Welcome to ‘The War Room,’ here are the stories we are following this Wednesday, March 28th, 2012.
“Record Number See Romney Negatively; Obama Outpaces Him in Popularity.” That’s the headline that leads the new ABC/Washington Post poll, as President Obama enjoys a 19-point favorability advantage over the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Romney’s 50 percent negative rating is a record low for any Republican candidate since 1984. President Obama enjoys a comfortable lead with women, independents, moderates and all income groups. What’s Mitt’s problem? Republican voters lack enthusiasm for his candidacy. Check out all the numbers here.
That could explain why 43 percent of Republicans would like to see a brokered convention according to a new CNN poll. Hat tip to Talking Points Memo for pointing that little fact out.
Quinnipiac finds President Obama with a lead in the important swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania – and it’s women voters who are putting him over the top. De facto Republican leader Rush Limbaugh could not be reached for comment, but he has gone back to his attacks on women’s health care. Just so you know.
Republicans were elected in 2010 on the promise that they would create jobs, but once they got in office they immediately started laying off workers. The eleven states where Republicans took power were responsible for 40 percent of the total state and local public sector job losses in 2011. And if you add in Texas, the number explodes: 70 percent of all public sector job losses occurred in the red states. Many economists are in basic agreement that these job losses have had a significant impact on the nation’s economic recovery.
Not only did those Republican governors and legislators cut jobs, there is also a correlation that shows they have imposed substantial new laws curtailing reproductive choice and contraception, as well as new restrictions on voter registration and registration drives. The New York Times comfirms the story on voter registration restrictions, taking a close look at what happened in the state of Florida after new laws saw voter participation “drop sharply.”
Newt Gingrich is cutting staff and appearances so he can win the nomination at the convention. Ahem. Yeah, right. Santorum immediately jumped on that and said, “See? It is a two-person race!” Ooo-kay. So, who wants break the news to Rick?
SuperPacs and other outside groups have increased their spending four-fold compared to this time in the 2008 election cycle.
Darrell Issa apologized for his bad behavior during the contraception hearings? Really? Did it suddenly get very, very cold in Hades?
Lest we forget, it’s day three of the health care reform hearings at the Supreme Court. Of import is the argument over Medicaid expansion; Kevin Drum at Mother Jones highlights this argument: “So if the Supreme Court overturned the Medicaid changes, it would be a genuine earthquake. At worst, it would make hundreds of programs instantly unconstitutional and expel the federal government from playing a role in dozens of policy areas. At best, the federal government could still start programs this way, but could never change them once they’d become entrenched and were no longer ‘optional.’ This would freeze policy in place in a way that would be disastrous.”
And here’s something worth watching: An interesting video ad from the DNC Rapid Response team that shines a light on the subliminal visual trick the recent Santorum “Obamaville” ad used to equate President Obama and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Check this out:
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