Open thread for the homestretch, 2012
Former President Bill Clinton poses for photographs after speaking at Patrick Henry High School. Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks to an audience of more than 300 people in front of the Roanoke region Republican headquarters. Photo by Daniel Lin | The Roanoke Times
We’ve got a full slate of political stories on roanoke.com and in the Roanoke Times for today, the final Sunday before the fall elections:
– A look at Virginia’s status as a battleground state this year.
– A story about eminent domain on the ballot.
– Analysis by Dwayne Yancey of what we’ll likely see in early returns.
Take a look and then post your thoughts about this election in the comments.
– Mason Adams
November 4, 2012 - 8:39 AM
Just a reminder: Please abide by our terms and conditions and avoid profanity.
– Mason Adams
I wish it felt more like the home stretch. It feels like 2 of the longest days every coming up.
The voter suppression machine in Florida is in full swing. The Rwepublicans cut way back on the hours, days and sites for early voting. The result is people are standing in line from 3 to 8 hours to cast their votewe. This has been a delibreraste action to try to discourage people in heavily democratic south florida from voting.
Early voting in Florida was for 10 days at least 6 hours a day so how is this voter suppression? There were not lines everyday for the 10 days. What a bunch of BS. Oh and election day is Tuesday. They still have all day Tuesday to vote .
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/voting/early.shtml
This is a great video! Obama’s former supporters protesting against him. This is certainly news worthy I wonder why it wasn’t on the news?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/02/Black-Grassroots-Activists-Protest-Obama-Fundraiser-City-Hall-and-ABC-News-in-Chicago
ECONOMIC REALITY CHECK
There’s more to the recent jobs report than meets the eye.
First, although President Obama’s Labor Dept. has reported an unexpected increase in jobs in October, the unemployment rate’s increase to 7.9% is now higher than the 7.8% rate when he took office (NY Post, 11/3/12, p.24; Politco Pro, 11/2/12). As a result, we have the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since President Roosevelt. (AP, 11/2/12, New Lond. Day).
As a senior economist stated, notwithstanding whatever else in the Administration’s report, “we’re still not making enough progress to bring that unemployment rate down signifcantly and rapidly.” (NY Times, 11/3/12, pp. B1-B2).
The unemployment rate for Blacks and Hispanics is even higher, 14.3% and 10%, respectively, both increasing somewhat since September. (NY Times, 11/3/12, p. B2)
Furthermore, unemployment increased by 170,000 to 12.3 million. (Dept. Labor report (DOL rep.), Empl. Situat. Sum. Table A; AP, 11/2/12, New Lond. Day).
In addition, evidently not counted as unemployed were 2.4 million persons who were “marginally attached” to the labor force, little different than a year earlier. These persons wanted and were available for work, and had searched for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed simply because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks before the Labor Dept. survey. (DOL rep., p. 2.).
Moreover, the unemployment figure rises from over 12 million to 23 million when considering “those stuck in part-time jobs who would prefer to have full-time ones and those too discouraged to search for work.” (Wall St. Journal, 11/3/12, p. A6).
In addition, about two out of five of the unemployed have been out of work for over six months. (NY Times. 11/3/12, p. B2).
Furthermore, “[o]ne of the low points in the [US DOL] report was in hourly wages, which remained flat in October after showing barely any growth in the previous several months.” (NY Times. 11/3/12, p. B2).
That is not all. According to the National Employment Law Project, while most jobs lost in the downturn were middle-income ones, most jobs since created had been with lower wages. (NY Times. 11/3/12, p. B2).
In addition, the U.S. poverty rate has increased from 12.5% in 2008 to 15.1% in 2011-a jump of at least 20%. (NY Post 10/28/12, p. 34). There are now 44.5 million Americans on food stamps. 47% of these recipients are children, and 48.6% live in cities. (NY Post 10/28/12, p. 34).
One business writer has estimated that at the current rate, “it’ll take a decade to get back the 6 million jobs that we’ve lost since the financial crisis.” (John Crudele, N.Y. Post, 11/3/12, p. 27).
Added to all this, many are concerned that Congress will fail to agree on the budget before January. If they disagree, “sharp tax increases and spending cuts will take effect next year and possibly trigger another recession.” (AP, 11/2/12, New Lond. Day).
We need a leader who can work with different points of view to reach agreement and who can also develop economic policies to increase jobs, not just food stamps.
President Obama has had his chance, but appears over his head. He appears too divisive and unable to develop consensus. Notwithstanding his speech making skills, his economic policies-includng a massive stimulus, massive deficits and costly health care mandates–have not worked.
It is Romney who offers a fresh start, new leadership, executive competence, and, based on his record as Governor, the ability to bring people together.
He was also steadfast and kept both his head and his cool while Obama tried to assassinate his character
With his economic and leadership experience, Romney appears to have the best chance to get America moving again, and also to keep us safe.
What the Repubs are trying to do to the election is just ugly.
Note how it’s ALWAYS the Republicans this election cycle who want to shorten voting times, make the forms more complicated, or enact various other measures that will essentially make it harder for some folks to vote. Note that the Florida ballot is 12 friggin’ pages long because the Repub legislature added so many pages to it. IUt can take 10 minutes just to vote there. And Florida Repubs are panicking because a couple of weeks ago they thought Romney had the state locked, but since then it’s moved somewhat back toward Obama.
In Ohio, the Repub Ohio secretary of state has suddenly changed a rule about how a provisional ballot is filled out. The result of this order without question will be that more people will make mistakes and more ballots will be disallowed. That’s just wrong no matter whose ballots are trashed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/ohios-provisional-ballot-order-the-biggest-legal-story-of-the-weekend/264498/
Now those ballots could be for Romney or Obama, but consider that it’s a Repub who wants fewer ballots counted. It was also Repubs in Ohio who tried shorten early voting periods because Dems are more likely to vote early. The court had to step in and spank the Repubs on that one.
The plain fact is that if there’s a huge turnout across the U.S. and especially across certain states, the Repubs know they are in trouble. They NEED to suppress the vote to win. How American of them.
CHICAGO EARLY VOTERS GO FOR OBAMA
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2012/11/chicago-early-voters-go-for-obama.html
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Interesting to see how the Arab world…or at least a major portion of them, feel about Obama. I doubt many will bother to actually read this article as it is lengthy but it’s easily skinned and you can follow it pretty well. Muslims are not happy with BO however I have no doubt that once he is re-elected he will have more latitude in these matters. Now have I heard that somewhere before?
http://www.bikyamasr.com/80179/obamas-empire-the-arab-and-muslim-world/
Tell me, how is Romney going to bring both sides together when he keeps talking about how he’ll approach “Democrat leaders”?
Tone deaf as always.
Intersting piece last night on 60 Minutes regarding the 1800 campaign involving Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams.
The negativity and mudslinging was some nasty stuff.
200 years later and it’s no better, merely communicated in a more hi tech fashion.
We’ve come a long way?
The first post on here reminding people posting not to use profanity or go off the deep end with insults speaks volumes about the anger level of discourse and virulence amongst people as well.
Politics and religon – turning people against each other who otherwise might get along for the most part since who knows how long.
And now there’s news that the Ohio secretary has also authorized last-minute instillation of new “secret” tabulation software in the machines of 39 counties. Suspicious, to say the least.
http://philipsturner.com/2012/11/05/unsettling-report-last-minute-installation-ohio-vote-counting-software/
MITT ROMNEY 2012!!! Get out and VOTE tomorrow 6 AM!!!!
from http://www.ironictimes.com (a satirical news site, but often quite true):
“Obama urges his supporters to get out and vote; Romney urges his supporters to get out and stop them.”
Thank God it will be over tomorrow. No more junk mail, junk phone calls and junk tv ads.
Just got 4 fliers in the mailbox for Virgil Goode all of them attacking Mitt. Please everyone vote Tuesday. Too bad that Goode didnt get more air time. Better choice than any other.
Does anyone know how many people showed up to see Romney in Lynchburg today? Preferably not an estimate from the Romney campaign! Thanks.
If you are a die-hard Romney supporter, I don’t want to get into an argument with you.
EVERYONE ELSE: if you are even just a little bit open-minded, please consider: Before you hire a President, you should check out his references. What do the people he used to work for (Massachusetts citizens) think of Mitt now?
Please consider the following BEFORE you vote. Don’t find out the hard way, after Mitt is governing you, what this guy really is like! That’s what Massachusetts did, and now they regret it.
Voting for president is a big responsibility so I think we owe it to ourselves and our nation to consider Mitt’s references from the only time he has ever served as an elected official.
Massachusetts knows Mitt, and Mitt will lose his home state in a major way. Mass voted for Reagan (twice) and has a Republican Senator now, but Mitt is one Republican that Massachusetts will not vote for again. Once was enough.
Read about Mitt and Mass, BEFORE you vote. Don’t learn about Mitt the hard way! Follow the link below…
http://mittinyourpocket.weebly.com/why-mass-hates-mitt.html
Obama’s record is dismal. He’s made things worse for all of us. We need REAL change…and JOBS. Obama can’t do it, he said so himself.
Romney is the one who will do it.
We will get big spending with either candidate. Change can only occur when you are fiscally responsible. It’s great to cut funding, blah, blah, blah, but if you are going to use the money you cut to spend elsewhere on whatever agenda you campaigned on, then it is pointless. Drastic overall and change is what we need, not a band-aid.
I do not understand willful ignorance. Can Romney nor his supporters tell the truth? These two moderate Republicans have studied this economic crisis and are admitting the truth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-15/sorry-u-s-recoveries-really-aren-t-different.html
“Today, there can be little doubt that the U.S. has experienced a systemic crisis — in fact, its first since the Great Depression. Before that, notable systemic post-Civil War financial crises occurred in 1873, 1893 and 1907…
…to regain lost ground; in 14 Great Depression episodes around the world (including the U.S.) it took 10 years on average.”
America is a nation, not a business. We cannot divest ourselves of the poor, elderly, orphaned and disabled. We cannot just stop spending money. Romney offers only going backward with no hope of progress. Now, I am all in on selling Texas.
Blaming Obama for the economy, unemployment or a Congress that refused to do their sworn duty is small and wrong.
sandy, bams had all dem majority his first 2 years he got what he wanted, even the dems voted against his proposed budgets and by the numbers things are worse today than when he took office. debt, gas prices, health care costs etc. facts are facts so you still blaming bush? maybe we should blame Nixon or JFK maybe Ike!
Blaming Obama for the economy, unemployment or a Congress that refused to do their sworn duty is small and wrong.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — November 5, 2012 @ 9:23 pm
This is tripe Sandi. Obama’s policies were the exact opposite of what should have been done and what historically had worked was ignored.
One cannot spend one’s way out of debt. Growing the Federal Gov’t by 25% and running trillion dollar deficits hurt the economy. . .which is owned
by Obama.