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Romney Attack Ad – What Does it Say about a President’s Character?
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-EEETo3Sqo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
This dramatic Romney campaign ad responding to an Obama supporting Super PAC ad alluding that Mitt Romney’s actions at Bain Capital lead to a woman’s death will now play in “swing states.”
It didn’t take long for Team Romney to go on offense over the despicable attack ad from Priorities USA Action that strongly implied that Mitt Romney was responsible for the death of a spouse laid off by GST — several years before her diagnosis, and long after Romney left Bain Capital’s active management. Today the Romney campaign released a new TV-ready ad that attacks Barack Obama for “scraping bottom” and asks, “What does it say about a president’s character that tries to use the tragedy of a woman’s death for political gain?”
The ad title is “America Deserves Better,” but it could be just as easily called “The Death of Hope and Change”…
Eventually, the Obama Campaign will have to make a “big” apology and fire someone responsible.
In the meantime, this ad will play all weekend long – probably during the Olympics.
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July Job Creation Index Slips
According to the latest Gallup Poll.Gallup’s U.S. Job Creation Index slipped to +17 in July, after registering at or near +20 from April through June. Despite the drop, the +17 continues to be one of the more positive net hiring values Gallup has recorded since 2009, though it still trails the readings seen as the 2008-2009 recession was just starting.
The Gallup Job Creation Index is a measure of U.S. adult employees’ perceptions of hiring conditions where they work. On average in July, 34% of all full- and part-time workers said their employers are hiring and expanding the size of their workforces, and 17% said their employers are letting workers go and reducing the size of their workforces, resulting in the +17 net hiring figure.
The hiring component of the index fell slightly to 34% in July, from 36% in June, while the firing component moved to 17%, from 16%. This backslide in hiring mirrors Americans’ flagging economic confidence in July.
There appears to be NO sustained economic recovery at this point of the Presidential election cycle. Certainly, President Obama is not going to be able to point to an improving job’s climate the past few months.
What are the implications?
These figures will be exploited by the Republican Mitt Romney during the fall campaign.
Here is the Hiring Vs. Firing Chart for the same time period:
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Mitt Romney to Announce Vice President Via Smart Phone App
Is Team Romney cutting edge or so 2008?
This offer is sure to vex all the Obama campaigners who think they alone are on the cutting edge of voter outreach.
“While I won’t be breaking any news today, I wanted to let you know how to be the first to get the VP scoop with our new Mitt’s VP app,” says Beth Meyers, the senior adviser to Mitt Romney who has led the search for his running mate these many weeks.
Indeed the big news can be flashed to I-Phones and Androids at the very nanosecond the decision goes public.
“There’s no telling when that answer might come. But when it does, be the first to find out and access exclusive content,” Ms. Meyers says.
If Romney had not come up with this obvious way to obtain voter information, he would have been criticised as behind the curve with voter outreach technology. So, Team Romney cannot win on this one.
It is so 2008 – but then again, so is Team Obama.
The social media world has caught up with the campaigns.
On the app, you can get it here – but the announcement will be up on Twitter and Facebook in a flash after it is announced.
Of course, Team Obama has this cool canvassing app, but surely Romney will not be too far behind. Besides how many states are really in play anyway?
Five or six maybe?
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President 2012 Florida Poll Watch: Obama 48% Vs. Romney 47%
President Obama and Mitt Romney
According to the Democratic leaning PPP Polling.
PPP’s first likely voters poll of Florida finds that it’s likely to take its customary place as one of the most closely contested states in the country this year. Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by the slightest of margins, 48-47, but Romney would take a small advantage in the state if he added either Marco Rubio or Condoleezza Rice to his ticket.
Speaking to the general discontent of the electorate this year Florida voters aren’t terribly enamored with either Obama or Romney. Voters narrowly disapprove of the job Obama’s doing, with 50% giving him poor marks to 47% who think he’s doing a good job. But they’re not terribly fond of Romney either, with 46% rating him favorably to 49% with a negative opinion. Still this parity between Obama’s approval and Romney’s favorability numbers is notable- Obama has tended to run well ahead of Romney on that front.
Obama and Romney are holding their party bases at basically equal levels, with 84% of Democrats supporting Obama and 83% of Republicans committed to Romney. Romney’s holding a 47-40 lead with independents. Obama’s up 51-44 with women, 61-34 with Hispanics, and 58-35 with young voters while Romney’s ahead 50-45 with men, 56-39 with whites, and 52-44 with seniors.
We tested five potential running mate pairings for Romney in Florida and two of them moved him from a small disadvantage to a small lead. Home state Senator Marco Rubio makes the biggest difference for Romney, pushing him up to a 49-47 lead. Rubio’s approval numbers aren’t earth shattering at 45/42, but his appeal is strong enough to help Romney gain a couple points with both Democrats and Republicans.
The other difference maker among potential Romney running mates is Condoleezza Rice. She has a 59/28 favorability rating, basically unheard of among politicians today. Republicans (76/15) and independents (62/26) and love her and even with Democrats she’s on narrowly positive ground (42/41). If she was on the ticket Romney’s lead with independents would jump from 7 points to 13, leaving him ahead 46-45 overall.
Interesting that Florida Senator Marco Rubio pushes Romney into the lead. Mitt Romney, in order to win the Presidency must win Florida.
Rubio, a Cuban American conservative, would also help Romney with Hispanic voters in Colorado and Nevada.
This is why, I feel, Rubio is the BEST choice for Romney.
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Popular Bill Clinton to Deliver Prime-Time Campaign Speech for Obama
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton
Yeah Bubba, Bill Clinton is still popular.
Two-thirds of Americans — 66% — have a favorable opinion of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, tying his record-high favorability rating recorded at the time of his inauguration in January 1993. Clinton nearly returned to this level of popularity at two points in his second term, but has generally seen lower ratings, averaging 56% since 1993.
Here is the popularity chart:
American voters have a short memory and the Democrats have given Bill Clinton a Democratic Party Convention primetime speech.
Former President Bill Clinton will assume a high-profile role at the Democratic National Convention in September, including a prime-time address in a slot typically reserved for an incumbent vice president. Clinton will speak on the third night of the convention in Charlotte, N.C., the evening before President Obama will formally accept the party’s nomination at Bank of America Stadium, campaign and DNCC officials tell ABC News. Vice President Biden will share the stage with Obama on Thursday, Sept. 6, delivering his own solo address before the president speaks, the officials said.
But, the Romney folks will be happy to remind them that Barack Obama is NO Bill Clinton.
“There will be people who say it helps Obama, but they’re already voting for him,” says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. “And it will just remind people that Obama is no Bill Clinton when it comes to the economy.” Clinton, of course, governed during a rare stretch of peace and prosperity, leaving office with the federal budget in surplus. There’s no doubt that he will point out the dire economic straits that Obama inherited from his predecessor, President George W. Bush. But increasingly, voters are tired of the blame game and just want Obama to present a credible plan for the next four years.
I don’t think Bubba’s speech will make too much of a difference in helping President Obama. This choice was an internal Democratic Party choice to keep Bill and Hillary on the Obama reservation during the campaign.
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Poll Watch: Presidential To Do List – Jobs and Government Corruption
According to the latest Gallup Poll.
Creating good jobs, reducing corruption in the federal government, and reducing the federal budget deficit score highest when Americans rate 12 issues as priorities for the next president to address. Americans assign much less importance to increasing taxes on wealthy Americans and dealing with environmental concerns.
Looks to me that Americans do not care too much for the class warfare jibberish of President Obama and the Congressional Democrats. This appears to be an opening for Mitt Romney to exploit the policy issues.
But, will he?
Or, will Obama try to pivot toward the center and cut Romney off at the policy pass?
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Cheney: Obama Worse Than Carter – One of Our Weakest Presidents
Dick Cheney is certainly back in the political arena.
The former Vice President minces no words about President Barack Obama.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in his first interview since a heart transplant operation in March, blasted President Obama calling him “one of our weakest presidents.”
“Obviously, I’m not a big fan of President Obama,” said Cheney in an excerpt from an interview with ABC News aired Monday on “Good Morning America.” “I think he’s been one of our weakest presidents. I fundamentally disagree with him philosophically, be hard put to find any Democratic president I disagree with more.”
Asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl if Obama was “worse than Jimmy Carter in your perspective,” Cheney responded “yes.”
I don’t know about worse than Carter.
During Carter’s Presidency we had foreign policy humiliation (Iranian hostage crisis and failed rescue attempt), a poor economy (stagflation) and gasoline lines.
At least President Obama has had some foreign policy success with the killing of Bin Laden. But, the economy has been extremely poor and he will have to justify his policy decisions in the November election.
Here is the Cheney interview in an embedded video below:
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Cheney: Choosing Sarah Palin as Vice President Nominee Was a Mistake
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Dick Cheney said today that John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee was a “mistake.”
Dick Cheney has some advice for Mitt Romney on choosing a running mate: Don’t pick another Sarah Palin.
In his first interview since receiving a heart transplant in March, Cheney told ABC News, that John McCain’s decision to pick Palin as his running mate in 2008 was “a mistake” — one that it is important from Romney not to repeat.
It’s subject on which Cheney has some unique experience. He helped Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush lead their vice presidential searches and, of course, served as vice president for eight years. He’s also privately offered some advice to both Romney and Beth Myers, who is leading Romney’s search for a runningmate, on the process.
Cheney would not comment on what he told Romney and Myers, but he was harsh in his assessment of McCain’s decision to pick Palin.
“That one,” Cheney said, “I don’t think was well handled.”
“The test to get on that small list has to be, ‘Is this person capable of being president of the United States?’”
Cheney believes Sarah Palin failed that test.
Well, Cheney never really thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be the Vice President. He just did not articulate it so bluntly earlier.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney won’t say whether he thinks Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.
Asked in an interview on NBC broadcast Tuesday morning whether he thought she was qualified, Cheney ducked and said he’s “not going to get into the business … of saying this one is, this one isn’t.”
The former vice president said he would speak out at a later time on the 2012 contest.
“I’m interested in Gov. Palin like a lot of people are,” he said in an interview on the “Today” show.
“I’ve met her,” he said. “I thought she’s got an interesting political career established.”
Cheney said he watches the former Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate’s reality show, “Sarah Palin’s America,” and thinks it’s “very good.”
Cheney wouldn’t weigh in on her chances in 2012 or whether she’d do a good job in the White House. “She’s clearly a factor in the Republican Party, has a strong following. She also has a lot of critics.”
It’s not the first time Cheney has avoided weighing in on whether he thinks Palin could be president.
The problem with the GOP in 2008 was not Sarah Palin, despite her shortcomings and lack of experience. It was not her blow-up with Katie Couric.
The problem and the mistake in 2008 was the Presidential nominee, John McCain. He simply was too old, too liberal and not aggressive enough in order to make the GOP case to the American people. The campaign he ran was abysmal.
Even though New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was more moderate on social issues than the GOP platform, he would have been the better nominee.
Rudy would not have needed and would not have selected a novice, inexperienced Governor from a small state to be his Vice President. I would have bet he would have chosen Mike Huckabee to balance the ticket and would have beaten Obama.
Here is the video embedded below of Cheney’s interview:
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President 2012 Poll Watch: Romney Leading Obama by 5 Points Nationally
According to the latest Rasmussen Presidential daily tracking poll.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney attracting 49% of the vote, while President Obama earns support from 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.
The numbers are similar to the 49% to 43% advantage Romney enjoys on the question of who is trusted more to handle the economy.
Romney’s five-point advantage is the largest enjoyed by either candidate in just over a month. As with any such change in the race, it remains to be seen whether it marks a lasting shift or is merely statistical noise.
The president’s support has been at either 43% or 44% for six straight days. See tracking history.
Rasmussen Polling is always seen to be GOP biased by about 3 or 4 points so this latest result may be significant.
But, the main result is that the incumbent President Obama is NOT leading Romney by 5 points like he did the presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain in 2008.
So, despite the lumps that Romney has taken in the past few days over his remarks in England, Mitt Romney is still very much in this race.
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President 2012 Nevada Poll Watch: Obama Leads Romney By 5 Points
According to the latest Rasmussen Poll.The presidential race in Nevada is a little tighter this month, with President Obama now leading Mitt Romney by five points in the Silver State.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada shows the president drawing 50% of the vote to Romney’s 45%. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.
The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Nevada was conducted on July 24, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Negative Romney ads have been running for some time in the Las Vegas television market.
Romney needs to win Nevada and by selecting a Hispanic Vice President Marco Rubio might be the way to regain the edge in the state.
