AmeriKan Media Shifts Into General Election Overdrive

"The presidential election is six months away but this is the permanent campaign stretching over a few more months."

Not here.

"Obama raps Romney’s claim of boosting auto industry" May 11, 2012

The Obama campaign plans to release a television ad in New Hampshire this week that highlights how the resurgence of the American auto industry has helped restore economic security to middle class families in the state.

The campaign, citing statistics from the Center for Automotive Research, said the auto industry supports over 23,000 jobs in New Hampshire, a full 2.7 percent of the state’s workforce.

In the 32-second ad, President Obama speaks about his unpopular decision to bail out the auto industry.

“But I was convinced it was the right thing to do, because it wasn’t just the millions of jobs that were at stake,’’ he said. “What happened in Detroit can happen in all sorts of communities, where when you combine American innovation with the best workers in the world, we can succeed.’’

Also yesterday, Obama said Mitt Romney is having an “Etch-A-Sketch moment’’ when he claims credit for the industry’s revival.

Obama said people remember that Romney’s stance was that Detroit should have been allowed to go through bankruptcy without taxpayer help. Of Romney’s insistence this week that he deserves credit for the auto industry’s success, Obama said: “I don’t think anybody takes that seriously.’’

In an interview with ABC News, Obama says Romney’s plan for denying the automakers a federal bailout would have cost the economy about 1 million jobs in the Midwest. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy on the strength of a costly bailout set up by the Obama administration.

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Let's check the polls:

"Obama, Romney run close in battleground states" May 04, 2012

The Quinnipiac University poll indicates Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, is gaining on Obama in Ohio and Florida, where he was down by six and seven points, respectively, in a March 28 survey.

“Romney’s ability to cut into the president’s leads in Ohio and Florida reflects two changes in the political environment,’’ said Peter A. Brown, the polling institute’s assistant director. “First, since he is now the de facto nominee, Romney is no longer being attacked by his fellow Republicans, who are closing ranks behind him. Second, voter optimism about the economy has leveled off, reflecting economic statistics over the past month and the public reaction to them.’’

The poll revealed 67 to 70 percent of voters in the three swing states believe the US economy remains in a recession, even though economists say the recession ended in mid-2010. Most survey respondents said they think Romney would handle the economy better than Obama....

A separate poll by the Washington Post shows Obama leading in Virginia, 51 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. And Romney does no better against Obama than he did a year ago, despite his emergence as the GOP standard-bearer....

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"Poll finds deep disapproval of Obama on the economy

WASHINGTON - A gloomy outlook on the economy extends across party lines, an Associated Press-GfK poll has found, and handling the nation’s economy remains President Obama’s biggest challenge in his bid for a second term.

Almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of gas prices, a new high. That shift comes despite a steady decline in gas prices in recent weeks.

The public tilts negative on the president’s handling of the overall economy, and just 22 percent say the economy improved in the past month.

The president’s overall ratings remain positive. Fifty-three percent approve of his performance.

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"Numbers of black, Hispanic voters fall" May 05, 2012

WASHINGTON -The large decrease is attributed to the ailing economy, which forced many Americans to move in search of work or because of other financial upheaval.

“The only explanation out there is the massive job loss and home mortgage foreclosures which disproportionately affected minorities,’’ said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a nonpartisan policy group that focuses on Latinos....

The prospect of a tight race between Obama and Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, suggests that eligible Americans who register and vote can play an important role.

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"Obama campaign workers try to prepare for new voter ID laws" by Michael D. Shear  |  New York Times, April 30, 2012

WASHINGTON - Field workers for President Obama’s campaign fanned across the country over the weekend in an effort to confront a barrage of new voter identification laws that strategists say threaten the campaign’s hopes for registering new voters before the November election.

In Wisconsin, where a new state law requires those registering voters to be deputized in each of the state’s 1,800 municipalities, the campaign has sent a team of trainers armed with instructions for complying with the new regulations.

In Florida, the campaign’s voter registration aides are traveling across the state to train volunteers on a new requirement that registration signatures be handed in to state officials within 48 hours after they are collected.

And in Ohio, Obama’s staff members are beginning outreach to let voters know about new laws that discourage precinct workers from telling voters where to go if they show up at the wrong precinct.

Many of the laws in question are the subject of legal challenges by Democratic groups who say they are part of a partisan, Republican effort to dampen turnout of voters, particularly minorities, for Obama and his party.

But senior aides to Obama said the campaign is preparing for the laws to be upheld and in force this fall - just in case.

“We have to assume that these laws will be in effect in November,’’ Jeremy Bird, the field director for the campaign, said in an interview. “We are not allowing laws that are challenging and put in our way to stop us from doing what we need to do.’’

Advocates of the new laws, which have been passed in about 30 states since the last presidential election, say they are necessary to prevent voter fraud. They include tougher voter identification requirements and more rules about where and how groups can register new voters.

Mark Cole, a Virginia lawmaker who sponsored a bill requiring voters to show identification, told Virginia Statehouse News that it is “a good ballot integrity measure’’ that will “increase confidence in the electoral process.’’

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is an advocate of the push by Republican state legislatures to toughen the laws.

“For centuries our electoral process is based on one person, one vote, and for anyone to politicize the issue reeks of desperation and represents the worst in modern politics,’’ Priebus said.

Senior advisers to Obama’s campaign say many of the new laws put a heavy burden on the registration process, making it more difficult to recruit first-time voters. Other laws shorten the early-voting period in states that had tried to expand the voting window.

“They are clearly put forward for partisan political gains,’’ Bird said. “They are trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.’’

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Related: Voters living outside US worried about new form

Sorry I no longer have the energy for the shit-fooley campaign and the mouthpiece megaphonies that promulgate such poop.