Posts Tagged ‘general election’
We Just Got a Preview Of The General Election On Twitter
Everyone likes a good little Twitter-fight. And tonight a few hours before the debate, a senior-Obama campaign aide, David Axelrod mixed it up with a senior Romney aide, Eric Fehrnstrom.
It looked like a preview of the general election. Team Obama wants to tie Romney to the Bush years. Romney wants to make Obama take responsibility for sluggish growth.
It all began with this Tweet from the official Mitt Romney campaign account.
And David Axlerod couldn’t help himself. Tweeting out a chart is very 2012.
Eric Ferhnstrom fired back.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Three Simple Reasons Why Obama Will Win Re-Election
Continuing my tradition of December election predictions (2007), let me note that I am not listening to any news about the 2012 Presidential election. I believe that Barack Obama will win the general election by a slim margin, e.g., 51/49 percent of the popular vote. Here are my reasons:
- people are afraid of change and will favor an incumbent if one is available
- Obama ended the Iraq war
- Americans know in their hearts that Obama is not responsible for the stagnant economy
The last point is the one that may need elaboration. If the economy isn’t growing, wouldn’t voters be enthusiastic about replacing the President? My belief is that Americans are smart enough to recognize that one hard-working high-achieving person such as Obama cannot compensate for 313 million Americans who, on average, don’t work all that hard and haven’t achieved very much. Furthermore, as evidenced by the lack of politicians at all levels who are willing to admit that we can’t pay for all of the stuff that we want, Americans aren’t in the mood to confront reality.
We know that a country of people who earn a median wage of $16.27 per hour (source) cannot afford to pay $100,000-200,000/year pensions to policemen and firefighters who retire at 42 or 50. We know that we can’t afford our massive military or unlimited payments to Medicare providers. We know that we can’t afford to pay working-age people to sit at home and collect 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. We know that China is growing 10 percent per year because businesses find employees there who have a better education and work ethic. We know that countries like Singapore now enjoy a higher per capita income than the U.S. does partly because they’ve figured out how to deliver basic government services as a tiny fraction of the cost (as a percentage of GDP). We know that our public schools are set up to benefit employees rather than students and therefore the outlook for competitiveness is not improving.
We don’t want to do anything about these issues, however, which is why reelecting our current crop of politicians, including Obama, is the most sensible thing to do.
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IT’S ON: Democrats Are Waging War Over Romney’s ‘Sleazy’ Campaign Ad
The ad, which began airing in New Hampshire this week, uses a 2008 campaign clip of Obama saying: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”
The problem is that those weren’t actually Obama’s words. He was mocking a quote from a John McCain campaign aide. Here’s the full quote from Obama’s speech:
“Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’ ”
Democrats are understandably upset by the ad — it is blatantly misleading. The Obama re-election campaign immediately denounced the commercial as “deceptive and dishonest,” and the DNC has been sending almost hourly emails hitting Romney for trying to dupe voters. Even White House Press Secretary Jay Carney got in on the action:
“Seriously? I mean, an ad in which they deliberately distort what the President said?” Carney said to reporters on Air Force One. “I mean, it’s a rather remarkable way to start, and an unfortunate way to start.”
Of course, this is exactly the reaction that the Romney team was hoping for. According to Politico’s Mike Allen, Romney’s senior advisors appeared to be relishing the general election-style fight in the spin room after last night’s debate.
“They should probably order some more defibrillators for the Obama reelection committee, because their reaction was quite hysterical,” Romney senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters. “No one CAUGHT us doing this. We TOLD you what we were doing.”
Romney media strategist Stuart Stevens added: “To have a total of meltdown today where you take one ad that’s on one station in New Hampshire: You had the Press Secretary of the President of the United States talking about it. The whole global issues, and they’re worried about one ad in New Hampshire. It’s pretty extraordinary. These guys’re gonna have to settle down. They’re going to have to start getting defibrillators over there at some sort of wholesale price. It seems that everybody who works in the White House can’t imagine someone’s actually gonna run against ‘em.”
These arguments might hold water if this were a straightforward attack ad. But it is perfectly reasonable for the Obama team to defend itself from patently false claims, no matter how early it is in the election cycle.
This is a dangerous game for Romney, whose greatest weakness as a candidate is the perception that he is an inconsistent flipflopper. By playing dirty right of the gates, Romney risks solidifying his reputation as a deceptive politician willing to say or do whatever it takes to get elected.
Democrats aren’t letting the opportunity go to waste. The DNC released a new web video today, “Deceive America,” mashing up clips of cable news pundits slamming Romney for being dishonest, “sleazy,” and worse.
Here’s the video:
And here’s Romney’s original ad:
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German Pirate Party Now Has 10 Percent Of Its Country’s Backing
Germany’s Pirate Party, the political movement dedicated to Internet freedoms, now commands 10 percent of the country’s votes according to recent opinion polls.
Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, says that if the party does take that amount of support into the next German general election, then it could make itself the balance in a coalition. However, such an election is still two years away.
Falkvinge says that the rising popularity of the party can be attributed to the feeling of disenfranchisement among Germany’s young. He also says that the party should be attractive to around about 20 percent of the electorate.
To read Rick Falkvinge’s whole column on the Pirate Parties click here >
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Palin: Perry Attack On Romney Unpresidential, Gingrich Won Debate
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s attack on GOP front-runner Mitt Romney over illegal immigration — agreeing with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren that it was a “cheap shot,” and “not presidential.”
Palin added that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich performed the best of the candidates at the Las Vegas— saying he would be a strong candidate against Obama in the general election.
“Newt Gingrich would — he would clobber Barack Obama in any debate, any forum that had to do with substance when it comes to policy and solutions for the challenges that America faces,” she said, acknowledging he is a long-shot.
Palin decided earlier this month not to enter the race for the Republican nomination, after months ‘will-she, or won’t-she’ speculation. Her endorsement remains a significant get among the party’s conservative base.
Watch the video below:
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