A new Rasmussen Reports telephone and online survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania finds Biden leading Trump 49% to 45%. Two weeks ago, Biden had a 50% to 45% lead. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, while four percent (4%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Read more at:
Pennsylvania: Biden 49%, Trump 45% - Rasmussen Reports®
Showing posts with label US Presidential Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Presidential Election. Show all posts
10/31/20
US election: Here's how it can impact Europeans' lives - by Lillo Montalto & Marta Rodriguez
Donald Trump defined the 2020 Presidential vote as "the most important election in US history" but its impact will also be felt on this side of the pond too — and not just at the highest of political levels.
Trump’s politics over the past four years have affected both the pockets and the most intimate sphere of millions of Europeans.
On one hand, many EU workers have incurred substantial losses in their incomes as a result of the EU-US trade war.
On the other hand, unknown but influential lobbying groups with ties to the US administration are bringing on a fight to erode basic human rights for women and LGBT communities.
Read more at: US election: Here's how it can impact Europeans' lives | Euronews
Trump’s politics over the past four years have affected both the pockets and the most intimate sphere of millions of Europeans.
On one hand, many EU workers have incurred substantial losses in their incomes as a result of the EU-US trade war.
On the other hand, unknown but influential lobbying groups with ties to the US administration are bringing on a fight to erode basic human rights for women and LGBT communities.
Read more at: US election: Here's how it can impact Europeans' lives | Euronews
10/25/20
US Presidential Elections: 'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump
There is an atmosphere in Washington of high anxiety. Trump is melting down, to put it charitably. His campaign has been about lashing out, about wanting his former political opponents – President Obama and Joe Biden, who’s now running against him, of course – to be indicted then charged. Then there was his announcement that he is not necessarily going to accept the electoral result against him. The idea that the president would put in doubt the basic process of democracy and voting is not only unacceptable, it is a nightmare.
Read more at:'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Read more at:'Deep down, he's a terrified little boy': Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump | Donald Trump | The Guardian
8/30/20
US Presidential Election - Poll: Biden’s lead over Trump shrinks to 6 points after the RNC — his smallest margin in months
The presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has
tightened after this week’s Republican National Convention, according to
a new Yahoo News-YouGov poll, with Biden’s lead shrinking to 6 points —
his smallest margin in nearly two months.The convention appears to have boosted perceptions of Trump’s “strength” and convinced a small number of former Biden supporters to move toward the president. But the unrest in Kenosha, Wis., following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a major talking point at the RNC, has not had a clear impact on voters’ choices — at least not yet.
For its latest Yahoo News survey, which was conducted from Aug. 27 to Aug. 28, YouGov recontacted respondents who participated in Yahoo News-YouGov poll one month earlier to gauge how the RNC and other events have affected their views.
The poll taken at the end of July showed Biden with a lead of a little less than 9 percentage points. In the new survey, those same registered voters give Biden an edge of just over 6 points (47 percent to 41 percent).
Read more at
New Yahoo News-YouGov Poll: Biden’s lead over Trump shrinks to 6 points after the RNC — his smallest margin in months
11/3/16
US Pres. Elections: Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump weakens as momentum shifts in key election battlegrounds
Hillary Clinton’s grip on the US presidential election has weakened with
less than a week left on the clock, as new polls show the race between
the Democrat and Donald Trump going down to the wire in several key
swing states. While the former Secretary of State remains the favorite
to win the White House on 8 November, a contest that appeared days ago
to be all but over has become a nail-biter once more.
Read more: Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump weakens as momentum shifts in key election ttlegrounds | The Independent
Read more: Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump weakens as momentum shifts in key election ttlegrounds | The Independent
5/28/16
The US Presidential election is about the past -by Mark Perry
The first evidence that something was amiss in the American electorate came last February 20, when Donald Trump won
the South Carolina primary. You don't need to be steeped in the
minutiae of United States politics to work out why that happened - all
you have to do is clear out all Trump's talk about walls and borders and
focus on the US' intervention in Iraq.
That's right: Iraq.
During a televised debate before the South Carolina primary, Trump attacked fellow Republican Jeb Bush by focusing on George W Bush, his brother and former president. George, Trump said, had "lied" about why the US invaded Iraq.
"They said there were weapons of mass destruction and they knew there were none," he said. Trump's claim brought howls from political experts who confidently predicted that the claim would cost Trump votes. South Carolina, they said, loved the Bushes.
But when the votes were counted, Trump had won. Numerous accounts told the tale: Trump beat Jeb by "campaigning against nearly everything" that his brother George and his neo-conservative pals stood for, including the US' catastrophic Iraq intervention and the resulting conflagrations from Syria to Libya that it spawned.
Now, three months later, the New York mogul is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. And while it's easy to dismiss his triumph by claiming that the public has been seduced by a media savvy "liar", "birther" and "bully", the truth is more complicated.
South Carolina showed that while Americans question Trump's character, when it comes to military adventurism, they're with him.
Oddly, the only other candidate who has stood with Trump on the Iraq War is Bernie Sanders, who has attacked Hillary Clinton for supporting Bush's intervention.
Read more: The US election is about the past - Al Jazeera English
That's right: Iraq.
During a televised debate before the South Carolina primary, Trump attacked fellow Republican Jeb Bush by focusing on George W Bush, his brother and former president. George, Trump said, had "lied" about why the US invaded Iraq.
"They said there were weapons of mass destruction and they knew there were none," he said. Trump's claim brought howls from political experts who confidently predicted that the claim would cost Trump votes. South Carolina, they said, loved the Bushes.
But when the votes were counted, Trump had won. Numerous accounts told the tale: Trump beat Jeb by "campaigning against nearly everything" that his brother George and his neo-conservative pals stood for, including the US' catastrophic Iraq intervention and the resulting conflagrations from Syria to Libya that it spawned.
Now, three months later, the New York mogul is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. And while it's easy to dismiss his triumph by claiming that the public has been seduced by a media savvy "liar", "birther" and "bully", the truth is more complicated.
South Carolina showed that while Americans question Trump's character, when it comes to military adventurism, they're with him.
Oddly, the only other candidate who has stood with Trump on the Iraq War is Bernie Sanders, who has attacked Hillary Clinton for supporting Bush's intervention.
Read more: The US election is about the past - Al Jazeera English
5/22/16
US Presidental elections: Clinton's lead shrinks to only 3 points over Trump
http://nbcnews.to/1ORK2V9
3/18/16
US Presidential elections: Christian right in decline: Religious conservatives have become disliked
With all the alarming news that comes out on a daily basis,
it’s hard to believe anything good is happening out there. But there are
a few promising signs that one good thing is happening: The religious
right really is facing a decline in influence. The story has just a few
tendrils and shoots — make no mistake, the religious right is still
far too powerful — but there are hopeful signs that they are on the
decline. And the best part is they did it to themselves.
Derrick Gordon, a guard for Seton Hall’s basketball team, is the first openly gay Division I player in NCAA basketball, and Wednesday he got an unlikely supporter in the form of the usually conservative-leaning New York Post. The Post gave laudatory coverage to Charles Barkley for defending Gordon against homophobic haters.
“I really hate them sumbitches,” Barkley told TMZ in an interview about the Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay organization that plans to picket one of Seton Hall’s games. “Hopefully, somebody will beat the hell out of those Westboro people.”
While we here at Salon cannot condone threatening or even wishing violence on people, there is still something heartening about this whole story. Professional and college athletics tend to be the last bastion (besides fundamentalist religion, of course) of this sort of mindless homophobia and sexism. It wasn’t that long ago that it was hard to imagine someone in that world not only defending a gay athlete, but doing so swiftly and without any apparent fear of blowback from homophobic fans. But Barkley seems unconcerned about whiny homophobes, saying instead he wishes “the best” for Gordon.
Barkley’s right that the Westboro protesters, who picket soldiers’ funerals because they are so hungry for attention, are terrible people. Ironically, however, it’s this very terribleness that has helped get us to this point where a prominent figure like Barkley can be unequivocal in siding with a gay player like this. Whatever they are trying to accomplish, what the Westboro folks did was publicly and loudly and repeatedly tie anti-gay attitudes to a general hatefulness and disrespect for basic decency.
Most anti-gay conservatives tried to keep their distance, but still, the Westboro people were always there, unvarnished in their loathing, stripping away the religious justifications and posturing to reveal the beating heart of hatred that fuels anti-gay attitudes. They are cartoonishly evil and easy to hate. And their mere existence makes the targets of their hatred — LGBTQ Americans — much easier to sympathize with.
There’s been a lot of writing in recent months, spurred by the Donald Trump campaign, about the decline in the power of the religious right. To be clear, the Christian right still basically runs the Republican Party and has been behind a powerful and successful movement to destroy reproductive rights. But now that power is under threat because, seemingly overnight, people have started caring a lot less what the fundamentalists think.
Will Saletan at Slate reported on Tuesday that the Faith Angle Forum, which he has covered for years, was under a cloud of despair this year. “For them, Trump’s support among self-identified evangelicals is an embarrassment and a puzzle,” he writes.
They gave him many reasons they hate Trump — supposedly his hatefulness, misogyny, viciousness, etc. — but since those things never bothered them coming from, say, Ted Cruz, the likelier explanation for the anti-Trump sentiment among the movers and shakers of the religious right is that he’s just not one of them. He may sign off on the standard-issue Republican opinions on abortion and gay rights, but you get the sense that he doesn’t really care and would totally be pro-choice and pro-gay marriage tomorrow if he thought that’s what would get him votes. That so many conservatives prefer him to someone who mimics piety more persuasively is a slap to the face. They want fealty from Republican voters, and instead they’re getting a “yeah, yeah, abortion this gays that, let’s hear more about this wall” reaction.
Read more: Christian right in decline: Religious conservatives have become so belligerent and greedy, people are turning against them - Salon.com
Derrick Gordon, a guard for Seton Hall’s basketball team, is the first openly gay Division I player in NCAA basketball, and Wednesday he got an unlikely supporter in the form of the usually conservative-leaning New York Post. The Post gave laudatory coverage to Charles Barkley for defending Gordon against homophobic haters.
“I really hate them sumbitches,” Barkley told TMZ in an interview about the Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay organization that plans to picket one of Seton Hall’s games. “Hopefully, somebody will beat the hell out of those Westboro people.”
While we here at Salon cannot condone threatening or even wishing violence on people, there is still something heartening about this whole story. Professional and college athletics tend to be the last bastion (besides fundamentalist religion, of course) of this sort of mindless homophobia and sexism. It wasn’t that long ago that it was hard to imagine someone in that world not only defending a gay athlete, but doing so swiftly and without any apparent fear of blowback from homophobic fans. But Barkley seems unconcerned about whiny homophobes, saying instead he wishes “the best” for Gordon.
Barkley’s right that the Westboro protesters, who picket soldiers’ funerals because they are so hungry for attention, are terrible people. Ironically, however, it’s this very terribleness that has helped get us to this point where a prominent figure like Barkley can be unequivocal in siding with a gay player like this. Whatever they are trying to accomplish, what the Westboro folks did was publicly and loudly and repeatedly tie anti-gay attitudes to a general hatefulness and disrespect for basic decency.
Most anti-gay conservatives tried to keep their distance, but still, the Westboro people were always there, unvarnished in their loathing, stripping away the religious justifications and posturing to reveal the beating heart of hatred that fuels anti-gay attitudes. They are cartoonishly evil and easy to hate. And their mere existence makes the targets of their hatred — LGBTQ Americans — much easier to sympathize with.
There’s been a lot of writing in recent months, spurred by the Donald Trump campaign, about the decline in the power of the religious right. To be clear, the Christian right still basically runs the Republican Party and has been behind a powerful and successful movement to destroy reproductive rights. But now that power is under threat because, seemingly overnight, people have started caring a lot less what the fundamentalists think.
Will Saletan at Slate reported on Tuesday that the Faith Angle Forum, which he has covered for years, was under a cloud of despair this year. “For them, Trump’s support among self-identified evangelicals is an embarrassment and a puzzle,” he writes.
They gave him many reasons they hate Trump — supposedly his hatefulness, misogyny, viciousness, etc. — but since those things never bothered them coming from, say, Ted Cruz, the likelier explanation for the anti-Trump sentiment among the movers and shakers of the religious right is that he’s just not one of them. He may sign off on the standard-issue Republican opinions on abortion and gay rights, but you get the sense that he doesn’t really care and would totally be pro-choice and pro-gay marriage tomorrow if he thought that’s what would get him votes. That so many conservatives prefer him to someone who mimics piety more persuasively is a slap to the face. They want fealty from Republican voters, and instead they’re getting a “yeah, yeah, abortion this gays that, let’s hear more about this wall” reaction.
Read more: Christian right in decline: Religious conservatives have become so belligerent and greedy, people are turning against them - Salon.com
11/11/15
US Presidential Election: Fourth Republican Debate showed Republican candidates are unprepared for a general election fought over the economy - by Jamelle Bouie
There are a few things we can get out of the way about Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate. First, after months of decline, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had his first great night,
challenging Sen. Marco Rubio on tax expenditures and defense spending,
pushing Donald Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and stepping into
his father’s role as the libertarian gadfly in the race.
“If you’re a profligate spender and you spend money in an unlimited fashion for the military, is that a conservative notion?” Paul asked in his closing statement. “We have to be conservative with all spending, domestic spending and welfare spending. I’m the only fiscal conservative on the stage.”
The GOP contenders were out of step with the actual economic needs of ordinary Americans. Each candidate talked about relief for workers and families, but outside of Rubio’s child tax credit, few offered it. Instead, candidates came out against raising the minimum wage, called for a new gold standard for currency, and pushed plans for massive upper-income tax cuts. Unlike the first Democratic debate—when Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee tussled over college affordability and health care costs—there was little in the Republican debate that spoke to the challenges of ordinary people rather than businesses.*
Read more: Republican candidates aren’t prepared to argue over the economy in a general election: The GOP fourth debate revealed how little they understand about everyday economic issues.
“If you’re a profligate spender and you spend money in an unlimited fashion for the military, is that a conservative notion?” Paul asked in his closing statement. “We have to be conservative with all spending, domestic spending and welfare spending. I’m the only fiscal conservative on the stage.”
The GOP contenders were out of step with the actual economic needs of ordinary Americans. Each candidate talked about relief for workers and families, but outside of Rubio’s child tax credit, few offered it. Instead, candidates came out against raising the minimum wage, called for a new gold standard for currency, and pushed plans for massive upper-income tax cuts. Unlike the first Democratic debate—when Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee tussled over college affordability and health care costs—there was little in the Republican debate that spoke to the challenges of ordinary people rather than businesses.*
Read more: Republican candidates aren’t prepared to argue over the economy in a general election: The GOP fourth debate revealed how little they understand about everyday economic issues.
8/3/15
The greatest threat to America? Republicans - by Paul Thomas
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called it "the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history". Was he referring to:
• The outbreak of the Civil War.
• The assassination of Abraham Lincoln or John Kennedy or Martin Luther King.
• The 1929 Wall St crash.
• Pearl Harbour.
• 9/11.
• The realization that the immensely costly and destructive Iraq War was launched on the basis of a lie.
None of the above: according to Cruz, America's darkest day was when the Supreme Court decided not to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. Thus the extension of health insurance, previously the preserve of the rich, and marriage, previously the preserve of the straight, is worse than war, depression, assassination and mass murder.
And what does fellow Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee believe will "bring death to America":
• Bird flu.
• Climate change.
• Isis.
• North Korean nuclear missiles.
• Obesity.
• Psychopathic gunmen wrapped in the Confederate flag.
Again, none of the above: Huckabee was referring to the just-announced nuclear deal with Iran. He wasn't alone. It appears all 17 Republican presidential hopefuls believe the treaty painstakingly negotiated by the US, Russia, China, Britain and France is not merely not worth the paper it's written on, it's positively catastrophic.
It will - Huckabee again - "wipe Israel off the map". It's worth pointing out that Israel, itself often accused of being a terrorist state, has a nuclear arsenal whereas Iran doesn't and, by virtue of this treaty, won't have for at least a decade.
So apart from bringing death to America and Israel, are there any other flaws? You bet: it will lead to widespread war in the Middle East.
Fittingly, given that the Republicans are now essentially a party of religious fundamentalism, their candidates are partly taking their lead from Zionist Israel and Wahhabist Saudi Arabia who are terrified - hopefully with good reason - that the Iran deal foreshadows a seismic realignment which reduces their malign influence on US Middle East policy.
But their kneejerk denunciations also signal a frightening abandonment of diplomacy as a means of defusing tension, avoiding conflict and managing international affairs. The mindset seems to be that diplomacy should be reserved for friendly nations with whom you have interests in common. That they remain disposed towards armed intervention which has accelerated rather than suppressed Islamic militancy shouldn't come as a surprise since persisting with policies that achieve the exact opposite of what was intended is something of an American speciality.
The takeover of American conservatism by evangelical Christianity, Fox News and a handful of shadowy billionaires has transformed the Republicans into the party of wilful ignorance: doctrinal purity is more valued than intelligence; tolerance has been supplanted by persecutory moralising; paranoia has replaced realism.
Note EU-Digest: If this article by a New-Zealander does not open the eyes of US voters, probably nothing else will. Just think if any of these idiots having their finger on the launcher of the US nuclear arsenal??If this article by a New-Zealander does not open the eyes of US voters, probably nothing else will. Just think if any of these idiots gets their itchy finger on the launcher of the US nuclear arsenal??
Read more: The greatest threat to America? Republicans - Opinion - NZ Herald News
• The outbreak of the Civil War.
• The assassination of Abraham Lincoln or John Kennedy or Martin Luther King.
• The 1929 Wall St crash.
• Pearl Harbour.
• 9/11.
• The realization that the immensely costly and destructive Iraq War was launched on the basis of a lie.
None of the above: according to Cruz, America's darkest day was when the Supreme Court decided not to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. Thus the extension of health insurance, previously the preserve of the rich, and marriage, previously the preserve of the straight, is worse than war, depression, assassination and mass murder.
And what does fellow Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee believe will "bring death to America":
• Bird flu.
• Climate change.
• Isis.
• North Korean nuclear missiles.
• Obesity.
• Psychopathic gunmen wrapped in the Confederate flag.
Again, none of the above: Huckabee was referring to the just-announced nuclear deal with Iran. He wasn't alone. It appears all 17 Republican presidential hopefuls believe the treaty painstakingly negotiated by the US, Russia, China, Britain and France is not merely not worth the paper it's written on, it's positively catastrophic.
It will - Huckabee again - "wipe Israel off the map". It's worth pointing out that Israel, itself often accused of being a terrorist state, has a nuclear arsenal whereas Iran doesn't and, by virtue of this treaty, won't have for at least a decade.
So apart from bringing death to America and Israel, are there any other flaws? You bet: it will lead to widespread war in the Middle East.
Fittingly, given that the Republicans are now essentially a party of religious fundamentalism, their candidates are partly taking their lead from Zionist Israel and Wahhabist Saudi Arabia who are terrified - hopefully with good reason - that the Iran deal foreshadows a seismic realignment which reduces their malign influence on US Middle East policy.
But their kneejerk denunciations also signal a frightening abandonment of diplomacy as a means of defusing tension, avoiding conflict and managing international affairs. The mindset seems to be that diplomacy should be reserved for friendly nations with whom you have interests in common. That they remain disposed towards armed intervention which has accelerated rather than suppressed Islamic militancy shouldn't come as a surprise since persisting with policies that achieve the exact opposite of what was intended is something of an American speciality.
The takeover of American conservatism by evangelical Christianity, Fox News and a handful of shadowy billionaires has transformed the Republicans into the party of wilful ignorance: doctrinal purity is more valued than intelligence; tolerance has been supplanted by persecutory moralising; paranoia has replaced realism.
Note EU-Digest: If this article by a New-Zealander does not open the eyes of US voters, probably nothing else will. Just think if any of these idiots having their finger on the launcher of the US nuclear arsenal??If this article by a New-Zealander does not open the eyes of US voters, probably nothing else will. Just think if any of these idiots gets their itchy finger on the launcher of the US nuclear arsenal??
Read more: The greatest threat to America? Republicans - Opinion - NZ Herald News
1/21/13
USA: Barack Obama's Second Term: Democracy at its best - by RM
It is a changed America from 4 years ago.
Maybe in some ways it's a more cynical, more deeply politically divided America. At the same time, in many ways it is also a much better America than when President Obama took over the reigns from George Bush. The economy was in shambles, troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Osama Bin Laden still on the loose.
President Barack Obama was chosen for a second term because the people of the US rewarded him for reviving the economy after it had reached rock bottom. For bringing the troops back from Iraq and in being instrumental in removing Osama Bin Laden from the world scene. .
On the social front much has also changed - Americans who could not afford health care can now look forward to a healthier future. Americans also no longer have to think twice about a gay and lesbian marriage, just like they no longer make a huge issue about the race or religion of their president. That is undeniable progress.
What people watched today around the world is an historic, truly American moment — this time, combined with a national holiday that honors Dr.Martin Luther King, which only added to the symbolism of the occasion.
As such, this inauguration should signal Americans to celebrate what it has, where it is today, and what makes that nation truly unique in the world. It hopefully will give politicians the impulls to rededicate itself to working together to confront their economic and social woes without falling back on harsh, partisan political divisions.
The symbolism of this American Presidential inauguration can also serve as a lesson to Europeans, now united in the European Union, and who carry a special place in their hearts for President Obama.
America was after all the country to where many of Europe's forefathers migrated to as it gave them the opportunity to escape tyranny and religious persecution at home.
EU citizens watching this spectacle and reflecting on its historic importance were reminded that the ideals of the European Union in many ways are a mirror of what America stands for. Europe might not be there yet, but it should also not give up on their road to democracy, unity, and equality, which so far has brought the European continent more than 50 years of peace and prosperity.
Congratulations America - friends are allowed to be critical of each other at times, but also applaud each other on special occasions like these - may America always remain a Democratic symbol to the world and committed to what is written on the Statue of Liberty.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
EU-Digest11/3/12
Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents
What will the outcome of the US presidential race mean for Europe? During Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House the economic crisis ensured that he remained engaged with the EU.
Mitt Romney has worried some European observers with hostile comments towards Russia and China, a hardline stance over Iran, and a pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian approach.
Europe is not listed among the Republican candidate’s foreign policy priorities on his website.
Dr Ted R Bromund of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation told euronews that Europe’s importance had declined.
‘‘I think Mitt Romney would focus a little bit more on Europe than President Obama has done, but I think the era of the US focusing on Europe as the most important part of the world has gone, regardless of whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is in the White House next year. That was a different era in US policy; Europe is at peace; it is losing economic importance vis-a-vis Asia. And naturally the United States is going to look at where there are foreign policy crises and where the economy is growing, instead of places where this is not true,’‘ he said.
Mitt Romney’s foreign trips have been noted for their gaffes: criticizing London’s Olympic preparations, and describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Read more: Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents | euronews, world news
Mitt Romney has worried some European observers with hostile comments towards Russia and China, a hardline stance over Iran, and a pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian approach.
Europe is not listed among the Republican candidate’s foreign policy priorities on his website.
Dr Ted R Bromund of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation told euronews that Europe’s importance had declined.
‘‘I think Mitt Romney would focus a little bit more on Europe than President Obama has done, but I think the era of the US focusing on Europe as the most important part of the world has gone, regardless of whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is in the White House next year. That was a different era in US policy; Europe is at peace; it is losing economic importance vis-a-vis Asia. And naturally the United States is going to look at where there are foreign policy crises and where the economy is growing, instead of places where this is not true,’‘ he said.
Mitt Romney’s foreign trips have been noted for their gaffes: criticizing London’s Olympic preparations, and describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Read more: Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents | euronews, world news
11/1/12
U.S. Presidential election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states
President Barack Obama is leading the polls in several battleground states but Republican challenger Mitt Romney is catching up in a tight U.S. election race.
With four days left until Americans head to the voting booths, pollsters and pundits are closely watching the match between Obama and Romney in states that have a history of swinging between Democrats and Republicans.
The latest poll showed that in Iowa, which has emerged as an important swing state this year, Obama is at 50 per cent, six points ahead of Romney, who has 44 per cent among those who have already voted or are likely to do so, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll. In New Hampshire, the president leads 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
And the difference is going to be razor-thin overall: the nationwide tracking poll gave each candidate 49 per cent.
Read more: U.S. election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states - thestar.com
With four days left until Americans head to the voting booths, pollsters and pundits are closely watching the match between Obama and Romney in states that have a history of swinging between Democrats and Republicans.
The latest poll showed that in Iowa, which has emerged as an important swing state this year, Obama is at 50 per cent, six points ahead of Romney, who has 44 per cent among those who have already voted or are likely to do so, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll. In New Hampshire, the president leads 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
And the difference is going to be razor-thin overall: the nationwide tracking poll gave each candidate 49 per cent.
Read more: U.S. election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states - thestar.com
10/23/12
US presidential elections: A missing topic in the debates: Obama’s handling of the European crisis - by Neil Irwin
The debates are done: Three face-offs between Mitt Romney and President Obama, totaling 41 / 2 hours and combined transcripts of more than 50,000 words, longer than “The Great Gatsby.” But this was a novel with some glaring plot holes.
There were a startling range of issues that were never broached, a list that includes climate change, housing policy and appointments to the Federal Reserve. But one topic stands out for the mismatch between how much it has affected the economy — and how much of Obama’s time and energy it has claimed — relative to its nonexistence in the debates.
Europe’s financial woes have weighed on U.S. economic growth — driving down earnings among American companies that do business there and walloping financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic — amid persistent worries that the euro currency could unravel. It is impossible to know what the U.S. economy would have done over the past three years absent a fiscal crisis in Greece and other European countries (or if Germany and other financially stronger nations on the continent had responded to that crisis crisply and decisively). But it is easy to imagine that this was the difference between steady emergence from the nation’s deep doldrums and the muddling along that has occurred.
Read more: A missing topic in the debates: Obama’s handling of the European crisis - The Washington Post
There were a startling range of issues that were never broached, a list that includes climate change, housing policy and appointments to the Federal Reserve. But one topic stands out for the mismatch between how much it has affected the economy — and how much of Obama’s time and energy it has claimed — relative to its nonexistence in the debates.
Europe’s financial woes have weighed on U.S. economic growth — driving down earnings among American companies that do business there and walloping financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic — amid persistent worries that the euro currency could unravel. It is impossible to know what the U.S. economy would have done over the past three years absent a fiscal crisis in Greece and other European countries (or if Germany and other financially stronger nations on the continent had responded to that crisis crisply and decisively). But it is easy to imagine that this was the difference between steady emergence from the nation’s deep doldrums and the muddling along that has occurred.
Read more: A missing topic in the debates: Obama’s handling of the European crisis - The Washington Post
10/16/12
Romney election triumph would sink US reputation in Europe, poll finds - by Ewen MacAskill
The reputation of the US in Europe risks sinking back to Bush-era levels of unpopularity if Mitt Romney becomes president, according to new international polling published on Tuesday.Only around one in 20 of those surveyed in Britain, France and Germany by YouGov held a positive view of the Republican presidential nominee.
The poll of more than 12,000 people across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and China was prepared for the YouGov-Cambridge forum this week at which the Guardian is a media partner.
The results are a sign that affection for Barack Obama has diminished little since his 2008 speech in Berlin in which he promised to restore America's reputation on the world stage, even though, four years on, Guantánamo remains open and the US is still engaged in military action in Afghanistan.
But while Europeans had a strongly negative reaction to Romney, the prospect of him winning the White House was greeted with less dismay in Pakistan, where about 13% of respondents said it would make them more favourable to the US, compared to just 9% who said it would make them less favorable.
French daily Le Figaro, normally staunch conservative, ran a blog with the headline: 'Is Mitt Romney a loser?' In Poland, he was criticised by the Solidarity movement for being anti-unions.
A negative poll among Europeans can easily be brushed aside by the Romney campaign, as their views are unlikely to have any impact on the election. Indeed, he might even regard the results as helpful since many Americans, at least in public, claim to be disdainful about European views.
Read more: Romney election triumph would sink US reputation in Europe, poll finds | World news | guardian.co.uk
10/12/12
US Presidential Elections: Poll: Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate - by Anthony Mason
Fifty percent of uncommitted voters polled after watching the vice presidential debate picked Joe Biden as the winner while 31 percent thought Rep. Paul Ryan won.
Read more: Poll: Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate - CBS News Video
Read more: Poll: Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate - CBS News Video
10/6/12
US Presidential Elections: Romney 49% to Obama 47%: Rasmussen daily tracking poll
Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll’s Saturday report indicates that GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney is currently supported by 49% of voters throughout the United States and the incumbent, President Barack Obama, at the same time, is attracting 47% of America’s voters.
The daily tracking poll reveals that only 2% prefer some other candidate and just 2% are in the undecided category.
The day before the first presidential primary, President Barack Obama was leading Mitt Romney by 2%. Thereby, the results of Wednesday’s primary have stripped Obama of the lead in the presidential poll and have firmly put it in the hands of Mitt Romney. Obviously, being a daily tracking poll, all data in the latest poll which puts Mitt Romney in the lead was conducted after the debate.
Read more: Romney 49% to Obama 47%: Rasmussen daily tracking poll - National Conservative | Examiner.com
The daily tracking poll reveals that only 2% prefer some other candidate and just 2% are in the undecided category.
The day before the first presidential primary, President Barack Obama was leading Mitt Romney by 2%. Thereby, the results of Wednesday’s primary have stripped Obama of the lead in the presidential poll and have firmly put it in the hands of Mitt Romney. Obviously, being a daily tracking poll, all data in the latest poll which puts Mitt Romney in the lead was conducted after the debate.
Read more: Romney 49% to Obama 47%: Rasmussen daily tracking poll - National Conservative | Examiner.com
10/4/12
US Presidential Elections: Romney Tax Plan on Table. Debt Collapses Table - by Ezra Klein
I can describe Mitt Romney’s tax policy promises in two words: mathematically impossible.
Those aren’t my words. They’re the words of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which has conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date of Romney’s tax plan and which bent over backward to make his promises add up. They’re perhaps the two most important words that have been written during this U.S. presidential election.
If you were to distill the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign to a few sentences, you could hardly do better than this statement of purpose from the speech Romney delivered in Detroit, outlining his plan for the economy: “I believe the American people are ready for real leadership. I believe they deserve a bold, conservative plan for reform and economic growth. Unlike President Obama, I actually have one -- and I’m not afraid to put it on the table.”
The truth is that Romney is afraid to put his plan on the table. He has promised to reduce the deficit, but refused to identify the spending he would cut. He has promised to reform the tax code, but refused to identify the deductions and loopholes he would eliminate. The only thing he has put on the table is dessert: a promise to cut marginal tax rates by 20 percent across the board and to do so without raising the deficit or reducing the taxes paid by the top 1 percent.
Read more: Romney Tax Plan on Table. Debt Collapses Table. - Bloomberg
Those aren’t my words. They’re the words of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which has conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date of Romney’s tax plan and which bent over backward to make his promises add up. They’re perhaps the two most important words that have been written during this U.S. presidential election.
If you were to distill the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign to a few sentences, you could hardly do better than this statement of purpose from the speech Romney delivered in Detroit, outlining his plan for the economy: “I believe the American people are ready for real leadership. I believe they deserve a bold, conservative plan for reform and economic growth. Unlike President Obama, I actually have one -- and I’m not afraid to put it on the table.”
The truth is that Romney is afraid to put his plan on the table. He has promised to reduce the deficit, but refused to identify the spending he would cut. He has promised to reform the tax code, but refused to identify the deductions and loopholes he would eliminate. The only thing he has put on the table is dessert: a promise to cut marginal tax rates by 20 percent across the board and to do so without raising the deficit or reducing the taxes paid by the top 1 percent.
Read more: Romney Tax Plan on Table. Debt Collapses Table. - Bloomberg
9/17/12
US Presidential Elections: Slipping in the polls, Romney looks to shift direction of race - Kasie Hunt and Ken Thomas
With momentum on President Barack Obama’s side, Mitt Romney sought Monday to explain to voters more clearly what he would do as president as he looked to right his struggling campaign and ease worries in Republican circles about its state seven weeks before Election Day.
“My plan is to help the middle class,” the Republican nominee says in a new TV ad in which he promises to cut the deficit, balance the budget, reduce spending and help small business. Also, he adds: “We’ll add 12 million new jobs in four years.”
It was one of two new commercials he was launching in the most competitive states – the other assails Mr. Obama as bad for middle-class families – while also re-focusing his campaign appearances on his previously released five-point economic plan and starting a new effort to try to narrow Mr. Obama’s advantage with Hispanic voters.
Read more: Slipping in the polls, Romney looks to shift direction of race - The Globe and
“My plan is to help the middle class,” the Republican nominee says in a new TV ad in which he promises to cut the deficit, balance the budget, reduce spending and help small business. Also, he adds: “We’ll add 12 million new jobs in four years.”
It was one of two new commercials he was launching in the most competitive states – the other assails Mr. Obama as bad for middle-class families – while also re-focusing his campaign appearances on his previously released five-point economic plan and starting a new effort to try to narrow Mr. Obama’s advantage with Hispanic voters.
Paul J. Quirk, a U.S. citizen and lifelong resident
until he joined the University of British Columbia as the Phil Lind Chair in
U.S. Politics and Representation noted: “Romney
shot himself in the foot last week, then re-loaded, and shot the other foot.
First, he said he would keep parts of Obama's health care reform. After saying
thousands of times that he would repeal Obamacare, with no qualifications, he
offended conservatives and left his position on health care badly
confused.
“Second, he attacked Obama for a statement on the Libyan crisis that a) most people will approve of and b) Obama himself did not even make. He appeared to many observers too political and too reckless for the presidency.
“Both episodes provide material for Democratic advertising and for embarrassing challenges during the presidential debates. The sad thing about all this, from a Republican standpoint, is that desperation is not yet warranted. Romney is throwing ‘Hail Marys,’ very likely to be intercepted, in the third quarter of the game.”
"Bottom line he just isn't Presidential material".
“Second, he attacked Obama for a statement on the Libyan crisis that a) most people will approve of and b) Obama himself did not even make. He appeared to many observers too political and too reckless for the presidency.
“Both episodes provide material for Democratic advertising and for embarrassing challenges during the presidential debates. The sad thing about all this, from a Republican standpoint, is that desperation is not yet warranted. Romney is throwing ‘Hail Marys,’ very likely to be intercepted, in the third quarter of the game.”
"Bottom line he just isn't Presidential material".
Read more: Slipping in the polls, Romney looks to shift direction of race - The Globe and
9/2/12
US Presidential Elections: Reuter Poll - Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived
A modest bump in popularity for US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 per cent to 43 per cent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll.
Romney was ahead by one point in Friday's online poll and two points in Thursday's survey as his campaign came under a blaze of media attention at the convention in Tampa, Florida.
In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Romney urged voters to get behind him and help rebuild the economy. His address followed three days of speeches by Republicans, including testimonies from Romney's relatives and friends aimed at improving the image of a candidate who is often seen as too rich, stiff and aloof.
TODAYonline | World | Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Poll
Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 per cent to 43 per cent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll.
Romney was ahead by one point in Friday's online poll and two points in Thursday's survey as his campaign came under a blaze of media attention at the convention in Tampa, Florida.
In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Romney urged voters to get behind him and help rebuild the economy. His address followed three days of speeches by Republicans, including testimonies from Romney's relatives and friends aimed at improving the image of a candidate who is often seen as too rich, stiff and aloof.
TODAYonline | World | Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Poll
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