Public Opinion Polls

Will “It’s The Economy, Stupid!” Outweigh The Death Of Osama Bin Laden And Help Mitt Romney Against Barack Obama?

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A month ago, President Barack Obama’s public opinion polls skyrocketed, following the successful elimination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Now, a month later, due to the unstable economy and lack of major job growth, and general economic pessimism, Obama has lost the majority support he had last month, and has slipped below 50 percent in the polls.

In the Washington Post-ABC News poll, Obama has slipped to 47 percent, and in a matchup with Mitt Romney, he is behind by three points, 46-43, emboldening the former Massachusetts Governor to believe he has an advantage for 2012, and that such an advantage will give him the edge for the Republican Presidential nomination.

The problem is that Romney might, for now, be ahead, and he might, realistically, along with Jon Huntsman, be the BEST candidate for the GOP, but that is no guarantee that he will win the nomination of his party or the election in November 2012!

The fact that he has stated his belief that global warming and climate change are a real factor, if not the sole one, in what is happening regarding weather and environmental conditions, will not win friends from the social conservatives.

Nor will his Mormon faith, the same problem of Jon Huntsman, help Romney, since evangelical Christians do not regard Mormons as Christians, but rather as a cult.

Nor will his Massachusetts health care plan, often compared to Obama Health Care, although he has carefully defended it, while saying he would not foist it on the nation as a whole.

Nor will his chameleon nature, constantly changing his views with the shifting political winds, with many seeing him as a moderate to liberal Republican in his past, but now claiming to be a conservative.

Nor will his slick manner, his seemingly perfect family and clean image, help him because it seems, somehow, contrived to many!

But will an economy with a high unemployment rate, poor housing prices, high gasoline prices, and a stagnating stock market, be enough to help Romney or some other Republican, and outweigh the national security issue, including the death of Bin Laden, and the fact that America is involved in fighting terrorism in FIVE nations by bombing and drones–Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Yemen–making Obama look tough on defense and security issues?

Just about 16 and a half months away from the election, and eight months from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the Republican Party has some hope, but many daunting challenges ahead, but then again, so does Barack Obama, to convince the nation to re-elect a President with high unemployment numbers and percentages, greater than since Franklin D. Roosevelt!

The Collapse Of The “Bully” Governors In Public Opinion Polls

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2011 will be remembered as the year of the “Bully” Governors, who declared war on public service employees, and took away long held union collective bargaining rights, and promoted disrespect and lack of appreciation of the role that police, firefighters, nurses, teachers and others have in our lives every day.

But now, public opinion polls demonstrate a rising public reaction against these governors, with all looking at statistics that make it clear that were they to face the voters just months after being elected, they would be soundly defeated!

Scott Walker of Wisconsin has only a 43 percent rating, while the “dean” of the “Bully” Governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has been in office one year longer and has had people in his party clamoring him to run for President, has only 40 percent behind him.

Meanwhile, John Kasich of Ohio is down to 33 percent, and Rick Scott of Florida is at the lowest with 29 percent in favor of his performance, as compared to 57 percent against!

And, as reported earlier, Christie was ordered by a state Supreme Court decision to provide an additional $500 million for funding of poor school districts.

Meanwhile, Walker’s anti union legislation has been declared unconstitutional by a state judge!

There is definite “buyer’s remorse” by voters who either failed to vote in many of these state elections, or did not realize what they were doing when they did vote.

And a state representative in Alabama, outraged over the attack on teachers and public education, has switched from the Republicans to the Democrats in protest of what has happened. And in Jacksonville, Florida, usually a Republican city, a Democrat was elected mayor for the first time in 20 years, along with a Democrat winning in a special legislative election in New Hampshire for an open seat. All this comes at the same time that a Democrat was elected in a NY 26 special House election, as reported earlier.

So the tide is turning, and it gives the Democrats hope of winning back the House of Representatives in 2012, needing only 24 seats to win control!

The Lack Of Reality Of The American People As Shown In Public Opinion Polls

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It is becoming very clear that the American people, based on public opinion polls, at least, are living in a dream world, avoiding reality!

Polls indicate that the people do not want entitlement cuts to deal with the debt problems the nation faces.

At the same time, they do not want to see the debt limit raised next month!

The lack of economic knowledge and understanding is pitiful, as indeed many Americans lack the ability to balance their own checkbook or take care of their own finances, and yet, somehow, magically, they seem to think that the only thing that matters is do not touch anything, and refuse to recognize that entitlements must be paid for, and that the good faith and credit of the United States government is at stake if the debt limit is not raised!

While it is clear that most Americans want the corporations and the rich to pay more taxes, it is also clear that even doing so cannot resolve the debt or deficit crisis!

The fact is that all of us will have to pay MORE taxes in order to sustain the entitlements that most Americans do not want to be cut back! There is no free lunch, as the saying goes, and praying for divine guidance will also not be enough to deal with reality!

So the answer is to make sure that corporations and the top two percent of the people pay a higher tax rate as they paid under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

Secondly, all of the rest of us will also have to pay higher taxes and stop complaining about it, since we want the various entitlement programs to be sustained.

Third, there is an essential requirement to start cutting back on overseas defense bases and military commitments, which are having a horrible effect on our budget deficits.

Fourth, there is a dire need to reform the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security system long term, so as to sustain them. Anyone who suggests no changes is being totally irresponsible!

Fifth, the debt limit MUST be raised next month, as not to do so would be totally reckless, dangerous, and detrimental to the economic welfare of the nation, as well as the world at large!

Finally, the spirit of compromise somehow must be promoted, or else the nation will at some point be in as dangerous a situation internally as it was 150 years ago, with economic class warfare, age warfare, racial warfare in the offing, a horrific thought!

A spirit of nationalism, and bipartisanship, is sorely needed, and right now, to resolve the nation’s ills!

Barack Obama, Paul Ryan, And The Fight Over Medicare’s Future!

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During this Easter-Passover break in the Congressional session, President Obama has been campaigning against the Paul Ryan Republican plan on the budget, particularly with the proposal to change Medicare over ten years to a voucher system.

Obama has said that such a change would be destructive and make it essential for seniors in the future to pay heavy extra costs for health care, as the vouchers would only pay about one third of the expenses.

Ryan has said that the voucher is the only way to save Medicare and promote a future balanced budget.

But Ryan has been gaining some unfriendly reactions, even in his own district in Wisconsin, and Obama has been seeing growing support in public opinion polls, against major changes in Medicare, even among Republicans, and even Tea Party people, as well as Independents!

It is clear that Americans want Medicare retained in its basic form, with some tinkering with it to cut costs!

After all, either an American is on Medicare; or nearing Medicare; or his or her parents or grandparents are on Medicare; or smartly realizes that one day they will be elderly and want the protection and the benefits of Medicare!

In any case, most Americans are willing to pay more to insure that the overwhelmingly popular Medicare enacted by Lyndon Johnson’s Administration survives into the long term!

So, the GOP should go ahead and promote privatization of Medicare, and the more Paul Ryan and other Republicans promote it, the more it helps the Democrats and Barack Obama!

The fact that 235 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for the Ryan plan has the potential to destroy the GOP majority in the House in 2012. It could very well be the wedge that keeps Barack Obama in the Presidency, the Democrats in control of the US Senate, and help the Democrats gain the 25 or more votes needed to regain the House of Representatives!

So, Paul Ryan and the Republicans, keep on advocating the end of Medicare as we know it! Don’t stop; keep pushing it, and allow Democrats to salivate!

The Donald Trump Phenomenon: It Can Only Hurt The Republican Party And Help The Democrats!

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Real estate mogul Donald Trump is on a tear, exploiting the “Birther” conspiracy theory about Barack Obama, and he has now surged in some polls to a lead in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2012.

Despite his multiple business bankruptcies, his three marriages, and his tendency to “shoot from the hip” with ridiculous and reckless statements and assertions over many years, Trump is suddenly taking all of the oxygen out of the air in the Republican Party.

Trump is becoming more ridiculous and even stupid as he marches on, now claiming, much like Congressman Ben Quayle of Arizona, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, did in his campaign for Congress last year, that President Obama is the absolutely worst President in American history!

For Trump to make such a claim, and say Obama has now surpassed former President Jimmy Carter as the worst President ever, shows his absolute ignorance, as if he had studied history, he would well know that there is a long list of Presidents, mostly before and after Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency, that are FAR worse than either Carter or Obama! In fact, in the first estimate of Obama a year ago, he was rated in the top fifteen of the Presidents, while Carter was rated above at least twelve Presidents, putting him in the second tier of three rankings of the Presidents! And Carter seems certain to move up over time, not down to the bottom five or ten, as some like to state, which shows their total lack of knowledge and understanding of the history of the Presidency!

Also, when Trump was asked how many members there are of the House Of Representatives, he was annoyed and refused to answer, a sign that he did not know, putting him in the same camp as being stupid and ignorant as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum, all of whom have shown they have no clue about any facts or details of our nation’s history!

Why should Donald Trump be expected to know anything other than how to make money, fire people on his television show, and look for constant publicity, since, after all, he inherited his wealth, and has never known what it is to be an ordinary American, who has to worry constantly about staying above water economically?

Rather than study and know the issues, Donald Trump would rather talk about telling China off, seizing Iraq oil revenues, and create constant controversy with his loose mouth?

And get this: Trump is now threatening that if he does not win the GOP nomination for President, he might run as an Independent in the 2012 election, and that with spending up to $600 million of his own money, that he could win the White House! In other words, he would buy the job, much like Rick Scott did in Florida”s Governorship race!

But the difference is that the Electoral College, often much maligned, prevents such a possibility, and NEVER has and NEVER will an Independent be able to win the White House! Ross Perot spent $62 million of his fortune, received 19 percent of the vote, but won no electoral votes in 1992! And Theodore Roosevelt, the much beloved former President, ran as a Progressive in 1912, and won only six states and 27 percent of the votes, and 88 electoral votes, an all time high, but nowhere near winning the Presidency! And this was not just anyone, but rather Teddy Roosevelt!

So stay ignorant and stupid, Donald, and spend your money on your own ego, help the economy in so doing, get your publicity and attention that you constantly need, destroy the Republican Party which is doing a good job by itself in doing so by flirting with the Tea Party, and help Barack Obama, supposedly the worst President ever, to win reelection and continue his great leadership of the nation for another four years!

Donald Trump And The Presidency: How Can His Behavior Be Explained?

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Real estate mogul Donald Trump has always been a showboat, always looking for attention, whether good or bad!

Here is a man who is a billionaire, has had his own television show for 10 years, has had three beautiful wives, four wonderful children, and has had public renown for his entire adult life!

But he also is a person who has obviously poor family values, with two divorces; and has been bankrupt several times!

So one wonders how is he to seen as a potential President, with his low moral values and poor business record?

And how is he to be seen seriously, when he has no tact, no diplomatic skill, and seems to think that if he is President, he can just tell China and other nations to behave, and that they will just bend to his attacks? More likely, he could cause international crises if he acts belligerently in public discourse, and the last thing we need is to become engaged in wars because of loose mouths!

And how can anyone take Trump seriously when he has decided to pursue the “Birther” myth about Barack Obama, when in his heart of hearts, he KNOWS that the whole concept is ridiculous, and that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii!

Trump has lost all credibility by his big mouth toward China and his stupid claims about Obama, and yet he is arrogant enough to think that IF he spends up to $600 million of his own fortune, that somehow he can be elected President!

And the fact that in new polls, Trump ends up second behind Mitt Romney, and ahead of Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and others, is more due to his public celebrity and his constant need to draw attention to himself, even if he sounds totally ridiculous!

The best advice for Donald Trump is the following: Forgo the Presidential race, and spend the $600 million helping the poor, the sick, and the needy in this country!

Also, work on making sure your third marriage survives, and that your business dealings work out properly so there are no more bankrupcies on your part, so that you don’t evade responsibility for your financial dealings yet another time!

And also, Donald, speak to a psychologist and a psychiatrist regarding your constant need for attention, as it has gone way beyond the norm for someone who has had such a charmed life as you have had!

Tremendous Swing In Public Support Against Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Snyder!

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Here we are only two and a half months into the terms of Republican Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and Rick Snyder of Michigan.

All have declared war on labor unions, public workers, education and health care, and have conducted themselves in a dictatorial manner, not giving a damn about public opinion!

But now there is evidence that, if the elections were held now in these states, after people realize what these demagogues represent, all four would LOSE!

The good news, but belatedly, is that Rick Scott in Florida, who just barely won the race for Governor over Alex Sink by one percentage point, 50,000 votes, the smallest margin in Florida history, after spending $73 million of his own fortune to buy the job, now has had a EIGHTEEN point swing in public support, so that Sink would now win by SEVENTEEN points!

This poll result is a clarion call for a RECALL vote bill to pass, and if the Governor vetoes it, he should be IMPEACHED by his own party, as it is obvious that the people of Florida are totally disgusted with the “hoodlum and thug” attitudes of this Medicare scam felon “bully”, who should be removed from office by one constitutional method or another, as he is going to take Florida down with him into another scandal or disaster similar to his illegal activities as a medical industry executive a decade ago! This man belongs in prison, not in the Governorship of the 4th largest state!

And similar action needs to be taken against Scott Walker, John Kasich, and Rick Snyder!

Wisconsin And The Future Of American Politics: A Turning Point For 2012!

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the State Senate may have won the struggle with public workers over collective bargaining in the state of Robert LaFollette, Sr. for the moment, by their dastardly legislative “trick”, which allowed them to take away labor rights without a quorum in their legislative body!

But it has aroused liberals, labor, the young, moderates and independents who recognize what Wisconsin represents: an attack on the basic human rights of workers to be able to have a “fair shake” at the bargaining table with their employers, whether the government or private corporations!

A recall movement is beginning against Republican State Senators, and some will be coming up for such elections within a few months. Early next year, the recall campaign will begin against Governor Walker.

The Wisconsin battle will also reverberate in the national campaign of 2012, including the Presidency and Congress, as well as the state governments. Public opinion polls already indicate heavy opposition to what happened in Wisconsin, both inside the state and throughout the nation!

It will mobilize many citizens to get actively involved in the political campaign, and to contribute financially to the Democratic Party, because it is more clear than ever before that the Republican Party continues to work against the interests of the working man and woman, whether blue collar or highly educated white collar workers!

This is a battle for the future! Will America’s future be one of billionaires, such as the Koch Brothers, dictating and mandating working conditions and promoting what is good only for the top two percent and the corporations and banks?

Or will it be one of the promotion of the interests of the rapidly dwindling middle class, and compassion for those less fortunate, who are not born to wealth and privilege and just want a “fair shake” from their government?

This is not just a political battle; it is also a moral battle for decency and social justice, and if it is lost in 2012, the long range implications are horrendous for the future of American democracy!

The Wisconsin Capitol Demonstrations: Men, Women And Children To Be Honored For Their Principles And Sacrifices!

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Conservative talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel have been portraying the men, women and children involved in the Wisconsin Capitol demonstrations for the past two weeks as “losers”, “slobs”, “radicals”, “left wingers”, “free loaders”, and many other insulting and disrespectful terms.

The fact that 70,000 to 100,000 people at a minimum have been dedicated to these peaceful protests, marches and demonstrations, and have sacrificed their salaries, their comforts, and their peace of mind to commit themselves to a cause they believe in, and that they know is justified and moral, is extremely inspiring!

If these people were not certain of the righteousness of their cause, the retention of collective bargaining, they would not be spending two weeks on the cold floor of the state Capitol in Madison. It is not something they would recommend to anyone, but just like the marchers for civil rights in the 1960s, the woman suffragettes in the early 20th century, and the abolitionists in the preCivil War period, they will not give up, and even if they lose for now, the battle will go on until the dastardly evil intent of Scott Walker and the Republicans is repudiated by the voters!

Already, polls indicate both in Wisconsin and nationally that the demonstrators have an overwhelming public support for the continuation of collective bargaining for public service workers who have devoted their careers to a commitment to service for the citizens of their states!

Sarah Palin And Polls: All Time High Unfavorability!

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has reached an all time high unfavorable rating in the USA Today and CNN polls, after her disastrous reaction to the Tucson shootings and her use of the term “blood libel”, which has outraged the Jewish community and intelligent people everywhere.

The USA Today poll puts her negative ratings at 53 percent, and the CNN poll at 56 percent.

Sarah made clear on the Sean Hannity show on Fox News Channel that she would “not sit down and shut up”, and certainly there is no way to make that happen, and no one wants to take away her freedom of speech.

But, effectively, the American public is saying precisely that: Please sit down and shut up!

Since she will just do exactly the opposite, she is a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats and President Obama, and is a burden on the GOP and the Presidential race!