Category Archives: U.S. Elections

Rick, Drop Out Before You Lose Your Home State

If Rick Santorum doesn’t know that now is the time to exit the GOP presidential race, he doesn’t deserve to be a candidate. He’s about to face off against Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania, the state where Santorum served as a U.S. senator for 12 years before being turned out by his fellow citizens by 18 percentage points against Bob Casey. An 18-point loss. That, my friends, is a landslide.
Posted on April 5, 2012 By B. Jay Cooper
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Blocking Mitt into the Right Corner

Several thoughts run through my mind today regarding the presidential campaign. First, President Obama has taken a brilliant tack on his now-acknowledged opponent Mitt Romney. President Obama is trying to box Romney into a far right corner, as Romney has done to himself in the primary campaign. Since the GOP has moved even further to the right, Romney moved even further to the right to get the nomination. It worked. Typically, as Romney’s guy so colorfully put it, then the candidate would Etch-a-Sketch is way back to the middle for the general election. Obama, sensing the GOP primary electorate is way to the right of mainstream America (i.e., the majority of voters in the country), is saying even Ronald Reagan couldn’t get the party’s nomination today, the party has moved so far to the right. Brilliant because each candidate has said he’s the heir to Reagan.
Posted on April 4, 2012 By B. Jay Cooper
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Student Loan Debt Tops $1 Trillion — Now What?

As young people, we’ve always been told that higher education is one of the wisest investments we can make -- it leads to better job prospects and higher salaries and is a means to provide for ourselves and our families while pursuing careers we love. Not anymore. The latest Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report shows that student loan debt in our country has topped $1 trillion as a result of more people attending college than ever, skyrocketing tuition costs and a crummy job market that’s left graduates unemployed and watching helplessly as the interest on their loans climbs higher and higher.
Posted on April 2, 2012 By Virtual Vantage Points
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Etch-a-Sketching a Campaign

Romney’s campaign guy, Eric Fernstrom, mucked up with his comment. It happens in a campaign. And in a campaign marred by a few of these kinds of comments (see: Mitt Romney, more than a few times, so far), Fernstrom’s comment becomes an even bigger “story” because the media’s “narrative” of Romney’s campaign is they say dumb things at dumb times and Mitt’s a chameleon. His slip up becomes a “gotcha” – well, if you buy the “narrative.” C’mon, guys. Let’s stop with the “narratives” that the media creates and then fosters throughout (see: Dan Quayle’s spelling of “potato” some years ago which forever made him “dumb.” Trust me, dumb he was not.)
Posted on March 22, 2012 By B. Jay Cooper
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Illinois’ Low Voter Turnout and Romney’s Much-Needed Win

For the first time since 1988, Illinois played a meaningful role in a Republican primary election. Similar to other industrial states, Gov. Romney won in Illinois on the strength of moderate suburban voters, while Sen. Santorum did well among rural or downstate voters. Gov. Romney needed this win. He picked up 42 delegates compared to 12 for Santorum and also will collect a majority of the 15 “super delegates.” The victory helps recapture his position as his party’s frontrunner and makes Wisconsin and Louisiana make-or-break for Sen. Santorum. Romney was all about the general election Tuesday night as his remarks were directed to moderates, whom he will need in order to beat President Obama in November.
Posted on March 22, 2012 By Virtual Vantage Points
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The Marathon

When the Republican primaries began, I wrote that the process was a marathon, not a sprint. I believe that analogy still holds true. However, some twists and turns have certainly made it a more interesting race than most predicted. For better or worse, Mitt Romney is a marathon man. He plods along, focusing on the finish line, running at a pace he knows will get him across first. Unfortunately, his race plan has not gone quite as expected. While he originally trained and prepared for the long haul, he also had a plan to start fast, believing none of his opponents could keep up with him – eventually, they would tire and drop out. This strategy has often worked in other primary marathons. It was used against Romney by the 2008 victor John McCain.
Posted on March 19, 2012 By Bill Pierce
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