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Western Battleground States Crucial For Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2012 CommentThe new electoral battlegrounds are in the West, especially Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, says a senior Democratic strategist.
Pollster Cornell Belcher tells me that these states could be just as important as the traditional Midwestern battlegrounds of Ohio and Missouri in the presidential election. This is partly because their populations are growing, with a resulting increase in their electoral clout, and also because these Western states are now in play for both the Democrats and the Republicans.
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Why The Battle Over Bain Matters
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2012 CommentThe Republicans are fighting back hard against charges that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney used predatory practices when he ran Bain Capital, a private-equity firm. In the process, Bain has become the first big flashpoint of the 2012 campaign, drawing both sides into a pitched battle.
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Romney Aides: Obama's Job Approval Will Decide Election
Tweet Share on Facebook May 21, 2012 CommentRepublican candidate Mitt Romney and his advisers have boiled down the presidential race to three "realities":
1. The election will be very close.
2. President Obama's standing is "trending downward" as his job-approval ratings remain below 50 percent.
3. The economy will be the top issue.
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Ron Paul Diehards Worry GOP Establishment
Tweet Share on Facebook May 21, 2012 CommentRepublican strategists and some of Ron Paul's advisers are concerned that diehard Paul backers may turn confrontational at the GOP national convention, bent on pushing a libertarian agenda and perhaps staging a series of protests against the Republican establishment and presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Paul's effort to amass delegates for his presidential campaign is proceeding, even though he says he won't campaign in the remaining primary states, only at state conventions and other gatherings where political organization can make all the difference. His backers won 32 of 40 delegates from Minnesota last weekend after Paul leaders again outmaneuvered Romney supporters at the state's GOP convention.
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Obama's Decree Alters African-Americans' Stance on Gay Marriage
Tweet Share on Facebook May 18, 2012 Comment (2)President Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage could persuade many African-Americans to change their traditional opposition to gay unions, Obama's strategists say.
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Four Years Later, Obama's Rev. Wright Trouble Resurfaces
Tweet Share on Facebook May 18, 2012 Comment (1)Some of President Obama's more vehement critics are getting what they wanted after all—renewed media attention to his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Obama's church in Chicago whose racially incendiary views have embarrassed Obama before.
Even though the principal players say they don't want the issue to play a big role in the presidential campaign, the media have been covering the latest episode heavily, with the result that the supercharged issue of race has already been re-injected into the national debate.
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Obama's Re-Election Hopes Boosted By Americans' View of Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2012 Comment (4)Americans are gradually concluding that the economy is getting better, which will be a big asset for President Obama in the November election, according to Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher.
Belcher, who takes surveys for the Obama campaign and Democratic congressional candidates, tells me, "Americans are still anxious about the economy, but people see it stabilizing, and that's important."
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Romney Campaign: Obama Not the Uniting Figure He Promised
Tweet Share on Facebook May 17, 2012 CommentMitt Romney's campaign says Americans are increasingly troubled and disappointed by President Obama's polarizing tactics. The strategists say criticism of Obama as a divisive figure will figure prominently in a forthcoming GOP attack on his record that will last for the rest of the campaign.
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Americans Elect Struggles to Find Suitable Third-Party Candidate
Tweet Share on Facebook May 16, 2012 Comment (5)Americans Elect is going through some tough times. The advocacy group was created by several wealthy activists to place an independent presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states this fall. The trouble, it turns out, is that no one has met the group's standards to qualify for its presidential nomination, and Americans Elect has announced that it is suspending the process, at least for now.
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Super PAC Dishes Out $25 Million for Anti Obama Ads
Tweet Share on Facebook May 16, 2012 Comment (1)American Crossroads, the conservative "super PAC," has announced a $25 million ad buy for the next month.
The buy matches a $25 million TV purchase by President Obama's re-election organization, signaling that neither side is willing to surrender any territory as the campaign swings into high gear.
