GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum hopes Michigan Democrats can help him earn a victory in Tuesday’s primary.

That’s right. The former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign paid for a robocall asking Democrats to vote for him in Tuesday’s primary.

Recent polls show chief rival and Michigan native Mitt Romney and Santorum virtually even heading into the primary.

“We know that if we can get a Reagan Democrat in the primary, we can get them in the fall,” said Hogan Gidley, communications director for Santorum. He confirmed the campaign paid for the call.

Political observers say the move is just another sign of how close the GOP race is — and a “logical ploy.”

Read More at Detroit News. By Josh Katzenstein and Mark Hicks.

 

The co-author of a provocative report on “Islamophobia” has ties to a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization and is the host of a website known for trafficking in radical, anti-Israel propaganda.

Wajahat Ali is a self described “playwright, essayist, and attorney.” He is also the co-author of “Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” a Center for American Progress-sponsored report that purports to expose the “small, tightly networked group of misinformation experts” on the right who aim to reach “millions of Americans through effective advocates, media partners, and grass-roots organizing.”

In the 132 page report, Ali and his cohorts at CAP attempt to take a scholarly approach to Islamophobia, building the case that a small faction of well-funded right-wing activists are solely responsible for perpetuating pernicious stereotypes about American Muslims. A number of critics have objected to the report as misleading.

Ali, however, has long aligned himself with a cadre of radical commentators who routinely condemn Zionism and attack the state of Israel as racist.

Last month, Ali waded into the “Israel firster” debate when he promoted a Twitter message from the left-wing agitator Max Blumenthal.

“Is it me or are the Israel Firsters stupidly overplaying their hand?” Blumenthal wrote, employing a borderline anti-Semitic slur.

The use and promotion of this type of language has damaged the reputation of several CAP employees, including Zaid Jilani, who resigned from the think tank soon after the scandal broke.

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In the Republican debate held on Washington’s Birthday the candidates were asked to describe themselves in one word. Santorum chose the word courage. If fits after a week of dancing with the national news media over the issue of Satan. Does he exist? Santorum says yes. The media says no.

It all started Monday when Matt Drudge posted audio of Rick Santorum speaking at Ave Maria University in Florida four years ago. Matt Drudge often relies on tips, and campaign opposition research operations have worked overtime this year dishing him dirt for posting.

The nuggets revealed show a Rick Santorum who is concerned about what Christians call Spiritual Warfare. The concept is derived from Ephesians chapter 6: 11-13 where St Paul warns: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”

Belief in Satan is pretty standard theology amongst Christians. Only the liberal, secular media finds it surprising that professing Christians hold such a belief.
We are pleased that Santorum stood his ground, saying to CNN, “If somehow or another because you’re a person of faith and you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president, we’re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president.”

Read More Here:

SPOKANE, Wash. — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said President Obama “surrendered” Thursday when he apologized to the Afghan government for the burning of several Qurans at an American military base near Kabul.

Referring to the burning of “radical Islamic material” that included the Qurans, the former House speaker said the situation had been “blown into a huge incident by various fanatics in Afghanistan.” He told a crowd gathered at a campaign rally at the Bing Crosby Theater that while the president had apologized for the burning, he had not called on the Afghan government to issue an apology for the deaths of two NATO soldiers who were killed by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform during increasingly violent protests of the desecration of the Muslim holy book.

“There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama’s attention in a negative way,” Gingrich said, “and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the United States, period.”

Obama sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which he wrote, “I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident. I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies,” according to the New York Times, quoting Karzai’s press office. Obama did not release the text of what it called a three-page letter on a “host of issues” between the two countries, “several sentences of which relate to this issue,” the Times reported.

Although Presidential apologies are rare, they are not unheard of. President George W. Bush offered an apology to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki after a U.S. soldier fired several bullets into a Quran in 2008. And Bush also said he was “sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families” following the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Read More at CBS News By Sarah Huisenga, CBS News

One of the biggest myths of the 2012 presidential campaign, propagated by Team Romney and the mainstream media, is that Willard Mitt Romney is a hard-liner on immigration issues. One easily could reach that conclusion if Romney were judged on his speeches, press releases, and sound bites.

However, as all conservatives should know, it is foolish to predict how a politician will govern based on campaign rhetoric. The more reliable way to determine a candidate‘s position is to review his actual record.

It is clear the Romney campaign, beginning with his 2008 bid, decided to use immigration as one of the few hooks it had to lure conservatives to its camp. With Romney’s dismal record on fiscal and social issues, his consultants must have concluded that with so little said about immigration by Romney while governor, they could get away with creating a phony record.
Indeed, if one digs deeply, a disturbing pattern emerges. Romney’s “hard-line” positions on immigration suddenly arose as he began thinking of running for president in 2006. Moreover, his current views on immigration usually contradict what he actually said and did as governor. It appears that Romney’s immigration positions have been created solely for his presidential run or were based upon events that simply never occurred.

ROMNEY’S SUPPORT FOR MCCAIN’S AMNESTY
Romney has made opposition to any amnesty proposal a central campaign plank. This message first surfaced during the run-up to his 2008 race when his potential rival, Senator John McCain, introduced an immigration measure that included amnesty. Romney attacked it:

I strongly opposed today’s bill going through the Senate. It is the wrong approach. Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new “Z-Visa” does, is a form of amnesty . . . today’s Senate agreement falls short of the actions needed to both solve our country’s illegal immigration problem and also strengthen our legal immigration system.

Read More at National Review By Steve Baldwin and Deroy Murdock, National Review