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Subscribe to RSSA CBS poll shows Obama and Romney essentially tied, with Obama up 46-45%. The headline of the poll story, though: “Ahead of speech, Romney faces empathy gap.” From the story: “Only 41 percent of Americans said Romney understands their needs and problems, compared to 54 percent who feel Mr. Obama understands their needs and problems.”
“If the presidential election were held today, Romney and Obama would be more or less tied, the latest polls show. But on one voter test, Obama has a clear advantage: Whom would you rather have a beer with?” AP writes. “Or, if you don’t drink (as Romney doesn't), whom would you rather have a cup of coffee with? Or take with you on a road trip (with or without your dog)? Or invite over for dinner? Simply put, there is a likability gap. This may seem trivial compared to questions like, say, which candidate you think will better revive the economy or safeguard the nation’s nuclear weapons. But election after election has demonstrated that how voters feel about their candidate matters. A lot. It buoyed Ronald Reagan and helped sink John Kerry.”
“A Pew Research Center survey shows an overwhelming majority of people have high regard for those they consider wealthy, with almost half saying they’re smarter and harder workers. At the same time, a majority says the wealthy are greedy and pay too little in taxes. One-third say they’re dishonest,” Bloomberg writes. “More than six in 10 Americans say the Republican Party, which is holding its national convention this week, favors the wealthy, according to the poll released today.”
“The price tags this year are expected to be nearly $55 million for the Democrats and roughly $73 million for the GOP,” the New York Daily News writes. “Funding for the spectacles starts on one’s tax return, with the box titled ‘Presidential Election Campaign’ that offers each taxpayer the option of putting $3 in taxes toward the public campaign financing system. Roughly one-third of taxpayers check the box. From that pot of gold, the Federal Elections Commission this year is throwing each party $18.2 million in convention cash. And Congress gives each party an additional $50 million to offset the convention security costs taken on by state and local agencies.”
CONNECTICUT: “A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Linda McMahon (R) edging Rep. Chris Murphy (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 46%,” Political Wire writes
The Philadelphia Daily News: “Arlen Specter has been hospitalized with a serious illness, friends of the former longtime U.S. senator have confirmed.”
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I hate the attention to likeability. Always have. Presidential elections ought to be approached with a lot more thought and seriousness than some damn junior high class election! That said, I'll treat the likeability edge the way I do my jumper cables and tire jack. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it!
Likeability really means who has compassion and is willing to fight for your interests.
Think of it this way. If someone doesn't understand what it's like to have to work 2 jobs just to put food on the table and help our children go to college will never understand why student loans are important to millions of American families.
The American dream is that our children will have a better life than we do.
That's what is truly scary about Romney/Ryan. Their plans aren't to make sure our children have a better future, instead they kick the can down the road. Seriously, look at the Medicare plan. If it was a good solution, why not implement it today, rather than waiting 10 years?
The answer is because Romney/Ryan don't believe in the American dream of our children having a better future than we have.
Agree Debbie - somehow the republicans always point to medicare and social security as leaving our children and grandchildren with extra debt - me I look at it differently, because my Mom had medicare and social security we were not out a lot of extra money to take care of her when she became ill and had to live with us (we gladly would have but were equally pleased she could use her own money to do so plus it extended her level of independence and good quality of life which in turn probably allowed her to live longer and much happier). The point is, do you really think we are going to let our parents and grandparents get pushed to the curb? No, they are the greatest generation, worked very hard for all of us and paid into medicare and medicaid - just like I have all my working life, I don't want to burden my grown children and grandchildren with my care when I'm older and with medicare, social security, and my retirement pension I don't think I'll have to. Retirement and old age is not just for republicans, democrats have worked much harder, harder jobs and harder work for longer and we know we should get to retire with dignity and grace and we know our kids won't be wealthy enough to ship us to the fancy retirement home, nor do we expect it from them. Republicans have always been against medicare and social security, they really had hopes it would fail, just like public education, when those programs did not fail they took the easy way out of the debate, just cut the budget in those areas - then the programs fail and the republicans are happy because they get to keep being the 1% even into old age.
Candidate Likeability is always a strange mixture to throw in the kettle, unfortunately it does matter. when the residents of mitts own state (or at least the one he claims he really lifed in long enough to vote there) don't like him, then there is a problem. The working/middle class folks in MA we talked to in July really don't like him, said the best thing he did for them was to be out of the state the last 2 years he was in office, and they wonder why the rest of us are not good enough for their healthcare. So, yes, please, lets talk about your record in MA Mitt, but first, please show me your tax returns, not just US but MA, cause I'm thinking the IRS did not let you pay less than they wanted, but the listed address will tell us all if you ran for, held office, and voted in an election in which you were not eligible - oh my gosh, could that be ---wait for it ---- voter fraud?
Hogwash Debbie.
I happen to not like the President because his plans and actions are destroying the nation I love.
Debbie, I don't agree with some of what you wrote. George Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and won out on the question of who you'd most like to have a beer with. That was in spite of the fact that he quit drinking!
@Debbie and Union Baby,
I strongly disagree with your views. My father has been a Republican all his life, and he worked just as hard if not harder than Democrats I know, he raised three children on his own after my mother died! Romney/Ryan doesn't want to do away with SS & Medicare, they want to take steps to improve it to make sure that it is there for people like me when I reach that age (I am 37 yrs old). The way it's going now, there won't be any money for me, and I am planning for there to not be money, I would be a fool if I kept thinking that the money I pay weekly into the SS account will be there for me when I need it. The government has already proved they can't manage that account, as they now call it Federal Benefits! It's not a benefit if I paid my OWN money into it and expect it to be there for me instead of being used for whatever the government deems fit to spend it on!
notafraidtoadmit---It is the republcians that started callin it an entitlement. It is their way of trying to connect it to welfare. The ryan plan will not make sure that medicare is there for you. The plan is to privatize it and give you a voucher to buy your own insurance. The unfortunate thing about that is this voucher will not guarentee you a basic level of care. Since they will repeal ACA there is also no guarentee that any insurance company will even sell you a policy because by that time most people will have a pre-existing condition. If they do, the cost will be more than the voucher and the balance will be astronomical and out of most peopes reach.
How can you think medicare will be saved when in the hands of a for profit insurance company whose only job is to make money for their shareholders?
I followed the Republican primary, (must be a masochist), and I noticed Romney didn't look into the eyes of the people he greeted. And these were people predisposed to like him. When he posed for pictures with supporters he'd look into the camera, unlike President Obama who almost always is looking at the person next to him. The President is just plain more interested in the people he meets than Romney is.
The only way this wouldn't make a difference, is if Romney were some kind of akward genius. And he isn't. Even Generals like Colin Powell and David Petraus, who aren't in the business of being nice, have more charm than Romney.
It is easier to reach into their back pockets and steal their wallets from them when you are looking them in the eye and patting them on the back. BTW, if this is what you use to determine how to vote, it's moronic.
Yes, thank you NBC for giving us some more old news. How is this working for you? It was suppose to be a blow out and look a what is happening.
The President wants to make concessions now. I think is a little more of the Hope and Change that never happened. Oh! what he would not do to win.
Well, at least President Obama won't have to worry about porky pig speaking at his convention!
His wife isn't going to speak?
First I heard of that.
Thanks union baby. Some good news today.
President Obama was repeatedly willing to make concessions.
It was Ryan and the House Republicans who ran away.
The farm bill that was passed by bi-partisan support in the Senate, but sits idle under Ryan's House Republicans.
The transportation bill was passed with bi-partisan support in the Senate, but House Republicans spent months sitting on it.
The President's Grand Bargain for $4 trillion in debt reduction was agreed to by Senate Republicans, but Ryan and House Republicans rejected it. (Something Republican media called "The biggest mistake in Republican history")
House Republicans even rejected extending the small business tax breaks that were passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support in 2010. This despite the Senate passing a bill to extend it with overwhelming bi-partisan support in 2012.
House Republicans spent millions in taxpayer money passing the exact same bill over 30 times, but refused to do any of the above actions.
Sorry, but it's House Republicans who have spent 2 years rejecting bi-partisan support. Every time the President says he will give the House Republicans of 2011-2012 something, they decide they need more.
It's a shame House Republicans can't be more like Senate Republicans who have been willing to work with the President.
Who the hell said it was supposed to be a blowout? Is that the news flash from Uranus?
I have to call BS on that.
The President never tried to meet in the middle. His plans are so off the grid in left field that the middle is still to far left to comprehend.
This President has done nothing to improve the country. Just divide it. What a waste of 4 years.
rukidding47:
You can't see the forest for the trees. Debbie laid it out very well.
I have to call BS on your BS. The Republicans set their own agenda to make, in their own words, Obama a one term President. That's why they voted no on things they had originally backed.
And I ask you rukidding, is my statement fact or fiction?
If that is the case, why the hell don't they jump all over Harry Reid to do something with the bills he does have from the House?
The polls must be very troubling to Mr. Obama. Here is a guy that goes around telling everyone how great his policies are and how he saved the country, yet half the country does not believe it, for obvious reasons, and the other half only half believes it. At a time when he should be way ahead in the polls Mr. Obama is seeing Mr. Romney not only catch up to Mr. Obama , but pass him, before the Convention has even taken place and the full Romney message gets out. But alas, Mr. Obama only has himself to blame. He chose a path that fit his ideological outlook and personal agenda, instead of choosing a path to put the country back on its feet. He chose not to lead his party to the compromises need to right the country, but has insisted upon trying to demonize those that he is supposed to be working with across the aisle.
On top of that he has utterly failed to lay out any concrete plans to put the country back on its feet in the next four years, ten years or any number of years thereafter.. In fact, his last proposed budget calls for continued record setting deficit spending and debt creation culminating in a $26 Trillion dollar debt at 75% of GDP. Instead he is running a campaign based upon lies, misdirection and talking head spin with a dose of the old Obama feel good empty rhetoric thrown in to keep the faithful clapping, albeit a little less loudly this time around.
And of course, things are only going to get worse for Mr. Obama as he will finally be confronted with those tough questions he has yet to answer and has spent a great deal of time hiding from. Questions like, you promised to reduce the deficit and debt, but your proposed budgets, all of them, call for continued deficit spending and debt building, so what is your plan to stop deficit spending and reduce the debt? You talk about a balanced approach, but your plan never comes close to going in the direction of a balanced budget, let alone actually balancing the budget, so why should the voters believe your plan has any balance? In the past, including speeches before Congress and the nation, you have emphasized that you do not want to pass on a legacy of deficits and debts to our children and grandchildren and that government must live within its means, why do your plans pass on a mounting legacy of deficit spending and debt to our children and grandchildren? You also said, in those same speeches, that we would have to make tough choices and make cuts to medicare and social security, but every time someone proposes to do so you are against it, what specific cuts, if any, are you willing to make in the entitlement programs? What reforms are you proposing for the entitlement programs? You have only called for a one year extension of the current tax rates for the middle class, Republicans want to make those rates permanent or reform them and make them lower, what is your tax plan for the middle class and why haven't't you articulated your plan? You have said, repeatedly, that you will not allow Iran to build/acquire nuclear weapons, sanctions have failed to date and there are no ongoing negotiations, we know you are hopeful that sanctions will work, but if they don't what is your plan to stop Iran and what is the timetable for doing so? China has stolen a good deal of our jobs and manufacturing base by not engaging in both free and fair trade, why have you not addressed this very important issue to date and what are your plans to get China to trade on a level playing field?
No more feel good speeches with empty rhetoric void of details, we want concrete answers. The nation has to have leadership that is able to get US out of the problems we are in and rhetoric is simply not enough anymore to get our votes.
How about it Mr. Obama, can we have your answers to the questions that face the nation? We don't want to wait until after the election to find out what they are like you did with Obamacare.
The Obama plan, wait until after the election and then he'll tell you what's in it!!!
He has no plan.
Print more money that will work.
Twits and nitwitts. The liberal party.
Much better than the halfwits and dimwitts of the conservative party.
Hey, this is fun!
Obama's plan is to continue to try and govern despite the obstructionism of the TPRepubs. Eventually, they will allow something to get done that benefits the country instead of the GNOP.
blearyeyed.....Just like the DNC.....Do nothing comrades
I think that there are so many voters who have just cell phones now that the LV model is missing many voters. It is very sad how poorly the polling is this year.
Any phone number I don't recognize on my caller id is ignored.
Since, as a Mormon, Romney probably doesn't drink coffee either- that's a really stupid poll.
The Republicans should just forget the black vote - it is hopeless. They should concentrate on Hispanics who have a more sense of fairness, less prone to think as a group and more individually, and are not so socially coddled by the unfortunate presence of racially skewed bias compromising standards for a racially-blind fair judgment in society, and in the liberal media.
We live in a caste society; as in India. Blacks are on top. They are the untouchables - they cannot be criticized, and least of all held by the same standards as the rest of us in society. (If Obama were getting virtually zero percent of the white vote you will never hear the end of media condemnation regarding racism in society. In contrast, there is pure silence with regard to the opposite being in fact true for the black vote.) There is no point in pursuing the black vote.