Month: May 2012

Categories
Politics

NBC/Marist Poll Gets It Right

On the heels of last week’s NBC News/Marist polls that underpolled Republicans and made it look as though the president was ahead when he really wasn’t, today’s NBC polls got it pretty much right. That’s good news for Obama in Nevada, Colorado, and Iowa.

In Nevada, Obama leads Romney by 48%-46%. The real voter breakdown is D=42 R=37 I=21. NBC’s poll was D=40 R=38 I=21. There was a slight underpolling of Democrats, but that’s only better news for Obama.

In Colorado, Obama leads Romney 46%-45%. The actual voter breakdown is D=33 R=35 I=32. NBC’s poll was D=31 R=35 I=34. Almost exactly correct. Nice job NBC!

In Iowa, Obama and Romney are tied at 44%. The real voter breakdown is D=34 R=31 I=35. NBC’s poll was D=34 R=35 I=31. There was a slight overpolling of Republicans, but otherwise the results seem solid.

There has been a great deal of talk about the polling in the presidential election, but 5+ months out, much of the results are not predictive of what will probably happen in November. Yes, Obama is stuck nationally at around 47%, but his approval numbers are close to 50% and he’s leading in most of the states that he needs to win to be reelected. Romney is polling close to the president in the states above and is ahead in Ohio according to a Rasmussen poll out on Thursday.

My sense is that the unemployment numbers for May, out on Friday, will do a great deal to shape the race before the summer. Remember that the June numbers will be released during the July 4 holiday week and July’s numbers come out in August when the Olympics will steal the show and, well, it’ll be August.

June could also be a make or break month for other reasons, including the Wisconsin recall race, and two Supreme Court decisions on health care and immigration. Right now Obama is still the favorite, but that could change quickly depending on these external events.

Please join the conversation at  www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest 

Categories
Citizens United Politics

Ex Supreme Court Judge Criticizes Citizens United Ruling – Corporations Are Not People My Friends

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens leveled new criticism on Wednesday against the court’s landmark 2010 ruling on campaign financing, saying it had allowed corporations to ramp up spending and non-voters to influence the outcome of elections.

Stevens, who dissented from the “Citizens United” ruling, said it had increased the importance of cash in contested elections, opened the floodgates for foreign campaign spending and put corporations or other out-of-state speakers ahead of voters interested in local issues.

The Supreme Court split along conservative-liberal ideological lines in making the 5-4 ruling in 2010, giving corporations the constitutional free-speech right to spend freely to support or oppose candidates in federal elections.

The ruling triggered a massive increase in spending by wealthy individuals and corporations in federal campaigns ahead of this year’s November 6 presidential and congressional elections.

[Yahoo News]

Categories
Politics voters

This Is Too Much Excitement for Mitt Romney’s Candidacy

They can’t contain themselves! These Romney supporters are beaming with excitement for their 2012 Republican hero as they proudly display their signs in support of the candidate. Anymore display of excitement and we may have to censor this group as rated R, wait no… X!

Categories
Birthers Donald Trump Donald Trump Mitt Romney Politics

It’s The Birthers Turn to Get Romney’s Pandering

As Republican nominee Mitt Romney prepares to associated with the crazy Birthers in his party like Donald Trump, the Obama administration released a video for the occasion showing the difference between the 2008 Republican nominee John McCain – a man who wasn’t afraid to stand up against the craziness, and 2012 Republican Mitt Romney – a man who will do anything, say anything and associate with anyone to win the Presidency.

And I’m not just making assumptions about Romney associating with anyone to win the Presidency, Romney himself confirmed that when he was asked about fundraiser with Donald The Birther.

“You know I don’t agree with all the people who support me,” Romney said. “And my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in.. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more, and I”m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

Doing whatever is necessary to achieve his personal goal. I shudder at the thought of what Romney would do and or how many Americans he will sell out as President if anther personal goal is within reach.

Categories
Politics

The Bloviating Ignoramus Donald Trump Responds to George Will

No truer words have been said by a Conservative commentator as those words uttered by George Will about Donald Trump. On Sunday Mr. Will, himself a Conservative, called Donald Trump a “bloviating ignoramus.” Mr. Will also advised Mitt Romney to run away from the Donald and to cancel his planned fundraiser.

Said Mr. Will;

“I do not understand the cost-benefit here. The costs are clear. The benefits, what voter’s going to vote for him because he’s seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics.”

Of course you already know Donald Trump would not allow Mr. Will’s statement to go fading off into the sunset. Hours after he was called a bloviating ignoramus, the bloviating ignoramus took to twitter in trying to put Mr. Will in his place. Said Trump;

We believe George Will to too mature to respond to Trump, but we can almost assure you that the bloviating part of Donald Trump is still trying to come up with another description worse than what was used in his tweet. When he does, we may report on it, but chances are, we will not.

Categories
Politics veterans

New Gallop Poll has Romney Leading President Obama Among Veterans – Crazy, I Know…

A new Gallop poll reveals some very interesting findings. Mitt Romney is leading President Obama among veterans. This unbelievable poll found that among U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while non-veterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge.

Meanwhile, President Obama is the first person to receive the Jerald Washington Memorial Founders’ Award more than once. The award is given yearly by The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, and President Obama received the award in 2009 and 2012. The President has a Five-Year Plan to End Veteran Homelessness.

Last November, Obama [also] signed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which provides companies with a substantial tax credit if they hire unemployed or disabled veterans. And the President has also used his executive authority to establish a national Veterans Job Bank, authorize 6-months of career counseling at locations across the country, and create My Next Move, an online database that helps connect veterans with jobs that build off their military experience.

Perhaps most importantly, President Obama, the first lady, and Dr. Jill Biden have brought public attention to the problem of veteran unemployment and the valuable skills that our service members possess. All the president and his administration have done to highlight this issue appears to have prompted employers to take a second look.

As a result of the President’s policy, the jobless rate among post-9/11 veterans — as this blog noted earlier today — fell four percent in January, from 13.1 percent in December to 9.1 percent today. This is a tremendous improvement from one year ago, when the unemployment rate for these veterans stood at about 15 percent. And the initiatives announced by President Obama today will continue to target veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, who suffer from unemployment rates significantly higher than those facing the broader veteran population.

Among other things, the President also eliminated co-payments for veterans who are catastrophically disabled (2010)

Fulfilled campaign promise to have combat troops (90,000) out of Iraq by August 31,2010 (2010)

Established a new interagency task force to assist veterans owning small businesses(2010)* Note: The efforts include promoting federal contract opportunities, improve access to loans and capital, mentor assistance programs, etc.

Signed The Families of Fallen Heroes Act, which covers the moving costs of immediate family members of those lost in service (military, intelligence, and security personnel)(2010)

So why are veterans supporting Romney – a man who joked that homeless veterans should “milk cows” to get milk for their nourishment? Beats me, but Republicans have an amazing propaganda machine, a machine that is willing to lie to the people of America to put a Republican in control.

Categories
Politics weekly address

President Obama Honors Our Fallen Heroes

In this week’s address, President Obama paid tribute to our men and women in uniform who have died in service to our country. The President also reaffirmed our nation’s dedication to serving our veterans as well as they have served us, and thanked our men and women in uniform for their unwavering commitment to the United States. As we come together on Memorial Day, we remind our military families and veterans that they are not alone, and give our thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and helped make America the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth.

[White House]

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Memorial Day Memories – Mitt Romney to Homeless Veterans – Let Them Milk Cows

Apparently, the Romney Gaffe machine is not something that started with this presidential election. No, Romney is known for making stupid comments about matters that are important to less fortunate people, you know, those who can’t help themselves.

Buzzfeed is reporting on a story that took place in 1994 when Mitt Romney was running against Ted Kennedy for the US Senate. According to the report, Ken Smith, the director of a Veteran’s Homeless Shelter in Boston MA. asked both Senate candidates to make a visit to the homeless shelter and meet with the vets. The visit from Ted Kennedy lasted about a half an hour and according to Mr. Smith, Mr. Kennedy “congratulated us on our programs and promised if he was elected to the senate for another term, he would befriend the shelter and that’s exactly what he did.”

Romney’s visit was another story. Mr. Smith remembers Romney’s visit lasting about an hour and rather uneventful until the candidate was about to leave.

At the end of Romney’s visit, as he was preparing to leave out the front door, he pulled me aside and asked me what was the biggest problem that I was facing at the time?

Milk, I said.

Milk?  What do you mean Milk?  he stated

I explained that the state of Massachusetts was giving me $2.37 per vet, per day for meals.  That funding included both dinner and breakfast expenses and since you couldn’t go to McDonalds for that amount of money, one of the biggest expenses I encountered, was giving each vet a pint of milk at dinner and again at breakfast.

His response to me was “Well Ken, maybe you can teach the vets to milk cows”.

I think my jaw was on the floor as he headed out the door and one reporter came over to me and asked what he said.

Did he just tell you to have homeless vets milk cows?  asked the young guy,

Yes, he did.

Needless to say, Romney lost that election against Ted Kennedy as news of his let them milk cows statement spread throughout Massachusetts.

Whether it’s telling Vets to milk cows, expressing his love of firing people or getting rid of “illegals” on his property because he’s running for office, Romney will continue providing us with these laughable moments. The unfortunate part is, this Romney humor is often directed at those in less fortunate positions than he is.

Categories
Barack Obama Mitt Romney Politics

Black Vs Mormon – The Obama / Romney Dilemma

Jodi Kantor of The New York Times points out that a little history is about to happen in American politics. With President Barack Obama running for reelection as a Democratic and Mitt Romney of the Mormon faith running as a Republican “extremely Conservative” Republican, this would be the first time neither party’s candidate is a white Protestant.

” Both sides face the specter of longstanding prejudices that no ad, slogan or speech may be able to dispel. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey conducted last week, 27 percent of those polled said that having a Mormon president raised concerns for them or someone they know, and 12 percent said the same for a black president. Some voters say outright that they will not vote for Mr. Obama because he is black; others make jokes about Mr. Romney belonging to a cult.”

“…After one successful campaign and three plus years in the White House, Mr. Obama and his team’s painful early internal debates on how to handle race have given way to more settled patterns. But Mr. Romney’s camp is divided on the question of how much he should speak about his personal faith. Some in his circles, including many Mormons, argue that his religion is nothing to hide and helps mitigate the caricature of him as a cruel capitalist. Mr. Romney’s political advisers, few of whom are Mormon, are more cautious, arguing that religion should be off the table.

“We as a society have decided to judge people on their actions and not based on where they go to church or the color of their skin,” said Stuart Stevens, Mr. Romney’s top strategist. “It’s true when you apply for a job, it’s true when you apply for a driver’s license and it should be true when you run for president.”

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Birthers Donald Trump Donald Trump Mitt Romney Politics

Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Birthers – All The Same, All Insane

Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee to run for President of the United States in November 2012 and even with that very important task handed to him by the Republican voters and the party leaders, Romney has chose to align himself with the likes of Donald Trump, a guy who also considered running for president on the Republican ticket and based his exploratory campaign on Birtherism – the belief that President Obama is not a natural born American citizen.

Even after President Obama issued both his short form and long form birth certificate, (something no other president in the history of this nation ever had to do), Donald Trump is still pushing his foolish unproven theory about the President’s birth. At a recent interview about an upcoming fundraiser, Trump acknowledged that Romney was lucky to have The Donald raise money for his campaign, then he dived into his Birthers rant;

“Look, it’s very simple,” said Trump, who has spent the past 13 months questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility to occupy the White House (and only doubled downwith his stubborn skepticism after Obama produced a long-form birth certificate, certifying he was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii, and then hilariously roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. “A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book,” Trump went on, “he said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.”

Trump will join Romney in a fundraising event. Expect Trump to continue exploiting the uninformed and willfully ignorant in the Republican base to maximize Romney’s donations. And expect the gullible Birthers and Republicans to donate heavily.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Romney Economics: SCM Company, Captured and Killed for Romney Profit

SCM was another company bought on a $5 million investment, then captured and killed for a $100 million profit by Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital. The hardworking Americans who felt the brunt of Romney’s decisions tells their story below.

Romney has said on many occasions that his business experience qualifies him to be president. Anyone who say looking into Romney’s business experiences at Bain Capital is wrong, has decided to drown in a sea of ignorance.

Categories
Ohio Politics

“I don’t know whose record [Romney] twisted the most, mine or his.” – Barack Obama

President Obama offered an earthy rural metaphor to blast Mitt Romney last night in Iowa, saying the Republican candidate offered voters “a cowpie of distortion” in a recent speech.

“I don’t know whose record he twisted the most,” Obama said. “Mine or his.”

Speaking to supporters at the state fairgrounds in Des Moines, Obama said that during Romney’s last visit to Iowa he exaggerated the administration’s spending and failed to give it credit for budget cuts.

The president also said Romney’s background as a millionaire private equity manager doesn’t prepare him for the presidency.

“The challenge we’ve faced for over a decade is that harder work hasn’t led to higher incomes,” Obama said. “Bigger profits haven’t led to better jobs. And you can’t solve that problem if you can’t even see that it’s a problem.”

[USA Today]

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