BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE, NEITHER SHOULD YOU (POLITRICKS)

BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE, NEITHER SHOULD YOU (POLITRICKS):

THANK YOU TROLLS

It's Official!

BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ has been around for eight years.

Thank you to all my Supporters & my Haters!

From eight years (2008-2016) the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ network has been on the Political Social Media scene buzzing about POLITRICKS.

My blog has attracted more than 1 Million views and I didn't have to PAY for views.

In fact, prior to me launching my Media network the word "BUZZ" was rarely used in mainstream POLITICAL circles or when discussing POLITICS.

BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is a Media Pioneer which has survived the dirty Shenanigans of several Key Players from both major Political Parties, who wanted me to Shut up and Disappear whenever I disagreed with their agenda.

But thank God I'm still here!

As a BLACK American voter I'm not obligated to rubber stamp every platform issue endorsed and pushed by the national DEMOCRAT party.

Refusing to rubber stamp each issue endorsed by the national DEMOCRAT party has of course cost me some Lucrative OPPORTUNITIES.

Nevertheless I refuse to give up no matter what.

BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is a Unique voice in the world of POLITICS and I plan to be around for many more years.

I want encourage my Supporters to persevere and Never Give Up in life no matter what.

Thank you again and God Bless!

Happy New Year!

THE ROLE OF BLACK MEDIA IN 2016 POLITICS (DIVERSITY & BLACK VOTERS)

THE ROLE OF BLACK MEDIA IN 2016 POLITICS:

WHERE ARE BLACK JOURNALISTS, BLOGGERS, VLOGGERS & COMMENTATORS?

IN 2008 OBAMA USED BLACK GRASSROOTS BLOGGERS TO HELP GARNER 97% OF THE BLACK VOTE.

As we approach the 2016 Presidential election I've noticed the lack of BLACK Journalists, BLACK Bloggers, BLACK Vloggers and BLACK Commentators in both Political parties.

Since it's not possible to be elected to the Oval Office minus the BLACK Majority vote, how do DEMOCRAT and REPUBLICAN Key Leaders expect to attract BLACK voters without utilizing BLACK Media Representatives?

In 2008 BARACK OBAMA utilized BLACK Grassroots Activists, BLACK Bloggers & BLACK Commentators to help garner 97% of the BLACK vote.

To help attract 2016 BLACK voters, there needs to be more Opportunities offered to BLACK Media Representatives from both major Political parties.

~ Media Diversity And The 2016 Election: How A Mostly White Press Corps Influences Campaign Coverage

As an African-American female journalist shadowing Republican presidential candidates during the 2012 election cycle, Juana Summers was, at times, the only person of color in the room. But nothing crystallized her minority status more than when one of her white male press corps colleagues asked for an interview, assuming the 27-year-old Missouri native was simply a black voter captivated by a candidate’s stump speech.

“That’s what I get for not always wearing my press credentials,” she said of her time out on the campaign trail as a full-time embedded reporter for Politico. “It’s funny, but also a little sad, too.”

Summers is an example of strides that some U.S. news outlets have taken to elevate reporters of color and women to the highly coveted politics beat, which has for decades been predominantly white and male. But even with significantly more female journalists on the 2016 campaign trail, true racial diversity among journalists covering federal, state and local politics has not been achieved, advocates said. 

Some have said this is explained by the reality that not enough rookie reporters of color are being groomed to take on national political beats.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable, in 2015 or 2016, for news organizations to say that we can’t find people of color to fill these jobs,” said Summers, who recently became the politics editor for Mashable in Washington, D.C. “It’s your fault, in my opinion.”

For more than a decade, the racial makeup of traditional media organizations has been stagnant, despite fast-growing Hispanic and Asian populations and the federal government's projection that the U.S. will become a majority-minority nation within 30 years. 

Newer digital publications also have struggled with and been criticized for the lack of diversity in their ranks.

Advocates have said media diversity matters most when candidates make statements about mass incarceration, immigration reform, the Black Lives Matter social justice movement and other topics in which race, economics and politics intersect. A more diverse group of journalists can ensure stories have needed context and that minority communities are more fairly represented, especially as voters weigh issues that can decide who wins the White House, advocates said.

Newsrooms Still Largely White

The percentage of racial minorities and women at newspapers remained “relatively steady” at 12 percent in 2014, according to the latest newsroom census from the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), a professional association that tracks newsroom diversity. That breaks down to 4.74 percent black, 4.19 percent Latino, 2.8 percent Asian-American and less than half of a percent Native American. There were approximately 32,900 full-time journalists at about 1,400 daily U.S. newspapers in 2014. Similar data for broadcast outlets was not available.

That means newsrooms increasingly don't reflect the nation's diverse makeup. 

The U.S. Census Bureau has said the country will be majority-minority by 2043. 

The nation's Hispanic and Asian populations climbed above 54 million and 19.4 million, respectively, in 2013 and 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. Their growth rates among the nation's more than 300 million residents outpaced the estimated rates for whites and blacks in subsequent years.

Politico, whose editorial staff of nearly 200 is approximately 8 percent nonwhite, recently found a bright spot in media diversity regarding the reporters assigned to cover Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. At least 18 national print, online, radio and TV outlets have female reporters covering Clinton, a big leap for media gender diversity, according to a Politico survey released this week. Several local outlets in the early voting primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire also have female reporters with Clinton, Politico reported.

In its report, Politico published a “class photo” of 18 mostly white female reporters. Two appear to be Asian-American women. It’s unclear how many are Latinas. None are African-American. The reporters pictured represented outlets including CNN, CBS News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and BuzzFeed.

Cameron Barr, national editor for the Washington Post, told International Business Times that the newspaper has 37 reporters and editors who regularly cover the campaigns. Seventeen are women, and five of the women are racial minorities. A recent newsroom census showed that 31 percent of the editorial staff at the Post is nonwhite.

“When we assign reporters of diverse backgrounds and experiences to the trail, we do a better job of seeing the candidates the way America sees them,” Barr said Tuesday.

CNN, CBS News and BuzzFeed did not respond to requests for information and comment about the racial makeup of their political news teams. The most recent broadcast diversity census completed by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2012 showed the editorial staffs of CNN and CBS News were, respectively, 15 percent and 14 percent nonwhite.

BuzzFeed this week released updated diversity data showing its newsroom is less white this year than it was in 2014. Approximately 27 percent of its editorial staff is nonwhite, up from 23 percent last year, according to the outlet. The New York Times declined comment for this story Tuesday but pointed to the latest ASNE survey that shows its newsroom is 19 percent nonwhite.

Integrating The Press Corps

Sonya Ross, an African-American journalist in Washington with more than 25 years covering state and national politics, has helped “integrate the press corps” more times than she’d like to count. In 1996, she covered President Bill Clinton’s re-election as an embedded reporter on the campaign bus for the Associated Press. She was among a few black or female reporters on the trail.

One day leading up the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Ross rode the train with Clinton's press corps and stopped in the Detroit area for a campaign rally. All the other members of the mostly white and male press corps were so focused on getting the best vantage point for the rally, that few noticed civil rights icon Rosa Parks had attended the event, said Ross, who spoke with Parks and filed a story for the AP.

"It was my perspective of being a woman, black and growing up in the South that allowed me to pick up on a story that few others saw," she said. "That's potentially what you miss as a news organization without a diverse staff."

Ross, who became the first African-American woman to sit on the executive board of the White House Correspondents' Association and is chairwoman of a national political journalism task force for black reporters and editors, said she wants to ensure more reporters of color follow in her footsteps.

“My concern was that the doors were shut behind me,” said Ross, who has also been involved with several diversity initiatives for the AP and other national outlets. “We’ve got to get more reporters into the pipeline.”

Black journalists in particular have covered politics for decades, many of them for African-American-owned newspapers that pioneered the “race beat” during the civil rights movement in the 1940s through the 1960s. Jack E. White Jr., a retired African-American journalist who covered national politics for Time magazine and the Washington Post in the 1960s and '70s, said only a handful of black journalists had covered national politics in the mainstream press.

Their ranks were increased by three critical national news events in 1972 that interested the mainstream press, said Paul Delaney, a retired New York Times reporter and editor, who is black and covered U.S. politics for a decade beginning in the 1960s. 

Newspapers sent African-American reporters to the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, the NAACP Convention in Detroit and the Democratic National Convention in Miami, where an unprecedented number of black delegates had gathered.

"There were not that many of us to cover anything before then," said Delaney, adding that numbers increased again during the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in the 1980s.

More Enlightened Coverage

Before black and Latino journalists struggled to secure top positions in newsrooms, white women also faced challenges getting the best assignments from mostly white, male editors. 

Gender diversity on the campaign trail has been highlighted more than a few times, beginning with the 1972 book by Timothy Crouse, “The Boys on the Bus.” Beth Harpaz, a veteran former politics reporter for the AP, revisited the topic with her 2001 book, “The Girls in the Van,” after she covered Hillary Clinton’s race for the U.S. Senate in New York.

“It’s really hard to say definitively why gender diversity has increased on the campaign trail,” Harpaz said. Women made up about half of reporters on the trail with Clinton in 2000, but they seem slightly overrepresented in the former secretary of state’s 2016 campaign, Harpaz said.

“Diversity is something that most news organizations value,” she said. “In 2000, many thought they were making a choice that would lead to more enlightened coverage, simply because [Clinton] was a candidate putting an emphasis on issues that were important to women.”

But even after Barack Obama's historic election as the first black president in 2008 and with Latino candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz running for president this election season, newsrooms aren't assigning more blacks and Hispanics to cover the 2016 campaign.

Leaders of minority journalist organizations agree that white journalists are more than capable of accurately covering election issues relevant to nonwhite communities. 

But newsrooms still need to create opportunities for nonwhite journalists.

“There’s no reason for 100 percent of them to do the job 100 percent of the time,” said Russell Contreras, president of Unity: Journalists for Diversity, a national advocacy group for racial minority and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender reporters and editors.

“I believe right now the candidates are more diverse than the people that cover them,” he continued. 

“That, right there, needs to stop.” Part of the solution might be making sure rookie journalists of color are not pigeonholed to the crime and general assignment beats, which don’t always lead to national beats such as politics, he added.

Sarah Glover, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said it would be “disappointing” if overall diversity on the trail reflected the status quo. “Newsrooms need to act quickly ... to encourage rich storytelling from various points of view,” Glover said.

Sources: International Business Times, NY Times, YouTube

Obama Raises $45 Million In February But GOP Super PACs Have Deep Pockets

Obama raises $45 million in February for re-election effort


President Barack Obama collected $45 million for his re-election bid in February, accelerating his fundraising pace as his campaign frets over an oncoming spending blitz by Republican-leaning outside groups.

Obama’s monthly haul was nearly twice as much as the $23 million per month average he raised during the final three months of 2011 and more than the $29.1 million he raised in January. Yet the largesse still fell short of the $56 million he raised in February 2008, when he was seeking the Democratic nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

With Republicans locked in an extended primary, Obama’s team has tried to build a large 50-state operation that will help it register new voters, bring back past supporters and boost turnout. Obama’s campaign had about $75 million in the bank through the end of January; totals for February were not immediately available.

Campaign officials have implored supporters to donate money and get involved, pointing to Republican-leaning super PACs expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat the president. Obama’s campaign said earlier this year that it would bless big-money super PACs supporting Democrats as a way of countering the Republican effort.

In an email to donors last week, campaign manager Jim Messina cited a poll showing Obama trailing Republican Mitt Romney and asked them to get involved.

“We’re looking at a race that will be tighter than you think. And the other side has groups ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tear down President Obama,” Messina said.

Obama has consistently outraised his Republican opponents. Romney, who has led the Republican field in fundraising, brought in $6.5 million in January, about a quarter of what Obama raised that month.

But Obama’s totals in February lagged behind what candidate Obama raised four years ago, before he had the benefit of the entire Democratic Party apparatus behind him.

Kirsten Kukowski, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman, said Obama was “having a hard time convincing voters he deserves another term” following three years of “record debt, high unemployment, and soaring gas prices and healthcare costs.”

Obama’s campaign said nearly 350,000 people contributed in February and the average donation was about $59 for the entire election cycle. Nearly 98 percent of the donations were $250 or less. The money was spread among Obama’s campaign, the Democratic Party and two campaign funds.

Obama has boosted fundraising efforts in recent weeks, holding events last month in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Last week, Obama raised money in Chicago and Atlanta.

The fundraising reports were being filed ahead of a Tuesday campaign finance deadline for presidential campaigns.


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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Politico, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Will Win In 2012 Because Tea Party Destroyed GOP! (Decision 2012)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

President Obama Will Win In An Overwhelming Landslide in 2012 and Will Deserve the Victory

America is a one party state. The Democratic Party is the sole political party in the US now.

The Republican Party is no more. It is not a political party; as David Brooks noted "the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party."

It has become a clearing house for religious fanatics, Ayn Rand groupie weirdos and angry white racists driven literally mad by seeing a black man in the White House, a black man more articulate and intelligent -- not to mention annoyingly even tempered -- than they or their bizarre leaders are.

I was a Republican activist in the 1970s and 80s. My father was a founder of the religious right and I was his sidekick. What he and I did --sadly -- still resonates today.

For instance Michele Bachmann got into politics because of reading my father's work. I escaped -- fled -- in the early 1990s. But I do know the Republicans from the inside and in the past hung around with the likes of the Bush Sr., family, the Fords, Bill Buckley etc. And whatever you may think of those Republicans, they belonged to a normal -- if misguided -- political party.

No more. Roll over in your grave Jack Kemp! Call your office Bill Buckley!

As Hal Crowther writes:

The Republican Party's slapstick search for a leader would be heartwarming and sidesplitting, but for the tragic knowledge that one of these scrambling midgets will collect tens of millions of votes in the presidential election of 2012. Never have so many amounted to so little, talked so much rubbish, dreamed of an office so far above their abilities. Blood pressures rose among party elders when Donald Trump, marginally Republican and one of the greatest fools in the solar system, momentarily tossed his hairpiece into the ring and became the instant favorite.

The GOP dilemma -- a golden opportunity to rule but nothing to say and no one to say it -- is so desperate that my instinct is to help them sort it out. Could we make a start, at least, by dismissing candidates who called for President Obama's birth certificate or raised the specter of Sharia law in America, followed briskly off the stage by lunatics who dismiss global warming as a socialist plot?

That would leave plenty of unbalanced extremists still in the running, yet reduce the stench of sheer evil and madness. The "birther" and Sharia cults reek of cheesy talk-radio racism; climate-change denial is a stranger faith yet, a political assault on basic science that insults a ground squirrel's intelligence and casually threatens the survival of life on earth.


That is what, not whom, President Obama will run against in 2012. He will be running against the "party" that in the matter of the debt crisis is happy to take the whole county with them over the cliff of loony and contradictory Bible-based/Ayn Rand-inspired, ideology into economic chaos. None of which any former Republicans, let alone any actual Christians -- i.e., those who try to follow the teachings of Christ -- would recognize.

This folly will not be forgotten. Nor will the insanity of the Rick Perry prayer meeting sponsored by a list of homophobic fanatics.

No matter what the president has to do to resolve this manufactured debt limit crisis, he will do something effective. And he will -- once again -- succeed in confounding his insane far right/religious right critics, and also once again prove his left wing critics wrong.

President Obama towers over his political rivals, left and right.

While the country and many of its leaders seem to feed on hysteria, the president takes the long view, and consistently wins.

The "disappointed" left says president Obama sold out.

The racist-laced Medicaid-mugging, billionaire-codling right staggers under the weight of terminal "birther" mythology-to-Ayn Rand "economics" of fascist selfishness.

Meanwhile president Obama continues to bide his time and looks down the road to the post-2012 reality when his patience with an impatient country filled with some very silly people, his thoughtfulness in the context of a sound-bite-entertain-ourselves-to-death era of short attention spans and historical amnesia will be vindicated.

If you think that president Obama played the Republicans in the last lame duck congress like a violin just wait until after 2012. Just wait to see how he end runs the opposition both left and right, and scores big for the moderate middle in the debt crisis.

The disappointment on the left has apparently led some folks to concoct an alternate reality in which -- in a mirror image of the loony embittered far right, not to mention in a mirror image of people like Sarah Palin who have made a profitable career out of being professional Obama haters -- no matter what president Obama does they dismiss it.

In other words some on the left don't just disagree on tactics they act like jilted lovers (and/or opportunistic cynics trolling for the next book advance) and have turned their once too-ardent love into hate.

The president's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history.

Meanwhile back in the real world ...

• Health care reform passed

• Bin Laden is dead

• Gay rights in the military took a quantum leap

• The economy began to revive and will again after the President resolves the debt crisis one way or another

• The world loved an American president for the first time in half a century

• The war in Iraq drew down

• America foiled countess terror attacks

• We're drawing down in Afghanistan

And in post-Libya intervention President Obama has in a little noticed historic move -- changed America's arrogant unilateral habit of global intervention perfected by Bush II.

Mr. Kupchan (of the Council on Foreign Relations) says that something new about Obama regarding actual change is the way he acts in international interventions. "The governing mantra since World War II has been, 'America is out in front,' so it's quite striking how prominent the administration's focus is on letting others take the lead," he says. "It's really kind of revolutionary."

... And everything president Obama has done he did against the backdrop of a hate campaign against him -- from the right and the left -- the likes of which no American president has faced since Lincoln faced down the slave-owning states.

Make no mistake the Tea Party, the rise of shills-for-profit like Palin, Bachmann, Trump et al, the sale of bumper stickers calling for the president's death (Psalm 109) etc., etc., all add up to one thing: the white rube underclass is lashing out. (Jimmy Carter was correct; it's always about race in America.)

And in THIS context, with the just-say-no Republicans doing nothing but obstructing him our first black president has nevertheless:

Extended child tax credits and marriage-penalty fixes; killed bin Laden: increased minority access to capital; established a credit card bill of rights; expanded loan programs for small businesses; closed the "doughnut hole" in Medicare prescription drug plan, required insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions; required children to have health insurance coverage; expanded eligibility for Medicaid; increased the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health workers, fully fund the Veterans Administration, fully funded the Violence Against Women Act; directed military leaders to end war in Iraq; sought verifiable reductions in nuclear stockpiles; repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; raised fuel economy standards and reversed restrictions on stem cell research...defended a woman's right to abortion...

While President Obama brilliantly cajoled 13 Republicans to join every Democratic senator to ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, adding (as the Times put it) "the capstone to what now shapes up to be a remarkably successful legislative agenda for President Obama's first two years..."

And while President Obama signed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell into law and while President Obama orchestrated the push back in the Senate -- that then unanimously approved a bill to pay for the medical care of workers who cleaned up ground zero... the president also kept proving that his rabid critics on the right, who have been working so hard to undermine his presidency at every turn, are dead wrong. And then president Obama foiled the great Tea Party budget "victory" of April 2011.

We Americans are very lucky people. A sane and compassionate president is in charge.

Maybe when President Obama is able to once again pull one out of the fire for sanity's sake, and America's sake in the debt crisis, maybe some of his usual critics on the left will at least admit that he is a good president, maybe a great one -- and that 2012 looks good.

As for the "Republicans," there are none, just a rag-tag group of losers who have hooked their despicably low expectations to bronze-age biblical myths on the one hand and a cult of anti-middle class selfishness and union-busting, job-exporting, billionaire-worship on the other.

Sources: AP, Barack Obamadoctcom, CNN, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Youtube

Tea Party's Anti-American Agenda Revealed (Videos) Decision 2012

Treason! Secret Video Reveals Tea Party's Anti-American Agenda


I've never been to a tea party. Really. Not even as a little girl. Was never my thing. So when I decided I was going to infiltrate the Tri-State Liberty Summit of Tea Party activists, my first question was: What do I wear? Unfortunately, my frilly cocktail dress was at the cleaners so I had to go with my usual "Is she a boy or a girl?" attire. Good news is, the Tea Party activists were unfazed by my gender-bending sweater vest. All they seemed to care about was that I was white.

Because in the flurry of red, white and blue sentiment that filled the Italian American Center of Stamford, Connecticut, on May 23, 2010, the most prominent color was definitely white. White people with ghostly white faces fearing that our new black President is only one sooner-than-expected sign of the approaching end of white racial dominance in America.

Now, if you're a well-to-do, older white person (as all the recent polls suggest most Tea Party activists are, compared with the rest of the population), there are only two possible reactions to the growing reality of racial diversity in America.

Option 1: You can accept that white supremacy (and the disproportionate economic, political and cultural power that has come with it) is and has always been an unjust but convenient excuse for why a few elites hold all the cards and the rest of us -- including most white people -- are left empty-handed. But I guess that would require actually accepting that you will never be one of those supreme elites under the current system and that the only way for you to get ahead is to join with everyone else who, like you, has ultimately been left behind.

That's a lot of self-awareness for a class of folks who have generally thrived on denial.



This leaves us with Option 2: Reject the United States of America, a nation that -- though formed in the spirit of racial purity and the subjugation of others -- is somehow now trying to live up to words that the Founding Fathers never actually meant but wrote down for good measure. The idea of many people joining to form one nation was fine when all those folks were white -- or even white-ish -- but Mexican immigrants and a black President is just too much to swallow. We "patriots" are starting over.

In case you're reading this and thinking, "Forming a separate nation? That's not what the Tea Party stands for!" Well, think again.



I think most Americans are suffering with economic insecurity and many white Americans are genuinely struggling with a sense of cultural displacement as well. That's real. The Tea Party, and all political movements, should be helping Americans adapt to the changing world around them -- not inciting them to hateful separation. After all, inclusion, unity, moving forward together -- these have always been core American values. Secession, on the other hand, is treason.

Follow Sally Kohn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sally kohn


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Sources: Fox News, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

12 Reasons Why Obama's Re-election Is A Yes In 2012!

12 Reasons Obama Wins in 2012

The economy’s rebounding, his approval ratings are ticking up, and the GOP field is a mess. Mark McKinnon and Myra Adams on the president’s odds of a return ticket to the White House.

President Obama’s poll ratings are climbing. And the online prediction market Intrade has Obama at a 58.9 percent chance of winning a second term. Though November 2012 is light years away in political time, as Team Obama regroups in Chicago, they should be optimistic about their reelection prospects.

Here are 12 reasons why:

1.) Power of Incumbency

In the last 56 U.S. presidential elections, 31 have involved incumbents; 21 of those candidates have won more than one term. Based on these historical odds, Obama has a better-than-67-percent chance of winning reelection. In 2004, voters were not happy with the economy, the Iraq War or President Bush generally, and still he was reelected.

2.) Love Story Continues

Though the mainstream media is now sometimes critical of President Obama, he has never faced the extreme 24-hour-a-day derangement that has plagued other recent presidents and potential candidates-to-be. This gentle treatment is worth millions to a campaign.

3.) Billion-Dollar Campaign

According to Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post, President Obama’s 2012 reelection effort could be the first campaign to raise $1 billion. Not an unreasonable assumption because he raised $750 million in 2008. Look for the coming campaign to break all fundraising and spending records on both sides.

4.) Experienced Campaign Organization

In 2008, the junior senator from Illinois assembled a team of outsiders that defeated the Clinton machine and won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to Sen. John McCain’s 173. With the same Chicago campaign team in place, Obama will benefit from experience and memory; mistakes won’t be repeated.

5.) Obama’s Charm Offensive

Let’s face it, Obama knows how to turn it on and win crowds with his oratory. He is personally likable, has an attractive family, and his favorables are climbing. His Real Clear Politics average is at 49.9 percent. That’s comfortably within the zone of the last three presidents to win reelection. At 752 days into the first term, according to Gallup, President Reagan’s approval rating fell to 37 percent. Clinton’s was at 47 percent, and George W. Bush’s was 61 percent. If history is any guide, Obama has nothing to fear at this point from Mr. Gallup.

6.) Economy is Improving

As the economy goes, so goes Obama's reelection prospects. Yes, this is a potential weakness, but there are signs of hope. And what is most important is not what voters think about the economy at this hour, but rather whether they think it is improving. The stock market is rising, and unemployment is trending downward, albeit too slowly. Consumer spending is up, and 40 percent of Americans say the economy will improve over the next year. The campaign theme may be: He brought us back from the brink.

7.) They’ll Be Back

The 2010 midterm voters that swept Republicans into control of the U.S. House, governorships and state legislatures were older, whiter, and more conservative than those who went to the polls in 2008. Despite this “white flight” from the Democratic Party, young voters, more minorities, more women, and generally more liberals will be back in 2012. Though some of the liberal base may hold their nose, they’re not likely to desert the Democratic incumbent in November. And there is no doubt that Obama’s billion-dollar campaign fund will find some way to get his core constituents to the polls.

8.) Obama, “The Moderate”

Forty percent of Americans now see the president as a moderate. That’s up 10 percentage points from a year ago. More importantly, 44 percent of independents now call Obama a moderate, up from 28 percent a year ago. If congressional Republicans are viewed as strident and over-reaching, Obama will be well positioned as a moderating force—with or without any Clintonian triangulation.

9.) Republican Sparring Match

With no obvious frontrunner at this point, the Republican primary season may drag on and could be very messy. Tea Party support may be torn. And while Republicans debate which candidate is more Reaganesque, Obama will stay above the fray, looking presidential.

10.) Neverending Campaign

Organizing for America never stopped working since 2008 and continuously sends targeted emails to its 13 million members. Supporters are asked to volunteer for service projects or call Congress to object to the vote on repealing health care. It’s the presidential campaign that never ended.

11.) Hispanic Vote Growing

Obama earned 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008 compared to McCain’s 31 percent. The Five State Voter Project, sponsored by The Hispanic Institute, is under way to increase Hispanic voter participation in five states: New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and Colorado. Winning all of these states could seal the deal for Obama.

12.) Several Paths to 270

There were five key red states that Obama won in 2008—Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina. Obama could lose every one of them in 2012 and still win reelection with 272 electoral votes.


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Sources: Daily Beast, Youtube, Google Maps

Barack Obama Is "The People's President!" Decision 2012

Let Me Be Clear People!

Just Because I Didn't Agree With ALL Of Pres. Obama's Policies & Decisions During His First 2 Years In Office Doesn't Mean He Lost My Vote.

I Supported Barack Obama In 2008 & Likewise For 2012.

Its Ok To Disagree & Apply Pressure To Our ELECTED Officials.

That's What Defines REAL Democracy.

(If Both Of Us Always Agree Then One Of Us Isn't Necessary!)

But When The Dust Clears Who I Endorse & Stand By Defines ME!

He's The Person Best Suited To Continue Leading This Country & I Stand With Pres. Obama In 2012.

I Realize My Decision To Support Pres. Obama Has Made A Lot Of People Very Angry, But At The End Of The Day I Have To ONLY Live With Myself & Answer To God.

Thus What Others Think Of Me Doesn't Matter Because They Too Are Accountable To God!

Much Like His 2008 Campaign Strategy, Pres. Obama's 2012 Campaign Strategy Will Also Be About Building Relationships With People From All Walks Of Life & Promoting A Grassroots Movement.

Like His Predecessors JFK & Bill Clinton, Barack Obama Is Truly "The People's President!"

Most GOP Leaders & Candidates Stand ONLY For Billionaires, Millionaires & Corporate Titans.

While Pres. Obama, MOST Democrats, Progressives & Independents Stand For ALL American Citizens!

The NEW America!

The America Which Welcomes ALL & Loves ALL!

This Includes Extremely Wealthy People, Senior Citizens, Veterans, Middle Class, Lower Income & Young Voters, Regardless Of Ethnicity Or Culture.

NOT Just Wealthy Citizens But Everyone Who Resides Within America's Borders.

While Most GOP Leaders & Candidates Appear To Only Be Interested In Dirty,
Racially - Divisive, "Southern Strategy" Politics, Pres. Obama's Camp Is Fighting Hard To Heal & Restore Our Nation's Integrity.

Fighting Hard To Bring Back American Jobs From Overseas.

Fighting To Help Small Businesses Create Jobs In Every Community By Revamping The SBA Process.

Fighting To Keep Our Country Safe. (Remember Obama Got Osama!)

Fighting Hard To Ensure Our Financial System Is NEVER Raped Again With "War On Terror", Fake Wall Street Hedge Funds & Subprime Mortgage Schemes.

Fighting To Help Revise Our Nation's Corrupt, Horribly Unfair Tax Code & Fix The IRS System.

NO Corrupt Flat Tax Rate Please!!

(Everyone Should Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes Even Billionaires & Millionaires!)

Fighting To Stop Abuse & Fraud Within The Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security Systems, Yet Preserving Those Same Systems. (Remember Kathy Hocul's NY-26 Win Last Tuesday?)

Fighting To Stop Childhood Obesity The Leading Cause Of Juvenile Diabetes.

Fighting To Stop Food Stamp Abuse By Making It Illegal For States To Allow Recipients With Young Children To Consistently Purchase & Feed Their Children Candy, Snacks, Sweet Drinks Versus REAL Food (Fresh Vegetables, Fruits, Whole Grain Breads, etc.,).

Fighting To Stop Many Single Mothers (Black & White) From INTENTIONALLY Making Their Children SICK Just To Get Disability Checks.

Fighting To Stop Age & Racial Discrimination As It Relates To Unfair Hiring Practices.

Fighting To Stop The Destruction Of Collective Bargaining Rights For Labor Unions.

Fighting To Stop Private & For-Profit Schools From Ripping Off Students By Giving Them Fake Degrees Or Degrees With Little Value In Exchange For Student Loans. (i.e., Most Cosmetology Schools. Most NOT All!)

Fighting To Stop Consumer Abuse At The Hands Of BIG Banks (Too Big To Fail!) & Our Nation's 3 Largest Credit Reporting Agencies (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union).

Fighting To Stop ILLEGAL Foreclosures. Especially Among Active Duty U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans.

Fighting To Stop Health Insurance Companies From Taking Money From Members Then ILLEGALLY Denying Them Coverage.

Fighting To Stop Governors From Privatizing Prisons For Revenue Which Encourages Wrongful Convictions & Long Term Imprisonment Of Black & Hispanic Men.

Even Black & Hispanic Men Who Are First Time Offenders Or Those Who Have Committed Non-Drug-Related, Non-Homicidal Crimes.

Fighting To Stop Police Brutality & Taser Gun Abuse.

Fighting To Stop Governors From Allowing Black & Hispanic Children To Remain In Foster Care Until They Age Out (NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA) Versus Being Adopted By GOOD Foster Parents (NOT Criminals), Just For The Purpose Of Getting More Federal Funding Only To Later Be Wasted On Political Wish Lists.

Fighting To Stop Federal Funding For Public Schools From Being Used To Segregate White Students From Minority Students.

Fighting To Preserve Funding For Early Childhood Programs Like Head Start Which Leads To Higher Academic Success For Low Income Black & Hispanic Children.

Fighting To Help Upgrade American Schools, Including Those In Urban Areas To Better Prepare American Students To Compete In The Global Workforce.

Fighting To Upgrade America's Infrastructure (Bridges, Roads, Highways, High Speed Rail, Internet Access).

Fighting To Protect Veterans From Being Taken Advantage Of By Fake Veterans Advocacy Agencies & Greedy Property Management Companies That Overcharge Veterans For Rental Properties.

Fighting To Stop VA Hospital Pharmacies (Especially In Southern States) From Issuing Pain Pills To Veterans Like Handing Candy To Children On Halloween Night.

Fighting To Stop Voting Rights From Being Violated.

Is Barack Obama God Or Jesus Christ Incarnate?

NO Of Course Not!

But I Do Thank God For Him.

No Doubt He Needs Another 4 Years Wouldn't You Agree?

So If You Haven't Already Made A Decision To Step Up & Volunteer With Pres. Obama's Re-election Organization, Please Do It TODAY!

Time Waits For NO One & 2012 Is Just Around The Corner!

Check Your Attitudes & Egos At The Door! Get Onboard!

Let's Unite, Mobilize & Re-elect Barack H. Obama For Another Term!

YES WE CAN! AGAIN!

VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

GOP presidential contenders drift to the right

In the first presidential election since the Tea Party's emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election.

On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.

The shifts reflect the evolving views of conservative voters, who will play a major role in choosing the Republican nominee. In that sense, the candidates' repositioning seems savvy or even essential.

But the eventual nominee will face President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election, when independent voters appear likely to be decisive players once again. Those independents may be far less enamored of hard-right positions than are the GOP activists who will wield power in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and other nominating contests.

"The most visible shift in the political landscape" in recent years "is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives," says the Pew Research Center, which conducts extensive voter surveys. Many of them "take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues," Pew reports. They largely "agree with the tea party," and "very strongly disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance."

Climate policy is a dramatic example of how GOP presidential hopefuls have shifted to the right in recent years. Former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah, along with other likely candidates, have backed away from earlier embraces of regional "cap-and-trade" programs to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Such stands were unremarkable in GOP circles just a few years ago. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee, supported a cap and trade plan to place prices and limits on the emission of heat-trapping gasses.

'I'm sorry'
Now the position is anathema to millions of Republicans, and therefore to the party's candidates. Pawlenty is the most effusive in his backtracking. "I was wrong, it was a mistake, and I'm sorry," he says repeatedly.

The likely presidential candidates have shifted rightward on other issues as well.

Romney, who leads in most polls, has rejected his earlier stands supporting abortion rights, gun control and gay rights. He says his 2006 law requiring Massachusetts residents to obtain health insurance was right for his state at the time, but he has condemned the Obama-backed mandate that would cover all Americans.

Pawlenty campaigns as a tight-fisted conservative who would refuse to raise the nation's debt ceiling, even though many Republican leaders say economic chaos would ensue. Yet in 2006, Pawlenty told a newspaper, "the era of small government is over" and "government has to be more proactive, more aggressive."

Pawlenty says he was partly quoting another person. But in the same 2006 interview he said, "there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful."

Pawlenty has abandoned such talk in his presidential quest.

The Republican Party's rightward drift is causing headaches for the presidential hopefuls on the issue of Medicare, a potential minefield in the general election. House Republicans passed a bill that eventually would convert Medicare to a less costly, less generous program. It would help older Americans buy health insurance, but it no longer would provide benefits based mainly on a patient's needs rather than costs.

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm by calling the plan radical. He spent the better part of a week trying to recant, change the subject and get his campaign back on track.

Pawlenty, after promising to offer his own Medicare plan, acknowledged conservatives' priorities and said he would sign the House measure if it were the only choice before him.

Romney hedged Friday on whether he would sign the House bill into law. "That's the kind of speculation that is getting the cart ahead of the horse," he said. "I'm going to have my own plan."

Many Republican activists are delighted by the rightward tack of their party and its presidential contenders.

If anything, "mainstream Republican leaders are pushing the party too far to the left," said Sid Dinerstein, GOP chairman in Palm Beach County, Fla. The House plan for Medicare is the only one that makes sense, he said, and GOP candidates "should become articulate and knowledgeable in talking about it."

'Wiggling all over the place'
Louisiana's Republican chairman, Roger F. Villere Jr., agrees.

"The conservative issues are the correct issues," he said. The presidential candidates should embrace the House stand, he said, and persuade voters they care more about saving Medicare than the Democrats do.

Some in Obama's camp, however, say the presidential contenders risk locking themselves into hard-right positions that won't play well when less ideological voters flock to the polls in November 2012.

Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich and others "are wiggling all over the place" to appease staunch conservatives, said Bill Burton, Obama's former spokesman and now a Democratic fundraiser and advocate. Americans want strong, consistent leaders, he said, and the Republican contenders aren't filling the bill.

Obama, of course, has had his own inconsistencies, such as backing away from calls to increase payroll and income taxes on the wealthy.

Moreover, competitive Democratic primaries are usually the mirror image of GOP contests. Democratic candidates generally edge to the left to attract liberal activists before hewing back to the center for the general election.

This time, however, Obama has no primary opponents to worry about. That allows him to focus on the all-important independent voters, who swung the 2008 elections to Democrats, and the 2010 midterm elections to Republicans.

The latest Pew Research study suggests that independents, who "played a determinative role in the last three national elections," will have even more clout in 2012. They comprised 30 percent of the national electorate in 2005, Pew found. They now make up 37 percent.

Whoever survives the conservative-dominated Republican nominating process will have to address those independents' concerns quickly and adroitly.


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Sources: Barack Obama.com, Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Tea Party Voters Are Wealthy & Well-Educated, Decision 2010

Polls Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier & More Educated


Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and its supporters have vowed to purge the Republican Party of officials they consider not sufficiently conservative and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care. But the demographics and attitudes of those in the movement have been known largely anecdotally. The Times/CBS poll offers a detailed look at the profile and attitudes of those supporters.

Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, though some conservative leaders have urged a boycott.

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Asked what they are angry about, Tea Party supporters offered three main concerns: the recent health care overhaul, government spending and a feeling that their opinions are not represented in Washington.

“The only way they will stop the spending is to have a revolt on their hands,” Elwin Thrasher, a 66-year-old semiretired lawyer in Florida, said in an interview after the poll. “I’m sick and tired of them wasting money and doing what our founders never intended to be done with the federal government.”

They are far more pessimistic than Americans in general about the economy. More than 90 percent of Tea Party supporters think the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared with about 60 percent of the general public. About 6 in 10 say “America’s best years are behind us” when it comes to the availability of good jobs for American workers.

Nearly 9 in 10 disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing over all, and about the same percentage fault his handling of major issues: health care, the economy and the federal budget deficit. Ninety-two percent believe Mr. Obama is moving the country toward socialism, an opinion shared by more than half of the general public.

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted April 5 through April 12 with 1,580 adults. For the purposes of analysis, Tea Party supporters were oversampled, for a total of 881, and then weighted to their proper proportion in the poll. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and for Tea Party supporters.

Of the 18 percent of Americans who identified themselves as supporters, 20 percent, or 4 percent of the general public, said they had given money or attended a Tea Party event, or both.

These activists were more likely than supporters generally to describe themselves as very conservative and had more negative views about the economy and Mr. Obama. They were more angry with Washington and intense in their desires for a smaller federal government and deficit.

Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good. But 55 percent are concerned that someone in their household will be out of a job in the next year. And more than two-thirds say the recession has been difficult or caused hardship and major life changes. Like most Americans, they think the most pressing problems facing the country today are the economy and jobs.

But while most Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the current state of the American economy, the greatest number of Tea Party supporters blame Congress.

They do not want a third party and say they usually or almost always vote Republican. The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him.

Dee Close, a 47-year-old homemaker in Memphis, said she was worried about a “drift” in the country. “Over the last three or four years, I’ve realized how immense that drift has been away from what made this country great,” Ms. Close said.

Yet while the Tea Party supporters are more conservative than Republicans on some social issues, they do not want to focus on those issues: about 8 in 10 say that they are more concerned with economic issues, as is the general public.

When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes.

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”


Sources: NY Times, Fox News, Young Turks, Youtube