Poll: Most want USSC to reject individual mandate to purchase health insurance

The poll by the nonpartisan foundation found that 54% of those surveyed said the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate while only 17% said the court should uphold it and 29% either didn’t know or didn’t answer.

Flashback: Newt in 1996 wanted to build “a real Jurassic Park”

“Why not aspire to build a real Jurassic Park?” Gingrich asked on page 190 of the book, adding in parenthes[e]s that such an achievement “may not be at all impossible.”

The important stuff, from RCP: Newt vs. Mitt: Can a Fat Man Beat a Thin Man?

The last time a fat man occupied the Oval Office was exactly 100 years ago, and it was not without its tribulations for the president in question. William Howard Taft’s obesity contributed to his sleep apnea, which resulted in him routinely falling asleep in public. His portliness also necessitated the construction of a larger, custom-made White House bathtub and fueled numerous jokes at the president’s expense. (“Taft is the most polite man in Washington,” went one. “He gave up his seat on a streetcar to three women.”)

Michigan Union Manual Instructs Teachers How To Use Children As Propaganda

“For more than two years, the Michigan Education Association [MEA] has had a manual that urges its members to use students as propaganda in contract negotiations and also lays out how to organize strikes,” writes Tome Gantert of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Considering the fact that teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan, some may find it odd that the MEA has been encouraging this sort of behavior. In fact, the MEA has done a lot more than just “encourage” potentially illegal activity. As Gantert reports, the organization produced an anonymously written 28-page manual titled, “Building Full Capacity Locals — Crisis Planning, It’s Never Too Early To Start!”

36 Obama Aides Owe $833,000 In Back Taxes

How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes. Because how unfair -- indeed, un-American -- it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet's secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate. Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

Obama Visibly Snubs Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.

A day after he called for an end to perpetual political confrontation, President Barack Obama and his deputies publicly snubbed Arizona’s Republican governor when she welcomed him at the Phoenix airport. Gov. Jan Brewer met him at first stop of his five-state campaign swing with a hand-written letter asking him to visit the state’s southern border, which is a hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking. But Obama suddenly turned cold, claiming that her Nov. 2011 book mischaracterized their previous White House meeting in June 2010. He then quickly walked away.

Ace's Snap Poll: State of the Conservative Electorate

"I'm all Dead Inside now."

Come Again? MSNBC's Wagner Claims Reagan 'Would Be A Democrat' Today

BURTON: Look, I think there's a bigger dynamic in play than just what's happening in the House and what happened this time around. If you look at- you know, Richard Nixon started the EPA, Ronald Reagan was for a nuclear-free world- I mean, Ronald Reagan wouldn't have a chance in this Republican primary right now, and now, you've got-

WAGNER: I think he'd be a Democrat probably-

The 12 Most Ridiculous Things Sold On Barack Obama's Store (H/T: Zip's.)

"If you're fired up and ready to grill, pick up one of our new grill spatulas. They've got sturdy wooden handles and an Obama 2012 logo etched into the metal."

$40

CNN/Time Poll: Dead heat in Florida ahead of debate

Jacksonville, Florida (CNN) - One day before the final GOP presidential debate in Florida, it's all tied up between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, according to a new survey.

A CNN/Time/ORC International Poll also indicates that while Gingrich surged following his 12-point victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary, his momentum appears to be quickly cooling off.

CBS poll: America’s got a fee-vah and the only prescription is more Obama SOTU platitudes

Granted, granted, their sample is a ludicrous 44% Democrat and 25% Republican. And yes, it’s true that this guy is recycling his talking points from one speech to the next, year after wearying year. But hey: Last year just 83 percent approved of his SOTU remarks. He’s up nearly 10 points this time go round. With that sort of wind in his sails, I’m thinking instead of the 43 percent job approval he currently holds, come November he might be all the way up to 45 percent.

Grayson: Gingrich Running Most “Overtly Racist” Campaign Since George Wallace

ALAN GRAYSON: I think there’s a sort of race between [Newt's] egomania and his racism. And I think he’s running the most overtly racist campaign that I’ve seen in this country since George Wallace. You’re talking about presidential campaigns. So I think that, what he tries to do is to do these dog-whistle things to people he thinks he can connect with to make up for his shortcomings frankly as a human being.

(dc: Thanks to Walt Gilbert at Damn Dirty Rino for turning us on to this image.)

Rep. Tim Scott: Dems should look inward on ‘racist’ charges

South Carolina Republican Rep. Tim Scott said Democrats who have suggested that Newt Gingrich appealed to a racist “element” of the GOP to win the South Carolina presidential primary should look within their own party and “talk about Senator Byrd who was a member of the Klan.” “I mean the bottom line is, when you try to create a racist faction in either party, you have to start with the Democratic Party and talk about Senator Byrd who was a member of the Klan. So to have a conversation about a racist faction of anything sounds like only race-baiting from the other side,” Scott told the Daily Caller after appearing at the Conservative Black Forum on Capitol Hill.

US military raid frees American, Dane held hostage in Somalia

U.S. military forces sent helicopters into Somalia in a nighttime raid Tuesday and freed two hostages, an American and a Dane, while killing nine kidnappers, U.S. officials confirm. American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagan Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

The raid was conducted by a joint team overseen by Africa Command involving Special Operations forces, including Navy SEAL Team Six, the same unit -- though not the exact same individuals -- that killed Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden in May, a senior U.S. military source told Fox News.

The first Occupy candidate: Nate Kleinman

Nathan Kleinman, a 29-year-old member of the Occupy Philadelphia movement, intends to run for congress in Pennsylvania's 13th district against Democratic incumbent Allyson Schwartz. "The petition gathering period starts today and lasts for three weeks, so I plan to file by then," Kleinman told me over the phone today. "I'll be running in the Democratic primary." Kleinman, who refers to himself as a human rights activist and organizer, served as an aide to Joe Sestak's unsuccessful 2010 Senate campaign before becoming a legislative assistant to Pennsylvania State Representative Josh Shapiro.

TRANSCRIPT: GOP Rebuttal to State of the Union

"The status of 'loyal opposition' imposes on those out of power some serious responsibilities: to show respect for the Presidency and its occupant, to express agreement where it exists. Republicans tonight salute our President, for instance, for his aggressive pursuit of the murderers of 9/11, and for bravely backing long overdue changes in public education. I personally would add to that list admiration for the strong family commitment that he and the First Lady have displayed to a nation sorely needing such examples.

"On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition. But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true.

Pelosi: I know something about Gingrich that ensures he’ll never be president

Is this one of the reasons why so many of the Republicans who served with Gingrich in Congress seem lukewarm about him? According to CNN, if Newt wins Florida, veteran Republican strategists expect Boehner, McConnell, and other GOP leaders to start calling around to top donors and asking them not to donate to Newt. Exit quotation from Gingrich last month: “I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard an early Christmas gift… If she is suggesting that she is going to use material that she developed while she was on the ethics committee, then that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.”

Andrea Mitchell: "Top Romney Advisor" Said "Party Elites" Will Find Alternative If Mitt Loses Florida

ANDREA MITCHELL: "I talked to a top Romney adviser tonight who said, 'Look, if Mitt Romney can not win here in Florida then we're going to have to try to reinvent the smoke-filled room which has been democratized by all these primaries. And we're going to have try to come with someone as an alternative to Newt Gingrich who could be Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, someone.' Because there is such a desperation by the so-called party elites, but that's exactly what Gingrich is playing against."

FACT CHECK: Obama pushes plans that flopped before

President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech as if his hands weren't so tied by political realities. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies—something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today's divided Congress, much less in this election year.

And there was more recycling, in an even more forbidding climate than when the ideas were new: He pushed for an immigration overhaul that he couldn't get past Democrats, permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago, and familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas.

Warren Buffett cleans up after Keystone XL

When President Obama, who is normally a great proponent of “infrastructure” projects, made his bizarre decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline project, I wondered if he might have been induced to create those thousands of American jobs if the oil could be moved by his beloved high-speed rail.

As it turns out, oil is already moved from northern latitudes, such as the booming oil fields of North Dakota, down to the Gulf of Mexico by rail of the old, low-speed variety. Fortunately, as Newt Gingrich pointed out during the Monday night Republican debate in Florida, the oil is on private land, so Obama can’t shut production down.