Tag: Beth Reinhard

Lumped together as two of the youngest and brightest Republican stars, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio parted ways on the fiscal cliff with votes that reflect divergent strategies for building their party and political futures.

Ryan, who accepted tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans in order to avert a potential economic disaster, is betting that the path to power runs through compromise and governing. After anchoring a losing Republican presidential ticket widely perceived as hostile to middle-class concerns, Ryan heeded polls showing the public ready to blame the GOP if the deal fell through. The powerful budget committee chairman loyal to House Speaker John Boehner is mostly playing the inside game.

Rubio, who defeated a sitting governor on the back of the tea party movement, is largely playing the outside game. He rarely bucks the GOP’s conservative base – consider his recent votes against an overstuffed Hurricane Sandy aid bill and a United Nations treaty protecting people with disabilities — though an opportunity looms in the anticipated debate over immigration reform. Rubio appears more invested more in cultivating his national profile than in courting leadership on Capitol Hill.

via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/the-emerging-rubio-ryan-republican-divide-20130103?page=1

Exit polls showing the powerful Cuban-American community in Florida favored President Obama – which would make him the first Democratic nominee in decades to penetrate that Republican Party stronghold — suggest a seismic political shift in the nation’s largest swing state.

Obama’s growing appeal among Cuban-Americans, coupled with his overwhelming popularity in the booming Puerto Rican community, signals trouble for the Republican Party and threatens to repaint Florida from purple to blue if the trend continues.

While Republicans are recriminating about the Hispanic vote nationwide, the flagellation is especially painful in Florida, with its bounty of 29 electoral votes.

via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/hispanic-exit-polls-suggest-seismic-shift-in-florida-20121109

They make up only a sliver of the electorate, roughly 4 to 7 percent. We’re talking 1 million to 2 million people at the most, in just a handful of critical states. They tend to be younger, female, and clueless about politics.

They are the undecided. Better yet, they could be the deciders—the voters who pick the winner of the presidential election in an increasingly polarized environment. Some polls suggest there are fewer fence-sitters in 2012 than in recent elections, yet this race will see record-setting spending of at least $2.5 billion by the campaigns, national parties, and other political groups.  

Much of what the campaigns do is geared toward getting the attention of these indifferent and far-flung individuals. Obama and soon-to-be Republican nominee Mitt Romney will spend nearly all of their time in less than a dozen states that are truly up for grabs. Their television ads are carefully designed to win over the wishy-washy and the disengaged. Watch Obama calmly appealing to undecided voters in one oft-running ad: “Sometimes politics can seem very small. But the choice you face couldn’t be bigger.”

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via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-obama-fates-hinge-on-shrinking-sliver-of-undecideds-20120815?page=1