• Barack Obama,  Herman Cain,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama 39% Vs. Cain 34%

    September 28, 2011 /


    According to the latest Rasmussen Poll.

    Herman Cain did well in last week’s GOP debate and won a decisive straw poll victory in Florida, but his numbers in a general election match-up against President Obama are little changed.

    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that Obama earns 39% support while Cain attracts 34%. In that match-up, 14% prefer some other candidate, and 14% are undecided

    A month ago,  the president led Cain by seven percentage points. In March  Obama held an 18 point advantage over the businessman and talk show host.

    Data released earlier today shows that voters nationwide are evenly divided as to whether or not Cain is qualified to be president  — 30% say yes, 33% no, and 37% are not sure. Republicans, by a 49% to 17% margin believe he is qualified while most Democrats disagree. Among Republicans, Cain’s numbers on this question are similar to Rick Perry’s but not as strong as Mitt Romney’s.

    Yet, these are fairly decent numbers from someone who is virtually unknown to the electorate.

    Here is a summary of Rasmussen head to head polling:

    Not a bad polling result from someone who just last week was considering withdrawal form the Presidential race.
  • Mitt Romney,  Polling,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012 GOP Ohio Poll Watch: Perry 42% Vs. Romney 38%

    September 28, 2011 /

    According to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll.

    Among the several candidates hoping to succeed the president, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the pack in Ohio, attracting 24 percent of the support. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is close behind with 20 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who still hasn’t announced her presidential intentions, rounds out the top three with 9 percent. Businessman Herman Cain garners 7 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul receives 6 percent. None of the remaining candidates polls above 4 percent. When the two Republican front-runners are paired against each other in a head-to-head matchup, 42 percent back Perry while 38 percent back Romney.

    All of the rest of the candidates are supperfluous at this point. If Chris Christie or Sarah Palin were to run then there might be a change. But, for now it is a race between Perry and Romney.

    For now, in Ohio, the two candidates are virtually tied.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 28th on 08:03

    September 28, 2011 /

    These are my links for September 28th from 08:03 to 08:06:

    • Labor Secretary Hilda Solis To Headline AFL-CIO Union Organizing ‘Summit’ – In yet another example the Obama Administration’s pandering to its union cronies while thumbing its nose at the other 88% of America that is union free, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will be headlining (at taxpayer expense) to an AFL-CIO “summit” later this week in Minneapolis. The subject of the conference? How to target and unionize young people (and others).

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      Read it all

    • Obama’s Labor Department Blasted in Public Comments Over Dangerous ‘Persuader’ Proposal – Last week, the public comment period closed on the Obama Labor Department’s proposed regulatory change to alter a 1959 law that would make employers and their service providers (attorneys and various consultants) file financial disclosure statements and make personal information public, all in order to give union bosses hit lists of individuals and companies to target. Prior to the closing of the public comment period, there were nearly 6,000 comments—4,000 of which came within the last ten days or so as more people became aware of  the union-backed proposed rule.

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      Read it all

  • Barack Obama,  Mitt Romney,  Politics,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012 Ohio Poll Watch: Obama 44% Vs. Romney 42% or Obama 44% Vs. Perry 41%

    September 28, 2011 /


    The 2008 Presidential Electoral College Results

    According to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll.

    In Ohio, voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president, 53 percent to 42 percent. Independents give the president a lower score: 56 percent disapprove of his job performance while 38 percent approve. He receives majority support from his base (77 percent approve) but 19 percent of Democrats give him a poor job-performance grade. Men disapprove by 58 percent to 39 percent while the disapproval rate among women is much narrower, 49 percent to 45 percent.

    By a 51 percent to 43 percent margin, Ohio voters say the president does not deserve to be re-elected. Again, he struggles among independents: 53 percent don’t want to give him a second term while 37 percent do.

    Obama maintains a slim edge over his top two challengers in Ohio, a state he won in 2008 by five points. The president  leads Romney, 44 percent to 42 percent, and tops Perry, 44 percent to 41 percent. Obama edges Perry among independents, 38 percent to 35 percent. But that group is split between Obama and Romney, each of whom takes 39 percent.

    In this key battleground state, that the GOP Presidential nominee needs to win in the Electoral College, the Republicans are licking their chops for a pick up. This probably reflects more displeasure with President Obama and his policies than a desire for the Republican candidates.

    Nevertheless, the President is upside in the approval ratings and by a 51% Vs. 43% margin, voters are saying he does not deserve re-election.

  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-09-28

    September 28, 2011 /

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  • Kurt Westergaard,  Muhammad Caricatures

    Norway Prosecutor Files Terrorism Charges Against Three in Attack on Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten and Mohammed Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard

    September 27, 2011 /

    Offices of the Jyllands-Posten Newspaper which published the Mohammed Cartoons

    Remember the “Mumbai-Style” terror attack in late December 2010. Now, there is more.

    Mikael Davud, David Jakobsen and Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak are charged with planning to carry out an assault using explosives on Danish paper Jyllandsposten. The charges also say they planned to shoot Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, author of the controversial Prophet Mohammed caricatures.

    All the men were arrested last year in Oslo and Germany following a Police Security Service (PST) raid.  Authorities suspected they had planned to bomb the Chinese Embassy, with one of the three trying to obtain Hydrogen Peroxide from a pharmacy. This failed due to PST intervention.

    It is also believed the plotters are connected to al-Qaida, and the case has ties to the United States.

    The three men arrived in Norway between 1999 and 2002. Mr Davud and Bujak remain in custody while Mr Jakobsen, who served as an informant for the PST, has been released.

    None of the suspects admit their guilt, but face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

    Here is more from the AP.

    The three men risk prison sentences of up to 12 years, Evanger said.

    Investigators believe the plot was linked to the same al-Qaeda planners behind 2009 schemes to blow up New York’s subway and a British shopping mall.

    An Associated Press investigation last year showed all three plots were thwarted after suspected operatives exchanged emails – sometimes poorly coded – in and out of Pakistan.

    Davud, a 40-year-old ethnic Uighur from China, was charged with receiving explosives training at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and agreeing to blow up one of several offices of Jyllands-Posten in Denmark.

    Bujak and Jakobsen are accused of joining the plot in 2009 and helping acquire bomb-making chemicals.

    Police say they had the men under surveillance and even replaced a vital ingredient with a harmless liquid to ensure they would not succeed in building a bomb.

    Davud and Bujak, a 38-year-old Iraqi Kurd, were also charged with plotting to shoot Westergaard.

    Westergaard drew the most controversial of the 12 cartoons, featuring Mohammed with a lit fuse in his turban. He was the victim of a murder attempt last year and has received several death threats.

    Davud and Bujak have been held in custody since their arrest and have both admitted they were planning an attack, although their versions have differed on who their target was, the first saying it was the Chinese embassy in Oslo and the second claiming it was Jyllands-Posten.

    Jakobsen has denied any responsibility and is currently a free man. He became a police informant in November 2009 but still faced charges for his involvement in the plot before then.

    All three suspects deny any links to al-Qaeda.

    In Norway, plotting a terrorist act alone is not a crime. If at least two people are involved they can be convicted of conspiracy.

    The trial is set to begin on October 31.

    Here are the Mohammed cartoons:

     

  • Herman Cain,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Herman Cain is Popular But Not Well Known

    September 27, 2011 /

    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Herman Cain’s image among Republicans familiar with him is more intensely positive than any other Republican presidential candidate’s, but his 51% name recognition continues to rank near the bottom of the field. Among the better-known candidates, Rick Perry has the strongest positive image.

    Cain is attracting increased media attention after pulling off an upset in the Florida straw poll on Saturday. Much of the interviewing in the latest data, spanning Sept. 12-25 Gallup Daily tracking, was conducted before that win. However, Cain has consistently ranked near the top of Gallup’s positive intensity list this year. His current score of 26 is just below the 28 he registered on two occasions, which is the highest Gallup has measured for any GOP candidate.

    Cain’s popularity is largely due to the fact that Cain has concrete proposals (e.g. his 9-9-9 plan) and is able to articulate them well. And, he is not a typical POL.

    But, he is an outsider in an inside game and will not be able to put together the money nor the organization to help him win elections.

    Cain’s win in Florida may not be surprising in that he has always had a relatively small but intense following among Republicans, the kind of group that can propel a candidate to win a straw poll vote. His win may make him the new “flavor of the month” in the GOP nomination contest, which was the case for Bachmann in June after the first major candidate debate and for Perry in August after he officially announced his candidacy.

    That status is not necessarily welcome news, though, as increased attention begets increased scrutiny, which can lead to increasingly negative views of the candidate. For example, Bachmann’s current Positive Intensity Score of 8 is one-third as large as her score of 24 in late June. And though Perry remains among the most-liked candidates among those familiar with him, his score is beginning to show some signs of decline as his opponents have made his record and past statements a central theme of the campaign in recent weeks.

    Even if Cain is able to weather increased scrutiny, he does have to convince voters that he is both electable and capable of being president, given his lack of political experience. However, with Americans expressing a low level of trust in government and the people who hold political office, they may view a lack of political experience as more of a plus than a minus.