Two new Quinnipiac polls provide more evidence the 2012 presidential election may be decided in the Rust Belt.
In Pennsylvania, just 43% approve of President Obama’s job performance, while 51% say he doesn’t deserve a second term.
In Ohio, just 42% approve of his job performance, while 51% say he doesn’t deserve re-election.
That said, Obama still holds narrow leads over Rick Perry and Mitt Romney in head-to-head match-ups in both states.
For more on the two polls, see Poll Watch Daily.
Whether it’s Republicans begging New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to run for president or President Obama being forced to simultaneously reassure and reprimand his base over the weekend, The Note points out, “The overall restiveness of voters out there should not be underestimated.”
“When almost 80 percent of voters say they believe the country is on the wrong track and more Americans than ever identify themselves as independents the major parties have to recognize that the same-old, same-old campaign strategies just aren’t going to cut it this time. We’ve also been struck by the number of seasoned campaign pros who are convinced that this will be the year where a strong third party candidate will emerge. Let the speculation continue.”
Prepare for another day of chatter about whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will run for president. But this video compilation is pretty much all you need to see to know he’s unlikely to run.
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In a Washington Times op-ed, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) criticized the Obama administration’s investments in green companies like Solyndra, which recently declared bankruptcy.
Wrote DeMint: “Billions more have been wasted by politicians betting on favored companies and making Washington bigger, using the brute force of government to force liberal preferences into the economy. Mr. Obama calls them ‘investments,’ but this is really venture socialism.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds that by a 52% to 40% majority, voters want to continue the state’s current winner-take-all Electoral College system, rather than switch to a system proposed by Republicans where Electoral College votes are awarded based on the winner in each congressional district.
Voters say by a 57% to 32% that Republicans want to switch to a district-by-district count to help Republican presidential candidates, rather than to better reflect the will of the voters.
A Bloomberg survey of economists concludes President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan “would help avoid a return to recession by maintaining growth and pushing down the unemployment rate next year.”
Sarah Palin suggested to Fox News that being president might be too limiting:
“Does a title shackle a person? Are they — someone like me, maverick, you know, I do go rogue, and I call it like I see it, and I don’t mind stirring it up…. is a title and is a campaign too shackling? Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of the box, not allowing handlers to shape me?”
Florida “is expected to move its presidential primary to the last day in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped,” CNN reports.
“If that happens, it would almost certainly force the traditional early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to leapfrog Florida and move their primaries and caucuses into early- to mid-January.”
Ben Smith: “Florida’s likely decision to move its primary into late January will strain the RNC’s
carefully-constructed primary calendar. It could produce total chaos; or
it could just bump the process forward a few weeks, leaving it in
similar shape.”
Wisconsin Republican lawmakers signaled that they will likely give Gov. Scott Walker (R) authority “over how recall petitions can be gathered, just as Democrats gear up to recall him next year,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
“The move would allow Walker to halt a policy developed by nonpartisan election officials that, at least in theory, could make it easier for groups to gather signatures to recall the governor, as well as legislators from either party.”
North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) said the country should suspend congressional elections for two years “so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election,” the Raleigh News and Observer reports.
Said Perdue: “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”
Update: Was Perdue joking, as her staff now claims? Audio of her remarks was just posted.
A new CNN/ORC International Poll finds that only 15% of Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what’s right just about always or most of the time.
Said pollster Keating Holland: “The previous all-time low was 17 percent, set in the summer of 1994. Before the Watergate scandal, a majority of Americans said they trusted the government always or most of the time, but since 1974 that has happened only during a brief period in 2001 immediately after the 9/11 terrorism attacks.”
The Concord Monitor reports that mayoral candidate John Cook spent a night in jail “after he was charged with disorderly conduct and exposing himself to two Concord police officers.”
“Cook has had three run-ins with the Concord police in recent years that have led to criminal charges, including a 2005 incident when he allegedly kicked two police officers as they took him to Concord Hospital while he was ‘heavily intoxicated,’ according to court records.”
While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christe (R) has been getting an
enormous amount of national attention around his will-he-won’t-he-run
presidential prospects, a new Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey
shows Christie’s approval numbers bouncing back in his home
state. Christie has a 54% approval and 36% disapproval among registered
voters in New Jersey, a significant improvement over his numbers in May,
when the fierce spring budget fight brought his numbers as low as 44%
approving and the same percentage disapproving.
The Hotline:
“The new poll, ironically, counters one of the main arguments for
Christie to enter the White House race: If he’s not going to win
reelection in 2013, why not take a shot nationally in 2012, the argument
goes. But if the boost in his numbers is a lasting one, and Christie is
seriously interested in reelection, there is less incentive to opt for
higher office this early in his tenure.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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