• Barack Obama,  Donald Trump,  Mike Huckabee,  Mitt Romney,  Newt Gingrich,  Polling,  President 2012,  Sarah Palin

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Barack Obama 46% Vs. Mitt Romney 45%

    According to the latest McClatchy-Marist Poll.

    When given the choice between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and the president, voters divide. 46% of registered voters say they would back the president while 45% say they would cast their ballot for Romney. Nine percent are undecided.

    When McClatchy-Marist last reported this question in January, Mr. Obama had a 13 percentage point lead over Romney. At that time, a slim majority — 51% — said they would vote for the president while 38% thought they would back Romney. 11% were undecided.

    The president has lost ground among independent voters. Currently a plurality — 45% — back Romney while 42% support Obama. 13% are undecided. Previously, the president held a 10 percentage point lead over Romney.

    And, what about if Mike Huckabee is the Republican nominee?

    When paired with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, President Obama has a slight lead. 48% of voters say they would support the president in this hypothetical contest while 43% believe they would back Huckabee. Nine percent are undecided. However, Huckabee has narrowed the gap. In McClatchy-Marist’s previous survey, 12 percentage points separated the two. In January, half of voters — 50% — said Obama was their candidate while 38% said the same about Huckabee. 12% were undecided.

    Other GOP potential nominees don’t do so well against President Obama, including Sarah Palin (56% Vs. 34%)  and Donald Trump (54% Vs. 38%).

    The GOP Field Head to Head (Republicans and Republican Leaning Independents):

    • Mitt Romney – 18%
    • Mike Huckabee – 17%
    • Donald Trump – 13%
    • Rudy Giuliani – 9%
    • Sarah Palin – 8%
    • Ron Paul – 7%
    • Newt Gingrich – 4%
    • Michele Bachmann – 3%
    • Mitch Daniels – 2%
    • Tim Pawlenty – 2%

    Other notable findings:

    • Romney and Huckabee run evenly among Republicans with 19% each.
    • Huckabee is the favorite among Tea Party supporters with 20%.
    • Trump tops the list among Republican leaning independents with 18%.

    This is another national poll, so you really cannot read too much into it except that President Obama is not doing well against two Republican nominees who have not really started to campaign and one who has not even decided to run for the Presidency.

    President Barack Obama has officially announced that he will seek re-election next year, but he faces an electorate that still needs convincing. According to this McClatchy-Marist Poll, a plurality of registered voters nationwide — 44% — say they definitely plan to vote against Mr. Obama in 2012. 37% report they definitely plan to vote for him, and 18% are unsure.

    Despite the president’s transition into campaign mode, little has changed on this question since McClatchy-Marist last asked it in November. At that time, 48% of voters said they will not support the president in his re-election bid while 36% thought they would. 16%, at the time, were unsure.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 05:58

    These are my links for April 20th from 05:58 to 07:27:

    • San Francisco Supervisors Pass ‘Twitter Tax Break’ – San Francisco lawmakers approved the mid-Market "Twitter tax break" on Tuesday in a near-empty board chamber, drawing an anticlimactic close to a debate that had polarized the city for two months. The legislation freezes payroll taxes along the mid-Market corridor for six years, a move supervisors hope will keep Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco.

      The Board immediately moved onto the next, thorny question: What should San Francisco do with the rest of its startups that are threatening to leave because of the city’s payroll tax?

      Supervisor Mark Farrell introduced legislation Tuesday that would amend the payroll tax code to no longer consider stock options as employee compensation. Since 2004, the city has defined options as payroll to be taxed at 1.5 percent. But only now, as a handful of high-profile tech companies like Twitter and Zynga prepare for their initial public offerings, has the tax emerged as a concern.

      In recent weeks a handful of companies including Twitter, Zynga, and Yelp have pressed city officials to amend the tax, saying they would rather relocate than stay in San Francisco and absorb a huge tax hit in the event they go public and their shares soar in value.

      =====

      If California wishes to retain business they will have to pass more such tax breaks and reduce regulation, plus streamline the process.

      To deal with the less revenue, California will also have to cut government spending, including welfare, health and prison reform.

      California better get busy.

    • President 2012: Why Trump Shouldn’t Be Taken Seriously – But that's not the smell that bothers me. It's the stench of desperation coming up from those fickle souls taking a Trump presidential bid seriously.

      How fickle? Well, not a day goes by when someone doesn't explain that Newt Gingrich can't win because he's damaged goods. And it's certainly true that the former speaker of the House has a lot of baggage – "enough to open a Louis Vuitton store," writes Ramesh Ponnuru in National Review. But surely "The Donald's" baggage would require an army of stevedores and sherpas.

      And yet, the thrice-married lothario who says all women are gold diggers – at least when it comes to signing prenuptial agreements with him (and he may have a point there!) – is actually leading among Republican women, according to a CNN poll.

      Forget Gingrich. Consider Mitt Romney. Nearly every conservative in Christendom not on Romney's payroll – and some who are – insists that his "Romneycare" law in Massachusetts is a political albatross given its similarities to Obamacare. Well, here's Trump in his book, The America We Deserve: "We must have universal healthcare. Our objective (should be) . . . to find an equivalent of the single-payer plan that is affordable, well-administered, and provides freedom of choice." Trump is flip-flopping now, as he is on his past support for Democrats, raising taxes, etc. And changes of heart are fine. But forgive me if I don't equate the word "Trump" with "sincere."
      Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has been under fire for (foolishly) suggesting a "truce" on cultural issues with the Left. Social conservatives rightly saw this as a call for unilateral disarmament. But somehow gambling and wrestling impresario Trump would make a reliable champion of social issues?

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      Read it all

      But, Trump is serving a useful purpose as a non-serious surrogate who is attacking President Obama every day in a pop culture way.

      Trump will certainly drop by the wayside soon but the damage to Obama will be done.

      The GOP and America can thanks The Donald for that.

    • California Dreamin’ About Texas Jobs – A group of California legislators recently made headlines when they traveled to Texas to learn why the Lone Star State has lately been generating the kind of job growth that the Golden State was once known for, and even luring many companies that once made California their home.

      But every politician in California of either party ought to know that the answer to the state's economic woes lies not in Texas, but in California. Job migration is a very sexy issue, and one blogger, relocation expert Joseph Vranich, is even keeping an online list of firms that have exited California. But migration makes up only a small part of the job gains or losses a state experiences. By contrast, job creation through expansion of businesses and the formation of new companies is far more responsible for job growth. California once knew how to create new jobs and new companies, and a few places in the state still do it fairly well. The answers to California's woes lie in those places, not in Texas.

      Over the last 15 years, California ranks as the third worst state in the country in terms of job migration, with a net outflow of jobs that is 1 percent greater than the flow of jobs into the state, according to the National Establishment Time Series database. Texas, by contrast, is 10th best in the nation in that period, with a plus 1.3 percent inflow of jobs from other states. Based on Vranich's anecdotal list, Texas is the biggest beneficiary of jobs leaving California.

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      Sad but true.

      I know many young Californians that have either left or planning to leave the Golden State because the jobs are few and the expenses are great.

      California needs to right its budget, re-evaluate business regulations, reform its welfare systems and improve its educational system quickly or the export of jobs and people will continue.

    • In Social Media Battle, Republicans Catch Up in Time for 2012 – “The notion that the Internet was owned by liberals, owned by the left in the wake of the Obama victory, has been proven false,” said Patrick Ruffini, a Republican political online strategist who is now advising the exploratory campaign of Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, after working as a digital adviser to President George W. Bush’s campaign in 2004 and later to the Republican National Committee.

      During last year’s midterm elections, Republicans caught up with Democrats in using technology and social networks, and now many Republicans elected to the House and Senate are using these tools more than Democrats, according to several political and technology experts.

      “This will be the first election in modern history that both parties are understanding the potential of the technology to change the results of the election,” said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of TechPresident.com, a blog that covers politics and technology, and a digital adviser to Democrats since Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004. “Both Republicans and Democrats are ready to use online platforms and are no longer skeptical of its potential.”

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      And, in many ways, the RIGHT has leaped ahead of the Democrats, especially with Twitter.

  • Day By Day,  Taxes

    Day By Day April 19, 2011 – Taxing



    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    The Super Rich that President Obama and Congressional Democrats wish to surcharge are not stupid. They will move their enterprises/investments offshore where a willing country will tax them less.

    Then, guess what?

    Yes, they will lower the definition of Super Rich and/or add a National Sales Tax or a Value Added Tax. And, keep on spending.

    Tax and spend Liberals – haven’t we heard this failed tune before?

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  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 19th through April 20th

    These are my links for April 19th through April 20th:

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    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-04-20

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