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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Road Walker who wrote (122846)10/6/2012 8:02:40 AM
From: ChinuSFO  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 149317
 
All these months when the jobless figure remained above 8%, the manner in which the BLS arrived at these numbers were OK with folks like Welch etc. but just this month, they suddenly have problems with it. Now they want a change in the rules here also? Trying to change the rules with the voter ID law is not enough for them? Two weeks ago. The WSJ said that Obama's poll numbers were going higher because people were seeing the economy improving.

Romney and Co. feeling like jilted lovers who got a high on Wednesday and received their "bad" news on Friday. Meanwhile the people continue to feel good; they are buying new cars in larger numbers, consumers spending more etc.



To: Road Walker who wrote (122846)10/6/2012 5:42:37 PM
From: Sr K  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 149317
 
When did the Recommend feature go on?



To: Road Walker who wrote (122846)10/6/2012 10:32:48 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 149317
 
slowing or slowly? last line



To: Road Walker who wrote (122846)10/7/2012 1:04:53 AM
From: Brian Sullivan  Respond to of 149317
 
Obama lead down to 2 in Wisconsin

PPP's newest Wisconsin poll finds a big debate bump for Mitt Romney in the state. Two weeks ago he trailed Barack Obama by 7 points there, 52-45. Now he's pulled to within two points, with Obama's lead now just 49-47.

There's not much doubt it was Romney's strong debate performance on Wednesday night that's given him this boost. Voters think he won the debate by a 61/25 margin, including a 60/19 margin with independents. 95% of Republicans think Romney won the debate, while only 50% of Democrats claim to think Obama was the winner. Romney's image has seen significant improvement over the last couple weeks with 49% of voters now expressing a positive opinion of him to 48% with a negative one. That's up a net 8 points from a 44/51 spread on our last poll.

The main shift compared to 2 weeks ago in Wisconsin is an increase in Republican enthusiasm about Romney and the election in general. He's gone from leading Obama by 79 points with Republicans (89-10) to an 85 point advantage (92-7). One thing that might be reassuring for Democrats is that Obama's held steady with independents in the state, continuing to hold a 9 point lead.

There's also been a big uptick in Republican enthusiasm about the election. Two weeks ago there was basically no enthusiasm gap with 65% of Democrats and 63% of GOP voters saying they were 'very excited' to vote this fall. Now the Republicans are seeing an advantage on that question with their share of 'very excited' voters climbing to 72% while the Democrats have declined to 63%.

Looking at the movement in Wisconsin along racial lines, it's all come with white voters. They've gone from favoring Obama by 5 to supporting Romney by 3. Obama continues to get more than 70% among minorities. Obama's declined with women, going from an 11 point lead to a 7 point one, but he's declined even more with men, dropping from a 3 point lead to a 4 point deficit. The most discussed issue in the wake of the debate Wednesday night has been about funding for public broadcasting. 51% of voters say they support federal funding for PBS to 33% who are opposed to it. Democrats (80/8) strongly support funding, Republicans (22/55) strongly oppose it, and independents (50/37) come pretty close to matching the overall numbers. We also asked about Big Bird himself and while he's a popular figure overall with a 51/11 favorability rating even his reviews have become somewhat partisan with Democrats (58/11) rating him a lot higher than Republicans (37/12).

Full results here

publicpolicypolling.com



To: Road Walker who wrote (122846)10/7/2012 7:54:17 AM
From: manalagi  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 149317
 
To say that Jack Welch is an asshole is an understatement. He manipulated his earnings results by cooking the books through assett sale so that the EPS is a penny above expectations. How many years GE did not pay taxes, or low taxes?

He was challenged by Chris Matthews for proof. JW said he did not have any.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breaking from Newsmax.com

'Ludicrous' Welch Jobs Tweet Sparks Outrage

Jack Welch, the lionized former chairman of General Electric Co., provoked cries of outrage in Washington on Friday when he appeared to accuse the White House of manipulating September job figures for political gains.

White House officials dismissed as "ludicrous" a tweet Welch sent to his more than 1.3 million followers that suggested President Barack Obama's administration rigged the data as a way of recovering from a poor Wednesday night showing in a debate against Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger for the White House.

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers," Welch said in a posting on Twitter, apparently referring to Obama, who formerly served as a senator from Illinois.

The tweet was repeated more than 2,000 times, with many mocking posts comparing Welch to New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump -- who during his failed bid for the presidency loudly argued that Obama was not born in the United States -- and Clint Eastwood, who gave a widely panned speech to an empty chair at the Republican National Convention in August.

Officials in Washington quickly dismissed the idea that the Labor Department report -- which showed U.S. unemployment falling to a four-year low of 7.8 percent -- could be rigged.

"That's a ludicrous comment. No serious person believes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates its statistics," said Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. "The jobs report and all of their other statistics are prepared by career employees. They use the same process every month. They use the same process for Republican and Democratic administrations."

The tweet was by no means Welch's first criticism of Obama on his Twitter feed, where he has regularly spoken out in favor of Romney, as well as weighing in on sports. During the presidential debate in Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday night, Welch tweeted: "HOW can anyone vote for Obama after this performance..he has demonstrated his incompetence."

Welch's comments drew particular fire from the financial community since during his 20-year tenure as GE CEO, which ended in 2001, he was accused of using the GE Capital finance unit as a "black box" where he could quickly sell assets such as real estate to ensure that the largest U.S. conglomerate regularly beat Wall Street profit estimates by a penny.

"This guy is the guy that's telling me the books are cooked? That's hilarious," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO and director of equity research at Fusion IQ in New York, which manages about $300 million in assets. Ritholtz was one of the first to respond to Welch's tweet.

Other tweets agreed with Welch's assertion. Welch is a frequent participant on the site and has more than 1.3 million followers.

"In regards to today's Jobs report---I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here," said U.S. Rep. Allen West, R.-Fla., on Twitter.

GE Capital grew to generate about half of the Fairfield, Conn.-based company's earnings under Welch. But the operation's vulnerabilities became all too clear during the financial crisis, when losses at GE Capital hammered the company's earnings and sent its stock below $6.

Welch's successor Jeff Immelt, who has been working to scale back GE Capital and make it less volatile, serves as top adviser to the Obama administration on jobs and the economy. GE officials declined to comment on Welch's words.

Welch, who with his wife Suzy Welch, writes a column for Reuters, could not be reached to comment further on his view.

Officials with the Bureau of Labor Statistics defended their methods and findings.

"We have done a monthly survey since 1940 and the methods have broadly not changed," said Karen Kosanovich, an economist with the bureau. "Fiddling with the numbers, I don't know how that would be possible."

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told CNBC that she was "insulted" by the remark.

Other economists said they regarded the idea that the monthly data -- which is widely watched by Wall Street, particularly in the face of the United States' slow recovery -- could be rigged as strange.

"Because we lost two-tenths (of a percentage point) last time and three-tenths this time, the conspiracy theorists would contend the BLS is cooking the numbers," said Ray Stone, an economist with Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, N.J. "This just isn't true. They don't do that."

© 2012 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.