Marist Poll: Obama, Romney locked in tight race in Va.
A new Marist Poll out Thursday has Democrat Barack Obama with a four-point lead over Republican Mitt Romney among Virginia voters.
Obama was at 48 percent in the poll, with Romney at 44 percent. The margin for the president is below the 50-percent threshold, indicating that the Old Dominion is still in play in the 2012 campaign.
“Already targeted by both the Obama and Romney campaigns, Virginia could become the ultimate battleground state,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Obama carried the state by six percentage points in 2008. It is likely to go down to the wire this time.” Read more
Politics Notebook: Kaine talks Social Security, new Obama TV ad
Kaine discusses Social Security in Martinsville On Tuesday, Tim Kaine met with retirees and seniors in Martinsville as part of his two week tour to discuss ways to strengthen Social Security and Medicare and other issues of importance to older Americans.
At each tour stop, Kaine has called for commonsense reforms like allowing the government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. He has also emphasized the need to strengthen existing Social Security benefits and prevent a shift in Social Security dollars to private accounts that are vulnerable to volatile market forces. Read more
Politcs Notebook: On the campaign trail
Poll: Obama leads Romney in PA by eight Public Policy Polling’s latest survey of Pennsylvania voters has President Barack Obama leading Republican rival Mitt Romney by eight points.
The 50 percent-to-42 percent lead is basically identical to the 49 percent-42 percent lead that Obama had over Romney in a March PPP poll.
Key to the Obama advantage is his relative popularity – with 48% approving and 49% disapproving of the job he’s doing as president, while Romney has 37% of voters rating him positively to 51% with a negative opinion. Read more
Politics Notebook: On the campaign trail
Kaine statement on U.S. Senate budget votes In response to the votes the U.S. Senate took on five proposed budgets yesterday, Tim Kaine released the following statement:
“The Senate voted down five bad budgets yesterday. They proved once again that they can block action, even on the most important and critical matters of the day. Read more
Obama: ‘I think same-sex couples should be able to get married’
President Barack Obama has become the highest-ranking political supporter of the right of same-sex couples to marry.
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Obama said that he has “concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”
The comments came in an interview with “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts for an interview that will air Thursday morning.
The interview came on the heels of comments made in a Sunday-morning TV interview with Vice President Joe Biden in which the veep had also expressed support for gay marriage – and a Gallup Poll released last week showing that a majority of Americans support the right of same-sex couples to marry. Read more
Shaka Smart, Tim Kaine among participants at Obama rally
Today, the Obama campaign announced part of the pre-program at President Obama’s rally this Saturday at the Siegel Center in Richmond, including VCU basketball coach Shaka Smart, who will be hosting the event.
The pre-program participants, which will be released in full tomorrow, represent a mix of grassroots supporters and political leaders, and come from all corners of the commonwealth. Read more
