Archive for the ‘Poll Position’ Category

Facebook goes public today, listing shares on Nasdaq at $38 apiece; if you want to buy, trading of stock listed as “FB” commences at 11 a.m.

So, do you? Do you want to buy Facebook stock at that price?

On one hand, there is precedent for highly anticipated tech listings that soared and have not (to date) flamed out. Google of course comes to mind: The search-engine company went public in August 2004 at $85, more than doubled in price by year’s end, and has been trading lately in the $600s — more than seven times its IPO price.

Of course, Google has a way to make money, and lots of it. Facebook? Well, the numbers would indicate it’s at least as good a moneymaker as Google was circa 2004. But there was ominous news this week, when GM said it was pulling its paid advertisements on Facebook because it didn’t think they were effective.

Continue reading Poll Position: Is Facebook stock worth the asking price? »

A day after President Obama endorsed the concept of same-sex marriage (but, notably, no policies to legalize it), the Washington Post reported that, as a teenager in boarding school, Mitt Romney once forcibly cut the longish hair of a fellow classmate who was “presumed” to be gay. The story has since been found to have a number of problems: Two sisters of the alleged victim (who died several years ago) claim the depiction of him is “factually incorrect,” and one says she had never heard of the incident (which, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen); one of the Romney classmates quoted about the incident now says he didn’t actually witness it.

As if to confirm that juvenile behavior by juveniles is not a partisan issue, a blogger soon posted an excerpt from Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” in which he describes behaving rudely toward an unpopular female classmate. (The posted excerpts don’t refer to his age at the time, but the reference by Obama to her being in …

Continue reading Poll Position: How much of a candidate’s life is fair game? »

Michael Adams arrived at the University of Georgia at the same time I did, in the fall of 1997. I left four years later. At that time, no one would have guessed he’d still be there in 2012, much less 2013. He was always rumored to have other ambitions, from moving on to other universities to heading the NCAA, or even seeking political office. But it will be June of next year, Adams announced yesterday, when he retires from the job.

At just shy of 16 years, his tenure will have been longer than all but three UGA presidents in the 20th century. And a lengthy tenure often makes for a number of possible ways for a person to be remembered. Oh, how that will be the case with Michael Adams.

Adams presided over UGA during a time of marked improvement in both its students’ credentials and its facilities. The HOPE scholarship and metro Atlanta’s population boom certainly contributed to the former. But Adams capitalized on those advantages in many ways, including the expansion of merit …

Continue reading Poll Position: What will be Michael Adams’ legacy at UGA? »

Today is considered “Weed Day” by marijuana smokers because the date, 4/20, corresponds with the numbers they use to refer to the drug. The actual origins of the term “420″ are not as widely known, but you can count on thousands of college students gathering — in some cases, together, and in very public locations — to celebrate doing something that’s illegal.

For now, anyway.

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There is a growing shift in public opinion about whether marijuana should be legalized, even in the South, with as unlikely a proponent as Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson arguing that particular drug shouldn’t be treated any differently than alcohol. Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and erstwhile GOP presidential candidate now seeking the Libertarian Party’s 2012 nomination, has called for legalizing and regulating marijuana, citing the ineffectiveness and …

Continue reading Poll Position: Should marijuana be legalized? »

Today’s jobs report was not good. From December to February, net job creation surpassed 200,000 per month — and while estimates vary about how many new jobs are needed each month simply to keep pace with population growth, pretty much everyone agrees anything north of 200,000 is good news. But in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ initial estimate is a disappointing 120,000. That was the worst monthly showing since October, and the worst figure for March since 2009. It doesn’t represent the kind of growth that heralds a reinvigorated labor market.

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The unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent from 8.3 percent, but that had a lot to do with people giving up on finding jobs and exiting the labor force. At this stage of an economic recovery, people ought to be rejoining the labor force as they see an uptick in hiring.

Now, the dip in March could …

Continue reading Poll Position: Is the economy gaining or just breaking even? »

During three days of oral arguments about Obamacare at the Supreme Court this week, legal analysts were at pains to predict which way each justice was leaning based on his or her line of questioning. For all but the most experienced court watchers, this seems like an exercise in futility: Justices may be just as likely to question an attorney’s point in the hopes of eliciting a stronger case for it as they are to seek to poke holes in it. I’ll just stick to the prediction I, like many others, made when the first legal challenges were filed: This case will come down to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s most frequent swing vote, in what most likely will be a 5-4 decision.

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Much of the analysis …

Continue reading Poll Position: If Obamacare mandate falls, what goes with it? »

After a long winter — in terms of the state Legislature and the GOP presidential race, not the temperature — the boys of summer are almost back, which means spring is near. But before we could reach Opening Day, we found out it’ll be the last season for one Larry Wayne Jones Jr., better known as Chipper.

Those of us who watched the Braves’ unprecedented streak of division titles during the 1990s and early 2000s have been treated to a succession of retiring greats during the past few years: Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Bobby Cox and, now, Chipper Jones.

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And that got me thinking: Is Chipper the best Atlanta Brave ever?

Note the phrasing: Atlanta Brave. So, greats from the franchise’s days in …

Continue reading Poll Position: Who was Atlanta’s greatest Brave of all? »

Some of the Republicans who are weary of — and Democrats who are delighted by — the GOP’s long primary process have taken to pointing to turnout numbers as proof the party faithful are uninspired. In Mississippi’s hard-fought primary this week, for instance, turnout was lower than four years ago when John McCain already had all but wrapped up the nomination. We’ve seen similar results in other states throughout the primary season.

Then, along came Karl Rove with evidence the current president is suffering an enthusiasm problem of his own.

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In his weekly op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Rove noted that Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee had a combined $91.7 million in cash on hand by the end of January. At the end of January 2004, by comparison, Rove pointed out that George W. Bush and the Republican …

Continue reading Poll Position: Which party’s most pooped about 2012 race? »

For Atlanta residents, this week brought another trip to the ballot box — and another sales tax approved.

This time, it was the re-authorization of a 1 percent sales tax to fund more repairs to the city’s water and sewer infrastructure. It passed overwhelmingly. Just four months ago, voters in six metro counties chose to extend 1 percent SPLOSTs (special-purpose local-option sales taxes) for school construction. Just over a year ago, Cobb residents voted to keep their own SPLOST.

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All this self-taxation has observers, including yours truly, wondering what the impact will be for the T-SPLOST referendum to be held in July.

On one hand, folks don’t seem hesitant to pass these sales taxes. …

Continue reading Poll Position: What do other tax approvals tell us about T-SPLOST? »

Sometimes, the obvious is just too hard to see. As I looked around the Interwebs for ideas about a Poll Position question today, suddenly it dawned on me: Hey, why not ask about the big, real poll taking place here next week?

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So, I’ll go with the GOP presidential primary — but with a twist: I’d like you to vote in the poll that fits the ideological leaning that best describes you.

It’s the closest I can come to a kind of cross-tabs for one of these (still unscientific, of course) polls.

Yes, the labels are limited and perhaps overly broad, but I will be intrigued to see if we get anything interesting from the results: Which candidate gets the “conservative” vote, the “moderate” vote and the “liberal” vote.

Then we’ll compare these results to the exit polls from Georgia …

Continue reading Poll Position: Which candidate will get your vote Tuesday? »