Month: June 2012
Nearly Half Think Republicans Deliberately Stalling Economy
49%
Of registered voters nationwide think Republicans are “intentionally stalling efforts to jumpstart the economy” to ensure President Obama’s defeat for re-election, a new DailyKos/SEIU/PPP poll finds.
Police Can Be Idiots on Facebook, too
I was an idiot for putting it on Facebook, but to have all the pluses in my career forgotten over this one incident, which harmed no one, I think, is taking things too far.
— Arizona police officer Pat Shearer, telling the Arizona Republic that he wasn’t thinking when he posted on his Facebook President Obama’s image on a T-shirt with bullet holes. Shearer is now appealing his demotion and two-week suspension without pay on grounds that it is excessive.
The Last Gaffe
Do you remember how it was in the past,
How they’d shrug ’em off with a wink and a laugh?
But now they’ve begun
To determine who’s won —
It’s the one who laughs last with the least gaffes.
Public’s Approval of Congress Up Slightly, but Still Lower Than a Snake’s Belly
17%
Americans’ approval of Congress in June, up from 15% in May, but continuing the generally low levels seen since last June.
Fox News Propagandists ‘Disappear’ Romney’s Claim That U.S. Does Not Need More First Responders and Teachers
Mitt Romney’s latest gaffe came at the end of last week when he attacked Pres. Obama’s call to hire more first responders and educators. Pres. Obama, he said, “says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”
How bad was the gaffe? So bad that the Republicans’ propaganda network made it disappear, according to Media Matters:
Bad News for Obama: Racism Could Cost Him Re-election
Creative research published by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz shows Obama will be in trouble in his bid for re-election in part because of his race.
Stephens-Davidowitz decided to see if there was a correlation between Google searches for the word, “nigger” and voting behavior. Yes, he looked at searches for that word.
The conditions under which people use Google — online, most likely alone, not participating in an official survey — are ideal for capturing what they are really thinking and feeling. You may have typed things into Google that you would hesitate to admit in polite company.
He examined searches conducted nationally in the years 2004 to 2007, before Obama was officially running, and long before he was the front-runner on the Democratic side. From that study, he identified the most, and least, racially charged areas of the country.
Most racially charged areas of America:
- West Virginia
- Western Pennsylvania
- Eastern Ohio
- Upstate New York
- Southern Mississippi
The state with the highest racially charged search rate in the country was West Virginia. Other areas with high percentages included western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, upstate New York and southern Mississippi.*
Next, Stephens-Davidowitz came up with a baseline for how a generic Democratic candidate would have performed based on the vote for John Kerry in 2004 which presumably reflected the ballots of people who were likely to go Democratic, even if a not very exciting, privileged, rich Massachusetts liberal who said stupid things like, “I voted for it before I was against it” was the candidate. He also looked at how Democratic Congressional candidates did in the 2008 election.
The results were striking: The higher the racially charged search rate in an area, the worse Mr. Obama did.
