If His Lead Holds in Last Two Districts, Santorum May Win Majority Michigan’s Delegates / UPDATE: Nope – Delegates Evenly Split

Senior adviser for Santorum’s campaign, John Brabender told reporters on Wednesday that he expected Michigan’s delegates to be split evenly between Romney and Santorum.

The candidate himself predicted as much, too.

“We’re going to walk out of Michigan with 15 delegates, and he’s going to walk out of Michigan with 15 delegates,” Santorum said, campaigning in Powell, Tenn.

But Santorum may be selling himself short. If his lead in the last two districts hold, Santorum will win the majority of Michigan’s delegates:

Results were incomplete in the final two congressional districts as of midday Wednesday. But with 98 percent of the precincts reporting, Santorum had a slight edge in both. If his lead holds in both districts, Santorum would win a majority of the state’s delegates, or 17 to Romney’s 13.

MORE:

Via WaPo Politics:

Campaigning at Temple Baptist Church in Powell, Tenn., on Wednesday, Santorum said he was heartened by his success in Romney’s backyard.

“We had a much better night in Michigan than maybe was first reported. This was a really great race to go into, in a sense, the belly of the beast, the hometown of my chief rival here in the Republican primary,” he said. In addition to Tennessee, the former Pennsylvania senator is focusing on the big prizes of Ohio and Oklahoma next week.

UPDATE:

CNS News reports:

They each won 15 of the state’s 30 delegates.

Michigan awards most of its delegates based on results in each of its 14 congressional districts — handing out two for winning each district. The other two delegates are awarded proportionally, based on the statewide vote.

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Obama Administration Not Interested In Lowering Gas Prices? Time To Revive The Gas Pump Sticky Notes Campaign

Yesterday, after a Republican lawmaker reminded him of his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu told  House appropriators that the Energy Department isn’t working to lower gasoline prices.

Instead, during the hearing on the DOE’s budget,  he said the DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles.

Ed Morrissey, said, “at least he gave an honest answer”:

“We agree there is great suffering when the price of gasoline increases in the United States, and so we are very concerned about this,” said Chu, speaking to the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. “As I have repeatedly said, in the Department of Energy, what we’re trying to do is diversify our energy supply for transportation so that we have cost-effective means.”

Chu specifically cited a reported breakthrough announced Monday by Envia Systems, which received funding from DOE’s ARPA-E, that could help slash the price of electric vehicle batteries.

He also touted natural gas as “great” and said DOE is researching how to reduce the cost of compressed natural gas tanks for vehicles.

High gasoline prices will make research into such alternatives more urgent, Chu said.

“But is the overall goal to get our price” of gasoline down, asked Nunnelee.

“No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy,” Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and we’ll help the American economy and the American consumers.”

The Heritage Foundation jumped all over Chu’s comments:

As shocking as his remarks are, they shouldn’t come as a surprise. Chu has a long record of advocating for higher gas prices. In 2008, he stated, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” Last March, he reiterated his point in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, noting that his focus is to ease the pain felt by his energy policies by forcing automakers to make more fuel-efficient automobiles. “What I’m doing since I became Secretary of Energy has been quite clear. What I have been doing is developing methods to take the pain out of high gas prices.”

One of those methods is dumping taxpayer dollars into alternative energy projects like the Solyndra solar plant. Another is subsidizing the purchase of high-cost electric cars like the Chevy Volt to the tune of $7,500 per car (which the White House wants to increase to $10,000). In both cases, those methods aren’t working. Solyndra went bankrupt because its product couldn’t bear the weight of market pressures, and Chevy Volts aren’t selling, even with taxpayer-funded rebates. What’s the president’s next plan? Harvesting “a bunch of algae” as a replacement for oil.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is seemingly doing everything it can to make paying for energy even more painful by refusing to open access to the country’s oil and gas reserves and blocking new projects that would lead to the development of more energy in America. Case in point: the president’s decision to say “no” to the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would have delivered hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil from Canada to Texas refineries, while bringing thousands of jobs along with it.

No wonder I’ve been noticing an uptick in my stats on this post from April, 2011 on the gas pump sticky note campaign.

From one of my three visits to the pump on a trip to Little Rock, last April.

The idea originated with the blogger, Disrupt the Narrative, who provided a PDF you could download and print. Now, a simpler sticky-note crusade is  gaining steam all across America. The Facebook site, The ‘Hope and Change’ Sticky Note Campaign,   is dedicated to spreading the word about this grassroots activism:

****** “America’s GAS-ROOTS movement”! ******

Purchase a pad of large sticky notes. Write on each one, “How’s that Hope & Change working out for you?” Every time you stop to fill your vehicle with gas, place your sticky note somewhere on the pump before you drive away. DO NOT be destructive in ANY way! Place your sticky note somewhere, so as not to impede the next customer’s ability to read the pump’s digital readout.

After placing your sticky note, please consider taking a digital picture, then uploading it to our wall. Please tell us in which city and state the picture was taken. This is meant to be a “quiet” protest by our silent majority of Americans, to be served upon this administration!! Thank you all for your support!

Make sure to place your sticky note carefully, so you don’t impede the next customer’s ability to read the pump’s digital readout.

UPDATE:

This RNC ad hits Obama for his failure to advance “a comprehensive energy plan.”

Governor Bobby Jindal, recently did a brilliant job specifying what Obama could (but won’t) do to improve the situation.

Video: Republicans on House Appropriations Committee Keep the Heat on Holder For Fast and Furious

Appearing before the House appropriations committee, yesterday, Atty Gen Eric Holder was asked to explain why he doesn’t see the need for provisions in the budget bill preventing operations like “Fast and Furious” in the future. When Congressman Kevin Yoder, Republican from MO, asked him why the DOJ had asked that the such language in the budget be stricken, Holder’s answer was: “To the extent that we are opposing it, it’s because it’s already the policy that we use so it’s something that is not necessary…”

“Do you understand why members on the Hill may not believe you’re following the policy that you have internally – given what just happened?” Yoder persisted.

“Frankly, no – I don’t understand that, given the action I have taken. There’s a certain amount of distrust, I get that…there’s a certain amount of partisan wrangling that’s going on…”

The immediate question that comes to mind, is – why go through the trouble to ask that language be stricken, if your only objection is you already have such a policy – given your poor performance enforcing said policy?

Note also, how  Holder implies that the Republicans investigating the “fundamentally flawed program” (better described as a criminal conspiracy), Fast and Furious, are somehow motivated by partisan politics. That’s the Dem narrative on Fast and Furious. That’s the best they’ve got: Stop the partisan bickering!” That and , “Bush did it, too!”

And if Holder thinks, Yoder looking him in the eye, and dryly stating, “Do you understand why members on the Hill may not believe you….” is “detached and neutral”, he was missing some clear signals, there.

Megan Kelly covered Holder’s testimony on her show, yesterday, and interviewed Darrell Issa for his response.

Once again, Holder rewrote history by implicating the previous administration – which had absolutely nothing to do with Fast and Furious. He patted himself on the back for stopping the program once the murderous gunwalking policy was exposed in the media. No mention of his stonewall of the House investigation.

“That was a fundamentally flawed program, fundamentally flawed,” Holder said of Fast and Furious. “And, I think that I can agree with some of my harshest critics that there are legitimate issues that need to be explored with regard in which the way Fast and Furious was carried out.”

“But, I think one thing that also has to be understood is that once this was brought to my attention” — Holder said before slamming his hand on the committee room table he was sitting at — “I stopped it. I stopped it.

In spite of what other attorneys General might have done, with briefings that they got…when this Atty Gen heard about these practices, I said to the men and women of the US Dept of Justice to the field, to Main Justice, this ain’t going to be the way that we conduct business, stop it.”
Seriously. He said that.
Issa expressed his  doubt of the “legitimacy” of Holder’s claims:

NRA News’ Cam Edwards and Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman discussed the latestFast and Furious news on February 27, 2012.

Issa, Grassley Push Holder for Answers in Zapata Slaying:

MI and AZ Election Returns – Update – Mitt wins both UPDATE: Delegate Count Tied

With 0 returns in yet, I’m calling it for Romney in AZ  – Mitt has been projected to win big, and I fully expect him to, although it would be a nice surprise to be proven wrong.

Michigan is a different story. It’s a tighter race – Right now, with 32% Romney is leading 41% to Santorum’s 38% according to CNN.

MI results also at Click on Detroit, NY Times or WaPo.

More to come….

At 9:02 with 61% reporting, Romney has expanded his lead 40% to 36%.

See also: RS McCain live reporting on the ground in MI:

Stacy reports from Grand Rapids (2002 EST): They have just opened the doors to the Ambassador Ballroom, scene of of tonight’s Rick Santorum victory celebration. (???) Several hundred Santorum supporters are in attendance. The house WiFi is ‘craptastic’. So far McCain remains un-connected. Security has informed him that after 8:00 PM local, the press will be confined behind a barricade, away from the bar. This could result in one of the worst PR debacles in American political history.

UPDATE:

NBC News projects Romney the winner in both AZ and MI.

@chucktodd on Twitter: Romney won Mackinac County by 1 vote. 667 votes to Santorum’s, wait for it, 666 votes.

UPDATE II:

A political  pal of Michelle Malkin’s weighs in on the road ahead for Romney -it’s gonna be a bumpy one for sure:

It is almost always assumed that Gingrich’s presence in the race helps Romney but I believe this conventional wisdom is incorrect. Gingrich is probably going to win Georgia on March 6th and he may also win a couple of other deep south states on March 13 and March 24. When that happens, you will begin to hear a lot of talk of a brokered convention. I believe voters may come to think of a vote for Gingrich (in the deep south) or Santorum (anywhere else) as a vote in favor of a brokered convention. Romney would be better off in a two-man race where a vote for Santorum really is a vote for Santorum.

[Today] could be a good day for Romney but how long will it last? Santorum is ahead in Washington state, which votes on Saturday. On Super Tuesday, 10 states will vote. Romney is likely to win only three or four states, and two of those states will be totally discounted (Massachusetts because it’s his home state and Virginia because Santorum isn’t on the ballot there). I think Santorum will win in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and North Dakota. If Santorum also wins Ohio, I think Romney is in serious trouble.

Just 4 days later, Kansas and Wyoming caucus and I think Romney loses both of those states to Santorum.

Three days after that, Hawaii, Alabama, and Mississippi vote. I think Romney loses two out of three…

SEE ALSO:

National Journal: “Romney wins ugly”

UPDATE III:

Dan Riehl: Michigan Delegate Count Tied At 11, As GOP Establishment Whines

 

Dick Morris: Republicans Will Win The White House and the Senate (Video)

There’s a lot to be gloomy about, right now, The Underground Storage Tank Fund is being looted, conservative groups are under attack by the IRS, an “economic 9/11” is looming, Religion is under attack, Occupy freaks are trying to turn our streets into a Greece-like violent rebellion against authority, etc….

So here’s Dick Morris, Little Mr. Sunshine, to brighten you day:

Yes,  Morris has been known to be overly optimistic in the past, but he has been looking at the polls, and insists Obama can’t be reelected with his anemic poll numbers. The candidates  are virtually tied, he says, and going back to at least 1960, 80% of undecideds go for the challenger.

In this video commentary, he discussed how Republicans will win the Senate…by a lot.

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Actor, Dax Shepard Compares Navy SEAL Movie ‘Act of Valor’ to Hitler Propaganda Film

Never heard of him – but apparently, he made an ass of himself on Twitter, yesterday:

Star of TV’s Parenthood, Dax Shepard, compared the pro-U.S. military film that stars actual Navy SEALs, Act of Valor to Adolf Hitler’s Triumph of the Will. On his Twitter feed the one time Ashton Kutcher prank boy from Punk’d wrote: “Saw ‘Triumph of the Will’ tonight, oh wait, I mean ‘Act of Valor’ great action.” Apparently the reaction to Shepard’s obnoxious tweet, comparing this week’s #1 movie starring active duty Navy Seals to a Nazi propaganda movie was immediate, as he attempted to walk back his comments.

Shepard lamely claimed he was: “not comparing our military to nazis. Pointing out the exceedingly high level of propaganda in both.”

See Newsbusters for screenshots.

Yes, this is a tough one for the Hollywood left. It’s pro-SEAL, pro-US Military, so naturally they feel compelled to slam it. But how does one do that without slamming the heroes who are the subject of the film? How awkward.

I watched the film, last night, and I can tell you that the film stayed away from politics and ideology. In fact, I didn’t even know if it was set during the Bush era , or Obama’s. All I know is it was post 9/11.

The movie was pure good vs evil – Navy SEALs saving the country from a terrorist attack – so any comparison of this movie about SEALS to Nazi propaganda is a gross insult to the SEALS who starred in it.

As Paul McHugh wrote in The Daily Journal:

 Guys such as Peninsula home-boy Rorke Denver, born and raised in Los Altos, After college, he went straight into the SEALs, and like my hat, Denver was a willing volunteer.

After joining the teams, he took down drug lords in South America, helped American citizens escape from war-torn Liberia and even fought to stabilize the hellhole of Anbar Province in early days of the Iraq War. Most recently, he served as XO of the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command in Coronado. In “Valor,” he leads a platoon trying to disrupt an unfolding terrorist attack on the United States.

Denver had doubts about being in the film, but then decided to embrace the project to help the American public better understand who’s fighting for them, what the job is like and why they do it.

“People say there’s romance in war,” Denver said. “If so, you only see it when you come home, and think about the way your brothers went out so valiantly to meet the enemy. Some paid heavily. Fighting is real hard work. You just grind it out, and it’s scary and hard and challenging and a very emotionally raw experience to be immersed in it.

“Why do we do it? I hope this film reveals a few things about our special SEAL community, the pride we take in the way our skills and teamwork get the job done. How much our guys care about our brotherhood and our families, and by extension, care about all the families in this country. That’s for real.”

At the end, the audience sat in silence as a scroll of all the SEALs killed in action since 9/11 unfurled onscreen. Then we filed out, blinking, into the sunlight — and into a slice of the world where peace obtains at present, thanks to the sort of courage we had just seen portrayed.

“It’s not a movie where you come out just feeling happy,” one nephew said. “More like, you’re sober.”

“You begin to realize that names on a war monument are not just names on a wall?” I asked. He nodded.

Well, MOST of us come out feeling sober. Some of us even had to go to directly the bathroom to fix our makeup after watching the last few minutes of the film and the scroll of SEALs killed in action since 9/11.

One guy shook his head and soberly remarked, “What would we do without them?”

And then some of us thought that it was just NAZI stuff.

SEE ALSO:

Bruce McQuain at Blackfive has a few choice words for “D-list actor”, Dax Shepard.

John Hinderaker, Powerline: Liberals Decide They Don’t Like Propaganda