Random Notes and Observations

++The Wisconsin turnout was 57%. Yes, indeed, the students didn't vote in force like in 2008 because most were on summer vacation and breaks. The turnout was better than 2010 and teetering on presidential levels but voter turnout remains a problem in the United States. This isn't being helped by states like Florida and Ohio purging their voter lists of actual living voters. Don't expect a 2008 turnout this year and that spells trouble for Obama and the Democrats.


++Romney outraised Obama this month by $76.8 million to $60. million. Obama will not have a cash advantage in the general election. Romney and his SuperPac groups have raised $402. million to $340 million. Obama will have the advantage of his organization which has already been working the Swing states.


++The California primaries and the way they are organized probably mean that the Democrats will not take the House. It seems at least three Republicans will sneak through when Democrats had hoped for a clean sweep.


++Mark Halperin said today that he heard that Justice Kennedy voted against the Healthcare Reform Act, which would mean that the Roberts Court would go down as the worst court since the 1920s. This would mean a 5-4 decision eliminating health insurance for millions of people immediately and eventually lead to millions more dropping out of the insurance pool because rates would go up at least 25% in the short term. If your two big decisions are Citizens United and Healthcare decided by 5-4, then you are destined to the ash heap of history and deservedly so.


++Neighbors of Mitt Romney in San LaJolla, California were showcased in the New York Times complaining about Romney's behavior and his car elevator.


++Romney apparently had an interesting hobby when he was in college and graduate school. He used to impersonate highway patrol people. His father had once given him a Michigan Highway Patrol trooper's uniform and as a prank he would put a siren on top of his car and pull people over. A real laugh riot.


++Romney is still hung up on criticism of his days at Bain and as governor of Massachusetts. He still is saying that he inherited the recession and that he was in the middle of the pack--I guess you grade on a curve--47 isn't the middle.


++Romney is accusing Obama having deliberately stalling the economy recovery for his healthcare reform. I seem to remember the stimulus package came first and healthcare later. Romney also accuses Obama of not having a jobs plan, even though I remember that Obama proposed a jobs plan in September and that Republicans refused to allow it to be voted on in the Senate. 


++John McCain wants all defense spending to be off-limits to budget cuts. With Defense now taking up 57% of the US Budget, how much more do they need? 60 or maybe 65%. 


++Could someone tell me how you have any effect on the national debt when you are campaigning on raising the defense budget and cutting even more taxes for the wealthy?  Your problem is a revenue problem, not a tax problem.


++Jeb Bush has come out refusing to be Romney's Vice President and criticizing the GOP for its stance on immigration and taxes. Romney's campaign is blanketing Latino markets with ads blaming Obama for their economic misfortune. However, polls of Latinos show nearly 2/3rds blame George W. Bush for their plight. But the GOP shouldn't worry, Florida, Texas and other states are eliminating Latinos from their polls. 


++I guess women in Virginia don't like mandatory transvaginal probes because in the Quinnipiac poll favor Obama 51-35 and overall the state favors Obama 47 to 42. 


++In Michigan, EPIC-MRA poll shows Obama leading Romney by 46-45. However, the summary of polls show Obama ahead by 8.


++I leave you with this pithy observation by George Carlin, "The reason it is called the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."


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