Washington, U.S.A. — Hudson Institute Chief Economist Tim Kane is available to comment on U.S. employment numbers and his recent analysis of unemployment in the swing states.

Kane says: ”If voters in the swing states ask themselves if they are better off than they were four years ago, the answer will be no. Comparing official data in 2008 to September 2012 (the latest data available), we see the unemployment rate has increased in every one of the nine most hotly contested swing states. Ohio saw its unemployment rate rise by half a percentage point from 6.5% in 2008 to 7.0% today, but Nevada suffered more than anywhere with its level rising from 7.0% in 2008 to 11.8% today.

“If President Obama loses the election next Tuesday, he has nothing but his economic policies to blame. In early 2009, Obama’s top economists promised that the unemployment would come down nationally to 5.5 percent by the end of his first term if Congress would enact the stimulus package. Despite Republican warnings, a hyper-partisan vote in Congress with Democratic majorities in both chambers did pass the stimulus. The result has been a jobless recovery, with unemployment rates two-and-a-half full points higher than promised, which doesn’t include the millions of discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for jobs and so are not officially counted as unemployed.”

Tim Kane often provides analysis on major television networks and radio outlets. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego. He is co-authoring a book (with Glenn Hubbard) entitled, Balance: Why Great Powers Lose It and How America Can Regain It, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in early 2013.

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Atlanta, U.S.A. — During the October 16 U.S. Presidential debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney said President Barack Obama waited 14 days to declare the attack in Benghazi an “Act of Terror” before the president protested, interrupting, “Get the transcript,” which he claimed refuted Romney’s assertion.

Videotape from the live event shows debate moderator Candy Crowley with what appears to be the transcript of the President’s Rose Garden speech in hand, waving it about as if on cue from the President.

The video, distributed by Job Creators Solutions, demonstrates how that exchange should prompt the media and the public at large to ask why Ms. Crowley held up a document at that critical moment in the debate.

“The debates are a sacred part of our democratic system,” said Herman Cain, co-founder of Job Creators Solutions and former presidential candidate. ”The American public deserves to know if that system was subverted. This video raises enough questions to make us all deeply uncomfortable until we know the answers.”

To assist the public in its own evaluation, Jobs Creators Solutions has produced the video showing the moment when, prompted by President Obama, Crowley produces what appears to be the transcript of the September 12 remarks. The “TranscriptGate” video can be viewed at http://bit.ly/SgGXMt.

Images Courtesy of Austen Hufford | Gage Skidmore

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New York, U.S.A. — The kids of the United States have spoken and President Barack Obama has been elected the winner of Nickelodeon‘s 2012 Kids Pick the President ”Kids’ Vote.” Since it began in 1988, kids have correctly picked the winner (in advance of the national election) five out of the last six times. More than half a million votes were cast in the network’s online poll as part of Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President initiative to build young citizens’ awareness of, and involvement in, the election process.

President Obama received 65% of the vote and former Governor Mitt Romney received 35%. In order to more closely replicate the actual election, and to ensure the results were more authentic, this year the voting was limited to one vote per electronic device. Kids were able to cast their votes online from October 15 to October 22.

On Monday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m. (ET/PT), Linda Ellerbee, the Emmy Award-winning host of Nickelodeon’s Nick News, announced the winner of the Kids Pick the President ”Kids’ Vote” on the network.

“What politicians do definitely affects kids but for me, it’s not about who wins,” said Ellerbee. “It’s about creating tomorrow’s voters. Democracy takes work. We’re the practice field.”

Leading up to the Kids Pick the President online vote, Nickelodeon aired two election-themed Nick News with Linda Ellerbee specials this year, which ranked as the series’ highest-rated episodes for 2012 to date. In “Kids Pick the President: The Issues” (Sept. 17), kids nationwide ranked the campaign issues most important to them. “Kids Pick the President: The Candidates” (Oct. 15) provided an opportunity for the two major party U.S. Presidential candidates to answer kids’ questions. This year’s candidate special featured President Obama sitting down with Nick News at the White House to answer kids’ questions and previously taped video clips of Romney addressing issues raised by kids.  Romney was unable to participate in the special.

Image Courtesy of  U.S. Embassy New Delhi

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New York, U.S.A. — NewsOne.com, an urban digital media company, Interactive One’s African-American news website, published on October 23, an exclusive op-Ed penned by First Lady Michelle Obama that speaks directly to the country’s nearly 39 million Black Americans. The op-Ed addresses the importance of every vote in this November’s presidential election and Mrs. Obama encourages those who can, to vote early this year for her husband President Barack Obama.

“Now that so many states have early vote—including Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, New Mexico, and Iowa—we can make our voices heard well before Election Day,” explains First Lady Michelle Obama. “So, if you live in a state with early voting, pledge to cast your ballot early—and then reach out to everyone you know and make sure they vote by November 6, too.”

Before reminding voters of the close results of the 2008 presidential election, the first lady recalls the long strides previous generations made to ensure the civil liberties all Americans enjoy today. She makes clear, however, that it “doesn’t mean our work is finished.” Mrs. Obama states, “Make no mistake, here in our time, it’s more important than ever that we show up to vote, not just this year, but every year and in every election. Every voice must be heard and every vote must be counted.”

Mrs. Obama’s op-Ed comes on the heels of an exclusive story published by NewsOne on October 11 where the first lady addressed issues affecting Black female voters. In the story she discusses President Obama’s latest debate performance, what’s at stake in this year’s presidential election, and whether the president has the support of Black women.

“NewsOne.com is the definitive source for news most relevant to the African-American community and our recent exclusives with First Lady Michelle Obama demonstrate that fact,” said Tom Newman, President, Interactive One. “The importance of Mrs. Obama’s message cannot be overstated. All of us at Interactive One eagerly encourage our readers to make their voices heard by voting and encouraging others to vote in next month’s election.”

To read First Lady Michelle Obama’s op-Ed, and for more information about NewsOne.com, visit their website.

Image Courtesy of Joyce N. Boghosian, White House photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Towson, U.S.A. — Exis Interactive, a Maryland based game development company has released “Execuforce” a satirical 3d game for campaign and charity fundraising. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Obama presidential campaign and the wounded warrior project.

This is the first game to be used for campaign financing, and provides a new way to reach and engage the 18-35 year old audience. People who buy the game not only donate to these worthy causes, but they also get a great experience while learning about the candidates in the game itself.

This game is another example of how American companies are innovating, bringing disparate elements together to form something new and imaginative. Working tirelessly to push boundaries and find new ways to communicate with one another and the world. Games are great tools for dissemination of information, and a powerful medium for mobilization; They’ve never been used in this fashion before, and this project represents a shift in the use of new media to spread a message.

Players can take the role of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan in a fantastical journey that pits the leaders of the free world against evil alien forces bent on enslaving mankind. The game allows players from all over the United States to play together in an online cooperative mode and help save the game world. In the real world though, these players have a direct impact by helping the campaign and our troops.

Campaign and Charity Supporters can buy the game at http://www.ExisInteractive.com/Execuforce/.

“This is a last minute fundraising effort to benefit the Obama campaign, and to directly aid the wounded soldiers who have given so much for this country. We think it’s important for everyone participate in our democratic process, and hope that Execuforce can help inform and entertain; all while getting critically needed funds to the campaign and our wounded warriors. Games are the most engaging way to interact with your audience and spread your message. Execuforce is the first game to directly aid campaigns via fundraising and we hope that other people interested in helping these causes will champion this project. We’re a small four man team and we want to help combat the onslaught of corporate money flooding the system. “ – Peter Kojesta, Founder of Exis.

Exis is an Indie game development studio founded in 2003 and creates AAA products for partner studios and publishers. The company is located in Towson, Maryland, directly across the street from Towson University.

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Toronto, Canada – Wave Accounting, the disruptive creators of award-winning free small business accounting and payroll software, announced on September 11 the results of its small business opinion poll on the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. Wave polled the U.S.-based portion of the company’s more than 300,000 customers regarding their opinions on the candidates’ potential impact on small business.

Key findings include:

• On the question, “Who is better for small businesses,” 53% of respondents chose Romney/Ryan, 39% chose Obama/Biden.
• Reducing government red tape is the number one issue for Republican voting respondents, with an overwhelming 90% citing this issue as “crucial.”
• Among voters intending to vote Democrat, the most important issue is improving health care options for small businesses (77% called it “crucial.”)
• Size matters: Support for Romney/Ryan grows as company size grows. 47% of companies with 6-9 employees say they are definitely voting Romney/Ryan, vs. 45% among companies with 2-5 employees, and 43% among one-person businesses.
• Support for the GOP ticket is strongest in the South where 57% of businesses favorRomney/Ryan.

“These insights represent the real opinions of real small businesses in America,” said Kirk Simpson, CEO of Wave Accounting.

Recent “small business” surveys have included opinions from companies with hundreds of employees and many millions in revenue. Because Wave specializes in online solutions for real small businesses with 9 employees or less, the company can access key insights from a unique and significant segment of the market.

“This group makes up 95% of businesses in the U.S., yet their voices are badly underrepresented in media and politics,” said Simpson. “Their opinions and needs are interesting, in some cases unexpected, and deserve to be heard.”

The complete Wave Small Business Opinions Report — 2012 U.S. Presidential Election is available at www.waveaccounting.com/election2012.

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Washington, U.S.A. – Bruce McBarnette, lawyer and real estate investor, is hosting this year the Art for Obama Reception Series in cities all across the country.This series, which was conducted in 45 galleries in 11 cities in eight states in 2008, is raising funds for the Obama campaign.

This year the Series will be hosted at galleries in several cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The next receptions in Washington, DC will be held simultaneously at 6pm-10pm on Saturday, September 8, in Georgetown at the MOCA Gallery, the Parish Gallery, the Alla Rogers Gallery, and the Winter Palace Studio.

On Monday, September 24 there will be another reception in Georgetown at the Addison/Ripley Gallery. At each reception guests can buy art and contribute to the Obama campaign.

“I am so grateful to the many volunteers, artists, and gallery owners across the country who have been donating their time and talent to make the Art for Obama Reception Series so successful,” said Bruce McBarnette, who is president of Summit Connection LLC, a real estate investment company.Bruce McBarnette is well known for hosting charitable social events in Washington, DC for causes ranging from the homeless to disaster relief.

“A good number of people have been reaching out to us on the internet and that has allowed the Series to have a presence in many different places,” said Devlin Francis, owner of Cryptic Vision, the company providing website design and internet support for the Art for Obama Receptions Series.

For information about upcoming Art for Obama receptions and volunteer opportunities, visit http://mcbarnette.com/obama or http://facebook.com/artforobama.

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The big issues of the coming campaign are not in question. The economy, America’s growing debt, unemployment, and the role of entitlements (read: government) in Americans lives are crux of the 2012 battle for the White House. Highlighting the negative results in these areas is Mitt Romney, best hand for winning the election.

Nonetheless, foreign policy issues and threats are looming above America’s head in a big way, and will need to be addressed. The conventional wisdom is that Romney has little foreign policy and relations experience. President Obama’s own lack of experience in this area notwithstanding, his campaign zeroed in on this one reason that Romney is not the right man for job.

Governor and Romney advisor Tim Pawlenty addressed this viewpoint and other foreign policy concerns today in a symposium held by the Foreign Policy Initiative. Moderated by board member and Fox news analyst Bill Kristal, the event gave Pawlenty a forum to address how a Romney Presidency would look like in the area of foreign relations. The big take away from the event was Pawlenty’s view that Romney is on the right track.

“Romney has the right foundational and directional philosophy to make the correct decisions.” Pawlenty followed this up by reminding everyone in attendance that Reagan did not have extensive foreign policy experience. His worldview is what allowed him to be an effective foreign policy President.

Channeling Reagan is something that most, if not all, republicans attempt to do. It does not matter whether it is taxes, the economy, or dealing with America’s challenges abroad. Still, there is a large grain of truth to his statement. Governors of either party seldom have extensive foreign policy and relations experience. Their duties at times lightly touch the area, but their primary function is running their states. The lack of experience has to be made up with study and experienced, sound advisors.

Underlying it all, however, is the philosophy of the person in charge. The President can have a mindset like Carter or Winston Churchill. How he views Americas role and his mindset sets the agenda for who he has as advisers, what diplomacy targets he set, and what he will do and not do with America’s armed forces.

Pawlenty was critical of the philosophy President Obama has taken. “President Obama has decided to lead from behind. To have America take a less active role as leader in the world. That has not worked out well.” Examples given of this view were the “reset with Russia,” as the President calls it, and the missed opportunity in the Iranian uprising.

The financial challenges the country faces are grave, but the potential threats of Iran, Russia, and China are like a Damocles sword above the neck of Uncle Sam. Romney cannot afford to let the view of the President set America’s view of him in this area. The knowledge and philosophy that Pawlenty speaks of must be in full view to the American public. Foreign policy may not be issue one this election cycle, but it still cannot be allowed to be ignored.

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Obama’s campaign released a new ad called “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it,” which explains how the Republican ticket intends to transform Medicare into a voucher system and how Paul Ryan, as Mitt Romney’s running mate, will affect Romney’s success in key battleground states like Florida.

The Democrat’s strategy has focused on inspiring fear among Medicare beneficiaries. It has tried to convince them that if the Republican ticket gets into the White House they would end Medicare in its current form. They have also tried to make Paul Ryan look radical as an architect of a budget plan that would only affect the most vulnerable Americans.

The new Obama ad even had world-famous economist Paul Krugman state that if Medicare is replaced by a voucher system, millions of elderly people would not have the money to afford insurance.

The ad also suggests that Ryan’s plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security could hurt Romney in a state with a large retired population like Florida. The video also asserts that Romney lied when he declared that President Obama was the one who was really destroying Medicare to fund Obamacare by introducing Romney saying that Obama “has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund to pay for Obamacare.” The ad shows a news anchorman saying that benefits to seniors have really increased during Obama’s legislation as proof that Romney’s statement is false.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, wrote a Townhall.com opinion article defending Romney and Ryan’s plan to save Medicare. Priebus wrote that, although Obama does not have a plan to save Medicare, he has taken billions of dollars from it to support Obamacare.

Priebus further explains that Medicare is predicted to go bankrupt in 2024 and the Democrats do not have a plan to save it, adding that they are using an old strategy to instill fear into the minds of senior citizens by lying about the Republican plans, hoping that the truth would not be known before the election.

But one thing that is clear about Ryan is that he has energized the Republican Party’s most conservative wing: 24 hours after his designation the Romney campaign had already received $3.5 million in online donations. And if Ryan could hurt Romney in some states, he would definitely help him in others. As a Tea Party member, Ryan would energize and mobilize Tea Party supporters in other battleground states.

Image Courtesy of   The White House’s photostream [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as the Republican’s Vice Presidential candidate this Saturday. So who exactly is Paul Ryan, and what does this selection tell us about how the Romney campaign and the fight for the Presidency is shaping up to be?

Paul Ryan is the US State Representative for the state of Wisconsin, and also chair of the House Budget Committee. Over the past couple of years his plans for the US budget has been the subject of much conversation and controversy; he mostly talks up the need to cut debt and spending, and the way he seems to want to go about that is through slashing funding for welfare programs, among others. He’s very conservative politically and quite a favorite among the GOP.

Ryan seems to be widely considered very intelligent and competent. Many see him as a rising star, someone young and ambitious, and many have written about how he, in many ways, somewhat overshadows the actual presidential candidate, Romney. His plans are now what’s brought up whenever the policy of the republican presidential candidacy is discussed and he seems to be considerably more charismatic than Romney, who doesn’t seem particularly ideological or at least does not give off the impression of being genuinely passionate about ideology, and is seen as rather bland.

As someone who has made his name almost entirely on policy issues–namely his Ryan plan for the budget–there is widespread expectation that the conversations in this election cycle are finally going to go back to some talk of actual policy instead of mostly mudslinging and generally trying to point out what terrible people the other side are. Though that’s perhaps almost unrealistically optimistic.

Much like Romney and the current Republican Party, he’s anti-abortion and against gay adoption and gay marriage and has a fairly poor record for supporting women’s rights. He also supports further tax cuts for the rich and for businesses, and since taxes on the wealthy won’t be going towards cutting the debt in his plan, he intends on fighting the deficit by cutting government spending in welfare programs and education spending, which means the recipients of these welfare programs are going to be considerably worse off. Namely, the poor and seniors, whose medical care is paid for by the rather intuitively named Medicare.

These exact same stances are very similar to everything that the current Republican party seems to push for and that Romney has presented, so this was a VP pick that was reinforcing those ideas instead of trying to provide something different or appeal to a different angle or set of voters.

So what does this tell us about Romney’s campaign? Well, Romney could really have gone two different angles with his campaign now that he’s almost certainly going to be the Republican candidate for President to run against Obama. He could’ve tried to capture moderate voters who aren’t really very much on one side or the other, who almost undoubtedly, like everyone else in America, are unhappy with the economy as it is right now.

By trying to move a bit more from the right to the center and hoping that with the votes from conservatives and enough of a share from moderates, he could try to win the election. Along those lines, he could’ve even tried to reach out to groups rather alienated by Republican policies like women or Latinos.

However, Romney has never really been popular with conservatives who are the base of the Republican Party; when the primary elections to choose a party candidate to run for President were going on people, seemed to want any other choice, but all of the other options turned out to be too problematic for various reasons.

Earlier in his political career, when he was Governor of his home state of Massachusetts, Romney’s policies had been very different and not very right-wing, but now as he fights for the presidential nomination, he’s had to backtrack on a lot of it, and this gives the impression to a lot of conservatives that he hasn’t been conservative enough in the past. As a result, he’s not too popular among the conservative base.

So by choosing Paul Ryan as his VP pick, he has thoroughly burnished his credentials as a right-wing guy who’d bring about right-wing policy if elected President. This means Romney has decided that the support of an energized and enthusiastic conservative base could be more useful than attempting to win over moderates and risk losing support from the conservatives. Also, he’s doubled down on policies that would be useful to businesses and the rich–less regulation, lower taxes on them–so companies and the wealthy looking out for their own interests are more likely to back him.

Many average Americans are pretty apathetic about politics, an apathy that has only been increasing recently with widespread mistrust of all government. However, conservatives have been pretty fired up lately. He’s made the gamble that an enthusiastic base of people who are going to vote and fund a campaign, as well as guarantee lots of campaign funding from businesses and the rich to go towards ads and campaigning, is going to be more useful than hoping to get the more apathetic moderates to vote for him.

Voting isn’t compulsory in the US, so only 50-60% of eligible voters actually vote, and of course more dedicated groups are more likely to vote. Of course, now the Obama campaign will target those same moderates (already begun–the Obama campaign has been focusing a lot on how they would be so much better for the middle class and for women’s rights) because if enough of them care enough to vote, Obama has a pretty great chance of winning, but that’s the gamble Romney’s made now.

Will Obama be able to inspire those moderates enough to actually vote and convince them that voting for him would be good for them, or will lots of ads and campaigning funded by the wealthy and an enthusiastic base of conservatives who will definitely be going to vote when November rolls around, be enough for Romney to win? We’ll have to see how it plays out over the next three months.

Image Courtesy of  monkeyz_uncle

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Since his designation as Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan has been under a lot of criticism from the Democrats, but his response has not taken long to be heard. In Iowa he criticized the way President Obama has handled the economy for the past four years.

This August 13 during Iowa’s rally, Paul Ryan was dressed for the occasion; he wore jeans, cowboy boots and a red and white checkered shirt. Since his nomination this was the first time Ryan campaigned alone, he was facing thousands of people, but he did well.

Recently in a political rally in Iowa President Obama made hard accusations against Ryan, saying that he blocked a farm bill that would benefit state farmers.  Ryan also had something to say to Obama during another rally in the key-state battleground of Iowa, accusing the president of “spending our children into a diminished future.”

Referring to Obama’s three-day visit to Iowa, Ryan stated: “As you see the president come through in his bus tour, you might ask him the same question that I’m getting asked from people all around America. And that is, ‘Where are the jobs, Mr. President?’” The fact that during his speech Ryan made a direct reference to Obama by suggesting the crowd that if they see the president, they should ask him about where the jobs are, is not a coincidence. President Obama did something similar during his Iowa rally. He told the crowd that if they saw Paul Ryan to tell him how important the farm bill was for Iowa’s rural communities.

Although Ryan made an outstanding appearance in Iowa, the rally was not easy. There were some protesters who interrupted him several times. They were claiming that Ryan was on war with the middle class, and tensions arose to the maximum point when a woman climbed into Ryan’s stage, but she was immediately taken by security forces.  Ryan, to try to cool things down, said that “she must not be from Iowa.”

Iowa is one of the swing states. Obama won it in the 2008 election, but in 2004 Bush won this state, so the Republicans are making a huge effort to regain it. Ryan did not talk about the reform he intends to make in Medicare. In recent days one of the most popular accusations made against Ryan is that he intends to transform Medicare into a voucher system, but in Iowa he did not talk about this controversial issue.

Paul Ryan also intended to avoid Obama’s accusations that he opposed a farm bill that would benefit the rural sector. He said that he “would get into those policy things later,” and stated: “Right now, I just want to enjoy the fair.” But Romney spokesman, Ryan Williams, defended Ryan and Romney on this issue, he stated: “The truth is no one will work harder to defend farmers and ranchers than the Romney-Ryan ticket.”

Image Courtesy of   love4utah [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, is the Republican leader on fiscal and budget issues; he is a seen as a “fiscal hawk.” Ryan is also very popular among the Republican’s most conservative voters.

Ryan is the designer of a new economic plan that intends to drastically decrease government spending, but Romney has taken his distance from Ryan’s plan, which some consider to contain draconian measures. Romney has announced that he respects Ryan’s plan but he has his own plan to reduce the deficit.

Sen. Rick Santorum, one of the nation’s conservative leaders, stated: “Congressman Paul Ryan is an outstanding choice as our country’s next vice president, and today’s announcement demonstrates Governor Romney’s commitment to returning fiscal sanity back to Washington.”

Romney referred to Ryan as a “faithful catholic” who is a supporter of the dignity of every human life. Ryan opposes abortion in all situations. He is definitely supported by the Republican’s most conservative base and would definitely energize them, as they have been very discrete in their support for Romney, and they are one of the Republican’s most important supporters. It is crucial for Romney to have them devoted to his cause in order to win this election.

The Obama campaign has already started to criticize the Republican candidates, claiming they want to take the country back to policies that have already been proven wrong.

The most important thing about Ryan is that he would reinforce Romney’s economic message. He is seen as an economic expert, the contrary of President Obama. That’s why is very important for the Democrats to show that his economic postures are radical and would only benefit the rich.

Obama’s campaign has released an article criticizing the “comeback team,” formed by Ryan and Romney. They explain that both of them support tax cuts for millionaires, that this will lead to tax rises for the middle class, and that the Republican candidates’ plan intends to cut investments in vital areas like education.

The Democrats also explained that Ryan’s budget plan intends to make Bush’s tax cuts for the millionaire permanent, and that he also intends to end Medicare as it is right now. They explain that Ryan’s plan would transform “Medicare into a voucher system which would increase seniors’ health costs by $6,350 a year.” Also, they claim he wants to privatize social security.

The other accusations the Democrats are making against Ryan is that he is a severely conservative man, who would take the country centuries back in reference to women’s health and equal rights. Obama’s campaign explains that Ryan co-sponsored a bill that intends to end in-vitro fertilization and other forms of birth control, and that he is also a supporter of letting states prosecute women and doctors involved in an abortion. They also accuse Ryan of opposing gay marriage.

These are some of the main accusations the Democrats have made against Romney’s running mate; they are trying to make him seem as an enemy of the middle class and women. His position on Medicare could cost the Republicans some votes from the elder people, but he would definitely reinforce Romney’s economic message and will gain conservative support for his position on some of the controversial topics.

Image Courtesy of   bubbablitz

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The most popular buzz in the political world this weekend has to be the revealing of Governor Mitt Romney’s Vice President pick, Paul Ryan. Ryan, Wisconsin’s representative, has been one of the many who were being vetted for Romney’s VP in the past few months. People and the media have been wondering who Romney would pick, whether it would be Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Marco Rubio of Florida, or Rob Portman of Ohio. In the end, on August 11, Romney tweeted:

“I am proud to announce @PaulRyanVP as my VP. Stand with us today. http://mi.tt/Romney-Ryan #RomneyRyan2012″

Ryan, also know as the chair of the House Budget Committee, is known for his fiscal policy. His personal website says that “He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy, Social Security, health care and trade laws.” With a strong background in economics and budget plans, he is a smart addition for the Romney team.

However, the media has much to say about Romney’s decision. Obviously, not everybody is going to love Paul Ryan. Some are saying Ryan is good for the Democrats, that he is “bad for women,” and hates medicare. Many Americans are worried about Ryan’s Medicare plan. Ryan’s budget plan, which is somewhat controversial, intends to to make Medicare something called “premium support,” meaning that the government will offer seniors a set amount of money to spend in a health insurance exchange. This would allow seniors to choose their own private insurance, or use the government-run insurance. Once the senior has a plan, they would have to pay more out of pocket.

Current Vice President, Joe Biden, recently said that “Ryan’s plan to privatize Social Security was irresponsible.” Along with this, CBS news said that, “Ryan, a seven-term congressman and chairman of the House Budget Committee, wants to slice away at Medicare, food stamps and virtually all domestic programs, with military a notable exception.”

Besides fiscal policy, budget plans, and Medicare ideas, the media has also been showing another side of Ryan. Ryan is young, smart, and apparently a fitness buff. The ever so popular internet meme of Ryan has gone viral. Based off of the Ryan Gosling meme, that often starts off with “Hey Girl..” to melt women’s hearts, the Paul Ryan meme is very similar, having some that say “Hey girl, unlike the debt, our love will never hit a ceiling.” The memes have gone viral, and are the topics of many Ryan headlines.

Also headlining for Ryan, is his physique. Politico recently published an article called, “Forget the budget, Paul Ryan is hot.” It details how Ryan is included in the Hill’s top 50 Most Beautiful List and one of the top suggestions for google when one types in Paul Ryan, is “Paul Ryan shirtless.”

Romney’s decision has caused a spark in the political world. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, fiscal policies, internet memes, and pictures of him shirtless will definitely keep him in the media for a while. The question is if his budget plan and six pack will help Romney win the election in November.

Image Courtesy of  monkeyz_uncle (Flickr: DSC_6842) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Priorities USA Action has been one of the Obama campaign’s most important supporters. Priorities USA is an independent expenditure Political Action Committee (PAC) that believes “the stakes for protecting our country’s core values have never been higher as Republicans pursue an agenda that rewards only the wealthiest few at the expense of middle class families.”

The PAC says it advocates for candidates who support economic policies that would create and generate investment in the country, and for candidates who promote fairness and health care access to everyone. Priorities USA Action clearly stated their support for Barack Obama: “We are committed to the reelection of President Obama and setting the record straight when there are misleading attacks against him and other progressive leaders.”

Their sympathy for Obama has traduced a lot of support; they have released several videos criticizing Mitt Romney. The hardest one is called ‘Understands.’  It tells the story of a former worker, Jose Soptic, of a steel plant controlled by Bain Capital in Kansas. Soptic explains how when the plant was closed he lost his health insurance. Then, his wife got sick with cancer and couldn’t be treated on time without insurance, so she died.

Although Soptic is a lifelong Democrat and a union member, Obama’s campaign has tried to distance itself from his story. Spokesman Jen Psaki stated “We don’t have any knowledge of the story of the family.” But the Obama campaign had already used him to tell his story in a conference call with reporters in May.

Another Priorities USA Action ad called ‘Briefcase’ criticizes Romney’s business record, saying that he bought companies and drowned them in debt. Many of them went bankrupt, which consequently led to thousands of jobs lost. The ad claims that for every company that went into bankruptcy, Romney made millionaire profits.  The ad ends stating: “If Romney wins the middle class loses.”

Priorities  USA Action is also against the “Romney Rule,” which would make millionaires pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. For them, it would be a tax plan that would burden the middle class.

Priorities USA Action has been, and will continue being, one of Obama’s major supporters. According to Open Secrets, Center for Responsible Politics, during 2012 PAC has raised nearly $21 million and has spent almost $18 million supporting Obama.

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Mitt Romney’s campaign, in the beginning, was focused on criticizing President Obama for the way he handled the economy during his entire presidency, which Republicans consider to be a complete disaster. However, in recent weeks Romney’s campaign has changed, and has started to criticize Obama in various other aspects. Freedom of religion and the welfare reform are some of the new topics that have appeared in Romney’s campaign.

Many members of the Republican Party have been complaining that economic criticism won’t be enough to take Obama out of the White House. These Republicans think Romney should press Obama in more controversial areas, and that’s what Romney’s latest ads are doing.

The ad called ‘Be not afraid’ accuses President Obama of declaring “war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith.” An example is that catholic sponsored entities like schools have to cover contraceptive methods in their employees’ insurances. The ad says that Mitt Romney is the one who truly “shares your values.” This is an ad dedicated to some of the Republican Party loyalists. The ad’s final statement is very suggestive: “When religious freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with?”

Republican consultant Keith Appell stated “I understand the economy is the top issue, but you don’t want to be so maniacally focused that you ignore everything else.”

He added that “”there’s always a risk of becoming too focused — a horse with blinders — and not seeing some of the other things around you. Campaigns need focus. But there’s something to be said for peripheral vision when you’re trying to hold a coalition together.”

Romney needs to raise the  social conservatives’ enthusiasm and religious voters that preferred a figure like Rick Santorum and have been skeptical with Romney. But, in the end they will vote for him, because they are not willing to vote for Obama. Ads like the religious freedom one are the type of things that will definitely excite the Republican’s conservative base, which has been very quiet during the campaign so far.

Also, a recent Mitt Romney ad called ‘Right choice’ recently accused Obama of trying to gut Clinton’s welfare reform, which required recipients to work to receive welfare. The ad claims that Obama is intending to drop the work requirements. The Obama campaign has defended the accusations with another ad called ‘Blatant.’ ‘Blatant‘ quotes the New York Times and the Washington Post, saying that Romney’s ad accusations are false.

The ad continues saying that what Obama is in fact doing is “getting states to move 20% more people from welfare to work” requirements. The Obama ad quotes Bill Clinton, saying Romney’s ad is “just not true.” Obama’s ad is being shown in seven key-state battlegrounds.

Obama’s campaign counterattack against Romney hasn’t taken long to be seen. An ad called ‘Son of boss,’ which criticizes Romney’s tax record, has been released.  The ad narrator questions how much Mitt Romney has really paid in taxes, whether that be 10%, 5% or 0%. The answer of the narrator is: “We don’t know.”

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Obama for America Campaign Manager, Jim Messina, has released a statement criticizing Paul Ryan selection as Romney’s running mate:

“In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy.

The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors.

As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”

Messina wants to convince the voters that if the Republican ticket gets back to the White House they would repeat the same mistakes that led to the economic crisis.

He also recently posted the Des Moines Register’s editorial in Twitter, which he thinks shows that most Romney plans are unrealistic. The editorial says that is obvious that the welfare check should require work, and that President Obama is not against it. The editorial adds that Mitt Romney is trying to convince the voters that Obama would end work requirements from the welfare check, which is not practical.

The editorial also talks about Iowa, a key state battleground, and how only about 15,000 Iowans receive a monthly check from the government, which only gives them about $334.  The editorial adds that the requirements to qualify for the check have become harder, because in the past almost 12 million people received their welfare check and now only 4 million are beneficiaries.

The editorial also explains that the idea that people are relying on the government just waiting for the state to send them the check is benefiting Romney, that’s why he continues using it.

Messina also tweeted the Denver Post editorial, which is in his same line of thinking, that says that Romney chose a radical candidate. The editorial considers that Ryan’s budget plan is radical.

The main ideas expressed in the editorial are that Ryan’s budget plan would lower Bush tax cuts for the wealthier Americans. The editorial also adds that Ryan intends to transform Medicare into a voucher system.

The Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, has defended Romney and Ryan against the different accusations they have received, Priebus wrote on his Twitter account: “Obama campaign about small things – accusing Romney of being a felon & murderer. Next thing you know, they’ll accuse Romney of eating a dog.”

Image Courtesy of  White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza) (The Official White House Photostream [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Vice president Joe Biden has two main things in common with Paul Ryan, the person who is trying to substitute him. Both are Catholics and both suffered terrible loses when they were young. Ryan lost his father and Biden lost his wife and daughter in a crash in 1972. Also, both men have clear differences in the way they plan to run the country and Biden recently called Ryan’s policies “irresponsible.”

In a political rally in Durham, N.C. Biden said that Romney and Ryan are decent men, but they have very different values from him and Obama. He said their main differences are in education policies, tax issues and government spending. Both Republican and Democrat tickets have very different points of view on how these issues should be handled.

Also, Biden referred to Ryan’s plan to privatize social security as irresponsible. The vice president criticized that Ryan wants to end Medicare and give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Obama, who has been campaigning in the swing state of Iowa, criticized Ryan for blocking a farm bill that could help the farmers get the resources they need. President Obama during a rally in Iowa stated: “If you happen to see Congressman Ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to Iowa and our rural communities,” Obama added “we’ve got to put politics aside when it comes to doing the right thing for rural America and for Iowa.” The Democrats are trying to deflect all the positive attention Ryan could get by making hard accusations on him and trying to prove his budget plan would only favor the wealthy.

On the Medicare issue Romney has defended his running mate, saying that what he intends to do is to preserve Medicare. Romney added that Ryan has different ideas than Obama, and added that “the president’s idea, for example, for Medicare, was to cut it by $700 billion. That’s not the right answer.”

Ryan has also defended the accusations that he would turn Medicare into a voucher system. He said that his mother is a Medicare senior in Florida, and criticized the government by saying that the government made promises to the elderly community, promises with which they have organized their retirement. He added that if the government wants to fulfill those promises it needs to reform Medicare for the younger generation, and that is what he intends to do in order to guarantee a secure future for the elderly.

Romney said that the only president in the nation’s history that has robbed Medicare is Obama. He stated:  ”There’s only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare,” and added that it was going to cost $716 billion to implement his own risky program commonly called Obamacare.

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Paul Ryan has been chosen as Mitt Romney’s running mate in the upcoming US elections. After his nomination he updated his new Twitter account @PaulRyanVp with the following: “I’m honored to join @MittRomney on America’s Comeback Team. http://mi.tt/Romney-Ryan  #RomneyRyan2012.”

Paul Ryan was born in the community of Janesville, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of Joseph A. Craig High School from his home town and earned a degree in economics and political science from Miami University in Ohio.

Ryan has served in Wisconsin’s first congressional district since 1999, but as of August 11, Ryan became the Vice President hopeful in Romney’s campaign.

As the Chairman of the House Budget Committee he gained notoriety by working to bring fiscal deficit and accountability to the government. He is seen as a “fiscal hawk,” representing what some believe Obama is not. He has criticized the exaggerated government spendings of the past years. He proposed a new plan that would eliminate medicare. He plans to change it from an insurance program to one where seniors get government subsidy to buy their own private insurance. Ryan’s ideas are clear: small government and low taxes.

In Ryan’s first speech he first thanked Romney for the opportunity of being his running mate and said that the former government is the leader the country needs during these difficult times. Ryan also introduced his family to the crowd, his wife, his daughter and his two sons.

Paul Ryan is only 42 years old. In his speech he said he is committed to putt his Congress ideas and experience into Romney’s administration. He declared that Romney is the one that would put America back into the prosperity road. Ryan connected easily with the crowd with simple words and stories, for example he told a story about his dad who died when he was young. He told that his dad always said: “Son, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.” He added that Barack Obama has become part of the problem and Romney is the solution.

The Republican nominee also admitted that Obama did not inherit a good economic situation, but he explained that during the first two years in which the Democrat’s where in control of Congress and in which Obama was able to pass nearly “every item in his agenda, but that didn’t make things better.” Ryan criticized Obama’s economic management, saying that his has been “the worst economic recovery in 70 years, unemployment has been above 8% for more than three years, the longest run since the Great Depression.”

Ryan also said that the U.S. has now the biggest deficit and the largest government since WWII, and said that Obama’s government has a record of failure. He also criticized Obama for not being willing to make difficult decisions to fix the country because he is only thinking about the next election.

Ryan also made a declaration that pleased the conservatives. He said that our “rights come from nature and God, not from government.” He added that “this idea was founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed.” Paul Ryan said that this idea is now under assault, freedom and security are being threatened and Ryan promised that if they were elected they “won’t replace the founding principles, they would reapply them.”

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Perhaps the largest minority voting bloc with the biggest impact are Hispanics. Hispanics have quickly become one of the largest demographics in the United States and in recent years have grown significantly in size. In North Carolina alone from 2000 to 2010 the Hispanic population grew 111%. Battleground states that will be determined by only a few hundred votes will make the Democrats and Republicans rely heavily on minority groups such as Hispanics.

However, 58% of Hispanics are unable to vote either because of their citizenship status or their age. Hispanics are also one of the youngest groups in the US with 50,000 Hispanics becoming 18 every month.

Hispanics tend to be liberal leaning but they are not a cohesive voting bloc like other minority groups, and are more likely to vote for a candidate they like than a party. Although all of them may be Hispanic that is where many of the similarities end since many will have different political views based on native country, age, or residence in the US according to The National Journal.

Currently Hispanics support Obama (66%) far more than they support Romney (25%), although 9% are undecided. Hispanics also supported Obama in 2008 at about the same rate as they seem to be for this election. However, Obama’s white voter base has shrunk slightly by 5%.

According to a recent Gallup Poll Immigration, Healthcare, and Unemployment are equally important to the Hispanic voter. In comparison, other registered voter groups have immigration coming in last of issues they deem important. According to Latino Decision immigration is ranked as a higher issue of concern among Latinos from border states like New Mexico.

There are at least twelve of fifteen swing states in which the Hispanic vote will be highly significant. Last presidential election, some of these swing states went to Obama because of the Hispanic vote including Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Virginia, Indiana, and Florida.

And the Hispanic influence will only grow in politics. Robert Suro, Professor of Journalism and Public Policy at the University of Southern California stated, “the discussion of the Latino voter is the discussion of the future of politics, not about this cycle. Where this cycle can have a big difference [is how it] casts trajectories into the future.”

This projection still has not prevented Obama and Romney from catering to the Hispanic vote this year. Hispanic voters are fairly active with 87% of responders in a Latino Decision survey in Florida saying they will definitely be voting in the next election. However, registered Florida Hispanics have declined by ten percent since 2008.

Hispanics face their difficulties in getting to the voting booths this year as well. In Florida Governor Rick Scott is working to purge Florida voter rolls of all who are suspected of being non-citizens by comparing the voter registration rolls to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles’ records. So far at least 180,000 have been flagged as possible non-citizens, 58% of whom are Hispanics and 79% who are registered as Democrats or ‘no-affiliation.’

The Miami Herald reported that in Miami Dade county thirteen registered voters were not citizens and only two had voted in previous elections.

The United States Department of Justice has ordered Rick Scott to stop the voter purges. Although the purges will have a marginal effect on the number of voters it is still expected to affect the mentality of voters and their turnout according to Latino Decision.

Obama leads Romney in the polls, but there are several aspects of his record during his time as president that could hurt his chances. Obama promised to introduce an immigration reform bill in his first year but he still has not. Obama has also been the most aggressive president in regards to deportations since the 1950s. Obama has deported 1.2 million Latinos, 46,000 of whom are parents of American citizens. Since April 2009 until now Obama’s approval rating has dropped 36 points among Latinos.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, seems even worse for Hispanic voters. He has stated that he wants life in the US to be so difficult for illegal immigrants they will self-deport. However, taking Marco Rubio, a Hispanic Senator from Florida, as his Vice President would significantly aid Romney in his campaign, bringing over more of the Hispanic vote.

Obama has won over several Hispanic voters with his executive order that put parts of the Dream Act into effect – a move that 91% of young Hispanics supported. In the process Obama prevented the deportation of nearly a million people brought here as children. Obama stated that these individuals are Americans “in every single way but one: on paper.”

“This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix. This is a temporary, stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to … patriotic young people. It’s the right thing to do.”

This order is not the DREAM Act exactly because only Congress can pass that but it does allow young Hispanics brought here illegally to have a better chance at getting a job and going to college because they can now get work and study visas. Before this executive order these individuals could not get financial aid for college or be legally employed in the United States. Representative Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, has said that he would challenge the law in court.

The New York Times called the DREAM Act executive order a ‘play’ for more votes from the Hispanic voting bloc. A claim that is not all that far-fetched.

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Swing states, or those with undefined political preferences, will decide who will be the next president of the United States. In the 2008 election President Obama obtained 365 electoral votes, when only 270 are needed to become president. The result proved his overwhelming success compared to the previous President George W. Bush, who only obtained 286 electoral votes in the 2004 election. But in November, reelection will not be that easy for President Obama because of the swing states.

In the 2008 election, Barack Obama won back crucial states to the Democrats, such as Florida or North Carolina, which had been in Republican control since the 2000 elections. But this could change this year; the Republicans want to regain control of Florida and hosting the Republican Convention there is proof of it. The Democrats want to remain in control of North Carolina, explaining why they organized their convention in Charlotte.

President Obama’s road to reelection will not be an easy one. Although the last two presidents have achieved reelection, the economic crisis has weakened Barack Obama, and that’s why Mitt Romney will have a chance, since he is seen as someone who knows how to handle economic problems. A recent Gallup poll shows that 60% of the people surveyed said Romney would do a good job handling the economy over the next four years; 52% said president Obama would.

The recent Gallup poll showed in which aspects Mitt Romney is stronger, but it also shows his weak points: he doesn’t generate enthusiasm from his voters and he hasn’t been able to establish a strong connection with the people. The results of the poll show it, and Obama is perceived as a much more likeable candidate with an advantage of over 27 points against Romney.

USA Today/Gallup lists twelve states that can determine this election: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

One state that is not considered a swing state, but could become one at any moment, is Arizona. In the U.S. electoral history this state has only voted for the Democratic Party once since President Truman, but the number of independent voters has grown in recent years in this state. This scenario makes Mitt Romney’s victory uncertain because there are a large number of undecided voters waiting to hear proposals, and that’s why closed elections are expected.

An interesting case of another closed state is New Mexico. In the 2008 election President Obama won with 56.7% of the votes. The Hispanic vote was decisive in this state, but the Arizona Republican Governor Susana Martinez, who has high approval ratings, and the economic crisis, has given Mitt Romney a slight chance to win this state.

The swing states are the ones that will determine the election. If the electoral votes for each one of them are summed up, there are 150 electoral votes, and if Arizona is added, which may become a swing state at any moment, that brings it up to 161 electoral votes that don’t have a clear destiny: they may go Republican or Democrat. The only thing certain about this election is that it would be a close race and if Obama wins, it may not be a comfortable victory like in 2008. Both candidates will have to work hard to achieve the magic number of electoral votes: 270.

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Senator Marco Rubio is the rising star of the Republican Party. He is seen as the best hope to bring Hispanic voters back to the party they abandoned in the 2008 election, in which, almost two-thirds voted for Barack Obama. But in the 2012 elections things might be different, Senator Rubio is trying to persuade the Latino voters that Mitt Romney would not follow the Arizona example, referring to the immigration law. That’s why he has become a serious option for vice president, and, who knows, if in the future he might be an option for president.

It seems that Mr. Rubio wants to show the world that the Republican Party would be more permissive with illegal immigrants. This is an important move, because if the Republicans are unable to convince the Hispanic population to vote for Romney they could lose crucial states like Florida, Colorado and Nevada.

Mitt Romney knows it and trusts that Mr. Rubio would be the man who would balance the forces and bring back the Hispanic vote to the Republican Party. In recent declarations Senator Rubio criticized the Democrat Party position over immigration, he stated that ” there are many in the Democratic Party that want immigration to be unsolved issue at least for the time being, because it’s more useful as a campaign issue than it is as a solved issue.”

The Hispanic Vote has become crucial in this election; it forced Mitt Romney to change the position he had in the primaries, in which he criticized Governor Rick Perry for granting in-State tuition to Texas universities to immigrants, to a much more permissive posture, in which he said he would consider a new version of the Dream Act. Congress voted down the Act in 2012, which supposedly will be proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio.

Senator Rubio is in favor of giving nonimmigrant visas to young illegals that were brought to the United States by a certain date, a date that for now is unknown, as long as they have graduated from high school and haven’t committed any crime. Andrea Saul, a spokesman for Mitt Romney’s campaign, said: “Governor Romney will study and consider any proposal on immigration from his republican partners,” to show that Senator Rubio’s proposals will be heard.

President Obama also knows of how crucial the Hispanic vote will be in this election, that’s why a few weeks ago he passed the Dream Act by an executive order, this will temporally make almost 800,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children safe from deportation. This does not mean these individuals can apply for their citizenship. Senator Rubio criticized president Obama´s action affirming that it was “an election-year action that in the long-term is going to have negative consequences.”

The battle to gain the support from the Hispanic voters has begun. Both parties know very well how crucial this segment of the population will be in the November election. A recent Gallup shows that president Obama has over 65% of Hispanic voters support. So now we just have to wait and see if the Republican Party is able to regain their trust. They have already chosen Marco Rubio to fulfill this difficult task; if he succeeds, there is a big chance that in the future he might become the Republican candidate for the White House.

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Outside of the U.S., if you read the book “Diplomacy” by Henry Kissinger, you realize that Democrats and Republicans do not follow parallel or even similar foreign policies.

On November 6, 2012, the colors of red and blue will once again confront to each other and spearheading the event will most likely be President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Two different schools of thought, fighting to occupy a seat in the White House. It could bring a complete change in American foreign policy and consequently spread to affect the policies of their allies.

Foreign policy of a powerful nation has repeatedly throughout history proven to have great influence in the countries that surround it. In Spain, they know through experience that the support of the right-wing President, Jose Maria Aznar, in the Iraq war contributed to the final result of the Spanish elections and allowed the Socialist party to win the Presidential post, despite popular beliefs.

And the trend goes the other way around too – who knows if the Arab Spring and President Obama’s support of the people in the Arab world will have built relations that could influence new movements in the future.

Even though the Republicans have always had a more clear foreign policy, while Democrats have had a more changing vision, it seems that many trust President Obama’s foreign policy so far. Obama’s vision of the world helped him win his first elections by declaring his opposition of the war in Iraq.

That could happen again. Even today Obama’s supporters give him credit for his fight against terrorism and for inspiring democracy in the Arab world: Osama Bin Laden, Anuar al Aulaki, and Muamar Gaddafi are out of the game, Al Qaeda is against the ropes, and three Middle Eastern countries have begun the transition into democracy. Last but not least, no more American soldier will die in Iraq after this year, and a date has been fixed for the complete removal of American troops from Afghanistan.

In spite of all the good results yielded by the Obama administration’s foreign policy, the flipside is ever present. Republicans accuse President Obama of compromising American interests in the Middle East by supporting the Arab Spring and other movements for uprising. Some are also criticizing Obama for not supporting the movement until it was clear that success was within reach.

It has been further questioned why there is no support for democratic movements in other dictatorial regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen or Bahrain, all traditional allies of the U.S.A.

It is still widely recognized that the American support to democracies in the Middle East could open up new opportunities for the United States and its relations with Arab countries. Still, it is to be seen if the American people can agree with this policy in the long run and value it when they vote this fall.

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The economic crisis batters a great part of the world. Countries that used to live the “American dream” now witness how the extensive wave of revelry and happiness has come to an end. Spain is one of the many countries that lived above their possibilities. The Spanish downturn has given rise to an excessive increase of unemployment and has been the perfect excuse for politicians to pull out their scissors and begin cutting public spending from their welfare state.

The Spanish people, who watch how the youth unemployment is more than 50 percent, have not taken long to point their fingers at the politicians. Spanish citizens accuse politicians of being responsible for the country’s irreversible state, which they believe is inevitable as a result of the electoral system, where only two teams play.

It is quite the opposite in the United States. Criticisms about the political ‘duel’ have not yet arrived. As a matter of fact, some citizens are proud of it. They say that in the United States, presidential elections gather the many political and social aspects that characterize this country. However, critics against the electoral system, such as Occupy Wall Street, have indeed begun to be heard and could amplify if the situation worsens.

Since George Washington set the foundations, the United States has visibly favored a two-party system, made up of two blocks in Congress. Supporters of this system see it as a way to preserve the democratic health of the country. Perhaps they may be right, but it is also true that reducing the possibilities to solely black and white might not be the best example of a democracy.

It is inarguable that in the elections more than two candidates are represented. However, these dissidents are hardly given any voice in comparison to the two giants. As if that were not enough, their campaigns seem ridiculous when judged against the big parties’ greatly funded campaigns.

In previous elections, most of the media hardly had any say about third party candidates, such as McKinney, who was parliamentary of the United States for many years, or Nader, the activist who presented himself as independent and who ended up being attacked about his credibility and pride.

The media should try to balance the budgetary instability of the current plutocratic regime and avoid instructing anyone with phrases like, “Voting for a candidate that is not a Democrat or Republican is a waste of your vote.” Let us remember that democracy is not a political calculation, but simply a way of expressing one’s support for a leader. Journalists, who are guarantors of freedom, should attempt to treat all parties fairly.

Image Courtesy of  Pete Souza (Source; Story) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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When taking a look at the United States’ history, you learn that it is a country built by immigrants. This cultural mix has brought the country to a point so high that the fathers of the Constitution could have never imagined it. Today, South Americans are the ones going into the so-called ‘Land of Opportunities’, and they are doing so very rapidly.

The latest census data indicated that in 2008, there were around 46.7 million documented Hispanics residing in the U.S., which represents more than 15 percent of the U.S. population. Of this, about 18 million voters are registered to vote. With presidential elections just around the corner and with the growing Hispanic population, it appears that these citizens will play a predominant role in the elections since they constitute such a large number of voters.

In the 2008 elections, over 60 percent of Hispanics voted for Obama, motivated by his promises of immigration reform. Today, many of them feel disappointed and cheated because they think that Obama will not follow through, especially since Democrats lost their hegemony in the House of Representatives. Neither have they forgotten that under a President Obama mandate, there have been more illegal immigrants deported than ever.

However, different surveys indicate that the vast majority of Latinos will vote for President Obama again, not because they are happy with what he has done, but to punish the Republicans, who they accuse of being anti-illegal immigrant. Arizona is one of the “anti-illegal immigrant” bastions. It was there the controversial SB1070 law was approved. This could bring overwhelming Latino support for Obama in Arizona, which could be lethal against Romney’s aspirations.

Romney is not doing much to obtain the support of this part of the electorate. He supports the Arizona law and seems to refuse the Dream Act law. Today, Latinos are nearly 16 percent of the country, and in 2050, they will make up about 30 percent, so Republicans must change their illegal immigration policy if they want more votes.

The first step has been given by the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, who has Cuban roots. An immigration bill that he says is a “humanitarian mission” and that he plans to promote is the way to win over an electorate that seems to only trust Obama nowadays .

In every presidential election since 1992, the Republican Party has won about one quarter of the Latino vote, while the Democratic Party has received at least half of the support of this community. The remaining 25 percent is at stake. Who will win the election in 2012?

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Super Tuesday, which stands as a litmus test for candidates’ prospective national electability, is the day when ten states hold their Republican primaries. A new infographic from consumer research firm Scarborough reveals insights into American adults who are registered to vote, self-identify as Republican and “always” vote in elections. These Republican Voters make up more than one-quarter (28%) of the American adult population and they are a key piece of the GOP voter block.

Scarborough’s Super Tuesday infographic reveals that Republican Voters are 34% more likely than all Americans to listen to news/talk/information radio formats, 10% more likely to read the Sports section of the newspaper and 26% more likely than all Americans to watch Religious television programs.

Though other formats might be more widely listened to, read or watched, the aforementioned media types draw the interest of the highest concentration of Republican Voters. By pinpointing Republican Voters’ media consumption, marketers can tailor their campaigns to situate themselves in the minds of this target demographic.

Republican Voters are 60% more likely than all Americans to contribute to a political organization and 42% more likely to contribute to a religious one. The environmentally-friendly activities that are popular with Republican Voters are recycling glass, paper, plastic (67%) and electronics (33%), as well as purchasing locally grown food (32%).

By identifying how Republican Voters can be reached and revealing activities and organizations that matter most to them candidates and their teams can plan grassroots campaigns with optimal reach and efficiency in the areas and mediums that best capture the Republican Voters’ attention.

The top local markets for American adults who self-identify as Republican, that fall within the states that are holding Super Tuesday primaries, are Tulsa (31%), Oklahoma City (30%) and Cincinnati (27%). Once Super Tuesday concludes and an official Republican frontrunner is clear, the rest of the top Republican markets will be back in the spotlight as the election year continues. Overall, the top local markets for Republicans are Harrisburg, PA (34%); Tulsa, OK (31%); and Salt Lake City (31%).

More information on Republican Voters can be found in the infographic issued by Scarborough and is available for download at www.Scarborough.com/FreeStudies.php

Continue the dialogue with Scarborough over Twitter by reaching out to @ScarboroughInfo using hashtag #SuperTuesday and be sure to visit it on Facebook at Facebook.com/ScarboroughResearch.

To obtain additional reports regarding American behavior by political affiliation, please contact Brad Sherer, Manager of Stat Shop Services, at brad.sherer@scarborough.com.

This data is from Scarborough USA+, Release 2 2011. Scarborough measures 210,000 adults aged 18+ annually across a wide variety of media, lifestyle, shopping and demographic categories.

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With about ten days to go before the next primaries in the Republican race for the nomination, all four remaining Republicans are losing to President Obama by between 8 and 17 points. As the race narrows down to the final candidate, just half of Americans (51%) say they are satisfied with the choices available to them for President while more than two in five (44%) are not satisfied.

Independents are the most dissatisfied with over half (55%) saying they are not satisfied with the choices while two-thirds of Democrats (68%) are satisfied. Republicans are more split as half are satisfied (52%) and 44% are not satisfied. But the Republican satisfaction is soft with just 13% very satisfied and 39% saying they are only somewhat satisfied. These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,056 adults surveyed online between February 6 and 13, 2012 by Harris Interactive 

Head to head match-ups

If the presidential election were held today, 46% of Americans would vote for President Obama, 37% would vote for Mitt Romney and 17% are not at all sure. Last month, two in five U.S. adults (43%) said they would vote for President Obama while 39% said they would vote for Mitt Romney.

Among Independents, it’s a slightly closer race with 43% voting for the President and 37% voting for the former governor and 46% of adults in the 2012 Swing States (Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia) would vote for President Obama and 39% would vote for Mitt Romney.

Ron Paul may not be in the fight for front-runner, but he actually makes it a slightly tighter race as 45% of Americans would vote for President Obama and 37% would vote for the Congressman while 18% are not at all sure. Among Independents, Paul is ahead 42% to the President’s 40% but in the 2012 Swing States the President is ahead 45% to 41% for Paul.

He may be jockeying for front-runner status but the former Senator from Pennsylvania is more than ten points behind the President. Almost half of Americans would vote for President Obama (47%) while 35% would vote for Rick Santorum and 18% are not at all sure. Among Independents, 44% would vote for President Obama and 35% for Santorum with 20% not at all sure. In the 2012 Swing states, 46% would vote for the President while 40% would vote for Santorum.

Finally, if the election was held today, half of Americans (50%) would vote for President Obama and one-third for Newt Gingrich (33%) with 18% not at all sure. Among Independents, President Obama leads Newt Gingrich 47% to 32% with 20% not at all sure and among people in the 2012 Swing states President Obama leads Newt Gingrich 48% to 36% with 16% not at all sure.

So What?

The Republican primary continues to be a road full of twists and turns and the main benefactor to these constant changing stories is President Obama. In each of these four races the President has expanded his lead. The question is what happens when the primary race is over and the Republicans have decided on a candidate. If that happens quickly, he will have time to make the race close, but the longer the primary goes, the shorter the general election timeframe becomes.

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between January 25 and 27, 2012 among 2,099 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.

Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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The big Republican names were all at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., last week: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Sarah Palin. The three-day conference, known as CPAC and hosted by the American Conservative Union, drew about 11,000 participants and 1,300 journalists, who crammed into the Marriott’s ballroom for the big speeches.

While most attention focused on Republican presidential hopefuls and other party luminaries, we opted to take a spin around panels and events devoted to fundraising. They were a window into how money might be raised this election cycle, through new-fangled super PACs and their even more opaque nonprofit sidekicks, as well as through more old-fashioned tactics.

One conference panel — “What’s Up With Campaign Finance?” — featured some of the lawyers who helped win the recent court decisions, such as Citizens United, that cleared the way for the new, more free-wheeling campaign-finance landscape.

At one point, moderator and lawyer Dan Backer predicted the eventual overhaul of the Federal Election Campaign Act of the 1970s, which he crowed “has been brutalized and made Swiss cheese by the courts, thanks to the folks on this panel.”

At another point, panelist Benjamin Barr, a constitutional lawyer, joked about the hoopla over Citizens United and the worry that it would lead to a campaign-finance “apocalypse.” ”If there’s an apocalypse upon us, I suppose we have the four horsemen of the apocalypse right here,” he said, as a few audience members laughed.

Election lawyer Stephen Hoersting, vice-president and co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Competitive Politics, who has recently joined Backer’s firm, told the audience about the various ways for grassroots groups to be involved in the upcoming election. If they want to be directly involved in a campaign, they can start a traditional political action committee, which puts strict limits on how much they can raise or donate.

If activists want to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, they can form a super PAC, as long as they don’t technically coordinate with a candidate — and as long as their donors are willing to be disclosed.

But to have both unlimited and undisclosed donations, Hoersting noted, activists can form a so-called 501(c)4, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code on social-welfare nonprofits. They must convince the IRS that their organization’s primary purpose is social welfare, not politics. And they also must not run afoul of the perpetually paralyzed FEC.

“If you absolutely cannot have any of your donors disclosed, there’s still a way to get an organization up off the ground, by say, April, to get money into it and to run ads that will influence…the election, but isn’t technically something that the FEC gets its hooks into,” Hoersting told the audience of about 75 people. “New organizations that don’t want to disclose, there is a way—but you have to run your ads in a certain way.”

Also at the panel, Bradley Smith, a former FEC commissioner and the co-founder and chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, which advocates eliminating campaign-finance restrictions, told the room that he wasn’t particularly worried about foreign money coming into U.S. campaigns. Foreign contributions are illegal in the U.S.

“If the Colombian Chamber of Commerce wants to spend a little bit of money to run some ads saying, ‘Vote for this guy because he supports the Colombian-American free-trade pact,’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, that sounds good to me,’” Smith said. “I’m just not frightened that some English citizens are going to run some ads in the country, and I’m not really terribly concerned that the Syrians run their ads saying, ‘We need stronger terrorist organizations,’ and that that’s going to be just a real winner for anybody. It doesn’t worry me.”

Hoersting tripped up the audience by playing a kind of super PAC quiz game. In doing so, he was highlighting how similar all the groups sounded. He said he wanted a group—and a name—that actually stood for ideological values.

“Right now we have Winning Our Future,” Hoersting reminded the crowd, some of whom were so devoted to the conservative conference, they traveled from across the country. “Whose PAC is Winning Our Future?”

“Mitt Romney,” a few suggested. “Gingrich,” said others.

“Gingrich, OK,” Hoersting confirmed. “Who’s Restore Our Future?”

“Romney,” a few said, correctly. “Ron Paul,” one man announced, wrongly.

“OK,” Hoersting said, without naming the winner. (To see which candidate the super PAC supports, just look at the photos on their front page.)

One super PAC was unveiled at the conference, Hispanicvote.com. About 40 people crammed into a side room for the kick-off party, which featured a tower of cupcakes and a cash bar that may have been a fundraising tactic. A can of soda ran $5.

American Crossroads, a super PAC that has been referred to as the “shadow” Republican National Committee and hopes to raise $300 million with its nonprofit partner this election cycle, threw a cocktail party for bloggers, where president Steven Law made a joke about the group being a “little super PAC.” Here, the bar was open.

The conference, which meandered through the sprawling lobbies and meeting rooms of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, was no place for so-called RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only. It was a place where Reagan was invoked like a verb, where there was a party called “Reaganpalooza;” where booths sold pink tank tops with the black outline of a pistol and the phrase “I Don’t Dial 911;” where The Great American Tea Party board game asked the question: “Who Says Politics Can’t Be Fun?”

Supporters of Gingrich, Romney and Santorum vied for space, along with a man dressed up in a fat suit and a green T-shirt proclaiming, “Big Govt Gary.” Instead of the Sierra Club, there was the Safari Club, which advocated for accommodating laws for hunters. There was also the Resourceful Earth, which promises to fight “for the right to develop the natural resources that create jobs and prosperity in America.”

Bruce Eberle, wearing a Ronald Reagan lapel button for his panel, “Fundraising Secrets from the Billion $ Man,” said many aspects of persuading donors to give big hadn’t changed post-Citizen United. Fundraisers still have to summon up the nerve to ask for a bit more than is comfortable.

“Donors actually like to be challenged,” he said. “Make them stretch a little bit.”

Eberle has raised money for everyone from Reagan to recent Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain. He described how he might ask a prospective contributor for a big check.

“I would like to ask you, ‘Would you make a gift of $250,000?” Eberle said to his imaginary donor. “And then, this is one of the very hardest things…You make the ask, and then you shut up.”

 by Kim Barker, ProPublica, Feb. 13, 2012, 5:34 p.m.

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Konstantin Zavinovsky: ”Russia could risks losing its sovereignty and identity in result of protests.” Russia could face losing a hard earned identity, destabilization and come out a weakened country if ‘outside supported’ protests should continue says ‘Geopolitics’ editor Zavinovsky.

Last December, as the first protests of the Russian opposition were taking place, U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain challenged Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by predicting a wave of the so-called “Arab Spring” in Russia. In fact, despite being a phenomenon caused by socio-political situations in the particular countries concerned, the so-called “Arab Spring” has not evolved without outside interference.

It obviously comprises of some elements resembling what are known as the “color revolutions” that have deprived a number of countries of their national sovereignty and historic identity. These revolutions take their name after a particular variety of brand names, usually referring to a color or a flower and easily identifiable by the public, which reveals the involvement of highly skilled public relations experts.

The most notorious among these “color revolutions” have occurred in Georgia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia, with less successful attempts in other countries as well, such as Belarus. The countries involved are almost always ex-Soviet republics, or other states ruled by governments that are on friendly terms with Russia.

The aim seems to be to replace these governments with new ones that would be hostile to Moscow and allied to Washington as it is from there that the funding as well as technical support – “stage direction” – comes from.

There are currently 5 candidates running in the presidential elections in Russia, and the one who is to become the head of state will be responsible not only for the destiny of Russia itself, but also for the stability of its international relations. ”Prokhorov’s potential victory in the March elections; a US-style liberal, would mean the success of the “snow revolution” – or perhaps “frost” which, in turn, could lead to bringing Russia into the hands of the United States” claims Zavinovsky.

”Prokhorov, a successful manager, would run the country as an enterprise or a business according to the logic of the market, but not as a state that needs well-defined social policies. In the case of a win by Communist party member Zyuganov, the threat to national sovereignty would be eliminated, but likewise would be the prospect for economic growth of Russia, as Zyuganov is nothing but the residue of the communist past that made the Russian economy militarized and backward.

With Zyuganov as president, the international equilibrium would be broken, since he is not disposed for a constructive dialogue with the U.S. Mironov is a supporter of the protest and, as he stated yesterday, he is prepared to include Alexei Navalny, one of the main architects of the opposition in the streets, into his government.

So, if the former Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia becomes President of the Russian Federation, his government would comprise of a man whose activity has been funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the NGO linked to the CIA and the U.S Congress.

Zhyrinovsky is a nationalist and a bitter enemy of the United States, so in case of his victory, he would do away with all the opposition funded by the U.S., but his nationalism would make it impossible to hold a dialogue at the international level on the basis of equality.As a result, Putin seems to be the only Russian politician capable of ensuring the sovereignty and independence of his country in the face of external threats and at the same time he is ready for a constructive dialogue with other international players.

Which is confirmed by the words of the U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul in his interview to the Russian daily “Kommersant “, in which he declares his readiness to proceed with the “reset” of US-Russian relations, if Putin is elected president in the elections the 4th of March.”

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A recent poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre shows that despite protests ahead of the Russian presidential elections in March, Putin retains overwhelming popularity amongst the voters.

According to the quantitative study released in January, 52 percent of those polled claim that they would vote for Vladimir Putin if the elections were held tomorrow, with Ziuganov and Zhirinovsky lagging behind with the support of 11 percent and 9 percent of potential voters respectively.

Only 16 percent say that they would under no circumstance vote for Putin, and Putin is also rated as the most trustworthy of all Russian politicians, with his closest rival being the incumbent President Dimitry Medvedev.

It was also found that among those involved in the December protests, a fifth are as yet unsure of who they will vote for in the upcoming elections, whilst Yavlinsky and Prokhorov were each the preferred candidate for 17 percent of the protesters.

Valery Fedorov, the general director of VTsIOM, commented: “It is clear that there is no obvious alternative to Putin, even for those vehemently opposing his candidacy for President. The opposition is extremely heterogeneous and has little shared vision for the country’s future. This is reflected in the confusion of the Russian public.”

It was further found that the protestors felt secure about their financial well-being. A third regarded their standard of living as good or very good, and only 9 percent were dissatisfied with their current economic well-being. This echoes the general sentiment among the Russian population. Fedorov adds: “With the Russian economy registering year-on-year growth, Russia is weathering the financial crisis far better than its neighbors in Europe.

“The results show that despite the crisis in the Eurozone, 58 percent of Russians say they believe that their standard of living will improve in 2012. At the advent of the financial crisis in 2009, only 48 percent of Russians were optimistic about their future. The ten percent rise in optimism can be accredited to the stability of the Russian economy.”

The Presidential elections will be held on March 4, only a few months after the results of the general elections brought thousands of protesters onto the streets of Moscow. The protesters questioned the margin by which the ruling United Russia party won the elections and claimed that election rigging had taken place. United Russia continues to hold a majority in the State Duma.

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