| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:59 am Post subject: |
| Let's hope Rudy goes down in Florida for the benefit of the Ron Paul campaign:
Giuliani's Florida Win Appears in Danger
By LIZ SIDOTI and JENNIFER LOVEN Thursday January 24, 2008 2:46 PM
Associated Press Writers http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7252778,00.html
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Rudy Giuliani splurged on Florida, lavishing time and money on a high-risk gamble that the state would vault him to the Republican presidential nomination.
Five days before his make-or-break primary, all that last year's national front-runner has to show for the love he's given the Sunshine State is a diminished standing.
``We are gaining support. I think you'll see that over the next few days,'' Giuliani insisted Wednesday, hours before a new poll showed him trailing John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Florida was supposed to be ``Rudy Country.'' His game plan called for playing down earlier-voting states for a laser focus on Florida and its 57-delegate prize. He pumped more than $3 million into advertising and planted himself here, counting on a win to give him unbeatable momentum going into the voting by nearly two dozen states on Feb. 5. The nomination was to follow.
All that now is in danger.
McCain and Romney grabbed headlines by winning states that voted earlier; Giuliani won nothing and stayed out of the picture. Polls this week, even in his home state of New York, an expected bulwark for him on Feb. 5, showed him tied or behind. His once huge advantage in California is no more, either.
In Florida, a new poll shows McCain and Romney neck-and-neck for the lead, with 25 percent and 23 percent, respectively, while Giuliani and Mike Huckabee trail at 15 percent. More than one-fourth of the likely voters surveyed between Sunday and Tuesday - 27 percent - said they still may change their minds. The poll was sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times, The Miami Herald and Bay News 9.
Undeterred, Giuliani said, ``We are going to accomplish it against the odds.''
He argued that his message just needs a little more time to sink in. He's the only Republican supporting a national catastrophic insurance fund important to many hurricane-weary and cash-strapped Floridians, he has what he calls the largest tax-cut proposal of any candidate and says he has the most relevant government experience.
``As these ideas seep through, I think we're going to do well here,'' Giuliani said.
It's possible that absentee and early voters could give Giuliani a bump in Tuesday's primary. He has get-out-the-vote programs catering to both, and these voters would have cast ballots before Giuliani's decline and McCain's ascent. He's also counting on a large number of New York retirees in Florida to carry him to victory, but its unclear how many are registered to vote, let alone as a Republican.
This isn't the first time Giuliani has tried to compete only to hit a rocky patch.
He peppered Iowans with mailed campaign literature and some $300,000 in radio advertisements, only to finish sixth behind little-known Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the leadoff contest. New Hampshire's primary proved embarrassing as well with more than $3 million spent on ads and mail and countless visits - and a fourth-place showing.
``Everywhere this guy has gone, he's faded,'' said GOP strategist Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster.
As polls shifted, Giuliani has changed his story on Florida's importance.
``It's all about Florida,'' he said Monday. Now, his campaign says the state merely is an ``important'' part of the race - though it's unclear whether he has the money to be competitive later.
Senior aides have forgone paychecks this month. Giuliani was getting beat 2-1 earlier this week in TV-ad spending in several of the state's expensive media markets; he poured more money to his buys late Wednesday, which may have brought him to parity.
Alone for weeks in Florida, Giuliani taunted his opponents Saturday as they competed in South Carolina. ``We're waiting for you,'' he said then.
Judging from the last few days, he would just as soon have them leave again.
Giuliani faced crowds that were a bit flat and small early this week. He got polite applause in a large but half-empty community hall in Sun City Center, where retirement is the local industry. And only a few dozen people showed up at the aptly chosen Presidential Ballroom at Church Street, a banquet facility near downtown Orlando.
He took precious time away from Florida on Tuesday to fly to New York to collect campaign cash, leaving his schedule light - only four public events in three days. He devoted other time to media interviews and cutting a final Florida ad.
Earlier this week, Giuliani's campaign also appeared to squander a golden opportunity when McCain said he does not support the federally backed catastrophic insurance fund. Instead of seizing on the comment himself, Giuliani left it to aides and surrogates who got little attention. He rolled out an advertisement seeking to strike a contrast with the Arizona senator - but it didn't name McCain and was aimed only for the Internet, not the vastly wider reach of TV. On Thursday, his campaign announced that the spot would, indeed, be broadcast on TV.
At one point, Giuliani made an unscheduled visit to the Daytona International Speedway for a photo op of the former mayor speeding in circles in his campaign bus around the racetrack inside the empty stadium, perhaps an almost too-perfect metaphor for his effort here.
Wednesday in Estero, he even gave the impression of being bored with his own message. ``I've given this lecture on leadership so many times, I could probably do it in my sleep,'' he said to laughter.
By evening, though, his campaign staged a rally that served as an unexpected counterpoint to the bad news.
About 1,000 people filled a plaza along the beach town of Naples' main street and crammed an adjacent Irish pub where Giuliani was just supposed to shake a few hands and make remarks.
It turned out to be the largest, most welcoming crowd Giuliani drew all week, though a request for a show of hands from an introductory speaker revealed that a sizable portion was from New York - not Florida. Despite some testy feelings about a long wait, people cheered repeatedly and mobbed the restaurant to try to get to him.
The enthusiasm had Giuliani unusually animated. He seemed to argue, without saying it directly, that the polling is bogus.
``We're going to surprise everyone,'' he shouted into a microphone, standing among the restaurants' outdoor tables. ``And we're going to win big here. Florida is going to catapult us to the nomination because Florida is going to vote in a way that I think people don't even realize.'' | |  | | harrietbuster | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:39 am Post subject: |
| Florida RCP Average 01/20 - 01/23
McCain 24.5
Romney 23.5
Giuliani 18.8
Huckabee 15.5
Paul 4.3  | | | | harrietbuster | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:48 am Post subject: |
| 
 | | | | Jefferson Davis | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:58 am Post subject: |
| McCain/Lieberman...when did Israel get control of the United States? Can McCain kiss his ass any harder? They ought to get a room.
No thanks. One Manchurian Candidiate is enough
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/ | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:53 am Post subject: |
| Of course the Jews which control/own Time magazine are going to promote the Israel firster traitor to America (McCain) who is adored by fellow fifth columnist Israel firster Lieberman who should be in the Knesset instead along with McCain...
McCain and his admiral Father sold out the USS Liberty crew for Israel as well, and America firsters like myself will never let him forget it:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Hughes0712.htm | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:42 am Post subject: Ron Paul - MSNBC Debate Highlights |
| Ron Paul - MSNBC Debate Highlights
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:55:01 -0500 (EST)
MSNBC Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49LLlhVJez0 | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject: |
| Ron Paul's message is going to resonate even more with the economy tanking!:
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http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2008/01/25/commentary_globaloney_predators/6644/
Subject: Commentary: Globaloney predators
Date: Friday, January 25, 2008
Commentary: Globaloney predators
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large
WASHINGTON , Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Sex sells. So does baloney and now globaloney, which is complete falsehood told with bravado. The world is flat for some, flat broke for many more. America's predatory lenders, subprime mortgage brokers, various and sundry con artists, combined forces to blind America's monetary sentinels, rip off the world and give America's democratic capitalism a bad name.
Earlier this week, as stock prices nosedived, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suddenly announced the largest U.S. rate cut in more than 20 years. He had been advised the previous Friday of the largest bank fraud in history, a secretly reported $60 billion heist at France 's second-largest institution, Societe Generale. It was actually a $7.4 billion rogue-trading fraud by a 31-year-old junior options trader the bank was paying $150,000 a year.
In the United States , the subprime mortgage heist compelled major financial institutions to write off tens of billions of miscalculated dollars and seek salvation from the world's new gold standard -- SWF (not single white females, but Sovereign Wealth Funds, or about $1 trillion accumulated by China and the Gulf's oil producers).
The law of unintended consequences knocked the dollar off its pedestal as the world's reserve currency, tipped the world's most powerful engine for growth into recession territory and produced an apathetic bipartisan bailout package that conjured up a teaspoon to bail out a leaky lifeboat.
Real estate scam/scum artists in for the quick buck make up 80 percent of the total number of reported mortgage fraud cases, says the FBI. But these bilkers took advantage of an FBI whose investigative skills were redirected to chasing down al-Qaida leads.
In the past 10 years, mortgage fraud has skyrocketed. According to the FBI, mortgage fraud is the country's fastest-growing white-collar crime. The Legal Times reported the Treasury Department's suspicious activity reports were up 35 percent in 2006 while the Internal Revenue Service's mortgage fraud caseload doubles every two years.
The fraudsters kept doubling the pot with an army of insiders who are experts in the loan origination process. These can then select loan products with flimsy underwriting standards. Enter corrupt appraisers who overstate the value of the properties, loan applicants who lend their names and credit histories for a fee, and finally closing agents who keep lenders in the dark about palpably fraudulent transactions.
Property values were jacked up by mortgage flip schemes -- buying condos and houses before ground is broken and flipping them upon completion, which translated into higher fees for brokers, lenders, real estate agents and loan settlement officers.
Sleights of hand get a powerful assist from the absence of national standards for oversight of mortgage brokers. Twenty-four states have no educational or experience qualifications. Nor are criminal background checks required for most states. So with no ethics impediments, the predators moved effortlessly from one mortgage brokerage company to the next. Exaggerated, even fictitious income became SOP for worthless subprime mortgages.
Predatory lenders concluded subprime loans were the ultimate key to large-scale mortgage fraud schemes -- "but also to potential predatory lending predicated by loan originators." So it became a disaster for both lenders and the consumer public -- and the world economy.
Fraud got out of hand nationally and internationally as banks and mortgage companies erected attractive instruments that passed muster even with ratings agencies. Hedge funds, hungry for high risk, also took big bites out of what had rapidly become a global rotten apple.
Subprime loans were sliced and diced and repackaged to look attractive to the uninitiated. Predatory lenders hoodwinked millions of individual American borrowers who were led to believe their homes would keep appreciating and therefore they could easily afford to go deeper into debt.
The bubble first burst in June. But the sages kept assuring us we had turned the corner, that the size of subprime mortgages was limited in scope. The day of reckoning for a maelstrom of mortgage fraud didn't come until the New Year. And now we face a global peril -- due entirely to the way predatory loan sharks abused one of civilization's most equitable ways of rewarding human endeavor. So instead of seeing your home appreciating in value, housing is headed for a 25 percent drop this year, possibly another 10 percent next year. Some 1.5 million foreclosures are forecast.
Major U.S. banks have written down $100 billion in securities backed by the illusionary art of creative mortgage products. These losses should exceed $150 billion with subprime auto loans, credit cards and home equity lines of credit, or second mortgages. Evidently there are lots of intelligent people who are yet to grasp subprime is synonymous with crapola.
At this year's annual Global Economic Forum in Davos , Switzerland , kind words about the United States were hard to come by. David Rosenberg, chief economist for Merrill Lynch, echoed a collective fear the United States is heading for the worst consumer-driven recession since 1980. Today, none of the traders juggling three terminals and a couple of GSM mobile phones on the trading floor of a major New York-based financial institution has any hands-on experience going back 28 years.
The deficit for the current federal budget, including bipartisan stimulus package costs, should hit $400 billion. Iraq war bills are approaching half a trillion dollars -- and the Iraqi government the United States is supporting has invited Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Baghdad for a friendly visit, the first since Saddam Hussein's Iraq attacked Iran in 1980, a war that lasted eight years. Russia , for its part, delivered yet another snub to President Bush by shipping its sixth consignment of nuclear fuel to Iran .
Under U.S. pressure, Pakistan is gradually being drawn into a civil war against the Taliban that now controls part of the tribal areas on the Afghan border. Godfathered by Pakistan 's Inter-Service Intelligence service after the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, the Taliban's influence is seeping through two of Pakistan 's four provinces -- Balochistan and the Northwest Frontier province.
As long as the Taliban remains ensconced in the Pakistan-Afghan border's mountain fastness, the U.S.-NATO objectives in Afghanistan will remain out of reach. The future of the Atlantic alliance itself is at stake in Afghanistan as Canada and the European allies conclude the undertaking is a lot larger than they bargained for. Costs are mounting -- as well as domestic opposition.
Next to all this, the daily and nightly gab fest on the presidential TV hustings seems hugely irrelevant. Presidential aspirants tread gingerly lest they step on toes that belong to a current or future donor. So far, Wall Streeters have coughed up $50.4 million. | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
