Bobby Jindal Ahead of the Election

Over the past month, Bobby Jindal has spent $1.3 million on advertising for the next election, even though he has no big competitors in the upcoming re-election. Jindal has around $6 million left and on average spends about $97,000 a day with 2/3 of the advertising being on the TV or the Internet. Jindal is running against 9 other competitors who don’t have nearly as much money or recognition as him so he has very high chances of winning the race. A new report states that the other candidates have raised much more money than they had in mid-September. One competitor, Dardenne, raised $514,000 and another $83,000 since the end of the reporting period while Nungesser raised $820,000 and another $24,500 raised after the reporting period. Nungesser put $1 million of his own money while Dardenne hasn’t put up any of his personal investments. Jim Tucker raised more than $600,000 in his campaign while Tom Schedler, raised $363,000 in his campaign. They both put their own additional money in the campaign also, Tucker $500,000 and Schedler putting up at $350,000. Since Jindal does not have too much competition, he contributed $80,000 to the other candidates. He also spread his campaign dollars to lawmakers, education board candidates and statewide elected officials.

Bobby Jindal is getting ahead of his upcoming election by raising more money than anyone else in the race. Bobby Jindal is a very popular Governor right now and does not need more popularity and advertising because his polls are so high. Jindal is following the chapter in Hardball “Don’t Get Mad, Don’t Get Even, Get Ahead.” Bobby Jindal is ahead with all of his campaigns because he knows that these competitors will soon be more successful than they are now.

http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Jindal-has-hefty-campaign-warchest-ahead-of/Kv0zcLFtIE-ZGkApg3eBbA.cspx

Hawks Eye Post #2

“In Debate Republican Contenders Attack Obama”

Summery: All the Republican challengers verbally attacks Obama in this debate; but, Mitt Romney gets most of the attention and questions from the audience. In addition Texas Governor Rick Perry has not been doing so well in his debates and the polls are slipping. When asked about his plan, Perry did not seem ready or have a well thought out plan. Romney pointed out that he disagreed with “Obama’s actions to shore up General Motors and Chrysler,” even though he was very successful in doing so and most of the federal money was paid back. Romney claims that if he is elected he will work with “good” democrats to lead this country out of the economic crisis. Minnesota Rep. Bachmann also had something to say about Obama’s leadership. Bachmann believes that Obama wants medicare to collapse because he is pushing everyone into the health overhaul “Obamacare,” passed by the congressional Democrats in 2010. In addition to these Republican Contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was also criticizing parts of Obama’s administration. Obama fought back in the general election battleground of Pennsylvania.

Analysis: This debate was centered around what Obama was doing wrong, these Republican Candidates are not following the rule in Chris Matthew's book Hardball, “Keep Your Enemies In Front of You.” This chapter talks about how it is better to keep your friends close but enemies closer. Matthews writes on how to be a good politician you must shake hands and easily talk with your enemies. In addition keeping your enemies close might help you down the line, if they end up working for you it makes you look trust worthy and open-minded. The Republican Candidates did not follow this rule, they continued to go after Obama in this debate in order to make themselves look better.

Read more about this debate go here :

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/11/141253672/republican-contenders-go-after-obama-in-debate

Go here to watch a video on this debate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87fuzCmn_YU&feature=fvst

Obama's uneasy relationship black voters

This Article talks about how President Barack Obama has lately not had the amount of support by the black community as he did when he was elected in 2008. Black voters were the “key to his success” in the first election and he needs to gain their full trust again if he wants to be re-elected. Some people say that people need to understand that the president understands that people are dealing with a lot and are unhappy. Some people feel that people don’t understand that The President “gets it” and he is trying his best to deal with everything that needs to get done. President Obama’s message is that people need to take action instead of moping and waiting, that people need to press for more jobs alongside him.

The main lesson of this article is the hardball lesson “dance with the one that one brung ya”. President Obama has not put as much emphasis on helping the black community as he promised to do. President Obama has said that he has done things that he believes will benefit everyone, including black and all minorities. This means that blacks don’t think he doesn’t care about them because he has not spoken to them directly and/or done anything that is only there to aid them and not all citizens. Obama needs try very hard to reach out to the black community and let them know he has not forgotten they put him in office.

Link to article: http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/28/obama’s-uneasy-relationship-with-black-voters/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pFFpF5jeCQ

Presidential Election: Perry Attacks Romney

Summary: A recent video was released showing Rick Perry attacking Mitt Romney for being the inspiration for President Obama’s health care reform as well as him flip flopping his all of his statements. The overall message portrayed in this video is that Mitt Romney is not suitable for the White House. A website was unveiled where viewers could take a quiz about Mr. Romney, and each question is given two opposing answers, claiming that Mr. Romney said both of them. The video ends with Mr. Romney saying, “There are a lot of reasons not to elect me,” and then a clip of Mr. Obama saying, “he’s right.” The Romney campaign described Mr. Perry as a “desperate candidate” and gave examples of the problems with him since he entered the race.

Analysis: With the video of Rick Perry undermining Mitt Romney, he is trying to make it known that Mr. Romney is not the ideal candidate to run our country. The video contained video clips of Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama and they were distorted in a way that portrayed Mr. Romney very negatively. The Romney campaign fought back against Mr. Perry by discussing nineteen examples of what they called Mr. Perry’s “problem with the truth” since entering the race. It is obvious why Mr. Perry is so concerned with Mr. Romney because polls have shown that their numbers are getting closer in the race. This was the right way to handle this situation because instead of just letting Mr. Perry talk bad about him, Mr. Romney decided to do exactly what Mr. Perry did by addressing the problems with him as well. He is using the lesson from Hardball “hang a lantern on your problems” because what everyone is seeing as a disadvantage to him, he is using it to his advantage by going back and giving examples of why Mr. Perry is not fit for the race either.

Article: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/perry-video-attacks-romney-on-health-care/?ref=politics

Perry Vs. Obamney?

In Rick Perry's newest campaign video he full out attacks his opponent, Mitt Romney, by protraying him as a supporter of Obama's health care reform and an un-loyal member of the republican party. The similarity between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are shown in a dramatized fashion in this fast paced video. This also goes along that Mr. Perry's campaign is launching a full out attack on Mr. Romney's character as a politician and also as a person. In a Conference in Washington, they even questioned his character relating to his Moron faith. This questionable behavior is not only being examined by Mr.Perry's campaign but also by other republicans and democrats alike. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee released a website called whichmitt.com, it gives visitors a quiz about Mr. Romney. In this quiz however, each set of choices are opposite, but all the choices are right. Mr. Romney quickly fires back after the release of this video, calling it distorted and dishonest. Mr. Romney's communication director said "In trying to deflect attention from his [Mr. Perry] liberal in-state tuition policy for illegal immigrants, he has repeated dishonesty, distortions, and fabrications." Mr. Romney campaign also called Mr. Perry a "desperate candidate".

Mr. Perry and Mr. Romney have both come out swinging in this last week. Mr. Perry makes the first swing by releases said video that compares Mr. Romney's Massachusetts plan to Obamacare, and positions Mr. Romney as a sometimes democrat or sometimes republican or a "flip flop". He emphasizes on how Mr. Romney has not dance with the one that brung him, and how he sometimes agrees with our democratic president. Mr. Romney then leaves no shot unanswered, and calls Mr. Perry out for distorting the truth and just flat out lying. This fight between the two candidates will be interesting to see when the Obamacare goes up against the Supreme Court sometime this year. Where candidates stand will be a big deciding factor in the polls. The website revealed in the article shows how important it is to stick with one opinion. It shows Mr. Romney has a flip flop, which if he can't stick to one opinion, how is he supposed to fix some of the tough problems America is facing right now? The website uses Mitt Romney's own words against him because the media is your enemy. Web 2.0 allows these words to be shown to the whole world through such a website in a organized fashion. It allows for your past to constantly follow you.

One Term, Or Two? Obama Faces Season of Doubt

Just 13 months away from the 2012 election, President Obama currently is facing a surge of doubt regarding his re-electability. In response to the poll that suggests that 55% of Americans doubt that he will be elected again (along with a 41% approval rating), the President remarks, “I’m used to being an underdog.” If the election were held today, President Obama would beat Paul and Perry, but he would be tied with former Governor Mitt Romney. However, Presidential approval reflects conditions, and most Presidents have a point in their office when their ratings plummet. If the sink occurs in the beginning of the Presidency, the candidate tends to win reelection, but unfortunately for President Obama, the candidate generally has a weaker chance of recovery if he slips closer to reelection time. Both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were able to make comebacks after they saw their lowest approval ratings toward beginning of their presidencies. Similarly, George W. Bush’s approval ratings slipped in the spring of 2003, but he had enough time to recover. His father, however, was elected in 1988 and hit his slump in the summer of 1992 (just before reelection time), allowing Clinton to win the election. This trend does not look hopeful for President Obama, especially with the state of the nation as it is and right in the midst of GOP nominating conventions. Despite these ominous signs, President Obama can only lose if the Republicans can find the right person to beat him.

Despite his growing disapproval, President Obama is still attempting to use politics to his advantage to win the 2012 election. By calling himself an “underdog”, Mr. Obama is using the political tactic of lowballing. Both his supporters and his opponents will subconsciously be less expecting him to be triumphant in the election, but President Obama is expecting to win the election, making his victory more significant because of his initial title of the “underdog.” In Chris Matthew’s Hardball, he remarks that presidents like to complete a term when the economy is moving upwards. Obama has attempted to do so by implementing the American Jobs Act, and time will tell if this will be the deciding factor in the economy’s improvement. However, only the citizens of the United States can determine if Obama has done enough good for the nation to be elected once again in 2012.

These are the approval ratings of these six presidents in the fall of their third year in office.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/07/141078659/one-term-or-two-obama-faces-season-of-doubt

Marriage Act

During the Clinton Administration a marriage act was passed, which states that a marriage must consist of a man and a women. Recently gay organizations have made it a priority to overturn this law. Democratic Congressmen, Jerrold Nadler, is sponsoring a bill to repeal the law. He has become angry that the GOP has tripled the budget to defend the act. He feel that it is irresponsible to spend money on this issue, when the country is running at such a deficit. Republicans feel that the defense of this act is the job of the department of justice and they are doing a poor effort.

This is obviously a partisan issue. Democrats a Republicans a both lining up to spend important taxpayer money to support their choices in life. Democrats are accusing the Republicans of spending too much money, by introducing the bill to repeal the act. However, Democrats are also spending money by creating the bill to repeal the act. Both sides seem happy to spend money tying up out government on issues about personal choice.

Article link

Did Obama's Jobs Speech Seize The 'Big Moment'?

President Obama’s speech about jobs last Friday was a very important event in his presidency. It was an important speech because it showed that President Obama is really starting to get serious about the election and the President used this issue to promote compromise between the different political parties. Republican consultant, Vinny Minchillo, and Democratic consultant, J.J. Balaban, both offered their analysis of the speech. Vinny Minchillo was impressed with how President Obama delivered his speech and how he used compromise in his new policy by explaining how the plan will benefit both Republican and Democratic agendas. This compromise will help The President get more votes from Republicans and Independents. J.J. Balaban said it was clearly part of President Obama's campaign. Balaban said it was the speech that the speech was the best so far in terms of starting his campaign going. Gaining credibility and respect in Congress is something that has really challenged the president in past years. This speech according to the speakers of the article is a turning point in his campaign and shows how he knows to use comprise in order gain votes.

President Obama is using spin in order to turn the issue of unemployment around to benefit him in the long run. The President keeps going back to how the bill will help cut taxes and give lower taxes to higher employed companies, this gives The President gets the chance to show Republicans that he has there interest in mind. At the same time, the President also assures his fellow Democrats that this plan will also benefit workers by making tax cut incentives for the businesses to rise there wages. This is effective spin because it shows that President can compromise on this issue and unemployment is very important to both parties and puts President Obama in a place will reflect well on him for re-election. President Obama also used his knowledge of both sides of the unemployment issue to his advantage by positioning himself not solely on the Democratic or Republican viewpoint and instead giving off the sense that he as The President would listen to both sides on this and many other issues.

Main article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/09/09/140330051/did-obamas-jobs-speech-seize-the-big-moment

Obama calls on Congress to Quickly Pass his "American Jobs Act"

For many years the nation has been facing the big issue of unemployment. Last Thursday, President Obama delivered a speech to the nation, and in the speech he spoke about how the good of the nation is more important than the political benefits. Throughout the night, he is faced with mixed responses from Congress. Some Republicans feel that a compromise should be done to help solve the huge issue of unemployment but others feel that it is not going to work. For the most part, Democrats are very supportive of the plan that President Obama wants to create. Lastly, both parties and the President are concerned about the low approve ratings that they are being faced with.

President Obama really wants to be viewed in a good way. By President Obama proposing this act, it was showing that he was hanging a lantern on his problem. As learned in Hardball, when hanging a lantern on your problem it means that you’re going to fix whatever is not going the way it is supposed to be rather than waiting for someone else to come along and fix it. President Obama is doing just that because he created this proposal about unemployment and presented it to Congress, hoping that they will see what benefits will come out of it. Not all of Congress is satisfied with the proposal so the President got mixed reactions. Also, another idea that comes into mind when looking at the US government is checks and balances and separation of power. These two concepts come into play because the President can’t just go about passing this bill without having a majority vote in Congress. Also, the President isn’t allowed have all of the power in the country so he has to make sure that he includes Congress in his decisions. Lastly, congress is in a tough spot right now because only 12% of the country is satisfied with the job that they’re doing. So if the Republicans agree to this proposal, than it will raise the percentage of people who like what Congress is doing for the nation.

Link to video and article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/09/08/obama.jobs.plan/index.html?iref=obnetwork

Perry, Social Security, and the Press

Although the title of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s book – “Fed Up!” – reflects his views on Social Security, his recent comments on ways to improve the system have caused him a great amount of media scrutiny. In his novel, Governor Perry compares the Social Security system to a Ponzi scheme, just like he did in the recent GOP debate at the Reagan Library. Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, critiques Governor Perry’s words by saying that even if his accusations on Social Security are true, the retired senior citizens in South Florida (the location of the recent debate) would not want to hear that the system would be completely reconfigured. Governor Perry has recently stated that Social Security can be fixed if Americans come together and fix it for the long haul, whereas he called it a “failure” in his book. Anticipating the counterattacks he knew he would receive after his book’s publication, Perry writes: “Now, if you say Social Security is a failure, as I have just done, you will inherit the wind of political scorn.” Perry is certainly undergoing the wind of political scorn, but not for his opposing viewpoints – instead, his opponents are attacking him for these two seemingly contradictory ideas. Perry continues to face accusations about the inconsistency in his statements.

The optimism Governor Perry showed towards fixing Social Security appears to counter his critiques of the system as a “Ponzi scheme.” However, his two statements can show that even though he sees the problems the country is facing, he can successfully tackle the issues. Although he believes the system to be in ruins, he believes he can fix it. “The press is the enemy” is Chris Matthews’ Hardball tactic that Governor Perry is forced to learn the hard way. Finding inconsistencies in presidential nominees’ campaigns is what the press thrives on, and they have found something incompatible in Perry’s campaign. What Perry must now do is answer this “shot” by ridicule the accusation by reiterating his doubts about Social Security along with his plan for improving it. This would also position himself away from Democrats in a way that would gain him Republican votes, instead of allowing this situation to cost him the Republican nomination.

Pawlenty Supports Romney

After dropping out of the presidential race last month, Tim Pawlenty said that he would most likely endorse one of his former rivals. This week he stuck to his word and announced his endorsement of GOP candidate, Mitt Romney. Now that Mr. Pawlenty is the co-chair of Mr.Romney's campaign, most of his loyal supporters and contributors have followed, and are now supporting Mr. Romney's campaign. This move has the potential to get Mr. Romney back up in the polls, considering the dip he took as Rick Perry announced his candidacy. This pairing up did not come as a surprise to most though considering the similarities between Mr. Romney and Mr. Pawlenty's political views. Even though in 2007 Mr.Pawlenty strongly supported John Mccain against Mr. Romney and also started the term "Obamneycare" to criticize Mr. Romney's Massachutes Plan concerning healthcare, the two apparently have settled their differences and are now working together.
Mr. Romney makes a nice play by making Mr. Pawlenty his co-chair. By doing this he is not only gaining some much needed support from all those who supported Mr. Pawlenty, but he is also keeping his enemies close. With Mr. Pawlenty out of the race, he posed less of a threat to Mr. Romney's campaign, but if Mr. Pawlenty would have sided with Rick Perry history could have repeated itself and hurt Mr. Romney's campaign. By having Mr. Pawlenty on his side, he has the upper hand. He's taken a man who at first criticized him and made him into a supporter. This will show Mr. Pawlenty's followers that their leader's criticisms were maybe a little less concrete then once thought. Mr. Romney has also now positioned himself away from the tea party and more in the realm of a more mainstream republican party, unlike his closest opponent Rick Perry. On the other side of this is, could Tim Pawlenty be positioning himself for a vice presidency bid from Mr. Romney?