Starter’s gun fires in great race of 2012
In another sign that the general-election campaign season has begun, the folks at Gallup have kicked off their daily tracking poll pitting GOP nominee Mitt Romney against President Barack Obama.
Their initial finding: Too close to call.
As you can see, Romney is up by two, within the poll’s margin of error. Contrary to the insistence of some that “there’s no way X can win,” I think we’re going to see it bounce around in that territory until sometime after Labor Day. In part, that’s testimony to the skill of our political professionals, who through polling, messaging and marketing manage to split us almost right down the middle.
The polling average compiled at Real Clear Politics tells a similar story, putting Obama up by 3 points, roughly the advantage that he has maintained since September.
If I had to bet this far out, I’d say that’s where the race will end up come November, with Obama winning by three to four percentage points. But as they say in the press box, that might be how it plays out on paper, and they don’t play this game on paper.
– Jay Bookman
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736 comments Add your comment
getalife
April 17th, 2012
3:45 pm
moonbat,
Oooh, beer and dancing….
Partygate?
Thulsa Doom
April 17th, 2012
3:45 pm
I almost forgot!
B
O
O
M
!
My Party has ALL the answers. Your party is full of poopyheads! (formerly That Black Guy)
April 17th, 2012
3:47 pm
Joe Hussein Mama
April 17th, 2012
3:26 pm
When I’m having dogs, I like a Hebrew National 1/4 pound dinner frank, or else their knockwurst — it’s got a savory, spicy flavor to it.
___________________________________________
Nathans for me
Mallory
April 17th, 2012
3:47 pm
Thulsa Doom
April 17th, 2012
3:24 pm
And how many months in W’s 96 month tenure were we losing 750,000 jobs a month? And to follow up what was average unemployment over W’s 8 year tenure including the recession? And what is Obama’s average unemployment in his now 4th year in office? When you realize the answer to these questions you can then take your seat in the nonsense corner.
Thulsa longs for the good old days of the Bush years — like Q4 2008 when the GDP was -8.9%. How many times has the GDP been that low under Obama TD?
td
April 17th, 2012
3:48 pm
JamVet
April 17th, 2012
3:22 pm
ONE TRILLION, SIX HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS.
And how did your retirement or 401K account do last year? When corporations make money we all make money.
They BOTH suck
April 17th, 2012
3:49 pm
JR @ 3:44
Hope you are having a good week…..
I do not know where it started either, but you can bet your @ss that both parties are attempting (as they both do so well) to utilize the issue to rile up the base…………..
It is election time my man………. All the rhetoric, hyperbole, smoke screens, half truths, flip flops and yes even lies are coming to a tv show, radio show or column near you………. Both sides are ready, able and willing…….
My Party has ALL the answers. Your party is full of poopyheads! (formerly That Black Guy)
April 17th, 2012
3:50 pm
Joe Hussein Mama
April 17th, 2012
3:29 pm
Agreed.
Recon 0311 2533
April 17th, 2012
3:50 pm
“Why don’t they like him?” I like him and he’s winning the majority of state primary elections. So I would guess that he has many others that approve of him as a candidate.
moonbat betty
April 17th, 2012
3:53 pm
getalife,
Dont’cha know?
What happens in Colombia
STAYS in Colombia
Joe Hussein Mama
April 17th, 2012
3:53 pm
S. Ray — “Can anyone tell me the only other president in history to have gas prices double under his tenure? HINT: He builds lot’s of houses and pops off at the mouth despite his record.”
Good thing they only doubled. Why, a few years before his term started, we had to deal with barely having any gas at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis#Price_controls_and_rationing
Janney
April 17th, 2012
3:53 pm
Just when I was waiting for Joe Mama to ably reply to the argue-er in-chief on this blog, Mallory comes along and fills the bill. Well done, Mallory!
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
April 17th, 2012
3:54 pm
Most voters didn’t vote for Romney because they didn’t like him over his rivals. Something wrong with him ? Too rich ? Too out of touch with a working man ? Too slick ? Why don’t they like him?
Well, do you recall that kid you went to school with—the one that wore little suits when everybody else was wearing old blue jeans? Admit it, you wanted to punch that kid in the mouth.
Now you’re all growed up and that kid is Romney—prissy, always dressed up, and acting like he wouldn’t recognize a big pile of cow crap if he stepped in the middle of it.
You asked the questions. I answered them.
The Kid
April 17th, 2012
3:55 pm
So many of you Repubs seem to be howling at the moon. After the disaster of a term that was left by Inept Bush and Draft-Dodging War-Criminal Cheney; here comes Milktoast Incarnate Romney to the rescue. This clown actually calls to beg for the endorsement of a mad-dog klansman like Ted (peice of sh t) Nugent. Go figure. You clowns are hilarius; dangerous but hilarius.
My Party has ALL the answers. Your party is full of poopyheads! (formerly That Black Guy)
April 17th, 2012
3:55 pm
Thass funny, I don’t care who you are.
Don't Forget
April 17th, 2012
3:57 pm
BADA BING
April 17th, 2012
3:37 pm
Things are looking worse. A former SS agent reports that the Colombian hookers may have been underage. I wonder if they could have been someone’s daughters?
Regardless, there will be no happy ending to this story.
jms
April 17th, 2012
3:57 pm
“What happens in Colombia
STAYS in Colombia”
Except for the STD. That you take back with you.
My Party has ALL the answers. Your party is full of poopyheads! (formerly That Black Guy)
April 17th, 2012
3:58 pm
My 3:55 was for thisVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Fred ™
April 17th, 2012
3:34 pm
Several times during football season I will do chili and grill some Hebrews…….. as well as some brats
Do you skin and gut the Hebrews first? Are the brats jewish too? Do you just get whole families of Hebrews with bratty kids or do you use any little brat you can find?
Recon 0311 2533
April 17th, 2012
3:58 pm
“The Kid”, ummm, yeah probably.
stands for decibels
April 17th, 2012
3:58 pm
secret service sheetz
Joe Hussein Mama
April 17th, 2012
3:58 pm
Doom — “I will take your return dodge and your white flag of surrender. I will then take that white flag and post it on top of an anthill. The diminutive size of the anthill reflects the degree of respect that I give to the rather lackluster arguments here today by you and other liberals regarding Obama’s rather glaring economic failure.”
Sonny, when you’re ready to compare those two Presidents head-to-head, I’m game. Your track record of relying on cherry-picked data and giving Bush a pass for alleged ‘full employment’ just plain ignores reality. I freely *admit* Obama’s shortcomings with respect to job creation, whereas you simply *excuse* Bush’s shortcomings.
Once again, Obama’s job creation numbers have turned positive, and that’s a fact whether you want to acknowledge it or not. They’re not *great* numbers, but they *are* positive.
The fact that you can’t even bring yourself to admit it just adds to the smell of desperation coming from your side of the political aisle.
jms
April 17th, 2012
3:59 pm
“Now you’re all growed up and that kid is Romney—prissy, always dressed up, and acting like he wouldn’t recognize a big pile of cow crap if he stepped in the middle of it.”
That’s funny. He IS pretty unconvinving in jeans.
JOE COOL~DoWnToWn THUG
April 17th, 2012
3:59 pm
“Regardless, there will be no happy ending to this story.”
Somebody got a “happy ending”…lol
JohnnyReb
April 17th, 2012
4:00 pm
They BOTH Suck – greetings, and I agree. I know the Left does not like Fox. I agree Fox is for the Right, but from watching them vs legacy media I believe Fox gives more of the facts. It seems that legacy media twists stories to favor Obama. It would be refreshing to see all of them lay out both sides as heard by them instead of spinning.
St Simons - he-ne-ha
April 17th, 2012
4:03 pm
The Dow has risen 62% since Obama the Black Maaamba took office.
Fox/AM radio/heritage headline – “Stock Market has Liberal Bias”
One would think the cons would be experts on “lagging indicators”
JamVet
April 17th, 2012
4:05 pm
And how did your retirement or 401K account do last year? When corporations make money we all make money.
What does that have to do with the topic at hand?
Them not hiring and you Republicans blaming the president for them not doing so.
Janney
April 17th, 2012
4:07 pm
Before the 2008 election a conservative friend of mine and I disagreed on almost everything political, except this one thing. We both said whomever won would be a one-term president because of the dire situation we were in. Things have turned out much better than both my friend and I thought considering the huge whole this Great Recession dropped us in. In any recession there is always considerable lag before things pick up. This wasn’t a cyclical recesssion, but one brought on by malfeasance, greed, and the giant bursting of the housing bubble.
So, yes, overall Obama has done many things right.
Janney
April 17th, 2012
4:09 pm
“hole”, not “whole”. And good one, JHM!
td
April 17th, 2012
4:14 pm
JamVet
April 17th, 2012
4:05 pm
This goes to you and your progressive ideology. You think that since corporations do not take all their profits and turn themselves into social agencies for hiring then it is the governments responsibility to confiscate this money and open up either more “safety net” programs or to create meaningless jobs. Conservatives say that if the corporation is doing well then everyone that has invested some of their money is doing well (rise in the stock market has sent my 401K value up by 13% this year).
If your progressive plan succeeds then my 401K or retirement plan is not going to increase and neither is yours or anyone else so what are we going to live on when we get to retirement age? This is very relevant to the topic of who should be President.
jms
April 17th, 2012
4:20 pm
“‘And how did your retirement or 401K account do last year? When corporations make money we all make money.’
What does that have to do with the topic at hand?”
Seems pretty relevant to the electorate’s perception on the direction of the economy.
JohnnyReb
April 17th, 2012
4:35 pm
OK boys and girls, here’s something on which to be really concerned with credits to the Heritage Foundation.
Today is not only taxes due date, its also Tax Freedom Day. It has taken from Jan 1st to today for all your wages to pay the average share of federal, state, and local taxes – 29.2% of all your income.
While Obama wages class warfare hawking the Buffet tax, which is a reelection gimmick, a true crisis looms on Jan 1, 2013. A $494 billion tax increase if Congress and Obama do not take action to avoid it.
That equates to an average tax increase of $3800 with 70% of it impacting low and middle income families leaving them with $346 billion less. Note that nothing in the Buffett Tax avoids this.
Higher income taxes, payroll taxes, death taxes, marriage penalty tax, decrease in child tax credit and adoption credit, decreases in tax breaks for education and dependent care. Middle income families will pay more due to the alternative minimum tax.
Joseph
April 17th, 2012
4:41 pm
Only 85 million people pay federal taxes and u lib freaks want the rich to pa more????
JamVet
April 17th, 2012
4:42 pm
Dozens and dozens of words and you still will not even answer a simple question, td?
How gutless can you be?
JamVet
April 17th, 2012
4:53 pm
(CNN) – A new poll shows more than two-thirds of Americans believe the revenue system benefits the wealthy while being unfair to average workers.
In the CNN/ORC survey, 68% of respondents said the current tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to ordinary workers, compared with 29% who disagreed with that view.
Discounting the super-rich themselves in that 29% figure, how can there be so many blithering, self-destructive idiots in this country?
It boggles the mind.
Oscar
April 17th, 2012
5:20 pm
Sounds like some change is demanded.
jms
April 17th, 2012
5:51 pm
“(CNN) – A new poll shows more than two-thirds of Americans believe the revenue system benefits the wealthy while being unfair to average workers.
In the CNN/ORC survey, 68% of respondents said the current tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to ordinary workers, compared with 29% who disagreed with that view.
Discounting the super-rich themselves in that 29% figure, how can there be so many blithering, self-destructive idiots in this country?
It boggles the mind.”
No. It boggles YOUR mind. But then again you are easily boggled.
Adam
April 18th, 2012
8:15 am
That Black Guy to Mick: Read some of the posts and tweets about Ann Romney after the Hilery (sp) gaff.
FOLLOW THE RULES MICK.