It Will Be a Nail Biter But Poll Shows Obama Solid in the Battleground States

From Political Wire


The latest Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll finds President Obama moving slightly ahead of Mitt Romney, 47% to 46%.

However, Obama "maintains a larger advantage in the state-by-state battle that will determine the outcome of the election. Ipsos projects that Obama holds an edge in the most hotly contested states, including Florida, Virginia and Ohio, and is likely to win by a relatively comfortable margin of 322 electoral votes to 206 electoral votes."

Other tracking polls: IBD/TIPP shows Obama up 47% to 45%, Rasmussen shows Romney leading 50% to 46%, Gallup has Romney ahead 51% to 46% and UPI/CVoter has the race tied at 48% to 48%.

Pallone: One Million Additional Young Adults Have Health Coverage Because of the Affordable Care Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. Wednesday announced that new data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the Affordable Care Act has helped one million additional young adults to get health insurance.

“The Affordable Care Act is already improving the lives of America’s families, including one million young people who now enjoy health coverage,” Pallone said. “Young adults 18-25 are most likely to go without health insurance, putting them one emergency room visit away from thousands of dollars in medical bills that would burden them for years to come.”

Specifically, data from the National Health Interview Survey shows that in the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of adults between the ages of 19 and 25 with health insurance increased by 3.5 percentage points, representing approximately 1 million additional young adults with insurance coverage compared to a year ago.

The Affordable Care Act allows most young adults to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until their 26th birthday.

The results from the CDC were also confirmed by a Gallup survey released today. As Gallup concluded, “The provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows children up to the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ plans appears to be having an immediate effect on the number of Americans who report they have health insurance. Since it went into effect in September 2010, the percentage of 18- to 25-year-olds who report being uninsured has significantly declined by four percentage points.”

The under 26 provision is included in the Patient’s Bill of Rights and in addition to covering young people provides other significant patient protections including prohibiting insurers from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, placing lifetime limits on coverage, and denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. All of these reforms are already helping Americans today and must be maintained.

Last week Pallone decried Republican efforts to repeal the Patient’s Bill of Rights.

“This is one of many examples of how health care reform is working for New Jerseyans. Without the Affordable Care Act, thousands of young people in New Jersey would go without health insurance. Their health is too valuable for me to allow them to lose the consumer protections they now enjoy.”

Sunday Must Reading

I've come across a few articles posted on different websites over the past couple of days that should be must reading for those that support the rights of union members, both public and private, to engage in collective barganing.

They deal with what is going on in Wisconsin and public opinion on what's happing, not only in Wisconsin , but also across the country. These posts can be found on Forbes.com's Policy Page blog by Rick Ungar, ThinkProgress.org and from the Washington Post's Plume Line blog by Greg Sargent.

Rick Ungar's post over at Forbes is titled "The Wisconsin Lie Exposed - Tax Payers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employees Pensions" informs us that public employees in Wisconsin fully fund their own pension system... the state adds no tax payer money to the fund contrary to what people have been hearing.

"Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining
agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans.
Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the
impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from
taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and
health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state
workers. "

Over at ThinkProgress they post, "Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About" where they talk about how:

"...Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations, and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class. These lesser known proposals in the 144-page bill reveal how radical Walker’s plan actually is..."

And Finally Greg Sargent's Plume Line post over at the Washington Post, "Public employees not such an easy scapegoat after all" informs us that according to recent Gallup Poll "...Public employees are turning out to be far harder to scapegoat in the public mind than many predicted..."

* Among those who make less than $24,000 annually, 74 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 14 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $24,000 to $59,000, 63 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 33 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $60,000 to $89,000, 53 percent oppose the proposal, versus only 41 percent who favor it.

* Among those who make $90,000 and up, 50 percent favor the proposal, versus 47 percent who oppose it.

Sargent concludes:

"...For all the attention being lavished on the likes of Chris Christie and his supposedly successful formula of targeting public employees as the new "welfare queens," the bigger and more interesting story is that they aren't turning out to be such easy targets, after all."

Take a look at these articles and see what you think, I really believe they are must reads. If the radical right-wing and the GOP are successful in stripping public workers of their rights, it wont be long before they attack private sector worker looking to eliminate overtime, health, pension and other long standing rules.

Poll: President Obama ends first year with 57 percent average approval rating

From The Hill.com

President Barack Obama will round out his first year in office with an average 57 percent approval rating, according to Gallup.

Interestingly enough, that would place Obama nearly last in a ranking of former presidents' first-year job approval averages, pollsters noted.

Former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush all ended their first year in office with much higher job approval totals. Former President Ronald Reagan tied Obama at 57 percent while former President Bill Clinton scored far below Obama, at 49 percent.

Most Americans Favor Clinton at State

A new Gallup Poll finds that 57% of Americans are in favor of President-elect Obama appointing Sen. Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state in his administration. Just 30% oppose it.

-Political Wire

Gallup: Obama has highest favorability rating of any presidential candidate in 16 years

If the final USA Today/Gallup poll is any indication, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has achieved his widest lead in the presidential race to date.

In addition, Obama's favorable rating is 62 percent -- the highest of any presidential candidate tracked in Gallup's final pre-election polls dating back to 1992.


Obama holds an 11 point lead in the final poll of likely voters taken by the polling organization, up one point from the previous day.

Just a day before the polls open, Obama leads Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 53 to 42 percent in the Gallup poll. The numbers are based on interviews conducted by phone on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The group surveyed is based on Gallup's model of those most likely to show up at the polls.

No candidate behind in the Gallup poll at the end of October has ever won the presidency.

Obama is also ahead in the Washington Post ABC poll (11 points), the CBS/NY Times poll (13 points), and the CNN poll (7 points).

Obama leads in six states that went for Bush in 2004: Real Clear Politics' average shows Obama ahead in Colorado (5.5 percentage points), New Mexico (7.3), Nevada (5.8), Virginia (3.8), Pennsylvania (7), Florida (4.2), Ohio (4.2) and North Carolina (0.3). McCain leads in the swing states of Arizona (3.5 points), Georgia (3), Montana (3.8), Missouri (0.7) and Indiana (0.5).

Also, "Gallup says that when it allocates the 4% of likely voters who either had no opinion or would not choose between Obama and McCain, it estimates the candidates' current support levels would most likely be 55% for Obama, 44% for McCain."

Sarah Palin's popularity is hemorrhaging, the poll says -- 45 percent now rate McCain's choice as poor, a worse-than-total reversal from a poll directly following the Republican National Convention when 60 percent deemed her selection "excellent" or "good."

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), meanwhile, retains similar numbers to the period following his selection; 60 percent say his choice was excellent or pretty good, whereas the same figure was 63 percent in early September.

John Byrne
The Raw Story

Dueling Tracking Polls Now Agree

The two Gallup tracking poll likely voter models -- with one that has consistently shown a close race and the other showing a likely Democratic blowout -- have converged, with both models now showing Sen. Barack Obama way ahead of Sen. John McCain, 52% to 43%, and 52% to 41%, respectively.

- Political Wire

Gallup Daily: Obama 50%, McCain 44%

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Wednesday through Friday finds Barack Obama maintaining his lead over John McCain among registered voters, by a 50% to 44% margin.

Obama's current 50% rating matches his 50% record high reached just after the Democratic National Convention. (That came in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 30-Sept. 1.)

Gallup: For Every Voter Palin Wins Over, Another Jumps To Obama

A new polling analysis from Gallup suggests that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin may have helped him solidify his support among Republican women -- but it may have also alienated other voters and made the whole thing a wash for now.

Gallup's polling finds that McCain support among Republican women has increased from 85% to 90% in the last few days since Palin's selection. But on the other hand, his numbers have gone down among other groups: He's fallen by four points among independent men and three points with indy women, and is down by five points with Democratic men and two points with Dem women. So Palin hasn't really helped him so far.

"Instead, the data suggest that McCain has in essence fought a rear-guard action of sorts among white women of his own GOP base," the analysis finds, "building their support to a degree even as he was losing support among independents and Democrats of both genders."

Surprise? First Two National Polls Find Palin Gains LESS Support from Women

The first national polls on John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin yesterday came out today from Rasmussen and Gallup -- and contrary to what the GOP probably hoped, she scored less well with women than men.

Here's a finding from Gallup: Among Democratic women -- including those who may be disappointed that Hillary Clinton did not win the Democratic nomination -- 9% say Palin makes them more likely to support McCain, 15% less likely.

From Rasmussen: Some 38% of men said they were more likely to vote for McCain now, but only 32% of women. By a narrow 41% to 35% margin, men said she was not ready to be president -- but women soundly rejected her, 48% to 25%.