Democratic pollster Geoff Garin conducted a focus group during last night’s State of the Union address with voters in Columbus, Ohio (a key swing state). The group was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans/Independents - and, according to a memo by Garin, the overall reaction to the speech was extremely positive.

A few highlights from the memo:

In a before-and-after test, the proportion of participants describing Obama as “a strong leader” rose from 39% to 71%.

Fully 78% said after the speech that Obama “looks out for the middle class,” up from 59% before the speech.

The share of participants who said Obama has good ideas for improving the economy rose from 39% before the speech to 79% after the speech.

More at link: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0125/State-of-the-Union-gets-high-marks-from-Ohio-voters-says-poll

But homeless families and troubled children were not the biggest beneficiaries of “Operation Good Neighbor.” Instead, the foundation spent most of its money to run itself, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for fundraising, administration and office rental paid to Santorum’s political allies.

The charity also had significant overlap with the senator’s campaigns and his work on Capitol Hill. Among the leading donors to the foundation were Pennsylvania development and finance firms that had donated to his election efforts and had interests that Santorum had supported in the Senate.

Santorum, whose last-minute surge in the Iowa caucuses has brought new attention to his presidential bid, portrays himself as a common man concerned about the gap between the nation’s rich and poor. But in the case of his charity, his efforts ended up mostly helping his cadre of political friends.

Before it folded in 2007, the foundation raised $2.58 million, with 39 percent of that donated directly to groups helping the needy. By industry standards, such philanthropic groups should be donating nearly twice that, from 75 to 85 percent of their funds.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/santorum-charity-for-the-poor-spent-most-of-its-money-on-management-political-friends/2012/01/11/gIQAGDKVwP_story.html

Newt Gingrich has called on the super-PAC funding a series of ads critical of Mitt Romney's job-creation record at Bain Capital to fix inaccuracies in the ads or remove them from the air.



“I am calling for the Winning Our Future Super-PAC supporting me to either edit its 'King of Bain' advertisement and movie to remove its inaccuracies, or to pull it off the air and off the internet entirely," Gingrich said in a statement released Friday.



“Furthermore, I am once again calling on Governor Romney to issue a similar call for the Super-PAC supporting him to edit or remove its ads which have been shown to contain gross inaccuracies, something the Governor has thus far refused to do."

Gingrich hopes that the call will help him regain the high road in what has become a blistering battle in South Carolina — and preempt a set of looming attack ads from pro-Romney groups upset by the Speaker's criticism of the presumptive Republican front-runner.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/204057-gingrich-calls-on-his-super-pac-to-correct-inaccuracies-or-pull-anti-bain-ads

Gov. Rick Perry's new line of attack against Mitt Romney that Romney is a "vulture capitalist" who used to pick apart businesses and leave with huge profits is not sitting well with his usual allies on the right.

Perry's case against Romney and a similar one made by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich have come under attack from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others who say such criticisms don't belong in a Republican primary.

The pushback against Perry indicates just how poorly his presidential campaign is going. Perry had hoped by now to be heading toward a one-on-one slugfest with the former Massachusetts governor in South Carolina. Instead, he is one of several Republicans hoping to stop a Romney nomination that seems increasingly inevitable. And as that sense of inevitability around Romney builds, key voices on the right are coming to his defense.

"All this talk about sucking the blood out of companies and leaving corpses, limiting how much somebody can make in profits?" Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday. "This is the language of leftists. (Filmmakers) Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, they popularized this. This is the way Fidel Castro thinks, or says he thinks."
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/rick-perry/perrys-attacks-on-romney-dont-play-well-with-2096931.html

Newt Gingrich's campaign is threatening to sue South Carolina and Florida television stations that air an ad by a pro-Romney super-PAC claiming Gingrich was "fined" $300,000 for ethics violations during the 1990s.

Gingrich campaign attorney Stefan Passantino called the commercial "a defamatory communication which exposes this station to potential civil liability" in a letter sent to television stations, NBC Politics reports.

Passantino goes on to demand that stations refuse and cease airing the advertisements.

"Newt Gingrich has put Mitt Romney’s SuperPAC on notice that the free ride they have enjoyed to misstate Newt’s record are over," Passantino told NBC. "Discussing true facts concerning one’s record are fine, using SuperPAC funds to mislead voters will no longer be tolerated.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/203829-gingrich-campaign-tells-tv-stations-not-to-air-pro-romney-attack-ads

Following the heated exchange between Ron Paul and CNN's Dana Bash on Monday, the pro-Paul Revolution PAC is now calling for Bash's removal from the network for a comment she made that gives the impression of anti-Paul bias:

“I’m sure you talk to Republicans who are worried as well, just like I am, that Ron Paul will continue on long into the spring and summer," Bash said. "He could really hurt whomever the Republican nominee is because, still, nobody thinks, even if he does well here in New Hampshire, that he will ultimately be the nominee.”

The "just like I am" could, arguably, be a belated reference to the fact that she, too, is talking to Republicans who are worried. The second part — "he could really hurt whomever the Republican nominee is" — is somewhat harder to explain.

After multiple Bash incidents, the PAC is out for blood: “In America, voters rely on the media to provide objective reporting,” Revolution PAC Chairman Gary Franchi said in a comment for the Super PAC's site. “Editorializing like this obviously influences public perception and has no place in a hard newscast.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/01/propaul-super-pac-out-for-cnns-dana-bash-110492.html