Showing posts with label swing state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swing state. Show all posts

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Chuck Todd Jumps the Shark Over Voting Machine Link to Romney Family

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From TruthOut

Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 7. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.

In other words, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and his brother, wife and son, have a straight-line financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this fall's election. These machines cannot be monitored by the public. But they will help decide who "owns" the White House.

. . . As reported by Lee Fang of The Nation, Solamere was founded by Tagg Romney and Spencer Zwick, Papa Romney's campaign finance chair. Ann Romney and Mitt's brother G. Scott Romney are also invested. Mitt himself threw in $10 million "seed money" to get the fund going, and spoke personally to its first full investors conference. Solamere's public web presence has been reduced to a front page only, so a complete list of it's partners can not be found. But reportage by the New York Times, Boston Globe, Esquire and the Nation have slowly given us a partial picture of which funds are being funded by Solamere. Some $232 million has been raised so far, according to SEC filings and industry publications.


The Brad Blog
The Austin-based Hart company, according to VerifiedVoting.org's database, supplies electronic voting machines and paper ballot tabulators that will be used to tally votes in the Presidential Election this year in all or parts of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

I offered my point of view about those concerns earlier this month, explaining that it was not just the private ownership of Hart's machines by Romney backers which voters should be concerned about, but the private ownership of the similar systems in all fifty states that will once again be used to tabulate the results of this year's Presidential Election with little --- and very often zero --- possibility of oversight by the public or even by election officials.

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. . . I've heard a lot of false equivalencies from the Villagers, but this one might just take the cake. There are very real concerns about technology proven to be easily hacked without any trail, reports in every election about machines recording votes which are proportionately different from votes cast, and more. In 2008, Tennessee officials went to jail for jacking around with voting and election integrity.
. . . On the other hand, the birther conspiracy theories have been widely investigated, debunked over and over again, and now are the province of people living their lives in a constant state of denial in order to soothe their racist feathers over the fact that a black guy is in the White House.
Simply put, Chuck, there is NO equivalence. None. Zero. . . .
~ Karoli on Crooks and Liars

Heres a simple litmus test for knowing if the Romney's owning a voting machine company stinks like a 4 day old mackeral;
If the names were reversed and it was the Obamas with a straight line financial connection and conflict of interest to the 3rd largest voting machine comany, machines that will play a large role in the 2012 elections, would the Reich wingers be screaming to the heavens about conflict of interest and conspiracies? You damn well know they would be.
This nation has been subjected to 4 YEARS of these wingnuts and their birther nonsense, and the MSM in complicit in spreading the insanity. Funny how the MSM refuses to do any actual investigative journalism into real issues such as this one, and concentrating on birther nonsense.
~ comment by Cthulu on Bradblog
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Monday, October 8, 2012

Hope is Broken ~ Romney Speaks at VMI

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(My Tweet)


From NBC News First Read
Romney will deliver a 30-minute address, titled "The Mantle of Leadership," later Monday at the Virginia Military Institute, his 10th address on the topic of foreign policy since summer 2011.
. . . It will include new details on how Romney would address current global hotspots and repeat regular stump speech staples – such as the importance of averting planned defense cuts, expanding and reinvesting in the U.S. military and working closely with allies abroad, especially Israel.
. . . Romney’s remarks also attempt to stake out a more activist public position than President Obama on supporting the rebels in Syria's civil war. Romney plans to say that he believes in working with partner nations to arm rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad.
He would equip the rebels – “who share our values” -- with heavy weapons to take out "tanks, helicopters and fighter jets," according to the remarks. The Obama administration has refrained from doing so out of concern that the weapons would end up in terrorist hands, according to The New York Times.

Romney-VMI

via Twitter

Transcript of Prepared Speech
In Syria, I will work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them. We should be working no less vigorously with our international partners to support the many Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran—rather than sitting on the sidelines. It is essential that we develop influence with those forces in Syria that will one day lead a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East.



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We're not going to be lectured by someone who has been an unmitigated disaster on foreign policy every time he's dipped his toe in the foreign policy waters. The only person who has offended Europe more is probably Chevy Chase.
~ Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki aboard Air Force One, anticipating problems with a speech Romney will give tomorrow at Virginia Military Academy

In every region of the world — and particularly in the Middle East — American influence has been weakened by President Obama’s failed foreign policy. American security and the cause of freedom cannot afford four more years like the last four years, and Mitt Romney will restore the bipartisan tradition of American leadership abroad that President Obama has not lived up to.
~ Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg












I'm a professor. If one of my students turned it in, they'd get a C.
~ Sec. of State Madeleine Albright in conference call, via Politico

Of the various weird things Romney has said, his position on Russia is truly out of date. If you were living in the 20th century, his position might have made some sense. In the 21st century, terrorism/al Qaeda is our #1 geopolitical threat, not Russia.
I'm beginning to think that Gov. Romney simply doesn't have the facts, such all the things we've done vis-a-vis Russia. The Russians actually have been pretty helpful on Iran (although not so much on Syria). We can't look at Russia like we did in the Cold War. Romney has Cold War tone/nostalgia.
~ Sec. Madeleine Albright on Blue Virginia

There’s an awful lot of rhetoric and things, but when you get to the specifics you don’t get the sense that he knows exactly what tools to use and how to operate within an international setting. I know the people that are around Gov. Romney and a lot of them are kind of division of neocons and [some are] even more conservative and some realists. But the truth is, a lot of them are exactly the people that brought us the previous administration’s — Bush’s administration’s — eight years. And we’re still dealing with the consequences of that.
. . . [the speech was] “full of platitudes and free of substance. You know, ‘peace through strength, clarity, resolve.’ Those aren’t really foreign policies.”
. . . he doesn’t read his briefing papers.
I just find him very shallow in the ideas that he has.
~ Ex-Sec of State Madeleine Albright on Raw Story

Americans support increasing sanctions against Syria, but overwhelmingly oppose arming anti-government groups, much less actually sending troops. By the numbers: 60 percent support sanctions, 22 percent support arming rebels, and 13 percent support sending troops.
Americans also don’t seem to have much of an appetite for a more aggressive relationship with Iran. Only 12 percent said the U.S. should encourage Israel to attack, 53 percent want a neutral stance, and 29 percent want the U.S. to discourage Israel from attacking. A full 55 percent said the U.S.’s strategic position would be worse if Israel were to attack Iran.
~ New York Times Editor








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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Poli -Ticks ~ Romney vs. Lyme Disease

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picture via mother jones

More needs to be done. As president, I will work to ensure that more attention is focused on this important issue ... We need to ensure that all scientific viewpoints concerning this illness can be heard.
~ Mitt Romney in a campaign letter, quoted by Mother Jones

Romney reaches for moms, exurbs: Will tackle ticks, Lyme epidemic
In a bid for worried moms in the outer suburbs populated with whitetail deer and other wildlife carrying tick-borne Lyme disease, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is pledging to devote his administration to fighting for a cure.
~ Washington Examiner

VA is home to some Lyme disease, but I would never have guessed that it was a presidential level issue!
~ Larry Sabato, University of Virginia professor

The Anti-Bambi Vote
Maybe the Romney campaign believes there is an anti-Bambi vote to be harvested, in conjunction with its efforts to inflame southwest Virginia voters with anger towards environmentalists over coal policies. If I somehow get bored on Election Night, maybe I’ll pay some attention to voting patterns in Prince William, Fauquier and Stafford Counties. But it sure looks like the Romney campaign is taking small-ball tactics to an unusual extreme.
~ Ed Kilgore in Washington Monthly

How many times have you said, “if only we had a president who made Lyme Disease his number one priority?”
Yeah, me neither.
~ America Blog

If elected, I will declare a War on Ticks.
~ comment by Sabrae on Huff Post

What a joke! Why not focus on snake or spider bites? What about a campaign against rabies? Does he REALLY think this tactic will really put Virginia (or any state) in his win column?
~ comment by Taiyo on Huff Post

The campaign manager is smacking himself in the head and saying, "Crap, Mitt! The ticks were the only ones we had left who were voting for us!"
~ comment by shirleyoujest on Huff Post
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Republicans Hope to Unskew the Polls

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The Unskewed Electoral Map
Romney Wins
Via Examiner


The public polls are what the public polls are. I kind of hope the Obama campaign is basing their campaign on what the public polls say. We don’t. We have confidence in our data and our metrics.
. . . I will put our operation up against anybody’s. But at the end of the day, Ohio is going to come down to the wire and we’ll be in it down to the wire and I’m confident that we will win.
~ Romney Political Director Rick Beeson to reporters, via NBC News

Despite all the noise created by all those media-commissioned skewed polls that appear to have President Obama leading, Mitt Romney is actually winning the presidential race as of today.
~ Dean Chambers on Examiner.com

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From BuzzFeed
Dean Chambers, a blogger on Examiner.com who writes from his home in Duffield, Virginia, took that complaint a step further — producing wide Romney leads far beyond what the Republican's campaign or Republican pollsters have suggested is the case.
He created the site unskewedpolls.com, retooling national polling data this July after reading an ABC News/Washington Post poll that "just didn't look right." Looking at the internal data, Chambers saw that the polling unit had sampled more Democrats than Republicans.
"There's no way they can justify that sample," Chambers, 44, told BuzzFeed.
Since July, Chambers has re-weighted national polling data from organizations like Gallup, ARG, and the three networks, to fit the Rasmussen Reports partisan trends. Chambers has published 30 "unskewed" polls on his website and on examiner.com, a national network that pays independent bloggers on a wide range of subject by traffic. In the last month, Chambers's tooled polls have Romney up by seven or more points.


You can think of UnSkewed Polls as the web site equivalent of Advil. You take the site two times a day for relief from all the aches and pains caused by ingesting data from the usual polls, skewed by the oversampling of Democrats, resulting in depressing supporters of Team Romney.
Warning label: Taking UnSkewed Polls twice daily may cause delusions and euphoria.
~ Myra Adams on the Conservative website Red State

The only reason anyone thinks Obama is leading today are the polls. If this were 1920 and no polls existed I suspect the presumption would be that the race was close but the challenger has the upper hand. Instead we have a daily inundation of polls that tell us (in aggregate and on their face) that Barack Obama is ahead.
~ barleycorn on Red State

Trouble is, Mitt's data comes from brunches with millionaires, church surveys, and homeschoolers.
~ comment by Jake2247 on NBC's First Read

What is interesting is that no Republican has ever won the Presidency without Ohio.
Yet President Obama can lose Ohio and Florida and still win.
If Romney loses Florida he cannot win {period}
~ comment by Dennis,Columbus,Ohio on NBC's First Read

The polls are screwed. They're plucking out liberal [responders].
~ Kathilyn Bigler of Oakwood, Ohio, quoted by Huffington Post

It looks more like it's Mitt that's screwed.
~ comment by NorthernObservations on Huffington Post

Reminds me of lyrics in an old Paul Simon song. Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
~ comment by poobah on Huffington Post

Romney: We will not be dictated to by facts, reality, or decency, all of which are tools of the 47% entitled class.
~ comment by LTmemOree on Huffington Post

Romney internal poll: 80% of the people working on the Romney campaign are going to vote for Romney. 20% are undecided.
~ comment by PJWhite530 on Huffington Post

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Undecided Voters Who Decide Everything

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Previous Post:
Bill Maher's Snarky Rant about Undecided Voters

Undecideds have come in for a lot of guff in recent weeks, and perhaps understandably: this year’s presidential election might ultimately come down to the mercurial whims of a few thousand people who don’t really pay attention to or care all that much about this stuff.
~ G.D. on Postbourgie

. . . there are few undecided voters this year. On average among national polls, about 7 percent of voters either say they are undecided, or that they will vote for a third-party candidate — the same percentage as in 2004, when voters committed early to Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry. The figures are slightly lower than at a comparable point in 2008, and considerably lower than in 2000.
. . . Some voters who are not thrilled with the major-party choices may name a third-party candidate when a pollster gives them the option, but then grudgingly vote Democrat or Republican for fear of wasting their votes otherwise. For this reason, polls generally overstate the standing of third-party candidates, and for forecasting purposes it may be proper to treat ostensible third-party voters as de facto undecideds.
~ Nate Silver on 538 Blog via New York Times

Behold the Snookization of American politics.
The Middle East is in turmoil. The economy is struggling. Mitt Romney is on “Live! with Kelly and Michael,” talking Snooki and his bedtime wear (“as little as possible”).
The number of undecided voters is vanishingly small. The remaining ones tend to be the lowest of low-information voters, only intermittently tuned in to politics, if at all. These folks are not watching “Meet the Press” or calibrating candidates’ positions on optimal tax rates. They are, predominantly, women.
So both presidential campaigns find themselves trolling in unlikely and, to be blunt, demeaning places, answering demeaning questions.
~ Ruth Marcus on The Northwestern


From Saturday Night Live:
Undecided Voters Have Some Questions


This election will determine the future of our country. And this election will be determined by the Undecided Voter.

It seems that more than 96% of voters have all ready made up their minds about this election. Well, I guess some of us are just a little harder to please. We're not impressed by political spin or thirty-second sound bytes.

Before you get our vote, you're gonna have to answer some questions. Questions like:

When is the Election? How soon do you have to decide?

What are the names of the two people running? And be specific...

Who is the president right now? Is he or she running? Because if so, experience may be something we should consider.

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How long is a president's term of office? One year? Two years? Three years? Or life?
If it's for life, frankly, we're not comfortable with that. We don't need to be electing a dictator.

What happens if the president dies? Has anyone thought about who would replace him? What's your plan, gentlemen?

Can women vote? Because if not, as a woman, I've got a big problem with that. And by the way, if men can't vote, in my opinion, that's just as wrong.

We hear a lot about our dependence on foreign oil but just what is oil? What is it used for?

Can a woman have a baby just from French kissing?

If you burp, fart, and sneeze at the same time, will you die?

Where's my power cord?

We are America's Undecided Voters. There's still a lot we don't know. And . . . (in unison) We Want Answers.

Low information Voters of America is responsible for the content of this advertising.



They are negative on both candidates to an unusual degree. I mean, you go back to '04, people are undecided if the fall express positive favorable views of both John Kerry and George W. Bush, this year - excuse me -- it's the opposite. Obama's approval rating is miserable, Romney's favorable/unfavorable is miserable among these undecided voters.
So I mean, it is possible that a lot of these people we are calling undecided today we'll look at both of these and not vote.
~ Ron Brownstein, CNN Political Director on State of the Union

Probably half of the undecideds are not voters. We know that people say they're going to vote, and they aren't actually voters, and so some of them just truly -- they really are the most disengaged. So really maybe -- it may be two or three percentage really. So, it's that small.
You know, it's actually - while it seems hard for us to imagine not paying hard to the election. It's actually not all that hard. Media are diffuse. A lot of people are watching a lot of different things. They're taking care of their kids, their working. And so it really is for a lot of people just starting, and I think the conventions and the debates starts focusing the choice for some people.
~ Anna Greenberg, Democratic Pollster on CNN's State of the Union















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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Romney Memo About Poll Panic

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From Business Insider:
In a new campaign memo circulated this morning, Romney's pollster Neil Newhouse warns people not to get "too worked up about the latest polling."

"While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly," Newhouse writes. "The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race."

You can read the whole memo below, but the gist of Newhouse's argument is that, regardless of what the polls say right now, the President will never be able to escape the terrible economy.

. . . The bottom line is that people don't send "don't freak out" memos unless people are in fact freaking out.

Full Memo Here on Buzzfeed

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Blah blah blah blah blah. Bottom line? Winning candidates don't write memos like this one.
~ Kos on Daily Kos

I love the smell of desperation in the morning.
~ comment by christomento on Daily Kos

Cornered Rats can be dangerous. Overkill is necessary.
~ comment by polecat on Daily Kos

They are panicking. They're now realizing that picking lyin' Ryan was a bad choice with his plans to voucherize Medicare for people under 55, privatize SS, and his archaic ideas about SSM and abortion in the case of rape or incest. Voters are also seeing how the two would only lower taxes on the very wealthy, and how that doesn't create jobs, and now they're desperately implying about Obama wanting to take "God" off of our coins. I'm stocking up on popcorn, because the debates are going to be fun!
~ comment by Jim T. on BuzzFeed

There's nothing I love more than a slow-motion train wreck.
Who brought the popcorn?
~ comment by Dr. Zoidberg on Wonkette

Shorter version: "We've got Obama right where we want him: up by 5 in Ohio."
~ comment by Wadisay on Wonkette

At least Obamas voters have a high! Romney is a downer!
~ comment by t_player on Politico

Somehow, Romney supporters think he'll pull magic out of his butt during the debates.
Good Luck with that!
~ comment by V on Yahoo News

You seen the polls? Even the FOX poll has this "community organizer" up by 6 points.....NOV is a LOCK. Bi-a-tches!!
~ comment by Tea Bagger N Charge on Yahoo News

The five phases of mourning:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
The Romney campaign is going through the first phase. Hoping they would be able to get through phase 5 after November 6, 2012.
~ comment by lookolook on Politcal Wire

What do they call Romney's post-convention nothing, a plain rice cake low?
~ comment by HeraSentMe on Politcal Wire

Mitt, the President got a bounce from YOUR convention. That's not a sugar high. That's just people realizing they hate your guts.
~ comment by Pain on Political Wire

A sugar high - that's something that's full of empty calories without any substance behind it, right? Kind of an insult to say people persuaded by the DNC convention -- people you want to convince to change their minds -- are basing their votes on empty platitudes. You can see the contempt and arrogance in all the Republican leaders' statements. They think they can insult the voter and yet get the vote. Since we're so stupid and easily amused, of course.
~ comment by ccrrff on Political Wire


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Saturday, September 8, 2012

Romney Has Bounce Envy as Obama Numbers Surge

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Mitt Romney received no bounce from last week's Republican National Convention, as the 46% of registered voters who supported him in Aug. 31-Sept. 3 Daily tracking is essentially the same as the 47% who preferred him in Aug. 24-27 tracking, the four days preceding the convention.
~ Gallup.com

Click for www.electoral-vote.com


Mr. Obama has gained two or three points in polls conducted essentially halfway through his convention suggests that his gains could eventually be larger, perhaps on the order of five points, once the surveys fully reflect post-convention data. Typically, the bounce grows over the course of the convention, peaking in interviews conducted just a day or two after it.
. . . What’s a bit more worrisome for Mr. Romney is that Gallup’s reporting of the head-to-head results in its poll occurs over a lengthy seven-day window, meaning that only a minority of the interviews in the poll were conducted before the major speeches at the Democratic convention.
In fact, most of the interviews in the poll were conducted just after the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., a period in which Mr. Romney should have been enjoying a convention bounce of his own.
~ Nate Silver on 538 Blog, New York Times

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Friday, August 31, 2012

RNC Night Three: Mitt's Big Moment

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RNC Night Three: Introducing Mitt
Clint Eastwood Talks to Empty Chair in Tampa
RNC Night Two: Paul Ryan Center Stage
RNC Opening Night: One Hand Clapping for Lame Speeches

Full Text of Romney's Speech














































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RNC Night Three: Introducing Mitt

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Previous Posts
RNC Night Two: Paul Ryan Center Stage
RNC Opening Night: One Hand Clapping for Lame Speeches

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Congressman Connie Mack, R-Florida










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Reagan Legacy Video


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Callista and Newt Gingrich (ex-Republican Candidate)




















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Craig Romney
















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Jeb Bush, Ex-Governor of Florida




















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Bob White, Romney Campaign Chairman














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Grant Bennett












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Tom Sternberg













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Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, R-Massachusetts












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Jane Edmonds, former Massachusetts secretary of workforce








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Actor Clint Eastwood Has His Own Post
Clint Eastwood Talks to a Chair in Tampa

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida















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