Rubio Chasing History; His Own
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida wants to be on the Republican Party ticket in 2016 period. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida knows that he has no chance of being on that ticket if he can’t find a way to bring the Republican Party along with altering their stance on Immigration Reform with the inclusion of a path to citizenship.
The truth is, Rubio has no seat on the 2016 ticket if he can’t bring the Hispanic Community along. He has a difficult task and he knows his political window for making history in the Executive Branch on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue hinges on a path for the 11million undocumented workers in this country.
Republicans got pummeled in the 2012 election and the future doesn’t look bright unless they [GOP] can find a way to appear to have heard the message from 2012. If there is no major shift in the party on immigration on the books by the next presidential election, if there is nothing the GOP can add to their cadre, they will pay and everyone, including Rubio knows it.
Lets read between the lines: In a report we did recently, Govern From The Middle, we spoke about the the Gang of Eight currently working on creating a bipartisan agreement that would effectively pass both houses of Congress and change America’s immigration policy in a historic way. All the players have something to gain, but none other than Florida’s Rubio.
He was destined to be the face of the bill, all stereotypes aside. The truth is if he doesn’t take the reins, he then loses credibility in the Hispanic community for not standing up/speaking up for them and with his ambitions, that’s a death nail. Alternatively however, if the bill fails to produce a path to citizenship, it then relegates those undocumented workers to second class citizens. As you may remember, it was not even a year ago that former republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned for self deportation.
As part of the Eight, Rubio worked very hard to draft this legislation. He labored to ensure all the conservatives’ concerns were incorporated into the proposed bill. All the members had their individual roles to play in order to bring along the business community and the AFL-CIO. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) one week ago signaled a deal. That’s same day, within hours, Rubio slammed that door of optimism shut.
Why was Rubio doing this slow walking? He knew he he needed to hedge his political bets to get assurance from the critics that they would not rip off his head. Rubio wanted them to give him a chance to make the case for the bill without having his legs ripped out from under him prematurely. Rubio wants a cleared path for his bill but he doesn’t want to be attached to it unless it is. So he is walking on both sides of the bill, figuring there is gold at one end of these rainbows.
Rubio wanted (1.) Extensive Hearings But what he got is one single hearing scheduled in a week or so. Over the last week to 10 ten days he has met privately with individual GOP senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee to brief them on the bill. (2.) Message Control According to Politico, His staff has pitched the plan to conservative thought leaders, including at the National Review and Wall Street Journal editorial board as well as the columnist Charles Krauthammer.
Who does all this meeting when they don’t believe in the bill? The problem is, Rubio continues to threaten that he will abandon the other Seven in the Gang of Eight if he finds himself in a pickle with the party critics. Odd because, it was a week ago that Sen. Schumer said, “The staffs of the eight of us are in a room working twelve-hours a day taking all the agreements that we’ve come to over the last three months and turning them into legislative, specific legislative language”. He went on to say “That’s a tedious arduous process. … but thus far we are on track.
What more did Rubio feel he needed to do? Well, after appearing to buy himself some time to effectively present the bill, the Sunday morning talk shows will all get a dose of the Florida Senator today as he makes his rounds to push discussions of the legislation. That’s right, Rubio won’t be talking this bill, but instead the need for a bill. Not sure how much of that is different from what he’s been doing but hey…it appears Rubio has found a niche.
He gets to say, he has worked on legislation, he gets to say he had made proposals for the legislation, but he has also given himself an out so if it fails, he won’t be blamed. A statement released yesterday from the Senator says, “Obviously, we’ll be informing the public, and we’ll want everyone to know everything that’s in the bill. We want everyone to know as much of what’s in the bill as possible, and we will use every opportunity we have to communicate that”.
But don’t be convince he is “All in” as some may believe. Rubio left the door open to abandoning ‘Gang and siding with others on legislation he thinks may be better received after this communication blitz is done. The ‘Gang thinks they’ve done all this already and count on their unity to keep the bill intact. Republicans will definitely work to kill the bill and caution Rubio’s sway. The GOP wants the bill broken up into smaller pieces instead of one large comprehensive package but the public will have no part of that and Rubio knows it.
At the end of the day, there must be a bill and it has to be now because the midterms are flatly approaching and the electorate is watching. It has to be one large bill. It has to be comprehensive. The polling, the public and the next election depends on it. Rubio knows what is right and he sincerely believes in this legislation or he would not have invested as much time into it. BUT, he wants to be on the ticket in 2016 and he will need the his own Confidence Coalition to do it.
Obama had the Minority Coalition; Women, African Americans and Hispanics. Rubio will need the backing of his Tea Party roots, the support of the GOP base and the voice if the Hispanic Community in order to take the historic mantle. Beware of the gamble he takes today. Rubio has just potentially hijacked the immigration issue from the rest of the ‘Gang if received well in the media and on Capital Hill, but he may have also just set himself on a course of being slow-walked himself by a party that is only interested in the next election, but not his. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
Republicans Adding Lipstick To The Pig?
He called it, “window dressing”, with regards to how the GOP has conducted its tough love policy management in recent history. The He I’m referring to is a republican himself who knows quite a bit about how a political party touts its diverse members for political gain. This He is former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts who rose through the ranks of Newt Gingrich’s House of Representatives in the late 90′s. Although Watts left Congress in 2003, he is currently being nudged to seek the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, challenging possibly, Reince Preibus, the current Chairman who is seeking another two year term in the political post.
The Clinton White House back then was sucking all the “minority air” out of the electorate. Democrats were excited to be back in the Executive mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since the disappointing Carter Administration. Many on the conservative side felt then, the way most feel today, that Barack Obama should have lost, then, it was that Bill Clinton should have lost to the battle tested George H.W. Bush. Struggling to redefine their position on minorities even then, J.C. Watts was an opportunity the party jumped behind to attempt to reinvent itself.
In 1994, while campaigning, Watts got support from all of the GOP heavy hitters, then Former President George Bush and everyone else all the way down the ladder wanted a piece of the hype of a potential African American who could carry the party message. Watts was the real deal, dont get me wrong, he was against Affirmative Action, he was willing to explain how the GOP tax policy would benefit other minorities and he wasn’t interested in welfare without reforms. Nevertheless, it was still an image remake for the party as it began the republicans return to power through it’s Contract with America.
Mr. Watts knows how “window dressing” can remake a party long enough for the voters to pay attention to the message. The uphill walk however is somehow made more difficult as the electorate has become inundated with cable cycles that never end, literally, and the world’s web. Paul Ryan, the recent Vice Presidential nominee for Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid is likely considering the 2016 race along with another GOP Senator, Florida’s Marco Rubio.
They both are retooling their message to adjust to the ever-swaying electorate. Too much, and the voters will think you’re a phony out hustling for a win. If you don’t go far enough, adding vision while building a movement, not a bubble, then it sounds like the same broken and time dated plank that can no longer win the day. They both are merely two peas in a huge pod of other likely candidates who will hope to lead the republican party, but navigating through the next four years of difficult votes and landscape-shifting legislation wont be easy for anyone in the heat of the governing battle right now.
Obama’s Minority Coalition of voters and his use of The Obama Rule will make it a challenge for republicans to simply put the same emperor in new clothes and expect voters to assume he will govern differently. Ryan altered his messaging many times during the last campaign, but he failed at selling it; he’s hoping for another shot. Rubio has the bug, but he should be careful, being first comes with land mines as Obama quickly found. He has a harder task than Obama had however, as a conservative, national demographics are running in the opposite direction. His message has to not only be different, but it has to feel inspiring and…well different.
Whether Watts throws his hand in the race for the chairmanship, which was thought to be lock for the current Chair, or not, Watts has a voice his party should listen too; he wants the party to “broaden the tent” through effective legislation that reaches and stop just talking about how big the canopy is philosophically. Could he once again be a part of the republican remake? The party should not hope another contract will be enough. Americans today are less concerned about the way Washington does its business and more concerned about their own lives instead.
If the current policy discussions on the table are any indication of where Americans are, Immigration Reform, Equality, Employment, Healthcare and the resurgent Housing market is what should be front and center. Republicans have to find a way to win an election without taxes being front and center to every policy position. Romney believed the way you fix equal pay for women in the workplace was to help businesses by lowering their taxes which would in turn, encourage businesses to hire more workers and more women or better yet, don’t give them equal pay, just give them more time at home. I mean, you just can’t make this stuff up. Whatever his true position was, his message was always all wrong and perceived to favor big business.
Message has to win the day in any campaign, but you can’t just throw lipstick on a pick and call it a remake. Voters expect more. Rubio, Ryan, Gov. Jindal (Louisiana), if you guys are going to start running for president this early, before we’ve sworn the guy in for his second term in The White House, fine! Go for it. But if you think we are going to accept the same crap’ola disguised in your next political book about America’s greatness…think again. Um just saying, that’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
Voters Give GOP A Reason For Reasoning
There are a great many reasons that Mitt Romney, the GOP’s Presidential nominee lost the race for The White House earlier this month but you wouldn’t know it from his conference call with his campaign’s finance team yesterday. On election night, America witnessed a very gracious concession speech from Mr. Romney that almost made you want to believe that this was the real Romney. Unfortunately with that description, it lends the understanding to be one that he [Romney] is not genuine, but that’s a caricature he has made for himself and it seems to be continuing in the post election meetings as well.
Yesterday, Mr. Romney began to sound more and more like Karl Rove, the largest fundraiser for The Romney Campaign via his American Crossroads PAC that raised $300 million for Romney. Over the last week, Rove has used if not created just about every excuse for their loss against an embattled democratic president who should have lost his re-election bid.
Romney launched into his all-newly edited version of the 47% critique on the call without actually using percentages this time, but the content was the same. “The President’s campaign focused on giving targeted groups a gift-so he [Obama] focused on the small things. Those small things by the way, add up to trillions of dollars”. It goes without saying that this has further angered some in both political parties.
What were the gifts Romney was referring too? (1) Healthcare for anyone up to 26 who lost their jobs and can now be placed on their parent’s insurance. (2) Allowing Hispanics brought into this country as a child by a parent who entered illegally, who lived here there entire life, a path to make it right; citizenship. (3) assistance with college loans for those young people who want to go to college but can’t afford it all by themselves; a loan not a grant. If these are gifts, what is a tax loop-hole for the rich? Is that a gift? Are tax incentives for the wealthy a gift, of course not.
The democrats yesterday lurched at the revised 47% redux from the former presidential candidate as if to almost shout “I told you so!” Republicans who are already licking their battle scars are now fed up with Romney and would just wish he would go away. The comment has certainly removed any chance that Obama would follow-up on any olive branch extended on election night to sit and meet with Romney.
Republican Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal was the first to go on the record with his frustration over the comments. “No, I think that is absolutely wrong, we need to stop dividing American voters- we need to go after 100 percent of the voters and not just 53%. We need to go after every single vote said Governor Jindal.
Visibly agitated, Jindal continued, “…we need to continue to show how our policies will help every voter out there achieve the American dream…so I absolutely reject that notion, that description, I think that’s [Romney] wrong”. Keep in mind folks, Governor Jindal was on the short list for Romney’s Vice Presidential pick and is on the short list for a possible ur for the presidency in 2016 for the republicans. Jindal was an avid supporter for Romney and campaigned vigorously for the Romney-Ryan ticket.
Republicans know they cannot afford to continue being unreasonable and insensitive to a growing demographic. I disagree that the demographic is one group or the other, that growing demographic is the Minority Coalition that the President’s community organizing group, Organizing For America put together for Obama, which included the Latino Community, the African American Community and Women. If republicans want to break into that arena and peel away some of those voters, they have to start now.
Republicans have begun to see the reasoning in becoming more reasonable. After four years of stalling reasonable tax discussions, not willing to give $1 in tax increases for every $10 in spending cuts (NOT REASONABLE)- Now Speaker Boehner, the GOP House Leader is willing to reverse that decision; working vigorously to prevent Obama’s Dream Act, which is a major immigration reform policy and only offering self-deportation as an option to nearly 11 million (NOT REASONABLE)- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is actively working to push a new immigration policy after his party rejected any notion of it earlier. And now Republicans, Jindal being first, will work hard and fast against the 47% rhetoric.
Expect louder voices to come out against the former presidential candidate and expect them to not mince words. They will all fight to be on the record for coming out against the narrative that these forms of assistance are not as described by Romney, gifts, but instead what Americans voted for when they re-elected Obama. Republicans will need to make certain that they are not looking to punish voters for their selection but look inward to their own party message.
You can’t tell someone that their only hope of being accepted in this country after they have lived here, served in our military, paid taxes but failed to secure citizenship that they must self-deport and go to the back of the line and apply AND expect their community to vote for you. That’s a message problem not a issue with the giving of gifts. You can’t tell someone who went to college and can’t find a job that they can’t be on their parents insurance until they find work AND expect their vote. You also can’t deny young people who want to attend college a school loanthat they will pay back when they graduate AND expect their vote.
Romney also blasted insurance coverage for contraception for women, yeah, he did. Hey guys, you can’t deny a women contraception through her insurance plan AND expect her vote. This is truly a message problem. Those republicans who hope to keep their jobs or have futures in politics understand that they have to find tolerance and reasoning for other voters outside of the 53% if they want to hang around. Romney is unemployed and his own lack of reasoning…is the reason why. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
Arizona In Play?
With Romney’s momentum in the race full speed ahead of this week’s second Presidential debate at Hofstra University, 25 miles east of New York City, how is the latest news of Obama tightening the race in Republican stronghold of Arizona even possible? Most polls effectively show Romney holding his own rather nicely, yet Obama has closed within the margin of error; Romney’s job now is to not make the error.
Not since 1996 has the state of Arizona voted for a democrat although Obama forced McCain to campaign in his own home state four years ago during the 2008 general election. Senator John McCain carried the state however, he was forced to work the home front at a time he would have preferred to be somewhere else on the electoral map.
One poll conducted by The Behavior Research Center released Saturday put Obama head of Romney by two percentage points, 42-40 percent among registered voters and 44-42 percent among likely voters. The razor thin margins are going to force turnout. Electoral votes will be assigned by foot traffic.
The constant in the details remain the same; Romney is leading in Arizona among White voters by 16% points and Obama takes the lion share among the state’s Latino voters, a whopping 67% points pitting both men against each other in a dead heat race. During this election cycle, Romney has commanded the White vote across the electoral map leading in heavily rural and suburban areas while Mr. Obama has continued to run strong in the urban areas where African Americans and Latinos are registered or likely to vote.
Mitt Romney would love to hold on to Arizona because it represents a republican safe zone with 11 electoral votes. Obama would love to place the state in his win column and therefore destroying Romney’s path to victory by removing a state John McCain won in the 2008 campaign. This race is not over regardless of the GOP candidate’s exploding crowds of late. The cash war is still being won by the incumbent and enough of the race is still tilted toward Obama’s re-election, but Arizona is now play calling to question what “momentum” really looks like.
That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
9 Days/9 Ways: BATTLEGROUND WISCONSIN
To date, we have looked at states that were either always considered battleground turfs or they were once conservative strongholds now up for grabs but the narrative with Wisconsin now changes because ideally it was a state expected to go once again for Obama; as it did in 2008. Only with the selection of Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin for the VP slot by Presidential candidate Mitt Romney did the state turn a shade of purple.
That’s a hit to the Obama camp for sure, they were counting that into their election day math, but that’s exactly the purpose of our 9Day/9Ways post; to look at how campaigns are able to pivot and refocus. The first one to 270 wins and Wisconsin has a seat at the table this year hands down with Paul Ryan on the republican ticket. Although that’s not a sure in, it’s definitely not to be overlooked.
The citizens of Wisconsin have been extremely politically active over the last year with the unsuccessful recall of the republican Governor, Scott Walker; the hotly contested Senate race with its former Governor, and former Bush Cabinet Secretary, Tommy Thompson. The late addition of Ryan has served as a boon to the GOP’s brand, but Ryan is somewhat double-dipping in the ad markets considering he’s running to become the next Vice President of the United States while simultaneously running to maintain his Congressional House seat in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is a must win for the Romney campaign. Ryan must deliver the state in order for the ticket to be successful in November. Romney is not expected to deliver the two states he has spent quite a bit of time in; Michigan, the battleground – and Romney’s birthplace as well as the state his father served as Governor and Massachusetts, Mr. Romney’s current place of residence – and the state in which he himself served as Governor for 4yrs. The campaign cannot afford to lose two of the nine battleground states and expect to win The White House.
Many will be watching the State on November 6th because in the hands of those in Wisconsin, they hold the keys to several major shifts in political power in the halls of the nation’s Capital. The Senate race may tip the Senate majority to the GOP, giving the republicans the entire Congress, a death-nail to the Obama agenda and to the President’s signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act.
Those same voters playa major role in whether Obama will become only the second Democrat to be limited to one term in modern history, behind Carter 1976-1980. Although Ryan is expected to retain his congressional seat, he is smart not to take his opponents for the seat for granted. The loss of his House seat, removes a powerful GOP leader from the House Budget Committee and brings the House of Representatives within improbable reach do the democrats and Nancy Pelosi.
Wisconsin has arrived at the Big Show and they are ready to dance. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
Jeb Bush: Obama dealt bad deal
The former two-term Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush acknowledge recently on Meet The Press, that President Obama was undoubtedly “…dealt a bad hand [on the economy], no question about it”. It is the first full throated admission from a well respected republican on the matter, since…well, never.
Although that may appear to be an endorsement, albeit a weak one, that wasn’t the intention of the elder of brother of the 43rd President and son of the 41st President. He was actually chastising Obama for continuously blaming his younger brother for the current economic woes. “I think it’s time for him [Obama] to move on,” Bush said.
Jeb Bush acknowledge, without hesitation that the U.S. economy was already in trouble when Mr. Obama took over, but he also believed three years was long enough for Obama to have made some significant strides toward a stable recovery, and that clearly has not happened.
As we pointed out a few weeks ago on PoliticianNextDoor.com, the American people also no longer blame the former Bush as much as they believe Obama has not done enough to turn this titanic around. The poll as we had pointed out was done by The Hill, which found 34% of Americans blame Obama while only18% still believe Bush is to blame.
The overarching belief from Dems is that the economy was so damaged that it has taken longer than anyone could have anticipated. They support that theory with the notion that, unlike many previous recessions, the economic, housing, employment and healthcare infrastructures were not all broken simultaneously. The horrors of the Great Depression were not overcome in three years, it would easily take a decade; expect nothing different here now.
Here is my 2 cents, it’s funny how the republicans have developed a schism for “fuzzy math”. The same people who believed the war in Afganistan would only take two years and that we would be met as liberators, not to mention that the “coalition” would foot the bill, actually ate up a 10 years, billions of dollars a month paid for by american taxpayers and thousands of soldiers lost their lives. And these are the same guys who think this massive debt, the mood of the country should be erased…”move on”? Mr. Bush, we truly wish it was that easy.
Jeb has made his rounds in the past few weeks defending his brother’s record and asking Obama, rather publicly to stop blaming his brother for the current economic ills, however, even former President Clinton, The White House occupant serving between both Presidents’ Bush acknowledged no president could have fixed the mess left by George W. in only four years. 50% family loyalty, 30% politics, 20% nonsense. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
How Food Stamps Help Wall Street
At a time when more than 51% of Americans are relying on the nation’s $75 Billion food stamp program, it has become the stuff political wedge used to attack the President for his economic policies. The republicans have spun America’s reliance on the system as a direct reflection on the over reach of the democratic party. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has proposed slashing food stamp spending and turning it into a block grant program.
Democrats have spoke out in an effort to remind voters precisely where the economic problems began; under the previous administration. They continue, the record dependence for food assistance has only increased since the economic woes of 2008.
Those are the typical political posturings of political animals, however to Mr. Ryan’s dismay, the food assistance program has been a boon; a stimulus of sorts to many of our nation’s food distributors as well as their shareholders.
Tony Vernon, the incoming CEO at the world’s third largest food and beverage company, has come out against cutbacks. According to The Financial Times this past Sunday, Vernon isn’t the only major executive to make his political views known regarding the strong bottom lines strengthened by the program.
In this case, food stamps are vital to Kraft’s bottom line. Food stamp purchases make up at least one-sixth of Kraft’s revenue and an even larger share of the company’s total sales, Vernon said in the FT article. America’s biggest food makers and retailers have joined in the fight against pending cuts to federal food assistance programs largely because they rely heavily on sales purchased with food stamps.
Republicans are being pressured by the lobbyists representing these distributors and suppliers to our nation’s grocers. Democrats are not going to let the opportunity go to waste, so they are touting the support it has given to both ends of the supply chain, the supply side as well as the demand side. Last month we submitted a post, “Reforming Your Rights”, which spoke of the entitlement program Dems have gone on record to speak of the unexpected benefits the food program has been the source of.
The food stamp program has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Funding for SNAP, as it’s known, jumped to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion just four years earlier. Some health groups have argued that food stamps are too often used to buy junk food from companies like Kraft and Walmart.
All things are political in the 24hr cable news cycle. Just this morning, there was “Breaking News” about CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s new glasses…Really? So after former GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich called Obama “The Food Stamp President”, the term among conservatives has set the imagery for the fall campaigns and has been repeated as a mantra for the anti-Obama movement.
Wall Street has benefited from the program by leaps and bounds. Just as the healthcare industry will reap the rewards of Universal Healthcare, both ends of the supply chain in various sectors have found ways to survive in these economically challenged times. Kraft’s Vernon is concerned about losing the additional revenues, just as Americans are concerned about losing the additional food assistance.
That’s my story and um sticking to it!
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
The Obama Strategy
Then Senator Obama changed the electoral map in his 2008 march to Washington D.C. Along the way he famously dispatched the notorious Clinton Machine in the political battle for the ages before he went on to dismantle the “maverick”, John McCain’s hopes of his rogue VP nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The Obama strategy was a simple one, he simply added voters from states not typically known for playing a role in electoral politics.
By moving into Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina, states not known for coming out for democrats poured out avalanche style for Mr. Obama. Voter registrations piled up to move the democrat from entering battlegrounds and instead made them states leaning his direction at the end of the day.
He also involved the smallest donor, unlike previous candidates who solely focused on big campaign dollars which built the largest war chest in the history of presidential politics totally nearly three quarters of a billion dollars. Such an overwhelming accomplishment from such an unsuspecting candidate. Since then, conservatives having been out-foxed, have focused on rolling back voting policies with the intention of making it more difficult for many Americans to vote this November. Voter ID laws pushed through state legislatures were created to slow down Obama’s strategy of being re-elected.
That’s not stopping President Obama from designing new paths to his history and completing his executive agenda from the Oval. On yesterday he began a 2-day tour to expand his base of support with the hopes of widening his margin over Governor Romney in those key groups that Romney is having a hard time wooing.
His take of Florida through the strong coalition he built was a good place to start from for this go around. He targeted the votes of those seniors currently worried about the voucher plan proposed by the Romney-Ryan ticket to replace Medicaid and Social Security. Everyone knows on order to win Florida, you have to own the I-4 corridor (central Florida-Orlando/Kissimmee and the entire south Florida area, mainly Miami-Dade County as your base of support.
However Mr. Obama is broadening that base by boasting his Administration’s policies for the growing Hispanic populations and the seniors as well as the strong military presence in the north Florida area-Jacksonville by having Michelle Obama and Jill Biden reaching out to military families, normally a republican stronghold.
Just yesterday, officials in the Romney camp began dismissing their chances to take Ohio in November after saying previously, they felt positive about the much needed battleground state. Although they are looking for new paths to victory, they concede, those paths are more difficult without Ohio considering no republican has won the presidency without Ohio. Wisconsin is now in play with the VP selection of Mr. Ryan onto the. Ticket, however, they still lag behind several points there as they do to date in Michigan, Romney’s birthplace and the state where his father served as Governor.
Both men must win their home states in order to stay in play. They have to carry their constituents in order to pull through Obama’s expansion plan. At the rate Team Obama is moving, Romney may need yet another billion dollars from his PACs to build the ground game Obama is going to launch his assault from in November. McCain felt that wrath in 2008 and Mr. Romney, if all accounts are correct from inside his camp, is beginning to stare down that same barrel.
With Bill Clinton working the west coast, Obama working the southern belt, Biden up in the Northeast wooing the white working class and blue collar men, Michelle Obama blanketing the radio airwaves and Jill Biden encapsulating the teacher unions and suburban women, the path to victory is beginning to look once again like multidirectional approach that is nearly impossible to overcome. McCain could not be in all places at once in the 2008 campaign, and with little help from the republican incumbent in The White House at the time, he was faced with four Obama paths to victory but only 2 guns.
Romney is counting on the October debates to slow Obama’s march down. That is his only hope to pigeonhole the electoral expansion strategy. After the debates, there will be no way to stop the roller steaming over them if the Romney folks don’t pull their heads out of the muddy waters. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
An Obama Bounce or Bump?
Could it be?…what go’eth thou?…to even our amazement at PoliticianNextDoor.com, it appears President Obama and the Democratic Party are getting what some have considered a post convention bounce.
On Friday, Sept. 7, Gallup Daily tracking update puts Obama’s job approval rating at 52%, the highest it has been since May 2011, after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama has also moved to a 48% to 45% lead over Mitt Romney among registered voters in the election tracking, up from Obama’s 47% to 46% margin over the last nine days.
This is huge because the fallout from Obama’s acceptance speech had been mixed with regard delivery, however the american people have a different opinion from us talking heads and typing hands. They have determined that Mr. Obama trounced his GOP counterparts, at least for now.
Days before the GOP, I wrote that 2012 would be the “Year of the Zero Bounce”, and that was most certainly true for the republicans party presentation down in Tampa two weeks ago. Gallup does not track other measures on Romney that would be comparable to the job approval figure for Obama.
Dems were worried that the release of the August job report numbers showing the U.S. created fewer jobs than anticipated would be the ail in the coffin after such a great convention, and although Romney pounced on it yesterday on a campaign stop, Gallup, for now, indicates the voters see it another way. The real story will be more evident next week as polling comes in from the convention followup. Whether it be a bump or a bounce, it all could vaporize over the next few days putting the race back into a dead heat as we projected earlier.
However, there is always a HUGE “IF”. So, what IF the President gains traction and discovers a path to maintaining 52% approval rating, the Romney folks could see the sands of time working against them. The worst thing that could happen to an opponent is to have the American people become familiar with seeing the incumbent in the lead. When that happens, there is nothing Team Romney will be able to do, barring an abysmal performance by Obama, that will keep the light on the path for Romney.
HealthCare vs. “VoucherCare”
Vice President Biden stepped off Air Force Two on Sunday on a mission. He was determined to define the the choice Americans will have on election day. The tone of the Administration has sharpened as they have had to double-down on ensuring the voters understand the differences between what both parties are putting forward to meet the need of seniors and those without medical care.
Biden said, “folks…this is not your father’s republican party, for real”…, as he began his stump speech. Right in the back yard of the GOP V.P. nominee, Biden laid out the difference between HealthCare that the Dems are offering through the President’s Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and what Biden termed as the republican’s plan, VoucherCare.
As he began connecting to the crowd of 1,000 in the Green Bay area, the Vice President invoked stories of his late mother who passed at the age of 92 in 2010. He said, “my mother was a smart woman, but I can’t imagine handing her a voucher at 80 years old saying – you go out into the insurance market and find what’s best for you”.
Romney and Ryan would like to eliminate the guaranteed Medicaid program for seniors with the hopes of reducing the costs to the program and instead issue seniors vouchers to pay for their healthcare. Any cost exceeding the allotted voucher would be laid for by the senior and not the government. This has been met by angst among those seniors who depend on Medicaid and cannot afford additional coverage or supplemental programs which will be paid for out of their own pockets.
The GOP plan has been determined to cost seniors more money, to the tune of $6,500 more a year. Dems have pushed hard on this issue slowly moving the Romney campaign off their economic message.
This battle over Medicaid is not over and we all can expect this to wage on well until after the election and solidly into the next Congress. The conservatives in all fairness look at this Ryan plan as a way to fiscally address the likely end of Medicaid within the next decade unless something is done; they don’t believe the President’s bill, ObamaCare will sustain the program effectively, not to mention they just eleven his plan provides too much.
The Dems believe that the republicans are only watching out for the healthcare industry, doctors and less about those who cannot afford healthcare in our nation. PoliticianNextDoor.com can only implore you to see both plans for yourself. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
