Economic Stimulus

Remember way back in 2009 when Obama told us his economic stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8 percent? That didn't work out too well as we all know, but I'm not sure most folks realize just how much stimulus has been pumped into the economy in recent years. With dismal results.

Obama's stimulus package eventually came in at over $800 billion, and that was correctly viewed as a big number at the time – particularly for a government that didn't have that kind of cash lying around. But big as that number was it was only the tip of the iceberg. Because Obama has been running trillion dollar plus budget deficits every year he has been in office, deficits that total more than $5 trillion on his watch. And as any card carrying Keynesian will tell you, budget deficits are supposed to be stimulative and have the effect of goosing the economy. But for all that red ink, we have precious little to show for it in terms of improved economic performance.

And this story gets even worse because the Fed has gotten into the mix by doing their part to help "stimulate" the economy as well. We all know they've been keeping short term interest rates near zero for years as a strategy to help jumpstart economic activity. But fewer folks may appreciate that their periodic forays into money printing (described opaquely as "quantitative easing") have pushed an additional $3 trillion into the economy since late 2008. So if you do the math, fiscal and monetary policy choices during the Obama years have pumped over $8 trillion of "stimulus" into the economy -- yet we still muddle along at 2% growth or less. Good grief, if these policies haven't driven the final nail into the Keynesian coffin I'm not sure what will.

Because the problem in the economy isn't a lack of cheap Keynesian money, the problem is the lack of confidence to spend it -- and all the fiscal and monetary morphine imposed on us by Obama and Bernanke has barely put a dent in that reality. Indeed, the only thing that can change the mindset of ECONOMIC DESPAIR bequeathed to us by Obama is to change presidents. We need a president who will be supportive of the private sector and enable it to flourish, not one who demonizes their success. Then we'll at least have a chance to revert to the more normal growth cycles that follow economic downturns.

Economic policies in the Obama years haven't just been bad, they've been a nightmare. Time for all of us to wake up from that bad dream come November 6th.

_____

P.S. from yesterday:

Morris is a Fox News stooge

My goodness Houston, I see your disposition hasn't improved. So tell us, how many presidents and senators have paid YOU for advice? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess none, so I'll take Dick Morris's political chops over yours any day of the week. Particularly when other pros including Karl Rove on the right and Doug Schoen on the left agree with his analysis. But what the hell do those guys know, they're just a couple of stooges as well.

Maybe they know as much as the guy who wrote the piece in the link below who points out that "many of the polls are guessing that Democrats are setting to turn out at levels that match or sometimes exceed 2008." Hmmm, that sounds a lot like the point Morris is making and that I've posted the last two days. But of course, that guy must be a stooge too. After all, he presents a point of view that you disagree with – and one that puts the lie to the nonsense that MSM polls do not have a pro-Obama bias.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-are-polls-tilted-toward-obama_653067.html

Good morning David,

Data from Cornell Survey Research Institute asked Americans whether we've made use of social policies over the course of our lives, and they included questions that are usually overlooked:

The data shows that 96% of us have relied on government assistance. The remaining 4% are mostly young people. Also, folks have relied on around 5 policies, at some time in their lives.

This is an incredibly interesting study that even looks at the different ways Republicans and Democrats tend to use government support. And how we view (whether we acknowledge it or not) and later speak about, the government help we received.

"Once we take both types of policies into account, the seeming distinction between makers and takers vanishes: 97 percent of Republicans and 98 percent of Democrats report that they have used at least one government social policy".

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/we-are-the-96-percent/

Editorial – New York Times

Why Romney Is Slipping

Published: September 24, 2012

Mitt Romney said in an interview aired on Sunday that his campaign “doesn’t need a turnaround.” He told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that he is tied with President Obama; he has a “very effective campaign; it’s doing a very good job;” and all he needs to do to win is keep repeating his plan to restore economic freedom.

That’s an outright denial of political reality, but Mr. Romney’s willingness to stray from the truth is at the root of what’s really going on. His campaign has been losing ground since the two political conventions. All the reliable national polls now show Mr. Obama ahead, and in two cases substantially so — beyond the margin of error. A variety of polls also shows Mr. Obama with growing leads in most of the important swing states.

To some extent, Mr. Romney’s diminishing stature is because of two recent statements that revealed his deficiencies to a newly interested audience. He falsely suggested that the Obama administration was sympathetic to the violent Muslim protests in Libya and Egypt, illustrating his ignorant and opportunistic critique of foreign policy. And he was caught on video belittling nearly half the country for an overreliance on government handouts.

These moments, though, were not fumbles or gaffes. They were entirely consistent with the dismissive attitude Mr. Romney has routinely shown toward non-Americans or the nonrich. Now even long-undecided voters are starting to catch on and dismiss him.

In Wisconsin, for example, a hotly contested state that has veered Republican in recent elections, Mr. Obama leads Mr. Romney by 17 points when voters are asked who cares about their needs and problems, according to a Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll published last week of likely voters. The poll found that only 10 percent of voters said his policies would favor the middle class. (This poll was taken before the video showing his disdain for 47 percent of the country.)

Voters don’t react positively when a candidate speaks incomprehensibly about taxes, as Mr. Romney did on “60 Minutes.” He said he would lower everyone’s tax rate by 20 percent but that everyone would wind up paying essentially the same taxes because he would limit unspecified deductions and exemptions. Even on its face, that makes little sense. If everyone will pay the same taxes, how does that stimulate growth or reduce unfairness? In fact, tax experts say the rate cut is such a huge benefit for the rich that it can’t be balanced by curbing their deductions. But listeners don’t have to do the math to calculate how fundamentally hollow the proposal is.

Asked about the government’s responsibility to the 50 million Americans without health insurance, Mr. Romney said they already have access to health care: in emergency rooms. That, of course, is the most expensive and least effective way of providing care, as someone who once advocated universal care has reason to know. But it also reeks of contempt for those left behind by the current insurance system, suggesting that they must suffer with illness until the point where they need an ambulance.

Mr. Romney is free to pursue this shallow, cavalier campaign for six more weeks, but he shouldn’t be surprised if voters increasingly choose not to pay attention.

A version of this editorial appeared in print on September 25, 2012, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Romney Is Slipping.

When Mitt Romney made that statement on 60 Minutes, I was struck by his choice of words in setting the scene for someone in need of health care assistance, he said “Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care."

They sit in their apartment, not in their home, as if part of that 47% he so disdains don’t own homes. As if part of the number are causing their own health crisis.

Mitt Romney you are so arrogant and so unimaginably removed from ordinary American lives, that it is hard to understand anyone thinking that way. This is why he sounds so comfortable in talking to that Boca crowd about the 47%. This is why he will never be President, how could he be? He already has written off almost half of the country……….think about that, because not all of them are Democrats or Independents, some are Republican. Republicans who collect Social Security, have Medicare. Republicans who have lost their jobs and are collecting unemployment benefits and food stamps. Republicans who are without health care for themselves and their children. Statistics show that the maajorityt claiming food stamps and other benefits live in red states, are white and vote Republican. Ask yourselves, do you seriously think Mitt Romney and the Republican party give a damn about you, if you think so, you are deluding yourselves. They would just as soon let you die on the side of the road and not even bother to call an ambulance..

Even in his response ad, Romney shows he just doesn't get it--people on welfare are only a segment of the 47%. What about the seniors, veterans, students, disabled? He shoved them under the bus, too.

I truly wish I knew the source for this quote, it sums up what is wrong with America...

sirie,

That quote came from Glenn Beck...he attributed it to "The Czech Republic Observer" but I'll be damned if I can find such a newspaper.

...so as far as I can tell, he pulled that out of his own rectal-cranial inversion.

Ever wonder why the right wingers have a hard time comprehending global warming?

Fox News Climate Coverage 93% Wrong, Report Finds

Primetime coverage of global warming at Fox News is overwhelmingly misleading, according to a new report that finds the same is true of climate change information in the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages.

Both outlets are owned by Rupert Murdoch's media company News Corporation. The analysis by the science-policy nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) finds that 93 percent of primetime program discussions of global warming on Fox News are inaccurate, as are 81 percent of Wall Street Journal editorials on the subject.

"It's like they were writing and talking about some sort of bizarre world where climate change isn't happening," study author Aaron Huertas, a press secretary at UCS, told LiveScience.

http://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-climate-coverage-93-wrong-report-finds-193433943.html

thanks Da Noid, it was sent to me in an email this morning.

-- he pulled that out of his own rectal-cranial inversion.

LOL, hilarious!

GBM, thank you for a great post.

The whole idea behind the health care law was to stop folks going the the Emergency Room, and driving costs up through the roof.

The rate of health costs have been slowing since the ACA/Obamacare has come into law, even though not fully implemented until 2014.

Joe in Albany

What does it say Joe? It says that the Dems can rely on one of the best modern era Presidents to campaign for them whilst the Repubs have only a ghost called Ron. Maybe you should trot out GWB at this point, art least he is human.

R-money losing in the polls???

No problem.

He'll make up our own polls.

After all, his campaign will not be run by fact-checkers.

Noid beat me to it.......Sirie if you google the first few words of that piece it will bring you to all sorts of right wing wonderlands. they'll help you fulfill all your writing fantasies.

I came away thinking half the country is off their rocker...but have fun.

Republicans.

Redistributing wealth upward

The most obvious way that Republicans have robbed from the middle to give to the rich has been the changes they wrought in the tax code — reducing income taxes for the wealthy in the Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts, and cutting the tax rate on capital gains to less than half the rate on the top income of upper-middle-class employees.

The less widely understood way that Republicans have helped redistribute wealth to the already wealthy is by changing the rules. Markets don’t function without rules, and the rules that Republican policymakers have made since Ronald Reagan became president have consistently depressed the share of the nation’s income that the middle class can claim.

Part of the intellectual sleight-of-hand that Republicans employ in discussions of redistribution is to reserve that term solely for government intervention in the market that redistributes income downward. But markets redistribute wealth continuously. In recent decades, markets have redistributed wealth from manufacturing to finance, from Main Street to Wall Street, from workers to shareholders. Rules made by “pro-market” governments (including those of “pro-market” Democrats) have enabled these epochal shifts. Free trade with China helped hollow out manufacturing; the failure to regulate finance enabled Wall Street to swell; the opposition to labor’s efforts to reestablish an even playing field during organizing campaigns has all but eliminated collective bargaining in the private sector.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-the-party-that-truly-believes-in-redistribution/2012/09/25/c5877b7a-0740-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html?hpid=z3

The gap just keeps getting wider. It's all over boys and girls. Move on, nothing to see here. Romney's new poll numbers look like the Titanic, sinking fast. BUT WAIT. Romney and his cronies don't look at media polls (their so often wrong). He has his OWN POLLS. And according to them he's looking stronger and better every day. Also according to his Fortuneteller staff, after he "cleans President Obama's clock in the debates it will just be a cakewalk for him to the White House.

Are you kidding me? I don't think so. Goodbye Willard it was NOT nice to know you.

OBAMA IN 2012.

First Read said:

The first are brand-new New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac surveys -- conducted right after the release of the video -- showing Obama leading Romney by nine points among likely voters in Florida (53%-44%), 10 points in Ohio (53%-43%), and 12 in Pennsylvania (54%-42%). These are margins we haven’t seen before.

Ok guys...I'd be willing to guess that President Obama has a small lead in Ohio and Florida of somewhere between 1 and 4 points...but these polls are WAY OFF in my opinion. Looking at the crosstabs, here's what you get. For comparison purposes, I'll show the 2004 and 2008 exit poll breakdowns:

Florida:

CBS NYT Q poll: Dems 36, GOP 27 = Dems +9

2008 Exit Poll: Dems 37, GOP 34 = Dems +3

2004 Exit Poll: Dems 37, GOP 41 = GOP +4

I have stated my opinion before...I see the turnout models being somewhere in between 2008 and 2004. I just can't see 2008 being repeated, maybe ever. That energy level was incredible.

Ohio:

CBS NYT Q poll: Dems 35, GOP 26 = Dems +9

2008 Exit Poll: Dems 39, GOP 31 = Dems +8

2004 Exit Poll: Dems 35, GOP 40 = GOP +5

I just don't see this election as being even higher Democratic turnout than 2008. But apparently, this poll does.

Thoughts? (Dennis...as a fellow stats guru, would like to hear your thoughts).

Continuing in the vein of DW's #1.3 post:

Yesterday Brianb wrote that I "make things up" as I go, to which I replied: "I'm not the one who makes things up. No matter how many times David Walker has pointed out that you are a "Vietnam-era Vet", you will claim to be a 'Vietnam Vet'."

He responded: "Where does this have anything to do with anything? You just throwing stones, because this was pathetic. Twilight zone thoughts coming from a far out liberal."

Like DW, I wonder whether Brianb "reads his own posts". Yesterday he reminded me of someone flailing in a pitch-black room, swinging wildly and hoping to land a punch. He symbolizes today's white male Republicans who are watching the Grand Old Party--which is no longer Grand, but is certainly ancient in ideas, and is splintering faster than you can say Willy Mays--go down in flames.

Reminds me of that Leslie Gore (nice touch of symbolism that her name was Gore) song, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to."

Cry, baby. Cry.

This guy is really complaining about teacher's unions? His argument for wanting to put a stop to that is the same argument democrats are making to eliminate secret donations to these super pacs... Does he really believe that people are so stupid that we dont know those people donating in secrete want something in return for their donations. I mean he has Sheldon Aldelson out there dishing out $100 mil to stay out of jail for the rest of his life and be able to profit billions of dollars from a Romney administration!

And did you hear that Romney during the primaries sold interest he had in Chinese state owned oil company that was still doing business with Iran even though the US govt had put sanctions on Iran to specifically not have companies do this... I think knowingly doing stuff like this, going around US govt for profits in this way, should amount to treason. If Obama had private dealing like this the right would want his head on a platter. Could you imagine the headlines on fox news about something are real as this when you compare that to the fake out rage they were able to generate over fast and furious and many other things...

Fairfax Bill must have missed what I posted yesterday that should put his concerns about "oversampling" of Democrats to rest, since he didn't respond. So I'll repost the link and they key paragraph (note sentence in bold lettering I added):

http://www.people-press.org/2012/08/03/party-affiliation-and-election-polls/

Party identification is another thing entirely. Most fundamentally, it is an attitude, not a demographic. To put it simply, party identification is one of the aspects of public opinion that our surveys are trying to measure, not something that we know ahead of time like the share of adults who are African American, female, or who live in the South. Particularly in an election cycle, the balance of party identification in surveys will ebb and flow with candidate fortunes, as it should, since the candidates themselves are the defining figureheads of those partisan labels. Thus there is no timely, independent measure of the partisan balance that polls could use for a baseline adjustment.

THIS ELECTION IS OVER!!! ... go to

YOUTUBE (forward slash) and paste the following: watch?v=r_7qFFmpZdg

WE ALL NEED TO BE INFORMED! PLEASE SHARE AND RE-POST!

David Walker, Backhouse, DCIA, terrific posts to start the day.

Gingerbread Mamma, excellent summation of Mitt Romney. The secretly recorded words of Mitt in Boca Raton were what Romney really believes; it is what too many republicans believe; it is what Paul Ryan believes; it is what the super-rich republicans believe. For the first time in this campaign, Mitt Romney spoke the truth--he has nothing but contempt, disdain, and loathing for 47% of Americans. I have concluded that Romney is just not all that bright; he may have been highly successful at Bain Capital but one wonders if it was Mitt Romney leading or the people who worked for him guiding him. My guess, judging from his many inappropriate and outright ignorant comments, says it was the later.

Poor Romney should stop flapping his yap about things he neither knows nor understands. Of course, that would limit his topics of conversation to about nill.

Frank "Grimey" Grimes, Springfield, USA

Ok guys...I'd be willing to guess that President Obama has a small lead in Ohio and Florida of somewhere between 1 and 4 points...but these polls are WAY OFF in my opinion. Looking at the crosstabs, here's what you get. For comparison purposes, I'll show the 2004 and 2008 exit poll breakdowns:

See the link I posted to the Pew Research article in #1.27 on the subject of alleged oversampling of Democrats. It may put your mind to rest. Or not.

I am still baffled by how anyone thinks Romney can win against Obama. Sure, he has business experience as many people love to cite, but beyond that, there isnt anything that makes him better and the business experience is as much a hindrince as it is helpful.

The rate of health costs have been slowing since the ACA/Obamacare has come into law, even though not fully implemented until 2014.

____________________________________

Outhouse: Most economists have said the recent (likely temporary) slowing in healthcare cost inflation is due to the high unemployment rate and the pathetic slow-bama economic "recovery".

So, you are right when you say Barry is responsible for slowing healthcare cost inflation. You just cite the wrong reason for Barry's "success".

LMFAO@U!!!!!

Outhouse: Most economists have said the recent (likely temporary) slowing in healthcare cost inflation is due to the high unemployment rate and the pathetic slow-bama economic "recovery".

So, you are right when you say Barry is responsible for slowing healthcare cost inflation. You just cite the wrong reason for Barry's "success".

LMFAO@U!!!!!

Actually, the unemployment rate would cause rates to rise since there are less people paying into the pool of insurance. Do you even know the basics about how insurance works?

Jody,

I have concluded that Romney is just not all that bright

I have concluded that were his father alive he (George) would be greatly embarrassed of his son.

Frank

You are exactly right. Most polls use either total registered voters or party performance in the last election as a starting point before doing their "likely voter" calculations. Because of this, I've seen oversampling of Democrats of between 8 and 13 points in some of the recent polls. When you consider that overall, in 2008 the Democrats had a turn out 7 points higher than Republicans and that this was their highest turn out in decades, it's hard to give these polls much credibility. To believe in margins generated by these polls where they oversample Democrats by greater than 7 points you would have to believe that turn out this cycle will exceed 2008. Does anyone really believe that?

Do you even know the basics about how insurance works?

Hey Ruken, you still here? I would have thought they had caught up to you by now?

Fairfax Bill, retreating deeper in rightwing Never-Never Land:

My goodness Houston, I see your disposition hasn't improved. So tell us, how many presidents and senators have paid YOU for advice? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess none, so I'll take Dick Morris's political chops over yours any day of the week.

It's not a question of my word versus Morris (who is a ridiculous clown, by the way). It's a question of professional pollsters such as those at the non-partisan Pew Research Center who clearly explained how party affiliation fluctuates with the fortunes of candidates. If you'd rather believe snake-oil salesmen like Morris, that's up to you.

Polls numbers are NOT weighted by party affiliation as you falsely claimed, and as I correctly pointed out. I posted the link in #1.27 that proves that I was right and you are just, well, Far Far Far Right.

Where are the GOP apologists? Since the election is lost has the RNC cut off funding to their boiler-room operations? Are they all hanging out in bars trying to drown their sorrows? Have they moved to Canada?

For days now their numbers have been dwindling. Could this be the final nail in the GOP coffin? Seriously, I do think it's significant.

And the story is right, the "candidate-sincere-talking-head" ad is a sign of desperation. Which tells me there is no October surprise, it's over.

I did have to laugh when I saw the picture heading this article, though. The letter "I" in O-H-I-O appears to be trying to hide behind the last "O". Now I realize that the letter is being held by a child and that's why it's down and a little behind the other letters, but the symbolism is priceless. Read "I" as "Independent" and it looks like the independents in OHIO are moving away from Mitt. I laughed out loud. It doesn't really mean anything, but the symbolism is priceless.

It must SUCK (really suck big time) to be Mitt Romney.

Sing it with me children..."Where oh where has the GOP gone? Oh where oh where could they be? With their ears tucked back and their tails tucked down. Oh where or where can they be?"

They ain't on First Read, that's for sure.

Obama/Biden 2012

Bill in Fairfax-

Once agan you make a passionate argument for the inaccuracy of most of the major polls, claiming the MSM is "biased" towards President Obama. You post as proof of your conspiracy theory a link to an article from the Weekly Standard - a neoconservative site that is hardly an example of unbiased journalism.

Reading through the article I am struck by how similar the writer's approach is to your posts. Your common methodology appears to be: 1) Make your decision, 2) Find facts (no matter how innocuous) to support your opinion, 3) Ignore any and all facts that don't suit your view. This the same quasi-intellectual approach the neocons used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The writer (Jay Cost) argues that Dems are overstated in the polls due to the lack of partisan weighting by several polling organizations. He holds up Rassmussen and the Purple Poll as examples of better methodology, then among other things uses the even split amongst Independent Voters to argue his case.

Conveniently ignored are the recent Purple Poll results in swing states that show President Obama with a five-point lead amongst indepent voters and a matching five-point lead among likely swing-state voters. Also ignored are the trends in almost all polls that show momentum for President Obama and a decline for Mitt Romney in key swing states like North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio. Any independent review of the relevant polls show a once-tight race opening up electorally in favor of President Obama.

We are still a long way from election day and many things can change. Polling results will fluctuate as pollsters adopt their methods and weighting in an attempt to more accurately predict the outcome of the election.

Arguing about the proper way to evaluate the poll data or weigh the partisan impact is understandable. Claiming there is some kind of "conspiracy" amongst the "MSM" (including Fox News and the WSJ) to conciously overstate President Obama's re-election chances is lunacy.

People are waking up to the fact that Romney only cares about the top 1% of Americans

Hey vomitt

It's all over for you and the BOY BLUNDER LYING-RYAN!

I'm sorry, Grimey, I respect you and enjoy reading your posts but you seem to be buying what the right leaning talking heads are selling. Sure, you say you've looked at the numbers and question them. This was discussed thoroughly and the evidence was provided showing the reason there are more democrats polled in many places is because MORE PEOPLE ARE IDENTIFYING themselves as democrats; they may be registered as republicans or independents when called but when asked which party most aligns with their beliefs, they say the democratic party. That is why those numbers seem off.

Maybe that doesn't fit the wishes of conservatives but, hey, it isn't the fault of the pollsters that Americans are turning away from the radical ideology of what the GOP has become. The GOP war on women's rights, the GOP war on voter rights, the GOP war on immigrants, the GOP war on education, the GOP war on unions....couple that with a robotic GOP candidate Romney who ouzes arrogance and who flip flops like a fish out of water and a VP candidate who worships Ayn Rand and plans to kill medicare, social security, public education, give more tax cuts to the rich while raising taxes on the middle class and working poor, increase military spending while slashing all other needs of the country; will add $6 trillion to the National Debt and voters turn away. IT IS NOT THE POLLS that is the problem, Grimey, IT IS THE EXTREMIST GOP.

Jean Luc Moron: When you are unemployed and lose your employer-paid health insurance you don't use healthcare services unless you absolutely have to. When people don't use healthcare services that they would have used if they had insurance, aggregate healthcare costs are reduced.

This passage pretty much explains your lack of intellectual thought in any post you make. Hopefully your parents didn't waste too much money on tuition.

Yes, we have the "first black muslim in the White House.

Come on Ben, you know this is not true.

Siri,

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable
of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency"

You never cease to amaze me..LOL - you call a man who has been the leader of the free world, the leader of our nation for the last 4 years – inexperienced? And yet you insinuate that a man who had failed at winning the nomination to McCain, who has been running for president for the last 9 years and in that time cannot even garner the trust and support of his own party somehow experienced and capable of winning the trust of leaders of the rest of the World?

You write these threads and like Willard you make no sense! You support a guy who sees trees at the right height, writes of 47% of the nation and by all rights probably includes you, a guy who has yet to make a stand or have the balls to go against the teabaggers! A guy who wonders why jets don’t have windows that roll down…LOL

And you wonder HOW Willard could be trailing in the polls, don't expect a comeback... Ryan has written off Willard and is now calling him "Stench" and distancing himself, the national GOP will have to decide real soon on if they are going to continue to back the losing campaign or spend the money to hold onto the House and work to take back the Senate.... personally the GOP has become - PATHETIC!!!

Everyone, including the handfuls of intelligent liberals know Obama has been a complete and utter failure, but they will always vote for a party no matter what.

The same can be said for both parties. They'll vote for a party and not a candidate. And that is the biggest problem with America.

Over sampling of Democrats? The pollsters don't know whom they are calling. If more democrats pick up the phone and take part in the poll, that tells us there are fewer that identify as Republican.

The GOP is out of touch.... first, they refuse to let fact checkers get in the way of their lies and distortions. Now they are ignoring polls.

Romney is marching down the yellow brick road in search of Oz....

Romney is losing for a number of reasons, mainly though it is because he does not know who Mr. and Mrs. America is. Romney lives in his castle looking down everyday at Americans as his peasants. Everyone except his millionaire friends are considered peasants, from the people who actually eat "store bought"cookies from a 7 Eleven store to the REAL people who buy their goods from Costco. Romney's plan for America does not include Mr. and Mrs. America except for paying for the taxes he should be paying. His plans do not include Mr. and Mrs. America except in paying huge profits to his privatizing plan where all the money goes to the GREEDY RICH.

The republican party puts in place voter suppression laws all over the nation trying to stop the 47% of people from voting for their own cause. Why? Because Romney and the republicans don't want those voices to be heard because Romney and republicons don't represent them anymore. Romney and repubs represent only the GREEDY RICH!.

Vote President Obama/Biden and Team Democratic Party 2012. A vote for all Americans!

@Job1 -- Oh yeah it's true. Madonna announced it in such an eloquent fashion much like the vile comments on here by the LWNJs. She's an insider in the Obama regime.

P.S. -- RIP Andy Williams -- Mr. Moon River.

add 2+2 and get 22 and not having the first clue something is wrong.

i figured they would come up with something out of the wizard of Oz

The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an Isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.

which would still be wrong HAHA (in fact that statement is in error)

Hey hows it going Sirie

Xabre--you are wrong again--do you know how medical insurance works? I have never read a more wrong poster on this board.

David--you have to be kidding. I dont agree with much of the social issues and agenda that Brianb posts but have you ever read your own posts? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, you are such an over the top ideologue with zero ability to analzye issues objectively and sincerely. You posture your comments as if you are an intellectual while virtually always confusing facts and embellishing one off situations to make a point. Your constant personal attacks prevent any real substantive discussion because you are unwilling to even admit the most inconvenient of truths without figuring out a way to blame bush or say Romney evil.

Based on the posts from the Obama campaign team on the blog, the latest strategy must be to claim the election is over, Obama has the lead and turn off the lights as a means to try and discourage voters from coming out for Romney. I thought you liberals were all about making sure every single person has a vote and there shouldnt be any laws or restrictions on this most fundamental of rights (like actual IDs). If that is true, wouldnt you want everyone to vote and why would you want to discourage turnout? I would think if you can provide the statistics showing how Obama's economic policies have made the lives of the poor, middle class and minorities better over the last 4 years, then Obama should win in a landslide and you shouldnt have to discourage voting. Oh thats right you cant.

This was discussed thoroughly and the evidence was provided showing the reason there are more democrats polled in many places is because MORE PEOPLE ARE IDENTIFYING themselves as democrats...

Jody:

But isn't Grimey's premise still valid? If you assume the numbers in the latest polls, you have to think that Democratic turnout would exceed 2008 and that seems counterintuitive to me.

SI

Some people say Iran is Americas most dangerous enemy, I say communist Obama is a much bigger threat.

Still haven't found gainful employment JasonInNYC?

To add to my comment, as an Iowan, I get at least one Poll call a week, sometimes more. Either at the beginning or the end, they ask statistical questions including which party do you most align with. It doesn't matter what party registration I have. I also know when entering the data from the calls and doors knocked at OFA, that Republicans and Independents will be voting for President Obama and other democratic candidates; sometimes they support a GOP congressional or state candidate; the tickets are being split if they vote as they say they will.

Xabre

Jean Luc Moron: When you are unemployed and lose your employer-paid health insurance you don't use healthcare services unless you absolutely have to. When people don't use healthcare services that they would have used if they had insurance, aggregate healthcare costs are reduced.

This passage pretty much explains your lack of intellectual thought in any post you make. Hopefully your parents didn't waste too much money on tuition.

______________________________________

Jean Luc Moron: Pretty lame attempt to deflect away from the FACT that I have proved your original statement in #1.35:

Actually, the unemployment rate would cause rates to rise since there are less people paying into the pool of insurance. Do you even know the basics about how insurance works?

was RIDICULOUSLY WRONG.

Still LMFAO@U!!!!!!!!

Jean Luc Moron: Pretty lame attempt to deflect away from the FACT that I have proved your original statement in #1.35:

Actually, the unemployment rate would cause rates to rise since there are less people paying into the pool of insurance. Do you even know the basics about how insurance works?

was RIDICULOUSLY WRONG.

I rest my case; wasted tuition indeed.

P.S. We're all "LMFAO@U2".

There are people above writing dissertations in favor of one candidate or the other. It's not that hard to analyze. Romney revealed his true self. While he has refused to share specifics with the American people, he will let his rich buddies in on a few of his truths, namely that he and them regard workers as irresponsible moochers as opposed to the rest of them who we, the irresponsible, have had to bailout and subsidize since the beginning of U.S. govt.

I bet Romney won't share his tax returns because they'll reveal that he too has been a beneficiary of govt dollars and that he's gone to great lengths to AVOID paying his fair share of taxes.

So join me my fellow moochers as we trek to the emergency room to beg for medical care after he abolishes health care to pay for the Defense Dept.

If BANKSTERS hadn't have crashed the economy and thrown millions out of work, people wouldn't be struggling trying to keep their families going.

I don't need some billionaire who's stashed money offshore to insult me. And I'm tired of the Republicans in Congress who take a vacation every month whining about the Defense Dept while accepting bribes from their corporate donors.

What's wrong with this country is not with people who work and get a lousy $20 extra a paycheck from a payroll tax cut.

Just 7 days to the first debate, I personally am looking so forward to it. That should define the two candidates even further. I look for Obama to lead by double digit with the only obstacle being getting out the votes. Four more for 44

Jody and Seattle Indy...

I think that's the issue I have with the polls. I would expect (again...this is MY expectation) that this election would be closer than 2008. The dynamic in 2008 was one of intense energy for then Sen. Obama and the current President (a Republican) was intensely unpopular. I just don't see how this year that dynamic is even MORE favorable to the Democrats. Forget the party ID then and just focus on the numbers. Look at the 2008 results. President Obama won Florida by just under 3% and Ohio by about 4.5%. Do you really believe he is going to TRIPLE that margin in Florida this year? I just don't see that happening. Again, this is solely MY opinion on it.

Houston!...Thanks for the link. Will try to read it over lunch.

Per NBC, Obama could not even have a bad second! Muslim's in Libya murder 4 americans is an organized terrorist attack, and Obama say s"I'ts just do to a movie!"

Jody -- Good morning. I think you are correct. People are paying attention now and rejecting the extreme right wing of the Republican party and that rejection is showing up in the polls. The platform is so far removed from mainstream that it's alienating even the moderates that vote Republican. Romney hitched his horse to the wrong cart.

Hey CA, it took me a minute to find the error in that formula - slept too much in geometry!

bangin away here at work, you?

Romney/Ryan Plan:

Kill Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Post Office, food stamps, and care for vets.

Republican actions:

Pledge to vote against America to make President Obama a one term president.

Repubs took the Norquist pledge to not raise taxes to make the GREEDY rich richer and to keep America from recovery from their economy crash.

Repubs block taking away tax breaks from companies that offshore American jobs.

Repubs block giving tax breaks to companies that would bring back jobs to America.

Repubs block taking away oil subsidies from big oil when Oil execs testify before congress that they don't need them.

Repubs voted against giving health care to 9111 responders until exposed on national tv, even then a large number of repubs voted against 911 responders after taking years of photo ops with firemen and policemen etc.

Repubs voted against a jobs bill for vets while a record number of Vets are retuning to America and committing suicide.

Republicons create voter suppression laws all over the country to stop REAL Americans from voting. Repubs only want the greedy rich represented.

REPUBLICONS HATE AMERICANS BECAUSE THEY LOVE $$$$$ MORE!

VOTE OBAMA/BIDEN AND TEAM DEMOCRATIC PARTY 2012, vote for America!

Ohio has been a problem for Romney the day he got into the race, even during the primary season. Remember that Romney edged Rick Santorum by just one point in the Buckeye State during the GOP primary season, 38%-37%. The fact is, this bus tour has to do more than stop the bleeding for Romney in Ohio; it has to be the beginning of a turnaround for him in this state. Losing Ohio isn’t checkmate but, it’s close.

Mitt's dead in O Hi O...

Mitt's dead in O Hi O!

David--you have to be kidding. I dont agree with much of the social issues and agenda that Brianb posts but have you ever read your own posts?

Ohmigosh, now we have Kirk, who can't find his own behind with both hands, weighing in. You have always been jealous of people who are smarter than you, Kirk. Time to fess up.

I thought you liberals were all about making sure every single person has a vote and there shouldnt be any laws or restrictions on this most fundamental of rights (like actual IDs). If that is true, wouldnt you want everyone to vote and why would you want to discourage turnout?

Just who the hell do you think we're going to discourage from voting through our posts, numbnuts? How in the world could anyone make a comparison between the very real Republican boots-on-the-ground efforts at voter suppression and the expressions of opinion on a political blog?

Wow. My head's spinning from this utter nonsense. Is it any wonder that the Tea Party is dragging the Republican Party down when even Grimey believes this crap about how the polling favors Obama because more Democrats than Republicans are being asked to express their opinion?

Kaybeetoys: Sung to the tune of the Neil Young song, right?

In Frank Grime's post #1.23, I just noticed that the Quinnipiac polls actually show LOWER percentages of Democrats than in the 2008 exit polls -- one point less in Florida and four points less in Ohio. But then number of Republicans dropped off even more in both states, increasing the Democrats' margin relative to the 2008 exit polls.

The Democrats' drop can be explained reasonably as the result of unrealistically high hopes for his presidency having diminished substantially after four years of combat with the GOP. But what explains the larger drop in Republican identification? Could it be that some of the Republicans in that 47% of people Romney called parasites have figured out he was talking about THEM?

Seattle Indie, no, it's not counter intuitive because in 2008, republicans and independents also backed and voted for President Obama. 8 years of G.W. Bush plus John McCain adding Sarah Palin as his VP caused the shift and that shift will likely occur again because those same moderate republicans and independents are backing away from Romney/Ryan; that is what the polls are telling us.

Regardless of what the polls say, the only way to make those polls reality is to GET OUT AND VOTE! Polls don't win elections, VOTES DO.

Obama/Biden 2012.

Battling over China: Romney’s other response to “47%” is his campaign’s increasingly tough rhetoric on China. "I'm not afraid of trading with other nations,” Romney said while campaigning in Ohio yesterday, per NBC’s Garrett Haake. “But I also understand that when people cheat, that kills jobs. China has cheated.” And this comes on the heels of a recent Romney TV ad asserting “Obama had years to stand up to China. We can’t afford four more.” But the Obama camp is countering with its own TV ad, “Tough on China? Not Mitt Romney.”

Is it me or is Romney smoking something he should not, its because of Business men like him that we have having a PROBLEM with china,

i was reading a article in the NY Daily that one of his former companies is sending 200 well paying jobs to china, to add insult to injury they are making the soon to be laid off workers had to train there Chinese replacements.

CHINA IS Mitts best friend!!!

I WONDER HOW MUCH MONEY MITT HAS MADE SENDING JOBS TO CHINA!!!

Starsailing--one of the more uninformed posts in a long time. I understand why you might like Obama's policy intentions more than Romney's as thats a personal choice but at least be credible.

1) As you well know, the GOP isnt killing any of those programs. Government assistance, welfare etc has increased over 100% to 1 tillion dollars annually under Obama. At the same time, we have Backhouse, Xabre, David AM and othere espousing the great economic accomplishments of the Obama policies. So if that were true, you would think Obama would be budgeting decreases in government assistance right? Not doubling and tripling it. Thats because his policies have been a disaster for the poor, middle class and minorities. As for Social Security and Medicare, you very well know that the Romney/Ryan plan involves saving these entitlements not killing them.

2) So, the democrats pledge to make Bush a one term president--thats politics

3) I remember Obama voting for this too and raising taxes on the rich would not have even been a blip on the radar of an economic recovery. The amount of revenue received would pay on several days of the Obama deficit and more likely cause more damage than help. Do some research before you make such silly comments

4) Incorrect, they arent tax breaks and if anything they blocked making companies like GM who sell cars overseas less competitive by increasing their taxes. Not one single economist would tell you that giving tax breaks to bring jobs back or taxing corporations on international sales does anything but lose jobs. This was a smart economic move on the GOP's part.

5) Need to eliminate all loopholes and tax deductions from the tax code for everyone and eliminate social engineering and make the tax code fair to everyone. Oh I think that is what Ryan/Romney want to do.

Government assistance, welfare etc has increased over 100% to 1 tillion dollars annually under Obama.

Could that be because....I dunno, the baby boomers are retiring and beginning to collect Social Security and Medicare? You call others misinformed?

5) Need to eliminate all loopholes and tax deductions from the tax code for everyone and eliminate social engineering and make the tax code fair to everyone. Oh I think that is what Ryan/Romney want to do.

Wrong again. Romney and Ryan are going to issue $5 trillion in new tax cuts; in a supposed debt reduction plan? Sounds like the "power windows on an airplane" logic at work.

you think if Romney gets elected Democrats would pledge to make him a two term president right from the start?

Could that be because....I dunno, the baby boomers are retiring and beginning to collect Social Security and Medicare? You call others misinformed?

a big factor for sure, you think 23 million unemployed or underemployed is also a factor and also majority under Obama?

A question for Obambot lefty liberals: What does it say about your beloved Barry when he has to pin his re-election hopes on the nostalgic memories of the good ole days when a lying, misogynist, disbarred lawyer, who soiled the Oval Office with BJ’s from an intern young enough to be his daughter was President??

Well, Joe in Albany, all that says is that the “lying, misogynist, disbarred lawyer who soiled the Oval Office with BJ’s from an intern young enough to be his daughter” is still a whole lot better than the lying, racist, unpatriotic, hypocritical, condescending, Richie Rich, out-of-touch, uneducated, rightwing nut jobs that make up oh, say, 75% of the Republican leadership and party electorate. And, by the way, just so we are clear, if getting extramarital BJs was a disqualifier for elected office, a whole lot of Republican officials (past and current) wouldn’t get past first base. History tells us that Republicans by far, are the most kinky, freaky, sexually deviant, nasty sons-a-bi**hes in recent memory. Not sure whether you are in Albany, Oregon, Albany, Georgia or Albany, New York. Either way, it seems that facts don’t reach your little isolated hovel too often. Don't know if that's the meth fog or sheer ignorance. But name-calling or no, the fact is that the majority of the electorate have begun shifting towards Mr. Obama. Face it; accept it; acknowledge it; blow it!

Houston, well said.

The polls in many states such as FL and OH still show a close race. It was close in 2008, too, but the trend line then and now is similar. Don't forget that in FL, new registration laws, eventually overturned by the court, has had a significant impact on registration of new voters. Voter ID laws, suppression efforts in many states will have an impact on polls.

Hard to believe that a state like Florida would make their ballots so lengthy and probably intentionally done to discourage and slow down the voting process even more~especially having cut the early voting days in half. Seems to me instead of complaining about polls and demographics of the polls, people should be more concerned about both visible and subtle voter suppression. How many FL voters waiting hours in lines will just give up because it is taking such a long time to wade through the ballot? With a ballot like Florida's, the wise thing is to Vote by Mail, if that's allowed there.

CLARIFICATION! It needs to be noted that polls are just numbers and that there are many ways of formulating and reading them. Take for example this mornings description of the amazing Obama swing state numbers:

This morning, surveys from the New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac puts Obama ahead by 10 in Ohio, up by 12 in Pennsylvania, and up by 9 in Florida.

Since the issue of whether the party ID within polling samples is realistic seems to be the issue of the week, let’s take a look at how these samples stack up to the 2008 exit polls.

Ohio 2008 exits: 39% Democrat, 31% Republican, 30% Independent.

Ohio New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 35% Democrat, 26% Republican, 35% Independent.

In this sample, the partisan split is D+9 compared to D+8 four years ago, and the GOP is five percentage points smaller than in 2008.

Over in the Weekly Standard, Jay Cost looks at recent Ohio polls and “finds Gravis, Washington Post, and Fox basically see a replay of 2008 while Rasmussen and the Purple Poll see roughly something in between 2004 and 2008.” They envision Democrat turnout being on par with last cycle or even better… and this surge of Democratic enthusiasm comes at the same time the president has lost considerable ground among independents. Possible? I suppose, but again, why?

Pennsylvania 2008 exits: 44% Democrat, 37% Republican, 18% Independent.

Pennsylvania New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 39% Democrat, 28% Republican, 27% Independent.

Somehow a D+7 split has turned into D+11 split, and Republicans’ share of the electorate is nine percentage points less than they were four years ago.

Therefore, if you set up the equation with a decided slant then you'll get the results that they got here. Unfortunately the public won't get this little tidbit unless they get informed- which is not what the drive-by media wants them to know. It's all a one liner to them- "Obama winning by 11%!" Average Joe hears that on the radio and says, "Oh, I guess it's over" not "Hey, that's up 8% over a week ago.... why?"

Sad state of today's information.

Jack--thanks for staying on topic as always. No, I am fairly certain that in the cognitive ability department, there will be no comparison between David and me. Anytime you want to compare pedigrees I am willing to guarantee he isnt going to win. That said, why is it that the first reaction from any liberal poster is to personally attack and challenge someone's intelligence based on differing opinions? Hypocrisy is one thing, or challenge me on the facts or challenge me with critical thinking or even just say you disagree with an opinion based conclusion but all of you liberal posters wonder why you come across as so incredibily elitest and condescending when you write "if you dont agree with me you must be stupid".

I dont think requiring a voter ID which is a supported by the vast majority of americans (only far left loons think otherwise) is that crazy a concept in comparison to this obvious coordinated attempt by the left wing media and you silly volunteer campaigners for Obama to try and reduce turnout by claiming the race is over. Again, its deflection from Obama's record and I still havent received a single reply in support of Obama's record for the poor, middle class and minorites in a week of requesting it. All I get is personal attacks and deflection. Why is that Jack?

As for Tea Party-if you are associating me with fiscal sanity, self reliance, personal accountability and self understanding of what personal choice means to the Tea Party--I accept. However, since I voted for John Anderson, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Kerry in the past presidential elections and consider both Clinton and Reagan as classic great leaders (they didnt lead from behind), I will defer to your judgement as to whether they were tea party advocates too.

Xabie--sorry but thats excluding entitlements like social security and medicare. It includes only welfare style programs like food stamps, welfare, medicaid, the Earned Income tax credit. Good try though. So you continue to be totally misinformed as always.

No the Romney/Ryan plan dont advocate any tax cuts in revenue and you know it. Their plan is to reduce the tax rates while eliminating loopholes, deductions and basically revise the tax code to make it more fair and simpler. It is true they havent provided the details but the plan is to make it at a minimum revenue neutral and most likely revenue gains. So stop making stuff up again.

Jody:

Hard to believe that a state like Florida would make their ballots so lengthy and probably intentionally done to discourage and slow down the voting process even more~especially having cut the early voting days in half. Seems to me instead of complaining about polls and demographics of the polls, people should be more concerned about both visible and subtle voter suppression.

And the media hardly ever discusses the wave of voter suppression laws that are being imposed all over the country. It could well be the most serious setback to American democracy in history (except for the Citizens United ruling).

My guess is that Obama needs to poll 5 or 10 points higher in order to win by one or two points in Florida. The situation is different in Ohio. The voter suppression law in Ohio has apparently been defeated in the courts. The Republican Attorney General backed down from his lawless defiance of the court's ruling. But he still may be judge-shopping for a partisan Republican court he can make an appeal to, so the voter suppression effort in that state may still succeed there.

As for Pennsylvania, Romney is now so far behind Obama now that the voter suppression law in that state won't "allow Mitt Romney to win" there, as the Republican pol crowed a while back.

Romney hires 17 of 24 and more of advisers from the Bush/Cheney regime. Why would anyone vote for the same failed group of people that brought us a crashing economy, lies to start Iraq war which killed thousands of our troops, with thousands more wounded and dying, and did not fund their wars adding to the deficit?

How could any soldier or veteran vote for those same people who sent troops into a war because those people wanted war profits for Haliburton and for Bush "to be know as a war president, because war presidents are remembered."?

These same people were part of Bush cabinet that had no plan in place when Sadaam was captured, allowing Iraq to be looted of it's war supplies and valuables by thieves and terrorists. These war supplies were used against our soldiers throughout the Iraq war because these Bush buffoons could not plan beyond their wallets! Our troops were not properly supplied with body and vehicle armour to protect themselves until it was too late.

Romney hires these same people ...why?....Because war profits are good for the GREEDY RICH. Romney hires these same people that put profits before America, and now vets are committing suicide at a record number daily because of what these people put our troops through.

VOTE NO TO ROMNEY/RYAN/BUSH/CHENEY/ROVE/NORQUIST in 2012

...as a libertarian...I think Mitt Romney is just so out of touch. It’s mostly a protest against him and the Republican establishment; it’s not that I think Obama has done such a great job.

We know this is just one anecdote, but wow…

Make that two.

This '47%' issue is silly. Romney never said that he doesn't expect any of the 47% who pay no income taxes to vote for him - merely that the overwhelming majority of them will vote for the Democrats simply because the Democrats promise them free welfare benefits that people who DO pay income taxes will have to pay for.

In this regard, Romney was absolutely accurate - as demonstrated by the results of the 2008 presidential election, where the NY Times reported that exit polls showed that 64% of the voters that earned $30,000 per year or less voted for Obama, vs only 33% for McCain.

PS - Some people quickly point out that the 'working poor' do pay payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), but those are supposed to go into each individual worker's 'Trust Accounts' to fund their future retirement and health care after retirement, so they do not actually fund any of the actual cost of the welfare programs for the 'poor'.

Kirk i think Xabre has a poor batting average on whole. of course a lot of hard left goofballs think people like you and I are wrong too.

I get my 'azz handed to me daily' here. HAHAHA.

Good Luck Kirk I enjoy reading your sensible comments. They arent complete cheerleading nor incessant bashing of the other side.

Hi Jody, you have put up some great posts this morning. Being so good with numbers, you sift through the fog very well.

Absentee or vote by mail is very easy to do, some us would say too easy, but with a ballot as long as 10 pages it is the way to go, especially this year. This may help you:

Eleven ballot measures are on the 2012 ballot in the state of Florida.

• All eleven measures are legislatively-referred constitutional amendments.
• The 2011 legislative session began March 8 and ended on May 6. An estimated 15 proposals were made by the state legislature; eleven were referred to the statewide ballot.
• The 2012 state legislative session began on January 10, 2012 and ended on March 9, 2012.

De-certifications:

• Florida Religious Freedom, Amendment 7 (2012), which was scheduled to appear on the general ballot, was removed by court order on December 14. However, in light of a law approved in 2011, the Florida Attorney General had the authority to rewrite the proposal. This was done within the allotted 10 days to do so. On December 20, 2011, Attorney General Pam Bondi rewrote the proposal, and therefore the measure was placed on the ballot again as "Amendment 8."

On the ballot

Type Title Subject Description

LRCA
Amendment 1
Health care
Prevents penalties for not purchasing health care coverage in order to comply with federal health care reforms

LRCA
Amendment 2
Taxes
Allows for property tax discounts for disabled veterans

LRCA
Amendment 3
State budgets
Replaces existing revenue limits with a new limitation based on inflation and population changes

LRCA
Amendment 4
Taxes
Amends commercial and non-homestead property taxes

LRCA
Amendment 5
Judicial reform
Gives the Legislature increased control over the judicial branch.

LRCA
Amendment 6
Abortion
Prohibits public funds for abortions

LRCA
Amendment 8
Religion
Repeals ban of public dollars for religious funding

LRCA
Amendment 9
Taxes
Authorizes the legislature to totally or partially exempt surviving spouses of military veterans or first responders who died in the line of duty from paying property taxes

LRCA
Amendment 10
Taxes
Provides an exemption from ad valorem taxes levied by local governments on tangible personal property that's value is greater than $25,000 but less than $50,000

LRCA
Amendment 11
Taxes
Authorizes counties and municipalities to offer additional tax exemptions on homes of low-income seniors.

LRCA
Amendment 12
Government Administration
Revises selection process for student member of Board of Governors of State

RealMad,

Government is the problem.

I hear this all the time. Specifically from conservatives/GOP/TP. What I don't get is why, then, would they be running to be "part of the problem"? Isn't that like a snake swallowing its own head?

Government is nothing but a social contract, its neither inherently evil or inherently good. Its nature is dependent on those who run it. Personally, I think we could run it a whole lot smarter then we currently are, but I don't see that intelligence coming from the GOP.

They've offered no specifics, no new ideas, and they refuse to answer how keeping in place or returning to the same economic policies we've had in place my whole life, will somehow start working now. Socially, they're out of tune with the both the Constitution (anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of that document can point out how) and anyone under the age of 50.

Most tellingly, no one can make the case FOR Romney, just against Obama.

John Doe-2241225

What do Pres. Obama and Lyndsey Lohan Have in Common?

They both achieved super star status for doing nothing.

John Dope,

What do Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have in common?

They're both losers. Wait and see what happens on November 6.

If you'd like some more humor:

"I think Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin would be the perfect ticket. She can't answer basic questions, and he has two answers for every question." —Jay Leno

"Well, the presidential race is getting interesting. In an effort to clear up his reputation as a flip-flopper, Mitt Romney will give a speech on health care. And then, right afterward, he'll give a five-minute rebuttal." —Jay Leno

"No! Not Captain Buzzkill! Not the guy who looks like everyone who ever fired your dad! He's gonna suck all the fun right out of this crazy thing. Just look at the online video announcing his run. It looks like it could double as an ad for erectile dysfunction pills. 'Mitt Romney: for when the moment's right.'" —Jon Stewart on Mitt Romney running for president

"Mitt Romney looks like a guy modeling briefs on a package of underwear ... He looks like a guy who goes to the restroom when the check comes ... He looks like a guy who would run a seminar on condo flipping ... He looks like he is the closer at a Cadillac dealership.... He looks like that guy on the golf course in the Levitra commercial." —David Letterman

"Mitt Romney was sitting down with some unemployed workers the other day. Mitt is worth a quarter of a billion dollars, and he said, 'Hey, I'm unemployed too.' That is the famous Mormon sense of humor. A little tip Mitt, your people are only funny when the 'South Park' guys write your jokes. " —Bill Maher

"Mitt Romney has announced he's running for president in 2012. At the same time, he's announced he'll try again in 2016." —Stephen Colbert

"Experts are predicting that in the first Republican debate, Mitt Romney will face his fiercest ideological opponent: himself from four years ago." —Conan O'Brien

"Mitt Romney was on the 'Today Show' and admitted he likes to read the 'Twilight' books and watch 'American Idol.' If elected, he would be the 1st Mormon and the 1st 13-year-old girl to be President." —Jimmy Kimmel

As soon as all Americans wake up to the dismal failure of Obama on foreign policy and quit polling in only balck communities you will see exactly how this coming election will end.

President Romney. sounds better every day, doesn't it?

President Romney. sounds better every day, doesn't it?

No, not really. And in case you didn't notice, I'm not black.

Like I said uneducated, poor, and unmotivated people love Obama. Romney can and will create jobs, but not many unemployed libs will take them as it's much easier to just stick your hand out.

The polls don't consider the impact of the voter suppression laws!

If the GOP still loses, then maybe they will change their game?

Americans are tired of unworthy candidates.

GBM, thanks and thanks for more detail on the FL ballot.

@Sarah -- Although we don't agree politically, if that is your real picture, I don't believe it is safe to post it on a public forum where you have to admit there are some pretty strange people trolling.

@Disabled Voter -- I would be interested in what you believe makes a person worthy or unworthy to run for office.

New poll today shows Obama 43% and Romney 34% on who is the best candidate to handle the economy.

Obama/Biden 2012

Ben,

Thank you for your concern and yes, that's my real picture. But don't worry, I pity the fool...

This '47%' issue is silly. Romney never said that he doesn't expect any of the 47% who pay no income taxes to vote for him - merely that the overwhelming majority of them will vote for the Democrats simply because the Democrats promise them free welfare benefits that people who DO pay income taxes will have to pay for.

It isn't silly when you consider he disparaged them, saying that they can't and won't take responsibility for their lives. And when you examine who isn't paying income tax by state, the majority are the usual suspects: Red states. No foolin'. Candidates generally don't do well telling voters they are mooching parasites. And by the way, he was talking about me, my wife, and my daughter, all of whom paid no income tax. My and my wife's refund together last year was $15. I'm not so bad off financially that $15 is the difference between riches and ruin. It's the only government money I got last year.

And by the way, the only reason I got any refund at all was because I took advantage of the many tax breaks offered to someone of my income level and situation. The majority of these tax breaks were passed by Republican congresses. And I'm a moocher for taking advantage of those tax breaks.

Which leads me to the stupid double standard. I'm a mooch for taking advantage of tax breaks. If I were a rich man, I'd be a savvy guy for taking advantage of every tax break I was legally eligible for. What the hell!

In this regard, Romney was absolutely accurate

And it's pretty meaningless when you consider that it was split 49% to 49% for all other income groups.

PS - Some people quickly point out that the 'working poor' do pay payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), but those are supposed to go into each individual worker's 'Trust Accounts' to fund their future retirement and health care after retirement, so they do not actually fund any of the actual cost of the welfare programs for the 'poor'.

No such thing as an "individual trust account" to my knowledge. In Social Security, workers pay directly for people currently receiving benefits. There is a trust fund, but that is for the whole program, not the individual. In other words, nobody is managing a special retirement account just for you unless you set one up with a 401k or an IRA, for example.

There is a difference between saying the government is the problem in terms and advocating the elimination of government which no one in the GOP advocates and stopping a government expansion under Obama that has eliminated all aspects of self reliance, personal accountability and the concept of personal choice from the financial landscape. You say Romney hasnt made his case and those of us on the fiscal sanity side disagree. If you are poor, middle class or a minority can you explain to me how Obama has made his case? Each of these groups he claims to be an advocate for have performed the worse under his 4 years than others. Now we have SAT scores the lowest in 40 years. So he refuses to advocate for education reform to close the education gap in order to kowtow to the teachers unions who contribute an ungodly amount of money to his political party and I suppose you are going to blame that on Bush. He economic policies have benefited no one and have only made things worse for the constituents he claims he supports. So tell me how you can make the case for Obama over Romney for these people. The fact that he has given them more welfare?

In the end, America will get the president they deserve!

If Obama is reelected, it can only be as a direct result of massive situational ignorance and single issue constituency support! Closing my eyes to every other aspect of this election, I still fail to understand how any American can vote for a man who steadfastly refuses to place his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem and refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Think about that for a minute!

The train moving America to “third world nation status” in on the tracks. Obama is in the engineer's seat. We can hear the whistle blowing, but Americans are too ignorant to move off the tracks. So, look to Greece America. You will see your future there!

There is no pride in being a FOOL!

This clown is not getting my vote... you will agree with me after you see this...

go to YOUTUBE (forward slash) and paste the following: watch?v=r_7qFFmpZdg

Kirk...your response is nothing but spin against my facts! Name calling as usual when you are faced with facts! EVERY ONE OF MY STATEMENTS ARE FACT!

Romney Ryan voucher plan kills healthcare as we know it. As Newt himself said of what voucher plan does to healthcare, "withers and dies on the vine."

You rant that current events facts information needs research.....more spin because you can't handle running into a wall of facts! You provide nothing but baseless spin!

Obama/Biden 2012

@Ben- I would be interested in what you believe makes a person worthy or unworthy to run for office.

I think we all could agree that our candidates need to be interested in representing their constituents instead of themselves!

Selfish people have no business in government.

I see it has Romney is getting worse and worse by the minute. Contradictions, and his flip flopping is not getting better. Look what it saids in this article. Now he is saying a different tune on what he was caught saying in the infamous video about the 47 percent and he has done this time and time again. Who is this man that thinks we will buy into his ever changing mind. I don't know about anyone else, but Mr. Romney I am not stupid, I see into your obsessive need to be President that you will do anything to get there including lying your a$$ off.

"Romney feels impact of bad month"

Says MSNBC. Like that means anything.

The spin definitely does NOT stop with them.

They should not call themselves a news organization. They are a liberal opinion channel.

They are as much a news organization as Limbaugh is.

There is no pride in closing your eyes to the truth about Obama! I have spent hundreds of hours researching the backgrounds and credentials of both candidates. It comes down to this. Do I support America or Obama?

I choose America!

Starsailing--very little of what you stated is fact but only opinion no different than Newt opining on Ryan's medicare plan. Nothing in my reply was spin. Most of it was correcting your embellishments or factual inaccuracies and some was opinion. You can disagree with my opinion but not my facts. You cant refute and I notice you didnt try to on government assistance and how Obama's economic policies have hurt the poor, middle class and minorities. You try to avoid and deflect off that issue. You also cant refute that Obama's plan to tax overseas income on global corporations as a way he thinks to bring jobs home is just a job loser and a big one at that. I also didnt name call at all unless calling you silly is offensive to you. Use some critical thinking and prove me wrong instead of sticking to the tired worn out campaign themes. Dont be like Seeking Sanity, Xabie, David and others who run from the inconvenient truths. Prove me wrong. I never said Romney was a panacea but I also am certain that Obama isnt either. So claiming he is perfect and all facts and opinions are in your favor just ruin all credibility you have

Clearvoice,

Take it off "bold". For America!

I am still baffled by how anyone thinks Romney can win against Obama. Sure, he has business experience as many people love to cite, but beyond that, there isnt anything that makes him better and the business experience is as much a hindrince as it is helpful.

You are looking at this thing wrong. You need to see the disaster that is happening right now to our country.

So I guess it doesn't bother you that Obama lied to the American people about the Libya terrorist attack, the increase in radical extremists, middle class taxes will rise because of Obamacare, food stamps at a record high, more children live in proverty than ever before, housing market at a standstill, national debt rising at a much rapid pace under Obama, continuing high unemployment, continuing high food prices, continuing outsourcing of jobs, our education system is horrid, college tuition fees continue to rise, Obama too busy hanging out with his rich friends, no transparency as promised.

From Move On.org.

If you went to work, twiddled your thumbs, and blocked everyone else from getting anything done for two years, you’d be fired.

But this Tea Party Congress thinks they can get away with it.

They’ve blocked nearly every single item President Obama has proposed, all while pushing an extreme right-wing agenda that puts millionaire tax breaks before the middle class. Haven’t you had enough of it?

I'll never understand the complete stupidity of the liberal mind. A liberal will stand together with another liberal even if they hate what they stand for. They screamed about GITMO, the Patriot Act, wire-tapping, and the economy when George Bush was President. They march in the streets to protest wars when a republican is in office. They complain about unemployment when a republican is in office. And then they just sit back and say how well their man is doing when everything is falling apart and there is no positive change in anything that they bitched about 4 years ago. President Obama is a failure in his leadership and nobody on the left will admit it. They will sit back and watch this country go to hell and won't care as long as their man is in charge. It is a terrible sickness that infects a liberal mind. It is time for some real change in America.

John in Battle Creek - MoveOn.org? You need to examine your mind.

Bill FairfaxVa

When Obama said stimulus would reduce unemployment to under 8%, he was operating under the notion that the economy had a growth rate of -5% in 3rd quarter of 2008. Then the number of -3.5% came in for the 4th quarter. After the stimulus passed, revised numbers came in showing that the economy was in much worse shape.

The revised numbers for 3rd quarter 2008 were -7.5% (50% WORSE) and the numbers for 4th quarter were -8.5% (242% WORSE).

What Obama said then was based on the best numbers available. The numbers for the actual shape of our economy were so much worse than anyone including Obama knew.

The stimulus did work as planned. It just faced a bigger economic downturn than we realized and consequently did not achieve the stated goal of under 8% unemployment. But the unemployment we faced then was over 10% higher than we thought it was.

The stimulus worked.

It's getting to the point I almost feel sorry for Mitt Romney. He makes more of a fool out of himself every day. Did anyone see him in Ohio yesterday --- it was simply sad to watch. This election is over. Mitt Romney is one of the very worst candidates of all times. But the problem goes deeper than that for the Republican Party. Republicans have managed to chase just about every demographic out of their party except old white men and old white women. They haven't had a new economic idea in over 30 years. If Republicans don’t come up with some new ideas and find an entirely new group of leaders, we just may have another President Clinton in 2017.

Clear Voice,

I'm a lesbian? That's news to me. Perhaps that explains my long list of ex-boyfriends, and why they ARE ex.

Be honest, is it the shorter hair???

(See, I can type in bold too!)

Hilarious! The headline on MSN/NBC news is an opinion column. I just love this site. Come in here and read the echo chamber that is the Left Wing Liberal/Progressive Wack Job Democrat party. It's like a circle jerk with everybody trying to be the pivot man... Thanks for all the laughs.

Promises, promises, and more promises;

a) President Obama promised to close Gitmo. Did he? NO.

b) President Obama promised in March that the Libyan War would be short term? Is it? NO.

c) President Obama promised that Obamacare would reduce the cost of health care. Will it? NO.

d) President Obama promised that his Stimulus would keep unemployment below 8%. Did it. NO.

e) President Obama promised that his administration would be the most transparent in history. Is it? NO.

f) President Obama promised to End the income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 per year. Did he? NO.

g) President Obama promised to Repeal the Bush Tax cuts for high income earners. Did he? NO.

h) President Obama promised to Stop companies in bankruptcy for giving executives bonuses. Did he? NO.

i) President Obama promised to Allow 5 days of public comment before signing legislation. Did he? NO.

j) President Obama promised to Negotiate health care reform with public sessions on C-SPAN. Did he? NO.

k) President Obama promised to Initiate comprehensive immigration reform in his first year. Did he? NO.

l) President Obama promised to Expand and make refundable the child and dependent care credit. Did he? NO.

m) President Obama promised to End no-bid contracts above $25,000. Did he? NO.

n) President Obama promised to Forbid companies in bankruptcy from giving executives bonuses. Did he? NO.

o) President Obama promised to Allow workers to claim more in unpaid wages and benefits in bankruptcy court Did he? NO.

p) President Obama promised to Allow imported prescription drugs, to lower cost for Americans. Did he? NO.

q) President Obama promised to Mandate insurance coverage of autism treatment. Did he? NO.

r) President Obama promised to Appoint federal-level coordinator to oversee all federal autism efforts. Did he? NO.

s) President Obama promised to Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive study of federal cancer initiatives. Did he? NO.

t) President Obama promised to Create a National Commission on People with Disabilities, Employment, and Social Security. Did he? NO.

u) President Obama promised to Change federal rules so small businesses owned by people with disabilities can get preferential treatment for federal contracts. Did he? NO.

v) President Obama promised to Form international group to help Iraq refugees. Did he? NO.

w) President Obama promised to Allow five days of public comment before signing bills. Did he? NO.

x) President Obama promised to Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials. Did he? NO.

y) President Obama promised to Double funding for afterschool programs. Did he? NO.

z) President Obama promised to Urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. Did he? NO.

aa) President Obama promised to Allow bankruptcy judges to modify terms of a home mortgage. Did he? NO.

bb) President Obama promised to Re-establish the National Aeronautics and Space Council. Did he? NO.

cc) President Obama promised to Support human mission to moon by 2020. Did he? NO.

dd) President Obama promised to Pay for the national service plan without increasing the deficit. Did he? NO.

ee) President Obama promised to Limit term of director of national intelligence. Did he? NO.

ff) President Obama promised to Give annual "State of the World" address to the American people in which I lay out our national security policy. Did he? NO.

gg) President Obama promised to Reduce earmarks to 1994 levels. Did he? NO.

hh) President Obama promised to Enact windfall profits tax for oil companies. Did he? NO.

ii) President Obama promised to Require plug-in fleet at the White House. Did he? NO.

jj) President Obama promised to Provide an annual report on "state of our energy future". Did he? NO.

kk) President Obama promised to Allow penalty-free hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts in 2008 and 2009. Did he? NO.

There are enough broken promises here to make just about anyone to say Obama sucks, he talks the talk but can’t walk the walk.

NO-BAMA 2012!

Joe in Albany

A question for Obambot lefty liberals: What does it say about your beloved Barry when he has to pin his re-election hopes on the nostalgic memories of the good ole days when a lying, misogynist, disbarred lawyer, who soiled the Oval Office with BJ’s from an intern young enough to be his daughter was President??

You missed the most important point...Willard is now kissing Bubba's ass. That's right, your great conservative hope is sucking up to Bill Clinton. What exactly does that say about your schizophrenic party?

It's going to be interesting to watch your party when Obama is re-elected. There are now four distinct factions within the Republican party and several not so distinct factions. They are all going to be blaming each other and going for blood. The main attraction will no doubt be the Tea Party vs the Neo-conservative resurgence. Both groups will be going after the evangelicals. IMHO the Tea Party will lose badly. The Neo-cons have the corporate money nailed down. I suspect the Tea Party will peel off with the Libertarians, possibly a 3rd party. Add to that the final battle between the Neo-conservatives and what's left of the mainstream (Bob Dole) Republicans. Again the neo-cons will win. This time a matter of will. The Neo-cons will do what they have to do to grab power while the rank and file Republicans are use to obeying the party dictates.

This should get interesting.

From all the gibberish I see the left can't take the truth. The truth that about 47% of Americans, after all the deductions, exemptions and credits pay zero federal taxes. About 22% actually get back more money than they paid in by taking the earned income credit. Contrary to left propaganda, this is not dismissing 47% of Americans, it's just the simple truth. A foreign concept to the Brainwashed party Brahmin. If you get a large refund, it is because you are taking every legal deduction open to you or you are paying in too much through the year. Taking these deductions are part of the game, if you average income folks use them, you're "entitled". If you take them and happen to make a good living, your somehow suspect. Why the double standard? After all, The Prez himself posted an "adjusted" (after deductions) personal federal income of $1.7 million in 2011, on a salary of $400K plus. Neat trick. An not a look for the IRS? I wonder if any of us posted number that much above our W-2 if they would not notice?

The net result is simple math, the more you get back, the less you paid in actual tax as a percentage of gross income. On average 6-10% for most Americans. Even IF you paid 20% after all deductions, the average American does not come close to the 2.88 million Romney paid at 14%, the reason, you didn't make $20 million.

This isn't rocket science Brahmin, it's simple math, like two plus two is four, dead people don't eat, some of thing stuff even you indoctrinated fools should be able to figure out. So instead of looking at percentages, do the math on your own return and look at actual tax figures, Only the monumentally stupid won't realize this is just smoke and mirror's by you favorite party to cloud a simple issue.

AND, the simple truth IS, about 47% of Americans pay zero federal income tax because of all the deductions available to them. So, remove all the deductions and everyone pays the same rate. I can hear it now, you don't want fair you want your tax breaks. Wait,,, how can that be,,,, they only benefit the rich, right? Please.

ClearVoice2

Why yes ClearVoice...you are free to endorse a candidate as homophobic as you are. When he looses...will you ask yourself why?

People not only the video mentioned how he felt about the 47%, but how he felt about american workers. Go look at the entire videol where he brags about opening a Chinese factory while working for Bain and how hard working and grateful the 20,000 female workers were compared to US workers. This video was a gift from God showing how Romney really felt as expressed with his rich friends.

Next, of the 47% that dont pay taxes, most are seniors and vets who you can tell by supporting the Ryan budget means he want to get them off the government teat. Just look at the Ryan budget. Go to thomas.loc.gov and read the Ryan budget and see what they plan to do with programs benefitting seniors and vets. It is there in black an white. What is wrong with you people especially seniors and vets who still support Romney. The emperor had no clothes on but you refused to look. Just go read the Ryan budget and look at the entire Romney video instead of listening to people on talk radio and cable news both on the right and left who are paid to tell you what what to think and focus on.

Please listen to the entire video and read the Ryan budget for the love of gawd. I have my own business and not a vet so I dont benefit from any of those programs Ryan threatens but like liberal businessmen love my country and dont want it to become a third world nation where we dont take care of our seniors and vets.

Another puff piece from the unoffical PR arm of the Obama campaign. The scary part is that idiots will read this and not see it for what it is, which will have repercussions come election day.

It's absolutely stupifying that anyone can look at the economy, unemployment, the price of gas, the attacks on our embassies, the Obama apology tour, the corrupt manner in which Obamacare was passed and say "oh yeah, we need four more years of Obama".

If you went to work, twiddled your thumbs, and blocked everyone else from getting anything done for two years, you'd be fired.

@ John in Battle Creek, who blocked everything that Obama wanted in his first two years in office? Remember, he had four years and his first two years the Democrats were the majority. Nothing was done in those two years either.

Who do you blame during the first two years?

I'd be pissed if I were one of the 53% paying the freight. Oh, wait! I am one of the 53% paying the freight and I'm pissed!

Mitt Robmey only doing the lords work. It don't matter none ifn he don't care about the common folk. Hes either gonna get us some of that trickel down or he gonna lead us to arnegeddion with the jew agin the ayrab. its all done been foretelled in the good book!

There is one thing that really has me worried. The Repubs have been screaming about Voter Fraud. Is this really just a diversion, are they telling us what they are really planning to do (Steal the election by massive fraud). Right now the Repubs are telling that the polls are wrong, even the polls that they have taken!Why is this? (remember the electronic voting machines are hackable) They stole an election before they may already planning to do it again

Keep you're ears and eyes open, and please don't become complacent. Get out there and vote.

Republican strategies that will work: Explaining, understanding, realizing these things do not run counter to standing your ground.

Republican strategies that won't: Acting like a flaming *ssh*le.

Clear Voice2 would be a fine example of a fake conservative. And eschews the ideology of strategy number 2. Which points out why real conservatives are losing the election.

Plugging your ears may be a way to run a company. But it isn't a winning strategy for an election. If Democrats were behind, they'd have to make amends, but since they aren't, and so far the Republican response has been "WE'RE NOT BEHIND! YOU ARE!" You can expect the real conservative, and intelligent voices, to be buried with the morons who like to say they are conservative, and really aren't.

Ho hum. This is what voting for only one party gets you.

joe in albany said:

A question for Obambot lefty liberals: What does it say about your beloved Barry when he has to pin his re-election hopes on the nostalgic memories of the good ole days when a lying, misogynist, disbarred lawyer, who soiled the Oval Office with BJ’s from an intern young enough to be his daughter was President??

Joe, glad you are not bitter. I don't know the answer to your question. But I wonder what you think: what does it say about Mitt Romney if he LOSES to this Obama character you described? And I think he will lose.

@Ben-636050

I am just tired of LWNJ cowards hiding behind a computer screen being as vile as the guest on the Jerry Springer Show. It is not worth the daily time and effort.

I Agree with you 100%!

Obama/Biden 2012 - Democrats All The Way!

Romney keeps opening his big mouth and Ryan just looks like a damn sneak.

Kirk...again you spin as if anything you say is fact!. You did not give any fact source against my facts to prove anything I posted was not true...just your usual spin/rant. Maybe in your world, imgagination is facts, but not in the world of reality facts that I post!

In my opinion, it is clear that NOBODY is going to change his or her mind about anything in this election. Just be sure to vote.

My question as always is what is the President who is elected going to do about China? Some of us are concerned that outsourcing may ruin us. China's outsourcing is the money they have allowed us to borrow. If that debt is ever called, it will not matter who is President.

Talk about printing money!! LOL

Ol_Doc

Romney is NOT sucking up to Bill Clinton, he is being polite to a scum bag, womanizing, cheating, lying, accused rapist, ex-president that the left sucks up to.

Friends,

The issue is clear. A line in the sand has been drawn. Romney and his friends look upon the rest of us Americans (the poor, the middle-class, the workers, blue collar and white collar workers) as nothing more than a bunch of whiners.

Freeloaders with our hands out wondering when we're going to get our chance at some of this free Government Cheese. The problem, they say, with America is this "Entitlement Mentality" that over half our population has.

Is that really the case?

I'm amused by Republicans, because I simply don't get the impression that most of them do any research. Bill Clinton, rightfully called them on it: It's the arithmetic! People. All of us people must do our own thinking.

The Republican's believe that if Obama stays in office our taxes may go up. That may happen. We have a huge deficit. Bills are due. We simply can't ignore this debt.

Historically, when taxes move one way or another, who tends to pay the most? Are the Corporations, the Rich, and the very special 1% carrying the rest of us moochers on their shoulders?

Let's see what happens when our taxes go up, who's taxes usually go down:

Are the Rich are paying the most? Are the liberals taxing us poor and middle class people to death. Which is right?

Corporations and the Rich had the heaviest tax burden back in the 1940's and 1950's when we were the dominant economic power in the world. Back when everything, everywhere was manufactured by Americans.

Since that time, the corporations and the extremely Rich have paid less and less, leaving the middle class and the poor to pick up more and more of the tab.

...And you want THEIR poster child, Mitt Romney, in the White House to further look after their interests?

C'mon People... Here's the individual tax rates for the Median (average) American household and the richest 1% from the 1940's to 1989 (and it's only gotten worse since 1989):

Year    Median    Millionaire or Top 1%
---------------------------------------
1948     5.3%     76.9%
1955     9.1      85.5
1960    12.4      85.5
1965    11.6      66.9
1970    16.1      68.6
1975    20.0       --
1977     --       35.5
1980    23.7      31.7
1985    24.4      24.9
1989    24.4      26.7

Notice that the average American household in 1948 paid about 5% of their pay as income taxes and the richest 1% paid nearly 80% in taxes. ("That's not fair", you Republicans may say... Perhaps, for someone making only 10,000 a year; but for someone making 100 Million a year its a whole other reality).

By the time we get to 1989, the average American tax burden and the richest 1% tax burden was almost matched (kind of like a flat tax). 23 years later...? How much did Mitt Romney pay in taxes? 14%. See the direction we're going? What was your tax rate? 25%? 30%?

...Let's see more evidence of income inequality when we compare Corporate tax rates vs individual payroll rates.

        Personal     Corporate    Payroll
Decade  Income Tax   Income Tax   Tax  
------------------------------------------
1950s   42.0%         26.9%       11.5%
1960s   42.0          20.4        18.4
1970s   40.3          13.3        27.7
1980s   38.0          7.7         29.2  

Again we're seeing individuals in the 1950's paying about 10% in payroll taxes, but it triples by the time we get to the 1980's to nearly 30%. What does are the Corporate Tax rates doing during this time? They're going from nearly 27% all the way down to about 8%. Basically, they've been cut in half, and then cut in half again. Triple for individuals and dropped by nearly 75% for Corporations.

Does anyone actually feel like the corporations and the Rich are looking out for the lower and middle-class interests? Do they got our back? Will Romney give us some tax breaks? At the cost of Corporate America and his own rich friends?

I think you Republicans who earn less than 200,000-250,000 (Mitt's own estimation of what a Middle Class family earns) a year are deluded.

The truth is, we're carrying the rich, and they're becoming more and more a burden every day. Since 1978, the average American worker has seen only a shift of about 5.75% in their overall wages. CEO pay since that time? 725% increase from what CEO's were being paid in 1978.

Don't drink the Mitt Romney People's Temple Kool-aid... I suspect it's tainted.

This whole, "Lazy, welfare-sucking people are draining the system, and will cause the collapse of America" concept is bull crap.

What's killing the system, is pampered, rich entitled people with Special Interests groups, Lobbyists, and a decades long agenda of "More for us, and less for everyone else" is destroying this country. Who do you think your senators and congressmen work for? The out of work factory worker in Alabama who writes his congressman a letter asking for help? Or the rich Factory owner who fired half his staff to get a 0.5% uptick in his share prices to ensure he gets his bonus that year who also makes a nice $100,000 contribution to the same congressman?

We already know the answers to these questions.

Put Obama back in the White House for another term, and let's ALL agree on these three things:

1. Getting Rid of this concept of "Corporations are People", "Corporations have rights", and "Corporations should have a say in American Politics".

2. Outlawing the practice of Lobbying, PACS, and Super-PACS.

3. Revisiting the tax code to restore it to some Pre-Lobbying, Pre-Influence-Peddling level where it should be: 1950-1960's?

Anjiisan1963....thanks for the great post!!

REPUBS CAUSE THE ECONOMY TO GROW SLOW, THEN WHINE THAT IT IS NOT GROWING!

RYAN SABOTAGES THE ECONOMY. REPUBS BLOCK BRINGING OFFSHORE JOBS BACK TO AMERICA.

REPUBS DO THEIR BEST TO MAKE AMERICA WORSE!

From dailykos.com 9/6/12 by keepemhonest Story : MAtt APPUZZO FACT CHECK THIS.2009 PAUL RYAN PLOTTED TO SABOTAGE THE ECONOMY.

So, allow me to educate Matt Apuzzo with real facts that really led to the Republican's plotted obstruction to guarantee legislative cluster-f@ck.

FACT 1. In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that on inauguration night, 2009, during a four hour, "invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.

FACT 2: Draper wrote the guest list included:

The Guest List:
Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).
Non-lawmakers present Newt Gingrich

FACT 3: Newt Gingrich confirms meeting took place in an interview with Al Sharpton's Politics Nation on June 12, 2012

SHARPTON: In fact, let`s go to a book that Mr. Draper wrote about the night of the inauguration. There was a meeting at a hotel near the inaugural ball, about a mile away ... He writes about that night the plan was to show united and unyielding
opposition to the president`s economic policies ... And Draper writes that you told the group -- you, Newt Gingrich, "You will remember this day...you will remember this day the seeds of 2012 were sown."
If there was a commitment from day one, before he ever took a seat
behind the desk of the Oval Office, that everyone was going to obstruct
him, then what he`s done has been almost unbelievable, against those kind
of odds, Speaker Gingrich.
NEWT: it was an important meeting and I was glad and honored
to be part of it.
SHARPTON: I`m glad you admit you had it.

FACT 4: Two months after Paul Ryan's covert meeting where they plotted to sabotage the US Economy, in March 2009, Rep. Pete Sessions said Republicans should follow the model of the Taliban in its battles against President Obama.
In the March 2009 interview with National Journal Rep Sessions said:

"Taliban Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. Insurgency is the way they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- is an example of how you go about to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that Insurgency may be required when [dealing with] the other side"
~Rep Pete Sessions, March 2009 to National Journal

Rep Pete Sessions went on to say:

"If they [democrats] do not give us those options or opportunities then we will then become Insurgency ... I think Insurgency is a mindset and an attitude that we're going to have to search for and find ways to get our message out and to be prepared to see things for what they are, rather than trying to do something about them"

FACT 5: Also, at the January 20, 2009 meeting they plotted to suddenly stop supporting any Stimulus Legislation, even though, they all supported Bush/Cheney Stimulus legislation.

At the meeting, Rep Kevin McCarthy said,
"We've gotta challenge them on every single bill."
"Show united and unyielding opposition to the president's economic policies."

FACT 6: Remember, these same Republican members of Congress supported the very Bush/Cheney policies that caused America to teeter on the brink of the 2nd Great Depression and caused the 2007 US Economic Meltdown.

Here's how they all voted:
-- "Yes" to Bush/Cheney January 2008 Stimulus
-- "Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out Bear Stern
-- "Yes" to Bush/Cheney bailing out AIG
-- "Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (sept 2008)
-- "Yes" to Bush/Cheney TARP (oct 2008)

And these same Republican members of Congress:

Supported Bush/Cheney keeping cost of two wars out of the Budget.
Supported Bush/Cheney spending $4Trillion while giving Top 1% Tax Cuts; ignoring the fact that taxes pay for wars.

Not only did these Senior members of Congress plot to destroy the American Economy more than it already was destroyed? They actually carried out their mission:

Every one of these Senior members of Congress have threatened Government Shutdown over things like:
- Funding planned parenthood,
- Raising the Debt Ceiling which, in-and-of-itself, would cause US Economic turmoil.

FACT 7: Last year, during the Debt Ceiling negotiations, Eric Cantor and Sen. Jon Kyl abruptly walked out of negotiations and refused to renew discussions with Democrats. As a result, America's credit rating was lowered which put a smile on Republican's faces.
FACT 8: Meanwhile, the 2009 Sabotage the U.S. Economy covert meeting members, Senators: Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign, and Bob Corker have:

- Filibustered more Bills (over 300) than any Congress combined in US History.
- Voted NO on every single piece of Legislation brought to the Floor including:
NO on Al Franken's Anti-Rape Amendment,
NO on Lilly Ledbetter,
NO on Fair Pay Act,
NO on Anti-Outsourcing Bill (2010)

FACT 9: The House members who attended the 2009 Sabotage America meeting have been busy rejecting legislation that helps victims of natural disaster.

Representatives: Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra and Dan Lungren have voted NO on every single piece of Legislation including:
NO on increasing FEMA during natural disasters.

FACT 10: Paul Ryan and these other same failed Congressmen have been on tv constantly chanting the lie that they were guilty of ... the lie that "President Obama's policies undermine the US Economy."

There are more facts listed...but I think you get the point. repubs obstruct for the greed of money and for their own party to benefit from the greedy rich!

The simple fact that explains the poll is that America is over time becoming more aware what a hypocrite Mr Romney is. The more the guy speaks the more obvious it becomes. No doubt his fundraiser talk was obviously the least contrived of anything we've heard from him, and of course he never intended it to be heard except by the small handful of rich donors in the room.

Most people know who Obama is and what he's about. At the least, they have made up their minds about him a long time ago. Some like him and some hate him. Fox news has dedicated 90% of their total airtime over the last 4 years explaining how bad Obama is. So for Fox's 20 million viewers, they decided long, long ago. For others less biased, they have watched what has happened over the last 4 years. Most probably aren't happy with where the economy is, but then they have a lot of detail to look at as to why. They can see many attempts by Obama to improve things and can see all the attempts and ideas he proposed that were blocked by Republicans. They can evaluate the success or failure of what he has been able to do. Regardless of the end conclusion whether to support or oppose Obama, people have had a ton of data to base their decision on.

But when you look at Romney, prior to him getting the nomination, most people had very little data on him to judge. Those who closely watched the primaries have a better sense than those who didn't, but since winning the nomination, everyday has been a learning experience about who Mitt Romney is. Even for his supporters, with each day he just looks worse and worse.

We see more and more flip flops.

We see more and more examples of how big a hypocrite he is.

We see more and more examples of lies followed by doubling down on them.

We see more and more examples of how he has manipulated laws and regulations and how he has done virtually everything possible to avoid paying taxes.

We see more and more examples of a guy who uses his wealth to manipulate any situation to fit the story he thinks he needs to convey.

Whoever heard of someone "retroactively retiring" three years earlier? Here is an example of a guy who uses his wealth and influence to create time travel for himself!

I could go on and on about what we have learned about who Mitt Romney is.

The fact is that the American public is learning who Mitt Romney is and we're not liking the person we see.

If you didn't already have deep seated hatred for Obama, you look at the two choices and even though you may not be thrilled with Obama, you see by comparison to the Romney you have now come to know, and you come to the realization that Obama has to be your choice.

Months ago it was about Obama or someone else. But today it is about Obama or Romney and as people begin to find out who Romney is, they are seeing that Obama isn't so bad after all.

Romney is an astute business man? I have yet to witness a more mentally scattered individual vying for national office. More outrageous and stupid? Yes. Contradictory and confusing? No. Ryan, of course always remains true to His original self. That is, a gwaddamned pathological liar. As to Romneys business acumen, those claims are just that. Think He is enjoying the fruits of some very accomplished thieves who are, or were, in His employ. Willard Romney is, in a very human way, quite pathetic.

Last week republicons voted against a jobs bill for vets...! WHY? Vets are returning to America and committing suicide every day at a record pace. Repubs sent them to Iraq on a lie of WMD"S while they really wanted war profits and now they turn their republicon backs to soldiers returning! WHY??????$$$$$$$$$$$

Clear Voice

Watta man. Beating up on pretty young women, calling them names and yelling at them in bold type. You're my hero. I'll bet you trip old ladies and take candy away from children don't you?

Well my macho friend, you are in trouble because you have picked one of the most beloved of the Liberal posters. People like me will be standing in line to punch you in the nose. But we won't have to because Sarah is not only pretty but she can take care of herself.

And she knows she's right and she has the courage of those convictions, unlike you who hide behind an anonymous blog moniker in order to throw spitballs at young women.

Why don't you pick on someone your own size for once. Stand up and fight like a man. What? I'm sorry, I can't understand you through all that whimpering.

You are pathetic. Crawl back over to Fox News and tell them a 62 year old handed your manhood to you in a snack size baggie.

I'll teach you to pick on my honorary granddaughter.

Obama/Biden 2012

I'm wondering if I should just start reporting all the one party posts on First Read for advertising.

Might as well.

Any poll that shows obama ahead is either lying or the only one's polled are dem's and is not a fair representation of the population.

And what has obama done for us lately, we still have over 8 percent unemployment, the largest number of people on welfare and food stamps every in the history of this county, he is pandering to our enemy's and allowing them to murder Americans.

obama is killing the American dream.

Jack in Portsmouth...

Missed your post earlier. So I'll respond here...I make up my OWN mind on this stuff. No tea party or Republican operatives are telling me what to think. What struck me first and foremost about the CBS NYT Q polls were the fact that they showed President Obama winning by A LOT more than he did in 2008 when I would describe the atmosphere as darned near PERFECT for Dems. He won by 2.8% in Florida that year. So here I am, seeing a poll saying that he will win by TRIPLE that amount. That just doesn't pass the smell test with me. That's when I looked at the crosstabs (I'm a statistics guy..it's in my nature) and saw the sampling. I really don't care about what the official party line is nor do I pay any attention to it. I've voted for BOTH parties in the past, so I am NOT a blind, straight party ticket guy.

I disagree with you on a lot of things, but always enjoy your posts.

Have a great Wednesday!

ESarah-3043284

You are a beautiful girl, but short hair had nothing to do with my observation. In an attempt to better understand your perspective, I reviewed your prior posts. It appears you are preoccupied with pro-homosexual perspectives. Since the act itself is unnatural, your support seemed to imply you must be a lesbian.

Obama has pandered to the most morally debased segments of our society in a thinly veiled effort to secure votes from those his own campaign manager characterizes as " intellectually challenged, emotionally driven, single issue constituencies" In other words they see these voters as little more than mere sheep. That fact does not receive much press, but it can be proven nonetheless.

I understand why those people support Obama, but can not believe any American who has done his or her homework could possible support Obama for any other reason!

Economically speaking, history is replete with evidence that Obama style socialism has promised prosperity, equality, and security,but it delivered only poverty, misery, and tyranny!

Equality was achieved only in the sense that everyone was equal in his or her misery.

No one in their right mind could want this type of future for America. So, it seems to stand to reason that only extremists or the intellectually compromised could stand in support of Obama!

Sorry if I misjudged you!

Thanks, Grandpa Skip!!!

its alright if Robmey and ol Lyin Ryan lie and cheat to the top. Because they is doing the lords work. Please trust in them and let them get us some of are trikel down. Either that or they will lead us agin the ayrab for the jew as the Bible done fortelled it. Amen!

Fired-Up, Ready to Go! Word of CAUTION; remember 00 and 04.

The Repubs. will stop at NOTHING, in order to WIN.

Obama/Biden 2012

Rodham-Clinton/Wasserman-Schultz 2016

Unclear voice ........always uses the emailed rants and words to use from the greedy rich. Same words over and over that are meaningless except to the ones the emails pander to.

Do search on ....... Newt Gingrich word list....and see how it all started. List of words go out in emails for each repub to use daily. Always funny to see nightly on John Stewart show when they show all the repubs in unison saying the same exact funny words in their public rants!

SKIP.........I am right along side of you. Our generation did not allow insults to people without repercussions. If someone was foolish or a bully and physically attacked or verbally attacked they knew the consequences. Now they can hide behind lawyers and computers, but in the end, they know they are lacking something. No matter how much name calling it doesn't change that fact!

Sarah.......Yeah ....you handle yourself quite well and should feel proud to represent your causes. You do and can make a difference!

Obama/Biden and Team Democratic party 2012

Steeler Fan-380417

Even in his response ad, Romney shows he just doesn't get it--people on welfare are only a segment of the 47%. What about the seniors, veterans, students, disabled? He shoved them under the bus, too.

That's just it. He is SO out of touch ith the "average American". Anyone who builds an elevator in their garage for their cars? Do you think people on disability (admittedly, some have taken advantage of this), like myself who loved working but due to an accident/illness now have NO CHOICE because they are no longer qualified to do any work. Want to be stuck at home?

Hell,m my wife called a lawyer without my knowing because I was still trying to find some kind of work but because of my disability everyone said "thanks but sorry we hired someone "more qualified"". Even though I could work circles around that person and I knew it. Trust me most of us don't want to be stuck at home barely making in one month what we made in a week or 2 while working. And yes we still have to pay taxes on it. Especially if married. Not to mention the cabin fever that is horrible because you can't get out and do what you used to do.

So, to those of you who say we're sucking off the system? Come to my house read through the THOUSANDS of papers I have from doctors, former employers, medical records and then spend a week in my shoes and tell me it's enjoyable in the least. I wish I could work I miss working, I worked for over 30 years. Then tell me I'm just sucking off the system.

Kirk,

I am fairly certain that in the cognitive ability department, there will be no comparison between David and me.

You've got that right.

Anytime you want to compare pedigrees I am willing to guarantee he isnt going to win.

You poor deluded soul. For one thing, he knows that an apostrophe belongs in the word "isn't".

Grimey,

I disagree with you on a lot of things, but always enjoy your posts.

Same here. Thank you for your explanation. I didn't mean to imply that your were following the herd.

"And ALL of KingGeorge's Horses and ALL of KingGeorge's men couldn't put DumpyRommel back together again" Ignore The 47% my butt Moron. You and your sidekick Lyin'Ryan can pay for that $50,000 aristcraps luncheon when you actually stated what you intend to do to US; Gut our economic progress with MORE Tax Evasion Bonuses for YOURSELF and your 1-10%er and corporate rich masters.

There you go with Bush stole the election. You said he was illigetimate. Oh but when the shoe is on the other foot?

The polls that this article are citing have oversampled Democrats. They use the turnout results for the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections and ignored the 2010 election which was an indication of how voters felt about President Obama's priorities and actions. It also ignores the movement of voters from the Democrats and Republican Parties to Independent. Look at Rassmussen, which was the most accurate poll in the 2008 and 2010 elections and it shows that Obama and Romney are virtually tied.

Just imagine how the lead will grow as Mitt continues "Hoof and Mouth" speeches. The public already says they don't believe his ads. by a large margins they are false!

Just imagine how the lead will grow as Mitt continues "Hoof and Mouth" speeches. The public already says they don't believe his ads. by a large margins they are false!

all you libs will be in for a shock on election day.......lib media polls are meaningless....it is hard to believe that there is one adult american who would vote for the fraud obama....

What is Amazing is the
select few number of Naive Americans who have
beenConned/Fooled by the
republicanCrimeCartelPropagandaMachine. Think about
it... These Very Well monied, SnakeOil Salemen, MittTaxPittanceRommel and his
SideKick, Eddie Munster, are The Elitist Thug's economic Hitters Who Caused This Whole WORLD Disaster Starting with President Reagan and Most Assuredly Pronounced with KingGeorge The VacuumBrained during his NOTORIOUSLY SHAMEFUL Shrubber Reign 2001- 2008. These two Amoral Politaphiles are into Contolling and Manipulating America in their favor, ACTUALLY Stealing America's economic power. Research It:
These Republican 1-10% wealthy and corporate Thieves
have OVER $40 Trillion Dollars, OUR MONEY, Stolen From US with Phony Bank
Fees and out and out Acoount Looting, Stashed in Overseas accounts in their
names and registration numbered foreign accounts. Money needed for
rebuilding America NOT Bloating their elitist "family wealth" for the future
of their "Little Darlings" SUCH AS Rommels $48,000,000 Malibu Mansion WITH
anInHouse Car Elevator for his son's $180,000 Ferrari. Prez O is the ONLY Choice. These Elitist rich Thugs calling themselves "republicans"
belong in Prison NOT in Congress or The WhitHouse.Try this one on for size:
President Harry Truman in 1948: "The Republicans … will
try to make people
believe that everything the Government has done for the
country is
socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see that
social
security check you received the other day—you thought that was good for
you,
didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism.

Did you see that new flood control dam the Government is building over there
for
the protection of your property? Sorry—that's awful socialism! That new
hospital
that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more socialism
for the
farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor! Socialism is bad
for you, my
friend. Everybody knows that. And here you are, with your
new
car, and your
home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a
television set—you are just
surrounded by socialism! Now the Republicans
say, 'That's a terrible thing, my
friend, and the only way out of this
sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the
Republican ticket.'" And, AND!,
AND!!! that was 64 Years Ago!!!. The
republicanCrimeCartel is still doing
the same exploitation of people THEY ARE
NOTORIUS FOR. BUT, according
toKingGeorgeTheVacuumBrained, it is called "free
market" capitalism; with
families in the streets and 25% Unemployment and worse
with
MittTaxPittanceRommel and his buddy EddiMunster. Fellow and Sister

Americans: A vote for ANY republicanCrimeCartelSoldier, Rommel, is a vote

Against Yours and Your Family's Well Being. You Can Take That Advice To The

Bank. Rommel: "That 47% WHO depend on the government- I DON'T CARE ABOUT
THEM. I care about the 1-10%Evil Rich and EVIL EVIL Corporate Rich B@$T@RD$ Like
ME*ME* ME*ME!!! Sister and Brother Americans Rommel and EddiMunster ARE NOT "The
Dynamic Duo" Without A Doubt THEY ARE the DISGUSTING Duo. At Election time
Listen to that InnerVoice, You're Guardian Angel; Let's KEEP Prez O Around the
WhiteHouse; otherwise "Those Two" and their Pals will "CLEAN HOUSE" With US
Payin' The Freight.

As if Romney wasn't right on with his 47% comment. Proof is in the pudding:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/24/howard_stern_interviews_obama_supporters_2012.html

And to think these people are allowed to vote. No wonder this country is in the tank......

TCLucas........This is the face of America.......people like TCLucas.......

HE ain't heavy, he is our brother! If it is too cumbersome for you rt wingers to be fair, to lend a helping hand, if it is too tough for you to lift up someone who just wants a fair shot at being the man that he is, then just shut the hell up and step aside. None of these people are what Romney calls them. They are Americans, they our Brothers, our sisters, our families, these are Americans, and they ain't heavy for President Obama and the Democratic party!

My pleasure Sarah, he can't talk to my honorary granddaughter light that and expect to get away with it. Not that you didn't have the situation well in hand. Your honorary grandmother would never have forgiven me if I hadn't stepped in.

Obama/Biden 2012

Clear,

Trust me I stick up for Mexicans, Muslims, women and poor people too. The problem with debating you, is that you aren't proving any of your positions. Simply stating gays are unnatural, or Obama's a socialist, doesn't make it so.

Make a case, or move along.

@ Joe in Albany:

You claim to be "LMAO", but we know in reality you are CIYP.

Crying Into Your Pillow.

I think Mitt should stand behind his 47% message and let people truly see the obvious plan for the middle class in the USA.

The plan where the middle class give up all rights to have a labor unions, job security and a decent standard of living. After all, these things cut into the profits of the bastards that run this country they need to have all the profits gained by the exploitation of others.

The idea of sending jobs overseas in the first place was not to raise the standard of living in places like China; but to lower the standard of living for the middle class in our country while making a killing financially.

I urge Mitt to embrace these ideas of hooray for me and screw all the little people this is the foundation of the current Republican mindset anyway.

It appears you are preoccupied with pro-homosexual perspectives. Since the act itself is unnatural, your support seemed to imply you must be a lesbian.

If it exists in nature--and it does--how can it be unnatural?

This '47%' issue is silly. Romney never said that he doesn't expect any of the 47% who pay no income taxes to vote for him - merely that the overwhelming majority of them will vote for the Democrats simply because the Democrats promise them free welfare benefits that people who DO pay income taxes will have to pay for.

In this regard, Romney was absolutely accurate - as demonstrated by the results of the 2008 presidential election, where the NY Times reported that exit polls showed that 64% of the voters that earned $30,000 per year or less voted for Obama, vs only 33% for McCain. The other group that voted overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008 was high school dropouts, who voted 63% for Obama vs only 35% for McCain.

PS - Some people quickly point out that the 'working poor' do pay payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), but those are supposed to go into each individual worker's 'Trust Accounts' to fund their future retirement and health care after retirement, so they do not actually fund any of the actual cost of the welfare programs for the 'poor'.

This Video is Obama's Worst Nightmare and its happening right now.

www.youtube.com/v/X-Xfti7qtT0?version=3&hl=en

Just copy and paste to your browser and it will come up. This is a must see video for everyone that loves America.

ClearVoice2

ESarah-3043284

You are a beautiful girl, but short hair had nothing to do with my observation. In an attempt to better understand your perspective, I reviewed your prior posts. It appears you are preoccupied with pro-homosexual perspectives. Since the act itself is unnatural, your support seemed to imply you must be a lesbian.

Hmmm... after reviewing your posts, I've come to the conclusion that you must be a not-too-sharp, narrow-minded bigot.

It appears you are preoccupied with LGBT's. Since that kind of obsession itself is unnatural, it implies you might be repressing something.

I'd have that checked out if I were you.

ClearVoice2 "Sarah-3043284 I understand why lesbians support Obama and I feel sorry for you!"

Nix the personal attacks. It does not contribute to the discussion and merely helps people 'play the victim'.

While I disagree with Sarah on most issues because she exemplifies the 'entitlement philosophy' wherein certain groups feel entitled to government benefits, often to pay for their own poor life decisions, she is entitled to her opinions, and is usually fairly eloquent in presenting them.

Use reason and logic in your arguments - it's far more likely to be effective.

Roy,

Thanks for the compliment. I think??? I didn't know I exemplified anything except an understanding that what effects the least among us, effects all of us, but if that's entitlement, then perhaps I do.

illumination fascination-3070427 "I think Mitt should stand behind his 47% me "sage and let people truly see the obvious plan for the middle class in the USA."

He just needs to frame the discussion accurately. Exit polls from the 2008 election confirmed that those who make $30,000 or less (who typically don't pay income taxes) indeed did vote overwhelmingly for Obama (64% vs 33% for McCain). Another group that voted overwhelmingly for Obama was high school dropouts (63% for Obama vs only 35% for McCain).

Since these groups are the ones that benefit the most from free government 'entitlements', it's natural that the vast majority of them would vote for the Democrats who promise even more benefits - at the expense of the taxpayers that actually DO pay income taxes.

Sarah-3043284 "Roy, Thanks for the compliment. I think??? I didn't know I exemplified anything except an understanding that what effects the least among us, effects all of us, but if that's entitlement, then perhaps I do."

You're welcome - I think.

I do agree with you that there are people that need assistance, and we need to provide a 'safety net' for them - nobody except an extreme Darwinist would want to see people suffer (especially children) with no assistance. The only disagreement we might have is the extent that we provide assistance. There should be a 'balance' between providing help and giving people an incentive to improve their lives.

While I consider myself a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, I do disagree strongly with many Republican positions (specifically, I favor Universal health care and changing the tax code to do away with many 'loopholes' that the 'rich' use to avoid taxes).

The biggest problem I have with Obama is the skyrocketing Debt that is not being addressed. All of the other issues seem to me to be 'distractions' and not that important in the long run.

The GOPeaParty would be best served by a public debate between Ryan and Romney. Obviously, they are not yet on the same page.

Roy, To show you how stupid you sound, let me tell you about my step-sister. A doctor of Orthopedics in Arkansas who had a stroke some 20 years back. She ended receiving entitlements after medical cost of almost $2,000,000 she paid and her insurance paid. She voted for Obama because she was a very intelligent woman and probably paid in more taxes than you or I will ever pay. So at the expense of the taxpayers you may also become like her. So I would watch what I say and how I say it. I sure hope you don't go to church on Sundays?

The biggest problem I have with Obama is the skyrocketing Debt that is not being addressed. All of the other issues seem to me to be 'distractions' and not that important in the long run.

President Obama has addressed the debt with a balanced approach, by proposing to both increase revenues (ending the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans) and cut spending (he has already signed into law a committment to cut $2 trillion).

Federal spending, deficits and taxes are all lower today than when Obama took office (as per the non-partisan CBO.)

And yet OBAMA is outsourcing jobs to illegal aliens living in the US by "deferred justice".

From: Teapublican Election Committee

To: SRCP Ad Agency

Re: New Mittronic Commercial

(patriotic music-background)

M. Rombot (gazing forlornly into camera): Fellow Americans, despite what you

may have heard about me, I am not a witch. Even though I've held leadership

positions within a cult, I am not a witch! Let me also make one thing clear, I

really don't hate the 47% of victims leaching off the withered teat of Lady

Liberty.

(cut to flag waving in background)

M. Rombot: I would certainly let you cut my lawn or change the filthy swaddling

of my children. I would even let you polish the house hold silver.

(shot of Ann inventorying silver, then return to candidate)

M. Rombot: So, in conclusion, withered teat sucking victimistic moochers are

all right with me. Also, I am not a witch!

(for immediate distribution to all markets formerly in the Confederacy)

T.Money Trim/A Play Run-This is hard! You want to try!

Way to go KB, that's the way to handle he-man woman-haters like Clearvoice.

When you're done with him, pass it back to me.

Obama/Biden 2012

starsailing

Last week republicons voted against a jobs bill for vets...! WHY? Vets are returning to America and committing suicide every day at a record pace. Repubs sent them to Iraq on a lie of WMD"S while they really wanted war profits and now they turn their republicon backs to soldiers returning! WHY??????$$$$$$$$$$$

That's easy. Look at Mitt Romney and his 5 sons. The Republican Elite "Do Not" send themselves or their own children out of this country to fight for the United States of America. That's the Poor People's job.

...But that's okay. Mitt believes in a strong America, he's a firm believer in maintaining our defense budget, and he's working hard to find the next American Enemy we can turn our attention to.

SIRIE - you asked who made the quote... IF you possessed the same amount of brains as you do computers ...

you would have typed the quote into GOOGLE & found out it was another LYIN MORMON that said it...

GLENN BECK ...the mouth with no teeth or integrity !

When you are done masturbating over this fact, please clean yourself up before you return HERE....the place that FOX NEWS FORCED YOU to come to,

because THEY shut off RWNJ reader comments because of the uncontrolled aggression & retributional threats .. even FOX sees the RWNJ as a LIABILITY !!

To my Democrat and independent friends . I know you like to complain about the 'Tea party ' , but if you think about it - They are a GIFT ! Every Republican who wants to get elected can no longer represent themselves as moderate ,or right leaning . Now they ALL have to kiss the tea party ass and brag about how ultra conservative they are .I consider myself an independent and I would truly like to see a third party candidate in honest contention for elected office .

Lets be honest -nobody wants to see any extreme element come to power ( well maybe in Texas ) but most Americans want to elect a representative that has EVERYBODY'S best interest in mind . That 47% comment by Romney ?

Check mate .

I foolishly thought that when Romney is defeated in November that the Republican party would try to distance itself from the Tea Party and their far Right policies and go back to the middle a little bit. I now think that the Tea Party will remain in control/power, blame Romney - their candidate, by the way - for screwing things up for them and dig in even deeper. Vote Democrat!!!!!!!

real mad independent

...the data shows 96%.....

The means the makers have resorted to becoming takers to get some of their money to use on themselves. If government did not take the money, then deduct off the top for administration costs, and return to states who do the same, there would be a lot more money left in people's pockets to care for themselves.

First of all, those takers include those you have used a government-paved road, taken deductions from the federal tax code, and taken advantage of federal regulations for utilities and vital services. I'll bet you've taken a tax deduction, driven on the Interstate Highway, and have taken advantage of safety regulations for buying food and water. The vast majority of Americans have taken advantage of government benefits since World War II, in part due to the expansion of the middle class and the economy, entailing a necessary expansion in the size and scope of the federal government. And don't give me that crap that it the government cuts taxes, people will help themselves. For one thing, tax cuts ARE government benefits, and tell me if you know any average American who has enough cash to build a highway to work or hire a security force to take care of their house???

Government is not the answer, government is the problem... delivered growth, solid economy, and security in the world....how is Obamanonics working for you. Most of the team that created the recovery program have gone back to college....without success other than some saved their tenure.

Great, the old Reagan mantra. Reaganomics failed in the 1980s, "real mad independent." Check the Savings and Loans Crisis of the late 80s. And by the way, if government is the problem, how come it was "free market" economic policies that trashed the economy via deregulation of financial markets and tax cuts that caused a speculative bubble??? Face it; you conservatives have worshiped and glorified the concept of the "free market" for decades, and whenever somebody points out its flaws (which it has many of them), you blame it all on government. The "free market" could not exist without the government, and vice versa. They are dependent on each other for survival, and both will do anything to keep the other alive (although the free market seems to have grown cocky and arrogant). The only good thing that came out of the financial recession was the proof that supply-side Reaganomics does not work; if it did, the last 30 years would have been a boom for both the economy AND the middle class. But no, economic inequality has increased, and upward mobility has slowed.

OBAMA BIDEN 2012

DEATH TO REAGANOMICS 2012

Kirk-2957282

There is a difference between saying the government is the problem in terms and advocating the elimination of government which no one in the GOP advocates and stopping a government expansion under Obama that has eliminated all aspects of self reliance, personal accountability and the concept of personal choice from the financial landscape. You say Romney hasnt made his case and those of us on the fiscal sanity side disagree. If you are poor, middle class or a minority can you explain to me how Obama has made his case? Each of these groups he claims to be an advocate for have performed the worse under his 4 years than others. Now we have SAT scores the lowest in 40 years. So he refuses to advocate for education reform to close the education gap in order to kowtow to the teachers unions who contribute an ungodly amount of money to his political party and I suppose you are going to blame that on Bush. He economic policies have benefited no one and have only made things worse for the constituents he claims he supports. So tell me how you can make the case for Obama over Romney for these people. The fact that he has given them more welfare?

Oh please, Kirk. The only reason why government has expanded under Obama is because of the RECESSION; and cutting government spending now so tightly will kill whatever recovery we have going. And while the middle class hasn't done that well under Obama, that is because we are suffering from a crisis DECADES in the making. This keg has been building up for over 30 years, and saying that since someone couldn't fix it in 4 he's a failure is a bit of an overstatement. And Obama HAS supported education reform; for God's sake he has expressed support for charter schools!!! I would personalize just federalize the system, model if off of the better performing nations and go from there, but he is taking the centrist route. And enough with the welfare gouging; the vast majority of Americans taking welfare are either unemployed or traditionally Republican constituencies, such as poor whites, seniors, military veterans, and corporations and millionaires.

OBAMA BIDEN 2012

This election is NOT over yet! It's never been much of a contest between Obama and Romney, but has always been more about CONGRESS!

VOTE AS MANY REPUBLICANS OUT OF CONGRESS AS POSSIBLE!!!!

Congressional Republicans can still hold Obama and a Democratic controlled Senate hostage, as they have the last 2 years.

VOTE A STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC TICKET!!!!!!

Obama/Biden 2012

We're gonna wash that man right out of Whitehouse, We're gonna wash that man right out of Whitehouse.

You know America cannot take another term of LIES, LIES, LIES.

We have to hope for better than the lies we've heard up to this point. I want a President who's loyalty is to AMERICA not a Muslim country.

Way to go KB, that's the way to handle he-man woman-haters like Clearvoice.

When you're done with him, pass it back to me.

He's all yours, skip! (Clearvoice?? sheesh, it's getting to be just like Orwell predicted...)

Debora, get past the pigmentation. Get on board for the future of our country and start paddling in the right direction.

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

kaybeetoys, you are the bigot, I don't are what color he is. HE IS A LIAR. Surely you cannot seriously believe all of his lies. If you do you are ignorant.

You people who call us bigots have no idea who we are. I was married to a man of mixed race, he died when we were still very young.

If anyone is a bigo kaybeetoys it's YOU.

You need to go look up the lies he told just to get into office.

The blind Nobama leading the blind and ignorant Americans.

Red_Cloud, I didn't say he is a Muslim, I said he supports the Muslim countries.

I know Obama said he is a Christian. That can mean a lot of things. I know a lot of people who say that they are Christian just because they belong to the Catholic church. Tt takes more than that to be a Christian, you must have asked Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins and to save you. If Obama said he was born in a garage that would not make him a car.

I am a born again Christian. I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

No offense; however, I don't believe in atheism. You bound to believe in something, we all do. We were born to worship. Agnostics I can believe in, they just don't know.

Debora - You have a distinct greenish tone. What race are you?

I know Obama said he is a Christian. That can mean a lot of things. I know a lot of people who say that they are Christian just because they belong to the Catholic church. Tt takes more than that to be a Christian, you must have asked Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins and to save you. I am a born again Christian. I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Debora, dear, you might want to read your bible again, especially the Sermon on the Mount.

May I ask for your opinion? Did Jesus Christ bring peace to the Earth and all its people? Do you consider him to be a success or a failure?

kaybetoys

since life is still going on and he has not returned the answer to your question is it is too early to answer. Of course i can't speak for Deborah she has a voice of her own.

Jesus Christ bring peace to the Earth and all its people?

He made the offer and it is still outstanding.

since life is still going on and he has not returned the answer to your question is it is too early to answer. Of course i can't speak for Deborah she has a voice of her own.

Sorry, but that's a cop out. Do we have peace on Earth, or do we not? After the planet has been annihilated by nuclear war or some natural disaster, then the question is moot. If we are all dead, what meaning does 'peace' have?

He made the offer and it is still outstanding.

He made the offer, but his life and his words have been hijacked by those who have no love for their fellow man. Those who only want to divide humans into categories have twisted religion to their own ends.

his promise was salvation it was his only promise. Peace on earth good will towards men was not a promise but an offer. it is up to us to achieve not him otherwise there would not be free will.