HAPPY NEW YEAR! To all TMV readers, writers and contributors and to everyone all over the world, all of us here at TMV wish you the happiest of Happy New Years in 2012. Graphic via shutterstock.com

Some years ago, particularly after the 1963 assassination of President John F.Kennedy was accurately predicted by psychic Jeane Dixon (but some say her prediction was exaggerated), the mainstream media and tabloids had a field day with end-of-the-year predictions. Sometimes these predictions were silly and didn’t come true. But sometimes they were spot on. It’s much harder to find lists of predictions these days, but they do exist. Some are often funny and the psychics will make a ton...

No, her campaign is not officially over since this guy has not sung, but if it isn’t now in the tea leaves that Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s campaign is going nowheresville, it is in the coffee grinds: EARLY, Iowa – During a swing through a conservative pocket of the state Friday, with only four days before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus, Michele Bachmann visited a local restaurant to discover only a handful of people waiting for her. Bachmann was accompanied by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, the district’s...

Let’s face it. Politics is a brutal game that takes every ounce of the energy for a Presidential wannabe, with incoming political missiles and the threat of sudden political death present at all moments. Throughout American political history, politicians under pressure have cried. Today it was Newt Gingrich’s turn. Early reports suggest women voters in the room were highly sympathetic. But, in the end, Gingrich’s baggage, Bennie’s Bargain Basement campaign budget, and the...

A new NBC Poll shows the growing political drama shaping up in Iowa in the race for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul are in a near tie — and once-politically-hot former House Newt Gingrich is dropping so fast that you could swear he had been talking about a “nahn nahn nahn” plan. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul are running neck-and-neck in Iowa, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum...

A new poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is headed for a big win in New Hampshire — as other polls show in surging in Iowa and nationally. Unless there is yet another abrupt reversal in trending in the battle for the 2012 Republican nomination, it may turn out that the original belief of Romney’s “inevitability” will prove true. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in the run-up to the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, according to a new poll released Thursday afternoon...

Greetings, students. I hope you all have a copy of your syllabus. Yes, you are in the correct classroom. This is Hypocrisy 101 at Political University. Last year we dealt with the TelePrompter issue and how Sarah Palin was blasting President Barack Obama for using a TelePrompter and many conservative talk show hosts did, too. But then she wrote notes on her hand and she and the talk show hosts pretended that was somehow different than a TelePrompter. And now we have Michelle Bachmann: Republican...

If you want to understand Pakistan and a good deal about South Asia buy “Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi.” South Asia has always been of huge interest to me, from the time I was a student at Colgate University, to my internship on “The Hindustan Times” in New Delhi in the early 1970s, to a couple of years I spent in that city after graduating the Medill School of Journalism and working as a freelance journalist, writing for papers such as the Chicago Daily News. It’s...

The seesaw verdicts of the polls continue in Iowa. The latest CNN poll in Iowa fits in with the new tone coming from the camp of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: a seeming sense of relief plus a belief that their candidate will prevail in Iowa — and in the end. The new poll puts Romney in the lead, former House Speaker Gingrich fading faster then the impression a customer makes at Tiffany’s asking if they have $5 dollar jewlery and former Sen. Rick Santormum picking up support: ...

Here’s our modest annual list looking at 2011 — a list that might help guide us in 2012. Best New National Scene Republican: Former Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman. Some GOPers never forgave him for having served as President Barack Obama’s Ambassador to China, but he offered the kind of thoughtful conservative Republicanism that could have roped in independents. He would have had a better chance running 10 years ago. Most Interesting Moderate Republican: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who...

It sounds like over Christmas Texas Gov. Rick Perry paid a visit to Mitt Romney’s or Newt Gingrich’s flip-flop outlets: Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday declared that had undergone a “transformation” and no longer supported abortion in cases of rape or incest. During a campaign event in Iowa, Full Faith Christian Center pastor Joshua Verwers noted that Perry used to believe that abortion was acceptable for victims of rape and incest, but the Texas governor had...

As usual, we end a year much the poorer due to many of those who passed — people we knew and loved, and people we read about and felt we knew and loved. Here’s a slideshow about some of the more famous people who left us in 2012.

A new poll shows Rep. Ron Paul continues to significantly surge in Iowa and has taken the lead – raising the real prospect that if trending continues he could be the winner of the Republican Iowa causes which would further add to the media narrative that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney can’t close the deal and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is on the quick descent as weighty baggage pulls him down. Not to mention it would add this factor: even if Paul has come under fire for...

The imagery of Newt Gingrich’s veracity keeps getting worse and worse as does his refurbished image in general. And today it’ll take another big hit because former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney: With just a week to go before the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney said Newt Gingrich’s failure to qualify for the Virginia GOP primary ballot indicated a disorganized campaign effort. “I think he compared it to Pearl Harbor. I think it’s more like Lucille Ball and the chocolate factory,” Romney...

Is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s once-dead-once-surging campaign for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination on the descent again? When taken together a series of news stories and developments suggest his chances of winning the nomination could be dwindling. In politics it isn’t true that “I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name correctly.” Gingrich could live without — and do better politically — without stories such as...

A new New Hampshire poll has good news for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, not-so-good-news for former House Speaker New Gingrich and good news for Rep. Ron Paul: Romney is ahead and Paul is rising: Newt Gingrich’s surge has slowed and Ron Paul has gained momentum, but Mitt Romney remains the clear front-runner in New Hampshire with a little more than two weeks until the nation’s first primary, according to a new Boston Globe poll. Romney has the support of 39 percent of the state’s...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from ex-GOP Presidential contender and Fox News hit political personality Mike Huckabee on his fellow GOPers and Barack Obama: Asked whether he second-guessed himself over his decision not to run for president, Huckabee really went for it. “Republicans can’t decide what they want to be when they grow up,” he said, adding, “I know they want to beat Obama, but in the process, they want to tear each other up so much, they want to savage each other so much...

By not definitively repudiating newsletters that went out under his name that had racism or political Twilight Zone-ish ideas to the media’s satisfaction, Rep. Ron Paul has let the newsletters and his critics define him. The issue is is lingering out there, becoming a field day for cartoons and — if he wins Iowa — and low hanging fruit for late night comedians. For instance, Crooks & Liar’s David Neiwart writes, in part: Let’s face it — Ron Paul’s lame...

The accessibility and efficacy of a college education ain’t what it used to be. Glenn Reynolds, aka, Instapundit, (who is a law professor) offers a video that looks at the issue:

The U.S. P0stal Service is financially going postal. John Avlon, writing in The Daily Beast, notes that it faces a grave crisis and there si a chance that the Christmas of December 2011 could one day soon be looked back as the Good Old Days — when there was more extensive service than during the rest of the 21st century. In fact, Avlon writes, the Postal Service’s survival could be at stake: A crowded post office is part of the scenery of the season-–long lines, arms full of packaged...

Not really.

White Christmas is popular in many languages, particularly Spanish. To wit: My favorite version: students at a public school in Madrid. I find this somehow very touching when they sing both in Spanish — and in English: A version for younger people: And one a bit more keeping with Bing Crosby’s original concept of the song: And here is Bing Crosby doing the song for the last time on ABC television before his death in the late 70s:

We need this:

A song for today:

All of us who write for or contribute to The Moderate Voice want to wish one and all a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your time with family and dear friends because that’s what really matters. The best to YOU. Photo via shutterstock.com