| | February 01, 2012 | | FLORIDA After being trounced by Mitt Romney in Florida, Newt Gingrich delivered a fiery and deluded speech at a defeat party, where he also laid out how he would turn the country into a Republican paradise when he replaces Barack Obama in January. Plus, reaction from the Florida primary results from Peter Beinart, Howard Kurtz, John Avlon, Michael Tomasky, David Frum and more. WAR CHEST The Romney campaign will proceed through the rest of the primary process with a rather large amount of loot in hand. According to a campaign finance report, the frontrunner raised about $24.3 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. That's almost 10 times what Newt Gingrich reportedly raised, and it doesn't even include the $24 million his super PAC, 'Restore Our Future' has raised. Barack Obama finished last year having raised $82 million in available cash, but with $3 million in debt. The Romney camp, on the other hand, is currently debt-free. Among the other super PACs reporting their fundraising and expenses today is the Republican 'American Crossroads' which, along with its sister corporation, raised over $51 million last year in it's mission to remove Barack Obama from the White House. CAHOOTS A classified NATO report obtained by the BBC, based on thousands of interrogations, concludes that the Taliban has widespread support among the Afghan people and is being directly assisted by Pakistan's intelligence service. The report is based on 27,000 interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and al Qaeda members as well as civilians. One senior al Qaeda detainee says, "The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad." The report also says that the Taliban is increasingly popular in Afghanistan. "Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption," reads the report. Pakistan called the report "ridiculous." The report itself cautions that the information is derived directly from insurgents and so is "not necessarily analytical." PAYDAY There may be a lot more Facebook millionaires soon. The social media company is expected to submit paperwork to regulators for a $5 billion initial public offering, one of the largest U.S. market debuts in history. (Google's IPO was $2 billion.) According to IFR, Morgan Stanley will arrange the IPO with the help of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital. and JP Morgan. The IPO process wouldn't be finalized until May, so pricing could change. YIKES Birth-control users, beware: Pfizer, the world's leading drug company, recalled 1 million packs of birth-control pills in the U.S. after discovering that they might not prevent pregnancy. The company recalled 14 lots of three different generic brands—Lo/Ovral-28, Norgestrel, and Ethinyl Estradiol—after an investigation found some packs might contain incorrect daily dosages. In a statement on Thursday, the company said that the pills posed no health risks to women but nonetheless urged consumers to "begin using a non-hormonal form of contraception immediately." | |
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