More grief for “The Mitt” with backing from The Donald?
Mitt Romney, Donald Trump said in a surprise endorsement from Las Vegas this afternoon, would make a “tough” and “smart” president who wouldn’t “allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love.”
But it wasn’t clear that backing from Trump, a real estate mogul who cultivates an aura of glitz and glamour, would help Romney, the former private equity executive who has a net worth estimated at some $270 million and fights charges by critics that he is out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.
Democrats pounced on the opportunity to draw parallels between Romney and the television personality, claiming in a video that alluded to Trump’s starring role on the reality television program, “The Apprentice,” that Romney nabbed Trump’s endorsement because “they both like firing people.”
Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz echoed the theme, telling MSNBC that the endorsement wasn’t surprising because “they both like firing people and they both made millions doing it.” Likening Trump to a “cartoon character,” the DNC head said his endorsement is “like Bugs Bunny saying which candidate for president he supports. So it’s really kind of a non-news event.”
Newt Gingrich, Romney’s chief Republican rival who had reportedly expected to receive Trump’s backing, issued through his spokesperson a long list of public criticisms Trump had previously leveled at the former Massachusetts governor. Among them was a comment Trump made on CNN in April of last year:
“Mitt Romney is a basically small business guy,” Trump said. “He was a hedge fund guy, a fund guy, he walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create; he worked there. He would buy companies; he’d close companies; he’d get rid of jobs.”
Romney was upset in the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21 after a series of ads portraying him as a heartless corporate raider. He once said – in a remark taken out of contest – that he enjoyed firing people. But he also told a questioner last summer that “corporations are people,” and yesterday took heat for saying he did not care about the very poor.
Another one heads for the exit: Senator Ensign won’t seek reelection
UPDATES with Ensign announcement.
At this rate, the Senate will be overrun by freshmen in 2013.
Republican Senator John Ensign, once considered a potential presidential candidate in 2012, said he won’t seek reelection next year.
The decision comes nearly two years after he admitted to having an affair with a female staffer whose husband also worked for him.
“There are consequences to sin,” he said at a news conference in Las Vegas. Ensign said the campaign was likely to get especially “ugly” and he did not want to put his family through that.
Ensign becomes the third Senate Republican to announce he won’t seek reelection, following Assistant Senate Republican Leader Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.
Five members of the Senate Democratic caucus have said that they won’t seek another term next year: Democrats Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jim Webb of Virginia, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
How much you want to bet Sharron Angle goes for this job?
When Harry Reid met Sharron Angle
Anyone expecting to see a smack-down in the desert would have been disappointed. The first and only debate in the high stakes Senate race between Nevada Democrat Harry Reid and Republican challenger Sharron Angle ended with both candidates still standing.
But there were plenty barbs as the Senate Majority Leader and the Tea Party-backed former state legislator met face-to-face Thursday night in Las Vegas.
In the hour-long debate, Reid called her “extreme.” Angle repeatedly referred to him as “Harry Reid” and portrayed him as a tax-raising, career politician.
They sparred over the healthcare reform law (Angle called it “Obamacare”), Yucca Mountain and nuclear energy, immigration and Social Security, unemployment and how to bring back jobs to Nevada.
“I believe that, with God’s help, we the people have the solutions to our economic problems and they’re as simple as: cut back on the spending; pay back on the debt; and take back our economy by repealing policies like Obamacare,” Angle said in conclusion.
Angle and Reid are running neck and neck in the opinion polls and they’ve been waging a fierce campaign ad war. Their mostly civil encounter was almost over before she appeared to hit a nerve.
“You came from Searchlight to the Senate with very little. Now you’re one of the richest men in the U.S. Senate, on behalf of Nevada taxpayers, I’d like to know, we’d like to know, how did you become so wealthy on a government payroll?” Angle asked her opponent.
Angle is a LOOOOON! How in the world can anyone believe that this woman would be what is best for Nevada and the country? PULLLLLLEASE!
Washington Extra – Whose party?
As a Brit I never like to write too much about the Tea Party, but today I have no choice. Every week that goes by the movement seems to gain more momentum. On Tuesday, our poll showed Democratic heavyweight Harry Reid clinging to a narrow lead in Nevada against Tea Party insurgent Sharron Angle. That night, Republican establishment favorite Michael Castle was knocked off his perch in the Delaware primary by upstart Christine O’Donnell. Today, our Reuters/Ipsos poll shows one of the Tea Party’s most well-known favorites, Marco Rubio, opening a clear lead in the race for a Senate seat from Florida. With just six weeks to go until the elections, Rubio leads state Governor Charlie Crist, now running as an independent, by 40 percent to 26 percent, with Democrat Kendrick Meek trailing behind.
But who is going to benefit?
Republicans are hoping the surge in enthusiasm for a right-wing agenda will get their supporters to the polls, and right now there is a definite “enthusiasm gap” between Republicans and Democrats in terms of their likelihood to vote.
Democrats are still hoping that “Tea Partiers” will simply be too right-wing for voters to accept in many states. The contest in Nevada is a critical one, with Reid hoping he can cling to his slight lead against Angle, a lead he might not have against a more centrist candidate. More to the point, some Dems could scarcely contain their glee this morning after O’Donnell’s victory, calling her an “ultra right-wing extremist” who will be rejected by Delaware voters, and arguing they might now just keep control of the Senate as a result.
But Rubio’s performance shows it may not be that simple. The son of Cuban immigrants, he has softened his rhetoric since winning the Republican nomination and has apparently picked up plenty of centrist voters along the way. The poll numbers show a big swing in his favor since mid-August, when another Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Crist marginally ahead.
Finally today, take a look at Kim Dixon’s analysis of how the tax policy espoused by both sides of the aisle would really affect small businesses and hiring, a story that cuts through some of the rhetoric around this debate. There’s an interesting story too about more privacy problems for Google after the company fired an engineer for apparently spying on teenagers’ accounts. And tomorrow, look out for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifying on China on the Hill, where anger over the yuan’s value and calls for retribution are mounting. The issue puts the administration in a tight spot as the elections loom, as I am sure they will be reluctant to be drawn into a damaging dispute with Beijing.
CORRECTS spelling of Kendrick.
Reuters-Ipsos poll: Senate Majority Leader Reid barely ahead in Nevada race
Perhaps it will become known as a tale of two Reids.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is barely ahead of his Republican opponent Sharron Angle in the Nevada race for U.S. Senate, and his son Rory Reid is slipping against Republican Brian Sandoval in the governor’s race, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll.
Looking at likely voters, Reid is up 46-44 percent against Angle. Among registered voters, Reid is up 46-38 percent and among independents, he is up 29-15 percent.
When it comes to Nevada voters views of the Tea Party, which supports Angle, 51 percent of registered voters, 56 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents said it would make no difference on whether to support or not support Angle.
Among Democrats, 46 percent said Tea Party backing made them less likely to support Angle, while 45 percent said it would make no difference.
Ipsos pollsters say the proportions who say they are both more and less likely to support Angle because of her Tea Party association has gone up, which while appearing contradictory, actually demonstrates that she has been effective at raising her profile and establishing an identity as a candidate.
When it came to the best person to help generate jobs in Nevada, Reid was ahead of Angle 50-38 percent among likely voters, and 56-30 percent among registered voters.
Has U.S. “missed the boat” on long-range renewable energy planning?
There was President Barack Obama, working a friendly crowd in Henderson, Nevada, not far from Las Vegas. And then a sympathetic comment from a French businessman who wants to see U.S. regulation of climate-warming greenhouse emissions seemed to get the president all wound up.
After noting that the weather has been particularly wild lately — five feet of snow in Washington DC, rain at the Vancouver Olympics — Obama said the best way to “unleash” dynamism in the energy market is to set fuel efficiency standards, notably for cars.
“If you’ve got a fuel-efficiency standard in place that says your car needs to get 20 miles a gallon or 30 miles a gallon, suddenly all these engineers are thinking, well, how do we do that? And all these companies start coming up with new technologies that make your cars more fuel-efficient. Ultimately, you end up seeing jobs and businesses thriving in response to the regulation that’s been put there,” Obama told the town hall meeting.
Putting a price on carbon emissions could have the same effect by spurring innovation and ultimately creating jobs, he said.
The transition to cleaner renewable energy isn’t going to happen overnight, the president said.
“But what we should be doing is planning over the next 20, 30 years to move in that direction. That’s what countries like China are doing. That’s what countries like France are doing. That’s what countries all across Europe are doing, and all across Asia are doing. We don’t want to be left behind. We’re the only ones who have kind of missed the boat. So we’re still using 20th century technologies and everybody else is producing 21st century technologies.”
Strong language, but the crowd seemed to be with him. And he went on:
We have already come to the conclusion that using fossil fuels is accelerating the greenhouse effect that normally occurs in cycles as geological history shows. Entrenched business want to continue profiting from brown technologies.
That’s all well and good for now. But there has been no major push for clean energy technology. And this is what is REALLY needed if we are to lead in the 21st century. I haven’t seen any incentives for clean energy development yet. Obama needs to push the issue on clean tech.
But even more importantly he needs to do what he can to remove corporate constituents. Corporations are not people. If business is allowed to sway law makers into making the environment easy for them to profit while they do nothing to innovate, then innovation will go out the window in favor of easy profit. This is happening now and is why there is such a strong lobby against climate change bills. They are being obstructed by entrenched brown energy companies.
Get rid of corporate citizenship. Strike down corporate personhood and return the government of the people back to the people.
Obama outs mother-in-law as big fan of Las Vegas
By trying to soothe Las Vegas’ hurt feelings about some remarks he made recently, President Barack Obama outed his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, as a big fan of the gambling city.
“Now, before I go any further, let me set the record straight: I love Vegas,” Obama told a town hall meeting.
He had angered the mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, by saying in New Hamsphire recently that, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
Goodman had been demanding an apology and said Obama needed to buy him a martini.
Campaigning for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Obama told a Las Vegas audience that his comment “doesn’t mean I don’t love Vegas.”
“It wasn’t meant to be a shot. I think everybody here would agree that the only place where people should spend their college savings is in college,” he said.
Doing his best imitation of a Las Vegas lounge comedian, Obama said he enjoys himself every time he goes to Vegas.
bottlerocket.
If you and I agreed with everything, then there wouldn’t be a debate.
Also, if I wanted to only hear the opinions of those who think the same as I, then I would frequent those blogs where everyone feeds off one another. To me that is boring.
What I don’t appreciate is anyone being so full of themselves that when they are challenged, they fall back on name calling and ridicule. A well written blog post doesn’t always equate to being right. Often, if you read closely, you can see there is an agenda laced commentary in which the information is twisted leaving the reader with a less than factual analysis.
For those who want to have an honest dialog, I will never fault those who want that honest and open debate. For those who don’t, well, they probably don’t respect anyone anyway.
What’s a friendly wager between friends, or senators?
While Washington deals with freezing temperatures this Sunday, Super Bowl XLIV will kick off in sunny Miami Gardens, Florida, as the New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts. But the snow has not dampened football fans’ spirits, and even a few senators are betting on the outcome.
Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Evan Bayh of Indiana announced a friendly wager on Friday, each betting that their team will bring home that coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy.
What’s at stake?
Well, a win for the Saints in their first ever Super Bowl appearance means Bayh will be bringing Landrieu and her constituents Indiana popcorn, a local favorite.
“I’m predicting that the Saints will pull out a 35-31 victory,” Landrieu said. “I’m not really sure what Indiana popcorn is, but I’ve never been more excited to eat it.”
But if the more seasoned Colts, who enter with a 2-1 Super Bowl record, rise to victory, Landrieu will be serving up red beans and rice to Bayh and his constituents.
“My only regret about this Super Bowl matchup is that Peyton Manning will have to disappoint Saints fans from his home state when he brings his second Lombardi Trophy back to Indiana,” Bayh said.
Poll: U.S. Senate leader has problems in home state
Sure it’s a long way before the November 2010 U.S. congressional election — and a lot can happen between now and then. But at this point, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada seems to be in jeopardy of becoming the second Senate leader in a half century to be voted out of office.
A poll released on Tuesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal found that half of Nevada voters had an unfavorable view of Reid, while 38 percent had a favorable view, the newspaper said.
Reid won reelection in 2004 to a fourth term with 61 percent of the vote. But his approval ratings have since slipped. He became Senate Democratic leader in 2005, and majority leader in 2007.
“Harry Reid could be in trouble,” said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington.
Duffy said Reid faces the dangers of being a Senate leader while his party controls the White House.
“You have to be in tune with the White House as well as your constituents,” Duffy said.
because the tax increase proposals failed here in california ,they are predicting many people in the government sector will loose their jobs.guess what?bush is not getting the blame,people know what the problem is, democratic state government,their spending has gotten out of control.
New state polls show shift towards Obama
WASHINGTON – A slew of new state polls released on Wednesday showed some shift in momentum toward Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and away from Republican rival John McCain.
CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. released polls for five battleground states — Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia — that showed Obama ahead among likely voters in all of them, though still within the margin of error in four.
Obama held a 51 percent to 47 percent lead in both Florida and Nevada, a 53 percent to 44 percent lead in Virginia, a 54 percent to 43 percent advantage in Minnesota and a narrow 49 percent to 48 percent edge in Missouri.
CNN said its previous surveys of those states had showed McCain was up in Nevada, Virginia and Missouri. And previously in Florida the two were tied and in Minnesota Obama was up two points.
Meanwhile, new polls by Quinnipiac University in three key states also showed a small uptick in support for Obama after last week’s presidential debate.
In Florida, Obama’s lead grew to 51 percent to 43 percent, from 49 percent to 43 percent before the debate.
In Ohio, Obama was up 50 percent to 42 percent, versus 49 percent to 42 percent prior to the debate. Remember, no Republican has won the White House without the state.
I am so tired of hearing all this finger pointing. FACT – the American public was too busy being greedy, allowing ALL politicians – that includes counties and cities, to decide how to create the next quick buck. Face it everyone wants to blame someone else, BUT the REAL TRUTH is we have only ourselves to blame. Listening to speakers, like Obama, who say what people want to hear, not what is factual is horrid. WAKE UP AMERICA – we put ourselves here! How many of you lived of credit cards? How many of you thought you were pulling a fast one by getting a home you REALLY couldn’t afford.
The Great Depression was preceeded by pure and simple GREED – not any one party.
As long as people want to point fingers – let me make a note, most of the politicans who can’t seem to budget and think money floats through the air have ONE COMMON BACKGROUND – THEY ARE ATTORNEYS, yes. More amazing, their legal ethics are more than questionable. The Consititution created THREE, Legislative,Judical & Executive, Branches – why are we allowing those whose ethics and morals are questionable and have too many connection to the judical branch run this country.
Maybe Americans have watched too many court movies and they really believe all attorneys speak only the truth – reminds me of “Alice in Wonderland”.
Why is Trump backing Romney if Mitt still hasn’t shown us his Birth Certificate? http://www.senorromney.com