Tag: 2012 Election

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Top newspaper in Israel endorses President Obama

Israel’s most influential daily newspaper, Haaretz, has endorsed President Obama.

Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, assisted Israel’s defense by toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and deterring, albeit for a limited period, Iran’s accelerated progress toward attaining nuclear weapons. Bush contributed to Israel’s peace, even if partially, by being the first president to adopt the two-state solution. His support even enabled the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

Obama continued this two-way track vis-a-vis Iran and the issue of Palestinian statehood. Under his pressure, Israel suspended for the first time – for a while – construction in the settlements. Relations between the two countries’ armed forces have never been so close. Obama’s challenge in his second term, if he wins the elections, is to lead the region to a stable arrangement of peace and security. The outcome of the elections will be determined by the voters’ decision as to which of the two candidates is good for America. But if any of them are vacillating in their vote over whether Obama has been a good president for Israel, the answer is yes.

Well, there goes Mitt Romney’s argument that President Obama isn’t a friend to Israel…

(source)

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Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, bets $1,000 President Obama will be re-elected

New York Times statistician Nate Silver is so confident in President Obama’s electoral victory that he’s betting former GOP Congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough $1,000 that the commander-in-chief will have a second term.

The above tweet comes after Silver found press and pundits wondering whether he would be a “one-term celebrity” if Obama loses. Silver’s career took off dramatically after he used his skills, once reserved for sports games to correctly call the 2008 election, save for one state.

Here’s the stats from Nate Silver’s New York Times blog – FiveThirtyEight – for today, showing President Obama surging in polls released yesterday.

Nate Silver FiveThirtyEight Forecast for November 1, 2012

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Obama campaign releases video measuring confidence a week before election

Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina breaks down how the President is doing in this election with less than a week to go.

In the key battleground of Ohio, Messina says in the video that early vote turnout in precincts that went for Obama in 2008 is higher than in precincts that went for Sen. John McCain. Republicans, however, say they’re outpacing their 2008 early vote effort in Ohio, and predict their performance on Election Day itself will outweigh any Democratic lead in early ballots.

Messina goes through a list of the other key battlegrounds, citing similar early voting and ground game advantages in Iowa, Nevada, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

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Ohio: President Obama leads by 5 in new poll

President Obama remains on in the lead in the all-important bellwether of Ohio, according to the latest round of polls from Quinnipiac University, CBS News and the New York Times released early today.

The polls reflect a late theme in this year’s campaign: even as the race tightens or tilts in Mitt Romney’s favor elsewhere, Ohio remains stubbornly in the president’s column. Wednesday’s poll of the Buckeye State shows Obama earning 50 percent support among likely voters there, while Romney trails with 45 percent — identical to the previous Quinnipiac/CBS/NYT poll of Ohio a little more than a week ago.

As in earlier polls, Obama draws an enormous advantage among women and early voters in Ohio. Women in the state prefer Obama over Romney 56 percent to 39 percent. The president’s lead among Ohio voters who have already cast a ballot is comparably large: 60 percent to 34 percent.

Additionally important for the Obama campaign, Romney’s edge with white voters and independents is markedly smaller in Ohio than in other battlegrounds.

(source)

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Gen. Colin Powell endorses President Obama

“When he took over, the country was in very very difficult straits. We were in the one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression. The fiscal system was collapsing. Wall Street was in chaos, we had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama administration and unemployment peaked a few months later at 10 percent. So we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing, the housing was starting to collapse and we were in very difficult straits. And I saw over the next several years, stabilization come back in the financial community, housing is now starting to pick up after four years, it’s starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising.” – Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, announcing his endorsement of President Obama.

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The world widely favors President Obama administration over Mitt Romney

In a show of how much the world – and US allies respect President Obama –  BBC World Service poll surveying 22,000 people in 21 countries found a wide preference for President Obama in the presidential race, who scored 50 percent favorable among all respondents to Mitt Romney’s 9 percent.

Almost a quarter, 24 percent, gave some variation of an answer that it made no difference. Only 16 percent said they didn’t know, a reminder of how closely the world follows American politics.
 
The poll surveyed many of the world’s most populous countries. It emphasized famously Obama-friendly Western Europe but skipped Russia and the Arab Middle East.

Here are the results from Globescan’s report:

(via JoeMyGod)

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Best moment from 3rd Presidential Debate: “Fewer horses and bayonets”

Best moment from the third Presidential debate – Mitt Romney has been using the same Navy line throughout the campaign, and Obama was prepared to answer it.

OBAMA:

“I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You — you mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets — (laughter) — because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.

“And so the question is not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ships. It’s — it’s what are our capabilities.

“And so when I sit down with the secretary of the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we determine how are we going to be best able to meet all of our defense needs in a way that also keeps faith with our troops, that also makes sure that our veterans have the kind of support that they need when they come home. And that is not reflected in the kind of budget that you’re putting forward, because it just don’t work.”

(via Towleroad)

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Campaign ad: President Obama’s plan for next 4 years

President Obama released a new ad shortly after last night’s debate appealing directly to voters and asking them to compare his plan for America to that of Mitt Romney’s.

The ad will run in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Colorado.

Here’s the text of the ad:

“There’s just no quit in America and you’re seeing that right now. Over five million new jobs, exports up forty one percent, home values rising, our auto industry back and our heroes are coming home.

We’re not there yet. But we’ve made real progress and the last thing we should do is turn back now.

Here’s my plan for the next four years: Making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting American-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. And ending the war in Afghanistan, so we can do some nation-building here at home. That’s the right path.

So read my plan, compare it to Governor Romney’s and decide which is better for you. It’s an honor to be your President and I’m asking for your vote. So together we can keep moving America forward.”