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2012 Turnout Dramatically Lower than 2008

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photo credit: KAZVorpalDespite all the talk about voter intensity surrounding the presidential election, 13 million fewer people voted in 2012 than in 2008.

131 million voters cast their ballots in the 2008 election in which Barack Obama defeated John McCain by a 53% to 46% margin. Obama received 69.4 million votes, while McCain received 59.9 million.

In 2012, Obama defeated Romney by a 50% to 48% margin. Obama received 59.8 million votes, and Romney received 57.1 million votes — 2.7 million fewer than Obama in 2012, but also 2.8 million fewer than McCain in 2008.

Surprisingly, President Obama’s 2012 vote total — 59.8 million — was 100,000 less than the 59.9 million John McCain received in 2008.

Even though President Obama received 10 million fewer votes in 2012 than he did in 2008, the Democrats were able to win where it mattered. Once again, they mounted a better ground game to turn out the vote on election day than Republicans managed to, especially in a dozen key swing states. A look at the final 2012 electoral college map shows that very little changed between 2008 and 2012. Only two states “switched” from one candidate to another: traditionally Republican Indiana, which Obama won in 2008, went for Romney in 2012, and North Carolina, a surprise win for Obama in 2008, also went to Romney in 2012. All the other key swing states — Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado, Nevada — went to Obama by narrow margins in 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kenyan Mother Gives Birth to “Barack Obama and Mitt Romney”; Kenyans Celebrate

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A Kenyan mother who gave birth to twin boys on Wednesday named her new-born children after the president re-elect and his defeated Republican rival.

Millicent Owuor, 20, delivered her twins, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, at a district hospital in the town of Siaya in southwest Kenya, according to Kenya’s The Standard newspaper.

Owuor told reporters that she had named her twins after the winning and losing presidential candidates in order to remember the day of the election.

Owuor gave birth to her two boys a short distance from the village of Kogelo, where President Obama’s father was born and where his 90-year-old step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, still lives.

Residents of Kogelo sang songs, danced and cheered “Obama, Obama, Obama!” after their candidate of choice dominated key states including Ohio and New Hampshire leading him to win another four years with his family in the White House.

Read more from this story HERE.

Welcome to the Divided States of America

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The GOP increased their majority in the House of Representatives. The “progressive” Democrats held on to a slim Senate majority. Barack Obama still occupies the White House.

With fifty three House members demanding that Obama answer questions about the lethal, ham handed disaster in Benghazi and the equally bungled cover-up, do not expect a sudden flowering of bipartisan harmony.

Especially since the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin have expressed happiness at Obama’s reelection. America will now find out what “more flexibility” means.

In the wake of Obama’s re-election, stocks nosedived across the board Wednesday morning, plunging over three hundred points. Worries about the pending “fiscal cliff” and fears that America will follow Europe over the precipice chilled investments. The Dow traded under 13,000. For the first time since early September the S&P 500 fell below 1,400.

Fears that Obama will introduce a carbon tax as a way to cut the U.S. budget deficit also frosted Wall Street. With the continuation of Obama’s hostile energy policies, perceptions that such a tax will have a major impact on America’s deficit are largely based on European style speculative wishful thinking.

Obama will attempt to reinstate Clinton-era tax rates on Americans who run small businesses; those described by Obama as “not paying their fair share”. Without the development of America’s domestic energy, a move that would create millions of jobs that could not possibly be shipped overseas, there is no reason to anticipate an economic boom in the United States. Without such a boom, Clinton-era tax rates will simply dampen investment, destroy small businesses and further damage the American economy.

The government’s $16 trillion debt and the looming $600 billion tax increase scheduled, along with mandatory spending cuts, otherwise known as the “fiscal cliff” further complicate the economic outlook.

Americans can fully expect that Obama’s second-term will lead to increased federal spending. As he did in his first term, Obama will expand government. Because he remains in the White House and “progressives” retain control of the Senate, obamacare will be fully implemented, yet another wet blanket on the economy, as well as a death sentence for aging Americans.

Welcome to the divided States of America.

While “progressives” celebrate a continuation of the downhill fundamental transformation of America from a Constitutional Republic into a run of the mill low growth high unemployment European style cradle to grave nanny state, half of the American population remain fully opposed to such plans.

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Alaska Election Results

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The races in Alaska held a number of surprises including the gap between President Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney. With almost 99% of precincts reporting, Obama received a little over 41% of the vote and Romney, over 54%.

This 13 point gap is nowhere near the significant divide reflected in other red states such as Oklahoma where Romney took 67% of the vote, or Wyoming where he received 69% (Romney’s top percentage came from Utah where he received 73% of the vote). Gary Johnson received just 2.5% of Alaska’s vote.

In the lone house race, Don Young dominated, receiving over 64% of the vote, meaning a significant percentage of Obama voters also cast a vote for Young.

Mr. Sen Tan, the one judge where a concerted non-retention effort was made by the Alaska Family Council, was able to retain his seat with a 53/46 vote, the closest of any Alaskan judge up for retention this year.

For the remaining Alaskan results, including individual state house and senate races, please click HERE.

Yesterday’s Vote: Both Sides Lost

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Though Obama failed to win a majority in the popular vote–and may even have lost the popular vote outright–he won enough votes in the Electoral College to claim victory. The same constitutional peculiarity that brought George W. Bush into office in 2000 may have returned Obama to the White House.

The voters also re-affirmed the results of the historic Tea Party election of 2010, returning Republicans to power in the House of Representatives. And yet the voters also retained Democrats in control of the Senate, preserving the results of the anti-war wave election of 2006.

The U.S. Congress is now divided between two parties whose members were elected on platforms of protest, each determined to stop the other from pursuing its policies.

In the days that follow, great efforts will be spent on explaining the results as consequences of many factors, big and small.

Perhaps Obama would have lost if not for Hurricane Sandy. Perhaps Romney would have won if he had fought harder over Benghazi or pushed back against personal attacks. Perhaps the GOP is out of touch with the country’s changing mores and demographics. Perhaps Democrats have not yet reckoned with fiscal reality.

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Romney’s Closing Statement

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photo credit: masonbuzzflickrThese last few months, I’ve watched our campaign become a nationwide movement.

It’s not just the size of the crowds — it’s the depth of our shared conviction, the readiness for new possibilities, and the belief that we can do better than we’ve done these past four years.

I am asking for your vote . . . because it matters for your family and our country’s future.

Throughout my life, I’ve led turnarounds of every kind. I pledge that Paul Ryan and I will bring real change to America from Day One. We have a plan that will deliver a real recovery.

Our children will graduate into exciting careers that are worthy of their qualifications. Our seniors will be confident that their retirement is secure. Americans will have good jobs, good pay, and good benefits. Our veterans will come home to a bright future. We will have confidence that our lives are safe and our livelihoods are secure.

If you are ready for that kind of change — if you want this to be a turning point in America’s course — join us and vote for the kind of leadership that these times demand.

This is the most important election of our lifetime — and every vote counts.

We have to win this for America — and with your vote, we will. We are hours away from the better future America deserves. Thank You.

Learn more about the candidate HERE.

Governor Christie Denied Romney Request To Appear At Campaign Event Just Days Ahead Of Election

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photo credit: sandyreliefBOSTON — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was effusive in his praise of President Barack Obama when the two leaders toured damage from Hurricane Sandy last week, turned down a request by Mitt Romney to appear with him at a rally on Sunday night in Pennsylvania, The Huffington Post has learned.

Christie’s decision will only add to questions among Republicans about what the governor — who is up for reelection a year from now — is thinking, and why he went out of his way to heap praise on the president, and then refused to appear with Romney.

The Romney rally was held at a farm in Morrisville, Pa., not more than 20 minutes from Trenton, the New Jersey capital. The physical proximity of the event to New Jersey only added to questions in the Romney campaign about why Christie chose not to come.

“You can’t tell me he couldn’t have gone over there for a night rally,” a Romney campaign source told HuffPost.

Read more about this story HERE.

Forbes: Latest Poll Shows Women’s Vote Will Deliver Obama Victory

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A new USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday reveals female voters in critical swing states favor Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in Tuesday’s presidential election by 16 points. At 52% of the electorate, Democrats are enthusiastic that these XX-votes will all but deliver incumbent Obama a second term in office.

“It’s actually over 52% of the electorate,” Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter chided Chris Matthews on Mondaynight’s Hardball. “But we still need them to come out and vote tomorrow. Tomorrow’s the time to demonstrate this support.”

It’s no surprise to me that female swing voters are going to vote Obama—he made their core issues the most vocal issues of his entire campaign. Abortion was named the “single most important issue for women in this election” by female voters in 12 key swing states in an October Gallup poll and Democrats have been serving up women’s issues including abortion, access to contraception and healthcare for nearly a year, hammering home a Republican “war on women” that threatens their right to decision-making over their own bodies.

“How many women count on Planned Parenthood,” Cutter asked Matthews before repeating Mitt Romney’s debate statement on the publicly an privately funded women’s health clinic. According to Romney’s campaign website, “As president, [Romney] will end federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood.” The Presidential candidate has gone on the record saying he would appoint court justices to repeal Roe v. Wade.

Read more from this story HERE.

Former Gov. Barbour/RNC Chair: Hurricane Sandy Broke Romney’s Momentum

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photo credit: Leading AuthoritiesFormer Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) said Sunday that Hurricane Sandy stopped Mitt Romney’s momentum in the presidential race after the candidates temporarily left the trail and the media focused on the superstorm.

“The hurricane is what broke Romney’s momentum,” Barbour said on CNN’s “State of the Union.

“I don’t think there’s any question about it,” he added. “Any day that the news media is not talking about jobs and the economy, taxes and spending, deficit and debt, ‘ObamaCare’ and energy, is a good day for Barack Obama.”

Other Republican lawmakers and pundits were less forceful in their assessments of Sandy’s impact on the presidential race, but several said it likely would have some impact.

President Obama has received a favorable reception from the public for his response to Sandy. Obama also received high praise from Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.), a prominent Romney surrogate, for his handling of the storm, and the two toured the New Jersey coastline together on Wednesday.

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If Romney Supporters Don’t Vote in Record Numbers, Obama Will Win

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It’s all a matter of perspective.

All along most of my fellow conservative pundits have been framing the 2012 election as a replay of 1980, with a former Republican governor earning a landslide mandate from an American people languishing under the failures of an unprepared liberal incumbent. While my ideology may put the fun in fundamentalist, all along I have disagreed with that narrative.

While Obama’s amateurish escapades may resemble Carter’s futility, Romney is not another Reagan. In fact, until the first debate in Denver when he routed Obama, Romney was on pace to be the most disliked major party challenger for president in the history of modern polling.

In addition, an entire generation that still believed in rugged individualism and Judeo-Christian morality has left us since Reagan’s era. They have been replaced by a generation far more conditioned to see government as the solution to our problems rather than an impediment to them.

For example, my home state of Iowa is a socially conservative state but since Reagan it’s only gone Republican in a presidential election once, and that was by fewer than 10,000 votes. Why? Because my home state is one of the oldest in the country (which means lots of folks on entitlement programs), and its biggest industry is agriculture (which is essentially a complete subsidy of the welfare state). Thus, Iowa has been voting Democrat out of personal financial vested interest for decades.

Furthermore, the nation is far more Balkanized culturally than it was in 1980. No Republican presidential candidate – let alone a conservative – could still win California. Now the Electoral College is essentially down to just a handful of states every four years, with most of the country entrenched as red or blue no matter whom the nominee of each party is or where the country is at. That makes obtaining the kind of national mandate Reagan twice received more difficult. Nowadays a Democrat has 200 Electoral College votes in the bank just by showing up on the ballot come Election Day, and that wasn’t true in Reagan’s time.

Because of this, since January I have been analyzing this election with 2004 as its predecessor for three reasons:

1. Obama’s approval ratings are roughly where Bush’s were then. Though the Obama economy is worse than Bush’s (and not as bad as Carter’s), Bush was also saddled with an unpopular war in Iraq that makes that a wash.

2. As a challenger Romney was saddled with many of the same negatives as Kerry. He didn’t excite his base, which is why Kerry and Romney each set the record for earliest to name a running mate, and each selected a younger more charismatic vice presidential nominee. Also the attempt by Obama to make the election a referendum on Romney instead of himself, by characterizing Romney as a wealthy socialite elitist out-of-touch with mainstream values, is exactly what Karl Rove successfully did to Kerry for Bush in 2004. And do you remember the flip-flops on display at the 2004 Republican Convention to remind voters of Kerry’s penchant for taking each side of each issue? Apparently there’s something in the water in Massachusetts because that has been a problem for Romney as well. Romney’s own campaign confidant perpetuated the label with his infamous “etch-a-sketch” remarks.

3. The framework of the Electoral College is virtually the same as it was in 2004, except for GOP states Indiana and North Carolina that were surprise pick-ups for Obama in 2008.

The metric of this race, with Obama getting a big post-convention bounce just like Bush did, Romney then getting a big post-debate bounce just like Kerry did, and the election essentially coming down to Ohio, is eerily similar to 2004 as well.

Polling

For the purpose of my analysis, I’m going to rely on the Real Clear Politics polling average for my polling information because it’s been proven to be the most accurate tool for public consumption out there. The final RCP polling average flat out nailed the last two presidential elections (and I urge you to go back and read this link to find out why it did so).

That doesn’t mean RCP is right this time. In fact, we won’t know who is right until after the people (or the lawyers) have their ultimate say. But in the past two election cycles no one has been more accurate than RCP.

Read more from this story HERE.