Archive for the ‘Barack Obama’ Category

Emory University political science professor Alan Abramowitz, a frequently cited scholar of presidential politics, has written a 31-page analysis of Barack Obama’s victory to be presented next month at the annual Southern Political Science Association meeting entitled: “The Emerging Democratic Presidential Majority.” According to an early copy provided to Jolt, Abramowitz concludes thusly:

The structural advantages that Republicans enjoy in House and Senate elections would appear to guarantee the party’s continued competitiveness in congressional elections for many more election cycles.  As a result, divided government will probably be a persistent feature of American politics for some time.  And at the state level, Republicans are likely to remain the dominant party in most of the South as well as a number of sparsely populated, predominantly rural states that are relatively insulated from the demographic and cultural trends affecting the rest of the country.  …

Continue reading Your Daily Jolt: A long-term Democratic majority? »

With Christmas one week from today, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner appear to be nearing a fiscal cliff deal. Some details from the Associated Press:

[Obama offered] to drop his long-held insistence that taxes rise on individuals earning more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000. He is now offering a new threshold of $400,000 and lowering his 10-year tax revenue goals from the $1.6 trillion he had argued for a few weeks ago.Obama’s move follows concessions by Boehner on higher tax rates for the wealthy.

In the new proposal, Obama abandoned his demand for permanent borrowing authority. Instead, he is now asking for a new debt limit that would last two years, putting its renewal beyond the politics of a 2014 midterm election.

And in a move sure to create heartburn among some congressional Democrats, Obama is proposing lower cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries, employing an inflation index that would have …

Continue reading Your Daily Jolt: Close to a fiscal cliff deal? »

Our elected leaders are struggling to deliver their thoughts on the unthinkable today after the horrific school shooting in Connecticut. The video above is President Barack Obama fighting tears while giving a statement in the White House briefing room. Below some reaction from the Georgia delegation.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson:

I am terribly saddened to learn of the shootings today at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I ask all Georgians to join me in praying for the victims and the families affected by this horrendous tragedy.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta:

I am incredibly grieved by this horrible tragedy.  As one who has experienced violence and even terrorism in my life, I deeply regret that young innocent children were killed and that their families and the people of Newtown, Connecticut must face this violence in their communities.  My heart weeps at the senselessness of this atrocity.

This time of year is special for the children of this nation.  They are …

Continue reading Obama, Isakson, Lewis, Reed react to Conn. shooting »

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House Thursday with no apparent progress on the fiscal cliff, and things are getting so bad that NBC News’ Chuck Todd on “Morning Joe” — what Washington watches on the treadmill — brought up 1990s literature. Todd said the negotiations are proceeding so poorly that it seems like Obama is from Mars and Boehner is from Venus.

With most everyone shut out of the mano-a-mano discussions, members of Congress are floating ideas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., according to the Washington Post, is proposing to let the marginal tax rates rise for earnings above $250,000 for a family — but maintain current policy otherwise, including dividend, capital gains and estate taxes. The idea is to end up with a tactical victory for the GOP because this would create far less increased revenue than even Boehner has proposed.

Savannah Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston told the AP’s Chuck Babington that he does …

Continue reading Your Daily Jolt: Kingston suggests short ‘cliff’ dive »

Augusta’s Blue Dog Democratic Rep. John Barrow found himself among like-minded folks this morning at a seminar sponsored by Center Forward, a group that works to promote the few remaining moderates in Congress. The point was to examine the role moderates play in the fiscal cliff negotiations and Congress going forward.

Barrow swung between lamenting the receding number of Blue Dogs and pronouncing himself hopeful for the future. The outlook for the forthcoming Congress is positive, he said, because “we have a somewhat smaller number of crazies than there is currently. … A few less crazy people is a good start.”

He was referring mostly to the conservative House Republicans who “created a crisis” over the debt limit vote last year and who, he said, are hemming in Speaker John Boehner now. Barrow said the biggest problem as we near the fiscal cliff is “the tyranny of the minority within the majority, their ability to dismiss their leader and their predisposition to do so.”

He …

Continue reading Your Daily Jolt: Barrow glad for “a few less crazy people” in House »

Good morning from inside the Beltway. I’m Daniel Malloy, the DC Correspondent for the AJC and your Insider guest pilot for the next three weeks (or at least until the fiscal cliff drama ends). Galloway handed over the keys reluctantly and made me promise not to scuff it while he’s gone. I’ll do my best. Please send news tips, gripes and corrections to dmalloy@ajc.com.

We begin with a piece from National Review Online’s Robert Costa, impeccably well-sourced in Republican circles, positing a run by Roswell’s own Rep. Tom Price for Speaker of the House if there is a conservative revolt against John Boehner over the fiscal cliff negotiations:

“Price is the person we’re all watching,” says an aide close to House leadership. “We know he’s frustrated, but we don’t know much else.”

In an interview with National Review Online, Price won’t speculate about his future, but he acknowledges his growing uneasiness. “My concern is that within our conference, …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: Tom Price for Speaker? »

I need to listen to more V-103.

This is in the way of a small confession. One of the few surprises in Georgia ballot tallies on Tuesday was the startling support given by African-American voters to Amendment One, the measure to permit the state to create a commission that will directly license charter schools.

This despite a very loud continent of black lawmakers, not to mention the state Democratic party and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who declared the proposed constitutional amendment would result in the resegregation of public schools.

What I didn’t know – and neglected to discover until Wednesday — was that these voices were being drowned out by the biggest name in black politics: President Barack Obama.

Two Democratic strategists – one of them Cabral Franklin, son of the former mayor of Atlanta – created this 60-second radio spot that aired exclusively on radio stations with African-American audiences:

The script:

Obama: “I call on states to reform their charter …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: How Obama pushed Georgia’s charter school measure to victory »

The last week has been with replete with national polls showing a lead by Republican Mitt Romney, but swing state surveys that show President Barack Obama firmly in control there — leading some to wonder whether one candidate (Romney) could win the popular vote while another (Obama) wins the electoral contest.

The NYT’s Nate Silver today points to Georgia polling as a reason that this is unlikely to happen:

Mr. Obama trailed by “only” eight points, for instance, in a poll of Georgia that was released on Tuesday. Those are somewhat worse results than Mr. Obama achieved in 2008, when he lost Georgia by five percentage points. But they’re only a little bit worse, whereas the national polls are suggestive of a larger decline for Mr. Obama in the popular vote.

The survey in question is the Survey USA poll commissioned by 11Alive. An AJC poll of the presidential contest in Georgia, conducted two weeks ago, showed a similar margin. We’ll let Silver continue:

Or take the …

Continue reading With Obama (relatively) close in Ga., chances of a popular-electoral split are slim »

If you’re a Democrat, you’ll like Bill Clinton’s analysis of last week’s presidential debate:

On the other hand, there’s something oddly familiar and disquieting about his choice of this phrase: “Who are you going to believe — me or your lying eyes?”

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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Continue reading Bill Clinton in defense of Barack Obama — again »

TAMPA – Last week, the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama went ballistic when Republican Mitt Romney, in his home state of Michigan, quipped that no one ever asked for his birth certificate.

Apparently, outrage can be assuaged by a profitable copyright.

This afternoon, my other-media colleague Jamie Dupree sent word that the Obama campaign store is now selling campaign buttons and bumperstickers featuring the president’s birth certificate:

The price tag: $5.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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Continue reading New Obama button features his birth certificate »