Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee’s weaknesses more than the president’s strengths.
Obama leads Romney 53 percent to 40 percent among likely voters, even as the public gives him low marks on handling the economy and the deficit, and six in 10 say the nation is headed down the wrong track, according to the poll conducted June 15- 18.
The survey shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has yet to repair the damage done to his image during the Republican primary. Thirty-nine percent of Americans view him favorably, about the same as when he announced his presidential candidacy last June, while 48 percent see him unfavorably — a 17-percentage point jump during a nomination fight dominated by attacks ads. A majority of likely voters, 55 percent, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36 percent who say the president is more out of touch.
The Justice Department requested that Obama assert the privilege in refusing to turn certain documents over to Congress concerning the botched gun smuggling operation
The news comes as House Republicans consider holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over the Fast and Furious dispute.
In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calf., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a Justice Department official said executive privilege applies to documents that explain how the department learned of problems with the investigation.
I write now to inform you that the President has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4, 2011, documents,” writes Deputy Attorney General James Cole. “We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the Committee’s concerns and to accommodate the Committee’s legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious.”
Apparently, Mitt Romney was telling the truth all along. Yes, he definitely cut taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts, but the people who enjoyed the benefits of the Romney Tax Cuts was Romney himself and his very rich friends. For the rest of the state – also known as the middle class and the poor, Romney raised their taxes and instituted over 1000 fees – on everything from school bus rides, Nurses, Hospitals and Funeral Homes.
Well of course the fees went up. Someone had to pay for the Tax Cuts he received!
This guy is a political genius, and the right-wing just can’t stand it when President Obama acts presidential or outmaneuvers them on policies and public opinion. They pilloried him for evidently making gas prices go sky-high, prompting Mitt Romney to blame him for economic pain, then he gets gas prices to plummet by 30¢ at the pump, and magically, the issue goes away.
Obama’s move on immigration was an election year masterstroke. It was a blatant political move meant to shore up the Latino base and it had the intended effect of highlighting the split in the Republican Party between radical fence builders and the more moderate wing that see that demographic fleeing from the GOP. And Romney again has nowhere to go on this issue because, while he might have been sympathetic during his sensible years, he’s since staked out a claim in Santorumville that requires drivers only to make hard right turns.
The president is also beginning to hammer home the differences between his economic plan and Romney’s. It might be true that independent voters see Obama’s policies as hindering economic growth, but it’s still early in the campaign. Once he highlights the effects of Romney’s cut first plan and a more pragmatic vision that includes cuts and investment, those voters will come back in sufficient numbers to win him the election.
And the horse race numbers? Yes, they are close, but Obama is ahead in enough states now to capture 270+ electoral votes. Michigan is not going red and neither are Colorado, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin nor Virginia unless we get terrible economic news over the summer. In fact, the economies in the swing states are outperforming the national economy. That favors the president.
The Supreme Court’s decision later this month will shape the race, but it will also emphasize Romney’s opposition to protections for people with pre-existing conditions and will force him to move farther right on health care. Most Americans do still oppose the individual mandate, but they also need affordable coverage. Obama offers that; Mitt doesn’t.
President Obama’s new immigration policy is getting high marks.
According to the Bloomberg poll, 64% of likely voters agree with Obama’s announcement Friday to end deportations of illegal immigrants brought to the USA as children; another 30% disagreed.
Independents also backed Obama’s executive order by a margin of more than two-to-one.
Bloomberg reported that “the results underscore the challenge facing Mitt Romney and Republicans as they try to woo Hispanic voters, who are the nation’s largest ethnic minority and made up 9 percent of the 2008 electorate, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of exit polls.
We are beginning to see glimpses of why Mitt Romney was hesitant to show his Tax returns. Besides the fact that he is storing his money in offshore bank accounts, we are now seeing that Mitt Romney wrote off $77,000.00 in 2010 as a business expense. That is okay. Mitt Romney is a multi-millionaire and that kind of money being written off as a business is expected. What raises eyebrows is what the business expense was.
According to The New York Times, Romney’s horse Rafalca was the business expense. The Romney’s tax returns showed they lost $77,000 for the care and feeding of their horse. The Times reports:
As millions tune in to the Olympics in prime time this summer, just before Mr. Romney will be reintroducing himself to the nation at the Republican convention, viewers are likely to see “up close and personal” segments on NBC about the Romneys and dressage, a sport of six-figure horses and $1,000 saddles. The Romneys declared a loss of $77,000 on their 2010 tax returns for the share in the care and feeding of Rafalca, which Mrs. Romney owns with Mr. Ebeling’s wife, Amy, and a family friend, Beth Meyers.
If we are to take the Romney’s lead, can we write off the care and feeding of our dogs or cats or even our horses at tax time? Can we label Rover as a dependent and ask Uncle Sam to give us a bigger refund because we spent money to feed and take care of Fluffy? Try it next year. After your audit, please tell me about the experience.
A new Pew Research Poll found that the public is unlikely to be satisfied with the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on the 2010 Affordable Care Act – no matter what the Court decides. Whether the Court decides to uphold the entire law, overturn the entire law, or reject the “individual mandate” while allowing the rest of the law to remain in place, fewer than half of Americans say they would be happy with the decision.
The public’s expected reactions track along partisan lines. Most Democrats would be happy if the law is upheld, while most Republicans would be happy if it is thrown out.
But the other widely discussed possibility – that the court could reject the part of the law that requires individuals to have health insurance while keeping the rest – does not satisfy either side. Among Democrats, 35% would be happy with this outcome, while 56% would be unhappy. Republicans, who have consistently opposed the individual mandate, are not much happier: 43% would be happy if the court strips only this provision, while 47% would be unhappy.
President Obama, hoping the Latino vote can make the difference in key swing states, secured an endorsement today from a prominent Hispanic talk show host.
Cristina Saralegui, who has hosted The Cristina Show for 21 years, said Obama “understands the Hispanic community and has supported it unconditionally and that is why I was moved to endorse and campaign for our president’s re-election.”
Saralegui also cut an ad for the Obama election team.
In its announcement, the Obama campaign described Saralegui as “a seasoned journalist who is recognized as one of the most respected and influential role models in the Hispanic community.” She’s also been called the Hispanic Oprah.
“Cristina is one of the most trusted names in the Hispanic community,” said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. “We’re honored to have Cristina be a spokesperson for the campaign, speaking directly to Hispanic voters about the president’s accomplishments.”
The endorsement comes just a few days after Obama announced a new immigration/work permit policy for the children of illegal immigrants.
Rich people were rich before George Bush decided to give them trillions in two massive tax cut. The idea back then was that giving rich people more money would automatically result in the middle class and the poor getting more jobs. The idea was not a new concept, it was also tried over 30 years ago in the Reagan administration, thus bearing the name Reaganomics also known as Trickle-Down Economics. But all Mr. Bush succeeded in doing was a huge transfer of wealth from middle class America to the rich. And the country plunged into a massive recession comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
So naturally, Mitt Romney’s goal is to try the same tactics Bush failed at if he become president.
Mitt Romney is promising to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy, in hopes that history would not repeat. His hope is under a Romney administration, wealthy Americans earning millions and billions of dollars would see the light and hire more people. Americans already lived through this disaster, but Romney is promising to do it all again.
In an interview with Bob Schieffer which aired on CBS, Romney was asked to explain how he plan to pay for yet another colossal tax cut to people who don’t need it. His answer basically amounted to – I don’t know how I’ll pay for it, but just trust me.
SCHIEFFER: You haven’t been bashful about telling us yo want to cut taxes. When are you going to tell us where you’re going to get the revenue? Which of the deductions are you going to be willing to eliminate? Which of the tax credits are you going to — when are you going to be able to tell us that?
ROMNEY: Well, we’ll go through that process with Congress as to which of all the different deductions and the exemptions —
SCHIEFFER: But do you have an ideas now, like the home mortgage interest deduction, you know, the various ones?
ROMNEY: Well Simpson Bowles went though a process of saying how they would be able to reach a setting where they had actually under their proposal even more revenue, with lower rates. So, mathematically it’s been proved to be possible: We can have lower rates, as I propose, that creates more growth, and we can limit deductions and exemptions.
This is the sophisticated mentality of the people we entrust to lead the greatest nation on earth. In Montana, Republicans gathering for a convention with Former Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich as the Keynote speaker, felt the urgent need to build an outhouse with the words “Obama’s Presidential Library” plastered on its side walls. And for added maturity, fake bullet holes riddled the walls of their creation.
Inside, a fake birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama made reference to the disproven controversy over the president’s origins. It was stamped “Bull—-.” A graffito advised “For a Good Time call 800-Michelle (crossed out), Hillary (crossed out) and Pelosi (circled in red.)”
Said Will Deschamps, the State Republican Chairman, ” “It’s not something I’m going to agonize over.” He added, “Some of that stuff is not real good taste. We do have a president of the United States, and we have to honor that.”
They call themselves members of the Teaparty. The group believes that they are paying too much taxes and that government spending is out of control. The group stayed quiet when George Bush took a surplus and turned it into a deficit. Their silence showed that the Teaparty is not really a trustworthy bunch, but more of a political group – easily identifying themselves with the Republican ideology.
The group magically emerged in the Obama presidency – a presidency that has reduced taxes and spending to lower levels than recent Republican administrations. Bankrolled by right-winged businessmen and political figures, the Teaparty saw many of their members voted into Congress in the 2010 elections.
During the 2012 elections when the Teaparty took center stage in American politics, we all remember their many signs calling President Obama a Socialist, Communist American president who was also born in Kenya. And with these outlandish claims and a media led by the Fair and Balanced Fox News spending the entire election year covering various Teaparty Townhall uprising, the Teaparty’s message found favor with many voting Americans.
But the Teaparty is also plagued with blatant racists, some of which we have detailed here, here and here. And now this:
The Baxter Bulletin in north-central Arkansas reported thatInge Marler made the comments at the annual rally of the Ozark Tea Party. The remarks, which suggested that African-Americans are on welfare, were condemned by Tea Party leaders in the state. The Bulletin reported that the condemnation came after they contacted the Tea Party for comment.
The Bulletinreports that Marler, who told the newspaper she would stop using the joke, said the following as an ice-breaker in her speech:
“A black kid asks his mom, ‘Mama, what’s a democracy?’“‘Well, son, that be when white folks work every day so us po’ folks can get all our benefits.’
“‘But mama, don’t the white folk get mad about that?’
“‘They sho do, son. They sho do. And that’s called racism.’”
To put things in perspective, Mitt Romney implemented ObamaCare in Massachusetts. Okay, it wasn’t called ObamaCare when Mitt Romney fell in love with the idea that everyone in the state he governed should have access to quality Health Care and included an individual mandate requiring all to buy insurance. No, ObamaCare wasn’t around at that time, so the bill was called The Massachusetts health care insurance reform law.
The main part of Romney’s law was an individual mandate that required all state residents to get insurance. The goal of the mandate was to make it financially feasible for insurance providers to be able to cover everyone, even those with pre-existing conditions. Romney loved the idea of the mandate so much, he even called for its implementation nationwide. His Health Care reform Law went into effect in Massachusetts 2006.
Now Mitt Romney is running for President of the United States and he is promising to repeal the very Health Care Law he once said should be replicated nationwide. Mr. Romney took this very different position because the individual mandate is not popular with Teaparty members of his party. Now that the President took Romney’s word and signed a bill that duplicates the Massachusetts model, offering the Health Care nationwide, Romney is promising to repeal and replace what is now called ObamaCare.
But what will Mitt Romney replace ObamaCare with?
Based on what he said earlier this month, Romney’s new-found vision of Health Care in America will not include an individual mandate and those who have a pre-existing condition but couldn’t afford “continuous” insurance, will not have health care.
So let’s say someone has been continuously insured and they develop a serious condition. And let’s say they lose their jobs or they change jobs or they move and go to a different place, I don’t want them to be denied insurance because they have some pre-existing conditions. So we’re going to have to make sure that the law that we replace Obamacare with,ensures that people who have a pre-existing condition, who have been insured in the past, are able to get insurance in the future so they don’t have to worry about that condition keeping them from getting the kind of health care they deserve.
Video:
So the short version of what Mitt Romney is saying is this: if you have a pre-existing condition and couldn’t afford continuous health care coverage, don’t even bother trying to get insurance. Under Mitt Romney’s plan, you’re back to a system where healthcare insurance providers are allowed to drop your coverage based on your pre-existing condition.
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