Swing States and Tuesday's debate

October 18,  2012
Dominic




                              Good News for Obama and Tuesday's debate

        In recent polls of two key swing states, Obama is leading both. Great news for Obama and other democrats. The polls were monday through wednesday.

In recent polls, Obama is leading in likely voters..

Iowa

1. Obama - 51 percent of voters
2. Romney - 43 percent of voters

Wisconsin

1. Obama - 51 percent of voters
2. Romney - 43 percent of voters                                                                                                                      
          

The margins are pretty much unchanged from polls in September! In Iowa, there was an eight point margin for two months straight, and it's still that way in October. In Wisconsin, there's a six point margin, which is also almost unchanged. Both states play large roles for both sides, because they both want to secure the 270.

Here's a recent battleground map

Tuesday's Debate was also not very important to many voters, well at least in Iowa and Wisconsin. In these two states, surveys say 95 percent of voters made up their minds before the debate on tuesday. 

       

Swing States and more

October 15th, 2012
Dominic


                                                             Importance of Swing States



             Over the decades, many states have swayed from democratic to republican or vice versa. Swing states make big impacts on an election in the United States.

             In the chart, you can tell that states that were mainly Obama's wins in 2008 are turning into Republican wins or swing states this year. For example, Florida and North Carolina both were barely won by Obama in 2008, and now they might be barely losses.

             The competitive states are states such as Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Iowa. All of those states are very close in terms of voters on each side. In every single election since 1964, whoever wins Ohio, wins the election. So, Ohio is a key piece in victory!                                                  

             There are also the states that are definite 'safe' states. New Jersey and California are both safe democratic states. At one point, those two states were not safe states for the democrats, but for the republicans.

Mitt might've won the first debate

October 4th, 2012
Dominic A.



                                                                     Did Mitt Win?

          Yes, many people who watched would agree the Mitt Romney won the debate. To start, Mitt just completely controlled the agenda and there was nothing that Obama or the moderator could do about it. With Jim, the moderator, not interrupting effectively, Mitt's on the attack style was working perfectly. Obama never focused on attack and cause what looks like a loss in the first debate.

          Obama wasn't himself on stage last night. He said "uh" so many times and it just wasn't him. Obama was spending a lot of time taking notes and that might help or hurt him later on. Most democrats were waiting for Obama's big points to come, but they never came. For example, Obama never mentioned the '47 percent' Romney comment during the whole debate. Not one democrat would've thought! Many were expecting it, but Obama was too laid back.

         During the debate, it felt as though Obama didn't want to talk to Romney, but to the United States viewers. Romney on the other hand, came right at Obama every chance that he could. Romney didn't have any gaffes or blunders, besides the Big Bird moment. A huge factor is what the post debate analysis is about. If Romney would've had any blunders or anything, it would be talked about a lot, because neither candidate really had any. Yes, I agree that Mitt Romney somehow won the debate, but only because of Obama's relaxed lackluster debate performance.

No more Big Bird?

October 4th, 2012
Dominic A.



                                                       Will there be PBS in the future?

              During the debate last night, Romney said that he would remove subsidies to PBS. Romney knows the the moderator, Jim Lehrer also works for PBS. Romney didn't really plan on making it sound so bad, but why does he need to remove PBS?

              Many people in the United States love PBS and Big Bird. and to remove it wouldn't be a great idea. The money coming from China for PBS is an investment of only 1/100th of 1%. However, Mitt Romney plans to use that money for something else. That amount of money will not change anything positively. Many people will complain about not having PBS, while Romney plans to keep that money for other things.

            In the end, for over forty years, Big Bird has been a huge character in the eyes of young children, and just to remover the channel with his show will cause a lot of problems in the United States. Removing PBS will change no debt, but the loss of PBS will cause problems from an American standpoint.

Weak Moderator?

October 4th. 2012
Dominic A.


                                                                  Weak Moderator?

          During the debate wednesday night, Jim Lehrer was the moderator, supposedly. He was criticized harshly because of his weak moderating. Lehrer was really being controlled during most of the debate. In the eyes of many, Romney was controlling majority of the debate.

     

        Lehrer is 78 years old and didn't even plan on moderating the debate again. He started moderating debate in 1988. Lehrer did a bad job in controlling the debate, but making that an excuse for a loss in not a good idea. There were times when the candidates just didn't care what the moderator had to say. For example, Romney was speaking, Jim tried to interrupt and Mitt just kept speaking.

        Mr. Lehrer felt as though he was going the right thing and staying out of the debate for the most part. However, he struggled with getting the candidates attention, and that caused the final topic to be shortened to only 3 minutes.

      Mr. Lehrer did affect the debate slightly, but he cannot be blamed for a loss of the debate. Lehrer was hoping the new style of debate would work, but 90 minutes was just not enough.