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stevenleser

stevenleser's Journal
stevenleser's Journal
April 27, 2015

xPost from GD - NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer holding discussion on Income Inequality

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer will be holding a discussion on the NYC economy and the fight against inequality. Also featured will be local candidates for civil court.

Tonight at 7pm

550 W 155th St., New York, NY (I believe that is the Church of the Intercession)

Link to FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1576335479287308/

April 27, 2015

NYC DUers - NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer holding discussion on Income Inequality

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer will be holding a discussion on the NYC economy and the fight against inequality. Also featured will be local candidates for civil court.

Tonight at 7pm

550 W 155th St., New York, NY

Link to FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1576335479287308/

April 26, 2015

Politicsusa.com: Bush Campaign Shows Signs Of Unraveling As Jeb Drops To 4th Place In GOP Race

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/24/bush-campaign-unraveling-early-jeb-drops-4th-place-gop-race.html

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was hoping to use a shock and awe fundraising blitz to establish himself as the GOP front-runner early on in the campaign. The Bush strategy was to lock up donors and early primary voters, in order to give him the same sense of inevitability on the Republican side as Hillary Clinton enjoys in the Democratic race. However, a Fox News poll released on April 24, 2015 finds Bush’s candidacy floundering in the polls, mustering a meager 9 percent support in the multi-candidate GOP field.

Bush has embarrassingly fallen into single digits, trailing fellow Floridian, Senator Marco Rubio (13 percent support), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (12 percent), and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (10 percent). Bush is tied for fourth place with former Arkansas Governor and FOX TV personality Mike Huckabee, garnering just 9 percent support from potential Republican voters.

While the poll numbers alone are a source of concern for Jeb Bush, what may cause him even more consternation is that he also seems to be losing his grip on the invisible primary of wealthy donors in the GOP. The Bush campaign always figured they might struggle to appeal to some socially conservative rank-and-file Republicans, but their strategy was to lock down the donor class.

With enough financial support, Jeb’s hope was to essentially pummel his opponents financially and will his way to victory through the power of the almighty dollar. Bush planned to rely on the ability of heavily funded pro-Bush super PACs to trash his primary opponents and propel him to the nomination, following a pattern similar to the one employed by Mitt Romney in 2012 to fend off Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
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(more at above link)

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This is good and bad news. The good news is that of all the GOP hopefuls in 2016, Jeb probably would have the best chance against whoever we nominate (probably Hillary). The bad news is, you never know what can happen, and this means a really crazy wingnut is going to be nominated and that person could end up as President.

I predicted several months ago that Ted Cruz would be the nominee.
April 21, 2015

Gallup: Of 5 major world powers, people think most highly of US, and least of Russia

http://www.gallup.com/poll/182795/russia-receives-lowest-approval-world-highest.aspx?utm_source=World&utm_medium=newsfeed&utm_campaign=tiles



This article is based on the findings from Gallup's first-ever report -- Rating World Leaders: What People Worldwide Think of the U.S., China, Russia, the EU and Germany -- on the status of how the world rates the leadership of five of the world's major powers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Russia in 2014 earned the lowest approval ratings globally for the eighth consecutive year and posted the highest disapproval ratings it has received to date. U.S. leadership received the highest approval rating in the world, with the median 45% approval topping ratings of the leadership of the European Union, Germany, Russia and China -- as it has most years since 2009.
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Survey Methods

Results are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in each country or area. This report provides annual results of leadership approval of the U.S., Germany, the European Union, China and Russia from 2007 through 2014. Throughout 2014, residents were asked to rate U.S., German and Russian leadership in 135 countries or areas, and residents in 136 countries or areas were asked to rate the EU and China. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error ranged from ± 2.5 percentage points to ± 5.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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Methinks the Putinista's heads will be exploding.
April 21, 2015

CNN: Obama approval level climbs into positive territory on positive perception of economy

Oh and besides the below, George W. Bush's approval rating at this point in his Presidency was 37% and heading south due to economic and foreign policy failures. Too bad so sad GOP.

CNN: President Barack Obama's approval rating is shifting back toward positive territory, as the public's take on the economy hits a new high mark for Obama's tenure, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

For the first time since May of 2013, more Americans polled say they have a positive impression of how Obama is handling the presidency than a negative one: 48% approve of the way Obama is handling his job, while 47% disapprove.

While the share saying they approve is not significantly larger than the share disapproving, it's a notable shift in perceptions of Obama's presidency.

Obama's numbers are on the rise at the same time the public gives the economy the highest ratings of his presidency.

The poll finds 52% describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat good, while 48% call it very or somewhat poor. That marks the first time since Obama took office that significantly more people describe the economy as "good" than "poor," and only the second time since then that a majority has described the nation's economy as "good."


http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/21/politics/cnn-poll-obama-economy-congress/
April 16, 2015

UK Guardian: Ted Cruz's early 2016 funding topples Romney, suggesting big-money race

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/16/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-donations-first-week

Ted Cruz is raising money for his presidential campaign at a significantly faster rate than Mitt Romney did four years ago, eclipsing the early total raised by the former Massachusetts governor who went on to win the Republican nomination in 2012.

The conservative Texas senator, who is seeking to unite the Republicans’ Tea Party wing behind his White House run, raised $4.3m during the final days of March – his first full week after declaring as a candidate for president.

Cruz proved particularly popular with small donors, raising more in his first week from contributors giving $200 or less than Romney did in the first 11 weeks of his campaign.

But the rightwing senator also raked in some noteworthy donations from two wealthy Republican donors – a sports owner and a private-equity investor – who are likely to be kingmakers in the forthcoming race for Super Pac money.
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(more at above link)
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Cruz remains my prediction for who will win the 2016 GOP nom. Oh, and check out this hurlworthy quote from Cruz:

Ted Cruz backs unlimited campaign cash: 'Money absolutely can be speech'


April 16, 2015

Politico claims Kasich would be the GOP's best chance. I don't think he is worth discussing...

anymore than Huntsman is worth discussing, except in passing.

First, here is the link to the Politico article: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/john-kasich-is-the-gop-only-hope-for-president-116855.html?ml=po#.VS_oavnF-So

As I said on my FB Page, if anyone thinks for a minute that a GOP governor who embraced ACA/Obamacare for his state has a prayer to get the GOP nomination, you are kidding yourself. For the GOP, that's even worse than Jeb and Rubio's moderate overtures toward immigration reform.

April 16, 2015

It's official, Lincoln Chafee is running for the 2016 Democratic Nomination for President

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/lincoln-chafee-president-candidate-democratic-primary-campaign-117047.html

Just a week after forming an exploratory committee, Lincoln Chafee indicated on Thursday morning that he will, in fact, mount a run for the Democratic nomination for president.
“That’s why I’m running. Because I feel strong about where we’re going as a country,” the former Rhode Island governor told CNN.

Profile Information

Name: RuggedRealist
Gender: Male
Hometown: New York, NY
Home country: USA
Current location: NYC
Member since: Tue Jan 4, 2005, 05:36 PM
Number of posts: 32,886
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