Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Obama?


     President Obama also has to keep the concentration on him instead of total attention on the Republican debates.  He realizes that his re-election will not be as easy as he expected due the poor state the economy is in.  Obama is concerned with those still unemployed and has said that issues like Iraq and health care are not nearly as important to those Americans struggling.  Obama is still unsure of who will run against him, since it is so close between the Romney and Gingrich.  Obama’s campaign officials are expecting a long hard fought primary competition that would hurt the Republican nominee.  David Axelrod claims that the candidates have to appeal to a more conservative view on issues, but in the general, the candidate must be more moderate.  Republicans still say that Obama has not held to his promises from 2008 and that a new president can restore the hope in Washington.  With Gingrich and Romney leading the pack, the GOP has to keep Obama suppressed and they blame him for the poor economy.  Obama still has to fulfill what his promises and will be likely the case for his campaign for his second term.  Obama has to fend off these attacks, and his fundraising of 150 million dollars will help him in the year to come.  Obama must keep his spirits up and his progress moving forward.  Hope and change must come in order for him to keep his job for a second term.  If his status remains where it is, it will be likely that a Republican might just win in the General election.  This article is of a conservative slant, since it portrays Obama as a man who has given up, not stuck to his promises.  On the other hand, it commends Romney and Gingrich for running successful campaigns.

The Houstan Cronicle

Obama beseeches supporters to stick with him

KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
Updated 03:36 p.m., Tuesday, December 13, 2011
  • President Barack Obama pauses during his news conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP
    President Barack Obama pauses during his news conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Imploring supporters to stick with him, President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that his re-election is not "a slam dunk" because of understandable public skepticism over the economy but said his campaign would put forward a vision aligned with the mood of the country.
The president, addressing donors at a hotel near the White House, drew attention to his efforts to heal the economy, end the Iraq war and overhaul health care but said "all those things don't mean that much to somebody if they're still out of work right now or their house is still underwater by $100,000. So, yeah, this is going to be tough."
"We're going to have to fight for it. It's not going to be a slam dunk," he said. Obama said the campaign would pursue "the vision that is truest to our history and most representative of the core decency of the American people."
Obama spoke hours after his top campaign advisers said they were uncertain about which Republican will emerge to challenge him next year but predicted a long GOP primary contest that they say will produce a weaker opponent in 2012.
Democrats have been targeting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the most likely GOP nominee but noted that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's surge in the polls has made the Republican contest very unpredictable.
Obama campaign officials said during a briefing in Washington that they expected a lengthy primary contest that would eventually hurt the party's nominee. They noted that only 15 percent of Republican convention delegates will be awarded by the end of February, making it likely that the contest will continue well into the spring.
"They're being tugged to the right every day. I think they're mortgaging themselves for the general by tacking as far as they are," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said of the Republican candidates. He said that would make it more difficult for the nominee "to scramble back" to the center and appeal to a broader base of the electorate for the November general election.
Republicans said Obama and his advisers keep talking about his "vision" for the country but that all he has offered are empty promises.
"After three years of Obama, Americans want results - not more of his vision that has lost jobs and created record deficits," said GOP spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. "Americans know the truth: This president is full of empty promises and has taken our country in the wrong direction, which is why the Obama's job approval continues to slump in battleground states across the country."
Romney and Gingrich remain locked in a close contest in early Republican voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina with less than a month before voters begin assessing the GOP field. The Republican field repeatedly has blamed Obama for the nation's economic woes and said his policies have failed to jumpstart the economy.
Obama campaign officials said the president's speech last week in Kansas offered a glimpse of what his message will be next year: His argument that the middle class has faced numerous challenges during the past decade and that the country's economic policies must give everyone a "fair shot and a fair share."
Obama made that case again in his remarks to donors, telling them "we're all in this together."
"That vision can contrast to a vision that basically says you are on your own," he said. "It's what this election was about in 2008; it's what this election is going to be about in 2012."
The campaign officials also claimed an organizational advantage over the GOP. They said they have more staff on the ground in Iowa than the Republicans and have had about 1 million conversations with supporters and about 90,000 in-person meetings with volunteers since Obama launched his re-election campaign in April.
Obama's campaign outlined several potential paths to victory that would build upon states that Democrat  John Kerry won in 2004 and winning in Western states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada or holding onto Southern states Obama captured in 2008, such as Virginia and North Carolina.
Obama's session with top campaign donors came ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline for the current fundraising quarter. Obama has raised more than $150 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the end of September.

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