Obama 2012

[MASTERBAKER]

President Obama looks to Rev. Al Sharpton for help in 2012 reelection bid Read more:

President Obama looks to Rev. Al Sharpton for help in 2012 reelection bid

President Obama is making his second visit to the city in as many weeks - and is calling upon an unlikely ally to shore up the support of his political base.

Obama will be speaking Wednesday for the first time as commander in chief at the annual convention of the National Action Network and standing with its founder, the Rev. Al Sharpton - whom the President largely ignored before his 2008 election.

The symbolic speech at the Sheraton in midtown - coming just days after the President held two events in Harlem - indicates that Obama, who is battling slipping poll numbers, is trying to bolster his standing among African-Americans, political scientists said.

"It proves again that 2012 will be very different than 2008," said Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "Then, Obama was very wary of the race issue and of being labeled as a 'black candidate.'"

"But some of the enthusiasm surrounding that election has faded," said Sabato. "He needs an injection of energy and Sharpton can provide some of that, at least in the black community."

Obama and Sharpton have always been uneasy partners.

Sharpton - whose own political campaigns were defined by racial issues - initially questioned the Illinois senator's qualifications, and at first seemed inclined to support Hillary Clinton.

Obama spoke to the National Action Network in 2007. Although Obama often seemed to hold the Harlem icon at arm's length, he has consulted with Sharpton more frequently in recent years.

"The men will both benefit from the meeting," said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

"This shows clout and power for Sharpton," Sheinkopf said, "and for Obama the message he's sending is clear: 'I'm African-American, I'm protecting my base, and AlSharpton is going to help me do it.'"

"Obama knows he's going to need the minority voter and the liberal white voter to turn out in big numbers if he has a real opponent next November," he said.

Obama, who officially announced his reelection bid this week, will likely win the vast majority of the African-American vote, but political strategists see the Harlem events and the National Action Network speech as a way to inspire turnout.

"Obama needed four out of 10 white votes in 2008, so he had to strike a different tone [than Sharpton] and form a different coalition," said Sabato.

"But he can't forget this part of his constituency either," Sabato said. "He may not need the base in 2012, but he doesn't want to take any chances. He doesn't want to look back and say 'If only I had met with Al Sharpton.'"

jlemire@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...s_to_al_for_help_in_12_run.html#ixzz1IkfqB6XK

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[Ruff Ryder]

Obama to supporters: I understand your frustration

Obama to supporters: I understand your frustration

SAN FRANCISCO – Easing into his 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama is telling his supporters he understands their frustration over the compromises he's made with Republicans, while preparing them for more to come.

It's a timely warning given the upcoming vote on raising the debt ceiling and the ongoing debate over long-term deficit reduction, both issues Obama says can only be solved if Republicans and Democrats work together. But further compromises could prove a tough pill to swallow for many of Obama's liberal backers, who have grown tired of watching the president cede ground to the GOP on spending cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy.

During a raucous fundraiser focused on young people in San Francisco Wednesday night, Obama said his supporters are not alone in their frustration.

"There are times when I've felt the same way you do. It's a big, complicated, messy democracy," he said. "We knew this wouldn't be easy."

Obama's three-day West Coast swing — his most extensive travel since announcing his re-election bid — offered a glimpse of how Obama will seek to reenergize the independents and first-time voters who carried him to victory in 2008. Obama's rallying cry is that more work needs to be done in order to make the vision of America he promised a reality, and he is the only one who can see those hopes through.

"It is going to take more than a couple of years," Obama said. "It's going to take us more than one term to finish everything that we need to do."

Obama senior adviser David Plouffe offered a more sobering political forecast to the hundreds of young supporters gathered for the nighttime rally.

"This is going to be a close campaign," Plouffe said. "The one thing we better assume is that it's going to be closer than the last one."

After a third fundraiser here Thursday morning, Obama was to make stops in Reno, Nev., and Los Angeles. The president was scheduled to return to Washington Friday afternoon.

Obama was coupling his fundraising efforts with a series of town hall meetings aimed at selling his plan for cutting deficit spending directly to a wary public.

"The deficit is real, our debt is real. We've got to do something about it. But how we do it is going to make a huge difference," Obama said during a smaller, high-dollar fundraiser Wednesday night.

The president and Republicans have both offered plans for bringing down the deficit, but vast differences exist over how to do so. The president is calling for $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 12 years, through a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy, while House Republicans have passed a plan that would reduce the deficit by nearly $6 trillion in a decade, in part by overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.

The president and Republicans have accused each other of pitching "radical" plans.

"I think it's fair to say that their vision is radical," Obama told a town hall gathering Wednesday at the headquarters of Facebook, the huge social network company.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, returned fire. "What's radical is piling up $9 trillion more in debt on the backs of our kids and grandkids," he said, echoing a GOP criticism that Obama's plan would accomplish too little.

Obama's mixing of politics and policy on this West Coast swing is a harbinger of things to come as he balances campaigning with the duties of the presidency.

White House aides insist the president is only involved in the reelection campaign from a distance at this point. But with fundraisers and campaign-style town hall meetings quickly becoming staples in his schedule, it's clear Obama is already in re-election mode.

Link

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama to supporters: I understand your frustration


Voters give Obama lowest rating yet on economy



WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is in a fragile position as the 2012 campaign begins:

• Only 37% of registered voters approve of his handling of the economy, his lowest rating ever, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

• 58% of voters disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, comprising:
  
  
  
  • 31 percent of Democrats;
  
  
  
  • 60 percent of independents; and
  
  
  
  • 91 percent of Republicans.

• By nearly 2-1, voters disapprove of how he's handling the federal budget deficit, expected to hit a record $1.5 trillion this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

But,

• 50% of voters said they had favorable impressions of Obama; and

• By 2-1 margin, Americans said that today's economic conditions mostly were something the president inherited rather than the result of his own policies.

Of course, a presidents political stature rises and falls with the economy.

But, what does these number say about Obama ???

While most Americans have a favorable opinion of President Obama, the public is deeply unsatisfied with the nation’s most important issue — a 58% majority disapproves of the president’s handling of the economy, and only 37% approve.

However, the poll shows the president leading all of his Republican challengers in hypothetical match-ups. Why?

Might it have something to do with the fact that as frustrated as Americans are, they’re not blaming Obama for the mess ? ? ?

Voters give Obama lowest rating yet on economy


Poll: Obama leads all potential GOP 2012 nominees


`

 

[hocjo2626]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

"Al Sharpton? What about us nigga......what about us???!!!????? We can't stand yo' ass!"

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


In lofty speech, Obama appeals for
a new commitment to a fair America

President Barack Obama speaks at Osawatomie High School
in Kansas


MClatchy Newspapers
By Steven Thomma
Tuesday, December 6, 2011


OSAWATOMIE, Kan. — President Barack Obama cast the national debate and developing 2012 presidential campaign Tuesday as a battle between two visions of the economy, government and society:

• One, he said, favors survival of the fittest and trusts markets to make life better.

• The other, he said, asks everyone to help one another, often through government.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">“The free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history.</span> It’s led to a prosperity and standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world,” Obama told an audience of about 1,200 in a high school gym here.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">“But…the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can.</span> It only works when there are rules of the road to ensure that competition is fair, and open, and honest.”

He added, “We are greater together when everyone engages in fair play, everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share.”

Obama made the remarks in an hour-long speech in the same small Kansas town where Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 laid out his vision for a “new nationalism” in which a newly active government marshaled laws and taxes to help the working poor and pressured the rich to use their wealth for the good of society, particularly through higher taxes.

“For this, Roosevelt was called a radical, he was called a socialist, even a communist,” said Obama, who’s been called many of the same things.

“But today we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight hour work day, a minimum wage for women; insurance for the unemployed, the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax.”Obama delivered the speech as debate rages in Congress over his proposal to extend tax cuts for most Americans and to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for it. At the same time, Republicans vying for their party nomination to oppose him in next year’s election vow to roll back his regulations of Wall Street, repeal his health care law and cut taxes for the wealthy.

Republicans charge that his policies have prolonged the effects of the 2008 recession, killing jobs. He countered that great forces were already at work squeezing the middle class before the recession or his presidency, and that they need to be tamed.

“Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and its made it easier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere they want in the world,” he said. “Many of you know firsthand the painful disruptions this has caused for a lot of Americans.”

He lamented that the gap between rich and poor has been growing for the last few decades, with the average income of the top 1 percent jumping by 250 percent. In the last decade, he said, the incomes of most Americans fell by 6 percent.

“This kind of inequality — a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression — hurts us all,” he said.

At the same time, he said, it’s grown more difficult to move up the economic ladder. After World War II, he said, a child in poverty had a 50-50 chance of making it to the middle class as an adult. By 1980 that chance had dropped to 40 percent. And if current trends continue, he said, a child born now will have just a 33 percent chance of making the middle class.

He said the Republican answers in recent years have not worked.

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 led to the “slowest job growth in half a century” and massive deficits, he said.

And, he said, weak or little regulation of business led to health insurance companies raising premiums and denting care “with impunity,” mortgage lenders tricking people into buying homes they couldn’t afford, and a financial sector that “nearly destroyed our entire economy.”

“We simply cannot return to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics,” he said. “It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.”

Instead, he cited the case of Marvin Windows and Doors in Warroad, Minnesota, as an example of a company where owners and workers alike took pay cuts in bad times, but managed to avoid layoffs even in the Great Depression.

“That’s how America was built,” Obama said. “That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s been about building a nation where we’re all better off.“</span>





http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/06/132357/in-lofty-speech-obama-appeals.html

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


Team Obama lays out electoral map strategy



McClatchy-Tribune News
By Peter Nicholas
December 29, 2011


WASHINGTON — The mood in President Barack Obama's camp is picking up these days, with his poll numbers inching northward and Republicans mired in what could turn out to be a prolonged, expensive battle for the GOP nomination.

When Obama campaign officials look at a map of the U.S., they see any number of viable routes toward the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

In a fundraising pitch Thursday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina laid out five potential pathways to the magic number.

The Obama campaign likes to start with the states that John Kerry won in the 2004 election, on the theory that these rock-solid blue states are a lock for the Democratic nominee. Building on the 251 electoral votes that Kerry received, the Obama campaign believes that it can win a second term if any of the following strategies pans out.

• The West. The Obama campaign says that one way to get over the top is to win Colorado and Nevada, states that Obama carried in 2008. "We believe if we register more voters, start putting teams in place that can start talking to voters, we can win these states," Messina said. - Florida. Florida, Florida, Florida. Al Gore's presidential hopes collapsed amid the Florida recount in 2000. The Obama campaign believes that if it wins Florida's 29 electoral votes, the race is over. "We can't just have a Florida strategy, but Florida is the easiest way to 270 votes," Messina said. - The South. We're not talking about Mississippi, Arkansas or Alabama. But the upper South is within reach. Obama won both North Carolina and Virginia in 2008, the first Democratic candidate to pull that off in decades. Messina said that if Obama can win what he called the "New South," he's set up to beat the Republican nominee. It's no accident that the Democrats are holding their nominating convention in Charlotte, Messina said. "We put the Democratic national convention in Charlotte, N.C., in part because we believe so deeply in this map," he said.

• The Midwest. Obama will be hard-pressed to win Indiana next time around. Yet the Obama campaign says it can build a winning strategy around victories in Ohio and Iowa. Obama has blanketed Ohio in the three years of his presidency. And his first trip outside Washington in 2012 is to - you guessed it - Ohio. He'll head to Cleveland on Jan. 4 for a speech on the economy. - Beyond. No one in Obama's campaign leadership expects him to have an easier time of it in 2012 than in '08. Unemployment is high, Congress is gridlocked and voters are disillusioned with Washington. Still, anything can happen in an election year, and the Obama campaign hopes to pick up certain states that went Republican in '08. The most promising is Arizona, Messina said. Arizona is the home state of the 2008 Republican nominee, John McCain, so Obama didn't compete there last time. In this election, though, Arizona may be in play. "There are hundreds of thousands of eligible voters who are unregistered in Arizona," Messina said. "We're excited about our opportunities there."

Competing on so large a map takes money. Which was the purpose of Messina's video. He invited viewers to send in donations.

"People have speculated this is a $1 billion campaign," he said, referring to reports that Obama expects to raise $1 billion for his re-election. "That's (expletive). We don't take PAC money, unlike our opponents. We fund this campaign in contributions of $3 or $5, or whatever you can do to help us expand the map."

Responding to the notion that Obama has multiple paths to re-election, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said, "The president's path to re-election includes deceiving voters into believing a second Obama term will be any different than the first - three years of failed economic policies that have taken our country in the wrong direction.

"From home foreclosures to high unemployment and economic uncertainty, Americans have been living in the Obama economy for three years and that will be the No. 1 issue when they head to the ballot box next year," she said.

(Peter Nicholas reports for Tribune's Washington Bureau) Copyright 2011 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ©2011 Tribune Co.





http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/29/134424/team-obama-lays-out-electoral.html

 

[ronmch20]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Make no mistake, Obama is, as Hillary learned, a helluva campaigner. You can bet he and Team Obama will go after Romney with all the gloves off.

Wait until they expose Romney's history of closing businesses and laying off workers.

Wait until his considerable business interests with China are brought to light.

Wait until the electorate is repeatedly shown film of his many flip flops removing any doubt that Romney will say anything to get elected.

Wait until the Dems rail on Romney for his constant bashing of the Affordable Heath Care Act that is almost a carbon copy of the program he touted while Governor of Massachusetts.

Wait until op eds start appearing talking about the crazy beliefs associated with Mormonism.

Wait until the public is bombarded with ads exposing the lies spread by the GOP that Obama has lost jobs when exactly the opposite is true.

Wait until the public really learns that Obama has championed many programs, including tax cuts, that would benefit the middle and lower classes and small businesses, while the GOP and Tea Party crazies have fought tooth and nail against enacting them.

Wait until the public is repeatedly reminded of Obama's foreign policy successes including the killing of Osama and getting out of Iraq.

Much more could be added to this "wait until" list, but I think the point has been made Romney is in for the political fight of his life. A fight he's gonna lose.

As for me, I can't wait.

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Much more could be added to this "wait until" list . . .

Yeah, and here's one more: Wait until Team Obama pays millions to produce those slick "Wait Until" moments - - when it could have paid fewer (millions) to ronmch20 ! ! ! - - who has already ably stated the case.




. . . and, who might have shared a couple mill with his friend over here for pointing out the obvious . . .

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


Obama’s White Whale

How the campaign’s top-secret <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Project Narwhal</span>
could change this race, and many to come

This year,as part of a project code-named Narwhal, Obama’s team is working to
link once completely separate repositories of information so that every fact
gathered about a voter is available to every arm of the campaign. Such
information-sharing would allow the person who crafts a provocative email
about contraception to send it only to women with whom canvassers have
personally discussed reproductive views or whom data-mining targeters have
pinpointed as likely to be friendly to Obama’s views on the issue.

​

Click for Complete Storyhttp://www.slate.com/articles/news_...ogram_could_change_the_2012_race_.single.html

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BD75KOoNR9k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



​

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Wow, these two charts say so much….

GO TO http://theobamadiary.com/ - for daily compilation of the Obama's activities from their perspective

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Ready for the Fight:
Rolling Stone Interview with President Barack Obama

April 25, 2012

http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ng-stone-interview-with-barack-obama-20120425

 

[Cruise]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Please... no more dumb-ass, self-centered, clueless, out-of-touch, greedy, consdescending, arrogant, piece-of-shit BABY BOOMERS!

Really, how many of these assholes is this country going to elect for President?

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


As of mid April 2012 we see in the Pew poll results below that Willard Romney is in deep shit with the majority of the American voters. Also if you go to the state by state electoral maps on any web site, even Karl Roves web site you will see that Obama has over 200 electoral votes strongly in his column and Willard has only 92. Despite the “media of mass distraction” telling us daily how close this race is, as of now (April 2012) the President has very strong advantages. Look at Willard Romneys poll numbers with Latino voters at 14% versus what BuShit and McCain got. Most political experts say that he’s permanently fucked with the Latinos. The gender gap, especially among young women voters also portends doom for Willard Romney. The RepubliKlans and Romney and all the hundreds of millions of outside “Citizens United” money will attempt to slime Obama and make the poll numbers more plausible for Romney. Of course if the economy tanks which is what the RepubliKlans are hoping, things could change quickly. Without a tanking economy I don’t believe $200 - $400 million dollars in negative ads will get Romney over the top. First of all the haters of Obama have heard all the negative character assassination ads for the last four years; there is no new material. More importantly what is Romney running on as a positive message?? More tax cuts for the wealthy? Yes he is! Deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, W.I.C., and Food Stamps? Yes he is! Greater increases in the Military budget? Yes he is! A hot war with Iran? Yes he is? No “Dream Act” for the undocumented who have been here since they were little kids? Yes he is! In fact he said they should “Self-deport”. In fact a RepubliKlan spokesperson said that Romney’s agenda is
The “BuShit Plan Just Updated”



"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."
- president BuShit -
<embed src="http://andyfinn.us/bush_league/audio/13-3-federal-program.mp3" width="240" height="25" autostart="false" loop="FALSE"></embed>



PEW RESEARCH CENTER POLL, APRIL 4TH - APRIL 15TH 2012

<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="6"></hr>

High Testosterone

Mitt Romney has white men in the bag. He needs to worry less about them and more about women.

<img src="http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=16921&format=homepage_fullwidth">

<img src="http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=9&format=columnist_header" width="100">
April 19 2012

by Charlie Cook

http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/cook-report/the-cook-report-high-testosterone-20120419

For the past year or so, we’ve seen television ads for a prescription drug designed to help men with something called “Low T,” which turns out to mean low testosterone levels (who knew?). As I waded through tons of polling data and focus-group findings this week, it hit me. For the past couple of years, and especially during the presidential debates over recent months, Republicans have shown signs of the opposite problem: “High T.” The GOP has an excess of testosterone that may be hurting the party with some segments of women voters, specifically with those under 50, single women, and independent women.

The messaging and signals emanating from Republican presidential candidates, as well as from elected officials in Washington and in state capitals, seem to be aimed at only conservative, white men. This is a group that once dominated the electorate but is now considerably smaller than a majority.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a poll of 2,373 registered voters, culled from a larger group of 3,008 adults, interviewed April 4-15. Among all registered voters, President Obama led presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney by just 4 percentage points, 49 percent to 45 percent, down from a 12-point lead, 54 percent to 42 percent, a month ago.

In the survey, respondents rated the importance of 18 issues and then indicated their preference between Obama and Romney. Not too surprisingly, Obama did best with those who rated the environment as very important; he led that group by 39 percentage points. He also won the folks who picked education as very important by 22 points, birth control by 19 points, and health care by 15 points. See a pattern here? Romney prevailed among those who picked the budget deficit as very important, winning them by 19 points, and among those who named Iran, by 14 points. Those kinds of issues are very different from birth control and health care.

The relevance of all of this comes through when you look at key demographic breakouts from the trial heat between Obama and Romney. Overall, Obama led among women by 13 points: 53 percent to 40 percent. Romney was ahead among men by 6 points: 50 percent to 44 percent. Given that women generally make up 51 to 52 percent of the electorate, whenever Republican candidates lose women by more than they win among men, they can skip ordering the champagne for election night. In all but the most unusual cases, a Republican needs to win among men by a wider margin than a Democrat does among women.

But it gets really interesting when you break the genders down by age: under 50 versus over 50. Among all women 50 and older, Obama beat Romney by 7 points, 50 percent to 43 percent. Among all women under 50, though, Obama prevailed by 18 points, 56 percent to 38 percent. That’s an 11-point difference in the president’s lead between the younger and older groups of women.

Among men, Obama actually led among those under 50 by 1 percentage point: 47 percent to 46 percent. But Romney prevailed among men 50 and older by 11 percentage points, 53 percent to 42 percent. So, a 12-point difference in Obama’s standing between the younger and older men.

When you make the same comparisons among just white voters, the contrast is even starker. Romney’s support came overwhelmingly from white men, a group he carried by 26 points, 60 percent to 34 percent. In comparison, the Republican had an advantage of just 5 points among white women, 49 percent to 44 percent. The age difference among white women was considerably less important than that among all women. Among white women 50 and older, Romney defeated Obama by 7 points, 50 percent to 43 percent. Among white women under 50, he won by 3 points, 48 percent to 45 percent, for only a 4-point difference between younger and older groups of women.

Among white men, Romney won the under-50 cohort by 13 percentage points, 53 percent to 40 percent. Among white men 50 and older, he prevailed by 27 percentage points, 61 percent to 34 percent. That’s a 14-point difference.

Taking all of this into consideration and then adding that Obama led by 40 points among Hispanic voters, 67 percent to 27 percent, and by 93 points among African-Americans, 95 percent to 2 percent, it’s clear that, assuming these groups turn out in numbers approaching 2008, it’s women under 50 who are the demographic that either will or won’t put Obama over the top in the general election.

Democrats hope to make the case that Republicans have tailored their priorities for white men, particularly white men over 50, to such a degree that they seem to deliberately exclude women voters, especially younger women. Other polling shows real deterioration for Romney among independent women—most specifically, those under 50.

It is very clear that this presidential race is closing up. Closing and winning, though, are two different things. You can bet that Romney’s strategists are eyeing this same data and probably drawing the same conclusions


<hr noshade color="#333333" size="6"></hr>

<img src="http://k.minus.com/jbu9Q0PIQ9NqoS.jpg" width="655">

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Please... no more dumb-ass, self-centered, clueless, out-of-touch, greedy, consdescending, arrogant, piece-of-shit BABY BOOMERS!

Really, how many of these assholes is this country going to elect for President?

We have a rule on this board about name-calling, OTHERS.

Perhaps, there should be a rule about name-calling, SELF.

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

What Mitt Missed On His Tax Forms, And Why?

<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow">
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign acknowledged to Reuters and others that his campaign is revising his federal ethics forms. They will now report more than a half-dozen offshore holdings, including income from a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account, that was not disclosed last year.</font>

The Romney campaign has described the issue as a minor discrepancy, and noted that all taxes owed on the overseas accounts were paid. But given the political football that overseas assets and tax disclosure have become –with the Internal Revenue Service cracking down on those who have assets abroad — that acknowledgment raises important questions.

First, why did the Romneys choose to hold assets overseas, particularly in places that have been targeted in the IRS’s ongoing crackdown? <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow">In addition to Switzerland, the Romneys held assets in the Cayman Islands, the Bermudas and Ireland, all countries that have lower tax rates than the U.S. Things can be perfectly legal, yet look terrible for someone with political ambitions, especially a presidential candidate.</font>

An official representative for the Romneys has said that he opened the Swiss bank accounts, whose holdings are valued between $1 million and $5 million, in 2003, on behalf of the Ann Romney Blind Trust to provide international currency diversification for the trust’s holdings, and that he shut it in early 2010. There are, however, other ways to get currency diversification in a portfolio than going to Switzerland.

http://blogs.reuters.com/taxbreak/2012/01/27/what-mitt-missed-on-his-tax-forms-and-why/

<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="4"></hr>

Romney Didn't Pay A Gift Tax On $100,000,000

Reuters tax columnist David Cay Johnston tells CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin that <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow">GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney didn’t pay a gift tax on $100 million to his sons.</font>

Johnston says, “The fact is that an individual worker who makes $54,000 a year bears a heavier tax burden than the Romneys and when it comes to gifts, most Americans on a gift of $100 million to their children would pay about a $35 million gift tax. The Romneys paid zero. We need to have a debate about how the tax system is not as it appears on the surface and how we have special rules for hedge fund and private equity managers that treat them much more lightly than all the rest of us."

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2...olumnist-romney-didnt-pay-a-gift-tax-on-100m/


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[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Romney Economics:
Bankruptcy and Bailouts at GST Steel​

​

President Obama's campaign is out with a two-minute TV ad and a
six-minute Web video blasting Mitt Romney's career at Bain Capital.

The broadside will air in five key swing states:
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado.




<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZMndjLIQUFw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


​

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


June 9, 2012


Romney’s Hispanic Problem Is Serious

http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog...s-favor-obama-over-romney-oppose-rubio-dream/

http://www.latinamericanpost.com/in...panic-problem-is-serious&catid=8:more-opinion

RepubliKlans Destroy Any Shot of Getting Plurality of LATINO Vote -A Latino Explains

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results<div align="right"><!-- MSTableType="layout" --><img src="http://i.min.us/iW6E1Tob.jpg" align="right"></div>
- Albert Einstein -

Romney Hires Bush Economic "Experts"
Romney campaign seems to have forgotten about Bush’s economic crises

by Ezra Klein

There’s not much in politics that allows me to say, “I’m old enough to remember when.” But here’s one: I’m old enough to remember when George W. Bush was president.

It was, after all, only four short years ago. And it didn’t go so well. The Bush economy is one of the worst on record. Median wages dropped. Poverty worsened. Inequality increased. Surpluses turned into deficits. Monthly job growth was weaker than it had been in any expansion since 1954. Economic growth was sluggish. And that’s before you count the financial crisis that unfurled on his watch. Add the collapse to the equation, and Bush’s record goes from “not so good” to “I can’t bear to look.”

READ the rest http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...nomic-crises/2012/04/30/gIQAcBebsT_story.html


<hr noshade color="#0000ff" size="6"></hr>

Americans Still Blame Bush More Than Obama For State Of The Economy
About half of Republicans blame Bush

June 14, 2012

http://www.gallup.com/poll/155177/Americans-Blame-Bush-Obama-Bad-Economy.aspx

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans continue to place more blame for the nation's economic problems on George W. Bush than on Barack Obama, even though Bush left office more than three years ago. The relative economic blame given to Bush versus Obama today is virtually the same as it was last September.

Gallup first asked this "blame assessment" question in July 2009, six months after Obama became president. At that point, 80% of Americans gave Bush a great deal or a moderate amount of blame, compared with 32% who ascribed the same level of blame for the bad economy to Obama. The percentage blaming Bush dropped to about 70% in August 2010, and has stayed roughly in that range since. Meanwhile, about half of Americans have blamed Obama since March 2010, with little substantive change from then to the present.

Americans continue to name the economy as the most important problem facing the country, and in an election that likely will be defined by a struggling economy, the question of who is responsible for it will weigh heavily in voters' minds. Both Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney as a result have focused heavily on the economy in their campaigns, the most recent example of which is the major economic speech Obama will deliver Thursday in the key swing state of Ohio. Romney has attempted to place blame for the country's continuing economic struggles squarely on Obama's shoulders. At the same time, the Obama campaign is trying to deflect blame away from the president, in part by assigning blame to his predecessor.

The relative amount of blame Americans give to Obama and to Bush has largely stabilized over the last two years. It remains to be seen whether Americans are open to further discussion of those issues in the months remaining before the Nov. 6 election, or whether their minds are made up.

Half of Republicans Blame Bush

Republicans and Democrats distribute economic blame in different ways, as was the case last September. Democrats follow what might be described as a fairly traditional pattern: 90% blame Bush, in contrast to 19% who blame Obama.

Republicans, however, are more ecumenical in their blame, with 83% blaming Obama a great deal or moderate amount and 49% ascribing the same level of blame to Bush. Republicans, in short, are significantly more willing to blame their most recent Republican president than are Democrats willing to blame Obama.

Independents are substantially more likely to blame Bush (67%) than to blame Obama (51%) for the nation's economic problems, a finding that no doubt provides some comfort to the Obama re-election campaign. And fewer independents blame Obama now than did so last September (60%).

Implications

Although the Obama campaign would like to make this election less of a referendum on Obama's performance and more of a choice between two candidates, it is clear that any incumbent's stewardship of the economy is a key factor in his re-election chances. Americans continue to have more negative than positive views of the current economy and the direction in which it is headed, which generally does not bode well for Obama.

Still, 68% of Americans say former President Bush should be given a great deal or a moderate amount of blame for the nation's economic woes -- substantially more than say the same about Obama. This suggests that Obama's argument that he is on the right track and needs more time to turn the economy around could fall on receptive ears, particularly those of independents.


<hr noshade color="#0000ff" size="6"></hr>

<blockquote>
Despite the massive 24/7 reich-wing propaganda effort (<s>FOX</s> FAKE, Rush, Hannity, Beck, et al.) the majority of U.S. voters Still Blame Bush More Than Obama For State Of The Economy. The deficit chart below shows the fiscal catastrophe that Obama inherited. The green bars from the 1990’s are the surplus that Bill Clinton passed on to BuShit. BuShit saw that surplus and decided grab it. Two income tax cuts, a capital gains tax cut, two wars, & Medicare part D, ALL UNPAID FOR —coupled with a trillion dollar U.S. Treasury bail out of the collapsed U.S. financial system & the worst “terrorist” attack in U.S. history was his legacy he handed to Obama. Most Americans understand this despite the onslaught of anti-Obama deception. </blockquote>

"You know, Reagan proved deficits don't matter,"
<div align="right"><!-- MSTableType="layout" --><img src="http://i.minus.com/ibvuMdEdMrDELo.jpg" align="right"></div>
-Dick Cheney-

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


Barack Obama Says Mitt Romney's Tax Plan Gives
Millionaires An Average Tax Cut Of $250,000

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...-obama-says-mitt-romneys-tax-plan-gives-mill/

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


RepubliKlan Media Claims Obama Crowds Unenthusiastic

July 5, 2012

Obama At Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins


The last time we looked at a snapshot of this ridiculous 24/7 perpetual presidential campaign, which has been ongoing, beginning the night Obama was inaugurated, we saw that Romney had significant deficits versus Obama despite a struggling U.S. economy. As of now (Aug-10-2012) we see that team Obama has successfully defined 'Mute' Romney as the 1/100th of 1% plutocrat, who wants to cut taxes dramatically for millionaires & billionaires while increasing taxes for the middle-class, cut Grandma's social security check and medicare benefits, increase the military budget, & start another war with Iran; all which happen to be true.

More ominously for Mute Romney, the percentage of so-called undecided voters has dropped from 8% to the incredible small pool of 6%. This is significant because if you are behind in a race, and the number of undecided voters shrinks, that makes it much more difficult to catch the leader. The most important state-by-state electoral college numbers are not moving in Mute Romney's direction despite him spending millions of dollars. Pennsylvania looks out-of-play for Romney despite the voter suppression attempts; in fact team Obama has stopped advertising in the state on television and their ground game operations dwarf romney 8-1. Despite mute romney spending millions Obama leads in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, & Virginia. Romney needs the equivalent of a "royal flush" to win the electoral college and the presidency.
Nate Silver prescient statistician of the New York Times 538 blog as of Aug. 9th has Obama's re-election chances at 71%. The <s>FOX</s> FAKE News poll which skews Republiklan should be particularly alarming for team mute romney. The caveats for team Obama are an economy which could still implode, and the $200 -$300 million dollars worth of negative ads paid for by Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and others.

Breaking down the <s>FOX</s> Fake News poll above a bit further, using data from the complete poll results we see that of the 71% of Americans who replied that they would not feel comfortable with President Mitt 10% said they would leave the country if he were elected, 7% said they would hang themselves and 3% refused to participate because they won't to talk to anyone from Fake News. Of the 26% pro-Romney who expressed feelings ranging from enthusiasm (6%) to mild disinterest (20%), <span style="background-color: #ffff00"> 19% said they'd be open to voting for Obama "if only he'd change his race." </span>

Chart below shows Romney's position versus John McCain's at the identical time frame mirroring each election cycle 2008 v. 2012. Romney is doing worse than McCain was at this identical time frame in this 2012 cycle. Will Romney make a "game-change" pick for V.P. like McCain did with Palin???

<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="8"></hr>

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Thanks for the 'SitRep' (Situation Report)!

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Obama Camp Reacts to Ryan Pick

"On so many issues, Paul Ryan, like Mitt Romney, has taken extreme
positions that are out of touch with the values most Americans share,"
senior Obama-campaign adviser David Axelrod wrote. The message
includes a link to an ad calling Ryan "the mastermind behind the extreme
GOP budget plan" and wrapping up with "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan:
Back to the failed top-down policies that crashed our economy."

While there was no shortage of commentary this weekend on the pros
and cons of Ryan's candidacy and the policies he's endorsed, the way
these things are and communicated by the Obama campaign will be one
of the most significant determinants of how voters understand Ryan
and whether he and Romney ultimately make it to the White House. T
hat makes this first response to Ryan worth a watch.

Check it out here:


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​

 

[thoughtone]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

In 2008, the final electoral results clearly show that President Obama doesn't need the south to win big.

Sorry anybody but Obama crowd!

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

 

[thoughtone]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Four years ago. And you know what the result was!


source: Gallup


August 26, 2008

Gallup Daily: No Bounce for Obama in Post-Biden Tracking

McCain creeps ahead, 46% to 44%

PRINCETON, NJ -- It's official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama's Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week's standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

The race for president has been virtually tied since mid-August. In this period, Obama's support from national registered voters has consistently ranged from 44% to 46%. The 46% currently supporting McCain is technically his best showing since late May/early June, but is not a statistically significant improvement over his recent range from 43% to 45%. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

An analysis of historical election poll trends by Gallup Poll Managing Editor Jeff Jones shows that recent presidential campaigns have enjoyed a small (though short-lived) bounce from the running mate announcement. This includes a four percentage point bounce for John Kerry in 2004 after selecting John Edwards, a 5-point bounce for Al Gore in 2000 with his announcement of Joe Lieberman, and a 3-point bounce for George W. Bush in 2000 upon choosing Dick Cheney. Bob Dole received an extraordinary 9-point bounce in 1996 after bringing Jack Kemp onto his ticket.

All of these bounces occurred before the respective party's convention began, and in most cases the candidates received an additional boost in the polls upon completion of the convention. Thus, any increase in Obama's support in the coming days would seem to be more the result of the star-studded and well publicized Democratic national convention than the apparently lackluster Biden selection.

The official Gallup records will show that support for Obama dec
lined by two percentage points in Gallup Poll Daily tracking (from 46% to 44%) conducted immediately before and after the Aug. 23 Biden announcement. (Because the announcement was made at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23, all Gallup interviewing conducted that day can be considered post announcement.)

Today's Gallup Poll Daily tracking result includes interviewing on the first night of the Democratic National Convention (Aug. 25). However, much of this interviewing, particularly in the East and Midwest, was conducted before the prime time convention speeches by Sen. Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. The Gallup Poll Daily tracking results reported tomorrow may start to indicate whether voters are impressed enough by what they are seeing at the convention to give Obama the bounce that typically occurs as a result of a party's convention. -- Lydia Saad

Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.

Survey Methods

For the Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008.

The general-election results are based on combined data from Aug. 23-25, 2008. For results based on this sample of 2,684 registered voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

 

[thoughtone]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

Now you see why the republicans want to suppress the vote!


source: Independent Political Report


2008 Presidential Election Results



Barack Obama (Democrat) 69,498,516 [52.93%]
John McCain (Republican) 59,948,323 [45.65%]

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Lupica: Forget the millions of Americans out of work, Obama is fighting to save one j

Lupica: Forget the millions of Americans out of work, Obama is fighting to save one job this week - his own

Most people about to get fired don’t get the chance to talk their way out of it. President Obama tries to do that in Charlotte on Thursday night, then all the way to November 6, trying not to become the first incumbent to lose his job since George H.W. Bush.

The President becomes one more American this week, officially and in front of the country, trying to keep his job.

He knows he is talking to so many who don’t have jobs and can’t find jobs. Or have taken lesser jobs, sometimes two, to somehow make ends meet. Still: In Foreclosure America, Barack Obama tries to persuade those who voted for him last time and those he needs to vote for him this time why he shouldn’t get kicked out of the White House.

VIDEO: DNC SET TO BEGIN

Most people about to get fired don’t get the chance to talk their way out of it. President Obama tries to do that in Charlotte on Thursday night, then all the way to November 6, trying not to become the first incumbent to lose his job since George H.W. Bush.

“Speeches got me here,” he said in private one day, early in his first term. But even he has to know it will take more than speeches to save him this time, no matter what kind of soaring rhetoric he offers at the Democratic Convention.

Mitt Romney gave his own speech, at his own convention, last Thursday night in Tampa. Romney is not the orator that Obama is, does not have the words, often comes across as somebody trying to sell you prime waterfront property. And yet in the middle of that speech in Tampa, after Clint Eastwood stopped bumping into furniture he wasn’t talking to, Romney actually identified what he wants this campaign to be about.

“If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?” he said. “You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

Romney isn’t selling you property there, he is telling you that the other salesman in this race overpromised and under-delivered. Maybe Romney can’t make that stand up over the next two months, has no chance in the debates. Maybe Obama can stitch together just enough of his 2008 coalition of minorities and kids to hold on in enough swing states to hang on to his job.

He is sure going to have his work cut out for him, convincing the country that things aren’t as bad as they seem. He will talk about how members of SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden, however they did it, and has a right to claim that as a victory. It will only go so far with Americans with an economy killing them.

Maybe this President, inheriting the economy he did and two bad wars, was doomed to disappoint, because too many voted for speeches and dreams and ideals, and still remember the way finally putting a black man in the White House made everybody feel.

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Maybe he and his advisors should have known better than to promise they would get unemployment under 8 percent. And maybe he should have done a better job explaining to the country why the stimulus wasn’t the joke it was made out to be, or the failure, that it is actually working. In a way, that might be the most striking part of Barack Obama’s first term, that he has so often done such a terrible job explaining the successes he’s had.

Just because he is supposed to be the one with the words.

He talks directly to his supporters, through mass e-mails, about the lies from the other side, starting with the whopper about how he is the champion of big government even though the public sector grew four percent under George W. Bush and has shrunk three percent under Obama.

And the President talks constantly about how badly he is being outspent. And he is being outspent, Romney having the backing of rich old white men who have been obsessed with getting the first black President out of office since the night he was elected.

Congress was no better, Sen. Mitch McConnell, that lump, being the first to say that the Republicans’ only goal was to defeat Obama this year. Not make a better country. Just make sure he didn't get a second term.

The President is not asked to introduce himself to the country on Thursday. He did that a long time ago, his first important speech, at the Democratic Convention of 2004, before riding the promise of a better country past Hillary Clinton and John McCain four years later.

No. This time Barack Obama is asked to convince the country that he has been nearly as good a President as he was a candidate. In that way, this isn’t a speech in Charlotte. It’s an accounting.

 

[QueEx]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Re: Obama 2012 Begins

thoughtone
This message is hidden because thoughtone is on your ignore list.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Obama On Debt: "We Don't Have To Worry About It Short Term"

Obama On Debt: "We Don't Have To Worry About It Short Term"
Obama On Debt: "We Don't Have To Worry About It Short Term"

Obama On Debt: "We Don't Have To Worry About It Short Term"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...e_dont_have_to_worry_about_it_short_term.html

President Obama addressed the debt and deficit, saying it is not a problem in the "short term," during an appearance on CBS's "Late Show" with host David Letterman. Obama also said he did not know what the national debt was when he took office.

When a concerned Letterman asked him about the debt, Obama laid the responsibility for the U.S. national debt and deficit on his predecessor former President George W. Bush.

"Well, here's what happened. We had a surplus when Bill Clinton was president," Obama said. "It was projected to continue to be a surplus. We decided to launch two wars on a credit card. We cut taxes twice without finding offsetting costs for it or ways to pay for it, a prescription drug plan and then we had a massive recession."

"When I walked into office we had a trillion dollar deficit, debt had mounted and then we had to take a bunch of emergency measures, that cost money, saving the auto industry, making sure that the financial system got back on track," Obama said.

"So now what we've got to do is we've got to pare down that deficit, get that debt under control and I think the only way we've ever been able to do that effectively is when you do it in a balanced way," Obama explained.

When asked if he remember what the national debt was when he entered office, President Obama said "I don't know what the number was precisely." Obama told Letterman "we don't have to worry about it short term."

"A lot of it we owe to ourselves. Because if you invest in a treasury bill or something like that then essentially you're loaning the government money. In fact, the majority of it is held by folks who live here, but we don't have to worry about it short term," Obama said.

"Right now interest rates are low because people still consider the United States the safest and greatest country on earth, rightfully so, but it is a problem long term and even medium-term. And so we're going to have to take care of this debt and deficit, but we've got to do it in a balanced way," he added.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...e_dont_have_to_worry_about_it_short_term.html

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[MASTERBAKER]

Mitt Romney, Barack Obama trade jabs at Al Smith dinner

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=b87c3f81eb10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The two presidential candidates took a break from the caustic
criticism of the campaign trail to score political points with biting
humor last night in New York City.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney peeled off the stump Thursday to attend the annual Al Smith
Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. During presidential election
years, the event brings the candidates to the same stage to trade barbs
and self-deprecating zingers as the race enter its final weeks.
The white-tie affair raises millions
for the Gov. Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation and is organized by the
Catholic Archdiocese of New York to benefit needy children.
More than 1,600 were scheduled to
attend the dinner. The menu includes poached lobster tail and dark
chocolate tropical fruit cadeau. Tickets start at $2,500.
The diocese hopes to raise $5 million in grants this year. Last year it gave out $2 million in grants.


President Barack Obama also taped an episode of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" while he's in Manhattan. The show aired late yesterday.


Comedy Central host Jon Stewart pressed Obama over the government's changing explanation about the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya,
according to the Associated Press. When Stewart suggested that even
Obama would concede his administration's coordination and communication
had not been "optimal," Obama said: "If four Americans get killed, it's
not optimal. We're going to fix it. All of it."
Romney has questioned Obama's handling
of the matter and his honesty about it to voters. On "The Daily Show,"
Obama insisted information was shared with the American people as it
came in, the AP said. The attack is under investigation, he said, and
"the picture eventually gets filled in."
Last night's Smith dinner fell two days after Obama and Romney exchanged heated jabs during their second presidential debate at Hofstra University.
After what many observers thought was an inspired performance by
Romney, and a lackluster one by the president, in Denver during the
first debate, campaign watchers gave the edge to Obama after Tuesday
night.
The latest polling shows the race as virtually tied.


This year's event also come during the
same year as New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan has clashed with the
president over a federal mandate that insurance cover the cost of
contraception for church affiliated institutions, like Catholic colleges
and hospitals.
The mandate is part of the president's health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act.


More than a dozen archdioceses from
around the country have filed lawsuits claiming the contraception
mandate would require church leaders to violate religious beliefs to
implement the law.
In March during a speech at Holy
Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville, Dolan called the mandate a
"government intrusion into the church."
The Al Smith Dinner has been a necessary stop for politicians since World War II.
The event is named for the unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee
in 1928, who was the first Catholic to run for president. Smith was a
four-term governor of New York.

It would be awesome if they got in a scrap and threw a few real "jabs" I think Obama would probably beat Romney into a bloody mess without much effort though.

The problem with Mitt is that he reminds me of Richard Nixon! Too slow, too tense, too desperate to be validated with the power of the Presidency, and can't come close to being funny. He did finish well.

But let's not kid ourselves they both used professional writers, although I think Obama had the better one with the Eastwood joke.Romney has a personality aspect never seen before...a personality.
Obama cracked me up too, beating on himself.

Plenty of good laughs by both.....

That said, pandering to organised religeon feeds the delusions of greatness and power they proclaim with nothing but old books to prop up thier tales of eternal woe and suffering...wait.......when is the election?