Obama inches toward victory

WASHINGTON -- US President Barack Obama was inching towards victory on Tuesday as results poured in from the US presidential election, as Mitt Romney struggled to win vital swing states.

While the most important trio of battlegrounds -- Ohio, Florida and Virginia -- remained too close to call, Obama grabbed Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, dramatically shrinking the Republican's chances.

At 10:30 p.m. (0330 GMT), US news network voting projections had Obama leading Romney by 173 to 163 electoral college votes, and the Democratic incumbent appeared to have a far clearer route to victory ahead of him.

As expected, Obama polled strongly in New England and the industrial northeast, grabbing densely populated states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to news network projections.

His rival Romney did predictably well in the southern Bible Belt and western prairie states, winning the major prize of Texas and taking back Indiana, which Obama won in 2008, for the Republicans.

But Romney failed to win Michigan, his home state where his father served as governor, and the key battleground states of Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio remained too close to call.

Obama also won New Hampshire, which had been considered a swing state, and Wisconsin, the home state of Romney's running mate Paul Ryan.

Polling was due to have ended in the east of the country, but there were long lines in many areas and officials kept polling centers open late, as the campaigns pleaded with their supporters to stay the course.

The final opinion polls published before voting began showed the two candidates in a dead heat nationwide, but gave Obama a slight advantage in the handful of swing states like Virginia and Ohio that will decide the race.

Each state has a quota of electoral college votes based on its population, and the eventual victor will be the candidate who secures the most.

source: interaksyon.com

What to watch for on Election Night

(CNN) -- A long and bitter presidential election comes to a close on Tuesday when Americans will choose between a second term for President Barack Obama and a new direction with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

CNN's reporters, correspondents, analysts and anchors tell what they'll be watching for that might tip off how the election will go:

Bash: Unexpected GOP struggles in Senate

The neck-and-neck presidential race might be dominating headlines, but there are a lot of rich dramas playing out across the country in the battle for control of the Senate.

Heading into Election Day, there are nearly a dozen true tossup races that could go either way.

Republicans hold 47 seats. To retake control of the Senate, the GOP needs a net gain of four. With 23 Democratic seats up for grabs in a terrible economy, it seemed like a no-brainer that Republicans would be able to flip four. But it's now a struggle for the GOP.

The central reason is that they are defending several unexpected races on their own turf. Indiana's Senate race is now going to be one of the evening's early bellwethers to determine the balance of power in the Senate. GOP candidate Richard Mourdock's poll numbers plummeted in this red state after he awkwardly stated a few weeks ago that pregnancy from rape is a gift from God. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET, and if Democrat Joe Donnelly wins, it will set Republicans back -- especially since the GOP already expects to lose the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe in Maine. The state's popular former governor, independent candidate Angus King, is on track to win there.

Here are three other nail-biters I'll be watching:

Virginia: With more than $80 million spent so far, it's the most expensive Senate race in the country. Former GOP Sen. George Allen is trying to get his seat back after a narrow defeat six years ago. The man who beat him, Jim Webb, is retiring and former governor and DNC chairman Tim Kaine hopes to keep the seat in Democratic hands.

Montana: Neither Republicans nor Democrats will even privately predict which way this will go. Incumbent Democrat Jon Tester is trying to hold on for a second term in this red state. GOP challenger Rep. Denny Rehberg started out the race about 1% ahead in the polls. Now, $50 million later, they're in the exact same place -- a 1% differential between them.

Massachusetts: Going into Election Day, Republicans strategists were pessimistic about holding onto this red seat in the traditionally blue state. GOP Sen. Scott Brown had fallen behind his well-funded Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren -- a liberal icon who served as the president's former consumer advocate.

Brown's win in the race to fill the late Ted Kennedy's seat stunned the political world, and he insists he'll surprise everyone again. But the president is expected to take Massachusetts by double digits -- and with him at the top of the ticket, it may be hard for Brown to beat back a Warren win.

Borger: How will the white vs. nonwhite vote split

One important indicator I will be looking at Election Night is the question of ethnicity -- and how the white vs. the nonwhite population splits. In the 2008 election, 74% of the electorate was white. The percentage of white vote has declined recently because of the growth in the Hispanic and voting African-American population.

Given the ongoing Republican trouble with Hispanic voters and the assumption that African-Americans will, once again, vote overwhelmingly for the president, Mitt Romney needs a strong white turnout to help propel him to victory.

In an analysis by Republican pollster Bill McInturff, the question of the white/nonwhite divide is called the most "critical" of the election. His analysis shows that if the white percentage of the electorate drops to 72%, Obama will probably win the election.

Do the math: CNN racial bloc voting calculator

One key to watch is how the white vote itself splits between Obama and Romney.

In the latest CNN/ORC International national poll taken from Friday to Sunday, Obama received 40% of the white vote while Romney got 57%. In 2008, Obama received 43% of the white vote, which means he is polling less than that currently.

Crowley: Virginia suburbs and I-4 corridor 

The first thing I'll watch is the exit polls to see who's voting and where -- in particular, heavy Latino turnout in Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Florida could indicate Obama wins those states.

Then, it's Virginia, Florida and Ohio.

I'll watch the Virginia suburbs of Washington, particularly the female vote. Romney won't win here, but he has to hold down Obama's numbers while running up his own score in the rural area. Romney has to win Virginia.

Florida is all about the Interstate 4 corridor. North of it votes Republican; south of it votes Democratic. The I-4 corridor decides.

Everyone will tell you to watch Lake, Stark and Hamilton counties in Ohio. There are good reasons to watch all of them, reasons no doubt delineated by my colleagues. But for me, it's all about Ottawa County, which has correctly picked the presidential winner in Ohio since 1944. That's a better record than pollsters. I'll watch Ottawa.

Hamby: How goes Pasco?  

Polls begin to close in Florida at 7 p.m. ET, and a handful of counties will report their absentee and early vote tallies immediately.

Once that happens, political pros in Florida will be anxiously refreshing election board websites in a handful of those counties -- Pinellas, Duval, Orange -- in search of early clues about which way the state is trending.

Track county-by-county results: Florida

One of them is Pasco County, outside of Tampa. Officials there are diligent about posting returns as fast as possible. The county has a slight Republican tilt, but Obama won the early and absentee vote there in 2008 despite losing the county on Election Night. For Democrats, it was a promising sign that Obama was well on his way to being competitive statewide, even in GOP-leaning areas.

In 2004, George W. Bush beat John Kerry in the Pasco early/absentee vote by 8 points. Bush ended up winning the county by 10 points. In a shift four years later, Obama beat John McCain by 5 points in the early absentee vote. He ultimately lost the county -- but only by 3.5 points, thanks to the votes the campaign banked early.

If Obama is losing Pasco by more than that Bush/Kerry margin by the time the first returns are posted, it could be a tough night for Obama in Florida.

"If you are looking for good news for Romney out of Pasco, if they have a 10- to 12-point lead in the absentee and early vote, that probably portends that they are going to have a really good night in suburban counties," said one top Florida Democrat.

King: The suburban vote and who votes in the swing states

A narrow and then a more global point:

-- Watch the vote in the suburbs around Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and in northern Virginia. These are two early-closing states; if Romney is holding his own in the suburbs, we have a competitive night. If not, it could be effectively over before we get to the Central Time zone.

-- Who votes determines who wins: The composition of the electorate in the swing states is the first and best clue. Does the electorate look like 2008?

If so, then Obama is likely on a path to victory. But if the percentage of African-American, Latino and younger voters is down just a bit -- and the electorate looks, say, more like the 2004 presidential election -- then Romney has a shot.

Preston: What happens afterward?

It goes without saying that we are all looking at turnout in the key battleground states -- can Romney and Obama get their respective bases to show up at the polls and at the same time, convincing the independent voters to vote for them today?

What is piquing my interest is not only what happens in the next few hours but what will be the political climate for the next president-elect. Washington is already polarized and there are great challenges facing Congress before the end of the year.

Whoever wins the presidency and the parties that control the House and the Senate need to put the bitterness of this election behind them and work together.

The big question: Can they do that?

Steinhauser: Can Romney broaden the electoral map?

This election will be won or lost in the battleground states. Or will it?

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is making a last-minute push in two states that should be safe for Obama: Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

Romney campaigned in Pennsylvania on Sunday and returns on Election Day. Republican running mate Rep. Paul Ryan campaigned in Pennsylvania Saturday and in Minnesota on Sunday, and the campaign's up with ads in both states.

Is this a head fake by the Romney campaign, or do they see the tightening public opinion polls in both states as evidence they might be able to turn Pennsylvania and Minnesota from blue to red?

The Romney campaign says it's playing offense. The Obama campaign says the move is a sign of desperation by the Romney campaign. We'll find out who's right on Election Night.

source: CNN

US celebrities mobilize for Obama, Romney on Twitter

WASHINGTON—US celebrities weighed in on the race for the White House on election eve Monday, endorsing their favorite candidates on Twitter or making last-ditch pleas for their followers to get out and vote.

Rapper Snoop Dogg endorsed the Democratic incumbent Barack Obama, tweeting: "Make sure u all vote 2morrow!! @BarackObama @MichelleObama."

Eva Longoria, star of TV show "Desperate Housewives", posted an "I voted" banner from Team Obama on her Twitter profile picture, and urged her 4.6 million followers to do the same.

"Can't get too political in only 140 chac (characters) but for those asking, I'm voting #RomneyRyan," said Melissa Joan Hart -- star of the TV series "Melissa & Joey."

Obama and his Republican challenger Romney have been powering through key swing states in a last-ditch bid for voters ahead of election day Tuesday, when Americans will take to the polls to choose their next president.

Rapper Jay-Z and rocker Bruce Springsteen joined Obama in his final day of campaigning on Monday, and other Hollywood A-listers have recently come out in support of the president.

Actresses Mia Farrow and Julianne Moore, and singer Mary J. Blige also called on their fans to vote for Obama on Twitter Monday.

Romney, meanwhile, has won the high-profile backing of Clint Eastwood, who made a guest appearance at the Republican National Convention with a now-famous speech where he talked to an empty chair meant to represent Obama.

The film star still cuts a relatively lonely figure in Hollywood with his support for Republicans, although several TV actors have come out publicly to back Romney.

"What a wonderful present it will be to have you Inaugurated as The President Of The USA on my birthday 1/20/2013! God Speed! @MittRomney," film and TV actress Stacey Dash tweeted Monday to her 339,500 followers.

Others, meanwhile, made a last-ditch push to get voters out to the polling stations.

Actress Rosario Dawson joined former "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera and others in a "Twitter party" encouraging people to state why they vote using the hashtag #ivotebecause.

source: interaksyon.com

Obama and Romney meet for final debate as race tightens

BOCA RATON, Florida - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney face off in front of the cameras for a final time on Monday as opinion polls show their battle for the White House has tightened to a dead heat.

With 15 days to go until the November 6 election, the two candidates turn to foreign policy for their third and last debate, which starts at 9 p.m. (0100 GMT on Tuesday).

The stakes are high, as the two candidates are tied at 46 percent each in the Reuters/Ipsos online daily tracking poll.

The debate will likely be the last time either candidate will be able to directly appeal to millions of voters - especially the roughly 20 percent who have yet to make up their minds or who could still switch their support.

Obama comes to this debate with several advantages. As sitting president, he has been deeply involved with national security and foreign affairs for the past three-and-a-half years. He can point to a number of successes on his watch, from the end of the Iraq war to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

But Romney will have many chances to steer the conversation back toward the sluggish US economy, a topic on which voters see him as more credible. He will also try to use unease about a nuclear Iran and turmoil in Libya to sow doubts about Obama's leadership at home and abroad.

Romney launched his candidacy with an accusation that Obama was not representing US interests aggressively enough, but after a decade of war voters have little appetite for further entanglements abroad. After a clumsy overseas trip in July, Romney will have to demonstrate to voters that he could ably represent the United States on the world stage.

"What he needs to do is get through this third debate by showing a close familiarity with the issues and a demeanor in foreign policy that is not threatening," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

Presidential debates have not always been consequential, but this year they have had an impact.

Romney's strong performance in the first debate in Denver on October 3 helped him recover from a series of stumbles and wiped out Obama's advantage in opinion polls.

Obama fared better in their second encounter on October 16, but that has not helped him regain the lead.

The Obama campaign is now playing defense as it tries to limit Romney's gains in several of the battleground states that will decide the election.

Romney could have a hard time winning the White House if he does not carry Ohio. A new Quinnipiac/CBS poll shows Obama leading by 5 percentage points in the Midwestern state, but another by Suffolk University shows the two candidates tied there.

Last-chance debate

More than 60 million viewers watched each of their previous two debates, but the television audience this time could be smaller as it will air at the same time as high-profile baseball and football games.

Much of the exchange, which takes place at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, will likely focus on the Middle East.

Campaigning in Canton, Ohio, on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden reminded voters of Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan in the next two years and pointed out that Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have made no such guarantees.

"They said, quote, it depends. Ladies and gentlemen, like everything with them, it depends," Biden said. "It depends on what day you find these guys."

At their second debate last week, the two presidential candidates clashed bitterly over Libya, a preview of what is to come on Monday evening. They argued over Obama's handling of the attack last month on the US consulate in Benghazi in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

The Obama administration first labeled the incident a spontaneous reaction to a video made in the United States that lampooned the Prophet Mohammad. Later, it said it was a terrorist assault on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

This shifting account, and the fact that Obama went on a campaign trip the day after the attack, has given Romney ammunition to use at Monday's debate.

"The statements were either misleading by intention or they were misleading by accident. Either way, though, he's got to get to the bottom of this," Romney adviser Dan Senor said on NBC's "Today" show.

Obama and his allies charge that Romney exploited the Benghazi attack for political points while officials were still accounting for the wellbeing of US diplomats.

Regarding foreign policy overall, Obama's allies accuse Romney of relying on generalities and platitudes.

"It is astonishing that Romney has run for president for six years and never once bothered to put forward a plan to end the war in Afghanistan, for example, or to formulate a policy to go after al Qaeda," US Senator John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, wrote in a memo released by the Obama campaign on Monday.

Romney has promised to tighten the screws over Iran's nuclear program and accused Obama of "leading from behind" as Syria's civil war expands. He also has faulted Obama for setting up a politically timed exit from the unpopular Afghanistan war, and accused him of failing to support Israel, an important ally in the Middle East.

The Republican challenger is likely to bring up a New York Times report from Saturday that said the United States and Iran had agreed in principle to hold bilateral negotiations to halt what Washington and its allies say is a plan by Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

The 90-minute debate, moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS, will be divided into six segments: America's role in the world; the war in Afghanistan; Israel and Iran; the changing Middle East; terrorism; and China's rise. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Mark Felsenthal and Susan Heavey)

source: interaksyon.com

Google search for 'completely wrong' yields page of Romney photos

(CNN) -- To the amusement of Mitt Romney's critics, a Google Image search for the phrase "completely wrong" on Wednesday returned a page nearly full of images of the Republican presidential candidate.

A Google spokesman said the gallery of photos is the unintentional result of normal Google analytics, which produce images associated with popular phrases in news headlines and search terms, and not the result of any effort to skew the results.

In this case, Google's algorithms picked up on news coverage of Romney saying last week he was "completely wrong" when he made controversial statements last spring that 47% of Americans were "victims" and dependent on government. Romney took some political heat for the original comments, which were captured by a hidden camera at a private fundraiser in May and made public last month.

The former Massachusetts governor, speaking last Thursday on Fox News, disavowed his earlier statements.

"Clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right," Romney said, "In this case, I said something that's just completely wrong."

The Google results page of Romney photos was noticed Wednesday by tech blog Mashable, a CNN.com content partner, and other news sites.

A Romney campaign spokeswoman declined to comment.

The episode recalls past examples of "Google bombs," or intentionally skewed Internet search results, for politicians' names. In perhaps the most famous case, pranksters in the mid-2000s created large numbers of links that caused Google to reference President George W. Bush (and later President Barack Obama) in response to searches for "miserable failure." Google later tweaked its analytics to discourage the practice.

Another bombing campaign by opponents of former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum produces a fake definition for a sexual byproduct when Internet users search Santorum's name.

Google says it tries not to handle strange search results on case-by-case, opting instead for making improvements to the search algorithms themselves.

source: CNN

Romney promises rising incomes for all

BOSTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Saturday America "can't afford four more years like the last four years."

Romney, in his weekly podcast, cited an economic study that indicated middle-class families face a $4,000 tax increase to pay the interest on the debt President Obama has incurred during his first term, calling it a "very heavy, unacceptable burden for families who are already stretched too thin."

The self-described "severely conservative" former Massachusetts governor discounted the Labor Department's report Friday showing the unemployment rate, at 7.8 percent, was at the lowest point since Obama took office in January 2009.

"If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent," Romney said.

"The results of President Obama's failed policies are staggering -- 23 million Americans are struggling for work, nearly one in six are living in poverty, and 47 million people are dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families.

"What we need is a real recovery -- and, unlike the president, that's exactly what I'm offering."

Romney said Obama's second-term plans include "more taxes, more borrowing and more spending."

"I will cut spending, restore our AAA credit rating and balance our budget within a decade," he said.

"The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we will have a stagnant economy that fosters government dependency and chronically high unemployment. But if you elect me as president, we'll have pro-growth policies that foster upward mobility, strengthen the middle class, and lift people out of poverty."

source: upi.com

Obama fires back at Romney after losing debate

DENVER, Colorado - Barack Obama demanded truth from the "real Mitt Romney" on Thursday as aides promised a "hard look" at strategy after the president's listless performance in the first White House debate.

Passionate, cutting and engaged, in stark comparison to his debate showing, Obama told 12,000 cheering supporters at a chilly lakeside rally in Denver that the Romney who turned up to their first head-to-head clash on Wednesday night was an impostor who had covered up unpopular positions.

"I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney," Obama said. "It couldn't have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year, promising $5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy."

"The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that. The real Mitt Romney said we don't need any more teachers in our schools. The fellow on stage last night -- he loves teachers, can't get enough of them."

"If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth," a fired-up Obama told supporters anxious not to see him fritter away his opinion poll lead with less than five weeks to go before election day.

The president's feisty appearance represented a clear effort to shift the news cycle away from his stinking debate reviews and stall Romney's bid to create a comeback narrative following his unexpectedly strong showing.

About 40 million people watched the debates on television, according to preliminary figures by Nielsen TV ratings service.

Obama seized on Romney's comment that he knew nothing about a tax break for companies that outsource jobs overseas, saying that if that was true then the multi-millionaire former venture capitalist needed a new accountant.

"He seems to be doing just fine with his current accountant," he said, poking fun at Romney's complex offshore tax arrangements, which Democrats highlight to press the case he is indifferent to middle-class struggles.

Obama also mocked Romney over his plan to cut government subsidies for the PBS television channel that produces famed early learning show "Sesame Street."

"Thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird, it is about time, we didn't know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit."

Romney, meanwhile, basked in the plaudits for his performance as he addressed a fundraising event, saying Americans had seen two contrasting visions for the future on stage in Denver.

The Republican challenger made a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Colorado, thrilling hundreds of attendees as he stepped on stage to join his sons who were scheduled guests.

"I know this is going to be a close-fought battle," Romney said. "We need to win Colorado. You know what, if we do, we are going to win back the White House."

In his first public appearance since trumping Obama in the first of three one-on-one debates, the former Massachusetts governor pursued attacks on what he portrayed as the president's continuing expansion of government.

"I saw the president's vision as trickle-down government and I don't think that's what America believes in," Romney said. "I see instead a prosperity that comes through freedom."

Obama turned in a lethargic and sometimes irritable performance in Denver on Wednesday night, allowing a pumped-up Romney an opening in a White House race that had been trending away from the Republican after weeks of gaffes.

The president's campaign team signaled that they understood Obama's performance was below par and promised a rethink before the next clash in New York state in two weeks time.

Top strategist David Axelrod told reporters on a damage limitation conference call that Romney's performance was laced with untruths that the campaign would now push back on.

"We are going to take a hard look at this," Axelrod said. "I'm sure we will make adjustments."

Axelrod said Obama had taken a conscious decision not to get into a slugfest with Romney at the debate at the University of Denver because he believed that American voters deserved better.

"What the president wanted to avoid was a situation where you had two politicians up there insulting each other," he said, before comparing the Republican candidate to Charles Dickens's famous pickpocket.

"He is kind of a serial Artful Dodger. That makes it a more challenging kind of event," Axelrod said.

The question now is whether Romney's debate performance has changed the minds of enough wavering voters in key swing states to give the Republican challenger a real chance on November 6.

Opinion polls in the coming days will provide the first clues.

source: interaksyon.com

Workers beg Romney to stop latest Bain outsourcing

FREEPORT - Being told to train his replacement was humiliating and surreal, but Tom Gaulrapp said the worst part was when the plant's US flag was taken down before the Chinese engineers arrived.

Gaulrapp decided it was time to take a stand against outsourcing and the man he blames for the loss of his job: Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, who founded the private equity firm that owns the Freeport, Illinois auto parts plant.

Romney's ties to Bain Capital have burdened the Republican nominee's hopes of winning the November 6 election as Democrats unfavorably paint him as a corporate raider who pioneered the outsourcing of US jobs to countries with lower labor costs.

Romney denies the charge, but his claim to be a man who could revive the economy and boost the prospects of American workers rings hollow here.

Gaulrapp thinks it would only take a phone call from the candidate who's vowed to create 12 million jobs in the United States to save the 170 jobs at Sensata Technologies that are about to leave this already economically depressed town of 26,000.

"What we'd like is a miracle," Gaulrapp, who has worked at the plant for 33 years, said with a sigh that acknowledged how unlikely it is that his wish will be granted.

"We'd like Mitt Romney to come to Freeport, see what this is doing to this community, and contact his friends that run Bain Capital and say 'this is absolutely the wrong thing to do' and save our jobs."

The Romney campaign declined to comment on the situation at Sensata, but a spokeswoman contacted by AFP noted that the former Massachusetts governor retired from Bain in 1999 and his investments there are controlled by a blind trust, effectively nullifying his links to the firm.

Romney's campaign recently set up a website -- business.mittromney.com -- defending his record at Bain and the "thousands" of jobs he saved or created by "fixing companies that were broken and giving new companies a shot at success."

'A Taste of the Romney Economy'

But the situation in Freeport is a classic example of how what's best for a company is not always what's best for American workers, said Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp, who is no relation to Tom.

"You can't keep sending your jobs offshore and still have a middle class," said the mayor.

Plant worker Pam Lampros, 53, is worried she's going to lose her home so investors like Romney can make a bigger profit.

"It just hurts after so many years of hard work and dedication," said Lampros, a 34-year veteran at the non-unionized plant who had hoped to retire from there.

"It's for corporate greed, more or less."

Sensata, which is majority-owned by Bain Capital, purchased the automotive sensors unit from Honeywell for $140 million in cash in January 2011.

With annual revenues of $130 million and valuable patents, the unit was a good buy. But with 75 percent of the revenue generated in Asia, it made sense to ship production to Sensata's facilities in China, the Netherlands-based company said.

"It's better to be closer to one's customers," Sensata spokesman Jacob Sayer told AFP, citing transportation and other logistical advantages.

Sayer acknowledged that the decision to shift production to China is "an unfortunately event" for Freeport and said he understands why it could be "difficult" for the workers to train their replacements.

He has no idea why -- or if -- the US flag was removed before the Chinese engineers and technicians arrived.

"We didn't request it. I can tell you that," Sayer said, adding that the company has been leasing the facility from Honeywell and has no involvement in grounds maintenance.

The workers have had nearly two years to prepare for the plant closure. Some have found new jobs and those who remained were given retention bonuses to help keep operations going until the last pieces of equipment are shipped elsewhere.

They got riled up in June when Romney visited nearby Janesville, Wisconsin and talked about how jobs were his top priority -- at the same time they were being told to train their Chinese replacements.

After months of pursuing Romney's campaign with protests and petitions, the Sensata workers set up camp in the fairgrounds across the road from the plant on September 12 in hopes of drawing more attention to their cause.

In a nod to both the "Hoovervilles" of unemployed workers that sprung up during the Great Depression and the Occupy Wall Street movement, about a dozen people have since been sleeping in tents staked into the cold, hard ground.

Mark Schreck, 36, a registered Republican, even brought his children a couple of times.

"This isn't a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, this is an American issue," he said, noting it is the second time his job has been outsourced to China, despite both operations being profitable -- just not profitable enough.

"We're in trouble. I'm not that old and when I grew up American industry and technology was huge. My folks and my uncles all worked in good jobs and retired from them," Schreck said as he sat by a smoking campfire on the windy fairgrounds.

"It's hard to grasp how bleak it is out there. I've been looking for work since last January and I'm not finding any."

source: interaksyon.com

Romney to conclude GOP convention with defining speech

Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- Paul Ryan energized the Republican National Convention with a powerful attack on President Barack Obama that championed conservative principles, setting the stage for Mitt Romney's defining speech on Thursday night to accept the party's presidential nomination.

In the biggest speech of his still young political career, the Republican vice presidential nominee told the party faithful and the American public that time is running out to solve the nation's fiscal problems, but the GOP ticket can do it if elected in November.

"We will not duck the tough issues -- we will lead," Ryan said in his prime-time address televised nationwide. "... The work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of us -- all of us, but we can do this. We can do this. Together, we can do this."

Republicans at the Tampa Bay Times Forum punctuated Ryan's speech with frequent cheers and ovations, showing he delivered the kind of political red meat they craved as the campaign heads into the stretch drive with the race very close.

"He really did blow the roof off this place," said CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, labeling the performance "the tee-up for Mitt Romney tomorrow."

Ryan's speech was part of a campaign effort to portray Romney, a multimillionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor, as a champion of working-class Americans who struggle with high unemployment and a sluggish post-recession economy under Obama.

Romney chose Ryan, the conservative House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, as his running mate in hopes that the fiscal expert known for big and hard-line ideas would galvanize support on the political right and appeal to moderates and independents seeking solutions for the nation's chronic deficit and debt problems.

Ryan decried a dearth of leadership under Obama and pledged results in keeping with the convention theme for the day: "We Can Change It."

"I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old, and I know that we are ready," Ryan said. "Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment, to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the runaround, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Gov. Mitt Romney."

Focus on fiscal issues

Ryan focused mostly on the fiscal issues that are his strength, such as the national debt, stimulus spending under Obama and his proposed Medicare reforms that would partially privatize the government health care system for senior citizens.

Obama and Democrats have attacked the Ryan plan, and he sought to turn the tables on the issue by repeating the factually challenged assertion that the president cut Medicare by more than $700 billion to cover the costs of the 2010 health care reform law passed by Democrats.

The figure comes from a July 24 Congressional Budget Office report that said repealing the health care law, as called for by Romney and Ryan, would increase spending on Medicare by $716 billion through 2022. At the same time, the CBO letter said keeping what critics call "Obamacare" in place would not mean a $716 billion decrease in Medicare spending, as claimed by Ryan.

Independent fact-checking organizations have rated the accusation first made by Romney that Obama raided Medicare to pay for "Obamacare" as mostly false. Ryan, however, said he and Romney welcomed the debate on how to ensure the long-term solvency of the popular entitlement program that is a key part of America's social safety net.

His speech included some humorous jabs at Obama that drew laughs and ovations from a charged convention crowd.

"With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money, and he's pretty experienced at that," Ryan said early in the speech. He also joked about his running mate's musical tastes, chiding Romney for the "elevator music" that reflected their generational gap.

Later, Ryan received a standing ovation when he asked: "Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?"

He also peppered his remarks with references to central government planning and control, code words for socialism among the most conservative elements of the Republican Party.

"None of us should have to settle for the best this administration offers, a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us," he said.

In the most emotional moment, Ryan paid tribute to his mother, who started her own business after his father died.

"It was a new life, and it transformed my mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn't just in the past," Ryan said. "Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my mom is my role model."

In the VIP box of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, Ryan's mother, Betty, stood and waved, and he touched his heart with his hand while gazing at her.

America's role in the world

In other speeches Wednesday night, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona offered biting criticism of Obama's presidency, saying he was failing to adhere to American values.

Paul took aim at domestic policies that he blamed for the country's debt now equaling its economic production, calling Obama "uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation."

McCain, the Republican presidential candidate defeated by Obama four years ago, targeted what he called diminishing American power and influence around the world. He accused Obama of abandoning freedom movements in Iran and Syria by not supporting protesters trying to overthrow oppressive regimes, saying "our president is not being true to our values."

"We can choose to follow a declining path, toward a future that is dimmer and more dangerous than our past, or we can choose to reform our failing government, revitalize our ailing economy, and renew the foundations of our power and leadership in the world," said McCain, a consistent advocate for a stronger military. "That is what's at stake in this election."

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added her voice to the call for American strength through power, delivering a politically charged speech that accused Obama of yielding the nation's leadership role in the world.

"It just has to be that the freest and most compassionate country on the face of the Earth will continue to be the most powerful," Rice said to cheers. She also made a strong call for education reform, labeling the lack of successful schools in impoverished areas the "civil rights issue" of our day.

Romney and Republicans contend that Obama's policies, such as stimulus spending, have worsened an already bad economic situation the president inherited from the previous GOP administration of President George W. Bush. They propose traditional conservative policies to shrink government, cut taxes and drastically reform entitlements, which they say will bring economic growth and job creation.

Obama and Democrats say such prescriptions are failed policies of the past and call for increased revenue sources such as higher taxes for wealthy Americans to be part of a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

"On almost every issue (Romney) wants to go backwards, sometimes all the way to the last century," Obama said Wednesday at a campaign event in Virginia.

For Ryan, 42, the vice presidential nomination and convention speech means an elevated national profile after never having run a statewide race.

The convention is proceeding as Hurricane Isaac drenches the Gulf Coast after making landfall in Louisiana on Tuesday night, the eve of the seven-year anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina. The storm prompted Republican organizers to postpone the first day of the convention, which is a crucial opportunity for defining Romney to the American people.

GOP officials pushed ahead with a convention agenda designed to frame the election as a referendum on Obama's presidency while attempting to turn Romney's biggest political vulnerabilities into campaign advantages.

Ryan's speech emphasized that effort, concluding with a call for voters of all parties to "come together for the sake of our country" by backing the Republican ticket.

Romney clinched the GOP nomination in the roll call of state delegates Tuesday after a rugged Republican primary campaign that saw momentum swings nearly every week and bitter attacks by GOP colleagues

The 2,200-plus convention delegates also approved a conservative platform that calls for less government, opposes same-sex marriage and endorses a "human life amendment" to ban abortion, with no specific exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is threatened.

Personal stories of hard work, success

Romney and Ryan, who also was endorsed by delegates Tuesday, will be formally nominated on Thursday when Romney will deliver his acceptance speech to conclude the convention and move the campaign toward the election.

Throughout the convention, speaker after speaker has emphasized his or her own humble beginnings as descendants of immigrants who worked hard to achieve success for their families and never expected government help or handouts. Virtually every speaker took umbrage with Obama's comment on the campaign trail that "you didn't build that" in reference to successful businesses that received government help along the way.

On Tuesday night, Romney's wife, Ann, faced a similar entry as Ryan into the full glare of presidential media coverage with her own prime-time speech that delivered a political broadside with a personal touch.

She mixed homespun anecdotes, such as repeated references to their first date, with references to issues considered weaknesses for her husband, support from women and his personal wealth, in encouraging Americans to get to know the warm and loving man she met at a high school dance.

"This was a political speech wrapped in velvet," CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger commented.

Ann Romney took on another tricky political issue for her husband on Wednesday when she addressed a Latino coalition and challenged the traditional support by Hispanic-Americans for Democrats, including Obama.

"I feel like my importance in speaking out is making sure that those coalitions that would naturally be voting for another party wake up and say you better really look at the issues this time," she said. "You better really look at your future and say who is going to be the guy who is going to make it better for you and your children. And there is only one answer."

For Romney, 65, the nomination puts him within one step of the goal he first sought in 2007 by running for president after serving as a Republican governor for four years in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts.

Though rivals challenged his conservative credentials in the 2012 primaries, Romney emerged victorious. But he continues to walk a political tightrope in trying to energize right-wing support while also appealing to moderates and independent voters.

The latest CNN/ORC International poll indicates a dead heat between Romney and Obama, with new numbers released Sunday showing that 53% of likely voters believe Obama is more in touch with their needs, compared with 39% for Romney.

Obama leads by an equal margin when it comes to being in touch with the middle class, and six in 10 say Obama is in touch with the problems facing women today, with just over three in 10 feeling the same way about Romney.

Romney leads 48% to 44% over Obama on managing the government effectively and has a 6-point advantage on having a clear plan for fixing the nation's problems. Both figures are within the survey's margin of error.

source: CNN

The One Housing Solution Left: Mass Mortgage Refinancing

MORE than four million Americans have lost their homes since the housing bubble began bursting six years ago. An additional 3.5 million homeowners are in the foreclosure process or are so delinquent on payments that they will be soon. With 13.5 million homeowners underwater — they owe more than their home is now worth — the odds are high that many millions more will lose their homes.

Housing remains the biggest impediment to economic recovery, yet Washington seems paralyzed. While the Obama administration’s housing policies have fallen short, Mitt Romney hasn’t offered any meaningful new proposals to aid distressed or underwater homeowners.

Late last month, the top regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blocked a plan backed by the Obama administration to let the companies forgive some of the mortgage debt owed by stressed homeowners. While half a million homeowners could be helped with a principal writedown, the regulator, Edward J. DeMarco, argued (we believe incorrectly) that helping some homeowners might cause others who are paying on their loans to stop so that they also could get their mortgages reduced.

With principal writedown no longer an option, the government needs to find a new way to facilitate mass mortgage refinancings. With rates at record lows, refinancing would allow homeowners to significantly reduce their monthly payments, freeing up money to spend on other things. A mass refinancing program would work like a potent tax cut.

Refinancing would also significantly reduce the chance of default for underwater homeowners. With fewer losses from past loans burdening their balance sheets, lenders could make more new loans, and communities plagued by mass foreclosures might see relief from blight.

Well over half of all American homeowners with mortgages are paying rates that would appear to make them excellent candidates to refinance. Many of those with stable jobs, good credit scores and even a modest amount of home equity have already done so, taking out 30-year loans at rates around 3.5 percent, some of the lowest rates since the 1950s. But many others can’t refinance because the collapse in house prices has wiped out their home equity.

Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, has proposed a remedy. Under his plan, called Rebuilding American Homeownership, underwater homeowners who are current on their payments and meet other requirements would have the option to refinance to either lower their monthly payments or pay down their loans and rebuild equity.

A government-financed trust would be used to buy the mortgages of homeowners who had refinanced at an interest rate that was about 2 percentage points more than the record-low Treasury rates at which the government borrows. This would generate enough interest income to cover the costs of any defaults, administration of the trust and other expenses. Families would have three years to refinance; after that, the trust would stop buying loans and eventually wind itself down as homeowners repaid their loans.

Homeowners would see lower mortgage payments and rebuild equity more quickly. Taxpayers would get their money back, with interest, and would gain further as a stronger economy lifted tax revenues. Banks and other mortgage investors would get potentially troubled loans off their books. Some banks won’t like losing the large amounts of interest income they are earning on their current mortgages, but if the refinancing market were working properly these loans would have been refinanced long ago.

If the program was very successful, we envisage that two million outstanding loans could be placed in a Rebuilding American Homeownership trust at its peak. If the average mortgage balance was $150,000, then at the peak there would be $300 billion outstanding.

The federal government could finance the plan directly, through the Federal Housing Administration, or indirectly, through the Federal Home Loan Banks, which offer government-backed credit. Or the Federal Reserve could underwrite the plan; the central bank’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, recently talked about the Fed’s doing something akin to the Bank of England’s new Funding for Lending program, which offers incentives to banks to increase lending to households and nonfinancial businesses.

Opponents of additional borrowing or Fed lending will say that a program like this is an unacceptable risk, but the greater risk is to do nothing and let the housing market continue to hold back the economy.

Mr. Merkley’s plan resembles the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Plan, or HARP, which was designed to help underwater homeowners refinance loans backed by Fannie and Freddie. It has made possible 1.4 million refinancings, far fewer than the goal set in 2009 of 3 million to 4 million. The administration has made some improvements to HARP and proposed others. But the Merkley plan has the potential to go further, reaching the 20 million households with mortgages that aren’t backed by Fannie or Freddie.

The Merkley plan has a successful precedent in the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, established in 1933. It swept more than a million Americans out of foreclosure and into the long-term, stable mortgages that would become the hallmark of the middle class during the 1950s and ’60s. It’s time to revive this idea.

Since the Great Recession began almost five years ago, housing has been at the heart of our economic woes. If we do nothing, the problem will eventually resolve itself, but only with significant pain and a long wait. Mr. Merkley’s plan would speed the healing.

source: nytimes.com

VP pick Ryan says he and Romney 'will restore' America

NORFOLK, Virginia - US vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan said Saturday the Republican ticket would "restore greatness" to America, in his first remarks since being tapped as Mitt Romney's running mate.

"He and I share one commitment. We will restore the greatness of this country," Ryan told hundreds of Republican supporters in Norfolk, Virginia, describing Romney as the "man for this moment."

Ryan, 42, a budget hawk, was officially announced as Romney's number two earlier Saturday, confirming the Republican line-up earlier than had been anticipated, aiming to reverse President Barack Obama's lead in opinion polls.

"For the last 14 years, I have proudly represented Wisconsin in congress. There I have focused on solving the problems that confront our country, turning ideas into action and action into solutions," said Ryan.

"I am committed, in heart and mind, to putting that experience to work in a Romney administration."

A new Twitter account, @PaulRyanVP, popped up early Saturday, and shortly before he was to appear alongside Romney it unveiled its debut tweet: "I'm honored to join @MittRomney on America's Comeback Team."

source: interaksyon

US Presidential Battle Seen Tightening

WASHINGTON (AP) – US voters are nearly evenly divided between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney with five months to go before the election, especially on handling the economy, polls show.

With US unemployment still hovering above 8 percent, both candidates have stepped up their emphasis on jobs and the economy. Obama and Romney have offered a starkly differing vision of how the economy should work as they appeal to voters who say jobs are the foremost issue in the November election.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Obama and Romney locked in a dead heat over handling the economy. They are tied at 47 percent.

Overall, 49 percent said they back Obama for re-election and 46 percent preferred Romney, a statistically insignificant difference.

Other recent national polls show a similarly close margin.

Earlier polls generally showed the former Massachusetts Governor holding a slight lead over Obama on economic issues and Obama slightly ahead overall.

But the tightening follows an aggressive attack on Romney's business credentials by the Obama campaign, including ads painting him as a job-destroying corporate raider at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he co-founded.

The Obama campaign has focused on two companies that were closed down or failed after they were absorbed into the web of enterprises under Bain Capital. Romney maintains financial ties to the company but left it years ago to run the Salt Lake City Olympic games and then to serve as Massachusetts Governor.

Romney called the attacks ``character assassination.'' But Obama defended the tactic on Monday as legitimate and suggested Romney's background was a poor qualification for the White House since being president involves more than ``maximizing profits.''

The survey found that 80 percent of Americans still hold a negative view of the economy, but 54 percent said they felt more positively about the economic situation in the coming years, and 58 percent felt the financial prospects would improve.

The President says the drive for profit is ``not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers.''

The Obama campaign's line of attack illustrates the president's complicated relationship with the business community. He has used populist language to attack Wall Street executives and bankers as ``fat cats'' and called for an end to tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, but he also expanded the government's rescue of the auto industry and has promoted tax breaks for small businesses.

While some of his Wall Street support has waned, he still draws a significant amount of campaign contributions from major investors, retaining a good relationship with, among others, billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Romney's campaign has welcomed the debate on jobs.

``President Obama confirmed today that he will continue his attacks on the free enterprise system,'' Romney said Monday. ``What this election is about is the 23 million Americans who are still struggling to find work and the millions who have lost their homes and have fallen into poverty. President Obama refuses to accept moral responsibility for his failed policies. My campaign is offering a positive agenda to help America get back to work.''

Romney swept the Arkansas and Kentucky Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, inching closer to clinching the nomination. Romney has 1,034 delegates, leaving him 110 shy of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in late August in Tampa, Florida.

With no serious opposition left in the state-by-state Republican primary race, Romney has long been focusing on fundraising for the general election and his campaign against Obama.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, meanwhile, suggested that Obama's endorsement of gay marriage two weeks ago was a political wash, with 17 percent saying it makes them more likely to vote for him and 20 percent saying it makes them more likely to vote for Romney, who opposes gay marriage. Sixty two percent said it makes no difference in their vote.

source: mb.com.ph

Obama To Kick Off Campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama will headline his first re-election rallies next week, marking an important turning point in the race for the White House, as Republican nominee-in-waiting Mitt Romney intensified efforts to unite his party and raise money for the battle ahead.

The president will hit the campaign trail with back-to-back rallies May 5 in Ohio and Virginia, according to an Obama campaign official who requested anonymity to speak ahead of the campaign's formal announcement. Obama carried both states in the 2008 election and will need them again in November if he wants to hold the White House.

Michelle Obama, the popular first lady, will join the president at the rallies, which will be held on the campuses of Ohio State University in Columbus and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, the official said.

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is calling the foreign policy outlined by Romney shallow, ill-informed and dangerous.

Biden says Romney would return the United States to what he called ``the past we have worked so hard to move beyond.''

In remarks prepared for delivery Thursday at an overtly partisan campaign event in New York City, Biden says that Obama will gladly stack accomplishments such as killing terror mastermind Osama bin Laden against Romney's rhetoric.

The Associated Press obtained excerpts of the speech Wednesday.

The campaign speech at New York University represents a broad defense of Obama's national security record. So far, neither Romney nor Obama has made foreign policy a major issue in the campaign.

With Romney now assured of the Republican Party's nomination, Obama couldn't afford to stand off to the sidelines much longer in what is shaping up to be a close contest.

Even the White House, which has been loath to engage fully in the election as it seeks to project a focus on the day-to-day business of governing, acknowledged Wednesday that the general election was in full-swing. White House spokesman Jay Carney, referring to the Republican contest, declared that ``the race is over on that side.''

The campaign official said Obama would use his return to the campaign rally circuit to lay out what he sees as the real stakes in the election, and DRAW a contrast between his economic approach and what the campaign says is the Republican Party's desire to return to the policies that crashed the economy.

The campaign rallies could serve as a way to energize his base, especially the young voters on the campuses where the events will be held. They also break down the barrier the White House has tried to maintain between the president and the political bickering on the campaign trail.

That barrier has been thin at best. Obama has for months been wooing donors at campaign fundraisers across the country, building up a sizeable money advantage over Romney. And Obama's official events have often had a campaign vibe, with Air Force One landing in politically important states and crowds breaking into chants of ``four more years.''

News of Obama's first campaign rallies followed word from the Republican National Committee that it had filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office requesting an investigation into whether Obama was using taxpayer money to fund travel that benefited his re-election campaign.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that Obama's campaign ``has been cheating the American taxpayer by using taxpayer dollars to fund their general election efforts.''

While young voters were solidly behind Obama in the 2008 election, they are being aggressively wooed by Romney. His campaign is hoping he can appeal to young voters burdened by a bleak employment picture and student loan debt.

At official events this week on college campuses in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa, Obama told crowds that Congress needed to act on a bill to freeze the interest rate on student loans.

In 2008, Obama had a 34-point advantage over Republican Senator John McCain among voters under age 30. But new polling suggests the president may face a harder sales job with younger voters this time around.

Romney, meanwhile, moved aggressively to raise money for the battle against Obama and reconcile with a divided Republican Party.

Despite the former Massachusetts Governor's struggle to win over the most conservative Republicans, his well-financed campaign knocked over his main rivals one-by-one during the arduous state-by-state primary race.

Priebus marked the transition Wednesday by proclaiming Romney the party's ``presumptive nominee.''

Two of Romney's once-bitter rivals signaled they would support him.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had a friendly telephone conversation Wednesday with Romney and had started planning an event where he would throw his support behind the likely nominee, Gingrich spokesman R.C Hammond said. The pair agreed to work together to unite conservatives against Obama.

``It's clear Romney is the nominee and the focus should be on defeating Obama. We should not focus on defeating ourselves,'' Gingrich, who has not formally dropped out of the race, told disappointed supporters in North Carolina.

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator who suspended his campaign two weeks ago, said he intended to sit down with Romney's representatives on Wednesday and with Romney himself in the next week or two.

``Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee,'' Santorum told CNN, ``and I'm going to support the nominee.''

Romney was attending fundraisers Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for what may be the most expensive presidential contest in the history of American politics. He exuded confidence Tuesday night, but faces a 10-to-1 cash disadvantage in a general election matchup against the president.

source: mb.com.ph

Romney 'veepstakes' begin

WASHINGTON — With Mitt Romney now all but assured of winning the Republican nomination, he embarks on one of his critical quests of the campaign: finding a running mate who can help him defeat President Barack Obama.

Romney took a huge step toward securing the role of flagbearer when rival Rick Santorum bowed out of the race Tuesday, and the chatter about who gets the nod from the former governor of Massachusetts has risen to a din.

But he quickly sought to dispel the notion that he might rush to find a partner for the ticket—not after the controversy over Sarah Palin, who was John McCain’s surprise running mate in their 2008 loss to Obama.

“No list yet,” Romney told Fox on Thursday. “That’s a process which has not begun yet, but will probably begin pretty soon.”

And so the “veepstakes” gathers steam, with Romney advisers considering potential No. 2s and poring over voting records and personal details in what is one of the most rigorous vetting processes endured by any politician.

Protracted strategizing over a vice presidential pick is standard, as a candidate mulls how his choice might impact the election.

Romney trails Obama badly among Hispanics; does he choose a Latino as vice president to neutralize the incumbent’s advantage among those voters, who comprise one of the largest minority blocs in the country?

One of the most talked about VP candidates of the moment is Cuban-American Marco Rubio, the dashing US senator from Florida who’d be equally comfortable campaigning in Spanish or selling Romney’s conservative credentials to skeptical core Republicans.

“Marco Rubio would bring an excitement to this ticket that it doesn’t have with just Mitt Romney,” said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Rubio could help win Florida, a swing state which Land said “could be as decisive this year as Texas was in 1960.”

That was the last time a vice presidential candidate helped win a large home state.

But John F Kennedy selected Lyndon Johnson of Texas not just to carry that state, but most of the South, and in the half-century since Kennedy’s razor-thin victory, just a quarter of VP candidates have come from large states.

If history is a guide, Republicans must win the crucial state of Ohio to take the keys to the White House. That brings to the fore Senator Rob Portman, a veteran Ohio lawmaker who served in two roles in the Bush administration and hence has been vetted extensively.

“Portman is not going to threaten voters in the middle with extreme rhetoric,” said long-time political observer Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a public-policy think tank.

“He’s got an enormous amount of Washington know-how and he’ll probably make Romney simply feel more comfortable,” Ornstein told AFP.

In other words, boring but safe. But the safe bet may not be the right one.

“One piece of conventional wisdom circulating right now is that Mitt Romney should not pick a boring white guy as his running mate,” author Keith Koeneman wrote recently in The Huffington Post.

Romney is on the wrong side of the gender gap, with polls showing Obama leading by double digits among women. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the nation’s first Hispanic female governor, could check not one but two key boxes for Romney.

Speculation is rampant in US media, with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, the powerful House Budget Committee chairman, on several short lists. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is also being mentioned.

But the Romney campaign is staying mum.

“We aren’t commenting about the VP process now, nor will we talk about it if we earn the nomination,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

That’s par for the course, according to experts.

“This is the one moment of suspense that remains,” said Ornstein. “And that’s why presidential nominees try to keep that news from getting out…. It would be a real change if in fact Romney decided to respond to all this speculation by choosing somebody before August.”

McCain waited until late August before stunning the world by choosing Palin, a virtual unknown short on national experience.

The pick energized conservatives, but Palin made several gaffes and the turmoil surrounding her on the campaign was seen as a liability for McCain.

“I don’t think Romney will take a big risk like that,” said political science professor Alan Abramowitz of Emory University.

“Most likely he’ll pick a solid conservative with a track record in the Senate or as a governor.”

Even if Romney makes an inspired VP pick, “there’s no evidence at all that you get a big boost” from the running mate, Ornstein said.

source: japantoday.com

Obama And Romney Talk Economic

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney; striding into the long battle for the White House – are peddling vastly different stories about the American economy, and the outcome of the November election depends on which of them recession-battered American voters decide to believe.

The economy finally is showing signs of a fragile but sustained recovery, and that is good news for Obama, whose poll numbers are ticking upward and who holds an early polling lead over Romney. But there are 6 1/2 months remaining before the election and untold foreign, domestic and economic challenges yet to reveal themselves.

For now, Obama is faced; barring a sudden economic acceleration, with trying to prove a negative, to convince voters of his argument that things would have been far worse had he not administered a massive stimulus to the economy as he took office three years ago in the midst of a near financial meltdown and raging job losses.

He continues exhorting Americans to not forget that their economic pain was the fault of former President George W. Bush. While polls show most Americans accept that argument, they can't help but remember that they felt the pain of the country's crushing economic downturn; the deepest since the Great Depression, on Obama's watch. He has said he expected he would be a one-term president were he not able to right the economy before the upcoming election.

Then there's the massive increase in the national debt, now above $15 trillion, part of it piled up to pay for the Obama stimulus. Can he convince a nation that has tightened its belt, scouring the household budget for even the smallest non-essential spending, of his vigilance with the federal government's purse strings in a second term?

For his part, Romney is hammering Obama as fiscally inept, directly responsible for the laggardly recovery and solely to blame for the skyrocketing US debt.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and multimillionaire businessman, insists he knows how the economy operates, would have pulled it out of the staggering downturn more quickly and will be an experienced and steady hand, ready to curb deficit spending and rapidly create jobs to bring down unemployment.

Thus, on the key issue of the economy; the one most important to voters as the long campaign stretches toward election day on November 6, both Obama and Romney are left trying to sell unproven and not provable hypotheticals.

Simply put, Obama claims he saved the nation from falling into the economic abyss; Romney says Obama to fault for the country's laggardly recovery and massive debt.

James Broussard, a professor at Lebanon Valley College and a Republican who is chairman of the Pennsylvania special interest group ``Citizens Against Higher Taxes,'' says voter worries about the debt ``will give Romney a powerful second line of attack.''

But he acknowledges the strength of the Obama argument that he was indispensable for the ongoing recovery.

Broussard's advice to Obama: ``He's got to say `Don't judge me on where we are. Judge me on where we came from and remember it was the Republicans who put us there. Do you want to keep the guy that got us out of the catastrophe or a return of the Republicans who put us into it.'''

He said he wouldn't bet one way or the other on the outcome.

``Obama is right, we were going off a cliff when he came in,'' he said. ``Romney is right in saying this has taken too long because of Obama.

It all depends on the specifics, said Mac Clouse, the director of the Reiman School of Finance at the University of Denver.

``If one of them comes up with concrete ideas, that could be a big plus in this election. If we can take things on more than just their word or good faith; that would make sense. They are going to have to come up with some pretty creative ideas,'' he said.

In that regard, polls show a majority of Americans back Obama's push for higher taxes on wealthy Americans, the so-called Buffett rule that Obama has been pushing in recent campaign stops.

The tax increase Obama wants; one that would cut the national debt but not on the massive scale needed, is named for billionaire Warren Buffett. He famously said it was wrong that his tax rate was lower than that paid by his secretary.

source: mb.com.ph