Romney gana PA, DE, RI, CT y NY

Tras su esperada victoria en las primarias de Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode island, Connecticut y Nueva York, el Gobernador Romney dio el que para mí es su mejor discurso de toda la campaña. El lugar elegido fue Manchester, New Hampshire, el estado en el que anunció su candidatura hace un año.

Gallup Daily

Gallup:

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Barack Obama 47%
Mitt Romney 45%

President's job performance:

50% approve
50% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 18-20, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

Romney en Scottsdale, Arizona

En una reunión del Comité Nacional Republicano (RNC).

Lapsus

Gallup Daily

Gallup:

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 46%
Barack Obama 45%

President's job performance:

49% approve
50% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 17-19, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

Romney en Lorain, Ohio

Gallup Daily

Gallup:

Romney en Fox & Friends

Marco Rubio: rechazaría la Vicepresidencia

ABC News:

Sen. Marco Rubio said today he would decline any offer from Mitt Romney to be a part of the GOP ticket this fall.

“I don’t want to be the vice president,” the Florida Republican said during an interview with Major Garrett of the National Journal.

“So, if Mitt Romney asks, you will you say no?” Garrett asked.

“Yes. But you know he’s not going to ask. That doesn’t work. He’s watching this interview right now,” Rubio, 40, responded.

Rubio even went as far as suggesting another U.S. Senator for Romney to consider in his VP vetting – Ohio Senator Rob Portman.

“The bigger point is we’ve got a lot of really talented people out there that Mitt Romney can get to pick from. And I think a lot, Senator Rob Portman would be a phenomenal choice for vice president, that’s where I would encourage him to look because I’m enjoying my service in the senate.”

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 46%
Barack Obama 45%

President's job performance:

49% approve
50% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 16-18, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

Ron Paul en la Universidad de Rhode Island

Atrajo a más de 2,000 personas.

Romney en Hannity (Fox News)

Romney en Charlotte, Carolina del Norte

Mitt Romney inició ayer la estrategia de réplicas continuas que le permita luchar cuerpo a cuerpo con Obama en las próximas semanas.

A pocos metros del estadio donde Obama aceptará la nominación demócrata en septiembre, y con el lema "Obama no funciona" en el podium, el Gobernador citó pasajes del discurso de Obama en la convención de 2008, y los contrastó con los datos económicos de su Presidencia: 24 millones de americanos siguen sin empleo, y 50,000 empleos han sido destruidos en Carolina del Norte desde que es Presidente, elevando el número total de desempleados en el estado a 400,000.

Hoy estará en Ohio para dar la réplica al discurso de ayer de Obama.

Obama recauda fondos en un suburbio dorado de Detroit

El principal vivero de votos de Obama en Michigan está en la negra y empobrecida Detroit, pero ayer el Presidente celebró una recaudación de fondos en una espléndida casa de Bingham Farms, uno de los suburbios más ricos del país, en el condado de Oakland.

El acorazado Cadillac presidencial se convirtió en la gran atracción. Hasta los encargados del catering quisieron fotografiarse con la limusina.

Obama en Elyria, Ohio

El Presidente Barack Obama realizó ayer una gira relámpago por el Medio Oeste para promocioanr su agenda y recaudar fondos. En la vigésima visita que hace a Ohio desde que es Presidente, volvió a recurrir a un discurso populista.

Dijo que no nació con un pie de plata en la boca, sino en una familia trabajadora, y utilizó a los republicanos del Congreso para plantear su caso para la elección general. Les acusó de haber bloqueado esta semana la "regla Buffet" para obligar a los más ricos a pagar al menos un 30% de su renta en impuestos, y de querer extender los recortes de impuestos de la era Bush a costa de los programas de capacitación y entrenamiento de trabajadores.

Gallup Daily

Gallup:

Mitch Daniels apoya a Romney

Era el preferido de las élites republicanas para representar al partido en las presidenciales de este año. Durante meses, recibió a delegaciones de políticos y hombres de negocios de todo el país dispuestos a montar para él una enorme operación electoral, pero les dio calabazas alegando una serie de excusas personales (que si la mujer no quería, que si las campañas de hoy en día son un circo y que lo que él quería era un debate serio sobre el gasto y la deuda) que probablemente no fuesen más que el reflejo de una falta de confianza en sus posibilidades como campaigner (más que como Presidente).

Finalmente, ha terminado apoyando a un candidato en teoría más imperfecto pero que sí tuvo las agallas de presentarse.

"Hace unos días envié una nota de felicitación al Gobernador Romney. Me ofrecí a hacer todo lo que esté en mis manos para ayudarle, y aquí estoy," ha dicho el Gobernador de Indiana en Fox & Friends.

El índice de aprobación de un Presidente y su techo electoral

RealClearPolitics:

One of the more fashionable debates today is whether the 2012 election will be more of a choice between two candidates, or a referendum on the party in power. Over at The New Republic, Ed Kilgore provides one of the more cogent arguments for the former.

Kilgore's assertion flies in the face of the conventional wisdom: That in an incumbent election, the electorate engages in a two-step process. First, it decides whether it likes the incumbent. If it does, the incumbent is re-elected. If it doesn’t, it then asks whether the challenger is acceptable. If the challenger is acceptable, the unpopular incumbent is defeated; if not, the incumbent is re-elected.

In other words, analysts who accept this model implicitly assume that the election is largely a referendum on the incumbent; how strong a referendum it is depends on how high you believe the bar to be cleared in Step 2 is.

(...) Let’s start with the two major examples that Kilgore advances in support of his claim: The 1980 and 2004 elections. Both of these examples actually suggest the exact opposite of what he claims. In 1980, a majority of the electorate believed that Jimmy Carter was doing a poor job, and he lost. In 2004, a majority of the electorate believed that George W. Bush was doing a good job, and he won.

Kilgore argues that the 1980 election didn’t have to turn out the way it did, and he observes, correctly, that late-breaking votes overwhelmingly chose the challenger over the incumbent president. This is widely attributed to Ronald Reagan’s outstanding debate performance in the closing weeks of the contest.

But Carter’s final job approval poll in 1980 -- unfortunately, taken in September -- shows him receiving a 37 percent approval rating, roughly similar to the 41 percent of the vote he ultimately received. Put differently, the undecided voters had to go somewhere, and one could argue that they were likely to break heavily toward Reagan, strong debate performance or not.

The other election that Kilgore discusses is similarly misunderstood. The election of 2004 is frequently held up as an example of an unpopular president winning re-election by making his opponent unacceptable to the electorate. And, indeed, Bush’s approval rating in Gallup’s final poll of the electorate was a tepid 48 percent, suggesting that he over-performed his approval rating by a decent margin.

But Gallup was an outlier that year. The final RCP Average had Dubya at 49.8 percent approval, very close to the 50.7 percent of the vote he eventually received. If one looks at the actual electorate, as measured by the exit polls, 53 percent approved of the job that Bush was doing.

This suggests that, for all the swift-boating and flip-flopping charges and whatnot, what that election really came down to was that Bush was running in an electorate that generally thought he was doing a good job. Again, one can argue that Bush's approval was boosted by bashing Kerry, but I'm not certain what real evidence we have one way or the other of this. And the bottom line remains that, whatever the reason, Bush's job approval within the electorate was above 50 percent on Election Day.

(...) The closer we look at the data, the more we see this tendency spring up. As Jay Cost has helpfully noted, in 2004 this tendency filtered down to the states as well. Bush didn’t win any states where he had a net-negative job approval, and lost a handful where he had a slightly net-positive job approval. Similarly, Cost demonstrates that, according to the National Election Study, incumbents going back to 1972 have rarely received a substantial percentage of the vote from those who disapproved of the job they were doing. This suggests that, at the very least, the bar in "Step 2" is so low that it is irrelevant in most elections.

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 47%
Barack Obama 43%

President's job performance:

47% approve
51% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 15-17, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

PPP: Clinton y Christie, los favoritos preliminares para 2016

Public Policy Polling:

Since the primary's gotten boring and there's a glut of Obama/Romney polls out there we decided to skip ahead and take a super early look at the 2016 primaries.

The Democratic nomination at this point is Hillary Clinton's for the taking if she wants it. She has an amazing 86/10 favorability rating with Democratic voters. In a dream field Clinton gets 57% to 14 for Joe Biden, 6% for Elizabeth Warren, 5% for Andrew Cuomo, 3% for Russ Feingold, 2% for Mark Warner, and 1% each for Martin O'Malley and Brian Schweitzer.

Clinton's appeal to the various different constituencies of the Democratic Party is pretty universal. She's at 58% with 'very liberal' voters, 56% with moderates, 60% with women, 52% with men, 59% with whites, 54% with African Americans, 51% with Hispanics, 64% with seniors, and 44% with young voters.

If Clinton didn't run but Biden did he'd be the leader with 32% to 18% for Cuomo, 8% for Warren, 6% for Feingold, 2% each for O'Malley and Warner, and 1% for Schweitzer. Biden's favorability is 70/21.

And in Biden and Clintonless field Cuomo leads with 27% to 9% for Warren, 8% for Feingold, 4% each for O'Malley and Warner, and 2% for Schweitzer. Cuomo is the only candidate in that version of the field with better than 50% name recognition, boasting a 32/24 favorability rating. Feingold and Warren each have about 45% name recognition while O'Malley, Warner, and Schweitzer are all pretty much completely unknown.

We also looked at the 2016 Republican field if Romney is not the nominee again. There's a clear top tier consisting of Chris Christie at 21% and Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush at 17%. Rick Santorum's further back at 12% and Marco Rubio at 10%, Paul Ryan at 7%, Rand Paul at 4%, and Bobby Jindal at 3% round out the names we tested. It seems unlikely Santorum would be the front runner in a repeat bid.

Other notes on those numbers:

-Bush is the only Republican with a greater than 70% favorability rating, at 71/13.

-Most of the big potential GOP 2016 names have more than 50% name recognition- there are a lot more known quantities in the mix for Republicans that cycle than there are for the Democrats.

-GOP voters clearly see Rand Paul, who has a solid 42/20 favorability rating, in a different light than his dad, who's at 36/49.

-Huckabee is the most popular potential 2016 hopeful besides Bush with a 69/15 favorability rating and would start out with an edge among Evangelicals at 24% to 16% for Santorum.

-Christie has a double digit lead with voters under 45, a group the GOP's had trouble appealing to over the last few election cycles.

"Esta elección sí importa"

Team Obama empezará esta semana a lanzar una serie de anuncios de tv y radio dirigidos a los votantes hispanos. En los spots, algunos hispanos que trabajan en la campaña de Obama cuentan sus historias personales. El tema central es la educación.



Ver más ejemplos aquí.

Romney en Lancaster, Pennsylvania

En la cena anual del GOP del condado de Lancaster.

Gingrich en Lancaster, Pennsylvania

En la cena anual del GOP del condado de Lancaster.

(click en la imagen para ver el video en otra ventana)

Romney en Bethel Park, Pennsylvania

Mesa redonda con pequeños empresarios.

(click en la imagen para ver el video en otra ventana)

Romney en The Kudlow Report (CNBC)

Team Romney planea una estrategia de confrontación continua

The Washington Post:

To beat a sitting president, you first have to chase him around the country.

At least that’s the operating theory at Mitt Romney’s campaign headquarters, where aides are unleashing an aggressive strategy to combat President Obama at his campaign stops and even adopt Obama’s itinerary as their own.

With the general election campaign now in full swing, the presumptive Republican nominee plans to stage “prebuttal” and “rebuttal” speeches to Obama designed to try to force the president on the defensive.

Romney’s effort begins Wednesday, when he jets to Charlotte, N.C., which hosts the Democratic National Convention in September. Romney booked a rooftop venue with sweeping views of Bank of America Stadium — where Obama will formally accept his party’s nomination for reelection — to deliver what aides are billing as a prebuttal to Obama’s nomination speech.

Aides said Romney’s message will boil down to this: “Are you better off than you were four years ago, the last time Obama gave a convention speech?”

Also Wednesday, during Obama’s scheduled stop in Ohio, Romney’s campaign bus will be loaded up with state surrogates and local phone bank volunteers and will drive circles around the Elyria community college where Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on the economy. And aides said Romney is considering going to Ohio on Thursday to give his own speech on the economy.

(...) By involving the candidate himself and his logo bus, the Romney team’s bracketing is particularly audacious and establishes a confrontational tone at the start of the general election.

“Our campaign is going to go toe-to-toe and post up against the Obama machine every day to help get the message out that Mitt Romney will be able to deliver what this president could not — and that’s a more prosperous America,” said Gail Gitcho, communications director for the Romney campaign.

(...) Romney aides acknowledge the difficulty of taking on the incumbent president, but believe that to win in November they have to not only articulate a broad vision, but also execute small tasks — and that includes winning daily, or even hourly, news cycles.

(...) The strategy is orchestrated by Gitcho, who ran the Republican National Committee’s press shop the first year of the Obama administration and is regarded as one of the GOP’s most effective bracketing specialists.

But as Gitcho knows, bracketing works only if it’s effective — getting in the head of the opponent or amplifying a message that hurts his campaign.

“The Obama campaign is big. They are a massive machine,” Gitcho said. But, she added, “The Romney campaign is going to be doing very big things in very big states.”

Aznar visita a Romney

El Gobernador Romney ha recibido hoy a José María Aznar en el cuartel general de su campaña en Boston. Han hablado de las relaciones España-EEUU, la Unión Europa y América Latina.

Obama intenta impactar en el precio de la gasolina

El alto precio de la gasolina amenaza con afectar el gasto del consumidor y hacer retroceder cualquier mejoría de la economía y, en consecuencia, poner en serio peligro su reelección, así que el Presidente Obama ha comparecido hoy en la Casa Blanca para salir un poco del apuro de las críticas de la oposición, que le exige aumentar la oferta en el mercado nacional.

Obama ha achacado el problema a la inestabilidad internacional y ha propuesto endurecer las sanciones contra la especulación en los mercados del petróleo y gastar más dinero en la financiación de la Comisión de Negociación de Futuros para reforzar la supervisión. Ha advertido, sin embargo, que ninguna de estas medidas bajará los precios de la noche a la mañana.

Gallup Daily

Gallup:

Donald Trump obsequia a Ann Romney con la recaudación de 600,000 dólares

CBS News:

Ann Romney is not only raising her profile of late, she is also raising some money -- serious money.

(...) She will be in New York City for a birthday luncheon hosted by Donald and Melania Trump, which has netted over $600,000 for the Romney campaign, according to a Trump spokesman.

The impending Manhattan event has proved so financially successful, says Trump spokesman Michael Cohen, that the Romney campaign asked Trump to host a similar fundraiser when Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination. According to Cohen, tickets to that event would sell for $50,000 and 50 donors have already expressed interest in attending.

Tuesday's event at Trump's primary residence, a triplex on 5th Avenue, was originally only supposed to hold 200 people. But when capacity was filled within 48 hours of invitations going out, the campaign "began to panic," says Cohen. He says they asked to extend the number of people attending, which will now be 400.

In order to accommodate the droves, there will be two shifts of attendees - the first batch of 200 spending time with Ann Romney from noon to 1:15 p.m., and the second crowd coming in from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Buddy Valastro, star of the Bravo show "Cake Boss," custom designed a cake for the party.

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 46%
Barack Obama 45%

President's job performance:

48% approve
50% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 14-16, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

Romney ya tuvo que elegir un running-mate en 2002

Jonathan Karl (ABC) nos lo recuerda:

Lost in the frenzy of speculation about who Mitt Romney will pick as a vice presidential candidate is that this is not the first time he has chosen a running mate.

When he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Romney tapped Kerry Murphy Healey as his pick for lieutenant governor, a decision that may provide some clues into how he’ll handle the search this time around.

Beth Myers, who is running Romney’s VP search, was also advising the candidate back then. She tells ABC News that gender was a factor — Romney put a priority on having a woman as a running mate — but above all, he was looking for somebody he could work closely with, on the campaign trail and in the office.

“They were absolutely running together,” Myers told ABC News. “She partnered with him on everything [and was] integrated completely into our operation.”

It was a short and intense search process. Romney jumped into the race late and had just three weeks before the state Republican convention to decide on a running mate. At first, he said he would stay out of the process and accept the choice of the party convention.

But when it became clear the process would leave him with an unsatisfactory running mate — the leading candidate was a multimillionaire businessman named James Rappaport and Democrats were already deriding the possible team as a “Rolls-Royce ticket” of two rich white guys — Romney and his political advisers decided he needed to get involved.

There was no shortage of possible candidates for Romney to choose from: The Republican leader in the Massachusetts House of Representatives offered his services as did other Republicans in the state legislature. So did one of President George W. Bush’s cousins and the sister of the man murdered by Willie Horton.

Romney didn’t have much time to get to know any of them well, but Healey, who was not lobbying for the job, had a head start. As the new chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, she had flown to Salt Lake City during the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in an effort to recruit Romney to run for governor.

Jane Swift, the acting governor at the time, was unpopular, and was planning to run, but party leaders were convinced she had no chance of winning. Healey left Salt Lake City without a commitment from Romney about running, but she had clearly made an impression on him.

Romney’s political team also found much to like in Healey: She was a Harvard-educated college professor who had spent nearly a decade working with the Department of Justice on criminal justice issues. She wasn’t just a state pol, but had experience in social policy, which Romney was lacking.

With so little time to get his campaign up and running, Romney left much of the search process up to his closest advisers. Healey tells ABC News that she had several meetings with Romney confidant Bob White, and political strategist Mike Murphy, but had only one or two meetings with Romney before he decided to anoint her as his choice for lieutenant governor.

Rappaport denounced the move as “a cold political calculation,” and Romney’s team wasn’t shy about touting the political appeal of running with a younger woman candidate with social policy credentials. As Romney adviser Ron Kaufmann told The Associated Press at the time, “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that Kerry Murphy Healey is a better running mate … than two prosperous successful businessmen.”

But Mike Murphy insists “politics was a secondary factor.” He says the key to the decision was Romney’s belief that Healey could be a key part of his administration, not simply somebody put on the ticket to help win an election.

Santorum no está preparado para apoyar a Romney todavía

CBS News:

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday sounded no closer to endorsing Mitt Romney than when he dropped out of the presidential race last week, telling supporters on a conference call that he hasn't even had a chance to speak to his onetime rival.

Santorum said he has talked with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "I haven't had a chance yet to talk to Governor Romney, but we'll be talking to both of them and we're going to go out and do what we believe is in the best interest of our country," Santorum said in the call, which had at least 4,000 participants at its peak, according to host and Santorum aide Mark Rodgers.

To crystallize the point that he isn't going to make an endorsement in the immediate future, Santorum told his supporters that it was entirely up to them who to vote for in next week's Pennsylvania primary. "I haven't supported any candidate at this point," he said.

When Rodgers, acting as the call's host, asked him in jest whether he would un-suspend his campaign if enough people voted for him in Pennsylvania, Santorum offered little in the way of advice. "I would just say this: the best thing that they can do is stay tuned, and we really are serious about making sure that the issues that we brought up during this campaign are continued going forward," he said.

Throughout the call, the former Pennsylvania senator alluded to having plans to build a conservative movement outside of the framework of the presidential election in order to make sure his message is still heard.

Objetivo de Romney y el RNC: recaudar 800 millones (+200 de Super PACs)

The New York Times:

A new joint fund-raising initiative between Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee will aim to raise $800 million by November, part of what Mr. Romney’s campaign estimates will be a total of $1 billion spent to defeat President Obama and elect Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.

The goals were laid out in a memorandum circulated by Mr. Romney’s top fund-raisers in recent days and on a conference call with donors late last week. The memo indicates that Mr. Romney’s top aides hope to collect a total of at least $500 million for the campaign and for the joint fund, known as Romney Victory, through a program for high-dollar donations.

They are also hoping to bring in $300 million in smaller donations, an area where Mr. Romney has so far lagged well behind other Republicans candidates and Mr. Obama but where the Republican committee has performed relatively well. The campaign also estimates that “super PACs” and other outside groups will spend another $200 million in the race, according to the memo.

Gallup Daily

Gallup inauguró ayer su tracking poll diario con un empate técnico (Romney 47% - Obama 45%). Este es todavía de votantes registrados, mientras que el de Rasmussen es ya de votantes probables, en teoría más fiable, aunque de momento dan resultados similares.

Romney en un evento del Tea Party en Philadelphia, PA

(click en la imagen para ver el video en otra ventana)

Diane Sawyer (ABC) entrevista a los Romney

Viendo a los Red Sox

Mitt Romney ha estado hoy en el estadio de béisbol Fenway Park de Boston, presenciando el partido entre los Boston Red Sox y los Tampa Bay Rays.

"Romney's World View"

Priorities USA, el Super PAC de Obama, lanza en cuatro estados (Ohio, Florida, Virginia y Iowa) un anuncio que pretende recordar al votante que Romney es rico y no paga suficientes impuestos.

Para ello se valen de una foto de 1985 que muestra a Romney con sus colegas de Bain Capital (uno de ellos se parece mucho a Jesulín de Ubrique, por cierto) celebrando algún triunfo con billetes de dólar que caen del cielo o salen de los bolsillos. Es la imagen del éxito; en la excitante América que creía ciegamente en sí misma de hace dos o tres décadas sería un cartel que Romney podría colocar como decoración en las paredes de su cuartel general de campaña, pero en la actual América enferma y deprimida, la foto es provocadora y sirve más como póster electoral de sus rivales.

NARRADORA: "Mitt Romney. Ganó millones de compañías que quebraron, mientras los trabajadores perdían los beneficios prometidos. Su declaración de impuestos del año pasado revela que ganó 21 millones de dólares y sin embargo pagó menos impuestos que muchas familias de clase media. Ahora Romney propone un recorte de impuestos de 150,000 dólares para el 1% más rico, mientras nos recorta el Medicare y la educación. Mitt Romney. Si él gana, nosotros perdemos."

Romney: Beth Myers se ocupará de investigar a los vicepresidenciables

ABC News:

Mitt Romney today revealed for the first time that he has put longtime adviser Beth Myers in charge of his vice presidential vetting process.

“I have selected someone who has been a counselor of mine for a number of years, Beth Myers. She was my chief of staff when I was governor,” the former Massachusetts governor told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview.

“I’ve asked her to be the person who oversees the process of the vice presidential selection and vetting an analysis and so she’s begun that process and is putting together the kinds of things you need to do to vet potential candidates,” Romney added.

Asked whether there is a deadline for choosing his running mate, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he does have a deadline in mind but would not reveal the specifics.

“It would certainly be by the time of the convention,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve chosen the time we’d actually make an announcement,” Romney said during a stroll through Fenway Park, where he is scheduled to join two contest winners at a Red Sox game.

Ann Romney said this weekend, which the couple spent in Florida fundraising, was the first time they had actually spoken seriously about a vice presidential pick.

“You know it’s been interesting this weekend was the first time we seriously really talked about it and there are some wonderful people out there,” she told Sawyer. “So we’re thinking about it now and we haven’t allowed ourselves to go there yet and I think this is a time when we realize it’s very important and it’s time to think about it.”

“There are some pretty terrific people out there,” she added.

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 47%
Barack Obama 44%

President's job performance:

47% approve
51% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 13-15, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

"Happy Birthday, Mom"

Aprovechando la repercusión de Ann Romney en los últimos días, Team Romney celebra su cumpleaños con un web ad que repasa su historia de vida: hija, esposa, madre y superviviente del cáncer de mama y la esclerosis múltiple. Ann es el medio para presentar de forma indirecta el lado más humano del candidato.

Primary (1960)

'Primary' (podéis verlo completo en el video) es un documental de una hora producido por Robert Drew y filmado por Richard Leacock y Albert Maysles durante la campaña de la primaria demócrata de Wisconsin en 1960.

Wisconsin fue el estado que catapultó al Senador John F. Kennedy al derrotar al Senador Hubert Humphrey en su patio trasero con el 56% de los votos. Aunque con la ayuda de un numeroso electorado católico, Kennedy demostró que un moderado bostoniano podía derrotar a un progresista del Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party de Minnesota en un estado granjero del Medio Oeste -después lo volvería a derrotar en la protestante Virginia Occidental y lo dejaría definitivamente fuera de juego.

Sinopsis (por Filmaffinity): Primarias en Wisconsin. John F. Kennedy y Hubert Humphrey se enfrentan por la candidatura demócrata a la presidencia en 1960. La cámara sigue la campaña siguiendo a los candidatos mediante lo que se denominó «el cine de observación» (observational cinema). La tecnología permitía ya en 1960 grabar el sonido sincronizado con la imagen, lo que permitía cámaras más pequeñas para llevar al hombro. Ya se podía filmar lo observado sin necesidad de platós, ni de luces, ni de planificación, y registrar la vida cotidiana sin manipularla o modificarla.

(...) Los realizadores fueron capaces de seguir a los candidatos, mientras serpenteaban a través de las multitudes, meterse con ellos en habitaciones de hotel llenas de gente, y flotar alrededor de sus caras mientras esperaban los resultados de la votación.

Huckabee no cree que vaya a ser VP

El Gobernador Mike Huckabee, al ser preguntado sobre a quién debería escoger Romney como VP: "Creo que su mejor elección es Marco Rubio... Yo no he recibido la llamada y dudo que la reciba, así que me estoy ocupando de mis asuntos tranquilamente."

Romney expandirá su staff

The Boston Globe:

Black and champagne-colored sport utility vehicles lined up outside Mitt Romney’s North End campaign headquarters one day last week and, for one of the few times this year, the candidate bounded into the building for what amounted to a homecoming.

Greeting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was an eclectic cast of advisers who are as familiar to him as his own family, an extraordinarily tight-knit circle that includes about a dozen men and women who, for more than a decade, have formed the core of Team Romney.

Often secretive and always loyal, the advisers now face their ultimate test: transitioning from a relatively small circle that guided Romney through bruising primaries to a group that is expected to grow far larger in just a matter of weeks in order to reset the campaign for a general election fight against President Obama.

A number of those in the inner core have not previously worked in a presidential general election campaign, and new players with national experience recently have begun joining the campaign, potentially challenging the hierarchy with which Romney feels so comfortable. But some of Romney’s top advisers, speaking in interviews in which they discussed the candidate’s general election plans and decision-making process, said the core group will remain even as they welcome newcomers and new views.

(...) The expansion, and the potential change that comes with it, will be swift. Romney’s campaign is preparing a dramatic increase in manpower, with the current full-time staff of about 80 expected to reach 400 in the coming weeks, according to a Romney aide.

(...) As a former business consultant, Romney is viewed as putting a much higher premium on the value of advisers than some other presidential candidates. Emulating what became known as the “Bain way,’’ named for the manner in which Romney’s Bain Capital partners debated investments, his campaign advisers are urged to play devil’s advocate as strategy is mulled. In the 2008 campaign, this approach backfired, with competing teams of advisers going in different directions. This time, the key difference is that the core team is smaller and even more loyal, and decisions are not second-guessed after they are reached, aides said.

(...) Romney’s longest-serving aides have been with him at least since he ran for governor in 2002. They include Beth Myers, a former gubernatorial campaign volunteer who became Romney’s chief of staff on Beacon Hill, and Eric Fehrnstrom, who served as a Romney spokesman during his governorship and in 2008. Now a senior adviser, Fehrnstrom recently created controversy when he compared the transition to the general election to shaking an Etch-A-Sketch. Notwithstanding the damage from that remark, Fehrnstrom is so close to Romney that the candidate promptly stood by his adviser, further cementing the already strong bonds of two-way loyalty within the team.

“Eric and I can finish each other’s sentences,’’ Myers said. “We’ve been working together for 10 years.’’

Other longtime aides include Peter Flaherty, a former gubernatorial aide who is a senior adviser; Spencer Zwick, another former gubernatorial aide who is the campaign’s finance director; Matt Rhoades, the 2008 communications director and now campaign manager; and Bob White, a former Bain Capital partner who is one of Romney’s most trusted friends.

While these former gubernatorial aides have not played a major role in a general election presidential campaign, Romney has several other key advisers who have such experience, including longtime friend Ron Kaufman and political strategists Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer, all of whom worked with Romney on his failed 2008 White House bid.

Still, in recent weeks, and often with little fanfare, new faces have started showing up as advisers. The campaign announced that Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman who served as a strategist for President George W. Bush, would become a senior adviser. The Romney campaign declined to make Gillespie available for an interview, and he said via e-mail that he could not talk without such authorization. Another longtime GOP operative, Charles Black, a former strategist for Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, also became a Romney adviser earlier this year. Black could not be reached for comment.

(...) While Romney tweaks Harvard University - he said recently that Obama is out of touch, maybe because he spent too many years at Harvard - many of his advisers hold graduate degrees from the Ivy League school, and Romney himself is a Harvard Law and Business School graduate. And while he has criticized the culture of Washington, many of his advisers are current or former lobbyists.

Some of those tapped as advisers have taken positions out of sync with Romney on key issues, something not uncommon for Romney, who professes to want a range of debate within his team.

Obama + DNC recaudaron 53 millones en marzo

POLITICO.com:

The president's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee took in a combined $53 million in March through their various fundraising accounts, the Obama camp announced in a video Monday.

There were 190,000 first-time donors to the groups and the average contribution was $50.78, according to the campaign. The top line number is up from $45 million in February and $29.1 million in January, the trend line is moving in a direction that Democrats can like.

The more interesting test of Obama's fundraising potential may come in the April numbers, now that it's unavoidably clear who the Republican nominee will be. High on the list of reasons why Democrats believe Obama's fundraising has been solid, but not jaw-dropping, is that there hasn't been a general election-like contrast with a Republican opponent, and financial supporters of both the grassroots and high-dollar variety haven't felt the urgency they otherwise might.

Axelrod y Gillespie en Fox News Sunday

David Axelrod, estratega jefe de la campaña de Obama.



Ed Gillespie, ex presidente del RNC y consejero de la capaña de Romney.

Paul y Santo se hacen con parte de la delegación de CO; Romney controla WY

The Denver Post:

Colorado Republicans are heading to their national convention with their most conservative delegation in years, as supporters for Ron Paul and Rick Santorum masterminded a stunning upset in electing delegates.

At the state convention in Denver today, Paul forces easily were the most vocal, adding their candidate's name at almost every opportunity. When Republicans sang "Hey, hey, hey, good-bye" to President Barack Obama, Paul backers changed the words to "Hey, hey, hey, Ron Paul."

The momentum was painful for Mitt Romney supporters, who had assumed when Santorum dropped out of the presidential race this week they'd have a much easier time in winning Colorado's delegate and alternate seats to the Republican National Convention.

Instead, some of the Santorum's supporters united with Paul's backers to form the "Conservative Unity Slate" to win a slew of delegate slots. Four years ago, only one Paul supporter was elected to attend the national convention.

"This is a revolution," said Florence Sebern of Denver, an "unpledged" delegate who was wearing a Paul pin. She was part of the slate.

Slate supporters said they wanted to send a message to Romney about the importance of sticking to conservative values.

More than 800 Republicans — easily double the number who sought to attend the RNC in 2008 — ran for the 33 elected delegate and 33 elected alternate slots.

At congressional assemblies Thursday and Friday, Republicans elected 21 delegates and 21 alternates. Thirteen of the 18 winning delegates elected Friday were on the Paul/Santorum unity slate.

Today, to the relief of Romey backers, eight of the 12 at-large delegate slots, and six of the 12 at-large alternate slots went to Romney supporters. Former Congressman Bob Beauprez and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, both Romney supporters, were the top two vote getters.

What happened overnight?

Romney supporters realized they couldn't dilute their vote and had to stick with their slate, although plenty of other Romney backers were running as delegates, said Attorney General John Suthers.

"The wake-up call was how much discipline you have to have when you have a slate," said Suthers, a Romney delegate.

The Republic:

The Wyoming Republican Party has chosen 14 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention and all of them are committed to support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The voting happened Saturday at the Wyoming Republican Party convention in Cheyenne.

Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee after former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign this week. The Wyoming delegates put Romney a small step closer to formally clinching the nomination.

Wyoming will send a total of 29 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Of those, 23 are committed to Romney, two to Santorum and one to Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Three other delegates are uncommitted or have not yet decided.

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 48%
Barack Obama 44%

President's job performance:

46% approve
52% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 12-14, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

La importancia del periodo de transición (abril-septiembre)

The Washington Post:

Labor Day was once seen as the official kickoff to the general election, a characterization that seems quaint in this era of round-the-clock politics and hyper communications. In fact, early September may be the moment that signals to the country which candidate is likely to win.

It is overwhelmingly the case that the candidate who has led just after Labor Day has gone on to win the election. The fact that the conventions are now held around Labor Day, rather than much earlier, means that the first polls taken after the post-convention bounces have dissipated will be key indicators as to how the race will go.

Among the exceptions: Ronald Reagan trailed Jimmy Carter in a mid-September 1980 Gallup poll and went on to win an electoral landslide. Al Gore led George W. Bush narrowly in an early September 2000 Gallup survey. He won the popular vote but not the presidency. But in virtually every other case dating to 1952, the leader in the Gallup Poll around Labor Day went on to win.

Four years ago, McCain led Obama briefly in mid-September, but that was more a reflection of the boost he got from his convention. But those polls were an anomaly in a campaign in which Obama always appeared in control. Through much of July and August that year, McCain’s campaign team feared that the election was already lost.

(...) All general election campaigns include signature moments that long have been seen as helping to shape the outcome. For both Obama and Romney, the speeches they deliver at their respective national conventions will give them a chance to define the choices before huge national audiences. The presidential debates will offer the public a last look at the two nominees side by side, though they have only occasionally been seen as the decisive moments of the campaigns.

Romney will help define himself further with the choice of a vice presidential running mate. The way he manages that process and his choice of a running mate will affect public perceptions of him as a possible president. Obama will command the stage in his official duties, often a decided advantage in a reelection contest.

Most of those events will come in the second half of a campaign that will go on for almost seven months. But long before they take place, the skill and aggressiveness of the two candidates will help to lock perceptions of voters into place.

Outside events also will play a role in this early phase of the campaign. The Supreme Court is expected to rule sometime in June on the constitutionality of Obama’s health care law. Wisconsin voters will decide early that month whether to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Overseas, tensions with Iran could boil over into an international crisis.

Campaigns can’t control those outside events, but they already are doing what they can to affect the race. Obama appears to be taking a page from Bush’s 2004 playbook by moving as quickly as possible to define Romney negatively.

“We made a decision that we needed to and wanted to frame the election on our terms and to do it as early as possible and as forcefully as possible,” McKinnon said of Bush’s 2004 campaign. “Their nominee was physically exhausted and depleted in resources and that was a perfect time to strike.”

Tad Devine, who was a top strategist for Democratic candidate John Kerry, said those early days were a huge mismatch between a Bush campaign that had, by his recollection, $100 million in the bank and a Kerry operation that ended the primaries with only about $2 million in cash on hand.

(...) Obama’s campaign, like Bush’s in 2004, has had months to prepare for a general election contest against Romney. Obama advisers assumed from the start of the campaign a year ago that Romney would be their likely opponent and have been attacking him for months, though not with much paid advertising. That is expected soon.

Obama’s campaign also has stockpiled its cash for this moment. That puts Romney, who needs to replenish his bank account, at an obvious disadvantage at the start of the general election. But he has one asset that Kerry could not count on eight years ago, which is the existence of super PACs that can help to provide cover for the Republican candidate as his campaign seeks to replenish its bank account and expand its fundraising capacity for the general election.

Romney also has to do two things at the same time: unite a party whose conservatives still regard him with some suspicion and move to the middle to make up ground lost during the primaries. His deficit among women is particularly large. The speed with which his campaign began to address that problem since Santorum dropped out showed not only that his team sees it as a problem but also that the campaign is prepared to act immediately to try to correct it.

All of that explains the sense of urgency in Boston and Chicago. “The loser of this period can still go on to win the election,” Devine said. “But the loser of this period is more likely to lose the election.”

Una donación generosa te abre las puertas de la Casa Blanca

The New York Times señala que Washington DC funciona exactamente igual que antes del Hope and Change:

Although Mr. Obama has made a point of not accepting contributions from registered lobbyists, a review of campaign donations and White House visitor logs shows that special interests have had little trouble making themselves heard. Many of the president’s biggest donors, while not lobbyists, took lobbyists with them to the White House, while others performed essentially the same function on their visits.

More broadly, the review showed that those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20 percent visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records. But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75 percent. Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times.

The reasons someone might have gained access to the White House and made a donation are wide-ranging, and it is clear that in some cases the administration came down against the policies being sought by the visitors. But the regular appearance of big donors inside the White House underscores how political contributions continue to lubricate many of the interactions between officials and their guests, if for no other reason than that donors view the money as useful for getting a foot in the door.

Some of the donors had no previous record of giving to the president or his party, or of making donations of such magnitude, so their gifts, sometimes given in close proximity to meetings, raise questions about whether they came with expectations of access or were expressions of gratitude.

Dr. William C. Mohlenbrock, chairman of a health care data analysis firm, Verras Ltd., gave occasionally to political candidates over the years, mostly small amounts to Republicans. But last May he contributed the maximum allowable gift, $35,800, to the Obama Victory Fund, which benefits the president’s campaign and the Democratic Party. Later in the year, with help from a Democratic consultant, he landed a meeting with a top White House aide involved in the health care overhaul, but failed to persuade Medicare officials to require more health data collection as part of the new regulations.

Joe E. Kiani, who heads a medical device company, Masimo Corporation, stepped up his giving to Democrats last year as medical device makers campaigned unsuccessfully for the repeal of an excise tax imposed on the industry. Mr. Kiani had several meetings with White House officials last year, including two with lobbyists from his company and another with representatives from his industry’s trade association. In the midst of these gatherings, he donated $35,800 to the victory fund.

(...) Although those in office invariably deny it, the notion that access is available at a price is a well-founded reality of Washington. Memorably, President Nixon was caught on tape remarking that $250,000 should be the minimum donation for an ambassadorship. The Clinton White House offered major donors coffees with the president or sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom. More recently, Republicans in Congress have raised questions about whether Democratic donors who invested in the solar energy company Solyndra and other troubled firms influenced the administration’s support of those businesses, pointing to White House visits and other official contacts. The administration denies there was any wrongdoing.

At a minimum, it is standard for administrations to recognize generous supporters with sought-after invitations to special events. The Obama White House logs are filled with the names of donors welcomed for St. Patrick’s Day receptions, Super Bowl parties and concerts. Last year, several major Democratic donors rounded out the guest list for a film screening with the first lady.

But in addition to social events, business is also carried out in the White House and its executive offices. The logs suggest some Obama fund-raisers and donors have been trafficking in ties they forged to the administration, helping clients get a seat at the table.

(...) Noah Mamet, another veteran Democratic fund-raiser and consultant, emphasizes on his firm’s Web site that he and his partners “are not lobbyists.” Instead, they help their clients “strategically navigate the worlds of politics, philanthropy and business.” Mr. Mamet, who donated $35,800 last year, and his partners have visited the Obama White House more than a dozen times, including at least four occasions on which they accompanied clients to meetings with administration officials. Mr. Mamet declined to comment.

Lamell McMorris, a Chicago native and longtime Obama supporter who appears in White House visitor logs 20 times, runs a Washington consulting firm that, as recently as last year, was registered to lobby. He also operates a sports management company, and has taken clients like the football player Cam Newton and the New Jersey Nets guard Anthony Morrow to the White House for private tours. Mr. McMorris did not reply to requests for comment.

(...) David Beier, who oversees government affairs at the pharmaceutical company Amgen, has had nearly a dozen meetings at the White House, according to the visitor logs. On a single day in February last year, Mr. Beier, Amgen’s chief executive, Kevin W. Sharer, and lobbyists from the Podesta Group, the firm led by the Democratic fund-raiser Tony Podesta, had four meetings with top White House officials, including Ms. Jarrett, Pete Rouse and Austan Goolsbee. Mr. Beier — who was registered to lobby for Amgen for 10 years until last year — donated $35,800 in January, his largest such contribution. The donation came two weeks after he and Mr. Podesta visited the White House for another meeting with an economic official.

Marco Rubio: no voy a ser Vicepresidente

Entrevistado por Iscar Blanco en Voz de América.

Rasmussen Daily

Rasmussen:

Election 2012 matchup:

Mitt Romney 48%
Barack Obama 43%

President's job performance:

45% approve
52% disapprove

Survey of 1,500 likely voters was conducted April 11-13, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel.

Rasmussen: Obama y Romney en el cajón de salida

Como ya parece claro que Romney será el rival de Obama en noviembre, empezaré a publicar cada día los resultados del tracking poll (encuesta repetida a intervalos regulares, en este caso a diario) de likely voters (votantes probables) de Rasmussen para hacer un seguimiento constante del duelo entre el Presidente y el ex Gobernador de Massachusetts.

La encuesta sufrirá variaciones constantes y todavía no nos pondrá nada en claro sobre el resultado final que se dará en noviembre. Así que no os obsesionéis demasiado con ello. Lo interesante es ir viendo tendencias, si han tenido una buena o mala semana, si la línea argumental de la campaña en los últimos días le ha venido mejor a uno u otro, el impacto de la actualidad en la intención de voto, etc.

Scott Rasmussen nos da algunas claves sobre la situación de cada candidato en el cajón de salida:

The most important indicator of the president's prospects will be his job-approval rating. That rating will be very close to his share of the vote on Election Day. In 2004, President George W. Bush had a 51 percent job approval rating and won 51 percent of the vote.

Obama's ratings suggest we are heading for a potentially very close race in November. For the past 32 months, the full month approval ratings for the president have been remarkably stable, holding to a very narrow range of 44 percent to 49 percent. People seem to have formed an opinion of the president, love him or hate him, and nothing can change their minds. Those who oppose the president tend to feel more strongly about it than those who support him.

For most of the past three years, the president's ratings have stayed in an even narrower band of 46 percent to 48 percent. Those numbers suggest Obama would earn just under 50 percent of the vote on Election Day. If the president can win over a few more voters and move those numbers up a bit in the coming months, he is very likely to keep his job. If the president's ratings falter, Romney is likely to be moving into the White House next January.

Economic concerns dominate the voters' agenda, and here the numbers for the president are more troubling. Forty-nine percent of the nation's voters trust Romney more than the president when it comes to the economy. Just 39 percent trust Obama more.

That double-digit advantage for Romney is consistent with other data showing a general lack of confidence in the president's economic policies. Only 37 percent give him positive reviews for his handling of the economy so far.

Middle-income voters are especially likely to have more confidence in Romney. Obama does best among those who earn less than $20,000 a year and those who earn more than $100,000 annually.

Especially troubling for the White House is the fact that 20 percent of Democrats trust Romney more than Obama on this core issue.

On other issues, however, Romney and Obama are essentially even. This includes health care, taxes, national security and energy.

Still, in a year when economic concerns trump all other issues, these numbers represent a good starting point for Romney. But what really matters is how voters feel in November. If the economy improves between now and then, confidence in the president's economic policies -- and his job approval ratings -- are sure to improve as well, and he'll be much tougher for Romney to beat.

Un anónimo donó 10 millones a American Crossroads

The Washington Post:

An anonymous donor gave $10 million late last year to run ads attacking President Obama and Democratic policies, escalating the money race that is defining the 2012 presidential campaign. And in the new, free-wheeling environment of independent political giving, the identity of this donor, like many others, is likely to remain a permanent mystery.

The donation went to Crossroads GPS, the conservative nonprofit group founded with the support of political strategist Karl Rove. Another donor gave $10 million in the 2010 midterm elections, according to draft tax returns that provide the first detailed look at its finances.

Crossroads GPS would not identify the donors, who could be individuals, corporations or other interest groups, and under tax and campaign laws, it is not required to disclose them. It is possible that both $10 million donations come from the same source.

The huge contributions, which make the donors among the top political givers in recent history, offer new evidence of the altered world of campaign finance: After the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, spending by interest groups has risen dramatically.

Romney corteja a la Asociación Nacional del Rifle (NRA)

Al Gobernador Mitt Romney le ha tocado hoy reverenciar a la National Rifle Association (NRA) en su conferencia anual en St. Louis. Aunque Romney está afiliado a la NRA desde 2006 y, por tanto, no debería tener problemas en hacerse con el importante apoyo de la organización, los propietarios de armas se han mostrado hasta ahora escépticos con su candidatura por su antiguo apoyo a la enmienda Brady (que establecía un tiempo de espera de cinco días entre la adquisición de un arma y la entrega por parte del vendedor) cuando fue candidato al Senado en 1994, y querían que les tranquilizara con una inequívoca declaración de apoyo a la Segunda Enmienda y la promesa de no apoyar nuevas regulaciones. Y es lo que ha hecho.

"Necesitamos un Presidente que refuerce las leyes actuales, no que cree leyes nuevas que solo sirven para poner cargas sobre los propietarios legales de armas. El Presidente Obama no lo ha hecho; yo lo haré.

"Necesitamos un Presidente que defienda los derechos de cazadores, deportistas, y aquellos que buscan proteger sus hogares y sus familias. El Presidente Obama no lo ha hecho; yo lo haré.

"Y si vamos a salvaguardar nuestra Segunda Enmienda, es hora de elegir a un Presidente que defenderá los derechos que el Presidente Obama ignora o minimiza. Yo lo haré."

La filosofía constitucional de un Presidente suele ser la única garantía que se tiene sobre cómo actuará en relación a temas como la posesión de armas o el aborto, y en ese sentido, el Gobernador ha dejado claro que para él la Constitución es algo eterno y definido, frente a la filosofía liberal que cree en ella como algo en evolución y sujeto a politización.

Ha denunciado el asalto de esta administración contra las libertades (la libertad económica, la libertad religiosa y la libertad personal), y ha advertido del impacto que puede tener un segundo mandato de Obama en los tribunales. Si en su primer mandato ha intimidado al Tribunal Supremo, en un segundo mandato tratará de rehacer el tribunal, según Romney.

Ocho Presidentes han sido miembros de la NRA: Ulysses Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan y George Bush padre. Aunque el de este último es un caso curioso; en 1988 pagó 500 dólares para ser miembro, pero en 1992 la organziación le negó su apoyo y él renunció a la membresía. Tampoco apoyaron a Dole en 1996. Al que sí apoyaron entusiásticamente fue a George W. Bush, que admitió que sin ellos no hubiera podido derrotar a Gore en Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas y Tennessee.

Aunque tiene siglo y medio de antigüedad, fue fundada en 1871, no fue hasta 1980 cuando la NRA adoptó una posición más activista en las elecciones, con su endorsement a Reagan en el número de octubre de aquel año de la revista American Rifleman. Dos años después, Reagan se convirtió en el primer Presidente en ejercicio que intervenía en una conferencia anual de la NRA (ver el discurso). Desde entonces, la conferencia está en la agenda de todos los candidatos y Presidentes republicanos, y de algún demócrata como, por ejemplo, Bill Richardson en 2008.

Obama en Tampa, Florida

De camino a la Cumbre de las Américas en Colombia, el Presidente Barack Obama ha hecho una breve parada en Tampa, su segunda parada de la semana en Florida, para anunciar medidas para favorecer los negocios de las pequeñas y medianas empresas con América Latina.

Otro evento no electoral.