The Weekly 2012 – Is it time to start talking Obama’s ‘coattails’?

The electoral map is via Sabato’s Crystal Ball @ : http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/category/2012-president/

Obama/ Democrats = 237 Republicans = 206

I’m still holding with Obama winning the electoral and easily but Romney winning the popular. The debates will decide by how much or even IF Romney wins the popular.

But should we be talking Obama’s ‘coattails’?

Just a year ago Republicans were looking at taking the Senate :
‘Republicans Favored to Take Control of Senate’
@ : http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/06/23/republicans_favored_to_take_control_of_senate.html

But now with North Dakota, Ariaona and Missouri, Democrats are looking to hold the Senate.

And the House?

‘Why Democrats Could Take Back The House in 2012’
@ : http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_alan_i_abramowitz/why_democrats_could_take_back_the_house_in_2012

While I’m no fan of Rasmussen as they just slup for FOX now and even the logic in this article is faulty, they left out the one and real reason the Democrats could, could gain 10-15 seats in the House.

‘Buyers remorse’.

We want a Government to govern.

‘A rare display of bipartisanship before a deadline’
‘After two near-government shutdowns last year, as well as a near-debt default last summer, Congress has seen its approval ratings plummet, and public confidence in Washington has dropped to all-time lows. Each time, Congress
narrowly averted a full-blown crisis moments before their deadlines’.

‘But one conservative group, the Tea Party Patriots, scoffed at the deal, saying the “lack of guts” exhibited by Boehner and Reid is “destroying” the nation’.
From : http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79197.html

See :
‘Tea Party: Bring on a government shutdown’
@ : http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-06/politics/tea.party.shut.down_1_government-shutdown-spending-cuts-republican-pledge?_s=PM:POLITICS

‘Tea Party wants US default to advance ‘starve the government’ scheme’
@ : http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/9789498-tea-party-wants-us-default-to-advance-starve-the-government-scheme

Add to this no economic plan or vision from Romney or the Republicans, threatened Government shutdown next Spring and an extreme right turn on social issues by Republicans (who SAY they want the Government out of our business) adds up to a shift.

Mitt Romney Lies #61 – ‘Disillusioned Obama Supporter In Romney Ad Is Actually GOP Staffer’

Nothing’s changed.

Mitt Romney –
“[O]ur campaign would be– helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon– business or family or taxes or things of that nature.”

“[W]e only talk about issues. And we can talk about the differences between our positions and our opponent’s position.” Romney said of his own campaign: “[O]ur ads haven’t gone after the president personally. … [W]e haven’t dredged up the old stuff that people talked about last time around. We haven’t gone after the personal things.”
@ : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/romney-business-record-attack-ads_n_1765601.html

Misinformation. Disinformation. Lies. Hiding from questions.

Mitt Romney’s character –
November 23rd, 2011
(CNN) – ‘GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday stood by his first TV ad this week that stirred controversy for taking President Barack Obama’s comments out of context’.

“There was no hidden effort on the part of our campaign,” Romney said at a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa’.

‘The ad features then-candidate Obama on the campaign trail in 2008, saying “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

‘But the 60-second spot failed to point out that Obama was actually quoting his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, at the time’.
From : http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/23/romney-on-ad-sauce-for-the-goose-now-sauce-for-the-gander/

September 6, 2012,
‘Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday in which a frustrated former Obama supporter expresses her disappointment with the president. The only problem: The woman in the video is actually an RNC staffer’.

‘The new ad features Republican National Committee Director of Hispanic Outreach Bettina Inclan, who in the ad purports to be an average woman voter who supported Obama in 2008. She describes her disillusionment with the president in the ad as a romantic relationship gone awry’.

“You’re just not he person I thought you were,” Inclan says in the ad, addressing a cardboard cutout of Obama. Inclan lists out-of-control spending and Obama’s penchant for hanging out with Hollywood celebrities as reasons for the break-up. “It’s not me, it’s you. I think we should just be friends.”

‘The ad asks people to share why they’re “breaking up” with Obama’.

‘The RNC says its ad, which first appeared on television Thursday is not dishonest’.
From : http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/rnc-staffer-plays-obama-supporter-in-gop-ad.php

Mitt Romney’s vision for America – ‘Romney campaign to ‘carpet bomb’ airwaves after Obama nomination speech’

This is what a real desperate campaign is going to do.

‘Romney, GOP Groups Pull Ads From Michigan and Pennsylvania’
‘Republicans signaled this week that they might have given up hope in two important swing states’.
‘The PollTracker Averages show President Obama ahead 48.9 percent to 45.4 percent in Michigan, and in Pennsylvania, where he leads 49.9 percent to 41.4 percent’.
@ : http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/romney-gop-michigan-pennsylvania-pull-out.php

‘Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, an adviser to the Romney campaign, said this week that its strategy going forward will be to “carpet bomb” the president and vice president’.

‘Romney-Ryan officials did not repudiate such talk; indeed, one official, in speaking to Fox News, likened the offensive that will begin Thursday to the “daisy cutter” bombs used in the Iraq war’.
From : http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/06/romney-campaign-to-carpet-bomb-airwaves-after-obama-nomination-speech/

Will You Be Better Off? – ‘Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) suggests federal student loans are unconstitutional, invokes Holocaust’

‘But he explained that he had read through the Constitution carefully and could find no evidence “that the federal government should be involved in education.”

His copy of the ‘you’re on your own’ Constitution.

‘Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) suggested Wednesday federally-issued student loans were unconstitutional. He also said that disregarding the Constitution could lead down a “slippery slope” and cited the Holocaust as an example of what could happen when a country heads down a wrong path’.

‘Bartlett has held a handful of town hall meetings in the last week, including one Wednesday night at Allegany College in Cumberland’.

“I want to know how you feel about the government issuing student loans. Is that something that you’re for?” asked an audience member who identified herself as an instructor at the college’.

“I’m for student loans. I want kids to have an education,” Bartlett responded. But he explained that he had read through the Constitution carefully and could find no evidence “that the federal government should be involved in education.” Then Bartlett expanded on that point (at the 3:35 mark in the clip above, which was passed along by a Democrat)’.

“Not that it’s not a good idea to give students loans; it certainly is a good idea to give them loans,” Bartlett said. “But if you can ignore the Constitution to do something good today, tomorrow you will be ignoring the Constitution to do something bad. You could. There are more people in our, in America today of German ancestry than any other [inaudible]. The Holocaust that occurred in Germany — how in the heck could that happen? And when you start down the wrong road, it can be a very slippery slope.”

‘Asked about the statement Thursday, Bartlett campaign spokesman Ted Dacey suggested the lawmaker’s position on education fits in clearly with his broader philosophy’.

“Congressman Bartlett has always been a strong believer in limited government,” Dacey said’.
From : http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-politics/post/bartlett-calls-federal-student-loans-unconstitutional-invokes-holocaust/2012/09/06/70dd2974-f842-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_blog.html#pagebreak

 

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America : ‘WATCH: Sandra Fluke Explains The Republican War On Women In 144 Seconds’

“Your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. Who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party. It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds that we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; an America in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve access to services, and which don’t”.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/05/803701/sandra-fluke-war-on-women/?mobile=nc