Obama Losing Rock-star Status Among Young Voters

Posted on May 1st, 2012

A Commentary By Michael Barone

 

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

 

Last week, Barack Obama delivered speeches at universities in Chapel Hill, N.C., Iowa City, Iowa, and Boulder, Colo. The trip was, press secretary Jay Carney assured us, official government business, not political campaigning.

It’s part of a pattern. Neil Munro of the Daily Caller has counted 130 appearances by the president, vice president, their spouses, White House officials, and Cabinet secretaries at colleges and universities since spring 2011.

Obviously, the Obama campaign strategists are worried that he cannot duplicate his 66 to 32 percent margin among young voters back in 2008.

Recent surveys of young people show inconsistent results. Gallup’s tracking shows Obama leading Mitt Romney 64 to 29 percent, and a Harvard Institute of Politics poll shows him leading Romney 43 to 26 percent among those who said they had an opinion.

But a March survey of 18- to 24 year olds by the Public Religion Research Institute showed Obama ahead of “a Republican” by only 48 to 41 percent. Only 52 percent had favorable opinions of Obama, and 43 percent had unfavorable opinions.

Where the surveys seem to be in accord is that young voters are less engaged, less likely to vote and less enthusiastic about Obama than in the days when he was proclaiming, “We are the change we are seeking.”

READ MORE AT RASMUSSEN REPORTS

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Gallup Poll, Mitt Romney, Polls, Rasmussen Reports, Republican Presidential Race, Solid Principles, Washington Examiner | Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

Romney and the Youth Vote

Posted on April 29th, 2012

By: Katrina Trinko******National Review Online

In March, on the eve of the Illinois primary, over a thousand Bradley University students gathered to hear Mitt Romney.

Dressed casually, many in shorts and T-shirts, they stood outside on an unusually warm spring day in Peoria. They listened as 30-year-old Republican Representative Aaron Schock introduced Romney, and watched as Romney was presented with a bright red Bradley University hoodie. When Romney took the microphone, he passionately made the case for young adults to embrace the GOP.

“Every trillion dollars this president amasses, every year, guess who is going to pay that?” he asked. “Not me. I’m gone. I’m too old to pay it back. You’re going to pay it back.”

But there was no indication that Romney’s message resonated. Some of those watching called out “Obama 2012.” The first question was pointed: “So you’re all for like, yay, freedom, and all this stuff,” a woman said. “And yay, like pursuit of happiness. You know what would make me happy? Free birth control.” A short distance away on the campus, a group of young adults held up a blue sign spray-painted with this message: “Romney Fleecing America!”

Romney is not the first Republican candidate who has struggled to win the youth vote. No Republican candidate has won among 18-to-29-year-old voters since George H. W. Bush did in 1988. (He lost it in 1992.) And Obama’s unprecedented strength among that age group — he beat John McCain by 34 points — makes it crucial for the Romney campaign to successfully woo some of those young adults.

“The youth vote will be a key component to our winning coalitions in states and we will put the structure and resources in place to be successful (which includes surrogates),” e-mails a Romney aide.

Romney is up against fierce competition. Obama is fighting hard to keep young-adult voters, visiting three colleges in battleground states this week to make speeches centered on his support for government programs that make attending college cheaper. His campaign thought it had a winning issue by touting Obama’s support for extending the current 3.4 percent interest rate for subsidized federal loans for a year, only to be undercut when Romney announced his support for the extension days later. (Neither Obama nor Romney has offered any concrete suggestions about how the extension — estimated to cost $6 billion — should be paid for, although Romney did say it should be paid for with offsetting cuts.) The campaign is also fighting back against Obama’s general student-loan push: “What young people really want is not student loans, but a way to pay for their student loans,” said Schock yesterday in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Romney campaign.

READ MORE @ NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Caucuses & Primaries, John McCain, Mitt Romney, NRO, Republican Presidential Race, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

Political Cartoons: Michael Ramirez

Posted on April 28th, 2012

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Investor's Business Daily, Michael Ramirez | Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

Obama Fundraises at BET chair’s home

Posted on April 28th, 2012


 

[Editor's Commentary:  At $40,000 per plate, how many of these "limosine liberals" are simply interested in good government and how many do you think are mostly, if not entirely, interested in extending Obama's control of the private lives of Americans, raising taxes on everyone but themselves, saving Mother Earth from the ravages of evil capitalists and running up our national debts to even more stratospheric levels?

They have raised hypocrisy to an art form.  The Democratic Party likes to advertize itself as the Party of the "working man," the Party of the "little guy."

Obviously, at $40,00 per plate there won't be a "little guy" at the table, but there will be a small army of "little people" pouring coffee and setting plates of fine cuisine in front of these stiffs.

What a racket!]

~~John Cronin~~

By LEIGH MUNSIL

 

  • President Barack Obama attended a fundraiser Friday night at the home of Debra Lee, chairwoman and CEO of BET.

About 40 people attended the $40,000-a-plate dinner in D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood. During his remarks, the president gave a nod to some of the acrimony toward Washington among the American people.

“[T]hings are tough, and they’ve grown cynical, and they see the mess that goes on in Washington and there’s a temptation at a certain point to just say, ‘Oh, a plague on both their houses; nothing is getting done,’” he said. “And so we’re going to have to work harder this time than we did in ’08.”

A Pew survey released this week found that only one in three Americans had a favorable view of the federal government, the smallest proportion in 15 years.

Obama also admitted that some of his cool factor may have worn off during his first term.

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Democrats, Politico, Polls, REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , ,

Election 2012: Florida President: Florida: Romney 46%, Obama 45%

Posted on April 27th, 2012

Likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney now runs even with President Obama in the key swing state of Florida.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Sunshine State finds Romney with 46% of the vote, while Obama earns 45% support. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and another three percent (3%) are undecided.

The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Florida was conducted on April 25, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Florida, Mitt Romney, Polls, Rasmussen Reports, Republican Presidential Race | Tagged as: , , , , ,

Political Cartoons: Michael Ramirez

Posted on April 27th, 2012

Posted in Barack Obama, Illegal Immigration, Michael Ramirez, Political Cartoons, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , ,

Political Cartoons: Michael Ramirez

Posted on April 25th, 2012

Posted in Barack Obama, Economy, Illegal Immigration, Investor's Business Daily, Michael Ramirez | Tagged as: , , , , ,

Primary results 2012: Mitt Romney ‘s 5-state sweep

Posted on April 24th, 2012

By ALEXANDER BURNS 

Mitt Romney swept all five Republican primary elections Tuesday night, putting an end once and for all to any hopes for a comeback by his beleaguered GOP primary opponents.

The last state to be called was New York, where voting ended at 9 p.m.; Romney was previously projected the winner in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

There was little suspense in tonight’s elections. Only in Delaware, where Gingrich camped out in recent days and collected endorsements from top local officials, was Romney at any risk of losing. Even a Gingrich victory there would have been unlikely to complicate Romney’s glide to the Republican convention in Tampa.

But with nearly all of the vote reported, Romney was crushing Gingrich in Delaware by a 30-point margin. Speaking to supporters in Manchester, N.H., Romney declared a formal end to the primary season and predicted: “Together, we are going to win on Nov. 6.”

“After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, I can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility,” he said, framing the general election as a test of the country’s economic resilience.

Said Romney: “The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do. But it’s not the best America can do.”
Romney has not yet secured enough delegates to clinch the GOP nomination officially, but he has already been treated by his party as its presumptive nominee for two weeks, since Rick Santorum ended his White House bid earlier this month.

Now, with an imposing delegate lead over his Republican opponents and virtually every party leader calling for a pivot to the general election, there’s no longer any doubt that Romney is in position to claim the Republican nomination.

Whether Romney’s remaining opponents — Gingrich and Ron Paul — take the hint following the evening’s returns is unclear.

In his election-night remarks, Gingrich said it was time for him to “think carefully about how we can be the most helpful to the country” in a possible hint that he might re-evaluate his campaign. But he also emphasized that he has nearly two dozen upcoming events scheduled in North Carolina, which doesn’t hold its primary until May 8.

In a sign that Team Gingrich hopes to stay in the race past this week, his campaign released a video earlier in the day rallying support for a same-sex marriage ban on the North Carolina ballot the same day as the presidential primary.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75561.html#ixzz1t143IYY7

Posted in 2012 Presidential Race, Caucuses & Primaries, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politico, Republican Presidential Race, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Former SNL Comedian Jon Lovitz unloads on Obama’s tax policies

Posted on April 24th, 2012

Posted in Barack Obama | Tagged as: , , , ,

Political Cartoons: Michael Ramirez

Posted on April 24th, 2012

Posted in Barack Obama, Energy Issues, Investor's Business Daily, Michael Ramirez, Political Cartoons, Solid Principles | Tagged as: , , ,