A Project New America poll in Colorado finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by four points in the presidential race, 48% to 44%.
Archives for May 2012
Obama Crushes Romney in California
A new USC Dornslife/Los Angeles Times poll in California finds that women, independents, moderates and Latinos help President Obama take a commanding lead over Mitt Romney, 56% to 37%.
Two Republican Nominees
The Obama campaign released a video showing how Sen. John McCain distanced himself from extremist positions in 2008 while Mitt Romney refuses to do so when it comes to Donald Trump.
Sarah Palin in the Minor Leagues
Politico: “This year, Palin has become almost irrelevant in the context of the presidential race she once had a chance to dominate, and is seen more than ever as a sideshow by the Republican establishment. But after seeing her celebrity peak last year, Palin has settled into a role as something of a strong Triple-A political ballplayer, picking well on down-ballot races and earning credit as she goes.”
“If she jumps into the right streams, the ex-veep nominee’s backers will cite her endorsements as fresh evidence of her clout — even if she’s being carried by the tide. Yet her durability among the grassroots of the party, even with the tea-party movement diffusing in 2012, is clear.”
How Obama Learned to Kill
The Daily Beast runs excerpts from a new book, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, which shows President Obama wasn’t always “the commander in chief who never flinches” as the White House likes to portray.
Did Obama Engage Romney Too Early?
First Read: “From our coverage of past presidential campaigns, Republicans have always been better — and more comfortable — when it comes to hand-to-hand political combat. Exhibit A: Some of the Democratic handwringing we saw over the past two weeks about whether the attacks on Bain Capital are fair. And here’s Exhibit B: More handwringing about whether President Obama has engaged too early in the campaign. The handwringing is mostly taking place in the Acela corridor by folks that haven’t seen any polling data in the industrial Midwestern states or any focus groups, at least when it comes to Bain.”
“The more intriguing debate folks will have in December is about how quickly and sharply the president decided to personally attack Romney. He could have easily decided to stay above the fray for longer, but the decision was made they couldn’t do that. Team Obama will argue, they needed to fire up their own base and running AGAINST someone helps fire them up faster than simply asking them to help re-elect the president. So they may have had no choice but to engage earlier than planned simply to get their own base motivated. Still, hand wring all you want. The problem, though is that the toothpaste is already out of the tube.
Romney Stands By Trump
Mitt Romney did not distance himself from Donald Trump, “despite the reality TV and real estate mogul’s continued skepticism about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate,” ABC News reports.
Said Romney: “You know I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I”m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”
First Read: “What if a chief Obama surrogate/fundraiser happened to be the nation’s foremost critic of the Mormon faith, who argued that it was nothing more than a cult? Or what if the Obama campaign was holding a fundraising contest with a celebrity who believed that 9/11 was an inside job? Or even if Obama held a joint fundraiser with Bill Maher? It’s hard to differentiate those hypotheticals from Mitt Romney’s association with Donald Trump, who in recent days has said that hitting Obama with Jeremiah Wright is fair game and that there are still doubts about Obama’s place of birth.”
George Will: “I do not understand the cost benefit here. The costs are clear. The
benefit — what voter is going to vote for him because he is seen with
Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is
obvious, it seems to me.”
Mormons Brace for Campaign Scrutiny
Boston Globe: “Some of the faithful worry that their comparatively young religion is less prepared for what they will face than Catholics were when John F. Kennedy was running in 1960, or Jews were when Joe Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee in 2000… Polls suggest a deep wariness about Mormonism persists among the American electorate. More than one in four respondents said having a Mormon president would be a cause of concern for themselves, their family, or people in their neighborhood or workplace, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The figure was higher than those who expressed concerns over a Hispanic, woman, or African-American president.”
Tracking the Electoral Vote
Check out the completely redesigned Electoral-Vote.com for the latest election forecast based on the latest state polls.
Texas Republicans Vote Today
Mitt Romney is expected to reach (and surpass) 1,144 delegates tonight in the Texas Republican primary.
ABC News: “Bigger than the delegate math however, is the Republican Senate primary, which is so far the most expensive Senate race in this election cycle. Some $25 million has been spent on behalf of the candidates seeking to fill the seat left open by Kay Bailey Hutchison’s retirement. Although the list of candidates on the ballot is long, the race is mostly considered to be contained to David Dewhurst, the state’s lieutenant governor, and Ted Cruz, the former solicitor general.”
Michelle Obama’s New Book
Out today: American Grown by First Lady Michelle Obama.
The book is primarily about healthy eating but it also offers some interesting color on life in the White House: “Almost every night at 6:30, they sit down to dinner in the second-floor family quarters of the White House. They go around the table to say what each is thankful for that day, then repeat a blessing Malia and Sasha, now 10, came up with when they moved here — ‘We hope to live long and strong’ — before clinking their glasses together and digging in.”
The Amateur
Proof that disinformation in American politics works:
Taking the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list is The Amateur by Edward Klein, a widely-discredited book about President Obama that’s filled with false claims and poor research.
Veterans Overwhelmingly Back Romney
A new Gallup survey finds that U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over President Obama for president by a whopping 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four point edge, 48% to 44%.
Quote of the Day
“This is going to be a very close race, but I’d rather be us than them.”
— Obama strategist David Plouffe, quoted by New York magazine.
Campaigns Mine Data to Target Voters
Associated Press: “Online searches offer campaigns the simplest form of targeted advertising. When a voter searches on a candidate’s name or a keyword that indicates interest in that candidate, campaigns will place ads next to the search. The ads offer a great return on investment because the campaign only has to pay for the ad if the voter actually clicks on it. By layering additional data about the person who clicked on the ad, such as their gender or geographic location, the campaign can tailor a very specific message to get that person’s attention.”
“People who have visited a candidate’s website but left the site without signing up or making a contribution might start seeing display ads from the campaign urging them to do so. Campaigns will also place display ads on websites targeting a voter’s interests unrelated to politics, such as nature or sports or cooking… A voter who has indicated an interest in a candidate and then views a video on YouTube is likely to see a 15- or 30-second ad, called a pre-roll… A box will appear after 5 seconds asking if the person wants to continue viewing the ad. Campaigns only pay for ads the viewer watches through to completion.”
The Sequel to Hope and Change
John Heilemann: “Thus, to a very real degree, 2008’s candidate of hope stands poised to become 2012’s candidate of fear. For many Democrats, this is just fine and dandy, for they believe that in the Romney-Republican agenda there is plenty to be scared of. For others in the party in both politics and business, however, the new Obama posture is cause for concern. From the gay-marriage decision to the onslaught on Bain, they see the president and his team as coming across as too divisive, too conventional, and too nakedly political, putting at risk Obama’s greatest asset — his likability — with the voters in the middle of the electorate who will ultimately decide his fate.”
“Whichever side is right, one thing is undeniable. For anyone still starry-eyed about Obama, the months ahead will provide a bracing revelation about what he truly is: not a savior, not a saint, not a man above the fray, but a brass-knuckled, pipe-hitting, red-in-tooth-and-claw brawler determined to do what is necessary to stay in power — in other words, a politician.”
Lawmakers Work with Simpson-Bowles on Tax Deal
Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson “are working with a bipartisan group of 47 Senators and as many House members to frame a compromise on $7 trillion in looming fiscal decisions,” Reuters reports.
“Without a deal, the end of the year brings higher taxes for most Americans with the expiration of historically low income tax rates enjoyed by nearly every American and expiry of a payroll tax break, along with broad automatic spending cuts that most lawmakers in both parties want to avoid.”
Said Bowles: “I believe this group will come together during the lame duck.”
Biden Gets Personal with Military Families
Vice President Joe Biden went off-script with a deeply personal moment with family members of fallen service members. It’s definitely worth watching.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 11
- Next Page »