Month: August 2012

Jobs Report Brings Terrible News – for Congressional Republicans’ Strategy of Obstructing the Recovery

Jon Ponder

chart-jobs-bikini-july-2012

The Republican strategy of obstructing the recovery from the 2008 financial collapse caused by their anti-regulatory policies during the Bush-Cheney administration has been surprisingly effective over the past three years. However, the June jobs report released today suggests they will have to redouble their efforts to keep employment low and foreclosures up among their constituents back home if they are going to achieve their stated “single most important” goal of making Barack Obama a one-term president:

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Pew Poll Gives Obama a 10 Point Lead – Finds Rising Dislike of Romney among Voters

Jon Ponder

graph-pew-romney-favoribilityPew Research Center for the People & the Press:

Obama continues to hold a sizable lead over Romney in the election contest. Currently, 51 percent say they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41 percent support or lean toward Romney. This is largely unchanged from earlier in July and consistent with polling over the course of this year. Across eight Pew Research Center surveys since January, Obama has led Romney by between four and 12 percentage points.

And:

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Romney’s ‘Kiss My Ass, This Is a Holy Site’ Guy Will Be Taking a Little Time Off

Jon Ponder

Atlantic Wire:

Mitt Romney’s travelling campaign spokesman Rick Gorka will be taking some time away after he got so frustrated at reporters that he exclaimed, “kiss my ass,” and what’s entertaining to us about this sabbatical is that it extends the time “family newspapers” will write about the incident without actually writing about the incident.

Reporters were pretty annoyed at the dearth of opportunities they had to ask Mitt Romney questions on his trip abroad, and so as they flung questions at him from afar in Poland — deep questions like “What about your gaffes?” Gorka responded to a spate of these questions with, “Kiss my ass. This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect,” and later told a Politico writer “shove it.” Romney is once again travelling but a Romney aide told the press Thursday that Gorka was “taking some time off the trail,” presumably to squeeze a stress ball or do some yoga or practice counting to 10 in his head or something.

Can Romney Win the Presidency with Stubbornly High Unfavorable Ratings? Aggregate Polling Shows His Unfavorable Rating Is Now Slightly above 50%

Jon Ponder

graph-romney-favorables-aggregate-july-2012 copy

The news about Mitt’s favorable ratings does not get better. Andrew Sullivan posted the chart above, which shows that Romney’s aggregate unfavorable rating has risen to a notch above 50 percent. (The big chart shows the trends “smoothed out.” The inset shows the actual data points over time.) Here is the source of the data.

Sullivan wonders if these numbers prove the theory that the more voters get to know Romney, the more they dislike him. If that is so, then the results from the CBS News/New York Times/Quinnipiac poll of likely voters in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio indicate that Romney has next to no chance to improve his standing with voters before November.

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Scaling the Heights of Hyperbolic Hyperbole!

Buck Banks

I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that’s Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that’s the day of the terrorist attack. I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.

— Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), likening the implementation of a new mandate that insurers offer coverage for contraceptive services to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, NBC News reports.

Idiot Voters Don’t Know (or Care) What a Super PAC Is

Buck Banks

4 in 10

Number of respondents in a new Washington Post-Pew Research poll who, when prompted with four choices as to what a super PAC actually was, said it was “a group able to accept unlimited political donations.” The poll found that three-quarters of Americans have either heard “a little” (36%) or “nothing at all” (39%) about “increased spending in this year’s presidential election by outside groups not associated with the candidates or campaigns.”

Reid Repeats Allegation That Romney Paid No Taxes for a Decade

Buck Banks

I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination. I have had a number of people tell me that.

— Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), repeating his story of a Bain Capital investor claiming Mitt Romney paid no taxes at all for 10 years, and broadening it in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other reporters. When asked to identify his sources, Reid declined: “No, that’s the best you’re going to get from me. I don’t think the burden should be on me. The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?”

Romney Bogged Down By Little Things

Buck Banks

He comes across sometimes as if he’s Gulliver and he’s tied down by all the Lilliputians when he could actually stand up and exert some strength — he just seems to be tied down by a lot of little things.

— GOP strategist John Weaver, quoted by Bloomberg, on how Mitt Romney’s campaign is being defined by little things because he doesn’t say what he’d do as president.

Palin Responds to Cheney’s Dis

Buck Banks

Seeing as how Dick — excuse me, Vice President Cheney — never misfires, then evidently he’s quite convinced that what he had evidently read about me by the lamestream media, having been written, what I believe is a false narrative over the last four years, evidently Dick Cheney believed that stuff and that’s a shame.

— Sarah Palin, in an interview on Fox News, responding to Cheney’s comments that Sen. John McCain’s pick of Palin as his running mate was a mistake.

Inside One Chick-Fil-A Store on “Chicken Pride Day”

Trish

For those of you who don’t have a Chick-Fil-A store nearby, here’s the short version.

The president of the franchise, which serves fried chicken patties on a white bun with mayonnaise and pickles, recently spoke out against same-sex marriage. Dan Cathy, whose father, Truett Cathy, founded the chain, said in part, “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

As Cathy came out of the homophobic closet, the Muppets pulled their kids meal toys from the stores, which led to right wing support which led to…this video, from Randy Rainbow.