Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* A new national CBS News poll shows President Obama with a one-point advantage over Mitt Romney, 46% to 45%.
* At the state level, the latest Time/CNN/Opinion Research polls show Obama ahead in Florida by four points, 50% to 46%, while Romney is up by one point in North Carolina, 48% to 47%.
* The new Priorities USA Action ad features a small businesswoman who feels "duped" by Romney. The spot is part of a $30 million ad buy.
* The Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity is reportedly giving up on Pennsylvania, and redirecting resources to other states.
* Can someone really buy a U.S. Senate seat? A new Quinnipiac poll shows far-right wrestling executive Linda McMahon (R) actually winning the Senate race in Connecticut, leading Rep. Chris Murphy (D) by three points, 49% to 46%.
* The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hopes to tie Todd Akin to 20 vulnerable House incumbents.
* In Wisconsin, three separate polls shows former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) ahead in the U.S. Senate race, leading Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) by margins ranging from five to nine points.
* And in Florida, Republican congressional candidate Mark Oxner released a new campaign ad this week characterizing President Obama as the captain of a slave ship. Stay classy, GOP.
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Can someone really buy a U.S. Senate seat?
How did you think they're obtained?
Now that "Corporations are people too", do the math.
Meg Whitman couldn't buy one.
She only tried once. Think she's got another spare $150M? Or Carly $20M, Meg went for Gov.
So with Mark Oxner Romney has the perfect situation. Oxner can be overtly racist against the President and Romney can say that he doesn't have anything to do with it.
What a wonderful country.If your wealthy you can buy anything you need, including congressmen,senator's, election's and a judge or two..Just like any other third world country.
I have the feeling the people of Connecticut will get wise to this. They do have a lot of bright people there. If not, yikes!
The ad states that job creation in Massachusetts “fell” to 47th under Romney. That’s a bit misleading. Massachusetts’ state ranking for job growth went from 50th the year before he took office, to 28th in his final year. The writer (Steve Benen) of this article is a bonehead for not checking the facts...again. Just like Romney killed a women five years after he left the Bain Capital. Geezz...the untruths on this site. Rachael Maddow is digging deep to post this.
It seems to me that we shouldn't be especially worried about the national polls, especially since it's the individual states we're worried about, particularly swing states.
Also, wouldn't it be true that Romney would seem to overperform in those national polls? If you look at the potential electoral map on Nate Silver's site or any of the others that break things down by state, it's pretty obvious that the red states are redder than the blue states are blue.
www.electoral-vote.com shows almost no potential "red" states that are likely or barely Republican. They're almost all "strongly Republican," often by huge margins. Romney's margin in Texas is somewhere between 20 and 30 points. Obama has some "strongly Democratic" states (especially CA and NY), but many of the margins in states where he leads are narrower.
That doesn't mean Obama won't win those states. Romney has as much chance of winning Oregon, where I live, as I do of flapping my arms and flying to the moon. However, the percentages are closer, so it's a "likely Dem" state. That would help Romney look better in national polls.
"Can someone really buy a U.S. Senate seat?"
Well the best way is to inheirit it like Chris Dodd, Lisa Murkowski, etc. However if you can't, then buying it is a normal path like Herbert Kohl, Ron Johnson, Jon Corzine, Jay Rockefeller, Frank Lautenberg etc.
However the American Dream is of course to be strictly middle class and then become a multi-millionaire while on the government payroll like Harry Reid.
US Senators make $174K. Majority Leader makes $193,400. Yes it is perfectly possible and reasonable for a man to be worth a few million dollars after spending nearly 30 years in public service.
It is up to the voters of the State of Nevada to decide whether to keep or replace their elected (or in Heller's case, unelected) Senators.
Reid didn't make THAT salary for the last 30 years. Look it up. He made it by sweetheart land deals listed in his disclosure statement.
When he was mentioned in law enforcement wiretaps in his gaming commission days, his nickname was "Mr. Cleanface", not Mr. Clean.
Finally Reid hasn't paid taxes in years probably for as long or longer than Romney.
I love the "attack Reid to make Robme the victim" meme. It is bull@!$%#, and will do nothing to take the heat off of Robme, but hey, knock yourself out. Please. Knock yourself out.
Where is the Republican outrage over Mark Oxner's comment, which is so much more ... fraught... than Joe Biden's?
Oh, never mind...
VP Bidens comments were outragous!!!!
Yeah, right.
Please save it for the no-brain Republicans.
Hey Dog, come on...you can't be serious that the VP wasn't pandering to his audience that day. What a horrible choice of words. I hope you are smarter than the comment above, if not you feel for the trap.
No open thread yet so here goes. People must read David Brooks' column today, "The Real Romney". I thought it was just going to be more Brooksian pablum so I had put it off. It's apparently supposed to be dry humor, a gentle parody. It's more of a Don Rickles roast. And people are giving him $h!t in/with spades on Twiiter.
"With friends like David Brooks..."
"WOW: David Brooks shivs Romney on the eve of his Big Show"
You get the idea.
Must reading for anyone who wants a laugh. By far the best thing Brooks has ever written.
Thanks Newsvine but I only clicked once so one post was plenty.
RM, A light ...ahead of your upcoming long nights: Follow-up to TRMS recent polls commentary, battle over new, restrictive voter ID laws, and your mention of Tampa...#3 in nation..for p/capita stripper spots. To save space and time, will wrap all three into one comment...as follows:
Poll worker, new meaning, as defined by GOP Campaign 2012 process: On non-voting days... a pole worker is a stripper, in the traditional sense. However, on voting days, a poll worker is a person who strips ...non-ID voters, from the rope line at ballot box. Also, is it legal for a poll worker to pull a candidate's lever, before checking for a valid ID...or...does that make voting a condom-nation? Unsure.
Also, which issue of Consumer Reports had Stipper USA survey. I usually read CR for reports/surveys like...Ten Best Places to Retire...or, Most reliable appliance brands, and stuff like that...let us know ...thanks.