Elections 2012

James Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, may have been the one to make the video of Mitt Romney's damning remarks about the "47 percent" in the run-up to the presidential election last year go mainstream, but the man who actually shot the video has remained a mystery, until now. The filmmaker has been revealed as a bartender that was working at the dinner for wealthy Republican owners, and will reveal his full identity this evening.

The man admitted that the only reason that he had even brought a camera with him to the fundraiser, which was held in May 2012 in Boca Raton, Florida, was because he had assumed that Romney would meet staff and allow photos to be taken as a thank you. That of course did not happen.

In the video, which is believed to have been the turning point of the election and downfall of Romney's campaign, Romney argues that 47% of Americans would vote for Obama "no matter what" because they were "victims dependent on government." Romney said:

"All right, there are 47 per cent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what."

The bartender says that he felt like it was his civic duty to make the tape public. His identity will be revealed on Wednesday night on MSNBC, with the much-anticipated interview taking place on the Ed Show.

Princeton professor Dr. Cornell West blasted President Barack Obama a day after his inauguration. West took issue with President Obama using Martin Luther King's bible to be sworn in as commander and chief and called Obama a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface".

West admitted he was happy that Republican candidate Mitt Romney failed to earn a spot in the White House but suggested Obama has not done enough for the common man commenting:

“Poverty, trade unions being pushed against the wall dealing with stagnating and declining wages when profits are still up and the 1 percent are doing very well. No talk about drones dropping bombs on innocent people. So we end up with such a narrow, truncated political discourse.”

A recent memo sent out by the Republican State Leadership Committee emphasizes the GOP's 2010 victories in state legislatures as key to the Republicans maintaining its majority in the House of Representatives in the 2012 elections.

The reason those 2010 state legislature victories were so crucial to the GOP's success in the House in 2012 was the process of redistricting, or gerrymandering.

Titled "How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led to a Republican U.S. House Majority in 2013", the RSLC boasts that it "raised more than $30 million in 2009-2010, and invested $18 million after Labor Day 2010 alone" to ensure statehouse wins in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The memo reads:

“The rationale was straightforward. Controlling the redistricting process in these states would have the greatest impact on determining how both state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn. Drawing new district lines in states with the most redistricting activity presented the opportunity to solidify conservative policymaking at the state level and maintain a Republican stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade.”

The RSLC's plan worked. Despite the fact that they took a beating in Senate races and lost the White House to incumbent President Barack Obama, House Republicans still managed to end up with a 33-seat majority. This is thanks to district maps that were drawn up by their state colleagues.

Dennis Kucinich, one of the Democratic Party's more liberal members in Congress and a leading voice for the left-wing, has officially left Congress after representing the Cleveland, Ohio, area for the past 16 years. While he did not retain his seat in the House of Representatives following redistricting, Kucinich says he is not ruling out another run for public office.

After watching the new members of Congress take office at noon on Thursday, Kucinich told reporters that he is determined to remain a voice for change, even if he doesn't have a House vote. In an interview with the Associated Press, Kucinich said that "it remains to be seen" if he will run for office again, but has no immediate plans. Kucinich said that he is excited to be planning his future.

Danny Hafley, who lives in Casey County, Kentucky, has drawn national attention for a display of President Obama in his front yard. The sign, despite a watermelon that the caricature is holding, isn't intending to be racist according to Hafley and just part of free speech.

According to neighbors, when the Obama effigy was first put up it featured a sign that read "Pray to God he doesn't ruin the country.

Mitt Romney may have lost the presidency, but he can take solace in the fact that he at least won something this year as it was announced Monday that the Republican made the year's most memorable remark with his secretly recorded diatribe against the supposed 47% of the American population that lives off the government. The honor comes from Fred Shapiro, who edits the "Yale Book of Quotations."

Shapiro gives out the prize for the year's top 10 quotes. Romney also was awarded second place for his "binders full of women" comment during the October 16 presidential debate. The remark, which is widely seen as having been a contributing factor to his Election Day loss, "contributed to an image of him being somewhat out of touch," said Shapiro.

Romney also took third place on the dubious awards list with his "you didn't build that", and snagged a fifth place award for his quip about "horses and bayonets" during the October 22 presidential debate.

Karl Rove and Dick Morris, both paid political analysts, have been temporarily banned from appearing on Fox News by chief Roger Ailes as the network attempts to distance themselves from the two men whose election predictions were so far off from the end result.

According to New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman, Ailes decided that it is important for Fox News to take a step back from Rove and Morris because the election is over. Ailes' deputy Bill Shine reportedly sent a memo to all of the network's news producers ordering them to seek special permission before booking Morris or Rove for any upcoming segments.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama will host former Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney for a private lunch at the White House. This will mark their first meeting since Obama defeated Romney at the polls earlier this month.

The lunch date follows the president's promise made in the aftermath of the election to consult with Romney before the end of the year. It also comes as Obama continues to iron out a solution with congressional leaders to avoid a looming "fiscal cliff" that could put the American economy back into a recession.

President Barack Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, has revealed that former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman was thought to be the biggest threat to the president's re-election chances.

Huntsman officially dropped out of the race after he bet big on a New Hampshire primary win, and then came in third behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. But Messina says that Huntsman may have been the GOP's best bet in the general election.

During a forum sponsored by Politico, Messina said:

“We were honest about our concerns about Huntsman. I think Huntsman would have been a very tough general election candidate. We looked at his profile in a general election and thought he would have been difficult."

On Election Day 2012, Democrats in California earned a two-thirds majority in both houses of the state legislature, marking the first time in 80 years that any party has achieved that feat in the state. This supermajority will allow them to pass virtually anything they want. Republicans are now warning that if the national party does not heed California's example, the GOP could move towards political irrelevance on a much larger scale.

It was the California Republican Party's alienation of minority voters, especially Latinos, beginning decades ago that set the stage for its losses in 2012. In fact, on a national scale, Mitt Romney's defeat in the presidential race was in large part due to a majority of Latinos supporting President Obama.

Allan Hoffenblum, a former manager of local GOP campaigns in California who now publishes the California Target Book, an almanac on California election campaigns, says:

“California Republicans are becoming the white man’s party. Now I see the same thing happening on the national level. If the Republican Party doesn’t reform itself and become a viable party again, something else is going to replace it.”

California wasn't always a blue state, in fact, it voted red in six straight presidential elections until Bill Clinton, a Democrat, won the White House in 1992. Since Clinton, California has voted solidly for Democrats for president.