Is Mitt Dumb too?

I mean, he can't be serious in the following quote, right? Because if he is, then ... whoa. As you may have heard, on Friday, Ann Romney's airplane had to make an emergency landing on Friday in Colorado due to an electrical fire in the plane that did send smoke into the cabin. Gratefully, nobody was hurt. Mitt Romney then decided to comment on it.

Monday Open Thread [9.24.12]

"Well, it doesn't need a turnaround. I've got a very effective campaign. It's doing a very good job." -- Mitt Romney, in an interview on 60 Minutes. Anymore, Mitt Romney seems to be the very type of arrogant, entitled, delusional Wall Street monster who destroyed our economy in the first place. And to prove that, Mr. Romney awarded his senior campaign staff $200,000 in bonuses after the GOP Convention, according to Politico. Mind you, the Convention is widely viewed as an epic disaster that gave Romney a negative bounce. Sounds just like Wall Street.

The Polling Report [9.24.12]

We have a more truncated report this morning, which is good because the last few days have been full of polling goodness, but still, pollsters, and those polled, need a break. We have three new state polls out today, all good news for the President.

Obama’s 47% Ad

This ad hits every note by linking Romney's 47% statement on taxes to his own, not yet released, taxes. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojpl-JzPDkg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Behind the Numbers in Local Races: Updated

This week I was granted access to some of the polling data gathered by a new local communications firm, Out of the Box. One of the men behind the curtain is Richard Korn, former Democratic candidate for Auditor. Richard sat down with me to answer questions about the polling that Out of the Box did for local races, including Insurance Commissioner, SD11 (Deluca v. Townsend), Mayor of Wilmington and County Executive. Deluca v. Townsend and Wilmington Mayor are first up...

Good News/Bad News Monday

The good news: Obama continues to kick ass. "Obama to win" positions hit new highs in both major trading markets over the weekend. (71% Intrade & 70 IEM). The bad news: Republican billionaires are committed to a strategy of harassment and intimidation of Democratic voters while bankrolling huge GOTV efforts among conservatives. ...

Romney: Rules Are For The Help

Via BuzzFeed:
Mitt Romney's campaign took a hard line with the Spanish-language network Univision, making last-minute demands in the run-up to last week's town hall that helped insure his success in the forum, sources familiar with the broadcast told BuzzFeed. When the Republican took his place Wednesday night in the first of two back-to-back candidate forums televised on the mega-network, he was greeted by an adoring, raucous crowd that cheered his every word, and booed many of the moderators' questions. The next night, President Obama was treated to stone cold silence from the audience as he was aggressively grilled on his lackluster immigration record.
That's quite a different audience response.  Wonder why?  Perhaps it had to do with this:  "they (the Romney Campaign) told the network and university that if they weren't given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to "reschedule." Or... Nice show you have scheduled.  It would be shame if something happened to it. 

The YouGuv Polling Report, plus a Senate Forecast [9.22.12]

We have a TON of polls today, like yesterday, because of a polling outfit called YouGuv. Who are they? Here is Daily Kos Election's description:
The firm is a British firm, that moved into the American market in 2007 when they bought out Polimetrix, a California-based firm that had done a lot of internet-based polling in 2006 in an arrangement with Stanford University. Their polling is based on internet samples, a method which some find problematic (some aggregators of polling, indeed, refuse to utilize their data). It is a methodology that I also confess to qualms about, because when you have a sample that is essentially volunteering to participate, and a smaller universe from which to draw from, the potential pitfalls are pretty self-evident. However, the true measure is performance. [...] YouGov ... has earned at least a cycle's worth of benefit of the doubt. Their 2010 track record was more than reasonable. Indeed, of the 18 pollsters that offered up a substantive number of polls, YouGov came in fourth place in terms of their accuracy (defined as the percentage of races where they came within three percent of the final margin).
Another new polling outfit that has performed a polling dump today is Purple Strategies. Some of their results are eye raising. They have Obama winning North Carolina but losing Florida, and yet within three of Romney in Arizona. I will bet you everything I own that there is no way that is possible. If Obama wins North Carolina, he is winning Florida too. And if he is making Arizona a swing state, then he is up ten in Florida and 5 in North Carolina. Then again, Purple Strategies has been more pro-Romney this cycle, and if Obama is making Arizona competitive, then maybe this race has just broken wide open...