Romney Triumphs in Europe; Obama Visits Ohio - The Road to the White House - Election 2012 - Week 31

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Saturday, 04 August 2012 22:37

Written by Janet Walker

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Presumptive Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney returned from Europe triumphant securing the endorsement of former Polish President and Nobel Prize winner Lech Walsea.

Romney, who stumbled through the initial London leg of his six day trip, seemed to recover during the last two stopovers in Poland and Israel. Romney, with the support of Walsea, effectively gained the potential of America’s Polish voters supporting the former governor by following Walsea’s lead.

According to Gallup, as of August 4, 2012 among registered voters President Obama’s national popularity gained a single percentage point this week to 47% and Mitt Romney’s national popularity declined one percentage point to 45%.

President Obama’s current overall ratings, according to Gallup, dropped two single percentage points over the past week to 45% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness remained at 48%.

In Israel, Romney’s remarks were as expected in support of the Jewish State and its right to defend itself against all enemies. A deep pocket fundraiser was held netting one million dollars for Romney’s campaign. As in Poland, the America Jewish vote is critical to Romney’s election.

Romney has yet to make any official or unofficial announcement regarding his choice of running mate. Although from all sources two possible candidates, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget and Florida’s Junior Senator, Marco Rubio are being vetted. Romany’s short list also includes Ohio’s Senator Bob Portman and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Obama Campaigns in Mansfield, Ohio

President Obama campaigned in Mansfield, Ohio on Wednesday, telling the people that he is truly the champion of the middle class. Knowing Mansfield, and its deepening economic woes, it will take more than a champion to restore it to its former glory days, a thriving middle class backbone situated between Cleveland and Columbus. Mansfield is now the home to outsourced manufacturing jobs and empty industrial plants like Westinghouse, Mansfield Tire and Rubber, General Motors in Ontario and the barely surviving AK Steel.

A rock solid swing state and home to 18 electoral votes, during the primary process the Buckeye state proved to be a difficult call and a nail biter, even to the presumptive republican presidential candidate Romney, as voters stunned the pundits with .8% win, over the more conservative Santorum, securing Romney a total of 66 delegates in the winner take all race.

Ohio has been a divided state for some time with both parties represented in the Senate. Bordering on the North, Ohio sits between a more liberal eastern seaboard influence and family oriented southern values. And the polls reflect those pendulum swings.

What was once a whistle stop has become a full fledge stop over as President Obama is not the first candidate to stump in Mansfield.  Vice-President Joe Biden during the “Yes We Can” Tour and President Bush before him, in October 2004, both stumped in Central Ohio and even Governor Jerry Brown during his first stint as California Governor and possible Presidential Candidate visited Mansfield and met with local dignitaries and the then Finance Director, L. Norman Walker, my dad.

The Republican National Convention, where delegates will be officially conferred to the candidates and where Mitt Romney will be designated the Republican Presidential Nominee will take place in Tampa Bay, Florida, August 27-30, 2012.

The Democratic National Convention will take place in Charlotte North Carolina, September 3 -6, 2012.

To access the Republican Official Convention site: www.gopconvention2012.com/

To access the Democratic Official Convention site: www.demconvention.com/