Tag: Campaign 2012

Paul Ryan’s Congressional Campaign Goes Up with Ads in His District Despite Claiming 25 Point Lead over Democratic Challenger Rob Zerban

Jon Ponder

Wisconsin Democratic U.S. House candidate Rob Zerban
Wisconsin Democratic U.S. House candidate Rob Zerban
The Associated Press is reporting that Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan is launching ads in his Wisconsin district in support of his campaign to retain his House seat if he and Mitt Romney lose in the fall.

The ad buy comes after the campaigns of both Ryan and his Democratic challenger Rob Zerban, a business owner and elected county official, released information on separate, private polls that produced widely different results:

[The Ryan campaign’s] survey of 400 likely voters showed a gap of 58 to 33 percent between the two candidates, with a 4.9 percent margin of error both ways. Libertarian challenger Keith Deschler trailed at 3 percent…

A 400-person poll conducted by the Zerban campaign found the race jumped to an 8-point difference when likely voters were informed about both candidates. The additional information told to those polled and the percentage difference without that information was not available Tuesday.

It is strange that Ryan’s congressional campaign rushed to produce ads after its own internal poll found that Ryan had a 25-point lead over Zerban.

This does not add up.

Even FOX Is Beginning to Demand Specifics From Romney

Trish

Romney seems to have internalized the Mormon culture of secrecy

Apparently we have a better chance of seeing Mitt Romney’s tax returns than we do of knowing his plans for balancing the budget through changes in the tax code, which is how he says he would do it. You know that when even FOX News (although I don’t think Gregg Jarrett is one of the most egregious Republican tools who anchor shows on the network) is trying to pin down Romney and his policy wonks, there is some serious evasion going on.

Romney’s platform up to now has been for us to trust him, but he keeps too many secrets to allow it. For example, along with those tax returns, there are the records he sealed as he left the office of governor of Massachusetts. Good luck glimpsing those.

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North Carolina Republicans Delusional Over Osama Bin Laden

Trish

15%

North Carolina Republicans that answered the question, “Who do you think deserves more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?” with Mitt Romney. Another 56% of Republicans told Public Policy Polling (PPP) they weren’t sure, while only 29% could bring themselves to admit that Pres. Obama should get more credit. While the president is enjoying a post convention bounce nationwide, he moved up only one point in the battleground state, from 48-48 the week before the event to 49-48 immediately after.

Pat Robertson, Fresh Off the Campaign Trail with Mitt, Advises a Man to Beat His Wife

Trish

Keep in mind as you watch Pat Robertson advise a man whose wife insults him that he needs to move to Saudi Arabia so he can “become a Muslim and beat her,” that Mitt campaigned this weekend with Pat at his side. Make no mistake about the “conservative” attitude toward women: we are to submit to male authority and if we don’t, well a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

Nice try by the CBN host to save Pat from saying more, and to laugh off his comments, but we get it. It’s called the Republican War on Women, and it just keeps escalating.

Update: Someone on Facebook reminded us that Vice Pres. Joe Biden was the author of the Violence Against Women Act, and that our choice in November couldn’t be clearer.

H/T to MBH

Paul Ryan Refuses to Say How Romney Will Fix the Economy But Bristles At the Idea It Is a Nixonian ‘Secret Plan’

Jon Ponder

Yesterday, while David Gregory was lobbing softballs at Mitt Romney on “Meet the Press” on NBC, over on the ABC News Sunday show, George Stephanopoulos gave Congressman Paul Ryan a tougher time, especially when — at about 02:50 on the video above, which is transcribed below — Ryan refused to name a single loophole he and Romney would close in order to help pay for the massive tax cut they are promising to give the 1 Percent.

Watch how Ryan bristles when Stephanopoulos characterizes the Republican campaign’s refusal to lay out what it will do to restore economic growth as a “secret plan.”

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Obama Passes Romney in August Fund Raising

Trish

$114 million

Amount raised by the Obama campaign during August, outstripping the Romney campaign (by $3 million) for the first time since April. Adding Rep. Paul Ryan to the ticket and holding the Republican convention during August didn’t push Romney’s donations for the month past Obama’s, which came from 1.1 million people giving an average of $52 each. Romney’s money came from 820,000 donors giving about $250 each. The Republicans, of course, are still blocking out the sun with super PAC donations.

Poll: Solid Majority Say Election Is a Choice, Not a Referendum on President

Jon Ponder

The internals in the poll cited here showed some weakness for Pres. Obama, but as long as this this top line remains so decidedly true, and Romney continues to be viewed unfavorably and as unlikable by a majority of voters, the president’s chances of winning in November remain strong:

A clear majority — 61 percent — of likely voters consider the presidential election to be more of a choice between President Obama and Mitt Romney than a referendum on the president’s first term in office, according to a new poll for The Hill.

Just over one-third — 34 percent — of voters said they considered the election to be a judgment on Obama’s job performance in the White House.

The results offer a measure of good news for Democrats, who have sought to frame the Nov. 6 election primarily as a choice between two candidates with different visions for the country.