Sure, still low, but better, and headed in the right direction.

Bill Clinton, Gallup notes, had a 38% favorable rating in March (not May) of 1992; by May, he became better known and improved that figure to 50% -- also low, but enough to win.

Via Hot Air, two more minor polls show Romney very, very slightly ahead.

Which is nice news after yesterday's poop-in-the-punchbowl FoxNews poll, which has Obama up seven, 46-39.

It should always be remembered that polls have a Margin of Error of +/- three or four or even five points (or more), with 95% confidence -- 95% of time the "real number," if you asked everyone in the population, will be within that margin of error. 5% of the time the result will be completely outside the margin of error, and simply wrong.

But even when a poll is accurate, it is only accurate, as your GPS might say, within 100 meters.

FoxNews says the lead they show is "just outside" the margin of error. Perhaps. But there is that 1 in 20 polls which are simply erroneous from the start. Given that everyone else is showing a tight election, many with leads for Romney, this poll seems to just be wrong. Gallup has it 45-45 today, for example.

One more fun fact: 86% of Republicans know spending has gone up the past 10 years; 81% of independents know that.

And what of our Intellectual Elite, aka the liberal Democratic Party?

61% know this basic fact.|

Even worse, among the self-declared elite Rasmussen terms the "Political Class," only 66% know this elemental, basic bit of knowledge. While 85% of the "mainstream" (non-political class) are aware of it.

Posted by: Ace at 11:54 AM | Comments (326)
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Breitbart's series, "The Vetting," continues.

Acton [Obama's agent], who spoke to Breitbart News by telephone, confirmed precise details of the booklet and said that it cost the agency tens of thousands of dollars to produce.

He indicated that while "almost nobody" wrote his or her own biography, the non-athletes in the booklet, whom "the agents deal[t] with on a daily basis," were "probably" approached to approve the text as presented.

Dystel did not respond to numerous requests for comment, via email and telephone. Her assistant told Breitbart News that Dystel "does not answer questions about Obama."

The errant Obama biography in the Acton & Dystel booklet does not contradict the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. Moreover, several contemporaneous accounts of ObamaÂ’s background describe Obama as having been born in Hawaii.
The biography does, however, fit a pattern in which Obama--or the people representing and supporting him--manipulate his public persona.

Well, the bio does not disprove Obama's birth certificate, but it certainly contradicts it. There are two claims; both cannot be accurate.

While I'm not a Birther (and Breitbart's senior management states that Breitbart.com isn't a Birther site, and Andrew Breitbart himself wasn't a Birther), it is very curious as to why whoever wrote this bio believed that Obama was foreign-born. While it's true that bios are often not written by the subject, the information in the bio must come from somewhere -- and the obvious place to get such information is the subject himself.

I've been asked to write these myself -- and in fact I owe someone one right now -- and while they may be rewritten and edited, the guy asking you for the bio wants the basic information. He doesn't want to go researching stuff which you can provide for him in 40 seconds.

So it seems very likely this came from Obama. Where else would Obama's birthplace have come from? In 1991, Obama had not yet written his two (ahem) memoirs. He was not a famous man.

So, why did Obama say this?

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 AM | Comments (633)
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All Democrats need do is cry "hatred" and everyone falls into line, like good little conditioned monkeys.

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (146)
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Not just Reverend Wright, but this stunning new revelation that a close friend of Obama's -- and Michelle's benefactor in Chicago -- offered Wright $150,000 to remain silent in 2008.

Obviously this is newsworthy and relevant.

Which you can guess from the coordinated freak-out.

A Super-Pac is proposing a $10 million ad campaign highlighting the relationship between Obama and Wright.

So All The President's Men are trying to pressure Romney to disown the attack and stop it.

“Stunning! Will Mitt stand up, as [Sen.] John McCain did? Or allow the purveyors of slime to operate on his behalf?” claimed a 5.42 a.m. tweet from David Axelrod, the senior strategic at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago.

...

The proposed advertising is a “hateful campaign being planned by GOP super PACs,” claimed Bill Burton, who runs a Democratic “super PAC” political action committee, dubbed Priorities USA Action, that is itself designed to run negative ads against Gov. Mitt Romney.

Burton’s tweet came at 5.58 a.m. — some 16 minutes after the alert from Axelrod, who has worked in Chicago politics for decades.

At 9.05 a.m., Brad Woodhouse, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, joined the hue and cry. “Unbelievable @MittRomney can’t do more on this Ricketts slime story than say he hasn’t read the story,” he said in reaction to a Washington Post report that Romney declined to comment.

At 9.32 a.m., Woodhouse followed up with another tweet, saying “If @MittRomney can’t clearly denounce the type of scum bag tactics planned by his allies as outlined by the NYT he’s not fit to lead.”

Posted by: Ace at 08:47 AM | Comments (491)
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But a kind that has me howling: more...

Posted by: CAC at 07:11 AM | Comments (411)
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Nice chart from Golden Slacks to get the day started, courtesy of @JimPethokoukis.

The Obamaconomy:

Circling the drain.

Posted by: andy at 02:55 AM | Comments (556)
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The Marquette poll which Ace and I both posted about had some very interesting cross-tabs.

The most damning shows the dangers of the traditional Democratic "big cities" strategy.

Below is a visual of the areas surveyed broken down by Marquette University for their poll. Tomorrow's weekly recall projection will show a bit more favor to Barrett in the South and West, but the overall picture remains damning and shows why Walker as of now is likely to survive: more...

Posted by: CAC at 06:12 PM | Comments (81)
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Communism vs. Capitalism in Pictures

PJ O'Rourke once remarked on flying into East Germany that you knew an economic system was terrible when its failure was visible even from 25,000 feet.

Well here are some photos of scenes from East Germany under communism and then later under capitalism. Everything looks a bit brighter and even the trash seems more upscale.

I also highly recommend O'Rourke's essay "What Do They Do For Fun in Warsaw?" based on his 1986 visit to Poland - no one snarked on communism like PJ.

And see if you can guess what economic system these photos came from?

Trick question - both are of modern-day Detroit which has been under the rule of Democrats for almost a century.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:52 PM | Comments (653)
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Not a football post.

I tossed this in the headlines today but I really wanted to come back to it because I really wanted to come back to it. This is how I make posting decisions, an arduous process involving what I'd like to do and how I hope it's interesting to the morons.

Jon Bruning and Don Stenberg joined Nebraska state senator Deb Fischer at a "unity rally" the day after she clobbered them in the primary to offer their support and demonstrate their commitment to defeating Bob Kerrey in November.

Bruning and Fischer both looked bleary-eyed and even teary-eyed at times during the press conference – with Bruning looking off to the side during most of the press conference, avoiding eye contact with the roomful of observers and reporters. He and Fischer embraced at one point. Asked what he thought of the election results, he declined to comment, saying everything was water under the bridge and “This is Deb’s day.”

“I’m 100 percent behind her,” Bruning said. “This is about how we can get together and beat Bob Kerrey.”

Fischer credited Bruning for being a tough campaigner whom she looks forward to campaigning with and credited Stenberg for being a public servant for many years.

“He serves his state with his heart and his soul,” she said.

I find this refreshing, and admirable. Some may attribute this to my naiveté. I say, "and don't you find my naiveté refreshing?"

Contrast this with the response of 6 term crybaby Dick Lugar, who got his ass kicked in Indiana a week ago by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Instead of appearing with him to provide support in his upcoming race, this "elder statesman of the senate" pitched a 1400 word bitchfit on why conservatives suck.

Unfortunately, we have an increasing number of legislators in both parties who have adopted an unrelenting partisan viewpoint. This shows up in countless vote studies that find diminishing intersections between Democrat and Republican positions. Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum are dominating the political debate in our country. And partisan groups, including outside groups that spent millions against me in this race, are determined to see that this continues. They have worked to make it as difficult as possible for a legislator of either party to hold independent views or engage in constructive compromise. If that attitude prevails in American politics, our government will remain mired in the dysfunction we have witnessed during the last several years. And I believe that if this attitude expands in the Republican Party, we will be relegated to minority status. Parties donÂ’t succeed for long if they stop appealing to voters who may disagree with them on some issues.

Reminded me a little of Nixon's nemesis, political consultant Dick Tuck, and his famous comment after losing his 1966 primary race for the California senate. "The people have spoken, the bastards."

I realize there's a difference between two Republican contenders vying for their first shot at the Senate and a senior Senator with 6 terms behind him getting taken down by a rookie, but genuine leaders know better than to cry like a bitch and unless it's not all about them they show a little class. So the hell with you Dick. And thank you Jon and Don. Well played gentlemen.

article via stephenkruiser

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:55 PM | Comments (199)
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39,000.

"Demo" means adults 25-54.

Maybe he should stick to Twitter.

Posted by: Ace at 02:47 PM | Comments (195)
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