Florida Will Reap Next Big GOP-Ad Windfall

Florida, a make-or-break state for GOP White House hopefuls, will be saturated with as much as $15 million worth of TV advertising in the next few weeks as candidates and super PACs try to prove Iowa either right or irrelevant.

"Florida is a state that's very different from Iowa," said Ken Goldstein, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. "Iowa had about 120,000 [Republican primary] voters and Florida will have 2 million."

A winner-take-all state with 50 delegates, Florida rose in importance in the GOP's White House race after the muddled results of the Iowa caucuses, which gave former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an eight-vote victory over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The caucuses also gave Texas Rep. Ron Paul unexpectedly strong support.

Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, slammed President Obama and Newt Gingrich in a spot titled 'Happy.' They will battle it out in New Hampshire on Jan. 10, and are likely to head to South Carolina's Jan. 21 contest and compete in Florida's Jan. 31 primary.

Although Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Minn., has dropped out of the race, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman are still running.

Florida could settle the volatile race much the way it essentially sealed the Republican nomination four years ago for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The high-stakes contest is expected to be very expensive. Florida has 10 media markets, and it's estimated it costs a campaign more than $1.5 million a week to air an ad statewide.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, candidates spent nearly $4 million to air ads in Iowa, and the super PACs spent more than $10 million. Advertising dollars are now flowing into New Hampshire, and Mr. Goldstein said much more money is going to South Carolina. But spending in Florida is expected to dwarf those buys and will begin soon, especially when campaigns fine-tune their messaging after the New Hampshire and South Carolina races.

"We expect a lot of money is going to be spent in a short period of time," said Ray Karczewski of Harrington, Richter & Parsons, who sells advertising time for Miami's WSVN, a Fox station, and Orlando's WKFC, a Hearst station.

Mr. Romney's 30-second "Leader" ad began airing the day after the Iowa caucuses, selling Mr. Romney as a candidate of "steadiness and constancy" and insinuating that Mr. Gingrich is not.

Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney, has also begun its attacks in the Sunshine State, spending more than $530,000 to run an attack ad aimed at Mr. Gingrich. Called "Happy," it slams the former congressional leader for his personal and political "baggage" and has been credited for the erosion of support for Mr. Gingrich in Iowa. Restore Our Future has also spent about $90,000 on direct mail attacking Mr. Gingrich and is likely to soon target Mr. Santorum.

But Richard Martinez, general manager of WTVJ-6, an NBC station in Miami, hasn't run any presidential primary ads yet. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale market is expensive and heavily Democratic, which may have prompted GOP candidates to hold off on buying air time there.

But Mr. Martinez expects that to change soon and estimates the South Florida broadcasters will eventually sell $2 million worth of primary ads, the same amount as 2008.

GOP candidates are also likely to run their first Spanish-language ads in this Florida presidential campaign to reach the state's large Cuban-American population, which trends Republican in presidential elections. A spokeswoman for Univision, the largest Spanish-language network in the U.S., said its Miami station is "in conversations with all the campaigns and PACs and has received inquiries for proposals as they focus on the Florida primary."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adage/homepage/~3/XZErKAY3ZE0/

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London Muzzles Its Olympic Volunteers Ahead of the Summer Games [Social Media]

London may be setting up Europe's largest Wi-Fi network ahead of the Summer Olympics but it'll do a fat lot of good for the Games' 70,000 volunteers since they're effectively banned from using social media during the event. Like, at all. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_au5BB5-sJw/london-muzzles-its-olympic-volunteers-ahead-of-the-summer-games

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ECB's Orphanides wants to stop making banks pay for Greece (Reuters)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? European Central Bank policymaker Athanasios Orphanides called for euro zone leaders to abandon plans to make private sector investors help reduce Greece's debts - a move likely to get little traction with the currency bloc's paymaster, Germany.

Orphanides, who is also the central bank governor of Cyprus, said in a newspaper column published on Friday that dropping plans to force losses on private sector holders of Greek debt would "help restore trust" in the euro zone and lower the borrowing costs of other governments in the currency union.

The involvement of the private sector in the Greek bailout has eroded investor confidence in euro zone sovereign debt and raised pressure on borrowing costs, despite policymakers' efforts to reassure markets that Greece is an isolated case.

"Reversing the Greek private sector involvement decision would also raise the financing costs on the Greek government, but by restoring trust in the euro zone it would reduce the financing costs of other euro zone governments," Orphanides wrote in the Financial Times.

A 30-year low interest rate loan to Greece from other countries could accompany the reversal of private sector involvement, he said, helping to keep its financing costs in line with present fiscal plans.

An ECB spokesman declined to comment on whether Orphanides' views represented the position of the ECB as a whole.

However, the central bank warned government leaders when they set out on a path of private sector involvement (PSI) in 2010 that the policy posed a risk for investors' trust in sovereign debt.

One euro zone central bank official noted that Orphanides had published his comments ahead of fresh talks this month on Greek PSI and that Cypriot banks are heavily exposed to Greek sovereign debt.

Banks and investment funds have been negotiating with Athens for weeks on a PSI scheme under which they will accept a nominal 50 percent write-down on their Greek bond holdings in return for a mix of cash and new bonds.

"In the markets people are worried that they will come up with 70, 80 or 100 percent haircuts next," said Berenberg bank economist Christian Schulz, adding that Orphanides' comments would help limit Greek PSI to a 50 percent write-down.

But Schulz, a former ECB economist, doubted PSI in Greece would be dropped altogether.

"That would be great - that would certainly be a positive surprise," he said. "But I'm not expecting that to happen. I would see maybe a 20 percent chance of that. I think it would be extremely difficult to get through the German parliament."

Orphanides said that dumping private sector involvement in reducing Greece's massive debts may be the only way to convince markets that investing in the euro zone was again safe.

A deal struck at a Franco-German summit in Deauville, France, in October 2010, which would have ensured the private sector was involved more generally in future euro zone bailouts, was reversed in December. However, euro zone leaders have agreed that the Greek deal will be unique and not be repeated.

Orphanides said this was not enough and that private sector losses in Greece added to uncertainty and contagion risks.

"The Greek private sector involvement reinforced the idea that holders of euro zone sovereigns should be prepared to incur losses even under circumstances that would not necessarily trigger comparable losses for sovereigns outside the euro zone," Orphanides wrote.

BORROWING BONANZA

The ECB has resisted political pressure to ramp up its bond-purchase program to ease borrowing costs for crisis-hit euro zone states, but it has used an ultra-long liquidity operation to pump almost half a trillion euros into the banking system.

Another ECB policymaker, France's Christian Noyer, said European sovereign debt sales have been going much better since the ECB started to extend the long-term loans to banks last month.

Equipped with cheap funds in large quantities from the ECB, Noyer said he expected banks to step up their lending to both companies and consumers and that they also had every capacity to buy government bonds.

"There is no reason why they should be timid about it (buying government bonds)," he told Europe 1 radio.

"Since the refinancing operations have gone well at the end of last year and the beginning of the year, I think that it is starting to work."

Commercial banks' overnight deposits at the ECB nonetheless hit a new record high of 455 billion euros, data showed on Friday, indicating banks prefer the safety of the central bank to higher rates they could get by lending to each other.

The euro hit 16-month lows against the dollar and sterling on Friday and hovered near an 11-year low versus the yen, with further declines expected as worries grow about a worsening euro zone debt crisis and sovereign funding pressures.

(Written by Paul Carrel. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120106/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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PatDollard: "I donate money to the Ron Paul campaign and lie on the donation form by saying I'm in the military when I'm not.All Ron Paul supporters do"

"I donate money to the Ron Paul campaign and lie on the donation form by saying I'm in the military when I'm not.All Ron Paul supporters do" Il y a 25 minutes via web

Source: http://twitter.com/PatDollard/statuses/155359794700627968

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Pop open a cold one with your watch

Filed under kooky but useful, the Happy Hour wrist watch not only tells time, but also allows you to pop open a beer with the strap buckle. Priced from $69.95 – $99.95, these watches feature a leather strap with a patented stainless steel bottle-opening buckle. I’m sure the college crowd would love this watch, but [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/05/pop-open-a-cold-one-with-your-watch/

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?Steam for Android? brings Steam community at your fingertips

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Britney Spears' Wedding Dress: Who Will Design the Gown?

Jon Kopaloff, FilmMagic

Just weeks after Britney Spears and Jason Trawick revealed their engagement, the pop star is already busy planning for her 2012 nuptials. Britney is reportedly already soliciting her favorite fashion designers to create her dream dress for the big day!

A source told More magazine that Brit has her sights set on two fashion front-runners for the job. "She's already thinking about asking one of her favorite designers, someone like Betsey Johnson or her friend Jeremy Scott," the source alleged. "If it's Jeremy, it'll be more futuristic. If she picks Betsey, it'll still be edgy but more traditional, with a lot of layering."

While Scott has designed out-of-this-world stage costumes for the likes of Katy Perry, Johnson is a legend for her punk-princess creations. As Brit locks down a designer for the coveted job, the pop star will be busy busting her bum at the gym to make sure she looks her best in her dress. "She'll want to look as good as possible, so she'll be working out lots with her personal trainer -- and also with Jason," the source claimed.

Britney's marriage to Trawick will mark her third trip down the aisle. She tied the knot with her childhood friend Jason Alexander in a shotgun Las Vegas wedding in 2004. After that union was annulled 55 hours later, the singer wed Kevin Federline nine months later.

Watch 'Footage of Britney Spears Post Engagement'

See Britney's Style Evolution

Watch Britney's 'Till the World Ends' Video

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5695932132

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