Tag Archives: 2012 election

What Really Happened on Election Day? The Big Clue. | HughHewitt.com | 11.16.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 16, 2012
I know it’s painful, but let’s take a look – for me a last look – at what happened and didn’t happen in the election: Mandate? Who got a mandate?  The president?  His popular vote was nearly a 50-50 break with Governor Romney.  Congressional Democrats?  Yes, they won the Senate.  But the Republicans won the House, […]
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The Biggest Surprise of the ’12 Election | USNews.com | 11.12.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 12, 2012
A day or two before the election, U.S. News opinion editor Robert Schlesinger and I exchanged predictions to the percentage point for both tickets. Robert is the son of former John F. Kennedy presidential speechwriter and historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., so you can imagine his preference, as you can mine. I’m a former Reagan presidential speechwriter. Our prognostications […]
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Confessions Of A ConfoBiOholic | Ricochet.com | 11.11.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 12, 2012
My name is Clark and I am a ConfoBiOholic. As you know, ConfoBiOholism is a well documented addictive disorder.  As with most addictions, the first step to recovery is acknowledgment.  In ConfoBiOholism, acknowledgment is known to be especially challenging.  The condition is all but invisible to the addict himself, no matter how persistently friends and […]
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OK, Here’s My Election Prediction. What’s Yours? | Ricochet.com | 11.3.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 5, 2012
The shouting has almost stopped. Weeks ago the voting began, but Tuesday the balloting storm reaches landfall. It is time for pontificators to prognosticate. So here you go.  My call: Romney 52%, 277 electoral votes; Obama 47%, 261 electoral votes. Romney wins Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado, and Wisconsin — and loses […]
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The Choice For Tomorrow | HughHewitt.com | 11.5.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 5, 2012
Among the great failures of the mainstream media in this campaign has been to claim that neither candidate has laid out an agenda.  Both have been as clear as candidates can be about their plans for the nation in the next four years.  On this, the day before Election Day, let’s review the particulars: Energy: […]
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The Bottom Is Dropping Out of the Obama Presidency | USNews.com | 10.29.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 31, 2012
Last week, we may have seen the bottom beginning to drop out of the Obama presidency. Even the MSMosphere is starting to feel the good Mitt Romney (or maybe it’s bad Barack Obama) vibrations. Last Friday, ABC News’s Terry Moran tweeted, “Obama’s campaign seems small-bore, predominantly negative, and downright weird (Lena Dunham)—a candidate off-stride in […]
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Benghazi v. Findlay: The National Security Stakes in the Election | HughHewitt.com | 10.29.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 31, 2012
In the week since the last presidential debate, national security – supposedly something the American people don’t care about – has become Exhibit A in the case for a new president. Why were reinforcements and air cover denied to our men in Benghazi under jihadist fire? The White House never misses a chance to trumpet […]
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What The Veep Smackdown Tells Us About Tonight’s Debate | Ricochet.com | 10.16.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 23, 2012
Since March, the lead in the Rasmussen daily tracking poll – perhaps the country’s most reliable poll – has switched more than thirty times.  It could happen again. The president has said he was “too polite” last time.  I say that if that is what he believes he did wrong in the first debate and […]
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Foreign Policy Debate, Romney Looked Like The Real President | HughHewitt.com | 10.23.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 23, 2012
Four debates, including the Veep debate.  Four wins for Romney-Ryan. Everyone had said about this debate that Romney needed to show we could trust him as commander in chief and head of our foreign policy.  He cleared that hurdle and then some. Given the political moment, the incumbent needed to look far superior to his […]
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Who’s Right, Gallup or Rasmussen? Today may tell. | Ricochet.com | 10.19.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 19, 2012
By now it is clear that, in terms of public perceptions (maybe on points, too), all three debates have been winners for Romney-Ryan. But have they been big enough winners to push the GOP ticket over the top? In Washington, the question is being framed this way: Is Romney up 49-47 points, as pollster Scott […]
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Biden’s debate night bluster looks even worse 48 hours later | Ricochet.com | 10.13.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 16, 2012
Rick Wilson persuasively argues below that Vice President Joe Biden’s principal objective going into Thursday night’s debate was to reenergize the dispirited Democratic base.  If so and if the vice president’s clownish performance fitted the script, it only confirms the cluelessness of the supposedly brilliant Chicago-based managers of the Democratic campaign. Everything I learned about […]
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“Lesson for POTUS Debate #2: It isn’t over ‘til it’s over” | HughHewitt.com | 10.15.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 16, 2012
Can things get any worse for the Obama-Biden ticket? Two weeks ago the president debates the first capable opponent of his career and comes off as an empty suit.  One week ago the vice president puts on a clownish performance in his matchup with Congressman Paul Ryan. Then the polls tanked.  On Saturday this week, […]
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Biden Unhinged! | USNews.com | 10.12.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 16, 2012
What was that all about? The inappropriate smiles, the aggressive laughs, the all but unhinged finger-pumping raging at moderator Martha Raddatz–I suppose Vice President Joe Biden could have come in with a less appropriate performance last night. I just don’t know how. Then there was the substance. The vice president’s charges that Rep. Paul Ryan […]
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Reality Check: Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Not Over | USNews.com | 09.29.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 1, 2012
To read Politico, The Washington Post, and just about every publication in the MSMosphere, the Romney campaign is over. Done. Running 4.1 percentage points behind the president, as of Friday morning in the RCP average he is deader than a doornail. I don’t believe it. Yes. Yes. I’ve seen all those polls in the average: Rasmussen, Fox, Gallup, Bloomberg, […]
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Advice to the Romney Campaign: Time for Something Old (Policy Speeches); Something New (Twitter) | HughHewitt.com | 09.24.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 27, 2012
A tide of opinion is rising inside Republican ranks. In last week’s column, I said that Mitt Romney needed at least two policy speeches – one on the economy and spending, the other on foreign policy.  Pull his positions together.  Put them in the context of the nation and the times. For example, in a […]
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Real Story of the Campaign: President’s Crony Capitalism Prolonged the Downturn | 09.11.12 | HughHewitt.com

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 14, 2012
Last week, the Democrats in Charlotte partied as if there were no tomorrow… and no yesterday.  Friday morning, following the president’s peculiarly disconnected speech of Thursday night, reality returned. Last week’s jobs numbers – few new ones, an entire city of Americans dropping out of the workforce in the month before – were enough to […]
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Why the Obama-Romney Race May Not Be the Dead Heat Polls Describe | USNews.com | 09.04.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 6, 2012
As the Republican convention closed on Thursday night, a new poll pointed to the potential for a major surprise when Americans go to the voting booths in November. Pollsters will tell you that they cannot always count on voters to level with them about which candidates they favor. For example, Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in the […]
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Truth in Tampa; Hysteria in Charlotte | HughHewitt.com | 09.03.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 6, 2012
How do you know that the GOP convention was a big success? Just look at the near hysteria of the Paul-Ryan-lied stories coming out of the Obama campaign.  Obama manager David Axelrod and his minions want to make America forget that Mr. Ryan spoke the truth in his acceptance speech on Wednesday night, as Governor […]
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The Invisible Romney Vote Obama Should Fear | USNews.com | 06.15.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: June 18, 2012
Something strange is going on in the election campaign.  Former president Bill Clinton seems to look for every opportunity to undermine the sitting president of his own party. His former political aides publish a memorandum saying the White House message strategy is failing. The morning reports have the press corps dismissing President Obama’s supposedly major […]
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Three Political Evenings and State of the Presidential Election Campaign | HughHewitt.com | 05.09.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 9, 2012
Here are three scenes from three recent evenings that to me told volumes about the state of this year’s presidential campaign. The first was last night — a gathering of Washington conservatives.  At the reception before the dinner, I questioned a number of pollsters and pundits about the shape of the race. The daily Rasmussen […]
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Washington’s Biggest Question: Will 2012 Equal 2008 or 2010? | HughHewitt.com | 05.01.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 1, 2012
The biggest question in Washington these days is this: Will the American voter in 2012 look more like the voter of 2008 or 2010?  Obama strategist David Axelrod recently tweeted criticism of a Gallup poll unfavorable to the president on exactly these grounds – that it incorrectly assumed an electorate like that of 2010 in […]
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What Now: the GOP Race and the Election to Come? | HughHewitt.com | 04.10.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: April 10, 2012
Yesterday, Newt Gingrich all but conceded the presidential race to Mitt Romney.  In an interview, the one-time front-runner acknowledged that the former Massachusetts governor was the running away favorite to snag the GOP nomination. The former speaker of the House effectively said he would be going only through the motions of a campaign from here […]
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Gingrich’s Secret Weapon: Incredibly Innovative Campaign | HughHewitt.com | 01.23.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 23, 2012
As they stumble dazed into Florida, the Romney forces had better think hard about what happened in South Carolina.  They will want to dismiss Saturday’s results as a fluke.  But in the Palmetto State, Newt Gingrich put into harness a totally new strategy of presidential campaigning – some of it visible, some below the surface. […]
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Splitsville: American Politics Heading into 2012 | HughHewitt.com | 11.22.10

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 22, 2010
With the 2010 campaign over, Washington can start to do what it does best – obsess on the next campaign.  And here is an early bulletin:  Each party enters the cycle deeply split. Everyone knows about the divide between Tea Party Republicans and party moderates.  Some of this division is over policy.  The Tea Partiers […]
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