Welcome, friends. The purpose of this regular series is to promote enthusiasm and action among Daily Kos members. Romney will very likely out-fundraise President Obama. However, we believe that we can still win if (1) we can remain competitive financially, and (2) we volunteer our time and energy (GOTV, canvassing, phonebanking, LTE, ...).
ObamaNightlyNews posts every night at 9:00 ET, 8:00 CT, 7:00 MT, 6:00 PT
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David Corn with the Earthshaking video
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.
David Brooks
Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?
It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America
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Pure Panic revealed by TPM
In case you missed it, here’s video of Romney’s hastily called press conference this evening. Not pretty. Basically dodged the questions, said he stood by what he said in the video without quite saying what it was.
May I offer a point : David Axelrod, according to David Plouffe in his excellent book, The Audacity to Win, asks the question : "How many more bricks can the wagon carry ?" The reason that the inartful expression by then Senator Obama did not catch hold was because it did not ring true to the public.
On the other hand, Willard Mitt Romney was born on third base. Every voter knows this. He is worth at least $250 million. And his tax policies help himself and his fellow wealth units. His policies would hurt the middle class and the poor. The public understands that President Obama looks out for the middle class and the poor. They rightly already believed / suspected that Willard could not care less about the middle class or the poor. This statement to those donors, then, fits the narrative already established in the minds of most voters about Willard. I can only conclude that the wagon could not carry this last brick.
The irony burns with this one
TPM on what David Corn unearthed
The Obama campaign called the clip “shocking.”“It’s shocking that a candidate for president of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement. “It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” Romney said, according to the Mother Jones transcript. “That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what … These are people who pay no income tax.”
Let's just think about part of this statement for a second. Yes, the two universes are different. Can he drawn a Venn diagram ? Well, I doubt it.
But let's get to some of the meat here. "They are entitled to health care, to food, to housing. " Does Willard believe that some Americans are not entitled to food ? Does Willard believe that some Americans should starve to death ? Does Willard believe that some Americans should be homeless ? Will he answer in the affirmative to these questions ? If he answers in the affirmative, then he further reveals what a heartless and callous individual he is.
If he cannot answer affirmatively (political poison), then his statement is pointless.
And he believes that Americans are entitled to food and housing (cf Phillipians 4).
But he linked those two with health care. Now, this linking is correct. However, it reveals some very muddled thinking on his part. Tens of thousands of people die every year due to lack of health insurance. But he is not even referring to health insurance. He is referring to medical care. Now, if he believes that some Americans are not entitled to medical care, then logically he believes that the policy that Emergency Room Care cannot be denied to those in medically emergency even if they cannot pay is wrong. And presumably, he would act to change it.
Furthermore, he would oppose Medicare. And he does (see below).
And the link is important. One cannot live without food. One cannot live long without shelter. They are necessities for life. Whatever is true of those two, in Willard's mind, must be true of health care. Either all three are necessary entitlements. Or none of them are. It turns out that all three are necessary for life, sooner or later.
And then we have more evidence of mental muddle due to RomneyCare in Massachusetts wherein he implies health care was a right that all citizens were entitled to, not just a privilege for some.
Willard is not a clear thinker. He is incoherent. His math / logical skills are completely undeveloped. We are listening to the rantings of a mad man.
Wealth units like him should be banished from the country as an example to the others.
Ezra: Willard's campaign is in trouble
There are two sure signs a campaign is in trouble. The first is that it begins changing its strategy rapidly and erratically. The second is that it begins attacking its strategists fiercely and anonymously.
The Romney campaign is in trouble.
While reading a book, Ezra concludes :
But the most surprising of Erikson and Wlezien’s results, and the most dispiriting for the Romney campaign, is that unlike the conventions, the debates don’t tend to matter. There’s “a fairly strong degree of continuity from before to after the debates,” they write. That’s true even when the trailing candidate is judged to have “won” the debates. “Voters seem to have little difficulty proclaiming one candidate the ‘winner’ of a debate and then voting for the opponent,” Erikson and Wlezien say.
Gallup agrees. The august polling firm reviewed the surveys it did before and after every televised presidential debate and concluded they “reveal few instances in which the debates may have had a substantive impact on election outcomes. “
The Romney campaign tends to point to two elections to show how its candidate could win this thing. There’s 1980, when Jimmy Carter supposedly led Ronald Reagan until the debates, and 1988, when Michael Dukakis was leading by 13 points after his convention. In fact, Reagan led going into the 1980 debates
Discussion about winning back the US House of Representatives
Politico on Romney shambles (or stumbles rather)
Willard got hammered by voters over his inappropriate, ready, fire, aim remarks
Bloomberg characterizes this as Willard's worst week yet
Reich explains that courting exclusively white male voters won't win
The Fix points out
Whether or not you believe Romney offered a window into his true feelings about the election (and the electorate) in the leaked video from the fundraiser (and we will leave that up to others to decide), it’s impossible to see how Romney’s comments don’t dominate the political conversation for the next 48-72 hours — and maybe longer.
That reality virtually ensures a second straight week lost to off-message stories that are far afield from the economic focus that the Romney campaign is hoping to lean on in the final weeks of the race. Mitt Romney isn’t going to win this race on foreign policy and he certainly isn’t going to win it on too-candid comments about his view of the economic realities present in the electorate. Any one — Republican, Democrat or Independent — who tells you differently is just wrong.
Wasting two weeks when there are only seven weeks left in a race that even the most loyal Republicans acknowledge they are currently losing — albeit it narrowly — is a major problem for Romney.
The second way the leaked video impacts the race is that it fuels the “gang who can’t shoot straight” narrative that Politico began with its story and that the Romney campaign was hoping to quickly extinguish with its conference call Monday morning.
Fact checker disputes Mitt's numbers
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As is our custom, we provide voter registration information for three states in the Tuesday Night Edition of Obama Nightly News. We have shared how to register and how to vote in every hotly contested swing state already. We are returning, if you will, to the scene of our past crimes !
Today, like last week, we decided to pick Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina.
North Carolina was an obvious choice since our convention starts there today.
Virginia is a neighboring state and is a swing state. Hence, it seemed to make sense to pick Virginia this week.
Florida is the closest swing state in polling that we are favored to win.
Florida
Florida
To register to vote in Florida, you need :
6.Provide your current and valid Florida driver’s license number or Florida identification card number. If you do not have a Florida driver’s license number or a Florida identification card number then you must provide the last four digits of your Social Security Number. If you do not have any of these items, you must write “none” in the box or field.
8.You must be registered for at least 29 days before you can vote in an election
The book closing dates for the 2012 election cycle are:
January 3, 2012………………Presidential Preference Primary
July 16, 2012……………………Primary Election
October 9, 2012………………General Election
On election day, to vote you need :
Florida requires a valid picture identification and a signature to vote. The following photo IDs will be accepted:
◦Florida driver’s license
◦Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
◦United States passport
◦Debit or credit card
◦Military identification
◦Student identification
◦Retirement center identification
◦Neighborhood association identification
◦Public assistance identification
If your photo identification does not contain your signature, you can show a second ID that does. For example: your student photo ID + your debit card.
call Florida’s Voter Assistance Hotline at 1-866-308-6739.
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Virginia
Virginia
Get registered to vote with your current name, at your current address, by 22 days before Election Day.
To be registered for the November 6th, 2012 General Election, you must be registered no later than October 15th, 2012.
More info :
FIRST TIME VOTERS
If it’s your first time voting in a federal election in Virginia, be sure you bring one of the following types of identification containing your current and complete name and current address:
◦A current and valid photo ID (for example a driver’s license); OR
◦ A current utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck that shows name and address; OR
◦ Another government document that shows name and address (for example, a voter card).
ALL OTHER VOTERS
Make sure you bring one of these forms of identification in order for your vote to count:
◦A Virginia voter registration card
◦A valid Virginia driver’s license
◦A military ID
◦Any Federal, Virginia state or local government-issued ID
◦An employer issued photo ID card
◦A Social Security card
◦A student ID from a Virginia Public School
◦A student ID from any Virginia college or university
◦A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck that has your name and address
◦For other acceptable forms of identification see here
Note: Any voter who forgets to bring acceptable ID to the polls may still vote, but will be required to submit the ID to the local electoral board by noon on Friday following the election, by fax, e-mail, mail, or in-person.
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North Carolina
Our first state for our voter registration today is North Carolina.
The Voter Registration Process
To vote in North Carolina, a person who meets the qualifications above must sign and complete a voter registration application. When completing a voter registration application, be sure to provide your full name, residential address, date of birth, and citizenship status. In addition, do not forget to sign the form. Failure to complete a required field on the form will delay the processing of the application. After completion, send the form to the appropriate county board of elections. In order to vote in an election, the form must be received by the voter registration deadline.
If an application is complete, the county board of elections will notify registrants of their precinct and polling place assignments by mail (voter card). Voter registration applicants, who have met the voter registration deadline, should expect to receive their voter card within 1 to 2 weeks. The voter card is a non-forwardable mailing. If a voter card is returned by the postal service as undeliverable after two attempts, then an applicant’s voter registration may subsequently be denied. Applicants should contact their county board of elections if they do not receive their voter card within two weeks. Note: The applicant must have transmitted the registration application by the registration deadline; otherwise, the voter card will not be mailed until after the completion of the election.
Voter Registration Deadlines
The deadline to register to vote in North Carolina is 25 days before the day of an election
These people are not friendsof democracy :
What Constitutes A Vote
Pursuant to Section 301 (a)(6) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 15481(a)(6), and N.C.G.S. § 163-182.1(b), the State Board of Elections has developed these standards and procedures to define what is a vote and when that vote should be counted in circumstances in which voting systems are unable to determine the voter’s intent with respect to a marked ballot.
Curse them for that !
What ???
That is troubling - to say the least.
:
on election dayIf this is your first time voting in a federal election in North Carolina, you may be asked to show ID before you can vote on Election Day. Identification may include (but is not limited to):
◦A North Carolina driver’s license
◦Another valid photo ID
◦A current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document that shows your current and complete name and current address.
If you’ve previously voted in a federal election in North Carolina, you don’t have to bring an ID with you to the polls.
If you have additional questions about voting in North Carolina, please contact: Elections Division: (919) 733-7173 or (866) 522-4723; elections.sboe@ncsbe.gov
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Medicare - When willard and lyin talk use "defined benefits" watch your health care !
Defined modifies benefit and we use it to refer to traditional Medicare.
Thanks to ACA, health care costs are going up at a rate of less than 4% per year, the first time that this is true in fifty years. Nevertheless, they are going up much faster than inflation. What they mean by contribution model is that the federal government would write a check for a specific amount - $6K to $8K - and that would be all that they would contribute to the costs of health care, should that option be chosen by poor seniors. Their callous hope is that seniors would choose money which they need and thus Medicare would be disappear. However, the coupons would not be able to purchase from private insurance the same quality of care that enrollees currently get from Medicare. And as costs continue to go up, that would be more true. Furthermore, seniors tend to have many expensive health issues and these issues would become preexisting conditions which would still exist for insurers if willard and the republicans repealed ACA as they have threatened.
So, the benefit for voting for President Obama for seniors is clear : If you want to keep your Medicare, if you don't want to exchange it for vouchers, if you don't want your dough not hole to return, then vote for President Obama.
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID
The platform pledges to move both Medicare and Medicaid away from “the current unsustainable defined-benefit entitlement model to a fiscally sound defined-contribution model.
Here is our newly released hot off the press platform
We will not allow Republicans to end Medicare and replace it with a voucher program :
The Republican budget plan would end Medicare as we know it. Democrats adamantly oppose any efforts to privatize or voucherize Medicare; unlike our opponents we will not ask seniors to pay thousands of dollars more every year while they watch the value of their Medicare benefits evaporate.
Democrats believe that Medicare is a sacred compact with our seniors. Nearly 50 million older Americans and Americans with disabilities rely on Medicare each year, and the new health care law makes Medicare stronger by adding new benefits, fighting fraud, and improving care for patients. And, over 10 years, the law will save the average Medicare beneficiary $4,200. President Obama is already leading the most successful crackdown on health care fraud ever, having already recovered $10 billion from health care scams. We will build on those reforms, not eliminate Medicare’s guarantees. The health care law is closing the gap in prescription drug coverage known as the “doughnut hole.” More than five million seniors have already saved money – an average of $600 last year – and the doughnut hole will be closed for good by 2020. In short, Democrats believe that Social Security and Medicare must be kept strong for seniors, people with disabilities, and future generations. Our opponents have shown a shocking willingness to gut these programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest, and we fundamentally reject that approach.
Krugman
That means that instead of Medicare as we know it, which pays your medical bills, you’d get a lump sum which you can apply to private insurance — they’ll yell when we call it a voucher, but that’s what it is.Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the record suggests that this will do anything other than make health care less efficient.
Kaiser Health Care says
The Hill: GOP Platform Embraces Ryan Plans For Medicare, Medicaid
The Republican Party's official platform calls for deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, in keeping with controversial proposals from vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The party platform, adopted Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., further ties the party to Ryan's sweeping healthcare reforms, particularly his plans for Medicare. The platform says Medicare should be converted into a partially privatized system in which seniors would choose between the existing Medicare program or a subsidy to help buy private insurance. Ryan proposed a similar framework in his budget proposal this year after crafting a version last year that would not have preserved the existing program as an option (Baker, 8/28).
Medicare Advocacy Says
In fact, the proposed Budget Resolution eliminates Medicare as we know it and replaces it with a voucher for the purchase of an individual private plan.
How Savings Are Achieved: Health Care Reform v. House Budget Resolution
Health Care Reform: As we have previously reported, the ACA achieves savings in the Medicare program through a series of payment reforms, service delivery innovations, and increased efforts to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse. The greatest savings, $130 billion over 10 years,[11] comes from reductions in vast overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans, which have been paid, on average, 9-13% more than the traditional Medicare program to provide the same coverage.[12]
willard himself
Medicare is reformed as a premium support system, meaning that existing spending is repackaged as a fixed-amount benefit to each senior that he or she can use to purchase an insurance plan
Policy Prescriptions informs us
Under the Ryan proposal, the Medicare system would transform from a defined benefit (where Medicare pays providers and hospitals for specific enrollee benefits and services) to a defined contribution (where Medicare instead would pay individual enrollees a lump sum to help them purchase private health insurance). Medicare enrollees would pick among competing private insurance companies in a Medicare Exchange. The average 65 year old Medicare enrollee would receive about $8,000 annually from the government, leaving about $12,000 in medical expenses for the individual to pay, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
health leaders media explains
The advent of private health insurance exchanges may provide employers with the opportunity to shift from defined-benefit healthcare coverage to defined-contribution
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A little polling
Polling is good
President Obama will need a good US Senate after he wins reelection - I love Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin ! They will make outstanding US Senators - from Massachusetts and Wisconsin respectively. And if we work hard for them and donate to their campaigns, they will win - and President Obama's coattails in those two states will help !
Today's spate of polling nicely illustrates a growing dilemma for Republicans. To put it simply, there are just a hell of a lot more Senate contests that seem to be trending away from them than there are ones trending towards them. Republicans could make a respectable argument that Connecticut looks better for them than it did a month or two ago. They might be able to make the same case in Nebraska, if you subscribe to the theory that a total lack of Democratic polling here and no media appetite to poll the race have, in themselves, some predictive value.
MA-SEN (PPP): Elizabeth Warren (D) 48, Sen. Scott Brown (R) 46
MA-SEN (Western New England College): Elizabeth Warren (D) 50, Scott Brown (R) 44 (53-41 among RVs)
WI-SEN (Feldman Group for the Baldwin campaign): Tammy Baldwin (D) 50, Tommy Thompson (R) 45
WI-SEN (PPP for D.F.A.): Tammy Baldwin (D) 48, Tommy Thompson (R) 45
Link to
Transcripts and Documents.