Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Romney sweeps 'em.
eclaires, I included the picture just for you. (well, maybe a little for me).
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-projected-win-maryland-primary-000051319.html
Santorum and Romney enter the Jan. 16 debate stage (David Goldman/AP)
Following easy primary victories over Rick Santorum in Maryland and D.C. Tuesday night, Mitt Romney won the biggest prize of the evening in Wisconsin, earning a significant number of delegates and bolstering his frontrunner status.
Romney's victory speech, issued at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisc., took the tone of a general election address as he chose to focus heavily on President Obama, high gas prices, Obamacare, and the economy.
"President Obama thinks he's doing a good job," Romney told the audience, adding that's something the president didn't say on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
Romney conceded the past few years have been difficult for many, but said the president and his lack of leadership have made it worse. Romney positioned himself as a symbol of hope amid the turmoil.
"The dreamers can dream a little bigger, the help wanted signs can be dusted off, and we can start again," Romney said.
He made no direct mention of his opponent Santorum.
Heading into Tuesday's primary, Romney had 572 delegates-- half way to the 1,144 necessary for the nomination, Santorum had 273 delegates, Newt Gingrich had 135, and Ron Paul had 50, according to the Associated Press.
Together, Maryland and the District have 53 delegates up for grabs (Santorum did not appear on D.C.'s ballot). But Wisconsin--which will award 42 delegates--was the night's major wild card and holds the potential to change the course of the primary race.
Wisconsin is a swing state that will factor heavily in the 2012 general election. If Santorum had been able to best current delegate frontrunner Romney there, it would have significantly boosted Santorum's campaign going forward.
Prior to Tuesday, Santorum had pledged to remain in the race regardless of Wisconsin's outcome. (He spent Tuesday evening in Pennsylvania--his home state, which will hold its primary April 24.)
Speaking from a primary results watching rally in Mars, Penn., Santorum reiterated his commitment to the campaign. "We have now reached the point where it's half time," Santorum said, noting that half the country's total delegates have been awarded. "And who's ready to charge out of the locker room in Pennsylvania for the second half?!" he asked as the audience cheered.
Santorum presented himself as the unwavering conservative in the race, once again taking jabs at Romney for shifting stances. We need "someone whose views are forged in steel, not on an Etch A Sketch," Santorum said.
He made mention of Texas' May 29 primary, where 155 delegates are at stake, as a factor in his delegate strategy.
With a loss in Wisconsin, Santorum remains significantly behind Romney in delegates, and will have the prospect of no additional wins (save in his home state of Pennsylvania--a must-win) in coming contests for the remainder of April. All of this comes as pressure ramps up for Santorum to bow out.
In recent weeks, former President George H. W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union have all endorsed Romney. Many expressed a desire for the party to unite behind a candidate.
Leading up to Tuesday, Romney secured high-profile endorsements in Wisconsin from House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson.
The Romney campaign on Tuesday confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it has formed a joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee for the general election. The move suggests Republicans are rallying around Romney even though the party extended the invitation to form a joint committee to all the GOP candidates running because the primary race is ongoing. Romney is the only candidate reported to have accepted.
The joint committee bumps the donation limit from $5,000 per donor for the primary and general combined to $75,000 via various related committees.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
Re: Romney sweeps 'em.
Boo.
You're a Ron Paul fan, right? Is there a R candidate other than him that you'd go for?
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
This reminds me of the following Onion piece, lol.Women Voters Can't Help Fawning Over Sexist GOP
'We Should Know Better, But There's Just Something About Its Unflinching Misogyny,' Says Gushing Female Populace
MARCH 26, 2012 | ISSUE 48?13
ARTICLE TOOLS
RELATED ARTICLES
08.20.03
03.23.05
WASHINGTON?Saying they know its no good for them but they just can't help themselves, gushing women voters acknowledged Monday the overwhelming and uncontrollable attraction they feel toward the sexist Republican party.
Smitten female voters across the nation told reporters that despite the way it treats them, they still find everything about the GOP?from its reckless, devil-may-care neglect of women's health issues to its devastatingly bold misogyny?completely irresistible.
"They openly insult me, undermine my intelligence, and act as if I lack the basic responsibility to take care of myself, but every time I hear them talking about why I shouldn't be able to choose what I do with my own body, I get a little turned on," registered voter Jennifer Wilson said. "My friends keep telling me I'll get burned like I always do when I elect guys who think their authority extends to my uterus, but there's just something unbelievably sexy about politicians who see something they want and then go out and take it."
"Sure, I could probably find a party that would respect me and be sympathetic toward my desire to make my own personal health care decisions," Wilson continued. "But what can I say? That's not what drives me wild."
While acknowledging they deserved better and were "probably going to hate [themselves] for it," many women said that when they go to the polls they simply cannot resist their deep-seated urge to vote for brazenly chauvinistic candidates who actually wish to deprive them of access to even the most commonplace forms of contraception.
According to a recent Zogby poll, 83 percent of females voters say they "just aren't ready to settle down" with a political party that has their best interests at heart, 68 percent find themselves drawn to cocksure Republican lawmakers who oppose extending the Violence Against Women Act, and 54 percent report feeling aroused "just thinking about" an elderly hard-line evangelical explaining to them how the nation's moral fabric is threatened by the sexual activity of unmarried women.
Enlarge Image
Sexist Republicans Who Make Women Swoon, left to right ? Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate ? Romney constantly changes his mind on women?s rights, and while women say his indecision can be infuriating, they also admit it?s kind of sexy. ? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) ?
Women know this sounds awful, but they were seriously turned on when Issa?s government panel on contraception didn?t include a single female witness. ? Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) ? Upton is firmly against federal funding for abortion, and women have said his shortsightedness on the issue totally gets them going.
"I keep saying I won't let myself be put at the mercy of a political party that caters to fundamentalist Christians who believe husbands should control their wives," said Seattle attorney Connie York, explaining the difficulty of voting against a GOP presidential candidate who talks tough about shutting down Planned Parenthood cancer-screening and prenatal-care centers. "Then I step into the voting booth, draw the curtain, and?and it's just so *** hot, I can't say no."
Added York, "There's something about pulling the lever for a man who would force you to die for the sake of saving a fetus that makes you feel like you're doing something a little bit naughty, you know?"
While experts have repeatedly warned them about the need to break this self-destructive cycle, many women admitted that come November they will likely find themselves falling for yet another wild, insolent candidate who opposes something as basic and necessary as sex education in public schools.
"They're just setting themselves up for disappointment when they do this," said sociologist Herbert Iglesias, whose research focuses on women who vote for men who would like to see them imprisoned for murder if they have an abortion after being raped. "And no matter how often they're called derogatory names or discriminated against, some of them keep going back to the same political party."
Still, some female voters said they have a more nuanced outlook on their situation.
"Ultimately, I think we just want what we can't have," middle school teacher Deborah Trillo, 37, said. "They walk all over you and break your heart anytime you have the slightest bit of hope for them, but there's always a small part of you that thinks maybe, just maybe, you'll find one who's more than just an irredeemable, narrow-minded, backward, bullying misogynist."
"Of course with my luck, they always just turn out to be gay," Trillo added.