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Today, Michael Barone wonders if it’s panic time for the Obama campaign. Isn’t it much too early to call it panic?
Politico has an interesting piece on Romney’s Bill Clinton Strategy. Smart politics or risky shift?
Finally, Salon writes that for Ron, it’s now all about Rand. The piece, obviously, takes a liberal flight plan, but it also raises a few legitimate concerns before closing with this nugget: “I wonder if the Paul family’s plan is to promote “liberty” or to promote the Paul family.”
Rasmussen has the numbers in North Carolina:
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Tar Heel State shows the putative Republican nominee earning 51% of the vote to Obama’s 43%. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.
Wowzer! Is this all hype? Or the formation of a trend? Is this blowback aimed at America’s first gay president? And this is the state the National Democratic party picked for their convention – at least for now.
Another primary Tuesday that matters little in the biggest race of them all. Idaho, Nebraska and Oregon all get their chance to award votes and delegates to the presumptive nominee.
Also today, Politico asks is Romney is ready for the Bain battle. Team Obama is out with their first big hit and Romney has responded with an ad of their own.
Politico also reports on Ron Paul’s tacit message to the GOP that he won’t cause trouble in Tampa. (Paul might want to send that message to his troops. In Idaho, they’re threatening to go “scorched earth.”)
Like to dive into data? Go beyond the headlines in the new NYT/CBS poll.
Most important political nugget trending? Probably rap mogul J-Jay reaffirming that he’s got Obama’s back. Whew! How could Obama have won reelection with the support of the man who wrote and performed this eloquent hit?
Barack Obama: the first black gay president? At least according to Newsweek he is. Politically speaking, is this a good thing? According to a USA TODAY/Gallup poll 51% say they agree with the president’s decision. 60% say it will have no bearing on how they vote. Did Obama thread the needle?
Mitt Romney speaks at Liberty and gets high marks from Evangelicals.
Rand Paul speaks at Iowa’s Faith and Freedom Coalition and makes a dumb joke that will certainly follow him all the way to his own campaign for president.
Americans have spoken to Gallup and the verdict is “a whopping 40 percent of Americans say President Obama’s newly public support of gay marriage will affect their votes.”
What else is on your mind this weekend?
My daughter is in standardized testing today, which has an ironic name here in South Carolina, the acronym “PASS”. Unfortunately, this is quite fitting for the quality of schools and their goals in this state, as well as across most of the nation. “We need you to PASS, then we meet our minimum federal numbers.” Or as a college basketball coach that I used to work with liked to proudly proclaim: “Cs get degrees!” If your only goal is a minimum goal, how far will you really get?
If you’re looking for coverage on President Obama and gay marriage, go to Jason’s piece. I’ll also have something up later today. The semifinals of VP Madness are now live!
In other news, Politico says: “A Ron Paul revolution is brewing” and Dick Morris is projecting a Romney Landslide victory.
Senator Richard Lugar was soundly defeated by Tea Party-back rival Richard Mourdock in the Indiana Republican primary yesterday, ending Lugar’s 36 year career in Washington.
The cunning creativity of the Obama fundraising machine is on full display with the “Mothers Day Shout Out” program:
Whether or not your mom’s on Twitter, here’s something guaranteed to make her smile on Sunday: getting a personal shout-out from President Obama.
From now until Thursday at midnight, you have a chance to win that for your mom or a special mother in your life — just get five or more donations to your grassroots fundraising page to automatically put yourself in the running.
That’s right: If your name is drawn, the President will send your mom a special Mother’s Day tweet from @BarackObama. With more than 15 million people following him on Twitter, she’ll be honored in front of a pretty wide audience.
Soon there will be donation contests for Fathers Day, where you and dad can hit the golf links with the President, and Fourth of July, where you help Obama pick what fireworks get shot off over the Potomac.
The best is saved for Arbor Day, where if you win, you get to plant a tree in the President’s honor in the Rose Garden.
Another slate of states hit the polls today. Seems like yesterday some argued the race for the GOP nomination would go until June, and perhaps to the convention. Instead, voters and the media can focus on other results.
One of the most interesting races is in Wisconsin, where Big Labor may have to settle on their second choice to run against the governor they want to recall.
Also today, barring a colossal turn of the numbers, Senator Lugar of Indiana will see his long senate career end with a whimper. It’s a big win for the Tea Party, but could Lugar have avoided this day?
You might also catch this RCP piece. The writer says Romney’s path to 270 might not be as narrow as you think.
Finally, the man they call Axe (David Axelrod) is spinning Biden’s recent trip down the slippery slope of gay marriage. What’s your take? Will issues like this play any significant role in November?
Sunday’s elections across Europe have signaled a new direction as France elected Socialist François Hollande and the Greek Neo-Nazi party has won seats in its parliament. In his campaign, Hollande ran on reducing the retirement age from 62 to 60 and taxing incomes over €1M ($1.3M USD) at 75%. This has led to many wealthy French exploring a move to the United Kingdom.
What effects on the local and world economies and politics do you expect from these outcomes? What are your thoughts on competition between governments? Harvard economist Greg Mankiw recently wrote about in the New York Times.
Finally, don’t forget to vote today for the Vice President!
Team Romney laid out what they see as their candidate’s five paths to the Oval Office, and none of them look particularly easy.
With Gingrich out this week, Ron Paul remains the only candidate actively campaigning (sort of) against Mitt Romney. Here’s a piece I thought was interesting on why Ron Paul continues his run and what some of the lasting effects of his movement may be.
And don’t forget to vote for your candidates in round two of Veep Madness.
Newt “I’m staying in until the convention” Gingrich finally put his campaign out of its misery, prompting NPR to ask: “What to say about Newt Gingrich that Newt Gingrich hasn’t already said about Newt Gingrich?” On President Obama’s new slogan “Forward”, Mitt Romney suggests, “Forward, what, over the cliff?” Gateway Pundit points out that Ann Romney wears a $990 shirt and the media freaks out but Michelle Obama wears $2700 sweater, and the media praises her for fashion sense and style. Additionally, Politico says: “Obama takes Romney to school.”
Finally, don’t forget to vote today in Veep Madness. Vote here.
President Obama was in Afghanistan yesterday and announced a plan to drawn down the U.S. armed forces over the next couple of years.
There is also a lot of chatter that the trip, which coincided with the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, was a chance for the Obama White House to “spike the ball.”
It very well may have, but honestly, we should be used to politicians doing this sort of thing. But politicians should beware of how “spiking the ball” can blow up in your face. Just ask George W. Bush about the infamous “Mission Accomplished” incident.
Is it unsavory for politicians to do this, or is this just part of the game?
Today’s open thread is a complete open topic bonanza. What do you want to see the editors write or comment about? What is missing from PD? Feel free to discuss anything else.
Karl Rove is out saying Obama is in a good position to be re-elected. The numbers man says Barack Obama has 220 solid electoral votes sewn away while Romney only has 93. Obama apparently agrees as he is making dog delicacy jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Economic growth is down again in the US, only 33% of Americans view the federal government favorably, and 20% of Americans self-identify as liberal. Are these facts related?
Meanwhile, the Secret Service “incident” in Colombia appears to not be an isolated event as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had previously stated. Investigations now find related pursuits within the Secret Service (giving its name an entirely new meaning) going back to early in the Clinton administration (maybe he wasn’t so bad, by comparison).
John Stossel pointed out in a Wall Street Journal article the TSA’s higher cost and significantly lower performance rate when compared to the private screeners at San Francisco International Airport. TSA Administrator John Pistole responded in the WSJ with a “revised” version of the study Stossel had cited, which led to Stossel firing back, pointing to further issues with the “study” used by the TSA.
Finally, don’t forget to help Mitt Romney select a running mate by voting in the Vice Presidential Championship today.
While Mitt Romney has redirected his time to more fundraising and choosing a running mate (don’t forget to help him by casting your vote today, no ID required), Rick Perry has endorsed Romney, no one has heard from Ron Paul (no word, hence no link), and “analysts” are reviewing what went wrong in the Newt Gingrich campaign. In an op-ed entitled ‘Was Newt Gingrich’s campaign the worst in history?‘ Joseph Curl of the Washington Times excoriates the former Speaker of the House. But was it the worst campaign ever? If not, whose were more poorly run?
Meanwhile, President Obama and Mitt Romney are neck and neck in the PD Composite. The two daily tracking polls, Rasmussen (Romney +5) and Gallup (Obama +6), are current conflicting and the most recent other poll has the two candidates tied. Finally, if you haven’t voted the the VEEPstakes today, don’t forget to support your candidates.
The “Hey baby! Cash Money!” story continues to grow some well-tanned walking legs. Senator Grassley implied that we have yet to learn the full story. The list of agents fired, resigning or retiring has grown. Sources inside the Secret Service say this behavior is nothing new. Obama has referred to these agents as a bunch of knuckleheads, but the implications seem to be growing into something more serious.
Can this story have an impact on the fall election? Do Columbian apples fall far from the tree?
As speculation of who Mitt Romney will select as his running mate is rampant, Romney has fueled the fire by campaigning with Marco Rubio this week. Rubio is also scheduled to give a major speech on foreign policy today, leading to more talk about him in tryout mode for the VP spot. Meanwhile, there are five primaries today with over 220 delegates at stake. Despite his campaign being over for weeks, Newt Gingrich has been trying to save face by working Delaware hard. Politico calls it Gingrich “hoping to become the Christine O’Donnell of the 2012 race.”
On the policy front, Social Security will run out of funding by 2033, three years earlier than previous projections and the Social Security disability fund will run out by 2016 as the recipients of this program have doubled over the past 10 years.. However, this is not due to the 2% tax holiday from the Obama administration, as funds are being transferred from the general fund to make up for the deficit. Rather, it is due to fewer people working and higher benefits paid out as more people have joined the Social Security roles, likely due to the state of the economy.
The theme of today’s open thread is “jobs, jobs, jobs!”
Let’s review the Obama administration’s promise from the early days of his presidency what would happen to unemployment if we passed the “stimulus” bill compared with actual unemployment.
As you can see, for the entire period of Barack Obama’s presidency, unemployment has exceeded the supposed worst case scenario, or what would happen if government did nothing. Now we are creating a organic problem as one in two new college graduates are either unemployed or underemployed.
How would you solve today’s unemployment and underemployment situation not seen in this country since the late 1970s?
Electoral college fun and weekend open thread
By David Kaiser, EditorFiled Under Open Thread, Race for White House 2012 on Apr 20
The 2012 election rides on basically the same group of states that have helped to decided the last several presidential elections. These battle-ground states are where you will see the candidates spend the majority of their time and money this fall, and fall into four categories.
The “rust-belt” states are a group of aging giants, who has felt the effects of the economic troubles worse than most, mainly due to the fact they weren’t doing so hot before the epic meltdown of 2007. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa are five that will play a major role in deciding who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania next year. Barack Obama won all of these states, peeling Iowa and Ohio away from the Republicans.
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