Poll: Gingrich opens up nine-point lead after Union-Leader's ringing endorsement

◼ Newt Gingrich has opened a sizable lead over Mitt Romney in the first national poll in the GOP presidential race taken since the former Speaker of the House earned the key endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader, showing Gingrich with a nine-percentage point lead over the former Massachusetts governor. - The Hill

The poll, conducted by Majority Opinion Research Sunday night, showed Gingrich leading the Republican field with 32 percent of support from those surveyed. Romney earned 23 percent, while Herman Cain rounded out the top three with 14 percent of the vote. Ron Paul led the remainder of the field with 6 percent.

Gingrich's lead has opened up as the former Speaker has rallied both older voters and independents.
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Newt Gingrich

California: Cash-strapped cities want workers to contribute more to pensions

◼ As Gov. Jerry Brown calls for sweeping reforms in public-employee pensions, cities such as Santa Ana demand concessions from their employee unions. - LA Times

Getting a handle on pension costs in the county's largest city is a must, officials here say. Santa Ana is facing a $30-million deficit, has only $300,000 in reserves and is jettisoning jobs by the dozens to keep its head above water. Last year, the city paid out about $11.3 million for employee pension costs.

Now the city and scores of others around the state are getting a potential assist from Gov. Jerry Brown, who is calling for sweeping reforms in public-employee pensions. Santa Ana is among the cities that would see the most significant cost reductions if workers were required to pick up more of their retirement costs.

A Times analysis based on 2009 payrolls shows that cities and counties in California would save an estimated $1.3 billion if local government workers statewide paid what the governor's office determines to be the normal employee share of pension contributions. Brown says workers should be contributing about 8% of their paychecks to their own retirement. Police and firefighters, who have more generous pensions, should pay about 9%, Brown says.

Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility...

◼ Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004. - Haaretz/Reuters

It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events.

The Revolutionary Guard said the accidental explosion occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.

◼ BREAKING: Huge Explosion In IRAN's Nuke City - Yid With Lid

◼ Related: Image shows (another) Iranian missile site was destroyed (two weeks ago)

(Paul Brannan, a senior analyst for the Institute for Science and International Security,) said ISIS had recently learned from “knowledgable officials” that the blast had occurred just as Iran had achieved a milestone in the development of a new missile and may have been performing a “volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site.”

The Future of the Obama Coalition: “...the Republican Party has become the party of the white working class”

◼ (P)reparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class. - Thomas B. Edsall/NYT

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic...

The 2012 approach treats white voters without college degrees as an unattainable cohort. The Democratic goal with these voters is to keep Republican winning margins to manageable levels, in the 12 to 15 percent range, as opposed to the 30-point margin of 2010 — a level at which even solid wins among minorities and other constituencies are not enough to produce Democratic victories....

In the United States, (Ruy) Teixeira noted, “the Republican Party has become the party of the white working class,” while in Europe, many working-class voters who had been the core of Social Democratic parties have moved over to far right parties, especially those with anti-immigration platforms.

Teixeira, writing with John Halpin, argues in “The Path to 270: Demographics versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election,” that in order to be re-elected, President Obama must keep his losses among white college graduates to the 4-point margin of 2008 (47-51). Why? Otherwise he will not be able to survive a repetition of 2010, when white working-class voters supported Republican House candidates by a record-setting margin of 63-33.

Obama’s alternative path to victory, according to Teixeira and Halpin, would be to keep his losses among all white voters at the same level John Kerry did in 2004, when he lost them by 17 points, 58-41. This would be a step backwards for Obama, who lost among all whites in 2008 by only 12 points (55-43). Obama can afford to drop to Kerry’s white margins because, between 2008 and 2012, the pro-Democratic minority share of the electorate is expected to grow by two percentage points and the white share to decline by the same amount, reflecting the changing composition of the national electorate.

Barney Bails - 17th House Dem to Bolt

◼ Barney Frank not seeking re-election in 2012 - CNN

◼ Barney Frank – Politician Behind Financial Crisis – Will Not Seek Re-election - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
Frank’s fingerprints were all over the 2008 financial crisis.
Last month Newt Gingrich suggested that prison would be a good place for Barney. (and Chris Dodd)
◼ Breaking: Barney Frank will not seek re-election
◼ BARNEY FRANK WILL RETIRE UPDATES: ‘Corrupt Creature of Washington Who Helped Usher in the Great Recession’; Maxine Waters to Become Top Dem on Banking Committee - The Other McCain
◼ Frank was among the Democrats who prevented scrutiny and reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it could have prevented the economic collapse. Republicans at the time wanted more oversight and regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Frank and many of his fellow Democrats stood in the way. - Bryan Preston/PJTatler

Washington and the nation will be far better off without Barney Frank anywhere near political power.

◼ Why I Am Not Celebrating Barney Frank’s Resignation - Joel B. Pollak/Breitbart's Big Government

...his most damaging legacies–the housing crisis, the financial “reform” that bears his name, and the hyper-partisanship to which he eagerly contributed–outweigh Frank’s positive contributions. How unfortunate that his constituents did not eject him much sooner.

PAKISTAN ENRAGED

◼ Hundreds of enraged Pakistanis took to the streets across the country Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and setting fire to US flags after 24 soldiers died in NATO air strikes. - Yahoo News
◼ Burn effigy of Obama... - Sky News
◼ ULTIMATUM: GET OUT...
◼ NATO braces for reprisals... - Guardian
◼ AFGHANS: They fired at us... - MSNBC