Romney & Santorum Besting Obama in Swing States
Via Instapundit.com comes the latest polls from USA Today on match-ups between President Obama and GOP would-be presidents Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum:
In the poll, Obama lags the two leading Republican rivals in the 12 states likely to determine the outcome of a close race in November:
• Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum tops Obama 50%-45% in the swing states. Nationwide, Santorum's lead narrows to 49%-46%.
• Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney edges Obama 48%-46% in the swing states. Nationwide, they are tied at 47% each.
Off the cuff remarks that assume a second term is in the bag can't be helping with swing voters, but health-care reform is apparently a big part of the problem:
The poll suggests that the president's popularity is dampened by his expansive health care reform law, which 53 percent of voters in swing states and half of voters nationwide perceive as a bad thing. That's versus just 38 percent of voters in swing states and 42 percent of voters nationwide who see the health care bill favorably.
Those USA Today quotes above come courtesy of Jammie Wearing Fools.
The USA Today polls are contradicted by the summaries of national (as opposed to swing state) surveys at Real Clear Politics, which has Obama tied or over his GOP rivals (including Rep. Ron Paul). Check those out here.
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That photo is straight-up racist, dude.
Not only that: The cake is marbled vanilla and chocolate.
Nice to see California is bringing back those commercials with the singing raisins... on a cake! Awesome!
Obama will eat that frothy mix like a shake for breakfast. Every time I read one of these articles I am stunned that the Republicans' shit is so retarded.
Obama will eat that frothy mix like a shake for breakfast.
Let's move!
At least Santorum doesn't talk like a fag.
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No?
http://aipcalif.blogspot.com/
No.
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No.
One fears that right-wing libertarian dreams of something good happening for right-wing libertarian dreams will be crushed again. Oh well, nothing has ever turned up that seriously questions right-wing libertarian premises, so keep the faith. Donate now!
Arf!
Of course the law hurt him. I'm trying to think of the last "comprehensive reform" bill that was wildly popular. "Comprehenesive reform" means "many, many components stuck into one bill by a sausage-making fest in Congress." While many components may be popular singularly, with each addition another layer of support is peeled off...
During the nomination process I said that Obama was so inexperienced and likely to rely on local Chi-town experts with little grasp on national politics that he was likely to do incredibly stupid political things like this....For instance, what genius pushes through a large, controversial bill whose provisions won't take effect until years after the next election? Even if people would see the benefits of any provisions they won't see them at all until years after people can speculate about the drawbacks...
He overreached. There were minor, relatively uncontroversial things he could do in the health care realm, but instead he pushed this woeful leviathan, and while doing so gave little time to things that would have been wildly popular with his base and fairly popular overall (DADT repeal). It's mind-boggling when you think of it. And he's going to get his "and slapped," that's what happens when pols overreach...
Are you arguing with yourself now? John will be along any moment...
I've always been against the law. It's stupid and immoral.
"Breakin' the laaaaaaw! Breakin' the laaaaaaaaaaaw!"
[guitar power chord, guitar power chord]
"Breakin' the laaaaaaaaaaaw! Breakin' the laaaaaaaaw!"
[guitar power chord, guitar power chord]
Not exactlty the same as, "I've always been against the law", but close enough to roll out Halford and Company.
There's some line from some movie about never breaking a law that some person speaking the line agreed with.
It is worse than that. I actually agree with him on this. The apocalypse is at hand.
I've decided to write a novel about said apocalypse since my IRL career is otherwise a dead end.
And the big mistake he made on health care was passing the law without any Republican support. That means he and the Democrats now own healthcare. Every time someone's insurance company turns down a claim or their copay goes up people say "hey wasn't Obamacare supposed to fix this?".
When they couldn't get a single Republican vote, he should have backed away and said "I am not changing America's healthcare without a bi-partisan consensus. People would have loved him for it. And he could have then done nothing and blamed the Republicans for not helping him fix it.
The man was an arrogant s.o.b. Remember when he wanted it pushed through by August 2009 before the congressaholes went back to visit constituents? The family spent more time trying to choose their puppy than they wanted to spend on Obamacare.
"When they couldn't get a single Republican vote, he should have backed away and said "I am not changing America's healthcare without a bi-partisan consensus."
, never. No thanks, the recission and pre-existing portions of the health care bill were to important for that crap.
So
What genius? A genius who has lived his whole political life in Chicago where the government is a one party dictatorship and you can just shove whatever you want down the voter's throat.
The funny thing is that imagine if Obama had been a real do nothing President. No one wants to hate the first black President. And the Republican field is weak. He would be cruising to re-election now.
+1
A weak field given O's record to run on.
I'm trying to think of the last "comprehensive reform" bill that was wildly popular.
Reagan's rewrite of the tax laws?
For instance, what genius pushes through a large, controversial bill whose provisions won't take effect until years after the next election?
One who suspects that people will really get their hate on after the bill goes into effect and they can see that all those early gimmes have to be paired with takeaways?
I think you give them too much credit. I don't think they are competent enough to think that deeply. I think they just wanted to do something, anything, 'historic' and passed whatever piece of crap Reid and Pelosi could shove through the Congress.
I think RC is right. Other than deficit structuring, there was no other reason to kick the can that far down the road.
That is how stupid they were. They wanted to be able to say it didn't raise the deficit.
It was worse than that John, they actually claimed it would HELP with the deficet!
The critical requirement was to "lock-in" gov't control permanently. Any reform bill would have been fine as long as it accomplished that much.
historicicity was unimportant. Permanent gov't control of healthcare was the Grail.
For instance, what genius pushes through a large, controversial bill whose provisions won't take effect until years after the next election
A guy who wants to be elected twice?
If only we could get that racist sack of shit Ron Paul in the White House. Then liberiarian ideals would triumph!
Arf!
Alt text : "EAT ME"
Ramming speed!
"You can take your thumb out of my ass now, Carmine."
Grab a brew. Don't cost nothin'.
You fucked up. You trusted us.
You're all worthless and weak! Now drop and give me twenty!
As an iconoclastic libertarian sort, I can't fathom how my fellow americans vote for 99.9% of the shits that end up in office. That said, everyday the Santorum is reported saying some crazy ass socon stuff and Romney continues to be the cut-and-paste estabilishmentarian douchenozzle he was born to be. So you'd expect that Obama to be running away with it - but crazy Santorum or boring Romney or "un-serious" Paul still are neck and neck with the Obama.
It kind of comes down to the fact that Mittens and Santorum haven't spent the last three years destroying America.
We know what we got - and we don't want anymore.
"everyday the Santorum is reported saying some crazy ass socon stuff and Romney continues to be the cut-and-paste estabilishmentarian douchenozzle he was born to be. So you'd expect that Obama to be running away with it"
To borrow a phrase: its the economy stupid.
The election will be determined by the unemployment rate and the S&P 500.
Don't forget gas prices!
Damn, great minds and all that.
Third leg of the stool I suppose.
HEY!!
No - I am telling you, it is going to be gas prices.
Not to worry. The republicans are fixing them now.
It's such a sweet and deadly catch-22 - if the economy picks up, demand will drive up gas prices and consuming voters will immediately feel it, it the economy doesn't pick up, financially struggling voters will still be feeling the pinch.
Too bad for Obama that Presidents always get blamed for overall economic conditions and that Obama is on record in a myriad of ways for stifling energy supplies.
Obama loses to either giant douche or turd sandwich. Couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow.
The election will be determined by the unemployment rate and the S&P 500.
Except for the fact that those two indicators disagree strongly with eachother. But the one that people feel more tangibly doesn't bode so well for Pharobama
I find this very hard to believe. Santorum hasn't a prayer if he is the candidate. And Romney is exactly the same as Obama. There is not one iota of difference between the two. He can't win.
Romney is white and has nicer hair. He's also more Presidential looking and hasn't been in the office for the last 3 years.
The being white would be his biggest disadvantage. As much as people seemed astonished that America elected a black guy in 2008, the truth is they elected a guy in large part because he was black.
^^^ this
Obama was elected because Hank Paulson crashed the stock market. Voting for a black guy motivated race-conscious whites, but it was voters watching their retirement investments getting burned to the ground that made the real difference.
McCain/Palin were polling ahead of Obama/Biden until the crash. I doubt that the crash suddenly inspired voters to vote on the basis of voting for the black guy.
So you're saying Obama has a cake job?
Fucking racists.
Look, I know it's fun to pretend that Romney isn't going to be the next President of the United States, but let's just remember that we're wasting valuable internet ink talking about anything else. No one's happy about it, but it is what it is.
It's weird, but there it is. Before this all started, I thought he had no chance. Little did I know that no one else was running (Paul and his special circumstances of not loving war excepted, of course).
I don't find the possibility of Romney being President that surprising. What is shocking is that Santorum has a real chance. That I would never have believed even three months ago.
I don't think he does--it's just the last gasp of anti-Romney.
I guess Romney might be slightly better than Obama, if I squint my eyes the right way and convince myself that he won't appoint a communist to the bench.
The question is, when Gingrich drops out, where does his support go? If it goes to Santorum, Romney is toast.
Gingrich doesn't have enough support at this point to matter.
Ron Paul's delegates and voters are never going to either of those guys. They might be persuaded to back Mitt but that would be a tough sell.
They have to go somewhere. Without them, No one gets a majority.
If Romney agrees to give Rand Paul the DOJ or the DOD, I think I could vote for Romney.
Regular CPAC goer could find it in his heart to support Romney...What a shock that is...
It's gonna be a brokered convention, with the nomination offered to Paul Ryan. He'll accept, and he'll be appealing enough for the more reasonable delegates of all three candidates.
Part of the problem with an outsider nominee is that they've got no money raised and no organization, plus the GOP has no clue how they'll run a large-scale campaign.
Remember, Rick Perry looked unbeatable when he first announced, but wilted under the burden of an actual campaign. That's what the primary season is largely about -- proving that the nominee can run a competent campaign before the party puts all its eggs in his basket.
Ryan's biggest problem is that he is an accountant. Republican primary voters have clearly signaled that they want a fighter, not a dweeb. The fact that he would be an "establishment" choice wouldn't help him either. Let us all just hope that Jeb Bush doesn't somehow end up with the nomination.
Gingrich matters. He helps Romney, ironically.
The question is, when Gingrich drops out, where does his support go? If it goes to Santorum, Romney is toast.
Lest we forget that Stevens was a Ford apointee and Souter was a Poppy Bush one.
Yup. And if anyone can fuck up a nomination, it is Romney. But, there are a lot more conservative jurists out there now than then. So it will be a little harder for him to fuck it up.
March 4th, 2014 - WASHINGTON
In the wake of Antonin Scalia's tragic run-in with a New Professional SWAT Team, President Romney announced that he is nominating the Hon. Jay Bybee, a Ninth Circuit Judge and former member of the Office of Legal Counsel, to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court.
LOL. Also the Republicans in the Senate are a lot more militant than they used to be. After Suiter, they won't just give a Republican nominee a rubber stamp anymore. Bush tried to nominate Harriot Myers and the Republican base went into revolt. So, when Mittens fucks up an appointment, there is hope that the Senate will save him from himself.
It used to be a rubber stamp from both directions, except in special cases like Bork. Ruth Baiter Ginsburg was about as devoted a leftist as one could imagine at the time, but still got 90+ votes in the GOP senate.
(I still prefer the old school leftists like RBG, who at least care about civil liberties, over the new-style Kagan types)
Stevens ended up being quite good on many issues, such as the rights of the accused vs. police.
Romney has plainly said the kind of SCOTUS he will nominate many times: like Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts.
But Stevens was horrible on the 1st Amendment. And Bush I said the same thing. And John Sanunu assured the world that his buddy Suiter was a conservative. Talk is very cheap.
"Stevens was horrible on the 1st Amendment"
Bad on flag burning, bad on campaign finance, but he was pretty good in other areas of 1st Amendment concern iirc.
And he was great on the Establishment clause. Thomas thought it should only apply to the feds. Nice to remember that when you don't have to go to the state Church of X this Sunday...
And you rely on what Romney says, why?
I have to agree.
Santorum is the biggest surprise in politics in maybe my lifetime.
Bigger surprise than Carter in 76.
If Santorum can win, anyone can win. The Rent is Too Damn High guy has a chance.
That makes me think he will win. We live in seriously strange times. And a Santorum presidency fits in perfectly with them.
Well, yeah. Think of it as comedy relief. Under other circumstances, a President Santorum might worry me. But with the country swirling 'round the bowl, probably irreversibly, I find myself rather apathetic. It's not like he can do much more damage. And if nothing else, Santorum has great taste in enemies. Just think of all the apoplectic lefties should he actually get elected......
Clinton's nomination and win was kinda out of left field (npi).
Another year like this one where none of the "pros" realized how weak the President was.
If you had a traditional upbringing, like I did, it was unthinkable that someone who acknowledged smoking pot and dodging the draft could not win. But traditional folks just didn't realize times had passed them by, it's a common trait of the traditional to think most folks are like them.
In retrospect Clinton was a great candidate. Being from the South he mitigated the losses from that area, but his generational thing appealed everywhere else. Classic DLC choice.
Not really.
He had been given a prominent speaking spot at the previous convention precisely because the party was grooming him for the big job.
He fucked up that speech, and his stock fell for a while. But inside Democrat circles Bill Clinton had been seen coming for a long time.
inside Democrat circles Bill Clinton had been seen coming for a long time.
/snerk/
I see what you did there
Clinton was a great candidate? That's a little revisionistic. He was lucky. Then again, most surprise candidates are.
He was lucky that Gore et al. didn't run against him. But his success in the primary season, when the media was beating him up over the Gennifer Flowers scandal, and later in the general, with Perot stealing much of the anti-GHWB vote, was pure skill (and ruthlessness bordering on sociopathy).
Clinton was a great candidate? That's a little revisionistic. He was lucky. Then again, most surprise candidates are.
He was lucky because he was smart. He leveraged his "luck" into a win. Everyone, even people who despise Clinton will tell you the guy is a political machine. He shocks people by rattling off accurate demographic statistics for odd, obscure regional constituencies.
the party was grooming him for the big job ... inside Democrat circles Bill Clinton had been seen coming for a long time
He was lucky
How soon you all forget. Back in the Dem primary fight for '92, Clinton was merely one of the pack of aspirants that the media was calling the "seven dwarfs", then, according to (IIRC) aspirant Sen. Bill Bradley, Clinton's campaign was suddenly flooded with money. From then on, Clinton stomped his primary opponents and with a little help from the Dem partisan media puffing up and tearing down Perot at the right moments and tearing down the weak incumbent continually, Clinton won the split decision.
It was ChiCom cash that made the difference for Clinton. Clinton was the best investment the Chinese have ever made.
I think Obama demonstrated that already.
What is shocking is that Santorum has a real chance.
Santorum gets those occasional surges because he lands in places that get the real red-state so-con base fired up. He's a non-factor in the long run.
health-care reform is apparently a big part of the problem:
On Morning Joke, Dick Durbin assured the assembled nodders this is merely because the rubes are too fucking dumb to comprehend how awesome this whole Obamacare thing is. If you just tell them a bunch of lies, and pander to their irrational fears of catastrophic illnesses, they fall right into line.
Expect to see a lot of "America is just too stupid to be governed" sentiment as Obama's situation gets worse.
I love the left. Democracy is the principal value. . .until the majority doesn't agree with them. Then people are stupid, racist, programmed by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, and so on.
Yup. Man, the Republicans are going to kill them with these Chu quotes about gas prices.
"Let's give the president credit for one domestic policy that works. He wanted higher gas prices and he got them," said Daniels on Fox News Sunday.
"Secretary Chu said $8 are about what they pay in Europe. It would be great. Secretary Salazar said $10 and it still wouldn't be for drilling in the places where we know there's an awful lot of domestic production. And so, they have gotten the doubling of gas prices and perhaps worse, it's a conscious policy of this administration. Maybe the one thing they set out to do and actually accomplished." he said.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wi.....gas-prices
Er, I don't think those are the quotes of Sec. Chu...
No. they are Republicans quoting Chu. But it doesn't matter because he actually said them.
He said it in 2008
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....73138.html
Above is a political story defending him for it but acknowledging that yes he did say it.
And he reaffirmed this belief in 2011.
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/.....ces-again/
Don't worry MNG. You will be seeing those clips of him over and over again as gas prices continue to go up and the election gets closer.
If he said those things I'm sure we will...
One thing you can count on from the left is hypocrisy.
"swing" states
Where's the bi-lover anon-bot on this one?
This is Paul vs Obama, according to RCP.
Drudge report mentions that in the newest Rassmussen poll, Paul (for the first time) leads the Prez:
More polls of Paul slaying dragons. If only... if only...
Interestingly, according to Rasmussen, only 29% of potential voters agree to subsidize electric and windup tin cars to the tune of $10,000 per vehicle.
Also interesting, 38% of likely voters are concerned about the safety of electric cars, and I don't think the voters mean Scalextric cars.
I posted an O.T. a few days back about Nissan sort of kind of admitting that battery replacement cycle in the Leaf is six to eight years. Cost: $31,000
"My presidency is not over, I've got another five years coming up."
(http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/02/23/obama_my_presidency_is_not_over_ive_got_another_five_years.html)
I interpret this in one of three ways:
1) I will win re-election b/c the GOP is too inept to nominate anyone who will beat me, and the American are too easily manipulated by the likes of me.
2) I will win re-election b/c I will steal it by having dead/non-existant/non-registered people "vote" for me.
3) If I don't win, I will not concede the presidency, because I will create some state of emergency and say we can't afford the instability that changing presidencies will cause.
I'm leaning towards a combination of 1 and 3, but it's just a hunch.
4) Political puffery along the "I am inevitable" line. Straight personality-cult stuff, baby.
Is there a market for fake eyebrows outside aging Nazi circles?
Amazing isn't it that Obama can be re-created in marzipan with greater fidelity than Chip Bok can draw him in a cartoon?
I recognized cake-Obama even without labels.
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