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The latest VSS survey reveals that 21 percent of African-Americans surveyed
in Florida intend to cast a ballot for Mitt Romney on Nov. 6.

A series of polls recently conducted in Florida show that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is leading President Barack Obama by between one and six percentage points 10 days ahead of the Nov. 6 presidential contest.

The latest survey conducted by Voter Survey Service (VSS) between Oct. 22 and Oct. 24 indicated that the former Massachusetts governor would garner the support of 51 percent of the Sunshine State voters were the presidential election held today, while Mr. Obama would receive 46 percent of the votes. A total of 1,001 likely voters took part in the VSS poll.

Other surveys conducted recently put the Republican nominee in pole position. These include polls carried out by CNN (49 vs. 48 percent), Public Policy Polling (48 vs. 47 percent), Rasmussen (52 vs. 46 percent), and Newsmax (48 vs. 42 percent).

VSS President Jim Lee notes that the three presidential debates have greatly benefited the Republican candidate.

“Basically, Romney is winning this race, and the poll confirms the debates have had a big impact on his recent surge,” he says. Indeed, while only 12 percent of the respondents acknowledge that the debates have influenced their voting decision, 40 percent of them admit to deserting Mr. Obama for Mr. Romney, whereas a mere 22 percent are now intending to cast a ballot for the incumbent president.

In addition, Mr. Lee points out that Mr. Romney is trusted by twice as many voters as Mr. Obama when it comes to job creation, while the former governor registers a seven (7) percentage point advantage over his Democratic opponent (51 percent vs. 44 percent) over international issues. The VSS president stresses that Mr. Romney‘s current advantage is significant “because national polling earlier this year showed Obama had stolen the long GOP-held honor of the party best able to fight terrorism and deal with international issues.”

The VSS survey also shows that the Republican nominee enjoys a 15 percentage-point advantage over Mr. Obama among male voters, whereas the latter holds a five (5) percentage-point lead among female voters.

Surprisingly, the poll found that one in five (21 percent) of the respondents describing themselves as African-Americans intend to support the Republican candidate this time round.

“This would suggest perhaps Obama won’t be on track to get 95 percent of the black vote this time, but only 90 percent or even less,” Mr. Lee points out.

Still, Susan Macmanus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, warns that the outcome of the contest will be very much dependent upon voters making the effort to cast their ballot, even though recent surveys suggest Mr. Romney will win the Sunshine State.

“Polls can never predict turnout,” she emphasizes.

Finally, according to Florida’s Division of Elections, 1.05 million absentee ballots have been sent by voters so far. Among these, 468,417 are from registered Republicans and 414,343 are from registered Democrats.

Mitt Romney has pledged to brand China a currency manipulator if he gets elected on Nov. 6.
Photo: Getty.

The latest Pew Research Center survey published on Oct. 18 shows that American voters would like the Obama administration to get tougher on China with regard to economic and trade issues. Eighteen months ago, the American public favored a more diplomatic approach with the Middle Kingdom.

The new survey found that 49 percent of those questioned favored a tougher stance against China over economic issues, whereas 42 percent felt it would be more beneficial in the long run if the United States pursued a stronger economic relationship with Beijing. Back in March 2011, 53 percent felt it was more important to develop stronger economic ties with China, while 40 percent wanted the U.S. to toughen up the bilateral relationship. The proportion of Republicans who share former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney‘s hard-line stance against Beijing has jumped from 54 percent 18 months ago to 65 percent today. In contrast, the majority (53 percent) of Democratic voters still consider stronger economic relations with Beijing the right way forward.

During a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday, Mr. Romney strongly criticized Mr. Obama for delaying the release of a report expected to indicate that China ought to be branded a currency manipulator and accused him of “passing the buck.” The Republican nominee pledged to act to protect American interests as soon as he is elected.

“We’re going to make sure that when people cheat – and China’s been cheating – we’re not going to let it go on,” Mr. Romney said. The former governor has already denounced Beijing for maintaining its currency artificially low in order to keep the goods it produces competitive and, in the process, boost its exports.

“I’m not going to just pass on that. On day one, I will label China a currency manipulator. We’re going to get serious about making sure people don’t cheat when it comes to trade,” he added.

In this latest poll, the Pew Research Center refers to an earlier survey published in September which also showed that the American public was concerned about the unbalanced relationship between the two countries. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of those questioned at the time stated that the amount of U.S. debt held by China was worrisome (87 percent of Republican voters shared this view), while 71 percent expressed unease at the loss of American jobs to the Middle Kingdom. Sixty-one percent (61%) thought the U.S. trade deficit with China was of concern.

Source: Pew Research Center, April 30-May 13, 2012.

The new survey also revealed that 50 percent of voters were concerned about cyber attacks emanating from China.

This latest poll, which was conducted between Oct. 4 and Oct. 7, reflects the views of 1,511 adults.

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. Photo: Mustafa El-Shridi / Reuters.

The way the Obama administration reacted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, has seriously affected the electorate’s opinion of the incumbent president’s handling of foreign policy issues according to the latest Fox News survey.

Although the new poll found that the majority of the respondents said that they still trusted Mr. Obama more than Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on this issue (49 vs. 43 percent), the president’s lead has more than halved over the past four weeks. Indeed, 54 percent of the participants told Fox News in early September that foreign policy issues were more likely to be handled adequately by Mr. Obama, while 39 percent of those questioned felt Mr. Romney would do a better job.

The Obama administration originally claimed that the ‘unrest’ had been caused by the release of a controversial film about Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Obama eventually acknowledged that terror groups were behind the slaying of four diplomatic personnel including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The Romney campaign sharply criticized the Obama administration on Wednesday for not telling the nation the truth about last month’s ransacking of the Libyan diplomatic compound.

“With each passing day, we learn more about the ways in which the Obama Administration misled the American people about the tragic events that transpired in the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012,” Lanhee Chen, the former Massachusetts governor’s policy director said in a statement.

However, Mr. Obama told ABC on Wednesday that the information concerning the death of the four diplomats had been released in good faith.

“The information may not have always been right the first time. And as soon as it turns out that we have a fuller picture of what happened, then that was disclosed. But the bottom line is that my job is to let everybody know I want to know what happened. I want us to get the folks who did it, and I want us to figure out what are the lessons learned and ask the tough questions to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Mr. Obama told ABC’s Diane Sawyer.

During a congressional hearing this week, Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya, stated that he had asked for more security resources to protect the compound and that his request had been rejected by the State Department. However, it later emerged that he had in fact attempted to prevent the number of security staff from being slashed.

In this new video, a Ron Paul supporter tells Mitt Romney that he will need
Paul supporters to defeat President Barack Obama.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul‘s supporters released a new video on Wednesday which features a voter questioning Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney back in January 2012 about his strategy to convince Dr. Paul‘s backers to vote for him. The 85-second video, entitled”A Reminder to Mitt Romney From Ron Paul,” also features conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham.

“If you win the nomination, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have our support in November – but you’re going to need it to defeat Obama,” Dr. Paul‘s supporter states. “[…] we have questions about your free market principles. How do you plan to get us on board with you and convincing us that you and Obama aren’t just different sides of the same coin?,” he then asks.

Although the former Massachusetts governor’s answer is not shown in this video, he did point out that, unlike the president, he would take the nation in the right direction. He also highlighted that, like Dr. Paul, he wished to cut federal spending and balance the budget.

The second part of the video features Laura Ingraham, who pointed out on her radio program three weeks ago that defeating Mr. Obama should not be a major challenge considering the state of the U.S. economy, the high level of unemployment and his legacy as a whole.

“If you can’t beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down, start new, with new people. Because this is a give-me election, or at least it should be,” she remarks. She also criticizes the Republicans for using the same political ‘professionals,’ who keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

“I keep going back to the millions and millions and millions of dollars that are paid to these political consultants. Election after election, we hire people who’ve lost previous campaigns, who’ve run campaigns that have failed. […] And they keep getting re-hired. I don’t understand that,” she adds.

President Obama told CBS's Steve Kroft that the recent events in North Africa,
the Middle East and Asia were just bumps in the road.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney strongly criticized President Barack Obama after he suggested on Monday that the unrest and numerous deaths in North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia were simply “bumps in the road.” Mr. Obama was speaking on CBS’s 60 Minutes program.

“Have recent events in the Middle East given you any pause about your support for the governments that have come to power following the Arab Spring?” CBS anchor Steve Kroft asked Mr. Obama.

“Well, I’d said even at the time that this is going to be a rocky path. The question presumes that somehow we could have stopped this wave of change. I think it was absolutely the right thing for us to do to align ourselves with democracy, universal rights, a notion that people have to be able to participate in their own governance. But I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road because, you know, in a lot of these places, the one organizing principle has been Islam,” Mr. Obama replied.

Speaking in Pueblo, Colorado, Mr. Romney slammed the incumbent president’s foreign policy record and strongly criticized his callous assessment of the widespread opposition to America throughout the Islamic world.

“Bumps in the road? We had an ambassador assassinated, twenty thousand people have been killed in Syria. We have tumult in Pakistan. And, of course, Iran is that much closer to having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon. These are not bumps in the road. These are human lives,” the former Massachusetts governor told his supporters. Mr. Romney also suggested that a true president should be an ‘actor’ and not merely a ‘witness’ to the current developments.

“This is time for a president who will shape events in the Middle East, not just be at the mercy of the events of the Middle East,” Mr. Romney emphasized.

Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said that the Republican nominee had deliberately taken the president’s comments out of context.

“He’s purposely misinterpreting the president’s words and making reckless statements about the death of four Americans in Libya, apparently for the sole purpose of his own political gain. Using this incident to launch political attacks should be beneath someone seeking to be our nation’s Commander-in-Chief,” she stated.

Chris Stevens and three other diplomats lost their lives when the U.S. consulate was attacked in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11.

President Barack Obama told a Loyola University audience in 1998 that he believed
in the redistribution of wealth. Photo: C-SPAN.

An audio recording posted on YouTube on Tuesday and thought to date back to October 1998 features President Barack Obama telling his audience that the supports the “redistribution” of wealth. Such a policy, usually associated with communism, can be achieved through various means including taxation, monetary policies, welfare, and the nationalization of private industries among other things. According to the information published on the social media website, Mr. Obama gave this speech at Loyola University in Chicago.

“I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution – at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot,” President Obama is heard telling his audience.

Mr. Obama also criticizes those who have worked hard to convince the American public that government intervention is ineffective, although he admits that in some cases such accusations actually have a foundation.

“I don’t think it’s too strong to call it a propaganda campaign against the possibility of government action and its efficacy, and I think some of it has been deserved,” he says on the recording, before quoting the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago public schools as poor models “of good policy making.” Mr. Obama then suggests that the policies used to achieve wealth redistribution need to be tweaked for them to achieve their objectives.

“[…] as we try to resuscitate this notion that we’re all in this thing together – leave nobody behind – we do have to be innovative in thinking what are the delivery systems that are actually effective and meet people where they live,” the president stresses.

This audio was published a few days after Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was heard suggesting that Obama voters were basically freeloaders and “victims” and, as such, believed that they deserved all the entitlements they could get from the federal government.

Later, Mr. Romney acknowledged that he had not been particularly sensitive when he expressed his point of view, although he stressed that he was standing by his comments.

“It [was] not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I was speaking off the cuff in response to a question,” he said during a hastily arranged news conference on Monday night.

On Tuesday, Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan stated that the former Massachusetts governor’s remarks were “obviously inarticulate.”

The latest CNN / Opinion Research poll reveals that Mr. Obama's lead over Mr. Romney is widening. Photo: stylemagazine.com.

The bounce in the polls President Barack Obama is currently enjoying following the Democratic National Convention is nothing more than a ‘blip,’ according to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney‘s senior pollster.

“Don’t get too worked up about the latest polling. While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly,” Neil Newhouse emphasized in a memo on Monday in the wake of several polls suggesting that President Barack Obama‘s lead was widening.

Mr. Newhouse attempted to reassure Mr. Romney‘s supporters by pointing out that the economy, which remains weak, was still the number-one concern of the majority of American voters. On Friday, the Department of Labor confirmed that August had seen the creation of a mere 96,000 jobs, whereas the consensus among analysts was that an additional 123,000 new jobs would be added last month. Mr. Newhouse remains convinced that poor job numbers will continue to overshadow Mr. Obama‘s achievements and popularity in other areas.

“The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race,” he wrote, before highlighting that the incumbent president found himself in a particularly precarious position less than two months ahead of the Nov. 6 election.

“President Obama is the only president in modern American history to stand before the American people asking for re-election with this many Americans struggling to find work. The key numbers in this election are the 43 straight months of 8% or higher unemployment, the 23 million Americans struggling to find work, and the 47 million Americans who are on food stamps,” he insisted.

Mr. Newhouse also pointed out that Mr. Romney benefited from a huge financial advantage, even though the president had outraised him last month. Indeed, reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday show that the Democrats raised $114 million dollars in August, whereas the former Massachusetts governor raked in $111.6 million. Still, the Republicans ended the month with $168.5 million cash on hand.

“All of this is not possible without resources, and the Romney-Ryan campaign and the Republican Party have a real advantage,” he reminded Romney supporters.

Source: CNN / Opinion Research, Sept. 7-9, 2012.

The most recent survey conducted by CNN and Opinion Research between Sept. 7 and Sept. 9 found that Mr. Obama currently garners the support of 52 percent of voters, while Mr. Romney is the favorite of 46 percent of the electorate. The poll was entirely conducted following last week’s Democratic National Convention.

Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan told supporters on Labor Day that
President Obama's record was worse than Jimmy Carter's. Photo: AP.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan asked voters on Labor Day to think back to 2008 and ask themselves whether they were better off today than they were four years ago. He believes that the answer should be a resounding ‘no’.

“You see, the president has no record to run on. In fact, every president since the Great Depression who asked Americans to send them into a second term could say that you are better off today than you were four years ago, except for Jimmy Carter and for President Barack Obama,” Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney‘s running mate said.

Mr. Ryan then went on to compare Mr. Obama‘s record to Gerald Ford‘s successor’s, highlighting that the last four years had been even more disastrous for the nation than the Carter years. Indeed, Mr. Ryan said, many more firms had had to close their doors since the president entered the White House than had been the case during Mr. Carter’s four-year term. Furthermore, the Obama administration’s policies had caused a significant amount of damage to the domestic housing market, he added.

“In 1980, under Jimmy Carter, 330,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy. Last year, under President Obama‘s failed leadership, 1.4 million businesses filed for bankruptcy,” Congressman Ryan said. “Take a look at people who are having a hard time making their mortgage payments, 77,000 delinquent mortgages by the time Jimmy Carter left office. Under President Obama three million,” he added.

As the Democratic National Convention gets under way on Tuesday, the Democrats maintain that the economy has been improving steadily of late, although this come as little comfort to those millions of Americans who have lost their jobs since the financial crisis began or to those 40 or so millions who are currently relying on food stamps to survive. The official unemployment rate has been above eight percent (8%) now for the past 42 weeks.

“The truth is that under the President‘s leadership, we’ve gone from losing 800,000 jobs a month to adding 4.5 million jobs over the last 29 months of private sector job growth,” Danny Kanner of the Obama campaign said.

The Republicans have already indicated that they would continue to point out that Mr. Obama, who will accept his party’s nomination on Thursday, was not qualified to lead the nation out of the abyss.