Tag: debate

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Barack Obama Politics

Romney’s Bounce Is Over And I Bet You Didn’t Even Notice

Better yet, you probably thought that it started the day or two after the Denver Debacle on October 3. Nope. It actually began on September 26th, was accelerated, and probably prolonged, by the debate, and is now winding down, approximately two weeks later. It was a long bump by historical standards and was immediately preceded by Obama’s long convention bump.

The numbers? Obama was leading by about 50-42% when Romney’s bump began, and it’s ending with Mitt behind by 48-46%, which represents about a 3.5% improvement. That’s an impressive achievement for Mitt, given that he was all but written off by the national media and some influential people in his party. I don’t know why. This race was always going to be close and gaffes and debate horrors were not going to change that dynamic.

As for the electoral college, Mitt has again made gains by taking a lead in North Carolina, but that’s about it. Recent polls have shown him leading in Florida, Colorado and New Hampshire, but he’ll need a more sustained run of polls with him ahead to convince me that he’s got a solid margin. In addition, the electoral math is more difficult for Romney than the president. Even if he wins Ohio, Florida and Virginia, he’ll still need to win one of New Hampshire, Colorado or Iowa. None of those states is even remotely a given for him, with Ohio being the most difficult due to Mitt’s opposition to the auto bailout.

This brings us to Tuesday’s debate. It’s not possible for Mitt to do any better than he was perceived in Denver, mainly because he’s likely to get serious opposition from Obama. The best he can hope for is a small victory, but even that would be a loss because Obama’s performance will probably enthuse the Democrats to the point where the polls begin to rebound, much as they did towards Mitt after the first debate. If Obama is the clear winner, then his numbers should recover more substantially. Where will they land? If that scenario does indeed occur, I could see Obama ahead by 1.5-2.5% by next Sunday.

Speculative? You bet. But I can see it happening.

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Paul Ryan Politics

Right Wing Goes Nuts – That Could Only Mean A Win For Joe Biden

The right-wing is having a hissy fit today. Just moments after the vice presidential debate ended, the Republican talkers received their talking-points and hit the waves with one intent –  trying to fool their followers into thinking that Paul Ryan won the debate. Personally I missed the debate because of some other pressing issues I had to deal with, but if the Republican fallout is any indication, Vice President Joe Biden cleaned the stage with Paul Ryan.

This could be one reason Republicans are up in arms today!

Fifty percent of uncommitted voters who tuned into Thursday night’s vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky., said they see Vice President Joe Biden as the winner over Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., according to an instant poll taken by CBS News.

Of the 431 polled immediately following the debate, 31 percent deemed Ryan the winner, and 19 percent said they felt it was a tie. Party-wise it’s a switch from last week’s presidential debate, which uncommitted voters handed easily to Romney over President Obama.

Both Biden and Ryan gained ground on relatability and knowledge. The percentage of voters who say they believe they can relate to Biden spiked from 34 percent before the debate to 55 percent; 48 percent think Ryan is relatable, up from 31 percent before the debate. Meanwhile, after watching the two candidates debate, 85 percent of those polled think Biden is knowledgeable about the issues; 75 percent say that about Ryan.

Ryan, though, faced a loss among voters’ opinions of which candidate would be an effective president, if necessary. Before the debate, he led Biden 45 percent to 39 percent; after the debate, 56 percent of those polled said Biden would be an effective president, with fewer – 49 percent–saying the same about Ryan.

The debate:

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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 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.

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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…

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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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Mitt Romney Politics

Ted Kennedy Slams Mitt Romney – My Opponent Is Not Pro-Choice, “He’s Multiple Choice”

In a classic move on Tuesday night, Democrats used a tribute video for Senator Ted Kennedy and slam Mitt Romney, highlighting who Romney really is… a flip flopper. In one of their debates for the Senate election in 1994, Mr. Kennedy listened as Romney tried to describe himself as pro-choice. When given his chance to respond, Ted Kennedy summed up Romney’s views on the issue not as pro-choice, but as “multiple choice.”

Later in speech to his supporters, Mr. Kennedy continued pointing out how efficient Romney was at changing positions, saying, “now he’s for family leave, now it looks like he’s for minimum wage. Now he’s for education reform. If we give him two more weeks, he may even vote for me, because those are the things I’m for.”

Classic…

Categories
Elections Mitt Romney Politics

Mitt Romney – Only Rich People Should Run For Office

The shocking claim came from the Republican frontrunner in Sunday’s debate.

Mitt Romney, born into wealth and is one of the top five richest people to run for president has a message for you poor folks – if you’re not as rich as he is, then forget about running for office. That honor is only reserved for his kind – the filthy rich!

Romney said his father, Michigan Governor George Romney, had told him, “Mitt, never get involved in politics if you have to win an election to pay a mortgage.”

“If you find yourself in a position when you can serve, why you ought to have a responsibility to do so if you think you can make a difference,” he recalled his father telling him. “Also, don’t get in politics if your kids are still young because it might turn their heads.”

A few seconds later, he bragged about his run against Teddy Kennedy.

“I was happy he had to take a mortgage out on his house to ultimately defeat me,” he said.

It’s amazing the things that bring him joy.

Categories
Iowa Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Republican Rick Santorum

Republican Debate – To Romney’s Delight, The Losers Attacked Each Other

With the Iowa primaries over and Mitt Romney crowned the winner by an apparent technicality, the expectation was that his fellow competitors would use whatever avenue they had available to show why they are more deserving of the Republican nomination. That perfect avenue presented itself last night in yet another Republican debate, but the other five Iowa primary losers on stage were more satisfied with fighting each other, instead of distinguishing themselves from Willard.

The former Massachusetts governor was subject to the first attack of the night but that early fire was quickly overshadowed by testy exchanges between Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.

It’s been more than three weeks since the Republican presidential candidates have been on stage together. The last time they gathered,

Gingrich led in the polls and Michele Bachmann was still in the race.

It was a different scenario at Saturday night’s debate, sponsored by ABC News and Yahoo News.

Romney, who virtually tied Santorum in the Iowa caucuses and holds a double-digit lead in the New Hampshire polls, was expected to be a target.

He wasn’t.

There was one early attack.

Meanwhile, Romney stood idle by with a smile on his face.

How dumb was this strategy to attack each other instead of the leader? After the debate, one of ABC’s political analysis observed that Ron Paul was on the attack – going after Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich – but did not lay one finger on the leader Mitt Willard Romney. This insight led to the conclusion that Paul was like a puppet on a string. “I’m sure if you rip open Paul’s shirt,” he said, “you’ll see one of Mitt’s sons at the control.”

If you are trying to win your party’s nomination, but are too scared to use a debate to point out Romney’s non-existent record, then you have no business running for the most powerful office in the nation.

Categories
Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics

The Search For The Biggest Flip Flopper – Gingrich Challenges Romney To A Debate

“I’ll tell you what,” Newt Gingrich said when responding to a question posed at an NBC interview,  “if he wants to test the heat, I’ll meet him anywhere in Iowa next week, one-on-one, 90 minutes no moderator, just a timekeeper. He wants to try out the kitchen? I’ll debate him anywhere. We’ll bring his ads, and he can defend [them].”

The question Gingrich was responding to, was in reference to a previous statement made by Mitt Romney, that suggested Gingrich couldn’t stand the “heat” of negative ads. Romney told NBC’s Chuck Todd, “If you can’t handle the heat in this little kitchen, the heat that’s going to come from Obama’s Hell’s Kitchen is going to be a heck of a lot hotter.”

Gingrich continued;

“And we can bring the Washington Post indication that his ad is filled with lies and he can defend it. So let’s test this kitchen. I’m happy [to]. I’ll go in this kitchen. Go back and ask Gov. Romney, would he like to come and play in the kitchen? I don’t think so. I don’t think he wants to do anything except hide over here and pretend it’s not his fault that he is flooding the people of Iowa with falsehoods.

“That’s his money and his staff. And it’s his responsibility. I can take the heat plenty well. There were 121,000 ads run against me in 1995 and 1996. I went through two government shutdowns. I actually stuck to my word. I opposed Republican tax increases in 1982 and 1980. I think I’ll do just fine with the heat from Barack Obama because frankly, it’ll be a fair exchange. He’ll get a fair amount of heat in the process.”

Like the others before him who once led the group of Republican misfits charge up the hill to become president of the United States, Newt Gingrich has fallen by the wayside. Recent polls now have him in third position behind Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.

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Iowa Mitt Romney Politics

Rick Perry Calls Mitt Romney’s $10,000.00 Bet “Pocket Change”

Tasting blood in the water, Rick Perry went in for what he hopes is the kill. On Sunday, Perry went into attack mode, suggesting that Rick Perry’s $10,000.00 bet is “pocket change” for Romney, and suggests that Romney is out of touch with middle class Americans.

The morning after Mitt Romney challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet, the Texas governor slammed Romney’s casual but pricey wager and suggested the sum is merely “pocket change” for his wealthy rival.

“Having an extra ten thousand that you would throw down on a bet just seems very out of the ordinary,” Perry told a New York Times reporter after a crowded event in an Ames diner.

“I would suggest to you that ten thousand dollars is pocket change for Mitt,” he added

The “pocket change” remark offered a sharp new nettle on Perry’s earlier criticism of Romney in an interview with Fox News Sunday, in which he dubbed the former Massachusetts governor “a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen.”

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