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Subscribe to RSSMajor publications and news organizations around the world have been following the United States' 2012 election, some following even the most minute details. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
News analysis
Updated at 8:22 a.m. ET on Nov. 5: Barack Obama's election to the White House in 2008 captured the world's imagination.
His victory was heralded with a front-page headline proclaiming "The Day America Became a Little Bit Cool Again" in the U.K's Metro newspaper, Kenya declared a national holiday and even usually adversarial Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez hailed the "historic" event.
As part of our The World is Watching series, NBC News journalists around the world set out to see whether four years had dampened that initial enthusiasm and examined what people in other countries think a Mitt Romney administration might mean for their daily lives.
Read on to learn what we discovered from people in nations including Iran, Pakistan, Britain, Cuba, Israel and beyond.
EGYPT
In the first foreign policy speech of his presidency, Barack Obama told the audience at Cairo University to "seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." He promised to support democracy, economic development and a Palestinian state, and stated his opposition to extremism.
Nov. 5: From dancing in the streets to Cold War echoes - ITN's Lindsey Hilsum reports on the world's reaction to Barack Obama's election.
Today, many in Egypt – arguably the Arab world’s most influential country and its largest in terms of population – feel that hopes raised during the speech have been dashed.
Their disappointment hasn’t necessarily translated into immediate support for Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
“I don’t prefer either (Obama or Romney),” accountant Nasr Said, 31, said. “America has one policy. It doesn’t matter who is elected.”
Cairo University political science professor Horeya Megahid said that many people expected too much of Obama and now feel deceived. In the wake of the Arab Spring, she feels that he is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood at the expense of liberal parties and movements.
June 4: President Obama delivers an address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt.
“But we don’t expect Romney to be any better,” she said. “I hope that if Obama wins, he can make some changes in his policy and towards his understanding of what is going on in the Middle East.”
In Egypt's elections, politics is a new family affair
Dr. Amr Darag, a Muslim Brotherhood member and former parliamentary candidate, favors Obama’s campaign promises but doubts they will be kept.
“Obama would be more understanding of the changes that have taken place in the Middle East,” he said.
Darag said he doubted that Romney would change policies by offering more aid to the armed Syrian opposition or support to Israel if it attacked Iran.
“War is no game,” he said. “During campaigning, one might talk loudly about this but in reality, policy is made by experts and advisers, not by one man.”
IRAN
Iranians inside and out of the country have learned over the decades that American decisions can have big repercussions on their country.
The Allied powers occupied Iran during World War II, forcing Reza Shah to abdicate in favor of his son. In 1952, President Harry Truman did not agree to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. But in 1953, the CIA under Dwight D. Eisenhower helped oust the democratically elected prime minister and reinstate the Shah, arguably helping give rise to Shiite fundamentalism.
Now, what was once an important U.S. client state is a staunchly anti-Western Islamic Republic that refers to America as the "Great Satan." Fearful of Iran’s supposedly peaceful nuclear program, the West has slapped sanctions on the country. Israel, meanwhile, has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
'Our money is becoming more and more worthless every day'
Elmira, 26, knows the name of every U.S president since Richard Nixon and can recite each one’s policy towards Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.
"I think that Romney might attack Iran and that would be terrible,” the student said. “It is true that the sanctions have hurt us but war would be much more painful.”
Further afield the diaspora also holds strong opinions.
The regime does not represent the Iranian people, said one expatriate Iranian who asked that his name not be used.
“(Romney) will take a stronger position on Iran, maybe he will attack and get rid of the regime once and for all,” he said.
The Iranian economy is in free fall, with its currency, the rial hitting a record low. NBC's Ali Arouzi reports.
However, Mohsen Rezaee, the former head of the Revolutionary Guard and presidential candidate during Iran’s 2009 elections, told NBC News that U.S policy towards Iran was set in stone and the only difference was the path each candidate would take to get to the same goal.
CUBA
It’s unlikely that any Latin American country tracks U.S. politics more closely than the socialist island of Cuba.
“The elections are important to us,” Havana University Professor Esteban Morales said. “Almost as important as baseball,” Cuba’s national pastime, he jokingly added.
Also in this series: Despite bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race
Indeed, American presidential elections are a spectator sport for many. From the moment Fidel Castro took power and immediately locked horns with Washington more than 50 years ago, the average Cuban learned to keep one eye trained north. The official position from the government has been to blame the U.S. trade embargo for much of the island’s economic hardship.
“Of course I’m paying attention to the U.S. elections,” said Havana cabbie Omar Martin, 46. “The outcome will have an impact here.”
Roberto Leon / NBC News
Havana cabbie Omar Martin
While not living up to every promise he made, Obama has made good on a pledge that restored the right of Cuban Americans to travel to see family and to transfer money to the island.
Miriam Leiva, a member of the political opposition, believes Obama has gained popularity because of the “bridges he built with the Cuban people.”
Roberto Leon / NBC News
Mirian Leiva
“People believe Obama promotes contact between the two countries,” Leiva said. “Romney would revert to a policy of confrontation with the Cuban government.”
ISRAEL
Most Israeli Jews would be reassured if Romney won the U.S. presidential election – one recent survey showed most preferred the Republican to Obama by almost a three-to-one margin – feeling they had an unquestioning friend rather than a dispassionate critic in the White House.
“I hope that Obama doesn’t win because he is not good for Israelis,” said Daniel Sullam, a resident of Jerusalem. “Romney is better since he sits and talks to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and listens to him.”
“If we don’t attack Iran before they attack us they will attack us with an atomic bomb, and this is not a joke and … will affect the whole world and not only the Israelis,” Sullam added.
Also in this series: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions
Obama has been accused of trying to browbeat Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians, particularly in his efforts to halt settlement-building in the occupied West Bank, and of refusing to impose red lines on Iran's atomic project.
However, the U.S. and Israel are too joined at the hip on fundamental challenges for the head to make that much difference, some experts say. Any change would probably be a question of style over substance, they say, with a Republican administration expected to follow the path already laid out by Obama.
"There is a great deal of continuity in foreign policy," said Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and member of the ruling conservative Likud party. "Things don't change overnight if a new president takes power."
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
Palestinians tend to have a different take on the American presidential race, saying that the United States reflexively supports the Israel and disregards legitimate Palestinian interests.
Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. But after years of talks failed to secure one many believe there is little difference between the two U.S. candidates.
“People know that the system in the U.S. doesn’t give much leeway to the candidate given the strong Israeli lobby,” said Mazin Qumsiyeh, biology professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit universities. “Candidates have to grovel at Israel’s feet to prove their candidacy.”
President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney discuss foreign policy in the third and final presidential debate.
The American passport holder said he would not vote for either Romney or Obama.
Palestinians say that growing Israeli settlements deny them a viable contiguous state, while Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and says the future of settlements should be decided in peace talks.
While the next U.S. president will not be able to buck the U.S.’s anti-Palestinian bias, Talat Batato said he admired Obama.
“I like Obama because he defied discrimination and repression by being the first black president,” said Batato, who works at an NGO in Gaza. “But I don’t think Americans are mature enough to keep in him for longer.”
GREAT BRITAIN
In season one of the “West Wing,” fictional British diplomat Lord John Marbury arrives in the Oval Office to advise the president. His approach toward the most powerful man in the world summed up thus: “You may have the power, but you need us British because we understand the world better than you do.”
It’s a good stereotype and it’s half-true. London continues to be a diplomatic center. And as one of America’s closest allies, the British provide an important link between the United States and the world.
Full coverage: NBCNews.com's The World is Watching series
But the reality is that Britain needs America more than the reverse. The U.S. invests more money in Britain that Europe does. And British foreign policy has been in lockstep with the U.S. for a decade. That’s why the British government is so cautious not to take sides in the general election: It knows it must work with whomever is elected.
“Insofar as U.S. elections tell us anything, it is more about the character of the next administration rather than the substance,” Michael Clarke, director general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told NBC News.
From 2008: Londoners celebrate Obama's inauguration
While Obama appears to have no sentimental affection for the U.K., he might see Britain as useful in a more internationally focused second term.
“I think Obama might value more what the U.K. has to offer on the world stage, in a very hard-nosed way,” Clarke said.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and President Barack Obama have a personal bond that helps define their working relationship. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
So while on both sides of the Atlantic politicians and diplomats like to talk of the “special relationship,” a term invented by Winston Churchill, such a relationship is more important to prime ministers than presidents. Presidents tend to choose to use it when it’s in their interests and ignore it when it isn’t. In this special relationship Britain is very much the junior partner, and she knows it.
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan has been heavily dependent on the United States since U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, so who wins Tuesday’s election matters here.
One of the world’s poorest and least-developed countries whose economy relies heavily on foreign aid and where violence against women is increasing, it is under huge pressure to gain control of its own security before the deadline for foreign troop withdrawal.
“The people who are aware, who are educated, care about the election,” said Fayazulhaq Hotak, a government worker. “They know the importance of this election and the consequences of what will happen to Afghanistan. Maybe the new president will withdraw the troops earlier.”
Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Most of the people NBC News spoke to in a crowded market in Kabul had not heard of Mitt Romney, although everyone knew who Barack Obama was.
A key concern for many Afghans, with so many insider attacks and the constant threat faced by local police and Afghan military, is whether Afghanistan will be secure after the 2014 withdrawal deadline.
“I think Obama is better for Afghanistan than Romney would be,” IT specialist Azim Fakrhi said. His biggest fear is the withdrawal of NATO troops.
Meet Afghan female rapper, colonel who defy odds
Only a government worker, Fayazulhaq Hotaq, had clear-cut views on Romney.
“We are afraid that he will suddenly withdraw troops from Afghanistan,” Hotaq said.
However, most people are too poor and preoccupied to care about the elections, said Sayed Zaman.
“They are busy earning their daily bread for their own families,” he added.
INDONESIA
There is huge support in the world’s largest Muslim country for Obama, who lived in Jakarta as a child. Indonesians are also keenly interested in foreign policy issues, with many distrustful of the U.S. and its treatment of Muslims around the world.
“I do follow the race closely,” said Indonesian Ayu Hakim who spent more than a decade in the United States. “One thing for sure, Obama has made everything much more transparent by putting his plans, visions, goals, etc. on his website.”
Controversial Obama statue back in public view
Romney, on the other hand has not been as transparent, which reflects badly on him, Hakim said.
NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel talks with Rachel Maddow about the news made in the third presidential debate, including President Obama's remarks on leaving Pakistan in the dark on plans to get Osama bin Laden.
Benny Handoko, on the other hand, hasn’t paid as much attention to this race.
“The previous one is the most exciting U.S. election in my living memory since it's a breakthrough, a historic achievement in terms of the U.S. having the first Black president,” he said.
“Whoever is elected won't change American international policy drastically because I think they have to deal with domestic issues more. And American isn't as important,” he added.
VENEZUELA
Oil-rich Venezuela is run by self-styled socialist Hugo Chavez, Latin America's principal anti-U.S. agitator. While Chavez’s populist largesse has won him elections, critics complain about the country’s rundown infrastructure, food shortages and violent crime.
When asked about the U.S. election, Patricia Paredes, 63, said she was worried that Obama was too liberal.
“He changed all of his views on homosexuality and abortion just to get votes,” the Caracas resident said. “Romney will have a stronger hand.”
Chavez wins 3rd term, vows to deepen socialist revolution
This strong hand will put Venezuela under pressure and save Venezuela from Chavez, Paredes said.
/
The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.
Jorge Pérez Valery, 24, a journalist with Globovisión, does not agree that Romney would be a better candidate but he also doesn’t pin his hopes on Obama.
“If Mitt Romney wins, I think that Republicans would have a (stricter) policy towards Caracas,” he said. “I'm afraid that this attitude would just affect the people, but not the Hugo Chávez's regime.”
“(But) if Barack Obama wins, I sincerely think that there will be no change,” he added.
PAKISTAN
For many in the world’s second-largest Muslim country, the third presidential debate covered two existentially important areas of foreign policy: the hugely unpopular use of drones to target alleged militants and whether Pakistan and the United States should “divorce.”
Whether either candidate represented a real change was up-for-discussion, however.
Pakistan's 'Generation Y' battles to shape country's future
Whoever occupies the Oval Office has little room move independently on Pakistan or any other foreign policy issue, said Ahsan Iqbal, a member of parliament for the Pakistan Muslim League.
“American foreign policies are made in places like the Pentagon where the institutional memory has little to do with who the president is,” he said. “Be it Romney or Obama, nobody is going to rock the boat.”
In Pakistan's largest city, 'Old Glory' is flammable and profitable
Still, Mohammad Waseem, a 40-year-old handyman from the capital Islamabad, said he hoped the election would bring a change from Obama, even though he did not even know the name of the GOP challenger.
“Obama hasn't been good for Pakistan. As we are Muslims, America wants to enslave us,” he said.
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
Billions in foreign aid that have gone to Pakistan have done little to help regular people, Waseem said.
“The dollars they send here only go to the rulers,” he said. “Help us fight inflation. Help us find jobs.”
JAPAN
“Mr. Romney lacks 'shomin kankaku'," said businessman Choei Yamaoka in Tokyo’s Shimbashi, a mecca for Japan's middle-class salarymen. "And for continuity's sake, it’s probably better for Japan to have Mr. Obama remain President.”
"Shomin kankaku" is a popular term in Japanese politics that means "commoner's sensibilities," and acts as a barometer for politicians’ strength or public approval.
But it isn’t just commoner's sensibilities that are on the minds of Japanese people. Two decades of economic stagnation have forced Japan to relinquish its position as the world's second largest economy to China.
"Not only does Mr. Romney lack shomin kankaku, he seems too hostile towards China," housewife Shizuko Otani told NBC News. "We need to work with China.”
Also in this series: Suspicion of US rife as Obama, Romney jab China
Still, Romney has some supporters.
"Looking back at the last four years, I have to say I support Romney," taxi driver Akio Hiraide said. "Past American presidents have all been more supportive of Japan. I just don't get that feeling from Mr. Obama.”
GERMANY
If the U.S. presidential election were held in Germany, Obama would win by a landslide. In a recent poll by public broadcaster ZDF, 89 percent of respondents said they would vote for Obama if they could.
ZDF Political Director Theo Koll called the result “astonishing” and said Germans were impressed with Obama’s introduction of universal health care.
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
“The fact that Americans had no health system in a way Europeans would define a health system, that millions were without insurance, was quite strange,” he said.
From 2010: Europe 'dismayed' as midterms highlight Obama's struggles
One Obama fan is Simon Rossbach, a 26-year-old student in Mainz.
“I’ve liked Obama since he appeared on the political stage because of his personality,” he said while reading ‘The Hunger Games’ at the local Starbucks. “Romney’s demeanor and message make him appear unappealing.”
Indeed, Romney seems to be such a turnoff to some Germans that they cancelled their contracts with Allianz after a report that employees at the American branch of the insurance giant had donated to the Romney campaign.
Russia will be at the top of the foreign policy agenda for whoever is in the White House. Ordinary Russians give their view of the election to NBC News in Moscow.
Also in this series: Should next US president treat Russia as friend or foe?
Experts said Romney has a much harder stance, because he never visited Germany as a presidential candidate, while Obama drew a 200,000-strong crowd at his 2008 Berlin speech.
“Romney is just less known here,” Klaus Scharioth, a former German ambassador in Washington, D.C., told NBC News. “Obama has proven himself to Germans with his foreign policy efforts.”
Scharioth said many Germans feel that the Obama government is willing to include other nations in its handling of developments in the Middle East, Afghanistan or Russia.
KENYA
Several hundred people are expected to converge in the dusty streets near the edge of the mighty Lake Victoria in Western Kenya where they hope they will see Obama re-elected.
“We will slaughter a number of bulls around here. People will drink and celebrate, they will sing and dance,” said Peter Okath, 33, who owns shops and a clothing business.
When Obama became president, Kogelo, described as Obama’s Kenyan home, erupted in celebration. The jubilation ran through the country as many locals hoped that the election of an African-American president would lead to the promotion of issues affecting Kenya.
Nov. 5: Barack Obama's last living grandparent, 86-year-old Miss Sarah, invited any and everyone into the tiny village where she lives in Kenya in what became a national celebration. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
But those high expectations have largely not been met: A survey conducted for BBC found that Kenya was the most pro-Romney of the 21 countries where research was carried out. Some observers explain this by saying that like many African leaders, Kenyans are frustrated that the Obama White House hasn’t spent more in the region.
NBC News' Amalia Ahmad, Tazeen Ahmad, Carlo Angerer, Ali Arouzi, Maria Camila Bernal, F. Brinley Bruton, Ed Flanagan, Paul Goldman, Charlene Gubash, Lawahez Jabari, Rohit Kachroo, Wajahat Khan, Jim Maceda, Mary Murray, Kerry Sanders, Keir Simmons and Arata Yamamoto contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Analysis: Suspicion of US rife as Romney, Obama batter China
- Meet Afghan female rapper, colonel who defy the odds
- Analysis: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions
- Chinese say one child is enough as Beijing weighs end of policy
- Analysis: Should next president treat Russia as friend or foe?
- China opposition party lasts a day, founder gets 8 years in prison
- Expert: Tourists threaten Sistine Chapel's famous paintings
- Oasis of tolerance or 'Republic of Shame'? Two faces of gay life in Beirut
- After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom in Syria
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Memo to people of the world who think Obama has not done enough on X, Y, and Z:
You have to understand that the opposition party, the GOP/Republicans, upon the election of Obama in 2008, devoted themselves to the destruction of Obama in this 2012 election. Ignoring a hundred years of compromise and give and take between the two major political parties, the Republicans having a majority in the House after 2010 were able to hamper Obama in every single thing he wanted to do. American Presidents have a weak hold on power, by design of our Founders. Presidents do not enjoy much in the way of direct power and must rely on allies in Congress. However, they do have a certain leadership function that Obama has been loathe to use because, well, he is an African-American, a Black. You have to understand that America is still a country which harbors racial prejudices and hatreds even thought the Civil War was settled in 1865. For certain white Americans, having a Black in the White House is something that makes them act in ways the rest of us consider childish and ignorant. Sorry, but the USA is still a work in progress. Your country, whatever it is, probably has its own similar issues to a greater or lesser degree.
Memo to jeffmmiller: YOU have to understand that for the first 2 years of Obama's administration, both houses of Congress were controlled by the Democrats, and this President got everything he wanted passed. So all of these FAILED POLICIES are directly on the heads of the President and Democrats. As for playing the "RACE CARD". Do you get a weekly card in the mail that states when all else fails to win an argument, pull out the old race card? It's time you turned off the "Obamatron Attitude" and started facing real facts about who put this country in the crapper these past 4 years. Obama's slogan this time is FORWARD. Well read the fine print beneath, "OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF".
Here's what the non partisan Congressional Research Service has to say about cutting taxes to increase income. (Summary below)
Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The real GDP growth rate averaged 4.2% and real per capita GDP increased annually by 2.4% in the 1950s. In the 2000s, the average real GDP growth rate was 1.7% and real per capita GDP increased annually by less than 1%.
There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.
The share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. The evidence does not suggest necessarily a relationship between tax policy with regard to the top tax rates and the size of the economic pie, but there may be a relationship to how the economic pie is sliced.
Since Romney's whole platform is refuted by these findings, Senator Mitch McConnell (R) blocked the release of the Report. It surfaced again in the Nov 1 2012 New York Times
I have a friend that believes House Majority Eric Cantor is actually the AntiChrist. He correctly notes that Cantor was born on 6/6/1963. 1963 is a year commonly used by Romany gypsies and Irish Travellers as a made-up birth year to throw investigators off their trail. 63 is also a special number among the Travellers. Cantor also lives and represents the rich part of Richmond, Virginia where old wealth benefited the most from the slavery trade. His paternal grandfather was Eastern Romanian. His middle name is Ivan. He lives with his wife and her mother, in what some would say a peculiar living arrangement. I don't know, buy his sleazy smile and reedy, effeminate southern voice really creeps me out. I don't know if he is really the AntiChrist. But, you never know.
If Israel wants to attack Iran so badly, what are they waiting for? Do they need the U.S. to hold their hand? We have already supplied Israel with the necessary armaments. We have sent them $115 billion in aid since World War II. Israel is the largest cumulative beneficiary of American foreign aid for the past 65 plus years. Haven't we done enough for Israel?
We want peace in the Middle East but Israel wants war. Go ahead, Israel. Leave us out of it.
Aye. No matter who wins, I hope we continue to ignore the jackasses in Israel goading us into fighting for them. They are a sovereign state, if they hate Iran so much and feel so threatened, by all means go to war with them. Just don't sink anymore of our communication ships before you slaughter the helpless citizens with a surprise attack after the cease fire order this time eh?
MEMO TO EUROPEANS: You sincerely expect us to trust and take seriously your judgement of candidates when your preference for Obama is solely because he is black? You gave him the Nobel Price in Peace BEFORE he became President! You are all are simply a bunch of PC-narcissists!
The over-riding theme of perception of US foreign policy around the world seems to be money or war. If they refuse to do what we want for the first, they get the second. Whether such war is physical or economic makes no difference.
I find it interesting that Presidents can influence greatly foreign policy but can't seem to do a damned thing at home because of cock-blocking in Washington. Both parties and lobbyists included. It is no wonder they try to influence the world, because they sure have none here and they want to show that they have tried to do something useful with their time in the White House.
Amerigal:
Try indulging yourself in something new for a change - THE TRUTH. Not once during President Obama's first two years did the Senate hold a Democratic Senate majority sufficient to stanch the repeated threats of McConnell and his fellow Republican obstructionists. The time line proving that point has been put up repeatedly, yet you, and others like you, continue to repeat this lie.
You aren't going to get away with the lie that race has nothing to do with the seething hatred directed at President Obama. Those of us who live in the real world know better. You believe that if you repeat this lie often enough, we won't remember the racist remarks that ooze from right-wing blogs. You believe that we are deaf and don't hear racial slurs on a daily basis. The Associated Press just released a survey that clearly demonstrates that you are either lying about the race issue or you have chosen ignorance. Racism is alive and well.
As to who put this country in the toilet, it boggles the mind that you are unable to grasp reality. When President Bush left office there was not one single metric that wasn't plummeting....NOT ONE. Under President Obama's leadership, the nation has gradually increased employment, the market has rebounded, and consumer confidence is trending upward. That's four years of steady improvement.
Stop lying.
David, David ... stop hyperventilating, simmer down my man,... boil yourself some tea, listen to some Ravel, Satie, ... now, this is may be a shocker to you, but stay with us - hold tight, ... race has little to do with this, is the economy. That's it... is the economy. Sorry.
Let's do it
Beware of organizations that claim to be bi-partisan. They usually aren't so bi-partisan. They dfy simple know facts that the more revenue extracted by government the slower the economy gets.
Explain where the tax increases were that caused the 2005 & 2006 record growth in revenues.
Explain the growth in jobs of 6 MILLION in 3 years frin 2004 - 2006. The new guy is stuggled to get 5 million in 4 years.
"Stop lying."
"It's almost at the point that the ONLY way Romney and most other Republicans could stop lying is to stop talking. Every candidate stretches the truth but this Romney clown takes it to levels never seen before. I remember every presidential election since Ike/Stevenson in 1952 and I have never known a candidate lie more in all those years like Romney has. He makes Richard Nixon look honest. Romney has lied more than LBJ, Nixon, Clinton and Bush 43 combined.
I'm shocked that these people are arrogant to the fact they get my hard earned tax dollars when we have our own problems at home..As an American I would like to tell each and everyone of them I don't care who your dictators are and I don't care about your problems, get your own life..
Just think of the things we could do with those tax dollars in our country"
This article makes me nauseous I can't respond anymore, why would anyone care what Hugo the hot head retard thinks.
David, I agee with you, but I don't like using the term that racism is alive and "well". There is nothing "well" about racism. It is alive and showing it's very ugly head. According to Southern Poverty Law Center, the hate groups have risen from 888 groups in 2007 to 1018 in 2011. "the radical right grew explosively in 2011, the third such dramatic expansion in as many years. The growth was fueled by superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories, the changing racial makeup of America, and the prospect of four more years under a black president who many of the far right view as an enemy to their country". I have been reading these posts for a very long time and could not understand the irrational hatred against the President from some of these posts, so last night, I googled the KKK and went on their website. All these things about Obama being a Communist, etc. was on their site. They also claim that there will be a race war. This is fear-mongering. And now I can understand where this false information is coming from. Our family will be voting for the President to get reelected. I pray that it is so. We believe that he has done a pretty good job, dispite the obstructionist in the White House that were/are determined to make him a one-term President and because of this, have slowed the recovery process. And as far as how the world feels about our President - I believe their opinion of him does matter. Good relationships play an important role in our economic recovery as well as our foreign policy.
I am so tired of the lie that the President had control of congress for 2 years. He had control of congress for exactly 5 months and much of that time, Congress was in recess. It was only during that 5 months that there were enough Democrats to prevent a filibuster by the Republicans and even then, because of the 60 vote requirement, every single Democrat and at least 1 or 2 independents would have had to vote for the President's proposed legislation. During the remainder of the 2 years, there were enough Republicans to filibuster everything he proposed and that is exactly what they did.
Meanwhile, the Republicans signed away their promise to the American people when they signed their allegiance to Grover Norquist INSTEAD of the American people... all in an effort to ensure that the President is a one-term president. And this was done knowing that their agenda would hurt the American people. Every Republican congressional member who signed the pledge to Norquist should be tried for treason!
Interesting interviews with no overall conclusion... except to reinforce the idea that a president can only turn the ship right or left in small increments and even those increments are in a large part due to the state of affairs given them. I would say that they have a much greater influence on forwards and backwards (whatever that means, LOL) Also, this applies to domestic policy as much as foreign policy.
To the real points...
I think we would have all liked to make more progress with Pakistan, but with Osama bin Laden and his other crew leaders hiding there, I'm not sure we could have done any better. Drones are not popular but are inevitably better than war... maybe next term.
Regarding Israel, it looks to me like they're more like us than we even imagine. Their right wing, who are currently in power, prefer Romney and outright demonize Obama, while the left loves Obama and are very skeptical of Romney... sound familiar? Question: Do they have Fox news there?
But over all? Obama tries to get along while "teaching" democracy and freedom and looking to the long term, while our Republicans (not sure where Romney is) tend to be more forceful and knee-jerk about things... sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Personally, I'd like to try "teaching", "encouraging", and "supporting" for a while and focus most of our real resources here at home.
Do I think there are people who are racist.. we all do. Were there people out to see obama fail.... we all believe that. But that is no different than any president before has dealt with including what the senate democrats are doing now on any GOP house bill. difference is how you work with what you got and thats what this president couldnt do
Upon closer reflection you guys are so right ... race has everything to do with it.
Romney is being shunned and scathed because he is white!
Did anyone notice how many countries think Mitt would start a war?
"Jose V.
Upon closer reflection you guys are so right ... race has everything to do with it.
Romney is being shunned and scathed because he is white!"
Haha you funny! FAIL!
Really? I don't recall any former president's having to produce their birth certificates, ever. You can hide your head in the sand all you want, but the truth is that Obama has faced more outright prejudice than anyone else before him. I think it's a disgrace to the integrity of this country. In fact, it's even more of a disgrace that you Republicans are trying to deny it. Hopefully Tuesday's elections will set the record straight by sending you all a message that the old guard is dead and buried.
The world and most of our allies favor Obama for good reason. The articles attempt to associate an Obama partisanship with Muslim and American hating regimes is classic right wing slant and propaganda to try and project Obama as weak. Our image around the world is improving under Obama just like every other issue of importance. The wasted years of the George Bush nightmare must not return. The GOP is the true axis of evil here and abroad.
tony...relax. difference between you and I is I dont sit on one side radio (left or right) and spout continual one sided facts. one sided political people are a minority. most of this country know that who is president ends up not being judged so much on his policy but what he was able to do with what he could do. we the general american people want action and the fact is nothing is being done. to say GOP, GOP, GOP is ignorant and you can sit on this stance. just like IF obama loses it will be nothing but racism even though most of the country is not racist and popular vote counters your claims. just because rascim is alive does not mean it has mind control powers over the contrary. even clinton had to deal with a GOP house and still got things done
Jose, I am white. I am not voting for Romney because he is white. I am not voting for Romney because of what I have read about him, and what comes out of his mouth. A leader does not change his or her mind on a weekly basis. I vote for someone who I feel is going to be the best person to be President of the United States of America. My gut says it is President Obama! And that is who I will be voting for in this election.
Romney is being shunned because he is a pathological liar, a tax cheat, and a draft dodger. He has no morals or conscience.
Obama is far from perfect but he tries to do the most good for the most people, those of us who have been hurt by the 30 year failure of tinkle upon economics.
Romney is for the 1% while Obama is for the 99%. This chart shows what the 1% have been doing to us. I have seen it on national television too.
inequality-p25_averagehouseholdincom.png (PNG Image, 631x346 pixels)
Jose... Romney is being shunned and scathed because he's a PSYCHOPATH and a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR..
Roosterboy,
The godless platform that Cantor wants to descend on America, along with your biography of him, makes him seem to be a real-life character from the Hammer Studio Horror films.
You have no idea how Congress works do you, amerigal? Looks like FOX hasn't done such a good job educating it's audience as it likes to think it has.
A special note to the rest of the WORLD............. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA........
You bitch if we try to help you, and you bitch if we don't help you.......
If you like the SOCIALIST P.O.S. we ( United States ) have in the White House now, TAKE HIM...... I'll help you and him ( soon to be X - President ) PACK HIS BAGS......
You don't like us in your business, I don't care what your " OPINION " is of us.......... Have a good and happy Capitalistic Day..........
Memo to Kenyans, Somalians, Ugandans, et al: Get off your collective dead a$$es and make your OWN lives for yourselves and do something about your OWN situation. We're NOT your perpetual ATM.
Memo to the Pakis: Up yours.
Hey Ghost & HotTicket,
Hate Much?
.
For those that continue the lie, "Democrats had a majority for 2 years".
Democrats never had a supermajority in the senate. There were two right leaning independents in the mix, and Al Franken was seated late due to the closeness of his election.
All in all, Democrats had a supermajority for 5 months, NOT 2 years.
For the record, Romney is a putz.
Nobody wants a putz as a President.
Americans, listen up! If Obama has "REVENGE" (his disgusting word) at his core. Imagine what he could easily do to all of us on an international front with REVENGE in his heart?!
Interestingly, Obama is now better friends with some horrible leaders, and not the American friends who launched him into office, OPRAH! He is a wolf in sheep's clothing!
Careful America, the cliff may be more than just financial!!!!!!!
Romney/Ryan 2012
And this is why the rest of the world hates America and thinks this country is full of arrogant @!$%#s.
I rest my case.
LeftisSoRight ..........
Hate much?????? NO..............
I'm not going to be drawn into your little progressive Games.........
If you don't like America, GO, LEAVE, GOOD BYE, DON'T COME BACK......
Be progressive in Red China for all I care.......
Okay then.....Angry much?
LeftisSoRight..... Angry much????? No.... BUT..... It's a little up-setting when PEOPLE collapse other people's commits , because they don't agree with them......
Up Uranus.... People don't hate AMERICA......... They are envious of AMERICA....... There's a difference between the two...
Interesting article which can also be meshed with a recent poll that was taken of 23 countries on who they would vote for president. The only country that Romney had a lead in in that poll was pakistan (of course they are angry about obama entering their country without consent to kill bin laden and also get droned a lot). These polls and opinions don't make any real difference in the way I voted because I honestly don't care about what they think about our country. In recent elections Americans and a lot of the world wished that despots such as Putin and Hugo Chavez would be booted out of office. The world opinion did not stop these people from winning in their respective country because certain areas just believe differently than others. Do we honestly want to have the rest of the world meddling in our elections. GHOST is right when he says people don't hate America they envy it which means that they will still either try to get even or get on our level. So they don't care about what would help the American people as long as their personal interests and the interests of their country outweigh the benefits the election can have for Americans.
ROMNEY/RYAN 2012
ROFLMFAO---THE WORLD awaits the OBAMANATIONS CORRUPT PARTYS attempt to SCREW the AMERICAN people again---the REAL REASON they are PRAYING that the OBAMANATION is re-elected is "THEY CAN GET MORE AMERICAN/CHINA MONEY"
I posted this in another of the BULLSH*T NBC/MSNBC/NEWSVINE articles and IT HOLDS true here----
READING down to here I see some of the DUMBEST,STUPIDEST comments ever---BRAIN-CRAPPED is the TERM for anyone who votes for the "ARAB" in our WHITE HOUSE----GOT THAT--ARAB-MUSLIME----
My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
Barack Hussein Obama is not half black. He is the first Arab-American President, not the first black President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side. While Barack Hussein Obama's father was from Kenya , his father's family was mainly Arabs.. Barack Hussein Obama's father was only 12.5% African Negro and 87.5% Arab (his father's birth certificate even states he's Arab, not African Negro). Go to:
http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_Hussein_Obama_...an%2c_only_6.25%25_African">http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_Hussein_Obama_-_Arab-Americ<http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_Hussein_Obama_...an%2c_only_6.25%25_African
I Never Practiced Islam - NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office.
4-3-08 Article 'Obama was 'quite religious in Islam''
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ADD to the above the fact that CLINTOON was IMPEACHED ---
The OBAMA depends on a CLINTOON to assist him in KEEPING his CROWN ---a CROWN of failure upon FAILURE. HERE'S a LITTLE tid bit about BILLY BOOB----
Former President Bill Clinton was suspended from practicing law in
Arkansas and paid a $250,000 fine as a result of the Monica Lewinski
incident.
He also paid a $850,000 settlement over the Paula Jones incident.
He was also disbarred from practicing law in front of the Supreme Court.
So, if I understand correctly, Bill Clinton, a disbarred lawyer, a
President who was impeached for lying under oath, is now asking the
American people to believe him when he says the best thing for the country is four
more years of Obama.
Just wanted to make sure.......that I had that right!!.
ROFLMFAO---TWO of the BIGGEST LIARS,THIEVES and CORRUPT PEOPLE who EVER were in OUR WHITE HOUSE!!!
ONE AND DONE---BURNED BLACK TOAST---TIME to SHIP the LIAR OUT and BACK TO AFRICA!
OH and BTFW---YOUR --UNITED NATIONS POLL WATCHERS---WORD for them---DON'T COME NEAR WHERE I AM---I AND MANY OTHER VETS will send YOU and YOUR UN TRASH back to the COUNTRT you came from --IN A SPONGE! YOU are just like OBAMANATION---CAMEL CRAP TRASH!
NOBAMA or obiden in 2012 OR EVER AGAIN---TIME to KICK the MUSLIME loving trash OUT!
The $50 Lesson
Recently, while I was working in the flower beds in the front yard, my neighbors stopped to chat as they returned home from walking their dog. During our friendly conversation, I asked their little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied... "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people." Her parents beamed with pride! "Wow...what a worthy goal!" I said. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that!" I told her. "What do you mean?" she replied. So I told her, "You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and trim my hedge, and I'll pay you $50. Then you can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house." She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?" I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party." Her parents aren't speaking to me anymore.
Quit trashing President Obama's accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. He has an impressive list of accomplishments:
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States
First President to violate the War Powers Act. .
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on 'shovel-ready' jobs when there was no such thing as 'shovel-ready' jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
First President to terminate America 's ability to put a man in space.
First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke-out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-Corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to go on multiple global apology tours and concurrent insult our friends tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayer.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Quran & tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.
Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
How is this hope and change working out for you?
FROM FACTCHECK.ORG---
First Lady Michelle Obama’s pitch to voters last night relied on the premise that she and her husband understand what it is to struggle to make ends meet. She spoke movingly about their early years–about how a young Barack Obama drove a car that was “rusted out” and found his furniture “in a dumpster,” how they both came from families that had to “scrape by.” Her fairy tale–however well-delivered–was one great, big, colorful lie.
Both Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama began their adult lives with a leg up on the rest of America. They attended elite schools: Michelle went to Whitney Young, the public magnet school for Chicago’s upper class, while Barack attended Punahou, the private prep school for the top stratum of Hawaiian society. They were accepted to Ivy League schools despite undistinguished credentials, and both attended Harvard Law School.
“[B]elieve it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage,” Michelle said. That sounds like a raw deal–but in fact reflects their fortunate circumstances. They had both just graduated from a very expensive law school, and their combined income from cushy law firm jobs dwarfed the repayments. Barack also soon enjoyed a second salary from the University of Chicago.
They had expensive tastes, reflected in the $277,500 two-bedroom condo they bought in 1993–a high price even by today’s standards. Several years later, they moved into their $1.65 million mansion in Hyde Park–with the help of fraudster Tony Rezko. Barack often told a story of hardship on the campaign trail in 2008 about having his credit card declined–once. The fact that he thought this counted as real hardship speaks volumes.
THEN= BUSH-------NOW=OBAMANATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then . . . . . . Now
Unemployment . . . .7.8% . . . . . . . 8.3%
Median income . . . $54,983 . . . . . $50,964
Gasoline / Gallon . .$1.What85 . . . . . . . $3.78
National Debt . . . . .$10.6 T . . . . . $16.0 T
How's that "Change" working for you?
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically, and internationally. Leadership means; “The buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem, and a failure of leadership... Americans deserve better!”
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006!
. . . it was so nice of NOBAMA to give us this great quote for posterity!
NOW take a look at the reality he has given us regarding the debt that NOBAMA 2012 has added $4 Trillion dollars on his watch in 3 years and now recently another $1 trillion was just added:
$413 Billion on interest payments 2010
That amount of money exceeds all the following departments COMBINED!
Department of Health & Human Services
Department of Transportation
Department of Energy
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Justice
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Treasury Department
Department of Labor
Small Business Administration
According to the non partial Congressional Budget Office, by 2021, just 9 short years from now, that $413 billion dollar figure for interest payments will go up to $1.1 TRILLION dollars! That is NOT money we can spend on anything. It just leaves the country and makes other countries rich, leaving us in more debt because none of that money is going to pay off the original debt!
To pay this debt, Congress would have to stop spending ANY money at all and pay $100 million dollars per day for 389 years! Who's going to pay this? NOBAMA? Bush? Reid? Pellosi? Nope, YOU and I are expected to do this with our tax dollars.
NoBAMA 2012 You FAIL
No, YOU have to understand the most basic of math.
The Democrats held majority for the whole of 72 days. Also, add in the use of the filibuster by the Republicans to levels never before seen in the entire history of this nation.
Your blind and ignorant bias has turned you into the perfect low information voter. You need to be told what to believe, don't you?
Willful ignorance isn't something you should be proud of.
MikLKit,
reading your post is like listening to all the rest of the liberal propaganda. Romney is a liar, show me where he lies more than Obama.He's a tax cheat, show me where Obama has paid more taxes than the taxcode requires. He's a draft dodger, I know he had his draft postponed because he was overseas in a 2 year program. I dont know if he was dodging the draft. By the way, I dont know your age, but if you were born after the draft was abolished, I hope you volunteered for the Armed Forces, if not, then you are no different. And I cant find any records that Obama volunteered either. Romney is for the 1% and Obama is for your 99%? Obama has given the 1% taxpayers' money to people he has carefully chosen, he has done squat for the middle and lower income segment. Your post is nothing but liberal drivel.
So let me try and get this straight. You democrats want myself and others to give obama another four years to try and do what he promised to do in his first term as President of the United States? When people really think about... it, you know the ones that haven't bought into the smoke and mirror tactics, giving him a second chance does not make sense.
It's funny a job report that came out right before the election, and the last time they released a report they dropped the unemployment % to what is was in the latest report, and they fought tooth and nail about how they didn't fudge numbers, and how dare people are saying they lied on the report. Hence the last report came out after obama got curb stomped by Romney in the first debate. Funny how a week later they came out and said due to a system error California was left out of the last report and more excuses, but yet the unemployment numbers still stayed at 7.9%. So I wonder what they left out this time?
Then we can move to the Libya issue. How it took obama 14 days to declare it a terrorist attack, and in those 14 days he blamed it on a video. Let me see didn't Libya ask for more security for 9/11 due to knowledge of terrorist cells in the area four days before 9/11, but obama and biden told the people they had no knowledge that they requested security. Didn't intelligence agencies two hours after the attack notify this administration that it was indeed an organized attack done by terrorists, yet again they didn't know this and blamed it on a video. How about we look at this whole Arab spring situation and see how it turned into a FUBAR (F'ed Up Beyond All Recognition) agenda of obama's? With Mubarak in Egypt women could be in the streets without male escort, could own their own shops, drive a car, go to school. Other religious groups could practice their faith in peace, they even helped protect the muslim protesters when it was their time to pray and now they are killing non-muslims, burning their churches/places of praying down to the ground. The new government wants to reevaluate the peace treaty to Israel. In Libya under Gaddafi women could walk down the streets without male escort, drive, educate themselves. Now the government there said day one after killing Gaddafi that Sharia law would be the law of the land, so that means the women of this nation are nothing but property to the men. Let me educate you democrats in something your dear obama said in 2007 telling the Boston Globe when running for POTUS; "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." So him acting without it appears to be at odds with what he stood for when he ran for president the first time. If it is a threat the POTUS has 90 days to declare war on that nation to protect the United States, after that he needs congressional approval and congress needs to declare war. Wait, didn't obama tell congress he does not need congressional approval to attack Libya, because he has UN and NATO approval to do it? Didn't he get his little puppy dog panetta to tell a congressional hearing the same thing? Hey at least Bush Jr. got congressional approval! Can any of you democrats tell me how and in what way was Libya an actual or imminent threat to our nation? I'll wait....... Don't worry about it, I'm sure you all will come up with some kind of new zing to make yourselves feel better!
Here is something else that seems very interesting to me and others that you are asking to vote for obama. It took obama 7 days to visit Joplin, Missouri after a tornado wiped out half of the town and left 120 people dead. It took him 14 days to visit the gulf coast after the BP oil spill. obama declined to visit Tennessee after the historic 2010 "1000 year floods". obama ignored the Texas wildfires when over 400 homes were lost. Oh yeah obama ignored the calls for assistance from Benghazi where we lost 4 Americans. But it took obama only one day to visit the hurricane damage on the east coast. Oh yeah!!! There is an election coming up!!! Again I'll wait to see if you democrats have a reply or even a zing to it!!!
I just have a three more things I want to bring to the democrats attention and maybe just maybe they could have an answer for me and the others that are wondering the same things. You know how when obama says he wants to get the rich to pay more taxes to make it fair. Wouldn't it make more sense to make sure that all the 1% people pay their taxes instead of increasing the taxes on them? See here is a little math for you all. Let me say a democrat makes $100,000 a year and let us say we do a flat 20% tax for everyone including the top 1%. That means this democrat will pay $20,000 in taxes for the year. Now let's take a 1% person and say they made $20 million. At 20% they would have paid $4,000,000 in taxes. It would take the democrat at the same pay, 800 years to pay the same in taxes that the top 1% person paid in one year. So can you all really stand there and say it is fair to make them pay more in taxes? Wouldn't it be fairer to just make sure all the 1% pay taxes and don't find loop holes to not pay? A great quote from a great man "to take from one … in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." That great man is Thomas Jefferson.
2nd to last thing I want to talk about is a few stats of obama and the previous president during their reelection years: Sept 2004 Bush Jr. Reelection vs. Obama's September 2012 numbers in (); Unemployment 5.4% (8.1%), Number of Unemployed 8 million (12.5 million), Number of Unemployed and Underemployed 18.5 million (23.1 million), Jobs Added in August (data released in September) 142,000 (96,000), Median Household Income $54,788 ($50,054), 2Q GDP Estimate 3.3% (1.3%), Labor Force Participation 66% (63.5%), Average Gallon of Gasoline $1.92 ($3.83), Crude Oil (Barrel) $48.86 ($92.89), Debt Per Person $25,105 ($51,155), Consumer Confidence 96.8% (70.3%), Federal Debt $7.4 trillion ($16.1 trillion). Now I'm not saying Bush was a great or even good POTUS, but numbers don't lie, and the third thing I want to mention has a lot to do with these numbers and how they got so bad.
When obama was elected he had 6 months of super majority in both the house and senate. With a super majority you can get what ever you want done, and passed. The other party could not stop it. Why was nothing done to so called help us out from what the previous administration caused. That all the blame is being put on the previous administration. All they did was scare the public and D.C. into getting the stimulus bill passed that hasn't done what it was supposed to do, and to pass obamacare. You democrats should know what obamacare is all about right? Oh wait, you wouldn't, none of us would. Just like one of your fellow democrats from California nancy pelosi said when asked what is in it. We will just have to find out after it is passed! You have to be kidding me!!! We still have yet to find out what's in it, but what we do know is it contains a loosely worded mandate that the federal government can force people to buy a product or suffer penalties. So can any of you explain how nothing was done with 6 months with a super majority? Again I'll wait.........................
Yes the world is watching us..... It is seeing Freedom at 1 hell of a cost..... While both sides are at fault, the fault really lies with us for allowing this FARCE to go on..... For a start the Tea Party must go..... Any group that will put a pledge a head of their country really does not belong representing us..... Any group that for 4 years will drag the country down just for a chance to RULE us needs to go away..... Yes I say RULE, because that is what both sides are really doing.....
I think you would feel fine as ruler of say like Cuba, Venezuela.
I guess OHGuy's point flew right over your head, DB. Can't say I'm surprised by that. You seem to miss a lot. Take off those blinders and pull those ear plugs out and you'll surprisingly find that it's a big world out there.
So BIG deal we have 2 parties like that is some how better than Cuba. Try being a third party candidate and see how you are blocked and ignored and kept out. If you can't come up with a billion $$$ you can't run for President and THATS A BIG PROBLEM! So we get to choose between the lesser of two evils WHOOP DEE DOOOO!!!
BP - I agree, I think we do need to have a better way of selecting those who run for any office and I think they should all have the same amount that draws from the same account (so no private money). And no negative or twisted or tweaked ads and no ads from Special Interests groups. Let them do their own advertising and the words that come out are from their mouths! Sometimes I do feel like I am voting for the lesser of two - but I think it is from all of the negative ads. This year, I feel good about who I am voting for.
True. Jill Stein, the candidate for the Green Party was recently arrested for trespassing.
Hmmm. No comments as to how Canada and Mexico feel and they are the USA's principal partners in NAFTA.
In The New York Times, if elected Ryan states that Cheney is his role model for VP.
This country does not need a second round of Cheney.
Folks, get out and vote for Obama/Biden!
The lives of millions of our citizens depend on Americans being able to put Obama over the 270 electoral votes finish line!!!
There will never be a third party candidate that is really serious or taken seriously until there is no Electoral College. Because states are all "winner take all" and the lesser population states have a very large boost in Electoral votes (not one person one vote), there is no way that a third party candidate can get enough votes to matter. For that reason, people do not vote for them. America does not have a "coalition" government; typically, a candidate can run with the support of a group that the candidate ignores completely after the election. This is because of the Electoral College: if there is no real third party, and Presidential candidates always win with a majority, they will never have to actually answer to any of the people who elected them.
Which leads to a real question: then why have the Republicans been swayed by the most extreme wing of their party? The "two party system" is supposed to be cushioned from that sort of thing. Maybe the Republican candidates have no agenda of their own, or they are actually from the extreme themselves only posing as the middle to get votes. They also are forced to vote as a bloc, and they do not support measures they themselves thought of if it is something that the Democrats agree with. The Republicans seem to feel that one special interest group is the only one that they must answer to.
Vote Democrat: at least there is some sort of centrist agenda, and some attention to reality, whether the reality of climate, or of economics and I mean bailout when the private banks would not do it, or of the economic equality and health of women whether young, middle aged, old, single or married.
Americans, listen up! If Obama has "REVENGE" (his disgusting word) at his core. Imagine what he could easily do to all of us on an international front with REVENGE in his heart?!
Interestingly, Obama is now better friends with some horrible leaders, and not the American friends who launched him into office, OPRAH! He is a wolf in sheep's clothing!
Careful America, the cliff may be more than just financial!!!!!!!
Romney/Ryan 2012
Any American president - democrat or republican indeed is slave to much bigger economic and geopolitical forces that shape world events. Sometimes these forces are random - sometimes designed by those who hold the economic and military power - billionairres, oil tycoons, media tycoons, CIA, Defense Companies and so on.
It is too much to expect that Obama would fix it all. There are however two key things that US must do to undo this undue influence.
1. Institute heavy inheritance tax over and above $5M dollars inheritance.
2. Nationalize defense companies. That money out in public sector is doing too much harm to the world.
"REVENGE" is for obstructing the Obama agenda and the economic recovery.
Republicans pouncing on the word, "revenge" is pure desperation for a candidate who will not will on Tuesday. Get your crying towels out now.
Obama is revered by our allies across the country. All Mitt Romney could do is insult England on the olympics.
Romney's "shoot first and aim later" strategy is proof that he would do harm world wide.
The world hates the US so why wouldnt they want obammi elected, he joins them in hatred! These foreigners see a real windfall coming if the "socialist in chief" is elected, he wants to get his REVENGE by turning our immense wealth over to the UN and the "global socialist" ideology!
What BS through yonder window breaks.
Right. Too bad Obama wasn't anywhere near qualified for the job. Just go ahead and vote for him because he is black, cute, makes a good telepompter speech, whatever. The countries' economy be damned, as long as we get a black president in there. His incompetence and lack of qualifications was proven out in Benghazi, which the administration and the media is covering up. FOUR AMERICANS DIED UNNECESSARILY!!! Now look where we are:
Over 8% unemployment for a record 43 months in a row! It's now said to be 7.9%, up from one month ago, which still stinks. Oh, BTW, they didn't include California in the totals, which has over 10% unemployment. Duhhh. So, it's still over 8% folks.
Over $16.2 trillion in debt and counting? He increased it six trillion rather than reduce it five trillion as promised.
Over 14% unemployment for blacks.
Anemic economic growth, year after year, after year.
No budget for the past three years as required by the Constitution.
A healthcare plan that will cost over three times what they said it would, was opposed by over 60% of the population, sucks over $700,000,000 out of Medicare to help pay for it, and wasn't even read by any member of Congress that voted for it? How could you vote for a bill you haven't even read?
Solyndra FAIL and cover-up (or at least no due diligence) that cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars.
FAILURE to protect our embassy in Libya resulting in the deaths of four Americans, and the cover-up afterward. Obama stalling until after the election.
Fast and Furious FAILURE, resulting in the death of a boarder control officer and the cover-up by the Obama administration. Holder held in contempt of Congress. Case still not solved due to Obama's stalling.
Is this change you can believe in? I say, NO THANK YOU! This presidency is a failure and it is time for Americans to realize it and vote for a man that is highly qualified to lead us, Mitt Romney.
Elizabeth,
The Democratic agenda aims to better protect the well being of the majority population.
There is no intellectual, moral, political, economical or social comparison between Obama and Romney.
With the exception of Romney's ill-gotten wealth, on the above platforms, Romney cannot compete with Obama.
Romney and ethics is exactly as oil and water, they do not mix.
Obama has taken out more Al Qaeda with drone strikes, and got Bin Laden. He's winding down the remainder of the wars. Romney has no foreign policy experience. We need someone experienced not someone who needs on the job training in office.
The economy has added 4 million jobs since Obama took office and according the GDP the economy has grown each and every quarter since Obama took office (google GDP graph).
Boehner shouldn't have walked away from the 4 trillion dollar deal, and our debt would not be so high right now.
Obama has given a budget each and every year. Gotta love Republican lies.
Obamacare saves 240 billion over 10 years. If Romney repeals it, it will cost taxpayers 270 billion.
Continued demonization of green energy by Republicans is a losing strategy. Green energy is the future. Republicans must want China producing green energy instead of having those jobs here. Their "oil only" strategy is antiquated.
Nothing came out of the Fast and Furious investigation. More wasted money for Republicans desperate to unseat Obama at the expense of the getting the economy on track.
Mitt Romney changes his positions daily, in fact, he simply took most of Obama's positions to get back in the race. Nobody knows what Romney will do after he's elected.
Eric:
Obama is a narcissist, through and through; our jails are full of guys like him. It is just a matter of time.
The fact that our national leader for ALL American's would utter, "REVENGE" against his own people, in any manner, is flat disgusting.
Romney/Ryan 2012
OHguy,
There is No TeaParty! Sure people rally from time to time in protest of Obama and Democratic policies, but there is NO party in the true sense of what a party is and does. If you mean, those people need to be eliminated then you need to have your head examined. The Constitution has and always will allow free and peaceful protests on both sides of issues. If you would have stayed awake in your history classes you would know that this country has always been protesting about something. It is how progress is made over time.
As far as the article above goes... The world has always been watching the US. Rarely in the course of history has the world looked favorably upon us. They certainly didn't when we became a nation. They certainly didn't when fought a Civil War. They certainly didn't when we fought the Spanish-American War and aided rebels in Columbia to establish the country of Panama. In WWI, many Europeans resented our involvement late in the war. In WWII, they used to say about us they we, Yankees, were "overpaid, over sexed and over here". During the Cold War, France, Western Germany and Britain grew weary of our troops stationed there to prevent the Soviets from sending 60 divisions of tanks across Europe just as they did to Czechoslovakia and Hungry. I can go on and on and on.
Point is we can't live as the rest of the world wants us to live. If we did we would have already ceased to be the nation that you see today. We are a tarnished nation but we clean up nicely from time to time. And, when we do we shine brighter that all the rest!
Independent Thought, he did not utter revenge against his own people, he uttered revenge against Congress. Do you know who your congressman is?
Have you checked out his voting record yet?
These Silent Criminals Have been Holding America hostage.
Check out all the Bills that were passed and attempted to be passed and wher Eric Cantor, House Majority. i.e. the guy who is supposed to convince the majority of where to vote, voted:
Today:
Could care less, his reasoning, NO REAL LEADER, EVER uses the word REVENGE!!!!
Romney/Ryan 2012
Today:
Also, the citizens of the US voted for their Congress members, so how can you say, the "REVENGE," comment didn't have anything to do with his own nation of people? It is called the electorate. He wants REVENGE on the republican ticket, shame on him! HE IS NOT A LEADER PEOPLE!!!!
Vote him out of office!!!!!!
Romney/Ryan 2012
This just about says it all for Mr. Obama's FAILED International policies (and domestic policies).
Further, Jennifer Patticake's "Vote for revenge" just about says it all for Obama surrogates.
Maybe another Progressive tactic is inflating the voter margin for Mr. Obama thinking that folks will flock to the winner's circle when they vote. American voters have more common sense than that.
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Voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 ? Embarrassed yet ?
Right now I don't care what the world thinks. We need to have Obama be reelected, not so much because he is great, but to keep the A Hole Romney in one of his mansions.
There are only a handful of Conservatives and Liberals left in our politics. What we have is rule by Internationalist Corporations that don't give a rat's ass about Americanism. At least Obama can be a big help getting them off our backs. If Romney is elected it will complete the take over of our country and the end of Democracy. We will become a low wage society without a middle class, the very foundation of our exceptionalism.
If I was a liberal, I would not vote for Obama again. Simply put, he failed on far too many fronts and the Benghazi tragedy and cover up by Obama and his media, ABC, CBS, and NBC, covered it up. FOUR AMERICANS DIED and it is only being covered by Fox News? What the hell is happening to this country? The media was all over Watergate, and it was just a wire-tapping. No one got killed or physically hurt. Then they were going to impeach Nixon for his cover-up. What are they going to do to their hero, Obama, on this one? He lied to the American people for 14 days, saying the attack was due to the YouTube video, when, in fact, he knew it was not. Yesterday he said you need someone you can trust. Can you trust him after this? The military sure can't and neither should you. Vote him out. Be sure to vote.
And that is a handful too many. They are killing us. Pippo, you really do not know what the hell you are talking about.
Revenge was invented by the Republican party, who instead of stating they would work with President Obama, from the outset made their goal to make him a one term President and to fully obstruct his agenda.
Revenge by the Republicans stalled our economy and recovery.
The biggest cover up of this election season has been ROMNEY's TAXES.
If your name is Independent thought, I implore you to seriously look at his voting record..Eric Cantor, all the bills that were posed to be passed to help America, but they voted against it, playing party politics and chess with our lives. THEY HAVE HELD OUR COUNTRY HOSTAGE.
Remember our checks and balances system??
The lesson in school how none can work without the other??
Executive= The President, Legislative=Congress and Senate, Judicial= Supreme Court, etc.
If the people pose a bill or government and the house in an effort to assert their party needs, votes against it without even looking at it, it is their fault. We have Congressmen who have been in office for a decade or more, on our dime, doing what? Don't be blind to information, look at it from an objective standpoint and MAKE sense out of it. Saying you careless is the problem.
Do you know who Eric Cantor is or Speaker Boehner? I suggest you google at the minimum, they voting records just like that: Eric Cantor Voting Record. Until then, you are doing your country a disservice.
We haven't had a budget in 3 years. Harry Reid refused to table each budget put forth by the Republicans. Obama's budget was defeated twice 0-97 - by his own party. We are printing money we don't have and spending it as fast as it's printed. We are giving billions to our enemies, the most recent being $1.5 billion to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Massive tax increases will hit in January 2013, not counting the cost of Obamacare for which $716 billion was taken from Medicare to pay for it. Our military has been slashed to the point where, if we are attacked, we have less than 300 ships to protect both coasts. We once had the mightiest naval fleet in the world. Obama's Sequestration bill will cut our military even further. In the meantime China and Russia are building up their military to the point they have surpassed ours. After almost 2 months we still have no truthful answers on Benghazi. Dec. 6, 1941 was the attack on Pearl Harbor. FDR did not hold an "investigation" into what happened. The U.S. retaliated. Are we now facing another Pearl Harbor, this time with WMDs? In 1941 we had a mighty military large enough to go to war and to protect our country here at home. What do we have now?
A vote for Obama is the kiss of death for America!
I can't believe someone would so blatantly spread lies like this..and btw Harry Reid is a senators..Bills are passed in the House of Representatives aka Congressmem. If and after they are passed, then they go up to Senate.. Yes we are giving billions away, but do you think that Romney will not? Bush did, but in the form of a war, let's be fair and logical here...if thats possible. Our military has not been slashed that way..in fact it is impossible for our military to be slashed so quickly..we do not have less than 300 ships to protect our coasts, and in addition, did you hear about the new thing "nuclear bombs"?? It is the new thing, no more 1940s warfare, so the weapons have changed, more drones are being used. Yes we had a mighty military but now we are thousands of troops less because they got KILLED FOR NOTHING IN IRAQ and thousands more who don't have all their body parts, who are knowledgeable and can't go to war. And fyi, its very easy to see what Bills were attempted to be passed, this information is readily available to any FACT-seeking person. And are you saying we should be in a war with Libya right now? Pearl Harbor was during war time, it was a military attack not a militant attack. You are talking about saving, but retaliating for Benghazi in the same breath, which is an oxymoron. The military is not a video game. Google: Eric Cantor voting record..it will tell you all that you need to know about the House and their Hostage taking.
*I guess I must put this in bold, since it appears that you think people listen read more comprehensively in bold, or something like that*
"Findings suggest that African American support for Obama can be seemingly dismissed because black voters are using racial bias as a decision-making criteria, whereas everyone else is using merit". Huffington Post...
In the case of T. Martin - Zimmerman was referred to as "White" or "White and hispanic". Zimmerman has a white father and a Latina mother. So, with the news referring to him has "White", promotes the race card. It was racially motivated.
Obama is not completely "African American". He is "White AND African American. So, do we truly have our first "Black" President, or is he, too, white? One wonders.
Getting Back the Black Vote: Can Obama Still Win the African-American Community? They are not feeling the love anymore - see link below.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/back-black-vote-obama-win-african-american-community/story?id=17626772#.UJaff2doK9s
Why is it about RACE? How about merits, American people, and simply - upholding the AMERICAN VALUES this country was founded on? Those not interested in the American way, should not be running or elected for American President.
Before you start, I am NOT a racist - I don't like BIDEN either!
So, the majority of Muslim and Socialist countries support Obama huh? Big shocker there. This should be a wake up call for the undecideds.
@ imagooshot: Explain to us your logic, explain to me why?
@Arterian: Thank you for the military explanation,I cannot believe the blatant lies ppl are spreading just because they want their guys, whomever it is to win.
Im more concerned about what the people of the United States think! When have you ever heard a criminal say they were glad the police were around?
Updated for 1:00pm EST on Sunday, November 4, 2012:
*** Mischief alert: Quite a bit of suspect outlier polling favorable to Romney being floated out in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan today in the face of multiple polling which confirms strong Obama leads in each of these states. The Karl Rove axiom of 'shape perceptions to alter outcomes,' perhaps?
Obama's leads have been strengthening in Ohio and Nevada over the weekend and Romney has stabilized his position in both Florida and North Carolina.
Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Virginia remain in a state of flux with new RCP numbers likely to be released within hours.
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Real Clear Politics (RCP) consistently has been the "go-to" source for accurate averaged daily polling data for both FOXNEWS and NBCNEWS. With less than 35 hours to go in the 2012 presidential campaign, RCP continues to report that Obama leads in eight of their 11 toss-up states with Romney leading in three.
In descending order of 'percentage of lead' in favor of Obama, followed in ascending order of 'percentage of lead' in favor of Romney, here are the published averaged numbers from RCP as of 1:00pm EST together with the most recent FiveThirtyEight election night probabilities of victory for either candidate:
In WISCONSIN, with 10 electoral votes, Obama's lead has fallen to 4.2%, down from 5.0% on Saturday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 94.2% chance of victory here, up by 0.9% from Friday and by an astounding 8.5% since Tuesday.
*** It should be noted that RCP's average in Wisconsin has been influenced by an outlier poll from the right-leaning Rassmussen which has the race at a dead heat when four other current polls have Obama leading by 8.0%, 7.0%, 3.0%, and 3.0%. In fact, the 7.0% Obama lead was affirmed recently by another Right-leaning poll (WeAskAmerica) which is wholly funded by the conservative Illinois Manufacturing Association.
In PENNSYLVANIA, with 20 electoral votes, Obama's lead has fallen to 3.9%, down from 4.1% on Saturday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 97.3% chance of victory here, up by 1.2% from Friday and by a significant 3.2% since Tuesday.
*** It should be noted that RCP's average in Pennsylvania also has been influenced this weekend by the release of an outlier poll from the conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review which has the race at a dead heat when two other findings have Obama's lead at 6.0% and 3.0%.
In MICHIGAN, with 16 electoral votes, Obama's lead has fallen to 3.8%, down from 4.0% on Saturday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 98.8% chance of victory here, up 0.4% from Friday and by 0.7% since Tuesday.
*** It should be noted that RCP's average here has been influenced by yet another outlier poll released by Baydoun/Foster (D), a self-described Democrat-leaning voter analytics consulting firm based in Michigan, which has Romney up by 1.0% when four other polls have Obama leading by 6.0%, 6.0%, 5.0%, and 3.0%. In fact, the 5.0% finding for Obama was published late last week by Rasmussen, another Right-leaning poll. The irony is that Baydoun/Foster has consistently produced polling results which favor Republican candidates up and down the ticket in Michigan and their results, by and large, remain highly suspect.
In OHIO, with 18 electoral votes, Obama's lead has settled at 2.8%, up from 2.6% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 85.0% chance of victory here, up by 4.3% from Friday and by an astronomical 11.7% since Tuesday.
In NEVADA, with 6 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 2.8%, up from 2.4% on Friday.
FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 89.5% chance of victory here, up by 2.3% from Friday and by an astonishing 9.8% since Tuesday.
In IOWA, with 6 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 2.5%, up from 2.0% on Saturday morning. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 83.1% chance of victory here, up by 1.5% from Friday and by an astounding 9.2% since Tuesday.
In NEW HAMPSHIRE, with 4 electoral votes, Obama's lead has fallen to 1.5%, down from 1.8% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 79.4% chance of victory here, up by 0.7% from Friday and by an astounding 9.1% since Tuesday.
In COLORADO, with 9 electoral votes, Obama's lead has fallen to 0.6%, down from 0.9% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 68.1% chance of victory here, up by 2.4% from Friday and by an astronomical 12.7% since Tuesday.
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In VIRGINIA, with 13 electoral votes, Romney's lead has fallen to 0.3%, down from 0.5% on Friday. Interestingly, FiveThirtyEight increased Obama's chance of victory here (and not Romney's) to 71.0%, up by a substantial 6.2% from Friday.
In FLORIDA, with 29 electoral votes, Romney's lead has risen to 1.4%, up from 1.2% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Romney a 53.8% chance of victory here, down by 1.0% from Friday and by a stunning 10.9% from Tuesday.
*** It should be noted that RCP's average in Florida does appear to have been hyper-inflated by two recent outlier findings in favor of Romney, the first a 6.0% margin yesterday from the right-leaning Mason-Dixon Group with localized results for only the two cities of Tampa Bay (site of the 2012 RNC) and Miami (Marco Rubio stronghold), the second a 3.0% margin from Gravis Marketing, a polling firm funded in large part by BAIN Capital, and an appreciably older finding by The Sunshine State News, an ultra-conservative website/blog which had Romney leading by 5.0% on October 24. Minus the influences of these extreme outliers, Romney's true lead is likely well under 1.0% and quite possibly closer to that of dead heat.
In NORTH CAROLINA, with 15 electoral votes, Romney's lead is holding at 3.8%. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Romney a 78.7% chance of victory here, down 1.2% from Friday.
So...
In order for Obama to win re-election the least complex route would be through maintaining his current lead in the five toss-up states where his existing margins are widest (Wisconsin at 4.2%, Pennsylvania at 3.9%, Michigan at 3.8%, Ohio at 2.8%, and Nevada at 2.8%). Doing so would bring his electoral vote total on Election Day to 271. In this scenario, Obama could still surpass 270 while failing to hold Iowa, New Hampshire, and Colorado.
However, should Obama fail to hold the strategic prize of a hotly-contested Ohio, the loss could effectively be neutralized by any of the following combination of wins from states where FiveThirtyEight is currently forecasting Obama victories:
Path #1: Obama loses Ohio but holds the remaining three states where he presently leads, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Colorado resulting in 272 electoral votes.
Path #2: Obama loses Ohio but steals Virginia while also taking only one state from among New Hampshire, Iowa, or Colorado resulting in 270, 272, or 275 electoral votes, respectively.
Interestingly, with Romney's lead having diminished significantly in Florida over the past two weeks and with Hurricane Sandy forcefully highlighting the stark contrast between the candidates regarding the value and necessity if not the mere existence of FEMA in a state which has perhaps the greatest dependence on federal storm relief efforts in the nation, a 3rd path has now emerged which could provide for some interesting election night television:
Path #3: Obama comes from behind to win Florida. This scenario would require only that Obama win the three states in which his present leads are widest (Wisconsin at 4.2%, Pennsylvania at 3.9%, and Michigan at 3.8%), resulting in 276 electoral votes.
For Romney to unseat Obama, he not only would have to hold the three states in which he presently leads, North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia bringing his electoral vote total to 248, but also steal victories in at least one of the following possible combinations from states currently leaning Obama, listed in descending order of likelihood based on the reverse engineering of current FiveThirtyEight numbers for election night chances of victory:
Path A: Romney steals both Ohio and Colorado resulting in 275 electoral votes (least unlikely outcome).
Path B: Romney steals both Ohio and New Hampshire resulting in 270 electoral votes.
Path C: Romney steals both Pennsylvania and Colorado resulting in 277 electoral votes.
Path D: Romney steals both Pennsylvania and New Hampshire resulting in 272 electoral votes (most unlikely).
Working against two of these scenarios (Paths A and B) are rising averaged polling numbers over the past two days for Obama in Ohio; however, in that same forty-eight hour period Romney has succeeded in reducing Obama's averaged leads in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and New Hampshire. Perhaps somewhat mystifyingly, the Romney campaign continues to make pronouncements alluding to their having embraced the "Pennsylvania Strategy" included in Paths 3 and 4 above, the two paths which have the least likely chance of success.
So, is this a bold strategic maneuver on the part of Eric Fehrnstrom or a feint designed to counter Obama's anticipated re-allocation of campaign resources to a quantifiably softening political landscape in Florida? If it's the latter, a review of the published travel schedules for the President and key Democrat surrogates in these final two days does not suggest the Obama campaign is taking the bait.
In any event, should Romney fail to steal either Ohio or Pennsylvania he could overcome this shortfall by capturing the four other states in which Obama's current leads are smallest (Colorado at 0.6%, New Hampshire at 1.5%, Iowa at 2.5%, and Nevada at 2.8%) resulting in an electoral vote total of 273.
FiveThirtyEight this morning estimates the chance of Election Day victory for each candidate as follows: Obama 85.1% (up significantly from Friday morning's 80.9%) and Romney 14.9% (down by a similar margin from Friday's 19.1%).
FiveThirtyEight now also projects that on Election Day the final electoral tally will be as follows: Obama 307 (up 8 from Wednesday's 299) and Romney 231 (down 8 from Wednesday's 239).
Lastly, although it makes no difference in terms of the final result which can only be determined by the Electoral College, FiveThirtyEight currently predicts a national popular vote distribution on Election Day as follows: Obama 50.6% (up from Thursday's 50.4%) and Romney 48.3% (down from Thursday's 48.6%).
With only 35 hours of campaigning left, and with Friday's published October jobs report playing to predictably mixed reviews (economy adding more jobs than expected; unemployment rate ticking up one tenth of one percent to 7.9%), holdout voters may now be left to nothing more than the proverbial 'feel in their gut' as Tuesday approaches.
Don't forget to stock up on the 7-layer dip for an exhilarating night of television on Tuesday!
I have a question for those who are accusing Romney or Obama of lies. Do you really think that everything your candidate is saying is the truth? Neither has much to run on but they have plenty of reasons that you should run from the other guy.
ArterianMSP
Do you understand what a discussion is?
ArterianMSP
You admit not reading a post and commenting on it anyway. How is that Honest and Logical?
noone,
I don't waste much energy on hacks like Artesian. I imagine that reading has ALWAYS been an issue for him.
Point is, if Artesian doesn't like the length of a particular post, he should simply scroll down. After all, these forums aren't homework assignments, aka 'required reading.' They're opinion, and we're each entitled to our own.
All in all, you my friend are a free thinker. We need more of those, to be sure.
ArterianMSP
From what I can gather, you believe that your OPINION is the law of gravity and that any opposition to your OPINION should be silenced. That thought process will lead to the end of your First Amendment rights.
So when do you think the democrat party will sue to allow other nations to vote in our elections? Can't be too far out of thought for their thirst of increased taxes and spending. Anything for a vote. Just disguise it somehow as social justice.
being 62 years young, i cannot remember a time that this country was more divided along party lines, even 1968 wasn't as bad, the counter culture (mostly dems, but a handful of repubs) were the disgruntled group then, kinda like the 99%'ers now....but now theres a definite line drawn in the sand....and no matter who wins, that line is not going away...i don't know if it was obama who separated us or it has been brewing for a long time and he was the gas on the fire, i'm sure a lot of libs want to blame bush, but obama had four years, and a dem house and senate to get things rolling and it never happened...this will take a couple of administrations to get straightened out....VAE VICTUS! (to the victor goes the spoils)
ArterianMSP-- You're an idiot. The lengthy post by MSNBCMFE was a useful summary of where the campaign stands at the moment, which you are evidently too intellectually limited to have understood.
Two more days...hopefully. You do have to wonder about such a close race. If Obama had any kind of record to stand on, he should have been in the lead from day one, him being the encumbent and all. Since he doesn't it's now tied. As one poster recommended, gather the cheetos and frosty beverages, it's gonna be a long night.
I'm actually surprised that more Democrats don't turn around and vote for Roseanne Barr.she has stated that she is for a more socialistic government.Democrats traditionally want handouts and she would be right up their alley.Who knows she may give every American family a bag of her Macadamias.I am not concerned what people in other countries think about our candidates.By the looks of their governments they haven't done too good of a job either.They are all waiting with bated breathe to see how much aid we're going to send to them.I assure you that Romney is not too keen on writing checks for third world countries.
Maybe Republicans suppressing the non-partisan CRS Report showing tax breaks for the rich DON'T help the economy, and in fact only creates increased inequity?
Maybe how the Romney/Ryan ticket is the WORST ticket ever in regard to foreign policy credentials? Mitt, you knew you wanted to be POTUS -- You should have served in the military, you should have studied more topics than ways to rip off other people including GM.
Maybe how the economy has managed to improve despite nonstop Republican obstructionism? Oh, you can just see McConnell and Boehner's butts burning as the economy continues to improve.
FORWARD - Obama/Biden - Four More Years!
I understand the underhandedness of it if true, but most Americans from the right of center to the far left already know this. Republicans wouldn't believe it if Moses brought it down from the mountain on a tablet of stone.
Lets do this:
Mitt, you knew you wanted to be POTUS -- You should have served in the military.
If this is your defining comment about why Rommey shouldn't be President please inform all of us about the vast military experience Obama had before he was elected. Unless you consider being an event organizer in Chicago as working in a war zone. Please also bring up the fact how Rommney avoided the draft for Vietnam but then remind us how Clinton did also but went even further by going to Canada and protesting the war. Yet you brainwashed Dem's seem to overlook/forget these facts.
I also love how several Dems have made comments about how all of Rommneys (5) kids should have to be serving in the military. When some of his kids are still in high school (I guess that doesn't matter). So using your Democrate logic you should be demanding that Obama's daughters should be serving in the military also. Please let me know that you agree with this and I will issue you an appology. If not shut up about anything to do with military service.
It was never ending about Bush's drug use when he was in college but Clinton can say he didn't inhale and there is a book by Obama's schoolmates that document Obama's massive pot smoking in school but not one word from the left wing press about that. I guess that making a big deal about a black man smoking pot would be considered sterotyping and racial.
there was a time in robme's life span , when his country needed him to fight. he chose to draft dodge , by pretending his well known CULTIC BELIEVING CONGREGATION needed him more. sooooooooo he fled to france , and became '' bishop polygamist ''. obama was a child at that time of war , sooorrrrrryyyyy !!!! NEXT QUESTION ???? !!!!!! LOL , LOL , LOL , haaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa heeeeeeeeeeeeee heeeeeeeeeeeee urkillinmeeeeeeheeeeeheeeeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!
The war in Iraq has been going on for 10 years. Before that there was Granada, or how about just doing a stint in the service if your so patriotic? Did your boy Obama step up and try to serve his country? Didn't think so. Also, you say next question then do the LOL. There was a next question but you chose to ignore it just like every other Dem. What about Clinton? You crucify Rommney but Clinton did the same thing. Went to Canada and protested the war. I guess it is OK to do that as long as you are a Dem. I see why you laugh so much, short term memory. LOL, LOL LOL, haaaaaaaaaaa, haaaaaaaaaaa Heeeeeeee, heeeeee.
Your killing me with your one sided ignorance. Your like a magician with your slight of hand tricks. Concentrate over here in this hand (Rommney) but pay no attention to what my other hand is doing (Obama/Clinton). You are a joke. If your going to post, when you get challanged answer all the questions not just the ones you feel like. You seem to be very knowledgable about Rommney's shortcomings but why do you ignore Clintons. Just want to fight the battles you can win. Remember, my first question was if having military service is so important why wasn't it important enough when it comes to a democratic presidential candidate?
Romney openly supported the war. He also dressed up as a state trooper. Romney then ran off to France. Romney talked the talk but pranced like a pussy.
When you partisan hacks can name all your local town elected officials then come back and talk about national politics...until you can do that you all are just blow hards and the problem in America.
Many would say, the problem in America today was self righteous, judgmental, @!$%#s who think they know everything when they themselves have a chronic case of tunnel vision. Look in the mirror!
I can name my local officials, and I like most of them. These are the people who really get the job done, but they suffer when jobs are sent overseas by Romney, because then it is hard to pay for schools, police, roads, firemen, and it is hard for doctors and hospitals too. Therefore, because I love my local community, I love the Democrats who have put some jobs into Ohio.
In Ohio vote for Pres. Obama, Senator Sherrod Brown, and your Democrat Representative, and those who will fight for education and jobs. Senator Brown has brought jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in the fracking and coal industries; he just wants those companies to be careful about how they do their jobs. He has worked for veterans to help them get work and services.
Vote yes on Issue 2 in Ohio so that there are real districts, and not Congressional Districts that are in narrow strips across the whole state. Vote for Democrats in the State House and Senate, and Democrat Justices and Judges (look up who is Democrat, it isn't on the ballot).
Remember what the Republican Ohio Secretary of State Husted is doing right now to suppress the vote in Ohio: if you go to the wrong polling place, your vote will be thrown away. Husted has already thrown away absentee ballots from Democrat districts, so look for anything at all in the mail and mail in the replacement absentee ballot again if you received one; that is your only chance to vote.
Romney is a putz.
Nobody wants a putz for President.
That is all.
Walker1965 For your information Mitt's sons are all out of High School, college and have careers. His youngest son is 31 yrs old.
I don't agree with let's do this !!! that someone running for president has to have been in the military. With regards to Mitt's sons, I don't know if they supported the Afghanistan & Iraq wars or not. It is their choice to serve or not. I think what frustrates many of us is people like Mitt who support wars but don't want to fight in them or see their children fight for their country. Mitt supported the war in vietnam but wouldn't fight for what he said he believed in. Clinton didn't support that war and protested to end it. Obama didn't support the Iraq war and said early on it was wrong.
When it comes to drug use, I think it's a non-issue with any one running for president who tried it when they were young. If they were using it now that would be a problem. The discussion should be not who tried or use drugs but what the drug policy should be going forward. That really has not be discussed by either candidates. I have a clue of what Obama believes but haven't heard a word from Romney on this subject.
"Putz?" Scary, wow, scary.
Romney/Ryan 2012
"(n) a stupid, ignorant person; someone who doesn't pay attention to anything going on; one who makes stupid remarks."
Walker - You forgot to mention that Romney registered for the draft but his number was not called up. On the other hand Obama didn't register for the SS but did get his oily hands on a bogus Selective Service card. Joe Biden had 4 deferments because he was in college. We could ask why he didn't drop out and enlist. Clinton is another piece of work not even worth mentioning. I truly believe that most of those Libs squawking about Romney not serving have never served themselves. Perhaps their IQ is so low it qualified them for 4F status. I'm a vet and proud of it.
A vote for Obama is the kiss of death for America!
You know what I love? People that don't do any research and post lies to support their bias. You tell me in what reality, someone born in 1981 is still in high school.
Craig, Mitt's youngest, is 31 years old this year. In 1970, 1971, 1975, 1978 and 1981 were their children's birth years. So, in 2001, all were of age to serve. You can do the math yourself and are allowed a calculator for the grade school math you are clearly having trouble with.
Don't try to pawn your preference to lying on anyone but yourself. Obama's children are not even 17 yet. Or doesn't your lying ways not comprehend that?
On the plus side, I can just put you on ignore since you seem to rather lie than take a minute to do simple research on what you want to post.
So, let's put your money where your mouth is. You remember typing what I quoted, corect? Man up and tell everyone why you chose to lie about Mitts children. If you can't, you have no place to expect it from others.
WAlker....You state that Mitt should have served in the military....What about your"boy", the only thing he's ever served is soup....
Well spoke Joan....
Obama has intelligence and finesse and a world view, Romney has money and not much else to offer the rest of the world.
Yes, Culheath, Obama is so intelligent he said "I've been to 57 states". Doesn't know the difference between corpsmen and corpsemen. Has problems speaking without his teleprompter. His world view is to promote the North American Union and Muslim Brotherhood Shariah Law which is where we are headed faster than a snowball melting in Death Valley. He screwed up on Benghazi and Fast & Furious. And he's a pathological liar.
A vote for Obama is the kiss of death for America!
My friends brother CONFIRMS THAT by drone, the White House watched Benghazi for 6 hours - knew what they needed and STILL said STAND DOWN. Agreed: Muslim Brotherhood and Shariah Law is here for another 4 years if Obama is elected. I voted for Romney because of family values. They have BOTH flip flopped to get votes. I don't know that we would have to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood and Shariah Law if Romney gets elected. I KNOW he would not apologize for the U.S. That takes a special special low to get that far down on the rung of USA pride. I don't want anyone apologizing for me. I love this country. We are far from perfect, but really? Apologize to a violent group of the small percentage of beautiful awesome Muslims and make special considerations for their prophet and not our God Who's Hand is upon it still and protecting us? No special concessions for the believer in Christ, no protection for me who carries a Bible and if Obama gets his way protecting the LGBT community who violently opposes those who disagree by bullying and and who do NOT promote a peaceful opposition at all costs, So for me carrying and reading a Bible will one day considered hate speech if it keeps going the way it is. See the cover of braintainment magazine. There is a naked woman laying on top of a robot saying that a robot loves best. Our families are on the way out. You watch and for my beliefs of the traditional marriage, I will go to jail. Just for my personal beliefs. Followers of Christ are supposed to face persecution but under Obama's personal beliefs, that will come to my home town instead of in Pakistan or Indonesia when I am out on an annual mission trip with my church and that scares me too much to want his kind of liberal change.
Hazelgal, if you can watch "Koch Brothers Exposed", a documentary on Netflix. (You may be able to watch online) you should. That will scare the hell out of you. Voting for Romney is a vote for the Koch Brothers.
Hopefully Americans will remember the 4 Americans that were murdered in Libya and vote this administration out of office for all the lies they told . Every time President Obama opens his mouth and lies I keep thinking the American people will fire him this Tuesday.
Our economy sux and Obama has to be the worst President we have had. We don't need to be punished for 4 more years . Go home Mr. President and don't let the door hit you in the Bu*t.
Leftie looser!!!!Better yet, watch the movie 2016!!!! Our Dog Eater in Chief does a lot of cocaine and smokes a lot of pot!!!!
In WISCONSIN, with 10 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 5.4%, up from 5.0% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 94.2% chance of victory here, up by 0.9% overnight and by an astounding 8.5% since Tuesday.
In PENNSYLVANIA, with 20 electoral votes, Obama's lead is holding at 4.6%. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 96.6% chance of victory here, up by 0.5% overnight and by a respectable 2.5% since Tuesday.
In MICHIGAN, with 16 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 3.5%, up from 3.0% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 98.6% chance of victory here, up 0.2% overnight and by 0.5% since Tuesday.
In OHIO, with 18 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 2.9%, up from 2.6% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 83.8% chance of victory here, up by 3.1% overnight and by an astonishing 10.5% since Tuesday.
In NEVADA, with 6 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 2.7%, up from 2.4% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 88.7% chance of victory here, up by 1.5% overnight and by an astounding 9.0% since Tuesday.
In IOWA, with 6 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 2.0%, up from 1.3% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 80.7% chance of victory here, down interestingly by 0.9% overnight but up overall by a substantial 6.8% since Tuesday.
In NEW HAMPSHIRE, with 4 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 1.8%, up from 1.3% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama an 80.4% chance of victory here, up by 1.7% overnight and by an astonishing 10.1% since Tuesday.
In COLORADO, with 9 electoral votes, Obama's lead has risen to 1.0%, up from 0.9% on Friday. FiveThirtyEight currently gives Obama a 67.9% chance of victory here, up by 2.2% overnight and by an astronomical 12.5% since Tuesday.
Don't know where you are cherry-picking your exaggerated polls but they certainly don't square with many.
One huge factor not much discussed, in particular by the mainstream liberal media, and in all social discourse is that race is still taboo, and how it is distorting the polls. We live in PC self-imposed censorship. Specifically there is a huge self-censorship factor with many people, particularly whites, as to their public support for Obama when in actuality many feel discomfort in publicly betraying our first African-American president for this other 'oh-so-white' alternative, even though on deemed merits the alternative will get their votes.
Romney is patently so much more accomplished than Obama.
Romney will win ... it is not going to be close.
Romney lacks shomin kankaku
I have news for you "let's do this" Obama is going to lose almost all of those states.
Why, because FOX tells you so?
"Romney is patently so much more accomplished than Obama." definitely a patently false statement. Let us speak of the accomplishments of Mitt Romney, job outsourcing, taxation loopholes, offshore investment banking (one of the filthiest money-laundering sinks in the world), corporate buyouts and liquidation, junk bonds, overcompensated investments, draft deferments, abortion profiting (Stericycle), bankruptcy profiting, high leveraged buyouts... And the list goes on. Romney will liquidate Americans, our seniors, our poor, us middle class, our disabled & our Veterans. If a businessman's accomplishments are measured by unethical business practices, then he's your guy. Businessmen tactics in the White House, Bush Sr. & Bush Jr., & Hoover.
Let’s breeze through a list of, arguably, the Top 10 Presidents and see: Washington (general, plantation owner), Lincoln (lawyer), FDR (lawyer), Jefferson (writer, inventor, architect, lawyer), Teddy Roosevelt (soldier, rancher), Wilson (lawyer, professor), Eisenhower (general), Jackson (lawyer, soldier), Reagan (actor, union president) AND Give ‘em Hell Harry S Truman (farmer and failed haberdasher). Some of our Founding Fathers, not including the other lawyers that were on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, & let's not forget James Madison the Father of the Constitution, also a lawyer. When you weigh the accomplishments of lawyers & solders in US History with comparison to businessmen, well frankly there is NO comparison.
"Specifically there is a huge self-censorship factor with many people, particularly whites, as to their public support for Obama when in actuality many feel discomfort in publicly betraying our first African-American president for this other 'oh-so-white' alternative, even though on deemed merits the alternative will get their votes." If merits are the actuality of your support for Mitt Romney, I will be the 1st to say, merits have nothing to do with your equation. For the whites that continue to support Obama for his merits, are the individuals whom supported him from the start & not for any idiotic racist ideology of public betrayal.
Jewels:
First: I didn't see "Community Organizer" in the list of greatest presidents?
Secondly: Enough with the racism shame, that worked in 2008, but now you liberals keep it alive and well. And frankly, I find you racist in your 'oh-so-white,' remark. I am going to call the ACLU...oops, nobody represents us. Plus the environment is now very littered with reverse discrimination. People think only one side revolts!!!
Romney/Ryan 2012
Independent thought - there is racism in this election. Hate groups have jumped from 888 in 2007 to 1018 in 2011. So something is going on. And then there are some of the remarks. Some of the remarks says it all.
Yes Jewels, Obama surely had his accomplishments ... let's see ...
...'Community Organizer'... but this is all his experience in the dreaded private sector. You mean to tell me NO substantial experience as creator of industry, let alone manager of a business and generator of jobs? Darn!
...'President of the Harvard Law Review' ... but in the records of this so-called esteemed journal he is the first ever president of it never, ever, to have published one single peer-review article. Gee...we don't supposed that the much-maligned Harvard, as Liberal bastion, appointed him for his skin-pigmentation, do you? ...nah!
...'U.S. Senator' ... but for only two years and change? Watch out! What a wallop of an experience!!
...'Nobel Peace Price'... BEFORE becoming U.S. President?? Since when did we all go through some reverse time-warp continuum here? (Maybe those clever PC-narcissistic Europeans anticipate total World peace due to Obama in the next two days!)
Sure, Romney may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but what matters is how he ran with the ball and put it to good use for himself and others.
But Obama, is the ultimate coddled individual born with an affirmative-action-spoon in his mouth.
Jewel, with regard to this constant, simplistic and cartoonish depiction of Romney as some sort of an industry evil outsourcer and Obama as a noble protector of the little guy ... I leave you with a post of mine regarding Obama as a proud inheritor of the THE Ousourcer-in-Chief, Bill Clinton ...
CLINTON was the MOST FINANCIALLY DESTRUCTIVE PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY and OBAMA is the proud inheritor of his policies:
A) HE, no one else, with the assist of his Goldman Sachs and Wall Street buddies - Robert Rubin, Lawrence Sommers, Timothy Geithner, et. al., and Alan Greenspan (Fed) (and some of these people where brought back by OBAMA to his administration!) - repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1934 which kept Commercial Banking, Investment Banking, and Insurance separate; and with this repeal led to the meltdown of TRILLIONS of dollars of speculative non-oversight investments by banks and financial institutions.
B) HE, no one else, and despite warnings from many councils of economists, industry groups and labor unions truly opened the flood gates on free trade towards LABOR-SINKHOLES economies such as China with NO labor- and product-return to capital, value-added safeguards to protect key industries and sectors in the U.S., as other countries do, such as even the Europeans when drafting similar treaties. In the process HE is the one who set the stage for true syphoning out the manufacturing/industrial base of our country!
C) HE, along with the usual suspects above (and again the same people brought back by OBAMA to work for him) purposely undermined his own chief regulator on market derivatives, Brooksley E. Born, Chief of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, by preventing her, through their insistence, in taking action on regulating the emerging subprime derivatives market which she rightfully predicted will lead to a major world disaster. (Duh ... does anyone remember the crash of '08?). Anyway, such lack of regulation led to a market of 800 to 900 Trillion (with a T) of mostly toxic derivatives. (How much did Bush's hare-brain adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan cost? ... 1, 2 Trillion?).
CLINTON IS BY FAR THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE FINANCIAL PRESIDENT and OBAMA has taken most of these people in! Romney was no wheres on the radar screen in the decision making on any of the above.
... who is the main outsourcer now?
Jose, that's quite a diatribe there...
A) Repeal of Glass/Stegal was a republican bill all the way;
Respective versions of the legislation were introduced in the U.S. Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa). The third lawmaker associated with the bill was Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R-Virginia), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee from 1995 to 2001.
B) A republican idea from the beginning;
Following diplomatic negotiations dating back to 1986 among the three nations, the leaders met in San Antonio, Texas, on December 17, 1992, to sign NAFTA. U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas, each responsible for spearheading and promoting the agreement, ceremonially signed it. The agreement then needed to be ratified by each nation's legislative or parliamentary branch.
He, no one else ???????? better go back to highschool and see just how this governement doesn't work
Let's make sure that Mitt only 47 votes. 47% of what he says are lies He was 47th in creation jobs and the Democrats will gain 47 seats in the House of Representatives.
Goodbye MITT see you again in 2047.
This is what happens when you let the Tea Klux Klan take over your party. Once upon a time there were moderate, SANE Republicans, but no more. Now we have a competition to see who can nominate the most extreme, right-wing nutjob. I feel like I'm watching an episode of the Twilight Zone everytime I see Republican candidates appear on television.
You have no idea how close to the truth you are. I was a member of that party for many years and proud of it. But don't underestimate them they put up a candidate who they hope will appear moderate to the center while knowing he will govern from the right. Romney just couldn't keep the game plan straight.
Having said all of that there are still respectable Republicans trapped inside that party. Mitch Daniels being one of them. In my opinion he could have won this election and been as equally effective for the left of center to the right of center. He just had more character than to put his family (wife) through the hate mill.
Instead of the Cross, the Albatross, about my neck was hung.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner poem refers to the Albatross around their necks. Who wants to wear it? Jon Huntsman steps back, Ron Paul steps back, I was afraid even President Obama was going to step back and leave Mitt Romney as the only dimwit foolish enough to take the honor.
As it ages them quickly, the burden heavy.
Your hateful name calling and rude behavior on the vine are a CLASSIC example of ALL liberals and you REPRESENT them well...
As an independent registered voter, it is people just like YOU that make me vote for anyone but a liberal democrat. Your hateful vile rhetoric and name calling are seriously pathetic and the real problem in America today.
You may call yourself independent but, it doesn't sound like you have a moderate bone in your body.
The time for civility has long passed! If a person is openly in favor of supply side/trickle down economics and injecting religion into politics, then they are my enemy! Plain and simple. Name calling is the least of what they should expect.
The current GOP leadership is a bunch of @!$%#ing nazi dogs that need to be put down!
There are so many apostatic former Republicans who have become independents because of the influx of Tea Partiers financed by the Koch Bros. and other corporate interests. Welcome to the ex-Republican column.
Living in the Woods appears to right where your at. Didn't see anything in the post referring Shosyn to be moderate.
And your death call of all of them should be out down, is exactly what he is referring to.
Already voted for Romney/Ryan save your breath.
Obama has dome nothing but campaign for 4 years and passed the ACA (Obamacare) on backdoor deals, yet after all is said and done there will still be those without insurance.
Isn't it ridiculous that every American must show proof of health insurance, but not every citizen must show proof of citizenship. Yet those taxpayers will be paying for insurance for those who do not have to prove they are citizens.
Stating that you are an independent implies being a moderate.
When I said they need to be "put down" I was speaking figuratively to mean voted out and possibly prosecuted.
You are not going to hear me defend the ACA. I hate that republican written piece of garbage! We were supposed to get single payer, universal healthcare and instead we got a mandate to put more of our hard earned money into the pockets of moneygrubbing insurance companies. Yeah, I hate it, but it is not the only issue on the table by a longshot.
If I could name the single biggest reason not to vote for Mitt Robme, and there are many, it would simply be that he still believes in supply side/trickle down economics, probably the biggest most destructive con job ever put over on the American people.
The great orator, Slick Willie Clinton said it best at the 2012DNC.
Don't Double Down On Trickle Down!
Obama/Biden 2012
It's only fair to say that if you put the republicans down, you MUST also put the democratic party down as well.
Gary Johnson 2012! Live free or Die!
Romney is toast. The GOP is secretly admitting defeat.
Mitt is just going through the motions before he shuffles off the stage.
Obama 2012
Boy, are you going to be angry come Wednesday morning!
Rasmussen…...was the same bunch that GUARANTEED a McCain win by 6 points only 3 days before the election and then "magically" switched their prediction to Obama AFTER the polls closed on the East Coast ON ELECTION NIGHT!!
LOLOLOLOLLLL!!!!!
Silly conservatives think that just because RWNJ news sites still give robme a glimmer of hope that the Hitler twins still actually have a chance.
News organizations want you to think it's close so you keep watching the news.
Romney has a snowballs chance in hell! We're not quite that stupid.... yet.
Perhaps it seems obvious that if you care about your family's future, you must also care about the planet your children will inhabit.
Yet critics argue that concept was lost on the audience at the Republican National ConventionThursday night, as they cheered GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as he declared:"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans," pausing for the audience to laugh at the absurdity, "and to heal the planet. My promise ... is to help you and your family."
Some defended Romney's statements as a simple jab at President Obama's exaggerated rhetoric, which Romney closely paraphrased.
Back in 2008, Obama remarked in his nomination acceptance speech that if willing to work for it, "We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment ... when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."
Yet many were infuriated Thursday night by Romney's seeming indifference to -- or mocking of -- efforts to combat climate change and alleviate growing pressure on the planet's resources.
Critics took to Twitter to voice their outrage, among them former State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley, who tweeted: "So I guess we won't worry about #climate change in a #Romney administration." Climate scientist Michael Mann tweeted, "Romney's cynical denial of climate change is the real threat to our families, to our children & grandchildren's future."
On air, MSNBC's Chris Matthews charged, "How narrow-minded, how small and insular and piggish can you be about this country, to say, 'We don't care about the planet we live on,' which is getting hotter, climate change has manifested all over the world ... and he's mocking it."
To the rightwing and Flat Earth Society -- Once again you are on the wrong side of history. Sandy will reinsert climate change, science, innovation, and the importance of government into our politics. The only reason republican conservative tea party of the racist doesn't want to fight climate change is because they know that they are the biggest poluters in america.
Lets do this:
You need to get your facts straight. Asia, India & the middle east are the biggest polluters there are. We can all sit around and claim that the US needs to do more to combat globle warming (head the name GLOBAL warming) but no matter what we do the rest of the world will not and can not stop their polluting. Most of the 3rd world countries do not have nuclear power so they have no choice put coal. Are we going to mandate and regulate India, Africa, Pakastan & Mexico? We can cripple our economy with over regulation, ballon our deficit with non-working/non-proven green power. Wind and solar are not viable solutions for replacing the amount of megawatts generated by coal and nuclear.
Look at the new experimental solar companies and electric car battery companies that have already gone bankrupt before they even got started producing anything. Solar is only good where you have an abundance of sunshine. Does this mean we will build them all in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas? Let completley cover these states with massive solar plants and then find a way to ship the power to New York. Will Solar work in Michigan, Wisconson or any northern states where they have 5 months of winter? How about wind power. Ask the Seria Club how they have been protesting the massive wind farm in California that is located in the mountains between Palm Springs and Los Angeles. They have been trying to shut them down for 20 years. Why? they kill to many birds. You have to build them where the wind blows or they are useless.
Get real, pull your Left Wing head out of your A_S and quit spewing the same old crap all Liberals do about how we (the USA) is the center of the universe and how by shutting down everything we have to save the world from global warming will really change anything is the rest of the world doesn't follow suit and comply. THis isn't going to happen. Ask Iran, we won't let them build and nuclear plant. How do you think they get their power for their entire country. That's right COAL.
What's the matter "Lets do this".
No reply to my comments. I see where you answered my other reply up a few posts with an idiotic reply there. Nothing to say on this topic. Hard to disput the truth. Must hurt deep down to to post so much Democratic garbage and then get schooled with the facts. You are almost 50% of these posts and I don't think you have come up with one original idea to post about. You just keep spewing the same old nonsence and I doubt you understand half of what you post. Starting with this one. I am a construction engineer, I have traveled from California to North Carolina (and everywhere between) building power plants. Nuclear, Coal, Geo-Thermal, Gas & yes Solar. I know the prices it costs to build each one vs the amount of energy/megawatts each produces. I know how much real estate (square acre foot print) each takes up. Coal Plant in Lena, LA. took up 100 Sq acres but produces 850 mega watts at a cost of 1 billion dollars. Solar plant in El-Centro, CA took up 675 Sq Acres (that's almost 6 sq miles), produces 250 megawatts at a cost of 3.2 billion dollars. (How are you going to like those 500 to 700 dollar a month electric bills?) I have experiences with the Serria Club/Green Peace protests every where. They come out East and protest the coal and nuclear and cry about wanting wind and solar, then they go out West (California) and protest the solar and wind sites. There excuse for a solar plant in El-Centro California "Thats the home of a desert tortise". The wind farms "They kill to many birds". You and the tree huggers won't be happy until we all live in caves with no electricity and become a 3rd world country ourselves.
Walker...
The difference is that solar and wind energy are renewable. It takes millions of years for the earth to convert solar energy into coal, gas and natural gas.
Louie Bee,
Your missing the point of the post. Shutting down our nuclear and coal plants will not make a differnece if the rest of the world doesn't do the same. They will not because they can't. Some countries can't have nuclear power. What are they suppose to do.
Wind and solar are renewable but not VIABLE. You can not replace all the mega watts in service by coal and nuclear with wind and solar. Making statements to try and do so is a pipe dream. Tell India to stop burning coal and see how fast they give you the finger. More poeple are starting to drive in 3rd world countries. India and middle eastern countries are starting to expand economically and more people are driving cars (putting out pollution). THey are not going to give up their stuff or shut down their power plants so why should we cripple our economy for something that is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the grand scheme of things global warming wise?
The recurring theme with a lot of the comments made in the article, is about the US spending or sending money to those countries.
Their greed rings loud.
Obama campaign ad. MSNBC, give it a rest.
How can anyone support ANY man, let alone the POTUS, who would watch his own people under attack and pleading for help for 7 tortured hours-then leaving them to DIE?? How can you spin it to make it okay? This man is not even a decent human being, let alone a true leader.
How did you Republicans relect a man that set on the knowledge that the US was going to be attacked by al-qaeda and did not react. Thousands of people died because President Bush set on his hands and did not act. But yet you Republicans voted to give this man two terms.He also created two wars that were not necessary and took this country to the bottom of the bucket financialy. You Republicans are such hypocrites.
What has the GOP done to help the economy and increase employment the past 4 years?
1. Birth control legislation/personhood
2. Tired worn-out attempts about the President's birth certificate/college transcripts
3. Extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy
4. Create a fictitious "war on religion" to stonewall Obama's Healthcare efforts
5. Destroy the unions by using overworked GOP catchphrases: Socialism, Marxism, Saul Alinsky
6. Destroy the environment by using the "job creation" smokescreen
7. Try to repeal Affordable Health Care so it doesn't cut into their insurance company cronies' profits
8. Punish women for being raped
9. Attempt to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act so Wall Street can steal from the American people again
10. Take away food stamps from the elderly and poor
11. Filibustering Obama more in the past 4 years, than all of the past 50 years combined
Get your head out of your a$$. The "ME generation" that you're obviously part of will be the downfall of America.
@TIM THE WIMP ;
YOU ARE A FOOL !!!
Good come back.
Tim;
You made a very intelligent rebuttal to the original post yourself. Good show!
Let's do this ----keep it up. Obama will win this election! I like your enthusiasm.
Tim you are right on target, these narcissists will be the death of a great nation.
Tim W.-1074098, you're suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
...
let's do this !!! banned, rereg of comment spammer weareinbettershape. Multiple accounts great presidentt !!!! and obama you can '' TRUST '' !!! also banned.
This is the GOP agenda of which they are so proud:
1. Tax Policy: Tax poor and working people but not the rich;
2. Wage Policy: Encourage wages in the U.S. to fall to third world levels;
3. Trade Policy: Pass trade laws that make it easy for companies to send jobs overseas;
4. Healthcare Policy: Pass laws that enable only insurance companies to control who gets health care (including seniors) and who doesn’t
5. Education Policy: Replace public education with out of pocket private schools and home schooling;
6. Infrastructure Policy: Refuse to invest in crumbling public infrastructure such as highways, bridges, and sewer systems;
7. Environmental Policy: Pass laws and weaken regulations that enable companies to pollute the environment;
8. Energy Policy: Pass laws that enable gas and oil production and prices to be controlled by a few large companies; Make sure that there is no longer any research or work on alternative energy sources; Keep defense spending high to protect non domestic oil production;
9. Civil Rights Policy: Repress rights for women and minorities and repress voting participation;
10. Social Policy: Divide the American people on cultural issues (religion, sexual orientation, gun rights, etc);
11. Political Method: Instill fear in the American public through manufactured crises and created "boogeymen". Then attack political opponents by claiming to be more "patriotic" and the better keeper of "American Values" than they.
12. Voter Suppression: making it more difficult if not impossible for literally millions of ELIGIBLE voters to cast their ballots, which is flagrant vote tampering and corruption.
Why do you support the GOP?
Because losers like you don't. Get a job.
@TIM THE WIMP ;
In the over 400 days since Republicans took control of the House, the GOP hasn’t passed a single job creation bill, but has passed bills that would kill 7.4 million jobs.
House Democrats has proposed 31 different bills to create jobs since Republicans have taken over, and all of them have been defeated.
Here is a partial list of some of the job creation bills that the GOP has said no to (via: Democratic Leader Pelosi):
A measure to protect jobs for returning veterans by preventing incentives for small businesses to hire returning veterans from being swept away by GOP deregulatory efforts. [Vote 879]
A measure to allow Congress to make job-creating investments, instead of automatically freezing funding for Pell Grants and education programs for students, job benefits for veterans and job training for all Americans, and life-saving health research. [Vote 31]
The Republicans refusal to create jobs is just one side of the story. John Boehner and company are also on a mission to reverse the course of the recovery and deepen the recession. House Democrats estimate that the GOP has killed 2 million jobs since they have taken over, and an analysis by Political Correction finds that the House GOP has tried to kill 7.4 million jobs in 400+ days. The House GOP’s ambitious plan would kill double the jobs in the Obama administration has created in the last 23 months by 2016.
One of the first acts of the Republican controlled House was to pass a bill to kill Obamacare. If this bill became law, it would kill 250,000-400,000 jobs a year. House Republicans passed a bill that would disband and defund the IRS, which would kill more than 107,000 jobs. The House passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act which would kill 700,000 jobs. The House also passed a bill to 285,000 federal government jobs, but the biggest job killer of all is the Ryan Budget, which would kill 2-3 million jobs over 5 years.
The House Republicans claim that they have passed 27 bills that would create jobs, but are stalled in the Senate. However, a quick look at the list of “job creation” bills reveals that the legislation is nothing more than extreme budget cuts and an attack on all regulations, specifically environmental regulations. Interestingly, the House GOP also claims that their opposition to net neutrality will create jobs. There is not a single dollar spent in any of the Republican passed bills on direct job creation.
At the 300 day mark, House Republican had voted to kill 4.2 million jobs. If Republicans would have supported even part of the Democrats job creation agenda, millions of jobs would have been created. The American Jobs Act alone would have created an additional 1.9 million jobs and reduced unemployment by a full point. If the American Jobs Act would have become law, we could have anticipated an unemployment rate falling towards 7.3%, with no other economic growth included.
Despite their best efforts to prolong this recession the economy is recovering and growing again, but this list demonstrates that House Republicans are going to do everything in their power to derail our economic recovery before the presidential election in November.
If House Republicans continue on this path they’ll get their wish, but the jobs they kill will be their own.
(30) In 400+ Days The GOP Has Created 0 And Tried To Kill 7.4 Million Jobs | Digg Topnews
Any opinions of your own? As in ones not cut and pasted from International Clearing House or the Democratic Underground? lol
Care to refute any of the cut and pasted facts themselves...or is complaining about cut and paste method of presenting the facts all you've got?
"Get a job."
27 red states take more money than they pay in taxes.
5 blue states take more money than they pay in taxes.
It is us hard working tax paying Democrats that are supporting you worthless welfare queen republicons.
Red State Socialism | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Milkit
By welfare queen are you referring to Michelle Bachmann?
The libs can push all their bias propoganda with polls and half truths. Come election day, the independents will come in and vote Romney/Ryan and send this pathetic excuse for a president packing! Better days are coming.
The entire GOP is a self-inflicted wound.
And glorya , don't you remember Romney saying in the debate that we'd have to wait until after the election to see what's in his tax plan?
Not a wound I'm going to inflict on myself, thanks. i still say , '' he needs to come clean with those hidden 1040's !!!!!!!!
ha ha ha ha your funny you missed your calling lol he he he he
Where are Romney's tax returns? He probably took that amnesty for tax cheaters. That is why he will not show his tax returns.
Even what he has shown looks illegal.
Legal Analysis Outlines Potential Crime In Mitt Romney’s Financial Disclosures | MoveOn.Org
Did Mitt Romney Break the Law by Failing to Disclose Delphi Investments? | The Nation
Hopefully we will send the GOP down the road with their tails between their legs. The Republicans are worthless and the Republican congress proves that.
@GLORYA ; PROPOGANDA YOU SAY ??? ;
On January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama's Inauguration. In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that during a four hour,
"invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.
Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R). Non-lawmakers present
Newt Gingrich
During the four hour meeting: The senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.
Their plan was to blame the President for the consequences of their own destructive actions. Note that Paul Ryan was at that meeting in 2009.GOP/Koch kept their word, and blocked all job creation bills, including the Veterans Jobs Corps Bill - which GOP House blocked.
Get rid of any of these crooks that damaged our economy because they wanted to obstruct our President and they didn't care what their actions mean to the PEOPLE. Hoekstra's going out in Michigan so we have one down.
These above actions taken by the GOP are nothing more than Treason and each should be brought to justice in a court of law and hung by the neck till dead.
Thank you for re-posting this list. The clowns that fooled with our democracy should indeed be held accountable. Shame on them, and any that support their 3rd grade "boys club" BS. Their "strategy" has cost us dearly. Let us not forget!
I also seem to recall the GOP mantra of "Obama's FAILED policies" already being chanted before he was even inaugurated. How did they know that Obama's policies were "failed" policies? Because they knew they were going to do everything in their power to make sure he failed!
@GLORYA @ TIM THE WIMP ; Can't believe the Republican tea party is fielding some wacko nit witts to the senate Mourdock and Akins need to be resting in senior retirement house not in the House. Sending those two to the House is a grave mistake. make their lives easier by sending them into a senior retirement place. where they can mumble jumble about rape with each other. LOL !!!
By far this was one of the most interesting articles ever to appear on the Explorer. My only disappointment was that it didn't dig deeper. There are many other countries whose viewpoints should have been canvassed. But then I guess we can't have everything. How does China view the election; Mexico, Brazil, Canada ? Whatever, I am most appreciative of what was afforded by this article.
Ken Erd
Where or where is Stinky Redhead!!!!!!!!!
@KEN ;
I believe I was a fairly bright child growing up in the early 60's attending what we now call middle-school and later high school. I remember getting cold chills down both my arms and entire torso when hearing the The Star-Spangled Banner or when reciting The Pledge of Allegiance(at times, I still do). My childhood thoughts and concerns were great with the very real threats of a nuclear WW3, Civil Rights racial riots and an ever escalating Vietnam war of that day.
Yet, I was absolutely fascinated by studying American history and recent world history starting with The American Revolution. The steadfast resolution, bravery and political compromise of 13 tiny colonies to stand as one against the mightiest empire in the world (of that day) must enthrall any young adventurist.
The American Civil War was a hard pill to swallow. The horrors of Americans turning guns on fellow Americans; fathers killing sons, sons killing fathers, brothers killing brothers depending on living in the north or south still seems unimaginable. Regardless of the issues, this was the darkest era of American history(no pun intended).
America's entrance into WW2 and subsequent victory was a source of great pride. I actually had uncles that served and survived that war. I somehow understood the participation of the empirical and religious fanatics of Japan. They were nuts. The good German people that allowed an insane Hitler and his Nazis to lead them into WW2 puzzled me for years. Youthful inquiries to my teachers and other adults left me with answers that didn't make a lot of sense. What could prompt good people to accept leadership of a madman?
I believe I have finally reached the proper conclusion. I could be wrong and I'm more than willing to stand corrected with reasonable debate. My latest quest for a reasonable and logical answer to a present dilemma is this; Why do millions of Americans consistently and willingly vote against their own self-interest? Is it a noble gesture to place the interest of the nation above their own well-being? I don't think so.
I'm old enough to trace this back to 1979 from memory. The Moral Majority started in 1976 by the Christian Right. By 1979, the Republican party embraced this concept and literally ran with it full steam. The Moral Majority represented the first attempt to strongly determine religious beliefs as the basis for future American policy and law. Republican President Ronald Reagan was elected on these principles.
If the Republican party was truly representative of the Moral Majority, where did that leave the rest of us? Did all of the Democrats and Independents suddenly become the immoral minority? What about we non-partisan voters that always voted for the best candidate regardless of his party affiliation. We became part of the immoral minority in Republican eyes unless we voted a straight Republican ticket.
I leave with you with these thoughts. Why did the good German people allow a madman to lead them into world war? Hitler taught them that the fair-haired, blue-eyed Germans were the superior race. Why did the south go to war with the north to fight an American civil war? The wealthy plantation owners taught the white southerners that whites were the superior race to black slaves. Why do millions of Americans vote against their own self-interests? Republicans taught them that only Republicans represent the superior Moral Majority.
All others are inferior and immoral minorities. Is it any wonder that our first black President that happens to be a Democrat is so hated by those on the right, despite his being an exemplary husband, father and leader of the free world?
Very good post! One reference you may have left ouut was that the highest German courts allowed Hitler's Enabling Act to take effect which brought about the widespread book-burning, pogroms and nationalistic pride.
If people don't see the similarity of the Citizens United case, they are doomed to repeat history.
If everybody who was eligible to vote actually voted, there would be no need for any of the argument and name calling. If everyone voted the GOP (Greedy Old People) Party would very nearly cease to exist. The Tea Party is hastening it's demise with the right wing lunacy and illogical embracing of their corporate masters.
We need a sane Republican Party to keep the Democrats honest but that is not to be seen anytime soon.
O&Joe 2012
@ lets do this!!!
Shouldn't you be taking your own advice?
Is the DNC paying you well for blogging?
We need a sane Democratic party to keep the Republicans honest but that is not to be seen anytime soon.
Didn't Pelosi say that have to vote on it before they can see what was in it? (ACA)
Have a list of all the job bills sent to the Senate by the House, sitting on old Harry Reids desk? I didn't think so, that would undermine your bias and one way thinking.
Have to wonder why, in 2010, that the electorate sent a shellacking to congress. Maybe its because after only two years, people saw what was happening under a full Democratic government.
Any arguement that you make let's do this !!! becomes null and void when you revert to name calling. You have already lost the arguement!
To me there is not doubt who to vote for And I quote from the article above:
This is what the face of the world really think... after four years America isn't as important. I believe in globalization to a point... I know we are "interconnected" , but to loose our standing in the world is what an Obama presidency has done to US.
Romney/Ryan 2012
Most Americans are tired of being lied to by the President so we are going to give him his pink slip on Tuesday. Obama has really screwed this country up. Mr. President: You're Fired!!!!
This country was screwed up before president Obama ever took office thanks to eight years of bad choices made by the Republican party. You took this country down to the pit and expect it to spring back in just four years. It took George Bush Jr. eight to get us here so I'am giving President Obama eight to get us out .
when Obama/Biden wins , and the Dems maintain the Senate, someone will need to remind Mitch McConnell that his term is up in 2 years.
The Teabaggers in Congress set their agenda 4 years ago: "Make sure that we concentrate 100% of our efforts into defeating the President of the United States. To hell with the American citizens who pay our salaries, health care, and retirements"
Why are so many, so stupid as to not see why the economy is struggling along: the Teabagging GOP sabotaged our country. How anti-American.
No.... That was a black man named Barrack Hussien Obama... The anti Christian!!!! First President in recent history to not go to church!!!! To busy playing golf on Sundays, and Mondays, and Tuesdays, you get the idea!!!
Ohhh - going to church to think about the mythical sky fairy is just SOOOOO important.
On January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama's Inauguration. In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that during a four hour,
"invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.
Frank Luntz - GOP Minister of Propaganda
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R). Non-lawmakers present
Newt Gingrich
During the four hour meeting: The senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.
Their plan was to blame the President for the consequences of their own destructive actions. Note that Paul Ryan was at that meeting in 2009.GOP/Koch kept their word, and blocked all job creation bills, including the Veterans Jobs Corps Bill - which GOP House blocked.
Get rid of any of these crooks that damaged our economy because they wanted to obstruct our President and they didn't care what their actions mean to the PEOPLE. Hoekstra's going out in Michigan so we have one down
These above actions taken by the GOP are nothing more than Treason and each should be brought to justice in a court of law and hung by the neck till dead.
And as we speak Romneys vulture business Bain Capitol which he is still a huge shareholder is dismantling and shipping American jobs from a profitable U.S. company(Sensata) to China. Romney is the most ruthless and despicable type of business man in our country and the right wants him to be our president. I hope all you conservatives are willing to move to China if you still want your job.
On the day before an election that's supposed to hinge on jobs, taxes and the middle class, Bain Capital, the company Mitt Romney founded, will close the doors of a factory in Freeport, Illinois, and ship 170 good, high-tech jobs to China.
The employees of Sensata Technologies were forced to train their Chinese replacements, and the American flag that long flew over the factory was reportedly removed while the Chinese engineers were visiting the site. A group of workers have set up camp across from the factory -- calling it “Bainport” -- and some supporters have tried to block the trucks hauling equipment out of the plant. According to Dave Johnson, there have been several arrests.
Sensata workers have asked to meet with Mitt Romney and hoped to enlist his help keeping their jobs in the United States, but he has refused, instead remaining on the campaign trail where he speaks often about “getting tough” with China.
The most important part of the story is that Sensata Technologies is profitable operating in Illinois. Net income last year was $355 million, up 16 percent from 2010. The company reported total revenues of $1.8 billion in 2011, up almost 19 percent from the year before. According to a company financial statement, “both 2011 net revenue and adjusted net income represent record levels for the company.”
So this has nothing to do with “making hard choices” in the process of turning around a failing business, which is how the Romney campaign describes Bain's corporate raiding. Bain's partners are looking for a modest boost in profits by locating the plant closer to the booming Asian automotive market (Sensata makes high-tech automotive parts). They'll get a small tax break for relocating the plant – the one Mitt Romney insisted did not exist during the first debate – and possibly defer taxes on some of the income the company generates.
Clearly Obama has some popularity worldwide but it is what Americans thing that count.
America does not deserve the terrible policies proposed by Mr. Romney and Ryan. Hopefully voters won't be so foolish as to believe their lies on the navy, on jobs, on sequestration, on Chrysler and GM.
One of Romney's budget experts admitted on CNN on Friday a week ago that his tax cuts for the rich and extra two trillion for the military that the military ddn't request will add to our debt for 7 years, hoping to get a balanced budget only in the 8th year of his reign.
Obama offered a reasonable deal on the debt with 2.5 dollars of sending cuts for every dollar of extra tax on the rich. He wants to raise the capital gains income tax on the rich from 15 to 30 percent - which rich investor leader Warren Buffet points out would be much more fair and wouldn't hurt investment.
Romney wants to put missiles on the border with Russia and restart the cold war - which will help his rich friends in the weapons industry but hurt the United States.
Obama's sensible management of the TARP program returned big companies to record profits adn a trillion dollars of excess cash by 2010. The housing bubble toook longer to resolve. Foinally in late 2012 housing demand has caught up with supply in most markets and the economy is poised for recovery.
Moodys predicts 12 million jobs will be creased in the next four years (250,000 a month) under either President. The 170,000 created last month was above the 150,000 needed just to maintain employment stability. There has been steady but slow economic growth in the last few years that is now poised to accelerate.
$16,000,000,000+ and counting.................4 Billion in interest per day...let's just put that into terms people can grasp......$750.00 per month for every household in the US..........."Sensible management"...please.............Obama could not pass a grade school level economics course. 250,000 jobs a month will not even keep up with the new job market entrants....in other words, the unemployment level will stay the same. As far as housing supply, banks are setting on millions of distressed properties, only allowing a trickle of that supply to come to market. A flood of those homes would throw the market into a downward spiral.......................the repercussions of "sensible management" has yet to rear it's ugly head....................
MAUREEN, I'm curious to know where your concern and sense of moral outrage was during the long 8 years of disasterous Bush policies that led us down this road to both financial as well as international ruin???
In case you're forgotten allow me to remind you, Dubya started 2 wars, one of them totally unnecessary, bother of them completely UNFUNDED and costing way, way more than orignally predicted. Add to that a Medicare Part D program also completely UNFUNDED and then coupled with huge, grossly irresponsible tax cuts also not funded and you have the makings of financial ruin.
I'd also point out that when Bush took office Bill Clinton handed him a healthy economy, a balanced budget and a nation at peace. 8 years later Bush gave Obama a huge deficit, a nation bogged down in two unending wars and an economy which had gone over the cliff. And all this when your party ruled the roost entirely for Bush's first 6 years. And now you want to lay all this blame at the feet of Obama? You can hardly be serious and certainly have no interest in an intellectually honest and objective discussion of the issue.
Name me a president since FDR that has faced such daunting economic issues? And bear in mind that FDR didn't have to worry about a completely incalcitrant congress nor a nation at war until far later in his administration. Your party was and is hell bent on destroying Obama regardless of what policies he recommends. No president has ever dealth with a more openly hostile opposition party than Obama, to the point that in my opinon is borderline treasonous. It's one thing to oppose the party in power, anther thing entirely to engage in policies so openly hostile that you drag down the entire nation in an attempt to defeat him.
The US Debt is now down to the same level it was at in 2006 and on a downward curve. In 2006 it was going up up and away!
Right now is a great time to invest in America because money is so cheap to get. The bill that will do just that has been sitting on boner's desk for two years.
U.S. Downgrade Seen as Upgrade as U.S. Debt Dissolved - Bloomberg
Actually it continues to go up:
2009 - $10.4 trillion
2010 - $11.9 trillion
2011 - $14.0 trillion
The unquestioning support for Obama is strange.And the thought that the democrat millionaires are some how more like the average person?Funny!
The country right now is kept afloat with loans and printing money,debt! So many statements about the economy and housing and just about everything,are false.
The congress needs term limits!really bad!
We need grownups in charge.I hope Romney wins.
Whatever you are smoking Tampon we don't want any. The president has the economy in the toilet and Tuesday we get to fire him.
culheath
"Obama has intelligence and finesse and a world view"........................HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Thank You....you my friend, are the polar opposite of that description....................
@maureen ;
To tell us that "Richard Mourdock in Indiana and Rep. Todd Akin in Missouri inflicted what may be politically fatal wounds to their campaigns..." is only part of the story.
The Republican agenda was based upon a non-existent tax plan (businesses and individuals have no way to calculate taxable federal income or the federal income tax due), demands to get rid of regulations while they impose incredible restrictions and regulations on women, and refusal to answer questions at rallies or TV interviews.
Two senatorial candidates, numerous House members, and the VP nominee will follow Americans into their homes, bedrooms, and doctors' offices and the presidential nominee is pushing a non-documented (trust me) tax plan that lowers taxes on high income Americans and businesses and lowers disposable income for the working, middle-class, and retiree sectors of the electorate which could be referred to as trickle down (and out) economics.
Absolutely, Obama has intelligence and finesse and a world view. The only problem is the change he wants to make in the world.
uh huh...hey it's not me that thinks :
is the same as $16 trillion+ and counting....
The U.S. probably has no greater enemy in this world than itself. both militarily and economically. That is the ultimate tragedy of all this. "Old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
and young men and young ladies, being foolish, this is our worst problem.
Only impending economic collapse promises to finally bring an end to all that, and it is the powers that rule within which are bringing that to pass.
United States Census Bureau, Foreign Trade (census.gov)
Trade in Goods with World, Seasonally Adjusted (document: c (&) 0004 (&) .html)
The lessons of history seem lost to the white house and american voters.The constitution is being trampled on and special interests like the bankers run the country.Bush was bad and Obama is worse.Romney is almost like Obama.I feel his thinking on energy are more realistic and i hope he can make congress do its job.I hope Romney wins.I see no reason to support Obama.
For that never ending debt crisis you can thank George W. Bush, aided and abetted by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress for 6 out of 8 years. As for "ever growing", the truth is, Obama was handed a HUGE increase in spending as George W. Bush left office:
From factcheck.org:
Fiscal 2009 began Oct. 1, 2008. That was before Obama was elected, and nearly four months before he took office on Jan. 20, 2009.
President Bush signed the massive spending bill under which the government was operating when Obama took office. That was Sept. 30, 2008. As The Associated Press noted, it combined "a record Pentagon budget with aid for automakers and natural disaster victims, and increased health care funding for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."
Bush also signed, on Oct. 3, 2008, a bank bailout bill that authorized another $700 billion to avert a looming financial collapse (though not all of that would end up being spent in fiscal 2009, and Obama later signed a measure reducing total authorized bailout spending to $475 billion).
On Jan. 7, 2009 — two weeks before Obama took office — the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued its regular budget outlook, stating: "CBO projects that the deficit this year will total $1.2 trillion."
CBO attributed the rapid rise in spending to the bank bailout and the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – plus rising costs for unemployment insurance and other factors driven by the collapsing economy (which shed 818,000 jobs in January alone).
Another factor beyond Obama's control was an automatic 5.8 percent cost of living increase announced in October 2008 and given to Social Security beneficiaries in January 2009. It was the largest since 1982. Social Security spending alone rose $66 billion in fiscal 2009, and Medicare spending, driven by rising medical costs, rose $39 billion.
Do you get that? All of this spending was beyond Obama's control. All of it was set up by Bush. The spending increases in Bush's last budget (a 17% increase, the largest since 1970's). Bush's 2008 budget was $2.9T - his 2009 budget was $3.5T!!! The fact that he trashed the economy with his stupid mortgage initiatives and removing any regulation or control from mortgage lenders decreased revenue (less people working = less tax revenue) and increased costs (more people on unemployment = more unemployment payments) to current levels. And he left all of this for Obama to deal with. Bush and Cheney rode off into the sunset to collect massive thank you's from Halliburton!
If you want to blame anybody for our current spending being out of control, blame Bush! You can also blame the damned obstructionist Republicans that simply refuse to let any revenue increase happen to offset the effects of a trashed economy which was their fault in the first place. repetition of the truth is why the republican conservative tea party of the greedy are loosing everything !!!!!!!
Bush did not put us in 3 trillion more debt that was Obama and that is a fact!! And he's going to do it again let's just see in the next 4 years. No one will ever make me believe he is an american as it took him too long to show his birth certificate and it still had discrepencesies. And he just stood there the last time and not put his hand over his heart like all true americans do that stand up for there country. And it was not him that got Bin Laden it was our american military men!!!