More Endorsements
Posted: October 25, 2012 Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign | Tags: endorsements, polls 80 CommentsThe last legs of presidential campaigns are filled with major endorsements and last minute polls. The WAPO editorial board and former Bush SOS
General Colin Powell have both endorsed the president.
Powell criticized Romney’s foreign policy as inconsistent and questioned the former Massachusetts governor’s ability to address the deficit and looming defense cuts.
“I’m not quite sure which Governor Romney we’d be getting with respect to foreign policy,” Powell said, calling Romney’s foreign policy “a moving target.”
As for the U.S. budget, he added: “It’s essentially, let’s cut taxes and compensate for that with other things, but that compensation does not cover all the cuts intended or the expenses associated with defense.”
Powell has been critical of Romney’s foreign policy advisers and has taken issue with the former business executive’s stance on countries such asRussia.
A moderate Republican, Powell served under President George W. Bush. Some of Romney’s advisers are more conservative veterans of the Bush administration.
“There’s some very, very strong neo-conservative views that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with,” Powell said on CBS.
WAPO’s endorsement and the Powell endorsement were really no surprise.
We come to that judgment with eyes open to the disappointments of Mr. Obama’s first term. He did not end, as he promised he would, “our chronic avoidance of tough decisions” on fiscal matters. But Mr. Obama is committed to the only approach that can succeed: a balance of entitlement reform and revenue increases. Mr. Romney, by contrast, has embraced his party’s reality-defying ideology that taxes can always go down but may never go up. Along that road lies a future in which interest payments crowd out everything else a government should do, from defending the nation to caring for its poor and sick to investing in its children. Mr. Romney’s future also is one in which an ever-greater share of the nation’s wealth resides with the nation’s wealthy, at a time when inequality already is growing.
Even granting the importance of the fiscal issue, a case might still be made for Mr. Romney if Mr. Obama’s first term had been a failure; if Mr. Romney were more likely to promote American security and leadership abroad; or if the challenger had shown himself superior in temperament, capacity and character. In fact, not one of these is true.
The Poll Front still shows the President is likely to win the electoral college and thus, the election. A Time poll shows Obama up 5 points in the important state of Ohio which will probably determine the election result.
Buoyed by early voting in his favor, Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by five points in the pivotal state of Ohio, according to a new TIME poll.
Counting both Ohioans who say they will head to the polls on November 6, and those who have already cast a ballot, Obama holds a 49% to 44% lead over Romney in a survey taken Monday and Tuesday night.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll makes clear that there are really two races underway in Ohio. On one hand, the two candidates are locked in a dead heat among Ohioans who have not yet voted but who say they intend to, with 45% of respondents supporting the President and 45% preferring his Republican challenger.
Even weird ol’ Joe Scarborough says: Two new polls scream ‘advantage Obama’.
Two polls released yesterday show President Obama stubbornly clinging to his electoral advantage. TIME Magazine released a new Ohio poll that has Mitt Romney trailing in the Buckeye State by 5 points. Last week’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey also had Romney behind by 5.
TIME’s poll should rattle the nerves of Romney supporters because the results run contrary to Team Romney’s ongoing claim that their internal polls show a dead heat in the Buckeye State. Maybe that’s the case among voters planning to go to the polls on election day but it looks like early voters are tilting dramatically in the president’s direction. If the TIME poll is accurate, it means Mitt Romney will have to grab most of Ohio’s remaining undecided voters if he wants to win this critical battleground state.
PPP released a Nevada survey yesterday that also shows President Obama holding a lead in this key swing state that remains outside the margin of error. Like Ohio, Nevada remains stubbornly in the Obama column. While Mitt Romney has made up ground in the three Southern swing states of Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, voters in Ohio, Nevada and Wisconsin seem do not seem inclined to be easily swept into Romney’s camp.
Obama appears to lead in Virginia also.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia, conducted on behalf of Health Care for America Now, finds Barack Obama expanding his lead in the aftermath of his debate victory Monday night. He now has 51% to 46% for Mitt Romney, up from a 49/47 advantage last weekend.
Key findings from the survey include:
-Obama’s seen a 7 point net improvement in his favorability rating among Virginia voters from a -3 spread last week (48/51) to now +4 at 51/47. Romney’s numbers have headed in the other direction. He’s dropped 7 points from a +2 spread on our last poll (49/47) to now -5 at 46/51.
-Voters trust Obama more than Romney on several major issues in the election. Those include who voters think will stand up for the middle class (52/44) and who they think will do more to protect Medicare (50/46).
-Obama leads 57/41 with women, 88/8 with African Americans, and 53/42 with young voters. Romney has a 50/45 advantage with men, a 57/41 one with whites, and a 57/41 edge with seniors. Obama’s moved from being slightly behind with independents last week at 45/44 to now slightly ahead at 47/45.
One of the weirdest observations that I’ve seen in awhile is how the US election maps seem to reflect the same kind of boundary lines we saw when we were fighting over the issue of slavery. Even actual Confederate hold outs see this. Steve Pinker has some interesting thoughts on the redness and blueness of some states. I can tell you, it’s not pleasant to live in a red state if you’re a woman, a child, or a minority. There’s an emphasis on a plantation style economy, education goals that are out of step with modernity, and ensuring the primacy of white, christian, men. Abortion and birth control restrictions, ensuring the taxes don’t impact the rich, and enacting radical religious views on all kinds of things have been their priorities. Your only hope is to stay in a red state’s biggest city or move.
Broadly speaking, the Southern and Western desert and mountain states will vote for the candidate who endorses an aggressive military, a role for religion in public life, laissez-faire economic policies, private ownership of guns and relaxed conditions for using them, less regulation and taxation, and a valorization of the traditional family. Northeastern and most coastal states will vote for the candidate who is more closely aligned with international cooperation and engagement, secularism and science, gun control, individual freedom in culture and sexuality, and a greater role for the government in protecting the environment and ensuring economic equality.
So, this election is important. We can’t afford to have these extremist religious agendas dictating our national policy. I say that as I listen to many of my friends who are rape survivors being traumatized all over again by troglodyte white, extremist christian, men who identify more with a fertilized eggs than women and children. We need to send the entire Republican agenda and its goosestepping arm of religious freaks into oblivion. PERIOD.
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The Boston Globe reports that the Romney’s testimony in that Stenberg divorce can be made public.
http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/10/25/court-allows-testimony-mitt-romney-stemberg-divorce-case-unsealed/PYQi6CxYTGOKRhtahY83DI/story.html
Some really cute photo ops here in Florida with potus:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/obama-goes-to-krispy-kreme
Obama bought krispy kremes for kids and fire fighters
Hey, my cousin Sammy is in that picture! The tiny guy near the end on the left!
Seriously…
wow!!!
wow indeed! great pictures. You’ll have to ask about that visit.
What a coincidence! First you knew someone in my dad’s photo from the Pacific and now this! That’s so cool.
I can imagine the Fox News reports: “Obama is trying to cause obesity and heart attacks in kids and firefighters!”
I can only imagine what he’s going to hear from Michelle when she finds out that he bought a kid 2 powder sugar cakes!!!
Yep, that might be harsher than anything Fox could cook up. But it probably would make really weird photo-ops if Obama would start handing out lettuce and quinoa instead of donuts.
love the face of the fire fighter with the basketball when he and obama hug …
florida must be full of hugging men
It is the Latin in us…that mix of Spanish, Italian, Sicilian and Cuban blood.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/hey-girl-hormonal-voting-study-absurd_n_2012201.html
Hopefully, this researcher gets laughed out of what ever miserable journals she manages to get published in … what a crock o crap!
Tina Fey On Todd Akin: “I’m Going To Lose My Mind”
“I watch these guys, and I’m like, what is happening? Am I a secretary on Mad Men?
really really good!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/tina-fey-on-todd-akin-im-going-to-lose-my-mind
This is ot, but check it out: Locked in a Tight Election, GOP Rep. Mary Bono Mack’s ‘Third World Toilet’ Comments About Her District Resurface | Alternet
Oh this is so true!
When I moved to Louisiana it was a purple state. It’s gone red and it’s a complete hell realm here now. I miss Minnesota even though I don’t miss the winters.
Condi Rice Pours Cold Water On ‘Benghazi-Gate’ http://thkpr.gs/R2kql3
Yeah, and just hours ago she told Greta “I’m not always in agreement with the Republican platform, but I know that Mitt and Ryan are going to respect the views of those who may disagree on social issues. They are going to take that into account.”
This was her message to women. Respect, how do you get that when they make her have rapist babies, when they say they have other important things to do about the economy, than deal with women and rape. When they couldn’t find time to pass a jobs bill, but found time to pass 30 some odd bills that effect women’s reproductive and health issues, including breast cancer. They are out encouraging men to burn, rob, rape, and cook women, and shun them, shut them up, while they use “rape” as their choice weapon for the war on women.
Condi’s taking another bullet for her party. After all the shots she took for Bush/Cheney you’d think it would be enough.
I never could understand how Madeline Albright’s father produced such different views on world political views. It’s a shame Condi didn’t become a concert pianist instead of a Republican enabler.
Romney and Ryan are saying that they have more important issues than Mourdock and what he had to say about rape. In the next sentence, Ryan says women are more concerned about
the economy, and they need to move on.
This is the man who not only supported him with likeness in attitudes, but Ryan also donated $5,000 to Mourdock’s campaign. Another one is Orin Hatch, he being the Republican in Utah who went to Gregg Peterson’s bbq fund raiser in the cabin where he (Peterson) raped at least 4 women, then shot himself in the head knowing he was facing life in prison. Wonder how much Peterson raised for Hatch, Ryan and Mourdock, and Romney.
And to think that Romney said in the final debate that he supported gender equality and wanted to creaet a civil society in the Middle East, and he really thinks women believe his bullshit.
Basically Obama is still leading in the states that matter but this story also shatters a couple of media myths and I find that interesting due to all the bad reporting lately.
HuffPO Pollster: Presidential Polls Counter Romney Surge Myth
Hillary Clinton Indicates She Could Remain Secretary Of State Longer Than Expected
More fetus fancier news, this time from Pennsulvania. Love the fetus, hate the child.
TP: Pennsylvania Bill Would Reduce Welfare Benefits For Women Who Cannot Prove They Were Raped
I know isn’t it horrible?
As a former social worker working with families and children, I was waiting for this shoe to drop, the proof-of-rape requirement before the mother can receive benefits for the baby the republicans will force her to bear. Next, they will pressure her to marry her abusive boy-friend in order to leave the state’s program.
I’m fresh out of outrage over this new round of intrusion into women’s lives, poor women’s family benefits.
.
I voted today. As I was leaving the parking lot, I spotted this bumper sticker:
“Let God Plan Parenthood”.
God gave us brains to make these decision ourselves. She’s been clear on that point.
I understand that some people just can’t deal with reality unless there’s some unseen friend guiding their every movement, but why do the rest of us have to suffer from their delusions?
Because they’re right & the rest of us worship the devil? Just a conjecture on my part. Oh & they love the Constitution & the Bill of Rights & we don’t. Of course those laws only apply to true Amerikans, those of the god-fearing Christian variety.
I have no idea. I don’t worship anything. That’s a formula for being enslaved to something.
VIDEO: Celebrities Read REAL Outrageous Quotes on Women’s Reproductive Health. http://ow.ly/eLk7p
“I have no idea. I don’t worship anything”
Not even chocolate?
LOL!
Chocolate and cab sav are on my sacrament list … does that count?
“Chocolate and cab sav are on my sacrament list… does that count?”
It counts!!!
Peregrine….I saw a really great bumper sticker a couple of weeks ago, “Eve was framed”.
She was, and we women have been paying ever since. She should have run like hell out of the Garden to form a matriarchy on one, or all, of the Greek Isles. Now, there’s a paradise!
“One of the weirdest observations that I’ve seen in awhile is how the US election maps seem to reflect the same kind of boundary lines we saw when we were fighting over the issue of slavery.”
Of course!!! Up next, confederate money, hooped dresses Miss Scarlett and Plantation revival. I better get out of here before they hang me from a tree. Look away, look away, look away, dixieland.
Dak, Loved the U.S. Map, what a great laugh I got from the snake handlers area.
Now, now, don’t make me come over the mountains and clobber you! In all my years, I have never known a snake handler or seen one in my parts. In 2008, my state voted for Obama. (Puts nose up in the air) We think of ourselves as a progressive state, even though we may drop the ball in this election. We’re not perfect.
I’m caring on with you, mouse. She and I go way back and I don’t use smiley faces (to confuse her!).
Ok, so you never lived in bumfuckville south, but I have. There’s a pentacostal church not far from where I live that does the whole snake handling, speaking in tongues thingy.And girl, I’m way past cobberable. 🙂
Maybe we had one snake handler, a long time ago. I am within 3 miles of a Church of the Latter Day Saints. A pair of them came around our neighborhood a few years ago on their “mission-to-avoid military service”, I suppose. Since I had spent some time spying on a Bible Study Group, I told them I knew all about the Bible. There’ s a story I won’t bore you with, but I learned a lot about conservative Christians, evangelicals, and Baptists that continues to inform me in these times of creepy politics.
My motto is: You have to know your enemy. Spy on them.
Peregrine…..According to Ralph your great southern state has Obama and Romney tied, you voted yet?
Yup, mouse, I told ya I voted today. If the 35 year olds and younger don’t come out in large numbers, Romney will win.
I’ve got to leave for the football game, but just a message to admin, post is scheduled for 4:45, you can change the time if you need to!
OH lord, the extremist site I linked to is on a hate rampage against me … more of the christian love and southern hospitality!!!
Read my middle finger gentlemen!!! And I was born in the south and I love that I’m now being classified as a leftist given I’ve run for office as a Republican. What a buncha morrooonnnnssss!
Ladies and Gentlemen of sky dancing Wave and Say hi to every bad idea that the civil war settled and that some throwbacks just can’t leave behind!!! Hi boyz!!! Have fun watching everything you value NEVER come to pass again !!! Especially weird given so many of US actually LIVE in the South, were born in the SOUTH, and disagree with them completely.
Burn your confederate money muthahs. It ain’t coming back.
I must have missed that link. Oh well.
You’re not missing anything. They’re probably proud members of all the usual suspect hate groups that you find the minute you leave the safety of the big city around here. They all probably look like Haley Barbour–too big, fat and dumb.
Since these boyz have discovered the internet, they’re just sticking their confederate decals on their chests instead of their beat up F-150’s and cruising the tubes looking for other pointey hat, secessionist dopes.
Don’t you boyz need to go rinse out a few condoms or something?
Wow…that is something. Disturbing really, but then we had that recent KKK rally here in Banjoland…it really freaks me out.
I never get use to these left over confederates. At least most of them are dying off. It’s not as bad as it was when I was a kid …
Romney’s new meme: BIG CHANGE. Yeah, it would be big for his rich buddies & the rest of us will be left with the small change in our penny jars.
Ecocat, have you seen Ryan almost tune up and cry over the poor in our country? I was like, come, on Mr. Squeeze-them-til-they die, Congressman. You offered a cruel budget that other republicans wouldn’t vote for and members of a focus group, after reading and discussing it, said they didn’t know anyone could be that cruel. Blimey! The tales they weave!
I heard part of it yesterday. Fortunately, for me, it was a truncated version. Ryan has to be the creepiest of the creepy. Not a fan of Tim Burton, but I think he could do a bang up job of making a film with Ryan as a villainous monster in one of his films. (My apologies to JJ, I know you love Burton)
I’ve read this story before but it was brought up on Chris Matthews and I checked google
http://jezebel.com/5851050/the-curious-case-of-mitt-romney-an-abortion-and-eliza-dushkus-mom
pretty appalling isn’t it? BB wrote a post on that.
Felix Salmon on a manifesto writen by some douche bag CEOs. They are not impressive but Felix is …
Reuters: CEOs’ self-serving deficit manifesto
I wanted to read the WSJ article, but I’m not a subscriber. I want the list of names of the 80 CEOS. Can anyone help?
One name, Peter Peterson, popped out and he’s spent $458M proposing cuts to SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs nearly to no avail, because Americans have rejected these cuts and audiences have rebuffed his proposals. Solidarity.
I came here because of a mention of this blog on the Southern Nationalist Network blog.
This is pathetic.
Someone lives in Louisiana and hates it, the rest of you suffer mightily for being women, and maybe children too (don’t know about that, but some posts could be from children) and yet there is still free travel both intra- and interstate for you all.
My suggestion, based on what I’ve seen here, in the lucid posts that is, is that you all relocate to Oregon, in Portland or Eugene specifically. It’s not too cold, is very progressive/fascist and has no sales taxes. Of course, if you were to buy a home, you’ll quickly find out why they don’t have sales taxes, but hey, somebody gotta suffer, right?
Moving on, we in the south are a nation, we’re going to remove the US government from our lands and there’s really nothing you progressive/fascist can do about that.
Ever. So long, thanks for the fish.
Thanks for proving that you’re a walking stereotype! Unbelievable. I love New Orleans btw it’s everything north of the 1-12 in Louisiana that’s awful plus the horrid governor they inflected on the rest of us.
“Moving on, we in the south are a nation, we’re going to remove the US government from our lands and there’s really nothing you progressive/fascist can do about that.”
Dream on, I’ve been hearing that sort of BS for nearly 7 decades and there are far less of you now than the first time I heard your BS in 1950’s. All .00001% of you aren’t capable of taking down a sausage factory. Federal Prison sounds like a nice relocation spot for you.
Yeah, make that Gitmo North.
No you’re not going to any such thing. btw, can you name a progressive fascist? You best not try to tell us what we are or where we should live. I would suggest that you educate yourself, learn some good ole Southern manners, and participate in a wider sphere than you are in now. Or else we’re ignore you if you choose to return. Bye, now.
Well, yes, both Romney and Obama are progressive/fascists.
We’re already moving in the state legislature towards secession my dear, so I’d suggest you come to grips with that.
By the way, those financial stats you’ve mentioned include all welfare payments, which we don’t want anyway, and all US government salaries and retirees income. The former would go, good riddance, and the later would likely remain. There are many US government retirees living abroad, that does not stop their annuity payments. It doesn’t stop Social Security payments either.
In the case of South Carolina, we will readily become an independent republic; we need nothing from the District of Columbia at all.
Remember, most of the refining capacity of this country is in fellow southern states, the good weather is here, and we have the what we need to “go it alone”.
Really, neither you nor your surrogates can stop this now, we’re way ahead of you.
Smile and wave to the FBI!
and fortunately, the refining capacity is the the Gulf region and anything below the 1-10 is not culturally southern … but then, you seem to know so much, you should know that.
“We’re already moving in the state legislature towards secession my dear, so I’d suggest you come to grips with that.”
South Carolina (not even Charleston) will attempt to seced from the Union in your lifetime or the lifetime of anyone you know. If you think your bassackwards antiquated way of thinking is representative of the SC State legislature or the desires of the people of S.C. you need serious help.
Flashing across the internet making statements that threaten to “remove the U.S. Government from our lands” could be construed as sedition, You might want to look-up
18 U.S.C.A. § 2384. You probably have a flag on you the size of Rhode Island. Dumb ass!!!
I already reported that to the FBI. I’m sure he’ll get a visit.
Oddly enough, my gggggggrandfather signed The Constitution for the state of South Carolina. I’m a direct descendant of Charles Pinckney. Contrary to his rantings, because I’m also a direct descendant of the Lees of Virginia through Light Horse Harry,my family’s been southern since the inception of this country and even before that. As I’ve written over and over again here, we’re all not walking neoconfederate stereotypes like this neanderthal.
“I already reported that to the FBI. I’m sure he’ll get a visit”
He’s likely been on a watch list for some time.
And that info about your ggggggggrandfather Pinckney is remarkable.
I think the only claim to fame in my family is that Al Capone gave a goat and cart to my grandfather as a thank you for letting him sleep over at the family home on Al’s car trip between Chicago and Miami. 🙂
Golly gosh, not the FBI!
I’ve seen silly in my time, but you folks take the cake so far. Y’all need to get out more.
Google the Second Vermont Republic.
Here’s another blog for you, it’s not dedicated to any specific part of the US.
http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/
Devolution is on the way, get ready.
Good riddance, Pat and your ilk. You’ll find SC can’t go it alone without the revenue from the richer northern and western states unless you raise a gazillion$s in taxes. Or you could deal with citizens’ uprisings and get your hind-quarters whooped. I’m delighted just thinking about you deep south inbreds being disassociated from us, progressive, but hardly fascist, upper southern states for we’ve been tied to you for much too long. btw, I bet you believe Hitler was a progressive with all those concentration camps.
Thanks for writing me. You sound like such a sweetie.
Nope … we think Hitler was just like you and be sure to wave to the FBI while you’re at it!!!!
Dak, please delete my comment in moderation. Thanks.
That’s quite a pedigree, dak. My state is considered the vale between those 2 mountains of conceit.
You’re welcome to your stinkin’ fish. Sorry to hear you think “somebody gotta suffer,” that’s so Xian of you.
Please do get rid of yourselves from the U.S. Hope it’s not a problem funding your own highways and infrastructure.
Given the states I’ve seen mentioned so far, they’d be back on dirt roads and horses with the federal government pretty quickly.
Dak,
Thanks for the Steven Pinker article. He is a protege of Noam Chomsky. He was at MIT for a long time before he went to Harvard. I’ve actually met him a few times. He’s also an evolutionist. He thinks everything is genetic, including language development. I was trained by social interactionists. We believe that language develops through interaction between parents (and other adults) and children. There is obviously a genetic component, but there is plenty of evidence that children can’t develop language without adult interaction. Even Chomsky and Pinker admit that.
His hypothesis about red and blue states is interesting, but what about people who have components of both groups–like me? I have British and French as well as Scots Irish ancestors. He definitely has a point about the south. I’m familiar with the research on the “culture of honor.” It’s very interesting.
Anyway, thanks. I’m glad I didn’t miss the article.