• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 3rd from 10:49 to 10:55

    These are my links for March 3rd from 10:49 to 10:55:

    • Mitch Daniels’s ‘Truce’ Call Finds Strong Support in WSJ Poll – The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll appears to vindicate Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels‘s repeated insistence that the country needs a “truce” on fights over social issues while it grapples with its mounting economic challenges.

      Nearly two thirds of Republican primary voters said they would be “more likely” to vote for a GOP primary candidate who says the party should focus more on the economy and the deficit and less on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Only 8% said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate. The rest said they were unsure.

      The call to focus on economic over social concerns was particularly appealing to suburban women, a key swing voting bloc, and to white men overall.

      Many Republicans have dinged Mr. Daniels since he called for “a truce” on the social issues in an interview with the National Journal last year. While mulling a potential run for the 2012 GOP nomination, the Indiana governor has continued to double down on the same theme, most recently in a prominent speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

      Many Republicans have said privately that they considered Mr. Daniels’ position politically unwise. But the WSJ/NBC poll would seem to prove them wrong.

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      The demographic Daniels will need to win both the primary and a general election against Obama

    • Gaddafi bombs oil areas, faces crimes probe – Rebels Call out for President Bush – Opposition activists called for a no-fly zone, echoing a demand by Libya's deputy U.N. envoy, who now opposes Gaddafi.

      "Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes," shouted soldier-turned-rebel Nasr Ali, referring to a no-fly zone imposed on Iraq in 1991 by then U.S. President George Bush.

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      Obama's inaction is stark reminder of how weak he is in the foreign policy arena.

    • Air Force’s X-37B Space Plane Launching on Secret Mission – The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane is poised to launch on its second mission Friday (March 4), though what exactly it will be doing once it leaves the ground remains a mystery.

      The robotic X-37B mini-shuttle is slated to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Friday atop an Atlas 5 rocket, weather permitting. Its launch window opens at 3:39 p.m. EST (2039 GMT), according to the launch provider United Launch Alliance, which is overseeing the flight.

      This will mark the second space mission for the Air Force's X-37B space plane program — but the first for this particular plane. It is the second X-37B spacecraft built for the Air Force by Boeing and carries the name Orbital Test Vehicle 2, or OTV-2.