"Patrick, Frank back Obama on gay marriage" May 14, 2012|Callum Borchers
The timing of Obama’s declaration - made Wednesday in a one-on-one interview with ABC News anchor Robin Roberts - opened the president to accusations of political calculation.
He spoke a day after voters in North Carolina, a state Obama won narrowly in 2008, overwhelmingly approved a ban on gay marriage. The result revealed conservative momentum in North Carolina, hinting that the state might be a lost cause for the Democrat.
A day after the interview, the president touted his backing of gay marriage during a fund-raiser at the home of actor George Clooney that raised almost $15 million for his reelection campaign....
Rick Santorum called gay marriage “a very potent weapon’’ that should be used to “take advantage of a president who is very much out of touch with the values of America.’’
Despite these opportunities to criticize the president, Romney and other Republicans have minimized the gay marriage debate, perhaps sensing that it ranks low on most voters’ priority lists.
Yeah, it's at the bottom on mine (no pun intended).
The same poll that showed a quarter of the electorate is less likely to vote for Obama after his announcement also revealed a much larger segment, 60 percent, is not influenced one way or the other.
The Republican strategy seems to be to treat gay marriage as a right-place-right-time topic....
Much like sex it self.
Democrats, too, seem wary of devoting too much chatter to same-sex marriage, lest they appear to be overlooking the economy....
Hasn't been stopping the MSM.
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Also see: Do You Take This Candidate....
The one I take:
"Ron Paul ends campaign, vows to push agenda" May 14, 2012|Callum Borchers
Ron Paul, whose antigovernment, prorights creed attracted enthusiastic supporters and hefty donations but few delegates, will not campaign in the 11 remaining Republican primary states, he announced Monday.
Actually, he's scooping them up at state conventions, but when has the truth ever stopped the AmeriKan media?
In effectively conceding the presidential nomination to Mitt Romney, the Texas representative turns his focus toward influencing the Republican Party platform for the fall election.
Paul said this year’s run for the presidency - his third - is part of a 40-year endeavor that will continue no matter who wins the White House.
“It is about the campaign for liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win,’’ said Paul, 76.
Related: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
The representative has only 104 delegates to Romney’s 966, according to the Associated Press. Romney needs just 178 more to officially claim the party’s nomination, and all other contenders have bowed out of the race.
Related: The Real GOP Delegate Map The Media Won’t Show You
Paul said continuing to campaign “with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.’’
Paul’s decision was a letdown for his supporters in Massachusetts, who flooded caucuses in the state last month and won 18 of the 27 delegate slots pledged to Romney.
“My immediate reaction was one of disappointment,’’ said Joe Ureneck, a former Governor’s Council candidate who helped organize Paul supporters in Massachusetts. “He said he was going to stay in it until the convention and, to me, that means as a candidate. I think most supporters will be quite disappointed in him.’’
The pro-Paul delegates from Massachusetts are obligated to vote for Romney at the national convention in Tampa on the first - and probably only - ballot. But their unexpected presence could lend some leverage to Paul’s libertarian agenda.
Bradford P. Wyatt, who helped lead the caucus blitz, told the Globe last week that Paul wants to nail two planks to the Republican platform: barring acts of war without congressional approval and auditing the Federal Reserve Bank. Paul also hopes to deliver a prime-time speech at the convention, Wyatt said.
Paul has not stated his ambitions so explicitly, but he offered some insight Monday.
“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process,’’ Paul said. “We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that liberty is the way of the future.
Oh, so HE ISN'T GIVING UP, and HE ISN'T OUT of IT!
“In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.’’
Corporate media didn't. They just put him in the paper so they could say he was out. Otherwise, they would have kept on ignoring him.
Beyond Massachusetts, Paul’s strategy already has earned sympathetic delegates from Nevada and 21 full-fledged voting delegates from Maine, where state convention results trumped those of a nonbinding “beauty contest’’ won by Romney in February.
Paul has achieved these victories with a small but passionate base. Though he has failed to win a single primary, Paul has raised $36.8 million, more than the $22.4 million collected by Newt Gingrich or the $20.6 million raised by Rick Santorum - both considered more serious challengers to Romney than Paul.
Oh, HOW ODD!!! He was SECOND in the MONEY, but we are told he was fourth in votes. F*** you, AmeriKan media!
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Btw, that money came from a wider base of grass roots people because Paul doesn't get the rich man and corporate campaign cash those other $ervants did. Of course, those people don't vote in a rigged election.
One gue$$ to whom the bankers are wedded:
"Donors tied to banking desert Obama for Romney" May 16, 2012|Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff
When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments.
Your next president, AmeriKa.
Why not, huh? It's a Wall Street government and Mitt is the personification of the place.
“There’s no doubt that there’s been a big diminution of support for the president,’’ said William M. Daley, Obama’s former chief of staff and a former top JPMorgan Chase executive. “People in the financial services sector are saying, ‘The president has been too tough on us, both in policy and on rhetoric.’ ’’
Nothing makes those vampires happy. None of them have gone to jail, they have been bailed out to the tune of trillions, are making record profits, the rules have been largely delayed or unwritten, and yet they are still complaining.
The top five donor groups in Romney’s campaign are individuals and political action committees associated with large financial institutions, led by Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, according to information compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks campaign donations.
By contrast, Obama’s top five contributor groups include individuals and PACs affiliated with high technology giants Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., and the global law firms DLA Piper and Sidley Austin, and do not include those associated with banks. In 2008, financial institutions backed him generously.
And there you go.
Analysts said the JPMorgan loss could be a political opportunity for Obama - and an obstacle for Romney.
On Monday, Obama was already seizing on the JPMorgan loss to bolster his reelection effort and underscore his continuing support for new and pending financial regulations in the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul, which includes the controversial Volcker Rule, a provision that would prohibit banks from making speculative investments with their own funds.
“This is the best, or one of the best-managed banks. You could have a bank that isn’t as strong, isn’t as profitable making those same bets and we might have had to step in,’’ Obama said on ABC TV’s “The View,’’ adding praise for JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon. “That’s exactly why Wall Street reform is so important.’’
Related: The Jerks at JPMorgan
So is Obama -- and yet the bankers are $till complaining!
Also see:
CFTC looking into $2b in losses
JPMorgan suspends repurchase plan
So much for manipulating the market to drive the stock higher.
The JPMorgan loss “certainly fortifies the argument for stricter financial regulation,’’ said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former adviser to President Clinton. “And since President Obama has been on one side and Mitt Romney has been on the other, you would have to say it will make it a little bit harder for Mitt Romney to fortify the position he has articulated, which is that Dodd-Frank should be repealed.’’
Campaign finance records also show that the financial services sector is, to some extent, hedging its bets by donating money to the Democratic National Committee....
Related: Banks Bought Off Both Parties
Who REALLY Runs Washington
That is why nothing changes down there when it comes to banks, Wall Street, and monetary policy.
During the last presidential race, as of March 2008, four of Obama’s top five donor groups were individuals and PACs associated with financial institutions. Indeed, Goldman Sachs led the list and JPMorgan Chase was third. Some political analysts say Obama attracted significant backing from the financial services sector four years ago in part because he was the clear front-runner through much of the campaign, and in part because he was a political unknown without a clear record on issues of concern to large-scale investors.
In other words, they were hedging their bets.
“A lot of business money simply follows the winner,’’ said Rob Gray, a Boston political consultant who was an adviser to John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “Four years ago, a lot of the banking money went to Obama because he was the presumed winner far in advance of Election Day.’’
Translation; The election machines have been programmed and John King's map is ready to roll!
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But political analysts also say that Obama - who once referred to Wall Street financiers as “fat cat bankers’’ - is losing support from individuals and PACs associated with large financial institutions specifically due to his support for the Dodd-Frank bill and the rhetoric he and other Democrats have used in assessing blame for the 2008 financial crisis, which stemmed from high-risk investments made by large financial institutions....
Still, political analysts say that a debate over the regulation of complex financial investments by large financial institutions could well be overshadowed by economic news about jobs and mortgage rates, particularly if the larger economy falters, something that did not occur until late in the 2008 presidential campaign....
A banker's warning to Obama!
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Romney's best man:
"Cape Wind foe Koch chips in for Romney" by Michael Rezendes | Globe Staff, May 22, 2012
William I. Koch, the Osterville summer resident and fossil fuel magnate who helped bankroll the opposition to the Cape Wind energy project, has emerged as a key backer of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, donating $2 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney’s drive for the White House.
The donations rank Koch’s privately held Oxbow Corp. third among companies that have donated the most to Restore Our Future, behind Perry Homes, the Texas home-building company, and Bain Capital, the Boston private equity firm that Romney cofounded in 1984.
Brad Goldstein, Koch’s spokesman, said Koch is supporting Romney
because of a personal relationship that dates to the early 1980s, when
Romney was running Bain Capital and Koch was living full time in
Massachusetts, and also because of Koch’s disagreements with President
Obama’s tax and energy policies.
Related: No Energy For Campaign
I really don't.
Related: No Energy For Campaign
I really don't.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bill Koch waged a bitter legal battle against his brothers, contending that he was cheated when he sold his stake in the family company....
(Blog editor chuckles)
As of the end of April, Restore Our Future had raised about $56.5 million - much of it already spent on the contentious Republican primaries - while Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Obama, had raised about $10.5 million, according to preliminary estimates by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks campaign finances....
In addition to his donations to Restore Our Future and the Romney campaign, Koch and his wife have given to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, and to Freedom Project, a political action committee that has Boehner as its honorary chairman, and that was set up to help Republican candidates for federal office.
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More members of the wedding party:
"George W. Bush offers quick support to Mitt Romney" May 16, 2012
WASHINGTON - George W. Bush is backing presumptive Republican White House nominee Mitt Romney.
The former president offered a four-word endorsement of Romney as the doors of his elevator were closing after a speech Tuesday in Washington. Bush said:
“I’m for Mitt Romney.’’
ABC News caught Bush after the speech, prompting his unscripted, but not surprising, endorsement.
Bush’s parents, former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, endorsed Romney in March. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also publicly backed Romney.
Since leaving office in January 2009, George W. Bush has tried to avoid politics.
Related: The Black Sheep of the Bush Family
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"Romney fund-raiser set for home of Cheney
Mitt Romney has appeared wary of associating too closely with President George W. Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney, and the last Republican team to win the White House has seemed unsure whether prominent support would help or harm Romney’s cause.
Bush’s endorsement, for instance, came after protracted silence and was delivered unceremoniously last week when he answered a reporter’s question while stepping onto an elevator.
Nevertheless, Romney has praised what he characterizes as the business-friendly climate of the Bush years....
And Romney has expressed a favorable view of Cheney, in particular, saying the former vice president possesses the qualities he will look for in a running mate.
Then Mitt needs to have his head examined.
“Whether you agree or disagree with him, this is a man of wisdom and judgment, and he could have been president of the United States,’’ Romney said of Cheney at a campaign event in September. “That’s the kind of person I’d like to have - a person of wisdom and judgment.’’
Could have been? He effectively was for eight years!
And one seriously has to question his judgment on 9/11.
In other fund-raising news, Romney is set to raise about $10 million during a swing through New York and Connecticut.
Romney’s top finance aide told donors in New York City on Monday that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was set to raise at least that - and possibly substantially more - during more than a dozen events over two days this week.
Romney’s fund-raising has skyrocketed since he started raising money with the Republican National Committee. With the party, Romney raised $40.1 million in April. That’s nearly as much as the $43.6 million that President Obama and the Democratic Party raised together last month.
And how many people in America are going to bed hungry tonight?
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Also see: Romney's College Chum
Romney on the Road
Sunday Globe Special: Romney Has the Right Friends
Related: NH bridge provides platform for Romney
Romneys donate $150,000 to campaign
I guess that's why he was stuck on $150,000 of waste in New Hampshire, 'eh?
Also see: GOP kills Colorado measure to allow same-sex civil unions
Marriage policy used in appeals for Latinos
A different kind of prom
Maryland court OKs same-sex divorce
No!!! You guys were supposed to be better and more faithful than us degenerative heterosexual slobs.
