All Posts Tagged With: "Colorado"

Debates Loom Ever Larger

A Rasmussen Report poll as of September 14 in five critical “swing” states show McCain ahead or the races tied. New state polling from Missouri has helped move that state from “Leans Republican” to “Likely Republican” in the Rasmussen Reports www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/election_20″ href=”http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/election_2008_electoral_college_update” target=”_self”>Balance of Power Calculator. With this change, McCain now leads in states with 200 Electoral College votes while Obama is ahead in states with 193 Electoral College votes. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 259, McCain 247. 270 Electoral votes are needed to become President.

Internals show interesting facts worth watching.

•  Roughly one-in-five voters say they could still change their mind before voting. This large number of potentially persuadable voters places enormous importance on the debates which begin a week from Friday.
• Ohio voters are less certain of their vote than those in other states. Thirty percent (30%) in the Buckeye State say they could change their mind.
• McCain continues to be viewed more favorably-and trusted more– than Obama.
• The number who would not be comfortable with Obama as President is at 40% or 41%
• The number not comfortable with a President McCain ranges from 33% to 36%. This is consistent with national polling data released today showing that more voters believe McCain is prepared to be President.
• Voters are generally more comfortable with the idea of a President Biden than a President Obama. The number uncomfortable with the idea of Biden in the Oval Office ranges from 26% to 33%.
• Voters are less comfortable with idea of a President Palin than a President Biden.
• In fact, Palin’s numbers are closer to Obama’s than Biden’s. The number uncomfortable with a President Palin ranges from 38% to 45% in the five states polled this week.
• The Republican support for McCain is quite stable. The modest changes from week-to-week can generally be found in changes among Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
• Obama has the edge among unaffiliated voters in two states, McCain in two, and they are even in one. Nationally, McCain has a slight advantage among unaffiliated voters.
• In Pennsylvania, there was a three point decline in the number of undecideds along with a two point increase in support for McCain.
• In Ohio, there was a three point increase in the number of undecideds along with a three point decline in support for McCain.
• In Colorado, Nader’s support when up three percentage points while Obama’s went down three.
• Economic issues are the top issue in all five states with national security matters a distant second.

The Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean had reservations that a “hick” town in a flyover state could raise the kind of money it takes to earn a place in history as the host of the 2008 Democratic Convention to nominate it’s candidate for the Presidency.

As recently as this June, the host committee was still behind by 11 million but the powers that be were continuing hard at work to convince large donors to make it happen.

Yesterday, August 20, 2008, the Denver Post headline read “Convention cash hits target”. Apparently $40.6 million had been pledged by large donors and “money is still coming in”.

Denver, CO, of any US city, is a place any convention should be privileged to have their convention, let alone with the city raising over $40 million for some of the “necessaries”, perhaps a “signing bonus” like equivalency professional sports teams require of someone for them to relocate to a city or state. Denver, with it’s vibrant and growing downtown around the historic warehouse district that sprang up around the railroads in the 1800’s and with its vibrant and supportive suburbs,is a beautiful city at the base of the Rocky Mountains, home of five major sports franchises operating out of four fairly new professional sports stadiums, two of which will be used by the Democrats in making their nominee for the Presidency. It also has one of the nations largest and successful live entertainment and theater complexes, various other venues including another convention center, many respected universities, and a young and healthy population, more of whom are living downtown that ever before.

Colorado’s 8 delegates in the presidential race, while not a lot, does put Colorado and surrounding states a place in the sun. While traditionally giving a lot for support to the Republicans, Colorado is in a group of “swing” states which can have an unusually large voice this time around.

While many events lead up to Colorado being a swing state and subsequently being able to raise such a large amount of money, which has kept other states out of the running, and while many individuals have contributed, perhaps Denver’s own Mayor John Hickenlooper, the favorite hick in these parts, deserves a majority of the credit. Before becoming Mayor, John Hickenlooper was a geologist and a very successful restaurateur and real estate developer.

Another article should be dedicated to this talented, geekily charismatic individual who has been known to say “Politics is like Hollywood for ugly people.”

My August 4th article entitled, “Deaffirming Action Tricky” reports on recent national polling on affirmative action.

Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent who is bankrolling the Arizona initiative and similar measures in Nebraska and Colorado to ban affirmative action is a black man who opposes affirmative action calling it counter productive.

The initiatives would amend the state constitutions to ban any hiring practices, university scholarships and other public programs that favor one group over others. Arizona and Nebraska officials are still verifying petition signatures while Colorado has the initiative slated for the November ballot.

Connerly’s group, the American Civil Rights Initiative, already has been successful with similar initiatives in California, Washington and Michigan. And he plans to continue four years from now in other states. Ultimately, Connerly said, “the goal is to try to get either the Supreme Court or the Congress to get the policy changed at the national level.”

Connerly said his ballot initiatives would attack programs like the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise Program in Tucson. It allows minority and women-owned businesses to bid more for city contracts than other groups and requires prime contractors to make a serious effort to hire them for work.

“Those clearly would be outlawed,” Connerly said of the Tucson program. “Any standards that are applied to groups based on race. Any jobs where there are different standards for admissions.”

Connerly’s opponents in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska criticize him for billing the initiative drive as a civil rights cause. They say thousands of voters were likely duped into signing petitions because the initiatives were described as a ban on discrimination instead of an attack on programs that help women and minorities.

Pro-affirmative action activists from Detroit have filed for an injunction in Arizona to keep the initiative off the November ballot.

Presumed Republican Presidential nominee John McCain focused national attention on Connerly’s efforts in late July, saying on ABC’s “This Week” that he endorsed the Arizona initiative — although he added that he had not read the details of the proposal.