The Florida GOP took bold action in moving their state’s primary up in line with the other carve out states. By seeking a bigger role in choosing who the GOP candidate against Obama is Republicans in Florida have caused other states to move their dates up. The reason for that is simple: less profusion of blood.

There is more significance beyond that. With the first ballots expecting to be cast just months away, the front runners, Romney and Perry, have a divisive advantage over the field – Romney more so because of his broad appeal in all early states.

Florida Poll
Mitt Romney: 28
Herman Cain: 24
Newt Gingrich: 10
Rick Perry: 9

This may have been a calculated move by the GOP as a whole. End the fighting early, rally around the candidate, and begin raising serious cash with a settled candidate. However, the flip side to this is that the front runners are susceptible to momentum and excitement from another candidate. Herman Cain is presently that candidate. Cain enjoyed a huge bounce in September. If he can win Florida and do reasonably well in another early state, which will obviously be to the great loss of someone like Perry and certainly Bachmann, he can knock Perry from this race early. Though currently, South Carolina is being very kind to Perry  but not nearly enough to seal Romney’s fate in the state.

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Have you ever been told to settle for something you weren’t happy with or to ‘just deal’ with the hand you’d been dealt because … well, it is what it is?

Yeah. I’ve been dealing with that a lot lately – especially when the talk turns to politics. So it comes as no surprise that while I was enjoying my manicure earlier this week, CNN’s John King was smugly billowing orders to all Conservatives and Republicans alike to stop complaining and get used to the current Republican Presidential Candidate field.

King, who by his very nature gets on every last nerve in my body, went on to spout his wisdom by indignantly proclaiming ‘this is the hand you’re dealt and these candidates are what you have to work with.’ One could almost see the smile playing on the edge of his lips as he foresaw the future – the future of another four years of Obama-Nation …

Hum. Is this really OK? Are we stuck with what we got out there now? After the last several debates, I’d say the option of having a super-candidate to defeat the current Presidential Disaster is slim … but not hopeless. Never. Ever. Hopeless.

See, this is where we Conservatives – and a lot of Republicans – differ from the gloom and doom of our liberal counterparts. Some might call it always ‘believing the grass is greener on the other side’ or wanting something we see as not possible (i.e., Chris Christie entering the race … But what’s up with this new announcement? Can’t the drama end soon?). But it’s not. It’s simply knowing what is possible and fully understanding what we want in a candidate.

Right now, it may not seem any one candidate fits the bill for our total agenda – i.e., Perry’s lax immigration policy; Ron Paul’s older than a dinosaur; Gary Johnson, being from a state most people don’t even realize is even a state (hey, I am from NM and people still ask me if I am from MEXICO when I say NEW MEXICO) …and Mitt Romney’s joke called RomneyCare … And let’s not forget Bachmann … whose main strike against her is lack of experience and her inability to let a subject just drop (you won’t ever hear me say her biggest issue is she’s a woman … because it’s just not. A Conservative woman in a place of power can perform miracles … I believe it truly.).

So do we settle? Well, that’s not the American way, is it? In fact, we are taught throughout history that settling gets you communism, socialism and slavery.

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According to the latest CNN/ORC survey, former two-term Gov. Gary Johnson (R-N.M.) is polling at 2 percent, neck-and-neck with pizza magnate Herman Cain and ahead of former Gov. John Huntsman (R-Utah) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Yet while Cain, Huntsman, and Santorum will mix it up with Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas), former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), and Reps. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) at the nextGOP candidates debate on September 7, Johnson has been told to stay home once more. This latest exclusion has prompted writers at National Review, which isn’t particularly amenable to Johnson’s libertarian-leaning platform, and elsewhere to wonder what’s going on with the selection process.

While Johnson may not make it to the Republican debate at California’s Ronald Reagan ranch, Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie caught up with him at FreedomFest in July to talk tax reform, cutting federal spending across the board by 43 percent (the amount currently being financed by debt), and how focusing on social conservatism could reduce the GOP to minor-party status.

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Many have wondered why Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former Obama administration official as Ambassador to China, climate-change believer, ally of Harry Reid and all-around anti-Tea Party candidate is running for the Republican presidential nomination.  Were the 2012 Republican primaries your typical RINO race (not that there aren’t abundant RINOs in the current field, at least in this author’s view), it would be clear that Huntsman would be setting himself up as the establishment, “civil,” “grown up” candidate, in the mold of a more liberal Mitt Romney.

However, primaries are determined by the most ardent partisans, which for the Republican party today certainly means Tea Partiers, and conservatives and libertarians who hold similar views to those of the Tea Party.  Given that it is abundantly clear that those who will determine the Republican nominee will never accept a person with Huntsman’s political views, one must wonder why he is in the race.

I believe I have found a plausible answer.  Jon Huntsman Jr. is potentially the key to four more years of Barack Obama, not by running as a Republican but by running as an Independent.  Allow me to explain.

By running to the left of the rest of the Republican field, Huntsman likely has no intention of competing in the Republican primary.  Instead, he may use the Republican primary and his substantial personal wealth to set up for a run in the general election as an Independent — as the “reasonable” candidate in a field characterized by the mainstream media as consisting of terrorist Tea Partiers practicing radical brinksmanship and wanting to take us back to the Antebellum era, and President Obama who has proven ineffective, weak and ever-willing to compromise.

Independents who buy this line thus may look to spend their vote on a more moderate and palatable candidate.  Jon Huntsman would be their man.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Aaron Blake from the Washington Post to discuss the latest quarter of 2012 fundraising numbers, the importance of Iowa and the grueling GOP primary calendar.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Monday Fix: 2012 campaign fundraising winners and losers
Obama’s fundraising totals a record $86 million
Pawlenty and Bachmann have little in common, except path to victory
Huntsman gets a second dose of bad news from home state
Leading Man, Miles Beyond the Boy Band
Mad Men – Did you enjoy the Fuhrer’s birthday?

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From CNN Politics:

CNN has exclusively learned that Rep. Michele Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee. The Minnesota Republican plans to file papers for the committee in early June, with an announcement likely around that same time.

But a source close to the congresswoman said that Bachmann could form the exploratory committee even earlier than June so that she could participate in early Republican presidential debates.

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From Heritage’s The Foundry:

Today former Congressman Ernest Istook testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee about the $105 billion slush fund in advance appropriations liberals tucked inside Obamacare. The $105 billion bypasses the traditional yearly budgeting process and is spread throughout the 2,700 page legislation. It took the Congressional Research Service (CRS) seven months to identify all the disparate funds and it was not until February (11 months after the bill passed) that all of the funds could be totaled up.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has been beating the drum to raise awareness of this unprecedented level of advance spending. But the liberal media has been attacking her for calling it “hidden” funding. In reality, Rep. Bachmann said that “practically no Member of Congress even knew that $105 billion of funding was” in the bill.FactCheck says that this funding was know to “those who read the bill … including members of Congress.” But does FactCheck really believe that any member of Congress read all 2,700 pages of the bill? Do they have any evidence at all that any member of Congress knew about the $105 billion figure before CRS published their report this February?

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As Barack Obama prepares to sign an alleged landmark settlement to right previous wrongs dealt black farmers by the USDA, it’s important to realize that this is less a story about race, or discrimination, than it is a textbook case of big government run amok with greed and a usual cast of characters only too happy to cash in at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Indeed, as Big Government has already pointed out, the legitimate concerns of many honest, hard working black farmers continue to go ignored, while high power law firms, in some cases linked to the Democrat Party, stand to cash in big. Only in the world of big money and high power politics can an individual like Mike Espy, a former head of the very same USDA he is now suing, now claim to speak for over 15,000 clients alleging discrimination by the same USDA Espy headed up. The mere thought of that is absurd and should function as a red flag for any good government watchdog.

As Big Government will continue to show over the next few weeks, Pigford is a universe of its own filled with crooked politicians, cover-ups, greedy attorneys, and crime rings. And one of the brightest stars in the Pigford universe is Mike Espy:

How many actual farmers with potentially legitimate complaints against the USDA will actually be compensated remains to be seen. But one thing seems abundantly clear, Espy will very likely profit to a degree that far exceeds any potential aggrieved party. That isn’t justice, it is corruption and cronyism writ large to be paraded about in what amounts to an outrageous signing ceremony at the White House today. (more…)

I would like to invite everyone who is in Washington, DC to attend a townhall with me and several other prominent guests. Our outdoor event will be held next to the Washington Monument, at 15th Street & Constitution. We will be starting on Saturday at 1:30pm. This will be a great forum for individuals who wish to make their voices heard. Please join me for this free event!

Yesterday was my son’s 9th birthday and for his present, the government jacked his future. As he sat in the floor and happily opened his gifts, Bart Stupak appeared on television and revealed that he’d sold his soul. The joy was sucked from the room, but my son didn’t notice – thank God for innocence. The faces of the adults in the room fell as Stupak held his presser, as Pelosi gained another YES vote for health control.

The scene was an eerie replay for me; eight-and-a-half years ago that same boy sat in his bouncy seat while cooing and kicking his legs as his father and I watched the twin towers crumble to dust on live television. The feeling was the same.

A lot of people ask why I and others do what we do.

The scene I just described is my answer.

Last night the Democrat party died as it drove a spear through the torso of the Constitution and passed legislation that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly opposed. Nancy Pelosi sauntered into the capitol surrounded by fellow socialists, carrying the gavel used in 1965 to pass the now-bankrupt Medicare.

All summer long Americans filled town halls, emailed, called, and faxed their lawmakers, and they were forsaken. They were called Nazis, racists, homophobes; they were threatened, beaten, and called stupid because they disagreed with the minority who feels that the government should run our lives. Our lawmakers unofficially stopped representing us last spring.

Last night, our legislators officially broke the contract with America that is the Constitution. Last night, they ceased to represent us. Last night, a new party was born; the malignant tumor that is the progressive caucus consumed the Democrat party from within and gave birth to the mainstream Socialist Party.

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When going into any kind of competition, I was taught to respect the abilities of an opponent. To not do so results in things we commonly refer to as “upsets”.

Seeing how a lot of liberals aren’t into sports and have disdain for organized competition, the comments by the website “biasedliberalmedia.com” about the comic book’s mocking of Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann (and conservatives in general) by “award-winning Minneapolis artist and political activist Ken Avidor” make perfect sense.

The little guy with the hat with the teabags hanging from it is a “tea-bagger,” a conservative anti-tax activist — representing hundreds of the same who use tea bags as a symbol of one of the first American anti-tax rebellions, the Boston Tea Party. (These people clearly have no idea what “tea bagging” refers to in sexual slang, or they would be even angrier than they are.) Michele is on record as saying that she “hates” taxes. These days she’s not talking about cutting taxes so much; she tends to talk more about the debt that is caused by the failure to tax. But conservatives still have her down as an anti-tax politician even though she has never successfully lowered anyone’s taxes.

‘These people clearly have no idea what “tea bagging” refers to in sexual slang, or they would be even angrier than they are.’

A clear example of the narcissistic underestimation of their ideological opponents.

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Special to Big Government from Helen Rittelmeyer, The Daily Caller:

Capitol Police arrested ten people on the second floor of the Cannon House Office Building at a sit-in this afternoon.  The demonstrators had crowded into the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a print-out of the health care bill, intending to tear up the bill in protest.

“It was a mess.  There was paper all over the hallway,” said Jeanette Beam, who traveled from Georgia to join the protest.  “They took a little old lady away in plastic handcuffs.”

The arrests, which happened a little before three o’clock, prompted plenty of chatter but little surprise.  Earlier in the day, an organizer with a megaphone had explained the plan for the sit-in.  “The police know we’re coming,” he announced.  “No one has to get arrested if they don’t want to.”

The protesters were part of a crowd of 10,000 that gathered on Capitol Hill to protest the Democratic health care bill.  The “emergency house call” was initiated by Rep. Michele Bachmann and organized by Americans for Prosperity.

Bachmann greeted the crowd from the Capitol steps: “You came.  You came to your House.”  When her remarks were interrupted by a chant of “Kill the bill,” Bachmann joked, “Oh, don’t hold back.  Tell them how you really feel!”  She continued, “Kill the bill – that’s exactly what you’re going to tell them.”

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