CNN: Kasich predicts Trump will sweep Super Tuesday

By Karl de Vries, Feb. 28, 2016, CNN

Washington (CNN)John Kasich predicts Donald Trump will sweep all 12 of the Super Tuesday states this week -- but the Ohio governor believes a strong showing in his home state next month will provide the boost he needs to capture the GOP nomination.

"I think Trump's probably going to win all of them," Kasich told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." "But you keep holding your own, and we have our campaign plan. Everybody has to do it the way they want to do it."

Kasich added, "Our campaign plan was ultimately to hold our own in some of these places, and we will, I expect, and then we're going to head north."

Mote: www.cnn.com

CBS: Poll: Donald Trump leads in Virginia, Georgia; Ted Cruz hanging on in Texas

By Anthony Salvanto, Jen De Pinto, Sarah Dutton, Fred Backus, Feb. 28, 2016

Donald Trump is up in Georgia and Virginia and second in Texas, and he heads into Super Tuesday in a strong position to have a good night. He's thus far been able to parlay his formula from previous states, doing well among conservatives and also evangelicals, but it is not merely a matter of demographics. Voters in these Super Tuesday states also believe Trump has the best chance to win in November, and the most optimistic message.

More: www.cbsnews.com

Donald Trump Wind Nevada Republican Caucus

USA Today: Obama to release plan to close Guantanamo Bay

Gregory Korte and Tom Vanden Brook, Feb. 23, 2016, USA Today

WASHINGTON — The long-awaited Pentagon report on closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay looked at 13 potential sites for transferring the suspected terrorists, but does not propose any specific location, two senior administration officials said.

Obama will deliver a statement on the plan from the White House at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, setting up a last-year confrontation with Congress about a campaign promise he made eight years ago.

The plan does not indicate the prisons in the United States under consideration to transfer detainees, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

“The administration seeks an active dialogue with Congress on this issue and looks forward to working with Congress to identify the most appropriate location as soon as possible,” Cook said.

More: www.usatoday.com

CNN: Donald Trump wins South Carolina; Hillary Clinton takes Nevada - Jeb Suspends Campaign

By Stephen Collinson and Maeve Reston, Feb. 20, 2016, CNN

(CNN)Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, a tremendous show of strength in the heart of the Deep South that validates his status as the GOP's national front-runner.

Trump's win, following his victory in New Hampshire earlier this month and a second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, gives the former reality television star a critical burst of momentum heading into Nevada's Republican caucuses Tuesday and the slate of 13 states voting on Super Tuesday, March 1.

And the Republican presidential pack shrank to five as Jeb Bush said he is suspending his campaign after a poor showing in South Carolina.

Trump's performance could unnerve the Republican establishment, since South Carolina has sided with the eventual nominee in every GOP presidential race since 1980, apart from 2012. And, following his risky attack on George W. Bush's handling of terrorism and the Iraq War, Trump's win provides more evidence that he can take positions that would undermine virtually any other politician.

"I want to begin by thanking the people of South Carolina," Trump said in a victory speech. "This is a special night."

More: www.cnn.com

CNN: Washington digs in for Supreme Court fight

Justice Antonin Scalia

By Stephen Collinson, FEB. 15, 2016, CNN

Washington (CNN) - One empty seat on the Supreme Court has changed everything.

Washington is adjusting to a new political reality after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, which left a turbulent White House race transformed, a lame-duck president back at the center of the political storm and Senate Republican leaders juggling an electoral hand grenade.

After the shock of Scalia's passing and the swift eruption of a bitter partisan feud over his replacement, President Barack Obama and his GOP adversaries will this week begin digging deep for a showdown that will define an already tumultuous political year.

Nightcap: How Scalia's death raises the stakes of 2016's election | Sign up

Obama has upped the ante by making clear that he will defy Republican leaders and presidential candidates who warn he should leave the momentous task of nominating a new justice, who could tip the balance of the Court to liberals, to a new administration.

More: www.cnn.com

The Hill: The complete idiot's guide to being right about Donald Trump

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

By Eddie Zippered, Feb, 12, 2016, The Hill

If you operate under the assumption that helium is heavier than the air around you, you're going to lose your balloon. If you're smart, you won't lose many balloons before you change your assumption. If you don't change your assumption, you're going to keep losing balloons and start to look pretty stupid in the process.

But it looks like you can't teach old pundits new paradigms. After presidential candidate Donald Trump finished in second in the Iowa Republican caucus, the media went straight to work picking out a coffin for his campaign, battling it out to see who could write the most definitive obituary. After months of being wrong about Trump, something finally happened to make them look right: All the Iowa polls were wrong — Trump lost! Sure, he scored more Iowa votes than anyone ever — excepting Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), who won Iowa — but he lost. Trump is a loser and this proves it.

It's hard to blame them for trying to spike the ball in Trump's face. You’ve seen it before. Your favorite NFL team is down by 50 points. The team finally gets a first down, and the halfback celebrates like he just won the Super Bowl. 

More: www.thehill.com

Washington Post: Bewildered by 2016 race, George W. Bush returns to the trail to boost Jeb

By Philip Rucker and Ed O'Keefe, Feb. 12, 2016, Washington Post

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The 2016 campaign has bewildered and captivated George W. Bush. At home in Dallas, the 43rd president rises before dawn and reads political news online. He fires off emails to his old advisers to check on the latest campaign-trail ­gossip. He tunes into the debates, even though they stretch past his bedtime.

In private and among friends, Bush and his wife, Laura, express amazement at an election season that has been hijacked by Donald Trump. At a get-together last month, Clay Johnson, a lifelong friend, recalled that he and Bush said to each other, “Can you believe what’s going on?”

“He, like everybody else in America, is taken aback,” Johnson said. He and Bush chewed over the race for 30 minutes, including the rise of Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side.

More: www.washingtonpost.com

The Hill: Trump on foul language: 'I’ll never do it again’

By Mark Mensch, Feb. 12, 2016

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump promised late Thursday night that he would no longer curse on the campaign trail.

“I won’t use foul language,” he told supporters during a rally in Baton Rouge, La.

“I’m just not going to do it. I’ll never do it again, actually, and I’ll never even copy what somebody asks me to say.”

Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have criticized his public profanity as crass and undignified.

“I’m not sure a lot of voters are excited about having a president who, when he gets rattled or gets upset, he begins cursing and yelling vulgarities,” rival candidate Ted Cruz said in Fort Mill, S.C., late Thursday evening, according to MSNBC.

More: www.thehill.com

Christian Science Monitor: 'Right to work' is now law of the land in more than half of US states

By Michael Holtz, Staff writer Feb. 12, 2016, Christian Science Monitor

Laws banning companies from requiring workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment have gained popularity in recent years among Republicans-dominated state legislatures. On Friday, West Virginia became the 26th state to join those ranks.

West Virginia became the 26th state to adopt a “right-to-work” law on Friday when the state legislature rebuked Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s vetoes of two highly contentious bills.

Most lawmakers voted along party lines, with Republicans arguing that the legislation is pro-growth and Democrats arguing that it will harm workers and lower wages. Although some Republicans voted “no,” only a simple majority was required to overturn the veto.

"Right-to-work" laws ban companies from requiring workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment even as they continue to receive union benefits. The laws have gained popularity in recent years among Republicans-dominated state legislatures that view them as a way to spark economic growth.

More: www.csmonitor.com

LIVE STREAM: PBS NewsHour Democratic Debate - Feb. 11, 2016 - 9:00pm ET

BREAKING: The Sean Hannity Show: Donald Trump Wins The New Hampshire Republican Primary

The Sean Hannity Show, Feb. 9, 2016

Based on early results and exit polling, Fox News is reporting that Billionaire Donald J. Trump has claimed a decisive victory in Tuesday New Hampshire GOP primary. Trump defeated his Republican rivals by a considerable margin, with Ohio Governor John Kasich currently running in second, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush locked in a tight race for third.

Trump's victory was largely expected. The real estate mogul has dominated the polls in the Granite State over the past several months.

On the other side of the political aisle, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is expected to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the first-in-the-nation primary.

According to multiple reports, New Hampshire saw a record turnout for Tuesday's primary.

Read more: www.hannity.com

National Review: You Don’t Know What Obama Said at the Mosque By Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager, Feb. 9, 2016, National Review

If you seek to understand Barack Obama and his views, the best place to go is his speeches. But you have to read them in their entirety, not rely on hearing them or on the media’s summary of them. When you do, you come to realize how often what Obama says is morally and intellectually confused and even untrue. 

The most recent example was his speech last week at a mosque in Baltimore. In addition to reassuring Muslim Americans that they are as American as Americans of every other faith — a point that any president, Republican or Democrat, would and should make — President Obama spoke a lot of nonsense, some of it dangerous nonsense. 

President Obama: “So let’s start with this fact: For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace. And the very word itself, ‘Islam,’ comes from ‘salam’ — peace.” Why did Mr. Obama say this? Even Muslim websites acknowledge that “Islam” means “submission” [to Allah], that it comes from the Arabic root “aslama” meaning submission, and that “Islam” is the command form of that verb.

Read more at: www.nationalreview.com

Reuters: Woman who accused Bill Clinton of assault to campaign against Hillary presidential run

By Jonathan Allen, Feb. 8, 2016, Reuters

One of the women who has accused former U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual assault says she has agreed to work for an anti-Clinton political group being formed by a former advisor to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer who says Bill Clinton groped her in an Oval Office hallway in 1993 when she came to him tearfully seeking a paid job, said she had agreed to become a paid national spokeswoman for a group being created by Roger Stone.

Stone, a Republican strategist, said the group would become active should Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton's wife, win the Democratic nomination in the 2016 race for the White House. Clinton is currently the front runner.

More: www.reuters.com

The Hill: Pressure on Lynch to step aside in Clinton email probe

By Julian Hattem, Feb. 8, 2016

Loretta Lynch is on the edge of the spotlight, about to be dragged to the center.

If the FBI finds sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton or one of her top aides for mishandling classified information, Lynch’s Justice Department will

have to decide whether to press ahead.

Even if no evidence of wrongdoing is found, Clinton’s many critics are unlikely to take the word of an appointee of President Obama’s and will doubt that justice has been served.

Already, top Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to be brought in and evaluate the situation.

No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn (Texas) took to the floor of the Senate last week to call for a special counsel to be appointed “because of the conflict of interest by asking Attorney General Lynch to investigate and perhaps even prosecute somebody in the Obama administration.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) agrees that Lynch ought to consider a special counsel, a representative said, to reassure the country that decisions are made “without regard to any political considerations.”

More: www.thehill.com

Red State: Watch Ted Cruz’s Powerful Testimony On the Costs Of Drug Addiction

By Strife, Feb. 7, 2016, Red State/Washington Post/ABC

Source: www.redstate.com

The Hill: Hillary Clinton '100 percent confident' FBI won't find wrongdoing

By Jonathn Easley, Feb. 4, 2016, The Hill

Hillary Clinton said Thursday she’s "absolutely" certain the controversy over her personal email server when she helmed the State Department won’t blow up her presidential campaign and "100 percent confident" the FBI probe would find no wrongdoing.

Speaking at Thursday night’s Democratic primary debate, Clinton blamed Republicans for seeking to gin up controversy, likening the email controversy to the GOP’s investigation around her response to the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya.

“Before the emails it was Benghazi and the Republicans were stirring up so much controversy over that, and I testified for 11 hours and answered their questions,” Clinton said. “They basically said ‘yeah we didn’t get her, we tried, that was all a political ploy.’ "

More: www.thehill.com

The Blaze: Dinesh D’Souza Faces Off With Bill Ayers in Debate — and Stings Him With One Devastating Response

By Oliver Darcy, Feb. 3, 2015, The Blaze

More: www.theblaze.com

Politico: Jimmy Carter: I'd pick Trump over Cruz

By Eliza Collins, Feb. 3, 2016, Politico

Jimmy Carter would pick Donald Trump over Ted Cruz, but he doesn't think Trump will make it that far.

“I think I would choose Trump, which may surprise some of you,” the former Democratic president said during an appearance at Britain’s House of Lords on Wednesday afternoon. He was asked who he would pick for the GOP nomination.

“The reason is, Trump has proven already he’s completely malleable,” Carter explained. “I don’t think he has any fixed [positions] he’d go the White House and fight for. On the other hand, Ted Cruz is not malleable..."

More: www.politico.com

The Washington Times: Ted Cruz’s Washington state campaign chairman quits amid questions about military record

By Jessica Chasmal, Feb 3, 2016, The Washington Times

A Washington state representative who also serves as statewide chairman for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign has resigned from both positions amid accusations that he exaggerated his military service record.

“I volunteered to step down at the moment, because I don’t want these accusations to be a distraction to the candidate I hope to become president,” State Rep. Graham Hunt, a Republican, said in a statement last week.

After meeting with Republican leaders Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Huntannounced that he would also resign from the Legislature.

“I have always been open and forthright with the good people of the Second District who elected me, in an effort to affirm their faith and trust in our elected officials,” he wrote Tuesday on his campaign website. “It has become abundantly clear to me that I have much to improve upon in communicating more clearly, and understanding how my comments are received by others. None of us are without flaws, shortcomings, or mistakes. I take full responsibility for any errors I have made, and I fully accept the obligation to address them responsibly.”

More: www.washingtontimes.com

CNN: Rick Santorum dropping presidential bid

By John King and Jeremy Diamond, Feb. 3, 2016, CNN

(CNN)Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is ending his presidential bid, two Republican sources told CNN.

He is expected to make the announcement Wednesday night and will endorse a candidate.

Santorum won the 2012 Iowa caucuses and ended that race with the second-most number of delegates to eventually GOP nominee Mitt Romney. But he was unable to capture any momentum this year, despite extensive barnstorming efforts in Iowa.

He is the third Republican presidential candidate to drop out after Monday's caucuses. Mike Huckabee ended his campaign that night, and Rand Paul suspended his campaign Wednesday morning.

More: www.cnn.com

Politico: Rand Paul drops out of White House race

Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flikr

By Alex Isenstadt and Shane Goldmacher, Feb. 2, 2016, Politico

Rand Paul dropped out of the 2016 president race on Wednesday, short on cash and support, two days after finishing with under 5 percent in the Iowa caucuses — less than one quarter of the support his father had drawn four years earlier.

The Kentucky senator, who pitched his libertarian-infused brand of conservatism as transformational for the Republican Party, will exit the national stage and instead run for reelection to the Senate. His moment in the 2016 campaign never materialized.

“Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I,” Paul said in a statement.

Paul told senior staff about his decision on Tuesday. Other staff were notified Tuesday evening and the entire Paul campaign was told via a conference call on Wednesday morning at about 8:45, according to a campaign source. In that call the Kentucky senator talked about smaller government, continuing his fight for "liberty" and the Fourth Amendment.

More: www.politico.com

Ted Cruz Wins Iowa Caucuses

Thank you Iowa! This is OUR time. Join us: tedcruz.org
Posted by Ted Cruz on Monday, February 1, 2016

Top Right News: Donald Trump Just Released His Final Ad Before Iowa… And It’s EXPLODING on Facebook

Source: www.toprightnews.com

Newsmax: Quinnipiac Poll: Cruz Loses Ground in Iowa, Now 7 Points Behind Trump

By Dan Walters, Jan. 31, 2016, Newsmax

California’s state and local governments hit us with about $250 billion in taxes every year, $6,000-plus per Californian.

A new report from the Tax Founation, based on 2012 data, puts Californians’ tax burden at 11 percent of personal income, the fairest way to calculate and compare.

Whether that burden is too high, too low or about right is a matter of perpetual debate in political, media and academic circles.

It was the sixth-highest level of any state in 2012, but it had dropped from fourth in the 2011 rankings as the percentage also declined from 11.5 percent. It’s also consistent with the state’s level of taxation over the last several decades, according to the databank maintained by the Tax Foundation.

Just before the passage of Proposition 13, California’s iconic property tax limit, in 1978, state and local taxation was 12.2 percent of personal income, the nation’s fourth highest.

More: www.sacbee.com