The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal…
Category: Election 2012
Predict Obama’s odds in the 2012 election
Political scientists at George Washington, Yale and UCLA believe most elections can be predicted with just a few pieces of information. They created a formula that uses economic growth, presidential approval ratings in June and incumbency to forecast President Obama’s share of the two-party vote in the Nov. 6 election. SOURCE: Predict Obamas odds in…
Military Shift Campaign Donations From Ron Paul To Obama In March
The Army Times reported in February that anti-war GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX) was at that time, “by far,” getting the most in campaign contributions from members of the United States military. According to a review of Federal Election Commission data, Paul received nearly $250,000 in donations from servicemembers, President Obama, $130,000 and GOP…
In Digital Finance Race, Senate Uses Horse And Buggy
Checking a candidate’s contributors has become critical for understanding the candidate’s politics. It’s also easier than ever before with regular deadlines and electronic records — unless the legislator you are tracking is a member of the U.S. Senate. For more than a decade now, the Senate has kept itself exempt from rules other federal candidates…
The Koch Brothers Exposed
Now the Kochs are the subject of a blistering (but to all appearances factual) documentary by the activist filmmaker Robert Greenwald. Koch Brothers Exposed aims to show how the brothers’ machinations affect the lives of “living, breathing human beings,” as Greenwald put it to me at the film’s New York premiere in late March. “When…
MTV hopes online game can energize 2012 youth vote
MTV is hoping to give its get-out-the-vote campaign a viral boost with an online game, inspired by fantasy sports, that rewards players for participating in the 2012 elections. Gamers will rack up points in “Fantasy Election ’12” for registering to vote, watching debates and publicly supporting candidates with transparent fundraising records and who refrain from…
Obama: Some in GOP Forget How America Was Built
Pounding home the theme of his re-election race against Mitt Romney, Obama said he wants to ensure tax fairness for all while Republicans want to “shower the wealthiest Americans” with tax cuts they don’t need. Obama said the public doesn’t like to see tax dollars wasted, but does want to see money spent in areas…
Obama: ‘I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth’
“Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance,” Obama said in a speech at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio. “Right now we have two competing visions of our future, and the choice could not be clearer,” said the…
Ted Nugent for Mitt Romney at NRA Convention: “Chop their heads off in November”, “I will be dead or in jail” if Obama Re-elected
Here’s the video. At an NRA event with a mostly White crowd that is alternately watching and handling firearms, Nugent engages in what seems to be incitement to violence. Calling Obama and Clinton “criminals,” and sprinkling his oration with several lies, Nugent exhorts the crowd to get everyone they know to vote for Romney. via Ted…
Romney Adviser Struggles To Defend Campaign’s Major Economic Claim
Gillespie doesn’t even attempt to defend the substance of the claim because there is little substance to it. The 92 percent figure obscures the fact that many more men than women lost jobs in the recession, as Wallaces forces Gillespie to admit. The key is timing. Men tend to be concentrated in industries that were…
Americans Disagree with the Ryan Budget’s Priorities
Conservative politicians have eagerly embraced Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) radical fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which would slash social spending to the bone while preserving or extending all tax breaks for the wealthy. President Barack Obama, in contrast, is trying to make the case that the Ryan budget has its priorities completely wrong and that…
Elizabeth Warren Raises $6.9 Million
Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren D has posted another mammoth fundraising quarter, raising $6.9 million in the first three months of the year, more than double the $3.4 million haul of Republican Sen. Scott Brown. Warren raised $5.7 million in the fourth quarter on 2011, teeing up sky-high expectations for the first three months of…
Despite History and the Numbers, Wall Street Wants Republican in the White House
The stock market may be up more than 75% since President Obama moved into the White House, but Wall Street is looking for a change come November. Stocks have historically performed better during a Democratic administration, yet a whopping 70% of investment strategists and money managers say a Republican president will be better for the…
Credo PAC Targets Two More House Republicans
Add Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.) to the list of Republican lawmakers in the sights of Credo Mobile, the progressive San Francisco phone company-turned-political action committee. The PAC said today that it will set up offices in the lawmakers’ districts as part of efforts to purge the House of tea party-influenced lawmakers….
Poll: Majority For Recalling Walker In Wisconsin
The new Rasmussen poll of Wisconsin shows bad news for Gov. Scott Walker, with a majority of likely voters wanting to kick him out of office in the state’s recently triggered recall election. The poll asked: “A special election will be held to see if voters want to recall Governor Scott Walker and remove him…
New Minority-Focused PAC Launches
PAC Plus, a new minority-focused super PAC, launched today with one of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful Democrats in its corner. John Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress and a former White House chief of staff, will advise the group. PAC Plus is an outgrowth of PowerPAC, a 527 organization that spent $10…
86-Year-Old Ohio Veteran Can’t Vote After Government-Issued ID Is Rejected At Poll
Paul Carroll, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who has lived in the same Ohio town for four decades, was denied a chance to vote in the state’s primary contests today after a poll worker denied his form of identification, a recently-acquired photo ID from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The poll worker rejected the…
Progressive Chellie Pingree Considers Run for Snowe’s Seat
Rep. Chellie Pingree D-Maine is all but certain to make a bid for the Senate in the wake of Sen. Olympia Snowes R retirement announcement, she told The Huffington Post in an interview Wednesday. “I cant think of anything right now thats holding me back,” Pingree said. “I mean, I love being in the House,…
The best way to judge Obama’s first term — and his second
Of course, the presidency is not a lab experiment. We cannot tweak a few variables and rerun the last few years to test their effect. In that way, reviewing the flaws in a presidency is a hard thing to do well, and an impossible thing to do perfectly. Every political pundit — indeed, every citizen…
Poll: Obama Hits 50% Approval, Leads All GOP Rivals, For Now
The new CBS News/NY Times poll definitely contains the kind of information that could put a little spring in any president’s step. The poll, released Tuesday, found President Obama’s approval rating had bounced back up to 50 percent from 47 percent in January. Not a huge improvement but in presidential politics, getting to at least…