Saturday Open Thread [9.29.12]

"Many of the well-known Ohio Republicans I interviewed offered their blunt assessments only after they were guaranteed complete anonymity. That is often the Faustian bargain of political journalism in 2012: robotic talking points on the record or something resembling honesty with no names attached. The reason, though, that I am emphasizing the don't-quote-me part of the equation is that I was stunned by the vehemence of the thumbs-down-on-Mitt verdict. All but conceding the state to Obama, these Republicans were offering what may be the biggest rejection of Ohio since Philip Roth wrote Goodbye Columbus."

A Couple of Cell Phone Pics from Last Night’s Gilligan Gala

... and some tibits from last night's honoring of the retiring Speaker of the House, Bob Gilligan: Congressman Carney gave the Speaker a Congressional Recognition, and remarked about how Gilligan gave him his first job as a Legislative Fellow. Senator Coons remarked that Gilligan was a friend, a role model and a mentor. Vice President Biden said that Gilligan was his county councilman back in the day, that he has been a state leader, and that Gilligan proved that in Delaware you're never out of reach. Vice President Biden concluded, "I'll see you at the beach." Mike Castle said that Gilligan would always beat the best people Castle could find to run against him, so Castle finally gave up.

Romney: The Master Debater?

For years the Republicans have told all that will listen (Fox News and MSM) that Obama's addiction to the teleprompter shows that he can't think on his feet. But now the debates are upon us and the Republicans are changing their story,

The Polling Report [9.29.12]

Hey, Republicans. We have been where you are now. The year was 2004, and we liberals could not believe that President Bush was leading John Kerry, a candidate that most of us liberals did not like but had embraced in what turned out to be a vain effort to defeat President Bush. We sought out any argument that proved that the polls were false. Those arguments were that the pollsters were sampling too many Republicans. Sound familiar? And how did that election turn out? The polls were right, much to our chagrin. The polls are right now. President Obama is winning and winning convincingly. Indeed, according to Nate Silver, there is now more of a chance that Barack Obama will win by a landslide than Mitt Romney will win at all. There is one basic fact that Republicans now and we liberals in 2004 ignore when we discounted polls: polling companies want to be right because that's their business model. If they are accurate, they get more business from media organizations and candidates. Remember, media organizations and candidates and party organizations and other organizations hire and pay polling companies and institutes to perform the polls and get accurate results. If they are skewing polls for reasons other than being accurate, then they would lose money. You should understand this Republicans. It's free market capitalism. Now, there are some polling organizations whose business model is not to be accurate but to drive narratives in the media. Rasmussen is one such example. They get paid not to be right, but to be favorable to one side. So Republicans, as always, you are so very good at projection. The thing you decry is the thing you rely on.

Friday Polling Report [9.28.12]

Now this ironic, from the Dallas Morning News:
"For all the talk about whether Mitt Romney should distance himself from George W. Bush -- and the policies of the last GOP White House -- a new survey shows that the former president actually has better favorability ratings than the Republican nominee."
Well, we know Bush's policies are still vastly unpopular, but Bush himself, by staying out of sight, as grown less hated. Even I don't hate the man anymore. He's a bubbling idiot and I enjoy laughing at him now. Indeed, Mr. Bush's latest venture into public speaking will be right before the election in the Cayman Islands, and he will be speaking about investing your money wisely. I kid you not. No, this is not a headline from the Onion. Anyway, the most recent Bloomberg poll shows Bush with a 46% to 49% favorable rating as compared to Romney's 43% to 50%. No major changes in our map today. Indiana moved to Strong Romney, but that's it. The rest of the polling confirmed prior results.

Romney Feeds His Own Negative Narrative On A Daily Basis

I really have never seen anything like the Romney campaign.  Disaster is too mild a word.  If there's a misstep to be made, Romney makes it. And every single error, misstep, gaffe Romney makes confirms what the Obama Campaign has been saying all along. That's why the attacks/criticisms against Romney are resonating. Romney's hopelessly out of touch with average people - his social awkwardness (if you haven't seen Romney trying to get the crowd to chant his name here it is) isn't the least bit endearing; it's jaw-droppingly shocking.  Romney's compassion for people resembles a profit/loss analysis - there are simply groups (a whopping 47%) of people he's willing to write off.  And it's funny that a man who lacks compassion for the poor is resolute about humanizing corporations.

Abortion bans, Bibles in School, Hetero Marrige are the keys to America’s greatness.. or something

In his remarks, Bodenweiser called O’Donnell a “heavy hitter” and delivered a strongly conservative message. “In order to turn this nation around, we’re going to have to get that Bible back in our schools” he said. “And we’re going to have to start honoring marriage and families. The other thing we’ve got to do, we’ve got to stop abortion.”