Presidential Election Of 2004

There He Goes Again: Mitt Romney Now Says He Would Keep Portions Of “ObamaCare”!

Ronald 1 Comment

Republican Presidential nominee was on Meet The Press this morning with David Gregory, and he ‘flip flopped” again for the umpteenth time!

A massive liar and deceiver, Romney spent the last year saying he would repeal “ObamaCare”, even though he had pushed through a plan strikingly similar in Massachusetts when he was Governor in 2006–what is known as “RomneyCare”! With that stand, he gained support of skeptical conservatives on his way to the Republican Presidential nomination.

But now he sees that millions of Americans actually like “ObamaCare”, particularly the coverage of young people on their parents’ plans until age 26; and the coverage of preexisting conditions for children and adults; and the closing of the “donut hole” for millions of senior citizens.

So suddenly, he says with a straight face that he would wish to keep those portions of the plan, but fails to acknowledge that if the plan is not kept in its entirety, then these provisions cannot be sustained financially for the long term.

He is, of course, probably going to alienate his conservative base by “flip flopping”, and it still is the case that how can anyone trust anything Romney says? Even Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, accused of “flip flopping”, which doomed his candidacy, joked about Romney being on all sides of every question, in his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week!

At the same time, Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential nominee, seemd uncomfortable and stuttered a lot on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, as he was challenged on his voting record and his own “flop flopping”. Ryan is competing with Romney for how much he can lie and deceive, and refuse to accept when he is called out for inaccuracies, insisting he is correct when he is not!

Romney and Ryan are competing with Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew for the most dishonest, deceptive Presidential-Vice Presidential team in modern American history!

Republicans Claim Obama-Biden Are More Nasty And Divisive Than In Any Presidential Campaign In History: Really?

Ronald 13 Comments

The Republican Party is complaining, from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on down, that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are more nasty and divisive than in any Presidential campaign in history! Really?

Obviously, the Republicans have no knowledge or sense of history!

The Election of 1800 was NOT nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1828 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1860 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1896 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1912 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1932 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1948 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1968 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1980 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 1992 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 2000 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 2004 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

The Election of 2008 was not nasty and divisive, heh?

In fact, beyond these MORE divisive elections, EVERY Presidential election is nasty and divisive!

What IS different is that this round, the Democrats are striking back aggressively, which often in the past did not happen, to the same level as the Republicans, who are always nasty and divisive, whether favored to win the election or not!

But both Barack Obama and Joe Biden have stuck to attacks on the issues, not personalities, as both have always said that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are good family men, decent people, but are wrong on the issues.

On the other hand, the Republicans have launched personal attacks on both Obama and Biden, making insulting comments about them, particularly Obama, questioning whether he is an American, wondering about his birthplace, playing the race card, and showing him disrespect. And now, Biden is being attacked that he may have “lost it”, ridiculing mistakes he makes, which are few and far between as compared to Mitt Romney throughout his Presidential campaign!

So what it comes down to is that GOP does not like an aggressive opposition on the issues and contradictions they have as their record. The answer is tough on them, as this is the “big time”, and no longer will the Democrats allow themselves to be disrespected and ridiculed without a strong, aggressive response!

Should Disgraced Politicians “Come Back”?The Cases Of Anthony Weiner And Eliot Spitzer And The New York Mayoralty In 2013

Ronald 3 Comments

The political world is abuzz with rumors that former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is thinking of running for Mayor of New York City in 2013, to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg!

There has also been discussion of the possibility of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer running for Mayor as well.

Both New York politicians resigned after sex scandals, which would ordinarily destroy their future careers, but at least Spitzer has been a host of news shows on CNN and now the CURRENT channel, and has come across very well as a political commentator.

One could argue that after such scandals and disgrace, that these and others, including former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, should just go into the woodwork and never re-emerge again!

And yet, Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter survived a sex scandal, never resigned, and was reelected to the Senate!

So the best answer is that anyone has a right to run for public office, and the scandals will reflect on their character, but ultimately, IF the American people want a former disgraced politician to run and win, that is their right, and none of us should condemn such action by the candidates, or by the people who choose to support them!

The Misleading Public Opinion Polls: The Electoral College Will Decide The Election, Not A Public Opinion Poll!

Ronald 5 Comments

The public opinion poll industry is, sadly, misinforming the American people, when they try to tell us that the Presidential Election of 2012 is going to be a tight race, some even say, similar to 2000!

The facts are that Barack Obama has to deal with certain factors, including:

Massive HATRED by many people who simply will not accept that we have an African American President and will do whatever is required to defeat him.

The fact that the Citizens United case allows corporations SuperPACS, and billionaires to spend inordinate amounts of money to attempt to poison the atmosphere, and defeat Obama simply by the power of money.

The fact that the Republican Party is trying to disenfranchise millions in 24 states, by refusing to accept alternative forms of identification, such as college student IDs, but, as in Texas, for example, accepting gun permits as an acceptable ID. So we are having poor people, college students, the elderly, and minorities being told they cannot vote, unless they spend large amounts of money, time and travel to acquire what is required under various discriminatory state laws, that violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and are veiled poll taxes, outlawed under the 24th Amendment to the Constitution in 1964!

But Attorney General Eric Holder, despite being cited for contempt of Congress for flimsy reasons, is determined to do what is necessary to stop these violations of the right to vote!

In any case, only by race hatred, corrupt fund raising, and violations of the Constitution, amendments and civil rights laws, can the Republicans win, and that is NOT going to happen!

Remember the following, which this author has emphasized again and again!

The election will be won in the “swing states”, the “battleground states”, but there are enough BLUE states already to give Barack Obama a total of 242 electoral votes, 28 short of what is needed, a total of 270 electoral votes, to win the Presidency on November 6!

As stated many times before, these states are: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington State, Oregon, California, and Hawaii–18 states and Washington, DC.

The “Swing States” or “Battleground States” are as follows: New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada–eleven states with a total of 129 electoral votes, and all of these states, except Missouri won by Barack Obama in 2008, with Missouri lost by just a few thousand votes to John McCain.

So IF Barack Obama wins Florida, he wins the Presidency!

If he wins Ohio and Virginia, he wins the Presidency!

If he wins Virginia and North Carolina, he wins the Presidency!

If he wins North Carolina and Ohio, he wins the Presidency!

If he wins Ohio and Missouri, he wins the Presidency!

If he wins Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Virginia, he wins the Presidency!

Obama is likely to win Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada right now, while having more trouble in North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and New Hampshire.

But he COULD win them all, adding Missouri to the other states he won last time! And he has a shot at winning Arizona, Montana and Georgia, as well, with the growing Hispanic and Latino vote in those states! So he COULD win a total of 32 states and Washington DC in this upcoming election!

So Obama COULD win MORE electoral votes than last time, which has been the case for EVERY two term President since Woodrow Wilson failed to do that in 1916, after winning his first term a century ago in 1912.!

Just for the record, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush are the Presidents who won a bigger second term electoral vote than their first term!

So, readers, stop obsessing and worrying, if you are a supporter of Barack Obama, and to those who are Mitt Romney supporters, stop being delusional and believing that your candidate will be the 45th President, because the 44th President of the United States is coming back: FOUR MORE YEARS FOR 44!

Ironic That Senator John Kerry Will Act As Mitt Romney In Preparation Of Barack Obama For Presidential Debates This Fall!

Ronald 1 Comment

It is extremely ironic that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, will be the “stand in” for Mitt Romney in Barack Obama’s preparations for the three Presidential debates which will take place this fall.

Kerry must be thinking he is reliving the Presidential battles of 2004, when he was called an elitist because of his own and his wife’s great fortune, his awkwardness and stiffness, coming from the same state as Romney, and the charges of being a “flip flopper” on many issues, just like Romney.

Kerry knows Romney better than many, being that they both represented the same state, and it is rumored that Kerry can help Obama a great deal on the debate tactics, and that the reward might be the offer of becoming Secretary of State in a second Obama Administration, since Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she wishes to retire from the State Department next year, and a Kerry appointment should make it through without much trouble due to Senatorial courtesy.

Kerry has been the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is superbly qualified to become the next Secretary of State, without any doubts.

Of course, comparing Kerry’s record in politics up to 2004, and since, there is no comparison that can be made between him and the comparatively thin record of Mitt Romney, but Kerry understands Romney probably better than any Democrat, so will be a great help to Barack Obama in scoring wins over Romney in the Presidential debates!

The Democratic Party Edge In The Electoral College Is Reality!

Ronald Leave a comment

In the midst of all of the public opinion polls about popularity of the Presidential candidates, one is tempted to forget that the Electoral College will decide who the next President will be, and the Democrats have a vast advantage since they have a clear edge in most of the larger states with many more electoral votes.

If one candidate wins the top ELEVEN electoral vote states, he wins the election, even if he were to face a massive defeat in popular votes in the other 39 states!

Of course, no one is likely to win all of the top eleven states, but the point is that the Electoral College gives great power to the larger populated states, and all that is required is to win one more popular vote in a state than your opponent to win all of the electoral votes of that state.

So if one looks at the top eleven states, we discover that the Democrats and President Barack Obama have a guaranteed win in California (55), New York (29), Illinois (20), and New Jersey (14) for a total of 118 electoral votes.

Obama also has an edge to win in Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), and North Carolina (15) for a total of 69 electoral votes.

If Obama wins these eight states, he has 187 electoral votes already, not counting other Northeastern, New England, and Pacific Coast states that he is widely expected to win.

The three states that might go Republican are Texas (38), Florida (29), and Georgia (16), but Florida could go Democratic, and even Georgia is considered a long shot for the Democrats.. These three states together have 83 electoral votes. If Obama won Florida, as he did in 2008, and the eight states he is expected to win, which he also won in 2008, he would have 216 electoral votes from just those nine states!

So together, the top eleven states have 270 electoral votes, EXACTLY what is needed to win the White House!

So forget popular vote public opinion polls, as the odds of Mitt Romney winning the election in the Electoral College, let alone the popular vote totals, is not worth betting on, once one realizes the reality of the Electoral College.

Further proof of the difficulty for Republicans to win a vast majority of the Electoral College is the fact of the massive Electoral College wins by Bill Clinton twice (370 and 379) and Barack Obama once (365), while George W. Bush could not hit over 271 and 286 in electoral votes in 2000 and 2004!

The odds are much greater that Barack Obama will surpass his 365 electoral votes of 2008 in 2012, just as Bill Clinton improved his second time around!

2012 Presidential Election: Possibly Another Bush, And Even A Clinton?

Ronald 3 Comments

Speculation is rampant that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush might indeed agree to run for Vice President with Mitt Romney.

After denying it for so long, Jeb now has left the door open, but makes clear he would rather not be on the ticket.

It is interesting how Florida Senator Marco Rubio promotes Jeb, and Jeb keeps on promoting Rubio for Vice President.

Would Jeb Bush help Romney in the Fall campaign? Both yes and no!

Obviously, Jeb is very intelligent, a good speaker, and a mainline conservative, who is not reckless, and does not make loony statements about issues. He is married to an Hispanic (Mexican) woman, is seen by many as a successful Governor of Florida, and in theory, could help to deliver that state to Romney in the fall. He is seen as a potential candidate for President in 2016, and even being on a losing ticket, he probably would gain stature for such a race by coming to the aid of Romney and the party now.

On the other hand, the question is whether there is a desire for a third Bush on a national ticket, particularly with the controversies over his brother, George W. Bush, and his eight years in office. There is believed to be an exhaustion with things Bush at this point of time. And imagine the idea of having a Bush on the national ticket every election since 1980 except 1996 and 2008, six of the last eight Presidential elections! Those who dislike the Bushes, particularly, George W. Bush, might not be willing to vote for Mitt Romney with Jeb Bush on the ticket.

And then, there are still the rumors flying that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might agree to run for Vice President, in place of Joe Biden, in order to add strength to Barack Obama’s campaign. She laughs it off, and says it will not happen, but if Obama were to ask her, could she really say no?

So imagine an election with a Bush AND a Clinton on the national tickets, which would mark one or both names on the national scene every election since 1980, except 2008, and only not in 2008 because Hillary Clinton lost the nomination to Barack Obama.

There could very well be exhaustion and disgust at the thought of what might be seen as two “royal” dynasties in America, the Bushes and the Clintons!

Does Marco Rubio Represent The Hispanic-Latino Community, One Of Six Americans? NO!

Ronald Leave a comment

A lot of attention has been paid to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida in the past 18 months since he was elected to the US Senate by the Sunshine State’s voters.

Rubio, just about to become 41 next month, is seen as the “shining star” of the Republican Party’s future, often called the “Cuban” Barack Obama!

Rubio is handsome, charismatic, dynamic, and has an attractive family, and he is loved by the right wing conservatives in the Republican Party. He promoteds the conservative cause in an effective fashion, and is remembered for his Florida state legislative career, including a stint as the House Speaker. He is someone who is likely to be a star figure in the party for decades to come, and he is seen as extremely ambitious, sometimes imagined as the first Hispanic President of the United States.

Rubio has been the center of attention for many months, as a front runner for the Vice Presidency, and many think Mitt Romney will select him. But before any such event happens, which is certainly possible, let us look at the unvarnished facts about Marco Rubio.

The idea that Hispanics and Latinos will rush to support Mitt Romney, if he selects Rubio for Vice President, is laughable!

Polls show that Barack Obama is favored in Florida, and that if Rubio is added to the Romney ticket, the lead for Obama grows wider!

Just because in a Senate race Rubio is able to win, does not mean he would help the Romney candidacy.

Rubio would outshine Romney on the campaign trail, and the question is does Romney really want that?

Also, Rubio would not be a good Number Two, as his ego and personality would make him a bad supporting team member.

The questions surrounding his ethics would get in the way, including expenditures while House Speaker in Florida, and the misleading campaign story that his parents escaped Fidel Castro, when they actually migrated from Cuba two years before Castro came to power.

Rubio’s hypocrisy regarding the DREAM Act stands out too, as he has always been opposed to the allowing of children of illegal immigrants to become citizens by military service or graduating college, but now wants a substitute DREAM Act, which allows those activities, but does not give citizenship automatically, an obvious campaign ploy!

Above all, though, is the issue whether Marco Rubio can represent the Hispanic-Latino community as a son of Cuban immigrants who came legally in the mid 1950s.

One needs to realize that only 14 percent of Hispanics and Latinos, in a recent poll, support Mitt Romney, and no matter what he does, that number will not probably rise even to John McCain’s 31 percent in 2008, and certainly not George W. Bush’s 44 percent in 2004. With the hard line on immigration reform supported by Romney and Rubio, why would any larger number support Romney because of Rubio?

And also the fact emerges that Cuban Americans number only about 1.8 million out of a Census figure of 50.5 million for Hispanics and Latinos, meaning only about 3.5 percent of this group are Cuban. What makes anyone think that Mexican-Americans, about 64 percent of this total, and Puerto Ricans, about 10 percent, and all of the other myriad groups of Hispanics and Latinos, are going to relate to someone who is only one out of about 30 members of the broad based group in this nation?

Romney would gain little from selecting Rubio, but Rubio would become the automatic front runner for 2016 if he ran with Romney, even on a losing ticket. Keep this in mind as Rubio acts as if he does not want the Vice Presidential nomination, but at the same time, is acting as if he does!

The All Crucial Hispanic-Latino Vote And The Presidential Election Of 2012: The Doom Of Mitt Romney

Ronald Leave a comment

There are many Anglo Americans (non Hispanic and Latino) who wish to imagine that their population will continue to control voting power and election results into the long term future.

That is an illusion, a fantasy, out of touch with reality!

The facts are that Hispanics and Latinos are the largest minority group in America, and combined with Asian Americans and African Americans, will tip to the majority of population, by estimate of the US Census Bureau, in about 30-35 years, by the mid 2040s.

Nothing is going to stop this, and it will influence all Presidential elections and Congressional elections more and more as the years go by.

So the facts about the Hispanic-Latino vote are worth noticing.

We have 50.5 million people of Spanish ancestry, one of every six Americans in 2010, a 13 percent increase since 2000. By 2030, it is expected that there will be a 21.8 percent increase to 78 million Hispanics-Latinos. By 2050 projections, there will be 27.8 percent of the population of this ancestry, about 111 million Americans.

More than six of every ten Hispanics-Latinos were born in America, with Mexicans being nearly two thirds of all people of this heritage, almost 32 million out of 50.5 million, and with Puerto Ricans, (who are automatically citizens), being the second largest group with 4.6 million, over 9 percent of the population of Hispanics-Latinos.

Cubans are third with 1.8 million; Salvadorans a surprising fourth with 1.6 million; Dominicans fifth with 1.4 million, Guatemalans sixth with about one million; Colombians seventh with about 900,000; Hondurans eighth with 600,000; Ecuadorans ninth with about 550,000; and Peruvians tenth with about 525,000.

In order, there are smaller numbers of Nicaraguans, Argentinians, Venezuelans, Panamanians, Chileans, Costa Ricans, Bolivians, Uruguayans, Other Central Americans, and Paraguayans.

51 percent of Hispanic-Latino registered voters are Democrats, with 31 percent Independents, and 18 percent Republican. But only 11 million are registered, and the push is on to register more Hispanic-Latino voters, particularly by the Democrats.

About two thirds of Hispanic-Latino voters have gone for the Democrats in their voting behavior in the past ten years, with the high point for Republicans being George W. Bush in 2004 with 44 percent, dropping to 31 percent for John McCain, and at the moment, 14 percent for Mitt Romney, who has taken a very hard line backing Arizona and other states which have passed discriminatory profiling laws.

If that 14 percent vote holds, or only goes up a bit, then the projection is that Barack Obama will win about 55 percent of the popular vote against Mitt Romney, what could be termed a landslide, since it insures that Obama would win all Hispanic growth states, including Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, and get a larger percentage of the vote in Texas, Arizona and Georgia, all states that over time would trend Democratic in future elections. This does not include other states that are certain to go Democratic in 2012, including California, New York and Illinois.

If Mitt Romney won John McCain’s percentage of Hispanic-Latino votes, he would still lose the popular vote by 54-46, and if he won the 44 percent that George W. Bush won in 2004, he would still lose by 53-47 under typical simulations.

When Mitt Romney said last weekend that if he does not improve his percentage of Hispanic-Latino support, he is finished, he was absolutely correct!

But it is also the Independent and women’s vote that is crucial, plus the issue whether Evangelical Christians, who think of the Mormon Church as a cult, will be willing to come out and vote for Romney, when he is so much a chameleon, hard to believe what he says, whether he has any principles , and whether he can be trusted to keep his present right wing views.

If Romney attempts to modify his right wing views on immigration, he would be likely to lose those conservatives who are unhappy with him, while not winning anywhere near the percentage of votes of John McCain or George W. Bush!

So Mitt Romney is in an impossible position electorally in 2012!

A Comparison Of The Presidential Elections Of 2004 And 2012 And A Contrast At The Same Time!

Ronald Leave a comment

When one thinks about it, there are comparisons that can be made between the Presidential Elections of 2004 and 2012. But there are also dramatic differences!

In both elections, there is an incumbent President, highly unpopular among members of the opposition party in Congress, as well as voters of that opposition party.

In both elections, the opponent comes from the state of Massachusetts!

In both elections, the opponent is far wealthier than the President in office.

In both elections, the opponent is a stiff person in public, not good at relating to ordinary people.

In both elections, the opponent proved to be a “flip flopper”, a person who was constantly changing views on many issues, and seemed uncomfortable in his beliefs and in his own “skin”!

Of course, there is a world of differences between Senator John Kerry and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and this post is not meant to denigrate Senator Kerry.

Senator Kerry has had more than 30 years of service in Congress, including 28 in the US Senate, and is presently Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has dedicated his life to public service, and could very well be Barack Obama’s next Secretary of State when Hillary Clinton leaves the State Department in 2013. He had an issue of being a “flip flopper” on some issues, but was never as much a master of changing his mind as Mitt Romney. Kerry also served his country in VIetnam, while Romney did not serve, and spent his life making money, except for a brief stint as a one term Governor.

So to compare Kerry to Romney is interesting, but Kerry comes out looking a lot better than the Republican nominee for President in 2012!