You wouldn’t think politicians would have any trouble raising enough money these days. The presidential race is expected to be a billion-dollar affair, and spending records have been shattered at the congressional level. But many candidates are being outgunned by superPACs and other outside groups with nearly unlimited funds at their disposal. Those dollars have…
Category: Election 2012
In Florida, Scott Administration Vows To Accelerate Voter Purge: ‘There Will Be More Names’
The massive voter purge order by Governor Rick Scott in Florida has been plagued with errors, resulting in election officials notifying hundreds of eligible U.S. citizens that they are ineligible to vote. In response, the Scott administration has vowed to intensify their efforts to remove registered voters from the rolls. Initially, the state created a…
GOP’s problem with Latinos — as big as Texas
I remember the reader who, sweet as you please, wrote to tell me: “I think most people who read your columns understand that you’re pro-Mexican invasion because you’re Mexican.” U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz is not Mexican. Nor is he Mexican-American. He is Cuban-American. And a funny thing happened to him on his way to…
Obama Fires Back On Spending Accusations : NPR [transcript]
DAVID GREENE, HOST: Lets stay with money and politics. On the campaign trail, President Obama and Mitt Romney have been feuding recently over the deficit. At issue is just how to characterize the Obama administrations record on spending. Depending on who you listen to, the president is either an out of control spender or hes…
Obama calls Romney speech a cow pie of distortion
Speaking directly to Iowans, Obama used local lingo to slam Romney: “Governor Romney came to Des Moines last week and warned of a prairie fire of debt,” he said. “But he left out some facts. His speech was more like a cow pie of distortion.” Then he quipped, “I don’t know whose record he twisted…
Obama Campaign Launching ‘Dashboard’ Online, ‘Directly Tied’ To Field Operations
“The immediacy of Dashboard really sets it apart from 2008,” said Obama campaign spokeswoman Katie Hogan. “It provides a good volunteer experience online that is directly tied to our field-operation goals.” As previously reported by the Guardian last week, the goal for Dashboard is to allow volunteers and staffers across different states to immediately work…
Young Voters, Once Buoyed By Obama, Turn Away [audio]
In 2004, then-candidate Barack Obama campaigned on a message of hope and gained overwhelming support from young voters. In an op-ed in the Los Angles Times, Neal Gabler writes that many of those young voters are disappointed with his tenure, and they’ve turned to “DIY politics” instead. SOURCE Young Voters, Once Buoyed By Obama, Turn…
Birther Secretary of State Bennett Is Romney Campaign Co-Chair
Before you write off Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett as another one of those fringy state officials diving deep into the birther waters of Hawaii, consider this: He is one of the co-chairs of the Romney campaign in Arizona. Then again, that honorary position already comes with a few smudge marks. Another of Romney’s…
‘Fatally flawed’: Why third parties still fail despite voter anger
Aside from the political challenges, some saw the Americans Elect process for nominating candidates as too long and rigorous: Its website has hundreds of pages of bylaws, rules, committee pledges, candidate pledges, elector applications and briefing books. Becoming a verified supporter of a candidate proved so challenging that the site’s leading contender, former Louisiana Gov….
DCCC Posts Big April Fundraising Haul
The DCCC has posted boffo fundraising figures in recent months, often outraising their partisan counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee. A DCCC spokesman said this was their “best April in history.” By comparison, the DCCC raised just under $3 million in April of 2006, a year in which they took control of the House, according…
Why isn’t Obama getting crushed right now?
Obama is the incumbent. The economy is growing at a moderate pace. There’s no serious third-party challenge. We’re not losing massive numbers of soldiers in a foreign war. And when you look at those fundamentals, the reality is this: Incumbent presidents very, very rarely lose under those conditions. I recently had to study this fairly…
Tea Partiers Backing Scott Walker May Run Afoul of IRS
Tea Party Patriots could prove to be a formidable force in Wisconsin given the size of its fundraising machine; Martin recently bragged that the group raised $12 million last year. And that could be problematic. As a nonprofit group, TPP is banned from devoting the bulk of its resources to campaign activities—those resources are supposed to…
The Average White Guy Vote
Rudy is the quintessential average white guy, right down to his last name. “It literally is Guy,” he said, laughing at the irony. Born in New Eagle and raised in Charleroi in Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley, Guy comes from a long line of Democrats. “My grandfather worked at Corning Glass, my father worked in the mines,…
In Florida, Registering Voters A Whole New Game
Six months before the presidential election, the Florida ground game is already underway. In political terms, the ground game is the process of mobilizing voters and getting them to the polls. And the first step is registering people to vote. But in Florida this year, there are tough new restrictions on groups that conduct voter…
The Real Voter Registration Numbers
The Washington Post recently published a story (“Voter registration down among Hispanics, blacks” May 4th, 2012) that inaccurately claimed that the number of African American and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008; it has not. One of the most important successes of the historic 2008 campaign was the Obama-Biden ticket’s ability to expand…
$16 Million Later, Scott Walker is Still Deadlocked in Recall Fight | Mother Jones
Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative allies have spent nearly $17 million to boost his candidacy in Wisconsins looming recall election. What have they got to show for it? Nothing, according to a new Marquette University Law School poll. Despite all the TV ads attacking Democrat Tom Barrett and touting Walkers supposedly job-centric agenda in…
Right-Wing Claims Obama’s New Campaign Slogan Reveals His Secret Communist And/Or Fascist Allegiances
One word; seven letters; so much nefarious hidden meaning. The Obama campaign’s new slogan, “Forward,” may seem like a typically oblique and anodyne piece of political branding — but thankfully, right-wing bloggers are here to reveal its true meaning, and predictably, it involves socialism and Hitler. The president’s reelection campaign unveiled the slogan yesterday in…
President Obama Makes an Argument for Rebuilding America
Speaking to 3,000 attendees of the Building and Construction Trades Department conference in Washington, DC this morning, President Obama made an argument for investing in rebuilding America. He told the crowd: [As] a share of the economy, Europe invests more than twice what we do in infrastructure; China about four times as much. Are we…
Obama: “As long as I’m president, we’re gonna keep moving forward…You’ve got my signature on it”
Here’s President Obama talking about Lilly Ledbetter, fair pay, and change. He also doesn’t miss the chance to take a quick jab at Mitt Romney.
New Obama Campaign Slogan – “Forward”
The video outlines the challenges America faced as President Obama took office at the height of the worst recession in almost a century and details the progress that has been made reclaiming the security of the middle class and building an economy that’s meant to last, where hard work pays and responsibility is rewarded.