Year: 2012

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Mitt Romney Politics

Mitt Romney – The Only Man Brave Enough To Take On The “Glutton Of Greed” – Big Bird

There are a lot of things wrong with our economy. One problem for example is the deficit that exploded out of control under the Bush administration. Although the Obama administration is taking some necessary steps to stem the spending in Washington, there is one area of the budget Mr. Obama has failed to tackle.

And now, thanks to Mitt Romney, all our problems will be solved. Romney is the only one brave enough to stare the problem in its face and capable enough to even mention the problem by name – Big Bird!

The ad below explains…

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Barack Obama Mitt Romney Politics presidential

Team Obama Making Changes For Remaining Debates

Realizing that debate number one did not go according to plan, the President’s re-election team is making changes for the remaining debates, starting with the vice presidential debate on Thursday.

Perhaps most important as the president’s team struggles to put his campaign back on track is a renewed effort to win the three remaining debates, starting with Thursday’s face-off between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan. Mr. Biden began traveling to a Delaware hotel on Sunday for three days of debate camp.

Under the tutelage of David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist who is personally overseeing the preparations, Mr. Biden will be counseled on how to avoid Mr. Obama’s mistakes and even correct them with a more aggressive prosecution of the Republican ticket. Mr. Axelrod’s involvement highlights the stakes the Obama campaign places on the debate, and Mr. Biden has been reading “Young Guns,” the book co-written by Mr. Ryan, and practicing attack lines that Mr. Obama avoided.

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Barack Obama Politics

Panic! At The Campaign (Part Deux)

Hey kids, remember in June when the Obama campaign was supposedly panicking? I sure do. That’s why I wrote about it.

Well here we are again at a crisis point in the race. The debate went very badly for the president. He seemed uninterested, unengaged, unfocused, blah, blah, blah. In fact, he was all of those things. But to think that this race is over or that the debate performance means that he’s going to lose is hogwash. Bunk. Horse puckey. Wrong.

Obama was losing some steam in state and national polls right before the debate as his convention bounce and Mitt’s 47% comments propelled him to an unsustainable lead. He’s lost even more steam over the weekend as polls that generally have a Republican lean (Gravis, Rasmussen and Claris Research) show him losing anywhere from 3-5 points off his lofty perch. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not dismissing those polls as unreliable or anti-Obama by choice. They could be the vanguard of a larger shift evidenced by more polls we’ll be sure to see this week. It’s just that these are the early polls and a fuller picture is sure to emerge after PPP, NBC/WSJ, CBS/Quinnipiac and ABC/WaPo weigh in. Those polls will also include any effects of the positive unemployment rate from Friday and Obama ads over the weekend that highlighted Romney’s, shall we say, evolution, on the issues.

Far be it from me to get in the way of a full-scale Democratic screaming, sweating freakout, as I enjoy irrationality as much as the next person (and if the next person is Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum, then it’s a gold star day as far as I’m concerned).

My point is that it’s not necessary to panic. Let’s not give too much credit to the Romney campaign. It wasn’t that he did so much better in the debate; it’s that Obama did so much worse. The polls will move towards Romney. Then they’ll move away from Romney because the movement is based mostly on GOP enthusiasm after the debate. This is the same enthusiasm gap the GOP was supposed to have from the beginning, but didn’t because Mitt was/is such an ineffective candidate. The media will have something to print (print; what a dinosaur I am). But in the end, all the GOP has is Romney, and that should brighten the day of every Democrat and liberal in the country.

And it doesn’t matter when Obama calls him on the 47% comment, as he surely will on October 16. Mitt’s tried to admit that the comment was wrong, but I think he had that line all cued up for the debate. Since Obama didn’t mention it, he never got a chance to deliver it in front of 80 million people (as if that would make up for its offensiveness). So he had to go on FOX to say it, and the comment was then promptly buried by the good jobs numbers. At the next debate the country will be reminded of Mitt’s policies and will find them lacking, just as they did before the debate. You could say that Mitt’s peaking a bit early and is set up for a fall. If you don’t want to say it, I just did.

If you really want to panic, then go ahead. For me, good jobs numbers always beat debates. And truthers. And bad ideas like killing PBS and only covering people with preexisting conditions if they already have insurance but otherwise leaving them to the mercy of insurance companies. And turning Medicare into a voucher system. And being on the wrong side on women’s health and rights. And dismissing 47% of the country as being dependent on government aid and saying it was wrong to say it, but not wrong to think or act on it.

Gee, all of a sudden, I feel much better about this election. Go. Fight. Win.

And really, isn’t it about time you followed me? Go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

What Apology? Romney Said It And He Meant It – Dissing The 47%

It is done by some people because they are cowards –  talking bad about others behind their backs. But when those people are listening,  cowards change their tune and pretend all is well. Mitt Romney said it when he thought no one was listening, but now that the word is out, Mitt Romney is trying to take back his devastating comment about the 47%.

Romney recently told Fox News that the rigors of the campaign was responsible for his 47% statement, where he said at a private fundraiser with his fellow millionaires that half of Americans are lazy and depend on government for their very existence. And a day after Romney’s words went public, he again repeated his position that 47% of the nation are moochers!

On multiple occasions, Romney promised to “carry that message” about the losers who are these 47%. But on October 4th, after realizing that his statement was having negative impacts on his campaign, Romney broke out the etch-a-sketch and tried to erase everything. In his interview on Fox, Romney said;

Well, clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question and answer sessions, now and then you’re going to say something that doesn’t come out right. In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong.

But the Obama Campaign is having none of it. They’ve seen this scenario before – the flip-flop method Mitt Romney has made famous. And they’ve created this video to hold Romney accountable for the flips he’s flop!

Categories
Politics

Why Obama? – Great Animation Making The Case For President Obama

Lucas Gray, the famed television animator, has created the best video I’ve ever seen to make the argument for President Obama’s re-election on economic terms alone.

The three-minute video, narrated by a speech Obama delivered at the Associated Press Luncheon in April of 2012, rips apart the concept of “trickle-down” with swift, precise and visually helpful animation.

Categories
Ohio Politics Republican voter suppression

Republicans Effort to Suppress The Vote Fails In Ohio – Early Voting Reinstalled

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that if soldiers from Ohio can cast ballots ahead of time, everyone else should have the same opportunity.

The court said that the state had not shown compelling evidence for why only one group should be permitted to cast ballots on the three days before Election Day. The decision, strongly advocated by the Obama campaign, will likely lead to more ballots cast from poor and elderly voters.

There is no word yet on whether the swing state will appeal the decision.

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Barack Obama Mitt Romney Politics

Video Proof – Mitt Romney May Have Cheated During Debate

Both sides agreed to the rules of the debate, but Mitt Romney may have broken the most important rule – no written notes or “cheat sheet” allowed.

The video below shows Mitt Romney pulling a piece of paper out his pocket and casually tossing it on his podium.

Of course, his campaign already came up with an explanation. That was not a cheat sheet they claimed, it was a handkerchief. If that was a handkerchief, then it was a very stiff piece of handkerchief.

You be the judge.

Categories
Politics

President Obama’s Job Approval Goes Up – 54 Percent Approves

President Obama is experiencing his highest job approval since November 2009. This, according to a new poll conducted by Gallop Daily Tracking.

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Barack Obama Mitt Romney Politics

The Narrative’s Changed, But The Song Remains the Same

Mitt Romney won the debate last night because he projected a presidential attitude, seemed to be more interested, and actually strung together answers in clear sentences. Barack Obama was clearly unprepared and stories about his lack of focus on the debates turned out to be true. The right-wing media is ecstatic. The left is crestfallen. The narrative has changed.

But it doesn’t mean that the election is over, anymore than Romney’s September swoon meant that it was over. This debate allowed Mitt to crawl out of the hole he dug himself with his 47% comments (there, I’ve mentioned it even if the president didn’t) and the overall lack of coherent message on the campaign trail. It’s probable that his debate performance changes his attitude and his crowd count, but let’s think this through a little more specifically.

Romney is still peddling the same Medicare voucher plan, the same tax cuts for the wealthy, the same dangerous foreign policy and the same noxious policies regarding women as he was yesterday afternoon. He’s still the same uninspiring politician he’s been for his entire career, though he will have a more jaunty step for the next week. The policies he proposed last night will not all of a sudden become more popular as Obama advertising will make sure, and Mitt is still against the auto bailout, which means he’ll still likely lose Ohio.

Mitt did himself a great favor in the debate and he was helped by an equal and opposite reaction from the president who did all he could to present a tired, ticked-off image on a day when he could have solidified his advantage and made the other two presidential debates superfluous. Friday’s jobs numbers could be the second half of a one-two punch that should have only been one punch. The press will make more of this because, after all, they need eyes on their websites and dollars in their pockets.

We now have a race, but my sense is that it will just be a closer version of the race we had on Wednesday afternoon. Obama still has the lead and he’ll likely keep it in the swing states that are critical to his reelection. Let the national polls show a Romney bump (and they will). My focus will be on Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada. If Wisconsin suddenly turns, then it’s bad news, but I don’t think that will happen. There are two more debates, and if my reading of history is keen, as it sometimes is, Obama can turn himself into the comeback kid who wipes the floor with the rich guy next time they meet.

Yes, the narrative has changed, but the song remains the same.

And really, isn’t it about time you followed me? Go towww.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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Barack Obama Mitt Romney Politics

My Take On The First Presidential Debate – Who Won?

I’m going to continue doing what I set out to do with this blog – be honest.

Last night’s debate was horrendous. As I write this post now, (and it’s not going to be a long post), I still cannot figure out what was on the President’s mind. This is the man who has been the leader of the free world for the last 4 years. He has met with, and had meetings with other world leaders. He has walked the walk and talked the talk in his commitment to capture and or kill terrorists. This president has dealt with an economy that was on the brink of collapse and because his leadership, he has stabilized this country and we are now on the right track to getting things back to where things should be.

Mr. Obama has faced pressures before and has always found ways to deal with and handle those situations. What happened last night in the debate left me believing that Mr. Obama came to this debate expecting that his title – Mr. President – would be enough.

It wasn’t.

Or maybe the Obama reelection team bought into the pre-debate hype by the media that Romney would be armed with zingers, and they advised the president to stay ‘presidential,’ and stick only with facts. Yes, in the ideal world with a Republican candidate who is grounded in reality, staying presidential would be okay. But Mitt Romney is not grounded in reality. He has decided to run a campaign based on lies and deceit, a fact that was evident from the very first ad his campaign produced where they intentionally misrepresented a quote the president was making.

Faced with such a wishy-washy flip-flopping candidate who changes his position and panders to every single group, it was imperative that Mr. Obama came on stage prepared to show the stark differences between his policies and those of Mr. Romney. It was imperative that he stopped Romney in his tracks when Romney opened his mouth and lied about the $716 billion of waste taken out of Medicare. The president needed to let the American public know each time Romney told a lie. He needed to drive the debate, be aggressive in defending his policies over the last 4 years and in pointing out that Romney’s policies amounts to a trust, wait and see con game. The president of the United States needed to be strong. He had to be assertive.

But instead I sat in my living room like millions of Americans nationwide and watched a dejected man on stage. I watched Mr. Obama – the man who holds the most powerful position in the free world – hang his head, refusing to look Mr. Romney in the face. And I watched in amazement as Mr. Romney directed the flow of the debate, lying at every turn, going unchallenged.

After the debate, Al Sharpton from MSNBC was heard taking a more optimistic view of the President’s performance. Sharpton said that the way the president allowed Romney to dominate the debate was masterful, because the positions Romney adopted last night “are not positions he preached in his campaign.” These new positions Sharpton concluded, will be more ammunition for fact-checkers and Democrats who will now be able to once again, point out the fact that Romney is a flip flopper… a liar… a spineless little man who panders to every group to get elected.

“We have his previous positions on tape!” Sharpton said.

Well I hope Sharpton is right, but I don’t know if I could sit through another lack luster performance by the president.

Will I vote for Mr. Obama in November? Of course I will. I’m not crazy! I agree with the policies he’s put in place so far and I believe Mr. Romney was serious when he said he’s not concerned about the very poor then degraded 47% of Americans as lazy moochers who rely on the government for food and shelter. Yes, Mr. Obama still gets my vote, but I want him to fight in these debates like his reelection depends on it, because it does!

Debate video.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics presidential

Presidential Debate – President Obama vs. Mitt Romney – Video

It’s Debate night in America, as President Obama takes to the stage with the Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Over the last few weeks, Romney has been constantly putting his foot in his mouth on a number of issues – the biggest and most dangerous to date being his statement about 47% of Americans, calling half of America lazy and moochers.

The President on the other hand came out of the Democratic Convention with a visible bounce, due to the sheer organization of the convention and the speeches including that of the First Lady Michelle Obama and especially Former President Bill Clinton.

And now here we are, October 3rd. Mr. Romney gets the opportunity to face the President on stage and either continue the lies he’s told in his campaign, or shake off the Republican voters by doing something he’s good at – pandering to the biggest audience.

Without further ado, we present the entire debate…

Categories
Politics

Polling and the Debate

The pace of polling has slowed down since last week, but the overall trend is still towards Barack Obama in the swing states. His national numbers are somewhat closer, but Gallup (RV poll) still has him up six and Rasmussen has him leading by one, which is down two points from Monday. New Quinnipiac and CNN polls have Obama ahead by four and three, respectively, and the Washington Times has him up nine.

There has been a great deal of debate in the polling world, that has spilled over into the general population, about poll methodologies and whether the national polling firms are oversampling Democrats to arrive at their numbers. My view is that the polling firms are seeing a shift in the number of people who are identifying themselves as Democrats and are adjusting their findings based on that shift and the overall demographics of the polls they’re taking. It would be counterproductive to say that a pollster such as NBC/WSJ is cooking the numbers because NBC is part of the equation. By that measure, the Washington Times should have Romney ahead since they are a conservative publication, but they have a D-37 R-34 I-29 split while showing Obama with a 50-41% lead. Is the Washington Times in the tank for the president? Scott Rasmussen? The Wall Street Journal (whose pollster was aligned with the Bush Administration)? I would think not. I can certainly understand why some would question a sample that has a D+9 spread, but I would be loathe to assign a diabolical plot to such a poll.

The other clue about the accuracy of the released polls is how the campaigns are acting. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are not smiling easily or walking with the swagger of frontrunners. They are fighting hard for the swing states they need to win and are assiduously making their case for election. President Obama is likewise running thousands of ads in Colorado, Ohio and Florida and fighting for every vote. Neither side is ahead by a substantial margin at this point. The polls will change, but it would be irresponsible to say that they’re accurate only if the candidate you support is leading.

Where does that leave us with the first debate directly ahead? Can debates change people’s minds? Yes, they can. But they seldom do. With Mitt Romney behind in the swing state polls, he needs to have a solid performance against a president who is not as effective a debater as many people think. Romney’s had more recent experience because of the GOP primary debates while Obama has been making speeches, which he’s good at, but he can become wordy and pedantic with some of his answers. In the end, Romney has to convey a narrative that leads voters to believe that the country needs a change in leadership. Obama will need to more forcefully defend his policies and remind voters of the state of the country when he took office. Will likeability also play a role? You bet. And we all have to be on gaffe watch duty in case it provides a turning point.

Enjoy the show.

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