Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry; that is the Republican field. With Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., announcement yesterday that he will not run for president, those are the four choices Republican primary voters will get to choose from in 2012. And it probably doesn’t really matter which of them ends up winning.
According to a new Gallup poll, President Obama is in a statistical dead heat against everyone of the above mentioned candidates among registered voters. With a +/-4 margin of error, he beats Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., 48-44 and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, 47-45. He is tied with Texas Gov. Rick Perry 47-47 and he trails former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 48-46. These are not big differences.
Either the economy will recover, unemployment will fall, and Obama will win reelection, or the economy and unemployment will continue to flat line and Americans will punish the incumbent in office.
Around the Bigs
The New York Times, Qaddafi’s Son Taunts Rebels in Tripoli: Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, showed up at a hotel surprising the foreign journalists staying there, who had been told by rebel leaders that Seif had been captured the day before. Seif told reporters that his father’s government was still “in control” of the city and had lured the rebels into a trap. The Times reports: “His appearance raised significant questions about the credibility of rebel leaders.”
CBS News, National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama: The latest calculation from the Treasury Department shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion. That is more than $4 trillion higher than $10.626 trillion in debt the federal government owed when Obama was sworn into office. It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.
The Wall Street Journal, Obama Calls Buffett: From his vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard, Obama called Warren Buffett and Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, to discuss “ways to spur immediate economic growth and tackle the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.”
The Boston Globe, AFL-CIO envisions forming ‘super labor PAC’: The AFL-CIO plans to form a “super PAC” that would allow it to raise unlimited amounts of money and fund a year-round political organizing structure.
The Wall Street Journal, Head of S&P to Resign: Standard & Poor’s President Deven Sharma will step down as president the credit-rating firm that downgraded U.S. debt on September 12th. He will be succeeded by Citigroup Inc.’s chief operating officer Douglas Peterson. S&P says Sharma’s departure has been planned since the beginning of the year and is unrelated to the Justice Department’s investigation of the firm’s role in the housing bubble.
The Hill, FCC officially kills Fairness Doctrine, wiping it from rules: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the end of the Fairness Doctrine Monday. “The elimination of the obsolete Fairness Doctrine regulations will remove an unnecessary distraction. As I have said, striking this from our books ensures there can be no mistake that what has long been a dead letter remains dead,” Genachowski said in a statement.
Campaign 2012
Utah Senate: Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, announced Monday that he will not be challenging incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch for the Republican nomination next year. Chaffetz, a Tea Party favorite, had long been considered a viable threat to Hatch’s nomination.
Righty Playbook
The Weekly Standard‘s Mark Hemingway hits Vice President Joe Biden for telling the Chinese, “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.” Hemingway comments: “It’s perfectly understandable that you let the government tell you how many children you could have if that helps get the debt under control, right? Republicans better get together and compromise on the president’s grand bargain sometime soon, or else.”
Professor Bainbridge links to a story on how trial lawyers are preparing “for war on Perry” and comments, “If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him.”
The Heritage Foundation‘s Mike Brownfield looks at the Natural Resource Defense Council’s latest attack on … Canada.
Lefty Playbook
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who just two weeks ago was calling the Tea Party terrorists, now writes about the Obama National Labor Relation Board attack on Boeing: “A fair-minded person would have to acknowledge that the N.L.R.B.’s action is exactly the kind of overreach that should embarrass Democrats who claim to care about job creation.”
The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein looks at Obama’s term in office so far and concludes, “I’ve never been able to come up with a realistic scenario in which a lot more got done, the economy is in much better shape, and the president is dramatically more popular today.”
Firedoglake‘s Jon Walker says Ezra’s defense of Obama’s record shows “a truly a sad lack of imagination. The possibilities of what Obama could have done differently are endless.”
