The 1.8 Percent That Matters This Election

While President Obama obsesses over the wealthy one-percent, Republican challenger George Romney is courting the 1.8 percent of the nation's 131 million voters who tipped the electoral scales in the 2008 election.  These Americans reside in nine battleground states targeted by the GOP.

Obama claimed victory by a combined margin of 2,372,750 votes in these key states: Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado and Iowa. In all but three, the president had an edge of 4.5 percent or less of the total votes cast.

Without these wafer-thin wins, Barrack Obama would have spent the last four years in the U.S. Senate.  If the nine states had swung to John McCain, the Republican would have won the electoral vote 305 to 233 instead of losing 365 to 173.  This year, like 2008, the closely contested race is expected to turn on these same states.

Much has changed since Obama claimed the presidential prize, particularly in the nine pivotal states where the GOP has chalked up decisive gains in state and Congressional elections.  Here is a look at the state-by-state issues that could alter the political landscape this election.

Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan account for 78 electoral votes, which represents 28 percent of the total needed to win the presidency.  To underscore how close the last election was, Obama won North Carolina's popular vote by 14,177 out of 4.2 million ballots.

The Big Four are fertile ground for the Republicans this time around. Voters in Florida, Ohio and recently North Carolina have approved bans on same sex marriage by overwhelming majorities.  The president thumbed his nose at these voters by "evolving" his position to pro-gay marriage.  

Republicans have more than social issues going for them. Unemployment rates in Michigan, Florida and North Carolina exceed the national average of 8.1 percent as the recession lingers.  Florida, Michigan and Ohio rank in the top ten worst states for home foreclosures.

In Virginia, the president's margin of victory over GOP nominee John McCain was 234,527 out of 3.7 million ballots.  Since the last presidential election, Virginia voters green-lighted a ban on same-sex marriage.  Voters in two other swing states, Colorado and Wisconsin, also came down on the same side of the issue.

Home foreclosures also have swamped Wisconsin.  It ranks tenth nationally among the hardest hit states. Republicans have flexed their political muscles in Wisconsin, picking a fight with public sector unions.  Contrary to pundit opinion, the brouhaha may end up harming Democrats worse than the GOP.

Not much has been made in the mainstream media about the issue of the Catholic Church's legal assault on behalf of religious freedom.  As the controversy festers, it could become a defining issue for voters in states like Wisconsin, where more than 40 percent of the population is Catholic.

Indiana was another squeaker for Obama.  He posted a razor-thin margin of 28,397 votes out of 2.75 million ballots.  Hooiser state voters had voted Republican in every presidential election since 1972 until Obama's upset in 2008.  Republicans now control the governor's mansion and other key offices.

In Iowa, the political winds are shifting after Democratic Party presidential candidates eked out wins in five of the last six general elections.  Obama's victory margin was less than 10 percent of all the ballots cast.  Republicans now hold most of the state's top elective offices, including the governorship.

Obama has deep divisions within his own party, too.  As evidence, an imprisoned felon received 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia's Democratic Party presidential primary.  Obama narrowly won the Arkansas primary after an unknown Tennessee lawyer garnered 42 percent of the vote.  In Kentucky, "uncommitted" finished second to Obama with 42 percent of the ballots.

That's why it is comical to watch the president harp on the one-percent in every speech.  His arrogance misleads him to believe Americans owe him another term in office.  The president is in for a rude awakening.   

An Open Letter To President Barrack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

You must be feeling like an aging rock star whose adoring fans have abandoned him.  People no longer faint during your dreary speeches recited off a teleprompter.  News media people don't get a tingling feeling at the sound of your cacophonous voice.  Instead of bouquets, people are sprinkling verbal brickbats at your feet.  It must wound your ego to know Lady GaGa has a higher favorable rating.

Perhaps, I could offer a couple of suggestions.  Start by firing every single speechwriter, political adviser and strategist.  Get some new talking-points.  Find someone who understands economic growth. Hang out with some real working folks instead of chatting up the moneyed Hollywood elite.

Your precarious political position can hardly get worse.  Based on public opinion data, the American people are fresh out of hope and the only change they embrace is one that involves your swift departure from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A couple of shocking political gaffes haven't helped matters.

After your dunderhead Vice President Joe "Plugs" Biden announced his support for gay marriage, you felt cornered and decided to recalculate your position.  Despite all the fawning media coverage, it was frankly like watching Dumb and Dumber.

No one was fooled.

A New York Times/CBS poll found that most Americans (67%) believe your about-face was done for strictly political reasons.  Even worse for you, 26 percent of people claim your announcement will make them less likely to vote for you, including 23 percent of independents.

But, hey, there was a ray of sunshine.   Newsweek magazine anointed you the "First Gay President."  That must have come as a shock to the First Lady.

The ruckus makes me wonder if you are getting political advice from Michael Dukakis.

Your gay marriage flip-flop tips several swing states into the GOP column.  The only people inspired by your clumsy 'evolution' are naive voters who already were in your camp.  That gusher of cash from George Clooney and his Beverly Hills cronies may feed your narcissism, but it won't buy victory.


Bashing America's wealthy hasn't worked out either.  A Gallup Poll this month revealed that more than 60 percent of Americans think the country benefits from having a class of rich people.  By the way, that is unchanged from 22 years ago in spite of your unflagging demonizing of the wealthy.

In fact, Gallup's researchers saw "no signs" that "Americans are becoming more and more negative" about the wealthy, even with all the envy-baiting in the media and the pseudo protests orchestrated by your shaggy surrogates in the Occupy Movement.

It turns out, Mr. President, that 63 percent of Americans want to be rich, according to Gallup's survey.  Imagine that!  After listening to your speeches, I figured most people would rather be poor and dependent on the government.  Apparently, not many Americans grow up wanting to be destitute.

I hear that you blame the American people for being too dumb to really "get" you.  But based on research, it appears they have gotten over you.

The most recent New York Times/CBS poll shows Romney ahead by 46 percent to 43 percent.

This does not bode well for a second term.  If I could be so timid as to offer a final piece of advice:  when the movers show up at the White House in January, try to put on a happy face.

Oh, and, I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but you might want to withdraw that $1 million in your investment account at J.P. Morgan, assuming it's still there.   News outlets are reporting the banking monolith has sustained $2 billion in trading losses.  

That money may come in handy in retirement.

Best wishes on finding a new career,

Drew   

Dems Stealth Plan To Nab an UnFair Share

A shadowy Democratic Party campaign masquerading as a nonpartisan grassroots effort has sprung up in states across the country to canvass neighborhoods, raise money and organize voter registrations on behalf of the reelection of President Obama.

The Diatribe has learned that the community activist group Fair Share Alliance has launched a massive summer recruiting drive on college campuses to enlist young people in fundraising, public education, petition drives and membership campaigns to promote the president's agenda.

The Alliance, registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization in Denver, Colorado, has opened offices in Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Washington, Nevada, New York, Illinois, New Mexico and dozens of other states.  The alliance also has offices in the heart of Washington, D.C.

In an email obtained by the Diatribe, the Texas state coordinator for Fair Share prodded a San Antonio college professor send an announcement to students about "hiring" opportunities.  The email described the group as a "non-profit advocacy organization" without mentioning political party affiliation.

An investigation of public documents uncovered a murky trail that suggests Fair Share is a vestige of ACORN, the defunct activist group disbanded in 2010 after it became embroiled in a scandal that ended with it being stripped of taxpayer funding.  The group also pleaded guilty to voter registration fraud.

At its peak, ACORN claimed more than 500,000 members and 1,200 neighborhood chapters.  President Obama once worked with the organization in Illinois as a "leadership trainer."  In 1995, Obama and several Chicago attorneys won a voter suit on behalf of the community activist group.

ACORN, an acronym for Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now, was once affiliated with Progressive Future, another Democratic Party support group.  Progressive Future later morphed into Fair Share Alliance with many of the same former players.

Fair Share's tentacles stretch all the way to the White House.  The organization's program director Adam Lioz, formerly with Progressive Future and MoveOn PAC, visited the White House as recently as November of last year to meet with senior presidential speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz, according to records.

Most of the organization's top leaders are ex-Democratic Party operatives, including executive director Brad Martin, a former regional political leader with the Democratic National Committee who also served as the executive director for the party in Montana.

Yet the alliance claims non-partisan status in state registration documents, despite boasting on its own website that it helped "elect Barrack Obama in 2008" by hustling a "get out the vote" campaign for the president.

In words that could have been ripped from one of the president's speeches, the group describes its mission to "create a system in which every American gets a fair shot, everyone pays their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."

Despite its obvious Democratic Party linkage, Fair Share was chartered in Colorado under Internal Revenue Service rules that allow the creation of "charitable" organizations to lobby for legislation and to participate in political campaigns.

Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to trace the money trail for Fair Share.  Democrats made certain of that in 2010 when a bill to require disclosure of donations to these type organizations was defeated in the party-controlled Senate after it was approved in the House of Representatives.

Fair Share Alliance is a poster child for what's wrong with the current election process.  

Campaigns have become cesspools of shady political offshoots disguised as non-partisan altruists; IRS-sanctioned charitable status for political party siblings; and, no public accounting for millions of dollars funneled into quasi-party outfits.

What more evidence do Americans need of political chicanery before they demand changes in the current system?

Voter ID: Picture This Eric Holder

It is no coincidence that Attorney General Eric Holder recently declared open season on state voter identification laws.  It is a tactic from the Democrat Party playbook designed to make it easier for ineligible voters to break the law by obtaining a ballot in the upcoming presidential election.

At a staged media event, Holder castigated states' voter ID laws alleging the rules disenfranchise minorities and vowed to use the vast resources of the Justice Department to block their enforcement.  His gambit casts a long shadow over the general election in light of allegations of voter fraud in the 2008 contest.

It has been well documented that discredited community activist organization ACORN registered thousands of new voters who helped Obama claim the White House.  Last year, ACORN officials pleaded guilty of running an illegal voter registration scheme in Nevada.  The group faced similar accusations in other states.

Meanwhile, there is fresh evidence the nation's voting roles are replete with errors and inaccuracies.  For instance, the non-partisan Pew Center issued a report in February that showed there are 1.8 million dead people still carried on the voting roles.

Researchers also discovered about 25 million voter registrations were either invalid or contained inaccuracies.  That is 13 percent of the nation's total registered voters.  More than 2.75 million people are registered in more than one state, Pew reported.

The requirement of a picture identification would eliminate most of the problems unearthed by the Pew Center, while ensuring the integrity of elections.

However, voter ID opponents are unmoved.  The ACLU recently declared voter fraud is virtually non-existent and harangued states for enacting ID requirements that stifle turnout, particularly among minorities.  Apparently, the ACLU believes only minorities are ill-equipped to secure a valid ID.

The ACLU's claims ring hollow.  The organization filed suit in Georgia after the 2008 election, fuming over state ID laws because they prevented minorities from exercising their right to vote.  A federal judge tossed the case because the liberal group could not produce a single person who would testify that he or she was unable to vote because of the ID law.

That's why Holder's battle to overturn ID laws is nothing more than a political smokescreen.  The dour-faced attorney general wants to create the impression that the administration cares more about protecting minority voters than Republicans.  Only the most gullible would fall for such deceit.

No one, including the attorney general, has presented a shred of evidence that minorities are disadvantaged by voter ID laws.  Opponents often cite the cost of obtaining ID as a roadblock. Yet many states offer picture identification cards for free, including Texas.

Besides, it is virtually impossible to function as a U.S. citizen without a picture ID.  A photo identification is required to fly on an airplane, to drive a car, to purchase cigarettes and liquor, to open a bank account, to validate credit card purchases and to take a college entrance exam.

And the list goes on and on.  Illinois recently approved a law that makes it mandatory to produce a photo ID to purchase drain cleaners. 

Moreover, photo identification is needed to enter many business offices and government buildings, including the Justice Department.  Using Holder's own logic, the attorney general is turning away minorities from his taxpayer-funded building because they can't obtain a valid ID.

A journalist recently exposed the fallacy of Holder's voter ID doctrine.  The writer obtained a ballot for a District of Columbia election by simply providing Holder's name and address.  The stunt should have embarrassed the nation's top law enforcement officer. 

Holder was nonplussed.  The nation's voters can draw only one logical conclusion from his reaction.  The attorney general isn't interested in fair elections where only legally eligible voters can participle. 

Shame on Eric Holder.  He is guilty of putting sleazy politics ahead of honest elections.  Americans can no longer trust him to uphold the nation's laws.