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Little on the short side… doesn’t really do much arguing either.

http://www.gohunter08.com/…

We started this campaign a year ago right here, in San Diego Harbor, against the backdrop of American Naval power. We launched a campaign emphasizing a strong national defense, enforceable borders and restoring the industrial base of America.

Today we end this campaign. The Nevada caucuses reflecting only 2% of the vote for me. I ran the campaign exactly the way I wanted to, and at this point not being able to gain traction in conservative states of Nevada and South Carolina, it’s time to allow our volunteers and supporters to focus on the campaigns that remain viable.

I’m a few days late. I really wasn’t paying much attention to the news this past weekend. This is good to hear. I expected him to drop when a few states had done their thing before Super Tuesday. I’ve not heard that he’s endorsed anyone but some have thought that he should back Paul. I think that’s unlikely given their differences on foreign policy. Though stranger things have happened.

http://www.spectator.org/…

Less than a month after a huge upset victory, and promises that fundraising would be ramped up, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is asking his senior staff to keep working for him without pay, while lower level campaign staff are seeing their salaries cut dramatically or eliminated altogether.

“The goal is to get a leaner, meaner campaign structure moving into Super Tuesday,” says a senior campaign adviser.

But many of those being asked to take the cut are refusing, and walking away, leaving the campaign with holes to fill.

“The money simply hasn’t come in at the rate that we expected,” says the aide. “Florida is a $7 million commitment that we can’t meet, and if we did, that leaves us exposed for Super Tuesday, where we have a lot of states and a lot media buys. We had to make tough decisions.”

This is good news. There are a lot of people who are fearful of a Huckabee candidacy and he may have a real hard time competing without money. Also he has a lot of support from the more conservative Christian crowd which could be brought to supporting Paul.

http://ronpaulgraphs.com/

The 21st was the FreeAtLast2008 Ron Paul money bomb. He raised $1.849 million and has over $74k brought in today so far. He raised 87.2% of what Huckabee raised since the beginning of the year in one day.

http://www.reason.com/…

About an hour ago Norma McCorvey, a.k.a “Jane Roe” from the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, formally endorsed Ron Paul at the Phoenix Park hotel in Washington. Why didn’t she endorse a frontrunner like Mike Huckabee? Thank the grassroots: She saw a newspaper ad in Nevada, bought by Paul supporters, using the analogy of the frog and the pot of boiling water to demonstrate what was happening to America. “It touched my heart.” That was three weeks ago, and McCorvey keynoted a pro-life Paul rally in Nevada on January 12th, but the campaign made the official announcement today before Paul spoke at the March for Life. McCorvey: I support Ron Paul for president because we share the same goal, that of overturning Roe v Wade. Ron Paul doesn’t just talk about being pro-life, he acts on it. His voting record truly is impeccable and he undoubtedly understands our constitutional republic and the inalienable right to life for all. Ron Paul is the prime author of H.R. 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade. As the signor of the affidavit that legalized abortion 35 years ago I appreciate Ron Paul’s action to restore protection for the unborn. Ron Paul has also authored H.R. 1094 in Congress, which seeks to define life as beginning at conception. He has never wavered on the issue of being pro-life and has a voting record to prove it. He understands the importance of civil liberties for all, including the unborn.

I don’t agree with Dr. Paul’s position on abortion but I understand it. I agree that it is not in the federal government’s jurisdiction, that the current laws seem to conflict, and even if abortion where to be made illegal in a state that the mother should not be punished and at worst the doctor. It is interesting to see McCorvey support Paul. I’m not sure how well known she is in the pro-life movement but if Huckabee burns out and drops out I wonder if an endorsement from “Jane Roe” could help convince the pro-life Huckabee supporters to back the good Doctor.

http://teamtancredo.org/

Dear Friends,

It is with my heart full of gratitude and a touch of sadness that I write today to tell you of my intention to end my campaign for the presidency.

The presidential campaign has come down to less than a handful of viable candidates. Unfortunately several of them have abysmal records on immigration and can’t be trusted to do what is needed to preserve this country if they’re elected. My fear is that if I were to stay in this race my votes could be the factor in handing victory to a pro-amnesty politician. Friends, we have done too much, come too far and the stakes are too high to play that hand. And so I am ending my presidential campaign.

According to FoxNews.com he’s endorsing Mitt Romney. Perhaps Paul will pick up a few of his former supporters. I doubt that however given Tancredo’s attack the other day geared toward LewRockwell.com and Paul. Even though they are otherwise friendly. I suspect Hunter is next.

http://www.iptv.org/…

Iowa Public Television will broadcast live coverage of The Des Moines Register Presidential Debates among Republican candidates for President on Wednesday, December 12, and among Democratic candidates for President on December 13. Debates will be broadcast live each day at 1 p.m., and will be re-broadcast at 7 p.m. each evening. The debates will also be available to public television stations across the country through PBS.

Confirmed candidates for the Republican debate on Wednesday, December 12 are: Ambassador Alan Keyes; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Rep. Duncan Hunter; Arizona Sen. John McCain; Texas Rep. Ron Paul; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo; and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.

Confirmed candidates for the Democratic debate on Thursday, December 13 are: Delaware Sen. Joe Biden; New York Sen. Hillary Clinton; Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd; former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards; Illinois Sen. Barack Obama; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

You will be able to watch the debates online live here and they are supposed to be shown on your local PBS station. I’m not seeing them listed on the PBS schedule online but it may not show because it’s a special program. In the least there will be on-demand streaming video of the full debate available the night of each event at http://www.iptv.org.

http://www.freemarketnews.com/…

Even more oddly, there are at least some reports that flatly accuse “gold standard” GOP presidential-candidate Mitt Romney not just of buying a recent Tampa Bay, Florida straw poll, but of outright cheating. It’s one thing, after all, to buy tickets for supporters at a straw poll, but another to have the same person vote over and over again. Perhaps he didn’t know what was happening. Or perhaps, within the GOP’s intricate rule-book, it’s somehow “legal.” Doesn’t sound right, though.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/…

Romney 893; Paul; 534 Giuliani 39; Huckabee 37; Thompson 21; McCain 12; Hunter 4; Keyes 2; Tancredo 1.

Update: In between viewing the videos and posting the user had removed 2 of the 3 videos and added 1. I don’t know why but here they are.

http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate

• 8:32PM - Paul gets his first question. It’s about the NAU, CFR and conspiracies that his supporters believe. Looks like I was correct that they would try to make Paul and/or his supporters look bad. He answers it well.
• 8:37PM - What top 3 federal programs/organizations should be cut to save money. Thompson spins the question and talks about SSI. Paul doesn’t say IRS unfortunately but Huckabee picks up on that and does… gets good applause for it.
• 8:41PM - McCain attacks Paul on being an isolationist and receives a round of mixed boos and cheers. Paul’s reply has mixed response. Cooper cuts him off while not cutting off Rudy and Mitt at the beginning.
• 8:45PM - Paul pledges not to raise taxes but points out unlike the others that they need to cut spending.
• 8:46PM - Romney and Giuliani make excuses to support corn subsidies.
• 9:00PM - Rudy supports gun regulation and current gun laws.
• 9:09PM - Paul states that a woman should not be charged if she has an abortion. Primarily that it’s not a federal function.
• 9:24PM - Rudy says that he will make Muslims not hate us by keeping strong on islamofascism. I’m pretty sure that’s the reason they are pissed in the first place.
  
• 9:26PM - McCain claims he was the only one who said the Rumsfield plan was “doomed to failure.” I’m pretty sure Paul had said that the entire thing was doomed to failure including Rumsfield’s plan.
• 9:28PM - Romney talks about not wanting ‘terror suspects’ to have the same legal rights to trial as others in this country. Gets schooled by McCain on waterboarding.
• 9:34PM - Will you make a permanent commitment to the people of Iraq? Paul says by giving the Iraqis their country back. Tancredo says Paul is unrealistic.
• 9:50PM - Romney attempts to spin a former statement by him about gays and lesbians in the military.
• 9:56PM - Tancredo schools Huckabee on spending on a mission to mars.
• 10:02PM - Romney squirms on Stars and Bars question.
• 10:06PM - How can we repair the infrastructure of America?
• 10:07PM - McCain claims a presidential line item veto is constitutional. Which isn’t not. Rudy puts him in his place.
• 10:08PM - Will Paul run as an independent? I thought he handled it well. Later, in the analysis, one of the CNN people says: “Paul was wrong, it was only 2000 people in PA, we were there.” I thought I’d seen a CNN article that claimed it was 5000 but I can’t seem to find it now. But NBC claimed it was 5000. Whatever. It was definitely larger than 2000.

The candidates were given the opportunity to create videos to show during the debate. Only Giuliani’s and Paul’s were any good.

I don’t feel it was as bad as invisipunk stated. It wasn’t great… but when are they? Paul was the last to receive a chance to speak. He was 6th in time spoken with 7:11 in front of Hunter with 4:53 and Tancredo with 3:41. Giuliani spoke for 15:45 which was longer than even the moderator or length of all the user videos. So Paul got 9.36% of the time out of all the candidates time spoken and Giuliani got 20.53% with Tancredo getting 4.8%. If equally distributed they all should have had 9:35. source: nytimes.com I think Paul held his own and spoke well. They threw some questions at him which IMO selected to make him look bad or not serious but he handled them well. They didn’t cover much domestic policy like healthcare and education but they’d needed 4 hours for that. And of course Paul is winning much of the online poll.