Ohio is Governor John Kasich’s home state, and he should do very well there while he controls the Republican apparatus.  (full pdf below)

OHIO – […] The bottom has really fallen out on Marco Rubio’s image. For much of the year he’s been among the best liked of the Republican candidates, even if he wasn’t voters’ first choice. Now he’s the least popular candidate, with only 33% of voters seeing him favorable to 51% who have an unfavorable opinion. Even when you combine first and second choices Rubio’s still in a distant last place with 22% to 55% for Kasich, 46% for Trump, and 28% for Cruz.  (more…)

Just about every political enterprise in the known universe is spending millions on negative attack ads against Donald Trump in Florida.  Some reports put the spending over $50,000,000 per week.

Approximately 14-18% of all broadcast commercials -depending on media market- are targeting Trump.  For perspective that’s approximately one-tenth the money spent by Mitt Romney in 2012 attacking Newt Gingrich – and that level alone was brutal.

Today candidate Donald Trump began to push back:

.@MittRomney: I am supporting 3 of the candidates right now. @tedcruz @marcorubio & @JohnKasich #FNS

— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) March 6, 2016

(more…)

Caterpillars never-ever, ever-ever, wear brown boots.  That sensibility is about as useful as polling this time of year.  Just about every poll hitting the media airwaves has some sort of media-purchased agenda behind it.  Through the end of the primaries all of them should be taken with a grain of salt.

For today’s narrative Pollster Patrick Murray (he’s now infamous) puts his chicken on a string and submerges it beneath the media surface – SEE HERE.  The frenzy ensues.  (full pdf below):

Here’s the problem.  Patrick’s polling uses 83 registered “independent” voters amid a total poll of 403 respondents.  See the issue?

(more…)

Staying focused on the Bigger Issues being skipped by Presidential candidates.

Obamacare was never about providing more coverage or lowering the cost of said coverage.  Obamacare was constructed in 2009/2010 for one reason and one reason only, to shift the cost of healthcare away from the private sector and into the hands of government.

The cost of union healthcare coverage was rising at an unsustainable rate.  Union contracts were historically negotiated with exceptionally generous terms for Health Care Insurance plans and healthcare benefits as a whole.

In the short-term these contracts were great, however in the longer term these contracts were unsustainable.

Enter SEIU President Andy Stern, the 2009/2010 most frequent visitor to the White House.  Stern, as head of the Service Employees International Union, was in a desperate situation – the pension and retirement benefits of his unionized workers was beyond the scope of receipts to keep pace. (more…)

For those who missed last nights Democrat debate, there was a very substantive back-and-forth between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton regarding the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership deal (TPP).

Bernie Sanders has been a long-time opponent to TPP, and Hillary Clinton only recently opposing it.  Some would say: predictably due to the poll-tested opposition amid the party.

As Bernie pointed out Hillary’s ‘come-to-Jesus-moment’ on the issue, he also brought a secondary and semi-related subject into the foray by discussing the Import/Export bank authorization (part of the Omnibus financial deal).

Sanders voted (in the minority position) against the Import/Export bank reauthorization as a matter of principle.  Readers will note that Senator Ted Cruz, and a majority of ‘conservatives’ also don’t like the crony capitalism within the I/E bank.

Ted Cruz’s opposition to the I/E reauthorization was/is so strong, it was the basis for him claiming a complete reversal of advocacy for the TPP deal.

Senator Mitch McConnell purchased the votes for the TPP deal (in June) by promising several Democrats he would reauthorize the I/E bank funding in the Omnibus (December) spending bill.  This McConnell quid-pro-quo arrangement was “The Lie” that Ted Cruz pointed out on the Senate floor.

Just to be clear, Senator Ted Cruz was for TPP (his own bill) until McConnell added I/E reauthorization promises; at which time Cruz was no longer in favor of TPP.

Senator Ted Cruz supported TPP, but opposed funding the Import Export bank.

(more…)

Candidate Donald Trump is holding a rally today in Concord, North Carolina at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center.  The event begins at 12:00pm EST.

Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

(more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “2016 Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Presidential Race and/or any of the candidates therein.

Florida Early Voting Happening NOW !

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

[…] we’ve had some people say: “I want to switch to the Trump party”…

Youngstown Ohio – About 1,000 Democrats in Mahoning County so far have switched their party affiliation to Republican with election officials saying several did it to vote for Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner.

“We are seeing something this election cycle I’ve never seen before to this degree,” said board Chairman Mark Munroe, who’s also the county Republican chairman. “Every day I take phone calls or get voice messages from people saying they’ve been Democrats all their life and they’ve had it. They want to vote for Donald Trump. I’m surprised at the volume of inquiries we’re getting. It’s remarkable.”

A number of Democrats taking a Republican ballot when voting early at the board “say they want to vote for Trump,” said Joyce Kale-Pesta, Mahoning County Board of Elections director.

About 7,000 Mahoning County voters have cast early votes. Early voting started Feb. 17 and ends March 14, the day before the primary.  Of those 7,000, about 14 percent were Democrats who voted Republican, Kale-Pesta said. That’s about 1,000 so far. (more…)

Does Senator Ted Cruz want to arrest all the gay people in America?

Last year when we were begging people to vet Ted Cruz, we stated the GOPe (Rove) would destroy Cruz via his affiliations with religious bigotry.

Donald Trump crushed the GOPe road-map, wiped out their splitter strategy, and stopped the GOPe team from deploying their pre-scripted weapons against Cruz.  It became more useful to keep Cruz in the race than eliminate him and face a certain Trump nomination.

However, that doesn’t mean those same strategies are still not waiting to be used.

Tomorrow pastor Ted Cruz is actually going to rally in Ellisville Mississippi with far-right religious nutter Brian Fischer who is a proponent for arresting gays and lesbians, and enacting the same laws as Russia banning homosexuality.

Fischer is way, way out there.  Apparently there’s no extremist too severe for Ted Cruz.  (more…)