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Heading into the early primary contests, Donald Trump continues to hold a double digit lead over the rest of the Republican field nationally. Thirty-six percent of Republican primary voters support Trump, 17 points ahead of his closest rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (19 percent). Florida Senator Marco Rubio has now climbed to third place at 12 percent. Ben Carson -- who briefly surged to the top of the field at the end of October -- is tied with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 6 percent. Trump voters are firmer in their support for their candidate than are Republican primary...

resident Barack Obama has a penchant for declaring peace. For example, his second inaugural, delivered in Jan. 2013: "A decade of war is now ending," he said. "An economic recovery has begun." That speech echoed remarks he made on Jan. 5, 2012. Prepping for the presidential election, the president asserted, "Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of war is receding." Looming peace was a central campaign theme. In a column written right after Obama's 2012 remarks, The Washington Post's David Ignatius argued that Obama "was declaring that the era that began on Sept. 11, 2001,...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - A Democratic legislator in South Carolina has a message for Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump: Stay out of my state. Representative John King filed a resolution on Tuesday saying the Republican front-runner's "abrasive and racist rhetoric" did not belong South Carolina, a state that King said has worked to move beyond a past of racial intolerance. "South Carolinians have tirelessly worked to overcome a history of hatred and bigotry and there is no place in this state for anyone who espouses hatred and bigotry as a campaign slogan," King's resolution said. "He is not welcome...

Selzer Poll of Iowa: <

The leaking of the Clinton emails has been compared to as the next "Watergate" by former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova this week, if current FBI investigations don't proceed in an appropriate manner. The revelation comes after more emails from Hilary Clinton's personal email have come to light. "[The investigation has reached] a critical mass," DiGenova told radio host Laura Ingraham when discussing the FBI’s still pending investigation. Though Clinton is still yet to be charged with any crime, DiGenova advised on Tuesday that changes may be on the horizon. The mishandling over the classified intelligence may lead to an imminent...

IS TED CRUZ A “NATURAL BORN” U.S. CITIZEN?: According to Widener law school’s Mary Brigid McManamon, who has an oped in the Washington Post today, the answer is “no.” Her reasoning is a bit shaky: On this subject, the common law is clear and unambiguous. The 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, the preeminent authority on it, declared natural-born citizens are "such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England," while aliens are "such as are born out of it." The key to this division is the assumption of allegiance to one's country of birth. The Americans...

A pro-Ted Cruz super PAC is out with a searing new TV ad invoking ISIS and the San Bernardino terrorist attacks and suggesting that Marco Rubio's efforts to pass an immigration reform bill are imperiling national security. The commercial, from the group Stand for Truth, is the latest in a series of anti-Rubio ads that have homed in on the Florida senator's work on the so-called Gang of Eight bill, a bipartisan 2013 effort to pass immigration legislation through the Senate. "We are at war - not just abroad, but here at home. With the clear and present threat of...

Did the US demand an apology from Iran for capturing two US Navy boats and ten sailors before their release this morning? Of course not, Joe Biden told Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell this morning. Iran merely saw that the two boats were “in distress” and rescued them, so we didn’t ask for an apology.Hmmmm. The US Navy wasn’t capable of providing assistance to its own sailors? And did they know the boats were “in distress”? View More: Politics News|Live News|More News Videos.cbs-link {color:#4B5054;text-decoration:none; font: normal 12px Arial;}.cbs-link:hover {color:#A7COFF;text-decoration:none; font: normal 12px Arial;}.cbs-pipe {color:#303435;padding: 0 2px;}.cbs-resources {height:24px; background-color:#000; padding:...

During 2015, legislation was signed into law that secured some key public policy victories for the people of Michigan. Highlights include the elimination of costly subsidies for film producers and new laws that protect individuals from certain excessive or improper actions by police and prosecutors. Death Sentence for Film Subsidies On July 9, Gov. Rick Snyder signed House Bill 4122, which phases out Michigan’s film subsidy program. Launched in 2008, the subsidies transferred wealth from Michigan taxpayers to film producers, many of whom did not even reside here. According to federal employment statistics, after spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer...

Washington D.C., Jan 12, 2016 / 03:41 pm (CNA).- Since its first introduction, the federal contraception mandate has drawn controversy, with hundreds of employers saying it forces them to violate their sincerely-held religious beliefs. Now, one lawyer is arguing that the Obama administration unfairly relied on tax law to determine which institutions were religious enough to get an exemption from the mandate."The distinction they ended up making was simply whether you file a 990 [tax form] or not. That's an absurd distinction to make," Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told CNA."At the end of the day, it's really...

The Obama administration appears pleased by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's response to the president's State of the Union address - especially after she urged her party to avoid the harsh tone of presidential candidate Donald Trump. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough praised Haley during a breakfast meeting with reporters in response to a question about a line in her speech that was directed at Donald Trump and his political supporters. "I have a lot of admiration for the governor,"McDonough said, praising the South Carolina governor for her "remarkable" leadership of her state. McDonough made his remarks during...

Four days after Wall Street and the business media went gaga over the better-than-expected 292,000 new jobs created in December, let me tell you the non-adjusted truth: There were just 11,000 new jobs created last month. That's not my estimate or the guess of some on-the-fringe Obama administration critic. That comes directly from the Labor Department Web site. Here's how to find it. 1. Go to the Labor Department Web site, specifically the page: http://www.bls.gov/ces/. 2. Now Look at the "Browse CES" list on the left side of the page, find "CES Databases" and click on it. 3. Next, go...

Oxford University students who don't like Cecil Rhodes should 'think about being educated elsewhere', says chancellor

Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is swatting back at South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley after she used the Republican State of the Union response Tuesday night to caution the party against “angry” rhetoric like Trump’s. In an appearance on Fox & Friends, Trump branded the Republican governor as “very weak on illegal immigration.” “I feel very strongly about immigration,” he said. “She does not.” Trump suggested that Haley has had “no problem” soliciting campaign donations from him in the past. “She certainly has no problem asking me for campaign contributions, because over the years, she’s asked me for a hell of...

Both President Barack Obama and Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley -- who delivered the GOP rebuttal to the State of the Union -- seemed to speak directly to Donald Trump at times on Tuesday night. In fact, they had strikingly similar messages of tolerance and bipartisanship. While they wouldn't agree on much policy, at many moments their speeches sounded very similar. Can you tell the difference? 1) We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves: While Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone. There is...

Obama's Foreign Policy: "Completely disconnected from reality" Television’s prominent talking heads commenting on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address last night, spoke of how Obama was “completely disconnected from reality” on foreign policy. “Charles Krauthammer seemed to have been left in disbelief: “He is talking about a world that really doesn’t exist,” he said. “And that’s why I think it completely diminished what he said on foreign policy.” (The Blaze, Jan. 12, 2016) Obama broad-stroked those who worry about ISIS on the rampage as conspiracy theorists, calling their claims that this is heading for World War III as...

Vatican City, Jan 12, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his new book on God's mercy, Pope Francis explains that his oft-quoted words "who am I to judge", about a homosexual person who is searching for the Lord with a good will, is simply his reflection on Church teaching found in the catechism. The Name of God is Mercy, to be released Jan. 12, is a book-length interview of Pope Francis by Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli. The book is meant to "reveal the heart of Francis and his vision," according to Tornielli's foreward. He had wanted to ask the...

Sen. Ted Cruz faced down protesters in Hudson, New Hampshire on Tuesday, telling them, "This is not your stage." At a Second Amendment rally, two protesters stormed Cruz's stage at different times. Cruz asked the first protester who was wondering why people were so excited about guns, "Sir, who are you and what are you doing here? Are you a bit confused?"

The Iranian regime today warned that coast-to-sea missiles were were awaiting orders to hit the American aircraft carrier deployed in the region. iran us aircraft carrier Iranian Fars News reported: Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi blamed the US navy for its excited and unprofessional moves after Iran arrested 10 US marines for trespassing on its territorial waters, warning that his forces' coast-to-sea missiles were awaiting orders to hit the American aircraft carrier deployed in the region. The IRGC seized two US Navy boats on Tuesday and detained them on Iran's Farsi Island in the...

Ramesh Ponnuru, a respected editor and writer for National Review, argues in a recent essay that immigration restrictionism "is rapidly becoming a defining issue for American conservatism." It isn't just that Republicans and conservatives increasingly support tighter control of immigration, Ponnuru writes, but something more overarching. Where a candidate stands on immigration is turning into a litmus test for conservative fidelity. That explains why Marco Rubio, despite his unabashedly conservative voting record, finds himself being scorned in some circles as a "moderate" Republican: because he supported a bipartisan bill that would have expanded legal immigration and offered a path to...