Tag Archives: election

Did Obama Ever Run a Lemonade Stand?

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

This presidential election is going to be about 1 thing and one thing only: ‘Do you believe that America is built on the notion that free people engaging in free enterprise is the BEST thing we can do as a nation…or that everything flows from the federal government?’

That is pretty much it, ladies and gentlemen. We have always had the debate in our national elections over more or less ‘control’ from a centralized authority in Washington starting with the debates in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Continue reading →

Wisconsin Recall Vote Worth It?

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

The Wisconsin recall election last week made history. It was apparently the first time the recall of a sitting governor was unsuccessful.

It was a resounding victory for Governor Scott Walker, the Lieutenant Governor and the Wisconsin senators who were retained in office (one was not). And while it may not have been an affirmation of their governing style, it was a vote of confidence in what they were doing and why.

But the Wisconsin spectacle may ultimately be more notable for what it didn’t do.

It didn’t prejudge, predict or pre-determine the nation’s presidential election. The media would have liked us to think that as Wisconsin voted, so votes the nation, but the reality is the issues on which Wisconsin voters passed judgment, are not those that will determine the outcome of the national elections. Wisconsin is not the nation, Romney is not Walker, Obama is not Barrett, and June is not November. Continue reading →

It’s Not Just the Economy

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from The Hill

“It’s the economy, stupid.” That was the battle cry from Bill Clinton’s crack campaign team in the months leading up to the 1992 election.

And the conventional wisdom continues to be that Americans vote their pocketbooks when deciding whom to support in presidential elections. But it would be a mistake to conclude that only economic factors play in to how voters will decide this election.

The unemployment rate is at 8.3 percent, on the high end of the historical average, which should be bad for Barack Obama. But it is trending the right way, which is usually a good sign for the incumbent.

Mitt Romney, the likely Republican standard-bearer, has run his whole campaign on the argument that he can run the economy better than Obama because he has deep experience as a CEO. But CEOs are about as popular as the Congress, so that theory might be a bit flawed.

Here are some other factors that will play an outsized role in this campaign. Continue reading →

Judging Presidential Campaigns

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

No campaign for President is a straight line upward. Some campaigns are a flat line; some are a straight line down, but no Republican in a contested cycle has ever run the table.

Didn’t happen in 2012, either.

There is a theory in politics that the proper time to judge a campaign isn’t when everything is going well. The time to judge a campaign is how they recover from a stumble.

Ok. That’s not really a widely held theory, but I say it all the time and I think it’s true.

Last week Mitt Romney got skunked in South Carolina by Newt Gingrich. Over the course of five days and two debates Gingrich returned a punt, a fumble, and an interception, scored on a safety and pinned Obama deep in his own territory – everything an opposing candidate could have done within the football metaphors of Superbowl week. Continue reading →

Caucuses & Primaries: Let Them Begin!

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

We know the Iowa Caucuses will be held next Tuesday. A week after that, New Hampshire will hold its primary. What’s the difference?

One week. Very funny. Not counting that.

A caucus…

SIDEBAR
The plural of “Caucus” is not “Caucii,” as someone – probably someone who OD’d on cable news programs over the New Year weekend – will likely say at the Keurig machine with great authority on Tuesday.

Caucus is not a Latin word. According to the Merriam-Webster 3rd Unabridged, the etymology of “caucus” is: probably of Algonquian origin; akin to caucauasu elder, counselor; and was first used in 1760.

END SIDEBAR

… is a meeting of people from the same precinct held at a specific time in a specific place.

Under the GOP rules in Iowa people will go to a site representing one of 1,774 precincts; will check in to ensure they are really registered Republicans in that precinct and not members of the “Occupy the Caucuses” thugs, will listen to people speak on behalf of one candidate or another, and will write the name of the candidate they are supporting on a piece of paper which will be collected in some approved manner.  Continue reading →

Polls, Pundits, and Prognostications

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I understand that national polls traditionally haven’t meant much, because voters in California and Missouri are not going to their local fire stations and high school cafeterias two weeks from tomorrow to vote in the Iowa caucuses.

But, with the advent of social media and the enormous attention being paid to the debates, the ebb and flow of support for one or another of the GOP candidates in national polls can’t help but have an effect on voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and the other early states.

SIDEBAR

We’ve long since memorized the primaries that will be held in January. It’s time to begin committing to memory February’s contests:

Feb 4 Nevada (Caucus)
Feb 4-11 Maine (Caucus)
Feb 7 Colorado (Caucus)
Feb 7 Minnesota (Caucus)
Feb 28 Arizona (Primary)
Feb 28 Michigan (Primary)

END SIDEBAR

The biggest effect good national poll numbers is on fundraising. Donors in New York and California don’t typically decide on which campaign to support solely based on how they’re doing in Iowa or South Carolina, but in large part how they’re doing in polls reported by Gallup and the Associated Press. Continue reading →

Trouble Rhymes with Carville

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

One of the most enduring songs from the 1957 Broadway musical, “The Music Man” is named “Trouble.”
Trouble, oh we got trouble
Right here in River City!
With a capital “T”
That rhymes with “P”
And that stands for Pool.

Yesterday the Democrats had trouble with a capital “T” that rhymes with “C” and that stands for Carville. As in James. As in my former back-door neighbor. As in husband to Mullfave Mary Matalin.

The James wrote an essay for CNN in which he stated it was time for President Obama to panic. I am not paraphrasing. He wrote that after thinking about the drubbing Obama and his fellow Democrats got in two special Congressional elections – one in Nevada and one in New York City, he wrote: “What should the White House do now? One word came to mind: Panic.” Continue reading →

Is It Still Good to Be Boss?

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from The Washington Times

Since the end of World War II, in both the United States and Western Europe, the best way to win a national election has been to be the incumbent political party. But that 3-generation-old predisposition in Western democracies may be coming to an end.

We may well be entering a political epoch in which the best way to win a national election in the West is not to be the party in power.

For the past 65 years, the world economic order has been vastly favorable to the West’s middle-class citizens and voters with their incomes going up steadily or at least flattening at a predictable and comfortable material level. Moreover, the middle-class fears of economic hardship was virtually eliminated by the existence of the welfare safety net. Continue reading →

Perry Leads on All Fronts

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

National polls measuring support during the primary season are suspect because we don’t have national primaries. We have state-by-state primaries and caucuses. A national poll measuring support five months ahead of the first caucus is beyond suspect. It is meaningless.

Having started out with that warning let me make another assertion: No matter how suspect, meaningless, pointless, or futile a poll might be it is still better to be in first place than it is to be way back in the pack. Continue reading →