2012 is already ramping up for some folks.
From Radio Iowa:
A friend of mine in Des Moines, Iowa, got a phone call last night, testing out the names of potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates. It was an automated survey and did not indicate who the sponsor of the call might be, “but it was quite [...]

I’m on 2012 watch yet again…
Embedded video from CNN Video

Here he is on fiscal conservatism…
“If you’re going to be, for example, the party of fiscal discipline and be the person who’s talking about fiscal responsibility, then you better do that. Hypocrisy doesn’t sell. And, the Republicans have to be true to their values, true to [...]

NPR’s Ken Rudin ranks the 21 Republican governors (Mark Sanford is still on the list) and their chances…
I’ve decided, in a completely unscientific, data-free exercise, to rate the GOP governors in terms of their likelihood of ever reaching the White House (not necessarily in 2012, but sometime in the future).
I readily concede that my list [...]

Naw, he’s not running for President.
No, not at all.
From The Times-Picayune:
A group of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s political supporters, including an uncle of the governor’s wife, Supriya Jindal, are forming a federal political action committee to support a presidential run by the 38-year-old Republican.
The governor is aware of the operations of Jindal For President [...]

It’s still early yet in Obama presidency, but given that he’s above 50% in many states that didn’t vote go for him this fall…there’s some significance here.
From FiveThirtyEight:
Obama’s approval equals or exceeds 50 percent in all of the states that he won on November 4th, plus Arizona (10 electoral votes), Arkansas (6), Georgia (15), Kentucky [...]

Bad news for Republicans and a sure sign that they need to either change their ways or risk being a regional party.
From Gallup…

Here’s how that breaks out…
More than 6 in 10 Republicans today are white conservatives, while most of the rest are whites with other ideological leanings; only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics, or are [...]

“If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout. That’s just the truth.”
- A GOP strategist for John McCain and Jon Huntsman
Here’s more about Hunstman specifically and Obama’s savvy move to make him ambassador to China…
Now, Huntsman’s decision to accept the president’s invitation to [...]

Hmmm, wonder why he’d be interested in doing that…
From National Journal:
Former MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who is writing a book on the direction of the country and has signed on to be one of the national spokesmen for the upstart National Council for a New America, which aims to revive the GOP, appears to [...]

(NOTE: I misread the poll results. The poll is among ALL voters. I’ll strike what isn’t relevant anymore, but most of my comments weren’t about the Republican nature of this poll anyway. Sorry for the confusion and thanks to Simon for pointing this out.)
This was a bit of a surprise, especially considering that only Republican [...]

Come on Bobby…you’re running, aren’t you?
From Times-Picayune:
Although a contract has yet to be signed, Jindal said he has reached an agreement with Regnery Publishing, which has published political tomes by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, actor Chuck Norris and political commentator Ann Coulter, among others.
The book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2010, the governor [...]

A genuine surprise from the Hawkeye State today because the ruling was unanimous.
Expect more of this type of thing to happen in the next couple years and challenge Obama’s opinion that gay marriage shouldn’t be legal…
“The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause [...]

I think I’ve said this before, but the Republicans definitely run the risk of being fractured between the social and the fiscal conservatives. Because call him whatever you like, but Bush was not a fiscal conservative. And there are A LOT of fiscally conservative folks who really despise the less tolerant aspects of social conservatism.
Now [...]

Since he’s not holding an elected office right now, he’s the most well positioned of any of the 2012 hopefuls to be THE voice of opposition. Because he can present ideas galore and none of them have to pass any test or go before any vote.
And now, well, there’s this:
The former Massachusetts governor and 2008 [...]

Then you better reject part of the stimulus package.
At least that’s what Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal and now Sarah Palin are doing…
JUNEAU — Gov. Sarah Palin is refusing to accept over 30 percent of the federal economic stimulus money being offered to Alaska, including dollars for schools, energy assistance and social services. [...]
Palin is not [...]

That’s one of the questions a recent NBC/WSJ asked voters and the results show that they know Obama inherited a massive mess and they’re more than willing to be patient with the new guy.
Nate Silver pulls some data…

What we find is that roughly 50% of voters think Obama will own the economy in about 18 [...]

Another unforced error from that widely panned rebuttal.
First, the original story in his own words…
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: ‘Well, I’m the Sheriff and if you [...]

With Jindal’s epic fail already in the rear view and Palin’s relevancy quickly fading, the GOP will be looking for the standard bearer for 2012. And guess who’s at the front of the pack?
From Politico:
While others may be indecisive or distracted, he’s already, quietly, clearly focused on solidifying his position inside the party, backing House [...]

I don’t want to beat up too much on the Louisiana governor because he did have a thankless task, but…whoa. I mean, that was painful, and not just the style. Sure, we can make fun of his delivery, but the tired old ideas he was proposing and the political points he attempted to score failed [...]

The Louisana Governor’s star keeps on rising.
From WSJ:
Congressional Republican leaders have tapped Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to offer a counter-address from Baton Rouge following President Barack Obama’a first address to Congress on Feb. 24.
The move further fuels speculation that Jindal is a favorite among the Republican establishment as a potential presidential contender in 2012 [...]

That was the buzz yesterday.
In fact, the numbers guy himself Nate Silver pointed to a Gallup post today that shows a surprising picture when looking at party ID.

That’s right Dems! Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina are turning blue!
Now, to be fair to Nate, he was skeptical, but didn’t say what I think [...]