“Though the day-to-day exchanges were often trivial, the underlying dynamics of the election were deadly serious, and everybody knew what they were. As both candidates repeatedly said, it was about what sort of country we want to be. Now, the American public has rendered a judgement.”
"Libya Surprise" Could Be Death Knell for Romney Campaign
John Cassidy breaks down the order of events in Cairo, Libya, and the U.S. over the past 24 hours, and considers how they might affect the Romney and Obama’s campaigns: http://nyr.kr/OHoY02
There will be plenty of time to discuss the rights and wrongs. But before getting into all that, I thought it might be worth setting down how the past twenty-four hours unfolded. With events taking place in three countries, on two continents, there has been a lot of confusion about who said what when. Here’s a quick timeline I put together from the Web. As far as I can see, Romney doesn’t come out of it looking any better….
My quick take on Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night is that it is awfully difficult to criticize President Obama when you’ve spent the last fourteen years in Washington dealing with many of the same issues. In five significant cases, Ryan’s attacks on the President were breathtakingly hypocritical.
Ryan Lizza on Paul Ryan’s five hypocrisies: http://nyr.kr/N12t98
Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“So, no, the real lesson of London 2012 isn’t that the U.S. is the most fantabulous country on the planet and that everywhere else stinks, although in Michael Phelps, Allyson Felix, LeBron James, and others we certainly have some incredible athletes. The real takeaway from the Games is one that might surprise Mitt Romney and his new running mate, Paul Ryan: government initiatives can work, and very effectively at that.”
Lauren Collins on the post-Olympic hangover: “London feels a little empty.” http://nyr.kr/NnwS2u
Photograph by Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images.
Why root for the Jamaican sprinters? Nicholas Thompson and Malcolm Gladwell continue their conversation about track and field, focusing here on Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, and underdogs in track: http://nyr.kr/NbGRT8
Olympic opening 2012 - Queen Elizabeth and James Bond 007 (Daniel Craig)
La Betty è fichissima.
Latinos Support Obama, Despite Deportation Policies
Yet if the election were held now, the poll suggests, Mr. Obama would win a matchup with Mitt Romney: 68 percent of Latino voters said they favor Mr. Obama; only 23 percent favored the former Massachusetts governor. In a hypothetical contest with Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, Mr. Obama would win 69 percent to 23 percent.
Even though…
Among registered Latino voters, immigration is not a primary concern. For Latino voters, immigration is sixth in importance, the poll found.
Despite this, I don’t think Republicans help their case with Latino voters when a large part of their base is virulently opposed to immigration of any kind (and are often implicitly racist against people of Latin American origin) and they support policies that reflect this…
The Pew survey does not assess Latinos’ views of the Republican candidates’ positions on immigration issues. But it finds that Latinos overwhelmingly – by 91 percent– support legislation, known as the Dream Act, that would give legal status to illegal immigrants who are in college. And 84 percent of Latinos said those students should be allowed to pay state resident tuition rates at public colleges.
Mr. Romney has forcefully opposed both policies. Mr. Perry at first spoke out in support of a Texas law that allows in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrant students, but more recently he distanced himself from that position. In the Republican field, only Mr. Gingrich has supported a plan to open a path to legal status for some illegal immigrants.
But I don’t think Obama should take this segment of the electorate for granted…
The poll indicates there is still room for Republicans to maneuver. Mr. Obama’s overall approval has dropped sharply among Latinos in the last year – to 49 percent from 58 percent. And more than half, 56 percent, of Hispanics say they have not given much thought yet to the individual candidates in the race.
The future of the United States is el futuro de los Estados Unidos…
Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group, and the number who have registered to vote has grown rapidly in several states that could prove crucial in the 2012 vote, including California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.
Jon Hunstsman
“The truth about Huntsman’s intentions, perhaps, has more to do with human nature than it does with any grand strategy. Just about every politician who reaches a certain level dreams one day of occupying the Oval Office. If you’re Jon Huntsman, that dream actually seemed within the realm of possibility at one point, before you went off to China and had to put it out of mind for a while. And then one day you share that ambition with a reporter, and suddenly everybody is clamoring to know your plans, and friends are saying that there’s a vacuum to be filled, and strategists back home are throwing together a campaign machine without your having to lift a finger. And like any normal person probably would, you find yourself thinking: Let’s just see where this goes.”
A credible threat to Obama. If the Republican Party had enough credibility to nominate him.
