a swing state.

I know Santorum portrays himself as a man of conviction and principle–something GOP voters respond to–but a man who actively campaigned for Arlen Specter against Pat Tommey has a loose relationship with political principle. No, Santorum’s recent rise isn’t really about him but a consequence of the fact that GOP voters really don’t want to nominate Mitt Romney.

It’s a puzzle that will be dissected in political science class for years to come. Romney certainly had every advantage going into the contest. He was a successful businessman at a time of economic uncertainty. He had been a Governor, rather than a legislator in Washington. He had the most money and the biggest, most professional organization. He had run before for President and could make a plausible claim to being “next in line,” a powerful position in a GOP primary.

Of course, there was the RomneyCare problem.

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Given that Rep. Ron Paul has long been a champion of frugal, ethical government, while supporting calls to audit the Federal Reserve, his lack of cooperation with Roll Call in two reports on what appear to be duplicate reimbursements for airline travel he’s received exposes the Congressman to charges of hypocrisy.

Today, Roll Call follows up a previous item with this report.

But James’ recollection and new documents obtained by Roll Call suggest Paul was aware that he was often being reimbursed twice for individual flights. In all, Roll Call found 26 flights in which several layers of documentation show double payments: credit card statements that detail the ticket purchases, a payment to Paul from his taxpayer-funded House account for reimbursement of a flight and Federal Election Commission records or copies of checks that verify a second payment from a separate group for the same flight.

Roll Call obtained copies of checks from the Liberty Committee to American Express that paid for Paul’s expenses. The records obtained by Roll Call cover about 17 nonconsecutive months. Beyond the 26 flights, documents show an additional 31 flights where it appears Paul was double-reimbursed but the records lack sufficient detail to prove duplicate payments.

The initial item from February 6 can be found here.

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One of the Democratic Party’s top fundraisers and the co-chairman of the Democratic National Convention host-committee, Duke Energy Corp. CEO Jim Rogers, contributed more than $210,000 to Democrats since 2008 and saw his company receive $230.4 million in federal grants for so-called “green energy” projects.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

Just as Rogers has helped fund Democratic politicians, they, in turn, have helped steer massive amounts of federal funding to Duke Energy. The 2009 stimulus package, for instance, was a boon for the company: Duke received federal grants totaling $230.4 million for a number of “green” energy projects including “smart grid” development and wind energy storage.

According to Recovery.gov, Duke created 196.6 jobs as a result of the grants.

The company also received a $350,000 grant to assist General Motors in the development of the Chevrolet Volt, the poorly selling electric vehicle that the Obama administration has recently proposed subsidizing at a rate of $10,000 per car.

Rogers’ support for the president’s “green” agenda earned him a spot on the short list to become President Obama’s Energy Secretary.

As if that act of crony capitalism weren’t enough, in 2009, Mr. Rogers’s company paid the lobbying firm of the co-chairman of Obama-Biden transition team, John Podesta, and Mr. Podesta’s brother, Tony Podesta, $860,000 to lobby to “support the passage of climate change and energy legislation” and “energy efficiency and clean energy solutions.”   John Podesta was also formerly the president of the left wing Center for American Progress.

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In the states that matter, his approval rating is low, low, low

Much is made about how President Obama is suddenly popular again, but this rests on a faulty assumption: that the national polls actually matter at this stage in the presidential campaign.

They don’t, but state polls do and Obama is in trouble in all but three of them. In all but three states–Minnesota, Connecticut, and Wyoming–Obama’s approval rating has declined from 2010 to 2011, according to Gallup’s state-by-state comparison. In Wyoming, his approval rating had nowhere to go but up. He won Connecticut and Minnesota in 2008, so there’s not much of a gain here, though he is under the 50% mark in Minnesota.

In Ohio, Obama sits at 42.1% approval, while in Pennsylvania and Florida he is at 45% and 43.6% approval rating respectively. Obama won all three states in 2008.

In addition to those key swing states, the states that Obama won, he is below 50% in Maine (47.2%), Wisconsin (47.4%), Minnesota (47.7%), Michigan (48.1%), Iowa (45.6%), Virginia (44.5%), New Hampshire (38.7%), Washington (47.6%), North Carolina (43.7%), Oregon (44.5%), Indiana (40.1%), Colorado (40.4%), Nevada (41.3%), New Mexico (41.7%), and Rhode Island (49.2%). Even if one assumes that Obama wins all of those states over 45%, he will lose the general election overwhelmingly. The map will essentially be a slightly more Republican one from 2004.

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Livin' La Vida One Percent

On the campaign trail in 2008, Michelle Obama denigrated corporate America, but on the campaign trail in 2012, she’s more than happy to take its union-busing cash and enjoy the lifestyle of the .001%.

Michelle Obama has long been known to have expensive tastes, so her sixteenth vacation of the Obama presidency oughtn’t come as a surprise. She bought a three hundred Coach bag when she was a teenager with her babysitting money. Her dress at the 2008 convention cost $1250. She dined at Table 52, a high-end restaurant on her infamous “Date Night” to New York City. She sported a $2,000 dress for her last vacation in Hawaii. She owns a pair of $540 designer sneakers, which she wore,humorously enough, to a food bank.

But this week is but another example of how out of touch she is. Michelle Obama and her daughters are spending the long weekend at the “huge private home” of long-time Democratic donors, Paula and Jim Crown. The Crowns, who hail from Chicago, have given the Democratic Party plenty of money over the years, according to FEC filings. Indeed, Michelle Obama hosted a fundraiser at the Crown home last year, too, where more than 150 Democratic donors donated between $1,000 and $10,000 to the Obama re-election campaign.

The Crowns own the Aspen Skiing Company, known locally as The Skico, which has been involved in a labor dispute with Lee Mulcahy, a former ski instructor who was fired he says for criticizing the disparity between what the Skico pays its instructors ($69 a day) and the cost of a day long lesson ($625). Mulcahy, who took his complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, pointed out that he was merely asking for a living wage, something he argues the Crowns already support through their philanthropy to organizations that back a living wage. (Shia Kapos, “Aspen’s have-nots hurl challenge at Crowns,” Crain’s Chicago Business, January 24, 2011)

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How do you turn an election cycle about the economy into a discussion about contraceptive use and dark rumors of Islamic influence in the White House? You make Rick Santorum a frontrunner, that’s how.

As it turns out, being destroyed in 2006 in his home state has not taught Santorum the ills of half-cocked campaigning.  On Saturday, Santorum explained that Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology.” Now, this is a perfectly legitimate point – Black Liberation Theology, which is the theology of Obama’s infamous pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is indeed heresy from a Christian point of view.

But apparently, that’s not what he meant. Today, his spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, appeared on MSNBC to inform the voting public that Obama was an adherent of “a type of theological secularism when it comes to the global warmists in this country. That’s what he was referring to. He was referring to the president’s policies in terms of the radical Islamic policies the president has.” Stewart later called the network to state that she meant “radical environmental policies” rather than “radical environmental policies.”

This is precisely the type of gaffe Santorum’s campaign cannot afford – and it is precisely the gaffe that Santorum’s campaign seems to stumble into whenever possible. The knock on Santorum is that he is a fringe candidate with religious appeal, obsessed with matters of sexual morality and Christian religiosity. Incidents like this do not help his case.

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On Saturday, surging Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum attacked President Barack Obama’s governing philosophy: “It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology–but no less a theology.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The mainstream media, predictably, portrayed Santorum’s criticism as a revival of fringe claims that President Obama is not a Christian, but in fact a Muslim.

Yet Santorum was not attacking Obama’s religious identity. He was attacking the content of Obama’s religious beliefs–beliefs that Obama himself has put at issue.

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