Why is this man smiling?

[johnhp]

Of course it's not true - the "would" makes the request a hypothetical.

--No, the "would" makes the request conditional. (Government school grad by any chance flyboy?)

This is why Mornac should never snark:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conditional

Hypothetical and conditional coincide.  flyboy used the term correctly and Mornac as usual went out of his way to be an ass.

[Mornac]

Election 2012: Generic Presidential Ballot
Generic Republican Candidate 46%, Obama 42%

June 28, 2011

A generic Republican candidate now holds a four-point lead over President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup. It's a fifth week in a row that the GOP candidate has been ahead and the widest gap between the candidates to date. 

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds a generic Republican candidate earns support from 46% of Likely U.S. Voters, while the president picks up 42% of the vote.  Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last week, the Republican held a 45% to 43% advantage. In weekly surveys since the beginning of May, support for Obama has ranged from 42% to 45%, while the Republican has earned 43% to 46% of the vote. Rasmussen Reports will provide new data on this generic matchup each week until the field of prospective Republican nominees narrows to a few serious contenders. 

Republicans also hold a seven-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, June 26. Republicans have led on this ballot every week since June 2009.

The survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted on June 20-26, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. 

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the race for the Republican nomination, but Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has surged into second place following the June 13 GOP debate.

In every matchup tested so far this year against named GOP challengers, the president’s support has stayed between 42% and 49%. An incumbent who earns support below 50% is generally considered politically vulnerable. The president’s total job approval ratings are a good indicator of what percentage of the vote he may earn in the 2012 presidential race.  Aside from a brief bounce in support following the killing of Osama bin Laden, Obama’s approval ratings have hovered in the high 40s for the past 18 months. 

Eighty-four percent (84%) of GOP voters support a generic candidate from their party, while almost as many Democrats (81%) favor Obama. Voters not affiliated with either political party prefer the Republican 42% to 37%. 

Male voters prefer the Republican by 12 points; female voters give a three-point edge to Obama. Voters under the age of 30 favor the incumbent, while middle-aged voters are evenly divided. Voters over 50 support the Republican.

Ninety-five percent (95%) of black voters favor Obama, while 53% of whites support the Republican. Voters of other races are evenly divided.

Conservatives (79%) overwhelmingly support the Republican, while 81% of liberals - and a plurality (49%) of moderates - favor Obama.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of the Political Class back the president, but 54% of Mainstream voters like the Republican instead. 

Voters are more willing than ever to elect a woman president, and most think there’s a good chance a woman will win the White House in the next 10 years.

Nearly half of U.S. voters give Obama poor marks for his handling of the economy, but he continues to earn higher respect for his performance in the area of national security. Almost as many (44%) give him positive marks on his leadership, though.

Most voters still want to repeal the national health care law, and confidence that the law will improve the quality of health care has fallen to a new low.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/generic_presidential_ballot/election_2012_generic_presidential_ballot

[Mornac]

Analysis: Confidence in Obama's leadership shaken
By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:12pm EDT
 
(Reuters) - A spree of bad news -- market gyrations, fears of a double-dip recession, stubborn unemployment and fallout from a debt deal -- has shaken confidence in President Barack Obama's leadership and could cloud his chances for winning re-election.

Obama is seeking a second term in office in an election that is still far off -- November 2012. But a persistently weak economy coupled with rising perception of political dysfunction in Washington could complicate his political fortunes.

The political spectacle that preceded a bipartisan deal this month to raise the debt ceiling and the subsequent downgrading of America's credit rating by a leading rating agency have spawned stories in the media about America's decline as a world power on Obama's watch.

And opinion polls show that Obama's job approval ratings are edging downward even as members of his own Democratic Party grumble about his leadership and fault his willingness to make concessions to opposition Republicans in Congress.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll Wednesday found that 73 percent of Americans believe the country is off on the wrong track.

This was the highest reading since October 2008 when the financial crisis was raging and just weeks before voters turned away from the Republican Party of then-President George W. Bush to put Obama into the White House.

"It is hard to imagine public optimism being more negative about the economy than it is right now. ... In terms of pubic opinion he has got a huge hill to climb," said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

"I think Americans would like to re-elect the first African American president, but ultimately the presidential election is a referendum on performance," she said.

Obama also faces a daily drumbeat of criticism from the field of Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination to face him in the 2012 general election. The field grows this week with Texas Governor Rick Perry, seen as a potential tough challenger, set to join the race Saturday.

MARKET TURMOIL

There have been huge swings in the markets this week. The Dow Jones industrial average has swung hundreds of points in either direction amid concern over the economy, the debt crisis in Europe and the U.S. credit downgrade.

"The debt ceiling fiasco and the downgrade, punctuated by ... stock market gyrations, has made something in me snap," said Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "It's the sound of confidence in Obama's leadership breaking," he wrote in Friday's Washington Post."

"The president has failed up until now to produce a coherent explanation about where we are and what we need to do that Americans can understand," said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

Obama has promised to deliver a steady stream of good ideas to lift hiring, and will head out on a three-day bus tour of the Midwest Monday to talk about his vision.

But so far he has only renewed calls for action on a batch of measures that he has talked about for months, including the extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment aid.

In the meantime, Americans have been worried by the recent turmoil that has been reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis, with stock prices down by 10 percent from last month amid concern over another recession.

Christina Romer, a former top Obama economic advisor, said the risk of a recession has increased and urged the president to think big about a program that could create the hundreds of thousands of jobs that she says the economy needs.

"He has a unique opportunity now to really make the case to the American people. Congress is home and it is a chance for him to try to build consensus around a bold alternative," said Romer, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. The Congress is on summer recess.

Lawmakers agreed to raise the debt ceiling in return for measures to lower the deficit.

They will convene a special committee to examine reforms of the tax code and government programs like the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly. But Republicans say that big government spending, which is what unnerved markets in Europe, is not the solution.

"The need we face is for structural reform, not stimulus," said Glenn Hubbard, a former top economic adviser to Bush. "Making credible long-term improvements in the nation's fiscal position can have powerful short-term effects by lessening uncertainty about future tax burdens."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/us-obama-leadership-idUSTRE77B5G920110812?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true

[ivanm]

Analysis: Confidence in Obama's leadership shaken
By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:12pm EDT
 
(Reuters) - A spree of bad news -- market gyrations, fears of a double-dip recession, stubborn unemployment and fallout from a debt deal -- has shaken confidence in President Barack Obama's leadership and could cloud his chances for winning re-election.

Obama is seeking a second term in office in an election that is still far off -- November 2012. But a persistently weak economy coupled with rising perception of political dysfunction in Washington could complicate his political fortunes.

The political spectacle that preceded a bipartisan deal this month to raise the debt ceiling and the subsequent downgrading of America's credit rating by a leading rating agency have spawned stories in the media about America's decline as a world power on Obama's watch.

And opinion polls show that Obama's job approval ratings are edging downward even as members of his own Democratic Party grumble about his leadership and fault his willingness to make concessions to opposition Republicans in Congress.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll Wednesday found that 73 percent of Americans believe the country is off on the wrong track.

This was the highest reading since October 2008 when the financial crisis was raging and just weeks before voters turned away from the Republican Party of then-President George W. Bush to put Obama into the White House.

"It is hard to imagine public optimism being more negative about the economy than it is right now. ... In terms of pubic opinion he has got a huge hill to climb," said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

"I think Americans would like to re-elect the first African American president, but ultimately the presidential election is a referendum on performance," she said.

Obama also faces a daily drumbeat of criticism from the field of Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination to face him in the 2012 general election. The field grows this week with Texas Governor Rick Perry, seen as a potential tough challenger, set to join the race Saturday.

MARKET TURMOIL

There have been huge swings in the markets this week. The Dow Jones industrial average has swung hundreds of points in either direction amid concern over the economy, the debt crisis in Europe and the U.S. credit downgrade.

"The debt ceiling fiasco and the downgrade, punctuated by ... stock market gyrations, has made something in me snap," said Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "It's the sound of confidence in Obama's leadership breaking," he wrote in Friday's Washington Post."

"The president has failed up until now to produce a coherent explanation about where we are and what we need to do that Americans can understand," said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

Obama has promised to deliver a steady stream of good ideas to lift hiring, and will head out on a three-day bus tour of the Midwest Monday to talk about his vision.

But so far he has only renewed calls for action on a batch of measures that he has talked about for months, including the extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment aid.

In the meantime, Americans have been worried by the recent turmoil that has been reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis, with stock prices down by 10 percent from last month amid concern over another recession.

Christina Romer, a former top Obama economic advisor, said the risk of a recession has increased and urged the president to think big about a program that could create the hundreds of thousands of jobs that she says the economy needs.

"He has a unique opportunity now to really make the case to the American people. Congress is home and it is a chance for him to try to build consensus around a bold alternative," said Romer, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. The Congress is on summer recess.

Lawmakers agreed to raise the debt ceiling in return for measures to lower the deficit.

They will convene a special committee to examine reforms of the tax code and government programs like the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly. But Republicans say that big government spending, which is what unnerved markets in Europe, is not the solution.

"The need we face is for structural reform, not stimulus," said Glenn Hubbard, a former top economic adviser to Bush. "Making credible long-term improvements in the nation's fiscal position can have powerful short-term effects by lessening uncertainty about future tax burdens."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/us-obama-leadership-idUSTRE77B5G920110812?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true

How can he lead anyone to the trough when he is out of money? The old gravy train has ground to a halt so now he wants to borrow a few trilion between now and election time to get it started back up.

[Mornac]

[Mornac]

[foodserver]

Wow!  This is new ground!  To put this in perspective, take away Obama's 81-95% support from the brothers and sisters and you're in George Bush Territory.  

Let's have the election today!    I know why this man is smiling.

[IM2]

Another Rassmussen poll. More invalid data.