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14 Nov 2011 16:08

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Politics: Here’s the thing about the Gingrich surge

  • yeah…Newt Gingrich is, to the surprise and annoyance of pundits everywhere, storing ahead of his GOP rivals in national polls. Newtmentum!
  • but…Polls also show the “ideas man” faring rather poorly against President Obama in a general election, trailing the POTUS by 8–12 points. source
  • » Now is probably a good time to bust out this gem from last summer.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2011 15:25

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Politics: Rick Perry, easing off his anti-drug stances?

  • A very, very energetic Rick Perry: In this case, “energetic” is a euphemism for “dangerously over-caffeinated, perhaps to the point of requiring medical attention.” We’re not quite sure what to make of this bizarre speech Perry gave to New Hampshire Republicans a couple of days ago. He’s not just unusually expressive; he looks like he’s about to burst (fast-forward to 2:30 or so if you’re feeling impatient). His frantic performance might make slightly more sense if he were speaking to an ultra-conservative crowd in South Carolina or something, but was a room full of New Hampshire moderates. Color us baffled, but at least he didn’t come off as over-prepared. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Oct 2011 10:02

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Politics: Herman Cain’s tone-deaf campaigning style turns people off

  • This is his first rodeo, so people make mistakes. But I wish he would have called and said ‘Bill, I’m going in another direction.’ But he never did.
  • Tea Party supporter Bill Hemrick • Discussing how Herman Cain blew him off during a fundraising event a few months back … and in the process cost Hemrick a position in his campaign. The way it happened is super tone-deaf: First, Cain spoke at an event, and was supposed to show up a private club dinner for businessmen, where roughly 200 rich guys were planning to donate the maximum $2,500 each to Cain’s campaign. (Do the math.) When Hemrick called and said “I’ll see you upstairs,” Cain responded, “Well, I’m at the airport.” That’s right, he didn’t show up. “I thought, wow, good communication there,” Hemrick noted. Not long after Hemrick, learned he wouldn’t be the financial chair of Cain’s campaign in Tennessee, a position promised to him by Cain. That’s just one example of Cain’s apparent poor campaigning style, according to The New York Times. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Oct 2011 23:28

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Politics: Herman Cain takes a stroll towards becoming president

  • He’s not running for president; he’s sort of strolling for president.
  • George F. Will • On Herman Cain. If Cain is strolling for president, Newt Gingrich is crawling for president. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Oct 2011 14:37

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Politics: Polling roundup: Cain continues to surge

  • 3 states in which Herman Cain now leads everybody else source
  • » All aboard the Cain Train! Republicans in North Carolina, Nebraska, and West Virginia want Herman Cain as their nominee–he leads all of his opponents in a new PPP poll. A Washington Post/ABC poll released today showed Cain tied with Perry for second nationally, and two polls last week also showed evidence of Cain Fever sweeping the nation. This seems to be at the expense of Rick Perry, who’s collapsing just as fast as Cain is rising (in North Carolina alone, more than half of his supporters have abandoned him, and a Fox News poll last week showed him losing ten points in a month). Romney is still the (perpetually-endangered) frontrunner, but there’s a plausible argument to be made that Cain is now in the top-tier of candidates. Of course, the same thing was once said of both Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann, so take that as you will.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Sep 2011 22:32

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Politics: Romney, Perry: We won’t raise very much money

  • Hey everyone, let’s play “no expectations!” This game is common in presidential campaigns, and usually commences just before quarterly fundraising totals are announced. Here’s how it works: Each campaign works diligently to convince the press that they’re not going to bring in very much money; this is accomplished by saying things like, “We are going to raise considerably less than what we did in our first reporting period.” Then, once the numbers come in, it’s a win-win. If the totals are robust, the campaign looks surprisingly potent; if the numbers fall short, the campaign can just say, “I told you so!” It’s also acceptable to play this game prior to debates and straw polls. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Jun 2011 23:31

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Politics: T-Paw backs off “ObamneyCare” line

  • [Pawlenty] choked at a critical moment when he wouldn’t repeat the criticisms he’s made of Romney to his face…if you criticize someone when they’re not around, be ready to say it to their face. If you’re not, you’re just not for real.
  • Josh Marshall at TPM • On Pawlenty’s refusal to repeat the phrase “ObamneyCare,” which he coined last Sunday, during tonight’s debate. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

09 Jun 2011 00:39

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Politics: Herman Cain’s solution to illegal immigration: Alligators!

  • Put me in charge of the fence and it will be a twenty foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top. And on this side of the fence, I’d have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators in that moat!
  • Herman Cain • Laying out a portion of his proposed immigration policy. Some pundits wonder why Cain, who’s polling better than guys like Pawlenty and Huntsman, isn’t taken seriously by the beltway media. Sentences like “I would put those alligators in that moat” probably have something to do with it. It’s a gimmicky non-solution to a policy issue that deserves to be taken seriously. One can be pro-immigration, anti-immigration, or somewhere in between, but ideology aside, a fence with alligators isn’t going to solve the problem. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Apr 2011 22:29

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Politics: Arizona State Senate: “Where’s the birth certificate?!”

  • YES a “Birther Bill” has passed the Arizona Senate source
  • » Score one for The Donald: Arizona’s State Senate just passed a bill that requires presidential candidates to produce their “long form birth certificate” in order to appear on the state’s presidential ballots. If they can’t (or won’t) do that, other documents will be accepted–but not, much to Orly Taitz’s delight, a Certificate of Live Birth. We, like many Arizona Democrats, are skeptical as to whether or not this is within a state’s power. Regardless, the bill now heads to the state House for a vote.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Apr 2011 22:49

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Politics: Trump’s polling paints a muddy picture

  • yeah… In the latest WSJ/NBC poll, The Donald trumped his opponents, vaulting ahead of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and tying Mike Huckabee for second place. He also came in second in a New Hampshire poll, losing out to Willard “Mitt” Romney.
  • but In last week’s PPP poll, Trump scored an approval rating of just 28% (with net approval at -18), and lost a hypothetical match-up to President Obama by 11 points. He also came in a dismal fifth amongst primary voters in a recent CNN poll. source
  • » What to make of this: By and large, the takeaway here is that the Republican field is very weak, and there’s no clear favorite (Huckabee and Romney could perhaps be considered “co-favorites”). Trump has done well in a few polls, but this is more likely due to a) boredom on the part of primary voters, and b) Trump’s recent media blitz. It’s difficult to imagine a candidate with such toxic approval ratings winning a national election; he’d have to win over an additional 18% of voters just to break even. That being said, 26% of voters in the PPP poll haven’t yet made up their mind about Trump, giving him lots of room to grow. Still, we agree with Christian Heinz over at The Hill, who noted that Trump’s numbers illustrate “the tremendous thirst for a new, charismatic candidate” in the GOP primary. Charismatic? You betcha. Electable? We’re not so sure.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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