‘Barack Obama’ Archives
Obama Admin. Ignores Legal Deadline To Disclose Regulatory Plans, Economic Impact – Again
As of today, the Obama administration has missed its second straight legal deadline for disclosing its regulatory plans and their economic impact to Congress and the American public. No previous administration has ever failed to produce the report even once. Every administration is legally required to publish a report each April and October in the Federal Register to inform Congress and the public of the administration’s regulatory agenda and its potential economic impact. The requirement is part of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980. Other administrations have been late, but have never failed to issue the legally required report and Pres. Clinton even issued an Executive Order on compliance. After the administration failed to produce its April 2012 report, Sen. James [...]
Polling Report: October 23, 2012
by Bob Grundfest The debates are done, the swing states remain swingy, and the money is flowing. Must be the last two weeks of the campaign. And true to the divided nature of the country, there are two narratives for the final push. The first says that Mitt Romney has the momentum because of his first debate performance and the new perception, pushed very hard by his campaign, that Romney is really a moderate, not the scary conservative that Obama said he was in the summer. In many ways, Mitt has won his argument because, depending upon the poll, he has become more likable and he's improved his standing with women. Romney's national poll numbers are up and he's made inroads into states that were solidly behind the president, such as Florida and North Carolina. The second says [...]
Polling Report: October 9, 2012
by Bob Grundfest Tell me that you saw this coming. Liar. With four weeks to go before the election, we seem to have the race we thought we'd have: close, hard-fought, and partisan. It's how we landed here that's most interesting. Mitt Romney received a negative bounce out of the GOP convention and his 47% comments further eroded his support. Then came last week's debate in Denver and the president's implosion, which has led to a surge in Republican enthusiasm that's brought us to today. The improving unemployment rate is also exerting its influence, but so far it's difficult to gauge just how much it's affecting the race. It's likely that we are still in a volatile polling episode and it will take a few more days to determine the extent of Romney's rebound and Obama's reaction [...]
Polling On the Eve of the Debate
by Bob Grundfest The pace of polling has slowed down since last week, but the overall trend is still towards Barack Obama in the swing states. His national numbers are somewhat closer, but Gallup (RV poll) still has him up six and Rasmussen has him leading by one, which is down two points from Monday. New Quinnipiac and CNN polls have Obama ahead by four and three, respectively, and the Washington Times has him up nine. There has been a great deal of debate in the polling world, that has spilled over into the general population, about poll methodologies and whether the national polling firms are oversampling Democrats to arrive at their numbers. My view is that the polling firms are seeing a shift in the number of people who are identifying themselves as Democrats and are adjusting [...]
Obama Buying Reelection in Swing States on the Taxpayer’s Dime
Washington Post reporters Jerry Markon and Alice Crites deserve kudos for turning the spotlight on the Obama administration’s use of taxpayer funds to curry voter favor in the critical battleground state of Ohio. Markon and Crites cite a laundry list of largess that has poured into the state in recent years: he state’s portion of the $2.3 billion in clean-energy manufacturing tax credits was tens of millions of dollars more than the slices that went to other swing states… In high-speed rail, another administration priority, Ohio also fared well. The White House in 2010 awarded the state $400 million to resume passenger train service between Cincinnati, Cleveland and other cities, a service that had ended four decades earlier… When Obama visited Mansfield in August, media [...]
Is the Obama Bounce Overstated?
by Bob Grundfest Remember the Super Ball (if you do, you're old, but that's OK)? The rubber and plastic ball that was wound so tightly that it bounced halfway to the moon when an eight-year-old threw it? That's how big a bounce Obama has reportedly received since the Democratic National Convention ended three weeks ago. It's astounding, and it's driving the Romney campaign crazy. Scores of polls have been released since the DNC and the overwhelming majority have shown President Obama leading nationally and in the swing states that will decide this election. Republicans and some independent polling analysts are questioning the results of those polls, stating emphatically that they overstate Democratic participation and assume that the 2012 electorate will look more like 2008 (more [...]
It’s Raining Polls
by Bob Grundfest The Democratic Nation Convention is a dot in the campaign's rear-view mirror, but the shift in public sentiment it engendered is now embedded in the polling numbers. And that's not good news for Mitt Romney. The one bright spot for Mitt's campaign is in North Carolina, where a Rasmussen poll has him leading by 51-45%. This is a firm enough pick-up for the GOP that the Obama campaign will probably not contest the state too vigorously because there are other states that need their attention. Most of the other state polling over the last week shows the president with small leads in some of the swing states and solid leads where he needs to have them, most notably in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where the conservative groups supporting Romney have pulled their [...]
Presidential Polling Report: September 6, 2012
by Bob Grundfest Two months to go before the presidential election and the latest polling...hasn't changed all that much from 2, 3 or 6 months ago. President Obama holds a small but consistent lead in the national polls and continues to lead in enough states to give him the electoral majority he needs to be reelected in November. Are there rough seas ahead for him? You bet, and Mitt Romney might have discovered a winning edge with his "Are you better off now?" campaign line. We'll be able to glean more from the Democratic convention bounce, should there be one, and the possible effects of Friday's jobs numbers, but we'll need to wait until Monday to see if the race has truly turned one way or the other. For Mitt, there was no discernible bounce from the GOP convention, but my [...]
What Clint Eastwood Did Last Night
What Clint Eastwood Did Last Night By Kevin Williams,Director/Co-Producer, FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN, Guest Op-Ed As a Filmmaker who happens to be Republican, I want to share a few thoughts about Clint Eastwood’s speaking at the Republican National Convention last night. Clint is an artist and if you don’t know, one who changed the Hollywood system when he became one of the first Actors to become a Director with PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971). Working in the film industry myself, I feel a great kinship with Clint as a fellow filmmaker and as someone who is politically active on a local level. And like millions of other Americans, I was very curious and being a Republican and a Filmmaker – very pumped to hear what he would say about this current [...]
Convention Eve Polling Report
by Bob Grundfest It's been a rather eventful week in the polling arena, with various outfits (well-known and otherwise) conducting surveys and trying to get a sense of where the electorate stands on the eve of the Republican convention. Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate resulted in anywhere from a 3 to 5% bump in the national polls for the GOP, but much of that has dissipated over the course of the week. Romney is running better in many state polls, and as pollsters move to a likely voter model, the conventional wisdom says that Romney's numbers will eventually break through the 46-47% barrier he's currently behind. The week began with polls that seemed to defy gravity. An FMWB Florida poll showed Romney with a 14 point lead, mostly due to the polling firm's [...]
