Obama Campaign Says It Beat Romney in Fund-Raising for August
New York Times // Nicholas Confessore
12:51 a.m. | Updated The Obama campaign announced early Monday that it had raised $114 million in August, saying it had brought in more than the Romney campaign for the first time since April. That number was released just after Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee said that their campaign had raised more than $111.6 million in August, leaving the candidate and his party with about $168.5 million in cash at the beginning of September. Both campaigns have said they hope to raise more than three-quarters of a billion dollars, amounts that would shatter previous records for presidential spending. Neither campaign is accepting public funds for the general election campaign. Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, said in a statement: “The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August.” The Obama campaign said on Twitter that 98 percent of donations in August were for $250 or less. The Republican effort raised about $34.6 million in donations of less than $250, the campaign said, about a third of the total — a better showing with small donors than Mr. Romney has had in the past.
Poll: Obama expands advantage over Romney
CNN // Ashley Killough
Three days after the Democratic convention wrapped up, President Barack Obama opened up his largest margin over Mitt Romney since early July in Gallup’s daily tracking poll. According to the poll released Sunday, Obama has 49% among registered voters nationwide, while Romney has 44%. The survey was conducted September 2-8, a time window that included the entirety of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina-as well as two days before and two days after the event. During the party gathering, major leaders, including former President Bill Clinton, gave prime time speeches on why voters should elect Obama to a second term. The president himself capped off the week Thursday night with a final address. “If you turn away now – if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen,” Obama said, depicting a scenario in which special interests and conservative politicians run Washington and the country. “… Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only you have the power to move us forward.”
Obama knocks Romney’s ‘bad math’ on tax plan
Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — President Barack Obama says Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan get a failing grade on explaining how they’d pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts. The two Republicans were asked separately on different Sunday morning talk shows what loopholes they’d close to pay for their tax proposal but neither was willing to give specifics. Obama says that’s like saying two plus one equals five. Obama says Romney and Ryan are practicing bad math instead of bold leadership.
What’s New In Obama’s Second-Term Goals?
National Journal // Olga Belogolova
In his speech at the Democratic convention in Charlotte on Thursday, President Obama laid out a list of goals for his second term, some of which represented new policy ideas and some which were repackaged goals that his administration had announced previously. Here’s a look at Obama’s second-term goals: Manufacturing Create 1 million new manufacturing jobs by the end of 2016. While this particular number is new, President Obama’s plans have previously included ideas about creating a more favorable environment for companies to create manufacturing jobs in the U.S. In his “Blueprint for an America Built to Last,” Obama included proposals to lower tax rates for “companies that manufacture and create jobs in the United States” and create a new tax credit that would support companies seeking to finance factories, equipment, or production in communities “that have been hardest hit by a company choosing to relocate or a military base shutting down.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected about 357,000 new manufacturing jobs over the next decade. Meanwhile, the Boston Consulting Group has forecast that 2 to 3 million new manufacturing jobs will be created by 2020.
Obama, Romney plunge into 60-day race to election
Associated Press // Julie Pace and Donna Cassata
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Sixty days to the election, President Barack Obama is charging onto the campaign trail pleading for patience from hard-pressed Americans toying with the notion of change, and portraying Republican rival Mitt Romney as unproven. Obama and Romney were shadowing each other Friday in New Hampshire and Iowa, improbable battleground states in the too-close-to-call race. The campaigning was sure to be dominated by a new report from the Labor Department on the nation’s jobless. Romney and the Republicans argue that three years of unemployment above 8 percent and minimal economic growth are valid reasons to fire Obama after one term. The incumbent contends that, having inherited one of the worst economic crises in history, he needs more time to turn the nation around. “I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have,” Obama told Democrats at their convention Thursday night. “You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.”
Obama touts bright spot in disappointing jobs report
NBC // Ali Weinberg
President Barack Obama traveled to Portsmouth, N.H., looking to maintain the momentum from his Thursday night Democratic convention address despite a disappointing jobs report released Friday morning. Trying not to put too much of a damper on the event – his first since his convention prime-time acceptance speech – the president sought to put a positive light on the jobs report, which showed a lower-than-expected 96,000 jobs created in August and an 8.1 percent unemployment rate. “Today we learned that after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a row,” he told the 6,000-person crowd at the Strawbery Banke Museum.
Obama Approval Hit 15-Month High During Party Convention
Bloomberg Businessweek // Kathleen Hunter
President Barack Obama’s job approval reached a 15-month high during the Democratic National Convention this week, according to a Gallup Poll. The poll, conducted Sept. 4-6 and released today, found that 52 percent of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, up three percentage points from the previous survey, conducted Sept. 3-5. In the latest poll, 43 percent disapproved of the job Obama is doing, down from 45 percent. Obama’s job approval hasn’t topped 50 percent in the Gallup survey since a poll conducted June 21-23. The latest approval numbers are the president’s highest since a survey conducted May 29-June 1, 2011, in which Obama registered a 53 percent approval rating.
Meet Rep. Steve King, Romney’s New ‘Partner’ In Congress
Think Progress // Zack Beauchamp
Today, Mitt Romney enthusiastically endorsed Rep. Steve King (R-IA), saying “he needs to be your Congressman again. I want him as my partner in Washington!” If Romney were elected, then, he’d be partnering on legislation with one of the most radical members of Congress: 1. King is the leading defender of dog-fighting and animal torture in the United States. King recently suggested “there was something wrong” with the priorities of people who wanted to criminalize dogfighting while boxing was legal. When challenged on that assertion, King went on a bizarre diatribe about how the kidnapping, rape, and forced abortion of an underage girl wouldn’t be illegal under current law. King’s prodogfighting statements are consistent with a long legislative record of defending the inhumane practice as well as his recent sponsorship of legislation that would enable the torture of animals on farms while critically weakening food safety standards.
As Election Nears, Keeping Donors A Secret Is Trickier
NPR // Peter Overby
Some of the groups running ads this election season haven’t been required to disclose their donors. But as Election Day draws nearer, some of the rules are changing, making campaign ads a riskier business for those who want to keep donors a secret. Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign put up 15 new ads Friday in eight battleground states. In those eight states, the Romney and Obama teams have spent $381 million since May 1, according to an NPR analysis of data compiled by the National Journal. Republicans have outspent Democrats in five of the eight states, and, overall, they lead by $25 million. Two pro-Republican groups account for two-thirds of all the GOP spending, and more than the Romney campaign itself. One group is Americans for Prosperity, which is backed by billionaires David and Charles Koch. The other, cofounded by strategist Karl Rove, is Crossroads GPS.
Romney Struggles to Gain Traction in Battlegrounds
Wall Street Journal // Sara Murray and Laura Meckler
With two months to Election Day, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faces the disconcerting reality that he isn’t winning most of the states he would need to beat President Barack Obama. A new Public Policy Polling survey released Sunday, taken after both parties’ conventions, found Mr. Obama leading Mr. Romney 50% to 45% in Ohio, an improvement on the president’s earlier advantage. Meanwhile, Florida and Virginia remained neck and neck. Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney by small margins in seven of the eight battleground states, all but North Carolina, according to averages of public polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. All are within the margins of error, and most don’t include reactions to the Democratic convention and Friday’s dismal jobs report. This pattern is by no means set, and the Romney campaign is banking that voters’ disillusion with the economy will win out in the end. In past elections, however, where candidates stand in mid-September can be a good indicator of the final result. That means Mr. Romney has little time to alter a race that for months has been essentially static.
