Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday Globe Special: How Obama Wins Wisconsin

"Obama works to hold Wisconsin standing" Associated Press, September 23, 2012

MILWAUKEE — It was President Obama’s first visit to Wisconsin since February, and the president was intent on shoring up support in Paul Ryan’s home state. Obama won Wisconsin easily in 2008 and recent polls have him ahead by single digits, but Ryan is popular.

‘‘We’ve always thought that Wisconsin would be harder for us this year than it was four years ago,’’ said Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.

In advance of Obama’s visit, Mitt Romney’s campaign made the argument that Obama’s failure to turn around the economy had Wisconsin voters looking for a different path. Republican Governor Scott Walker said the president had a ‘‘Wisconsin problem.’’ The state’s 7.5 percent unemployment rate is below the national average, but its manufacturing industry has been hit hard in recent years....

Which is odd because Walker cites the very same statistics as evidence of his positive economic stewardship. 

Romney is dedicating most of this weekend to courting donors in California — a state that he’s not trying to win. He attended a private fund-raiser in suburban San Francisco on Friday night and planned to attend at least two more Saturday in San Diego and Los Angeles.

This perplexes me. Here he is falling behind in the polls and he's out raising money all over the place. 

The GOP nominee is feeling fund-raising pressure: Last month, for the first time, Obama and the Democratic Party raised more than Romney and the Republican Party, $114 million to $111.6 million.

Oh, $o money is $eeing the writing on the wall. 

Romney’s schedule — particularly his focus on fund-raising over traditional campaigning with voters — has caught the attention of conservative opinion leaders.

‘‘The logic of Romney’s fundraising has seemed, for some time, slightly crazy,’’ conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote recently. ‘‘He’s raising money so he can pile it in at the end, with ads. But at the end will they make much difference?’’ 

Not in a fair election as limited as these chosen choices are. 

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With just six weekends left before Election Day, both men were also devoting considerable time to raising campaign cash to bankroll the deluge of ads already saturating hotly contested states. Baseball great Hank Aaron was supplying the star power at two Obama fundraisers in Milwaukee while Romney headed to San Diego and Los Angeles to tap into West Coast cash, if not votes.

With running mates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan campaigning in New England and Florida, respectively, the presidential campaign was spread far and wide — both geographically and strategically. Biden revved up union activists poised to canvass for votes in New Hampshire [saying] it was because of unions that the United States has a strong middle class, while Ryan appealed to Hispanic voters in Miami and talked space policy in Orlando....

Go blow, Joe.

The article then degenerated into a discussion about Cuba.

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