President Obama

Obama dares graduates to reject cynical voices

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A year to the day after kicking off his victorious re-election campaign on this college campus, President Barack Obama returned to Ohio State University and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their democracy can they right an ill-functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation's future.

"I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to do better," Obama said...

President Obama gave the Commencement Address earlier today at Ohio State University.

(cross post from Dumbed Down Politicos)

My top three items out of many proposals last night from President Obama (especially for the middle and lower class citizens):

1. "Raise the Federal Minimum wage to $9 an hour." A new and better stimulus plan.

2. Immigration: "Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months. I will sign it..."

3. "Cut red tape for responsible home owners to make refinancing more available...Help our economy grow..."

Overall: a great speech, well delivered. I am proud to have Barack Obama as my President.

I viewed the State of the Union on the "enhanced" stream from the White House. It was much better than the view on MSNBC, but I recorded the TV version on DVR and plan to watch to see what I missed the first time around.

From CNN online:

President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton will go down "as one of the finest secretaries of state" as he sat next to her in their first joint interview, which airs Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes."

"The main thing is I just wanted to have a chance to publicly say 'thank you,'" he said when asked why he wanted to do the interview with his former political foe. The network released an excerpt of the taped exchange ahead of time...

Read more:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/27/obama-publicly-thanks-cl...

Pew research releasaed its final pre-election poll and the numbers show that President Obama has good momentum heading into the last days of the election. He is up 50% to Rmoney's 47% among likely voters. This poll has a larger than usual sample size and, as such, has a smaller margin of error. This is Pew Research's prediction for the popular vote breakdown and should be taken a little more seriously than other polls. Pew got the 2008 and 2004 popular vote exactly right.

This agrees rather well with Nate Silver's 538 expected outcome.

Still holding my breath but I'd much rather be a Democrat right now than a Republican.

This is an article from Creative Loafing Charlotte on the GOTV efforts of the Jennifer Roberts for Congress campaign in North Carolina's 9th District.

Modern campaigns are waged by robocalls, paid advertisements, misleading mailers sent by special-interest PACs and low-budget forums broadcast on public television that nobody watches. Corrupt politicians and phony leaders have poisoned a process that was bought and paid for by the rich and powerful. Markel and I were strolling on the sidewalks in dogmatic hopes of restoring faith, if people would just open their doors.

From NPR today: "If the world had its say, this election would be a blowout."

That's according to a BBC World Service poll taken in 21 countries. It found for the most part, foreign countries preferred Obama. The only exception was Pakistan where more people said they preferred Romney.

Very interesting.

Here is a great collection of different takes on the debate held last night at CNN online.

My favorite commentator is Donna Brazille. Here's what she had to say:

Moderator Candy Crowley, like Martha Raddatz in the vice presidential debate, had a difficult job: Moderating these debates is like dealing with two guys arguing over the last beer when the Super Bowl's tied with a minute to go. But, as much as possible, she kept both men in their time limits and kept them within the framework of the question. She showed that moderators need to be journalists first, referees second.

With three weeks to go ... with the second presidential debate tonight ... with a close race that can be won ...

I've been spending many hours in a couple of neighborhoods off Buffaloe Road near the 540, canvassing the peeps. I think I've spent 18 or so hours walking around, ringing doorbells, and pestering people to get their butts off the couch and go vote early.

• I tell them how close the race is, how we can still win if we get our vote out and Rmoney doesn't get his out.
• I tell them how we won a razor-thin victory in '08, just 14,000 votes.
• I tell them they're now part of my personal Obama Army, and to go find other people and tell them to vote.
• I tell them where and when One Stop Early Voting is, and answer any questions they have.

Then I fill out a form for every voter, so OFA HQ can keep up. Three hours at a time, I walk these neighborhoods till my feet hurt and my back hurts and my legs hurt, and I can barely climb back in my car to go turn in my forms. I can't even describe how much fun I'm having.

This post is from Robert Reich's FB page and it expresses my own sentiments eloquently.

"This is going to be a squeaker of an election. Polls are showing Obama and Romney within a hair's breath of one another in the critical swing states that will determine the outcome. How can that be when Romney is an empty suit who believes nothing, hasn't articulated any program, and has (along with his running mate) called for more tax cuts for the wealthy, more spending cuts for the poor, and an evisceration of Medicare and Medicaid? When they want to deregulate Wall Street and regulate women?"

"In a national USA TODAY/Gallup Poll,

most 65-and-older seniors support Romney while young adults under 30 back Obama by almost 2-1. The 18-percentage-point difference in their presidential choices is one of the electorate's biggest demographic divides, and it helps define campaign strategies for both sides...

"In some ways, the clashing generations reflect the changing face of America, especially when it comes to race and ethnicity. Among the seniors surveyed, 16% are Hispanic or racial minorities. Among those under 30, that proportion nearly triples, to 45%. Younger Americans overwhelmingly assess the nation's growing diversity as a good thing rather than a bad thing, by 56%-32%..."

This situation strikes me as great for political consultants and advertising advisers and bad for future policy making.