The White House just announced President Obama’s latest “We Can’t Wait” initiative — expediting transit projects in Minnesota and critical swing-state Ohio.
Early voting begins tomorrow in Ohio.
The reason for the rush, according to the administration, is that “these projects will improve local and regional connectivity and provide more transit choices for residents and commuters.”
“Best practices, including conducting permitting and other environmental review processes concurrently instead of sequentially, are expected to shave several months off project schedules,” the White House said.
“Investments in infrastructure are putting people back to work in Minnesota and Ohio building and modernizing our transit systems,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “The Obama administration is committed to doing its part to help communities across the country move forward with these critical projects as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s University Circle-Little Italy Rapid Station project involves the relocation of an existing station at E 120th Street and construction of a new a rail transit station along with the rehabilitation of two transit track bridges at Mayfield Road. It’s funded in part with a Department of Transportation TIGER grant.
The Romney camp today highlighted a Public Policy Polling report yesterday showing Obama up four points over Mitt Romney.
“It’s a mistake to think based on recent polling in Ohio that the race there is over. Obama is not popular in the state, with 48% of voters approving of him to 49% who disapprove,” PPP said. “Among voters who remain undecided there just 13% think he’s doing a good job to 65% who give him poor marks. That doesn’t mean those folks will move to Romney en masse because they don’t particularly like him either (a 26/37 favorability rating) but it does mean there’s potential for the race there to get within tossup range over the final five weeks.”
“Bottom line – the race in Ohio is close, undecided voters are extremely unhappy with Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney’s campaign has built a ground game that is at the very least matching Obama’s while surpassing all previous Republican efforts when it comes to knocking on doors and contacting voters face-to-face,” Scott Jennings, senior adviser and Ohio state director for the Romney camp, said in a memo today.
Obama campaigns in Cleveland on Friday.
In Cleveland? Dear Liar is going to win that area anyway. Why does he have to shore up his support in a heavily Democrat area?
Maybe Obama is not doing as well in Ohio as polls show and he is injecting bribes to maintain his safest region of the state.
Cuyahoga County is almost certainly a Blue county but if they stay at home it doesn’t do O any good.
BattlegroundWatch has an article today showing a decline in Dem registration in Ohio, somewhere around 400,000 less Dems than 4 years ago. The registration losses are especially heavy in urban areas, 3 counties specifically.
Obumbles must know this. That is why he is going to Cuyahoga county and Cleveland on Friday.
The loss of registration trend for the donkeys is across the board in battleground states. NH is showing a loss of Dem registrations of some 19% and Iowa shows a dip of around 17%, if memory serves. I believe Iowa has more Repubs than Dems registered, but the MSM polling still shows it in Obambam’s column, go figure.
We will see lots more of O campaigning in urban areas in the coming weeks. The metrics will require it.
It is called “political bribery”.
IMO its called corruption. Buy buying votes is as old as America is I guess.
The debate will be critical. If Romney cuts through Obumbles disassembly, stammering, and filibustering while presenting a clear alternative, Ohio voters are going to turn away from this miserable excuse for a President. Odumdums negatives are very high in Ohio. If Romney presents an attractive counter argument to the last 4 years of failed policy, Ohio voters are going to have a good reason to vote for him.
Romney has control of his own destiny right now. The media’s best efforts to make him look bad on Weds in Denver will come to naught if he is sharp and specific about an alternative and better future. The voters in Ohio and elsewhere are ready to detour around the media narrative. All Romney has to do is call Obama on his failures while pointing to an achievable different reality. He can do this by using Obama’s own words and promises vs his demonstrated failed results.
If Romney does that Weds night Ohio and other swing states will be his for the taking. We will see poll movement in his direction by October 6th.
I agree. Voters need to be given a reason for not voting for the incumbent. Romney hasn’t given them much of one yet. Maybe the debate is just what he needs – and what the voters need is another option.
The polling numbers that aren’t being reported must look pretty bad if Team Obama is feeling the need to goose the support in a reliably blue area of Ohio.
Giving Ohio money to use for ‘infrastructure improvements’(how many times have we heard that?)or waiving environmental studies may not move the needle the way he is hoping because
A) The people who pay attention (the people who pay taxes)are aware that they have been holding these actions for just such a vote buying emergency.
B) There will be so many strings attached (ie who has to be hired) that it will cause any project to move at the same snails pace, as a result it will not add jobs in time for the election.
Romney should ask a question like “What prevented you, Mr. President, from offering federal money to Ohio, let’s say, in 2010?”:)
Good point. This post made me go look at the 2010 results at my home state by county.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/election-results-2010/
The Buckeyes that made that happen are still around and angry as ever. It makes me believe Obama is going to lose Ohio by a bigger margin than Kerry did in 2004 despite the Acorn antics.
Also, if a democrat finds it necessary to booster the Cleveland perimeter, he might as well surrender and utilize his resources elsewhere. Ohio is done.
Ah, “pork” before voting… it’s the Chicago way!
We can always hope people in Ohio are more intelligent than that. If they can’t see how shallow an attempt at bribery that is, there is no hope for them anyway.
Well Crap!
I guess this means we don’t get any free Obama phones here in the South.
Few in Cleveland care about this RTA station near Univesrity Circle so that is wasted money. I have heard that there are 200000 less registered voters in Cuyahoga County and most are democrats. Similar results are in Columbus and Cincinatti. Who knows where they went but this will shift the balance of power somewhere.
I was at the Mitt rally Tuesday in Bedford but missed the Obamaphone lady and the other SEIU dupes. They were not there when we went in at 11:00 or when the event was over at 2.
As college student, Eric Holder participated in ‘armed’ takeover of former Columbia University ROTC office Published: 09/30/2012
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/30/as-college-sophomore-eric-holder-participated-in-armed-takeover-of-former-columbia-university-rotc-office/