67% of Alabama voters and 54% of Mississippi voters think interracial marriage should be legal

In addition to asking about the Presidential race in Alabama and Mississippi we also touched on some other issues in those states:

-There's considerable skepticism about Barack Obama's religion with Republican voters in them. In Mississippi only 12% of voters think Obama's a Christian to 52% who think he's a Muslim and 36% who are not sure. In Alabama just 14% think Obama's a Christian to 45% who think he's a Muslim and 41% who aren't sure.

Mitt Romney dominates the 'Obama's a Christian' vote in both states. He leads Santorum 42-28 with those folks in Mississippi and has a 38-21 lead over him with them in Alabama. In Mississippi Newt's winning the 'Obama's a Muslim' vote 39-28, but in Alabama it's a three way tie with all of the leading candidates at 31%.

-We continue to see evidence that Rush Limbaugh's damaged his brand over the last few weeks. His favorability is only slightly over 50% in these two states where the Republican electorate is incredibly conservative- he's at 53/33 in Alabama and 51/30 in Mississippi. Given that our last national survey on Limbaugh, taken a few years ago, found him at 80/12 with Republicans it's safe to say he's fallen a long way in these states.

-Alabama's pretty much on board with interracial marriage, with 67% of voters thinking it should be legal to 21% who think it should not be. There's still some skepticism in Mississippi though- only 54% of voters think it should be legal, while 29% believe it should be illegal. Newt cleans up with the 'interracial marriage should be illegal' crowd in both states. He's up 40-27 on Romney with them in Mississippi and 37-28 with them in Alabama.

-There's evidence that Haley Barbour's pardons on his way out the door as Governor of Mississippi hurt his standing in the state. 64% of Republican primary voters say they have a favorable opinion of him now to 27% with a negative one. Those numbers aren't bad, but they're a far cry from November when he had an 86/7 approval spread with GOP partisans in the state. Only 24% of Republicans say they approve of his pardons, while 62% disapprove.

-Alabama Republican voters skew heavily toward the Crimson Tide, with 58% identifying as Alabama fans to 28% who are Auburn fans. Santorum leads the way among Tiger fans with 35% to 30% for Gingrich and 26% for Romney. Romney's up 32-31 on Gingrich with 'Bama fans to Santorum's 27%. And among football agnostics Romney leads with 34% to 28% for Gingrich and 24% for Santorum.

-Finally there's considerable skepticism about evolution among GOP voters in both Alabama and Mississippi. In Alabama only 26% of voters believe in it, while 60% do not. In Mississippi just 22% believe in it, while 66% do not. Romney wins the 'voters who believe in evolution' vote (33-27 over Gingrich in Alabama, 38-32 over Gingrich in Mississippi.) Santorum wins the 'voters who don't believe in evolution' vote (34-33 over Gingrich in both Alabama and Mississippi with Romney at 26%) [1]

Food Stamp President

Newt’s Faulty Food-Stamp Claim

• Bush added 14.7 million to the food stamp roles during his 8 year presidency. 
• In 2008 he added 4.4 million, triple the 1.4 million added in 2007.
• As of December 2011, Obama has added 14.2 million.
• 47 percent of beneficiaries were children under age 18.
• 8 percent were age 60 or older.
• 41 percent lived in a household with earnings from a job — the so-called “working poor.”
• The average household received a monthly benefit of $287.
• 36 percent were white (non-Hispanic), 22 percent were African American (non-Hispanic) and 10 percent were Hispanic 

Newt's Illegal Moon State - President of the Moon

Newt Gingrich Would Like To Live On The Moon - watch more funny videos


"At one point early in my career I introduced the northwest ordinance for space and I said when we got -- I think the number is 13,000 -- when we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon they can petition to become a state," Gingrich said, telling the crowd this was the "weirdest" thing he has ever done. "And I will as president encourage the introduction of the northwest ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future…"

Gingrich finished off his public schedule for the day with a Space Industry Roundtable at Brevard Community College. [1] 

Yesterday Newt Gingrich revealed his "weirdest idea ever" — to provide a path to statehood for a hypothetical lunar colony.

With the help of the skilled research librarians in the Library of Congress Law Library, BuzzFeed tracked down the bill, which Gingrich called the "Northwest Ordinance for Space," or formally the "National Space and Aeronautics Policy Act of 1981."

“The Congress declares that the United States is committed to the expansion of free people and free institutions into space,” the bill stated, calling for an array of near earth and solar space travel vehicles to be completed by 2010.

It also called for the creation of "an environmentally acceptable space to Earth power capability that is economically competitive with power generation on Earth," by the year 2000.

Gingrich appears to have misstated the number of lunar colonists required for a space-based outpost to apply for statehood — the number is 20,000 for self-government in the original bill, not the 13,000 he mentioned yesterday. Statehood requires the population of the least populous state — or greater than Wyoming's 563,626 people in the 2010 Census. [2] 

On Tuesday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said if elected president he would encourage Americans to reach for the stars — literally — and that by the end of his second term there would be a permanent outpost on the moon "and it would be American."

But while his fellow GOP candidates panned the plan on the grounds that it would cost too much. Gingrich's proposal for stellar statehood faces another obstacle: It could violate space law.

"Statehood for a colony on the moon is going too far and would violate the [Outer Space Treaty of 1967] since it would involve rights to land on the moon and also require some type of territorial border," said Henry Hertzfeld, a research professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs Space Policy Institute, told BuzzFeed.

Gingrich introduced a bill in Congress in 1981 that would offer a path to statehood for a lunar colony with at least half a million residents. (Gingrich has mischaracterized the bill he introduced, saying it would grant statehood at 13,000 residents. In fact, the bill only provides for self-governance at 20,000 residents.)

At issue is the 1967 treaty, which the United States ratified, that prohibits any earth-based country from claiming sovereignty over moon or other space territory.

Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.

Hertzfeld said that can legally use the moon and put people, structures and property there — and they own those items, but not the land they're on — so Gingrich can have his space base, but it can't "be American." [3]

Gingrich says life begins at implantation

GINGRICH: Well, I think the question of being implanted is a very big question. My friends who have ideological positions that sound good don’t then follow through the logic of: ‘So how many additional potential lives are they talking about? What are they going to do as a practical matter to make this real?’

I think that if you take a position when a woman has fertilized egg and that’s been successfully implanted that now you’re dealing with life. because otherwise you’re going to open up an extraordinary range of very difficult questions [1]

Newt's Moon Base

Perhaps this is a little bit unlikely, but I like this Newt idea.

Newt Gingrich took the opportunity of being on Florida's space coast to revisit one of his favorite topics: space exploration.

"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said to applause.

He said the development would include commercial and private efforts, and will make apparent, "we clearly have the capacity that Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to us."

Gingrich also said he would push to develop propulsion technology that would get man to Mars.

He emphasized that it doesn't have to be expensive, exploration in partnership with private companies can lower the cost.

"If it's cheaper and it's faster and it works, do it," he said.

He also said launch areas should be capable of launching multiple spacecrafts in a day, like an airport.

"Does that mean I'm visionary? You betcha," he said. [1]

Evangelical Dr. Katharine Hayhoe interviewed about her Gingrich connection

Gingrich might dispatch US Marshals after judges

ATLANTA (AP) — Newt Gingrich continues to level harsh attacks on the judicial branch, saying as president he would consider dispatching U.S. marshals to force judges to appear before Congress to explain controversial decisions.

Gingrich made the comments Sunday in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."

As he courts conservatives, the former House speaker has stepped up his attacks on the judicial system in recent days as the Iowa caucuses near. Gingrich helped fund an effort last year to oust three Iowa judges who upheld a law permitting gay marriage in the state.

Gingrich said Sunday that he is disturbed by the "steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country and the encroachment of the courts on the president's commander-in-chief powers which is enormously dangerous."[1]



Gingrich, with his penchant for citing history, told reporters Saturday that there is plenty of precedent to support his idea, going all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, who, as president in 1802, led the abolition of three federal circuits and 16 judgeships that had been created — and filled — by his political foes before he and his party took power.

“It’s clearly constitutional, and Jefferson did it,” Gingrich said. “. . . I raise that issue not because it’s necessarily something that we would do but to indicate to the justices that there are clearly powers that historically have been used.”

Asked whether such an act would provoke a constitutional crisis, Gingrich replied: “Actually, the courts are forcing us to a constitutional crisis because of their arrogance and overreach. The courts have been trying to impose an elitist value system on a country that is inherently not elitist.”

Gingrich’s critics say that it is one thing to abolish newly created courts and not replace them, as Jefferson did 200 years ago, but that it is another to remove judges and then replace them because of specific judicial decisions.

Michael W. McConnell, director of theConstitutional Law Center at Stanford University and a former federal appeals judge appointed by Bush, also observed that conservative audiences “should not be cheering” and “are misled” if they believe Gingrich’s proposal is in their interest at a time when Republicans are looking to the Supreme Court to declare President Obama’s health-care law unconstitutional.

“You would think that this would be a time when they would be defending the independence of the judiciary, not attacking it,” he said. “You can’t have it both ways. It can’t be that when conservative Republicans object to the courts, they have the right to replace judges, and when liberal Democrats disapprove of the courts, they don’t. And the constitution is pretty clear that neither side can eliminate judges because they disagree with their decisions.”[2]

2005: Newt and the Individual Mandate

Is this Gingrich, Obama, or Bismark?  I can not tell. :)  Here in 2005, Gingrich seems to support the individual mandate.