The Hollywood Liberal

Report: Santorum raises $2 million in two days since Iowa caucuses

A bounce of momentum in the polls isn’t the only thing that candidates can get after winning the Iowa caucuses.

Rick Santorum’s campaign has pulled in $2 million in the two days since the former Pennsylvania senator came just a hair shy of winning Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential contest, ABC News reports.

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Santorum plays down long history as Washington insider

Rick Santorum has vaulted to the front ranks of the Republican presidential nomination race in part by depicting himself as a religious family man of lowly beginnings who would bring needed change to Washington.

But that characterization leaves out two decades in which Santorum was a central and often high-ranking player in Washington politics, with connections to K Street lobbyists and a lucrative consulting career that made him a millionaire.

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Michele Bachmann raises the fashion bar for female politicians

Michele Bachmann lost the Iowa caucus — but won the fashion race. Yes, we are going there. Let’s not pretend voters don’t notice what candidates wear — heck, Rick Santorum acknowledged he wears sweater vests to look more mature. And they definitely notice the choices of female candidates, who don’t have the suit-shirt-tie uniform to fall back on.

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Romney fights high expectations in New Hampshire primary

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Every New Hampshire presidential primary is different from the others, and that is certainly the case this year. So far, it is the least-dramatic contested Republican primary in three decades. For Mitt Romney, that’s both a blessing and a possible curse.

The former Massachusetts governor flew out of the state Thursday for an overnight campaign trip to South Carolina, leaving the Granite State to rivals Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman Jr. (Ron Paul was away.) His departure was evidence more of his recognition that South Carolina looms as the biggest of the first three tests for his candidacy than of overconfidence about his standing in New Hampshire.

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Rhode Island’s Remarkable Reforms
Josh Barro, Washington Examiner
Pensions are on the political agenda in nearly every state. The stock market downturn of 2008 and 2009 battered pension funds, exposed the true cost of benefit sweeteners awarded during the tech and housing booms, and left state officials searching for dollars to pour into pension funds. But in most states, reform has been a bust, with meaningful savings put off for years or decades.However, one small state was a big exception — Rhode Island. General Treasurer Gina Raimondo led Rhode Island to enact the boldest pension reform of any state in recent years. For this, she will receive the…

The Divider of the Republican Party Is Romney
Daniel Henninger, WSJ
'A house divided against itself cannot stand,” is attributed mainly to Newt Gingrich's and Barack Obama's favorite Republican, Abraham Lincoln, but its appeal to unity has been around since the Gospel of Mark. As is its habit, the Republican Party is trying to affirm this eternal truth one more time.Much as it benefits the incumbent president, there is little point in not admitting the obvious: The Republican divider is the party's front-runner, Mitt Romney. This is the one clear message delivered the past half year by the patient people of Iowa.

Weaknesses Seen in Defense of Obama’s Health Law
Sam Baker, The Hill
The Obama administration is headed into a Supreme Court case over healthcare reform without a clear answer to significant questions about Congress's power.The Justice Department will file its first brief on the merits of the case Friday "” the beginning of a long process that will almost surely culminate in a ruling this summer. The first briefs will focus on the core question of whether it is constitutional to make almost every American buy health insurance.

In Reverse, U.S. Reaches Out to Egypt’s Islamists
David Kirkpatrick, NYT
CAIRO — With the Muslim Brotherhood pulling within reach of an outright majority in Egypt’s new Parliament, the Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of mistrust and hostility as it seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests.The administration’s overtures — including high-level meetings in recent weeks — constitute a historic shift in a foreign policy held by successive American administrations that steadfastly supported the autocratic government of President…

GOP Race Headed Toward Predictable Romney Win
Adam Sorensen, Time
When the bean counters finished tabulating the results from the 1,774 precincts that decide the Iowa caucuses, eight votes separated the victor, Mitt Romney (30,015) from the runner-up, Rick Santorum (30,007). Marvel at that for a moment. Eight votes out of more than 100,000. That is democracy. That’s Iowa. The Corn Bowl. Civic sport at its best. Caucusgoers crowded into church-basement corners and, for one glorious night, gave America what it wanted: a cuticle-gnawing contest worthy of prime time, even if the ultimate outcome will likely be as predictable as an afternoon soap.