Romney wins Illinios

Will the real Mitt Romney stand up? featuring Eminem

As the Illinois primary is underway today, thought we could laugh a bit.

I think this is funny and very well done by Hugh Atkin.

"Please stand up"
"Please stand up"
"Please stand up"

Chant with me kids...

"Please stand up"
"Please stand up"
"Please stand up"

Rick Santorum: "The unemployment rate doesn't matter to me"

Santorum has made this argument many times, as Dave Weigel points out at Slate, but the soundbite and the message convey his campaign's lesser focus on the economy.

Perhaps this is because Santorum's focus is on the social issues?

Mitt Romney in Peria, Ill. later same day: "I do care about the unemployment rate, it does bother me. I want to put people back to work."

Infighting is fun...

GOP presidential nomination race stats

Interesting snapshot of where the race is at this moment: states won, delegates won, money raised, odds of winning...

Click on the pic to see larger. Really interesting, especially the money raised by Romney versus the other guys. Based on that alone he should be cruising.
(source)

Obama leads all GOP candidates in head-to-head contests

President Barack Obama is leading all of the Republican presidential candidates in head-to-head match-ups, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

• A national survey taken March 7-11 showed Obama leading Romney by 12 percentage points (54-42) and even further ahead of Santorum with 57 percent of support to Santorum's 29 percent.

• For the first time since shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed, half of all Americans (50 percent) say they approve of Barack Obama's job performance.

• Mitt Romney currently holds a 33-24 lead over Santorum among registered Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters, with 20 percent backing Newt Gingrich and 14 percent favoring Ron Paul.

• By a 59-32 margin, most Americans think Barack Obama will win the election if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee. That margin is far wider if Rick Santorum is the GOP nominee: 68 percent think Obama would win, while just 24 percent predict a Santorum presidency.

• In the current survey, just 29 percent of Americans say they have a favorable view of Romney, while 51 percent say they have an unfavorable impression.

• Women favor Obama over Romney by 20 points—virtually unchanged from a month ago.
(source)

Wealthy GOP voters like Mitt Romney best

Among individuals making more than $100,000, Mitt Romney regularly wins more votes than his competitors.  The wealthy really like Mitt Romney.  The less fortunate?  Not so much.

In Alabama, Romney took home 36% of top earners, which is 5 points more than Santorum, and 11 points more than Newt Gingrich.

The story was much the same in Mississippi, where the former Massachusetts governor won votes from 34% of individuals who reported incomes above $100,000. Santorum won among voters making between $50,000 and $100,000, while Gingrich had his best showing with those making less than $50,000.

The contrast is even more striking in states like Michigan and Ohio, where Romney did well enough to win the primaries.

In his home state of Michigan, Romney won 48% of primary voters making more than $100,000. Santorum was second with 34%.

In Georgia, where every candidate in the field was trounced by Gingrich, Romney still won among voters making more than $200,000 (Gingrich won when the limit was extended down to $100,000.)
(source)

New Pew Poll shows Romney leading nationally but losing to Obama

A new Pew Research poll shows that Romney is, again, the favorite nationally among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents for the nomination, leading Rick Santorum 33 to 24 percent in a poll that was in the field through Sunday.

A month ago, Santorum and Romney were in a statistical tie, with the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania slightly ahead.

However, a large percentage of voters surveyed by Pew, 59 percent, see Romney losing to President Obama.

Mitt Romney would "get rid of" Planned Parenthood

Romney: Get rid of Planned Parenthood and Amtrak

Crunch the numbers: Romney does well with wealthy, not so much with working class

The Washington Post reported this morning that in both Michigan and Ohio, “voters making more than $100,000 per year turn[ed] out in much higher numbers this year than they did in 2008″:

In 2008, 22 percent of GOP primary voters in Michigan made at least $100,000, and that group made up 21 percent of the electorate in Ohio, according to exit polls. This year, 33 percent of voters in Michigan made that much money, while 30 percent of Ohio voters did. In both cases, the number of wealthy voters grew by about 50 percent — a pretty stunning increase in that demographic over just a four-year span.

In both states, Romney won among those making more than $100,000 by 14 points, even though he lost among all other income demographics.

A ThinkProgress analysis of exit/entrance polls from the 14 states that have conducted them shows that Romney consistently does best among those earning more than $100,000 or $200,000 a year, while more often than not losing among middle- and working-class voters.

The only states where this wasn’t true were Massachusetts, his home state where he served as governor, and Virginia, where Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich weren’t even on the ballot.

Read more at ThinkProgress.com

Mitt Romney camp: Nomination is an "impossibility" for Santorum and Gingrich

The morning after a mixed Super Tuesday victory, Romney campaign strategists made a bold new case: He's inevitable.

"The nomination is an impossibility for Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich," said one aide, adding that "they would have to ben the laws of reality" to pull off a win at this stage.

Strategists noted that for Santorum to clinch the nomination, he would need to win 65 percent of the remaining delegates—so far, he's won only 22.

For Gingrich, the path to the nomination is even steeper: he'd have to win 70 percent of remaining delegates, while he's only won 14 percent so far.

"It's going to take some kind of act of God to get where they need to get to the nomination," the aide said.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, needs to win only 48 percent of the remaining delegates—and he's won 52 percent to date.
(source)

President Obama versus GOP candidates

Click pic for larger view

Although it's very, very early I was curious to see the most recent polls regarding head-to-head match ups between President Obama and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

According to the Real Clear Politics Averages, President Obama is leading Mitt Romney in polls by an average of 5.1%

And polls show President Obama leading Rick Santorum by an average of 6.8%.

Head over to Real Clear Politics to see a round-up of the latest polls.  Great resource.

President Obama leads GOP candidates in Ohio by double digits

A new NBC/Marist poll of Ohio registered voters shows President Obama at the fifty percent mark in the swing state against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who sees 38 percent versus the President. Obama leads all possible GOP challengers in the state by double digits, which sampled over 3,000 Ohio voters. From Marist's analysis:

Ohio voters are more likely to identify as independents than they were in a similar poll conducted in October 2008. 35% of registered voters now consider themselves to be independent compared with 31% at that time. Republican identification has decreased from 31% to 26%, and Democrats are little changed. They went from 37% in 2008 to 38% now. 

“President Obama’s advantage over his potential challengers in Ohio is underscored by the fact that more voters support him over the GOP field than approve of his job performance,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
(source)

Mitt Romney ahead in recent nat'l polls - Santorum already behind in Ohio before Super Tuesday arrives

Click for larger view

Mitt Romney leads by 6.7% in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls regarding the GOP Presidential nomination.

We'll see where that lies after this coming Super Tuesday.

By the way - everyone is talking about Ohio being the big prize both Santorum AND Romney really need to win.

However, not much attention has been paid to the fact that Santorum has already lost nine delegates by not being on ballots in three Ohio congressional districts. Each district merits three delegates.

Santorum failed to file a full complement of delegates in six additional districts, said central committee member Bob Bennett. That adds up to another nine delegates, for a total of 18 out of the 63 up for grabs.

Santorum also did not file all 18 of his at-large delegates.

"He may very well leave delegates on the sidelines," Bennett said. "Say he would win 70 percent of the state. He doesn't have that many delegates."

Jon Stewart on Romney and Santorum's latest gaffes

I've spoken recently with several people about the "game" that politics truly is.

The second half of this nails that issue. Rick Santorum tells HIS audience that President Obama is a snob for wanting Americans to go to some higher education. He then "clarifies" that by saying vocational schools are just as good an option.

What he doesn't say is that three years ago, that's exactly what President Obama urged Americans to do: four year college, community college, vocational school... Anything that would give an American an extra leg up on finding the job they want. Because knowledge helps us do that.

Wow. What a snob.

By the way, you do know that Rick Santorum has 3 university degrees, right?

Released by Romney campaign: Democrats vote for Santorum

"Democrats voted for Santorum because they want four more years of Obama..."

Well, duh...

Stock market up 56%, unemployment has improved 23 consecutive months, troops out of Iraq, soon to be out of Afghanistan, repeal of DADT...

You do the math.

Mitt Romney: "Out of touch"

Polls: Rick Santorum up by 4 points nationally

Click the pic to view larger

Tweet of the day: Jason Alexander

(via JMG)

Mitt Romney loves everything in Michigan

I love the trees - they're the right height.


I love the lakes - big and small.


I love cars.


I love cars.


I love cars.

This performance is called pandering.  Pandering to the people of Michigan, specifically.

Remember, Mitt Romney said he would have let the auto industry go bankrupt. He has clearly said he wouldn't have saved those American jobs.

Recently, Michigan Rep. Fred Upton (R) noted that without the rescue, Michigan “would have hit 40 percent unemployment rates.”

What do you think of a "president" who would choose to allow thousands and thousands of American jobs to disappear when they could be saved?

How would you feel about a "president" who would let YOUR job disappear when it could be saved?