Finchley 1959 - Explore new Perspectives

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has also dropped out of the Presidential Race, just after Rand Paul has done the same. In 2012 Santorum was the surprise candidate of the year, as he won Iowa and became the main challenger to Mitt Romney. Santorum had high early hopes for the 2016 race, but unlike last time around, he never managed to connect with the voters. The lack of support led to low levels of fundraising and polling, and constant relegation to the second tier debates. With Santorum out of the race, only 9 candidates remain in the Republican race, and will try to get the most votes in New Hampshire on the 9th of February. While four years ago he was a champion of the workers and the people who saw Mitt Romney as just another rich man lying to them, this time around he campaigned for Christian vote and made family values a key focus in his strategy. He tried to reform his Evangelical coalition from four years ago and build on it, but he too was surprised by the rise...

Politico The 2016 Iowa Caucus results turned out great for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. People like Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Rand Paul also felt ok about their numbers. They could have been better, but could have been worse. Then there is Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie who officially didn't really care about what they got here, as they focused on New Hampshire. But it must have hurt them. And then there is Jim Gilmore, Martin O'Malley, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. They were demolished, and for Huckabee and O'Malley it was a knockout. Huckabee's exit leaves the race with 11 Republicans, if you can count Gilmore at all, while O'Malley's exit leaves just Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the side of the Democrats.  Huckabee's poor results were expected, and thus his exit is not a big surprise. What is a surprise is that Rick Santorum didn't go down with him, even though he had an e...

Chris Carlson/AP After months of campaigning, Iowa finally voted yesterday! On the Republican side of the Iowa Caucus, Texas Senator surprised Donald Trump. While the Democrats pretty much tied, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders only received slightly less support than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but it is still unclear who won, as a recount is very much possible. All the latest polls, even by Anne Selzer, predicted a Donald Trump victory, even though they all acknowledged that Ted Cruz was not far behind. But in real life, not many people expected Cruz to win, even though if there were serious questions of whether or not Trump supporters are real and if they will actually turn out to vote. Well they were real, but Cruz had more of them. Trump almost even slipped down to 3rd place, as it was confirmed that Rubio's late surge was real. His 23.1% is an extremely good show in a state like Iowa. This was a huge loss for Trump. More precisely his ego. For mo...

AP Photo 2016 Republican Presidential candidate, and frontrunner (by a lot, as he would say), Donald Trump had a great night last night. He held a huge rally at Iowa's Drake University, as he comfortably awaits the next ten days where he has every chance to win the first two states that are voting: Iowa and New Hampshire. Oh, that's right. There was also a GOP Debate going on at the same time, accordingly without Mr. Trump. Everyone was calling Trump out for being scared of Megyn Kelly. Not True. For risking his future as he is neck-and-neck with Ted Cruz. Not True. Trump simply had a problem with the moderators, so he decided to stay away. Rand Paul did the same thing for the last debate, when he had a problem with the criteria. And it looked like Paul made a good choice then, but Trump seems to have made an even better one this time around. People should really be used to this by now. If you disagree with Trump, it means that he is doing the right thing, while also ...

There is an alternative way of predicting who will be the party's nominee in a Presidential Race. And no, it's not polls. It's the endorsement count from current and former politicians. If a few important and influential politicians back your campaign, they can sway a lot of their supporters towards you. And that could make the difference. Some candidates deliberately want to get the support of a few famous faces, and not that of the general public. Let's see how this applies to 2016. On the Republican side, Donald Trump leads in the polls. By a lot (as he would say). But there has not been a single politician in Congress, or within any higher levels of state government who backed him. Not one. He got one former Virginia representative and a few state legislators from a variety of states, but no one important. Jeb Bush on the other hand leads the endorsement primary. By a lot. Apart from two former Presidents and First Ladies and a Vice President, he a...

Carly Fiorina out shined everyone once again. Wednesday saw the second Republican Presidential Debate take place at the Reagan Library in California. It was a glorious yet terrifying setting, as the candidates stood in front of President Reagan's plane, with which he effectively ended the Cold War.  Once again there were two debates, and once again there were two clear winners. In the second tier debate, a surprise victor emerged, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. No one expected this, but it was a very clear victory in the end for the veteran. And in the main event of the night, there were several interesting performances, but Carly Fiorina clearly collected her second victory of the debate season. If you didn't do it so far, you definitely have to watch out for her from now on. Let's start with the earlier debate and say that it was much better than expected. It was a huge opportunity for the four participants, as they now had more ...