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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House hopeful Mitt Romney widened his lead over rival Newt Gingrich to 11 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos online poll results on Saturday, up from 8 points a day earlier, as he cemented his front-runner status in the Republican nomination race.

With just three days remaining before Florida’s Republican primary, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, led Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, by 43 percent to 32 percent among likely voters in Florida’s January 31 primary, the online poll said.

He had led Gingrich by 41 percent to 33 percent in the online tracking poll on Friday.

“The momentum in Florida … really seems to be moving in Romney’s direction,” said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.

via Romney widens lead over Gingrich in Florida: Reuters/Ipsos poll – Yahoo! News.

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Declaring NASA would have a moon base by the end of his second term, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last week made space exploration part of his campaign.

But not everyone is impressed with Gingrich’s bold plans for the year 2020. On this weekend’s broadcast of “Inside Washington,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said the moon base idea could be the beginning of the end for the Gingrich campaign.

“I think the moon base was Newt jumping the shark, or to use another analogy, it could have been his Dukakis in the tank moment, because it was a caricature of him,” Krauthammer said. “And Romney used it cleverly to say that Newt was going out around every state promising x, y, and z. And of course, on the space coast in Florida, he would appeal to them.”

Krauthammer went on to say that the must win debate for Gingrich in Jacksonville, Fla. Thursday, critical for his momentum going into the Florida primary next Tuesday, was instead a victory for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

via Charles Krauthammer | Newt Gingrich | Moon Base | The Daily Caller.

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Had I been asked to deliver the State of the Union address, it would not have delayed your dinner plans:

“The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and goodnight! You’ve been a terrific crowd!”

via The State of Our Union Is Broke – Mark Steyn – National Review Online.

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Two AT writers attended yesterday’s hearing in Georgia over President Obama’s eligibility for the presidential ballot. Cindy Simpson writes:

President Obama has a habit of turning his back and walking away from those with whom he disagrees, as recently discovered by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.  Professor John Lott, in an interview with Teri O’Brien, recalled similar experiences with Obama while at the University of Chicago.

Ms. O’Brien commented to Professor Lott:  “Gods don’t debate.  They just issue decrees.”

And apparently they also tend to place themselves above the law.

On January 26, I was in Atlanta to observe the hearings on the challenges to Obama’s eligibility to appear on Georgia’s 2012 ballot.  In two previous American Thinker blog posts, “The Birthers Went Down to Georgia” and “Georgia on Obama’s Mind,” I described the content and history of the cases.

The courtroom was crowded to maximum capacity; however, the table for the defense was notably vacant.  The defendant, Obama himself, was also not in attendance, even though the judge last week refused to quash the subpoena requesting his presence. Judge Michael Malihi, in his denial, stated:

via Articles: Georgia Ballot Challenge: Obama Walks On By.

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(CNSNews.com) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that the cuts in defense proposed by President Barack Obaama will create “risks” in America’s “capability to respond” to threats.

“The risks come with the fact that, you know, we will have a smaller force,” Panetta said a t a Pentagon briefing. ”As we said, it’s larger than we had prior to 9/11, but obviously it will be a smaller force, and when you have [a] smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms of our capability to respond.”

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Panetta’s assessment, while pointing out that when the admnistration’s cuts in defense are implemented there will be risk that the U.S. military will not be able to do as much as quickly as it can do now.

via Panetta: Obama’s Cuts Create ‘Risks’ in Military’s ‘Capability to Respond’ | CNSnews.com.

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If the White House orders the Department of Justice to dump another 500 pages of Fast and Furious documents on a Friday evening, will they make a sound if only a few alternative journalists are around? Yes.

Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea of the Washington Examiner reported the NPR (surprise, surprise) story late last evening. A “series of sensitive emails” inside the dump leave no doubt Attorney General Eric Holder knew about Fast and Furious long before he said he knew.

The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. “Tragic,” responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. “I’ve alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General…”

via Blog: Another Friday, Another Friday DoJ Document Dump.

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A rising star puts the Gingrich candidacy in its place.

Although Florida Senator and rising Republican star Marco Rubio has repeatedly refused to endorse a candidate in the Republican primary, his words this week have done great and perhaps unrepairable damage to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s chances of winning the Florida Republican primary and the Republican nomination for the presidency.

On Tuesday, Gingrich compared his contest against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to the 2010 Florida U.S. Senate race between Marco Rubio and the liberal (and eventually not Republican) former Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Rubio would have none of it, saying “Mitt Romney is no Charlie Crist. Romney is a conservative, and he was one of the first national Republican leaders to endorse me. He came to Florida, campaigned hard for me, and made a real difference in my race.”

via The American Spectator : Newt’s Rubio Rumble.

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Romney, Santorum shine in Sunshine State debate.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Newt Gingrich tried to defend his claim that Mitt Romney is “the most anti-immigrant candidate” in last nights Republican presidential debate here, an accusation that Romney called “inexcusable” and “repulsive.

“Gingrich did not seem to understand that this accusation, made in a Spanish-language radio ad aimed at South Floridas large Latino population, may actually end up helping Romney win next weeks primary. The controversy stirred by the ad, which Gingrich ordered his campaign to pull off the air, highlights differences of policy — and puts Gingrich clearly to Romneys left, which isnt a good place to be in a Republican primary.

via The American Spectator : Florida Fireworks Finale.

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The entire GOP establishment has unleashed on Newt Gingrich this week, and it looks like it is slowing his momentum in the polls.

Almost all of the anti-Newt Gingrich material hitting the media is coming from conservative institutions: National Review, The New York Sun,  and the Washington Times.

Just look at the Drudge Report from last night and early this morning.:

via That Was Quick: The Entire Conservative Establishment Has United To Kill Gingrichs Campaign.

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“President Obama arrived in Phoenix at 3:15 pm local time, finding the chilly weather of Iowa giving way to sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60s.

He stepped off Air Force One at 3:28 pm and was greeted by Gov. Jan Brewer. She handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope and they spoke intensely for a few minutes. At one point, she pointed her finger at him.

Afterwards, (I) spoke with the governor.

“He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast,” Brewer said. “I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So.”

Asked what aspect of the book disturbed him, Brewer said: “That he didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”

On the letter, she said it was personal letter asking him to sit down with her to discuss the “Arizona comeback.”

via Brewer, Obama exchange tense words over book, immigration at airport.

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Glib and cocky as ever, Barack Obama used his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to push his sophomoric and gimmicky socialism. While the nation drowns in debt and the economy continues to teeter, Obama devotes himself to the empty symbolism of the “Buffett rule.” He had the Omaha billionaires secretary placed in a seat of honor near the First Lady.

Barack and Michelle are the quintessential champagne socialists, enjoying the trappings of power — the First Lady donned an ostentatious royal blue designer dress that probably cost more than several months of her props secretarial salary — while decrying the excesses of the rich.

The speech was immensely dull, revolving around the usual tedious laundry list of nothing proposals. It made Mondays sterile Republican presidential candidates debate look stimulating.

via The American Spectator : Obamas Open Buffet.

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