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Update: Obama’s Father Has a Polygamist Past: Montana Democrat Governor Brian Schweitzer Calls Out Mitt Romney’s Mormon “Polygamy” Past
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Montana Governor, Democrat, Brian Schweitzer
Does the Obama campaign REALLY want to go there?
The Daily Beast contacted the office of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer today to talk about whether his state would be in play in the 2012 presidential election. About a half hour later, the governor called back, and he had a lot to say. He didnt think that Montana would be a swing state, but the Democrat did say that Mitt Romney could have issues nationally because his father was born on a polygamy commune in Mexico.
While discussing swing states, Schweitzer said Romney would have a tall order to position Hispanics to vote for him, and I replied that was mildly ironic since Mitt’s father was born in Mexico, giving the clan a nominal claim to being Hispanic. Schweitzer replied that it is kinda ironic given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy. Women, he said, are not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.
Romney’s father, George – who served as governor of Michigan and was a member of the Nixon cabinet and also a presidential candidate – was born in Mexico in 1907 to a family of American Mormons who fled to Mexico when the United States government cracked down on the practice of polygamy. George Romney’s parents were in a monogamous marriage, but Mexico was the last bastion for the practice of plural marriage in the Church of Latter Day Saints. (The church has since expressly prohibited the practice.)
See anything wrong here?
Perhaps I will have to make it more clear: The Obama campaign is using a surrogate to portray at Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion as something weird.
OK. But, remember about what they say about people who live in “glass houses?”
But, I mean, Obama and HIS past? Really?
In his three years as U.S. president, Barack Obama has been dogged by claims he is not patriotic enough.
Last year he even had to publish his birth certificate to silence doubters who suggested he was not born an American.
Now it emerges that similar fears were expressed about his father, who was categorised with others as ‘anti-American and anti-white’ when he moved to the United States in 1959.
Mr Obama Snr had grown up in Kenya under British rule and aroused the fears of both colonial officers and American officials when he won a chance to study in Hawaii. The officials felt Kenyan students were ‘academically inferior’ with a ‘bad reputation’ for turning anti-American.
A memo from a British diplomat in Washington to Whitehall – released today by the National Archives in West London – sets out their concerns about the young Kenyans.
Dated September 1, 1959, it says: ‘I have discussed with the State Department. They are as disturbed about these developments as we are. They point out that Kenya students have a bad reputation over here for falling into the wrong hands and for becoming both anti-American and anti-white.’
In one of the Foreign Office files, the future president’s father appears on a list of Kenyan students as ‘OBAMA, Barack H’ – they shared the same name.
At the age of 23, he enrolled at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu to study economics with classmates including Ann Dunham, a 17-year-old white American from Kansas. The couple had a short marriage that led to the birth in 1961 of the future president, Barack Obama II.
Mr Obama Snr was among 100 or so Kenyan students brought to America by the African American Students Foundation.
U.S. and British officials were deeply suspicious of this outfit, observing that the AASF – though backed by singer Harry Belafonte and actor Sidney Poitier – had links to a Kenyan nationalist leader.
I would suggest that the Governor of Montana owes Mitt Romney an apology for his injudicious comments and call upon President Obama to disavow these surrogate tactics based on one’s religion and family history.
Mr. President, I expect better from you.
President Obama as a young boy with his Kenyan father.
Update:
On Thursday Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer decided to go after Romney’s family history regarding polygamy stating Hispanics would not approve of such a history. So it is only fair to point out that President Obama’s family has a history of polygamy and bigamy as well. Yet the majority of Hispanics voted for President Obama in 2008.
“The line of polygamists in Obama’s family can be traced back generations in western Kenya, where it was an accepted practice within the Luo (pronounced LOO-oh) tribe.” His great-grandfather, Obama Opiyo, had five wives, including two who were sisters. His grandfather, Hussein Onyango, had at least four wives, one of whom, Akumu, gave birth to the president’s father, Barack Obama” before fleeing her abusive husband. Obama Sr. was already married when he left Kenya to study at the University of Hawaii, where he married again. His American wife-to-be, Stanley Ann Dunham, was not yet 18 and unaware of his marital situation when she became pregnant with his namesake son in 1961.
The Obama family:
In this Obama Family photo are: (bottom row, from left) half-sister Auma, her mother Kezia Obama, Obama’s step-grandmother Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama and unknown; (top row, from left) unknown, Barack Obama, half-brother Abongo (Roy) Obama, and three unknowns.
I am still waiting for the apology from the Montana Governor and the statement from the White House that a Presidential candidate’s religion and family are off-limits.
How long must it take?
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Montana Democrat Governor Brian Schweitzer Calls Out Mitt Romney’s Mormon “Polygamy” Past
Montana Governor, Democrat, Brian Schweitzer
Does the Obama campaign REALLY want to go there?The Daily Beast contacted the office of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer today to talk about whether his state would be in play in the 2012 presidential election. About a half hour later, the governor called back, and he had a lot to say. He didn’t think that Montana would be a swing state, but the Democrat did say that Mitt Romney could have issues nationally because his father was “born on a polygamy commune in Mexico.”
While discussing swing states, Schweitzer said Romney would have a “tall order to position Hispanics to vote for him,” and I replied that was mildly ironic since Mitt’s father was born in Mexico, giving the clan a nominal claim to being Hispanic. Schweitzer replied that it is “kinda ironic given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy.” Women, he said, are “not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.”
Romney’s father, George—who served as governor of Michigan and was a member of the Nixon cabinet and also a presidential candidate—was born in Mexico in 1907 to a family of American Mormons who fled to Mexico when the United States government cracked down on the practice of polygamy. George Romney’s parents were in a monogamous marriage, but Mexico was the last bastion for the practice of plural marriage in the Church of Latter Day Saints. (The church has since expressly prohibited the practice.)
See anything wrong here?
Perhaps I will have to make it more clear: The Obama campaign is using a surrogate to portray at Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion as something weird.
OK. But, remember about what they say about people who live in “glass houses?”
But, I mean, Obama and HIS past? Really?
In his three years as U.S. president, Barack Obama has been dogged by claims he is not patriotic enough.
Last year he even had to publish his birth certificate to silence doubters who suggested he was not born an American.
Now it emerges that similar fears were expressed about his father, who was categorised with others as ‘anti-American and anti-white’ when he moved to the United States in 1959.
Mr Obama Snr had grown up in Kenya under British rule and aroused the fears of both colonial officers and American officials when he won a chance to study in Hawaii. The officials felt Kenyan students were ‘academically inferior’ with a ‘bad reputation’ for turning anti-American.
A memo from a British diplomat in Washington to Whitehall – released today by the National Archives in West London – sets out their concerns about the young Kenyans.
Dated September 1, 1959, it says: ‘I have discussed with the State Department. They are as disturbed about these developments as we are. They point out that Kenya students have a bad reputation over here for falling into the wrong hands and for becoming both anti-American and anti-white.’
In one of the Foreign Office files, the future president’s father appears on a list of Kenyan students as ‘OBAMA, Barack H’ – they shared the same name.
At the age of 23, he enrolled at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu to study economics with classmates including Ann Dunham, a 17-year-old white American from Kansas. The couple had a short marriage that led to the birth in 1961 of the future president, Barack Obama II.
Mr Obama Snr was among 100 or so Kenyan students brought to America by the African American Students Foundation.
U.S. and British officials were deeply suspicious of this outfit, observing that the AASF – though backed by singer Harry Belafonte and actor Sidney Poitier – had links to a Kenyan nationalist leader.
I would suggest that the Governor of Montana owes Mitt Romney an apology for his injudicious comments and call upon President Obama to disavow these surrogate tactics based on one’s religion and family history.
Mr. President, I expect better from you.
President Obama as a young boy with his Kenyan father.
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Day By Day April 19, 2012 – What is it Good For?
Day By Day by Chris MuirWhatever is correct, Chris.It is all about a FAUX War on Women for Electoral College votes in Virginia, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and North Carolina.
From the Romney and RNC response on the Seamus dog narrative, the LEFT may be having a difficult time with these astro-turfed internet personal attacks on Romney and the GOP.
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Video: President 2012: Who Will Be Mitt Romney’s Vice President?
Larry Sabato’s Crystall Ball: Romney’s Perfect Vice PresidentYou can watch Sobato’s video above or read his prognostications here.But, I would be very surprised if Romney does not choose New Jersey Governor Chris Christie or Florida United States Senator Marco Rubio. Mitt would actually have a chance to win with either of these two articulate and LEFT battle hardened POLS.
One other I would mention would be Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
Forget the rest, as a team with Romney would make it more difficult for the GOP to win.
And, guess what?
Chris Christie has expressed some interest.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told ABC News he’s “not looking to become vice president” but left the door open to a conversation about it with Mitt Romney.
Said Christie: “But I also think it is extraordinarily arrogant for you to say you won’t even listen to the nominee of your party — especially for me. It’s someone who I’ve been supporting since last October vigorously around the country — that I wouldn’t take a call from Mitt Romney.”
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President 2012 Poll Watch: Romney 48% Vs. Obama 43%
According to the latest Gallup Poll.These are the results when registered voters are asked: “Suppose the presidential election were held today. If Barack Obama were the Democratic Party’s candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney were the Republican Party’s candidate, who would you vote for Barack Obama, the Democrat or Mitt Romney, the Republican?” Those who are undecided are further asked if they lean more toward Obama or Romney and their leanings are incorporated into the results.
However, the latest Pew national poll has President Obama leading, but his lead has narrowed from the previous month.
But, what really matters is a few key battleground states and in one, President Obama is winning – Florida.
The polls are likely to fluctuate now as each national campaign ramps up their advertising programs.
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Day By Day April 13, 2012 – Say It Ain’t So
Day By Day by Chris MuirI, somehow, don’t think Mitt Romney will allow Barack Obama and his campaign minions to divide the United States constituencies.Unlike John McCain, Romney knows he has to be more aggressive and take it to the LEFT. If not, Romney understands he will become a mere footnote in the history books.
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President 2012 Poll Watch: Mitt Romney 46 Vs. Barack Obama 44%
According to the latest Fox News Poll.Republican Mitt Romney holds a slim edge over President Obama in a head-to-head matchup, a Fox News poll released Thursday shows. In addition, the poll finds the president’s job rating has dropped to its lowest point of the year.
In a presidential matchup, Romney tops Obama by 46-44 percent if the election were today.
As with every Romney-Obama matchup in the past six months, the race is so tight that it is within the poll’s margin of sampling error. This, however, is only the second time the Fox News poll shows Romney on top. The first time was November 2011, when he was also up by 2 percentage points.
The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday. On Tuesday, Rick Santorum suspended his presidential bid — giving Romney a clear path to the Republican nomination.
More Republicans (42 percent) than Democrats (32 percent) or independents (34 percent) say they are “extremely” interested in the upcoming presidential election.
Even so, the strength of party support in the matchup is dead even: 85 percent of Democrats back Obama and 85 percent of Republican back Romney.
Among the highly sought after group of independents, the poll found 43 percent back Romney and 37 percent Obama. Nearly one in four independent voters (21 percent) is undecided or won’t vote for either of the major party candidates. Last month, independents split evenly between Obama and Romney at 40 percent each. In February, Romney had a 9-point advantage.
The poll shows the gender gap may not solely be a problem for the Republican candidate. Women are more likely to back Obama (by 49-41 percent), while men are even more likely to give their support to Romney (by 52-38 percent). The 2008 Fox News national exit poll showed women voted for Obama over Republican John McCain by 13 percentage points (56-43 percent). Historically, exit poll results show women have consistently backed the Democrat over the Republican in presidential elections.
Now that Mitt Romney has clinched the Republican nomination, it is game on.
The Hilary Rosen flap may indeed hurt Obama enough that his female support may wane and any gender gap to his advantage may narrow.
Stay tuned…
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President 2012 Colorado Poll Watch: Obama Leading Romney 53% Vs. 40%
According to the latest PPP Poll.Barack Obama’s opened up a 13 point lead on Mitt Romney in Colorado at 53-40. He’s gained 11 points in the state since December when he led just 47-45.
The formula for Obama’s gains is the same in Colorado as it is everywhere. He’s getting more popular and Romney’s getting less popular. In December only 45% of voters approved of the job Obama was doing to 50% who disapproved. Now he’s on positive ground with 50% giving him good marks to 47% who think he’s doing a poor job. The main thing that’s changed is Democrats really rallying around him. In December he was at 76/18 with them, but now it’s 89/8. The party is getting a lot more unified as the election comes closer.
Romney’s headed in the other direction. His net favorability has gone from -18 (35/53) to an even worse -29 (31/60). Romney had a healthy amount of appeal to Democrats earlier with 20% viewing him favorably but that’s now down to 11%. And he’s extremely unpopular with independents at 25/65.
In the head to head between them Obama leads Romney by 26 points with independents at 57-31. And Romney’s now getting just 7% of the Democratic vote, down from 14% on our December poll. This is the trend we’re seeing in most states- the primary campaign has caused much of Romney’s crossover support to evaporate and it’s also making him lose ground with independents.
Romney’s problem with women shows itself in a major way in Colorado. He’s down by 24 points with them at 58-34. With men the race is actually tied. Obama’s also up by an astounding 72-17 margin with voters under 30 in the state, a pretty good sign of where Colorado is headed politically.I am not surprised and never considered Colorado a serious key battleground state. The only contested races appear to be in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada and Florida.
Mitt Romney will be an uninspired Republican nominee, but has a chance in those five states. A good media campaign and ground operation to turn out voters might lead him to a victory.
Otherwise, it will be on to 2016 for the GOP and Tea Party.
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President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Mitt Romney’s Lead Over Santorum, Gingrich and Paul Continues to Grow
According to the latest Gallup Poll.Mitt Romney’s gathering momentum in the Republican nomination contest is evident as he now leads Rick Santorum by 16 percentage points as national Republican voters’ choice to be the GOP presidential nominee. He has led Santorum by at least 10 points for the last two weeks, and his lead has been 15 points or more for each of the last five days.
The latest results, based on Gallup Daily tracking conducted March 29-April 2, show Romney to be the choice of 41% of Republican voters and Santorum the choice of 25%, with Newt Gingrich (12%) and Ron Paul (11%) trailing.
Romney had led continuously since late February after winning the Michigan and Arizona primaries, but his lead dwindled to four points after he lost to Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi on March 13.
Romney’s current momentum coincides with his decisive victory in the March 20 Illinois primary, and he has maintained a double-digit lead for the last two weeks. On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin, Maryland, and the District of Columbia will vote in primaries, with Romney favored in all three contests.
This race for the GOP Presidential nomination is just about over.
Newt Ginrich has already scaled back his campaign operation and Rick Santorum is wishfully thinking for a miracle. When Santorum loses tonight, he might as well pack it in and get on board the Romney train.
This is not to say that Mitt Romney is the best candidate the GOP has to offer as an alternative to President Obama. But, it looks like no one else is stepping forward to lead – so you go with the candidate that you have.
Romney may win, but may not.
In any case, Romney is a do NO harm candidate and will not hurt the GOP brand in Senate and House races.
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President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama 49% Vs. Romney 45%
According to the latest Gallup Poll.If asked to choose between them today, 49% of U.S. registered voters say they would vote for Barack Obama for president, while 45% would choose likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney. While Obama’s advantage is not statistically significant, it is the largest he has had over Romney in Gallup polling to date.
Obama has a larger, significant lead, 51% to 43%, over Rick Santorum, Romney’s chief rival for the Republican nomination, in the March 25-26 USA Today/Gallup poll. In mid-February, when Santorum led as national Republicans’ choice for the nomination, he and Obama were tied.
Obama leads both Romney and Santorum among independent voters, faring slightly better against Santorum than he does against Romney. Romney and Santorum currently fare about equally well among Republican voters.
National polls don’t mean much as I have said over and over because of big urban areas that are predominantly Democratic. Also, registered voters rather than likely voters will skew results as well.
Let’s look at Gallup’s key battleground states poll.
Obama has a 51% to 42% lead over Romney in USA Today/Gallup polling of registered voters in 12 key swing states, conducted March 20-26. This is the first time in five measurements that Obama has held an advantage over Romney in those states.
Obama also leads Santorum in the swing states, by 52% to 41%.
What does this all mean?
Momentum has shifted towards President Obama because Americans perceive the economy getting a bit better. Also, the contraception flap with Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum has sullied the GOP national brand and Romney is receiving the fall out with women voters and independents.
You see, most Americans are not that tuned into what the real issues are and when Jon Stewart and Jay Leno start the mocking, perceptions will shift – especially with this no win issue. But, will they shift in key battleground states?
The key battleground state poll, however, is not an accurate portrayal. There are at this point of the campaign really only six states in play: Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Romney will need to run the table with these states in order to win the Presidency.