Warning To Homeschoolers and Private Schools---Architect of Common Core Now Have Power To Prod SAT To Reflect Common Core

5.16.12 -- David Coleman, architect of Common Core Standards, has been chosen as the next president of the College Board (producer of SAT and Advanced Placement tests). I am very concerned about this cozy relationship that Coleman means to create between the Common Core Standards and the SAT/AP. 

Even people who send their children to private schools and/or homeschool them will be impacted by this decision to align the SAT/AP tests with the Common Core Standards.

The SAT/AP are generally tests that follow knowledge-based, academic knowledge – more aligned with Type #1 Philosophy of Education. 

The Common Core Standards are definitely an attempt to drive our public schools completely into Type #2 Philosophy of Education.

Type #1’s end goal is academic achievement. Type #2’s end goal is the indoctrination and manipulation of students’ minds.

For more clarity about these two terms, please read:

3.26.12 -- “Two Education Philosophies with Two Different Goals” -- by Donna Garner

http://libertylinked.com/posts/9703/2-education-philosophies-with/View.aspx 

========================

Excerpt from today’s EducationWeek article:

Robert Scott, the commissioner of education in Texas, who has known Mr. Coleman for more than a decade, described him as “one of the brightest minds out there, an absolute genius” in thinking about what skills and knowledge schoolchildren need to thrive in college and in good jobs. But the two men differ sharply on how to advance those changes; Texas pointedly opted out of the common standards because it objected to the use of federal incentives, such as Race to the Top dollars, to promote adoption.

Some education activists saw in Mr. Coleman’s appointment the risk of creating too much uniformity in curriculum and tests.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/16/32collegeboard.h31.html?tkn=ULCCP2MuxQir9%2BtWsOAUfPlxsYZledPmfB0u&cmp=clp-sb-ascd

Published Online: May 16, 2012

Incoming College Board Head Wants SAT to Reflect Common Core

By Catherine Gewertz

Setting A Nation Free--Churches Must Speak

Let us not perish for lack of knowledge--see link to share with churches and truth can set us free.

Go to Pray in Jesus Name and find out what you must!

Al SJR 49-State Board of Education encouraged to retain complete control over Alabama's academic standards, curriculum, instruction, and testing system, Common Core State Standards Initiative

This has been in the rules committee and needs to be pushed to come out and be voted.  Alabamians fighting for parental input over children's education must call their legislators--(334) 242-7800 and (334) 242-7600 special calls need to be made to Wagner and Holley.  Here are rest of names in Rules Committee:

RULES
Waggoner, Chairperson; Holley, Vice Chairperson; Beason, Bedford, Brooks, Dial, Dunn, Figures, Glover, Irons, Orr; Pittman, Sanford.

Click here to read SJR 49

Latest article from one of our best fighters against the federal over-reach is Mrs. Donna Garner-

5.1.12 – Boston.com – Rock the Schoolhouse

[Introductory comments by Donna Garner:  In the article below, Jim Stergios lays out very clearly the facts behind the Common Core Standards and the vendors and lobbyists who have helped to foist this plan on the public schools of our country.

The only thing that Stergios does not quite make clear is that behind it all is the Obama administration which has colluded with Bill Gates, Achieve, Inc., Council of Chief State School Officers, National Governors Association, National Education Association, Fordham Foundation, Mitch Chester, Deval Patrick, Jeff Nellhaus, etc.  Since the first day Obama came to the White House, he and his administration have pushed, bullied, and intimidated the public schools and the public into accepting the Common Core Standards.

The good news is that there are pockets of resistance building across this country to Obama’s overreach, and Jim Stergios has laid out even more reasons why states need to resist giving up their public school children into the hands of the Obama administration and its social justice agenda.  – Donna Garner]

Self-dealing among education officials

Posted by Jim Stergios May 1, 2012 04:32 AM

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/

I’m conflicted about how to say this. Getting stuff done is about building relationships and trying to find ways to get along and in fact pulling the right people together toward a goal. But it is also about saying things straight and pulling no punches when what’s being debated matters a lot.

I often write about education standards because, unlike some other ed policy choices, standards impact the entire landscape of education. If used effectively to drive reform, they set the contours of classroom content, they constitute the basis for student tests, and they define the basis for teacher tests that ultimately play a bigger role on the quality of teaching in the Commonwealth than any professional development program afterward. If done right, I noted. I fully agree with Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution who has been saying that in most instances higher standards don’t correlate with higher student achievement, but those states (like Massachusetts) that have used standards to drive the iron triangle of curricula, accountability and teacher quality, win big on student achievement.

Until 2007, Massachusetts used standards in just this way. And then we watered down our accountability system and our standards. Since 2007 Massachusetts student achievement has been flatlined at best. While you cannot draw a causal link to our students' 2007 or even 2008 results, the continued flatlining since then does make me wonder what's been lost in real achievement because of recent "reforms."

Last week, I wrote about the conflictitis that plagues the longstanding group of DC-based advocates of national standards. The post focused largely on the façade of objectivity put up by Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitch Chester in relying on three “outside” analyses of the national standards. The so-called independent analyses proved not to be so objective after all, given that they were all funded directly or indirectly by the Gates Foundation, which has bankrolled the entire national standards effort nationwide. So independent were these analyses that one of the firms (the Fordham Institute) conducting an “independent” review funded in part the work of another “independent” reviewer (the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education).

After receiving the tip from a reader who looked at Fordham’s federal tax status filings, I have to admit that I realized that I find it hard to believe that these people wake up everyday and pretend to take themselves seriously.

But there are more conflicts than the ones listed in that post. Today, let’s focus on the role ofAchieve, Inc, which used to work on collegial sharing of best practies and more recently has moved into a full-time advocate employing not just public argument (which is the rightful way to do advocacy) but also funding and other politically, legally, or ethically challenged methods to advance their cause. Like all the other “independent” reviewers involved in evaluating whether Massachusetts should adopt national standards, Achieve, Inc. has largely been funded by the Gates Foundation, the banker of record for national standards development, favorable evaluations and advocacy.

So it is odd (and conflicted) when the Massachusetts Ed Commissioner announces that he will rely upon Achieve’s evaluations as “independent,” as is Achieve's use of money to advocate for its positions. Tough words, I know, but consider the evidence.

In March of 2009, just as the Obama Administration made its announcement to chart out “improvements” in state standards, Achieve appoints Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to its Board of Directors.

WASHINGTON – March 2, 2009 – Achieve today announced the appointment of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to its Board of Directors, a group comprised exclusively of governors and top business leaders that is responsible for guiding Achieve in its mission to ensure that all U.S. students graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary success.

Is it independent to rely on a firm whose boss is also your boss? And given the Governor’s record at the time, this announcement signaled to friends of Achieve that they were going soft—or, perhaps more accurately, “soft skills”—on standards. At the time of this announcement, and months before his employer, the Fordham Institute, received a million dollars of its own from the Gates Foundation to promote national standards, Mike Petrilli blogged that Governor Patrick, with his weak record on academic standards and his opposition to strong school accountability, his embrace of 21st century skills, as well as the NEA’s support for national standards all constituted “the beginning of the end for Achieve”:

I can’t even begin to explain the confusion, disappointment, and exasperation I feel about Achieve right now, the organization that’s purportedly all about pushing states to raise standards. First there was the announcement last week that the National Education Association was joining the “common state standards” movement led by Achieve, the National Governors Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers… Then there’s today’s announcementthat Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is joining Achieve’s board. This is the same Governor Patrick who has declared war on the Bay State’s academic standards and rigorous accountability system. (See this great Education Next article for background.)…Achieve, what are you doing, aiding and abetting what is obviously an effort to diminish standards, fuzzy up accountability, and push nebulous “skills” over literature, history, art, science, and math? Achieve, Achieve, why have you forsaken us?

It was bad enough from a policy perspective that Mitch Chester was chosen then to leadone of the two national testing consortia, PARCC, which is housed at Achieve. After all, Mitch has no record of improving standards and assessments in Massachusetts, the same in Ohio, and a record of diminishing standards in Connecticut (as evidenced by the collapse in Connecticut’s student reading scores on the NAEP test in subsequent years). But one of the key players in Massachusetts’ decision to adopt national standards, then-deputy education commissioner Jeff Nellhaus, was hired by Achieve/PARCC six months after Massachusetts’ vote to adopt national standards – a decision he influenced directly.

My point is not to say that Mitch Chester or Jeff Nellhaus, or the many other Massachusetts education officials and gubernatorial staff that benefited from later jobs with the Gates Foundation or Gates-funded entities, are unpleasant people. Hardly. They are so close to this stuff and so used to the way things work in the EduBlob that all this is par for the course.

Local supporters of the national standards and friends will argue that we should be relieved that Massachusetts’ officials are in positions of leadership in these efforts. I find that a huge sidestep to real questions about conflicts of interest and ethical violations.

That’s what ethics laws and mechanisms that ensure the public trust are for.

Governor Patrick likes to affirm that Massachusetts has “the toughest state ethics laws in the country.” That must make the revolving door of jobs, and the money and influence exerted on Massachusetts’ decision to adopt the national standards by the Gates Foundation, MBAE, Fordham, and Achieve one very big and improbably coincidence. No, no, there were no state ethics violations, no misuse of the public trust, no circumventing state legislative approval, no thorny federal legal issues, no private non-profits lobbying and benefitting from changes in state policy. And no cross-funding aong the independent reviewers.

For those of you who don’t find any of this troubling, then consider NewsCenter 5’s Sean Kelly report that in the middle of state deliberations over whether or not to adopt the Common Core standards, Massachusetts education commissioner Mitch Chester “took at least 12 trips costing $15,146. All of the trips [were] paid for, in part, by trade groups and special interest.”

As part of its story, NewsCenter 5 interviewed Pam Wilmot from CommonCause, a government watchdog group more often associated with the political left. She noted that “the appearance that there might be a conflict when you accept free or discounted travel from a party, particularly if they have an interest in the outcome of a decision is certainly there.”

NewsCenter 5 reported that “the top sponsors of Chester’s trips” were “two DC-based organizations, one of which was Achieve, Inc. The two pro-national standards funding groups paid for most of Chester’s travel to DC, Chicago, Arizona and London. “ 
If you are not troubled by any of this, then you are unwilling to consider evidence. Yes, the revolving door of jobs, money and perks is just one big coincidence.

Perhaps it's also a coincidence (or perhaps just "one of those things") that the Boston Public Schools hired

commissioner Mitchell Chester’s wife, Angela Sangeorge Feb. 22 [2010] as $128,570-a-year executive director for teaching and learning and director of literacy, [just] as the school system was mulling massive teacher, staff and custodian layoffs.

She "oversaw a staff of four literacy coaches and one reading teacher" in that job and then was removed from it by the BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson, to be placed in the Higginson-Lewis School, where she reviews the literacy curriculum for a single school (not the entire system anymore), but she still enjoys the same salary.

Yes, pleasant people one and all. Pleasant people who cannot see the conflicts they live and that affect their daily decisions. Pleasant people who take care of themselves, even as they block real solutions from being implemented in places like Lawrence where the dropout rate is north of 35 percent. Pleasant people who see the revolving door going around, and always find a way to slide through, even as they explain to parents in urban districts why they need to be patient and wait another 10 years for the adults in the system to coalesce around the grand education master plan that will at best yield modest improvement, which of course they will hype as victory.

Crossposted at Pioneer's blog. Follow me on twitter at @jimstergios, or visit Pioneer's website.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Find out more about common core through our previous interviews

and this website Truth In American Education.

Parents Beware and Don't Let Your Rights Be Taken Away--read more!

Amazing Grace Is For All Races--Black, White Matters Not--It Extends To All and To Whom Much Is Given Much Is Expected

Amazing Grace, the movie, reminded me tonight as I watched it of the words in the Bible--there is nothing new under the sun.  Man is filled with sin--the only person that can make a difference in this world is the only perfect One that ever lived.  The throne of heaven was His yet He made Himself a servant for us all.

One of the greatest songs on earth--Amazing Grace, was birthed out of an amazement of one who was blind but now saw.  He, John Newton was a sinner and he knew he was saved by Grace. He was a white man who learned the ugliness of man's sin nature which enslaved others.  The slave trade that was prevalent in John Newton's day's was ended because of the work of God in a man's heart.  It started with John Newton himself who finally saw how filthy he was to have been a part of it and shared on to others even to a man named William Wilberforce who himself was called by God to end it.  It took a lot of perseverance and many defeats before the "just end" came as God intended. 

See for yourself the movie, Amazing Grace, study the history behind it and search your own soul as to what moved the change where men saw difference that set them free from the ramblings of their time, their culture.  In today's culture the racial strife is again rearing its ugly head in the Treyvon Martin case.  Will calmness, right thinking reign?  Only if the hearts of those who know their Lord and Savior truly want Him to be Lord of their hearts, their emotions.  This is a time for great prayer, not for fear-mongering, not for re-building old walls of hatred, nor for creating more strife.  Instead this is a great time to remember--the sacrifices of those in past, blacks and whites that we would all remember that we are "all" great sinners and Christ is our great Savior.

If we choose to follow Christ through these trying times--then race should not be held up as the real problem but rather we shall see the truth that the real problem is man's sin nature.  The real enemy hasn't changed his tool since the Garden of Eden.  It has worked so well and we must pray hard that America will by the grace of God see the truth to  it all.

I recommend we remember where we came from, America, and not allow the lies of the enemy to win again.  William Wilberforce published A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of This Country Contrasted With Real Christianity--here's an excerpt:

Thou art the source and centre of all minds,
Their only point of rest, Eternal Word;
From thee departing, they are lost, and rove
At random, without honor, hope, or peace:
From thee is all that soothes the life of man;
His high endeavor, and his glad success;
His strength to suffer, and his will to serve.
But O! thou bounteous giver of all good!
Thou art of all thy gifts thyself the crown;
Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor,
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.

It is interesting to note that William Wilberforce was known as an evangelical Christian.  In Neil Mammen's book--Jesus is  Involved In Politics Too--we are reminded of what Jesus did in his days--he did care for us such that he dealt with the leaders of Israel on how they were to deal with those they led.  Neil Mammen also states that two great Christian nations did not get rid of their national sin of slavery until Christians got involved in government

When William Wilberforce shared the truth over and over and over again in the seat of government--it broke the chain of bondage to that sin.  Christians need to be involved politically and proclaim the truth that sets a nation free--it is part of extending God's love to multitudes that are suffering.  Hope you'll watch the movie and remember ...for such a time as this.

The Danger With Charters--States Need To Learn Lessons From Texas

For years we have been warned by those in Texas who are suffering from the door that was opened for Islamic charter schools.  Here are important articles to bring you up to speed:

Phyllis Schlafly article on 4-9-12--Please read in entirety but here is an excerpt:

In Texas, 36 Turkish charter schools, called the Harmony Network, have received over $100 million in government funds. These schools now have 290 (mostly Turkish) employees on H-1B visas, about 16 percent of its workforce.

In Inver Grove Heights, Minn., a substitute teacher named Amanda Getz reported about what goes on inside a charter school called Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy, TIZA. TIZA is a K-through-8th-grade charter school funded by U.S. taxpayers and sponsored by Islamic Relief.

The teacher says there is no clear division between the subjects studied during school and the study of the Quran after school. She says that homework assignments for after-school religious instruction are written on the board right alongside assignments for math and social studies.

Getz says she was informed that, on Fridays, the Muslim holy day, there would be a school assembly in the gym after lunch. She was instructed to take her students before the assembly to the bathroom, four at a time, for “ritual washing,” and afterwards “teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap” led the students in Muslim prayers.

Visit an expert on this issue--Peyton Wolcott's website is full of great info of what happened in Texas and beyond.

Warning for Alabamians from State Board Member Betty Peters--"The latest AL legislation says on p. 53, lines 24 thru 27, “Employees of a public charter school, as well as members of the governing board of a public charter school, shall demonstrate to the authorizer of the public charter school that they are citizens of or lawfully present...”  Unless the  phrase “or lawfully present” is removed, foreign citizens can serve as members of an AL public charter schools’ governing board.  Can foreign citizens who are in AL legally serve as a board member of any of our existing county or city public schools or on the state school board?  Why in the world would we want to make exceptions for public charter schools and open ourselves up to groups like the Gulen charter schools? "

Why the hurry?  Let's get this right.  Please call or better still go to the Senate Committee hearing on Tues April 17th at 1:30 pm in Montgomery on the 8th floor Room 807 Conference Room and let your legislators see your concern.  Come an hour earlier if you want to sign in to be able to speak.

Here is a link to Alabama SB 513--see wording on bottom of page 55-56

Here is a link to Alabama HB 650--see wording on bottom of page 53-54

(When clicking on link --it will say something about session ended-login--just hit ok and file shows up)

For those in Alabama concerned--please call (334) 242-7800 Senate and (334) 242-7600 House

Hear interview with Mrs. Betty Peters

Santorum Drops Out--What Next For Conservative Voters?

“Now What Do We Grassroots Citizens Do?”

by Donna Garner

4.10.12

We grassroots citizens are very saddened by Rick Santorum’s decision to suspend his campaign today but understand that he feels he must take care of his fatherly responsibilities to be with Bella and his family.

From Santorum’s letter to his supporters sent today at 2:20 P. M., we learned that Bella came home from the hospital last night but still has pneumonia. This is her second bout with pneumonia in a few months’ time.

Santorum praised the commitment of the 160,000 people who contributed to his campaign and stated, “We have been outspent in most states 5-1 or even 10-1. And we still won, or we've come incredibly close. Our average donation has been only $73.10. Few races in history have had so many people give so modestly to preserve liberty.”  He also asked people to consider sending their $25.00 to $73.10 contributions to help him retire any campaign debt that he is still shouldering.

As wisely stated by Tony Perkins of Family Research Council today:

Millions of voters flocked to his campaign -- not because he was a Republican, but because he passionately spoke of the connection between America's financial strength and its moral and cultural wholeness. Echoing what the FRC team promotes daily, he explained that real problem solving starts with an understanding that the economy and the family are indivisible, and that big government denies freedom.

This values message generated enthusiasm and drew many new voters into the process. If the Republican establishment hopes to generate this same voter intensity in the fall elections, these values voters must see the GOP demonstrate a genuine and solid commitment to core moral issues in addition to fiscal conservatism.

Here is the link to Santorum’s full speech today in which he explained the suspension of his campaign: http://www.therightscoop.com/now-watch-live-rick-santorum-holding-press-conference/

Now it will be up to us grassroots voters to decide whether to support Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney. As we evaluate these two men, we must consider which one is better equipped to beat Obama. Either Gingrich or Romney would be far, far better for America  than having Obama in the White House for another four years. 

In the three years that Obama has been in the White House, he has almost succeeded in destroying America.  Our Constitutional rights have been eroded, and federal intrusion into our personal lives has escalated dramatically. We have lost face in the world, putting our troops and our nation at risk. Our influence in the world has been shattered. Our public schools and social structures have been taken over by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender agenda. Our financial future as a nation is in peril.

Because of ObamaCare, our healthcare system is on the precipice of destruction.  The Congressional Budget Office reported that if ObamaCare is allowed to go forward, it is estimated to cost $1.76 Trillion by 2022. That is not the $900 Billion that Obama told the American people his healthcare bill would cost when he spoke at the joint session of Congress in 2009.  

I personally cannot consider Ron Paul as the Republican candidate because he has defended the Iranian mullahs’ pursuit of nuclear weapons even though the Iranians have unequivocally stated they want to wipe Israel (and those who support Israel) from off the face of the earth. 

I also cannot possibly consider Ron Paul because he:   

(1) voted against the Child Custody Protection Act three times that would have strengthened local parental notification laws by making it illegal to take a minor girl across state lines to get an abortion;

(2) voted three times against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which would have made it a separate crime to injure or kill an unborn child in any assault against a pregnant woman;

(3) voted twice against the Human Cloning Prohibition Act; and

(4) voted against school choice legislation, border security, and the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA). FMA would have amended the U. S. Constitution to limit marriage to the union between one man and one woman and would have prevented judicial extension of marriage rights to those of the same sex, unmarried heterosexual couples. and polygamists.  

Back to Obama, one of Obama’s worst curses upon our country has been in the form of the czars and politicos whom he has chosen to put around him.

Please read the following account from Gary Bauer (4.9.12) that tells about Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, and what horrendous damage he is perpetrating upon our voting system:  

Despite the overwhelming popularity of voter ID laws, the Obama Administration is working non-stop to strike them down. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered the Justice Department to block implementation of voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas, despite a 6-to-3 ruling by the Supreme Court upholding such laws.

In the past, Holder has argued that voter ID laws are unnecessary and burdensome to minority groups. Holder insists that ballot access is more important than ballot security. Now James O'Keefe -- the man who exposed ACORN and NPR -- has struck again to show how voter fraud is a growing problem.

In recent weeks, O'Keefe has exposed how easy it is to cast ballots for dead people and to commit voter registration fraud. But Attorney General Eric Holder was unfazed by the facts.

So O'Keefe upped the ante and went after Holder's own ballot. His undercover agents went into a District of Columbia polling location and were offered Eric Holder's ballot. They did not take it so as to avoid violating any laws themselves. But they proved it could be easily done because the poll worker didn't ask for ID and said none was necessary.

Seeing how easy it was to compromise his own ballot, I would hope the Attorney General of the United States would change his mind and respect the common sense views of most Americans. But Holder, like the man he works for, is a committed left-wing ideologue. And when reality conflicts with his ideology, it is reality that must give way.

Bottom-line: Our nation cannot possibly maintain its American exceptionalism if Obama is elected for four more years.  With another term under Obama’s Chicago way, we would not even recognize our country. We Republican voters must choose the person – Gingrich or Romney – who can best beat Obama. May God give us wisdom to make our decision.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

RICK SANTORUM CAN WIN; ROMNEY IS NOT INEVITABLE CANDIDATE -- BY DONNA GARNER -- 4.6.12

“Rick Santorum Can Win; Romney Is Not Inevitable Candidate”

by Donna Garner

4.6.12

We voters must not listen to the liberal-left news media who want Romney to be elected because they believe he can be easily defeated by Obama. 

We also must not listen to the moderate country club Republicans who are always much too ready to compromise on all-important, conservative principles. These moderates only care about fiscal issues but cannot seem to figure out that the social issues and entitlement programs are what are driving the insurmountable national debt. 

Romney is not the “inevitable candidate.” 

We grassroots voters do not have to settle for less by choosing Romney.

We grassroots citizens orchestrated a conservative tsunami in the elections of Nov. 2010, and we have gathered strength and more political savvy since then. Our numbers are growing as more and more Americans see the dangerous plight of our nation.

We are losing our freedoms; we are drowning in debt; the Obama administration is taking over our public school children and our nation’s healthcare system. He is bullying the U. S. Supreme Court members, deliberately fueling hatred and prejudice among people in our society, and is trying to elevate the Executive branch above the Constitution of the United States.

The stability of the world is being threatened by Obama’s mishandling of foreign policy.

The Middle East is turning into a cauldron stoked by those who intend to perpetrate a nuclear attack on Israel and others supported by the United States. 

Our own country is in jeopardy of being targeted by homegrown terrorists who live among us.

For the sake of the future of our children and grandchildren, we simply must elect the authentic conservative who is Rick Santorum. Santorum understands the working man; he knows how to get our country out of debt; he has a solid plan to create jobs; he values faith and family; he knows the Source of all Wisdom and Knowledge; and he loves America and other people more than himself.  

Here is the Good News: Santorum can be elected!  Let’s look at the facts:

4.5.12 -- Rasmussen – Poll of likely GOP primary voters --

Pennsylvania GOP:  Santorum 42%, Romney 38%:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_

election/pennsylvania/2012_pennsylvania_republican_primary

==========================

4.6.12 -- Daily Presidential Tracking Poll:  Obama 46% -- Santorum 44%

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_

administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

=================

4.5.12 --- From Rick Santorum: 

Let me be clear: the final goal of our campaign is the defeat of Barack Obama. That's why I ran for President in the first place…

I firmly believe Mitt Romney's support for his Massachusetts health care mandate, Cap and Trade and the bailouts make him unelectable in the fall. We cannot afford a nominee that does not stand strong for our conservative principles.

We need a principled, Reagan conservative to challenge Barack Obama in the fall and nothing less.

==================

4.1.12 – From Santorum Team: 

Two new polls show Rick gaining ground in Nebraska and the key swing state of North Carolina. Pollsters noted that Mitt Romney was more unpopular in Nebraska than President Obama. And in North Carolina, we're tied with Mitt Romney. The polling firm noted ‘More and more conservatives are unifying around Santorum as the alternative to Romney.’

=====================

4.2.12 – “Mitt Romney’s Weakness Is Also Strength — or Is It?”  -- Roll Call --

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_119/mitt-romney-weakness-also-strength-or-is-it-213584-1.html

By Stuart Rothenberg

[Stuart Rothenberg is not known as a conservative. He has worked for PBS, CBS News, and CNN. He is a frequent contributor to Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation, The NewsHour, Nightline, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. – Donna Garner]

In this article, Rothenberg surmises:

(1) The reason the moderate country club Republicans are supporting Romney is that they really do not believe him when he tries to portray himself as a conservative.

Romney’s great asset is that these voters figure he is merely pandering to evangelicals and the most conservative element of the GOP when he talks about cultural issues, immigration and taxes.

(2) Rothenberg also says that conservatives don’t believe Romney either.  They are not at all convinced that he is one of them in spite of his trying to sound like a conservative “to lock up the Republican nomination.”

Whether it is his multiple positions over the years on abortion, his support for an individual mandate in Massachusetts, his Mormon faith or simply his profile as a wealthy, impeccably dressed businessman, the most conservative Republican voters (many of whom are evangelicals) don’t believe that he is a passionate conservative who is ready to take on the political establishment.

Rothenberg concludes with a highly troubling statement for Republicans:

The bottom line, of course, is that nobody — not his critics and not his allies — really believes Mitt Romney...Is Romney such a mass of contradictions that voters can look at him and project their positions on him, allowing them to support him? Or is his credibility so shot that too many voters will simply conclude that they can’t trust him, making it impossible for them to support him?

=====================

http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/santorum-camp-says-media-distorting-delegate-count/

WND EXCLUSIVE

COULD GOP DELEGATE COUNT REALLY BE THIS CLOSE?

Santorum camp looks to claim as many as 7 victories during May

Published: 4.5.12

by BOB UNRUH

Excerpts from this article:

A report released today by the Rick Santorum campaign says that the GOP primary tabulations being assembled by the media are wrong – and the former Pennsylvania senator actually is much closer to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney than is being portrayed.

And the report said Santorum will follow what always was expected to be a “difficult” month of April with the possibility of up to seven victories in May, which would leave him “heading into the June 5th primaries with a freight train of momentum.”

The report by Strategic National was released this afternoon by the campaign.

The report says a much more accurate assessment of the delegate totals in the GOP nomination race at this point is 571 for Romney, 342 for Santorum, 158 for Newt Gingrich and 91 for Ron Paul.

The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, lists 658 for Romeny, 281 for Santorum, 135 for Gingrich and 51 for Ron Paul. Real Clear Politics lists 655 for Romney, 272 for Santorum, 140 for Gingrich and 67 for Paul.

The report released by Santorum’s campaign said, “There are a couple of fundamental flaws with the delegate counts that the media keeps that reveals that this race is much closer than they report.”

The report said Florida, Arizona and “possibly Puerto Rico” will be recalculated to disperse their delegates on a proportional basis. Those counts now go wholly to Romney.

“They broke RNC rules by going winner take all before the window and therefore RNC members and/or the convention will enforce the rules and make the delegations proportional. This will reduce Romney’s delegate total substantially and increase the other three candidates’ respective delegate totals,” the report said.

It also said national convention delegates are elected at county, district and state conventions, rather than “the initial beauty contests” in many states, and that could change totals...

The report also said media reports add “unbound delegates” to their counts, but those “should not be counted as if they are bound.”

“The month of April was always going to be difficult but the calendar gets much more friendly for Rick Santorum in May,” the report said. “North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia, Nebraska, Oregon, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas might lead to Santorum winning roughly 7 out of 8 states in May, and heading into the June 5th primaries with a freight train of momentum.”

And the Santorum campaign continues to “reach out” to the Gingrich campaign to work together to prevent Romney from achieving 1,144, needed to claim the nomination, and to elect a conservative majority of delegates, the report said…

“Santorum has what amounts to a five-part strategy to achieve victory: (1) disqualify the Romney delegations from Florida and Arizona’s winner-take-all primaries; (2) run up his total in states that select delegates by conventions, not primaries; (3) carry his home state of Pennsylvania; (4) take advantage of ‘the map in May’ which, as Mr. Santorum told ‘Fox News Sunday’ moderator Chris Wallace this weeks, ‘looks very, very good’; and (5) swing over uncommitted delegates.”

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com