Tomorrow The Campaign Starts

Tomorrow President Obama officially launches his campaign for re-election. Greeting him in Ohio is Mitt Romney's open letter recalling how unemployment when he was born was 3.6% and then later 3.2%. He vows to cut tax rates by 25% and cut corporate tax rates. What he failed to mention was the top tax rates during the year's he hailed. 75% and 85%. Also, that over 40% of America was unionized.


On the heels of this morning's disappointing job report of 115,000 added jobs and 8.1% unemployment, Romney appeared on Fox News suggesting that the number should be 500,000, something that happened four times in our history.


But let's look at the videotape:
Democracy Corps-Obama 47 and Romney 47
Gallup                 -Obama 47 and Romney 46
Rasmussen          -Obama 47 and Romney 45


Rasmussen "Core Four" poll of Florida,North Carolina,Ohio and Virginia  Obama 46 and Romney 43


Arizona                -Romney 52 and Obama 43.
Virginia                -Obama   51 and Romney 44.


Romney has designated his campaign managers for Ohio and Iowa. But strangely, Romney has no ad buys in the Latino market.


Meanwhile, yesterday, President Obama celebrated Cinco de Mayo two days early at the White House and talked about immigration reform. He pointedly mentioned that the Dream Act had passed the House but was prevented from being voted on in the Senate. He vowed to push on in the next term. But his speech was a fairly extended argument for what he has done for the Latino community. The same day, it was announced that his campaign had opened 19 offices in Florida.


Karl Rove's Crosshairs America has been running ads saying that President Obama didn't thank the soldiers who got bin Laden. Naturally, he flew to the base after the operation and spent time with each one of them. But if you have money to burn like Karl, why not just lie. 


T. Boone Pickens was interviewed at Michael Millken's Global Seminar (Remember Millken?). T. Boone said that the reason the United States doesn't have an energy policy is because of "special interests". In fact, he called out the Koch Brothers. He pointed out that the Koch Brothers are in fertilizers, chemicals and refinery and that the low natural gas prices are money in the bank. T. Boone also predicted that Israel would attack Iran in August or September. Real nice thought. Just what we need.


Readers of this blog will remember my riff about putting corporate ads on the monuments in D.C. Well, it has come about. David Koch has donated a gazillion dollars to the Smithsonian for a building for dinosaurs. Of course, the building, which will be built on the national mall will be named for him.


Speaking of dinosaurs, Newt Gingrich said this morning that he really did endorse Mitt Romney. 


The Republicans will get mileage out of the bad jobs report. Consider if President Obama's Jobs Bill had been passed. The unemployment rate would be at least 1% down from today's level. 


Economists were asked yesterday about the prospects of the employment situation looking forward. They projected about 7.9% by the time of the election and that the economy would not reach 6% until 2014 or 2015. Just a reminder,Mitt Romney's economic plan is not projected to take effect until 2014--coincidence?


But I will stick to what I said when I created this blog--our old economy is dead. The FIRE--Finance Insurance Real Estate--economy of the last two decades was wiped out with the 2008 economic collapse. It is not coming back and it really shouldn't. All we are going to get out of President Obama's first term is the preservation of the status quo. But we need to make the critical decisions for the future. With the current polarization, it is unlikely that can be done.


Oh, about that War on the Uteri--There are over 900 laws in the country that have either been passed or are being debated that severely restrict reproductive rights, roll back equal pay for equal work and cut preventative medicine for women.


So, Fired Up! Ready To Go!