Mitt Romney says Romneycare should go national (8/5/07) (VIDEO)

Obama will fight for AZ.

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's campaign manager, rallied local volunteers Sunday by assuring them that Obama intends to fight for Arizona, a state he lost four years ago to Sen. John McCain.

Messina, a former deputy White House chief of staff, spoke for about three minutes to several dozen supporters at an Obama phone-banking session at the Organizing For America office in central Phoenix. He said that together they would build "the single best grass-roots campaign in modern American political history."

"You all in here are making calls, talking to voters and doing what you do, because you understand the simple truth, which is we can win Arizona," Messina told the troops. "People said last time, 'Oh, you can't win Virginia,' until we did. 'You can't win Florida,' until we did. 'You can never win North Carolina,' until we did. And so a whole bunch of people are saying, 'Can he win Arizona? Can he not win Arizona?' The fact is you all are the secret weapon we have."

Signs that Messina and the Obama campaign are serious about competing in Arizona, a traditional Republican state that has gone Democratic in presidential elections only twice since 1948, include the three Organizing For America offices that already have opened in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. A fourth office will open soon in Glendale. Obama and his strategists believe that Arizona would have turned blue in 2008 had home-state senator McCain not been on the ballot as Obama's GOP foe. Obama last month made a stop at an Intel Corp. site in Chandler.


http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azdc/154982

Nate Silver: About 16% of Maine precincts didn't get to vote in the straw poll

On Twitter:

About 16% of Maine precincts didn't get to vote in the straw poll because they held caucuses outside the Feb. 4-11 window.


http://twitter.com/#!/fivethirtyeight

Suggestions for teaching geography to a kindergartner?

I thought it might be a good idea to give the munchkin a head start in geography and wondered if anyone had suggestions for a good starting point. I bought him a kid's atlas but I still started talking to him like it was a C-SPAN program. Needless to say I quickly lost his attention. So, any suggestions?

Paul supporters cry foul over caucus tally

WASHINGTON — The campaign of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and his supporters say the libertarian-leaning Texan was robbed of victory Saturday night when Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the Maine Republican Party’s presidential caucuses.

The Paul campaign says a local caucus meeting in Washington County that was canceled Saturday afternoon because of a snowstorm would have provided the margin of victory over Romney.

But Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster is standing behind the results showing that Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, won the nonbinding presidential straw poll by 194 votes.

Washington County GOP Chairman Chris Gardner says he is pushing for his county’s votes to be counted next weekend, but conceded that it seems improbable those votes could provide Paul what he needs to overcome Romney’s statewide lead.


http://www.kjonline.com/news/Paul-supporters-cry-foul-over-caucus-tally.html

Ron Paul wlll NOT concede Maine, accuses county GOP of dirty tricks.

LAKE JACKSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tonight the campaign of 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul sent an email to supporters regarding today’s caucus results from the state of Maine. See below for a portion of comments from Ron Paul 2012 Campaign Manager John Tate.

“Congressman Paul’s message of liberty and Constitutional principles is resonating with Americans everywhere who are sick and tired of the status quo establishment, and we plan to take this campaign on to ‘Super Tuesday’ and beyond.”
“Ron Paul will win the most delegates out of Maine tonight.

“In fact, he will probably even win the ‘beauty contest’ straw poll the media has already called for Mitt Romney – even before all the votes have been tallied.

“In Washington County – where Ron Paul was incredibly strong – the caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media today.

“Of course, their excuse for the delay was ‘snow.’

“That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches – that turned into nothing more than a dusting - was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight.

“This is MAINE we’re talking about. The GIRL SCOUTS had an event today in Washington County that wasn’t cancelled!


http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120211005028/en/Ron-Paul-Campaign-Comments-Maine-Caucus-Results

How did Maine GOP chair know it would 'come down to 200 votes'?

WASHINGTON - Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster said Friday that he doesn't know whether Mitt Romney will be declared the winner of the Maine caucuses' GOP presidential straw poll or suffer a setback to Ron Paul.

But Webster said he's pretty sure of two things: The race is close and the winner of the previously low-profile Maine caucuses will get a needed boost.

"What will happen is that either Paul or Romney will win by 200 votes, in my opinion, one way or the other," Webster said Friday, although he said he did not know the tally from the caucuses that have been held statewide.

Webster and independent analysts say Maine won't make or break Romney -- who lost the front-runner status he gained with wins in Florida and Nevada by losing Tuesday to Rick Santorum in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/maine-gop-leader-winner-gets-boost_2012-02-11.html

State GOP to disenfranchise Republicans in eastern Maine.

Webster said any caucus results that come in after Saturday wouldn't be counted no matter how close the vote turned out to be.

Maine's caucuses began February 4 and continued throughout the week. But the results announced Saturday accounted for just 83 percent of all precincts in the state. Several communities elected to hold their caucuses at a later date.

Caucuses in Washington County scheduled Saturday were postponed until February 18 because of a major snowstorm that blanketed the region. Earlier, the state party's Executive Director Michael Quatrano said county officials were told the results would not count toward the total.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixx7rD1Mn4291VrvGAVrlH1PC1Kw?docId=ba7329f77c064214ae4527be65f7b2dc

The Main Caucus is not over.

Despite what the Maine GOP said, the Maine Caucus is not over. There are some precincts in the eastern part of the state that will vote after tonight.

Intrade puts Ron Paul at 69% chance to win Maine Caucus.