Mitt Romney Wallops Sarah Palin By 23 Points In New Hampshire Journal 2012 Republican Presidential Poll; Does It Portend A Romney-Palin Ticket?

A Republican Presidential poll just concluded by the New Hampshire Journal may lay further groundwork for a Mitt Romney-Sarah Palin Republican Presidential ticket in 2012, with Romney at the top of the ticket.

Conducted by Magellan Strategies on behalf of the Journal on Tuesday, January 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M., the poll of 1,451 voters identifying as either registered Republicans or Republican-leaning independents showed that Mitt Romney was the predominant preference by a wide margin over runner-up Sarah Palin. The Journal also contains a link to the crosstabs via Scribd. Here are the numbers:

-- Mitt Romney: 39 percent
-- Sarah Palin: 16 percent
-- Mike Huckabee: 10 percent
-- Newt Gingrich: 8 percent
-- Ron Paul: 7 percent
-- Tim Pawlenty: 4 percent
-- Rick Santorum: 3 percent
-- Haley Barbour: 1 percent
-- Another Candidate: 4 percent
-- Undecided: 8 percent

Only the top five have a name recognition factor of 97 percent or better on the poll, so the others are still bit players at this point. Of the top five, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin have the highest Unfavorable ratings, with Gingrich's Unfavorable rating proportionately greater than that of Palin. Magellan pollster David Flaherty cautions that this survey is merely a very early measurement of the potential 2012 Republican Presidential primary field, and the results an “uninformed” snapshot of likely primary voter opinion.

Despite Palin's relatively high Unfavorable rating, The Hill notes that Palin is not only very popular with the GOP base in the state, which is more centrist than in many other states, but she's also popular among self-identified independents. Palin's numbers among independents have been a source of recent concern.

At the same time, the National Journal also released the results of their Political Insiders Poll; it also shows Mitt Romney a strong front-runner at this point. But it also brings Mitch Daniels and John Thune into the mix; in fact, Daniels finishes second in this poll. As for Palin, she finishes fifth.

Overall, these numbers indicate that a Romney-Palin ticket may be the strongest Presidential ticket the Republicans could offer at this point. We know that Romney is strongest in the Intermountain West, particularly in the disproportionately Mormon states of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. We also know that Sarah Palin tends to have some strength in the South, although she might split the Evangelical vote with Mike Huckabee. But now we know that Romney seems to be strong in New England, partially as a holdover from his days as Governor of Massachusetts. A Romney-Palin ticket could stitch those three areas together -- and capture the White House in 2012. A just-released Public Policy Polling survey of 932 voters in Nevada shows one reason why Romney should be at the top of the ticket instead of Palin; it shows Obama edging Romney by only one percentage point while Obama swamps Palin by 13 points.

Naturally, we turned to Conservatives4Palin for their response. C4P notes that the New Hampshire GOP electorate is different than most other GOP electorates, claiming that it is more pro-abortion. They also reveal that Palin has actually closed that gap from previous polls. But C4P is banking on a moderate Republican like Rudy Giuliani to enter the race and take votes from Romney, which they suggest could help Palin. I'm not sure Giuliani would enter the race -- he doesn't seem to have either the traction or the desire at this point.

One possible wild card: There are at least 43 successful candidates who owe Sarah Palin some gratitude for her support in 2010, and they may be called upon to show that gratitude in 2012.

Welcome To Soviet America: Alan Gribben To Republish The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer And Huck Finn Solely To Eliminate The N-Word

One of the characteristics of the old Soviet Union was that whenever a new General Secretary, or Premier, took power, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was immediately edited and re-published to minimize or denigrate the accomplishments of his predecessors. The most noteworthy example was when Nikita Khrushchev took power, and the Encyclopedia was edited to tell more of the truth about Joseph Stalin. So history was reinvented and re-written to satisfy the proclivities of the new regime.

Welcome to Soviet America; it's happening here, albeit with some of our classical literature. From Free Republic I learned that Publisher's Weekly reports that leading Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the "N-word" (as well as the "in" word, "Injun") by replacing it with the word "slave." The "N-word" reportedly appears 219 times in Huck Finn alone. The replacement, which will combine Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn into a single book entitled "Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition", is expected to be on shelves by February, with a hardcover price of $24.95.

"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind," said Gribben, speaking from his office at Auburn University at Montgomery, where he's spent most of the past 20 years heading the English department. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."

Apparently concerning Gribben is the fact that Huck Finn has been disappearing from grade school curricula across the country, relegated to optional reading lists, or banned outright, appearing again and again on lists of the nation's most challenged books, and all for its repeated use of a single, singularly offensive word: "Nigger", even though you can still say "Nigga" in popular culture. Many teachers have told Gribben that they would love to use the books in their classrooms, but feel they can't do it anymore, because in the new classroom, it's considered unacceptable.

Of course, school safety might be a possible issue here. Since many blacks, particularly those who live in the inner cities, have become so over-sensitized to race and so inflated with a false sense of entitlement, they over-react to real or perceived slights. Thus I can envision an inner-city classroom full of black students possibly erupting if the original Huck Finn were to be given to them by a teacher who doesn't know how to effectively control a classroom.

But still, in a sense, this guy is literally re-writing history, even if it is merely literary history. Two comments posted to the Publisher's Weekly story effectively sum up the opposition:

by: @ 20110103141950:
What these arrogant, narrow-minded fools are doing is disgusting. White-washing history to ignore the bad bits doesn't help anyone to learn from the past. Rather than taking the opportunity to use the text as a discussion on history, race, identity and social mores, this group of self-entitled PC tyrants are trying to erase classic literature. Part of what made Mark Twain so amazing was that he exposed the hypocrisy of the times; i.e., calling someone a friend, yet using a derisive term for that person. What's next to be whitewashed? Remove the curse words from Catcher in the Rye? How about erasing the sex from DH Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway or Henry Miller? How about removing the drug use in Jack Kerouac or Hunter S Thompson? How about removing the gay from Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh or James Baldwin? Life isn't all PC, white and middle class. In fact, much of it is quite the opposite. Changing literature to reflect current attitudes of a specific group has only one name, that is and should be reviled by anyone who calls themselves a book-lover: it is CENSORSHIP.

by: TheLiteraryWord @ 20110103164659:
I find this truly offensive. The justification of editing the book in order to make it more appropriate for the here and now is just, simply put, a crock. I began reading long before my schooling started and I have maintained a strong passion for all things literary ever since. Thankfully my mother raised me to read freely, books of any nature and on any subject and I believe this literary freedom is mostly responsible for the open-minded, tolerant, and free-thinking adult that I have become. Reading is something that enriches our lives, not hinders it and the historical issues that are contained in books such as this one are truly important. As someone has stated, life is not politically correct and okay, so as a white person it could be argued that I don't understand how offensive such terminology can be but I see this issue from all sides. Were I a person of colour, I would STILL be outraged at this. People of different races have all had their struggles and heaven knows that the struggle to defeat slavery and to obtain equal rights was one hell of a battle. I would find it truly offensive that anyone could choose to downplay the horrors and problems that my ancestors had to deal with. Leave history alone! It doesn't make it any less offensive by doing this to a work of fiction rather than a history book, rather, it makes it worse. The works of fiction are usually where our children begin to learn about the harsh realities of the world but in a safe and informative way. This act is truly abominable.

One commenter to the Entertainment Weekly story expressed this interesting thought:

joblo Mon 01/03/11 5:33 PM:
Hey, maybe we should re-edit Schindler’s List and remove all of the disgusting things that the Nazis do. After all, it’s OFFENSIVE, and we need to be careful about “how you express that in the 21st Century.” This is the height of stupid. Whitewashing the language of an era does nothing positive and makes it impossible to learn from that time.

Anchorage Assemblyman Dick Traini's More Liberal Fireworks Ordinance Triggers An Upsurge In Police Complaints

Update January 4th: Major outcry against the fireworks ordinance described in this Anchorage Daily News story. Assemblywoman Harriet Drummond to introduce a bill to repeal the new law on January 11th.

Ever since I moved to Anchorage in 1991, we've had a de juro ban on the personal possession and use of fireworks in the city. However, there was what was called "secondary enforcement"; namely, cops wouldn't respond unless there was a complaint from a citizen. So people did shoot off fireworks during the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve, but it was kept within reasonable bounds.

But this was not good enough for Anchorage Assembly member Dick Traini. Traini decided it was hypocritical to have a law against fireworks on the books without enforcing it. So instead of beefing up enforcement, Traini took the path of lesser resistance. He convinced enough Assembly members to approve of a revised ordinance, AO 2010-86, allowing the use of fireworks from 9:30 P.M. New Year's Eve to 1 A.M. New Year's Day, albeit with numerous geographical restrictions. On December 7th, 2010, the Assembly voted 7-4 to approve it, and Mayor Dan Sullivan reluctantly allowed it to become law. The law automatically sunsets after two years unless specifically renewed. Voting in favor of it: Dick Traini, Bill Starr, Ernie Hall, Mike Gutierrez, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Jennifer Johnston, and Paul Honeman. Voting against it: Harriet Drummond, Patrick Flynn, Debbie Ossiander, and Chris Birch.

The sale of fireworks in Anchorage remains forbidden. The only place in Alaska where fireworks can be legally sold is in the community of Houston, about 10 miles northwest of Wasilla. Because the Mat-Su Borough also relaxed their restriction on the personal possession of fireworks, fireworks sales are reportedly up 30 percent this time around. The majority of fireworks sold in Alaska come from China, which means we're giving China foreign exchange for a frivolous product which has no lasting value, further adding to our trade deficit with China.

But liberalization seems to have spawned an upsurge in the number of complaints fielded by the Anchorage Police Department. A spokesperson said APD fielded "tons of complaints" about fireworks use before, during and after the legal hours of 9:30 P.M. Friday to 1 A.M. Saturday. Some complainants wanted the mayor's phone number, some wanted their Assembly member's phone number, and some simply wanted the noise to stop. Police issued no citations and made no arrests. The fire department reported no known fires started as a result of fireworks, although EMTs responded to two separate fireworks-related injuries.

Two Assembly members responded to this story. Harriet Drummond, who voted against the ordinance, says she received more than 30 e-mails, some of which describe the late-night hours as sounding like a war zone. In contrast, Dick Traini said many residents enjoyed the privilege despite the complaints. Traini further said some people won’t follow the rules, but the law would allow parents to teach their children the safe way to use fireworks.

In my neighborhood near Airport Heights, fireworks usage was clearly up from previous years. The neighborhood sounded like Baghdad from about 8:30 P.M. until 1 A.M. But unlike previous years, fireworks usage dropped off dramatically after 1 A.M., and all was quiet after 2 A.M. So it seemed like people appreciated the fact that it had become explicitly legal, and showed their appreciation by better confining it to within the designated time period. Ms Martyr reported similar conditions, but Alaskab4udie was unhappy with the situation.