The 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections: Who will challenge Pres. Barack Obama?

[DailyCore]

The naysayers who claimed loudly that Obama's efforts are "failing" should check this out.

Gallup: Job Creation Highest Since 2008

New data from Gallup shows the polling firm’s “Job Creation Index,” which surveys workers on whether or not their employer is hiring, is at its highest level since the second half of 2008. Gallup’s numbers showed that “36% of workers nationwide saying their employers are hiring workers and expanding the size of their workforce, and 16% saying their employers are letting workers go and reducing the size of their workforce. This is similar to March, when 35% of workers reported workforce expansion at their place of work, while 17% reported workforce reduction.”

The firm also points out that growth is bring driven by the private sector, while government payrolls continue to fall. “As has been seen in Europe, when government is forced to cut back, there are job implications in the short term,” Gallup wrote. “During the past two months, private-sector job creation has climbed to new highs, exceeding Gallup Daily tracking results going back to August 2008, when Gallup began measuring government vs. nongovernment employment.”

Gallup: Job Creation Highest Since 2008 | TPM Livewire

[machinecult]

Private-sector jobs? As in the sector Obama despises?

[DailyCore]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05...e-complaining/

[æRLO]

I'd be Republican if I was American and I want Ron Paul for pres. after Herman Cain backed out. But Paul wouldn't be good for the Phils. since he's rather an isolationist regarding foreign policy and too much common sense to be popular with big govt. America. Being Protestant Christian and Conservative Santorum would be my 2nd choice though unlikely to win for obvious reasons, so Mitt Romney is likely to win Republican.

I don't believe Obama will win. He's a disaster. A lot of his voters are turning back.

I'm just gonna outright say. Bush in 04 had a way more grim election picture then, and look what happened. Obama handily wins this one. I would even go as far that John Kerry had enough push to win that (only tarnished by the GOP swiftboating) than Romney does right now. Romney's verbatim about not agreeing on Obama's decision to make the kill on Osama, whether taken out of context or not, will hurt him in his own party-base. AFAIK, the GOP is in disarray and does not have the momentum it will take to propel Romney. That is based on my observation here in Missouri, a traditionally conservative state.

[edgeknife]

With tepid endorsement of Romney, Gingrich formally ends 2012 presidential campaign: A moon shot comes to earth at last

At an event that was long past his campaign's expiration date, Newt Gingrich ended his presidential campaign at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Virginia.
"Today I am suspending the campaign, but suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship," Gingrich said. He thanked Rick Perry, Herman Cain and casino mogul and super PAC donor Sheldon Adelson, among others.
Gingrich said of South Carolina, where he won the Republican presidential primary, that he had "broken their tradition of always picking the nominee" and will always feel "slightly guilty" when traveling there.
At the end of his remarks, he tepidly endorsed the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney. "I'm asked sometimes, Is Mitt Romney conservative?" Gingrich said. "And my answer is simple: Compared to Barack Obama? This is not a choice between Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan. This is a choice between Mitt Romney and the most radical leftist president in history."
Although Romney has not yet reached the number of delegates needed to officially clinch the Republican presidential nomination, he became the presumptive nominee weeks ago, when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announced an end to his candidacy. Gingrich, however, stayed on course, while his campaign drowned in debt and his chances for the nomination dropped to near zero.
From when he first announced his intention to run in May 2011 through his triumphant win in the South Carolina primary, Gingrich insisted that his mastery of conservative issues and his vast legislative experience was enough to beat President Barack Obama, but he failed to capture the support of the Republican primary electorate.
While Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota rode high in the summer of 2011, Gingrich was written off as a pretender. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry branded himself as the conservative alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Gingrich trudged on.
"There are lots of bunny rabbits who run through," Gingrich would later say. "I am the tortoise. I just take one step at a time."
Gingrich began his presidential journey with some confusing reversals on major issues: In March 2011 it appeared the nation was about to engage in military action in Libya; Gingrich urged President Obama to get involved. But when the United States sent air support to Libya, Gingrich criticized the president, saying he would not have engaged.
In May of last year, Gingrich was a vocal opponent of Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare reform proposal, calling it "right wing social engineering." When he subsequently apologized, he said anyone who quoted his comments was acting dishonestly.
Gingrich was also criticized for his personal life in the campaign's early days: Politico reported that Gingrich at one time personally owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the jewelry store Tiffany & Co (financial disclosure forms showed the debt had been paid in full.) He also briefly put the campaign on hiatus so he could take a luxury cruise in Greece with his third wife, Callista.
Gingrich repeatedly stressed that he would ultimately be the nominee. His stump speeches focused not on the other candidates in the race, but on his own ideas for changing Washington, rather than, as he put it, "managing the decay." At the 2011 debates, where Gingrich shined, he refused to attack fellow Republicans when given the opportunity, channeling his vitriol toward Obama, or even the debate moderator.
It wasn't until the end of 2011, when hopes for Herman Cain faded amid allegations of sexual harassment, that many Republicans began to give Gingrich a serious look. With Cain's popularity on the decline, Gingrich's poll numbers skyrocketed.
By that point, several of the staff members who abandoned him in June for other campaigns had returned. "It's good to have some old friends come back," Gingrich's spokesman R.C. Hammond said at the time. But the campaign suffered from the lack of staff and resources--Gingrich did not establish an office in Iowa until mid-December.

In the weeks leading up to the caucuses, Gingrich vowed to run what he called a "solutions-oriented campaign" and refrained from negative attacks on his opponents. But when he came in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses Gingrich changed his strategy. From then on, he played offense. And with decades of practice battling Democrats in Washington, he was exceptional at it.
From the moment he touched down in New Hampshire in January, Gingrich, who for months had held his tongue--something he admitted was not an easy thing for him--unloaded on his rivals. He directed most of his attacks at Romney, whose allies had spent millions trying to bring Gingrich down in a nasty, and successful, ad war.
On the trail in New Hampshire, Gingrich hit Romney from every angle: criticizing him for his management of Bain Capital, calling him a "Massachusetts moderate" (and later, a "liberal"), and knocking him for implementing a health care plan as Massachusetts governor that included an individual mandate for state residents to purchase insurance. He also told supporters that Romney implemented a tax on the blind and later misleadingly told voters that Romney tried to block Holocaust survivors from receiving kosher meals in Massachusetts nursing homes.
After failing to place among the top three finishers in New Hampshire, Gingrich's meteoric rise appeared to have stalled. That would all change when he won the next contest in South Carolina, a victory that breathed life--and much-needed cash--into his campaign.
Gingrich won South Carolina by a wide margin. Unfortunately, his southern victory would mark the highest point in his campaign. He wouldn't win another state besides Georgia, which he represented in Congress for two decades.
On the campaign trail, Gingrich mastered the art of targeting local issues, confidently offering voters state-specific answers. He employed this strategy with such frequency that Romney criticized him for pandering. When a man expressed concern during a Manchester town hall about veterans' access to medical services, the Gingrich campaign drew up a plan that day to build hospitals in northern New Hampshire. Gingrich presented it at a rally that evening.
The strategy reached what many perceived to be a comedic tipping point in Florida, where Gingrich unveiled an ambitious plan for space exploration. During a speech along Florida's central coast, where thousands of jobs rely on the space industry, Gingrich vowed to build a colony on the moon by his second term, and promised to make exploration a priority. His opponents pounced, claiming Gingrich's priorities were misguided.
Meanwhile, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who bested Romney in Iowa, was steadily on his way to replacing Gingrich as the "conservative alternative" in the race.
After Super Tuesday, it became clear that Gingrich would not be able to achieve the delegates needed to win the nomination. Despite calls for him to leave the race, Gingrich soldiered on, and briefly helped leave open the possibility of a contested Republican convention.
Soon, the calls for Gingrich to step down grew louder and his debt burden grew larger. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who had bankrolled super PAC ads supporting him, announced he would stop writing checks.
Gingrich, who perhaps did for a short time--as his former spokesman dramatically put it last year--rise "out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia," shrunk back out of the spotlight as Romney accepted the title of Republican nominee. Gingrich refused to step down, hanging on for several weeks after Santorum ended his candidacy.
Finally, after a five-state primary in April, Gingrich made the decision to concede to Romney.
On Wednesday, Gingrich said he and his wife will maintain their "focus on a series of key issues and try to find way to move forward" on matters like energy, "American exceptionalism and American history," balancing the budget, brain science and space exploration.
"I am cheerfully going to take back up the issue of space," said Gingrich, who was mocked by some for his proposal to establish a permanent American base on the moon by 2020.
"I thought, frankly, in my role providing material for 'Saturday Night Live,' it was helpful," he said. More seriously, he added, "If we are going to be the leading country in the world," the United States must also be the leading country in space exploration.

With tepid endorsement of Romney, Gingrich formally ends 2012 presidential campaign: A moon shot comes to earth at last | The Ticket - Yahoo! News


*** If ever he will be the Republican nominee, he has the very least chance of winning against President Barack Obama.***

[DailyCore]

[Detective Mask]

And now Ron Paul is beginning to clinch MORE delegates for the nomination:

How Ron Paul's far-reaching delegate strategy is starting to pay off | World news | guardian.co.uk

This just proves that this race is far from over.

[machinecult]

Well I never favored Romney in any way. My first choice was Herman Cain, always was a fan of the man. He would've been really great wild card candidate to go against the Democrats. Too bad he had to subside. I switched to Ron Paul though there are many things I don't find realistic about him especially his Isolationist policies. This disrupts the tie we have right now with America.

[Detective Mask]

And now, MORE delegates for Ron Paul. This time, ang majority sa delegates in Nevada and Maine:

Ron Paul continues delegate offensive, wins big in Nevada, Maine - latimes.com

With this kind of progress, it's quite early to say that the Republican race is over.

[edgeknife]

Ron Paul all but ends presidential campaign, continues delegate strategy

Ron Paul announced Monday that his campaign will no longer spend money on presidential nominating contests due to lack of funds, effectively ending his campaign for the Republican nomination.
Paul wrote the following in an open letter to supporters:
Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future. Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.
Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate actively campaigning against front-runner Mitt Romney, encouraged his supporters to continue their involvement in the presidential race as well as down-ballot races across the country, and to spread his message of lower spending and the protection of individual liberties. He stressed that he will continue working to win delegates.
"In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned," Paul wrote. He stopped short of an outright suspension, an option all of his fellow competitors (besides Romney) have chosen.
Two weeks ago, Paul and his supporters cheered Paul's delegate wins in Maine and Nevada. But as Yahoo News reported, those wins didn't necessarily move Paul any closer to winning his party's nomination.
Paul has long touted a strategy to rack up delegates as a way to become a part of this summer's convention process, absent an outright win.
Paul currently has 104 delegates and Romney has 966, according to the Associated Press.
In recent weeks, Paul supporters have been increasingly vocal in their attacks on establishment Republicans, accusing them of employing "dirty tricks" to benefit Romney over Paul.
Paul's campaign attempted to quash the most recent attack Sunday by defending the Republican National Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus against accusations the party is violating Rule 11, which bans favoritism, by creating a joint fundraising committee with Romney in April.
Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton reconfirmed in a statement Sunday that the Paul campaign was also invited by the RNC to set up a joint committee and declined.
"The RNC offered to set up a joint fundraising committee with the Paul campaign and were very clear that if Dr. Paul became the nominee, the Victory Operation would be behind him 100 percent," Benton said. "They also were clear that they would hold off if our campaign objected. I gave my full consent for the RNC to move forward."

Ron Paul all but ends presidential campaign, continues delegate strategy | The Ticket - Yahoo! News