Is the growing OCCUPY WALL STREET movement—combined with the TEA PARTY—a sign that a new American Political Revolution has already begun?

Is Herman Cain for real? Will his 9-9-9 Tax Plan catapult him to the presidency—or will it—and he—be eviscerated by the Political Class?

Can Mitt Romney, who excites no one, still win the GOP nomination and then defeat President Obama? Or is he another Bob Dole/John McCain: a boring Republican nominee who can’t excite anyone and loses in November 2012?

Is a Third Option inevitable for 2012? Can an Independent Third Candidate actually win in November 2012?

All this and much more will be answered this week as Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen and John LeBoutillier analyze the 2012 Presidential race on CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL on www.live.Foxnews.com on Monday at 2 PM ET.

This is TV’s only show that features only people who have done politics for a living – no blow-hard, know-it-all, pontificating, tired, opinion-spewing, boring Talking Head so-called journalists—or self-proclaimed “strategists”—here. CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL has no phony arguments; no interrupting and yelling, no party-ordered Talking Points and no “agendas.” Instead, we let the viewers watch what would be a typical Senior Campaign Staff meeting—either in the White House or up on Capitol Hill—from people who have actually been in those meetings.

So, just before 2 PM on Monday, go to www.live.Foxnews.com and get your computer all set and the volume just right—and enjoy this unique political show.

And read other things at www.johnlebout.com

Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen and John LeBoutillier will analyze the 2012 Presidential and Congressional races on CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL on www.live.Foxnews.com on Monday at our new time: 2 PM ET.

The latest Gallup Poll shows the American people more negative about their government than ever measured before. In such an environment, is a Chris Christie late-entry likely to happen this week? Is a Third Option inevitable for 2012? Has the New American Political Revolution begun?

You can read John LeBoutillier’s Foxnews.com take on whether Chris Christie is the latest player in the GOP’s Savior Syndrome.

All this and much more will be discussed this week on CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL.

This is TV’s only show that features only people who have done politics for a living—no blow-hard, know-it-all, pontificating, tired, opinion-spewing, boring Talking Head so-called journalists—or self-proclaimed “strategists” - here. CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL has no phony arguments; no interrupting and yelling, no party-ordered Talking Points and no “agendas.” Instead, we let the viewers watch what would be a typical Senior Campaign Staff meeting—either in the White House or up on Capitol Hill—from people who have actually been in those meetings.

So, just before 2pm on Monday, go to www.live.Foxnews.com and get your computer all set and the volume just right—and enjoy this unique political show.

And read other things at www.johnlebout.com

Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen and John LeBoutillier will analyze the 2012 Presidential and Congressional races on CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL on www.live.Foxnews.com on Monday at a new time: 2 PM ET.

While President Obama’s ratings continue to tumble, the GOP Presidential race—in the wake of last Thursday night’s debate on Fox News/Google/YouTube—has changed. No sooner did Rick Perry turn in his third straight lackadaisical performance but Republicans and Tea Party activists renewed their extraordinary pressure on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to run.

(Read John LeBoutillier’s take on whether that debate was a “turning point” in the GOP race.)

All this and much more will be discussed this week on CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL.

This is TV’s only show that features only people who have done politics for a living—no blow-hard, know-it-all, pontificating, tired, opinion-spewing, boring Talking Head so-called journalists—or self-proclaimed “strategists”—here. CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL has no phony arguments; no interrupting and yelling, no party-ordered Talking Points and no “agendas.” Instead, we let the viewers watch what would be a typical Senior Campaign Staff meeting—either in the White House or up on Capitol Hill—from people who have actually been in those meetings.

So, just before 2 PM on Monday, go to www.live.Foxnews.com and get your computer all set and the volume just right—and enjoy this unique political show.

And read other things at www.johnlebout.com

Last night’s GOP debate may be a turning point in the 2012 Republican presidential selection process.

In front of a huge Fox News Channel and Foxnews.com audience—which is basically the GOP primary voter universe—Rick Perry had a golden opportunity to solidify his front-runner position.

But, instead, Perry fumbled the ball and came un-prepared, lazy and lackadaisical—while his main rival, one-time-front-runner Mitt Romney, has gotten his game in order and won this debate going away.

Perry had no jobs plan—even though he and his staff knew it would be the first question asked!

All night, Perry looked befuddled and repeatedly stumbled on his pre-cooked lines. His attacks on Romney fell flat—while Romney exploited the debate rule where, if your name was mentioned, you automatically got a 30-second rebuttal. So Romney cleverly did not mention Perry as he attacked him—and simultaneously explained his own suddenly-conservative positions.

The most dynamic moment of the debate came when former Senator Rick Santorum hit Perry on Perry’s policy of giving a cheaper tuition rate to illegal alien kids than to American kids. Whew! That is not popular among Republicans! And Perry sank like a stone from that point on.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of likely GOP primary voters—taken before last night’s debate—shows Perry’s one-time eleven-point lead over Mitt Romney has almost disappeared. He now leads Romney 28%-24%. The fact that his lead is dissipating may very well mean that Perry, like other out-of-nowhere candidates i.e. Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann, is also beginning to deteriorate.

Last night’s performance will only accelerate Perry’s decline.

Former US Rep. John LeBoutillier is co-host of CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL, along with co-hosts Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, airing live every Monday at 2 PM ET on Foxnews.com.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of likely GOP primary voters shows Texas Governor Rick Perry’s one-time eleven-point lead over Mitt Romney has almost disappeared—before this week’s GOP debate on Fox. He now leads Romney 28%-24%. The fact that his lead is dissipating may very well mean that Perry, like other out-of-nowhere candidates i.e. Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann, is also beginning to deteriorate—and that is happening just as the other seven presidential candidates prepare to unload on Perry.

This will be Perry’s third presidential debate, but his first on Fox. The other two—one on MSNBC and the other on CNN—had much smaller audiences than the Fox News Channel and Foxnews.com audience. And, even more importantly, the Fox audience is in great part the GOP primary electorate. So, for the first time, Rick Perry will be seen by millions of caucus-going and primary-voting Republicans.

Knowing this, you can be assured that the other seven Republicans will bring their A games on Thursday. Each, for his or her own reason, wants to knock Perry off his-front-runner pedestal. And they have all been studying the first two debates and have learned many things about the heretofore unknown Texas governor:

• He is a good debater when he can recite pre-cooked attack lines against his opponents;

But he is hopelessly lost at sea when on the defensive.

• He cannot think on his feet—a skill that is required to do well in debates;

• He quickly gets that Dan Quayle, deer-in-the-headlights look;

• His positions on hot-button issues like illegal immigration are fertile ground for further attacks on Thursday night;

• Inside the GOP—and thus the Fox audience—Perry’s policy in Texas of giving free or cheaper tuition to illegal alien students is not popular. In fact, most Republicans and conservatives are way, way to the right of Perry on this;

• Look for Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney to be chopping away at Perry—as they all want Perry’s social conservative supporters to leave him—especially in Iowa.

• Bachmann, who is fading by the minute and is now in single digits nationally, still is trying to win the Iowa Caucuses by garnering the Huckabee voters from 2008. She had those voters all to herself until Perry entered the race. Thus her strategy Thursday must be to continue her relentless attacks on Perry for his un-social-conservative policies in Texas—the way she did last week on the Gardacil issue.

• Look for more ammo to come from Perry’s 2010 book, FED UP! You can bet that his opponents have by now mined this book—which Perry probably did not even read—and will surface other new nuggets, including his description of Social Security as a “disease.” Whew, that must make Team Obama salivate with hope that the GOP nominates Perry. Can you picture the TV ads in senior-heavy areas of Florida and Pennsylvania?

• Look for more attacks on Perry’s Crony Capitalism and Pay-to-Play method of governing in Austin; the Tea Party hates this dirty type of government—and Perry is vulnerable on it.

• Perry is also vulnerable on his secret ways of governing; it smacks of cover-ups to the Tea Party.

Conclusion: Perry is going to be under attack all night on Thursday. Any of the seven who don’t hit Perry are trying for the Veep slot on Perry’s ticket.

Look for some fireworks—and for some sound bites to emerge that will run for several days.

The GOP race may change—drastically—Thursday night.

Former US Rep. John LeBoutillier is co-host of CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL, airing live every Monday at 2 PM ET on Foxnews.com. Along with co-hosts Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, the CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL team will appear on the Foxnews.com/Google/YouTube debate at 8:30 PM ET Thursday night giving pre and post-debate analysis. Just go to www.live.Foxnews.com at 8:30 PM Thursday.

See John LeBoutillier—twice-on FOX Business Channel:

1.) At 11-11:30 AM, on Dagen McDowell/Connell McShane‘s show on Tuesday, April 12, 2011;
2.) On Lou Dobbs Tonight at 7 PM, on Wednesday, April 13th.

ENJOY!!!

John LeBoutillier will indeed be on Fox & Friends on the Fox News Channel, Monday, at 6:50 AM EST, to talk about The Obama Identity.

As of now, I am scheduled to be interviewed in studio—live—on FOX News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Monday, November 29th @ 6:50 am to discuss The Obama Identity.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

John LeBoutillier Was Mean to Imus. Boo-Hoo. It makes sense that when faced with an astute political guest like former Congressman John LeBoutillier, Imus would ask a question about the erection coming up in November. It makes even more sense that the scholarly LeBoutillier would be so focused on providing an intelligent answer that he didn’t notice Imus’s intentional gaffe.

“It’s huge,” said LeBoutillier, presumably about the election, which is just three months away. “It’s obvious that the Republicans have a big head of steam, the Democrats are in terrible trouble.”

The proof, he insisted, is in the pudding for President Obama. “The polling is down, the economy is down, we may be heading back down toward another recession,” LeBoutillier observed. “What good things do Obama and the Democrats have to brag about after a year-and-a-half in power?”

Imus hoped the question was meant to be rhetorical (it was), but LeBoutillier said he wouldn’t be able to answer it anyway, because nobody could. Not because Imus didn’t go to Harvard, like his guest.

“I was killing Viet Cong in the jungles of Vietnam so you could have a nice education,” he inaccurately told LeBoutillier, who became so distracted by Imus’s nonsense that he lost his train of thought.

It’s always safe to assume he had been railing on Obama, and so LeBoutillier continued down that road. “Everything they’ve done is at odds with the majority of the American people,” he said, ticking off the corporate bailouts, health care reform, and Obama’s position on Arizona’s immigration law as examples.

“He has deliberately chosen to be on the minority side of these hot-button issues,” LeBoutillier said, adding, “If you’re elected by the majority of people, as he was, and then you quickly flip around and side with the minority of people over all these issues, at some point you’re going to become a minority President.”

He predicted carnage in the House later this year, but isn’t sure the Republicans will gain control. Either way, Obama has to “adjust himself to the reality of things,” said LeBoutillier, who then provided some reality of his own on the BP disaster.

Having recently met with a South Korean business and science expert, LeBoutillier reported that when all is said and done, the environmental and economic damage from the spill will be “the equivalent of 14 Chernobyls.”

He added, “The damage to the land, the wetlands, the beaches, the sea bed—that’s going to last decades. The damage from the dispersants that have been used will be the equivalent of Agent Orange.”

LeBoutillier maintains that Obama should have set up camp on a destroyer in the Gulf of Mexico, “like a young Theodore Roosevelt would,” and brought down the Navy and the Marine Reserves to monitor BP’s clean up efforts.

“Even bugle players!” he said, referring to Imus’s designation in the Marine Corps. Thankfully, time was up, and LeBoutillier could insult the I-Man no more.

-Julie Kanfer

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LATER IN THE SHOW, IMUS TRIES TO CONVINCE CHRIS WALLACE TO PUT JOHN LEBOUTILLIER ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY:

John LeBoutillier, whom Wallace patently refuses to have on Fox News Sunday for some reason, made the point earlier that the Republicans could actually gain control of the House, and Wallace agreed. He was mum, however, on why LeBoutillier has yet to be invited on, but Imus had his own theory.

“We don’t want to cut into Brit’s time when he’s proselytizing for Jesus,” said Imus.

Asked if he knew John LeBoutillier, the Conservative former Congressman who now writes for Newsmax and appeared one hour ago on this show, Wallace shrugged and said, “I know the name,” which was not the right answer. He should, Imus insisted, have LeBoutillier on Fox News Sunday instead of “the same stiffs” he has every week.

“We have news makers,” said Wallace. “Not news-maxers.”

—Julie Kanfer

A Look at the 2012 GOP Presidential Race

Because Mitt Romney is on a pre-2012 presidential campaign book tour—and because Sarah Palin is constantly in the news—and because President Barack Obama is in self-destruct mode—let’s take a look far, far ahead at the present state of the 2012 GOP race for president. After all, 2012 is now wide-open:

Romney is a bit hot right now. He is back in the news, on TV and radio shows. He is a good-looking man and with a business background he can speak to the still-deteriorating economic situation all around us. He has learned from some of his mistakes from the 2008 race, too. He now appears more humble.

However, he also has many of the same problems from the past: he is a political chameleon who can change a position at the drop of a hat. He was an enthusiastic booster—and as governor, a signer—of Massachusetts’ own version of ObamaCare. It is now widely unpopular in the Bay State—and one of the reasons Scott Brown won that January 19 special senate election.

Health care premiums have exploded in Massachusetts since that bill was enacted—and may very well be a precursor of what will happen nationally if ObamaCare passes.

Is Romney the Republican ONE or is he, as someone recently put it, an “elegant snake oil salesman”? (See answer below.)

Sarah Palin hit a home run as a stand-up comic on Jay Leno last week. She is just plain good on TV. She is shopping an Alaskan reality show with mega-producer Mark Burnett. She has the Fox News gig and earns huge speaking fees. In sum, she is raking in the big bucks.

If she runs for president in 2012 then she has to stop most of this money-making. Or, another way to read it is that she is making this money—people look at her on TV and pay to hear her speak—precisely because she might run for president. So, if she does not run, does much of this money-making capability dry up? Or is she banking a ton of dough now and will worry about running later?

Either way she is a major player for this pre-primary period. If she says she is not running, then it is a new race altogether. But until then she dominates all the calculations, sucks up the political oxygen and complicates the race—and the fundraising—for all other candidates.

Speaking of other candidates there are the usual names: Huckabee, Pawlenty, Haley Barbour and Mitch Daniels. They all bring something unique to the table. The question is: can any of them “connect” with voters and light a fire?

In late 2007 and early 2008 Huckabee caught fire, passed Romney – who never caught fire at any time in the entire race by the way—but then that fire petered out. No one else caught fire inside the GOP. So McCain won by default. He was a terrible candidate who ran a horrible race.

Today’s fire is not inside the Republican Party. It is inside the Tea Party anti-establishment movement.

This is a movement that sees the establishment of both parties plus Wall Street, Hollywood and the Big Media as corrupt, dirty and rigged. And they are!

This is what the Tea Party Movement is all about.

And the next ONE—the next Reagan—the next Mr. Conservative—has to feel this anger in his bones. No, he can’t come across as an angry person. But he has to feel this anger and this despair and translate it into all his speeches and interviews. Only then will he “connect” and catch fire with this growing band of swing voters who will elect the next president in 2012.

Mitt Romney does not connect. Nor does he really feel that anger. He may yet win—by default; he may stand out in a desultory field the way McCain did in 2008. But he will never really lead this country. You know why not? Because he doesn’t really believe in anything. He looks good but stands for nothing. And this will be his undoing.

The One we are all waiting for—the next real leader of this nation—has not yet appeared on the national stage.

Let us hope he does by 2012.

John LeBoutillier will be on The Happy Hour on the Fox Business Channel on Monday, March 8th at 5pm.

Even though he was a United States Congressman in the early 1980s, has written several books, and is a pundit for Newsmax.com, John LeBoutillier was nobody until he began appearing with Imus last year.

Despite being a Republican, LeBoutillier not completely off the rails. Today, he shared his not-so-insane views on how the President ought to spend his political capital. First up: get Osama Bin Laden.

"Eight years and one month after this bastard hit this country, he continues to taunt us with videotapes and audiotapes, and for some odd reason this country allows it," said LeBoutillier. "What happened to the America that used to say, 'You're going to hit us? We're going to come back and get you!'"

That policy is eerily similar to the one employed by Imus in the Morning. LeBoutillier insisted it would unify Americans.

"I don't want our soldiers over there building schools in Afghanistan, interdicting the drug trade, running the government," he said. "It's all corrupt there, it's not going to change."

Killing Bin Laden, he added, would avenge 9/11, and significantly weaken Al-Qaeda, both strategically and psychologically. But instead of focusing on that goal, Obama is wasting his time and his political capital trying to pass health care reform, which LeBoutillier said is inextricably linked to Afghanistan.

"If he decides to put 30,000 more soldiers in Afghanistan, it's going to tick off the Left," he said. "And he'll also tick them off by dumping the public option."

Imus observed that Obama is a better-looking, more charming version of Jimmy Carter, which LeBoutillier did not dispute. He admonished Obama for dwelling on issues like the dispute between a Cambridge police officer and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates back in July, and on trying to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago.

"Fix the economy, get jobs—that's what people want," said LeBoutillier. "Instead all they hear is 'health care, health care, health care,' and the more they hear it, his ratings are going down, down, down."

A Harvard alumnus, LeBoutillier said it was the overarching liberalism and hypocrisy there that made him become a Conservative in the 1970s. As an example, he said his professors and fellow students would preach about the redistribution of wealth, and then hop in their Mercedes to drive into Boston for lunch.

Said Imus, "Works for me."

President Obama—and the entire country—are struggling over Afghanistan.

No one can decide exactly just what our mission is—or should be.

So here is what we—as a nation—should do:

The President calls into the Oval Office the Joint Chiefs, the Head of National Intelligence and the Director of Central Intelligence, the SecDef and Generals Petreus and McChrystal.

They all sit down and the President gives them their mission: “Gentlemen, here is what we are going to do: we are going to devote every dollar, every soldier, every intelligence asset, every drop of political capital—EVERYTHING—on getting and killing Osama Bin Laden. Period. Nothing else matters. If we have to go into Pakistan to get him, do it! We are in there secretly anyway.

“This was why we went to Afghanistan originally—and the American people want to know why—after eight years—we have failed to do what we said we would do.

“So, we are going to get him. This single action will decapitate Al Qaeda and render it a weakened, disorganized entity that will then no longer be a threat to us. There is no other leader who can rally that disparate group of killers. And we are not going to stand for a man who murdered almost 3000 people to taunt us in audio and video tapes—more than eight years after the 9/11 attacks.

“And then we are going to pack up and leave. We are not there to build schools or to stop their narcotics trade or to buck up an inherently corrupt society and a thoroughly crooked regime.

“We are not the world’s policeman. And we can’t afford to try to build another country when our own in in such disarray.

“If any of you cannot accept this new mission, then please say so now—and resign. We will find other officers who will embrace this policy.

“We seek justice for the murders of 9/11. And we will get it.

“And, if in two months we haven’t gotten Bin Laden, I may very well make changes in our senior military and intelligence leadership and keep making changes until this mass murderer is brought to justice.”

If the President said that—and meant it instead of paying lip service to this mission—then we would succeed. That is the mission Americans can unite behind.

————

At the same time the White House has declared war on Fox—with more passion than their commitment to get Bin Laden. This anti-Fox diatribe is a stupid political maneuver. Sure, the liberal “base” hates Fox, but Obama has those voters anyway.

Why not, if you are Obama and his surrogates, go on Fox as much as possible and try to woo and schmooze and seduce as much of that audience as possible?

Supposedly Obama believes he can win over anyone he talks to. That is why he wants to talk to Iran and Hugo Chavez and the North Koreans. But he won’t talk to the Americans who watch Fox?

Something is wrong here.

Obama has a thin skin, which is evidence that he was “given” the Presidency without really earning it. The same applied to G.W. Bush—who was a legacy all his life, cashing in on having the same name as his father.

Candidates who get high office the old fashioned way—they earn it—are not going to turn down air time and a chance to convince voters to vote for them!

Team Obama will rue the day they declared war on Fox.